Custom Website Design News

Many website are stunningly beautiful graphically, show clearly the thought and creativity that was put into them, are the types of sites that you only dream of having as your own, but there’s just one thing; the content is only so-so and not written to be Search Engine Optimization friendly, meaning that the site isn’t going to get the types of results it wants and needs in a search engine because it doesn’t have the right keywords located throughout. Even if the site is search engine optimized, it will not garner the same results that a SEO site with keyword rich content would.

This same problem can be applied to your news articles, blog postings, and press releases as well. Writing smart content that uses SEO friendly keywords will give you a larger audience thus giving you a bigger response.

When looking at your website, are you fully satisfied with its beauty knowing that it could be so much more? Knowing what you know now, wanting copywriting that makes you and your company sound like experts in your field, while having correct spelling and grammar is a no brainer. In addition, you will want the copywriting to be done in an SEO-friendly way, using the right keyword density ratio for search engine optimization purposes.

After developing over 400 search engine friendly websites, Icon Website Design learned that most of their clients did not have the time and experience to write search engine friendly copy for their website. That is why we have launched SEO Copywriting Pros, a professional copywriting service for content that is ready to be used for search engine optimization purposes. To find out more about the clients we have helped and the SEO copywriting services we provide, visit www.seocopywritingpros.com.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has become a very popular and effective way to drive traffic to a website. With search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Bing promoting certifications in their pay-per-click programs, it is clear that this new form of advertising isn’t going anywhere. Google Adwords, the leader in pay-per-click advertising, along with its competitors have created ways to make pay-per-click advertising easy and cost effective. The concept is the same across the board; pick your targeting keywords, create a sponsored ad or link and only pay for each click.

Before diving into pay-per-click advertising it is best to analyze which methods are best for your company and if it will truly benefit you. Some of advantages of pay-per-click advertising are:

• PPC is very targeted. You can decide the time of day and location (country, state, city, etc.) you want your ad to be seen.
• Your campaign can be turned on and off when you want it to be. This is ideal for testing the conversion rates for your website. You can learn when is the best time to achieve the highest conversion rates and set your campaign to turn on then or turn off when it’s not the most lucrative time.
• You pay for CPC (cost per click) in pay-per-click advertising versus cost per impression from traditional banner advertising. This means you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it, thus you really are paying only for the true traffic you are sent.

While the advantages are significant there are some aspects of pay-per-click advertising you need to be aware of before diving in that may be more disadvantageous to your company.

• As pay-per-click advertising gets more popular, there will be more competition for the top spots thus creating a higher cost to get to the top. This however, is not a major disadvantage as with all business comes the concept of supply and demand.
• Unlike SEO, it is easier for your competitors to outbid you in pay-per-click advertising, especially if they have a larger budget. With that said, spend your advertising dollars and pay-per-click budget wisely to ensure your not digging yourself an early grave.
• Keep track of your quality score. Google uses a quality score to determine how much they will charge you per click for each keyword chosen. The lower the score, the more they will charge.
• Don’t make a novice mistake by not tracking your ROI. Pay-per-click advertising may be easy at first but the whole point is to track your success. If you let it go, you will no doubt be throwing money down the drain.

So now looking at the advantages and disadvantages you may be a little disconcerted about the idea of using pay-per-click advertising, don’t be. Just be smart and hire someone to handle it for you. We, at Icon Website Design are experts in pay-per-click advertising, managing over $2 million dollars a year for our clients. To find out more, visit us at www.iconwebsitedesign.com

There are many benefits to affiliate marketing. The first being that it is low risk but can give high returns. The investment is typically low since you will not have the inventory that a normal business has. Normal costs are the cost to set up your own website and to promote your sponsor’s products and your website. Because you don’t have inventory you remove the worry about unsold inventory and returns. All you have to worry about is promoting to your targeted market and cash in the commission checks.

