In the majority of site visits the Home Page is the first impression a visitor has of you, much like how you would view a store front and make your decision if you would like to shop, eat or drink at their establishment. The decision to investigate further into your site is made within about the first 10 seconds of their visit.  It reflects your product, personality and style.  Different sites use styles to project an image that would attract a particular audience and to captivate that persons attention.  Some examples would be, to catch a childlike mind you want it colorful, with fun music and lots of flash content, where as professionals may want to use strong, bold colors with a sleek, straight line and clean approach.  Most people are not very patient when it takes a long period of time to open a page, and will move on.  You don’t want your visitor to wait too long before being able to see what you have to offer.

The wording, known as content, needs to captivate their interest, making them curious to find out more.  It can be geared toward presenting them with a problem that you have the answer to, and they can access this information by clicking on a link, or a list of catchy titles that link you to pages that go further into the information they are seeking.  The ideas are limitless and all have a common goal, to get visitors to your site and keep them there.  Regardless of your style, the words used in the lists, content, links, graphics, etc…, need to be full of keywords.  Not too wordy, but still rich in words used for searching.  These keywords are what brought them to your site in the first place.  Your site was in the list because Search Engines have crawled through your Home/Index page for keywords.  Search Engines in turn use this information, to return a list of sites that contain the words submitted.   Where you are in that list of results depends on well placed your keywords are within your Home Page.

Well written content will not only help your search engine rankings, it will keep the viewer from moving on to another site.  Content that is enlightening and compelling piques the interest of your readers, keeping them browsing thru your site.  Be persuasive, aim for making the reader believe that the service or product you have to offer is the best to suit their needs.

When putting together enlightening and compelling content full of keywords and phrases, there are some other criteria that need to be met.  Uniqueness has an important role. Content that is copied or wording that is too similar to another site will be recognized by Search Engines as duplicate content.  If plagiarism is suspected and/or found by the Search Engines they will penalize your ranking.  All pages, elements, content, styles, etc., need to be as unique as you are, insuring that your web site rankings are not punished.

Check back frequently for more articles about effective content development for the different pages of your web site.

When sending a mass mailing, you must somehow organize the contact information for all of your recipients. Keeping a list of email addresses is much easier now than saving thousands of mailing addresses used to be. The easiest way to store email addresses is to simply enter them into a text file, putting each address on its own line. Modern mail merge software should be able to interpret that text file and get each address from it. Sending thousands of emails at once is also a challenge, but companies can purchase several programs which make it easier to send HTML newsletters. One handy program is called World Merge. Another option is Auto Mailer. Both of these programs automate the mail merge process, and work with HTML source code to send an HTML newsletter to a list of up to thousands of addresses. Both programs (and many others that are available) are less than $100 for a full version. You can also download and use trial versions to make sure the process works for what you need. Once you automate the sending process, you can then design and build your newsletter.

An HTML newsletter is essentially the same thing as any HTML web page. Creating an HTML newsletter is not complicated, but the many restrictions and limitations of email clients make it difficult. The latest version of Microsoft Outlook, for example, does not support CSS-created background images, so be sure to avoid those in your layout. In fact, many CSS design elements are not fully supported by various clients, so you should be careful choosing which ones to use. Most email clients lack support for floating elements, which is the primary CSS style used as an alternate to table-based layouts in websites, so table-based layouts are the way to go in a newsletter. You must also keep all code within the “body” tags of the layout. When viewing a newsletter in an email with Yahoo! or Gmail, the “head” sections are stripped from the code. Any “style” or “script” tags within the “head” section will not be executed.

Click here to see what CSS elements modern email clients can support.

As a special note, remember to thoroughly test your newsletter before you send it to your customers. An HTML newsletter might be a good way to get repeat business, but a malfunctioning HTML newsletter is an even better way to lose it. Set up a separate list of email addresses that you have control of to see how the newsletter looks before you send it to your official list. This way you can make sure it all looks right (try to test it in as many clients as possible). You can always create free email accounts in Yahoo! or Gmail to have more places to test the email.

Put simply, what should you do to design a newsletter? First, the layout should only be about 600 pixels wide (considerably narrow compared to modern web design standards), to fit inside email clients. Second, don’t put anything inside the “head” tag of your HTML. Third, you will have to use table-based layouts, even though modern web trends shy away from tables as much as possible. Fourth, do not use background images anywhere in your newsletter, as Outlook 2007 will not display them properly. Fifth, avoid javascript, flash, or other dynamic add-ons entirely, as they most likely not work at all. Finally, thoroughly test your email before you send it, to make sure it looks the way it was meant to.

