EZ Blog...

UK Boxing Day Online Sales Break Records

2010-01-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

If you are someone who likes to traipse around the shops, fighting shoppers and trying on clothes which don’t fit you, before standing in queues of sweaty bodies, then you need not read this article. If, however, you would prefer to shop from the comfort of your own home, then read on.

Boxing Day online sales for 2009 broke all previous records in the UK. It was sales galore leading up to Christmas and people were even found to be hunting for bargains on Christmas day itself! More and more high street retailers are choosing to sell online and ecommerce has become an all important feature for any major retailer.

Ecommerce, or online shopping, is a great way to start up in business because people can find you and buy from you, all in one hit. If you have your own website, then using an online shop facility means that your products are visible and they are accessible without anyone having to leave the comfort of their own home. People love to shop online – it’s as simple as that. We are becoming an increasingly immobile society that seeks instant gratification, and if people can buy from you whilst making the dinner and hoovering the lounge, then they will!

The most economical way to start your own business is to set up a website with a website builder and there are many of those around. You can literally be set up within moments using the range of templates provided and you will start to pop up in search engine trawls from the minute you publish it. Once you have your website set up and your business registered, an online shop could be the best way for you to get quick sales, depending on the type of product that you sell.

Make your website easy for customers to navigate and let them see how easy it is to buy from you. The easier it is, the more likely they are to stay with you. People don’t want to have to trawl through endless sites and pages to find what they are looking for. They are easily bored so it’s important to capture their interest from the outset. Make your products clear, your pricing structure clear and your pages easy to navigate with good links from one to the next. Joe Bloggs wants a Christmas present for his sister in a certain colour and for £30. He wants it as quickly as possible and he wants it to be delivered within a few days. Consumers know what they want and it’s a consumer-led market.

Think about what you would do when shopping for Christmas or a birthday and what you would want from an online shop. Then adapt it to your own business and your own market. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer and start thinking about you can capitalise on this. Make your website customer friendly and start to see your sales rise next Boxing Day! You don’t need a high street presence to make your business work.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

10 Essentials For Your Business Website

2010-01-11T13:26:00.000-08:00

Your business website is only as good as its content and its usability. Without a well-thought out design and plan, your site is not likely to generate sales for you and your site will be just another one of millions. It needs to give you an identity which is unique in its own field.

So what should your business website have to make sure that you get noticed, generate new business and enhance customer brand awareness?

Well of course you need to make sure that it’s aesthetically pleasing and that you think about colours, layout and so on. But there are other essentials which people fail to acknowledge and we have listed some of them here. Without them, your website could create a negative experience for visitors and fail to give you the return on your investment that you are looking for. They are not complicated essentials and they are by no means rocket science but they are, nonetheless, important.

Contact details and map

How is anyone going to find you if you haven’t put your contact details on there? You need your name, your address, a telephone number and an email address. People won’t spend hours looking for you and trying to trace you – they’ll just go elsewhere and find another site. It sounds basic but make sure you have these details on your site and that they are clearly visible from the home page as well as other pages.

Having a map of where you are gives customers peace of mind that you actually do exist and that they can find directions to you using a postcode search, perhaps on Google.

A ‘contact us’ form

Give customers a chance to contact you in their own time and from the comfort of their own computer. These forms mean that they can fill out a simple form with questions they may have and you can either call or email them back. Plus it saves them the cost of a phone call. Please ensure that you do respond - sounds obvious but it’s essential!

Photos and videos

Make sure you add a photo of you and your team if you have one. No it’s not being vain! It means that people can see who you are and it assures them that you are real! The more ‘authenticity’ and ‘reality’ you apply to your website, the more drawn in people become and the more they are likely to think that you are a genuine business which has its customers in mind.

Using relevant video footage can add a three-dimensional look to your site and is just another way to show people that you are real and that you understand their needs.

Newsletters and sign up facilities

Newsletters are a very important part of any business, particularly if you’re a new business. Sending out regular newsletters is a way to involve your potential audience. Allow them to sign up and opt out of your newsletters and you can then draw them in with a capturing, well-written letter on a regular basis.

Customer feedback and testimonials

One of the most powerful selling tools comes from word of mouth from others. If potential customers can see that others have used you and were happy, they are more likely to use you themselves. The feedback and testimonials will ‘speak’ directly to your audience and add yet another dimension. And don’t make them up! Make sure you get genuine feedback which can be accounted for.

Email to a friend button

Allow your visitors the chance to email the link to your site to a friend. What better way to get noticed than if someone else says to their friend “hey look what I found”? It can save you a lot of effort in getting the message out there.

Social bookmarking buttons

Social bookmarks are public web pages which allow you to list the links to all your favourite websites. They are a way for customers to tell others about you and that they like you. There are countless social bookmarking sites out there now and can be found with a quick Google search.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn links etc.

Again, it’s all about bringing the personal touch into your website and giving people the chance to ‘interact’ with you. These links will mean that your visitors can tell their friends about you and share your website link with others on their own Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages (to mention just a few). It’s all about networking and having a presence. Gaining brand recognition; being noticed and being recognised.

Blog

Give people the chance to see what you have been up to and what you have to say. Using your own blog can be a great way to enhance SEO for your site and introduce regular new content which the search engines love. It keeps your site current and fresh. It adds another dimension to your site and shows people that you are interested in them. It can include a range of topics which can promote discussions and further interest in your site.

A completed site

An incomplete site will mean that people think you are either not trading or that you are not a very reliable business. Make sure that all page are completed and that your site has credibility. Using a website builder makes this process much easier and there is online help available.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Design a new Twitter background for EzWeb123 and win $100.00!

2010-01-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

It's official - our twitter background (http://twitter.com/EzWeb123) is completely dull :-)

As such, we're launching a competition for someone to design us a more appealing one.

In the process the winner will win a cool $100, plus enjoy the 'fame' of having their masterpiece permanently displayed on our twitter page.

To enter, you need to do the following:

1. Get inspiration from our home page: EzWeb123.com.
2. Include our logo and strapline 'Over 2 Million Websites Built Using SiteMaker'. You can grab our logo from our home page.
3. Be big, clear, bold
4. Use our colours (see home page)
5. Convey the message that anyone can easily build a website with EzWeb123.com.
6. In your design, include a link to our website: www.EzWeb123.com
7. In your design, include a link to this Blog: http://ezweb123.blogspot.com/
8. Make sure that the logo and information is displayed over to the left in a column. This is so it will be visible.
9. Save your design with the .jpeg file extension.
10. Email your entry to: peter@ezweb123.com

Terms:

* Competition Closes: Midnight February 1st 2010.
* Winner will be chosen shortly thereafter and paid via Paypal.
* You can enter as many entries as you like to try and win.
* All entries will be published both on the Blog and on our twitter page as the competition progresses.

Finally...

Why not follow us on twitter - you'll be kept up to date on all entries, plus can get all member updates going forward.

Thanks and good luck!

Peter
EzWeb123.com

How to create a website for your beauty salon

2010-01-07T10:35:00.001-08:00

So you can cut and colour people’s hair, exfoliate skin and make women beautiful but you also need a website that’s cutting edge and manicured to perfection so that it will draw in those customers and generate business for you.

Your website can contribute to the marketing mix of the common Four Ps – price, place, product and promotion. You can proportion these elements as you see fit in your website, depending upon what you want from the final outcome.

So let’s get down to business on how to create that perfect website for your beauty salon and get those customers queuing up around the block.

1. First of all, get yourself a website builder. There are many of them out there online and they offer a range of free options, with additional add ons. The website creator tool will allow you to create your own professional looking website within moments and you will be part of the World Wide Web, selling your wares to an audience as big as you want it to be. Update it anytime you need to and make sure you tell people where to find you. Be visible!

2. You’ll want to include in your website a ‘products and prices’ page so that your customers know how much you will charge them before they book with you. And make sure you’ve done your homework so that your prices are competitive. Maybe offer something unique – a few specials. Keep this page up to date as paying customers will hold you to it!

3. Including some positive video footage of staff at work in your salon would be a useful addition to one of your web pages so that potential customers can interact with your site and see for themselves the look and feel of your boutique and what they can expect from the whole beauty experience. Show them how special they could feel if they came to your salon.

4. Your website may also want to include testimonials and customer reviews. This could be an area where they can leave feedback about the service they received from you. You can monitor it to make sure that nothing untoward is posted and the positive feedback will be a great referral marketing tool for future custom.

5. A gallery – now what could be better for a salon website than photos of what you can offer in terms of treatments and so on? Pictures of happy clients or even models showing off your fantastic expertise. This could turn out to be your main seller and visual aids are always more effective for this sort of service than walls of text. Splash them with lots of colours that capture the essence of relaxation and all things beautiful.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

How to create a website for your Vacation Rental

2010-01-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

Trying to sell your vacation rentals in the old fashioned way? Don’t just do it in the directory – do it online with your own professional-looking website.

OK so you need to compete out there with the big fish when it comes to selling your vacation rentals. You need to build yourself a website.

There are many free website creators and builders out there which you can register with free of charge. You can be up and running within no time and you can then tell the world about who you are and where you are. Creating your own website has never been so easy and it is possible to create something very simple but incredibly effective.

Once you have the hang of your new website, you will want to amend it at regular intervals to keep it fresh. You should consider using search engine optimization techniques (SEO) which will drive traffic to your site – these could include the use of keywords in your site content, writing and posting short articles elsewhere on the web which are keyword rich and generic but point towards what your company is offering, and so on. SEO is quite a specialist field these days and so you should do your homework about it when building your site, although a lot of website builder packages come with the offer of SEO assistance. It’s not difficult – it just needs some thought.

So here’s what you should think about when trying to build your website specifically for your vacation rental business:

1. The website creator means that you have total control of building your own site in very easy steps with ready-made tools built in for ease. Update it anytime you need to, from anywhere there is internet access, and make sure you tell people where to find you. Use your site to say “this is who we are, this is what we offer and this is where you can find us”. Get your name, address and contact number on the home page and on all pages of your site.

2. Build yourself a gallery page. It’s really easy to do and the use of pictures of happy clients is always a winner. Visual aids are always more effective for this sort of service than walls of text because people want to see for themselves what they are paying for. Splash them with lots of colours that capture the essence of vacations, relaxation and fun for everyone!

3. You’ll want to include in your website a ‘vacation sites and property type’ page, with prices included, so that your customers know what types of rentals you are offering and for how much. Keep this page up to date at all times as paying customers will hold you to it! As with any tourist, they’ll be looking for the cheapest deal and will want to see what amazing offers you have so consider a ‘special deals’ page as well.

4. Including some positive video footage of, let’s say, a tour around some of your properties gives potential customers the chance to interact with your site and see for themselves the look and feel of your rentals. Show them what they will get for their money and why they should come to you. Interaction within any website gets a positive response because people want instant gratification and they feel drawn in by moving visuals.

5. Your website should also include testimonials and customer reviews. This could be an area where customers can leave feedback about the service they received from you or about one of your properties in particular. The positive feedback will be a great referral marketing tool for future custom.

Use the directory as well if you want to for more local tourism but to reach a wider audience, the internet is the only place to be!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

The importance of social bookmarking

2010-01-04T13:00:00.001-08:00

To bookmark something used to mean to put a slim strip of leather in between two pages and save your place for later. Oh no, not anymore! Social bookmarking has become an important way to enhance your website’s traffic and some people will still be blissfully unaware of its uses.

You will constantly be referred to the term ‘search engine optimisation (SEO)’ these days and you may well be wondering what it is. Basically, it’s a way of generating more traffic to your website by making it easier to be found by search engines and move up the search rankings.

Social bookmarking is just one method of SEO. You’re not actually sharing the contents of your website with others; you are merely sharing the reference to it and effectively saying to people “hey look; here’s my website and here’s the link”. In essence, you are using it as a marketing tool.

Specific social bookmarking sites allow you to add your website link and then the sites order them for you and save them for sharing with others. As you load your website link into one of these bookmarking sites, you can add metatags using specific keywords which relate to your own business or service; helping to enhance your SEO once more.

