Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your career search. Job Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Career Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career faires scheduled for this year across the US.
How do you compete at a Job Faire? The rivalry can be substantial, but you can help yourself jump out from the crowd with advance planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple step-by-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to check out the organizations that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their websites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a sensible number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than eight in a day, and four or five is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.
Second, if there are job postings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.
Third, create a ‘short sales pitch’ for each likely organization/position combination. Write down a ninety second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally describing why you are a special candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job booth.
Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re going after. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the achievements and skills that most clearly match the job prerequisites. Especially at a Career Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be very easy to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be fittingly groomed. Don’t overdress (this isn’t a date!) and don’t underdress (no jeans or t-shirts, no matter how much you paid for them). Avoid strong cologne or perfume.
Finally, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each spot - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a distinctly labeled folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
When clear speech is heard it is appealing to the ear. It is the result of optimal use of the vocal cords. Attaining clarity is is essential when giving a lecture. It’s also important in our everyday conversation. To gain mastery of use of our vocal cords requires practice.Speaking clearly is something that we’ve had to work on during the pursue the passion tour because most of the people don’t know what to expect when we walk through the door. So the professionalism point has really been a focal point. Speaking clearly is a vary important thing to have while you are making a tutorial.
Clear Speech: Training
- Talking simply is often more clever than speaking cleverly. Unfortunately well-established, poor communicators legitimise bad communication. Poor communication in high places is copied by less experienced communicators who think that what they hear and see is “best practice”
- Talking well was in part based on pronunciation. Its the correct use of vocal cords, mouth, tongue, lungs and brain
- Two other processes can result in indistinct speech. With all of these examples, if you grasp the bring about, you may know the answer and master the ability to speak clearly
Tense Voice, Big Pitch
- What does it sound like? What does it feel like? That is a distressed voice. The solution is simple, just breathe. Breathe adequate for your speaking. Clear speech requires adequate lungs
If you have a lecture to drive home at work you must learn a few simple notions that will help you to produce a more effective exhibit. Once you have got the hang of these ideas, you will speedily be able to deliver more and more talks with greater ease and impact. You might even start looking for chances to give talks.
You need to understand what your main messages are going to be. Then stick rigidly to delivering those messages. Next consider the vector for your messages. Are you going to use a story or simile? Are you just going to give a lecture or are you going to use a question and answer format?
Create a script of how you want the talk to pan out, detailing the key elements of your speech and work on how the talk will sound to your audience. . Think about putting visible prompts on your talk script so that you remember when to talk about the next item
Work out how you are going to use your voice. You may even listen to female voiceover artists to work out how you might make yourself sound even better. There are plenty of great voice-over talents out there. Figure out what and how people do to make them sound cracking on the telly.
The radio can be a great and cheap instructor of voiceover skills. If you think about it, most of the people on there would have been to some sort of vocalize coaching master class, so why not make a note of what they do and then replicate them?
You have to look smashing and sound crisp. So ensure that you are dressed smartly for your sales pitch. Don’t be distracting by your appearance - either because you look too pleasant or too bad. It would be a real dishonor to get yourself all prepared to sound cracking, if nobody heard to you because you looked a mess or too sexy.
Also pay attention to your body language as oftentimes the message that you hand over has more to do with the non verbal clues thant the verbal aspects of your message delivery.
