The Silent Avatar Speaks

If anyone mentions the term Internet it’s not surprising that most people immediately start thinking about the proverbial website.

Contrary to popular belief, building a website is not just about uploading a website to your web host.  More important than many people realise is to ensure the information you present on your site is appealing to both real visitors and search engine spiders.

It goes without saying then that you’ll need to educate yourself about the basics of what goes into  e-commerce web design. The most important factor which is bandied about the internet with wild abandon (and rightly so),  is the premise that content is king!

Good Website Content

And “content is king ” means basically just what it says. That you need great web content to be successful with any website.

Fair enough, you might say, but what constitutes good content?

Well, there are a few ideas here that will help you get started off on the right foot.

Firstly – The content on your site actually has two readers, on the one hand you have the search engine spiders who will index the text on your site so they can deliver the most suitable web content for the searchers query. Secondly you have your human visitors and they will need to have a quality and appealing message that draws them into your site rather than frightening them off.

Without fear of contradiction quality content will be one of the cornerstones of success for a long time to come, but there are other factors too.

Secondly – Your site needs to have visual impact that is appealing to your target audience, this is why you need to ensure your web graphics designer has a full understanding of your market niche. You also need to make sure that site navigation is easy to understand and captures key search phrases.

Take Care With Tab And Side Bar Placement

Thirdly – Re-visit your placement of the sites navigation elements (side bars and tabs etc). These are the roadmaps around your site, they need to be clear, so you’ll want to plan these carefully to keep a visitor on your site as long as possible. Also, don’t forget these navigation aids to be readily apparent to site users other wise they could easily lose their way.

And finally never forget that less is often more, and whilst some (but it has to be argued fewer and fewer) market sectors like a very busy in your face web design, most prefer an nice crisp and clean site that is easy to navigate and find what is needed.

For more web design help visit us at  Silent Avatar Business Solutions

Tags: Web Design, Web Development by the silent avatar
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Last post I spoke about securing your downloads for your ebooks, audios, or software. You will read in the post that I settled on DLGuard to do the job.

I also said that when I installed DLGuard I would let you know my verdict on how it installs.

Well.. here’s what I found when I installed it….

Its dirt easy!

DLGuard comes with an executable file which guides you through the whole set up process. It’s as easy as following the steps. The only action you take outside of following the steps is:

1. Setting up a mySQL database, and
2. Deleting your “install” folder” when you have finished
3. Creating your autoresponder list
How easy is that?

After installation you simply point your browser to the admin url and login with your username and password.

The interface when you log in is not overly slick, but then sometimes basic is good (it saves confusion).

My task was to secure an 7 audio products and 7 physical products, using PayPal as the payment processor, and integrated with Aweber autoresponder.

So.. how easy was this to do?

Setting up the audio downloads was easy. Again, when you “add a product”, the screen guides you through the process (just fill in the appropriate blanks). Selecting the payment processor was as easy as selecting it from a drop down box.

Working out how to add a “physical” product which requires shipping was a little trickier, and try as I might to search the form I couldn’t see any reference to how this was done, so I contacted DLGuard support and had an answer the same day.

By adding the text ” — This item will be mailed to you” in the download URL field, DLGuard bypasses the need to give a download link and instead prompts for a delivery address. This is done through the “PayPal Advanced Options” – “Extra PayPal Codes”, and inputting the following: “no_shipping=2″

Integrating Aweber was a simple task of logging into the aweber account and creating a new list.  This list name (yourlistname @aweber.com) then is input in the “Aweber Automatic Sign Ups” field.

When someone purchases from you their details are automatically added to your aweber list.

So as far as I am concerned, this little piece of script that works behind the scenes to secure downloads is a real gem. I can set the download time and the number of attempts before those accessing the download link are “locked out”.

The beauty of DLGuard assigning the number of download attempts goes a long way to stopping files being passed on during the access time. DLGuard won’t stop those who pass on the download to their friends, but it does offer a first line of defence against pirated downloads.

I’m giving it two thumbs up!

Check out DLGuard here

I’m the Silent Avatar and I have spoken

Tags: Tools For Your Business, Web Design, Web Development by the silent avatar
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I know it’s been awhile since I last blogged. I’ve been overseas, had surgery in Thailand, moved 4 times, and only now getting back into the swing of things. It’s been a hell of a 6 months. When I get a spare minute I will share some of the stories from an Internet Marketing perspective about my travels.

Until then… I’ve been asked to create a website for a company who sells digital media (self hypnosis MP3′s), so part of my design of the site is checking out what options are available for securing digital downloads.

Of course undertaking a search of download software or download scripts is the first part, but the more important part is finding out how the available products perform, looking at price relativity, and ease of installation.

I tend to give a lot of credibility to the comments made through forums. Reading comments can generally give you a pretty good feel if the product does what it says it does, or falls short in any areas. Posters are usually ruthless with their critism, and generous with their praise.

