Making your Websites More Compelling

Making your Websites More Compelling

by: Andrea J. Lee

The Internet is a remarkable publishing medium. With just a little effort, you can make your web pages visually irresistible by playing with color, shapes and text. Whether your websites are already launched or you’re ready to create your first few, use the 3 simple steps below to kick things up a notch and make your sites professional and appealing.

Step 1: Grab Peopleกs Attention with a Photo or Graphic.

Without a logo or visual image to represent the central offering on your web page, you are asking potential clients to immediately take a big leap and dive into your text. Why risk the possibility of them not reading your important message? People browsing the web are notoriously impatient. Capture their attention with a photo/graphic before they click off your site.

Choose the perfect image from Photodisc, ClipArt or Corbis for as little as $9 to $90 per image. Human beings are visual creatures. Consider your favorite magazine for a moment. Would it still be your favorite if it used only text on its cover this month?

Step 2: Boost the credibility of your service or product by using a professional color scheme.

Using the image you selected in step one, itกs easy to go the next step and pull together a professional looking color scheme. ColorSchemer is a small, inexpensive software (US$25) that helps you choose a color scheme thatกs eyecatching and unexpected, even if you’re colorchallenged. When picking colors, don’t be afraid to let your personality show through. Check out http://www.colorschemer.com/.

Step 3: Use graphical กsignpostsก throughout your material to help readers absorb your message.

As you browse the web, start making mental notes about sites you enjoy visiting. Iกm willing to bet itกs the ones that break up text with colored bullets, numbers and other signposts that mentally engage you the most. Iกll even go so far as to say that a website that does not use graphical signposts shows a disregard for the needs of the reader, intentionally or not.

Think of these minigraphics as a way of showing consideration to your reader. They want to read your material and you help them make it easy by providing mental white space and places to rest their eyes.

Just a few NoNoกs:

Don’t overdo.

The power of visual communication can be diluted if too many images are used on each page. There is both art and science to finding the right balance since too many images on a website can be just as ineffective as too few. The key is to work at finding this balance by studying other websites.

Don’t use Flash or other animation.

More often than not, flash/animation comes across as cheap rather than professional and has only been shown to be effective in very specific circumstances. Moreover, web pages created with Flash don’t rank well with search engines. If you must use it, do so very sparingly and be sure to have it professionally designed.

Whatever you do, don’t be bland.

With millions of websites published every day, you must stand out in order to be noticed. Graphics that reflect you, your offering and your personality will help you become more attractive to clients quickly, affordably and with style.

One of the challenges of working online is to alleviate your clientกs natural reservations in a new and unfamiliar environment the virtual world. Making things more comfortable for them is your number one priority and graphics will help you achieve that. By going the extra mile to make your websites look 100% professional, you become more credible in your own eyes as well.

About The Author

Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonardกs General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 04, 2004

by Andrea J. Lee

Should You Get A Blog?

Should You Get A Blog?

by: Andrea J. Lee

A blog is a type of website. It allows the website owner to easily write messages that get posted to the site automatically, often in a journal or diarylike style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)

Here are three reasons to consider getting a blog:

1.To Replace Your Ezine

If you currently publish an ezine, you may wish to consider replacing it with a regularly published blog. This means using your blog to publish journal entries, and then when it comes time to communicate with your subscriber list, you excerpt some items from your blog, and send those out as your ezine.

This saves you from creating special articles only for your ezine. In many cases it becomes easier for you to write in blog format (short and sweet) so you save time. Readers enjoy the practical, ‘reporterlikeก nature of blogs instead of ezines, and gradually come to feel that they are in conversation with you on a daily basis. You become part of their everyday circle of friends and associates, which leads to you becoming their natural resource on the topic of your expertise.

2. To Create a Quick and Dirty Learning Environment or eCampus

For those of you who offer TeleClasses or other programs that want to have a web page of learning resources, links, class notes and audio, etc., a blog can be a great way to bring together an eCampus.

If you offer a workshop, coaching/consulting, or even a software solution, and you want to instantly add value to your clients, create a กclient/student resource pageก using a blog. This becomes an environment that the students can play in, study more, and soak up your materials. Your clients continue to benefit from your expertise even though you’re not physically there; they do it at their pace, and at little cost to you.

Once again, because blogging makes it easy for you to continually update your website without mucking around with FrontPage or DreamWeaver, you will save time and energy publishing to the Internet.

3.) Just For Fun, And To Be Cool

Letกs face it, a large part of the reason you’re wondering about blogs is because it sounds cool, right? And new stuff is fun. So why not try it just because? Sometimes itกs enough to try something because it stretches you, keeps you limber and awake to possibilities. Thereกs nothing wrong with playing, UNLESS you fool yourself into thinking your business is improving, or you’re somehow paying the mortgage while you play.

Rest easy, thereกs no pressure to get a blog. Not getting one won’t negatively impact your bottom line. So although the technology can be entrancing, stay focused… what are you selling to who? How is it going? That said, do stay curious about new technology. Part of your chosen profession as an online biz owner means modeling for others by staying abreast of new things.

With that in mind, see some fun blogs at the blog search engine: http://www.blogsearchengine.com/

About The Author

Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonardกs General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 04, 2004

by Andrea J. Lee