Bloperty

Things to See in Denmark

Seeing Copenhagen for the premiere time is, for virtually all tourists, an experience in slow dwelling. Bicycles everywhere, glad people and you can even be lucky to have several straight days without rain.

It is simple to get round in Denmark, which is a tiny nation with an detailed infrastructure connecting the 3 main parts, Jutland, Funen and Sealand with bridges, railroads and motorways. The towns are scattered about and getting a hotel is never painful, even the tiniest townships do have sensible hotels. If you need to reserve a hotel in beforehand, utilize the internet to find it.

The Danes are a well knowing citizenry and the Danes studies a lot of books- Like motels, every town in Denmark have its own record store, and you’ll find enough of online boghandel too. The Danes are read to be the most laughing people in the world and everyplace you go, you’ll be greeted with a smile.

Denmark has a good deal of attractions like Tivoli, Zoo, the Little Mermaid, resorts specialized in wellness and Denmark do also have eating places which features one or 2 Michelin Stars.

If you visit Denmark be sure to do so in the summertime, wintertime can be dreadful. In the summer, the Danes rush to the beach, drink java at one of the many open-air coffee bars or relish BBQ and cold beer in one of the many parks. Particularly the great, Copenhagen is a green city with a great deal of grass and trees.

Shopping in Copenhagen can be stimulating too, Danish article of furniture and handcrafts are well-known all over the globe for outstanding and innovative design, and Danish Design is timeless and will endure for always. For non residents Copenhagen is not that expensive as you get tax returned on all such tokens. Hotels and eating houses are high-priced though.

Most people neglect the section in our society who happen to be visually impaired. People have a tendency to group individuals as either having great vision, needing glasses, or are blind. But there exists another segment of people: the visually impaired. So just how much loss of sight do the visually impaired experience?

Visual impairment is vision loss (to an individual) to such an extremity as to be recognised as a disability. Such loss of vision results from either congenital, degenerative conditions, trauma, or disease that can’t be sorted out through normal methods, such as wearing glasses, medication, or surgery.

Nevertheless, there are numerous implements on the market for the visually impaired to aid those with visual impairment with their day-to-day life, such as Magnification products for the visually impaired, and screen readers to assist those with visual impairment in browsing the internet.

An issue those with visual impairment face with offline shopping is that many outlets don’t think about visual impairment, and so often miss out on extra revenue. For example, signs are made using hard-to-read lettering, shop lighting is dim, or the outlet is jumbled with items, making it tricky for the visually impaired to walk around. Helping the visually impaired supports your business as you include a significant segment of society into your range of potential customers.

It is fantastic news that the government of the UK are acknowledging the requirements of the handicapped progressively via the The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

In this day and age we have many reasons to believe that we just might have a virus. In the past we only had to make sure our anti-virus software was up-to-date and if by some fluke chance we contracted a virus that was new and undetectable to virus software we needed to contact our anti-virus software makers to let them know and receive their experience and technical aptitude in solving our virus problem.

Now-a-days there is a new kind of problem cropping up, and it’s becoming more and more common. Virus hoaxes are a well-known catch phrase and you might have heard of them in the news or read about them somewhere on-line. A virus hoax is most commonly spread in the form of e-mail and is designed to make the receiver of the email to believe that their computer security has been compromised.

Most commonly the email will tell the recipient that their computer is infected with a virus and they must delete “such and such a file”. Step-by-step instructions are usually included and if the person reading the email is fooled, a file crucial to their computers operations can be deleted. There are many that will try to play on the fear factor and get you to send them your login information to verify your identity as well.

There are usually very easily spotted warning signs common to all hoax emails that you should know about. The first sign that usually gives the hoax away completely is the request in the email for you to “send this email to everyone you know”. No credible source will ask you to send the email to all the people you know. Secondly the email will be trying to sound credible and technical. By saying that their email has been provided by a well-known authority on viruses and providing links to that site, a lot of people will be more likely to believe the email. Check the site that is linked to, if you get a generic homepage for say.. Mcafee or Symantec, you more than likely have a hoax. Generally a well-known corporation will have specific information linked in their warning email.

