So you say to yourself why would you need the services of a trained web designer, if you can get it done on your own.

Sooner or later, it gets to the point where you need your business website to reflect your commitment to your business.

Do not think that the well informed potential client would have a positive impression when they view your website as “homemade”.

Here are some of the assumptions that they will form:

• You are new in business: Being new in business should not be perceived as negative but truth be told, people would be reluctant to want to buy from a person that is just starting out. You should not blatantly promote that a potential client would be your first client. You should promote your expertise and previous experience.
• Your business isn’t making any money: If people see a “Free website by Blah Blah” on the footer of your website, they would think “Can’t afford a paid-for website”.
• You don’t have clients and/or customers: People want to deal with businesses that have a proven track record.
• You are not committed to the business: This means that you can pack up shop tomorrow and not finish their project or provide after sale care.

Did you know that these conclusions would be drawn in less than a minute? All of these assumptions would take them to your competitors, period.

These are some of the reasons to hire a professional web designer:

• Many are business owners themselves
• They understand what gives a positive or negative impression
• They provide more than just web design
• Many are trained not only in web design but web development, search engine optimization, internet marketing and more; and have in depth knowledge and experience in these areas
• Many don’t charge an arm and a leg, they have affordable services packages to meet the needs and budget of a potential client

A very important thing that I continue to see in successful business owners and I’m privileged to continue to connect with many; is that they delegate to experts in fields that they don’t have the a background or in depth experience in.

Remember, First Impress Counts! and Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Well!

It’s our 3rd year anniversary today! Its been an interesting journey thus far. I’ve cried, laughed, being frustrated, worked through the day and night, looked like someone whose just getting out of bed at 3pm…but I’ve loved every minute of it.

I want to say a huge thank you to my husband, whose been a tremendous support and I truly appreciate his mad IT skills; My girls (9 and 5) who have become such young ladies and have made this journey easier; My team members for all their hard work and awesome clients for trusting me with their businesses.

Most of all, I’m thankful to my heavenly Father who has made this possible. I’m truly humbled.

And if you haven’t started using email marketing in your business, now is the time to start. It definitely is for me, as I’ve finally just sent off my first email newsletter blast to my mailing list. Yes, it’s taken me this long…3 years! The funny thing is I do this for clients regularly. I design their newsletter templates, input their content and send out blasts via their email marketing clients, but never for myself. My excuse..too busy doing for others. Doesn’t this sound familiar.

These are the things to take into consideration when planning your email marketing strategies.

• Have a custom designed newsletter template to complement your brand.
• Keep your message simple, clear and speak directly to your audience.
• Personalize your message, include your recipients name where ever possible.
• Ensure your content will be of value to your readers
• Include a call to action.
• Keep your newsletter clutter free.
• Include the capability for readers to have access to past issues.
• Use a reputable email marketing client.
• If you can’t manage your newsletter activities, DELEGATE it!

Here is a link to my first newsletter. I do two versions of the newsletter, one that goes into the email marketing services and a second one, a web page for people who don’t have html enabled email services and also for the purpose of having an archive of past issues.

Don’t hesitate to contact me for your business newsletter design and management needs.

Here are some important elements to having a website:

• Your website is your storefront and should be attractive and easy to use
• Your website is your presence online 24/7
• Your website provides a convenient way to keep in touch with existing customers and keep them informed of developments in your business
• A website maximizes your marketing investment
• The exposure of your company with a website is far greater than traditional forms of advertising
• A website can give a small business, a well deserved presence in the marketplace

Creativity and Connectivity comes into play:

• Your website allows you to be creative with how you present your information/products/services
• When a potential customer hears about you, they turn to the web to locate your contact information & to learn more about what you do and a direct point of contact to you.
• If your site is e-commerce enabled, your products are ready & waiting to be sold

Allowing Expansion/Growth:

• Your website opens the door to a wider market of potential customers
• Even if your product or services are generally sold or performed locally, there is still potential for expansion

You become a Competitor:

• Your website is your shop window & you are on equal footing to compete with much larger companies
• Your site is a means of providing information to those who do online research before buying
• Your website is a powerful tool for sustainable development of sales opportunities
• Your website will offer your company the opportunity for thousands of potential customers
• Simply put, to be competitive in your market you have to have a website

We are interested in knowing how having a website has made a difference in your business or how investing more in your website has made a difference. I can confidently say that having a website has made a significant difference in my business.

In web design, getting the right combination of colors is important and many factors come into play, for example: the business focus, target market, and your personality as the brand and business owner.

I just had to re-post this cool article about colors that I’d read at websitemagazine.com, especially as I eagerly approve of the characteristics of my favorite colors and how it ties with web design.

I would like to hear what your favorite colors are and if they are part of your website colors combination.

I’ve just started working on a new WordPress custom design project and these are the colors combo that I would be using. Can’t wait to see the finished product.

Enjoy the article!

Trust and the Theory Behind Color

by Peter A. Prestipino

Trust is defined* as, “the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc. of a person or thing.” In relation to Web design, it involves honesty and competence, and a subtle, yet powerful way to achieve that elusive trust factor is through the use of color.

Color theory is a set of principles used to create harmonious color combinations, or color schemes. When determining which color is right for a website, you are not just choosing one color (e.g. make it blue). Your designer will actually be choosing and applying an entire color scheme to a website. Knowing the types of classic color schemes is essential when influencing an end-product.

Monochromatic color schemes use variations in lightness and saturation of a single color, whereas analogous color schemes use colors that are adjacent to each other on the “color wheel.” There are many types of classic color schemes (complimentary and split-complimentary, triadic and tetradic) so let’s instead look at the basics of the colors themselves and how they are perceived by end-users.

