Template or No Template? What You Need to Know About Web Design

Your site is your handshake. It’s the first impression many of your clients will have of your company. If your site looks sloppy, amateurish, or unprofessional, people assume your business is sloppy, amateurish, and unprofessional. For most entrepreneurs, this is not big news. We know the importance of our web presence. What many may not know is how to have a great site without spending a fortune with designers and developers. If your website’s functionality is your business – like with membership or gaming sites – you might not have much choice. On the other hand, if you use your website as a way to present your business, products, and services to the world and don’t require advanced development, you might want to consider web templates.

It used to be that a template site could be spotted a mile away. These days, templates are more sophisticated, and the sheer number of template designs available makes it possible for you to create a site that’s unique, individual, and far from cookie-cutter. In fact, for as little as $50.00, you can even get a full flash site, at template sites like FlashMint.com. Another template provider, Allwebco Design, has some of the coolest non-flash site designs out there for around $120, as well as some good information for the newbie website creator.

Words of Wisdom

The design of your website is not something to be taken lightly, and there are some things to look out for when choosing a template provider. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Free is a relative term. If you’re really bootstrapping it and looking for a free template design, there are plenty of sites where you can find good looking templates at no cost. Just be sure the site you choose isn’t more trouble than it’s worth. Open Source Web Design (OSWD.org) boasts 2,080 free template designs. Take some time in choosing one though. OSWD has three important features to look at. First, users give designs star ratings; secondly, people are able to comment on the designs; and last, they show the number of times a template has been downloaded. Look through the comments. You’ll find that many are just commenting on the look of the design, which is less helpful than those commenting on its functionality. The comments you want to look for are those, for example, telling you that the design looks great in IE7 but not so good in Firefox, or that the tables only line up at certain screen resolutions. You’ll want to be sure your chosen design hasn’t been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times too. You might still be unique within your industry, but the fewer downloads, the less chance you have of looking just like someone else.

• Expect to support yourself. Don’t expect any technical support when choosing a free template. For the most part, they aren’t difficult to implement, but you’ll want to have at least a basic understanding of HTML, or know someone who does and can help you if you get stuck. Even sites where you pay for a template are notorious for a lack of customer support, so do your homework. Most sites, like Template Kingdom, will tell you the format of the source files being provided with your download. If the source files are in Dreamweaver or Photoshop, you’ll of course want to have those programs and know how to use them before choosing that template. Or you can use the template, knowing you’ll be limited in the amount of customization you can implement. One bit of advice, regardless of your level of expertise: Always keep your originally downloaded files in a safe place, and create a separate copy you can work to perfect. That way, no matter how badly you mess something up, you can always start from square one if you have to!

• Memberships, buyouts, and template tweakers. Some template sites offer a membership price for unlimited downloads. Unless you are designing sites for a living, it is unnecessary to join them. Many of the customer complaints out there have to do with memberships not being cancelled upon request and other issues surrounding recurring billing, so again, do your homework. You will also find several sites, like Template Monster, offering quality designs for download, but also offering templates with a “buyout” option. This option will cost you as little as $800, up to over $5,000, and it only ensures they will remove the template from their site going forward. It does not guarantee the design hasn’t been used before or even downloaded thousands of times. For that kind of investment, you can find a designer to build a comparable site and provide one-on-one support. The same goes for sites offering to customize or “tune-up” an existing template. With the number of designers hungry for work right now, browsing Craigslist, Guru, or Elance might just render you a better deal.

So the bottom line is that you don’t have to spend all your startup capital to have a cool site. Templates are a great alternative to costly custom sites, as long as you take the time to make sure you’re getting what you need. If you’ve used a template site, join the conversation, and let others know about your experience – good, bad, or ugly!

Market Savvy: How and where to sell your online business

Sometimes it’s unavoidable.

You spend countless hours designing, building, and promoting your website. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into your business. Then the unpredictability of life happens and you’re faced with the unthinkable: your creation must be sold.

Thousands of websites change hands every year. While not all of the scenarios are as dramatic as above, it can still be a very daunting prospect to many website owners who have no idea where to start. Before slapping a “This Website for Sale” sign on your website, here are some things to consider.

A Lesson from the Boy Scouts’ Motto – Be Prepared

There are several things you can do to prep your online business for the sale. Information gathering is one of the best ways to be prepared for negotiations with potential buyers.