One of the advantages of a social bookmarking site is that people can use them to find sites which even the search engine spiders have not yet found in their trawls. They have been uploaded by a human being and they are listed for you to browse through. The bookmarking sites can also rank your site as to how many times it has been bookmarked by other users.

Another advantage of social bookmarking sites is that they are controlled by humans and humans can view, read and analyse your website. This human interaction at the other end means that your site is not relying purely on the complex internal workings of an automated search engine to find your site.

There is an ever growing list of sites out there which come under the classification of being social bookmarking sites. Before reading this article, they may just have been a serious of names which you have often been spammed about and thought “I have no idea what they are for or what they do”. Now you know that you can use one or all of them to promote your own website more effectively with the clever use of SEO!

Do a random search on ‘social bookmarking sites’ and see how many names come up!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

How to boost web traffic with landing pages!

2010-01-04T12:56:00.001-08:00

You’ve heard of a landing page. So what exactly is it and how can it help to promote your website?

A landing page is a web page which the customer lands on when he or she clicks on a link from a specific promotion or advert - it may or may not be the home page of your website. Because it is used to drive custom to your website and promote your services, a landing page should always contain sufficient information to capture your audience and it should relate to the promotion in question.

The landing page will make use of specific keywords or phrases so as to enhance search engine optimisation and it will very much mirror your homepage. Unfortunately, Google takes a dim view of creating a stand-alone landing page with its sole purpose to drive traffic to other sites and so all landing pages should be part of a fully-functioning website.

So how to create a landing page:

1. Find yourself a website creation/builder package. There are plenty of free ones out there that will allow you to create your own site. They will then allow you to add on features as you build. Using a website builder package makes it so much easier and you have all the tools at your disposal with online help and easy-to-follow instructions for a great looking site.

2. Make best use of keywords and phrases in your landing page so that it will be featured highly in the search engine rankings. Make your landing page the page which is the most informative and describes best what you have to offer. Like we said before, it needn’t be your homepage; it depends where you are linking from and what you are trying to promote. You may decide that your promotion needs to link to your ‘services and products’ page and so you would make this your landing page.

3. Keep it simple! Don’t over complicate your landing page or you will drive customers away. They are easily bored these days! It needs to get to the point within about 5 seconds or they’re gone.

4. Keep the content original. Don’t copy and paste from other websites because Google or other search engines can pick up on this and frown upon it. Even the search engine spiders are becoming more and more sophisticated so genuine materials only please! Besides, it will come across as more authentic if it’s from the heart.

5. Try using video links. A landing page with video links is always a great way to interact with customers. They are drawn in by visuals and they feel a part of your site more quickly than if they are faced with a wall of text.

Make sure the link to the landing page works! Sounds obvious but how many broken links have you clicked on in your endeavour to find out more about a special offer or promotion?

Good luck with building!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Why haven’t you completed your website?

2010-01-04T12:50:00.000-08:00

An incomplete website will sadly send customers away as fast as they found you in the first place. Would you want to walk into a half-built shop with only half of its products lying around and a half-hearted shop assistant slouching over the counter?

An unfinished website tells the visitor that you’re not serious about what you do, that you are unprofessional or even that that you may have closed down. An incomplete site looks sloppy and a mess and you would no more buy from someone with a half-built site than you would from the shop at the beginning of this article. Search engines also take a dim view of sites which are incomplete so you could be missing out on vital rankings.

The easiest way to build a professional looking website of your own is with the help of a web-based website creator or builder. You can be up and running in no time at all and start to promote your services straight away at no cost. To update your website as you go along, you can go back into the website builder and simply fiddle around with your site from anywhere in the world with internet access. Completing your website will mean that your visitors can have full usability as soon as they reach you. It’s no good them finding you, only to realise that your online store isn’t yet set up or that your prices page is missing.

Aim to get your website pages up and running at the same time. Don’t build the home page and then leave it for a month before attempting the other pages as you will lose business but you’ll also lose the momentum for building it in the first place. Have a plan up front before you build and then get the basics of each page in. You can always enhance it at a later stage but at least have the bare bones of what you’re about in there to begin with.

If you don’t like writing and find yourself stuck for words more often than not, then there are also website builders out there which offer content creation services – known as copywriting to those in the trade. They will help you to create the words for your site and use search engine optimisation techniques to make sure that your site is found by others. The content of your site is vital. Poor grammar, bad spelling and uninteresting content will make your visitors run a mile – never underestimate the power of positive language!

Think of your site as the shop in this article. You don’t want them to walk out. You want your site to be brand new, enticing to customers and give them the whole ‘customer experience’ in one hit.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Five woeful website mistakes you should avoid like the plague

2010-01-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

We've all been guilty of at least one of these horrendous web hiccups. If you're new to website building, read our five woeful website mistakes you should avoid.

Bad colours
There's nothing worse than browsing a website that makes you feel physically sick. Get your colours matching. It's easy. Stick to three or four different colours.

Awful navigation
Keep it simple. No one likes getting lost when browsing. Take a look at this monstrosity of a website for a good example of how not to do it.

Endless chunks of dull text
Keep the length of text you write to a bear minimum. Take a look at any of the articles over at BBC news. You'll notice each article is chopped up in to lots of short paragraphs. Don't waffle and don't be afraid to be ruthless with your editing. If it's not necessary, get rid of it.

Animated gifs
Avoid using animated gifs at all costs. They look amateurish and serve no purpose whatsoever. It's often one of the first things a newbie website builder will upload to their new website but seriously, don't even think about it. Ever.
Hit counters

It's always good to see how many people are viewing your site but there's no real benefit and it can work against you. If your site shows it's had 28 hits, it doesn't really give the visitor the impression your website is popular does it? Do yourself a favour and use an invisible hit counter or, even better, sign up to Google Analytics.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

How to design a good website

2010-01-03T11:52:00.001-08:00

Website design means different things to different people. A computer programmer is going to see website design quite differently than a graphic artist would. However, there are some common features of all good website designs.

Place only good content on your website. A good website design begins and ends with the content on the site. No one is going to stay on your website if the content is not useful, compelling, or interesting. Your page should be a unique experience for visitors and should not be the same as every other website out there. There is no way that you will keep traffic coming to your site if your content is not appealing.

Don't have any annoying or unappealing images or backgrounds on your website. Your website doesn't have to be some sort of artistic masterpiece, but it also should not give people headaches when they look at it. You know that you have all seen those types of websites that you can't look at for more than 30 seconds without getting dizzy or having to squint. When coming up with your website design, be sure that you don't have any annoying backgrounds or unappealing features like clashing colors or unreadable text.

Make things easy to find. Not everyone who uses the Internet is computer savvy. In fact the majority of people who are looking for information on the Internet are totally computer savvy. If you want people to keep coming back to your website, you need to make is so that everything is easy to find. Even if you do attract computer savvy people to your site, they don't want to waste time having to look around to find what they need.

Keep your website design consistent. Again, it doesn't matter what color scheme or theme you choose, but make sure that you keep it consistent throughout your whole website. Your website design should not differ from one page to the next. This only confuses your visitors. Also, place common features such as links to other sites or the contact information in the same place from page to page.

Make your visitors feel welcome. If you want to keep people coming back to your website, you need to roll out that welcome mat to them. Be sure to include feedback forms and a contact page in your website design so that you readers can get in contact with you easily. Reach out to your readers and listen to their ideas and feedback.

Try applying these basics to your EzWeb123.com website and you shouldn't go far wrong.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

How to Target Website Traffic And Profit With Yahoo Answers

2010-01-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

Getting website traffic these days can be a bit cumbersome as there are so many different ways to do it. Although there are many effective ways to accomplish getting traffic to your website, Yahoo Answers can be added to the list as one of them...

Yahoo Answers is very similar to forums in the way that you can ask questions and receive answers from everyone who is signed up. You can also profit from participating in this group of people just like forums as well by being able to target website traffic through trust.

Yahoo Answers is basically a way to ask questions about any topic and get relevant expert advice and answers. There are a few forms of questions available which are open questions, resolved questions and undecided questions.

Yahoo Answers runs on a point basis. You get 2 points every time you answer a question and 10 points every time one of your answers is voted "best answer". When starting out, you are allowed to answer 20 questions a day. There are various levels you can achieve and the higher level you are, the more questions you are allowed to answer. You want to get as many points as you can so you can increase in level and therefore, get unlimited questions daily.

You make money with Yahoo Answers by searching for questions that are related to your niche or your opportunity. Once you find these questions try to be the first to answer them which will give you a better chance to be voted as the best answer and gaining you more points. You can do this by choosing the "open questions" which are the newest. The faster you gain points, the faster your level will go up resulting in more questions that you can answer.

Once you have gained authority on your niche and have increased your level, you can start including "relevant" links (your internet income opportunity) in your answers and generating target website traffic to your website. Be careful when doing this. You should only include the links if it is relevant to the question and do not spam every question with your link. This would not be considered good website traffic marketing and will only make you look unprofessional and might even get you banned from Yahoo Answers.

Try promoting your EzWeb123.com website this way, it can really work, providing you are careful to not go overboard.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Do I really need a Business Plan?

2010-01-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

What’s the point of a business plan?

Even if you are not planning to borrow money or seek investors for your new business venture, should you still write a business plan? Writing a business plan not only helps you to establish whether your idea is a viable one but it also helps you to lay out a direction for the future of your company. Without it, your business could simply meander along with no real direction and with no means of measuring its success.

It may not be an easy process but going through with writing a plan could force you to think carefully about your business overall and whether the model will work. Once complete, you'll have a much better idea of whether you can make your venture work and whether you still really want to go ahead with it. Before you invest your own time and money into any idea, wouldn’t you rather have done a plan first to make sure that you know it can work?

There is now software available which can help you with writing a plan so it does not need to be such a mind-boggling task. There are online sites and a whole host of self-help resources out there which will help you to draw up a plan and carry out an analysis of your proposed ideas.

To carry out just a quick assessment or executive summary of a business idea will only give you a very brief overview and will not go into enough depth about whether the business could be viable should any extenuating factors get in the way – and let’s face it, there will be many!

In your business plan, you can expand it to include critical factors such as contingencies should you need them. You can work other factors into it that needn’t be too complicated but will give you a good idea of where you might be in, say, five years’ time. It will help to focus your mind on your goal and show others how you plan to keep yourself afloat.

And once you have your plan, it is never lost. All good projects or ideas start out with a plan. The plan then changes as it goes along if need be and you can keep reverting back to the original plan to track and measure your successes or failures.

Of course, having a plan does not ensure success and some would argue that a full business plan for a small venture is not necessary; that your time would be better spent on getting your business up and running rather than worrying yourself with laborious documents. However, you can make your plan as minimal or as in depth as it needs to be, according to the size of your proposed venture.

But bear in mind that, as with any plan, it could be seen as a restrictor and actually remove the entrepreneurial spirit in which the business idea was first created. You should always remember than any plan can be broken, changed or amended at any time and that it’s important for small business owners not to lose the importance of free will.

So, ‘to plan or not to plan?’ – that is the question.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Do you really need a 40 inch TV?

2009-12-31T08:11:00.000-08:00

You walk past some people’s houses which are two up two down terraced, lovely little havens of peacefulness, but without the room in which to swing a cat and there, spreading across one of the entire walls, is this giant, cinema-sized plasma screen thing.

If it were any bigger, it may well take down the entire wall and next door’s with it. So why do people insist on buying TV screens, LCD etc., and systems which are bigger and better than ever before? What is the fixation for this craze that has swept the modern world?

Blame marketers for it if you like but hey, we don’t have to buy them. Yes we are told that if we buy one of these obscenely huge TVs we can have the life we’ve always wanted and we can watch TV in better definition and never miss our favourite programmes ever again – but no one is actually forcing us to go down to the shops and buy one – so why do we?