Red is considered to be an emotionally intense color. While red is commonly associated with danger, it is also used to stimulate people to make quick decisions. Red is highly visible, so using it to bring text and images to the forefront makes it a perfect color for “buy now” or “add-to-cart” buttons.

While not as aggressive as red, orange is also a highly visible color, ideal for calling attention to or highlighting the most important elements of a design, without causing stress.

Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Use yellow to evoke pleasant, uplifting feelings. You can choose yellow to promote children’s products and items related to leisure. Use yellow carefully however, as a dul yellow represents caution.

Green is the color of nature — symbolizing growth, harmony, and fertility. Green has a strong emotional link with safety and is considered to be the most restful color for the human eye. Green suggests stability and endurance, making it a perfect fit for finance-related design, but is also used to indicate safety, making it a viable choice for medical-related design.

Blue, often associated with stability, symbolizes trust, wisdom and confidence. Blue has been shown to produce a calming effect and is often used to promote products and services related to cleanliness. More accepted by males than females, it is a preferred color for corporate America.

Black typically carries a negative connotation but carries with it a feeling of perspective and depth. Strength and authority are also attributed to black. Although black backgrounds diminish readability, combined with other intense colors such as red, they remain aggressive and unique, good for attracting a risk-taking mindset.

1. Always have the email come from the same person at your end. It helps to create a sense of rapport and stability.
2. Never use a subject or title line that is misleading; always make it descriptive of what is in the body of the email.
3. On the other hand, keep it snappy. Instead of “Your November Newsletter”, use the title of one of the more important articles in your newsletter.
4. Make it clear that it is okay to forward the email to others, if the subscriber likes. This form of viral marketing can grow your subscriber list over time.
5. Always include links to your product pages in the body of the email.
6. Also include an easy opt-out link at the bottom of the communication.
7. Be sure to solicit responses and comments. People love to share their thoughts.
8. Formatting is especially important in plain text messages. Keep the attention going by using bulleted lists instead of lengthy paragraphs.
9. Stay away from using all capital letters or italicizing words, as they can be harder to view on a computer screen.
10. Watch the use of color in your emails, especially with text; lighter colors tend to be hard to read, especially on a white background.
11. Use fonts that are similar to those used in most email clients; it will make it easier to arrange the text to best advantage, especially for plain text emails.
12. Include some incentive to visit your website, such as promoting a new product or noting a new blog entry.
13. Don’t forget to include a special offer or a discount from time to time.
14. Always thank the subscribers for their time and support.
15. Before you send the emails to clients, send them to an email address of your own, with one in HTML and another in plain text. That way, you know exactly what the subscriber will see.
16. Don’t be afraid to try something different now and then. Vary texts, layouts, and other elements to see what subscribers respond to best.
17. Keep the text of the email focused; rambling will lose your audience, just as wandering text on your website will drive visitors away.
18. Use a reliable program to blast mail to your subscriber list; most allow you to review a report of successful deliveries once the job is complete.
19. Review the reports regularly, and compare them to spikes in your web site traffic, and the responses you get about specifics of the emails.
20. Used software to tabulate and categorize the responses. It will make it much easier to process them and turn them into usable data.
21. Assess the percentage of response you get. The industry standard is between five and fifteen percent. If you are getting less than that, it is time to rethink your approach.
22. If a response serves as the inspiration for an article in the next newsletter, ask the subscriber if it is okay to mention them by first name and initial. This is enough to maintain anonymity, while still recognizing their contribution.
23. Ask subscribers to submit some of their own copy once or twice a year. You may be surprised with the quality of what you receive. Reward the best one with a free ebook or other product.
24. Send out special holiday emails along with your regular weekly communications.
25. Listen to the feedback from your subscribers. It will help you refine the mailings as you go along.

Here are five simple ways that your website could be losing you business:

1. Slow Page Loads: People get really frustrated when pages take long to load. If you have this problem then check the size of your images and ensure that their sizes are optimized to load quicker while still maintaining the integrity of these images. Find ways to optimize your pages as well, also contact your web hosting company about this issue if everything you’ve tried hasn’t resolved the issue.
2. Dead/Broken Links: No one likes to click on a link and it goes to a “not found” page. Use a good broken links checker regularly to ensure that all your links are valid. A great tool to use for checking links is the W3C links checker.
3. Inactive Contact Forms: Imagine someone who is really interested in your products and/or services and then they’d taken the time to complete your contact form, click on the send button and NOTHING HAPPENS! Many people would immediately move on to the next person.
4. Poor Navigation: It’s important to give visitors to your website many ways to navigate through your web pages. It comes highly recommended from the usability point, to have more than one way to click through pages.
5. Visible Contact: Not every potential client wants to use your contact form. So create other options for they to contact you via. Some people like to send emails and some like to speak to a person. Adding an email address link and telephone number can make a difference.

Taking into consideration the mentioned above points can makes a huge difference in whether you gain more business or not.

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit, are simple; yet profitable when wanting to drive traffic to your website. These websites will aid you in establishing your brand and encourage traffic to your website. There has been an increased trend with internet based business owners; therefore, implementing a strong marketing platform will improve your website’s traffic and your client base.

Use Blogging. Blogging is another website in the form of social media. A blog combines commentary, images, and/or links to your website. A blog allows you the opportunity to keep an online “diary” of your thoughts, progress, events and articles that pertain to your website and business. Additionally, your blog encourages user participation and allows your readers to comment on the information posted in your blog. Furthermore, several social bookmarking sites will allow you to link your blog to your social bookmarking account; which will increase your targeted audience. READ MORE