Tuesday, January 24, 2017

My Work Portfolio

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I am  Google Partners Certified, Andriod UI Designer | Web Designer | SEO Team Leader | SEO Trainer. My Skills are Project Management, Business analysis, Coaching and Training, Web Designs, Strategic New Services, Search Engine Marketing & Social Media Marketing, Usability, PPC, SEO Ranking, Reputation Management.

Contact Info:
Email zamiranjum@live.com
Skype zamirzamir84
Whatsapp:00923014188940
Pakistan Support: 0092-313-6222054 , 0092-311-7120848,00923014188940
UK Support:  +44 203 289 5647



International Clients:
http://emiratescash.com   (Dubai)
http://www.alyaseahgroup.com  (Dubai)
http://massmediadxb.com (Dubai)
http://antonhostel.pl (Poland)
http://www.arcinteriors.pl  (Poland)
http://www.interiors.com.pl  (Poland)
http://www.elizabeth-interiors.pl   (Poland)
http://www.rossengineeringcorp.com  (California USA)
http://searchesolutions.com (New Jersey USA)
http://www.theengco.com.au  (Australia)
http://kirmanilawfirm.com/



Industries groups:
http://indusengineeringservices.com/
http://mcl-gases.com
http://agriumenterprises.com
http://starletgroupp.com
http://ahmedfine.com
http://bhuttacasings.com
http://econoviz.com/
http://rapidsolutionspk.com
http://econoviz.com/bri/



Misc:
http://qalamurdu.com
http://andalustaibah.com
http://designdecide.com
http://buytwitterfollowersbay.com
http://younasdrivingschool.com
http://econoviz.com/pts
http://yaminlinks.com
http://marketifye.com
http://treenahairnbeauty.co.uk 

Meet My Team.






View Testimonials Online in LinkedIN


Linkedin Testimonials


View Testimonials Online in LinkedIN

Freelancer Web designer in Pakistan

A lot of people like the Internet because of the many things you can do with it. You can contact with your friends and families through social networking sites. You can purchase and even trade products online. You can write stories and write a blog. You can search for any conceivable subject. But if you would like to adjoin more things to the Internet, then you can try to have your own website. At this point you may ask:  Who can make me a website? The answer is pretty easy. You can make your own web site. Else you can contact a web designer in your area. i belong to multan, pakistan so if you like to find web designer in pakistan, you can find affordable web designer in pakistan my skyp is zamirzamir84 and my whatsapp is 00923014188940

Information overload to will kill your dreams faster if you let it. Once you can make your own website create a sense of achievement and on their way to a comfortable life at home.

Whether you do not know HTML, and have no thought how to build a website, you may be asking yourself, how can I create a Web site? There are lots of ways for you to build your own site. Here are a few.

You can do one thing and that is you can learn HTML. HTML is the language used to build a website, and you will find many tutorials on the Internet. You can use this chance to learn and create your own website too.

There was a time when it seemed that all hope was lost. But those days are over and it will be a better day. Many thanks to the technology are not necessary to put a lot of money to someone to build your website, and you do not need much time to learn. While it is difficult to create your own website with HTML and then use an application on your computer so that web sites do so easily. Applications such as Adobe Dreamweaver, you can easily design a website without HTML coding script. It is very simple to use, but you have to charge to $ 299 for this application.

Technology has advanced to the point where you can type in a few lines of information and click a button and produce a great looking site that is search engine friendly and monetized to make you money.

You can also create a Web page to provide when signing other sites that offer free web site building. These Web sites such as weebly.com webs.com and offers many features to help you, your own website. They offer proficiently designed templates to choose for your website. They also have an editor help you, just the template can. With it you can modify the background color of the model and even add logos, if desired. Want for content that can create a simple drag and drop web editor you use to text, images, music, videos and other Web content to add. They have also promotion tools to promote your website on the search engines. If you try to make an online store, these sites also offer free services for online transactions via PayPal or Google Checkout. Another large part on the use of this service also offers free hosting. Web servers are those that maintain and preserve online sites. So with a free Web-hosting provider, you can have your website for free.

If these methods do not seem attractive to you, then you can try to hire a web designer to create your site, but it is not cheap and you have to pay tons of dollars for a web service designer. In addition, you pay more if they would like to have an online store, because you are either for services are required to pay would carry commercial online transactions.

Well, since you are familiar with the answer to the question, I can create a Web site, you can think of now, the best option to do your own website. Choose wisely and make comments on the site that you were dreaming!



 you can contact a web designer in your area. i belong to multan, pakistan so if you like to find web designer in pakistan, you can find affordable web designer in pakistan


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Saturday, January 14, 2017

Why Your Architecture Firm Needs a Website CMS

Architects might be capable of designing stunning buildings and cities, but web design generally isn't their forte. One common mistake that architects make when building their own websites is not using a CMS, or content management system.

A CM Sis a computer program that allows you to publish, edit, and modify content from a central interface, making the website management process more flexible and streamlined. With a CMS, you could easily edit your website from the convenience of your office or work site. Below are some of the advantages of using a CMS for your architecture firm's website.

