For Businesses

Magento is open-source,  so it’s FREE to download (individual support comes at a price, but the online support forum is free to use)! The search engine optimization (SEO) features are top-of-the-line in comparison to other platforms.  For example,  Magneto allows merchants to create their own URLs for products on the administrator control panel. Most platforms create a product URL upon creation, which are often times unreadable for the search engines. Google Analytics,  a free tool that allows in-depth tracking of website statistics,  comes integrated with the download. Multiple stores can be maintained across different domains using only one Magento installation. The capability to zoom-in on product images is included. Rates for USPS, FedEx, and UPS are integrated at real time, so shipping and handling quotes are always up-to-date. Customers can compare products side-by-side. There is a one-page checkout system,  so customers are only a click away from ordering products.

Melissa likes the Web and building things that live there. We ask her to do something, so disappears for a while, comes up with an intelligent design, then builds a Web site around that design that will not only do her bidding, but will do the bidding of their new owners. Over the past few years she has worked on (often single handed) the design, production and launch of 100s of websites. She usually does this quietly, efficiently, and with a smirk that makes everyone else wonder what she’s up to. And, if you ask her nicely, she might also agree to design a tattoo for you, although that will have to wait until after work.

1. Save Money
Cloud computing can be a very cost effective way of reducing costs especially in the current financial climate. Yes you can reduce printing costs, remove postage costs and generally work quicker and more efficiently but most importantly, by working together you can reduce mistakes, and mistakes can be very expensive.

2. Many of the IT Requirements You Need are Outsourced
There is no need to invest in a complicated IT infrastructure as all you need is a PC or Mac and an Internet connection. The technical equipment is hosted in the cloud, usually with a comprehensive suite of online office programs.

3. Fewer Items to Clutter Up Your Inbox
All your project information is stored in one place for you to access when needed. You can view your emails and important documents in an online environment.

4. Create Confidence Through Transparency
By publishing information online and sharing it with colleagues, contacts and clients you include the people        that need to contribute on the project and make everybody’s lives a lot easier by keeping everyone in the loop.

5. Clients Love It
 By giving your clients easy access to the information they want, it saves them chasing you for it and reinforces the relationships that differentiate you from your competitors. This will also free up your time to work more productively.

6. Anytime, Anywhere
Work from home, work from site, work late, work early – whatever suits you and your workers. Online collaboration tools are available 24/7 and can be accessed using many different methods. For example hand held computers and Internet ready phones.

7. Configurable to your Needs
Publish what you want, images, documents, tasks or calendars, invite who you want to share these resources and remain in complete control.

8. Be Green
Online collaboration is great for your sustainability credentials as you free up more office resources and have your IT solution hosted online.

9. Create a Lynchpin
 A central, secure and searchable repository for all company information and data that, over time, can become the “go to” resource for both current and archived information for your employees to access.

10. Helicopter View
Have you lots of work projects but are only interested in a few crucial aspects or tasks? Create a project watchlist and your online collaboration system will automatically update you about the content you are interested in so you can focus on the task at hand.

2. Find a host. Having a host is not that expensive. In fact you can get one at $70 for two years. However, if you don want to spend a single penny, there are lots of sites that are hosting for free. The only consideration is that their banner must be placed in your site. That for one is a great deal, isn’t it? Check with the host on how you can subscribe domain names (www.yourname.com).

3. Start with your first page. Do the layout and design your first page. It will be easier and better if you have basic knowledge in HTML. Though there are hundreds of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors, but you will create a better site using HTML. There are tutorial sections available online. Take advantage on them and apply your knowledge to the web design you are creating. Software to try out – Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

4. Edit your page. Observe the loading and the navigation. Are they doing well? How about the web design, is it pleasing to the eyes? Are the fonts readable? Is the content helpful? Are there errors in spelling and grammar? Better check all these little details. They may be tiny details but they make up the whole website. Be careful in dealing with them. If there is a need to redo the page do it. It will be disastrous if you are displaying a total trash.

5. Do the rest of the pages. The goal is to attract visitors, keep them and to gain more. Edit, proofread and edit more. It pays off to have everything in order. Never sacrifice the quality of your website. It is your frontline. It is the one capable of attracting visitors that makes your business sell.

6. FTP the pages to your host. After you are done with the pages and the editing, you can submit them to your host. Wait for it to be shown in the net. Do not forget to update the pages regularly. You have to be updated in order not to lose your target market. Otherwise, they will look for a better site that can satisfy their needs. You don’t want that to happen, do you? Search for a good FTP client and use the FTP information from your host to upload the files.

