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If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you’ll want to put some thought into how you’ll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast. Successful integration of ads into your site can be highly profitable. Before I show you where to position ads, I want to mention a few important points about ads.

1. Ratio of ads to content

How many ads should you place on your website? There is an optimum ratio of ads to content. If your website has too high a proportion of advertising relative to content, the traffic on your website will suffer and you will lose money. If your website has too low a portion of advertising relative to content, the sales on your website will suffer and you will lose money.

What is the optimum ratio of ads to content? I can’t point to any studies, but I feel the optimum ratio is somewhere around 20 to 25 percent ads relative to content. Go much above that ratio and, despite more ads, the revenue from your site goes down. But, there are ways to exceed that ratio and still make more money.

Ads as a service

Advertisements can provide useful information, as well as content. In that case, the ads become content. Here’s an example. Rather than post ads that pay you the highest commission, post ads that provide the best value to the visitors to your website. These are ads where the value is so good you might respond to the ad yourself. This type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.

Another example is ads for gifts around the holidays. People expect and are not turned off by an increase in ads around the holidays. Finding gifts for everyone on your list is difficult work, and people appreciate gift ideas. Again, this type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.

You can safely exceed the normal ratio of ads to content if you hide the ads in the content. An example of this is product “reviews”. For example, computer magazines are almost 100 percent advertising posing as product reviews.

2. Repetition of ads and ad management

I have seen websites that display the exact same banner on every page. If I didn’t respond to the banner on the first page, what makes them think I will repond to it on the second, third … hundredth page?

Displaying the same banner on every page of your website is annoying to your website’s visitors, and a money losing propostion for you. Keep your ads fresh. Ads are boring enough without repeating the same ad over and over. Display a variety of ads, and use an ad management system. An example of an ad management system is a banner rotator.

3. Ad type relative to response rate

I have heard claims that text ads receive the highest reponse. I’m sure these results are not related to whether the ad is text or graphics, but more likely related to the fact that text ads are usually placed in the more responsive areas of a webpage. All thing being equal, a graphic ad will always get better response than a text ad.

A graphic ad will get higher response than a text ad, and an animated graphic ad will get higher response than a static graphic ad. But animation can be taken to an extreme. Some types of animation are annoying and not only does the ad get a low response, but it also causes visitors to click away from your website.

Examples of annoying animated ads are banners that flash or jiggle or do something else that distracts the visitor so they can’t read the webpage content. Those visitors that don’t click away will scroll the webpage so this type of ad goes off screen while they try to read the webpage.

A secret few advertising designers know is that the graphic that will get the most attention is a picture of a human face. People are genetically predisposed to look at a human face in their view area. Try it yourself while you’re browsing the web. If a webpage has a human face on it, that’s the first thing you will look at.

Where to position ads on your webpage

To discuss where to place ads on a webpage, we need to divide a page into five sections as listed below.

1. Header
2. Footer
3. Left Margin
4. Right Margin
5. Center column

Note: There is a sixth area of the webpage which is the popup window. There are many forms of popup windows; pop-over, pop-under, delayed, and exit. The polite way to use popup windows is the self-closing popup window. Because of popup window blockers, popup windows are much less effective today, and, from my own experience, when I tried using popup windows, the page views on my website dropped by 50 percent.

The most common position to place advertising banners is in the header section of a webpage. Web users have programmed themselves to ignore banners in this position. The response rate of banners in the header section of webpages has dropped to something like .0001 percent. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has tried to overcome this problem by defining giant (what I call “battleship size”) banners. I don’t know of any studies that show this works.

Using banners in the head section of your webpage is a waste of processor time, but most webpages still use them. Making a sale this way is a long shot. Banners in the footer section of a webpage are even less responsive.

Actually Web users have programmed themselves to ignore all advertising on the web. However, from my own experience, you can get some response from ads in the left and right margins of a webpage. Most websites are designed with the menu in the left margin and possibly ads in the right margin. This means if the user has a low resolution display, depending upon the width of the webpage, the advertising may be off the screen.

