The Key to Better Websites Navigation
Importance of the latter :
One of the primary implications of a well-organized / good website, is to keep your visitors in the website. A website is definitely created for a purpose, unless intended for personal use, which is the minority. For example, a portfolio website would want to be visited and it’s content viewed. For companies and internet businesses, your website certainly aims to provide product information, to make sales, or somewhat similar. However, most individuals undoubtly prefer visually captivating designs, so on and so forth. It is undeniable that this causes no harm, but one must put himself/herself in other people’s shoes, as to understand how a visitor to the website might think, do and react.
1 ) Navigation
As I said, a web designer has to learn how to think the way your visitors think.
Situation A : Website with good navigation ( 2-3 hyperlinks to target page ), well planned in terms of placement, and design.
Situation B : Website with poor navigation ( takes forever for the visitor to reach his/her target page ), hard-to-read navigation fonts and poor placement of the navigation buttons/bar.
In Situation A, a visitor will always want to be able to access his/her target page. For example, the individual comes across your website, and is interested in the product sold, but wants to find more information. He/she finds the navigation with no trouble, and enters the particular product information page.
As for Situation B, a visitor stumbles into the website, and would also like to find out more information about the product. Unfortunately, due to bad placement and fanciful font-types, the visitor takes forever, or even fails to find the navigation bar. Even when he/she does so, links to the product information are nowhere to be found, (example : home > about > products > product image > etc…[a few more clicks] > product information ).
Analysis : In both situations, wouldn’t a website with characteristics similar to the Situation A be more rewarding ergo better?
Should I Create a Website? Do I Need One?
People always want to follow the latest thing, be it in fashion, sports, that kind of thing. Websites have become a necessity to almost everyone. Companies, businesses, individuals, even young adults have created personal websites with their respective purposes, be it for profit, or for entertainment.
What one must consider, however, before creating a website, are the factors in which must be put to thought before doing so, such as the cost, maintenance, use, web host and so forth.
Firstly, associating with the cost, we must always try to find an affordable host, not spending too much, nor too little. A cheap host does not exactly symbolize a credible reliability rating, but we must always look for value for money deals. Also, regarding the efficiency and server/web host reliability, there are many cases of web hosts not providing the service they had assured other people, some had even shut down and were nowhere to be seen. Keep this note in mind, as if you would like a long-lasting website, this would be the first thing to look for.
Next, would hiring a professional be affordable? Is it the best option? For simple websites, we could always pick up the coding, or even use programs, as it is relatively simple. However, when it comes to more complex coding, and when you want it to do a tad more than just providing information, hiring help in doing so would be the best way. Not only in terms of design, but security is also a key factor in assuring a quality website. If the website also acts as a portal for businesses, security would definitely be the issue here.
So, having considered the things to do before building a website, do we actually NEED one? If creating one would boost sales or promote positive implications to oneself, then by all means, go ahead and do what’s best. Yet again, planning is the key to success, in everything we do.
Ways To Improve Sales Through Your Website
Anyone who has been marketing online knows that the lifeblood of a business is the traffic of a site. More visitors equal more sales. However, here are some ways that you can tweak your sites with to improve sales without the need to get more visitors.
The first method is to weave in your personal touch in your sales message. Nobody wants to be sold to by a total stranger, but many people will buy what their close friends recommend to them. If you can convince your audience that you are a personal friend who has their best interest at heart, they will be convinced to buy your products. Remember to speak to an individual in your salesletter, not to your whole audience.
The second method is to publish testimonials and comments from your customers. A good idea would be to publish both good and bad comments; that way prospects will be really convinced that these testimonials are real. When prospects see testimonials on your website, they will have the confidence to buy from you because human beings follow the herd mentality; when others have bought and proven it authentic, they will jump on the bandwagon and buy too.
Use visual representations for the problems and solutions that your product offers. Not everyone will read your text copy from the head to the tail, but most people will pay attention to images on your website.
Offer quality bonuses to accompany the product. When you offer bonuses that complement your product, your prospects will feel it’s a very good deal and it would be stupid to miss it. Be sure to state the monetary value of your bonuses so that people will be even more compelled to grab your good bargain.
Lastly, ask for the sale! Many people entice their prospects with the benefits of their product, sell to them with stories of how it has solved many problems, even offered killer bonuses but forget to ask for the sale. Give a clear instruction on how to buy your product (e.g. “click the button to buy now!”).
Improve Usability of Your Website
No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.
The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.
Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.
Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.
Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.
5 Important Rules in Website Design
When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine.
Work From Home Singaporeans
We have just launched Work From Home Singaporeans site and the response has been overwhelming and our membership is going strong.
This website is going to be a site for people who are looking to learn more about working from home. You will get to know like-minded people who are doing so and even venturing to build up a successful online business. There’s a lot for people to learn and through the free audio training program that I and Calvin have planned, you will learn a lot on ways to earn money online, how to find freelancing jobs online, how to build up your very own online business and much much more.
The purpose of the website is to share with people our knowledge in the field of internet marketing and also to extend to people out there, our helping hand during this times of economic instability and recession.