Another way to make sure you are not being hoaxed is to check the major sites of virus and security to see if the email you received has been indexed as being a hoax. McAfee and Symantec both have pages dedicated to hoaxes. As well there are other sites loaded with info to check out for virus hoaxes.

Most of all it’s just a good idea to take a sceptical eye when reading anything you receive on the internet. Just because something has been written down/typed out and hailed as truth, does not mean it is so. Keep your eyes open and your computer virus-free.

Josh is the owner of New User Help. A website which offers a free three step solution finder.

When contemplating what to market online, the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, the time and money needed to develop and test our ideas aren’t. How to resolve this dilemma?

Dear Friend:

I have just finished reading about a really smart, saavy way to assess which ideas in Internet Marketing will be good ones to develop and which won’t produce the desired results. No one has a crystal ball so the more strategies we can employ to tip the odds in our favor, the better.

Imagine I compose a list of five different niche markets in which I have some knowledge or interest. I pick one of them on which to concentrate my marketing efforts only to find that, after expending much time, effort and money, this niche was not as profitable as I thought it would be. I think it’s safe to say that this scenario is something we would all like to avoid if we could.

Now we can with some simple strategies that will enhance our ability to choose winning ideas over losing ones. How so?

A much better use of our resources would be to join an affiliate program in each of our five niche markets. It is usually free to join an affiliate program making it a very cost-effective strategy. We can then create simple, single-page websites to promote those affiliate programs. Using autoresponders, we are able to build valuable e-mail lists of people who visit our websites. In no time at all it will become evident which websites are being visited the most and which ones are generating the most profits. According to this, we can easily determine which niches are hot ones and worth pursuing and which ones are not and should be abandoned.

For the niche(s) that shows promise, it now makes sense to spend the time, money and effort in developing it further. This can be accomplished by creating a more comprehensive website around that product. Better still, why not develop our own unique product for that niche market? We can capitalize on the already existing e-mail list captured by the autoresponder we had on our one-page websites and begin to market our unique product immediately.

In my opinion, this is a very smart way to test the waters when it comes to marketing various products online.

To find out more neat tips and techniques to bolster Internet Marketing success, make a point of checking out the terrific free online course, containing more than 11 hours of video instruction at http://www.InternetProfitMentor.com

Artwork adds life to a piece. Whether it is a simple drawing, a complex background, or anything in between, there’s no denying that a website would be boring without a little color and art to it. The problem comes when people get so greedy for images to spruce up their items and sites that they end up stealing others artwork. As an artist myself, I find this very insulting and I’m completely against it.

Not everyone is an artist. Not everyone can use their own work. This is understandable. It still is no excuse for people to steal others, though. There is no excuse for that. It just shows how lazy and inconsiderate some people can be. There are so many artists and websites out there that are willing to lend their work for free that one doesn’t have to steal from other places.

It’s all about having respect for not only the artist you are stealing from, but the other artists out there too. People need to have better respect for the craft. Just because they are not an artist doesn’t mean they have to insult others by stealing the work.

What makes it really rude is people use it for their own benefit. There are plenty of different ways to use images, and a rising online use is for signatures (images at the end of a post) in forums, message boards and other community websites. People even edit (or sometimes not at all) others’ images and sell them to make a profit. Not only did they steal from another person, but now they are using it to benefit themselves. That’s like breaking into someone’s house, stealing the furniture, and putting it upon EBay.

Though there are free websites where artists gladly share their work, they should not be abused. Just because they are free and willing to be nice doesn’t mean people should take advantage of their generosity. I hope everyone will have the kindness to thank the owners of such sites when they use the work. It is always nice to be reminded that people appreciate the time and effort an artist puts into the art.

Artists put time and effort into their work. Artists who say otherwise obviously don’t really care enough about their work and probably should look into other things to do. It’s not just a canvas of paint, or a sketch of pencil, or a group of pixels on the screen. It’s meaning, expression and purpose for us. I appreciate it when people admire my work, compliment me on my work, but not when they steal it for their own use.

I hope others, and not just artists, will stand up against image piracy. It may not effect you personally, it may not be your problem, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it. Even if it’s as little as telling friends you feel it is wrong, and if they are doing it that they should stop it, that’s more than enough to help out artists. To some it may not seem important, obviously nothing life-threatening, but it’s all about respect. I hope more people will realize that looks and being cool on the internet are not worth hurting another person’s feelings.