Handle Ongoing Website Maintenance on Your Own

Say goodbye to the days of paying your webmaster a steep hourly fee to upload new images to your online architecture portfolio or edit content on your website. CMSs tend to be intuitive and easy to use. No technical knowledge is required to use a CMS, so virtually anyone in your office can use it to update your site.

Only you know exactly how you want your website to look and what you want it to say.The good news is that a CMS gives you direct control of your website and allows you to add new pages, blog posts, images, videos, etc. with greater ease. CMSs enable you to make changes practically in real-time, so you can update your website as needed and continually improve its effectiveness.

Ease of Collaboration

A CMS can streamline collaboration and workflow at your architecture firm. For example,if you want several staff members to contribute blog posts to your website, you could create accounts for each of them and have them upload their posts directly to the blog. A CMS also facilitates the process of editing and approving blog content from different authors before it gets published.

Update Your Project Portfolio Whenever You Want, Wherever You Want

A CMS with a built-in portfolio module enables you to easily update images, videos,and descriptions of your projects, so you're not at the mercy of your web master's schedule. Having the ability to quickly and easily update your portfolio is essential to ensuring that your site remains up-to-date. Fresh, relevant content also improves your website's search engine visibility and gives visitors a reason to come back to your website again and again.

Effective SEO

SEO,or search engine optimization, is vital to the success of your architecture firm's website because it boosts your site's search engine visibility and helps you attract qualified leads. When you have a CMS with built-in SEO features, on-page SEO tasks like adding title tags and description tags and optimizing content for target keywords are a piece of cake.

LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT CMS FOR YOUR ARCHITECTURE FIRM'S WEBSITE?
From WordPress to Drupal, open-source CMSs abound. However, open-source CMSs aren't robust enough to meet the unique requirements of architects because they have disparate plug-ins and modules that don't work harmoniously together. That's why the web design & development pros at efelle media have created a powerful, all-in-one CMS called FusionCMS, which has complementary modules that do the following:

·Website content management

·Services pages organized by category with built-in SEO

·Easily searchable portfolio with images, videos, and descriptions

·Staff bios with printable PDFs

·Testimonials& case studies

·Mobile-specific website

·Display one or all locations on your site in an attractive fashion

·Send and track branded email newsletters

·Blog with categories, multiple users, and photo galleries

The Ideal Social Media Marketing Workflow

Social media marketing is a part of online marketing and public relations that companies can no longer ignore. Unfortunately, these efforts are time consuming and need attention to detail. It’s important to gain as much efficiency in your workflow as possible to cut the time you spend.

The following suggested workflow comes for years of social media marketing experience. It may not suit every marketer, but it will at least help you think about ways to streamline your efforts.

Don’t take all of these four steps on one social media site and then move to the next. You will lose insights that could be transferred among your social media outlets. Instead, do step one on each of your social media sites before moving onto step two. Consider using a social media management application to streamline your efforts.

1. Log in and Interact

Logging in to your social media sites every day is the wisest course, especially if your social media goals include public relations. Only by checking updates often can you catch consumer complaints early and handle them quickly. For this reason, logging in and checking updates should be the first item on your social media marketing workflow.

2. Respond, Respond, Respond

Responding directly to your customers is very important, especially if they send you a direct message. Interacting every day helps you form more connections and it keeps your finger on the pulse of your ideal consumer. Do this second on your list to prime you for sharing on topics that matter to your audience.

Be personable, friendly and helpful in your interactions, not focused on reciting corporate policies or trying to present a professional image. The idea here is to connect on a personal level with your client base.

3. Post, Share, Stimulate

Now that you know what’s on the mind of your audience, you’re ready to find and share information to help them solve every day problems or just to amuse them. While some marketing messages are okay, such as notifying consumers about your next scheduled sale, the focus should be on helping the consumer, not increasing your sales figures.

Look for items of interest to your audience and link to them. Throw in a few comics or funny pictures for spice and keep marketing messages to a minimum. This is the best way to entertain your audience while attracting new members.

4. Target New Customers

Now that you’ve tidied up your social media pages, it’s wise to hunt down users who are likely to have an interest in your business by searching users and following them. A return follow gets you a new audience member and potential customer.

Following this workflow cuts the time you spend on social media marketing, leaving you free to follow up on your other marketing efforts. You may even save enough time that you can update your social media sites several times a day.

Improving Website Leads for Your Professional Services Firm

LEARN HOW TO GENERATE HIGH-QUALITY LEADS FOR YOUR AEC FIRM WITH CONTENT MARKETING.

You have a summit-law-firm-website-design.jpg well designed website for your professional services firm that is populated with high-quality content. Now it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the traffic and sales roll in, right? Wrong! Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that people are going to find it right away or eagerly buy your services. You must develop a strong content marketing strategy to ensure that your website gets found and attracts qualified leads that are likely to convert into sales.

First, do extensive research to determine what your audience is looking for online. In online marketing, knowing what your audience wants is half the battle. Create a strategy to lead your audience to what they want and then determine what action you want them to take.

Some people who come to your site will be ready to buy, while others will still be looking for information to help them make a purchase decision. Your website’s content and offers should communicate both to those who are ready to buy and to those who are still in the process of researching their options.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTENT

The primary factor that sets lead generation websites apart from your average business website is the format and quality of the content. Lead generation websites typically boast an extensive and varied collection of educational content. By consistently publishing value-packed articles, e-books, white papers, etc., you can position yourself as a thought leader and draw in more qualified prospects.