Are our eyes all really that bad that we can no longer see our TVs if they are under 40 inches wide? Why do we feel the need to recreate the cinema in our front rooms when we can watch a standard-sized TV perfectly well? Isn’t the message the same? Why do we need to see our favourite characters as outsized versions of the real thing?

Is it the kids? Are they putting us under pressure to buy them? Well, as parents, isn’t it our job to tell them to be quiet and ask for a colouring book instead? Or maybe it’s the parents who want these colossal screens attached to their walls so that they can strain their necks and watch the X-factor in HD, in order to keep up with their neighbours who have just gone one better and bought a 50 inch version.

Can these ever growing, surely ‘genetically modified’ abnormally large TVs be a healthy option for our children? I mean, we rarely go out of the house as it is these days without also encouraging our kids to sit in the house piling on even more weight through eating popcorn and sitting rigid for five hours on the sofa in a room the size of a bus shelter. Staring at these monstrous screens can also surely only be damaging their vision over a long period of time. We’ll breed a generation of visually impaired young adults if we are not careful, who can only recognise a loaf of bread in the shops if it’s 6 feet tall.

By bringing the fun of the cinema into our homes, are we not taking away the pleasure of actually going to the cinema and spending a day out with the family? We’ll be hiring virtual ushers next to stand in our hallways with torches and an ice cream tray, picking up the litter as we go to bed.

Does bigger always mean better? Why is it that we feel the need to go one greater all the time and make things as super duper as we can? Why can we not be satisfied with what we have and accept that the TV we have, which is already 28 inches, is perfectly acceptable and, for the amount of time we actually need it, is more than adequate.

Where will the craze end? Will we have to start raising the ceilings and strengthening walls in the building process of our homes in order to cater for the possibility of a full multi-plex in every room? No, not one in every room….surely not!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

The importance of business failure

2009-12-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

Some of the world’s most successful business men and women have not made it on their first attempt you know. Some of them have had to fail on more than one occasion before they have made it to the big time.

Success comes in all shapes and sizes and there is an element of luck involved with any success story – right place, right time and all of that. No one who has ever made a success of their lives would ever tell you that they have had an easy ride all the way there and that they didn’t have some failure.

Failure is as much a part of success as the end product is – without failure, and an element of reality, we can never understand what it is truly like to be successful. Some of the biggest and wealthiest entrepreneurs have had to pick themselves up from failure before they finally made it.

Mr James Dyson for example – he built over 5,000 prototypes of his revolutionary hoover before it could be marketed! And now, the Dyson hoover is a household name and everyone wants one! There must have been times when he wanted to give up but he didn’t. He understood that it was not going to work without effort and some set backs.

The late Anita Roddick – the founder of The Body Shop. She had several failed attempts at business before she launched the world-famous Body Shop brand which is also a household name.

Even the world-famous Simon Cowell went bankrupt in his 30s when he invested in his employer’s firm and it went bust – he claimed he had just £3 in his pocket but he built it all back up again. This experience will have made him more business savvy and a lot cannier.

Having been through the bad times, it makes you stronger and it helps you to see where you are going wrong, where you need to focus and it builds your character. You need to be pretty tough skinned to be in business and you will need to learn how to take criticism and deal with setbacks.
Life is, as they say, one long learning curve and this is so true. The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know. Every day, we learn something new and we learn from our mistakes. To error is human.

If you know what it is to have failed, then you will have an advantage over those who have only ever had it easy. You will be stronger for it and will be able to use your experiences to enhance your strengths.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Is my business successful?

2009-12-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

So you dreamed about having your own business and being the master of your own destiny. But why do you want these things? What do you believe will follow from being a successful business person?

How do you know whether or when your business has become successful? What factors determine this success and how can you measure it?

Some people would argue that success means money. Some would say that, unless you never have to check your bank account again before you buy anything, you are not successful. Money, material things and a certain type of lifestyle are what some would say are the measures of true success.

Some, on the other hand, would argue that success can be measured in many different ways and what makes one person happy does not necessarily make another happy. There are those who would love to be millionaires and there are those who are already millionaires but have not yet found ‘happiness’.

There are indeed many very wealthy people around but many of them seem yet to be looking for happiness. So it could be argued, therefore, that money does not make you happy.

Success of your business to you may mean that you now have a comfortable lifestyle. It may mean that you have managed to design and sell a certain product which has given you brand recognition for something that you have a passion for. It may mean that you are reaching people who you always wanted to reach. Success for you may mean that you have managed to help someone and make a difference to their lives through your business.

Whatever success means to each of us, there is no doubt that society tends to measure success in terms of the car that we drive, the house that we live in and the clothes that we wear. Others judge us by our covers whether they admit it or not, and so we strive to be what other people want us to be in order to fit in. It follows, therefore, that we start to measure our own success by the car that we drive, the house that we live in and the clothes that we wear – which can be a dangerous game to get in to.

So what makes a successful business in general terms? Is it one which is turning over millions; is it one which has become a household name; is it one which is turning over steadily each year and surviving the economic climate; is it one that has grown and has employed lots of staff; is it one which stays small but provides excellent service to its regular customers?

Whatever form success comes in, it is clear that it means different things to different people and it becomes ‘horses for courses’. A company could make millions but, in the process of doing so, makes thousands of people redundant and breaks every moral code in the business – or a company could make just a few thousand each year but that few thousand has allowed its owner to provide a better lifestyle for his or her family.

How do you measure your own success?

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

Website Traffic - quality or quantity?

2009-12-31T07:57:00.000-08:00

Fantastic! You’ve had 400 visitors to your website this month. 400 hits! That’s up 200 on last month. But hang on – no one has actually emailed you or asked for your services or bought anything from you. So who were these 400 visitors and why did they leave your website as soon as they’d found it?

Well, you need to concern yourself with ‘quality’ of hits before quantity of hits. Now the law of probability suggests that the more hits you have, the more likely one of them is going to convert into business for you. However, why have 400 hits which are of no use whatsoever when you could have 100 hits which are quality-based, focused, and specifically targeted from sectors of the market which are likely to want your services?

To ensure that you are receiving quality hits as well as quantity, you need to enlist the help of search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques which are aimed around making sure that traffic to your site is generated from areas of the market that you know are going to be interested in your product or service. This means making sure that you are using SEO techniques which not only use the correct keywords but are also listed on sites on the internet which are more specific to your audience.

For example, if you have a gardening service, you want any SEO techniques that you use to include words such as plants, garden, shrubs, flowers etc. but you need any articles that you write or blogs that you create to be strategically placed on sites which hone in on the interests of gardeners and gardening businesses. There is little point, in this instance, writing articles about gardening and putting them on a site in a category for hair and beauty.

What you want from as many of your site hits as possible is for them to translate into sales. You can only make this happen by making sure that you are getting your marketing spot on and that you know who your audience is. Checking out rival websites is one way to work out how they do and it and how you could match, or beat them. Spend time writing clever articles for yourself which are keyword rich and then post them onto sites that allow you to submit articles on just about any subject under the sun.

Get used to using SEO techniques and you will find, over time, that the hits to your website, although they may not soar through the roof, will be hits from genuinely interested customers who will stay with you and will be there for a reason – i.e.: they want your product or service!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - EzWeb123.com

What Is Google Analytics?

2009-12-26T03:17:00.000-08:00

Google analytics is a free web-based service which gives you up-to-the minute website traffic statistics and marketing effectiveness figures. So how can it be helpful to a website owner?

Well, you’ve set up your website but how do you know who has visited it and how effective it is? It may look good to you and your mum will have told you that it looks lovely – but as a business tool, is it working and having the desired effect of bringing in customers and getting you noticed? That’s where Google analytics comes in handy.

The analytics will allow you to see who is viewing your site (and sometimes where they are based in the world), so again you can see whether there are any trends or patterns around who is most likely to hit upon your site and for how long they visited each time. It will also tell you which pages they viewed so you can see which are the most popular and which pages are perhaps not working for you.

You can set up email campaigns which are targeted at your chosen audience and then Google will tell you who has opened them, read them and how many ‘click-throughs’ to your own website you’ve had on the back of them. This enables you to revise your campaigns as you go along so that you know exactly where your marketing tactics need to be improved.

Like any other web tool, it’s relatively easy to set up and use but there are also add ons which you can select if you want to get really involved. It can actually become quite addictive!

On the back of your statistics, you may decide to revise your website completely or just target specific areas which you feel need to bring in the customer further. You will soon get a feel for which bits are working and which aren’t.

You can set up Google analytics to work in conjunction with other Google money-making sites such as Google Adwords, Adsense and so on. Additionally, this allows you to improve your return on investment (ROI) for the business and you can determine which visits to your websites are converting into sales for you – this is a huge enhancement and a very useful tool for any business person. Website hits are all very well and good but we want them converted into referrals and ultimately cash.

So if you’re a natural ‘curtain-twitcher’ and can’t resist wondering what others are up to, then Google analytics is for you and your website! It’s not spyware because it can’t pinpoint who your customers are and where they live exactly – but it can tell you how popular your website is and who is bothering to read your email blasts. Watch those campaigns turn into hits and your hits turn into cash.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder - EzWeb123.com

Why Bankers Don't Deserve Bonuses!

2009-12-26T03:14:00.000-08:00

If you have been living in a hole for the past year then you may be forgiven for thinking that the credit crunch is a new type of biscuit. However, this credit crunch has hit us all in one way or another and has seen the biggest worldwide recession for many years.

So just who is responsible for this one; who is responsible for creating so much national and international debt? Some would say it hit us as far back as 2007 but statistics show that it was more likely to be early 2008. And the bankers are being blamed – yes, the very people who receive millions each year in extortionate bonuses whilst the rest of us suffer through an economic downturn.

Despite the recession, top level bankers have continued to receive millions of pounds in bonuses over the past year. Now most of us get a bonus at work if the company performs well or if we perform well. Banks and bankers have done neither and yet they have still been allowed to cream off ludicrous amounts of money and take it as a god-given right to an incentive just because of the position they hold; something that does not sit well with the rest of the world when they consider the banks responsible in the first place for the start of the recession.

Some would argue that the bankers, who made irresponsible decisions over public borrowing, caused the collapse of the economy and should be subject to the same reviews as anyone else in their own jobs. If they underperform, they get axed; simple as that. Lending more money that is actually viable to do so, and causing the onset of more and more home repossessions, leaving people stranded and financially hard-up is hardly a responsible way to conduct any business.

The Governments in the US and the UK are now clamping down on the bankers’ bonuses and making it clear that they do not support huge incentives for people who are not capable of doing their jobs properly. Some politicians are obviously more in favour of this than others but it is a step in the right direction.

Those at the top in the banking industry are, in effect, taking risks with other people’s money and they have proved that they can get it very badly wrong! And who suffers? Well it’s not them by the sound of things. If we, the public, are to suffer, then why should a banker at the top of his ivory tower receive such a large payout? What gives them the right to suggest that they are worthy of this money?

There has been a suggestion that the representatives of the banks should decide on who gets a bonus at the banks. So this could mean the general public also getting a say. Power to the people and all that! There has also been talk of paying back some of last year’s bonuses which won’t go down too well with Mr HBOS.

Hey, if the top guys and gals at the banks have consciences and morals, then maybe they’ll give back that money and spread it around the rest of us. Or maybe we’ll just have to wait until the recession is over and count our blessings that we made it.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder - EzWeb123.com

The Pros and Cons of Business Partnerships

2009-12-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

Being the master of your own destiny and your own empire seems like a wonderful concept. You have a business idea and you want to make it work but there may be times when you cannot do it alone. Should you look to get into bed with a business partner or is remaining a sole trader going to be more beneficial in the long run?

Going into partnership with someone requires a long thought process. Going into business with a friend requires an even longer thought process! If it doesn’t work out, you could end up losing your business and your friend. So think carefully before you consider letting someone else in on your business idea.
Of course, there are many pros to having a partner in business. In an ideal world, you can share the workload and the profits. In an ideal world, the partner will have ideas that you had not thought of and vice versa. Your business could grow more quickly with the help of another person. You can share the risks as well as the costs and benefits. You can complement one another’s skills and be there for one another to offer morale and support when times are tough.

