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!

Next week, we’ll be launching an entirely new website, a smaller, focused, refined suite of services, a brand new 10-month marketing training program (with implementation) for 2011, several free do-it-yourself resources, and our newsletter is getting a face lift and a new name!

Why the change? Well, part of it is because we can and the rest is because the data told us we needed to make some changes. What data? Over the last year, we have been closely reviewing and watching our analytics, opt-ins, sales, conversions, clicks, referral sources, site activity, and more … and we made some decisions based on the actual, real data we gathered. That means we’re making changes that fit you. We getting rid of what didn’t work and what you didn’t care about, and we streamlined and beefed up what you did like and what you showed us you want more of.

Not too much is going away, it’s just getting moved around, adjusted, repackaged, reorganized, and well… we’ve streamlined and simplified the website structure.

But don’t worry, the branding that we’ve become known for isn’t going to change. We’re not going to make the same mistake that Gap did. We’ll have the same logo, same bright and bold color palette, and same rainbow graphic elements, just in a more streamlined, simplified format.

So stay tuned! And, when this rolls out … Please let me know what you think!

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.

Attract the Viewer

If your site looks unprofessional, is difficult to navigate, has boring cookie-cutter content, or has an overall harsh feel to it, your visitor will probably hit the Back button before the page finished loading. This is where good design matters.

Good design for business websites is about designing for your target market, not your peers, other designers, or your competitors. Good website design is also about is making sure the user can find the information they want quickly and easily. And it definitely helps if your website isn’t ugly and doesn’t look like your “friend’s husband who is good with computers” built it for you.

Declare Your Message

There are numerous small factors in this statement that all add up to a lot when trying to make a first impression with your website in under 10 seconds. If you are using a free hosted web design program and your site sits on a URL with anything other than your domain name in it, you are silently declaring.

1. I don’t take my business seriously.
2. Not enough people actually hire me, so I can’t afford a self hosted site.
3. I have no idea what I am doing, nor do I know who to ask for help.

The same goes for your domain name selection. In the US, a business should use a .com extension, and not a .net, .biz, .tv, or any other extension. The only exception would be for a non-profit to use a .org. Regularly our clients say to us, “But the .com of my business name is taken and I have already registered my business license.” To solve this we suggest using a domain name that declares the solution you provide.

Also, your domain name should be easy to remember and easy to spell with common terminology. Avoid using numbers in place of words and avoid using hyphens. Think about verbally telling someone your domain name. Will you say “Just go to GardeningFunForYou.com” or will you have to say something like, “Just go to Gardening dash Fun for, that’s the number four not the word, You with you spelled out.”

In web design, there is the term, above the fold, that has historic roots to the newspaper industry. After years of study, publishers and editors found that by putting the most important and compelling headlines, stories, and photos “above the fold” of the newspaper so they were the most visible in the racks and stands, they sold more papers. The same holds true for web design. Your most compelling content, calls to action, etc. should try to remain “above the fold”. In web design, this is what is visible in a browser window without having to scroll down the page. Most studies suggest that a height of 768 pixels is what most browser  windows are set to.

When designing your website or creating your content, you need to put your most important items above the fold. We usually include:

1. Business name, Logo and/or Photo, Tag Line
2. Primary Navigation
3. Email Marketing Opt-In Offer
4. Calls to Action or Primary Headlines

When someone lands on your site, and the most important information about your business is above the fold, your visitor can absorb everything quickly and determine that your site is exactly what they are looking for.

Get Them to Take Action

Now this doesn’t mean that you are trying to get someone to buy something or opt-in under ten seconds. “Taking Action” can be as little as scrolling down the page and reading all of your content or clicking on a button or link to learn more. Well written headlines that answer a question that your visitor has, along with important info in the first few sentences, is usually enough to keep someone on your page, especially if this content is visible above the fold.

Avoid pop-up windows, videos or audio messages that automatically start, or too much advertising. Your business website’s sole focus is your target market and serving them to the absolute best of your ability. It should focus on providing useful, valuable information quickly.

• Your content must be easy to find, well organized, clear, and reachable by two to three clicks of the mouse or less to reach it.

• Your design must help reinforce and enhance your brand, position you as an expert, and build your credibility.

• Your back end must integrate automation tools that make your job easier, make the visitors’ experience better, and streamline your processes.

Your goal is to create a synergy between the overall site, the design, and the content that helps create chemistry with your visitors so they keep coming back.