Website Design can be simple and tough depending on what is your expectation. Otherwise, it is recommended that you contact a Freelance Web Designer to design and build your website.

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You already know once you identify the best keywords and keyword phrases relating to your business, it’s important to use them in your promotional and marketing activities as well as on your website itself.  There are a number of relatively simple ways to do this.

First, you can write articles about topics relating to your business (making sure to include the appropriate keyword phrases within the article text), and submit them to publication directories like Ezine Articles (www.ezinearticles.com) and GoArticles (www.goarticles.com).  This can be a great way to get additional exposure for your website, because these kinds of websites get very large amounts of traffic every day.

Be careful, though.  If you’ve already published an article on your own website, you shouldn’t spend any time submitting the same article to a publication directory.  Internet search engines ignore “duplicate content” from or linked to a particular website.  You can always rewrite, modify or update your previously-published articles, of course, and as long as they are sufficiently different from the original, they will help your search engine ranking.

One key part of the submission process is that you can upload a short biography of yourself to go along with the article itself.  In this biography, you can include a couple of links directly to your website.  One of your links will likely point directly to the webpage that you want the reader to go to immediately after they read your article.

Make sure that when you first create your user profile on the article directory site, you add a professional-looking picture of yourself if that option is available.  Having this picture included in your biography at the end of the article can go a long way to creating a more personal relationship between you and your prospective customers.  A picture also draws attention to the biography, which makes it more likely that a prospect will click on one of your links (which is ultimately the entire purpose of submitting the article to the directory).

Another great way to use your keyword phrases is by associating them with online videos.  Online video is rapidly becoming one of the most effective ways of business promotion.  Take a little time to create a simple video that somehow relates to your business, or to your market niche.  One popular format is the “how to” video – depending on how much time you’re able to spend, you could also do a series of “how to” videos to keep drawing in potential customers.

Your goal is to upload these videos onto popular sites like YouTube (www.youtube.com) and MetaCafe (www.metacafe.com), and as part of this process, you’ll need to come up with a title, description, and list of tags for each video.  Not surprisingly, the title, description and tags will all be based upon (or contain) the keyword terms and phrases that you’re targeting.  You can also use free tools like TubeMogul (www.tubemogul.com), which is a bulk video uploader, to make sure you’re getting the widest distribution and viewership as possible.

Once you get into the habit of preparing and distributing promotional articles and videos that use your target keywords, you’ll find it much easier to do so on a regular basis.  This will lead to an increase in the targeted traffic that comes to your site, which in turn will boost your website’s bottom line.

The increase in business transactions has invariably led to a rise in the volume of data. While some data is not kept, most of it is stored for inner, legal and financial documentation. Where does all this data go? Some of it remains within the business itself, while a large part of it is stored on the internet using the latest technology. The exchange and storage of data and files using the Internet is mainly done using File Transfer Protocol, or FTP space and FTP storage services, which are accessed using a username and password.

Transferum offers FTP services to clients who want to benefit from the many advantages offered by FTP space and FTP storage. Among the services provided by Transferum is FTP Server hosting, which has many advantages including :

    * Data Backup
    * Data Retrieval from distant locations
    * inexhaustible Storage Space
    * Transfer of information
    * Password-protection
    * Accessibility Options

Individuals and businesses have different needs when it comes to online data storage. Individual users require less storage space and various options for uploading and downloading files. Businesses, however, need much more space to store their data depending on their size. They also need multiple user accounts, private and public domains, the ability for users to exchange files with each other and a GUI interface which reflects the business name.

Transferum provides FTP space packages which include :

    * 1 GB FTP storage
    * Unlimited concurrent logins
    * particular directories
    * Accounts for specific work groups
    * Internet file management interface
    * Unlimited data transfer

 
Customers of Transferum’s FTP space and FTP storage services can rest assured that their data will be safe and secure. Data can be kept private, with password protection, or shared by giving permission to friends who can access these files online.

As Transferum data storage user, you can also change the specifications of your data storage account, so that it meets your current needs. Transferum is so confident of your satisfaction that you will receive a 5-day trial period during which you can measure the FTP space and FTP storage services they offer. With Transferum’s FTP storage plans, users can personalize their FTP space using On Demand FTP Storage Plans which allows file exchange history to be retained for review.

