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There's an awful
lot of buzz these days about down-sizing,
Redundancies,
early retirement and how many people are now
turning to the
Internet to either supplement their income or
even earn a full
time income so that they can sack their boss.
But it's not as
easy as most think. Yes, it's doable - and
Thousands of
people are doing so - but the abundance of wild
Promises of easy
money and high incomes for little work are the
Results in much
discontent and discouragement.
So I have included
2 Tutorials this Month about building a Website,
One of which was
written some time ago, but which is still as fresh
and as relevant as
it was when it was written.
===================================
Tutorial
Revisited: "Why Newbies Are Afraid To Build A Website"
===================================
Can you
remember when you first decided to build a Website? I
can. And my
toes curl up every time I think about it.
What a
mammoth task!
I started out
in my innocence and designed a stunning site with
Microsoft
Publisher. 'Hey this is great' I thought. "Just some
Desk Top
publishing, save it in HTML format (whatever that is)
and then figure
out how to get it up onto the Web".
Dear oh dear,
oh dear. What an absolute disaster!
If you have
your own Website, you know exactly where I went
wrong. BUT, if
you're a Newbie you WON'T!
So I searched
the Internet for help. Here, there, and everywhere
I went,
printing out mountains of techie stuff, instant-build it
stuff and HTML
tutorials. Man, I couldn't even understand WHY I
needed to learn
HTML. Why not a WYSIWYG instant Web Builder?
So off I went
again and collected all the advertising promises of
'No HTML
knowledge required' etc, etc, etc. What a complete waste
of time! The
truth is that had I not been absolutely determined
to build a
Website to promote my existing offline Copywriting
service, I
would have given up.
I needed all
this mystifying hype, lies, and confusing techie-
talk, like a
hole in the head. Because the biggest problem was
that I didn't
know where to look for the *impartial* advice I was
desperately
seeking. Hey, I didn't even know WHAT advice I was
looking for!
Everyone shouted "Buy Me!" Know the feeling.
Some said I
needed a WYSIWYG Website builder, but they didn't
warn me that I
still needed to know some HTML. Some advised me to
learn all sorts
of Techie stuff that left me totally confused.
Others said
they'd show me how to start from scratch, but their
instructions
left me more frustrated than before I started.
Sheesh!
I ended up with
a shopping list of tools and software that would
Break the bank
...
An HTML
course costing $40.
A Graphics
program setting me back $250 and a learning curve
steeper than
Everest.
Subscription
to a graphics site - another $30.
A graphics
optimizer for $40 - another learning curve.
A Scanner to
copy my own pictures for the Site.
And a host of
other expensive 'Techie' stuff, with no-one to
advise me which
was best. Or even if I really needed it! And of
course I
learned later, that most of it wasn't needed.
Heck, my
bookshelves were groaning under the weight of all the
information and
tutorials I had printed out. And of course I was
worrying about
how to 'upload' it to my ISP's server, and which
software to use
to do it.
It's only since
The Newbie Club was created that I've come to
realize that
...
--------
Every Newbie has exactly the same problem
And
unfortunately the vast majority are so confused and
frustrated that
they never even make the attempt. The truth is
that most of
them are downright SCARED to make a start.
Why do we
experienced people make it so darned difficult for
Newbies? Why is
it that as soon as we start becoming 'successful'
we immediately
develop amnesia and forget the problems we all
went through?
Why do we deny the millions of Newbies the benefit
of our
experience and actually make it EASY for them to learn
from our
mistakes? In short ...
Why do so
many of us treat Newbies with so much contempt?
Lack of gray
matter - that's why!
Doesn't it make
business sense to make our products, software and
courses Newbie-friendly?
Doesn't it make business sense to talk
in language
that they can actually understand? Doesn't it make
business sense
to explain HOW to download your ebook? Because if
it's your
customer's first download, why risk losing a sale for
the sake of a
few instructions.
I don't know
about you, but if I read instructions that are basic
and clearly
written, I don't feel offended or 'spoken down to'.
