TitanOutletStore.com website is built on WordPress to take advantage of the Content Management System capabilities. The website features social media integration, recent listings feed, a blog and feature images. This is the official website for Titan Outlet Store and connects to their classifieds and forum as well as all social media accounts.

The Wired Up! website is a custom designed eCommerce website built on Magento. Wired Up sells unique wire art for weddings, wine and gifts.

SnuggleWool.com sells luxury hand-made baby blankets, buntings, mattress pads, car seat covers and other merino wool based products. Product is sold direct, wholesale, drop ship and through affiliates.

Snuggle Wool needed a way to sell more product without hiring a salesperson. Sales are online based so an affiliate program made sense. To launch the new affiliate program, we created two new websites and promoted through email marketing and social media integration. The plan is to make it easy for the affiliates to sell. We give the affiliates everything they need to sell including graphics, sales copy and tips for selling online.

Your business website should be the definitive go to resource for all public information about your company.

In many cases, a company’s website is what makes the initial and lasting impression on new or potential customers. Websites have allowed businesses and organizations to go global and become available around the clock, yet without a creative, professional web design, the business could appear lackluster or unqualified. The following are a few key components that should appear on every website:

Contact Information

On many websites, contact information is buried in fine print on the bottom of the page or contained on a hard-to-find page. This requires users to hunt for information that should be prominently displayed. Place your phone number and/or email address in the page banner or just below the logo, making sure that visitors’ eyes are drawn to this valuable information. On a separate “Contact Us” page, include all important mailing addresses, emails, phone numbers, and even instant messaging contact names. Also consider having a feature on the contacts page where users can send emails directly from the website.

Professional Web Design

The appearance of a website speaks volumes about a company or organization. Today’s savvy web users can spot a poorly constructed website a mile away, which reflects on the owner’s competence and professionalism. Through the use of professional web design software or the help of an expert, websites can become vibrant, interactive, and sleek by including Flash plug-ins, Java applets, and a user-friendly structure. First impressions are important when attracting new visitors to a website, so make your web design look professional.

Press Releases and Recent News

This is an opportunity for you to brag on your website about what your company or organization has been doing recently. Sharing this information draws traffic and attention to your website and also instills confidence and legitimacy in the company.

Blogs

Blogs are a great way to add a personal touch to the website and inform visitors with up to the minute changes and news. Blogs are efficient because they can quickly relay information to visitors without having to make changes to the overall website, and they provide a platform to ask for feedback or respond to complaints. In most cases, blog features can be updated easily from any computer, making it a simple way to reach out to your website’s visitors.

Social Media Links

Use the power of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to drive web traffic and showcase information. Setting up and maintaining Facebook and Twitter accounts are incredibly easy and they provide you with everything you need to link your account to your website. Announcing special offers and posting product demonstration videos on social media sites has become the hottest trend in cyber-marketing, so make sure every visitor to your website is enticed to become your friend or follower on other social media sites.

Downloads

Think about what information is requested the most by your customers. Whether it is a location map, pricing guide or instruction manual, have the file posted as a PDF and available for download as a convenience to your visitors.

Frequently Asked Questions

The more information that is provided on the website, the fewer phone calls and emails you will receive inquiring about information that should have already been addressed. Serious brainstorming should go into thinking up the questions and responses in the section, making sure each response is clear and straight forward. At the end of the page, direct users to the Contacts page if any questions or concerns still exist.

Case Studies, Portfolios, Work Examples

Depending on your line of work, your website can give visitors a glimpse into the services or work you have done in the past. Reviews and recommendations can only say so much about what you do, so consider letting your work speak for itself by displaying it on your website.

Resources and Links

While your main concern is keeping visitors at your website, sometimes it is not feasible or practical to have every link on your website. Design a page that only contains highly reputable resources and make sure to update the links as they change to keep your visitors on the right track.

EVERYTHING!

If you want your website to be effective and efficient, it must contain everything a visitor would be looking for. There is a fine balance between being concise and complete, but never make the user have to look elsewhere for more information. The more complete the web design, the more satisfied your visitors will be, and happy visitors make good recommendations.

The process of finding a domain name for yourself or your company does not seem like it should be complicated. The details involved in establishing a domain name can become confusing, especially if you are unfamiliar with them. However, this should not discourage anyone from starting their own website. There are some basic guidelines to follow and general information that will help get you started.

