Most webmasters know that Adsense generates a sizeable source of additional advertising income. That is why most of them use it to go after high paying keywords. They have with them the list that tells what the keywords are and have already used various methods of identifying them. And yet  after putting up these supposed-to-be high paying keywords into their pages  the money they expected to come rolling in is not really coming in.
What is it that they are doing wrong?

Having the pages is with the proper keywords is one thing. But driving visitors to those pages is another matter and often the factor that is lacking.

The thing is  to get visitors to your high paying keyword pages  you need to optimize your site navigation.

Stop for a moment and think about how visitors are using your website. After a visitor has landed on a certain page  they have the tendency to click on another page that sounds interesting. They get there because of the other links that appears on a page that they initially landed on. This is site navigation. It is all about enabling visitors to move about your site. And one way of maximizing your Adsense earnings.

A typical website has menu links on each page. The wording on these links is what grabs a visitor’s attention and gets them to click on one of the links that will take them to another page of that website. Links that have “free’ or “download” are oftentimes good attention-grabbers.

This navigation logic can also be applied to driving traffic to your high paying pages. There are some websites that are getting a lot of traffic from search engines  but have low earnings. The trick is to try and use come cleverly labeled links to get the visitors off that pages and navigate them to the higher earning ones. This is one great way of turning real cheap clicks to real dollars.

Before you begin testing if this same style will work for you and you website  you need to have two things. Something to track and compare and some high earning pages you want to funnel your site traffic to. An option is to select a few of your frequently visited pages. This is ensuring fast result to come by.

Now  the next thing to do is think of ways to get visitors viewing a particular page to try and click on the link that will take them to your high earning pages. Come up with a catchy description for that link. Come up with a catchy and unique description for the link. Think of something that people do not get to see everyday. That will trigger their curiosity enough to try and see what that was all about.

You can also use graphics to grab your readers’ attention. There is no limitation to what you can do to make your link noticeable. If you are after the success of your site  you will do everything it takes just to achieve that goal. Just be creative. As far as many Adsense advertisers are concerned  there are no written and unwritten laws to follow regarding what they write. Just as long as you do not overstep the guidelines of the search engines  then go for it.

Also remember that it is all about location  location and location. Once the perfect attention grabbing description has been achieved  you have to identify the perfect spot on your page to position that descriptive link to your high paying page.

There is nothing wrong with visiting other websites to see how they are going about maximizing their site navigation. “Hot pages” or “Most read” lists are very common and overly used already. Get to know the ones that many websites are using and do not try to imitate them.

Another way of doing it is to try and use different texts on different pages. That way you will see the ones that work and what does not. Try to mix things around also. Put links on top and sometimes on the bottom too. This is how you go about testing which ones get more clicks and which ones are being ignored.

Let the testing begin. Testing and tracking until you find the site navigation style that works best for you site. About the author
For more useful tips & hints  please browse for more information at our website:- www.youradsenseprofits.com www.adsense.reprintarticesite.com

We at Dow Group provide big range of marketing consultancy services  from email marketing to web design  development and marketing solution in Beirut and Dubai

A lot of brick & mortar companies still don t have websites and they seem fine with that decision. But is it a good one? I don t think so. In fact  I think any company without a website in their marketing plan is shooting itself in the foot. Here are all the things a website can do for your company:

Generate more leads
These days  the most common complaint I hear from growing companies is "we need more leads". A website can help. Any site that has "can?t-find-it-anywhere-else" information attracts prospects  and if the site attracts enough of them  you?ll gain a following. From followings  leads are generated.

Qualify those leads
When surfers visit your site  you should always encourage them to take the next step. Whether this is purchasing one of your products  signing up for an online newsletter or filling out a survey  your visitors want to know what to do next. Provide them with several different ways to respond and your website will separate browsers from buyers.

Attract new visitors
Web surfers are not traditional bricks and mortar types. Most are comfortable stopping by  introducing themselves and even purchasing your products without ever meeting you face to face.

Stay open round-the-clock
We all know how disappointing it is to drive to a store only to find it closed. With a website in today s market  any company can be open for its customers 24/7. Even though your employees are sleeping when an inquiry comes in at 2 a.m.  your customers appreciate that you were open when it was most convenient for them.

Increase media access to your company
A good website offers a press room so media editors and reporters can help themselves to the information they need. You ll find that there s a direct correlation between how accessible your website is to the media and the number of media contacts your company gets.

Self-serve service
The Post Office now offers an online service called Delivery Confirmation. After paying an additional 40 cents at the postal counter  you can track online where your package is in the mail system. What was once an overhead service for the Post Office is now a self-service function for its customers (and a new source of revenue). What if your company could transfer service functions to its website like obtaining owners manuals  tracking shipments or answering frequently asked questions?

Load sales tools onto your site
One of my clients loads their latest PowerPoint presentations onto their website. That way  a sales rep in Boston can give a presentation to a prospect in Wyoming without either of them leaving their offices. Think of the travel savings if you adopted this approach.

by Jay Lipe

These days  blogs are among the most important secret weapons that internet marketers can employ. They are a terrific way to have opinions stated in an un-moderated and public place  where ideas and insights can be shared among everyone who wishes to read them.
For internet marketing  blogging builds credibility for the website through the many opinions and ideas that are shared there. The company  and its bloggers  become recognized by their readers as a resource for useful information. Therefore  people will not only visit once  but will return again and again to find out what else is new.

Blogging itself is an extremely inexpensive  quick  and simple way to reach out to thousands of website visitors. It draws people who are in your direct target market  making relationship building a much more natural process once that visitor takes their use of your website one step further and makes a purchase of whatever product or service you are selling - and have been covering in your blog.

Blogs make you an expert in your field. That's right  with the right researching and writing skills (or with a skilled writer and researcher in your employ) then you can become an expert in your field as far as your website blog is concerned. To be an expert  all you need to do is keep up with the latest in your industry within your blog posts  and maintain it regularly.

To make sure that you're headed in the right direction with your blog  check up on other website blogs in your industry to see what they have posted. Naturally  this doesn't mean that you should be posting the same things as your competition. In fact  that is among the worst things that you can do. Certainly  you're allowed to share an opinion now and then  but your blog will need to stand out if it is to be taken seriously. If you are simply reiterating what others are already saying  then you will be seen as old news  and will be overlooked in favor of the original thinkers.

To start your own blog on your website  you need to have the right tools in place. Blogger and Blogware are only examples of the many different options that are available to you.

When you post on your blog  make sure that you're doing it because you have something to say  and not because it's time to post. Your blog posts need to be interesting if you are to keep a steady readership. If you're not interested in what you're writing then the odds are that your visitors won't be interested in what they're reading.

To keep up the interest  don't take yourself too seriously. Of course you are allowed to write about serious and important topics in your industry and about your products  but you can also include some trivia and humorous commentaries that directly or indirectly relate to your blog topic and will amuse your readers. This is perfectly acceptable in blog posting and is  in fact  encouraged. It allows the readers to feel that they have made a real "contact" with you  and that you take a real joy in what you do.

Blogs aren't just good for creating regular visitors to your website  but they are also quite beneficial for bringing in new visitors as well. You'll find that when you are writing about any given topic in your industry  you are using the words and terms that apply to your topic. As these words become more frequently used throughout your website  for example  within your recent and archived blog posts  search engine spiders will pick up on their use and may increase your ranking for those keywords.

To sum up  here is what you need to benefit from your blog:

• The right blogging tools • The motivation and commitment to contribute regularly • Something relevant to say! • Some skill in writing - if you don't  hire someone who does • Some knowledge in your industry - if you don't  hire someone who can research this information • Some perspective  not just vague ramblings

If you have these  you're all set to start taking advantage of what blogging can contribute to your internet marketing strategy. These days  blogs are among the most important secret weapons that internet marketers can employ. They are a terrific way to have opinions stated in an un-moderated and public place  where ideas and insights can be shared among everyone who wishes to read them.

About the author
For more useful tips & hints  please browse for more information at our website:- www.the20seotools.com www.seo.reprintarticlesite.com

We at Dow Group provide big range of marketing consultancy services  from email marketing to web design  development and marketing solution in Beirut and Dubai

Thinking of buying a customer service management (CRM) software? Here are some tips to guide you...
 
Customer Service Management software is often considered to be of paramount importance in any organization.

Any company or organization has their customers or clients. And companies like to keep records of the clients? preferences  order history and the other different types of interactions between themselves. These records are very useful for the company to understand the client satisfaction and its impact on sales and productivity.

Customer service is an essential aspect of any company. Customer service management software solutions help automate this and several related functions within the organization.