Follow this advice and in no time you will be sending professional quality HTML newsletters to your potential customers.

At Tiger Team Solutions we commonly use DOS batch files to FTP data extracts from applications running locally, for example the Keystroke Point of Sale application.  Using the executable Keystroke Utility programs (standard with Keystroke POS), the retailer’s inventory database can be exported to a delimited file and uploaded for import into a web site database automatically after business hours.

Colonial Wines & Spirits, a long-time client of Tiger Team Solutions, utilizes this process to keep their massive inventory of over eight-thousand(!) products updated daily on their web site and available for online ordering.

The next time you need to automate a data transfer task, give the “old-school” techniques some consideration.

First you need a keyword heavy domain name.  You may think that just naming it your current business name is sufficient but in reality you have to prepare early on in this game to get ahead.  Your best bet is for you to purchase two domain names.  One is your business name which is printed on your business materials and a keyword domain name.  Your business name website then redirects you to the keyword domain.   Of course it has to be available and you may have to come up with a few before you find one that is available for purchasing and it has the keywords that work best for you.  You should use a keyword program that will generate you a list of keywords that are relevant to your business.  You then combine them in a manner that makes some kind of sense and see if that particular site is available.  An example of this is that your greeting card company is named Yesterday’s Rice but your domain name is uniquehandmadegreetingcards.com.  The search engines recognize the keyword domain, that bumps up your page ranking, and the customers just type in your storefront name to find you on the business domain.

Optimizing your meta tags, especially your title tag is the next step to getting your web site noticed.  The meta tag description describes your website’s content which helps the search engine robots find the keyword dense summary.  Some SERP’s use this summary so you want to make sure its contents are enticing to the reader.  You also need to list your keywords in order of importance in the meta keyword tag.  You need to update these every couple of months so that your keywords are the most current.  Be careful of misspellings, use the plural forms of the keywords and do not repeat them too often or you can be penalized for spamming.  Also you need to keep it to a reasonable amount of keywords per page.  The recommended maximum is 25.

The next item on our list is h1 tags.  An h1 tag is used as a page header designation.  It is much like opening up the paper and glancing at the headlines.  Catchy headlines grab your interest and you want to catch the interest of your visitor and the search engine spiders.  You should have only one h1 tag on each page because search engines assume this is the page title and if you have too many it lessens the keyword impact.  Too many h1 tags push your content further down on the page as well and your visitors may decide there is just too much scrolling to try to find the content they are looking for.

Body text needs to be well planned and written so that it is easy to read and understand.  Unless you are a technical website or subject, keep it simple.  Here again you need to take time to do some extensive keyword research.  You want it to be liberally dusted with keywords but also remember to use alternate meanings and spellings.  This is where a thesaurus comes in mighty handy.  The golden rule here is keep it on topic and don’t bore your visitors.

Backlinking is number five on our list to get your website noticed.  The company I work for uses a SEO program that really lessens some of the steps required do to this like auto filling out some of the forms.  Now don’t get greedy and backlink to any website you come across.  If your business is car widgets don’t backlink to a baby product website.  You can also post backlinks in forums but once again stay on topic.  The car widget website owner would benefit most in posting in a car enthusiast forum.

These suggestions are not very difficult but they can be time consuming.  This is where hiring a web development company can be very cost effective.  The business owner can be out there working on a different aspect of their business while the web development company manages the marketing of the website on the internet.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
This is the act of altering a web site so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN. In the past, has also been used as a term for any type of search engine marketing activity, though now the term search engine marketing itself has taken over for this.

CPC (Cost Per Click)
The amount search engines charge advertisers for every click that sends a searcher to the advertiser€™s web site. For an advertiser, CPC is the total cost for each click-through received when its ad is clicked on.

PR (Page Rank)
Google technology developed at Stanford University for placing importance on pages and web sites. At one point, PageRank (PR) was a major factor in rankings. Today it is one of hundreds of factors in the algorithm that determines a page€™s rankings.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)
To put it simply Wi-Fi is a local area network (LAN) that communicates via radio waves. A more detailed explanation is, it is the set of standards for wireless local area networks based on the specifications known as 802.11. It was originally developed for use by wireless devices and local networks. It is now used for Internet access as well. If you access the Internet wirelessly from your computer or personal digital assistant, chances are you are using some sort of Wi-Fi.

