Finding the Right Professional Website Builder for Your New Business

When you’re beginning a new business online, you want to create a website that will be professional and recognizable. Finding the best professional website builder will help you develop the perfect website to represent you and your business.

Why use a website builder? Using a website builder saves you money by combining numerous features of a traditional website program into one easy to use program. Website builders are also easy to use. They offer you a way to build a professional presence online without the need of knowing alot of technical stuff or html.

When choosing a professional website builder, remember to consider the following features which are must-haves when building a professional web presence for your business:

Domain names and hosting -
Does the website builder have the capability to provide you with a domain name, or will you have to go to another source to purchase the name you want? A better website builder will have the ability to sell you the domain name and host the website once it is built. If you have to purchase the domain name and hosting separately, it will end up costing more in the long run.

Newsletters, auto responders, and message boards -
If you’re going to be selling products on your website, you’ll want a way to communicate with your customers. You can do this in a number of ways. Create newsletters to announce sales, use an auto responder to automatically give them further pre-planned information, or allow them to tell you what they think in a message board. A professional website builder platform will allow you to do this, and much more.

Catalogs and coupons -
You have a physical catalog that you can mail to potential customers. Wouldn’t it be better to have one online, as well? Choose a professional website builder that allows you to create a virtual store on the web. And, if you really want to impress your customers, throw in coupons for additional savings. They’ll appreciate the savings, which may mean more repeat sales.

Shopping cart -
When someone is interested in a product on your site, you’ll need to have a shopping cart for them to place that item. Choosing the right professional website builder will provide this function. If the builder you’re looking at doesn’t provide this, you might want to look elsewhere.

Templates and image libraries -
Some website builders have templates that you can use, and some even provide some images that you can add to your site. However, a really good professional website builder will have more than just a few. Look for a builder that has over 300 templates and 2,000 images available to you. The more templates and images you have available, the better to create just what you have in mind.

24/7 Support -
Most importantly, when you’re starting a new online business, you want to be sure that you’re able to contact someone if there’s a problem with your site. Check to be sure that the website builder you choose has free support around the clock.

Keeping the above features in mind when choosing a website builder will help you to choose the right professional website builder for your new business.

Click here for a free 10 day trial of Brooks Web Solution’s Professional Website Builder.

The Importance of Developing an Online Payment Processing System

Develop an Online Payment Processing System
by Regina Baker

There are a number of reasons why your business can’t succeed without online payments. If you place your business online, it is absolutely essential to ensure that you have an online payment system where your customers can easily purchase the products and services that you have to offer.

When you set up an online payment system, you will immediately notice a drastic increase in your overall sales. Here, I will provide you with some basic information on online payments. This will include steps that you will need to take to get this going, as well as some advantages associated with doing this.

Developing an Online Payment Processing System

Developing an online payment processing system can be a challenging task. However, it is one that is well worth the time and the effort. When developing your online payment processing system, consider the following:

1. The very first thing that you have to do is determine how much money that you can budget in each month that will pay for an online payment processing system. Many of these systems will require that you pay a startup fee, as well as a monthly maintenance fee. Be certain that you read the complete terms of agreement prior to committing to having this type of system put into place on your business website.

2. The next thing that you will need to do is calculate how many sales, on average, that your business experiences. This will help you to establish whether you need a simple online payment system or a relatively complex one.

3. When choosing an online payment system for your business, it is absolutely imperative that you invest in an online fraud protection service. If you fail to do this, you may suffer tremendous financial losses.

Advantages of an Online Payment System

When you have an online payment system for the business that you conduct online, there are a number of advantages. The following outlines why your business can’t succeed without online payments:

1. Having an online payment system will allow your customers to pay quickly and conveniently without the hassle of paying by check and money order. This means that you are more likely to experience more sales overall.

2. Having this system in place can actually enhance your credibility as an online business.

3. The speed of the transactions not only satisfies your customers, but it will also increase the speed in which you experience profits as a whole.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many reasons why you should implement the use of an online payment system. Your business cannot be successful without one. If you do not have this in place as of yet, it is important that you get on it as soon as possible. By not doing so, you are distinguishing many opportunities that may await you.