Customer Service Software Features

Therefore  before embarking upon the various processes involved in the purchase of such as customer service management software  we should know what the key features of the customer service softwares are. Let us have a look:
Customer Contact Management: This helps keep a record of the various interactions between the customer and your company.
Sales Management: This helps to track and record the various sales related communications  correspondences and the related reports.
Accounts Management: This helps to keep a track of the financial aspects of every customer transaction  and includes various functions such as invoice generation and tracking of payments received.
Reports Generation: This helps generate various types of reports for various types of management analyses.
Customer Service Management Software Buying Tips

Now that we have an idea of what features are included an ideal customer service management software  let us look at the various things a company or organization needs to consider before buying a customer service management software.
Requirements Analysis: Before buying a customer service management software  it is essential for the company to analyze their requirements. Most of these softwares are available either as separate modules for each feature / function (as mentioned above) or as a combination of any 2 or all the 3 modules. It is important to know what the requirements of your company are  and buying only what you need.
Cost Analysis: As is the case with any purchase decision  it is important for any organization to have a through understanding of the cost outlay which will be needed for the purchase and implementation of the customer service management software.
Vendors Analysis: It is the next logical step. Find out the vendors who supply what you are looking for. Make a list. Ask them for quotes. While doing this analysis  have a look at the vendor  s history  and talk to their existing and past clients. It does not hurt to ask the vendor for a demonstration of the software. Also talk to the vendor about the various training and IT related aspects of the buying decision: know whether the vendor will provide training sessions for your staff  whether the software will be compatible with your existing platform and whether all your earlier customer service management software modules can be integrated with the new software.
Software Trial: Most vendors will have a trial version of the software. Have the trial version installed. During that time  you will have the opportunity to use the software hands-on and understand its various aspects in person. You will actually see for yourself if the software is easy to use and fits in with your particular requirements or not. Such a trial will always give you a better idea of the usability of the software as compared to a demo.
Negotiate the Deal: Different vendors will have different costs. It is in the company  s best interests to negotiate the deal to their best advantage. Some vendors may offer a lot of freebies in order to bypass this stage. Don  t get swayed by that. Rather  ask for and get a good discount  especially if you are a big organization.
Implementation of Software: While the software is being implemented  observe the process and give feedback from time to time. Often these activities are planned phase-wise. Go through these implementation phases with your vendor  before the installation process begins. Ask for a detailed process if need be  so that you can be aware of all the various steps and changes which you will have to go through while the software is being implemented.
Track the Performance: Once the customer service management software has been implemented  do keep tracking the related performance benefits or problems which have arisen due to the software  s implementation. This will be a good method of measuring and tracking the performance of the software.
Armed with these tips  you can go ahead and look into your organization  s needs and understand if you need a customer service management software in the first place  and if so  how to go about purchasing the right software for your company.

   By Madhavi Ghare
Published: 1/18/2008

Although Alexas search results are driven by Google  this is a definite must in your search engine marketing plan.
The reason is that Alexa will provide statistics about your website that no other search engine or web directory will provide.

These statistics include:

your site ranking on the internet what sites are linking to yours *Detailed traffic statistics *Site thumbnails *Site Speed

these are just a few examples.

You can also use Alexa to search for your keywords. This will tell you who your competition is for the keywords you have selected. You can more carefully study your competition  find out who is linking to your competition  and use what you learn to raise your rankings in the search engines  as well as find better keywords for your website.

Alexa also has its own crawler  and even though you may show up in the search results powered by Google  you still want to have Alexa crawl your site.

Alexa  like Google  may discover your site on its own. However  it's been my experience that Alexa only updates my site when I visit Alexa and make updates. This includes the thumbnails.

The first step that you should take before submitting to Alexa is to type in the domain name of your site to see if you are listed.

If you are listed  study the thumbnail for your site and see if needs to be updated. You should also check your site description  as well as contact information  and if it needs to be updated  update it.

Alexa will require that you verify your website in one of two ways. The first is to enter your email address  and Alexa will send you a confirmation email. The other way is that you can verify is to create an info.txt file and upload it to the root directory of your website. You can then click the verification link and Alexa will verify your site.

If your site isn't listed for some reason  you will need to submit. Alexa gives detailed instructions  as well as information on creating a robots.txt file.

If you want to find out who your competition is  and get a competitive edge  then Alexa is an indispensable tool to help you. Use the detailed information you'll find on this site  and you can easily raise your rankings in the search engines and get more traffic.

Although Alexa results are driven by Google  you want to make sure that you actually submit your site to this search engine so that you can get detailed stats  as well as check out your competition.

About the author
For more useful tips & hints  please browse for more information at our website:- www.the20seotools.com www.seo.reprintarticlesite.com

 We at Dow Group provide big range of marketing consultancy services  from email marketing to web design  development and marketing solution in Beirut and Dubai

These days  blogs are among the most important secret weapons that internet marketers can employ. They are a If you own an online business  you know the importance and advantage to be seen on search engines like google  yahoo  MSN and lycos. Today  search engines generate most of the traffic (Customers) that will come to your site and buy your services  software products or e-materials. No matter what the nature of the business is  you need to spend money on optimizing and preparing your web site for the visit of spiders. Spiders are the robots that index your site to the database of the search engine.
Why spend thousands of dollars on search engine optimization  when you can do it yourself? Yes it is true. By using technology and some good reading  you can raise your site to the top most ranking in the matter of days. The cost is nominal and will not go above $150. Search engine optimizing software will not only save you money but it will also allow you to do things the easy way through the various wizards. Almost all the work for you is done by the software allowing you to spend time with the site itself.

One such software is Web Position Gold. With features like automatic submitter  reports and traffic analysis  it is a gem of a software program for any serious business owner or web master.

Let us take a close look at some of its features. The most important feature of this software is the Submitter. It is a real time saver. You just select the web pages or files  and search engines you want to submit and it does all the submitting while you do something else. It even keeps track of everything to make sure you don t span the search engines and that all the pages are submitted.

The search engine ranking reporter is another feature you will love. Running reports using thousands of keywords at a time is no problem. Keywords are very important in the search engine industry. These words are used by your visitors to reach your site. So it is important to run popular reports on what words are best for your business and this software does it for you. It also includes a handy feature where you can spy on your competitors.

With all the above features the software still offers more. The Page Critic supplies expert  custom-tailored advice on how to optimize each of your new or existing web pages. Page Generator creates optimized web pages based on keywords and details you enter about your business. Upload Manager remembers all the optimized Web pages you created  changed  or added. Scheduler activates the Reporter daily  weekly  or monthly to automatically check your web site s rankings. Add an excellent and qualified customer care team that answers e mails within hours and provides a toll free number web position gold is a serious requirement for any business that is serious about its online presence.

We know that a web site cannot succeed without proper search engine optimization. However  an expert will charge a lot of money and learn about your business before he starts work. Search engine optimizing software gives you the opportunity to do that work at a fraction of the cost. Not only is the cost factor important  but you are the best judge of your company hence you can use that power to stay on top with all the repetitive work done by the optimization software. If you own an online business  you know the importance and advantage to be seen on search engines like google  yahoo  MSN and lycos.

About the author
www.the20seotools.com www.seo.reprintarticlesite.com

We at Dow Group provide big range of marketing consultancy services  from email marketing to web design  development and marketing solution in Beirut and Dubai

Once you build a website  your job is only half done. Now  you must market it to your prospects so they visit - often. Here are some of the most common ways to market your website:

Offer freebies

The web was actually created to enable the free exchange of information. Only in the past 15 years  has it given rise to commerce. To honor that spirit of free information  make sure your site gives people the information they need  for free. Offer free white papers  articles  free downloads  research findings or blogs. Once you do this  the viral nature of the web will take over and visitors will refer your site to others.

Drive traffic to your site with traditional media

Every one of these traditional marketing vehicles should feature your web address: Business cards  letterhead  envelopes  invoices  fax cover sheets  trade show materials  company vehicles  signs  voicemails  press releases  media kits  advertisements and direct mail pieces.

Submit to the top search engines

Google dominates today s search engine market  but don t overlook others such as MSN and Yahoo. At my site  www.emergemarketing.com  these three engines account for 93% of all visitors. If you re unfamiliar with search engine submission  consult an expert.

Build links to your site

To increase your site s visibility  first increase the number of links it has to other sites. Find appropriate sites to link with to first checking out your competitors  sites. Who do they link to? Then  visit Google and type in keywords that you feel are relevant to your site. Which sites come up? Chances are good that these same sites would be good link sites for yours. The more links you create with high traffic sites  the higher your search rankings will be.

Add your address to a signature file

Your signature file is the several lines of text that appear automatically at the end of each email message you send. Adding a link to your website (along with your phone number and email address) in your signature is equivalent to attaching a business card to each email you send. If I m your prospect and you; ve just emailed me  I can now click on the link to your site and take the next step to learn more about your company.

