Getting listed in directories

The rules for being listed well in directories are completely different from the rules about getting listed in the search engines. Your web site needs to be in the most appropriate category, and directories do NOT have the same categories. Plus, some directories allow a 15-word description. Some allow 30 words. Some allow 200 words. Directory submission is very time consuming because you need to have a strategy for different directories. Link popularity goes hand in hand with search engine optimization. Link popularity affects rankings in many major search engines such as FAST Search, Google, and Inktomi. Research each directory and the directory categories individually One of the biggest mistakes people make during directory submission is not doing the necessary research. In order to be listed in a directory (which will be approved by another human being), you must prove that you belong in that directory in the category that you have selected. The best way to do this is to select the most appropriate category and to write a concise, accurate description that already resembles descriptions in the targeted directory. Reason? Make it easy for the directory editor to approve your submission. If you are able to imitate the editor's style when describing your web site, you can increase the chance that your site will be accepted and your site description will be unaltered Determine the best description for your web site for each directory Go to a directory and type in your most important keywords in the search box. Study the different categories and descriptions. Base your site-description style on web sites that were already accepted in that directory. If a directory does not have a category for your type of business, suggest a category that is similar to categories already in the directory Make sure your unique selling proposition (USP) is also in your directory description Even though your description should resemble the description style of other sites listed in your targeted category, your description should be unique. So if your company specializes in 3 types of services, mention those 3 types of services in your description. If your company targets a particular audience, mention that in your description as well. Just be sure that your description is not identical to other descriptions in your category. Write descriptions of varying lengths and keep in a text file to cut-and-paste in the submission form Directories vary in the number of words they will accept in a description. Thus, when you write your descriptions, write 7-, 10-, 15-, 20, 25-, 30- and 50-word descriptions. Make sure you’re most important keywords are in every description, but do not try and stuff too many keywords into the description. Directory editors do not want to read a list of keywords. Whenever possible, use the paid/expedited submission programs Since most of the major search services measure link popularity, the faster your site can be listed in the directories, the faster your site can receive referrals from the major search services. We rarely use site submission software for directory submission. Submission software rarely accounts for the variables in the different directories. Check your site statistics software regularly to see when you have been added to a directory If your site has not been added to a directory within the lead time, then resubmit to the directory after 4 weeks. Keep track of your dates of submission, categories, descriptions, and titles. In the event that your site is not accepted into a directory after 3 submissions, then it is safe to contact a directory representative directly. Add your home page to the directory first, and then submit specialized topics within your web site If your web site has been approved for admission into a directory, then your specialized topic web page stands a better chance of being selected for a different category How directories rank sites If your title, description, and category contain keywords, then your site might appear toward the top of directory queries. However, if your company name does NOT have keywords in them, do not add those keywords in the submission. Directory editors will remove them anyway, and you do not want them to suspect you for spamming. Always choose directory listings carefully, both the general directories and the industry-specific ones. Make sure your content is good enough to clearly belong in the categories you have selected, which means that your web site must contain unique information. The keywords should always be in the right frequency and the right places for the search engines, but good content should always be on your site for the best directory placement.

Website design considerations

There are several heavy duty website design and HTML editing programs out there to help you design, write, and publish your website, Blog, or newsletter template. They are, however, not the be all and end all. Anyone wanting a properly working web site must...simply must...have some knowledge of script and code as well as search engine optimization techniques and internet promotion tactics. These cover email lists, advertising, press releases, Blogs, article writing, wholesaling and drop shipping, website design, SEO and other promotions. A decent doorway can be a simple information site. It doesn't need much in the way of graphics or website design prowess, and can even simply be one page as we see in most internet MLM. The great sales gurus of the world wide web raking in the big bucks typically have one web site though they may be selling several products. Each product has it's own sales pitch page...just one page. KISS (keep it simple stupid) is the golden rule! When most people create doorways, they are trying to get something for nothing. They spend small (sometimes large) fortunes buying information from illusionists who use slight of hand to tell their customers just enough to keep them coming back and purchasing one more "How To" E-Book. Without proper experience or website design background many mistakes are made. First, try analyzing the web site of the information promoter, and try copying what he or she is doing and not get caught in the trap of just doing as they say. They have no incentive to give you or me the real deal...the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If they lay it all out step by step they are immediately out of business. What would they then sell you in their follow up e-mails? Although Microsoft had such a template in their web design software in '98, I think it was, it would be considered crass and distasteful to make your website look like the command center of the starship Enterprise. Now remember the old Tennessee Mountain Man is as about as backwoods as it gets and even I chuckled at how red neck the polished Microsoft Corporation rendition was. Having said that, a few smatterings of high tech applications can give your website design reputation a good boost especially among the younger generation, the 'wanna be', the treckie, and the 2.0 socialite. Know your audience. Who do you want to reach? Don't over do it! Regardless of what the SEO purists say, content is still king. Keep it simple. Keep it clean. Start with as clear and simple website design as possible. Some sites will require more dazzle than others. But, remember, the more bells and whistles the slower the web site loads and responds to browsers and searchers. A good website design should be easy for your human visitors to navigate, enjoy, and understand. At the same time it should also be intelligible for the search engine robots that also visit your site. It must be accommodating to cross browser platforms such as internet explorer, Netscape, ougo, AOL, fire fox, opera and more. Your goal is to attain the best level of internet marketing. As 12steppers would rightly say, "there is no easier softer way". There is no free lunch. There is no such thing as working 30 minutes a day with a site on auto pilot while you rake in millions while frolicking with Playboy Bunnies on your yacht so get that picture out of your mind right now. Proper marketing goes a long way in attracting the target customers to your website and thereby, achieving maximum commercial success in the long run. It is a process. This is not for Harry Potter nor Bur Rabbit. The DSL Turtles actually have the advantage here. Take it easy, but get it done. Procrastination is a killer! In order to maximize target audience visits to a website, one of the first steps to be taken is creating a website design that simultaneously runs parallel to your business objectives and is attractive enough to engage the attention of your visitors. Your website design is the first impression. If it is a mess or if no one can find it and potential customers never see it, it is also the last impression. Either they never got there or they never stayed or they had no reason to return. You must decide if you really have the time, knowledge and technical ability to devote to website design and, most importantly, keeping that site maintained and up to date? If not, maybe you should concentrate on growing your business and let a website design professional concentrate on making your website work for you.