Decide on a domain name

First you need to come up with a domain name you would like to use. Ideally, this would be your company name, but it is possible that a site with that domain has already been registered. You may be able to register part of the company name, or something related to your business. You may be able to use your company slogan as a domain name, but make sure to keep the name as short as possible. You want people who are searching for your business to find your website easily, and passing along the website will be easier if the domain name is simple and easy to remember. Keep in mind that people will need to type the name of your site as your email address as well. The whole idea of having a website is to make your business more convenient to your customers, so keep the domain name simple. You will also want to include any keywords that you want your site to pop up on search engines with, which will allow you to find new customers online.

Register the domain name

Once you have found a domain that will work for you, you need to register it. There are a number of sites that will assist you in finding and registering your domain name at a reasonable price. However, be wary of some of these sites. Some companies offer all-in-one deals which include domain registration, hosting, and web design. This usually allows someone else to register your domain name under their name. This enables them to hold onto your domain name, even if you want to take down the website. Be sure to read the fine print in the contracts when you register your domain name. One site that will register your domain for you at your request is Korby Domains, a sister site of Korby Imagery.

Top level domain

When registering your domain name, you will ideally want to get the .com address, because it is the most widely used top level domain for websites (other TLDs include .org or .net). It is easier for clients to remember, as well. However, when you register your domain name, you may want to purchase similar or matching domain names to prevent others from taking them.

Cost of registering a domain name

If you are the first to register a domain name, it is less costly to you. Depending on who you use to establish your domain name, it can be registered for as low $1.99 a year. If someone else has registered your domain name already, you may be able to buy it, but the person who owns it can charge whatever they want to. For instance, in 2009, the domain Insure.com sold for $16 million, and prices that high are not uncommon (you can check out other pricey domain names at http://most-expensive.net/domain-name).

Beware of domain buying bots

There are bots that purchase domain names that have been viewed but not purchased. If you add a name to your cart and do not purchase it, someone else will. So the best way to eliminate competition from similar sites (or confusion from people trying to find you and getting directed to a different site) is to buy these domain names so no one else can.

Register the domain in your own name

Register the domain name in your own name under your business name. By registering under your name, you have the power to make decisions about your website. You will also want to register for as long as you can. The maximum period of registration is ten years (though most companies renew on an annual basis), and is renewable after that point. You need to be aware of when you need to pay to continue using this designated web space, because if you do not renew, the domain name can be registered to anyone else. As long as you keep up with the renewal payments, the domain name can be yours for as long as you’d like.

Once you have initially registered your domain name, it will be available for use within 72 hours. Keep in mind that your domain name needs to be simple, and make sure you register it in your name. Once you have registered your domain name, just keep up with the renewal fees to ensure you remain online. If you need any assistance, find a good website (such as Korby Imagery) to help with you with the process.

When starting up a website for your company or business, it is important that it is dynamic and easy to use. These days, there are so many websites out there that do not meet these standards of quality. A website of poor quality increases a company’s chances of becoming a failure. Therefore, it is important that a website has the necessary features in order to be of great service to its visitors.

Professional Design

A professional design is a must have feature in order for a website to be a success. If you have some knowledge about CSS and HTML then the process of designing a website template may not be an arduous task. However, if you are new to website design, then you may want to hire someone to complete this task for you. A professional website template and interface will have positive effects on your visitors. People are more likely to sift longer through a website that has a user friendly design.

About us or FAQ

The one feature that no website should exist without is an about us page. Not all websites are that easy to comprehend at first, so it is a good idea to write a short “about us” page that will inform visitors on what your site is about. Include the purpose of your business and some background information as well. By providing this information, visitors are more likely to trust your business. A business’ contact information should also be included on the website. This information is very important and is usually separate from the “about us” page.
Whether a site is focused on selling items, providing answers to questions, or offering a service, it is vital that there is a site search feature. This is a little search engine widget that will allow visitors to search for the exact items or answers that they are looking for. This search engine is unique in the sense that searches pertain only to the content on your site. It is a good idea to include this feature near the top of all of your pages.

Site search and resources

A help resource is an important feature that all websites should have as well. If you want to save both time and money then be sure to take the time to develop a customer support section. This is especially helpful if you have a great deal of visitors. First, brainstorm all of the questions that you think visitors will frequently ask. Don’t worry about including every possible question because the list will become longer and more distinguished with time. Eventually, you will get numerous email about a certain issue and then you will know to include the answer to that specific question.

Downloads

If your site offers a certain feature, then it is a good idea to include some free downloads. These downloads will draw in more customers and will keep them returning to your website for longer periods of time. Free downloads are not usually important pieces of software, but provide users with a sample of what that software has to offer.