But what if it goes wrong? Well, you don’t have total control over the business for a start. If you are the type of person who likes to control every situation, then you will need to learn to share and share alike. You will need to work as a team and think like a team with a common goal.

What if you fall out with one another? There are bound to be times when you don’t see eye to eye and you will need to be able to resolve these disputes amicably, with the best interests of the business in mind. Are you the kind of person who can do this? Maybe you need to sit down and work out whether you really are the type of person who wants to go it alone or who likes the idea of a partnership.

There will be times when one or more people in the partnership don’t appear to be pulling their weight as much as the others. This can lead to friction. People are different; people work in different ways and there is always a chance that you might end up frustrated at someone else’s lack of motivation or cooperation. Again, you need to be prepared for this and it’s a good idea to set out ‘roles’ for each partner up front so that you are all clear on where you stand and what your responsibilities are.

Do a check on your prospective partner(s) because they may not be who you think they are. If your business partner runs off, you are liable for his or her debts as well as your own. You need to make sure that you trust this person completely. Make sure you have spoken to past employers and colleagues about them and find out as much as you can about them.

Get legal help from the outset. Make sure you have a lawyer and an accountant involved and that everything is done above board and not by word of mouth and on trust.

Whatever you decide, go with your instincts but make sure that you have done your homework.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder - EzWeb123.com

Starting a business on a shoestring

2009-12-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

There was once a perception that only those with money could make money; that only those who had financial backing could start up their own business. Let’s have a look at why this is not the case.

Many entrepreneurs have gone on from nothing, with very little cash, to make a lot of money from their ideas. The key factors to their successes are the right idea, a good business plan and the desire to make it work. You can have all the money in the world to throw at a new business in the first instance but, if you don’t have the business savvy to make it work, then you may just be throwing money down the drain.

There are online companies that can help you to grow your business venture on a shoestring. It depends on the type of business you are hoping to run so choose your business idea carefully. Why not stick to a business in an area with which you are already familiar – stick to what you know. And if you do have to borrow, then borrow wisely and do your homework first. The last thing you want is to owe money that you can’t afford and end up losing everything you had your heart set on.

Working online is one way to keep your set-up costs down and give the impression that you are a larger business than you really are. Once you have set up a website using a free package, you can be up and running in no time, with very little money required.

Keep your costs to begin with as low as you can; be a miser, stop being a consumer for a while and learn that you cannot reap the rewards at the outset. A lot of hard work will have to come first and so you need to tighten your belt and park that idea of driving a flash car just for the time being!

Work from home; work from your garage, your kitchen and so on. Advertise in free online business directories and make the most of all free advertising opportunities that come your way. Use free stationery printing offers. Basically, get as much as you can for free! Join clubs, join online networking sites and get the word out there at no cost.

Website builders give you the option to trade online and set up an online shop (an e-commerce solution) so that your customers can buy from you any time they like. You become instantly accessible and, being part of the world wide web, you are able to grow beyond your wildest dreams if it works out.

To begin with, source out work which will allow you to get paid in cash quickly. You can’t afford to wait for 30 or 60 days before being paid if you have started your business on a shoestring. You need it now.

And once your business starts making money, then you need to put some of this aside for future growth as opposed to spending it on personal things. There will be plenty of time for this later down the line when you are raking it in! You need to think work, work, work; business, business, business and be thinking ten steps ahead.

Plough as much of your earnings back into the business as you can and watch it grow. Watch your shoestring turn into a fully fledged profitable business!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder - EzWeb123.com

Have you got what it takes to run your own business?

2009-12-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

Having a dream is not enough anymore to turn it into a reality. The opportunities out there are greater than they have ever been before but do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?

In order to turn that dream into a reality, you need to have something that sets you apart from other people. You need vision but you also need a whole host of other attributes.

Drive. This is something that will help you to start up your business but also keep you going when times aren’t always a breeze. Running any business is not an easy task; otherwise everyone would be doing it. The drive in you is what will give you the idea, give you the desire to set up your small business but then the determination to carry on and see it through.

Motivation is something that you will need in bucket loads. When all else is failing around you, when people are telling you that it won’t work and that you should get a regular job, your motivation is what will keep that fire in your belly raging.

Commitment is a word that is over-used at times but it’s one that you’ll need to think about a great deal if you want to run your own business. If you are the owner of a business, then its success relies upon one person and one person alone - and that is you. Without 110% commitment, your business is unlikely to succeed. Of course there are many extenuating circumstances which will affect how well your business will thrive but your own commitment will be the making or breaking of your venture.

The buck stops at you in this game and if you’re not prepared for that then this is not for you. You get the glory when it’s going well but boy are you going to take the stick when it isn’t going so well! People will look up to you because you’re a business owner but they will also look down on you quite quickly if you’re not true to your word.

If you’ve longed to turn a dream into a reality, then don’t let it go to waste once you have it within your grasp. Make it happen and make it succeed. You need to be the type of person who will keep their goal in mind and never let go of that goal, even when times are a challenge.

These attributes are what sets a good business person apart from someone who just does not have what it takes. Without the above in abundance then your business venture is not going to take off the ground and your dream will remain just a dream.

So what are you waiting for?

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 – EzWeb123.com

Top EZ Sites For 2009 - Have you won a $20 Amazon Voucher?

2009-12-20T03:29:00.000-08:00

We're now tracking, using Google Analytics, which member sites are referring the most number of visitors to EzWeb123.com, each month and over the year. The leading sites will be published each month in our newsletter and also on this Blog page.

The top 10 EZ member sites who have referred the most number of visitors to our site will be rewarded with prizes at the end of 2010. However, we've also decided to reward the top 10 referring sites for 2009 by giving each site owner a $20.00 Amazon Gift Card.

So, if you are the owner of one of the top 10 sites listed below then you can claim your prize by emailing us at info@ezweb123.com providing your site name and login details. We need this so that we can verify that you are the site owner and therefore a prize winner!

Just for kicks, we've also listed the top 20 sites for 2009, so those who have just missed out on a prize can try and get into the top 10 for 2010. All the stats will be wiped clean from January 1st. Here are the 10 winners for 2009:

1.   http://theunstoppableyou.ezweb123.com/
2.   http://cherryboombomb.ezweb123.com/
3.   http://www.webfx2online.com/
4.   http://wluphis.ezweb123.com/
5.   http://predictions4u.com/
6.   http://elegancenails.ezweb123.com/
7.   http://www.z3nightclub.com/
8.   http://serenitytotalbeautysolutions.ezweb123.com/
9.   http://wellersburg-districtvfd.ezweb123.com/
10. http://shakeel4all.ezweb123.com/

Here are the top 11 - 20 sites, who have just missed out on a prize for 2009, but could get into the top 10 in 2010, where the prizes will be bigger:

11. http://wellersburg-districtvfd.ezweb123.com/
12. http://bradyinc.ezweb123.com/
13. http://balisilverstore.ezweb123.com/
14. http://robneedhamsp.ezweb123.com/
15. http://varner49sp.ezweb123.com/
16. http://uogians.ezweb123.com/
17. http://thursdayniteladiesmilham.ezweb123.com/
18. http://uniquephotography.ezweb123.com/
19. http://bandjmaplegrooming.ezweb123.com/
20. http://infinitemuzikent.ezweb123.com/

How do I get more visitors to my site?

There are several ways to get more visitors to your EZ site and the subsequently refer more visitors to our site to try and get into the top 10.

Firstly, it is essential that search engines, especially Google, index your website. You need to insert 'Meta Keywords' into your web pages. To find out how to do this read see our free Beginners Guide: http://en.sitemakerlive.com/faqs/beginnersGuide.pdf

Go to the section at the end of the Guide called 'Finding your site on the internet'. This explains how to insert relevant keywords relating to your website, plus the importance of buying a domain. Check out our special guide on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) at this link: http://en.sitemakerlive.com/faqs/seoGuide.pdf

Secondly, its proven, through our own analysis of members sites, that the more completed an EZ member site is the more it gets indexed and the more visitors it attracts. So complete your website! Use the Beginners Guide, or just email us for help at: support@ezweb123.com

Finally, add your site to search engines, relevant directories, plus start telling people on Blogs, even word of mouth about your website. But only onceyou have finished it. Why not get some inspiration by looking at some of the EZ members websites above.

Good luck for 2010!

The EzWeb123.com Team

Expert review of EZ member site – Dr. Ihab Emil Hawary

2009-12-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

Whilst remembering that we have a dentist appointment next week, here’s another site that we found which we think looks great and that we want to tell you more about.

Dr.Ihab Emil Hawary demonstrates his excellence in cosmetic dentistry through use of this great site. This site looks incredibly professional when first entering. The slick colours and use of eye catching pictures make it very inviting. Real people doing real jobs in real environments works well with this person’s line of business.

The site makes very good use of navigation techniques which are kept simple and which are relative to what is on offer. You could enhance your own site using the menu dropdown method and it’s really easy to achieve.

The use of ‘good’ quality photos in the photo gallery on this site draws the visitor into the world of the dentist and gives it a more personal touch. Imagery is incredibly important in any site to demonstrate what you do and to create a more two-dimensional atmosphere.

Embedding a YouTube video of your services or a client testimonial is also another great way to promote your site and give it a more rounded feel. Testimonials speak for themselves and are a huge asset to any site and business.

Make use of an ‘about’ page because this is the ideal place to go into more detail than you can on a homepage about your background, your company and you. This way, you can make it keyword rich and use SEO techniques to drive more traffic to your website.

The owner of this site has cleverly removed the use of Google Ads which are a major distraction to visitors and should be removed if at all possible. We can show you how to do this if you are unsure. He has also used a contact page with maps and directions which is vital if you want people to find you!

Our Expert Recommends:

• remove the frames around the text to the home page and keep all text the same font colour on this page;
• remove the text scroll to the left of the main home page image – just drag this box up a bit;
• line up headings on home page with text – drag and drop;
• buy a domain name - make your site more marketable and easier for other people to remember;
• insert Meta Data – this is so search engines can index your website and the number of visitors to your site increases. See Beginners Guide;
• this site needs proof reading for accuracy which will enhance its credibility and professionalism. For more info see: http://copymein.ezweb123.com/

Want to improve your own EzWeb123.com site?

To learn more about how you can improve and enhance your own site, thereby generating more visitors, please don’t hesitate to contact us at : http://www.ezweb123.com/support.asp

Also why not download our free Beginners Guide. This will give you step by step advice on how to build your website, as well as how to significantly increase the number of visitors to your site once completed.

Want an expert to review your EzWeb123.com site? It’s FREE!

And if you would like us to review and promote your site, as we have with this one, in future newsletters and on our EZ blog, then please email us at info@ezweb123.com

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 – Co-Founder – EzWeb123.com

Expert review of EZ member site – Jenjalan.com

2009-12-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

If the winter blues have set in at your end, you’ll probably be thinking of booking a holiday somewhere nice and warm with beautiful scenery and melon on the white beaches for breakfast – Indonesia or Thailand grab you? Jenjalan is another site which we think demonstrates superb use of EzWeb123’s features.

At first glance, this website looks very professional indeed with interesting and imaginative layout on all pages. The information does not look static or tired and it creates a feeling of warmer climates and places we’ve all dreamed of. It has considered its potential market well and used text and visuals to capitalise on that.

The homepage has minimal text which is key to any homepage, and it is enough to convey the message to visitors about who they are and what they offer. Use of bright colours gives it a happy feel.

Navigation is easy for the user and good use of dropdown menu options is made here – easy to do from the web builder. We can see details of good hotels, packages and other travel-related issues such as the currency converter. Little add ons to the site make it more interesting and look more professional without over complicating things.

This site has made use of our advanced contact form which goes one step further than the basic form and allows you to customise it to your audience. For the purpose of this website, it works well and is suited to potential customers.