Instead of going out to find prospects with marketing and advertising, allow prospects to find you via your thought leadership. Quality content acts like a magnet – prospects are likely to find it via search engines and social media websites as you publish it. Below are some different content formats you can work with:

    Blog posts – Blog posts are relatively short and easily digestible articles that are published on a frequent basis.

    Guides – Guides are PDF documents that are typically between 10 and 30 pages long and focus on a specific topic. You can secure leads by having prospects provide their contact information in exchange for a guide.

    E-books – E-books are usually 50 pages or longer. Authoring an e-book positions you as an expert in your industry. You can sell your e-book via Amazon and your website or offer it for free in exchange for an email address to boost your lead generation efforts.

    Webinars – Webinars are seminars conducted over the Internet that help you generate new leads as well as nurture existing prospects. Similarly to live speaking events, webinars enhance your visibility but without the hassles of traveling to an event.

    Videos – A growing number of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms are using online videos, as many people prefer watching videos instead of reading text. You can create videos for case studies, company overviews, service descriptions, virtual tours, etc.

    White papers – A white paper is a report that helps your audience understand an issue, make a decision, or solve a problem.

    E-newsletters – E-newsletters are typically used to provide educational content on a regular basis. You can write exclusive content for e-newsletters or simply link to your latest webinars, blog posts, videos, etc.

The content formats you choose to publish on your site will depend on many factors, including your audience and budget. If you have limited resources, stick with blog posts and e-newsletters, which are easier and quicker to produce. If you have the time, money, and capabilities, try to produce a variety of content, including webinars, videos, guides, and e-books. 

The type of content you publish will also depend on your audience’s preferences. Determine what content formats your audience likes to consume and when. You can evaluate your audience’s wants and needs by requesting feedback and surveying them. Whatever content you choose to produce, be sure to publish a mix of short-form and long-form content. Short-form content, like blog posts, are effective at drawing traffic in, while long-form content, like e-books and guides, help you generate and convert leads.

5 Ways to Improve Your Professional Services Firm’s Website

ATTENTION AEC FIRMS: IS YOUR WEBSITE WORKING FOR OR AGAINST YOU? 

Online marketing Online Marketing Services by RapidSolutions has transformed the way that professional services firms do business. Most Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms have brochure-style websites, but as the web evolves, it has become essential to build an interactive website that is capable of attracting targeted traffic and converting visitors into leads. Below are 5 ways to improve the results of your professional services firm’s website.


1. BLOG
Blogs are at the core of almost every successful content marketing strategy. While case studies and white papers still have their place, they are overwhelming for newcomers to your website. A blog allows AEC firms to generate fresh, easily digested website content that attracts and retains new visitors.

Write on topics that are relevant to the services you provide and incorporate target keywords into your blog posts. Not only will a blog position your AEC firm as an industry authority, it will also make your website easier for prospects to find. RapidSolutions’s professional content management system (CMS), FusionCMS, includes a blog module that allows you to easily update your blog content to engage visitors and improve your website’s search engine visibility.



2. SOCIAL SHARING
It’s not enough to just publish website content and hope that people will find it. AEC firms must jump on the social media bandwagon in order to spread the word about their websites. FusionCMS’s blog module is integrated with social media, enabling readers to instantly share your content across social networks like Facebook and Twitter.



3. SEO
One of the most effective online marketing methods for AEC firms is SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO helps your website get found online. It involves identifying the keywords that potential clients are using to find sites like yours and then optimizing your website content for those keywords. RapidSolutions designs and develops AEC firm websites with SEO in mind. Our FusionCMS platform also streamlines the process of creating SEO-friendly web pages and content.



4. RESPONSIVE DESIGN
To ensure that your website is equipped to capture all of the leads it receives, it’s essential to create a mobile-friendly version of your website. Responsively designed websites provide an optimal viewing experience on all types of devices, from smartphones, to tablets, to desktop computers. Having a mobile-friendly website is crucial these days, considering that 24% of total website traffic came from mobile devices in the first quarter of 2013, up 78% from the same time in 2012. AEC firms that use FusionCMS are provided with a mobile website that is driven and managed by the same CMS as their desktop site, so a single edit updates both sites simultaneously.


5. ENTICING CALLS-TO-ACTION
Each page of your website should feature messaging about your product or service as well as a strategic offer. The offer should be as specific to the page as possible. When crafting offers for each page, consider what the page is about and who will be reading it.

Encourage visitors to click on a button to contact you or provide you with their email address. Your website visitors don’t want to fill out a long form or click on an offer that’s difficult to decipher, so make sure that any offer that you make is eye-catching, clear, and brief. FusionCMS’s form builder module allows you to design and generate custom forms and develop clear calls-to-action for your website in a matter of minutes to collect contact information or newsletter and offer signups.

Image SEO for eCommerce

use alt tags accurately

many store web sites location all their electricity in growing the suitable product descriptions, preserving them brief, to the factor and rich with important key phrases. but the phrases customers don’t see are simply as crucial. the ones invisible words are inside the alt tags of your pics.

alt tags were designed to offer descriptions of pix. because they can assist the impaired via describing what is at the display screen, google values alt tags which might be relevant and useful. websites that use them properly are rewarded with better seek engine scores. preserve your alt descriptions quick and descriptive, the use of only one keyword. google looks down on sites that abuse alt tags for seo price.