• 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

A business website or business blogsite can help local businesses connect with people in their community, and world-wide businesses reach a global audience. While each business may have slightly different website needs and requirements, a website can help and enhance your business by:

• Creating More Business
  A well-done, optimized website or blog can land your website in the search engine rankings, putting your site in front of more people, more often – and that results in more sales.
• Enhancing Your Reputation
  When someone wants to learn more about you or your business, the fastest way for them to learn more is to jump online, type in your name or business name and see what comes up. By investing in your online presence through your website, blog, and social media profiles, etc. you can actively manage your reputation and increase your online presence.
• Adding Streams of Income
  Your website or blog can act as an online store front, selling your products and services to a wider market. It also is a great opportunity to re-purpose information and sell it in the form of audio recordings, ebooks, and infoproducts.
• Positioning You as a Go-To Resource
  Your website can be a great resource for your customers to get more information, answers to their questions, customer support. It can be the perfect place to post your contact information, events calendar, sales and special offers, and more. Some of the most popular ways to do this is to provide a newsroom and an Frequently Asked Questions page.
• Saving Your Money
  Your website can save you money! While the initial investment in a custom, branded, professional website or blog may be larger than other forms of marketing materials, over time, your website will save you money. Instead of incurring printing and postage costs, your documents, handouts, newsletters, and reports can be posted to your website for people to download.
• Building Credibility and Trust
  A consistently updated website, with good, fresh content that is helpful to the site visitors shows that you value your customers. It tells them that you are committed to providing them the information they need on a timely basis. Allowing comments and other forms of interaction also shows them that you care what tey ahve to say and want to hear from them.
• Automating Redundant Tasks
  With all of the Internet tools and blog plug-ins available online, you can find a way to automate pretty much anything you want. Automating the redundant tasks in your business through your website doesn’t just save you time. It actually makes you money. Automating non-billable tasks frees you up to focus on billable work and serving your clients.

A website is basically a collection of web pages, documents, images, audio files, and video files

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.

Learn why most business websites stink in my blog post 10 Reasons Why Your Business Website Stinks.

Learn how you can improve your business website in my blog post Lead Generating Websites: 20 Tips to Improve Your Business Website.

If you have a business, you should have a website with a blog. Having a website or blog for your business is no longer optional, it is a necessity.

People are searching for you, your business, and your products and services online. With web-enabled mobile devices, netbooks, regular computers and wi-fi pretty much everywhere, the Internet is quickly becoming the number one place people are turning to for quick access to the information they need.

Need a plumber? Google it. Looking for a restaurant? Google it. Looking for a local drop in child care provider? Google it. Looking for a dog groomer who specializes in toy-size dogs? Google it.

If you don’t have a professional website, you will never come up in the results of someone’s Google search or Internet search. That means they may never find you. And, if they don’t know you exist, they can’t hire you or buy your product.

Remember, people buy when they are ready to buy, not when you are ready. So, as a business owner, your business needs to be visible when your prospects and potential customers need your product or service. One of the easiest ways to do that is with an optimized website that acts like a 24 hour beacon, attracting and educating your prospects and customers.

Now, I know not every business is a a good fit for the online business model, because there are certain overall businesses that just don’t translate that well. Not every business is going to integrate a shopping cart in their site and set goals to grow a huge online empire.

I also know that every business, big or small, needs to invest in their online store front just as much as their in personal, bricks and mortar store front. Every business must have a professional, branded, easy to use website that provides added credibility, presence, dependability, and interest.

BE CAREFUL! I am going to give you one warning. A bad website, that looks like a high school student did it for a class project, can do more harm to your brand and your business than having no website at all. It screams, “I am too cheap to hire a professional and I don’t value my products and services enough to invest in a good website to showcase them.”

I guarantee, if you don’t invest in your brand and your professional appearance, no one else will either. I also guarantee that without a website, no one will be able to find you online.

But, I can tell you who they will find… your competitors.

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.
• You wouldn’t neglect your office and let it become an unorganized mess, so don’t let your website become an unorganized disaster either. Keep images in one place, audios in another, documents in another, and use a consistent naming convention to everything is easy to find and streamlined.
• When you are talking about your products and services, you need to be clear about your message and you need to keep it simple. Your website works the same way, so make your website content clear, concise, and simple.
• Just like the time you tried to convince your friend to go to a conference with you, your website should compel your visitor to take action.
• When you meet a new contact in person you give them your business card to make it easy for your audience to contact you. You need to approach your website the same way and make sure that when a visitor comes to your site, your contact information is easy to find.

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!

If you’re a subscriber of our email newsletter Design & Profit, you’ve already seen some of Bourn Creative’s graphic design upgrade. Soon, we’ll be launching the website design upgrade and the blog design upgrade as well!