Traffic Statistics

Buyers are going to want to know specifics, such as how many visitors you get each month, how many times visitors view the pages on your website, how you get found, popular keywords, and more. Google Analytics is a great tool to use for this purpose. Have at least three months worth of statistics to show your buyers, though a year would be preferable.

Rankings

Not all buyers will ask for this, but it’s good to be prepared just in case. Find your Google page rank with a free page rank checker like PRChecker. You can also see how your website traffic ranks against others at Alexa.com.

Average Monthly Revenue

Get your financials in order. Buyers will almost always want to see records that substantiate your revenue claims. You’ll want to have 12 months of records, if possible. Often buyers will pay the equivalent of one year’s worth of revenue.

How Much Would it Cost to Duplicate

Consider how much it would cost to rebuild your business, including designing the website, acquiring quality content, finding relevant links, building traffic. If it would be easy and inexpensive to duplicate, your site may lose some of its value. In preparation for a sale, beef up your business by adding value through the design and content. Make your site irresistible!

Brand & Reputation

A good, strong brand is important. You can increase your brand’s visibility by consistently getting your logo and business name out there. You can place ads on relevant websites, develop strategic alliances and link exchanges, write articles in which you position yourself (and your company) as an expert, create a strong social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon, etc.). Collect documentation for all of these things. Also, ask your previous customers for testimonials on your products and service. This will help attest to your good reputation.

What it’s Worth

There are all kinds of website valuation tools on the web. But the reality is it’s difficult to determine exactly how much a website is worth because it depends on so many factors. At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is how much a buyer is willing to pay.

Where to Sell Your Website

There are a number of website marketplaces on which you can list your website. Here are a few of our favorites:

YoungEntrepreneur.com - Websites for Sale

Flippa.com

DNForum.com

Sedo.com

And Remember…
As with anything in business, you’ll want to protect yourself against getting burned. Do your research, work only with reputable companies, and go with your gut. Be a savvy seller and it will be “smooth sale-ing” all the way to the bank.

What to Expect From Social Media Marketing in 2010

If 2008 was the year of beginnings and 2009 was the year of revelations, then 2010 is likely to be the year when social media marketing finally reaches its stride. It’s all about connecting and the opportunities for organizations that truly embrace the idea of social marketing are almost limitless. In fairly short order, the Internet has gone from the role of a handy source for information to a must-have, finger on the pulse, essential way of keeping in touch with everyone and everything. Expect real opportunities to emerge now that we have ways to interact in real-time.

The emergence of the iPhone and other smart phone alternatives has helped to introduce the concept of instantaneous gratification to millions of people. We live in a “now” culture and want instant answers to our thoughts, questions and problems. Commercial operations will be quick to exploit this urgency and we can expect to see applications and other solutions emerge, enabling us to convert this online connectivity to off-line action. For example, geo-targeted, personalized delivery of product or service solutions will become more commonplace, enabling you to receive a notice on your smartphone suggesting you interact with the retailer in your immediate locality based on your previous habits and propensities.

There’s so much data available within social networking now that it will be leveraged and used in ever more sophisticated fashion during 2010 and beyond. Micromarkets will emerge with dizzying regularity as this information is immediately converted from raw data to business opportunities. Trends will be identified as they are happening and as applications and solutions become more and more sophisticated there will be an increasing number of opportunities for smart and forward thinking businesses to make money, more quickly as they capitalize.

The Internet has long been fueled by the thirst for information and by the search mantra, but that information has historically been less than current. This will now change, as soaring Twitter use provides up to the second relevancy and data availability to Google and Bing search engine platforms. Real-time results will ensure that the would-be purchaser is even more educated and ready to buy products or services provided by the switched on entrepreneur.

The pace of technological change is so dizzying. At the beginning of 2010 we await with keen interest the likely arrival of the next generation of communication tools, possibly led by the iSlate product from Apple. Before long, everyone will have their own fully functional, always connected personal computing device at the right hand, where solutions and answers are only a second or so away. The mobile web will begin to complete the process of change. No longer will we have to make a special effort to do our research and formulate our buying decisions and we will be prompted by eager sellers to make a buying decision right now.

Social media platforms will be the conduit of change in 2010.