About the Author

Regina has been an online and offline entrepreneur and internet marketer for over ten years. She is a Certified Business Coach at ReginaBaker.com. As Co-Founder of Wahmcart.com a web based ecommerce solution (secure shopping cart, affiliate software, tracking and the follow-up management system) for small businesses, Regina is also a Ecommerce Resident Expert and Founder of ShoppingCartFaq.com, a frequently asked questions website concerning shopping carts, autoresponders, tracking and affiliate management systems.

Five Reasons Why You Need a WordPress Blog

Back in December, I decided that I wanted to try something new and fresh with my website. I was also getting tired of the standard websites with their uniform look and I didn’t really feel like I was getting any benefit from it. So, I did a bit of research and decided that I wanted to try a blogging platform and after a bit more research, I chose WordPress.

Before I fully converted to the blog, I was receiving approximately 900 unique visitors each month.

- By January, one month after I converted, I was receiving 1300 unique visitors.

- By February it had grown to 2500 unique visitors

- In March, it had grown to 4000 unique visitors in the month.

That is four times the traffic I started with!

So, let’s look at the top five reasons why you need a WordPress blog:

1. Blogs are User-Friendly and Very Easy to Use

The upside to having blog software as opposed to a website is that it is very user-friendly. The blog uses a GUI, or a graphic-user interface, which means that that everything that you may need to do is laid out in simple to understand graphics. The blogging software also conforms to the standards of most other software programs. For example, the graphic icons you see in Microsoft Office programs are very similar to the graphics you’ll see inside of your blog.

The reason that this is so important is that YOU can update your OWN website and you don’t need to pay high prices in web design fees to do so! There is no messing around with HTML code, you can avoid having a dull, lifeless site that people only visit occasionally and instead, you can update it yourself and give people a reason to return again and again and again.

The other upside to this is that when you want something changed quickly, you can do so. You no longer have to wait on a web designer or a virtual assistant, you can just pop in to the dashboard and update the page you need to make changes to and click save and boom – you’re done!

Making regular posts is also easy to do. In a few, short clicks and then some keystrokes for the body of your post, you can have fresh, new content on your blog immediately. If you’re feeling particularly creative one day, you can write a series of posts and save them all to post on future dates. For me, I will write eight or nine blog entries at a time and save them to post one or two days apart. This is also useful if you are going on vacation. In February, my husband and I went to the Dominican for a vacation and before I left, I wrote blog entries to cover the week I was gone and just posted them in advance. On the days that I specified, my blog entries showed up on the blog!

2. Blogs Are Easy to Navigate

All blogs follow a fairly standard style of formatting and navigation. Although each template may look different, they all contain the same standard elements. When I visit a blog, I always know where to go to see Recent Posts. I also know that on the majority of blogs, I will be able to find a place to subscribe to the blogs feed. A feed is simply a syndication of your blog entries. That syndicated text is then sent out to your blog visitors feed readers and is sent out to the search engines, etc. This is part of the reason that blogging is so powerful in getting people to your site.

Have you ever visited a website where every menu has been different and each sidebar contained different text depending on where you were on the website? Those types of websites are confusing and they don’t lead the website visitor where they should be going. With blogging software, it remains standard and is always updating itself. When you make a change on one sidebar, it automatically updates on every other sidebar which eliminates any sort of confusion for your website visitors.

A great book I want to recommend is Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think.” Even if you don’t design websites, you want to read this book. A lot of the reasons that I love blogs are outlined in his usability section. He references making websites more functional by following his principles but what is so great is that a blog already conforms to many of his standards.

3. People Can Subscribe to Your Blog and Stay Current

Now, I want to explain what RSS is first. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What it is is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts. People who are into blogging will use your RSS feed to do a few things:

- They may subscribe to receive a daily digest of new content. Think of how powerful this is in terms of keeping you in touch with your target market. If someone receives constant, updated messages from you, you are always in their line of sight and they will see what you are up to, new products or services you are launching and how much knowledge you have on your chosen subject.