Place your menu in the right margin and use the left margin for advertising. This places the user with a low resolution display in the positon of having to scroll to view the menu. Too bad. They should get a bigger display. Website revenue comes first.

The most responsive position to put your ads is in the center column of the webpage along with the content. As visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they come upon the ad. It’s unavoidable.

If you imagine the center column of your webpage divided into three parts; top, middle, and bottom, the most responsive position for your ad will be right in the middle. As the visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they are forced to look at the ad as they continue to the lower part of the article. This might be a little annoying to the reader, but let’s hope your content is worth that slight annoyance.

I would recommend placing your ad at the bottom of the center column. As visitors read the article on the webpage, they end up looking at your ad. This is almost as effective as placing the ad in the middle of the column, and a lot less annoying to the reader.

As you can see, how you integrate advertising into your webpages has a major impact on your ability to produce revenue from your website. Poor ad integration will cause visitors to click away. Proper integration can make your website highly profitable. But, ad positon is not the only determining factor, don’t forget the ratio of ads to content, ad management, and ad type relative to response rate.

Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

How much holiday shopping did you do on-line this year? If you are reading this, then chances are good that you made at least one purchase on-line. Over 54% of all Americans did it [1]. A much higher percentage (>80%) of Internet users did it.

Not only did you do it, you liked it! Less than 7% of on-line shoppers reported a bad experience with 88% reporting they were satisfied or very satisfied [2]. It is clear that on-line shopping has come of age with such a high level of participation and satisfaction. It appears that past issues of trust, security, and bad ecommerce websites are replaced with good ecommerce sites, higher trust, better security, and just plain better execution and service by on-line retailers. Quick, easy, and convenient shopping overcomes the concerns people have had in the past.

With a whopping 35% increase in on-line holiday sales this year, up to $18 billion [3], one analyst calls it “a fantastic season for on-line retailers.” [4] This is the third straight season of record growth for on-line shopping. This year, 2004, is expected to follow the trend. US on-line sales are expected to grow from $55 billion in 2003 to $73 billion in 2004 [5].

In searching for some bad news, it was hard to find. The worst news was that 3.6% of on-line shoppers had a very bad experience where either the merchandise was not delivered on time or was delivered in poor condition. This is a small fraction even compared to traditional retail sales.

Can the news and trends about ecommerce retailing really be that good? The answer seems to be a resounding YES! Some of the more popular on-line markets have double digit penetration now. That means some on-line retailers are reaping over 10% of total market share in their industries with a rising trend. In addition, more on-line retailers are showing profits. In 2002, about 50% of on-line retailers showed a profit from their on-line operations while 70% did in 2003 [5].

So, if you are one of those 70% of on-line retailers making profits in 2003, sit back, breathe a big sigh of relief, and relish the moment. There won’t be much time to relax and enjoy your successes. New business is right around the corner.

If you are a business and don’t yet have an on-line sales presense, then it’s never too early to get started. To get ready for the 2004 holiday season, it’s best to start now.

• Create ecommerce plan – 4/15/04
• Select ecommerce software & consultant (NetSource can help) – 5/15/04
• Build the website – 7/15/04
• Put the website into operation, start selling- 8/15/04
• Create on-line marketing plan – 8/15/04
• Execute the marketing plan - 9/15/04
• Ready for holiday sales – 11/15/04

It can be done quicker than the schedule suggested above, but, to do it right requires thought, planning, and time.

References:

[1] Nashville Business Journal, 12/4/03

[2] ASD/AMD Marketwatch E-Newsletter, 12/24/03

[3] eSpending Report, Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive, Nielsen/Netratings, 1/5/04

[4] Abha Bhagat, Nielsen/NetRating, COMPUTERWORLD, 1/6/04

[5] ASD/AMD MarketWatch E-Newsletter, 10/16/03

Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash — Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually DECREASED the response from prospects and customers by as much as three-hundred-and-seventy percent?