So, you’ll notice a little less of my smiling face on everything. But don’t worry… I am still in the driver’s seat and I am taking the drive of a lifetime.

I am so excited about the business growth we’re experiencing and I truly appreciate each and every one of you who continue to support us. I look forward to sharing the journey with you and continuing to improve our service and business practices!

Best Wishes and Incredible Success,

Jennifer Bourn, Art Director & Online Marketing Strategist
jennifer@bourncreative.com.

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.

When your target market searches for your business online, do you show up on the first page of the search engine results? If not, you really should invest in a website upgrade and work with a marketing savvy web designer who not only understands how to visually present your information, but how to market your products and services as well.

You need to show up when someone searches for you online because your target market can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist!

At minimum, you need to have a simple, clean, well designed website with good, informative, helpful content. This will ensure that at least you have a professional presence when someone searches for you.

What I recommend, is consistently adding new and fresh content to your website. Some people through a blog update their site every day. Some once or twice a week. Some business owners only update their site once a month. Obviously the more you update the content the better, but even one update is better than zero updates.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

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.

Website design isn’t about using all of the programming tricks and capabilities available. Remember, custom animation was popular in PowerPoint when it first came out, but now you’re sort of a dork if you use it. Some of those website features work the same way.

Website design also isn’t about jockeying for the coolest site award among your peers. This isn’t high school and no one cares what stickers you have on your binder or what patches you have on your backpack.

What people do care about is that they can find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. It also helps if your website isn’t ugly and doesn’t look like your “friend’s husband who is good with computers” built it for you.

With that said, here is what designing your website should be about:

Your business website has nothing to do with your competitors. It’s sole focus is your target market and serving them to the absolute best of your ability. It should focus on providing useful, valuable information quickly. Your content should be easy to find and should take as few clicks as possible to reach it.

The website development should include the integration of automation tools that make your job easier, make the visitors’ experience better, and streamline your processes.

The web design should focus on organizing and presenting the information clearly. It should make the content easy to read and should guide the user through the site. The design should also help reinforce and enhance your brand, position you as an expert, and build your credibility.

Think of your website this way – the website is the movie, the content is the leading actor, and the design is the supporting actor.

Your goal is to create a synergy between the overall site, the design, and the content that helps create chemistry with your visitors so they keep coming back.

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.

Good design that is user focused, easy to navigate, and clean is the second most important part of your website. Good design shows the search engines that you care about your visitors and that you want to make their experience on your site easy, useful, and enjoyable. Good design keeps the code clean and simple, places the main content no more than 2-3 clicks from the home page, and portrays a visual design that helps guide the visitor through the site.

With that said, here are a few tips to optimize your website content pages:

• Make sure keywords appropriate to the page are in your title tag.
• A short description (160 characters or less) of the page contents should be included in the meta description tag.
• Your page headlines and sub headlines should be placed inside header tags.
• Your page keywords and long-tail key phrases should be included in the meta keywords tag.
• Integrate your keywords and key phrases into your content, especially at the top of your page. But make sure it is a natural integration into the flow of your content.

So, when developing your website, first focus first on smart, fresh content and great design. Second, focus on optimizing the content, image and links. Then, once your site is completely dialed in, focus on building massive amounts of traffic to your site.

Do you agree with my top two things every website needs? Let me know

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.

The easiest way to help you target market find you is:

1. To combine an impressive, eye-catching website or blog with consistently updated, fresh, and compelling content.
2. To optimize every aspect of the website and content. You must optimize first for the user with an easy flow of information, and second for the search engine robots to help increase your search engine rankings.

Gone are the days of merely having an online presence or brochure website. Now with web 2.0, it is all about interaction, engagement, community, relationships, sharing, teaching, and learning.

Your website can no longer be just a place for prospects to learn more about you. It can no longer be a glorified brochure.

With more and more businesses turning to the Internet each day to expand their market reach, high quality website design and blog design is becoming more important than ever.

Your website needs to:

1. Stand out from every other website in your industry. It needs to stick in the minds of your website visitors so they come back and tell their friends about your website.
2. Provide the information your visitors need and want quickly and easily.
3. Be a central hub of activity, sharing, and interaction, as well as a resource for fresh, valuable, useful content.
4. Show up on the first page of the search engine results pages for your keywords and long tail key phrases.

If you can position your website as the hub of activity and go-to resource for your niche, you will fill your marketing pipeline or marketing funnel with a consistent stream of new prospects and new customers. And, you will soon increase profits!

Do you have any questions about updating your content and making your website a lead generating, profit machine? Let me know!