Planning

     Are you the type of person who looks into the future and sees an opportunity that you would like to take advantage of and then you begin to plan how you are going to make it happen?

     This is not really a bad thing.  You have personal aspirations that show you want to improve not only your personal life, but perhaps that of your family as well.  You see if things could be changed you would become more productive, more secure, and perhaps advance to what looks like a better position in your life.

     However the problem comes in when PLANNING is all you do.  You become so concerned with EVERY detail that you continually fail to take the action needed to put your plan into operation.

     First, let me temper my explanation with the following comment:  PLANNING is absolutely necessary!  You will never know how you want to get from point “A” to point “B” unless you have a plan to follow.  The plan can be very useful in guiding you within the boundaries of your journey, within the constraints of your financial limits, or perhaps within the safety net that you have set up for yourself.  However, after a reasonable amount of planning is done, action must follow.

     Consider a road trip from Los Angeles, California to New York City.  You may want to sit down and decide:  Are there any particular places that I want to visit on the way?  What would I need to make sure there were no problems along the way?  You may want to locate yourself a current road map and actually DRAW out your route so that you may sure you get to stop by all those places you have considered.

     However, if you never packed your clothes and got yourself into your vehicle, HOW far would you get on the trip?  How much time would you actually be spending in New York City?  Could you ever say that you had really been determined to make this trip a successful reality?

     Now, it’s true as with any trip that we might plan:  There are going to be detours.  There are going to be things that put a “snag” in the plan and you’re going to need to make some adjustments.  But, if you try to PLAN for all these possibilities prior to your starting the trip, you will NEVER get started!

     Now this doesn’t only apply to a literal trip that we may be considering taking.  It applies to many various aspects of our lives.  Have you ever wanted to live in another city, or perhaps another country?  It will never happen if you only plan for it but never take any action. You will only be left with the stark reality of “WHAT” could have been!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Plan your Work and

Work your Plan.

You can't go wrong!"

Avoid Web Template Mistakes

     We are a very “lazy” bunch of people when you get right down it.  We are always looking for an easier way to do ANYTHING!  This is true within our business operations also.  So why should it be any different when it comes to preparing our websites?  Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

     The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbors.  You’ve seen those “cookie cutter” home communities that were most popular many years ago.  Every home on the block looked like the ones beside it.  Today people want their home to be more unique and “stand-out” from the rest.  The same should be true with your website.

     To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you're done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognition. While that may be good in the sense that you're creating a unique graphic, you're undermining your very purpose of using a web template – that is saving time and effort.

     However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site's theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, only make the necessary changes and don't redesign the whole template.

     In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they look “cute”; choose them because they serve your purpose.  Templates may be just the help you are seeking, but take the time to make sure it get “exactly” the one you need to create YOUR amazing website!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Be original.  Be unique.

But be better than yourself!"

Make Purchasing from your Site EASY!

     Have you ever tried to work yourself through a maze?  Perhaps it was within a corn field or some other location.  You know there is a way to get to the end but you are totally confused about how to get there!  It can be the same for your customers when they are trying to make a purchase on your website.  You’re making your sells suffer and you are making it more difficult for your customers if your website is confusing and not easy to use.  Why “shoot yourself in the foot?”

     Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is already a hard job, but you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced to buy but don't know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome or overly time consuming.

     First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site. Don’t forget those “buy now” buttons!

     Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a check. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired payment method. After all, it wouldn't make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won't be able to pay you when they want to.  It may also be a good marketing strategy to offer acceptance of various currencies, especially if you are dealing with international sales.

     On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?  There are many questions which need to be considered in making your website an easy, customer friendly site for making purchases.

     Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects' confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

     As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits!  Constantly check to make sure your shopping cart service is easy to use.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Why over complicate the simple?"

NOW!

     I stood over the lifeless body that lay in the casket in front of me.  Here was my best friend.  A buddy that I had grown up with.  Now he lay motionless in this glorified box.  All the mourners standing around trying to cope with the present situation, as was I.

     Maybe I should have sent flowers before I had arrived.  Maybe at least a card to his family with some remarks about how I was feeling.  Or maybe some words that would have made them feel better.  Now is probably not the time to be thinking of what I should have done!

     What words could I have said?  Here lay my best friend, her husband, their father.  Now only a shell of the man he used to be.