Here’s why: Your prospects and customers are most likely visiting your website using all types of different computers, connection speeds and internet configuration settings…

What may look GREAT to one visitor, may not even appear for another! You could very easily have shelled out hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have a website created using the Flash technology, only to find out that some of your visitors will never see it! (not to mention the loading times can cause your visitor to close your site, never to return again.)

Huge Mistake #2: The “Internet Catalog” Approach — You see this everywhere. Good, honest and hardworking businessmen and women get online to sell their products or services, and have a site created for them that contains a link to just about everything they offer on one page. Their thinking goes along the lines of, “…well, I don’t want to leave anyone out. If they come to my site, I want to make sure I have what they’re looking for…” — This way of thinking could not be further from the truth.

Here’s why: There’s an ancient rule that goes back to the very beginning of direct-marketing on the internet, taught by the richest, most legendary and well-respected internet marketers of all time…

“When you give your prospects too many choices, they become confused and aren’t sure what to do next. Confused people never buy anything.”

Huge Mistake #3: Optimizing Your Sales Site for the Search Engines — You’ll see this taught in nearly every “internet marketing” course, manual or eBook out there… “You must optimize every page of your website for the search engines!” — In fact, this false teaching is accepted as ‘gospel truth’ so often, that most web designers will offer to do this for you at no, or little extra cost…

What they DON’T understand is that certain words and phrases must be either re-worded (to make it “keyword rich”) or taken out completely, just to be looked upon highly by the mighty search engines — and this could KILL your sales, literally overnight.

Here’s why: When you or a hired web designer optimize your SALES page (i.e. any web page designed to sell your products and services) to get a higher listing in the search engines, you’re going to have to sacrifice the pulling-power of your sales copy (i.e. written sales material) just to get those higher listings. Sure, this can bring you more traffic — but what good is all the traffic in the world, if your visitors arrive at your website and aren’t compelled enough to read why they should order your product?

For years, it has been taught that you should always try to find a “balance” of SEO (Search-Engine-Optimization) mixed with promotional copy designed to sell your products and services…

WRONG AGAIN! — The truth is that you should NEVER optimize your sales page for the Search Engines. Instead, you should create tiny “entry pages” for each keyword related to your product or service, (highly optimized for the Search Engines) and have them link to your main sales site! (we can show you exactly how to do this quickly and easily and get *massive* targeted traffic from the Search Engines - without ever *touching* your sales site!)

Huge Mistake #4: Having a “Graphics-Based” Website — Sure, graphics can certainly help us to visualize a particular situation or circumstance, product or service… But did you know that having a graphically-driven website can actually DISTRACT your visitor away from your sales message?

After all, your sales message (or “web copy”) is THE #1 most important factor in a website that makes money. If your visitors are paying more attention to your “professional graphics” than your sales message… you’ve just lost another sale.

Here’s why: You’ve got approximately seven seconds from the time your visitor arrives at your site, to the time they decide whether to buy your product, get more information or LEAVE. If you’ve got a graphically-intensive website, your website will most likely still be loading past your seven-second time limit.

That’s a “customer-killer” in and of itself - however, the real reason lies within the fact that the bigger, brighter and more beautiful your graphics are, the more they will distract your visitor from your sales message. And if your visitor is distracted even for one second, it could mean the difference between getting a sale, and losing a customer.

Huge Mistake #5: Designing a Website with ZERO Marketing Experience — Most web designers have no idea how to make money on the internet, with anything other than their design services. It’s not their fault - they simply have no or very little marketing and sales experience. After all, they’re just website designers…

However, having your website designed by someone with ZERO internet marketing experience is like buying a street-car without an engine… it won’t go anywhere, and it’ll just waste your time and money!