The site also makes good use of social networking interaction with links to sites such as Facebook and it invites you to login and join the site; giving the customer a feeling of belonging and interaction whilst allowing them to tell their friends about the products and promotions.

The tried and tested customer testimonials section has also been included which is a fantastic way to promote your services. Word of mouth is going to increase your business more than many other forms of advertising.

Our Expert Recommends:

• the ‘Book with us’ buttons don’t work under ‘packages’ and these should link to an integrated PayPal payment page. SiteMaker provides e-commerce facilities. See Beginners Guide;
• the links to the currency converter and also airline booking sites should be ‘affiliate’ links to generate additional site revenue;
• a ‘Links’ page is useful for any travel related site;
• remove Google Ads as this distracts from the content of the site. This is important for a travel related website, due to the amount of online competition;
• buy a domain name - although this site is called Jenjalan.com, this domain isn’t registered, but is available. Buy now before it’s taken!;
• insert Meta Data – this is so search engines can index your website and the number of visitors to your site increases. See Beginners Guide;

Want to improve your own EzWeb123.com site?

To learn more about how you can improve and enhance your own site, thereby generating more visitors, please don’t hesitate to contact us at : http://www.ezweb123.com/support.asp

Also why not download our free Beginners Guide. This will give you step by step advice on how to build your website, as well as how to significantly increase the number of visitors to your site once completed.

Want an expert to review your EzWeb123.com site? It’s FREE!

And if you would like us to review and promote your site, as we have with this one, in future newsletters and on our EZ blog, then please email us at info@ezweb123.com

It’s as EZ as 123!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 – Co-Founder – EzWeb123.com

Expert review of EZ member site – Caerleon Golf Club

2009-12-16T13:50:00.000-08:00

FORE!! Or “get out of the way of the golf ball” if you’re not a pro! Either way, here’s a great website from a golf club in Newport, South Wales, relating to all things golf and one that we think deserves recognition.
When we first visit this site, the brand recognition hits us straight away with simple text, use of its own club colours and the name. It has made good use of the club’s emblem from the front of its building and inserted this into all pages on the website. Caerleon Golf Club; that’s who they are and they are about golf – it does what it says on the tin.

The homepage is minimalist which is a good start because homepage text should be kept succinct and relevant. Navigation to other pages is perfectly clear down the left hand side. The address on the left of the screen tells us where they are and gives us a number for them.

The use of imagery here is quite a classic one. A picture of the club itself. This is a common type of feature used for any club, association, bar or eating establishment because people need to know what they are looking out for as they pass it along the road. And if it’s a nice building, then even better! It flatters the website completely.

On the site, they have included topical subjects in the club news section which should be kept current. They might want to consider including an ‘RSS feeds’ option for visitors to be kept up to date without having to visit this site every time there is an update.

The prices’ page is clear and concise which is excellent as it does not confuse the reader and there is another ‘layer’ of information relating to membership; all very clear and easy to navigate. The management team has its own page laid out with photos of the team which gives it a more personal feel and a face to a name should a customer need to call them. The great world wide web can feel quite an anonymous place so this is a great way to personalise it.

A completed site will draw in more visitors so it’s important to make sure all pages are up and running with full content and imagery as soon as possible. Also, why not add a site counter or a ‘refer to a friend’ button? Just the little add ons can make all the difference.

You could try adding some meta data to your site so that it can be found more easily by search engines such as Yahoo and Google. Why not try adding an e-commerce solution (or an online shop!) to your site giving customers an easier way to pay; for example: with a PayPal option?

An online guestbook could work well on this particular site so that past visitors can leave positive comments for future visitors to read.

Our Expert Recommends:

• complete the ‘Club News’ page and correct the spelling mistake on this page;
• consider integrating ‘PayPal’ e-commerce into the site to take membership and other payments online. See Beginners Guide;
• remove Google Ads as this distracts from the content of the site;
• insert Meta Data – this is so search engines can index your website and the number of visitors to your site increases. See Beginners Guide;
• improve the site’s professionalism and accuracy with a thorough proof read and content re-write from a professional. For more info, see http://copymein.ezweb123.com/

Want to improve your own EzWeb123.com site?

To learn more about how you can improve and enhance your own site, thereby generating more visitors, please don’t hesitate to contact us at : http://www.ezweb123.com/support.asp

Also why not download our free Beginners Guide. This will give you step by step advice on how to build your website, as well as how to significantly increase the number of visitors to your site once completed.

Want an expert to review your EzWeb123.com site? It’s FREE!

And if you would like us to review and promote your site, as we have with this one, in future newsletters and on our EZ blog, then please email us at info@ezweb123.com

It’s as EZ as 123!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 – Co-Founder – EzWeb123.com

Expert review of EZ member site – infinite muzik ent

2009-12-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

Just hanging out with the kids and chillin’ to some hip urban and fresh music, we came across this site which we think is a great one to promote and one which we’d like to give a shout out to. This is infinite muzik ent.

The overall feel of this website is one of youth, fun, relaxation time, nights out, music and clubbing. Those were the days!

The use of exciting, bold colours with lively and vivid imagery creates a party atmosphere and makes the visitor immediately want to find out more. They are going for the full-on effect with maximum impact, using animated headers and scrolling text effects.

Whilst the text isn’t clear to the reader at the moment, the overall layout is great. The text in there does give a concise overview of what the business is about and the homepage text is, most importantly, kept to a minimum.

Use of the YouTube embedded video on the homepage means that visitors are drawn straight into the world of this record label in Greater Orlando and can ‘take part’ in the experience. There is also a page dedicated to videos with artists such as Ray Rok demonstrating his talents. Other artists signed to this label, as we can see, include De La Ghetto and Baby Ranks.

The use of a comments’ section on the homepage enhances the chatty look and feel to this site and, again, gives it a rounder feel with user involvement – always a great way to draw a young audience in.

They’ve also included extras such as a site counter. Lots of add ons can be found with ezweb123 to give your site an all important finishing touch.

Our Expert Recommends:

• consider changing the site font – although in keeping with the style of the site, it is fairly illegible, making it difficult to read;
• remove Google Ads as this distracts from the content of the site;
• buy a domain name - make your site more marketable and easier for other people to remember;
• insert Meta Data – this is so search engines can index your website and the number of visitors to your site increases. See Beginners Guide;
• have the site fully proof read and maybe seek the advice of a professional copywriter. For more info, see http://copymein.ezweb123.com/

Want to improve your own EzWeb123.com site?

To learn more about how you can improve and enhance your own site, thereby generating more visitors, please don’t hesitate to contact us at : http://www.ezweb123.com/support.asp

Also why not download our free Beginners Guide. This will give you step by step advice on how to build your website, as well as how to significantly increase the number of visitors to your site once completed.

Want an expert to review your EzWeb123.com site? It’s FREE!

And if you would like us to review and promote your site, as we have with this one, in future newsletters and on our EZ blog, then please email us at info@ezweb123.com

It’s as EZ as 123!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 – Co-Founder – EzWeb123.com

Member Site Review - Alpha Phi Chapter at Wilfred Laurier University

2009-12-12T01:41:00.000-08:00

Let’s take a look at the EZ site created by the Alpha Phi Chapter at Wilfred Laurier University and see how well it has been constructed – the same could work for you. It is called Alpha Phi Chapter and it is a female sorority membership dedicated to promoting sisterhood through Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. Their aim is to recruit new members and grow their community to be the best in North America.

This site is fully completed with a well thought out design, layout and with enticing imagery. Having a complete site online is going to draw in so much more from your potential audience so it is important to spend some time making it look as professional as possible in as short a timeframe as possible.

First and foremost, this website tells us on the homepage what it is all about, how people can join the fraternity and the benefits of membership. Having a clear and concise homepage is very important – if people don’t understand what you do within the first few seconds of visiting, you have lost them.

There is a good mix of colours within the site and it makes use of consistency, which will help to promote brand recognition in the long term. People will start to recognise the face of Alpha Phi because of the colours and the style it adopts.

The navigation within this site is very clear and easy for the visitor to follow, which is an important aspect of any website. Complicated navigation loses customers because they are easily confused and will move on. Have a plan for your own website before you start to build it and work out how many layers to your site you will have – don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple and customer friendly.

This site also uses photos within pages and has gone for the layered, quirky look. This adds a more two-dimensional appeal and gives a feel of an organisation that knows what it is doing. It creates a more fun environment for the visitor and draws them in. It’s really easy to do within the website builder so have a go yourself.

One thing you can do with your ezweb123.com website is make good use of animated videos which are a great way to entice people into ‘your world’. Interaction within websites works very well and people like to watch visuals rather than read walls of text.

The style of writing that Alpha Phi has gone for is fun, conversational and thinks about its audience. You need to think long and hard about your text because you need to make your audience find you and then not want to leave you.

One thing to consider when building your website is the removal of things such as Google ads. These often drive the visitor to distraction and they may move on from your site. We can help you with this sort of thing if you are not sure what it’s all about.

To learn more about how you can improve and enhance your own site, thereby generating more visitors, please don’t hesitate to contact us on : http://www.ezweb123.com/support.asp.

Also why not download our free Beginners Guide. This will give you step by step advice on how to build your website, as well as how to significantly increase the number of visitors to your site once it is completed.

Finally, if you would like us to review and promote your site, as we have with this one, in future newsletters and on our EZ blog, then please email us at peter@ezweb123.com.

It’s as EZ as 123!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder - EzWeb123.com

How to Raise Funding For A Small Business

2009-12-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

You have your business idea ready on paper and you have researched it well, you’ve come up with a marketing strategy and you are raring to go. Just one problem…where’s all the money going to come from for the equipment that you need, the stock, the staff and so on?

If you’re lucky, you will have saved this money up and you can fund yourself. However, very often, small business ideas and ventures arise at times when you don’t have the capital to be able to invest. You might find someone to invest in your idea such as a friend or a colleague but, chances are, you might not. So how are you going to get the money?

There are all kinds of ways in which to fund a new business idea. Identifying the right finance option for your own venture is important. To attract funding of any type, you will need a thorough business plan which will come under much scrutiny. As part of any funding agreement, you will also be audited and there will be requirements for you to fulfil, such as cash flow levels and so on. You will also need to make sure that your credit rating is kept in order.

Whether you need to acquire assets, hire premises, pay for marketing, pay for staff or need, you can apply for funding, grants and loans from various sources.

You could go to the bank and ask your lovely bank manager to lend you the money in a loan agreement, with a fixed term payment. Your credit ratings will be taken into consideration and he will want to see your business plan – fair enough if he’s going to lend you the money; he needs to know whether your business will grow sufficiently to be able to pay it back. Whilst you are there, ask him if he can extend and increase an overdraft agreement on your existing bank account so that you have a buffer in which to fall.

Of course you might like to use a credit card, or more than one. Apply for a card which is offering a 0% interest rate for a fixed period and then change it when that period is over – keep doing this for as long as you can so that you are borrowing money but not actually having to pay interest back on it. Whilst an option, it is probably not the best option for financing a small business as you may run up huge debts that you are not able to afford.

There are grants out there for which you can apply that do not need to be paid back. However, the competition for these is fierce, with a strict application process and they can be quite lengthy affairs. It is worth looking into but you should also have another source from which to call upon in case the funds run out. There is also government support available for many businesses and so check with your own local governments’ websites.

Outsourcing part of your business to a third party might be a way to reduce your costs. As a start-up, you might be entitled to non-financial support in the form of free training session, business advice, marketing tools, networking events and so on. Utilise whatever free resources you can get your hands on! You may have shares to sell, other assets to sell or debts which you could restructure.

There are many ways in which to fund your business but remember to research them all well and not to put all your eggs into one basket so that you are spreading the risk.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

How to Evaluate A New Business Idea

2009-12-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

“I’ve got a great idea for a new business”, says Tom to his mate Dave down the pub. “Want to come in with me?”...but has Tom considered all the avenues and made sure that he has evaluated his business idea fully?