Colorimpact create beautiful color schemes for your website with a single click

: ColorImpact is an award winning software for creating harmonious color schemes. The program is based on the color wheel used by artists for centuries. The artist's use of complementary colors, or colors opposite on the color wheel, creates an exciting painting. There are a lot of great tools in ColorImpact, such as Matching Colors Wheel, Color Variations, Color Blender and Test Patterns. The Main Menu area is like a control center for this program and lets you explore the color tools. The color tools let you adjust colors in the palette in order to better suit your needs. For example, the Color Variations panel lets you add and modify variations to the colors in the color palette, while the Color Blender gives you the power to create intermediary colors between any two end colors. But the most useful tool for niche website builders is the Color Composer, that allows you to experiment and see how your color schemes look when used on real web page designs. Color Composer The Color Composer is an advanced color scheme designer for web pages. The flexible user interface allows you to combine one of several html templates with a number of predefined and user defined color formulas or preselected colors. Want a quick set of pleasantly looking and harmonious colors for your new website? Simply launch the Color Composer and pick a Formula Base Color. The base color window pops up. It is a flexible color picker that gives you full control when selecting the base color. Pick the base color, and the Composer will instantly give you color suggestions for the following main elements of a webpage: * Page Header: Background, Logo and Top Bar * Sidebar: Background, Heading, Heading Background, Menu Item and Menu Item Background * Content: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Text, Background * Links Play with it! Pick colors from the Base Color circle and see how good the Composer is in selecting the best matches for webpage elements. When you're done, click File > Export Colors… and save you color scheme as a CSS file. Creating a color scheme for your website has never been this easy! Note: This review intentionally refers to an older version of the ColorImpact, known as ColorImpact Classic. Although, ColorImpact version 3 is available, in my opinion, the Color Composer in the Classic version is easier to use and more intuitive. Moreover, the ColorImpact Classic costs $20 less. 15-day trials are available for both versions of the program. The trials have no features disabled, so you can take advantage of them all while testing it. ColorImpact has a well organized and intuitive user interface and an extensive help documentation. ColorImpact website: tigercolor/

A career in graphic design working your way to the top of the creative industries

Creative Director Lets start at the top and work down. Art directors, or Creative Directors are responsible for a creative team that may design work for magazines, television, advertising graphics, websites, or on packaging. A creative team can consist of layout artists, graphic designers, photographers, copywriters, and menial staff to do the work. An Art directors job is to make sure that each of these workers do not slack off down the pub and complete their work to a deadline and to the client's needs. Art directors also make major decisicions along the lines of should the background be slate grey or cobalt blue, issuing dictates and changing their mind several days after a deadline has passed - leaving co-workers resolutely glum about their position in the grand scheme of things. Art directors will inevitably have come from some kind of marketing or sales background and need no prior graphic design knowledge or skill. Senior Designer A Senior Designer is mainly concerned with the visual aspects of a company and will probably have been promoted on the basis that she is fun and a 'great team player' (despite this being far from the case). A Senior Designer will usually insist on having a larger widescreen monitor than the rest of the team which will be decorated variously with fluffy pink bits marketing people send through on a daily basis. A Senior Designer will be involved in the elements of a company’s look such as business cards, stationery, packaging design, media advertising graphics, promotional design, and sticking up pictures of topless 'hunks'. Graphic Designer The job of a Graphic Designer is to provide a new and exciting way to express the key information of a company or product through a dynamic image or use of typography. Graphic Designers take the scant information given to them by the client and using the internet to scab some free clip art, fashion their own ripped off logo designs in order to fleece the client for all they are worth. Layout Artists and Artworkers The engine room of the design world. These scumbags have been buried away with their dusty macs for decades, remorselessly churning out pages and layouts. Inevitably some clueless muppet will send over a 100 page brochure layed out in microsoft word and it will be the Artworkers thankless task to make it publishable. They will need to recognise a font at 50 yards, be able to colour correct the dreariest of images and take a good bollocking every now and again to keep them on their toes. The Artworker must have the ability to design magazines, design brochures, design flyers, design books and design posters. He harbours murder fantasies. Illustrators Illustrators generally speaking will have long greying hair and be influenced by prog rock. Working from home among the dungeon and dragonns figurines and manga comics they will attempt to put their own unique spin on whatever brief they are given. What you will be presented with is a semi clad girl with oversized boobs. You will have waited several weeks for this. You will never learn from previous mistakes. Web Designers Web designers create the pages, layout, and graphics for web pages, they will be technically minded to the point of absurdity. They will insist on using c++ coding language to impress other geeks and will beaver away doing whatever it is geeks do for hours on end. Web designers also design and develop the navigation tools of a site which will for design websites involve tiny text that makes your eyes bleed. Web designers are far too clever for their own good and should never be encouraged.

