1. Flash website : Part I
Website creation for beginners to advanced designers
There are so many people other there that have the same cheesy website. Some hosting accounts give
some sort of free utility to build sites like Site Studio. Plus their are maketers that will sell a package that
contains a hundred templates that can be modified in Microsoft Word, Dreamweaver or even
Frontpage. and then there people like Stone Evans with his Plug-in-profit site he sells where everybody
who joins gets the same site just with different contact information on it.
But there is a better solution, I have a hosting company that gives all of its site owners a package called
Cpanel. In cpanel there is an icon for something called Fantastico which will install software for you that
is gennerally what is reffered to as OpenSource programs. programs such as Wordpress, PHPNuke, and
my personal favorite a package which is a completeContent Management Solution called Drupal.
The first two packages I mentioned are very limited in what they give you, mostly just an opensource
Blogging software. Drupal gives you this too but also gives you a lot more like the ability to have a forum
on your site, or to create a book which makes use of authors from all around the world. I have RSS feeds
of different news sources that automatically update several times per week plus I have Google Adsense
adds on all my pages. The ads change based on the content of my pages but they are a good way to
make additional income. Rather than tell you about all the features you can go directly to Drupal.org
and look at all the things you can get. You can download unique themes to change the look of your site
plus you can get what are called Modules which allow you to add special features to your pages like
perhaps a shopping cart and product catalog.
I am using Drupal now for all my sites and I'm even considering taking my Plug-In-profit site and seeing
how i could transpose it to a Drupal site. My PIPS site is at www.no-sugar-coating.com/pips, My Drupal
site is www.nosugarcoating.info.
Now if you have more than one site like i do then you need to look for a webhost that offers what is
called reseller hosting. I pay just $24.95 per month and I can host as many domains as I want with this
one account. Before I found out about doing this i used to pay a seperate hosting fee for each of my
domains which can be very expensive. The best choice I have found for this is Hostgator.com.
2. Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Flash website : End of Part I
Website Copywriting Secrets for Major Success
It’s a fact that one website will pull many times the leads or sales as a competing website. What causes
this large variance in results? It’s the copywriting on the website.
Here’s what we’ve learned works best from actual results and testing on dozens of websites we’ve
done the copywriting for.
1. Make your website easy to “scan” with headlines, sub headlines, boxes, sections, colors and the like
that give the reader the main benefits he will get. Almost all people are “scan first” or “scan only”
readers. Your headlines and sub headlines should take advantage of this fact.
2. “Just Sell, Baby”. Websites have one main end purpose and that is to sell your products and/or
services, to move people to action, to make money. In today’s high-tech world, most copywriting on
websites forgets this vital fact and that is why they don’t perform better.
3. Tell the reader what he/she will LOSE if they do not take the recommended action. Fear of loss is a
great motivator.
4. Build up excitement, enthusiasm, passion and urgency to get the reader to take the desired action
right now. We analyzed the most successful copywriting we’d ever done back to 1978 and found it all
had one thing in common: excitement. Yes, excitement is contagious and it sells!
3. 5. Make a great offer to get their email address. In today’s overcrowded environment and with spam
concerns, it’s not enough to just say “enter your email address for our newsletter”. You need to make a
great offer including special reports, bonuses and the like in addition to your newsletter to get the
maximum number of qualified signups.
6. Focus your copywriting because people want to buy from the expert specialists in a field. If your copy
is too broad you will lose a lot of your best prospects, who of course, are the most likely to buy. A great
way to do this is to have separated focused web pages for separate types of people or industries on your
website.
7. Make your website as easy to use and find things as Amazon.com (for consumers) or Dell.com (for
businesses). The copywriting and organization of these sites is a key reason they are ultra-successful.
8. Start thinking like your website reader (your prospect) and stop thinking like yourself (the marketer).
Figure out what your prospect wants most from your products or services that they deliver, then come
right out and tell him what benefits he’ll get, why, and what he needs to do now. Simple but it brings in
Billions.
9. Test everything, measure it, use the winner, and always keep testing. This is the key to “optimizing”
your website and all of your marketing. Don’t guess – test and let the only vote that matters (your
prospects) tell you what works best.
10. Compare your product or service against your competitors to show and prove your superiority.
We’ve used this secret very, very profitably for our clients.
11. Copywriting is king and queen for your website to sell the maximum number of people. The right
copywriting can bring you up to double, even triple or more your current results for no additional
marketing cost. Hire the best copywriter you can afford, and don’t skimp because this one-time
investment can be the best investment you make.
4. Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Flash website : End of Part II
Website content & usability
Writing for the web is totally different to writing for printed matter. We tend to scan content on the
web hunting for the information we're after, as opposed to reading word-for-word. As a result of this,
there are certain guidelines you should be sure to follow when writing copy for your website:
1. Use clear and simple language
Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from printed
matter. As such, the easier the style of writing the easier it is for site visitors to absorb your words of
wisdom.
Some techniques for using clear and simple language include:
- Avoid slang or jargon - Get your grandmother and ten year old nephew to read your site - if both can
understand the page content you've done well!
- Use shorter words where possible - ‘Begin' rather than ‘commence', ‘used to' rather than ‘accustomed
to' etc.
- Avoid complex sentence structures - Try to include just one idea or concept per sentence
- Use active ahead of passive words - ‘We won the award' is shorter and easier to comprehend than,
‘The award was won by us'
2. Limit each paragraph to one idea
5. If you assign just one idea to each paragraph site visitors can:
- Easily scan through each paragraph
- Get the general gist of what the paragraph is about
- Then move on to the next paragraph
All this and without fear that they'll be skipping over important information, because they will already
know roughly what the paragraph is about.
Limiting each paragraph to just one idea is especially effective when combined with front-loading
paragraph content.
3. Front-load content
Front-loading content means putting the conclusion first, followed by the what, how, where, when and
why. The first line of each paragraph should contain the conclusion for that paragraph, so site visitors
can:
- Quickly scan through the opening sentence
- Instantly understand what the paragraph is about
- Decide if they want to read the rest of the paragraph or not
Because each paragraph contains just one idea, users can do all this safe in the knowledge that if they
jump to the next paragraph they won't be missing any new concepts.
Front-loading also applies to web pages, as well as paragraphs. The opening paragraph on every page
should always contain the conclusion of that page. This way, site visitors can instantly gain an
understanding of what the page is about and decide whether they want to read the page or not.
6. Unfortunately many websites don't adhere to this guideline and end up writing page content in a story-
format. On each page there's an introduction, middle and conclusion, in that order. Unfortunately, when
scanning through web content we don't tend to read all the text nor read all the way to the bottom of
the screen. As such, you may easily miss the conclusion if it's left until the end.
So remember, conclusion first, everything else second! For a great example of front-loaded content, just
read any newspaper article. The opening paragraph is always the conclusion of the article.
4. Use descriptive sub-headings
Breaking up text with descriptive sub-headings allows site visitors to easily see what each section of the
page is about. The main heading on the page provides a brief overall view of what page is about, and the
opening paragraph gives a brief conclusion of the page (because you've front-loaded the page content).
Within the page though, there are various sub-themes which can be quickly put across with sub-
headings.
There's no hard and fast rule for how frequently to use sub-headings, but you should probably be
roughly aiming for one sub-heading every two to four paragraphs. More importantly though, the sub-
headings should group on-page content into logical groups, to allow site visitors to easily access the
information that they're after.
5. Bolden important words
Another way to help users locate information quickly and easily is to bolden important words in some
paragraphs. When site visitors scan through the screen this text stands out to them, so do make sure the
text makes sense out of context.
Bolden two to three words which describe the main point of the paragraph, and not words on which
you're placing emphasis. By seeing these boldened words site visitors can instantly gain an
understanding of what the paragraph is about and decide whether or not they want to read it.
7. 6. Use descriptive link text
In the same way that bold text stands out to screen-scanning web users, so does link text. Link text such
as ‘click here' makes no sense whatsoever out of context so is useless to site visitors scanning web
pages. To find out the destination of the link, site visitors have to hunt through the text both before and
after the link text.
7. Use lists
Lists are preferable to long paragraphs because they:
- Allow users to read the information vertically rather than horizontally
- Are easier to scan
- Are less intimidating
- Are usually more succinct
8. Left-align text
Left-aligned text is easier to read than justified text, which in turn is easier to read than centre- or right-
aligned text.
When reading through justified text the spacing between each word is different so our eyes have to
search for the next word. This slows down our reading speed. Right- and centre-aligned paragraphs slow
down reading speed even more because each time you finish reading one line your eye has to search for
the beginning of the next line.
Conclusion
8. These eight guidelines are nothing revolutionary nor are they difficult to implement. Yet so many
websites structure their content so poorly to the detriment of their site visitors. Have a quick look over
your website now - how does it do with regards to these content guidelines?
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Flash website : End of Part III