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HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
The document format used on the Web. Web pages are built with HTML tags (codes) embedded in the text. HTML defines the page layout, fonts and graphic elements as well as the hypertext links to other documents on the Web.

ASP (Active Server Page)
A Web server technology from Microsoft that allows for the creation of dynamic, interactive sessions with the user. An ASP is a Web page that contains HTML and embedded programming code written in VBScript or Jscript.

IDK
I Don’t Know (keep brushing up on your vocabulary and you won’t need to use this one.)

JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
An ISO/ITU standard for compressing still images. Pronounced “jay-peg,” the JPEG format is very popular due to its variable compression range. JPEGs are not suitable for graphs, charts and explanatory illustrations because the text appears fuzzy, especially at low resolutions.

ROI (Return On Investment)
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

This can also be the problem on a website. You have so many ideas and items of merchandise to sell that sometimes you can get bogged down in the details.  You have gone halfway through your fiscal year and have spotted the problems that did not work and the projects that did.  Now is the time to plan a little spring cleaning for the New Year.  Make a list of the new ideas you would like to implement and the ones you would like to change and contact your web design company to get the ball rolling.  These projects take time to complete. So if you want to meet your deadlines for a new spring launch now is the time to give them a call.  Tiger Team Solutions can take these ideas and help you update and improve your website.

As all business owners know, an early start on projects helps keep you ahead of the game and more organized.  Procrastination is the downfall of many great ideas.  Here are a couple of ways to beat that demon procrastination:

1. Learn to recognize when you begin to procrastinate.  Recognize your procrastination tactics and nip them in the bud before they get too firm a hold onto you.
2. Start off doing small things to get the project started.  You will find it easier to keep the ball rolling if you pace yourself.
3. Write your plan attack down and divide it into small manageable pieces.  Don€™t worry about the finished project just keep hacking away at it one step at a time.
4. Set up your environment around you to limit distractions as much as possible so that you cannot use them as an excuse to do something else.
5. Reward yourself for not procrastinating once you have made a little dent in a chore or paper.  Personally I like to read a chapter of a book that has been sitting there calling my name.
6. Enjoy the freedom and sense of accomplishment now the project is done.  No more nagging yourself to do the job or guilt for doing something else more enjoyable.

The Holiday Season is such a busy time that it can be hard to take the time to make new plans for the New Year.  Now is the time to pull out those plans for new projects and get them started because they can take a little while to complete.  If you want to get a head start on a spring launch now is the time to get the ball rolling.  Time is of the essence to make sure your project is completed within your deadlines.

What is it then you need to solve this problem?  You need to go beyond customer satisfaction and establish a rapport with you customers.  As defined by Merriam-Webster rapport is €œrelation marked by harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity€™.  Doing this during the holiday season only makes good business sense.  Your customers are in a spending mood and their goodwill toward men is spreading like wildfire.  With all these feel good vibes going around you want to be their go-to business.

The main step in developing customer rapport is establishing some kind of common ground.  This is more easily done in a brick and mortar business because you have the opportunity to read body language and your own good attitude to create a relaxing atmosphere to do business.

Utilizing modern technology to get in contact with your customers can be using the telephone, fax, email or business newsletters.  My personal experience with customer rapport is my insurance agent.  I moved 3 ½ hours away from my original agent a few years ago.  She sent a Christmas newsletter out every year letting her customers know how her family was doing, her staff and their families and the various ups and downs of the business the previous year.  I just recently changed agents when she retired and no longer felt any customer rapport or loyalty to the new agent.  I kept her for eleven years because for one, she was a great agent but also because I looked forward to her Christmas newsletter.  I believe that this was a remarkable bit of marketing on her behalf.

Tiger Team Solutions can develop a business greeting card or newsletter personalized to your clients.  This can include a sales pitch, a new slogan, or just holiday greetings to help pass on the holiday spirit.  We want to help you build your customer rapport and in the process help you build a solid customer base from which to launch into the New Year.