Search Engine searching your pictures in eCommerce website.

The way pix seo strategies appear on web sites and the information protected with those snap shots play crucial parts in seo. without right photo optimization, your online retail save is lacking an opportunity to tug in extra site visitors and revel in higher seek engine rankings. If have an internet shop, the following photo optimization tips will help you beat out your opposition in the seek engine ratings:



select the right picture document sorts

document type and length play crucial roles in e-commerce net optimization. JPEG and GIF pictures are extensively smaller than popular PNG photos, but the fine of GIF pics is bad. the solution is to pick out JPEG as an alternative. most important stores which include Amazon use JPEG pix to boom the rate of the internet site's load time with out compromising image quality. This maintains site visitors from clicking away because it takes too long on your web page to load. It additionally allows because Google encourages quicker web page masses through penalizing sites that load too slowly in the search algorithm.

Going returned thru your website’s image catalog to convert to JPEG is not any smooth venture. even as there are internet site tools that will help you limit report sizes, converting all your photographs from one layout to another is a huge task. as a substitute, begin converting to a JPEG format as you add products to your catalog.

don't Overload Your Pages with Thumbnails

Thumbnail pix are crucial to the fulfillment of every on-line retail store. They permit clients to glance at merchandise with out navigating to man or woman product pages for every object of hobby. Too many thumbnail images, but, will sluggish down your load times.

make certain you have simply enough thumbnail pix to keep your customers happy. For maximum stores, the default wide variety of thumbnail photographs in a product seek is around 25, then giving clients options to see greater gadgets in keeping with page if they prefer. that is an ideal balance, letting clients to get a quick response to product searches with out limiting their options or slowing page load.

What to Do After Using a Website Builder

Many people make the mistake of building a website and doing nothing else with it once it is complete. Building a website with a site builder is especially easy to do, and it can be easy to forget that there is more to a successful website than just getting it built. There are many things you need to do after your website is complete.
First, you want to make sure that your website content stays updated. Updated web pages are more likely to be listed in the search engines. It is also important to continually add content to your site, such as additional pages with informative articles. This too will help with search engine placement. If you have a shopping cart, you will need to keep your cart updated and inventory running smoothly. And, if you have a message board, you will need to monitor it closely and add in comments where necessary.
Next, you want to make sure your site gets listed in the search engines, primarily Google. Your first step is to submit your site to the search engines. A good website builder will do this for you or allow for a simple submission method that is easy to follow. Once your site is submitted, you can also submit a site map to Google to make sure that the entire site is indexed. Again, a good website builder will walk you through this process.
The next thing you want to do is promote your website. You will need to promote your website through internet marketing if you want to get listed in the search engines and drive traffic to your site. You can do this by getting links to your site through guest blogging, submitting your site to directories, and through article marketing. These are the easiest ways to use internet marketing to promote your website, and you can find a lot of information about this online.
Once you have promoted your website and gotten listed in the search engine listings, you need to monitor your site to make sure that everything you have been doing is working to your advantage. You can do this by tracking your website’s traffic. There are many tools available for you to do this. However, a good website builder will have website tracking software built in so all you have to do is look at the tracking results. The tracking data should include how many visitors you have had come to your site, how they found your site, and where they are located generally. You can then use this information to determine whether or not your site is generating the type of traffic you need in order to make it successful. If it is not, you can go back and update the content and make sure that everything is search engine optimized to improve numbers.

What People Love About Web Builders

If you are just starting to consider building a website, you might be wondering what all the hype is about with web builders. If you are completely new to building websites, you may not realize why people love web builders so much. Read on to discover the truth about why web builders are so popular.
Cost Effective
People love website builders because they are cost effective. It is much, much cheaper to build a website in this fashion than to hire someone to build a site for you. Getting a website built professionally can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on how complex the site becomes and what you want included, such as a shopping cart. On the other hand, a website builder can be very inexpensive, as low as twenty bucks a month. This is much easier for most people and new businesses to come up with than several hundred dollars at one time.
Online web builders are also often much less expensive than software that you purchase for the same purpose. While you can get website software free or cheap, this software usually does not come with all the features you need for your website, such as shopping carts or message boards. The software that does come with all the bells and whistles is usually almost as expensive as getting a site built for you by a professional, and the software can be difficult to learn.
It is also cheaper than taking courses to learn how to build a website yourself from scratch. It can be difficult to learn how to build a site on your own without help. There are a lot of free resources online that you can use to learn HTML, but for the most part these are complicated and hard to understand. Buying courses that teach you these skills can run in the neighborhood of fifty to a hundred dollars per course, if not more. And, several courses are generally required in order for you to successfully build a site from the ground up with nothing but code.
Easy to Use
Site builders are extremely easy to use. Unlike trying to build a site from scratch, these web applications make it very easy and quick to build a website from the ground up. They are also easier to use than many software programs that do the same thing. Rather than having to go through a lot of features of a website, a good site builder uses an easy point and click system to make changes to the layout and content of your website. They also make it very easy to use to update the website once it is up and running. Not only do they make it easier to build a basic site, but they also make it easier to use great features like shopping carts and message boards.