- They may also add you to their feed reader. I have a program that I use called Feed Demon and this software program tracks all of the blogs I am interested in by capturing and updating the feed that comes from the blog. Each day I can open up this software program and have an instant summary of every blog I have subscribed to and I can review what it is people are talking about. This allows me to stay current without having a thousand bookmarks in my internet browser or trying to remember which blogs I liked to read. The same is true for your visitors. They want a quick, easy way to be reminded that you exist and that you are posting things that they want to know about.

Normal sites don’t do this for you unless you are putting out a monthly ezine that contains all of your business updates. By having the blog, you can nearly cut out the monthly ezine and just let the blog do the work for you!

4. Search Engines Love Them and They Are Content Managers

In fact, it’s so easy to build content on your blog that I have actually created info-products based on content I had blogged about over the past year. Info-products become simple to do because you aren’t creating fresh, new content each and every time. What you blog about could become an article which could turn into an e-book. Blogging gets you into the habit of writing and creating which then allows you to easily and effortlessly create info-products.

Your visitors will also love this because when they show up on your site looking for assistance in your chosen profession, they can find a whole archive of great content. Most of my blogging clients will archive their past newsletters or e-zines on their blogs so that their clients can read past issues without having to download PDFs or visit thirteen or fourteen different web pages.

Search engines love blogs for a number of reasons. Number one, they love the fact that fresh, new content is being posted all of the time. Even if you are only updating it once a week, you will still see the benefits from it. Each and every time you post something to your blog, the search engines are automatically pinged and if you have pinging software installed, which is free and simple to use, it’ll automatically ping the different services that should be pinged.

Number two, search engines love hyperlinks and trackbacks. Hyperlinks are links to other people’s websites, blog entries, audio files, etc. and track backs are special links from someone else’s blog entry that let the other person know you’ve blogged about him or her. It also posts YOUR entry on their site for other people to read. This is how blogging also becomes so viral.

5. They Become an Active Networking Source for Your Business

For me, I have met a number of brand new people through my blog. Some of these people became clients, others were just frequent readers that became friends and others asked me to collaborate with them on special projects. By having a blog, you can become a place where people visit to learn about what it is you are writing about but also so that they can meet you, get to know you and someday work with you. You can build a community and allow other people to meet through you which then allows people to talk about you and get your name out there.

If you think of standard networking, you think of people showing up to an event for about an hour, rushing through the crowds trying to get business cards and then leaving the event and never really having a true feeling of connection. I’m sure we’ve all experienced this. Blogging gives your interested parties a place to come to learn about you. They can start to see how you both would benefit from knowing each other and they will be more apt to approach you over time. This is a much more effective way to network and you don’t need to worry about your business card being thrown in the trash.

Another way that it becomes a networking tool is when you reach out to other people’s blogs. Once you start blogging, you will quickly realize that the whole world is blogging and there are many great things to be read. By visiting other people’s blogs and leaving comments on their posts, you will do two things: one, you will introduce yourself in a non-threatening or non-imposing way to someone you may not have wanted to just e-mail in the past and two, by showing that you have interest in that subject on their blog, you’ll gain interested visitors who share similar interests.

– About the Author –

Erin Blaskie is the owner of Business Services, ETC http://www.bsetc.ca. BSETC is a virtual assistance company that gives freedom to small business owners, coaches and speakers by managing the BS, etc.

– For More Information –

Erin has a blog located on the main page of her website in which she provides advice on small businesses and running a virtual assistance company. She has recently started a free bi-weekly telecall for virtual assistants where they can come together with other VAs and get support. You can find out more on the website at http://www.bsetc.ca

If you want to know more about our services, please contact Erin at erin.blaskie@bsetc.ca

14 Reasons Why You Need a Website

by Jonathan James Aston

Jonathan James Aston is an online entrepreneur and owner of HowToWebsite.co.uk, the leading online resource for tips, guides, tutorials and other resources on How To Build A Website as well as how to design, market and money money from your website.Jonathan Aston is also Managing Director of Web Design West Midlands

Productivity Tools for Direct Sellers

Direct Selling 2.0: Three Techniques For Improving Your Productivity
by Linda Rogers

The direct selling sector is a large contributor to economic growth in the US. According to numbers reported by the Direct Selling Association, more than 50% of American adults say they have having purchased services or goods from a direct sales representative. Additionally, one in five American adults reports having been or currently working as a direct seller.