For more information on how to have your website designed (or re-designed) by a well-known expert in the field of direct-response internet marketing, go here: http://www.ImmWebDesign.com

When building and getting a site online you have to think of a number of things. Some of these include the following:

1. What is your site going to be about

If you want to get a site online to make money then you need to do some good research before you choose what your site is going to be about. This is because there is no point in you choosing a topic for your site where other people have no interest in. If no one has any interest in the topic of your site then you will find it very had to get a good amount of visitors to your site. So the best thing to do is to choose a topic that is likely to interest a large number of people and is also likely to make you some good revenue online.

2. What web hosting provider are you going to choose to host your site with

Choosing the right Web hosting provider is very important when choosing it to host your site. This is because there is no point in choosing a Web hosting provider that is likely to be unreliable just because it is cheap or just because you don’t know enough about it. The article at: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/a00033/854.html gives you a better idea on how to choose a good Web hosting provider to host your site with.

3. How can you add more content to your site

Once you have your site up and running, you will then need to think of ways of making your site bigger and also updating your sites content on a regular basis so that your visitors don’t get bored of your site and so that they will have a reason to keep visiting your site on a regular basis. Some ways of adding content to your site could include the following:

• You could add some free reprint able articles to your site that is on the same topic as your site. You can find well over 800 reprint able articles at: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php
• You could add some free to play games on your site so it becomes stickier. You can find a load at: http://www.miniclip.com
• You could add a forum to your site so people can keep informed of current events and updates on your site and also chat amongst each other. You can find some good forum scripts at: http://www.hotscripts.com where some of these are free with the GPL.

4. How are you going to earn from your site

Once you have built your site and have found a good web host to host your site with, you will then need to think about how you are going to earn from your site.

If you are selling your own products or offering your own services, you may also want to add a few affiliate programs to your site so that you can produce a little extra income from these programs as well as earning the money from selling your own products or offering your own services. You can find well over 800 affiliate programs at: http://www.affiliateseeking.com. These include pay per click programs, pay per lead programs, two-tiered programs, pay per impression programs, residual income programs and more.

5. How are you going to promote your site to get visitors

Now that you have your site up and running with maybe a few affiliate programs included within your sites content, you will now need to promote your site so that you can start getting noticed on the Web. The article at: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/a00000/197.html gives you some of the best ways of getting visitors to your site.

Once you have done the above five things, you should now have your own site online. The amount of visitors that your site will receive and the amount of money you will make from your site will all depend on the amount of work and effort you put into your site. The more work you do with your site, the more money you are likely to make.

One of the most important initiatives in the domain of business documentation is that of professor David Kirsch from the University of Maryland, who thought of a dotcom Business Plan Archive - , a project that consists of collecting business plans for posterity. The project was started in 2002, through the Web portal businessplanarchive.org. The site was built by Webmergers.com and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, in collaboration with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.The project received financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The archive contains records of more than 2,300 Internet companies (either successful or failed) founded in the 90s and during the Internet boom and bust era, that is between 1996 and 2000. The area of interest goes from business strategy to people’s interactions in the dotcom workplace. The result will be a digital repository including business plans, marketing plans, venture presentations and any other records. The second part of the project will consist in gathering narratives from entrepreneurs, investors, employees and even customers who participated in this type of activity.

The purpose and usefulness of this project is to preserve past evidence of assumptions and strategies of successful and failed companies,thus providing valuable hints and knowledge for researchers and budding entrepreneurs, so as to learn from past mistakes and successes. Researchers will be able to benefit from this data so as to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research. Valuable insight from these business plans can be obtained:

• assumptions of the founders about the business;
• entrepreneurs’ plans to best exploit Internet offered advantages;
• assumptions on market growth and size;
• plans for gaining competitive advantage over traditional and online competitors;
• business core strategies.

The project brought to the researchers involved an award of $235,000 granted by the Library of Congress.

Everyday thousands of people are purchasing products on-line from the comfort of their homes. This “arm chair” shopping has become the most popular way for thousands and thousands of consumers to purchase everything from vitamins to luxury automobiles.

The Internet is the greatest marketing opportunity ever. If you do not have your business on-line, you are missing a golden opportunity to reach millions of potential customers everyday.

