The Ten Most Common Web Site Design Mistakes

I recently received this email from InternetRetailer.com that convinced me to be at their next conference in 2009. Here's what it said:

You may think your web store looks just great and you have a right to be proud of it. But did you ever sit with a focus group to see what problems they had with it? Did you ever have top web site designers analyze it to find flaws? And have you listened to e-retailers tell you how they’ve vastly improved online sales and conversion rates just by making basic design changes that eliminated the most common web site design faux pas?

You can do all of this and more by attending the second annual Internet Retailer Web Design '09 Conference at the all-new Fontainebleau in Miami Beach on June 19-22, 2009.

Here are just 10 common design mistakes you’ll learn to avoid at IRWD ’09:

1. The Home Page Syndrome
You put most of your design resources on the home page and treat product pages as mere information pages—not marketing opportunities. In the session Designing Landing Pages that Sell, you’ll learn that the sale is really made on the product page.

2. A Design Pet That Bites.
You fall in love with one design function, using all the cool graphics you can, at the expense of meeting other key objectives, such as simplifying site navigation. In the session called One Site, Many Masters: Accommodating Conflicting Design Objectives, you’ll learn how to please your pet while not overlooking basic rules

3. Beware the Overbearing Geek.
You let your IT professional run wild and dictate design parameters that ignore marketing or merchandising needs. In Programmers Are from Mars, Customers Are from Venus, you’ll learn how to let the customer rule the design roost.

4. Conventional Wisdom Can Be Stupid
You adopt generally accepted design standards but fail to adapt them to how your own customers use your web site. In the session How Your Market Defines Your Design, you’ll learn how to gauge what design elements your customers are looking for.

5. Do It Now—Ask Questions Later.
You make a relatively minor change to your design without rigorously testing it. The next thing you know, your online sales are dropping. In the session called The Importance of Testing, you’ll learn how to thoroughly test the impact of design changes.

6. The Don’t Fix What Ain’t Broke Mentality.
Your site is working so well you don’t think about redesigning it until it blows up on you. In the session called Is It Time Yet?, you will learn how to spot telltale signs that your site is overdue for a do over.

7. Who Are You Anyway?
You choose an outside designer to work on your site without checking his/her retail web qualifications or success record. In Choosing the Right Design Partner, you’ll learn how to spot a good retail web site designer before you move forward.

8. The Anything Goes Attitude.
You assume that with broadband web access everywhere, you can load up your site with all kinds of images. In Every Byte Counts, you’ll learn otherwise.

9. It’s Just A Store.
You think web sites are just like stores and need only products neatly arranged. You forget that non-product content is often what attracts people to a site. You will see what we mean at the session What Engages Shoppers Now — And What Will Engage Them Tomorrow.

10. What Are You—Anti-Social?
If your site doesn’t use forums, blogs and reviews, it fails to connect to the community it serves. Retailers in particular miss this, but the session Leveraging Social Technologies Strategically in Your Site Design will set them straight.

To register for the 2009 Internet Retailer Web Design Conference, visit:
www.internetretailer.com/IRWD09/

Obama's Using Web Video - What About You?

President-elect Barack Obama plans to tape a weekly presidential address not just for radio listeners, as presidents have for years, but for YouTube Internet viewers, too.

The videos are part of his team's effort to build on a campaign model that helped him reach millions of voters online during the presidential race. It's a powerful electronic tool in new digital outreach effort aimed at supporters and others interested in being connected to the activities of the Obama White House.

The videos allow him to bypass the traditional media and reinforce his message online.

So what does this mean for entrepreneurs? It's quite simple - you need to start using web videos for your weekly or monthly entrepreneurial address. Just like Obama, you can post your web videos on YouTube.

Meaningful footage can consist of interviews, video blogging, public speaking engagements, and even Powerpoint presentations.

Don't be intimidated. You can buy a You-Tube friendly video camera from Wal-Mart, Target, or Best Buy. Secondly, it's incredibly easy to post the video on YouTube. You just go to YouTube.com and click on "Upload".

Are You Going To The First Annual African-American Internet Summit?

Plans for the First Annual African-American Internet Summit were announced recently by Target Market News. The all-day conference – the first such gathering of its kind in the nation -- will take place in Chicago, IL on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 in downtown Chicago. The event is expected to attract 200 professionals from marketing, advertising, media and research.

