Luckily for us, online advertising is generally a lot more affordable than offline advertising is. Still, it pays to be as frugal as we possibly can, so I wanted to give a few thoughts on making the most of our advertising budgets (no matter how meager they may be).

Of course, text ads are one of the first things that come to mind when discussing online advertising, and I’m not going to throw you any surprises here. Just as you would expect, I would recommend starting out with a Google Adwords account, and testing the waters with a small budget. I do recommend that you read as much as you can about the process however, so that you don’t accidentally shoot yourself in the foot and overspend (sometimes significantly) without even realizing it.

Next, spend some time creating some banner ads (or having them created if you aren’t graphically inclined). I recommend creating a minimum of 4 ad sizes, but 9 sizes is ideal. You can see all the standard IAB recommend ad unit sizes here, but my recommendations are as follows:

Four Sizes To Always Have Available

• 125×125
• 468×60
• 160×600
• 728×90

Five Additional Ad Sizes If Possible

• 120×240
• 120×600
• 300×250
• 180×250
• 336×250

Sites will very likely have ad spots available in one of the above sizes, so if you have ads already created and ready to go for any of those sizes, it will be easy to get your ad up and running quickly.

The next thing I would consider is having 2 or 3 variations of ads in each of those sizes. This will allow you to test each ad so that you know which works better. I recommend reading an interview that the Wildfire Marketing Group did, in which they explain when and how often to run the same ads versus testing different ads.

Once you have all of your ad banners created, your next task is finding available spots to place them. My favorite place to advertise is on blogs. Many blogs are set up to run 125×125 ad blocks, so if you have that size handy, it will be easy to arrange. You can either approach bloggers directly via email or Twitter, and arrange for an ad spot, or you can go through one of the many networks (such as buysellads.com) to find them. Most blogs will display ads for a month term at a fixed price (which is usually fairly low).

Finally, run your ads, run your tests, and track the results. Once you have some initial stats to look at, you can plan for the long term.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advertising budgets, Google, offline advertising, online advertising, Twitter, WildFire Marketing Group
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A smart man, Ammon Johns, over on the forums I moderate said recently:

Many businesses have been awaiting this recession for a long time, with funds hoarded not to weather the storm, but to expand their market and make long-term aquisitions at rock-bottom prices.

Here’s one such deal I was made aware of recently. Not long ago, I had the opportunity to get a new website design created for me by the Wildfire Marketing Group. I haven’t yet finished the site, so it isn’t live and I can’t show you the design just yet, but you’ll just have to take my word for it that it looks great! I was super pleased with it.

Of course, getting top notch design work done isn’t cheap, especially during these hard times, but that same company is trying something new – website financing – with 0% interest! Sweet! When I saw that opportunity, I thought it was exactly the kind of thing I should check into and tell you about.

Well, once I spoke with them about it, they agreed that those of you that follow me deserved an extra bonus on top of the financing with 0% interest deal. Here’s how it works:

If you decide to get a site designed by Wildfire Marketing Group now or any time in the future, use this discount code – DAZZ3825 – during checkout to get $100 off the price of the design. You can read more about this special discount here. That’s $100 off the price PLUS you can still apply for the 0% financing deal.

After I heard about the financing deal, I searched online and while there are a few people on the net offering design financing, it’s apparently fairly rare (and some of them had sites that looked like they’d been designed in the early ’90s. ew…). So if you’re considering a new site design but would like to spread the payments out without paying more in interest, I can easily recommend the design skills of Wildfire – they know how to create current, attractive sites.

Since we’re on the subject of financing services, I was wondering what other web services or products (shopping carts, content management systems, etc.) have you found that are being offered with zero or low financing available? If you know of some, let us know about them too! Also, if you come across ANY really good deals that our little microbusinesses could use, feel free to tell us about them. We need to band together during these tough times and help each other make it through to the other side. I have complete faith that we will all see brighter days ahead, but we have to stay in the game long enough to see those days. Cutting costs, finding good deals, and stretching payments out are all viable methods of keeping afloat. Let’s use as many as we can.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ammon Johns, content management, content management systems, web services, WildFire Marketing Group
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

There are probably just as many opinions about what constitutes good website design as there are people on the internet. There are, however, a number of factors that have been proven to make or break a website. If your website is guilty of just a few, it can have a dramatic impact on your business. Fortunately, most of them are relatively easy to correct, but in many cases, the right choice is often contrary to popular opinion because of peoples’ misunderstanding of the internet.