Every major business has an e-commerce storefront on-line. This new business opportunity gives everyone the chance to make money on the Internet, and has created a growing opportunity for e-commerce website designers.

A company that specializes in e-commerce website design can also be your source for e-commerce hosting, e-commerce website development, e-commerce solutions, and business-to-business e-commerce.

A website that offers products for sale is not just a simple electronic version of a catalog. These interactive “storefronts” give you a visual impression of the products that they sell. They also provide the customer with a shopping cart to purchase multiple products. Besides selling your products on-line, a well designed e-commerce site will help promote these products through advertisements, track order status, ship goods and manage inventories.

Making an online store a success is an ongoing process, recruiting a professional e-commerce website designer can almost guarantee success.

Here are a few simple rules to follow when building your e-commerce website.

1. Keep the shopping process simple and limit the number of steps involved in the checkout process. It’s very important for your customers to find it easy to locate what they want and easy to buy those products on-line. A good example of this is Amazon.com. They make it easy for customers to locate, select, and checkout.

2. Include tax and shipping costs in your customers shopping cart: Make certain the customer is aware of all the costs included in the purchase.

3. Add gift ideas like cards, gift certificates, and wrapping paper options before your customer checks out. The is the kind of personalized service that will turn visitors into returning customers. You can ask them what color wrapping paper they prefer, they can key in their gift card message, click the submit button and checkout.

4. Clearly displayed privacy policy information and other rules and guidelines in pop-ups.

5. Don’t force registration. Allow customers a chance to fill in their shopping cart with your products first, and then ask them to register.

6. Offer your customers on-line order tracking features, online customer help and multiple shipping options.

E-commerce has created new and exciting opportunities for everyone to have his or her own on-line business. Thousands of people every day are finding new ways to make money on-line. But the simple secret for business success has never changed. Treat your customers with respect. Provide them with a quality product at a fair price and you’re likely to build a successful business.

You know about Google Adsense, now it’s Google Ad Links for Google Adsense publishers.

[ For who do not yet know what Google Adsense is : “Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money,” — says Google. To open a Google Adsense account, please visit: https://www.google.com/adsense ]

What are Google Ad Links?

“Ad Links are a new form of text advertising that we’re offering to our AdSense publishers. Using the same contextual targeting algorithm that targets Google ads to your content pages, Ad Links units display a list of topics that are relevant to your page. Each topic, when clicked, brings the user to a page of related advertisements”, — this is how Ad Links are defined by Google.

Basically, Google Ad Links are vertically placed links of 4 or 5 keywords related to the content of your page. On clicking a link, the visitor is shown a list of Ads by Google on that particular keyword. If the visitor clicks on an ad, you get your commission.

So, why do you need to put Ad Links in your page?

Simple. Because you want to earn maximum revenue from each of the pages of your site.

According to Google, you are allowed to put max. 3 Adsense codes. But experts say that displaying too many Adsense ads in a page distract the attention of the visitors and they lose interest in the site. Therefore it’s always advised to put only one Adsense code and that too close to the main content of the page, to get the best results.

By placing just one Adsense code and no Leaderboard or Skyscraper, are we losing out some opportunities to earn more clicks on Adsense Ads?

No. Because that’s where Ad Links come in. Let me describe the usage of Ad Links with an example :

I have a page on ‘Engagement Rings’ at : http://thewebcontent.com/Relationships/Relationships_Article_56.php I use 250×250 Square Adsense code with the first paragraph of the article. This code displays only 3 Adsense Ads.

Now, I have placed Ad Links code just above the top of my left panel menu bar. Google currently displays 5 related keywords to the page : Engagement Ring, Carat Diamond, Ideal Diamonds, Gia Diamond and Gem Stone Ring. Each of the keywords are clickable.

Through these links, I get access to : 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 4 = TOTAL 44 Adsense Ads! (at the time of writing this article)

In case, Google does not find related keywords for a page, it displays a tiny search box. Visitors can put any keyword of their choice, and Google shows all Adsense Ads related to the keyword searched for!