The Summit will bring together leading consumer marketers, advertising agencies, and Internet-based companies in a long-overdue, comprehensive examination of how African-American consumers utilize the Web for information and entertainment. The latest studies reveal that the so-call “digital divide” between black and white consumers has disappeared, and African-American households are among the most desirable segment sought by Corporate America.

“It is more important than ever to thoroughly understand the relationship between the Internet and black consumers,” said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News. “As marketers continue to shift budget and marketing strategies toward digital platforms, the competition for this audience will grow as well. Being well-informed and well-positioned to reach this $800 billion-dollar market will make or break the bottom line.”

Among the topics to be addressed by panels of experts at the Summit are:

- Case Studies: Reaching and Selling Black Consumers Successfully Via the Net

- The Latest Research on African-American Internet Usage and Preferences

- How Black-Targeted Media Is Incorporating and Adapting to the Web

- The Pros and Cons of Ad Networks

- The Most Popular Black Web Sites You Should Know About

- Measurement Metrics: Setting the Standards for Counting Black Web Traffic

- African-Americans and New Media: The Next Big Opportunity

- How the Web is Re-defining Advertiser-Media Relationships.

Information on the program details, registration and sponsorship opportunities can be found at www.targetmarketnews.com. Participants must register in advance and the exact location of the African-American Internet Summit will be revealed shortly.

Target Market News is recognized as the nation’s leading news and information source on African-American marketing, media and consumer research. The 20-year-old Chicago-based company publishes a daily online news bulletin, “The Buying Power of Black America” report, and TMN Magazine. It also hosts the annual Marketing to African-American with Excellence (MAAX) Summit, The MAAX Awards and the African-American Magazine Summit.

For more information, e-mail Target Market News at info@targetmarketnews.com, or call 312-408-1881.

Interview With Black Social Networking Pioneer, William Moss

Social networking is one of the most popular activities online, next to emailing and blogging. It has the unique ability of allowing users to interact with others as if they were in the same room. Just how big is it? On a daily basis, an estimated 300 million people worldwide log into a social network.

African-Americans are heavy social networkers and possibly the fastest growing group in this segment. Many spend a lot of time on Myspace.com, Facebook.com and Linkedin.com - as well as the Black social networks such as BlackPlanet.com and HBCUconnect.com

William Moss, the 34-year old CEO and founder of HBCU Connect, launched the first social network for African Americans in 1999 - just a few months before BlackPlanet.com came along. To date, HBCUconnect.com is the largest online destination for Black college students and alumni.

Q: William, what is your professional background?

A: I’m a graduate of Hampton University, where I earned my Bachelors degree in software development. I’ve been programming since I was 13 years old.

Q: Where is your company based, and how big is it?

A: We are based in Columbus, Ohio with a staff of 12 people. We are located in the same building as our strategic partner Diversity City Media.

Q: Is it true that you created the first social network for African Americans?

A: Well, in the late 90’s, the only mainstream social network that anyone knew of was Classmates.com. There also was AsianAvenue.com, the only ethnic-specific one - which was launched even earlier. There were no others until we officially launched HBCUconnect.com (formerly HBCU-Central.com) in June of 1999. According to Community Connect's web site, they launched BlackPlanet.com in September of 1999.

Q: How big is HBCUconnect.com?

A: We have 1.2 million registered members with over 15-20 million page views a month. This makes us the largest online destination for Black college students and alumni, hands down.

Q: What makes you the king of Black social networking?

A: Well, I’m modest – I don’t actually go around calling myself that. However, I’ve done several speaking engagements, and during a Q&A someone labeled me “a king of social networking” after I answered a series of technical questions and related my experience.

I do feel that I’m a leader in the industry because I’ve been developing and programming social networks for nearly 10 years. I’ve done the technical work, the marketing, and I was able to reach profitability to survive the dot com burst. I understand social networks inside out; I was into this stuff before the term “social networks” was even coined. They used to just be called community-based sites.

Q: So, what are you working on now?

A: Right now, I’m building a white label social networking platform that will be the best in the business. It’s called Connect Platform (www.connectplatform.com), and for now we’re targeting Black entrepreneurs, organizations, and businesses to help them create their very revenue-generating social networks.

To prove that it works, we just recently launched several more social networks in-house.

Q: What other social networks have you launched?