Many direct sellers are attracted by the flexibility of work hours and the opportunity to develop personal business connections. Yet, relatively few direct sellers ever achieve truly substantial earnings. Part of this is because of the time commitment required and the difficulty in selling productively.

However, a number of new productivity tools ranging from online communication systems, to sharing your desktop apps and free conference call solutions are most definitely making selling easier for direct sellers. This commentary look at three major areas in which direct sellers can work more productively.

Tip 1: Use a newsletter customization application

For many direct sellers, online communication is a critical component of maintaining relationships and prospecting new ones. We have moved far beyond the days of mere Outlook merge! New offerings by companies such as Constant Contact, EmailLabs, and MyNewsletterBuilder enable direct sellers to generate templates in which preconfigured content can be added.

This content could outline announcements about new product availability, incentives for higher performance, updates on shipping schedules, etc. The key is that these systems enable direct sellers to generate professional looking content using a fraction of the time that earlier methods would have required.

The more sophisticated offerings provide tracking capabilities. These tracking capabilities can provide everything from the open rates for e-mails to the click-throughs on links. These services also typically manage the unsubscribe function in order to facilitate compliance with spam laws.

Tip 2: Use a free teleconferencing service

In the last few years, there have been literally dozens of companies launching free teleconferencing services. All of them work on the same basic principle: they give you a PIN and a toll number to dial. If all users dial the same toll number and enter the same PIN code, they are put into a group call. Active direct sellers can potentially save hundreds of dollars a month by using such services.

The newer services offer extra functionality relevant to direct sellers. Examples include call recording, listen-only PIN codes for training and education situations, and content archiving. One such service is Rondee.com, a conference call offering which provides web scheduling.

Tip 3: Use an application for desktop sharing

Desktop sharing can be of vital importance for the direct selling entrepreneur. Whether it‘s sharing a PowerPoint document illustrating the features and benefits of a new product or a spreadsheet showing the performance of various down-line members, desktop sharing can be extremely useful.

One could just e-mail out the presentation or attachment to all participants. But a desktop sharing application enables the presenter to control the presentation and pace of the material. And more feature rich applications such as those offered by Yugma or WebEx allow the presenter to switch control over to other participants.

Some users choose a best-of-breed strategy and use different systems for conferencing and desktop sharing. Increasingly, however, conference providers are bundling desktop sharing functionality into their core service. Either way, direct sellers are benefiting.

About the Author

Linda Rogers is a native of California. Rogers‘ work for Rondee.com‘s free conference call service is typified in her voluminous commentaries on telecommunications topics.

Click here for more Productivity Tools for Direct Sellers

Internet Home Business: 5 Tips To Make Your Web Site Grow Your Business

Your website can help you succeed with your internet home business, or it can cause you to fail if it is not optimally set up. In order for your internet home business to be successful, your website must well set up so that it attracts the traffic you need, and so that the visitors who will come to your website will make you some money. What hints must you heed in order to make sure that your website will effectively promote your products or services and encourage visitors to actually buy from you?

A tidy and professional looking website is very important if you want your internet home business to succeed. Your website is your store front, and you need to create very good first impressions, otherwise you lose potential customers.

Whatever your internet home business, you have a lot of competitors; there are thousands of other businesses and websites from which customers can choose from. Website surfers and customers expect an efficient and easy to navigate website where they can easily get what they are looking for. It is therefore important that you have a website which is easy navigate. This means that your website must clearly show what you are selling; information and images of the products you are offering must be easy to find in your shopping section of your website; and they must be very clear to view. It is also important that your pages load quickly. Various customers prefer various options for completing an order form and paying for the products or services; so it is important that you offer these options of your website for your customers, otherwise you will lose customers and potential sales.