Encourage sign-ups

At your site you can encourage visitors to sign up to receive regular communications from your company. Whether these are email newsletters  promotional emails or product updates is up to you. Use your site as a guest register to capture email addresses for future marketing use.

by Jay Lipe

OK these Ten Commandments didn t come from the Mountain. And they re not carved on clay tablets  but on a high-tensile polyfiber instead. Yet any marketer worth his or her salt must follow these commandments in order to find the Promised Land.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries  a rancher would mark his cattle with a brand. This brand  depicting an image unique to his ranch  distinguished his cattle from another s in the event of a broken fence. Branding  in today s modern marketing world  operates much the same way. It seeks to distinguish a product or service from the competition and create a lasting impression in a prospect s mind.

Pay dear attention to your branding programs from the outset because they work to strengthen the "link of trust" between your company and its buyers.

Shaping your brand image
To start  consider first the personality of your company. Is it sexy or sweet? Tough or tender? Is it more like John Wayne or George Clooney or Andy Griffith? And if you think all this is hooey  consider these questions: Do Marlboros really taste better than other cigarettes? Is H&R Block superior to the tax accountant down the street? No  but a big reason these companies are leaders is because they ve successfully built a personality around their brands.

Name; The first step
How different would you be if your name was Clem or Matilda? Your company name sets a tone for your brand  right from the start. Names can be generated from invented words (Xerox)  initials (IBM) and founder s names (Johnson & Johnson). Some of the best names though communicate a benefit (U-Haul or Budget Car Rental).

Logo; Your company s symbol
A logo is a distinctive symbol or mark that visually represents your company. To get one that passes muster with the quality police  I recommend hiring a design firm. Because your logo is one of the first visual brand elements your buyers see  put some time and money into it.

If your logo will appear on fax cover sheets  fax it to yourself. If it will appear on billboards  enlarge it to 5 feet and see what it looks like (don t laugh  I actually did this for a client). Put your logo through the quality checking paces before you use it. You ll be glad you did.

Taglines; A memorable definition
I m a big believer in taglines. In 10 words or less a good tagline can communicate the core essence of a brand to the market. And for small businesses  it can be one of the most efficient marketing weapons in their arsenal.

A tagline is simply a short description of a business  reason for being. It could incorporate elements of its expertise  its target audience  even the markets it serves. A tagline can be both direct and subtle - whatever it takes to get the prospect to say to themselves "Oh  I get it."

If you re unfamiliar with taglines  work with a copywriter or marketing consultant. In an hour or two  they can take the core essence of your company s brand and translate it into a memorable and pithy tagline.

Once you have a tagline  always connect it to your logo as a standard practice. Either place the tagline below your logo or alongside it. But  whenever your logo appears  your tagline should there with it.

Fonts and typestyles
Using the proper fonts and typestyles also define your brand. Try to standardize fonts and typestyles that appear routinely in your marketing materials. Use only a select few.

Hint: If you re working with an advertising agency or marketing firm  make sure their designs use fonts that are readily available. A client of mine once worked with a designer on some marketing materials. The problem was the designer chose a very creative font that ended up also being hard to find. In the end  the client had to shell out hundreds more dollars to buy the font for its printer because they did not have it.

Colors: Creating a mood
How do you feel when you walk into a yellow room? When you see a sign with a red background color  what s your first reaction? Colors generate emotional reactions  and it s important to carry that over into your branding program.
So  here is a quick list of common colors and the emotions behind them:

Color Emotions behind the color
Red Stop  passion
Yellow Caution  cowardice
Green Go  safe
White Purity  virtue
Black Luxury  prestige
Blue Authority  calm
Orange Strength  stimulation
Brown Warmth  comfort

When deciding on your company s color  pay attention to the colors used by your competitors. You don t want to shoot yourself in the foot by choosing a color already associated with your competitor.

The sounds of your brand
One company I call on the telephone plays rap over its on-hold system. I don t know about you  but I believe there s more to music than 3 bad chords and rotten lyrics. I hate being on hold with that company. And their relationship with me suffers ever so slightly each time I call. If your business has on-hold messaging  or your retail store has background music  make sure it s appropriate.

Publish some guidelines
As your company grows  consider developing a brand manual. It can be as simple as a 3-ring binder that records how you want brand elements to appear. It should cover the use of your logo  type sizes/fonts/styles  guidelines for color or black and white  and where certain brand elements should be located on the page or screen.
This is a great resource for internal staff to follow and can also be used for new employee training.

Remember...
Your brand shows up in a wide variety of marketing vehicles. To help you identify all the places your brand can be found  I ve developed a comprehensive Branding Checklist. For a free download  click here.

In the end  hold your branding efforts to the highest standard possible. Spend a little extra to keep your brand high-quality and consistent across your company. Your customers (both current and new) will thank you for it.

by Jay Lipe

This article is based on part of a larger book  Website Findability  by Michael Heraghty.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to separate the stylistic elements of a page such as layout  colour and fonts from the content of the page such as paragraphs and images. We call this Separation of Content from Presentation.

If you don t understand CSS at all then you may decide not to use it for your site. However I would suggest that the advantages to be gained from using CSS  not just for Google  are well worth the time invested in learning it. For an introduction to CSS see CSS Is Easy by Kevin Yank or see the many other quality articles over at SitePoint s CSS Section.

So why is CSS good for Google?

CSS allows for smaller file sizes
CSS allows you greater control of page structure
CSS allows you to hide certain content from browsers while it still gets picked up by Google
CSS allows for smaller file sizes
By taking styles out of the HTML page and putting it into a standalone (imported) style sheet (.css file)  you can reduce the overall amount of code in your web pages. Pages with less code have smaller file sizes and Google prefers pages with smaller file sizes (many other search engines do too).

Though Google doesn t offer specific advice on this matter  the search engine optimisation community is generally agreed that 100KB is a good upper limit for page sizes.

CSS allows you greater control of page structure
CSS allows you to structure your document according to HTML standards without comprimising the look-and-feel of the page.

Google rewards pages that are well structured  though many designers choose to ignore standards and guidelines as much as possible  because they (incorrectly) believe standards lead to bland pages. Using CSS  designers can create attractive pages with much flair  while adhering to the findability design principles identified in the book (yes you ll have to buy it to get more!).

CSS allows you to hide content from browsers while it still gets picked up by Google
Using CSS you can hide content from certain browsers in certain situations. For example you may have some content that you only want to appear in print  or you may want certain content to only be shown on screen and not in print (such as page navigation). The advantage is that Google will still index all of the content and you will still get the benefit that content brings.

by Nigel Peck

Some 58 percent of retailers say the top business pressure that influences their loyalty-program decisions is the need to develop lifetime customer value  according to research conducted by Aberdeen Group  reports MarketingCharts.

Lifetime customer value is defined as the present value of future cash flows through long-term customer relationships.

 "In times of stagnant growth  retailers need to develop lifetime customer value through improved customer retention  re-activation  and acquisition strategies " said Sahir Anand  senior analyst at Aberdeen and chief author of the customer loyalty benchmark report.

Among retailers  93 percent say they execute loyalty programs as a standard offering for their web  store or catalog channel customers. Such campaigns may include point perks  rewards  coalition marketing  frequent buyer offers  and private-label credit cards.

However  the tactical nature of these loyalty campaigns targeting short-term retail demand often overshadows lifetime customer value  according to Aberdeen.

"Loyalty campaigns are executed without due consideration to ideal customer segments  tools  coordinated cross-channel marketing needs  and long-term customer relationships " Anand said

Cost-benefit issues surrounding loyalty programs are top-of-mind for retail marketers  and measurement of ROI on customer loyalty programs is continuous  the study found. Determining such an ROI is a much simpler process than other retail solutions  such as POS  merchandising or pricing  Aberdeen said.

Repeat visit (61 percent)  incremental sales (58 percent)  and overall satisfaction (57 percent) have emerged as the three most significant factors used by retailers for justifying spend on loyalty elements  operational costs  and upgrade/deployment of loyalty software applications.

As for technology used to enable loyalty programs  the top priorities among best-in-class companies are database marketing  end-to-end loyalty marketing software  loyalty card-processing software and CRM applications  Aberdeen found:

 Aberdeen conducted the survey of 231 retail enterprises between May and June 2008 to determine the current state of loyalty technology and process integration in retail.

Look Ma No White Shoes!
The used car salesmen in white shoes and belt with a loud plaid jacket has become an archetype of selling. As a result  you may -- like me -- have tended to keep sales in the closet  depending on the admiration of your network and the kindness of strangers to bring in revenue.
Do you do your best to provide value without asking for reciprocity? Do you write newsletters  blog  offer complimentary introductory session or other benefits to prospective clients but back away from selling to them?

How thoughtful. How generous. How unhealthy.

Yes unhealthy. Because when you dot invite your customers to reciprocate when you dont issue clear open  and regular invitations to buy  you consign your business to a kind of financial anorexia.

The person suffering from anorexia has a distorted body image  and can languish and even die from starvation while being convinced that they are fat. What s more  they are convinced that being fat is a fate worse than death (literally).