Isn’t it incredible? …that too without disturbing visitors? Actually, it helps visitors, because they always look for links related to the subject they have come to our sites for.

The main advantage of Google Ad Links are that, they are displayed just like we display vertical menu—one link each line. Though Ad Links code displays “Ad Links by Google” boldly, but it gives a look of being a part of your vertical menu. And that’s definitely a great advantage.

To add Ad Links to your page, please follow the instructions below :

1. Log on to your Adsense account
2. Click on “Ad Settings”
3. Select the Radio Button which says : “Ad Links Units”.
4. Select 4 or 5 links per ad links unit from the drop down menu
5. Select Ad layout options : 120×90, 160×90, 180×90 or 200×90 depending upon your page layout.
6. If you have saved custom Color Palettes, select the palette of your choice.
7. Copy-paste the Ad Links code from the textarea box and place it to your web site in desired place

That’s all! But remember that you can place only one Ad Links code in a page. If you put more than one, others will not generate any link.

If you are an Adsense publisher, there is no reason why you will not add Ad Links to your page.

What do you think?

Here’s some mistakes to avoid when selecting or building your Web site. You know on those days when you have to wear your tech hat.

1) No Value - Too Simple

This is probably the most common mistake made by small business owners online. The site has little value for the service or product their offering. Often it starts out as a “brochure” site. Meaning their current offline marketing material is put online. Unfortunately many sites never progress past this point.

Now don’t get me wrong at leasts it’s a start, but it may not be enough.

You need to take a hard look an ask if there is anything of real value for the customer once they get there. Does it go beyond your contact information and service offering? Does it need to?

You can build a brochure site, but you might quickly find it’s not getting the results you expected.

2) Overkill

This mistake goes in the opposite direction. These sites fall in two categories:

They either are so loaded with content that the customer says “oh no, I don’t want to work this hard” or the site has been so “over-teched” the lights dim in your house when you access it.

The first site suffers from a lack of proper categorization and navigation. Probably the designer read one too many books on effective Web sites - 50 articles per topic minimum of 10 topics, blah, blah, blah. It misses the critical difference between mass marketing and local community marketing. The fact is of the 100 articles on your web site 5 of them are being read if you’re lucky!

Now the second site, the bandwidth hog, suffers from mis-guided flash intros, excessive movie downloads, cute images sliding in and off the page, and all of this is happening at the same time. You can almost hear the customer crying out “I just want to schedule an appointment online”.

3) The “All In the Family” Site

Also known as the relative site. Be it your talented son of 16 or your brother-in-law who knows all about this technical stuff, the site was designed, developed, and released by someone in the family who is “very technical”. The chance of success of these sites is very low because it’s not the technical side of a site that makes or breaks it for small business, it’s the business side. How much does your 16 year old son know about your business? Or more importantly how much does he care to learn?

4) Free Web Site with Purchase of Candy Bar

Yeah, it’s almost got to that point. Web sites for free! Anyone can have one like giving away a promotional magnet for my refrigerator (actually promotional magnets are much more effective). Costs nothing, design it in minutes. However, most are worth nothing and are a waste of time and effort.

5) Over Priced and Difficult to Change

The business owner looking for something really “special”. Cost is not the issue. This mistake can have significant ramifications because you can spend a lot of money and then realize you need something different. Make sure you get a site that you can change easily. Not a site that the company you hired can change easily, but that you can change. Make sure YOU see how easy it is to change before you agree.

Web sites offer you the opportunity to try different ideas, promotions and services quickly. The Web site you launch today will not be the Web site you need in six months. Small business owners are reluctant to re-design or change Web sites because of cost and experience.

Make sure that the Web site you buy at a minimum is database driven, supports templates, and can be changed by anyone, not just the “original manufacturer”.

