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Bulk Email, Spam, and Email Marketing
Excerpted from PlanetLink's Enews - an email newsletter delivered for FREE to your computer. To subscribe, go to www.planetlink.com This issue focuses on the effective use of email lists and bulk email for website and business promotion....
Buyer Beware: Web Hosting, Registration, and Site Building "All in One" Package Nightmares
Starting out in any type of online marketing or Internet business can be confusing and overwhelming. There are so many different aspects of a start-up: domain name registration and purchase, Web site host purchasing, and of course, the "building"...
Can They Use Your Website In A TV Broadcast About Scams?
When you designed your website, you probably dreamt about how wonderful it would be if one day a popular TV program featured it, and you would become famous overnight, and make lots of $$$. Well, practice shows that your dream for your...
Design Software Recommended by Top Design Professional
For Graphic Print Design:
All serious graphic designers know that the industry standard for graphic design software is Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and QuarkXpress or Adobe InDesign. If you are not familiar with these products here is a quick...
Finding the Perfect Web Designer 101
So, you've decided that your company needs a web site. Now what?
Since we are ultimately talking about your "online business
image", unless you yourself have web design experience, finding
that perfect web designer to create your company...
Get Your Web Site Noticed!
Get Your Web Site Noticed! 6/9/2005 by: Michael Rock The three responses: #1: If I put a web site out there it will be one of millions! So it's useless for me to have a website! Usually when I get this response I reply that...
How to Design and Setup a Website
Note that the online version of this article contains screenshots that are helpful but could not be included in this article. To view it http://dollarware.us/websitedesign.htm You need your computer, some software and a connection to the Internet....
Make It Personal
One problem with websites is that they're very anonymous. A prospective client comes to your site, not knowing whom you are or what kind of businessperson you are. At the same time you're asking them to buy your products or services, believe what...
Web Source Web Design Tips - Open A Window on Page Load
The code below will open a new window when a web page loads. This window may be customized to any size you'd like. Place this code under the tag within your HTML. window.open('http://www.yourdomain.com','windowname','...
Website Design - Choosing Your Colors Wisely
When designing a website choose colors wisely. Remember, colors convey emotions and emotions can heavily influence your decision-making process. Your choice of colors for your website should mirror the message and/or feeling you to hope to...
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Keep your navigation simple!
Navigation must be simple. Since it's the backbone of your site, it's imperative that visitors be able to understand it. Here are two tips on how to make simplicity a reality in your site:
1. Your link titles need to be understandable.
Visitors need to know exactly what link to click on for the info they need. Unfortunately, visitors frequently get confused and don't understand what a link means. Consequently, they aren't sure what info they'll find at the other end of the link.
Often, a link name that makes complete sense to you will mean nothing to the visitor. For example, I once used a link called "Resources" in the navigation bar of a site for a client. This
section of the site contained various articles and links to outside sites with helpful information.
However, after a little bit of testing, I discovered that most people had no idea what I meant by "Resources". They didn't know what kind of information was in that area. Also, when visitors tried to look for articles, they didn't think to check the Resources section.
In other words, the link wasn't doing anyone any good.
The difference between your understanding of a term and a visitor's understanding of the same term can be rather drastic. This happens because you are so close to your own business and your own site.
It's important to remember that visitors don't know nearly as much about your business as you do. They often have no background knowledge, and they might not know standard terms in your industry. Sometimes, you'll have to work to come up with terms and phrases for your links that are meaningful to the visitor.
Here's one general principle: Don't use clever terms.
Although clever attention-getters often work well in the offline world, it's different online. In character with their generally hurried attitude, web users want to know exactly where they are going and what they will find when they click on a link. They don't like guessing games and are usually not enticed by clever lead-ins. What lies beyond them is simply not clear.
Cleverness doesn't belong in navigation unless you're positive the meaning will be understood by everyone. You should avoid anything that isn't straightforward and clear. Steer away from any terms that obscure what your links are really about.
Also, you should be very careful about using
industry-specific terms. You might be suprised to find out how much of your lingo doesn't make sense to people who aren't familiar with your industry. Carefully evaluate each of your links to make sure you're not using a confusing term.
2. Navigation options need to be kept to a minimum
The second way you can simplify your navigation is to make the amount of options manageable. Visitors tend to get overwhelmed if you give them too many choices. They aren't able to focus. Rather than seeing each individual option, they only see a mass of links.
An additional reason not to include too many links is that you ordinarily shouldn't send visitors in a lot of different directions. If you've established a primary goal for your site (you have, haven't you?), your site should revolve around accomplishing that goal. So it's in your best interest to keep the options down. That way, you're able to steer your visitors in the direction you want them to go.
Keep your navigation menus to 5-7 options or less. That's the max amount you can have without losing your visitors' concentration. Any more than that, and they aren't able to discern an individual choice.
If you find yourself having more than 5-7 options in each of your navigation menus, try to pare them down. It's better to simplify the list and make sure visitors can evaluate everything than to cram everything in when visitors will miss most of it.
If you really need more than 7 links, group the links into a few categories. Although this can still get overwhelming, it helps significantly if you categorize links for visitors. They can latch onto one category and narrow it down from there, rather than having to deal with the whole list at once.
Overall, try to objectively evaluate your navigation from the point of view of a visitor. If you can, get input from people who aren't familiar with your site or your business. They'll be a great resource in helping you determine whether or not your links are confusing or overwhelming.
About the Author
There are 605.6 million people online. Can they find your business? Jamie Kiley creates powerful and engaging websites that make sure YOUR company gets noticed. Visit http://www.kianta.com for a free quote.
Get a quick, free web design tip every two weeks--sign up for Jamie's newsletter: http://www.kianta.com/newsletter.php
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