Spend some time studying these six common website design mistakes and see how many you’re guilty of. Then, invest the time to correct them and you’ll find that your website begins to perform better almost immediately.

Not testing on multiple browsers

You probably use Internet Explorer, like most people do, but a significant portion of your website visitors may be using another browser, such as Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Opera. Also, your visitors may have a variety different screen resolution and graphics capabilities. This means a website that displays perfectly on your computer may not on another computer, which is why it’s so important that you test your website to ensure that it displays and functions properly in most major browsers.

Using splash pages or flash intros

When a visitor arrives, they shouldn’t have to click anything to enter your website. Splash pages can turn an otherwise amazing website into a poor website faster than you can click the back button, and flash intros are even worse. Both of these things came about from arrogant designers who decided that showcasing their ability to use a particular piece of software was more important than providing what their visitors were looking for, and unfortunately the phenomenon became fairly common.

The argument in their favor is often something along the lines of ‘Our flash intro gives us a chance to present a mini commercial to each and every website visitor.’ This argument is flawed though, because by the time that they have arrived on your website, they are looking for specific information – not your commercial. Forcing it on them will only encourage them to leave, usually moving on to your next competitor.

Not breaking text into manageable chunks

It’s said that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The same logic applies for presenting website copy. Staring at a computer monitor is difficult work for the human eye, and digesting large portions of text can be tough for even the most focused visitor. You can overcome these challenges by breaking your text into smaller, manageable chunks, utilizing headings, subheadings, lists and images. You should also keep the width of your text within a reasonable limit. The longer it is, the more difficult it will be for your visitors to read.

Omitting contact information

A surprising number of companies fail to provide any way to contact them on their website other than through a contact form. This falls into the same category as those annoying automated phone menus. Sure, you’ll save some time and money since you won’t have to talk to all those bothersome people who want to talk to you, but you’re forgetting something important. Those ‘bothersome’ people are actually potential clients who want to buy what you’re selling!

You may filter out some riff raff when you don’t provide your contact information, but you’ll also turn away a lot of potential business. People want that warm, fuzzy feeling that comes from knowing that they’re dealing with a real-life company rather than some fictional Nigerian prince who is willing to transfer his fortune to their bank account. They are looking for a stable company that they can trust and if they know that they can pick up the phone and reach someone, or even stop by your office if they are nearby, you will have a rock-solid foundation.

Putting branding before the user

There is no question that branding is an important, if not critical aspect of marketing, but some companies take it too far, causing a negative impact. I would generally agree that the title tag on your home page should contain your company name, but that shouldn’t continue throughout your entire website. Aside from diluting your search engine optimization campaign, having your company name in the title tag of your internal pages will make them less attractive to potential visitors when presented with a list of search results. Think about it like this; if someone searches for ‘blue plutonium widgets,’ do you think they will be more likely to click on a listing in the search results with the title ‘Blue Plutonium Widgets – $9.99′ or one with the title ‘Acme Widget Company?’

Omitting pricing information

The outdated mentality of only revealing pricing information to prospects on the phone or face to face seems to have made its way onto the Internet. While there are valid reasons to justify the practice, it is counterproductive to your business. When people use the Internet to find information, they expect to find that information without having to call someone. Does this mean that some of your competitors may learn what your prices are? Certainly, but they can get that information even if you don’t make it available online by posing as a potential client. Not all companies can list their prices; for example, while we have a number of standardized prices available, a lot of the marketing work that we do is developed on a case by case basis. Most companies, however, can.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Acme Widget Company, bank account, Internet Explorer, Jeremy Knauff, prince, search engine, search engine optimization campaign, search results, WildFire Marketing Group
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.