Recommended Uses for Web Builders

There are many good uses for web builders but they are not for every purpose. There are some websites that will not make good use of a website builder. However, the following list of website ideas is great for web builders.
Personal Websites
There are many personal websites that will be great for using a website builder to create. You can use a site builder to create any number of personal websites, including photo albums and family newsletters. You can use the website builder to create a portfolio of your work to showcase to employers, as well as an online resume to distribute. Essentially, a personal website can include nearly anything you want it to, and a good site builder should be able to handle any ideas you come up with.
Non Profit Websites
Non profits can really make use of website builders. They can appreciate the low cost of these site builders, and make good use of their features. They can allow for a message board for allowing visitors to discuss the issues behind the charity, and they can offer a PayPal donation button easily as well. They can even use the shopping cart software to offer products for sale, for which the profit goes to benefit the organization or the issue behind it. Since non profit websites are largely informative, site builders are a great option.
Small Business Websites
Site builders are also a good choice for small business websites. They can often support all of the features you need a small business website to have, including a shopping cart. They will also be able to support features such as an autoresponder, newsletters, and message boards.
Just because you have a small business doesn’t mean you don’t do big business. Even if you have a lot of products to offer, the shopping cart software with some of the best website builders should be able to handle the volume. There should be no reason why you cannot use a site builder for this reason.
In addition, small business websites can make use of many payment methods easily with the shopping cart software included in the best website builders. It should be a simple matter to set up your shopping cart with payment methods such as credit cards and PayPal, especially if you already have a merchant account to connect to the site. If you don’t have a merchant account already, you will need to get one. Often website builders will recommend one to you that they have partnered with, but this may not be the best one to go with. Shop around and make sure you use the right merchant that will be compatible with your website and shopping cart software.

Blog and Website Editors


  • BlogJet www.codingrobots.com/blogjet/ ) – BlogJet is another really nice blog editor for Windows. They offer a stripped-down version for free, but the full version comes at a cost.
  • IllumineX Ecto illuminex.com/ecto/ ) – Provides the essential word processing features that have become common in programs such as Word, but they also make it easy to integrate images, videos, maps, and more into your website.
  • Kompozer kompozer.net ) – Kompozer is a website creation and editing program that WYSIWYG website editing that allows you to create an HTML website without the need to know any code.  Kompozer is a completely free program that allows you to manage your files and author website content. Review: http://download.cnet.com/KompoZer/3000-10247_4-10655200.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1d#editorsreview
  • MacJournal www.marinersoftware.com/products/macjournal/ ) – MacJournal is an full featured editor that has the ability to post to blogs. You can also record podcasts and videos from inside the app and attach them to your blog posts.
  • MarsEdit www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/ ) – MarsEdit is great currently my personal favorite for the Mac, and what I’m currently using to type this very post. As of version 3, it now has rich text editing (aka WYSIWYG).
  • MyBlogEdit createlivelove.com/applications/myblogedit/myblogedit.html ) – MyBlogEdit is another editor, however you have to write your post in HTML.
  • RocketPosts www.anconia.com/rocketpost/ ) – RocketPost looks to be a pretty nice editor with some pretty handy features for saving time. In several ways, it actually outshines Windows Live Writer. IT comes in at $49 for the multi-blog license, however.
  • Windows Live Writer explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-other-programs?T1=t5 ) – Windows Live Writer is an offline website tool that can be used to manage the content on your website.  Windows Live Writer also allows you to edit any pictures or videos that you may feature on your website.  With its free price tag, it’s tough to beat WLW. The only downside is that it’s only designed for PC’s at the moment (see the Mac options). If you own a PC and run a blog, then there’s no reason to skip the convenience and power of WLW. Review:  http://techcrunch.com/2006/08/13/windows-live-writer/

Graphic Design Tools

  • Graphics for Internet Marketers Mega Graphic Pack ) - This graphics pack for Internet marketers includes 21 modules of graphics all professionally designed. This package is VERY newbie friendly, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to use these. Training is included showing you how to edit these graphics in Sumo Paint, Gimp, or Pixler. (PhotoShop is not required)
  • Graphic Creator Wizard www.diywebsitetools.com/graphic-creator/ ) – This is a free tool that allows anyone to create professional sales page graphics without any PhotoShop skills. The Graphic Creator Wizard gives you the following four graphic creator options: Headline Creator; Buy Now Creator; Belcher Button Creator; Guarantee Creator.

Photo and Image Editing

  • Gimp.org www.gimp.org ) – GIMP  is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

Website Design Reference

  • Web Design Library www.webdesign.org ) – Web Design Library is an internationally refereed resource that provides a platform for the dissemination of design thinking and research. It covers all theoretical and practice-oriented aspects of the effective, efficient and attractive presentation of information on-line. Read more: http://www.webdesign.org/about.php#ixzz1mkc5KNHw

Website Testing, Optimization

  • Browsershots.com browsershots.org ) – This service is free and simple to use. Once you input your website url into the search box, it will return nearly 100 different screen shots showing you how others see your site. This is a very useful tool for trouble shooting problems that end users might report when coming to visit your site.
  • WebsiteOptimization.com www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ ) – This tool tells you how long it takes your site to load at various speeds, it will also suggest areas you can change to improve your site loading time. Page load time is important to conversion.  Pages that take longer than 10 seconds to load more often than not lose their visitor.