A PDF is the “file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange” according to the definition offered by Wikipedia.  As of right now it is an open standard but is being prepared to be submitted to ISO (International Organization for Standardization) for approval as a formal open standard.  There are over 200 million PDF documents out there on the web.  It is becoming the standard for electronic document exchange especially for government agencies and large corporations around the globe.  The benefits of using PDF is that it is viewable and printable on any platform whether you are using Microsoft Windows, Unix, or Macintosh’s OSX.  It looks exactly like the original document and keeps information secure by having digitally signed documents that are password-protected and thus cannot be altered.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free download from Adobe Systems and as of right now they are on version 8.0.  The Reader allows you to view, search, digitally sign and verify any .pdf files.  Now here is the costly part, to purchase the Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional you have to shell out 499 of your hard earned dollars.  Adobe Acrobat is a the original PDF program and has all the bells and whistles your heart could desire but there are a few products out there that are a little easier on the company budget.

CutePDF Writer (www.cutepdf.com) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software.  It has no watermarks and no pop up web ads.  It was selected as one of the “50 Best Free Downloads” by Computer Shopper. 

BullZip PDF Printer (www.bullzip.com) is also freeware for personal and commercial users.  It works as a Microsoft Window printer and converts those documents to PDF documents. 

Primo PDF v3.1 (www.primofdf.com) is another freeware application but this one adds a twist.  It offers a free online service that enables you to upload files and converts them to PDF’s.  This is for customers that do not want to download PrimoPDF to their desktop.  All three of these have the ability to convert anything that can be printed into a PDF format. They all have the same basic requirements to download.  You must have GPL Ghostscript 8.54 or later, which converts PostScript to PDF files and they all  support Microsoft Windows applications as well as Vista.

deskPDF Professional (www.docudesk.com) is a program that you can produce high quality PDF’s and provides similar features as the higher priced products.  You can create secure documents, save web pages such as receipts and convert large Microsoft Office files to smaller .pdf files.  The Professional version is $29.95and supplies one year of free upgrades and support.

Scansoft PDF Converter Professional 4 (www.nuance.com/pdfconverter/professional) allows you to create, edit and convert PDF files.  This program has redaction capabilities which is the “blacking out” of confidential text and has great applications for sensitive material.  It also converts PDF’s into .wav audio files which allows people with disabilities who have difficulties with computer screens to be able to work with less problems.  This program goes for $99.99 but even that it is 1/4 of the price of the Adobe version.

There are thousands of different PDF writers and printers out there for the consumer.  I have just listed a few that either I or one of my associates have had dealings with and have come to rely on.  It is quickly becoming an electronic document age and paper documentation is soon to be a thing of the past.  If you want your documents to remain true no matter the platform they are viewed on or secure enough to hold up in court if necessary then Portable Document Format files are the wave of the future.

Reciprocal links, or backlinks, are basically you link to my website and I’ll link to yours.  You should do about five or ten of these a week.  Remember though that you should only link to sites that are relevant to the topic of your website.  An example being, you sell automotive whatchamacallits you don’t link to a baby boutique.  You could be dinged by a search engine if you have too many links to fly-by-night websites.  Even if it has a Page Rank (PR) of 2, but has significant number of links and appears to be a quality website go for it.  This can be something anyone can do but it can be time consuming.

Another inexpensive way is to add optimized content regularly.  What exactly is optimized content?  Well it is content, the written stuff on your website, that is subject specific and is sprinkled liberally with keywords but still is easily read and understand.  Search Engine spiders love original, relevant to your subject and updated regularly content.  This helps you gain PR and keep it.  You can write the content yourself which is the least expensive route but it can be difficult to think up new subjects and write something about them on a regular basis.  Your other options are to hire a web design company or an optimized content generator.  You get more bang for you buck with the website design company because they can perform more than one task for you and their content is usually fresher and less expensive.

And last but not least is forum posting.  This can be quite easy and very cheap as sign up is almost always free.  First you find forums that are relevant to your particular website.  I usually start with Google but any search engine will do.  You then sign up, fill out your profile and add a signature link that links back to your web site.  You have to keep in mind there are rules on these forums, so you need to read these and they do not normally allow blatant posting of links.  On your signature links make sure that they do not use nofollow links because then your link is useless.  It is always a good idea to create a good reputation by answering questions you know the answers to and signing in on a regular basis.  This can be fun, mostly because you are meeting people who are interested in the topic you are and learning more about your business from others.  Your signature link adds topical links back to your website and these are what search engine spiders are looking for and what you want them to find on your site.  This too can be time consuming though especially if all your time is spent getting and keeping your business successful.

These three simple and inexpensive suggestions are the backbone to online marketing.  They are time consuming though and you may find hiring a website design and development company is well worth the time it saves you.  Many companies have packages that are tiered in price for how much or how little you need.  As with anything a little time and effort can have great payoffs.