FTP space and storage facilities by Transferum will provide you with data storage services to meet your specific requirements. The latest technology used at Transferum keeps your data is safe and secure and ensures that data flow is always conducted at optimal speeds. Visit http://www.transferum.com for more details.

Template Overview
There are several internet companies that can supply ready-made template designs for websites geared towards a variety of different audiences.  There are templates specifically for selling products, providing information, or promoting a service.  The greatest advantage to using a template design is convenience—since there are dozens of internet companies providing templates, finding a company with an appropriate template design is easy.  Using a temple design to create your website allows you to get your website up and running quicker than is possible with a unique website design.  Browsing template designs may even help the publisher who isn’t sure of what they are looking for.  

    Buying a template also tends to be much cheaper than contracting a designer to create a bespoke website design.  This lower cost reflects the fact that the template is not unique.  A disadvantage to buying a template design for your website is that a competing website may be using the exact same template design.  However, since there are hundreds of template designs being provided by several companies, the probability that a competitor is using the same template is extremely small.  Also, the chosen template can be customized to a certain extent to make it fit your purpose a little better and reduce the chances of duplicating another website’s design.  These bespoke options, however, are not extensive, so the template must remain largely unchanged .

Pros:

• See the design before starting
• Faster
• Less expensive

Cons

• Others will have the same template
• Only somewhat customizable

Original Overview
    An original template provides more freedom and customization than a template design, but it also has some disadvantages.  Because a designer must assist you in your website design directly, buying an original website design costs more money than a template and typically takes more time to create and publish.

    The high cost has to do with ownership.  When a template is bought, only the usage rights are being sold—the original website still has the rights to the template and can resell it as many times as it wants.  With any bespoke website, the publisher is buying ownership of the design, meaning the designer is not allowed to resell an identical design to another publisher.  For this reason, one of the main advantages of buying an original website design means that no other website will have the same design, leaving the publisher with a unique website.

    With an original design, a publisher can stand out from the crowd.  Template designs are more common, so having a unique design may differentiate a publisher from the competition and see more success because of it.  The original design is also endlessly customizable, allowing the publisher to alter the design even after publication.

    Perhaps the greatest advantage to using a designer to create an original design is the expertise of the designer.  Each designer has lots of experience in creating websites and will know how best to capitalize on the content of the website to create an attractive design.  A designer can help translate what the website should achieve to how the website should look and feel.  Using a designer, a publisher can get exactly what they want and have envisioned in their website.

Pros

• Complete ownership of the design
• distinguishing and different design
• Endlessly customizable
• Designer experience
• Get exactly what you want/have envisioned

Cons

• More expensive than a template
• Takes more time

Conclusion
 Ultimately, the decision on whether to use a template design or an original design depends on the goals and needs of the publisher.  Website design should consider the type of people that will be using the website, the goal of the website, the amount of money that a publisher is willing to spend, and the product or service that is being provided on the website.  For getting a website up and running as quickly and cheaply as possible, buying a template design is the better choice.  However, if the publisher has a very specific design in mind and needs a designer’s insight into producing the website, then buying an original design is the better option.  Having a designer create bespoke designs can also help publishers that don’t know what kind of design to use but are not satisfied with any of the template options available. If you are serious about your online marketing always consider investing in a web design company that knows about marketing and holds this as important as the design itself, after all your website is just that, a piece of online marketing in some form or another.

Content management system can give you a dominant advantage over your competitors, and help your websites stand out in the crowd. There are many systems to choose from and getting the one that fits your needs can be demanding at the least. Before you upgrade an existing site, it is best to identify your budget and expenses. If you choose the proper system, it can give you uniformity between all the web pages of your site.

A proper CMS can give you a reliable standard to maintain the identity of corporate branding. If you want your website to compete effectively, your system needs to allow you to adapt to changing demands and offer features that allow you to expand your capabilities as needed. These features are critical due to the high level of competition on the internet. A list of the options you should look for in your system follows.

Your content management system should allow you to change the content of your website with ease so that you can offer fresh content quickly. It should make it possible for you to extend the life of your website beyond the two to three year life expectancy of most sites. Your system should keep the design and content templates separate so that you can make changes to one without affecting the other, which saves time money and effort. The system should make it easy for the editors to access the website from any location. Lastly, it is critical that the pages are search engine friendly. It should allow webmasters to add keywords in the URL of each webpage. This makes it easy for search engines to locate the site.