Your website is there to make you money, so use various techniques that encourage visitors to buy. It is therefore important that you present your website in such a way that every visitor or customer is presented with an opportunity to browse your site and to buy more. More sales means your internet home business will succeed.

One way to entice visitors to buy is to include product reviews or satisfied customers’ feedback on your products, which tends to encourage visitors to buy. It is also important that you draw attention to the products’ key benefits. If you sell a wide range of products, next to any main product, include some other complementary products which the buyer may need. This will encourage your visitors to buy more that one product from your website, which means your internet home business will make your more money.

Customers need to feel secure while they do online business transactions or purchases. It is therefore important to have your contact details on your website if you want your internet home business to succeed. After-purchase service is very important, especially for online transactions. It is therefore critical that customers know who you are and how to contact you after they’ve made a purchase, or if they need further information about your product or service before they decide to purchase. Your contact information should be clearly visible on your site. The success of your internet home business depends on your credibility – and the first step in building your credibility is to be easily available for your customers.

It is also critical that you check your website’s emails regularly in case there is a customer needing some help. You will need to be available as needed so that you keep your business running smoothly and your customers satisfied, which potentially creates repeat business for you.

For your internet home business to be successful, it is important that you constantly improve your website or products/services, and you can achieve this by having a feedback form on your website. For your internet home business to succeed in the long term, you must be constantly improving your service and products, and stay in tune with your customers’ needs. By making sure that your website has the 5 features outlined above, your internet home business will be successful and profitable.

I Need a Website But I Don’t Have A Lot Of Money

Just starting a new online venture? Maybe your site has become outdated and you need a more attractive site to provide a more professional look. A website builder may be your answer.

What is a Website Builder?

A website builder is a web-based application that allows you to build a website in no time flat. Website builders have been around for several years on the Internet but were for the most part unpopular due to the finished product. Most site builders provided a very cheesy look with huge navigation buttons and large header banners and a very primitive layout. This made for a very unprofessional site that screamed “amateur”. Those days have since changed. With the advancement of development languages site builders can now produce very professional and jazzy designs.

Do I have to know HTML?

This is the great thing about website builders. You need not be a web designer or a programmer. If you can follow simple instructions and feel fairly comfortable typing, you can have a website online in a few hours. A website builder comes with complete instructions to guide you in real-time as you build your website thus taking the guesswork out of site development.

How much does it cost?

Many website builders can be purchased as a package with web hosting. This is especially appealing as it assures compatibility of your website building application with your web hosting. It can be very frustrating to have to purchase a website builder application and install it on your web host and that is assuming that all goes well.

Most web hosting/site builder packages start at $4.95 per month with support if you have problems while building your website. You can also add eCommerce capabilities to your website which would allow you to sell products or services online but this will cost you a whopping $9.95 per month for an entry level package! Website builders are worth a long hard look if you are on a budget and cannot afford the services of a web design company.

What happens when I want to change the look of my web site?

Another advantage of website builders is that they come with from 100 to 10,000 preinstalled templates that allow you to change the look and feel of your website whenever you like. You may need to change your pictures in some instances but this generally takes little time.

Can I modify my website without using site builder?

After your site has been completed your web pages are transferred to your web directory in the form of HTML documents for viewing by visitors on the Internet. Most companies that provide site builders allow you to edit your pages with a standard HTML editor. This gives you a lot of flexibility in the event that you would like to add a feature(s) to your pages that are not offered in the site builder.

If you are on a budget and don’t want to risk investing a lot of money by having your site developed by a web design company then maybe you should consider a website builder. You invest a total of $10.00 to start and if you don’t like it in most cases you can cancel your account at any time.

Bueford Copeland is a Technology Consultant and has been managing computer networks on the Windows and Linux platforms for 10 years. To obtain web hosting, website builder services and for affordable domains names please visit 561Design Group.