Websites Under Your Control Blog

 First glance... A couple of years ago we published an account of a research study showing that first impressions are made in the first 1/20th of a second.  (A blink of the eye takes about 15 times longer!)

Second glance... Then a few months ago, we described typical visitor time on web pages (30 seconds, regardless of amount of text), pointing out that only about 100-150 words will "register."

The magazine industry has had centuries to figure out what works. Think about the row after row of magazines you see at the store. Each magazine has a few things in common with the rest:

• First glance... an overall appearance that appeals to their target audience, to get them to take a closer look,
• Second glance... seldom more than 100-150 words, in 3-6 "teasers," to entice potential readers to open up the magazine, and,
• nothing else! 

Your home page should follow the same approach

You need an overall look that immediately appeals to your ideal audience. Remember, that "appeal" is won or lost before any words have had time to even register in your visitors' minds.

You cannot convey more than the most basic message on the home page. The goal is to catch their attention on any of a very few key topics, so they will click (not scroll) to learn more.

Their website is obviously one of those "quickies" -- using a free or cheap template, and built and on the web in a matter of hours. The business owner grabbed some free clip art, and slapped on a scan of his logo, and his website was ready to go.

And yes, they have a blog, as many businesses do these days. But it is one of those freebies that sits on a different domain than their website, and it doesn't even match their own site. They even use one of those free email accounts, instead of having email via their own business domain!

If their website and blog looks like they slapped it together, what does that say about their business?

Maybe that they don't pay attention to details? Or don't even care?

If their website looks like they put it together as cheaply as possible, what might that say about the work they do?

That they might take any chance possible to cut corners?

Would you trust them?

As the old saying goes: You only get one chance to make a first impression.

Having a professional-looking website can be the first, best way to impress potential customers - or even returning clients - of your professionalism and the quality of your company.

However, most of us don't have experience designing websites to create the best first impression. That means that you may have to turn to a website design expert.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you need to take out a business loan in order to have a professional looking website. You can get a great looking and fully functional website without breaking the bank.

Think you need all the latest Internet bells and whistles on your website? We suggest they are mostly a waste of your money.

But you do need a website that has the following characteristics:

• Your website needs to be visually appealing. If your website is hard to read - or is just plain ugly - your visitors will leave quickly. A well-ordered, professional look speaks volumes about your company.
• Your website needs well-written, compelling content. You need to give your potential customers a clear and well-defined call to action.
• Your website needs to be easy to navigate. If your visitors can't find the information that they want or need quickly and easily, they will leave.
• Your website needs to be easily editable.  Your site needs to evolve with your business, and if it seems out of date, your visitors will assume you are too.

A poorly designed website will make your potential customers doubt your abilities. On the other hand, a professional-looking, well-designed website will enhance your business's reputation and help to show the value of the goods or services that you are offering.

In today's tough economic climate, everyone is looking for ways to cut their business costs. While there are a lot of areas where you can cut back without causing too much negative impact on your reputation, your online image isn't one of them.

Congrats on the grand opening of BARK - The Boutique Hotel for Dogs! Bark Hotel for Dogs is conveniently located in Mckinney, TX near Hwy 121 and US 75.

Whether it be a private suite for an overnight stay or a romping day of play, their canine utopia offers all-inclusive luxury amenities with the sole mission of providing a safe, clean, and loving environment for your beloved pet . . . one wet nose at a time.

The owners of Bark Hotel for Dogs are not new to this business - they created and ran another upscale pet facility, before turning their attention to this new venture.

Congrats again, and thanks again  for asking us to do your website and design your printed marketing materials!

Snowball Express is dedicated to helping the children of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces since 9/11.

On December 16th through December 20th of this year, Snowball Express will host 2000 children and surviving spouses in Southern California, from all across America, for an all-expense paid holiday gathering none of them will ever forget.

The Snowball Express website not only needs to tell their story and communicate with those involved. It also provides the mechanism for families to register, for donors to donate, and for the non-profit organization to thank its sponsors. 

We were glad to donate our efforts for this project.

The Frisco Chamber of Commerce decided to kick off the national Chamber of Commerce week with the unveiling of its new website, which uses our Online Business Partner™ technology.

Chamber President John Land had us develop a custom design for the new website and build the initial menus and pages. Then his staff took over, and added additional pages and created their own material right in the website, thus letting them manage their costs as well as their site content.

Some of the information displayed on the Chamber of Commerce website resides in a different system, and the Chamber did not want to convert all of that information at this time. To allow for a fast and smooth transition, the data in the other system is displayed on the Chamber's new site through "iframes" or windows within a web page that display the content of a different web page.

While this reduces the level of control available for managing the presentation of the data from the other system, it allowed the Chamber to launch their new website without any time or attention whatever paid at this time to the format and management of the date stored on the other system.

Even though the Chamber did not make any announcement to its members, several hundred people per day discovered it on their own, starting with the publication of the site late on October 20th.

(The graphs here are taken from the standard graphs provided to every owner of a site using our Online Business Partner™ technology.)

By the way... the visitors in the first week were not just from Frisco, not just from Texas, and not just from this side of the globe!

It looks like there were visitors from nearly every state in the US, from Mexico and Canada, and quite a few from all over Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia as well.

In fact, with this much global traffic in the first few days, we would not be surprised to see visits from pretty much the rest of the world when we look back after a month or two!

(We know Frisco is a great place. But how do all these other folks know it? And why haven't they already moved here, now that they do?)

Creative people demand creativity in their websites, so when Next Step Dance opened their doors in Frisco, they had us design a look for their logo, their advertising, and their website.

Because we wanted to illustrate the wide range of professional-level dance training and performances at Next Step, we display the images on the home page in a slide show, changing every few seconds, and we display randomly selected images from their performances on each of the inner pages.