Financial Anorexia
Do you have a distorted image of what it would mean to profit from serving others? Would it be okay with you if people saw your business thriving? Or do you cling to the notion that somehow starvation is a more artistic or enlightened path? Heaven forfend that your clients or customers would think you are in business for the money!

And of course  you aren t in business for the money any more than a healthy adult lives to eat.Yet your business needs money just as certainly as you need food  and the more up front  clear  and effective you are at selling  the healthier your business and your relationships with your customers.

Sounds good in principle  but how do you sell effectively without pressuring your customers and alienating your audience? Keep reading.

Selling to Serve
Your customers and clients -- like you -- have a lot more on their minds than whether or not your work can help them. They could be crying out for what you offer  but distracted by slings and arrows of everyday fortune: leaky plumbing  aging parents  boomerang kids -- the list goes on and on.

In order to help them  you ll need to open your mind to selling. How do you keep selling from co-opting your values and your vision? The answer is to build service into sales and vice versa.

Tips For Selling That Serves
Begin with the end in mind.Stephen Covey had this one exactly right. (If you haven t read his classic 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  it s well worth your time.) Before you sell anything to anyone  remember why you are going to do it.

This first key is the most important. If it is missing  you will run out of steam before you even begin the sales process.

Remember the archetype of the white-shoed car salesman? It runs deep  and unless you consciously establish the service foundation for selling every time you write copy or tell someone about your work  you risk getting blind-sided by shame. And guess what? As soon as shame starts to burble up in you  your customers pick up on it. Yuck!

Walk a mile in their shoes. What do your just-right customers need to know in order to make a decision? What could get in the way? What are the stakes if they fail to act?

How many couples would not be together today if one partner hadn t been willing to hang in there when the other hesitated?If the course of true love doesn t run smooth  why would the course of deciding to buy something that s a good fit?

When you stand in your just-right customer s shoes for a while you ll see what steppingstones they might need in order to buy something that will truly serve them.

Are those steppingstones for everyone? Of course not. Is that a problem? No  and to find out why not  keep reading.

Dance with no as well as yes. When you are clear about who you are serving and how  open your heart even wider so that people who don t need what you offer or who are not ready to buy  are free to decline. Rather than arming yourself against someone s decision not to buy  open yourself to it.

Imagine a prospective client or customer considering and then deciding against your offer. Watch them closely in your minds eye without pretending to know what they are thinking. Just watch.

When you let go of what you think that they think about you  what do you see? Do you notice that they are simply taking care of themselves as best they know how? Good. Now notice how your heart eases as you unhook your self-esteem from their choices.

This hearts ease completes the circuit from intention to serve to decision to sell to blessing all of your prospects whether or not they decide to buy. Selling becomes a conversation in which you advocate for those folks who want and can benefit from your work so that they can notice  consider  and decide.

When a shopper picks up a product in a store  what s the first thing they notice? The packaging  right? The same holds true for someone buying a service.

Yet instead of a folded carton with colorful graphics  you are the packaging for your service business. Intangible points of contact  including your clothes  your briefcase  maybe even your breath  all burn a lasting image in your buyer s mind.

Here are some of the more common packaging elements all service marketers should pay attention to:

Your clothes
All your technical expertise won t mean diddly if you wear a tie dye t-shirt and striped bell bottoms to your first client meeting. "Always dress better than you need to " says Sue Morem  author of How to Gain the Professional Edge; Achieve the Personal and Professional Image You Want. "Even when dealing with a casual company  remember you are not a part of that company; you re an outsider."If you re not sure what to wear  find a personal shopping consultant.

Briefcase
I ve seen people use briefcases that looked like they carried the first batch of Pony Express mail. Resist the temptation to use that briefcase Uncle Joe bought you at Wal-Mart and instead invest good money in one at a reputable luggage store.
Briefcases are one of the few personal effects almost every business person carries into a meeting and this simple item speaks volumes about your image.

Your notebook
When you pull out some paper to take notes  do you pull out a sturdy  professional looking notebook or just a pad of paper? This item  which sits on the table throughout the meeting  may go unnoticed by many of your buyers. But then again  it may not.

Etiquette
Saying please and thank you. A firm handshake. Looking someone in the eye when talking to them. "Etiquette is the equivalent of the ribbon and bow on a package " says Morem. "Good etiquette lets others know you are in control and finishes off your image." For a good primer on professional etiquette  consult her book.

Proposal covers
Up until five years ago  I routinely faxed my proposals to prospects. Then  one of these prospects said to me "Jay  I have two proposals here. One is handsomely bound and the other is faxed. Which do you think I should go with?" Point taken. When final packaging your proposals  estimates or RFP s  use the highest quality binding system you can afford.

Envelopes
Do you still hand-address your envelopes? A lot of business people I know do and I sure wouldn t penalize them for it. But if your competitors are ink jetting their envelopes  your image will suffer ever so slightly.

Email address
What image does your email convey? If your email address is studmuffin@yahoo.com or hottie@yahoo.com  you might take a step back and ask yourself  what image does this convey? If you re after a professional image for your service business  and you have an email address that doesn t synch up with this image  you might want to consider upgrading it.

Domain name
These days  with the costs of taking your business online dropping precipitously  your business really should have its own domain name. I m not knocking AOL or Yahoo. But if you want to project the image of an established business that operates in a professional manner  having your own domain name is a giant leap. For more information about availability of certain domain names  visit InterNIC at www.internic.com .

Email fonts and colors
I ve received some very professional looking emails. I ve also received some emails that were laughably amateur. Increasingly these days  buyers and sellers make initial contact through email  and casual fonts or background colors that bury the body text penalize you right from the start. Consider your email address and template as "wrappers" for your business and treat them accordingly.

Voicemail greeting
Talk about a moment of truth for your business. The vast majority of business calls (including calls from your prospects) reach voicemail  thus underscoring the need for a professional  well-crafted greeting. Don t have your daughter recite her new poem or feature a rap version of "Old Lang Syne".Keep it simple...and professional.

Punctuality
At the root of being on time is respect; respect for someone else s time. So  be on time for all appointments. If you do run late  call and let someone know. If you re running a meeting  end on time or announce that the meeting may go longer and give anyone an opportunity to bow out.

If you think any of these packaging elements aren t worth investing in  then you ve missed my point. Each one of these is a defining contact point between your service business and your market  and forms an important element of your packaging. Pay attention to your packaging; your buyer will.

by Jay Lipe

I. Thou Shalt Not See Marketing as a Department

When you get right down to it  everyone in your company is a marketer. From the receptionist whose voice is the first thing your buyers hear  to the delivery person whose rear-end may be the last thing they see  every one of your employees plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of your marketing efforts. Good companies imbue every employee with healthy reverence for the customer so that the company  from every point of contact it has with its market  knows how to market.

II. Thou Shalt Follow the Ninety Day Rule

Your customers  prospects and champions (those who refer business your way) should hear from you every 90 days. People are just too busy to remember you otherwise. If you don t follow the 90-day rule  you risk getting shouted down by any competitor of yours who does.

III. Honor the Concept of Tinkering with All your Heart

If you re a 70 s child like me  you remember the hugely successful rock group Fleetwood Mac. But I ll bet you didn t know that their seemingly overnight success came only after years of tinkering. That s right  before the release of their monster album Rumours  they endured no less than 14 personnel changes across 10 years. In marketing  as in rock and roll  success seldom happens with your original line-up.

IV. Thou Shalt Not Quit

Moses and the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years without giving up. You owe it to yourself (and maybe Moses too) to try any new marketing initiative at least three times before throwing in the towel. Your prospect could have been out of the country the first time you ran it  and tending to his sick mother the second. Repetition is a marketer s best friend.

V. Thou Shalt Feed Thy Prospecting Funnel

Suspects become prospects  who then become customers. And these customers then generate referrals who create more prospects and the cycle begins anew. For thousands of years  this marketing process (also known as the prospecting funnel) has governed marketing activities for all companies  and I feel safe saying that it will continue this way for another thousand years.

VI. Remember Thine Marketing Time by Keeping it Holy

Successful marketing campaigns don t take the summer off  nor are they created "when I have the time." You must make the time. I ve found it s helpful to consistently carve out the same day and time each week to work on marketing tasks. For me  it s Friday afternoons; for you it may be different. But whatever day and time you choose  honor it with all your heart.

VII. Thou Shalt Jettison One Program Every Year

I can t count the number of stressed out marketers I ve seen over the last 15 years. As task after task is added to their plates   nothing is ever removed. Stop this madness at once  and identify one marketing task each year to eliminate. Too often  someone keeps doing a task (e.g. issuing a report)  yet it s not adding value. Eliminate one marketing task a year; your health depends upon it.

VIII. Thou Shalt Not Cut Marketing Spending During Slow Times

From 1980 to 1985  McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending. After 1985  McGraw-Hill concluded that those firms which had maintained or increased their advertising during the recession in  81- 82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. But those companies who cut their advertising saw paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.