Another benefit to affiliate marketing is the freedom to work when you want and as hard as you want since you are the boss. Your affiliate business will grow at the pace you want it to. You can promote as much or as little as you want. If you just want to keep your business as a supplementary income, you can slow the pace and just collect a small check. However if you want to earn a good living and replace your current income then you can do this as well. It is all up to you.

To learn more about affiliate marketing and how your business can benefit from it visit us at www.iconwebsitedesign.com. Icon Website Design has experts in affiliate marketing and the connections to get your business where you want it to be.

Often you’ll run across a website that is very simplistic in a boring way not a creative way. Mundane content, lackluster appearance and overall something that looks like it was thrown together. Adding a flash video to your website can make your web site come alive while increasing your conversion rates. It gives a great first impression while allowing the content you want to be absorbed completely.

Another way to grab your visitors attention is with video spokespeople. Having a virtual video spokesperson on your website allows you to introduce your company with your own custom message as well as grab attention unlike your competitors. Video spokespeople can dramatically boost your returns on your online marketing programs.

To find out more about the benefits of flash video and video spokespeople for your website visit Icon Website Design at www.iconwebsitedesign.com.

Email marketing is one of the most popular and effective marketing tools used today. Regardless of the size of your company, email marketing has proven success in driving traffic to your website. If your company is looking into email marketing these are the top 5 reasons you should take advantage.

1. It’s inexpensive. In comparison to direct mail, email marketing has no production costs, no materials expense and no postage expense.
2. It’s effective in that you can effectively communicate your promotion or business to your targeted market, thus increasing sales by driving traffic to your website.
3. Your targeted market receives it immediately, thus allowing for an immediate response.
4. You can be more specific about your desired target market. Choose, location, interests, age groups, etc.
5. Email marketing is easy to create and distribute.

We, at Icon Website Design have access to over 5 million opt-in email addresses and are skilled at designing and targeting your email blast exactly how you want it. To find out more about what we can do for you visit www.iconwebsitedesign.com.

“How To Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Website” by Seth Rand

In order for a website to be successful, you need to have people visiting it, which is often known as website traffic. Of course, we are not just looking for website traffic. We are looking for targeted traffic to our website. Targeted traffic is defined as unique visitors to your website that are interested in the products and/or services being offered on your website, so that they have the potential of turning into a customer and/or client. The more targeted the traffic is, the higher conversion rate that you will have. Generally, the higher conversion rate that you have, the lower your cost per conversion (CPA) will be. 

Now the question is, how do we get targeted traffic to our website in a cost effective way, so that we can potentially have a positive ROI (return on investment)? These are some of options:1. Search Engine Marketing - The # 1 search of targeted traffic on the internet is search engine marketing. This includes the major search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN, as well as the less used search engines, such as Ask, Altavista, AllTheWeb, HotBot, and Lycos. Because the person is searching for a keyword related to the products and/or services that your website offers, that means that there is a strong possibility that they will be the targeted traffic that you are seeking. The two primary ways of accomplishing this is generating organic targeted traffic through search engine optimization, or through pay per click marketing in the sponsored link area of the search engines.

  a. Search Engine Optimization - search engine optimization is the process of getting your web site in the top organic search engine results in the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN, in addition to Ask, Altavista, AllTheWeb, HotBot, and Lycos, for your website’s main target keywords and keyword phrases. This is often the most cost effective way to drive targeted traffic your website on a long term basis. For more info on available search engine optimization packages, visit http://www.iconwebsitedesign.com/.  

  b. Pay Per Click Marketing - You can get targeted traffic to your website immediately though platforms such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter. The ads can be in contextual ads, banner ads, or video ads. Pay per click marketing campaigns are highly customizable campaign, based on keywords, geotargeted area, date and time, maximum cost per click, and maximum daily budget.

2. CPM Marketing - this includes banner advertising, email marketing, text message marketing, fax marketing, and are usually paid for on a CPM (cost per thousand) impressions basis. These methods can be successful if done multiple times to the same market, but are often less cost effective than search engine marketing.