What is the relationship between Marketing and Web designing? How can a better understanding of Marketing help the web designer manage his business more profitably?

What is marketing?

The American Marketing Association defines Marketing as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals”. On the other hand, The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK defines Marketing as “the Management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers’ requirements profitably”. Note the occurrence of Customer Satisfaction in both definitions and the underlining concern for Profitability in the second definition. In other words, a businessman needs to identify the needs of a consumer and explore ways of satisfying these needs in order to make a profit.

The Webmaster therefore needs to understand his client’s customers. Does the client sell to various segments of customers (e.g students, retirees, young upwardly mobile professionals, etc?) or only one homogenous market such as any one of these segments? What are the lifestyles of such customers? What do they like to do in their pastime? How do they relax? Where do they live? What are their aspirations? If, for instance, the client’s customers are tertiary school students, are they interested in sports? Would it be right to create a page on the client’s website for snippets of information on the lifestyles of sports personalities around the world, even though the website markets an interactive software to help students write term papers and long essays? Or take upwardly mobile professionals, as another example. How about including a page (on the website of an insurance company selling policies targeted at this segment), which contains links to write-ups explaining several possibilities of personal finance and wealth creation opportunities? Will such “side attractions” ensure repeat visits to the website?

Once a Webmaster knows his client’s customer, he can anticipate the customer’s wants, appeal to the right emotions and show that customer how the client’s product or service will benefit the customer.

The discerning Webmaster must also try to understand the industry within which his client operates, his client’s competitors and what these competitors offer in comparison to what the client offers. If any of the competitors has a website, how customer friendly is the website? Does navigation within the site make it easy for the competitor’s customers to make orders? Can the customer have his most cogent questions answered right there on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page without having to go through the pains of writing a mail? Can the Webmaster then create a website for his client, that will outsell the competitor’s site in these areas?

While the client sometimes provides a brief explaining the kind of website he thinks he wants, the truly innovative Webmaster may go beyond this brief to add value. A word of caution, however: this should be discussed with the client.

Websites are marketing tools

The fundamental reality of how people use the web can be seen in the following comparative descriptive sketches of offline and online buyer behaviors. Offline, bustling crowds of would-be shoppers (or prospects) pass by your place of business (take a busy mall, for instance) and some of them may walk in, if your shop occupies a vantage location, your wares are attractively displayed and they can notice both. Online, however, people search for information. There are millions of people, but no crowds and each person searches alone. So, while the offline businessperson thinks of a vantage “location”, the online businessperson must think of relevant “information” or “content”, information that meets the needs and interests of the target market.

The Power of Search Engines

People who visit the web are looking for information and solutions. Most often, they rely on Search Engines to suggest or recommend the most likely websites, which may satisfy their needs. For the Webmaster to create a website which brings lots of targeted traffic to his client therefore, he must perform some tasks such as keyword brainstorming. In other words, he researches his site’s main theme on the web, such as “weight watching”, to find related words that are often searched by web visitors, but rarely targeted by websites. Such words can then form the topics for each page of his website and eventually provide the website with a theme or focus for optimum search engine ranking.

This is only one in a series of tasks which the Webmaster needs to perform for his client’s website to rank well with the search engines and attract warm, willing-to-buy traffic on an ongoing basis. Such tasks can be very tedious, especially when the process is done manually. It is no surprise therefore, that some webmasters shy away from this aspect of the job. However, such tasks can be automated with Site Build It! , an all-in one site-building, site-hosting and site marketing solution which automatically performs the following operations for webmasters: Keyword Brainstorming, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Submission, Search Engine Reporting, File Upload, Sequential Auto responding, E-mail Marketing, etc. This system of tools works without compromising design or site functionality. Which means a Webmaster can create his site, using his favorite HTML and graphic (or other) software, simply upload the files and let Site Build It! do the rest. More on this software, including purchase and download instructions, can be found at http://www.rent-a-webmaster.nl

If you’re wishing to launch an online business, you need to seek out a web design company that can create your website for you. In deciding who to select, you ought to think about one critical factor: do I need a website template or a bespoke website?