When is the right time to market your business? All the time.

IX. Thou Shalt Honor Exiting Employees

I once had a travel industry client run a report that showed where their new referrals came from. The second highest category was ex-employees. It turns out vacation shoppers were asking these ex-employees where they could book a Vegas package just like the neighbor?s they d heard about  and the ex-employees were referring them back to their old employer. When you treat your departing employees with a dose of good will  they may just turn into your unpaid sales force and refer business your way.

X. Thou Shalt Thank Often

Sadly  we live in an age of boorishness. But a savvy marketer can do his part to bring civility into an otherwise uncivilized world. Among the countless ways to thank customers are thank you notes  gift certificates and appreciation lunches to name just a few. These thank you s don t have to be showy. Just make sure the thank you is classy and considerate  and the kindness will eventually be repaid.

Sure  we all break these commandments from time to time and end up seeking forgiveness. But if you consistently break these Ten Commandments of Marketing  you risk an exodus - a customer exodus.

 by Jay Lipe

Imagine if you could advertise ONLY to people who have actually expressed an interest in doing business with you? That s basically what happens whenever a prospective customer or client types a phrase into a search engine that s relevant to your business. But how do search engines decide which sites are worthy of top placement in their search results? It turns out that some of the results are ranked by the search engine s computers while others are simply paid advertisements from companies willing to buy their way to the top using Pay Per Click Advertising.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC for short) is an online advertising format that allows you to buy your way to the top of search results pages for search phrases relevant to your business. Businesses buy advertising on specific search phrases  and are then charged each time a person clicks through to their web site.

How does this work?

Try running a search on a major search engine like Yahoo or Google for a common consumer product like "DVD players." When reviewing the results  you ll likely see a set of results labeled as "Sponsor Results" or "Sponsored Link". Some results may appear in the same format as the main search results on the page  while others are listed within colored text boxes along the site of the page. All of those results are paid advertisements from the sites listed within the ads.

The ads are ranked based on how much a business is willing to pay to advertise on each search phrase. In the example search for "DVD players" the current top advertiser is currently paying $0.81 per click - one penny more than the #2 advertiser.

The ads are purchased through pay per click advertising suppliers  and the two largest happen to be owned by Google and Yahoo. Google s program is called Adwords and displays results on Google.com  AOL  Ask Jeeves  many smaller search engines. Yahoo s program is run by an acquired company called Overture  and the results appear on Yahoo  MSN  AltaVista  and many other syndication partners.

Why should I pay for traffic?

For businesses that have had success with search engine optimization  the idea of paying for visitors is not particularly enticing. However  if you can make more money off a visitor to your web site than it costs to get them there  why wouldn t you pay for those visitors? Keep in mind that you can choose exactly what search terms you want to advertise on  and you only pay when a searcher actually clicks on your ad  so it generally comes down to deciding how much you can afford to spend for those visitors rather than whether it s worth doing at all.

How much should I spend?

The main factors influencing how much money can be spent on a PPC campaign are:

1. How many searches are conducted per month using phrases relevant to your business?

2. How much are you  along with your competitors  willing to pay for those terms?

The average monthly ad spend on PPC advertising is a couple thousand dollars  but this varies immensely from less than $50/month for regionally targeted and niche businesses to millions a month by large national retailers.

The goal of any advertising campaign should be to bring in more money from the campaign than it costs to run it. Pay Per Click is no different  but the level of detail you can measure in PPC is significantly higher than most types of advertising. For example  with relatively inexpensive (some are even free) tools  you can determine which ads are generating sales or leads for your business. Beyond that  you can determine how much money you spent on a specific ad to generate a sale or a lead. By measuring what s working  you can aggressively advertise on terms that prove to be winners for your business while shutting down ads that don t deliver.

Tips for Success

1. Advertise on a large number of relevant search phrases. Brainstorm beyond the first dozen terms that come to mind to describe your business. Advertise on the terms used to describe your products  the product names  product codes  and the questions a prospect might type into a search engine that your services answer  and more.

2. Build unique ads for each search phrase. It takes a lot more time to write a unique ad for each search phrase relevant to your business rather than creating one ad for all of your search phrases  but the extra work will definitely be rewarded. Ads that are aligned with the corresponding search term receive more clicks  which will mean more targeted traffic  and in some cases paying less per click (on Google Adwords) due to the intricacies of how the advertising is priced.

3. Send visitors to the most appropriate page of your web site. If you place an ad for a specific product within your online store  don t send visitors to your homepage and force them to dig for what they just searched. This will frustrate your visitors and increase the chance that they ll hit the dreaded Back button.

4. Track your results. Spending money without measuring the return on your investment is not a good business practice. At the very least  consider installing the free tracking tools available through Google Adwords and Overture to measure which terms are delivering results for your business. Beyond that  consider using a 3rd party statistics tool with conversion analysis to compile the results of your various pay per click programs into one easy to manage interface.

Go for it
People are searching for what you sell at this very moment! If your site is not showing up near the top of the results  your competition thanks you.

by Ed Kohler

Do you have a Business Plan? Congratulations  but you are in a small minority. And if you have a plan  is it integral to your business  and instrumental to its growth? If the answer to this question is yes  then you need to read no further.
However  in Empower Business Solutions experience  even if they have a plan  most business owners leave it languishing on their bottom shelf  gathering dust!

Our dirty little secret is this: most business consultants are only interested in selling their time or their  Business Plan in a Box  but know that for a business plan to be useful  it has to be part of a Business Management System. But this is a much harder proposition for the consultant to sell  particularly to small business owners who are just looking for a quick fix. So most consultants just sell a quick fix solution.
Once owners have prepared their "fill in the blanks" plan  they expect it to transform their business overnight just by its mere existence. And because this does not happen  it ends up on the bottom shelf.

Business Plans do work  but you have to make them work. It is not a one-off exercise. If you buy a  Business Plan in a Box   you need to understand that you are responsible for maintaining the plan.
You also need to satisfy yourself that the product you buy is not just a fill in the blanks product. These plans always end up on the bottom shelf. They don t show you how to do your strategic analysis (which is never a fill in the blanks exercise- no matter what someone tells you).

Business Planning is a real soul searching exercise for the business owner. You have to be brutally honest with yourself. Even if you prepare your plan yourself (without a coach)  get someone else involved to keep you honest! Looking at examples of what others have done can help  but your business will have different strengths and weaknesses and will operate in a different marketplace. And lastly  make sure the off-the-shelf product you choose will show you how to implement your plan into
your business.

When a good consultant prepares a Business Plan they will:

 undertake a rigorous (and challenging) review of the strengths & weaknesses of your business
 show you how the plan should be implemented into your business process
 give you at least one review of your performance against your plan six months after the plan has been delivered.

While this will require a larger investment than a  Business Plan in a Box  and is a harder sell for a consultant  this will ensure that your plan does not end up on the bottom shelf and that your investment is not wasted!

Business Planning is not an easy process. It takes time and commitment. You don t just do it once.
This is not what business owners want to hear  and what most consultants won t tell you  because it might cost them a sale. But the rewards from a well implemented business plan are worth many times your investment.

by Dr Greg Chapman MBA
Director- Empower Business Solutions

The top 3 free tools that anyone new to SEO try are:
1. Google Suggest

Most SEO experts complain that Google doesn t provide a suitable tool for detailed keyword research  and to some extent they are correct. However  the Google Suggest tool  whilst rather crude  does give an indication of the number of searches performed on certain keywords. Simply type in your keyword. Simple but rather effective.

2. Google PR Toolbar

The Google toolbar offers a  Page Rank  checker which is invaluable in using when exchanging links with other sites. The page rank checker isn t installed by default  so you will need to ensure you check the  Page Rank  option at installation. Once installed the toolbar will show you the page rank of any page you are currently browsing. Page rank is a key factor when deciding on link exchanges with other sites  and this tool saves time when deciding the quality of other sites.

3. Google Analytics

Google analytics is a must have for any webmaster. I ve been amazed to find that many corporate websites don t have any analytics tool in place  and many simply rely on basic data supplied by the hosting companies statistics tool and by browsing server logs. Google analytics is not only free  but provides such detailed statistics that once you have tried it you will never stop using it. It s simple to install (all that is needed is to install 2 lines of code to every web page)  but it s arguably one of the better analytics tools to available to SEO experts.

The world of SEO can be confusing for those trying to get a grip with its ever evolving principles. However  the 3 tools mentioned in this article will provide a good grounding from which to further enhance your education and understanding of SEO principles.