3. Social Media Marketing - This is the newest form of internet marketing. It involved using free accounts on high traffic websites, including social networking sites, social bookmarking websites, blogs, and forums, such as MySpace, FaceBook, Linkedin, YouTube and Digg. It can be very labor intensive if done correctly, but with little to no out-of-pocket expense.  

4. Affiliate Marketing - this can including online affiliates through major networks including Commission Junction and Linkshare, or real affiliate relationships tat extend beyond the internet.

5. Media Advertising - this including TV and Radio advertising. Media advertising can either be for branding purposes or for direct marketing purposes. If it is driving targeted traffic to your website, it would be considered direct marketing. 

6. Print Marketing - this can including direct mail campaign, utilizing door hangers, passing our flyers, newspaper advertising, and/or magazine advertising. For your graphic design and printing needs, I recommend Preferred Print.

In summary, there are many marketing options to drive targeted traffic to your website, however search engine marketing may be the most cost effective way.

Seth can be reached at seth@iconpress.com with any questions or comments related to this article, or for a free quote on any of your graphic design, printing, website design, and/or internet marketing implementation or consultation needs.

125 Ways to Make Money Online
 
Do you currently own your own business? Does that business have a website? If so, is that website generating revenue. If not, don’t you wish that it did? Whether you currently own a business, or have an idea for your own website, it can take time and money to accomplish that goal. If you take advantage
 
It takes a combination of two factors to have a successful website: a quality website and unique traffic to that website.
 
Question # 1 - What is a quality website, and how to I accomplish developing it?
 
Answer: First, you must decide what your website is going to offer its visitors.Five types of website’s that can generate revenue:
 
1 - Sell products - this would be an e-commerce website that sells products, either physical or virtual products - example: preferredprint.com which sells full color printing.
2 - Offer services - you would collect money in return for providing a service or services - example: iconwebsitedesign.com which offers custom website design services.
3 - Generate leads - have a lead generating website in various industries and resell them - examples: buyerzone.com and lowermybills.com
4 - Proprietary software development - fill a need, fill a void, or improve upon existing options - use the software yourself or resell it (license fees/monthly fees)
5 - Offering quality information and news - have an online newspaper or online directory or a blog with quality content that is updated often and make make money from advertising and/or industry related affiliates - examples: freebusinessdirectoryonline.com, fullcolorprintingnews.com, customwebsitedesignnews.com.
 
Next, if you want the website to be successful, you must keep in mind the following five things prior to and during the development process:
 
1 - It has to be user friendly. That includes loading quickly, being easy to read, having a strong call to action, and being easy to navigate. 
2 - It should fill a need or void. That could be offering something better or something less expensive. That can also mean offering something new and unique.
3 - It should be visually appealing, and generate the confidence of the prospective customer and/or client. It should make you appear large and experienced, even if you are a new company or a company of one. 
4 - The prospect customer and/or client should feel secure. This includes installing an SSL certificate on all e-commerce website’s, lead generating website’s, and/or members only website’s that request sensitive material, such as a social security number, bank account number, or health records. Examples of companies that can provide this security, including a trusted SSL certificate, are verisign.com, mcafeesecure.com, and godaddy.com.  
5 - Work with a web development company with experience and quality testimonials/references.
 
If your website’s does those five things, you are now in a good position to be successful.

In regards to the advertising and affiliate marketing as sources of revenue:

Advertising - All five types of website’s listed above can make additional revenue from advertising. How much revenue can be generated is based upon the traffic that your website receives, and the positioning of the ads on your website. Advertising would be the primary source of revenue on an informational site, and a secondary goal on all other types of websites. Revenue from the ads can be based on a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) model. An alternative option is to charge a flat fee for the ad space, but it will most likely still be based on the clicks or impressions. Advertising revenue is at its best when the site is receiving a high volume of organic traffic (little to no direct advertising/marketing cost to get that traffic) examples: myspace.com, facebook.com, youtube.com

An advertising platform that can be integrated into your website is https://www.google.com/adsense. It can be used for contextual, graphic banner or video banner ads that are sold by Google and put on your website. You then are profit sharing with Google, and do not need to sell ad space. The revenue generated is based on a CPC (cost per click) advertising platform.
 
