I am always looking or good and effective ways to promote my site. When I find good ones ideas I try to pass them on to my clients and to you. Many of the best techniques seem to be pretty obvious, but you would be surprised at how many people will overlook them. As I’ve said over and over just because something is simple and easy to do doesn’t mean it won’t work. In fact, just the opposite may be true. Sometimes the most simple ideas work the best.
There is a good article on the mediumblue.com site called “Five Simple Internet Marketing Techniques”. They talk about several things that you can do, but my favorite is the one they have at #1 Track and analyze your web site traffic. I can’t believe how many site owners fail to look at their stats on a regular basis. The programs to read them that come free with most hosting accounts make it so easy to learn valuable information about your visitors. Things like where they came from, what pages they visited and what page they are leaving on plus much more can give you a great idea of what pages are good and need featured or expanded or what pages are bad and need fixed. I know from first hand experience that it’s very easy to get caught up in what you like and don’t like which may or may not be what your visitors like or don’t like.
In a previous post I wrote about giving away free information. How it helps your standing in the eyes of customers and search engines.
I recently drove about 300 miles to meet with a potential client. My first thought when they asked to meet with me was that they had mentioned in the beginning that they were looking for someone local. I wondered it they were serious about hiring me or just looking to pick my brain for free information. I thought that our meeting went very well, but they eventually hired the local person which made me believe that my suspicions were correct. The question I now ask myself is whether it is worth it to give away “free information”.
I believe the answer is YES!
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
This is a pretty cool game by Dairy Queen. You have to register to play the game, but it’s a lot of fun (plus you have a chance to win DQ prizes).
This is a great example of a company marketing through interactive content. If you make something that people will like they will keep coming back for more. It’s cheap, it’s fun and you get people like me who will advertise for you. Word of mouth free advertising. What better way to promote your site?
I have a page on my site with some of my favorite new sites that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of things that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these sites, they all look good, and are clear and easy to use. They don’t use Flash at all or use it only when necessary and never for navigation. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of them are not in english and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called C. A. Scale. They are an Italian designer of staircases. Even though I don’t know any Italian I can see right away what they are selling. The words in the navigation and title are BIG and easy to see. The colors are soft with plenty of whitespace. There are only a few pictures and they relate well to the content.
More…
One of the things that it seems people are always looking for in the “look” of a website is fluid columns. That is a column that stretches the whole length of the page. In the past it has been done with tables, sometimes with the borders showing, sometimes not. The new style in web design it not to use tables for page layout, but to only use them for, well tables. Unfortunately it’s not always that easy to make columns fluid and dynamic with CSS. They tend to stop when the content stops.
Here are some techniques to do it. I found these examples at A List Apart on a post is by Alan Pearce. Have a look.
Here’s a really cool way to put a slideshow on your site. This is a technique that I have loved to look at for quite a while now and have used other variations of it (The Hoverbox Image Gallery by Nathan Smith). Jon Christopher has taken that effect and others and put them together for a new slideshow that is great. This Suckerfish HoverLightbox is easy to use and works even better than before now that Jon has redone it. It’s a wonderful tool and you can find it on his site mondaybynoon.com
As a website designer I usually have customers who ask me to do some (or all) of the art work for them. Since I am not a graphic artist by trade I am always looking for tips and tutorials that I can use to make logos or other kinds of website decorations for my customers. Photoshop and The GIMP are wonderful tools for designers and have good tutorials built in, but can be a bit overwhelming for any inexperienced user. Whenever I find good tips I like to pass them on, so here are a couple.
Here is a nice collection of tutorials. PhotoshopPoint has a nice collection of free Photoshop/GIMP tutorials including: Logos, Navigation Bars, Textures and many other Col Effects. It’s well worth bookmarking.
Did you know that you can make your own brushes and import them into Photoshop or The GIMP? Here is a unique collection of brushes that you can import right into your application. You can also learn how to design your own.
With more and more people surfing the Internet on their phones it becoming more important to know how your site looks on a mobile device. Here’s a good free tool to let you know just that.
Ready.mobi uses industry standard tests developed with the W3C and leading mobility companies. Ready.mobi provides an analysis of how your web content is likely to function on a mobile device.
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
Remember the movie Tron where a boy gets sucked into a video game and has to play his way out? It gave birth to an arcade video game that I used to play. Here is an on line Flash version of that game. It’s pretty cool.
I have a page on my site with some of my favorite new sites that are showing up on the web. These are not my sites, but they are the kinds of things that I like in a website. There are different reasons that I picked these sites, they all look good, and are clear and easy to use. They don’t use Flash at all or use it only when necessary and never for navigation. The graphics are good, but not overpowering. Sometimes I just like a picture or the name. Some of them are not in english and I still know what they are about.
The newest one is called FitPro Music. I just like the way this site looks. The rounded corners, bright colors with plenty of whitespace and great use of shadows make it stand out. It has a good background picture that catches your eye without being overpowering. The navigation is right at the top and easy to use.
