Web Assessments

Web Assessments
By L R Lindsay

Today's websites are the greatest marketing tools there are. They are the best tools for communicating with customers and showcasing your products and services. They are the lifeblood of your brand and convey your status, reputation, and position in the market. That's why web assessments are so critical to learning whether you are making the most of your website.

These are a few questions that our web assessments answer: (1) Can consumers find your website easily when they search the internet for companies that sell the products and services you do? (2) Does your company's name surface often on the internet? (3) Is your website designed to invite customers to your site's inside pages to check out your products and make a purchase?(4) Can people locate your website through social media? Do your social media sites direct traffic to your website?

Web assessment points 1 and 2 (above): Can consumers find your website easily?

Web assessments tells you whether search engines like Google and Yahoo can "read" your website, so that your company name and products come up often when people search for them on the internet. Through search-engine optimization (SEO), your website and products are located more often, and your name can even seem to popup everywhere when someone searches for your brand.

SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are used by your targeted consumers. The more often a website appears in search-engine results, the more often people will visit it.

By the way, can consumers access your website using their mobile phone? That's another matter to consider when you ask for web assessments.

Website assessment point 3: Is your website designed to invite customers?

Every site is designed, but few are designed well. When it comes to website design, you don't want it to look a mess. You want your brand, logo, colours, and company's personality to explode from the home page and pull consumers inside. On the inner pages of the site, they read fascinating, well-written snippets on what's great about you and your products and services. They see exciting themes-- photographs, drawings, or picture-caption copy that communicates as well as the writing.

Bear in mind that a website built from a cookie-cutter template lacks original design and can seem amateurish for companies in the business of attracting customers or even employees. If you want to look professional-hire a professional designer to make you look good. Your reputation is at stake.

Consider the amazing sites that will impress visitors

All websites can be scaled to include digital catalogs, e-commerce, forums, message boards, blogs, auctions, contests, sales coupons that flash like light bulbs, newsletters, chat, classifieds, photo galleries, games, reviews, donation buttons, event enrollment forms, comments sections, and response forms. The only limitations are your imagination. By the way, we design catchy and meaningful logos.

Website assessment point 4: Do your social media sites direct traffic to your website?

Are you on social media? Your competitors are. Do you "share" your web content on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and so on. Since you want to be on every corner of the web, it's essential to incorporate social media into your website. This means having great social media links. You want all your sites-social media and web-to communicate with one another.

Web assessments are a must. If you do any digital work at all, ensure it's focused on improving your website's design, SEO, and connection to social media.

Learn more about Web assessments

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Does Your Brick and Mortar Business Have a Squeeze Page?

Does Your Brick and Mortar Business Have a Squeeze Page?
By Chris Doe Ford

I happen to know several traditional brick and mortar business owners. Some are highly successful. However, the one common area all seem to have major challenges is creating their online presence. After all, what a faster way to grow your business than via internet.

So, the question then becomes, how do I grow my business on the internet? The very first step is gathering information for potential customers. What is the most valuable piece of information in internet marketing? You guessed it, the email address.

A Squeeze page (also known as a landing page or lead capture page) is simply a page designed to collect names and email addresses. This squeeze page contains an opt-in form where your potential customer provides his name and email address in exchange for your 'irresistible offer'.

There are several different types of squeeze pages and tons of ready-made templates where you can simply plug in your business information and offer. To determine which squeeze page works best for your business requires testing and more testing. In the internet world, when you test a certain page against another comparable page to see which one converts better, this is called 'split testing'.

All of your online potential customers are directed to your 'squeeze page'. Once the email address is gathered, then that potential customer is directed to your offer and a thank you page. Your offer may be your newsletter or a free report or a tip on whatever business you are in.

The main purpose of gathering the email address is for business follow-up. Most people don't purchase on the very first website visit. The average visits before a purchase is made, per the experts, is 7. So, that begs the question. If you collect the email address how do we follow-up? It's called an autoresponder. The autoresponder is your most valuable online tool. You simply prepare pre-written messages to be sent out at pre-determined dates to the email addresses collected. Your business name is kept in your potential customers face and will greatly increase your sales.