As with many entrepreneurs who are great ideas people, an idea starts on paper but cannot always become a successful money-making business without proper consideration and without first taking the necessary steps to make sure that it is not just another pie in the sky flop.

Start-ups and small businesses need to make sure that, before they commit to heavy marketing plans and paying out money on websites and other such expenses, they assess whether there is a market for their idea and whether they are capable of pulling it off. The desire to be successful is great but it does not guarantee that your business will take off.

Good management and marketing skills are essential and so it is wise to see what help is on offer to those of you who have no experience in these fields. Planning is paramount and some small businesses fail because they have just not thought ahead and planned properly for all eventualities.

Let’s consider some things that Tom and his mate down the pub need to discuss:

• is there a market for their product/service? They should carry out extensive research into this.

• what kind of competition are they up against? Every business has competition and they need to be aware of who is doing what and whether they are doing it better and more cost effectively.

• will the product maintain its appeal when fads and fashions change and, if so, are they ready to diversify if need be?

• how useful is their product or service? Will anyone really want to buy it if it’s quirky but of no use whatsoever?

• is their product or service unique? How can they offer something over and above their competitors and what is going to be their unique selling point (USP)?

• will a sale generate repeat or further sales? Building a client base of repeat customers is a sure way to build a business. These loyal customers will not only buy more but could also help to grow the business through referral marketing.

• is the product safe enough to be on the market? If it’s a manufactured product then it must comply with regulations and these must be adhered to.

• have they got a plan B if it fails? Plan Bs often work better than As and it’s important not to put all their eggs into one basket.

Lots of great business ideas are not actually completely original so if you can take a tried and tested product or idea that has worked well and adapt it in your own way to put a new spin on it, then this can work brilliantly. No it’s not cheating! Tom and Dave really do need to sit down and get some business advice before they rush headlong into anything and this can be obtained through many local organisations and funds. Research it, plan it and then research it some more.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

What is a SWOT Analysis?

2009-12-07T12:37:00.001-08:00

Are you good at planning and telling others what your strengths and weaknesses are? Have you sat down and worked out how your small business is going to work and made a plan for yourself? Ever heard of a SWOT analysis? This is how it could help you.

No it’s not about someone who was really clever and nerdy at school. This SWOT is an acronym which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Basically, it is a model which is used as a tool for analysing all the above elements before you set off on a new venture. It’s used in education as a method for identifying development areas, in project management and lots of environments and can be easily adapted to any decision-making situation.

It is a way of taking a business objective and identifying the internal and external factors which are likely pose an opportunity or a threat to your business and it was first used in the 1960s. You can take the SWOT analysis even further and use the match or convert process where you look in more detail at how strengths and opportunities can be linked and also at how weaknesses and threats can be converted.

OK so as a beginners’ guide, take a piece of paper and draw a cross or plus sign through the middle (+). You now have four segments on your piece of paper. Write S in one of the segments, W in another and so on. Once the artistic bit is done, now you can actually start to fill the segments with something meaningful.

The S and the W speak for themselves so write down all the things that you think are your business’s strengths and weaknesses. Now look at the threats and opportunities. S and O are likely to derive from internal situations and W and T are more likely to come from external forces. If your SWOT analysis then tells you that your business venture or objective is not going to work, you need to find another idea and repeat the whole process. If you can’t minimise the threats and overturn the weaknesses, meaning that they outweigh the strengths and opportunities, then it is advisable not to go ahead.

Essentially, what you are doing is assessing a business situation and planning ahead. Marketers use it all the time, or other methods which are similar. You can use the analysis as a foundation on which to build further and it can be used to assess competitive advantages and so on. It should form the first part of the planning process for any start-up or small business.
So what are you waiting for? You want to set up your own business and you can do it just like anyone else. Don’t forget that it is worth concentrating on weaknesses and threats because they can be overturned and converted into great selling points. Don’t overlook them or you may miss out on an opportunity in reverse.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

10 Reasons To Start Your Own Business

2009-12-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

Are you fed up of the rat race and turning up for work on a dreary Monday morning, only to be confronted by your boss who has had a less than perfect weekend and looks as though they’re about to take it out on you? For anyone with anything about them and the desire to do well, setting up your own small business could be the way to go.

They always say that you will never make any real money whilst working for someone else. More and more people are starting up on their own because they recognise that they can do a better job than the company for which they are working. Here are ten reasons why you should consider setting up your own start-up business and how you can benefit from it:

• High earning potential - if you are working for an employer, you are on fixed earnings. These earnings, especially in times of financial crisis, are not likely to rise and you may even see pay freezes. Working for yourself, whilst difficult to begin with until your business starts to pay, means that you have unlimited earning potential. How much you earn depends on how much you put into it.

• Getting paid your worth - do you get paid your worth in your current job? How many of us believe that our talents are going unnoticed? Working for yourself is another way to make sure that you are not only increasing your earning potential, but that you are paying yourself for your talents.

• Self and job satisfaction - how many people actually enjoy their jobs? Doing a great job for an employer very often goes unnoticed or someone with no morals comes along and claims the credit for your hard work. OK so you’ll have to take the rap if your own business goes wrong but the satisfaction gained from knowing that you did a great job far outweighs the initial hard work.

• Making the economy go round - in the long term, if your business succeeds, you may well need to take on staff. As long as you are a fair employer, then you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are providing work for someone else and that you are supporting the economy.

• Professional development - many companies claim at interview that they will enhance your career by offering you superb professional development opportunities; and then they never arise. You become a number on a payroll and you disappear into a sea of other faces. Running your own business means that you are responsible for your own development and you are concentrating on areas at which you know you are good.

• Answer to no one but yourself! Speaks for itself...oh yes!

• Creativity – you can be as creative as your mind will allow and you will amaze yourself at how good you can be.

• Variety of work – no two days will be the same and nor should they be! Realistically, not many people want a repetitive job so being your own boss means you do what the business demands.

• Cut out the traffic – work from home or a local office space and you need never be stuck in those endless queues of people all looking as fed up as one another.

• Make it your second career if you are not ready to give up the day job just yet. You get the best of both worlds in that case.

So the benefits of starting up a business are wide and varied and the above list is by no means exhaustive. Make it your new year’s resolution and give it some thought!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

How To Use YouTube To promote Your Business?

2009-12-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

YouTube is an online phenomenon which allows anyone in the world to make a video and then upload it free of charge for viewing by potentially millions of people all over the world. Founded in 2005, it is a social networking site which is traditionally used for music videos and TV clips but could easily be used to help your business to thrive.

Whether you work as part of a small business or a larger organisation, YouTube can be used as a platform on which to promote your service or product and, in turn, drive traffic to your website and boost your brand recognition. Getting the right angle and making your video worthy of viewing is something that is important and worth spending some time on before you begin because there are quite literally millions of videos on there.

You may already have videos made for your company and these can quite easily be uploaded onto YouTube in their current form. YouTube acts as a web host meaning that you don’t have to take up space on your own website. Basically, YouTube is handling the risk for you and you don’t have to worry about technical issues such as bandwidth and so on.

So how do you make the video for promotion on YouTube? Well, shoot the video as you would with any other recording, using a camcorder or mobile device with a built in camera. Then go to the YouTube website and upload. Sign into YouTube or create an account for free if you don’t already have one. Then you will see an ‘upload video’ option in the right hand corner. The site will pretty much guide you through the process from hereon in. You will, of course, need to consider YouTube’s policies and make sure that you are not violating any of them.

You need to make sure you put some keywords in the tag field as well – keyword driven videos will act as another SEO technique for your own website. YouTube videos do appear in Google searches and so someone may just stumble upon it whilst searching on your keywords. Select the correct category in which to upload it and then make it public. It’s really easy and quite addictive!

Here’s the clever bit. You can now go back to your own website and embed the YouTube video into your own pages by using the special code that YouTube provides you with. And remember, your website is not hosting the video so it is not using up vital storage space.

Keeping your videos down to under ten minutes in length means that they play in better quality for the viewer, so bear this in mind also. You are now ready to make that all important promotional piece which could help your business to grow in unimaginable ways. The power of the internet and popular services such as YouTube should never be underestimated. It is used by quite literally millions of people and not just for singing sensations with big egos who want to be famous!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

Your site now served from 14 locations around the world

2009-12-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

Every site hosted by us are now served from 14 locations around the world!

What does this mean for you?

Every EzWeb123.com site is now running on a CDN (Content Delivery Network) which means your sites and all their contents are now being served from a distributed network of servers located in 14 different places around the world. Using clever routing and caching, visitors to your site get the content served up to their computer from the closest location to them, which means they get your sites faster!

Why did we do this?

More and more of our customers are located outside of the UK and have a global audience. So that got us thinking, how could we improve the global delivery of our awesome website builder and improve the quality of service for everyone? The CDN was our answer.

And best of all, it will cost you nothing! We're paying for it, even for free sites. Consider it an early Xmas present. Enjoy!!

New Toolbar for everyone from Feb 2010

2009-12-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Following the successful roll out of the New Toolbar for all new customers late in October, and the positive feedback from customers using it, we are now planning to phase out the old 'basic' and 'advanced' Toolbars from 1st Feb 2010.

We wanted to give you long enough to play with the New Toolbar (if you haven't already) as well as provide further feedback to us about what could make it better for you before this switch-over date. We have already received valuable feedback during the beta phase from you that helped us shape changes for the current release. We want to make sure we give further opportunity before the final version becomes the only version.

Why we're doing it

The major drive for developing the New Toolbar was to better organise the features available and create the structure so that we can expand services further in the future. SiteMaker has grown to include so many features over the years, sometimes the most important ones get lost, so this was an opportunity to re-present them for how they are, or can be, used today.

The New Toolbar will see the introduction of new blogging tools and the long awaited e-commerce upgrade, both of which we are aiming to deliver in the first half of next year.

The Old Toolbars (both basic and advanced versions) do not have the space or capabilities for us to integrate these new features as they are based on older version of Flash. To support both versions (Old and New) also creates overheads in the code that makes it difficult to add new features without breaking the old, and require editors to download parts of the old infrastructure that they will not use.

So for these reasons we have decided to phase out the Old Toolbars and create a single expandable New Toolbar that can cope with new additions for years to come. This has not been an easy decision, and we hope you understand that this creates a better platform for delivering new features in the future.

If you have comments or feedback on the New Toolbar, please let us know on this blog or via a support ticket.

New Toolbar highlights

You can get to the new Toolbar in the same way, e.g. 'View' --> 'New Toolbar', or if you're already using it you'll get the updates automatically.

The advantages of the new Toolbar are:

Use the full screen browser for editing - you can move edit tools outside the boundary of your site
Zoom in/out while editing - you make your site bigger/smaller to help you 'see' it in full glory
Sticky edit tools - the Toolbar remains at the top and the Editor will remain on screen as you scroll up and down

Show off-screen objects - if you drag something off your site (outside the boundary), you can choose to hide or display off screen objects while in Edit mode (new under 'view')
Detailed insert menu - more objects can be added in one click, including some new HTML snippets ('Insert' menu)

Quick pages menu - includes quicker ways to add pages, copy pages and change page length, plus edit meta data (for search engines) more quickly (see 'Pages' menu)

Links to other services - Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, AdSense can all be viewed without leaving your site (new 'Services' menu)

Copy site/transfer site feature - allows you to create copies of your site as the basis for a new site (not for backup)

HTML widget - add any HTML snippet to your site using our HTML widget snippet (e.g. Google Gadgets, all Widgetbox widgets, all Amazon widgets and more).

Let us know if you have any thoughts or comments. We're still making some improvements to the New Toolbar before 1st Feb 2010, so let us know if there's something that really doesn't work for you.

Why Web Designers Are Switching to Website Builders!

2009-12-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

Making a lasting impression on the internet is becoming more and more challenging because of the increasing number of websites out there. Website designers and marketers need all the time and money they can spare to concentrate on generating sales and income quickly and so more and more of them are switching over to website builders and creators.

Website builders are the perfect solution for creating big-impression websites and landing pages because they allow you to have an online presence literally within moments, depending on the package.