Companies are deploying social software solutions – Web 2.0 technologies such as micro blogging, social networking, wikis, and internal blogs – because they can dramatically improve decision cycle times and organizational effectiveness. But social software only produces these results to the extent it is adopted by users. Business social software drives group productivity product vs. personal productivity, and because of this large-scale adoption is critical to its success. A group productivity product can only benefit the group if it is used by the group.

While certain strategies encourage faster adoption, adoption is not something that can be mandated. Adoption occurs when users decide for themselves that the solution provides them with a net benefit. It happens when users want to use the product, and when they take action as a result. Users very quickly weigh “what’s in it for me?” against any perceived pain, such as giving up the comfort of an old way of doing something.

To get started with an enterprise social software solution, you should choose 3-5 lead use cases to pursue in your initial implementation. Successful implementation is typically driven by a core group of energetic champions committed to making your company more open, efficient and effective. You should look for these individuals to help drive adoption within your company.

You have made sure to choose a social software solution that is dead easy to use, with benefits that are self-evident to users. Now you have to get your colleagues to try it. Champions should introduce the social software in a hands-on way that encourages colleagues to “get their feet wet” immediately. Road shows, lunch-and-learns, and other live presentations, augmented by a live micro blogging channel are a great way to introduce your company to the new social software.

Your social software solution can shine when people use it to make every day work processes more collaborative and social. To show your company the power of the social software, you and your champions should route repeated activities through it.

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The world today is full of options. Customers are fluent in the language of flexibility. They’ve grown accustomed to mobility and instant access. As such, they are used to choosing when, where and how they interact with organizations. That’s why it’s important that you provide your customers with the ability to request the method and type of remote support that they prefer. This step is critical in setting the tone before engagement even begins.

The most common escalation to remote support takes place when a support representative is already on the phone with the customer. This method is a convenient next step for customers who first request support via phone. The caveat, of course, is that this method only reaches customers who prefer to call you initially. Web access is an essential connection method for developing an effective remote-support strategy. If your customers aren’t able to request a remote-support session with a representative via a support Web page or a Web portal, some will get discouraged and abandon the quest for support altogether. Not surprisingly, discouraged customers generally do not make loyal customers.

If every support request was a slam dunk for Tier 1 support representatives, life would be much simpler. But the reality is this: The support rep’s day is full of unique, often complex problems. And it’s not unusual for complicated queries to require multiple contacts to be resolved satisfactorily. This places a significant burden on the budget and can do great harm to customer satisfaction levels. Your support reps have varying levels of technical proficiency that inevitably affect the handling of a support query.

Eliminating repeat requests by increasing first-contact resolution will significantly improve the customer experience while reducing your support center’s costs — and this, of course, directly impacts your organization’s bottom line.

Gathering data about the customer experience doesn’t stop when the session ends. If you aren’t capturing post-session feedback from your reps and customers, you’re missing out on truly valuable information and perhaps even the big picture. The feedback you glean directly from customers and reps after a session provides a roadmap for optimizing your support strategy and improving operations.

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Here are some of the commonly used terms in web development whose knowledge you should have.

Web development

Multicolumn displays in CSS

Multi columns are created for ease of reading when copy is converted to HTML. It applies especially when the text is too long and cannot be read in a browser. They are also used to make the pages up to standard. Any problems in multicolumn application are easily solved by using HTML tables.

Taming the select

In cases where browsers do not allow you to use border or change fonts, then the elements should just be left as they are. Do not try to redesign forms to suit the design of the page. Sometimes though, browsers will allow you to change elements to suit your design.

Web hosting

You need an understanding of what bandwidth is and what disk space is. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferrable in and out of your site by your visitors. Every time a visitor views your page, the page they have visited is transferred to their browser. Disk space is the storage you are allowed to have for your files.

Graphic designers

Good graphic design should communicate the purpose and message of the site. It should not just be about nice, cute-looking designs. Graphic designers are professionally trained to incorporate this aspect into the art of graphic designing so as to capture the message of the web page/site. They arrange, rearrange, modify and restructure graphics in order to send the message across. They ought to be sharp and creative, with an ability to keep up to date with the changes happening in the web designing industry. You can take a look at proffesional website designs in a CSS website gallery.

Site Redesign

With time, websites need to be changed and redesigned to reflect meaningful and relevant information as the information keeps changing over time. Websites that need constant changes are ecommerce sites and authority sites as they have to reflect the constantly changing nature of data they contain.