In fact I
respect the Webmaster for it. At least I don't get
lost!
It's because of
most Web business owners negative attitudes
toward Newbies,
that has made Our Society so outstandingly
successful. Yet
all we do is practice the age old sales idiom ...
"Find out what
they WANT, and GIVE it to them." Well, Newbies
WANT to be
treated as 'normal adults' so that's what we GIVE
them.
And isn't trust
the essential ingredient of doing business?
So if you want
to increase your business - no matter how
technical your
product - have your Website copy, help files and
tutorials read
out loud by a Newbie. You'll be amazed at what you
learn! And
perhaps even realize why some Newbies may actually be
scared of doing
business with you.
===================================
Joe's Pause
for Thought
===================================
"The state
of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your
State of
mind."
------------
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
"When you
find peace within yourself, you become the kind of
person who
can live at peace with others."
------------
Peace Pilgrim
==============================
===================================
Tutorial ...
"Why So Many People Ruin Their Websites"
===================================
We live in a
technologically-exciting world. Even brand new
webmasters
today can make use of easy to master web design tools
that add
functionality only a web programmer could have dreamed
of just a
couple of years ago.
And that is
great, right? Wrong! Quite the opposite is true.
The
accessibility of such web mastering tools has resulted in
hundreds of
"junk" Websites that have so much going on at every
page that the
web surfer is completely overwhelmed.
Some of these
web pages have as many as 7 or 8 distinct content
areas contained
on an 800 by 600 pixel screen... a flashing
header graphic,
several paragraphs of text, an opt in form,
Google ads,
Amazon ads, affiliate links, audio and/or video
buttons to
push, and sometimes even more.
Don't be
tempted to make such glaring mistakes. It is unlikely
that most web
visitors will successfully navigate such a site.
There are too
many decisions to make, too many distractions. And
the content is
completely lost among all the technology and
advertising.
-------
What's the answer?
Most successful
webmasters today--that is webmasters who have
Visitors coming
back over and over to their site and who are
Making money
and/or getting some other desired response--will
tell you that
the answer is clean and simple web design.
Usability is
the key.
--------
Great website designs focus on 3 basic values:
.......
Simplicity, clarity, and speed. In other words, you need
a site that is
visually appealing, but at the same time downloads
Quickly and is
easy to navigate.
To design a
site that has visual appeal, you can make use of
simple
graphics, color, and graphical text. At all costs, stay
away from
flashing animations and busy backgrounds. In fact, a
white, cream,
or light yellow background with black or dark blue
text is best,
if you want the majority of visitors to be able to
read your text
easily.
It isn't
necessary to be an accomplished graphic artist to design
a visually
pleasing content site. Grab a photo or two from a free
stock photo
site such as www.sxc.hu, add some colored text and a
tagline using a
graphics program like Windows Paint or Paint Shop
Pro, and that's
all that is needed for a header.
--------
Navigation
...... Should
be simple text links or buttons, either across
the top, right
under the header, or down the left or right side
of the screen.
Make sure the text labels clearly indicate what
the user will
find when he or she clicks on them.
-------- An
optin form
....... and
one or two simple ads can also be placed in the left
or right panes,
with your content in the main center panel.
------- Your
content pane
....... should
be the largest area on the screen, so that it
draws the
reader's focus.
------ Clean
and simple web design
........
extends to the layout of your content too. Text is most
readable when
it is in "chunks." This means short sentences and
paragraphs of
no more than 2 to 4 sentences each. Make liberal
use of colored
subheadings and bullets. Sprinkle a graphic or two
per page to
break up the text and add visual interest. Use
margins
(padding) around your text, so that it doesn't bump up
against the
edges of your navigation and ad panels. Lots of white
space is
crucial.
------- In
summary
....... many
beginning webmasters (and even some more experienced
ones!) think
that squeezing as much functionality into every page
as possible is
the right approach. It is not. What will keep
people on your
site and keep them coming back as well, is a
clean, simple,
easy to navigate design.


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