A: In partnership with Diversity City Media, we’ve already launched over 15 different sites. The big ones are BlackHistory.com – an online encyclopedia and social network for African American history and culture, BlackWomenConnect.com – the first ever social network for African American women, and BlackInAmerica.com – the first ever social network for socially-conscious African Americans. All of them are growing exponentially with thousands of active members signing up daily.

We’ve also been tapped to do social networks for TV One, Real Men Cook, October Gallery, Janet Jackson, Patti Labelle, Juanita Bynum, Pepa from Salt-N-Pepa, and other bigger brands that I’m not yet at liberty to discuss.

Q: Some say that social networking is a waste of time. Is this true?

A: Absolutely not. Every social network has a purpose. Professional social networks help people advance their careers, and build client relationships for their businesses. Other niche social networks allow people with similar mindsets and interests to connect and build relationships that make life online more fun. Social networking has the same benefits that offline networking has.

Q: What's the future for social networking?

A: The future includes a smaller number of super-large social networks like Facebook and Myspace. I believe there will be a major consolidation of these. However, I also believe that there will be an ever-growing number of smaller but powerful niche social networks. Users are more attracted to networks for individuals that share the same mind frame, background, and/or interests.

Q: There's a rumor that you and Dante Lee of Diversity City Media are getting ready to launch a Black dating site. Will this be a social network too?

A: This site, which I won’t name just yet, will be unlike any other dating site on the Internet period. Not only will it be one of the few that are Black-owned, but it will also be the first to include the functionality of a social network. Look for this site to launch in late 2008.

Q: Are you in discussions with bigger companies to get bought out?

A: Yes, we are approached all the time by major Black and non-Black owned companies. However, none have been smart enough to make a quick acquisition of our technology, experience, and brands. But we're not too excited about selling now because the best is yet to come.

Q: How can people contact you for business purposes?

A: They can contact my business partner and publicist Dante Lee at 614-595-6063 or dante@diversitycity.com

New Social Network Allows Professional African American Women To Connect Online

BlackWomenConnect.com is a new social network that enables professional Black women to "connect" with each other online. The site, which is free to join, gives African, Caribbean and African American women the ability to create a profile, view other profiles, and interact for business, networking, empowerment, entertainment and more.

Similar to Facebook and LinkedIn, Black Women Connect (BWC) has all the user functionality of a social network and more. The site offers the latest news, blogs, and events that appeal to Black women - and allows them to add their own content. They can create and manage public and private groups, and they can view and apply for the latest job opportunities from actual companies that are hiring.

Research shows that African American women are launching successful businesses at a faster rate than any other demographic. It has also been noted that more Black women than ever are assuming professional careers as leaders and managers at large corporations, and as work-at-home moms. BWC gives all of them the ability to share their resources, and network with others to provide the first global experience of its kind.

Most remarkably, the site is 100% free to use.

To join the site, interested ones should visit:
www.BlackWomenConnect.com

Does Your Web Site Sell?

Did you know that over a billion dollars in sales transactions occur online every single day? Companies like Ebay, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy generate millions in daily sales from their web sites alone.

Ramon Ray, a columnist for Entrepreneur.com, says that your web site should be your best salesperson. He encourages entrepreneurs to transform their website into a sales representative.

"If you think of your website as a salesperson, you'll begin to think of it as more than just a glorified brochure. You'll even want it to be better designed, since you probably want your sales reps to look good," he says.

Here are some good questions to ask yourself:

1) Does your website know everything about your business that it should?

2) Do you measure your website's success (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually)?

3) Do you offer your website "training" on your business fundamentals, new trends or economic changes in your local market or in the national business climate for your industry?

4) Does your website have all your current products, services and pricing?

Ray adds, "Remember your website is probably one of your best--if not the best--sales assets you have. If nurtured and taken care of, it will boost your sales and grow your business, just like a human salesperson."

For the complete article, visit:
www.entrepreneur.com/technology/techbasicscolumnist/article191310.html

Stop Saying "Hits"

Nobody cares how many hits your web site gets. Nowadays, its all about how many monthly unique visitors you have. Consider the following from a recent article on WebMarketingNow.com:

A "hit" is not a visitor to the web site, but a hit on the web server. A hit on the web server can be a graphic, java applet, the HTML file, etc. So, if a site has 79 small graphics on the page, every visitor to the site registers as 80 hits on the server (79 graphics plus the HTML file). In this case, 80,000 hits translates to just 1,000 visitors.