Affiliate marketing - This is usually a secondary goal of a website to generate additional revenue (rarely a primary goal). You would place banner ads for affiliates on your website and receive commission per conversion (sales, lead, or application) rather than getting paid per click or impression.
Question # 2 - How do I generate traffic to my website?

1 - Search Engine Optimization - search engine optimization is the process of getting your website in the top organic search engine results in the major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your site’s main target keywords. This is often the most cost effective way to drive traffic to a website on a long term basis.  Through this process, we recommend making directory submissions, blog postings, comments on other people blog postings, becoming a member of social networking sites, and submitting your site to social bookmarking sites. These techniques will help improve your organic search engine ranking, but also potentially provide some direct traffic to your site.

2 - Pay Per Click advertising -  You can get immediate traffic to your website though platforms such as Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, and AdReady. The ads can be in contextual, graphic banner, or video formats. Pay per click campaigns are highly customizable campaign, based on keywords, geo-target area, date and time, maximum cost per click, and maximum daily budget.

3 - Email Marketing - blast out a custom designed HTML email to a targeted opt-in email list

4 - Affiliate Marketing - sign up with affiliate marketing network and apply to become an approve online affiliate with hundreds, potentially thousands of companies.

5 - Direct Marketing - this can include TV, radio, and direct mail campaigns

In summary, if you can build a quality website, as defined above, offering quality products, services, or information, that is receiving unique traffic at a cost effective rate, you will have a successful online business.
Written by Seth Rand - Vice President of Icon Website Design and Internet Marketing Expert
 
About the author: Seth Rand is the Vice President of Icon Website Design. Seth’s role at Vice President includes being the project manager for all of Icon’s custom web development projects, and overseeing all of Icon’s internet marketing services, including search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaign building and management, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and online banner advertising. Seth has managed the development of over 250 website’s, along with over $1 million in pay per click marketing, and has achieved over 60,000 Top 10 organic search engine rankings for himself and his clients through search engine optimization. Seth is a licensed Google Advertising Professional and a Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador, as well as a member of SEMPO and the eMarketing Association.
 
Seth can be reached at seth@iconpress.com with any questions or comments related to this article, or for a free quote on any of your graphic design, printing, website design, and/or internet marketing implementation or consultation needs.

If you want to get more internet traffic to your website, the most important site to show up in is Google. Google is the most used search engine in the United States. There are two ways to show up on the first page of the Google search results for your target keywords. The first way is through Google Adwords, which is a pay per click service that has your ad show up in the sponsored link section of Google. Seth Rand at Icon Website Design is a Google Advertising Professional (GAP Certified) and is available to assist clients with building, optimization, and managing their Google Adwords pay per click campaigns. The other way is through a process called Search Engine Optimization.  Through Sarch Engine Optimization, we get your website into the Top 10 organic search engine results of Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and Altavista, without paying the search engine a penny. There is no cost per click associated with doing search engine optimization. For more information, please contact Seth Rand at 1-800-558-1017.  

In its formal response, Yahoo said its board had concluded Microsoft’s unsolicited offer “substantially undervalues” the Sunnyvale-based company. For now, Yahoo and MSN will remain seperate search engines. For search engine optimization or pay per click management on Google, Yahoo, and MSN, call us at 1-800-558-1017.

Icon Website Design is proud to annouce that we are now approved online affiliates for the following companies: American Express, Apple, AT&T, Health Benefits Direct, McAfee, Microsoft, Toshiba and more. To view all of our online affiliates, please visit http://www.iconwebsitedesign.com/affiliates.html.