Are You Using Your Website to Launch a Product?

A blog is an important tool that your small business can use to launch a new product or service. By engaging customers early and often with your expertise and the promise that you can solve their problems, a blog is a great way to identify new leads in order to sell your latest products to them. Here are some suggestions on how to use a blog for your product launch:

Set Up the Expectations for a Product Launch on Your Blog

Customers should know when your product will launch and specifically when they can expect to receive opportunities to receive discounts and to share those discounts with their friends. Don’t surprise them with your offers and promotions. Give them fair warning that a special offer is coming their way so that they have a chance to build anticipation.
This is especially important because many customers won’t make a purchase the first time at your website. They will need to think over the decision and to be prompted by you to take action eventually. If they know it’s coming, they’ll be far more likely to respond to your promotions during the product launch.

Provide Ways to Keep Your Customers in the Loop

At the end of each blog post about your upcoming product launch, provide opportunities for your readers to subscribe to your blog or email list. Also offer an invite to connect with your company’s Facebook page and Twitter account. These are all simple ways to keep in touch with your customers. In the case of social media and an RSS feed, these provide softer reminders that will keep customers in the loop.
In the case of email, you’ll be able to directly write to your customers about specific service and product opportunities leading up to and including your product launch.

Segment Your Customers Into an Email List for Long Term Growth

If you’re just dumping all of your promotions and launches into one huge mailing list, you may lose subscribers and you won’t be able to write effective copy in order to reach all of your new leads effectively. Some subscribers may just want your free offers for now and will need more time to make up their minds. Others may want to make a purchase today if you can persuade them, but that requires making a very specific sales pitch that your less interested subscribers won’t want to read.
How you write to a lead as opposed to a more committed customer will be different, and that’s why you’ll need to write different kinds of posts that will attract both to your small business website and provide simple ways you can send emails directly to them both.

Ask Your Readers for Feedback

If you want to be in business for long, you’re going to need to plan your next product and your next product launch. Your customers can reply to emails, leave comments, or respond via social media. However, just having these outlets isn’t enough. You need to invite them to leave comments and to enter into the conversation with you.
By providing survey forms or simple prompts to share their questions or experiences, you’ll set up a feedback system that you can use to collect information for your next product. Your latest product may not solve all of your customers’ current problems, and if they’ve already made a purchase from you, they may be willing to give your next product a shot as well.

Provide Customer Support

If you’re already asking customers for their feedback, you’re going to need a way to collect and respond to their feedback. Don’t overlook the importance of training support staff or budgeting time in order to respond to social media and email queries. Your ability to care for customers personally is one of your greatest advantages as a small business. If you can’t effectively manage the feedback you receive, then you may do more harm than good when you ask for feedback, as an ignored customer will become a disgruntled customer.
However, if you can find customers willing to engage with you and to offer feedback, they may also become some of your most loyal customers. They may even help you advertise your next launch. Keep a list of every customer who provided helpful feedback, whether positive or negative, and ask them to help preview your next products before and during the launch in order to create some advance buzz.

How to Plan Website Landing Page Design

Every landing page design tutorial for a small business website design will provide some basic places to start: planning steps, SEO tips, keyword suggestions, and suggestions for which design elements lead to the highest click-through rate. It can be especially overwhelming when you look at galleries of 30-50 perfect landing pages. Where does a website designer begin with planning a successful landing page?

Determine Your Landing Page Focus

The place to start with a landing page is to focus on a specific action related to a specific result. You can’t design your page unless you determine whether you want website visitors to sign up for a mailing list or to purchase a product. If you’re selling a product, then you need to provide sales numbers, endorsements, a special discount, and possibly even a video demonstrating your product.

On the other hand, building a mailing list requires a very different kind of landing page. You’ll need to focus on presenting details that drive home the reasons to belong to your list such as the number of subscribers, the free gift for subscribers, discounts for subscribers, and unique industry insights that only you can provide.

Frame Your Landing Page

Once you have a focus in mind for your landing page, you can move on to framing your website with a  collaborative website design tool called Mockingbird. Mockingbird provides simple website frames that you can build and modify without having to set all of your coding in stone or even build a website in the first place. The drag and drop functionality makes it easy to add elements to your website landing page mockup and then test out which work the best.

If you need to do some split tests of your landing page, something every expert recommends, then you will especially want to look into several variations of your landing page. Mockingbird makes preparing for these tests especially easy since you can develop a couple different versions and tweak each of them based on your results over time.

Mockingbird provides a simple grid layout that easily integrates various text sizes and media elements such as videos and pictures. You’ll have a clear sense of how to lay out your website before you add a single bit of code to your HTML document. In addition, Mockingbird provides a series of common website elements that you can drop right into your website mockup.

Advantages of Mockingbird

Mockingbird is a fully web-based website design tool, so you’ll never have to worry about being unable to access your work when you’re in a variety of locations. This also makes it extremely easy to invite several collaborators to your website project.