Now ask yourself this: If I were interested in someone else's web traffic, would I be interested in their "hits" or their actual unique visitors?

From now on, stop using counters to measure your web traffic - as these only measure page views. Use a web traffic analysis program (such as Google Analytics) that will give you the number of actual visitors and other vital information such as where visitors are coming from, what paths your visitors are taking, and which pages are the main exit points of your site.

Occasionally, some advertisers may be interested in how many page views your web site can generate. This is because they want to know how many times their banner ads will be displayed, even if its displayed more than once to the same person. Regardless, this is much different from a "hit" - which I promise you, means absolutely nothing.

Should You Personalize Your Web Site With An Animated Character?

There's a unique service called SitePal that allows you to add a human touch to your web site. The company allows you to design a speaking animated character, that can easily be added to your website or blog. You can program the character to look just like you, and say anything you want.

The service is very popular, but is it effective? My answer would be yes and no. In some cases, it can be effective to have an animated character talk to your web site visitors. In other cases though, it can be very annoying.

It all depends on what kind of site you have. I wouldn't recommend it for corporate web sites, online newspapers, online research sites, or anything in that arena.

However, I would recommend it for web sites that are used to promote an individual. For instance, the personal web site of an author, a radio host, a blogger, or even a motivational speaker. In these cases, people want to hear your voice, and likely wouldn't find it annoying that you're talking to them online.

For instance, Black Enterprise columnist Brian Leary uses the service for his web site. He says that he has been "surprised by the amount of positive comments [he's] received, as well as new subscribers [to his podcast]."

I think for what he's doing, it's a great fit. The key is to be realistic about how your web site visitors will respond to it.

Beware of So-Called Traffic Boosters

"Boost Your Traffic Fast." "Get 10,000 visitors for $49." "Triple your traffic in 24 hours." These are some of the ways that these web site traffic boosting services are promoting their services.

Anytime you hear a claim like this, stay away. 99% of these guys are fraudulent, dishonest, and essentially scams! These companies typically prey on new-to-the-game entrepreneurs who are very gullible. They also prey on minority businesses with newly established web sites, knowing that many of them are anxious to get more traffic.

In most cases, they don't send you traffic at all. However sometimes they do send you traffic, but it will be completely untargeted. You may end up having 10,000 visitors who live in China visit your web site (only because they've been tricked). This does not help your business in any way!

If you want to utilize a legit traffic boosting service, my recommendation is to stick with Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft Ad Center, and Adbrite.com - I have personally used all of these services.

Are You Ready To Be "Googled"?

Every single day, millions and millions of people use search engines to find what they are looking for. It is very likely that at some point or another, someone will be searching for information about you.

Being researched or "googled" can be a very good thing or a very bad thing. It all depends on what comes up when your name is typed in. Fortunately, you do have some control over the matter.

Here are some things you can do:

1) Regularly send out press releases. Search engines love press releases and news content. Whenever you send out a PR, it will usually be indexed right away from the distribution company itself and any online news outlet that publishes it. PRweb.com and BlackPR.com (one of my services) are great tools for this.

2) Get listed in online directories. Search engines will generally give content from business directories a higher ranking. This is because information from such sources are viewed as "official". Therefore, listing your bio and/or company description on these sites can help to authenticate what's "official" about you. Sites like Business.com, SalesVantage.com, and BlackExperts.com (another one of my services) are perfect examples.

3) Make sure your web site is search engine friendly. If you "google" your company's name, your company's web site should come up first. If it doesn't, you need to optimize your web site so that search engines are able to crawl through the content. (see my blog about SEO)

4) Be careful about Myspace/BlackPlanet blogs. Remember that if someone "googles" you, everything will come up - everything. So, if you have a Myspace page with pictures of you acting a fool - you may want to delete it or make it a private blog. You don't need a potential client to change their mind about your company, because they stumbled upon your personal blog.

The Basics of Affiliate Marketing

Surprisingly, most African American entrepreneurs are not involved with affiliate marketing. Many aren't even aware of what it is.

Affiliate marketing is when you promote an advertiser's services or products on your web site. In exchange, the advertiser pays you a commission every time a lead or sale is generated from your web site. The concept is called CPA (Cost Per Action) Advertising.

Sounds simple, but believe it or not: The affiliate marketing industry generates billions of dollars in annual revenue for people (like me and you) who have web sites. Because everything is on a pay-per-performance basis, it is completely free and easy to get started.