What’s the difference between bespoke and template websites?

A website template uses already-developed code, and you then either build your needs around how the website template functions, or the website template can be adjusted to better correspond to your requirements. A bespoke site is tailor made for you. You express your website needs to the web developer, and they create a website built exactly based on your needs.

Tell me the advantages and disadvantages of a templated website

The advantages: A web template uses secure, sturdy, proven, and stable code, normally has free updates, is very quick and easy to setup and make live, and will be far more money-saving than going for a bespoke site.

The disadvantages: your website template might not precisely correspond to your demands, even with adjustments applied. The ability of the web developer to amend the template will be based on his understanding of the website template.

Tell me the advantages and disadvantages of a tailor-made website

The advantages: The site will be custom-made to match your prerequisites. Since the developer will have prepared the website from scratch, he will have intimate knowledge of the scripts, which is a huge advantage over a template if the web developer doesn’t have a great deal of understanding of the website template’s scripts.

The disadvantages : it’s high-priced, it takes time for a custom site to be developed, and you’re taking a risk on whether the web designer is talented enough to ensure your site is robust, secure, search engine friendly and is usable and accessible to everybody.

However you decide, you need to ensure that after your site launches, you concentrate on advertising the website as without visitors, no matter how great your site looks and functions, it’s useless without a considerable level of of visitors to convert to clients!

Search engine submission is a matter that often mystifies those who are new to the Internet. It is natural to scratch your head and wonder how you will get your website listed on the major search engines. If you ask someone how to go about getting your site listed you are likely to hear many misconceptions about search engine submission. You may even be taken for a ride and end up needlessly parting with some hard earned cash. So, before this happens to you let’s examine some of the most common myths surrounding search engine submission.

1. Search engine submission is a very important matter

It would indeed seem that you submitting your site to the search engines is of utmost importance. After all, if your site is not in the search engines then how will anybody find you? Sure, you have to be included in the search engines but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have to actively “submit” your site. This is because search engines use their “spiders”, or robotic search programs to scour the Internet looking for new pages. If another site, that is already included in the search engines, links to yours, then when a search engine spider visits that site, it will follow the link to your site and gather your information.

So, if you are building a new site make sure that you get some links to your sites from already established sites. Ask your webmaster, your friends, other organizations and complementary sites for links. This will be enough to get you listed in the major search engines. You may still want to submit your site to make sure, but consider the other points before you go ahead

2. There are thousands of search engines that you should be listed in

“Get listed in 300,000 search engines” read the headlines for some submission advertisements. If you look at the traffic logs of most websites you will see that the lion’s share of traffic comes from a handful of search locations, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves. There just aren’t thousands of search sites on the Internet. So, don’t pay money to be listed on these sites. Oftentimes, the sites referred to in these advertisements are seldom-visited free-for-all links pages. If you get listed on such a page you will not get much traffic, but you will get a lot of spam.

Concentrate on the major search engines and don’t worry about the non-existent phantoms referred to in the advertisements.

3. Monthly submission to search engines is a must

In the early days of the Internet, the companies that handled search engine submission warned the public that sites can be easily lost from search engine indexes and that to prevent this from happening it is important to resubmit your site every months. They also said that this was a good way to let search engines know about new additions to your pages.

It is not very likely that your site will disappear from a search engine for no reason at all. If your site is “down” for a considerable amount of time then it might be possible for your site to be dropped from the listings, but otherwise this rarely happens.

Also, you don’t have to resubmit your site to notify search engines about changes to your page or pages. The spiders of search engines regularly revisit pages that are already in the index. You can in fact create a “robots” meta tag and give instructions such as “revisit every 15 days” and this will accomplish the job better than a resubmission.

4. Automatic submissions are useless and you must submit manually

There is often a hot debate about whether manual submissions are better than automatic submissions. For Yahoo, MSN and Google it is now better to do it with a manual submission because all of these engines require you to fill in a code word that is displayed on the screen. These search engines instituted this procedure to block out automated spam submissions. So, for the giants of search, manual submission is the way to go.