About the author
The author is an avid SEO expert with an interest in online poker and can regularly found contributing articles to PKR Poker.com

We at Dow Group provide big range of marketing consultancy services  from email marketing to web design  development and marketing solution in Beirut and Dubai

The wide reach of the internet is now attracting more and more business firms to provide their services online. Effective website copywriting service becomes an important element of your website since it is appealing and fresh content that attracts prospective customers. Website copywriting is the general term used in relation to web content development  and is one of the major steps involved in website development processes which also include site design  inclusion of multimedia contents and graphics  incorporation of easy navigational tools and optimization.
Copywriting professionals are an integral part of both web content development firms and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms. Often the services of copywriting professionals are similar to that of professional technical writers. The difference is that technical writers' emphasis will be on technical aspects such as writing the operation manual of an electronic device  whereas copywriting professionals will give emphasis on promoting the product such that on reading the content  readers gets impressed and will be persuaded to buy the product. Often  website copywriting companies have both of these professionals employed with them to suit varying customer requirements. Since website copywriting is an important element of your website  finding highly creative copywriters is one of the first steps to take when thinking of taking your business online.

Modern day website copywriting services are extremely challenging to web companies because the contents provided online have to satisfy both online readers and search engines. To implement effective copywriting services  most web companies have highly skilled copywriting professionals who are experienced in the field. These professional copywriters have to update web pages frequently with fresh and unique contents so that the websites will be lively and informative to visitors.

Copywriting professionals also play a key role in optimizing web pages to achieve higher search engine rankings. For the purpose  copywriters have to incorporate various elements intelligently within their contents and these elements include the right phrases and keywords which should be repeated in an appropriate manner in the content  so that the page will get noticed by major global search engines such as Google  Yahoo and MSN.

Website copywriting services also include creating content for online advertisements  commercial emails and related web promotional services. As informative  relevant and professional content is the key element which tempts visitors to come back again and again to a website  website copywriting is indeed an important element of your website. About the author
Contact Bob Kruse at Viral SEO Services for fast and affordable website content writing and search engine copywriting services. Our service spectrum also includes Article writing and Article submissions.

We at Dow Group provide big range of marketing consultancy services  from email marketing to web design  development and marketing solution in Beirut and Dubai

By now  most web designers are aware of the many benefits of using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to control the formatting and appearance of text elements within their web pages.
Indeed  if applied as outlined in one of my articles from 2006 ( CSS - Weight-Loss for your Code)  Cascading Style Sheets can substantially cut down the amount of code needed to present a web page in a polished and professional manner.

What few designers realise however  is that CSS is capable of so much more than just handling a page's text formatting.
If used to its fullest capability  the Style Sheet is capable of controlling just about every aspect of page layout and presentation  even to the extent of replacing a Hyper-Text document's traditional table-based design structure.
Quite aside from saving the web developer a substantial amount of coding time  this approach also cuts down the amount of code needed to display a web page properly to an absolute minimum. So much so that in the recent redesign of one of our web sites  the use of CSS controlled HTML cut the average document size from 24kb to less than 5kb.

The key to designing CSS controlled web pages  rests in the use of DIV Tags and DIV IDs.

For example  a traditional table structure would look something like this:
Please note that angle brackets have been replaced by square brackets to display the following code correctly.

[table width="800" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"]
[tr]
[td width="560" align="left" class="one"][h1]Example Text[/h1][/td]
[td width="240" align="left" class="two"] [img xsrc="images/exampleimage.jpg" width="200" height="100" alt="Example Image"][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]

With CSS control  exactly the same look and feel can be achieved by the following two DIV Tags:

[div id="content"][h1]Example Text[/h1][/div]
[div id="image"][img xsrc="images/exampleimage.jpg" width="200" height="100" alt="Example Image"] [/div]

The DIV ID passes control of layout and appearance to the CSS  which handles it as follows:

#content {
    position:absolute;
    width: 560px;
    height: 100px;
    ;top: 10px;
    left: 100px;
    font-family: Arial  Helvetica  sans-serif;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: normal;
    color: #000000;
    background-color: #FFFFFF;
}

#image {
   position:absolute;
   width: 240px;
   height: 100px;
   top: 10px;
   left: 660px;
   font-family: Arial  Helvetica  sans-serif;
   font-size: 12px;
   font-weight: normal;
   color: #000000;
   background-color: #FFFFFF;
}

On the face of it  it may seem like this entails some extra work on the designer's part  but don't forget that at the same time as controlling the DIV Tag's position and appearance  the CSS also handles all text formatting  and that the above Style Sheet will only need to be written once in order to control an entire web site.
Then of course there is the fact that the above example is an immensely simple one. Imagine for a moment  the sheer amount of code which is saved by using CSS over the course of writing an in-depth web page.

The end result is an HTML document which has been stripped of all unnecessary code and is consequently extremely 'light-weight' and easily indexed by search engines.

Additionally  it is also possible to radically alter a page's appearance at the click of a button without ever changing any of its HTML code. This approach is very capably demonstrated at the CSS Zen Garden  where more information about the power of CSS controlled web design can be found.

Furthermore  like HTML  CSS is undergoing constant revisions and will doubtlessly grow to play an even more important part in web design during years to come. Therefore  now may be a good time to further acquaint yourself with the full functionality of this essential web design element.

By Sasch Mayer
 

Getting Started with FTP
How to find and configure an FTP program
So  you need to use FTP to transfer your files? Sounds like trouble  doesn t it? Well  no need to worry  it s not as bad as it sounds. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol  which is just another way to transfer files between computers. (Remember http stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol  which is used in your Web browser).
To begin using FTP  you will want to get an FTP program that makes it easy to transfer and rename your files. My suggestion is WS_FTP from Ipswitch. You can download a free trial version at the Ipswitch Home Page.

If you prefer to find one on your own  you can go to ZDnet s Shareware Library and search for "FTP Client" or "FTP program". Of course  your program may have a different appearance than the images here  but you should be able to get the general idea from these tutorials.

Now install the FTP program on your computer using the instructions provided at their site  in a readme file  etc. Once you have the program installed  start it up. If you are using WS_FTP  you will get a screen like the one below. If you don t get this screen  click the "Connect" button. You should now see a window similar to this:

WS_FTP Setup Window

The first thing you will want to do is set up the program so it can connect to your Web host. So  click on the "New" button (there should be something similar in most FTP programs) to begin. You will then be able to fill in the information needed into the the proper fields. Here a list of some of the most common fields  and what you need to place in each one:

Profile Name:
Type in a name you can remember later. I usually use my name and the name of the Web server I want to connect to. In this case  I would be connecting to my ISP  which is named Lcc.
Host Name/Address:
This is a very important field. Normally your Web host will tell you the address you need to use to connect to their server using FTP. Most often the address is ftp.servername.com or ftp.servername.net. If you are unsure  contact your Web host to get the proper FTP address.
Host Type:
This can almost always be left on Auto Detect. This will let the program figure it out on the fly  and configure itself accordingly. If this does not work  you will need to find out from your Web host what Host Type they are using.
User ID:
This is going to be your user name you were given from the Web host to use on their system. In most cases  it is the same user name you use to log into their other services.
Password:
This is the password you were given from the Web host to log into their services. You should have received this with your user name. The box will only show the star symbols and not your password itself when you type it in.
Account:
This is almost always left blank. I have never had to use it. If you do need it  you will need to contact your host for the information.
Comment:
You can add your own comments and decriptions here if you wish. It is not a required field.
Anonymous
You will only need to check this box if you are connecting to a host that allows anonymous FTP. In most cases  you will leave this box unchecked. It is usually used if you connect to a site that allows you access to download files only.
Save Pwd
Check this box if you want the program to save your password  so you do not need to retype it each time you connect. If you feel safer  uncheck the box so anyone using the program would have to type the correct password to connect to the server.
Finally  hit the "OK" button at the bottom. If everything is correct  you are online  and the server is not too busy  the program will connect to the Web host.

If you are not online  hit "OK"  go connect to the Internet  and return to the program. Hit the "Connect" button and you should see your profile window again. If not  use the drop down button to find the Profile Name you entered earlier. When you have your profile window back  hit "OK". Now you should be connected to your server!

Well  that does it for the configuration tutorial. The next section will help you with sending your files to your web host so they can be seen on the Web. So  let s go on to the next section: Sending Files with FTP.

Looking for an easy way to designate CSS font sizes for your website that will work well with modern   mainstream browsers for Windows or Mac computers? Need to also make sure your website   s font size approach is universally accessible   meets W3C   s WAI Accessibility Guidelines   U.S. Section 508 requirements   or other accessibility requirements? This tutorial will show you one possibility that can meet those needs by using CSS relative font sizing.

What about browser support? See Cross-browser   Cross-platform Fonts Testing.

Skill Levels: This tutorial assumes a basic familiarity with CSS.