To get involved, you can sign up at an affiliate marketplace like Websponsors.com or Hydramedia.com (my personal favorite).

The key is to find offers that match the content of your web site. For instance, if you have a web site that is focused on health - It would make sense to run offers from Health Insurance providers who will pay you up to $20 per quote that you generate.

If your web site focuses on education, it would make sense to run offers from colleges who will pay you up to $35 every time a student requests more information.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate revenue from your web site, especially when you're having trouble convincing advertisers to pay you upfront.

To stay informed about the affiliate marketing industry and the latest developments therein, I highly recommend that you subscribe to Revenue Magazine.

In addition, I recommend that you attend the next Ad Tech conference (held annually in New York, Chicago, Miami, or San Francisco) and the next Affiliate Summit (held annually in Las Vegas and Miami). These events are free to attend, and should help you to better understand why affiliate marketing is so huge.

Does Your Web Site Have SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the process of enhancing your web site so that it "naturally" or "organically" ranks high in search engines.

This is different from pay-per-click services through Yahoo Search Marketing or Google Adwords. We're talking about natural placement in the search engines - something you do not have to pay for.

Is your web site optimized for this? If not, you could be losing a lot of business and wasting more money than you have to in pay-per-click campaigns. Here are some tips:

1) Implement unique META titles and descriptions for all of your pages. Use only the popular keywords that describe your web site best. If you don't know what this means, your webmaster should.

2) Add an HTML sitemap to your site. This is a single page that includes links to the main pages of your websites.

3) Describe all of your images with the use of the alt tag.

4) Develop meaningful and original content on your web site. Search engines place great emphasis on how well-written and resourceful your content is.

5) Minimize your usage of Flash animation. Search engines can not read this, and will penalize overly-animated sites.

6) Hire an SEO firm if you have to. There are tons of them out there, and some are very affordable.

Don't Just Download Anything

If you want to really mess up your computer, keep downloading software from unreputable companies. In no time, your computer will be infested with harmful viruses, spyware, and adware programs.

To be safe, always download your software from www.Download.com - a free directory containing just about all the available software from reputable companies.

If you can't find it on their web site, my suggestion is to ONLY download from the following companies: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Adobe, and Apple.

It is also safe to download products (such as drivers and updates) directly from hardware companies including: Sony, Toshiba, Gateway, Compaq, HP, etc.

The point is to be extremely cautious when downloading. If it seems suspicious, then don't do it.

Beware of the DROA

Be very cautious of a company called Domain Registry of America (www.DROA.com). They are domain thieves, and they are out to get your domain name(s). They are especially targeting minority businesses, but other businesses as well.

This company will send you deceptive letters through the postal mail, urging you to renew your domain. The deceptive part is that when you renew your domain through them, they will transfer it away from your current registrar without your permission.

This can cause great confusion when you want to manage your domain, and may result in downtime for your web site. It can even cause you to lose your domain name.

The solution is to only deal with YOUR registrar (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc) regarding your domain name. If any other company contacts you about your domain name, ignore them completely.

Give Your Web Site A Makeover

If your web site still looks like a web site from the year 1995, there is a problem. Yes my friend, 1995 was 12 long years ago when the Internet first became popular.

Sadly, many black-owned businesses still have elementary-looking web sites. I'm not saying that your web site shouldn't be simple. However, there is a great difference between it looking simple and it looking unprofessional.

Point blank: Too many black web sites still look unprofessional.

The best way to determine whether or not your web site needs some tweaking, is to compare your web site to other leaders in your industry.

For instance, if you have a web site where you are selling cars, then you need to compare your web site to Cars.com - the leader for that industry.

If you have a web site selling flowers, then you need to compare your web site to 800Flowers.com - the leader for that industry.

Once you finally admit that your web site needs a redesign, here are some basic tips:

1) Keep the design simple. Your site does not have to be intricate with a lot of details. Simplicity is always a winner.

2) Feature only 2-3 colors. Develop a consistent color scheme, and stick to it.

3) Don't over do the multimedia. Don't use animated images, unnecessary music and sounds, and unrelated videos on your web site. (Stay away from Java applets.)

4) Summarize your text if possible. Just because you have the space, doesn't mean that you have to fill it all up.

5) Be honest with yourself. If you're not a professional web developer, hire someone. It's not that expensive. Just shop around.