     How many times had I enjoyed riding around in his car after school and seeing if we could pick up some girls?  I don’t recall if I had ever thanked him for that since I didn’t own a vehicle and was rarely able to even provide some money for gas.  But we kept going on these rides and he never complained that I was merely “along for the ride”.

     We graduated from High School and went our separate ways:  Me to a job in Washington, DC and him into the military.  I was so concerned about all the adjustments that I was having to make so I could keep my apartment and have some food on the table.  I never gave any thought about how he was spending many sleepless, cold, wet nights in a muddy marshland, just trying to keep himself alive.  Maybe I should have written to him and let him know how I felt about our friendship.  How sometimes when I was trying to get through one of my work nights I would think of how we had laughed together at the drive-in on a Friday night watching a movie that neither one of us really wanted to watch.  Or how on some other nights we would lay out by the lake and just stare up to into the starry night.

     I could hardly believe that both of us found ourselves married with families after only a few years.  Things had really changed for us both, but we seemed to be dealing with these changes the best we could.  I had found studying the Bible and growing closer to God with my family was making it possible for me to cope with various trials that I had to face.  He had turned to drugs and crime to try to hold together the ever dicey pieces of his life.  Maybe if I had taken the time to rekindle our friendship it would have made an opportunity possible for him to find a better to deal with the crisis that continued to plague him?

     Life seems to play with us in this fashion.  Now I stood before the lifeless body of my friend.  Why couldn’t I have been a better friend in his times of NOW when he really needed someone?  Someone to help him to improve his conditions, someone to help him make better decisions!  Why could I have not had these thoughts THEN when I could have perhaps provided that helping hand that was so desperately needed by my friend?  Yet, now I stand before this lifeless body and ponder all these thoughts NOW!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"NO ONE can get through life on their own!"

It's EASY to make your own website--- RIGHT!

     Wouldn’t it be a lot easier for me to pay someone thousands of dollars to make sure my website it done correctly instead of trying to spend countless hours doing it myself?  Creating a website is not so much a feat, if we compare it to the education of other technical skills. Most people tend to give up and pack their bags as soon as they hear the word “programming” and “technical”. They think it`s too much of a hassle to actually learn a whole computer “language”. HTML, the most basic computer language in building websites, is actually pretty simple to understand, as long as we have the interest in learning new things.

What is HTML?

     HTML is the acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. For learning purposes, just think of it as a language that the computer understands. For example, as humans, we were taught different languages; i.e. HTML as a language, is mostly and specifically used to create a website. The web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, will then decipher and interpret the code or rather, language(HTML), and display it in a way we can understand it, just like in a basic webpage.

Coding.

     Coding the HTML language might be a bit tough for some people, so we can actually purchase programs, such as Dreamweaver, or some other web design program. These programs are solely created to help individuals in designing professional web pages or websites.

     Furthermore, one could also gain access to online web-builders, website builders that are inbuilt and can be directly controlled from the net. There are many different and specific builders online.  For a modestly priced site that provides an enormous amount of “bells & whistles” visit www.jamarbizbuilder.com.

     There are also many books and magazines that contain guides that can help in offering tutorials and ways to put up our own websites. Even online tutorials are credible, as in the modern world, information technology is the best and most cost efficient way in retaining knowledge, especially in this particular field.

     So, you could start and build your site right away. If you enjoy coding, it might even become a favorable past-time.  However, you don’t need to be a code master to build a fantastic site all by yourself!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Plant your dreams in the clouds.

Now build your ladders to reach them."

Is Your Website Useable?

     You’ve spent time.  You’ve spent money.  You feel you have designed the best looking website for your business that could ever be imagined!  However, no matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

     The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

     Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.  It will also make them more receptive to returning to your site for more information.

     Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn't load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.  I may have been a bit generous with that 15 second time frame.  Some individuals won’t be around you site if it takes longer than 10 seconds!

     Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.  After about one or two tries to reach information on your site by means of a link that fails, your potential customer is gone!  Make sure you check these links twice --- three times --- maybe even more!

     If you are providing your visitors with great content in an easy to reach fashion, they will not only enjoy using your site, but they will send their friends to your site also!  Now you’re talking about some great exposure.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you only live in a throw-away society,

be careful you're not next to go!"

Get a Grip!

    Let’s take a moment and venture to a side thought that I have been considering for some time now.  A point of thought so we can get more to the positive side and leave all the negativity behind.