Would you buy meat from a grocery store that left the bad meat in with the good meat or wasn’t clean? Would you buy a car from a sales lot that had totaled automobiles on the front lot? I wouldn’t and neither would you. Your website is your grocery store; your car lot. You must have an atmosphere that is pleasing to buyers. One that tells that buyer that you are not an amateur, but instead a trained, seasoned professional. Your site is a direct reflection of your product and that is why that having a well designed website can make or break your sales.

The first thing to keep in mind when designing your website, is “surfability”. Take a few minutes a look around at several web pages. What makes them appealing? Were there some that you closed out of immediately? Why? Take notes and do your research. Keep in mind that when a person visits your site they have a goal in mind. They are either seeking information or shopping for a product. Give the person what they want without having to search for it. Be sure that all the information on your site is relevant to your product. Make the buyer think that they need your product to solve their problem.

Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It should be an avenue by which the customer can shop your site. It should be easy to view and load very quickly. This is your first impression and we all know that first impressions can either close the deal or loose the deal. Make it simple. It is best to have links that are easily viewable by the reader that will navigate them to where they want to be. Tables are often a great choice when deciding on a way to design the main page of your site. Your main page should load very quickly, chances are if it takes the page more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k modem, the customer will click away to save time, hoping to find the information or product elsewhere. To increase the loading speed of your main page you should avoid large graphics or excessive graphics. To many banners or special effects can cause a page to load slowly as well.

To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you should stick to mild colors. If your site is a content site where the user will be doing a lot of reading, it is best to stick to black and white. Color can be added when using tables, as a way to brighten up the page, but remember to keep the overall look of the page professional and appealing to the audience that will be visiting most often. Since screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good idea to set the pixels to a standard 800×600. You may also choose to set the tables in your web page to span a percentage of the page rather than a set number of inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen sizes. You should remember that a lot of Internet users will not use the same browser as you, and therefore you should be sure that your site looks as good on other browsers as it does your own. You can do this by downloading several browsers through which to look at your page.

Be aware of the fact that the overall look of your website is a way to make money. The appearance of the site, if designed properly, can be an excellent marketing strategy for your product or service.

Do you make your website just to entertain yourself or do you want it to be a great web store? The fact is more than 80% of websites are trying to sell you something. There is nothing wrong if you want to get some money from the website you made, but remember to put some REALLY interesting information on your pages. This information must be free, unique and necessary to as many people as possible.

Remember, Internet was built as a research network among universities in early 80’s and only after the introduction of first graphic compatible browsers it exploded with the commercial websites. Search engine will definitely rank you higher for that free content and other webmasters will definitely create links to your website if it has useful and interesting information. The ratio should be 90% of free information and 10% of commercial content. You can only increase the percentage of free information.

There are also other reasons why to provide people with free information in the field you are making money: they will study, they will see that you know what you are talking about, and they will trust you! Excellent reputation is the main thing (the key to success) in doing Internet business. It must be built by years of hard work and could be destroyed in minutes.

What are the secrets of some commercial websites?

1) Content. As I have already said: free, unique and interesting.

2) Good design (website design must be clean and user-friendly, unprofessional design speaks for itself)

3) Search engine-friendly (Search engine optimization is complex set of knowledge on how to be number one in search engine listings)

4) Link building strategies ( for more information read this article: “The art of link exchange” http://www.metamorphozis.com/tutorials/the_art_of_link_exchange.shtml)

5) Company branding. (for more information read this article: “Make your own brand!” http://www.metamorphozis.com/tutorials/make_your_own_brand.shtml)

6) Excellent customer care and support (remember those notes 24 hours 7 days a week? This must be really true for a good commercial website)

7) Wise goods selection (You may think that people selling everything on the Internet but that is not quite true. There are some things that stores do not offer via the Internet and you need to find those things and offer them. Be a pioneer!)

These are the major factors that play role in building successful commercial websites. However, you need to search, study and select your own ways to online success. Remember, Internet is a very flexible and constantly changing environment; things that worked well several months ago may be completely useless in the present. Search and try! That is my main advice to succeed in online business.

Thanks for reading.

Article source: http://www.metamorphozis.com/tutorials/commercial_sites.shtml