Their are several reputable autoresponder companies available today, including Aweber, GetResponse, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, GVO, etc. Most will provide a trial period or money-back guarantee if your not happy with the service. Be sure to educate yourself on the functions of the autoresponder of your choice. Watch the Video tutorials provided and greatly increase your efficiency.

In designing your squeeze page, make sure it provides two important elements for your potential customer. Important element number one for your customers is, make sure it provides value or benefits them. For example, if your squeeze page relates to 'care for dogs' and your in the automobile business, you probably won't collect many email addresses (opt-ins). However, if your in the auto business and you provide a free report or tips on how to better maintain your care or a coupon for maintenance, or something similar, your conversion rate (opt-ins) should do well.

Important element number two for your opt-ins is tell them on your squeeze page that you will not share their email address or name to anyone else. Respect their privacy and thank them for opt-ing in.

Develop your online presence with a great squeeze page and autoresponder follow-up and watch your sales greatly increase.

Chris Doe Ford - for more information on this and related topics please visit my homepage at http://rchrisford.com

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To the Nine to Fiver Who Wants to Start an Online Business

To the Nine to Fiver Who Wants to Start an Online Business
By Zo Slater

Are you tired of spending endless hours working for someone else on a job you hate? I used to work hard also. The 12-hour shifts. The 7-day weeks. But I didn't start making big money until I started my own online business. And it didn't take much.

Many people that hate their jobs spend hours, surfing the Internet, looking for a particular get rich quick, money making, opportunity, which only ends up being a scam or false advertisement. If this sounds like you, you are one of the many people who would benefit from creating your own mini site to start your own online business. These are websites that only contain 1-5 pages. They are basically small web sites. The main purpose of mini sites is to make money. You can do this by focusing on a very narrow niche and try to rank for solely one keyword in a search engine. Creating a mini site can be broken down into these steps:

1. Picking a product
2. Building the mini site
3. Generating Traffic
4. Optimizing the Site

The first step is to find a product which you want to promote. You can promote all sorts of products or services. Just pick a product or service you are interested in. Then your next step is to set up your site. In order to create a site buy your own domain. Ideally the domain should include the keywords you are trying to rank for. You can use HTML and CSS to build your site. Lastly, you need to generate traffic in some form to your site. You can aim at getting 1500-3000 visitors per month once the site is set up. You can achieve this by focusing on a very narrow niche market. What you want to do is to find a keyword that is related to your product. This keyword will lead thousands people per month to your site. It needs to be a keyword with little competition which makes it easier for you to rank faster and better. Also keep in mind that the keyword you are targeting should be a buying keyword. If you focus on building a site around cooking then buying keywords for cooking might be cooking course, cook training, and so forth.

With mini sites you can generate cash automatically without having to worry about much. It's also important to remember to optimize the site.

Zo Slater is a well-known internet entrepreneur, digital media producer, hip-hop producer, author and small business authority. He has written nationally published columns.

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The Most Important Metrics for Internet Businesses

The Most Important Metrics for Internet Businesses
By Hemang C Subramanian

In the internet economy - be it a web 2.0 Or the App industry, one of the most important metrics determining a firm's value is: "Customer Lifetime Value" (CLV). CLV is the value generated by a customer while using the app (or website) that is in turn captured by the website or the app. Another metric of importance is the customer acquisition cost (CAC). CAC is the cost of acquiring a customer through either advertisements, referals or through regular sales cycle.

One of the ways to calculate the CLV is as follows: (A more detailed definition and formula for the same is given here.)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) = average sale value x number of repeat transactions x average retention time.

For example, let's say that a Netflix customer uses the service for 5 years (average retention time) and pays $8 per month (average sale value) and 12 times a year ( i.e. number of repeat transactions). The customer lifetime value for Netflix is 5 X 12 X 8 = $480.