On this page:

Why Use CSS Relative Font Sizing?
Step 1: Set Up an Initial Relative Font Base Size with CSS
Step 2: Add CSS Relative Font Sizing to the Footer
Step 3: Designating Heading Font Sizes with CSS Relative Sizing
Step 4: Designating a Contrasting Font Family for Visual Interest
Step 5: CSS and Typography
Cross-browser   Cross-platform Fonts Testing
More on CSS and Fonts
New and Popular CSS Books
Recommended by WebsiteTips.com
Using relative font sizing allows font size scalability / flexibility by users   which is also an important reason why this approach is considered best practice for fonts. Since it provides scalability   which means flexibility for visitors   at this point relative font sizing designations are far more universally accessible and more user-friendly than absolute font sizing. In fact   relative font sizing is recommended by the W3C   s Accessibility Guidelines   U.S. Section 508 requirements   and other accessibility guidelines and requirements. (See More on CSS and Fonts below for resources.)
As you   ll see below   I use CSS font size keywords for the base font size   for footers and main text content   while I use em relative units for headings (more on em relative units in Step 3: Designating Heading Font Sizes with CSS Relative Sizing).

The reason I use CSS font keywords for the base font size and elsewhere   along with em units for headings   is for scalability - flexible font sizing. The font sizes will scale relative to each other if the user increases or decreases font sizes with the browser. In addition   this is a user-friendly approach that also happens to meet W3C   s WAI Guidelines and U.S. Section 508 requirements   too. Using percentages is another way of designating relative font sizing.
I personally find CSS font keywords a little simpler to use than percentages   but both approaches can work well when you understand how to work with the cross-browser differences. Font size keywords are based upon the browser default font size   while em and % units are based upon the parent element font size and are influenced by the CSS cascade. From CSS Discuss-Wiki   Using Keywords:

In modern browsers rendering in Standards Mode   body {font-size: medium;} produces text equal in size to the browser default   whatever size that may be   and equal in size to that from body {font-size: 100%;} and body {font-size: 1em;}. The keywords differ from em and % in that each keyword is always based upon the browser default   while em and % are based upon the size of the parent element   which is subject to cascade of ancestor sizing.

Internet Explorer 6 in Quirks Mode and earlier Internet Explorer versions treat    small    rather than    medium    as the browser default   and each of the other keyword sizes correspondingly larger. As a consequence   authors using keywords should ensure that their documents are rendered in Standards Mode   and understand that early Internet Explorer versions will not size them the same as current browser versions.

Due to their immunity to cascade   these keywords are referred to by the [CSS specs] as absolute-size   even though they are always relative to the browser default.

At the time of this tutorial (late November   2007)   version 4 and version 5 browsers are barely on the radar in Web site stats logs   so this tutorial only lightly touches on those old browsers in the section below   Cross-browser   Cross-platform Fonts Testing.

Tip: Font Size Increases and Site Layouts
What about a site   s design breaking if the font size is increased by the user?
Well   it   s also important to allow for font size increases and decreases with your design and layout   too. Test your design and layout by increasing the font size in various browsers. Your design and layout shouldn   t break or create unreadable text by increasing the font size at least a couple of notches or possibly more   depending on your site   s target audience. If it does break or the text becomes unreadable in some way   you   ll need to make adjustments to the CSS for your layout and possibly make other changes. Planning flexibility and scalability from the start is the way to go. If that isn   t the case   though   you may need to do some retrofitting by reworking some of your CSS and possibly some of the design elements to make them scalable. (These issues are beyond the scope of this tutorial   though - maybe that   s a good topic for a tutorial to come   huh?)
How much text size increasing is reasonable for testing?
You   ll undoubtedly get different answers to that. An important consideration should be the visitor needs for a particular website project   although we typically don   t know whether or not visitors use larger font sizes (an obvious exception   of course   is if you   re building a site specifically about and for the vision impaired). So my own recommendation is to make sure your layout doesn   t break and the text is still readable when increased at least 2 or 3 notches in the browser. You might need to test to a greater extreme if you need to build a site that must adhere to U.S. Section 508 or other government or company requirements.
Step 1: Set Up an Initial Relative Font Base Size with CSS
The approach I explain here is one I   ve developed   revised   and used over several years   an approach that I   ve found to work consistently well regardless of a site   s specific design or browser. I don   t consider my approach to be the only way to go - rather   I consider it as one possible approach of many that can work well cross-browser and cross-platform. It   s important to cross-browser test your own project to ensure acceptable results.

First   here is the basic HTML without any font styling:
CSS Font Sizing   Before We Begin - the Unstyled Web Page. (A separate popup window will open.)

I begin the font declarations in my style sheet by adding the font keyword    small    to the body element   along with the font families   using CSS shorthand to combine the rules into one declaration:

body {
font:small Verdana  Geneva  Arial  Helvetica  sans-serif;
}

View the results as a live HTML page:
CSS Font Sizing   Step 1: Results of Adding the base font size. (A separate popup window will open.)

Step 2: Add CSS Relative Font Sizing to the Footer
After designating the base font sizing   I then need to designate only exceptions to that base rule   such as headings   navigation bars   and footers. I typically use smaller text for the footers   such as:

#footer {
font-size:x-small;
}

View the results as a live HTML page:
CSS Font Sizing   Step 2: Results of Adding the footer font size. (A separate popup window will open.)

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Step 3: Designating Heading Font Sizes with CSS Relative Sizing
As mentioned above   I prefer to use em relative units for headings. I find the cross-browser   cross-platform results to be similar   and it   s easy to implement. The em relative unit sizing is relative to the CSS font base size designated above in Step 1: Set Up an Initial Relative Font Base Size with CSS.

The W3C explains the em relative unit  

The    em    unit is equal to the computed value of the    font-size    property of the element on which it is used. The exception is when    em    occurs in the value of the    font-size    property itself   in which case it refers to the font size of the parent element. It may be used for vertical or horizontal measurement. (This unit is also sometimes called the quad-width in typographic texts.)

Why don   t I use font size keywords for headings   too? Using em units is much more versatile   allowing me to use finer tuning to font sizes than font size keywords   which are limited to only seven keywords available: xx-small   x-small   small   medium   large   x-large   and xx-large. Using the em unit for headings   along with setting the base font size with the font size keywords is a good combination overall and works well cross-browser.

Here   s how I designate em relative units for headings using the example started above:

#content h1 {
font-size:2.50em;
}

#content h2 {
font-size:2.15em;
}

#content h3 {
font-size:1.85em;
}

View the results as a live HTML page:
CSS Font Sizing   Step 3: Results of Adding the headings font size. (A separate popup window will open.)

That   s basically it! This sets up the very basics for a website project   s font sizing needs in a solid way that works well regardless of the site design or browser.

As I develop a new website   along with other CSS rules for layout and design   I   ll then add other font size rules where needed   such as navigation and special notes boxes. I always test all along the way - font sizes as well as all other CSS rules. That way it   s easy to identify potential problems and fix them immediately.

Tip: Font Sizing   Font Families   and Colors
Note that I don   t necessarily use the exact font sizing shown above for every project. The font size designations vary depending on the Web site project. The h1 heading size is usually the largest   and they decrease in size from there.

In addition   it   s often more visually interesting to use a contrasting font family for headings   which you   ll see in Step 4: Designating a Contrasting Font Family for Visual Interest below. See also WebsiteTips.com   s Web Resources Typography Tutorials   Books for lots of great ideas for your site   s typography.

Also   website designs frequently use different colors for each heading   too   as shown in Step 5: CSS and Typography below.

Step 4: Designating a Contrasting Font Family for Visual Interest
The above covers the very basics of setting up relative font sizing using CSS. At this point   frankly   the typography is rather boring since so far I   ve used the same font families and same colors (black text   white background) for the headings   content   and footer. CSS makes it easy to create much more interesting typography with your site designs. For starters   try a contrasting font family for your headings.

In Step 1: Set Up an Initial Relative Font Base Size with CSS above I designated sans-serif fonts for the body element   which is inherited by all the elements within it. For contrast then   I could try a serif font for the headings   such as:

#content h1   #content h2   #content h3 {
font-family: "Times New Roman"   Times   serif;
}

View the results as a live HTML page:
CSS Font Sizing   Step 4: Results of Adding contrasting font family to headings. (A separate popup window will open.)

Tip: Combine CSS Rules
As you can see above   you can combine your CSS rules when they are the same. While this helps shave off some CSS file size   I also find it easier to keep CSS rules more consistent   such as using the same font family for all the headings.

Tip: Cross-platform Fonts
Keep in mind that not all computers have the same fonts installed   and there can be quite a difference between Windows and Mac computers   too. If you choose fonts that are similar in style and size to each other within your CSS font families list   you   ll have more similar cross-platform results. See WebsiteTips.com   s section on cross-browser   cross-platform fonts   Typography Tools Cross-Browser   Cross-Platform Font References   Information.

Also   as you experiment with different font families for those headings   you might need to adjust your font sizes a bit   too. An    h1{font-size:2.0em}    font declaration for one font family might be way too big or way too small with a different font family. That   s also why I recommend choosing groups of font families with similar characteristics cross-browser and cross-platform.

Step 5: CSS and Typography
For the last step here   I   ve added some colors and other CSS rules just to give you a small sampling of typography possibilities that are easy to implement using CSS.