What about the secondary sites? There are smaller search engines and directories. Some of them can be useful to you, especially if they represent a particular geographic area or business niche that you are aiming for. If the list of these secondary engines and directories becomes too large, then you may want to consider automated submission. There are some programs that do this or you can find submission services that are free or inexpensive, which brings us to the last myth.

5. You should be prepared to spend a lot of money to get proper submission

If you look at the first point you will see that you probably don’t have to do any submission at all to get your site listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves. These are the search engines that will provide you with 90% of your visitors. So, do you really want to spend a good amount of money to reach the last 5 or 10 per cent of your possible visitors? Look around for a free or inexpensive service to take care of the secondary search engines, and if there are smaller search engines that are very important to your business, then visit them yourself and submit your listing. Save your money for other important tasks.

Where did this 101 business come from? Who came up with this 101
at the end of a subject anyway. Why not My First Website 1 or
100? I never understood that. Had not thing to do with the
topic, just thought that I would put it out there.

So your finally looking to take the plunge online and start
yourself a website. So many things to consider. So many
cross-roads. Where to start? What to do? Hopefully this article
will help guide you and answer some of those questions for you.
It’s intended to give you some basic information to consider
when starting a website. Also at the end of the article I have a
special treat for you. I will take everything in the article and
recap it in a rap. Yea that’s right, yours truly will bust a
Rhyme 101 for you. Experts say a great way to learn is through
playing games or music. Let’s see if they are right.

Introduction

The world of the internet is this huge, vast compilation of
information. If you think about what it truly is. That’s it.
Some info is free, some you have to pay, but none-the-less, it’s
information. You want to put your spot on the information
superhighway? What’s the first thing to do to get started. Do I
need super computers, memory, Microsoft Office, and hire a suite
full of geeks to work for me? Let’s find out!

First up to bat. . . .

What’s the very first thing to consider to get your spot on the
information superhighway? That’s simple. What is your site going
to be about? Are you going to offer free information based on
your expertise to surfers. Are you planning to sell items? A mix
of both? So many choices, but it’s the very first thing to get a
webpage started. You have to ask yourself. What do I want to do
with my website? What am I doing it for? Your answer to that
question will have you completed with the first step. My opinion
on what to start. Try to be different. Focus on fulfilling a
need and run with it. What do you know best than anyone else?
What are you most passionate about? That is what I would start
my website on.

Next. . . .

Alright, I made my decision on what I want to focus on, now
what? Next you will need to figure out how you want to set the
website up. Do you know HTML well enough to build your site
manually? Or will you use a HTML editor like Site build-it, to
help you build your page? There are many tools that you can use
to help you build your site. I am going to remain as unbiased as
possible. Go to any search engine and type in the key-phrase,
“html editor.” You will get tons of results back with free and
paid tools that you can use. If you are on a tight budget like I
was when I started my first website, I suggest grab a free tool.
You can also check out downloads.com and find a great tool for
free.

After that. . . .

What are you going to call this site? You will have to find a
good domain name. Word of caution. This is probably going to be
the most challenging thing you do to get your webpage started. I
can guarantee that the simple name you are thinking about right
now, is already taken. You will have to be unique here in order
to find a good name that hasn’t already been taken. If you can,
try to use a name that will also be a main keyword that you use
in your search engine optimization (will be discussed later).
Example of what I mean is if you decided to base your website
about fixing a American car. One of the keywords that you will
probably focus on is “fixing American cars.” So see if you can
register the domain name, fixingamericancars.com. No big deal if
you cannot. Most important you want to pick a domain name that
is easy for someone to remember.

Then. . . .

Then you have to decide on where to host the website. You can
accomplish this by paying or again free. The only problem with
free services is that it is usually a sub-domain of the main
one. It usually looks like this:
http://www.freehost.com/freehost/host/yourwebsite.html. And they
have many rules on what you can and cannot do. On top of the
rules, most of them you have to have a small advertisement at
the top or bottom of your page. I would suggest you pay for
hosting. You saved on the tools, by getting them for free. You
can find hosting for as low as $6.00 a month. Let’s just assume
for a moment that you are trying to make a professional stake in
this game. Would you rather have a webpage with a domain that
look like this
www.freehost.com/freehost/host/fixingamericancars.html or a
domain that look like this www.fixingamericancars.com What looks
better to you? What will your surfers most likely remember?
Answer the questions and go with what you decide.

