I have to share a secret with you.

For the past six months, Brian and I have been working like crazy on our business. We’ve been evaluating our services and programs, pouring over our analytics data, and getting crystal clear about exactly what we want to do, what we love to do, who we want to work with, how we want to help people, and where we want to go.

We’ve also been evaluating why you should care, how we can help you, what the benefits are to you, and what you need to accelerate your online success… And all of the behind the scenes work is just about done!

I am so excited to unveil everything we have been working on and share it with you. Every time I think about it, my stomach starts to do flip flops!

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A study I recently read stated that an average person only gives a website 10 seconds before deciding if a site is worth their time, which means you have less than ten seconds to:

1. Attract the viewer
2. Declare your message
3. Get them to take action

With so much noise on the web today, and the natural ADD nature of most web surfers, your worst enemy is the browser back button. After someone lands on your website from a search engine, status update, marketing promotion, Tweet, or email link, you have a very short window of opportunity to keep them on your site, so let’s cover each step.

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Your website, or even better your blogsite (a website and blog combination) is the absolute best marketing tool you have for your business. It is the perfect online marketing platform to reach your prospects, customers, and partners/vendors and provide them:

• More information about you, your business, your products and services, and special programs
• Education about why your services and products are needed
• Samples of how your products and services have helped other people
• Opportunities to interact with you and your business
• News about your industry, business, products, services, etc. that affect them
• Increased customer services and added benefits

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A website is basically a collection of web pages, documents, images, audio files, and video files, that are accessible from the same URL and typically residing on the same server and maintained by a person, group, or organization. A server is just the “place” online where your website files reside.

The main page of a website is called a website home page and the other pages inside the website are sub pages. Each page is hyperlinked (linked) together so the visitor can travel from page to page.

Websites are created using a combination of programming languages. The top three are Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). These languages and style sheets tell the web browsers what information to display on your website and how it should look.

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When a consumer visits your website you only have a few seconds to capture attention and interest. If your website fails to hook them and they leave your website, they may never come back! This could potentially cause you to loose prospects, lose customers, and lose profits.

Here are five things to remember when creating or upgrading your business website to make sure you present your business professionally and credibly, and make a great first impression:

• Just as you need to dress appropriately for a business meeting and put your best foot forward, your business website needs to also put its best foot forward with a clean, polished, professional appearance.

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We’re shaking things up over here at Bourn Creative! With Brian stepping in as CEO and Operations Manager and the addition of two new team members, Bourn Creative isn’t just about me and my expertise anymore!

We’re updating and upgrading all of our materials and will continue to do so over the next few months as we continue to build the business not only around our clients’ needs, requests, and desires, but around our growing team’s amazing talents and expertise!

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Every business must have a website. This is no longer negotiable. Whether you’re a solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business owner, or a global organization, a website is imperative to your success.

The yellow pages and phone books are no longer the main way consumers locate businesses. With computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, and other web ready tools, the Internet has now replaced the yellow pages and most consumers now turn to the search engines to find what they need.

Consumers aren’t just searching for broad terms either. Consumers are searching for local businesses and resources just as much as global businesses.

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A website is a basic business requirement. Second only to establishing your brand, creating your website is the most important task you must accomplish when starting a business.

What bothers me the most is that most smart business owners blindly turn to a graphic designer or web designer to design them a site that makes them “look cool” to their competitors.

Here’s the problem with that approach: Your competitors aren’t going to buy from you or hire you.

Website design isn’t about your designer adding another edgy piece to their portfolio that pushes the boundaries and makes them look cool to other designers.

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We can talk search engine optimization strategies and organic search engine optimization techniques all day, but one thing will always remain the same.

The two most important things to help you get found more often online and stand out from the rest of the sites in your niche are, in this order:

1. Good content
2. Good design

Good content that is user focused, information rich and valuable is the most important part of your website. Good content that is updated regularly is even more important.

The search engines first and foremost want to see that you are providing information of value on a regular basis. Consistently adding new content to your website shows the search engines that your site deserves to show up in the results because people need access to your newly updated content.

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To take your business to the next level, you need a professional website design or professional blog design and it needs to be developed by an experienced website designer who understands what you are trying to achieve and how you want to use your website.

You can call it anything you want, but ultimately when you break down every business to it’s core, you are engaging in commerce and trading a commodity for payment. Yes you may be aspiring to make a difference in the world, or help other business owners just like you achieve greater levels of success, or you may even be in business to create social change. But ultimately, you as a business owner must do one thing to make it all happen. You have to sell your products, services, and ideas for a profit.

To Make a Profit, Your Target Market Must Know That You Exist.

Your target market must be able to find you and learn more about what you have to offer and how it can help them solve their problems or achieve their goals. Only then will they be able purchase from you.

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