If you need to share your mockup with a client, you can export your design as an image or as a pdf file that is easily emailed to everyone with a stake in the project. Edits and overhauls are easily done by resetting your design or dragging and dropping various elements around your design.

The Cost of Mockingbird

Mockingbird isn’t free, but none of the landing page design tools around are free. The least expensive option is $9 per month, which will quickly pay for itself if you need to work with collaborators in different locations.

While Mockingbird provides a very basic service for designers, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the design process and streamlines the process of working with colleagues in multiple locations. You can test out Mockingbird on the cheap and then determine whether it is the best solution for your website design process.

Marketing, Reporting

Constant Contact ( www.constantcontact.com ) – Create a branded newsletter that can be emailed to your reader/customer base at the touch of a button. This service is trusted by many small business owners and is highly customizable. There are more than 400 templates to choose from so you can find one that matches your existing site very easily.

LinkPopularity.com ( www.linkpopularity.com ) – Build your off page SEO by looking at who is linking to your competitors.  See which web pages are publishing content relative to your competition. With that information in hand, you can seek to build your own relationship with that site. If you decide to do this, be sure to maintain the highest professional standards.

Mail Chimp ( www.mailchimp.com ) – MailChimp is a great tool to use to help manage your marketing newsletters.  The program features customizable templates, CMS services such as WordPress and many other features that many small businesses will find useful.  Review:  http://www.pcworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=490567

Marketing Grader by Hubspot ( marketing.grader.com ) – This is an excellent tool to let you know how your website is doing in a wide variety of marketing strategies. Essentially, it produces a report that analyzes what you are doing to bring visitors to your website, keep them there, and then convert them into customers.
Statistics, Research

Alexa.com ( www.alexa.com ) – Alexa.com is a provider of free, global web metrics. Search Alexa to discover the most successful sites on the web by keyword, category, or country. Use their analytics for competitive analysis, benchmarking, market research, or business development. Use Alexa’s Pro tools to optimize your company’s presence on the web.

FreshBooks ( www.freshbooks.com ) – Freshbooks is an online invoicing system that allows you to track the time spent with multiple clients.  This program also lets you send invoices via email or regular mail.  Freshbooks is an easy to use program that allows you to easily track your income and what you are paying out. Reviews: http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/05/freshbooks-invoicing-reports-how-you-stack-up/

Google Analytics ( www.google.com/analytics/ ) – Google analytics is a web business application that helps increase the amount of traffic your website experiences.  Google analytics can also show you how visitors found your website which in turn can help you improve your website to make it run more efficiently.

PDFOnline ( www.pdfonline.com ) – PDFOnline comes in handy because they allow you to convert the document into a PDF format so that all of your intentional indents and embedded graphics stay exactly where you put them. You can convert MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Publisher, Text, or certain images to PDF just by uploading them to the website.
Shopping Carts, Payments

Checkout by Amazon ( payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business/cba ) – The JavaScript code used by Amazon means you will be able to rely on the Amazon servers for your online shopping cart. This means less down time and that your shoppers will be able to use data already securely stored in the Amazon accounts for making purchases. With the popularity of Amazon, consumers will have confidence that your eCommerce shop can be trusted.

Google Checkout ( checkout.google.com/sell/ ) – This service might be the most easy to understand of all the ones listed. In part, this is due to Google’s experience managing large amounts of information. When it comes to integrating Google Checkout as your online shopping cart, there are a wide variety of options, including a mobile check out process.

PayPal.com ( www.paypal.com ) – PayPal lets you sell online to anyone with a credit card. They don’t even need a PayPal account to pay you. You don’t need advanced programming skills to add a payment button to your site. It takes about 15 minutes to get up and running. With low rates and no monthly fees,* PayPal can help reduce your TOTAL processing costs.

Yahoo Ecommerce for Small Businesses ( smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/features ) – There are many layers of service available from Yahoo and they are utilized by more Internet Retailers® Top 500 retailers than any other hosted service. The Yahoo online shopping cart is easy to set up and highly customizable. They also offer customer support over the phone during traditional business hours.

How to Not Fail at Social Media for Your Business Website

It’s easy to set up social media accounts for your small business website, but it’s even easier to get it completely wrong. While social media can be a bit of a moving target at times, there are some basic practices that you should always integrate into your website’s use of social media:

Start with Goals Before Tactics

It’s quite common for business owners to start with “how” to do social media when they really need to think about why they’re using social media and what they hope to gain from it. Once you can strategically figure out where your business is going and how social media can help you accomplish your goals, you’ll have a better idea of how to use it.

For instance, you could focus on using social media to address customer concerns if you don’t create a lot of content on your website. However, if you want to use a blog to drive more traffic to your website, make sure your social media team understands which posts need to be shared and that your blog writers are consistent in their writing schedule. In addition, adding images to blog posts will make them show up better on Facebook and could even lead to more shares on Pinterest if relevant.

Whether you want to build more awareness through generating a large list of followers and fans or you want to generate a list of quality leads, your use of social media will always matchup with  the goals and outcomes for your business website.

Keep Your Social Accounts Personal

The reason why people use social media is for personal contact with a friend, colleague, or family member. While the personal experience of online shopping is quite different from that, social media opens up opportunities to directly assist a customer with a purchase.