For example   you can use the CSS text-transform property to ?transform? the text   such as: uppercase   capitalize   or lowercase. That   s an especially handy property to use for headings. You can also add spacing between the letters if you wish   which can add interesting effects   using the CSS letter-spacing property.

In addition   you can use CSS margin and padding properties to help visually group text and headings together better. For text within paragraphs and bulleted lists   you might also consider adding space above and below each line of text by using the line-height property.

The CSS below shows a possibility for what I consider basic typography with CSS. I   ve used all the above mentioned properties - text-transform   margin   padding   line-height   as well as colors for each heading.

body {
color:#000;
background:#fffdea;
}

#content h1 {
color:#00331a;
background:transparent;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:0.15em;
margin:30px 0 0 0;
padding:0;
}

#content h2 {
color:#b57111;
background:transparent;
margin:10px 0 0 0;
padding:0;
}

#content h3 {
color:#5e2208;
background:transparent;
margin:30px 0 0 0;
padding:0;
}

#content p {
margin:2px 0 20px 0;
padding:0;
line-height:1.65em;
}

View the results as a live HTML page:
CSS Font Sizing   Step 5: Results of Adding Typographic Elements with CSS. (A separate popup window will open.)

Another version   changing only the CSS:

View the results as a live HTML page:
CSS Font Sizing   Step 5: Alternative Results of Adding Typographic Elements with CSS. (A separate popup window will open.)

Those are just basic typographic elements added using CSS. There   s plenty more you can do with CSS and typography to make your designs look highly professional. CSS Zen Garden is one example of a multitude of possibilities using the same HTML template. WordPress themes are full of examples using the basic WordPress templates to create totally different looks.

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Cross-browser   Cross-platform Fonts Testing
In addition to local testing   the markup and CSS in this tutorial have been thoroughly tested in the multitude of browsers via BrowserCam.com with several versions of Windows   Mac   Linux   and a multitude of browsers for each OS. The result is quite similar in each browser.

For Netscape 4 and other very old browsers   however   you might wish to hide the font size designations from them or specify font sizes specifically for old browsers if you must designate font sizes for them for a specific project.

In addition   all the markup and CSS is based on W3C Recommendations and validates. No hacks are used.

It   s always a good idea to do thorough cross-platform   cross-browser testing for Web site development work.

More on CSS and Fonts
Here at Websitetips.com   s Articles   Tutorials   and Tips section:

CSS Tutorials   Tips (section homepage)
Converting Existing Content to CSS
Here at WebsiteTips.com   s Web Resources section:

Accessibility Tutorials   Resources
Accessibility Tutorials   Resources Section 508   ADA   and Web Sites
Accessibility Tutorials   Resources W3C and Web Site Accessibility
CSS Tutorials Resources CSS Fonts   CSS Typography
Typography Tutorials Resources Typography Tutorials
Typography Tools Resources Cross-Browser   Cross-Platform Font References   Information
More on Color
Here at Websitetips.com   s Web Resources Color section:

Color Tutorials (Resources on the Web)
Color Charts at WebsiteTips.com
Color Scheme Tools at WebsiteTips.com
Color Blender Color Scheme Tool (up to 10 ?midpoint? blended color shades within your chosen 2 colors)
Colormatch Remix Color Scheme Tool (beautiful harmonizing color schemes with up to 9 eye-catching colors)
Colour Scheme Chooser (monochromatic   analogic   complementary   split complementary   triadic   and double contrast colour schemes)
Color Charts   Color Tools (Resources on the Web)
Books on Typography and Design
Recommended by WebsiteTips.com
 
 
 by Shirley E. Kaiser   M.A.   SKDesigns

Websites that make their customers work to read them are not the best way to get business. Miniscule fonts  text in colors that make it hard to see against the background color  and lines that are piled on top of each other are problems  but they're easy to correct. Let's jump right in and look at five easy fixes:
1. Format your text using CSS.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler.
2. Make the font size big enough to read.
Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes  it's never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn't have to be enormous  but up to a point  larger type is better. 12-pt Verdana is better than 8-pt Verdana.
3. Make the text contrast with its background.
The more contrast  the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like  but if you squint at the page and your text basically vanishes  there's not enough contrast.
4. Give the lines room to breathe.
Don't stack lines on top of each other. Use the line-spacing directive in CSS and give it some space; I'll often set line-spacing to 140% of the height of a typical line.
5. Break text up into chunks.
No matter how good a writer you are  people don't want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph(s) to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them  or use bulleted lists to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.
And finally (not one of the 5 Easy Ways to Improve Legibility but still quite important) check your spelling. Nothing irritates me more on a web page than spelling errors - it simply makes you look like you don't care enough to get it right. Use that ubiquitous spellcheck tool.

Making your website's content more legible is easy. It doesn't take a lot of time  mainly common sense. The payoff will be text that's more readable  customers that stick around long enough to get your message  and improved credibility with your visitors.

Copyright 2006  Debbie Campbell

1. Not planning your website

Before you start creating your website design    you must know    and be very clear about your purposes and goals for your website.

* Who your website is intended for
* What benefits can your website give to the intended group
* What you want the intended group to do as a result of visiting your website

Only with a well-defined purposes and goals    then you can clearly and directly convey your message to your intended group through your website.

2. Using too many colors and font styles

Keep your website design to no more than 3 colors and font styles. Using too many colors and font styles confuse your website visitors.

Think through these:

* How long would a confuse visitor stay in your website?
* What is the chance of this visitor returning to your website?
* Will this visitor recommend your website to his friends?

Your website design has to be pleasant to the eyes of your visitors to keep them surfing in your website.

3. Contact information not placed in an easily seen location

The 100% safe way is to use a ?contact us? button. The ?contact us? button is used so commonly that hardly any visitor can miss it. Place the ?contact us? button on all your web pages. If you are selling    offer your visitors multiple ways to connect to connect to you at their convenience.

* Through phone
* Through email
* Through on-line support
* Your office address

4. Information out of date

When your visitors see any out of date information in your website    it reflects poorly on you. Your website is a direct reflection of you and your credibility. When they see your website as good    they are inclined to trust your website.
Every single bit of information counts. Always update your website promptly whenever information changes. Do not run the risk of losing the trust of your visitors unnecessary.

5. Broken Links

Broken links is a hyperlink that leads to web page that does not exist. In most cases when you click a broken link you will see the Error 404 page.

Test-run your website and fix-up any broken links. When you do an update to your website    test-check your website to ensure all links works.

6. Orphan Pages

Orphan pages are web pages with no links pointing to them.
One quick and easy way to solve this problem is to put a link to ?Home? on all your web pages.

7. Slow loading times

Do not overload your website with images and applets. Not only does it slow down your web pages loading time    it turns away your visitors.

Source : Tips & Tricks: Website Design tips & mistakes

Posted by David Parker at

Ben Chestnut make focus of web Designers at silly design mistakes when they try to create HTML emails.

Mistake #1: Not designing for preview panes
Mistake #2: Assuming images will work
Mistake #3: Too many images   not enough text
Mistake #4: Not testing in different email programs
Mistake #5: Neglecting your footer
Mistake #6: Too fancy-schmancy

He also give Tips to deal with these Design mistakes.
Read at HTML Email Design Mistakes. Web designer need to pay special attention to the tips Ben gives to avoid each of these mistakes.

By David Parker

1.Use CSS to set your text at 10 or 12px  which is an optimum size for readability. 

2.Use sans-serif text such as Verdana  Arial and Helvetica.  You can specify "Verdana  Arial  Helvetica  sans-serif." as your font in CSS. 

3.The maximum width for easy reading is 400 - 440 pixels.  Use tables or CSS to control this.  

4.Use absolute control of the width of the text columns. Set them so the lines of type run around 10 to 12 words per line.

5.Black text on a white ground is the easiest reading. Other colors tend to blur the text slightly because of anti-aliasing.  However  a stark white background is hard on the eyes.  Use an off-white (a very light grey)  or an eggshell blue colored tile for your background.  If you prefer to set a color  try pale khaki CCCC99

6.To relieve the denseness of continuous type  use headlines and subheads. Use bold ONLY for emphasis  such as in subheads. Text all in bold is fatiguing to read because the blackness of the letters begins leaving shadow trails.   It is also confusing to text readers.

7.Add photos and illustrations to illuminate passages. Make sure you put a minimum of 20px space around your graphics to give them some breathing room.

8.Information is more easily retained in "clusters" which equal about a screen full in length at a time  and then broken by some type of graphic or change in structure. The change in structure could be no more than a bolded topic header or a drop cap or even the equivalent of a side bar with some information in it.

9.To relieve the monotony of text  pull out a paragraph to use as a
side bar.  Or  put a short description into a box with a link to "more"

10.Use bullets to
     ::reduce wasted space
     ::create visual interest
     ::make information easier to understand and absorb