Switching from a custom designed website to a CMS or Content Management System like WordPress can have many benefits. SEO, easy updates, having a blog as part of your website and not having to buy software are a few. A huge benefit is keeping the content separate from the design. You can change the design later without changing the content too much, thereby not affecting your search engine rankings or inbound links. The best part is you can still have a customized design.

There are a few things you should know before deciding to switch to a WordPress CMS, especially if you have purchased Dreamweaver to edit your site in-house.

This is a brand new site.

Your website will be different.

Nothing will remain of your old site.

Editing and file management will change.

Images and linked documents will be handled differently.

You don’t need Dreamweaver anymore.

New hosting may be required.

There is a learning curve.

Are we clear?

Good.

Be aware that your file structure may change. If your pages were all at the root level before, they will be in an organized file structure with WordPress. This means old links will need to be updated and some pages may need to be placed differently or go away altogether. All pages now can be one click away from the home page through the drop down menu navigation.

The way you create page-to-page links will change. The ability to browse for a page or drop a target on a page to make a link are gone and will be missed. Instead, open a second browser window or tab to the page you want to link to and copy the url from the address bar. In the edit window of the page you are creating the link from, select the text, click the link icon, paste the link.

Images and linked documents will be handled differently. If you use numerous PDFs or other attached documents that need to be removed from the server regularly, this needs to be made clear up front. One folder can be set up to contain all linked documents to make clean up easier. If you do not set this up from the start it will not be easy finding and deleting old files because you no longer have the option to find orphan files or broken links. These features of Dreamweaver I would really like to see built into WordPress.

You will no longer have to open Dreamweaver for every little change. You can make changes through the admin panel by logging into your web browser. This is good news for people who have had to drive to work through bad weather just to post the weather cancellations. The admin panel is easy to use but has a slight learning curve. It is closer to Word than Dreamweaver, but resist the temptation to revert back to Dreamweaver.

Adding images is easier. With WordPress you can easily add images or image galleries.

It is easy to add pages and posts. You will be able to do most edits on your own. Navigation is still handled differently from website to website, but you may by able to add new links to the navigation on your own just by adding a page.

When the internet first started out one of the ways if not the only way to get an online presence was to have a website. In order to do so you needed to know HTML which was rather difficult but people who managed to master it produced beautiful websites. Combined with good content those websites became a hit. Today however things have changed and in order to have an online presence a business or individual does not have to know HTML.

When blogging was first introduced a few years back it gave people a way to talk about their various experiences. They were purely information based so search engines really loved indexing them. Soon businesses began to catch on to the idea of blogging and now there are blogs that look a lot like websites minus the complication of setting them up and later maintaining them.

One of the biggest problems with a normal, conventional website is that in order to update, change or add stuff to the website you need to know HTML. You need to first edit the page then make all the appropriate back links work and then ftp back the pages to your server. Even when you are using an expensive program like Dreamweaver things can get complicated as your website grows and you need to add more stuff like a subscription box, flash objects etc.

With a blog you don’t need to know HTML because on the back end it’s supported with a CMS system like WordPress. Adding pages, posts, and plug-in to your blog is as simple as installing a program on your computer. Also changing the design of your blog is as easy as uploading it and changing the theme. This makes maintaining a blog much more time efficient and less prone to errors.

Is your website professional, functional and easy to use?

How many customers are you losing with a poorly maintained shopping cart? If your visitors getting errors, broken links or confusing navigation, how long do you think they are staying on your site?

The internet today has changed the way business is conducted. Services and products online face fierce competition from websites operating half way around the world. Businesses are constantly competing for customer’s attention where factors such as price, website design, and trustworthiness all count as potential selling factors.

Is your website working against you?

When people look to sign up for a service one of the first things they see is website design.  An unprofessional or unintuitive website design is definitely going to turn people off.

Your website needs to do these things in order for you to be successful:

1. It should present as professional and trustworthy.
2. Keep the visitors attention through to the purchase.

Your website should look reflect the appearance of your business online. If you are a professional offering a quality product or service, your website should reflect that. These can only be achieved if your website is well designed and professionally laid out. This is especially true for websites and business that sell services since competition is fierce as many other businesses are providing the same service as you are.  Your website design needs to be able to reach out to these people and assure them that you are the very best in your field.

An online business is likely to fail because of poor website design. Broken links, graphics and especially broken shopping carts give the impression that you just don’t care and will turn people away. Give your business the best chance of success with a high quality website.