The advantage of social media is the personal availability of a business to specific customers. Don’t just have a one way, information dump mentality with your customers. Ask important product research questions, offer feedback to comments, and share the information that will be most helpful to them rather than just throwing press releases their way.

Don’t Overwhelm Readers with Social Media

Social media can be a very positive experience for both customers and website owners, but if you get social media wrong, it can become either ineffective or a liability. For example, inundating readers with a mess of social media buttons at the bottom of your blog posts or in your website’s side bar will not be as effective as three to five specific social media platforms that are used most frequently.

Certain social media buttons will depend on the nature of your business. If you sell household decorating products or anything related to food, then Pinterest is a must. If you’re selling software or technology, don’t even bother with Pinterest. Stick with Facebook and Twitter. While you don’t need every button, carefully choose which ones you make available on your site.

Some bloggers have also started sharing specific lines from their posts as suggested tweets, a practice that may strike some as helpful but could also be perceived as being a little too pushy or presumptuous. Use your own judgment here, but my own sense is that readers will share what stands out to them without being specifically prompted. You could always use bold font to highlight an important point in order to make it stand out without actually telling readers you expect them to tweet a particular line.

Make Action Steps Simple

Don’t lose sales or subscriptions by creating too many steps or leaving action steps vague on your website’s landing pages. When a customer from a social media account lands at a promotional page on your website, make sure the action step is one simple and immediate action that the customer can take. The email sign up form or “purchase” buttons should be right there for them to use. Don’t expect customers will hang around to scroll through your website in order to find a promotion.

If you have a blog post that you’re directing customers to, add an action step at the end of the post asking them to subscribe to your blog or e-newsletter. Always give customers one simple step to take after visiting your site from social media. Chances are they’re just killing time on social media anyway, so they won’t have a lot of patience for a poorly designed website.

Tips and Tools for Beginners to Pros

Whether you are a beginner or professional web designer, you have probably found yourself at a loss at one time or another as to what tools and techniques to use in order to create a user friendly site. This is a common problem in part, because there’s so much available. There are many questions to answer. Do you use an online web builder or buy software? What all needs to take place before your site is ready to be put together? How do you find feature-rich tools that will deliver an outstanding product? All of these are valid questions and should be addressed.
Begin with a plan. Know what your site will contain and how many pages you will create. Remember, there’s always room for more later. Have a budget in mind. Knowing how much you have to spend will help you when deciding how you will spend it. Now for the actual building itself.
There are many ways to build a web page. You can choose to code it yourself or use a wide array of tools and templates. If you want to have complete control of your pages, you’ll want to write your own code. Here, a simple text editor and image editing software will do. This, however, is just the beginning. The following tips will help you start your search for the right tools.
Begin with a framework. Think of this as an architectural framework. Software and web developers depend on it for coding. One way to write code is just to write it all in a file. Another way would be to write your codes separately according to their appropriate places. Web developers often use a framework to make their coding easier and to create it in a more logical fashion. Even if you don’t wish to actually learn in-depth coding, knowing the basics will serve you well. This will allow you to correct mistakes and clean up the generated code.
Validation tools are important to use. They allow you to take a close look at those tiny elements that aren’t acting as they should and figure out why. You can then come up with a solution for fixing the problem. These tools are designed to find issues your own eyes may miss.
The ability to edit various codes such as HTML, CSS, and Java is important. There are tools available that will enable you to inspect and edit your codes on the spot and instantly see the effects. If you are new to coding, such tools will also help you to understand it better. While learning HTML and CSS isn’t especially difficult, it can be tedious. If you find you don’t have the time, consider at least becoming familiar with these two codes. They truly do give you more control over how your pages look and function.
A code generator can also help you build powerful web pages. While this may seem contradictory of learning code and various languages, it can actually help expedite the entire website building process. You can even learn more about coding and web languages from such generators. These also help when you are on a time crunch and in a hurry to get your site up and running.
Utilize web forums. While this may seem a bit off-topic and unrelated to DIY website design, in reality it is closely related. Locate web building forums and ask questions of other developers. This will give you an opportunity to find out what other people are using, what works and doesn’t, and how to get the most out of the tools you have implemented. You’ll also learn about new tools and trends. Exchanging information is one of the best ways to network with others and really learn a craft. Forums are also great resources for problem solving as surely someone else has encountered a similar, if not the same issue as you.
Always proofread all your code and content. There are a great number of web pages currently up on the World Wide Web that contain numerous typos and spelling mistakes. Take the time to carefully read through what you have written to make sure it reads well, will make sense to visitors, and is presented correctly. Spelling and grammar are always very important.
Make sure your site is updated regularly and always test each element on a page before it is published. The last thing you need is to lose a customer because a product link or “buy it” button does not work. Your thoroughness will pay off in a big way in the end.
Be resourceful. Don’t Take the time to regularly conduct searches to find out how other sites look. Updates and changes are always taking place and you need to stay ahead of the competition. Check out what’s around you and evolve with the technology and tools and you’ll remain in the front running in your field.
If you are interested in learning HTML, CSS, and other languages, or if you just want to know more about them and web development in general, visit www.w3schools.com.