Adam Toren

Realize the Potential of New Media

New media surely isn’t new anymore, although if it is new to you, you are in danger of getting behind the curve. In the space of only a few years the power of the Internet has exploded like an ancient volcano, tending to cover a company’s well honed marketing structure with molten lava or ash. In the face of the new media onslaught, you should not try and desperately dig out your old marketing plans from underneath all those layers of ash, but you should embrace the potential and understand that we are now doing business in a very different world.

Traditional forms of media, print ads, television, radio, cold calling, promotional gimmicks and the like will all have their place in our future, but they must not be front and center anymore. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, whether it is traditionally a complete “bricks and mortar” style operation, you must now have an online presence and a proactive one at that.

It is somewhat ironic that a medium as “faceless” as the Internet has in many respects turned us all into more personable and identifiable business people. The advent of social media means that there is now a human face to the corporate body and each organization should ensure that it engages social media this way. Never forget the social element, even though you are primarily focused on doing business. You may have a corporate persona, but people want to know about the human side of the business now.

Put every effort that you can into designing your website well. You must be super targeted when it comes to your keywords, the way that you describe your business. In a highly competitive business environment you need to set your organization apart and must focus on specific or long tail keywords and keyword phrases. Construct your website and optimize it so that your business stands out among its competition. Everything points back to your company website from a marketing perspective.

While your corporate website should adequately reveal who you are, what you do and why people should buy from you, including the ability to do so (a sales funnel), you should also have an educational and informative site for your business, through the maintenance of a top-quality blog. This is your opportunity to show just how much of an expert you are in your niche and don’t hold back when it comes to giving good advice, education or information. Your objective here is to reveal that you are “good guys” and that people should trust you, ultimately, to buy products or services to help assuage their needs.

Interact with social media platforms and do it well. You should have a Facebook page for your business, a Twitter presence, even your own branded YouTube where you show videos of products, services, solutions – video is a hot medium these days. Set aside time to maintain your social presence on a very regular basis. Don’t just set it up and believe that you have done everything you need to. These platforms and channels can work well for you, if you work at them.

Create good content, regularly and distribute it for maximum marketing effect. Once again, the more that people begin to realize that you know what you’re talking about, through the provision and distribution of such targeted content, the more they will believe that they should trust their hard-earned dollars to you when it comes to buying your associated products or services.

Are you still digging ash, or engaged?

Matthew Toren

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

When you see some of the most creative infographics around today, it’s little wonder that they say that people skim through webpages, focusing on graphics, rather than getting themselves absorbed in all the text. This should tell us all a story, as while the written word is certainly always “king” as we know, if we jam too much of it into one particular visual screen, then the eyes of our dear viewers will tend to glaze over it. Always intersperse your text creatively with graphics and photos and don’t forget that captions can be very powerful, as the eyes will almost certainly focus on the explanation for the presented photograph on page.

Infographics represent intelligent and very creative ways to explain subjects that are, in some cases, rather difficult to get your mind around. We present some of the “cooler” ones here for your consumption.

Over at Digg Labs, the creative guys and gals there have come up with a colored wheel which allows you to interact and select a day, month and year, to be presented with the top 10 stories by category on any given day. Check it out, but be warned you could spend a lot of time here!

While we know that Twitter is hot stuff, did you know that only five of 100 community members can be classified as really active? Maybe this graphic and the information here will help you to visualize it better?

Still on the subject of Twitter, how does it stack up against the big daddy, Facebook?
This graphic sums it up very succinctly. For example, did you know that Facebook has almost as many members as there are people living in Indonesia?

If you maintain an active blog, as hopefully you do, you may have wondered where those blog posts actually go to and how pinging services interact with your post once you have created it. We found this great interactive graphic tutorial at wired.com, which should actually be required reading or viewing for all Internet marketers. It really helps you to get a handle on the lifecycle and might help you to prepare your blogging campaigns more successfully.

The Conversation Prism is an inspirational creation, designed to graphically depict the art of listening, learning and sharing. It is visually very attractive as you can see and is available to buy as a really neat wall poster should you wish. Each one of the leaves represents an element of communication and a social media resource, with the inner circles depicting the style of communication and method, all leading back to the central brand. A great creation by Brian Solis.

Explore the social media landscape at fredcavazza.net and see which sites are linked according to purpose or intent. A handy little graphic to remind you which social media tools or services would be most appropriate for your needs.

Have you spied any cool infographics? Let us know.

Adam Toren

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