If Netflix spends $80 to acquire one customer on average, the net realizable value from a customer is:

CLV - AC ie. $480 - $80 = $400 per customer per year

Obviously the more the number of customers the higher is the firm's revenue. The net realizable revenue for Netflix with 40 million customers is 16 billion dollars over 5 years. For services that are dependent on advertisements e.g. news sites or Google, the average sale value is dependent on the average number of times a customer clicks on an advertisement (CPC ads) OR the number of times an advertisement can be displayed to the customer (Display/banner advertisements).

Most internet firms or apps try to increase their customer lifetime value by increasing either:

a) The number of repeat transactions: This is achieved by increasing a customer's time spent using the app (or the website) by making the site's value proposition very compelling. In addition high repeat transactions are achieved by making customers engage in actions such as clicking ads or browsing or purchasing digital goods.

b) The retention: This is achieved by making it very difficult to leave the application or the platform AND by making the user return to the platform over and over again.

Overall, if an internet business increases the number of repeat transactions and increases the retention of customers while simultaneously increasing the number of customers, their business will get very valuable quickly - like Whatsapp...

Hemang is a business academic (Ph.D. candidate at Scheller College of business at Georgia Tech), a product enthusiast and software professional with more than a decade of experience in the high Tech industry at IBM, Yahoo! and startups. He regularly blogs at http://www.hemangcs.tumblr.com. Hemang also serves in an advisory role and independent director level overseeing launch strategies for high tech businesses. His research is under review for publication at several top academic journals in information systems and in Strategic management. Hemang can be reached at hemang@gatech.edu

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3 Questions You Must Answer Before Trying to Make Money Online

3 Questions You Must Answer Before Trying to Make Money Online
By Bruce Woodward

Question 1:

Why do you want an online business, or income?

• If you answered "to get rich," then I have to admit that you are probably misguided about online businesses, and making money online. Let's be upfront right now, there is no magic pill or elixir (or online program or software, either) that will have you raking in money; despite what all the "guru's" and make-money-online "experts" are willing to bait out. You may well be better suited to play the lottery.


• If you answered "to work five minutes a day and spend the rest of the time traveling/doing what I want." See bullet one. Any venture, whether it is virtual or not requires time, effort and in almost all cases, at least to a certain degree, capital. Starting an online business, or acquiring an online income is not simply working for "five minutes" and expecting cash to role in. if you believe that, you have likely been hooked by a "guru." You must expect, and be willing to, invest time (at least) in your new venture - a lot of entrepreneurs starting out spend 10-20 hours a week above and beyond their current job working on their online business.


• If you answered "for financial freedom, independence and self-reliance" then you have as good of chance as any to succeed with you own online business or money-making opportunity. As long as you don't fall into any traps from the "guru's", and know upfront the time, effort and sacrifices that has to be made upfront.

Question 2:

What do you want to achieve?

• If you answered "to get rich" or "to get rich quick" - see the first bullet point above. You have to be realistic with what you want to achieve, and honestly, "to get rich" or "to get rich quick" just is simply not realistic. It does not happen.


• Begin with a reasonable goal. Something you can see, and obtain. Something that will, once met, give you inspiration for moving forward, and for continuing with your endeavor. Beware not to set your sights too high as failure in this realm is the leading cause of online entrepreneurs dropping out, giving up and cashing in.

Question 3:

Do you have the desire, commitment and self drive?

• This is probably the single most question that you must answer truthfully to be able to achieve any and all goals for your online business. Are you the type that can create the initiative to go out on your own, get up daily and know what you must do at any certain time of the day?


• Or, are you the type that has to be managed. To be given a task or tasks to achieve in a given time frame? Now, there is nothing at all wrong with this type of person, if you are indeed one of them. But, online entrepreneurship may not be the best option for you.

To be successful in online entrepreneurship, as is true with any business, you must be aware that "get rich" or "get rich quick" goals/hype are scams. You must be able to set achievable and measurable goals. And, most importantly, you must be able to do this on your own. You must have the resolve and determination to set, manage and achieve your own goals.

Bruce has been in internet marketing and most all aspects of the internet for almost seventeen years and is the owner of his own blog at http://MySocialHomePlace.com. He is also an IT professional. Don't get scammed.

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