And Finally. . . .

How are you going to promote the site? What avenues will you
use. Will you even promote it at all. My guess is, if you went
through all the trouble to start up a website, you want someone
to see it, so how will you accomplish this task? You have to
consider what and the cost around doing it. Will you do email
advertising? Use web directories, search engines, link
exchanges, traffic trades, web-rings, paid text links,
pay-per-click advertising, etc. There are so many ways to
promote your website. But how will you? The answer to that
question could depend upon the budget you have to work with.
Each medium produces different types of promotion, some
targeted, other’s not. Some works better than others. As I
mentioned earlier, about search engines, you should have this as
apart of the plan. Why? For one, it’s free. Two, it’s the best
kind of promotion you can have. Someone searches for something
specific and they find you. It’s like looking in the Yellow
Pages for a mechanic to fix your car. (to use the same example
as before about fixing American cars) The chances of this person
buying or using your service is high.

Conclusion.

As I promised I will sum it all up in a rap. Don’t laugh as I am
going to kick 8 bars here.

Come on, put your hands together for me. Yea. . .yea. . . uh. .
. yea. . .uh. . .yea. . . uh, yea.. . .

I’ll teach you how build a site. Great name, simple plan, paid
host, nice tools, and good content. I’ll teach you how to build
a site. Promotional tours, SE’s, top 10 rankings, and good
keywords sent.

I’ll teach you how to build a site. Great name, simple plan,
paid host, nice tools, and good content. I’ll teach you how to
build a site. Promotional tours, SE’s, top 10 rankings, and good
keywords sent. I’ll teach you how to build a site….

Yea.

Topic for discussion my first website 101, I’m holdin’ classes
for free so grab urself a seat. Stay a while, grab a drink, and
just sit back and relax your feet.

What’s all this 101 talk mean? Ima tell ya. It’s mean I can flip
it back to the basic, hit ya with some knowledge u ain’t never
seen.

First off what ya know, u got any specialties or u just another
no talent having hopeful wannabe. I’m not tryin to diss, but
homey you not ready for this. U not ready to write html code on
ur own. So get ur act together and download some tools for ur
own. Take the tools for free so u don’t need to get a loan.

I’ll teach you how build a site. Great name, simple plan, paid
host, nice tools, and good content. I’ll teach you how to build
a site. Promotional tours, SE’s, top 10 rankings, and good
keywords sent. I’ll teach you how to build a site.

Great name, simple plan, paid host, nice tools, and good
content. I’ll teach you how to build a site. Promotional tours,
SE’s, top 10 rankings, and good keywords sent. I’ll teach you
how to build a site….

Then what ya gonna call urself. Something simple or something
complicated. Something that’ll stick to my mind or something
that’ll be under estimated.

U just don’t understand, u want it for free, but let me break
down so u’ll definitely see. The hosting can cost a little, I’m
only talking 6 little bucks. Put the fast food down for just
once a week, it’ll change ur luck.

I heard from the block that ur expanding the world. How, slick?
U taking it to the SE’s, email, or pushin to the pay-per-click.

Good luck with everything and startin ur site. Hope you take it
serious. Until next time have a great day and a wonderful nite.

I’ll teach you how build a site. Great name, simple plan, paid
host, nice tools, and good content. I’ll teach you how to build
a site. Promotional tours, SE’s, top 10 rankings, and good
keywords sent. I’ll teach you how to build a site.

Great name, simple plan, paid host, nice tools, and good
content. I’ll teach you how to build a site. Promotional tours,
SE’s, top 10 rankings, and good keywords sent. I’ll teach you
how to build a site….

Peace I’m out,

John Cal

http://www.onlaet.com

http://www.1st2shop.com

1. Lack of overall strategy and clear definition of success:

Most people realize the need for a site, but don’t understand what it can/should do for the company. And when they do have a goal, they don’t measure it. We’ll often ask people, “What are the objectives of your site?” Answers vary from “the site is supposed to provide information about our company and products”, or “the site is supposed to effectively convey our brand to our audience”. In actuality, those are very rarely the true objectives, but rather the means to accomplish one’s objectives. A website’s objectives will in most cases be to drive revenue or generate qualified leads.