Rather than being restrictive, web creators are evolving to become more and more feature-rich and are the perfect way to build fantastic, professional looking sites with less hassle.

Some of the benefits

You are using pre-loaded templates which you can then enhance in your own time, saving you a great deal of the thought process but, very importantly, still allowing you the freedom to personalise them to your customer’s liking. With a website builder package, you will have access to technical support around the clock. The number of included add-ons available from these packages is growing every day and they can make your websites look more attractive whilst easier for your customers to use – let’s face it, the customer just wants something that looks great and is hassle-free.

Because they are web-based packages, you can access your websites from anywhere around the world as long as you are online. Web builders also give your customers access to statistical information which means that they can keep in touch with how well their business is performing and use the information to target niche markets. You can now also get full HTML access but with automated search engine optimisation (SEO) built in; again saving you time and effort. You can easily upload and store your own written documents, images and content to web builders with large amounts of storage space.

The alternatives

The alternatives to web builders, such as Dreamweaver, can be ridiculously expensive, time consuming and mean that you are tied in to one particular package when designing a web for your customer. What happens when that package is superseded by a better product and you have to re-train to familiarise yourself all over again? They take up enormous amounts of your time and can be rather frustrating to say the least.

Leave yourself with more time to make more money!

Website creators are, therefore, the most affordable, trouble-free method of getting online, promoting businesses and still allow you the freedom to be who you want to be and put your own personal stamp on them. You will be able to generate far more websites for your customers in a shorter space of time with increased levels of success, meaning that you can deliver a consistently high-standard of work and generate more income for yourself.

It’s all about becoming more and more efficient in a shorter space of time to stay ahead of the game. Once you have found and used a website creator, you will wonder what you did without one and find new ways to spend your time making even more money!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

How to promote your business on Facebook

2009-12-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Facebook, Myspace, Myface, Spacebook – you may well be forgiven for being a little confused! But Facebook can help to promote your business if you let it into your life...

Facebook is not just another web-based site on which children can send meaningless messages to one another and practice the art of bad grammar and spelling without their parents watching. If used cleverly, Facebook can be a useful tool for businesses and can allow business owners the chance to network with others.

You surely do not need to be told what Facebook is but, for those who have been living in a cave for the past ten years, Facebook is a social networking site which allows individuals and businesses to set up their own page and find friends, leave messages, post pictures and communicate with others in real time. It’s free to set up and you can use it from anywhere in the world where you have access to the internet.

So, you can create your own page in minutes and start inviting people who you know to become a fan of your page. You could set up a group in your own company name and allow people to join the group. In turn, they can then invite everyone they know and so it snowballs. What you can then do is add features to your page with regular posts and updates just to keep everyone informed. It’s all possible within a few moments and it really is very simple.

Facebook also allows you the option to pay for advertising on its site. You can do this as a one off advert and payment or you can use pay per click options which means that you pay as and when someone clicks on your advert through to your website.

The beauty of social networking sites is that you can now link them all by pointing from one to another. So, you may want to point your Twitter account to your Facebook account and to your LinkedIn account, and so on. One way or another, you are quite simply encouraging visits to your own website and making it easier to be found. You are constantly promoting your business and hopefully picking up referrals along the way. It only takes one person to see your advert or page, use you and tell their friends about you, and the possibilities are endless. Facebook is used by millions of people all over the world and so imagine the potential reach to your audience!

In essence, you are using Facebook as a search engine optimisation technique which then drives traffic to your website. You are creating a whole network of online places from which your business can be searched for and found. It’s all about having a presence and increasing brand recognition to the point where people say “ah yes Joe Bloggs, I know him”.

If you want to get down with the kids and chat with your friends at the same time as being a successful business, then Facebook has it all and you might just actually start to enjoy it!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

How LinkedIn can help you promote your website

2009-12-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

So you want to start networking and you have heard your friends talking about LinkedIn and how it can help you to promote your business but you want to find out more. Could LinkedIn be for you or is it just another site for other people?

LinkedIn is a free social networking site, aimed primarily at businesses. It allows business owners, sole traders and other professionals the chance to link with like-minded people and grow their own community or join with others.

Using LinkedIn can help you to promote your EzWeb123.com business website and your services to potentially millions of people all over the world. You connect with one person and LinkedIn will show you who that person is connected with and you are then able to create a spider’s web of connections in just a matter of moments. You’re only ever about two links away from thousands of people.

You can often find jobs through LinkedIn and you can also start discussion groups, inviting people to share thoughts and discuss ideas about your own products or services as a way to generate interest. It can be a great resource portal for business information and really is just like an online gathering of busy working professionals. You may just meet someone on LinkedIn who could be the next link to your most lucrative job or who will help to promote your business for you. The site is self perpetuating and the snowball effect that takes place is quite astounding once you get started.

Before promoting your website on LinkedIn, however, you do need to make sure that your website with EzWeb123.com is looking in tip top shape. EzWeb123 can help you to do this with its team of dedicated staff who provide online support around the clock. The website building package will assist you in not only setting up your website but will also give you the tools with which to customise it, enhance it and having it looking like a quality business website to rival any other.

Because EzWeb123 gives you the tools with which to promote your products or services in a complete package, your job on LinkedIn becomes so much easier. You have your fantastic looking, fully functioning website and the platform on which to promote it around the world. Watching your network grow and the number of connections you have on LinkedIn increase is satisfying for any business owner. Watch the number of visits to your website take off and, in turn, hopefully watch your business expand.

LinkedIn is just one of many social networking sites on which you can promote your EzWeb123 website and it’s all right there for you online, at the click of just a few buttons. You don’t need to be a techy – let the experts do it all for you!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

Why good navigation is key to your sites success

2009-12-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

You are about to design your website and your head is full of ideas of how it will look, the colours, the images, the overall effect and impact it will have on your audience. But have you understood the real importance of the navigation system that you have used in your design?

The value of good navigation architecture in the infrastructure of your website should not be underestimated. Good website navigation architecture is the most important job in the development process for any web designer. Many website designs are not constructed with page rank considerations in mind and this is where they will fall short in terms of search engine rankings.

In layman’s terms, page rank is measured by how many links any website page has from other website pages. There is a complicated science behind it with mathematical equations to boggle the most intelligent of minds. However, what it all boils down to is that your website will rank much higher up a Google search if the navigation layout is well designed. Optimal navigation layout should allow both search engines and visitors the best of experiences - a human being will search a website in a different way to a search engine spider as the latter can only read html.

Any good website designer will first ask their client who their audience is before they begin to design the website structure and create their site map. Users will benefit from an easy-to-navigate system and will become quickly confused by difficult and conflicting sites. The types of pages which are useful to a designer as navigation tools include: home pages; index pages; navigation bars; next/previous navigation – these are all useful ways for promoting products and services, as well as driving traffic to other pages. During the initial design process, it is also important to decide whether to have multiple levels of navigation, using sub menus, or whether a flatter navigation level is the better option.

Some of the benefits of having a good navigation scheme are that there will be fewer clicks in the click path, the content will be clear and is more likely to be read, and the visitor will be able to see more clearly where they should go for the information they need. In essence, visitor usability will be optimised. They should always be able to get to the information they require with ease and with minimal searching or you will lose them and they will go elsewhere.

So in reality, it is all in the design process. Laying it out up front and planning the design well will make the rest of the process much easier and the end result will be higher page rankings along with the most important bit – an altogether better customer experience.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

Google – now too expensive for small businesses?

2009-12-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

Google AdWords is a growing service which allows you to advertise to people who are searching on Google for a product or service.

AdWords works on a pay per click basis; in other words, you only pay when someone clicks onto your advert. You don’t even need a website to do it. You can set your own keywords, set your own budget and decide where your advert will be displayed. When someone goes into Google and carries out a search using keywords that you have entered into your ad, your advert may appear next to the search results. Sounds great – you could quite literally be seen by millions.

Google is now the most widely used search engine in the world by a large margin, which means that more and more people are likely to see your ad and click on it. Fantastic news! Or so it should be. However, if you are paying a cost per click (CPC) then this could potentially snowball and run up into amounts which some small businesses are unable to afford. Then you get the bill and you had no idea that it was going to cost you so much, despite having capped your ceiling limit.

For every click on your ad, you are paying for it. However, not every click will translate into business for you and so you may not be getting a profitable return on your investment (ROI) – and ROI is what advertising is all about. If it’s costing you more to advertise than you are making in sales from it, then it’s not working as it should be.

In effect, therefore, Google AdWords could be having the reverse effect of what its intentions were in the first place and could be discouraging small businesses; in turn, leaving room for the larger companies to grow even further because they are better able to absorb the costs of this type of advertising.

Then there is the potential for abuse. With every good idea, there is always someone behind it who has the mastermind to turn good into bad. Click fraud is becoming more and more prevalent and there is the risk of being scammed by the system that is supposed to be helping you.

In addition to all of this, some less tech-savvy people may find AdWords too much of a minefield. Although relatively straightforward to get started, it takes time to make best use of the system and to compete with the bigger fish. Some larger organisations actually pay members of staff to do this sort of advertising on a full-time basis and so they are experts in the subject. The likelihood is that the small businesses which will benefit from AdWords the most are those which are selling a unique service or product and whose keywords are most effective.

Do your homework is the best advice. Use an integrated approach to advertising and don’t just rely on one source. Practice makes perfect but make sure that you are comfortable with using AdWords and understand the pros and cons before getting started.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

The Importance of Quality Backlinks to your Website

2009-12-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

Promoting traffic to a website is becoming ever more important due to increasing competition. Using backlinks is just one way to aid your search engine optimisation (SEO) and, in turn, increase visitors to your website.

So why are backlinks so important to SEO? They have become a major part of website building and a major tool for consideration during the search engine optimisation process.

What are backlinks? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. They can also be known as inbound links. The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of a website. Search engines, such as Google, will favour more importantly those websites with plenty of quality backlinks, and will rate those websites more highly in their rankings.

When a search engine is considering how effective these inbound links are to a website, it is looking not only for the number of links, but for the quality of these links. So a search engine will look at the content on each of these linked websites and decide from that how relevant it is and whether it is a quality link. Inbound links which are from websites which bear more relevance to your own site are credited more highly by search engines. The reverse is also true of irrelevant inbound links.

Search engines are becoming wiser to the efforts of certain deceptive techniques from less than scrupulous developers and so it is becoming more and more difficult to gain credit from inbound links; even more reason why they need to be relevant, quality links.

There are directory sites which you can now visit where you enter in keywords relevant to your own site in return for a list of the best sites with which to link. Creating these one-way inbound links then becomes an easier task and you are more certain of quality links. Some services will now offer you free links for hosting their directory on your own site or you can pay for enhanced link packages.

You don’t, however, need to link back to the websites which are pointing at your site. One-way links are actually more beneficial to your website than reciprocal links. Search engines recognise that one-way links indicate that your website is worth pointing to without expecting anything in return from the other website.

One of the most effective ways in which to promote traffic to your website using backlinks is to submit relevant keyword-rich articles to article directories. You could also participate in forums and leave your website link in the contact details so that it points back to your site.

There are many ways to increase SEO using inbound links and the techniques are becoming more and more sophisticated so any good developer needs to be very aware of what is out there and why.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

F1ForKidz.com – Review

2009-12-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

F1ForKidz.com is a new website resource for children, designed to attract lovers of Formula One everywhere. Just how good is it and will it draw in all those lovers of motorsport and FIA?

Well, to begin with, the domain name says it all which is a good thing. You know from first hearing the name to visiting this site that it is a website for children who love Formula One. So we’re off to an excellent start and in pole position already.

The landing page has a look and feel of F1 about it with use of black and white colours to match the F1 chequered flag and there is a video clip of Jensen Button on there. The video clip is a great idea as it adds another dimension to the site and makes it immediately interactive. The site actually has a look of the official F1 site which is in keeping with the overall image.