Stuck with a generic business card

Then it is time to add some spice to it. Business cards are the most popular marketing tool for any business, big or small. But their familiarity can oftentimes result to it being overlooked or under-utilized when advertising strategies are implemented. Here are some ways on making some “make-overs”: Use your mind to “pinch” the existing card. Add a sticker, write your name or a discount offer on the back, emphasize your guarantee, use fancy scissors to dress up the edges, or put a hole in the card. Anything you can do to personalize your business card will increase its chances of being kept and remembered. Wrap up your card imaginatively. Use removable adhesive to stick it inside a classy note card or deliver your business card with style in an attractively wrapped box for immediate impact. With the business card presentations, apply some memorable actions. Handing your business card to someone with both hands, for example, is a simple way to add psychological importance to the card. Learning a magic trick using business cards or using an unusual business card case are also effective tactics. Also try to consider: Adding more color to your cards. The vast majority of cards are printed in black ink on white card stock. Use colored card stock and your card is immediately more noticeable than 90% of your competitor’s cards. Printing more than one card. Many entrepreneurs accomplish more than one role, own more than one business, or use business cards in different situations. It is not a good idea to try and put all information into a single card. Use your business card not only as a marketing tool but as a means of conveying contact information. Design a business card that explains what you do and why someone should hire you to do it. For many people, an address is not anymore an essential information on a business card. The space for that one could be best utilized by putting on your benefits, store hours and other guarantee. You do not have to wait for someone to tell you to go and change your cards. No other better time than today to have a look at your business cards and plan the changes you can do with them to better improve your changes of being recognized. You just might be missing out on the bigger things business cards can do for your business. For comments and inquiries about the article visit businesscardsprintingonline

7 Pointers about web design

In order to master the art of web design, designers must follow the subsequent pointers: 1. Web designers are marketers per se. Web sites are all about advertising products, ideas and services. Thus, a web designer has to understand the mindset of marketers in order to create a design that sell. 2. Read, read and read. We do not experience everything. Thus, our tendency is to learn from others. Reading web design books, newsletters and tips are pretty valuable since they can save you time and effort. Basically, books are more conclusive than newsletters and tips however, they are for free and mostly updated. 3. Narrow down your target market. You cannot please everybody same thing that you cannot be good at everything. Thus, this fact calls for the narrowing of your target market. Even in the interface of the so-called web design, a designer cannot claim that he is an expert at anything or everything about the needs of a website. It is better to pick a certain audience and try to be good at catching their attention, preference and choice. This practice allows you to be best at a given area thus developing expertise. 4. Answer your target audience’s needs. In order to answer the visitor’s needs, web designers must know what kind of visitors his site is welcoming. Do they belong to the younger generation or otherwise? What do they want from your site? Are these information, details and pleasures in your site in order to get their undivided attention and loyalty? Bear in mind that colors, font size, style of graphics, contents and the entirety of the site affects viewer’s decision and choice. 5. Know the basics of SEO and copywriting. Though Search Engine Optimization and copywriting are not directly related to designing, still, designers must have basic knowledge about them. This is because web designing is intertwined with marketing, use of keywords and visibility. Aside from that, designers must also have knowledge of the programming basics. If not, the tendency is waste time or to create a mediocre or unsatisfactory design to the detriment of the sites. 6. The primacy of functionality. If ever you are faced to make a decision between a web site’s aesthetic form and its functionality, you have to be firm in upholding the latter. Not everything that is pretty is ‘saleable’. Besides, you don’t create web sites for the sake of making it nice-looking. Above anything else, the site must be functional so as to cater to every visitor’s wants and needs. Appearance is a means to catch visitor’s attention nevertheless, it is not the end. If a designer prioritizes appearance alone without considering its primary consideration the web site’s marketability will suffer. 7. Know when to break the rules. Rules are only guidelines, if you feel that the rules are inappropriate for a certain creation follow your heart’s desire and venture on an experimental adventure.