If you are not sure whether this site is for you, we just want to ask, “Do you know what are the benefits of working from home?”
1. Flexibility – Work the hours that you want
2. Control your income – You can determine how much you earn. The more effort you put in, the more you stand to earn.
3. Choose to do what you like to do – you can select the work that you are interested in
and there’s so many more which will be revealed in the site…
Work From Home Singaporeans is made for people, whether old or young, who are looking to increase their monthly income in ways that allow them to work from the comforts of their home.
We DID NOT set up a scam or get quick rich website. We are young Singaporeans who truly want to help fellow Singaporeans in this difficult times of belt-tightening and financial turmoil. There are no strings attached for joining our site. So, just join it with an open heart and mind and be prepared to learn so much more than what textbooks and encyclopedias can teach you about making money through the internet.
Juicy Gift Store Valentines’ Day Promotion
Be sure to take advantage of this promotion to get a special personalized gift for your loved one! You can send your gift to anywhere in the world!
Just go on down to Juicy Gift Store today!
We are looking for budding writers!
We apologise for the lack of updates as we have been busy preparing for our site’s launch and things have been getting pretty crazy around here! One of the craziest things that happened to us was, our site that we are preparing to launch in September was hacked TWICE in a day!
We seriously were really panicking every single moment from the time we found out about the hacking and the hackers to the first time we resolved it. Then again, when we found out they hacked again and tried to resolve it again! Goodness! It was really crazy! So well, I think my programming team must have suffered quite a bit that day!
Now, it is sort of like a mad rush where there’s so many things to do but so little time! But oh well, thank God that everything’s still on track yeah!
Anyway, we’re looking for budding writers who would like to showcase their written works. We’re planning to come up with a platform for people to showcase their original works. It will definitely bring about loads of exposure and even traffic to their personal blogs, websites, online portfolio etc. So we welcome individuals to submit their poems, short stories, interesting articles, fact &/or fiction, reviews etc.
So, if you are one writer who is eager to show the world your works, do email us with your contact details and/or your works and we’ll get in touch with you! 
Also, we definitely welcome advertisers or organizations who would like to find out opportunities for them to contribute their own product write ups or advertorials.
Advertisers and organizations who are interested to find out more, please email us for advertising enquiries and to get further details.
Free Stuffs Directory Launched!
We are glad to announce that we have launched our Free Stuffs Directory where you will be able to get all the listings of fr.ee stuffs that you can get online! Free Stuffs Directory has a variety of categories and hundreds of links to websites that offer you REAL FR.EE STUFFS! You can be sure to get something that you want for FR.EE! From electronics to coupons to games.. you can be sure to find something that you like, want and need from the site!
At Free Stuffs Directory, you’ll be able to get free stuffs and bargains from the listings on our sites. Popular free downloads such as free mobile ringtones, free music, free videos and free screensavers are among our hottest free items that you can get. You can be sure to find something for free – from a LCD TV to a iPhone, that you will like!
Got something that you are giving away for free?
Free Stuffs Directory allows you to not only find free things but also lets a business owner or any individual advertise with us. Just sign up with us and drop a link to your site from us and have many members going down to your site to check out your free gift!
You can be sure to increase exposure and web traffic to your business and website through Free Stuffs Directory. Just simply list your website and free item with us or advertise through us!
So, what are you waiting for? Do check out Free Stuffs Directory today!
Juicy Gift Store now OPEN!
We’re so proud to announce that the Juicy Gift Store is now open! 
After 2 months of preparation, we’re ready to launch our very own personalized gift store! We have a whole set of products that are ready to be customised with your VERY OWN DESIGNS! Who said creating your own product is expensive? Wait till you drop by and see how affordable our products are and how easily customizing them to your liking is!
Juicy Gift Store is where you can get your very own personalized items at a really affordable price! You can simply upload your very own designs and personalize the hundreds of products that we have! Create unique personalized gifts with our entire series of accessories, items, key chains etc.. with pictures of you and/or with your loved ones!
Also, you can easily have your personalized gifts sent to ANYWHERE in the world! Always wanted to get your special someone who is staying overseas, a special gift? Well, you can customise your gift with a special unique design, upload it and ‘paste’ it onto any of our products and have it shipped within 5 to 8 working days! Rest assured that our products are of great quality and worth every dime of your money! You can be sure that it will arrive in the hands of your loved ones in perfect condition, as though.. You Just Bought It Off A Gift Store’s Shelf!
You don’t have to waste time getting the gift, running to have it wrapped and delivered by expensive courier service because we do it all for you WITHIN MINUTES! You can conveniently save time and get a great, unique gift that will make the day of your loved ones!
No more worries of having forgotten to get that anniversary, birthday or Valentines’ day gift because you can get everything done in a jiffy! You’ll be surprised also at how our gifts will make your loved ones happy!
So, drop by Juicy Gift Store to get your personalized gift today!
We’ve got a special coupon for you!
Get a customized mousepad at only USD 2.99 each with free shipping! Just enter in MSPD88 when you’re checking out your item!
Enjoy shopping today!!