The site is not sending out ambiguous messages and it is clear so far. It is laid out well and it has a simple look about it with clean lines. However, should it be more childlike on first glance or is it just about the right pitch for today’s sophisticated youth?

The menu options are very clear and it is immediately obvious where to go for everything that you need, although the font size of all the text is quite small. An option to increase font size if required might not be a bad idea. Another plus point is that the visitor is not bamboozled by ‘walls of words’ on the home page which is a great thing for any site. Having said that, perhaps the page is a little too ‘cold’ at the moment and not quite as inviting as it could be.

The potential for the pages to be filled with detail and activity is huge and the site certainly functions well. It possesses all the key features of any other website and is what one would expect, with the option of adding on extras if required. Some of the pages do obviously still need some work on them as the text looks a little sparse and not as easy to read as it could be with the scroll down action; such as on the F1 history page.

It is always good to have a forum area these days, especially for kids, because they love to interact and chat with one another – fill this page with lots of topics to choose from and make it a hive of activity. The forum page could benefit from being a little more visual with added graphics to bring it to life.

It is a crisp, clean looking site which fits in well with F1 but it is designed for children and so perhaps needs a few more flashing images and a bit more excitement adding to it. Apart from the home page, it is all quite static.

In terms of business potential, one would have to ask where a child would go if they wanted some F1 fun. Are they more likely to go straight to the F1 official website to begin with or do they want their own site? For the F1ForKidz.com site and for business to grow, the site needs to become far busier. Children are very sophisticated nowadays but they still thrive on fun and they need to feel that this site is a place where they can go to that grown ups can’t! It should have an exclusive feel for children about it; like a club or a gang. Once children are in that gang, they will almost certainly want to stay and chat with other F1 lovers.

What do you think? What are you views on how to make this website a place for serious young petrol heads to visit and catch up on all the latest Lewis Hamilton gossip? What features would you like to see on there if anything was possible? How could this site become the children’s Number One for F1?

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

What is search engine optimization?

2009-12-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

So you are a new website owner and you have your site perfected, you have told all your friends about it, you have told other business about it and you are now just waiting for the customers to come flooding in because they have all seen your site – haven’t they?

You will see nowadays lots of advertisements for SEO; or ‘search engine optimisation’, to the non-technical of us. Basically, SEO is a way of promoting and driving traffic to your website. Using cleverly worded articles, which are keyword rich, and using things called meta tags, amongst a whole range of other techniques, it is possible to generate a greater volume of traffic to your own website through search engines such as Google.
In essence, professionals have worked out how search engines work and how their spiders crawl for the best matches which then bring those searches up at the top of search lists. You will have done your own random web searches before now where you simply type into a search engine the words “cheap designer clothes” and it brings up a list of possible sites. The top sites are the ones that are making best use of search engine optimisation.

How to improve your own SEO

If the service that you offer is relatively unique, then the keywords that you use are likely to be quite specific to your business and will already rank quite highly in a search engine trawl. However, if the service that you offer is highly competitive, then the keywords that you use are likely to be used by millions of other sites. The main focus should be, of course, to build a good website with a quality effect and the rest should follow. However, after that, you should be aware of the usefulness of SEO techniques and how they can work for you.

Updating your website regularly is a must if you are to keep ahead of the game. The experts recommend that you update at least one of your pages at least once a month to keep it fresh and to add in new keywords where possible.

Make sure that you concentrate on the phrase ‘keyword rich’. Although becoming a bit of a cliché, it is important that you recognise its purpose when trying to improve SEO to your own website. But don’t try to do what some people have done in the past and use the same keywords over and over in hidden code on their web pages by using the same font colour as the background in order to disguise them! Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have become wise to this and will discredit you for it.

So you are a flower shop and you are trying to think of good content for your website which will rank you at the top of the search engine listings. Your first job is to think of keywords and phrases which apply to your business. The obvious ones will be flowers, bouquets, weddings, and so on. The less obvious ones might be phrases such as cheap flowers in Coventry, or same day delivery flowers in Coventry. Search engines are looking for good quality websites with useful information; not cheap websites full of meaningless keywords, so keep it interesting and keep the customer in mind at all times rather than trying to ‘fool’ the search engines.

Of course, a web building package will have built in SEO features so that a large element is already done for you. This is one of the advantages of a website builder – you don’t have to worry about the technicalities quite so much. They will use back-links, also known as inbound links – they are basically just incoming links to a website and search engines do favour these.

In essence, SEO is a simple concept with a million and one variations but it is definitely worth knowing a little bit about in order to learn how to improve your own listings and become more successful.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

twitter – only useful if you are famous?

2009-12-05T09:41:00.001-08:00

Twitter allows you to post ‘tweets’ and let everyone know what you are doing at any one given moment in time. People can then follow your tweets and suggest to others that they also follow your tweets – and so it goes on.

However, is Twitter only useful for those who are already famous? Of course everyone wants to know what Simon Cowell is up to and of course everyone would love to hear what Chris Moyles had for his breakfast (well almost everyone!). It can make the famous even more famous and is almost certainly a way for them to massage their own egos by counting the number of followers they have on twitter.com before they set off on their way to work.

But does Twitter have uses for the non-famous and even for businesses? Well there is certainly an increasing number of businesses adding to twitter.com on a regular basis and using the Twitter badge on their own websites to allow people the option to link through from one to the other. It can be a way to drive up business but only if your business is one where there is lots of activity and newsworthy items to report on – you are, otherwise, likely to run the risk of annoying your followers and making them wonder what you do all day!

You only get a couple of lines per tweet on twitter.com in which to tell people what your business is up to so it needs to be succinct and punchy. However, if you have a promotional offer to advertise, then Twitter could be a great way to send a blast with an update to all your followers – assuming by now that you have some followers! You can put a picture on there of either yourself or your logo and you can set your username up in your own name or your business name.

Perhaps for smaller businesses and start-ups, it could be a great way to get friends on board who may already have a Twitter account and ask them to spread the word. It’s another form of free advertising which is another positive. It can also be used as a form of referral marketing as well as for networking. It shows that your business is in tune with modern society and is accessible, transparent and open to new business connections. It could also be a great way to increase brand awareness – both for newer and already established businesses because your name is out there and is being passed around among a whole network of users.

As with all other social networking sites, you do have to remember to update your tweets as and when you get the time and have something worthwhile to say. It has become another platform for communication which can only be a good thing as there is no such thing as too much advertising – as long as it is worth reading.

Like most networking sites, they were set up with the aim of connecting people and have grown to become so much more. Twitter.com is no different and can be exploited to use as you see fit for your business if you are smart enough. You do have to remember to let people know that you are on twitter.com as well – don’t forget that part!

Could twitter.com allow the non-famous person to become famous? Who knows – it seems anything is becoming possible.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

Are Teenagers Obsessed With Texting?

2009-12-05T09:39:00.001-08:00

There was a time when families would talk with one another. They would sit and communicate around the table, regardless of how banal the conversation was. So what has happened to today’s teenagers that they seem no longer able to hold a meaningful conversation without the interruption of a text from a friend accompanied by an annoying beeping noise?

You only have to drive 20 yards down the road before you come across a teenager either talking on their mobile or texting and downloading information from another world onto their latest mobile gadget. There’s an app for this and there’s an app for that. You will struggle to find a teenager who will leave home without their mobile or cell phone, whatever you wish to call it, and you will struggle even further to find a teenager who does not own a mobile phone.

Texting has become a frightening obsession for many young people and has seemingly become their primary means of communication with their friends and even family. They live in a world where everything has to be relayed instantly and without the need to raise a voice or look someone in the eye.

Two teenagers in the same room, the same class, the same train will think nothing of sending one another a text to let each other know how they are feeling, where to meet or what they did the night before – not giving a it a second thought that they could just as easily greet one another with a friendly smile and speak to each other.

It has become socially unacceptable for teenagers not to own a mobile phone. They communicate with one another on a level that has created a sub culture and a language which can only be understood by them. Having said that, twenty or so years ago, teenagers had their own sub language in the spoken form anyway because teenagers need to set themselves apart from their elders and exist in a world which is exclusive to them.

Now, even text language has evolved and divided into sub languages over the last ten years. What was once ‘cool’ to type on text or email is now just ‘so last year’ and it has moved on. There are levels of texting within texting and it has developed into its own language with its own etiquette.

Levels of literacy and numeracy are reportedly poor in teens. You don’t need statistics to point out these facts – you need only spend a few hours with a group of teenagers to realise that they place importance on other things. Whilst able to design a perfect power point presentation with spectacular graphics, using a pre-packaged suite on a well-known platform, teens seem unable to find the time to check their work for such things as spelling, grammar and so on. The basics are most definitely dead. With so many people arguing that there is no longer a need for a person to be able to spell for themselves because of spell checkers and predictive text, it seems that teenagers continue in ignorant bliss as to the detrimental effects that texting is having on them and the long term effects of society. We are even breeding a generation of teachers who aren’t able to correct their pupils’ work because they often don’t know any different either.

Using text language means that teenagers are losing their ability to communicate effectively and articulately with others of all age groups and retain information for any length of time because they are no longer required to. Why retain something that is at your predisposal on a saved artificial memory? Learning the basic skills of life in the forms of literacy, numeracy, communication and the art of social interaction seem to be less and less fashionable and worryingly considered less and less important. What a shame that it is only like to become worse before it becomes any better.

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

Creating a Website to Promote Your Photography

2009-12-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

Photography is an incredibly popular art form in the present arts market. People find it easier to relate to photography in a way that they don’t always with fine art. The beauty of capturing a moment, the vibrancy of the colours and the subtlety of the light and shade all captivate the viewer.

Many people looking for photographic pieces or services turn to the Internet to help them find a good contact. Even if they have heard of your name, or have been given a recommendation they are likely to give up the search if you do not have an online presence.

A website doesn’t have to be over-complicated. ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. If you present your work in a simple but stylish way, you are guaranteed to attract interest from potential clients and buyers.

Most clients who come to your site will be looking for examples of work, a little information about the photographer to add credibility, the services you offer and, of course, how to contact you. Traditionally even getting this simple information presented nicely on the web was difficult without engaging a designer or web developer. But there are alternatives!

If you are looking for an attractive but simple site that you can edit and maintain, then an easy to use online website builder is exactly what you are looking for. Quite simply, you select a design from thousands of pre-made templates, edit it to contain all your information then upload to the web!

Great-looking galleries come as standard so that you can showcase your work to its full potential and really make a good impression on your prospective clients. There are even simple to use video players that could allow you to show a short interview or video of you at work!

Member website featured in this article: PhotoART

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com

Creating a Website to Promote Your Art Work

2009-12-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Artists need to constantly and consistently promote their work in order to make sales and raise their profile. Even when you are working on a new collection of work, it is important to still have your other works available for view or purchase.

Many artists overlook the importance of a website of promoting themselves via the Internet. Websites are an incredible marketing tool that raises your profile and allows art collectors, buyers and galleries to keep up to date with your current activities.

Unless you are particularly interested in graphic design and web development it is perhaps unlikely that you have the time (or finances) to build a website that you can be happy with.

Even in the very simplest of sites you would need a biography / C.V page, a gallery of work and a contact section which would take quite a lot of time to create using HTML. Getting a professional web designer in will often get a good job done, but this is often a very costly method of getting a website.

However, there is an alternative way to promote your work online by creating a website using online templates from an online website builder. You’ll soon discover it’s much easier than you think.

With different colour schemes, layouts and style galleries all available for you to choose from you can mix and match different elements to create a website that meets your needs. You don’t need to spend a fortune in advance and as your website grows you can update your package to suit your needs. There are even ecommerce tools (that’s online shopping tools to you and me!) that allow you to sell your work online directly from your website.

No need to post out CVs and examples of work to buyers or galleries when you can easily pop a link to your website in an email. And because you can control and edit the whole thing yourself, you don’t have to wait on someone else to do it for you, or expect the dreaded invoice to arrive in the post!

Copyright © Peter Moore 2009 - Co-Founder of EzWeb123.com