After looking at the available options to secure downloads, I ended up selecting DLGuard. It’s got a lot of great features and the price is adffordable (and you have licence for two sites)

I’m not going to rattle on here about what DLGuard can do – just go to the page a have a look at the features, and when I install DLGuard I will post here how I went installing and how it performs.

Click Here! to go to DL Guard Home Page

I’m the silent avatar, and I have spoken.

Tags: Tools For Your Business, Web Design, Web Development by the silent avatar
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I’ve surfed thousands of websites and as a website designer I often shake my head and silently say to myself “WTF were thy thinking?”

Often times the website is offering a great product or service and yet their website really stinks and seriously questions whether it is bona fide.

Now I want to mention this before I reveal what your website should look like to give credibility to your business, and it’s this…

Just because a website has been designed to look slick and have all the necessary components to look a credible business, it isn’t always the case.  There are ways to find out certain information about the site and I will cover those in my next post which I will call “Wankers in Wonderland.. A Guide to Checking Out the Scammers”.

However, if you are a legitimate business or hobbyist who wants to present their business in a professional matter here are my tips and advice for doing just that.

1. Have your own domain name.
Nothing shrieks lack of credibility more than a website url which reads like the Gettysburg Address, and bears no relationship to your business.  For example www.geocities.com/Area51/sellmystuff/ or www.geocities.com/(yourname)/(YourProductOrService).

The usual reason for this idiocy is free hosting, and being too tight to pay for your own domain name.  Really… if you cant afford domain hosting or to buy your own domain name to have an online business then give up the deal now. Good quality web hosting like Bluehost is so cheap now, and a domain name?  Less than ten dollars and it’s yours. So for God’s sake give your business credibility from the get go and get your own domain name and a reputable hosting.

2. Have good quality graphics on your site.
The Internet really is about what you see and read. If you can manage to put up a great video demonstrating your products or talking about your service then do it. As more and more people come online with high speed Internet connections video will be the norm and not the exception.  That being said, if you are going to put up a video make sure it is good quality. If you can;t manage a good quality video then stick with good quality photos or graphics.

Definite “no-no’s” include:

• using geeky clip art
• poor quality products images
• images which are too small
• images which are too big
• blinking borders around images
• animated cartoon gifs (unless it’s in keep with the website theme)

3. Have a means of contact for your site visitors.
Nothing infuriates me more and screams “caution” than not being able to contact the site owner. I live by the saying “people with nothing to hide, hide nothing”, and if you want an online business make sure you are available to your site visitors… and respond!

The simplest way to do this is include a contact form on your site where they can fill in some details and submit their query to you.

You may also want to include your telephone, fax and mailing contact details. Few would argue that this increases the perception of credibility (though this information in itself can be bogus and requires vigilance if you plan to transact money through the site).

4. Have a colour theme and stick with it
Your website colours should integrate with your overall branding of your business. Got a business card?  Incorporate the same colours into your website, letterheads, and office stationary. But a word of caution – think carefully about what colours you use and stick with three main colours which compliment each other.

If you are colour challenged, check out this site for useful information on determining the colours you might use for your website.

Once you have an understanding of how a colour wheel works you won’t end up with a site that looks garish and unprofessional.

5. Use testimonials
While testimonials can be concocted, having testimonials on your site increases visitor perception of trust and authenticity. Again, be authentic. Get written testimonials from customers or those who have tried your product or service. Scan the letters and have a link underneath the html written testimonial reading something like “view original”. Being able to “see” the written letter affords more credibility than just writing a testimonial and sticking it up on your site.

If you don’t have testimonials, get them! (even if it means a freebie to get it).

6. Use consistency
Keep all of your pages looking similar with the navigation in the same spot on each web page. Site visitors like predictability and being able to locate the navigation links will help eliminate frustration.

7. Use banner ads and affiliate links sparingly
Well placed banner ads and affiliate links can increase revenue and offer additional information for your site visitors, but remember this… your site visitors are there to see what YOU can offer, and not to be taken away from your site (unless of course you are operating an affiliate driven site).

8. Don’t use “tiny urls“
They are ugly and while they do the job, they conceal where you are really asking the site visitor to go when they click on the link. If you have your own website they are unnecessary as you can conceal a long link link this: Are you a time waster? Check out Silent Avatar Blog post

9. Incorporate a FAQ section in your site
Getting in to the head of your site visitor and offering answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) can really enhance the visitor experience and your answers can increase the trust and credibility of your site.

10. Give something away for free
Yes.. we all love a “freebie”. Offering a free report, or additional product information which can be downloaded and printed out will enhance customer confidence. Just make sure what you give away is of value to your site visitor and combine it with an “opt in” to build your list.

Well.. that’s my Ten Tips to include in planning a successful website.

Do you have any tips which could help others create a professional looking website?  Add a comment.

I’m the silent avatar and I have spoken

Tags: Web Design, Web Development by the silent avatar
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