     There comes a time in a person’s life when you begin to think back on all the things you used to do and you can no longer do them.  This may be a many variety of things and I am not about to try and list what YOUR list may consist of.  However, I think you know what I’m talking about.

     Get a Grip!  These are the times when we need to stop looking at all the things we can no longer do and become more concentrated on the things we CAN DO!  Of course, I’m not talking about circumstances that may come about due to accidents, or disease, or other things over which we do not have very much control.  I’m talking about the everyday things that become more difficult or impossible merely because we are getting older.

     Most people don’t realize that there are many places in their local communities where they can volunteer for a few hours each week in a great many locations.  You may be surprised at the places that may be available for you to spend a few hours helping others with their needs.  By doing this you not only help them, but you help yourself as well.

     Now before you get the idea that it is only older people who have this problem with finding what they can do instead of what they can’t, listen to me for a few more moments.  You know that there are many of a younger age that begin to feel that they can no longer do the things they once could.  This may be because they have moved to a new location, maybe there has been a change in their family situation: their parents have divorced or perhaps there is a new baby in the family that now takes more time from their parents.  Again there can be wide range of such things that may be the cause of their feelings.

     Have you ever had to start a new school in a new city?  Perhaps it wasn’t you who moved but your friends have moved to other cities and now you need to “start over” as it were to get a new set of “buds” at your school.  Maybe you’ve enjoyed stopping at Grandmas after school for cookies or pie and now Grandma is no longer to do this activity with you.

     WHATEVER your changed circumstances, continue to look at what you can do and not at what is no longer available for you.  You may learn a secret about yourself:  You enjoy helping other people!  It makes you feel good!  You may ever learn that you enjoy doing those new things as much (or maybe more) than you enjoyed the former things.  So, get a grip!  Start enjoying new things in your life everyday.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Wake up each day with love in your heart,

then spread it around during the day."

If You Build It ---

    No one but YOU really knows how you want your website to look or what “feel” you want it to have.  However, you think you don’t have the time to put together a great site yourself?  You may even wonder if you are able to conceive how you want the site to look or have the ability to relate this mental vision to someone else.

     You also realize that if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars or maybe even a few thousand!  All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here's a brief guide for you to consider:

     First, you must understand that in many cases it is a rip off to get companies to design a website for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages, advertising costs and so on. It may also be that you are paying for some “basic” features and then when you explain what you want your site to do --- the cost starts going up --- and up --- and UP!

     Therefore, it would be wise to find a freelance designer who works from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of the larger company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it's a "no-brainer" choice.

     However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for the money you will spend is secured.

     Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little time to sit down and do it yourself. You'll be able to design your own sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs.  There are also many on-line programs that help you in your designs.  Some, like www.jamarbizbuilder.com will allow you to build your own site FREE!  You only have to pay the hosting fees (which run about $18 per month).  Don’t be too hasty to write yourself off as being unable to design your own site.  Like I said at the beginning:  NOONE knows how your site should be better than YOU!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"When you can't be in the place you enjoy ---

enjoy the place you're in!"

Good Digital Design

    You’ve spent some time giving thought to your new business office layout: Where each item will go and how it will “fit” into the scheme of your overall décor.  You have also laid out a set of “office procedures” that will guide your operations in the direction that you want the business to function in an orderly fashion.  Have you thought of everything?

     Your website is where your business resides in the digital world -- it's like the digital headquarters of your offline company. Hence, it is important to practice good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible. And that it reflects the overall ‘décor” of your business functions.

     Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.  You wouldn’t want to invite people to your “brick n mortar” store and not have them figure out how to walk from your reception area into your private office, would you?  You want the same “mobility” to your digital office on your website.

     Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size. If people can’t get your site to download in a few seconds --- they are GONE!

     Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into several individual paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.  Keep this in mind even if your information is vitally necessary for the customer to read and understand your business operations.

     Make sure your website complies to web standards found at https://www.w3.org/standards/ and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox, Chrome, or Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors. This means losing out on a lot of prospective profits!

     Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.  Your purpose is to make a “universal” website that can be accessed by as many people as possible.

     Use CSS to style your page content because they save a lot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML.  CSS is a cornerstone technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript.

     You want your site to be beautiful and draw the attention of your visitors; however, your site must also be functional and operate on the best possible levels with whatever browser your potential customer is using.  In this way your digital office will function at its optimum and will continue to provide you with new customers and growing revenues.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Why do you not have time to do it right,

but you have time to do it over?"