2. No integration with other marketing activities … the website is often on an island.

Okay, so you have your URL on your stationary, collateral, etc. But very rarely is a website tightly integrated with other marketing activities such as direct mail and print advertising. Ideally, a company will drive prospects to specific URL’s to accept an appealing offer that might have been presented in a direct mailer or advertisement.

3. No Search Engine Positioning (SEO)

In addition to the above point, very few companies have invested the proper time or effort into being effectively positioned in the major search engines. Once built, most people assume that the Search Engines are all rushing towards their website, blinded by an overwhelming lust to spider the new site. To their shock, they eventually find that while they want to be in the Search Engines, getting there is not an automatic process. Although Forrester Research tells us that 80% of all Internet users visit the search engines, our own research shows that fewer than 10% of companies have done anything to position themselves effectively. Usually, there are excuses for lack of search engine marketing… most commonly, “we don’t really feel that our particular audience would be looking for a solution in the search engines”.

4. No Strategic Capture of Prospect Data

We always ask if companies are capturing strategic data from prospects that visit the site and hear “We have a Contact Us form.” When is the last time you filled out a Contact Us form? Contact forms are not strategic. Case studies, white papers – use anything you can to get the prospect to ask for info – then nurture them over time if they aren’t sales ready today!

5. Misconceptions Based on People Using Themselves as the Focus Group

Remember, it’s not your individual opinion that should drive the creative design for the website. The website should be created for the customer in mind. A site should have some unique flavor, and personal preferences aren’t completely disregarded. But we must conform to some standards of usability and habits, and be creative around them.

6. Lack of Ongoing Activity Analysis

Website log files contain a tremendous amount of data. Usually, too much for a typical marketing person to have time to analyze. As a result, key metrics are rarely defined, and no data ends up being monitored and analyzed. Do you know the definitions of the most common metrics any web manager should be looking at? (Visits, page views, visitors, hits)

7. No Content Management System

There is no reason to have content that is outdated and stale. A content management solution can be implemented very affordably and allows a company greater control over their site. It allows non-technical people the ability to control content. Most good sites today are built with a content management system.

8. The Neighbor’s Nephew as Web Strategist

“I realize that we’re a $50 million company with hundreds of customers, but I really think my neighbor’s nephew who just finished a web course can handle our company’s web strategy. The old adage “You get what you pay for” holds very true on the Internet. Experience, expertise and customer service are the value propositions a consultant/developer should bring to the table.

9. Focusing Too Much on the Technology

Websites are not technology – integrating them with CRM or ERP systems are very technical issues and should be treated as such. But building a website is a function of marketing. In today’s world, a website is a marketing tool – whether it be a lead generation tool, sales support tool or a client extranet. Once you know what kind of server environment and language you will be building in, there are few technical issues that will be popping up.

10. “We don’t believe in requesting data from visitors, or using it for e-mail marketing.” “People are getting enough spam, we don’t want to annoy them even more.”

If your site does not attempt to capture the name of an interested, qualified visitor, then what is it really doing? Being prompted for a small amount of information in order to receive some valuable offer in exchange does not annoy people. (In fact, many of our clients have seen increased leads after implementing some registration processes). Furthermore, opt-in e-mail marketing (to those who gave you permission to send information occasionally) will not be viewed as spam, and will, in most cases, generate higher response rates than seen with any other marketing activity. Response rates to opt-in e-mail marketing in the range of 10% – 30% are not unheard of at all.

To measure how strong your brand is copy and paste: (http://brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html). Then click “Take the brand strength test”. This is a short survey that measures the strength of any company’s brand. It’s a great tool to see where you are today.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru (http://www.brandidentityguru.com), a leading brand consulting and market research firm located in Easton, Massachusetts, USA, near Boston. Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Simon (America’s largest shopping mall manager) and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

Scott White is a very enthusiastic speaker and has the gift of being able to explain the principles of branding in a compelling and entertaining manner so that people at all levels can understand.