The higher the number of insurance leads that are accessible to you, the more chances to sell you have. Unfortunately an inquiry doesn’t inevitably mean a sale, making sure that will happen is entirely up to you. Individuals approach this in a array of unique ways. The trick is to prioritize the prospects which are most likely to end up in a sale and make the greatest use of your time when dealing with them. Sound tricky? Perhaps, but here are some useful tips on handling automobile insurance leads that will help you manage to do exactly that. When people ask for a quote online, a substantial number aren’t really ready to buy insurance. Frequently these queries will be a complete waste of your valuable time. Many queries from a website in reality are generated by spam or automated requests. In general these leads result in a lot of work and not a lot of money. It’s evident that it’s important to receive the best leads you possibly can. The best quality insurance leads are individuals who need a brand-new policy or adjustments to their existing insurance policy. These customers won’t need much work to close. What is the easiest way to identify the individuals that are ready to sign up for an insurance policy? An efficient method is utilizing several filtering tools to put the new auto insurance leads into an array of folders appropriately structured to accomodate the specific type of information you have been furnished with. It is also a good idea to start with those queries with the highest profitability too. It is always necessary to contact the customer as swiftly as you can. You won’t have to worry about motivating the client or persuading them of the necessity of a quality insurance policy. It’s frequently the experience of numerous successful sales reps in the automobile insurance business that all they must do to get the business is to reply with a quotation. So do not allow those hot leads to cool off before replying to them.
The significance of dealing with the lead the right way should be obvious. Be sure to answer any queries they might have, and get this completed as soon as possible. If the customer has asked which deductibles are on offer, for example, remember to include this info in your quote. In the end, by adopting a few simple measures to help you work more efficiently, you can make the best of your auto insurance leads and improve your profits.
For further information, we recommend you hop over to our fantastic website for quality auto insurance leads advice.
Affiliate marketing is akin to an auction house. Your internet site advertises merchandise and for all your effort, you will take a commission from every sale. There’s less work, very low overheads, it sells 24/7, and what’s even better, it is comparatively easy to learn. First of all, you have to make up your mind which items or market you want to specialize in. To accomplish this, determine what solutions to a given problem a specific group of web users are expecting, and which solutions will assist them. A good method of achieving this is to look for unique sets of narrow keywords; there are less searchers for these as a rule, but many more of these convert.
To find these lucrative keywords, use programs such as Micro Niche Finder. Selective Information generated by Micro Niche Finder or analogous applications or computer software creates a listing of associated terms that you may focus on in order to get top spot on internet searches. Micro Niche Finder data will in addition let you know the number of searches, just how many different sites who use them, and how strong the competition is. Lastly, the data generated can identify desirable domains, assist you in putting together your site, and even draw attention to the best sales opportunities. Next you need to build a internet site; yet there are still fundamental tasks to complete. Getting a good performance on web based search engines involves the optimization of your web site. Applications such as SEO Elite can make this simple. Your competitors’ internet sites are examined by the software which then provides advice on how to increase search results.
With software such as SEO Elite, data provided by the application suggests where to find links, which words or phrases to focus on, and a list of sites for submitting articles to use. In short, Seo Elite information is much like to the suggestions that an SEO specialist might offer. When you settle on your niche, design your advertising, and your web site is completed, it’s time to get your website up in the search results. You’ll collect a regular paycheck and wonder why you ever doubted that this type of marketing would be successful for you!
In essence affliliate marketing resembles an auction house. Your web site features assorted good and services and for all your time, you’ll get a percentage from each sale. There is less time and effort required, fewer overheads, it works twenty four hours a day, and even better, it’s relatively simple to master. At the beginning, you must decide exactly which area you’d like to work in. A way of doing this is, discover what solutions to a given problem a particular group of individuals are experiencing, and discover a means to address those issues. One of the best means to determine this easily is finding unique extremely targeted longtail keywords or phrases; broadly speaking customers search for these less frequently, all the same they convert far more. If you need to discover these profitable keywords, use applications like Micro Niche Finder. Data gathered from this computer program or other applications or software packages results in related terminology in an extensive list allowing you to have an advantage when it comes to ranking on an internet search engine. Additional information is available by the program, for to illustrate the number of searches each one gets, just how many different websites who exploit those keywords, and inforamtion on your rivals as well. Ultimately, Micro Niche Finder data can help in loacting the best domain, help you put together your internet site, and even point out the best merchandise for you to sell. Putting together a internet site is next on the list; however you still have a couple of essential things to do. You will want to optimize your website for the search engines. Here Seo Elite information can help may help. This program automatically analyzes the websites of the competition and will provide you with advice on what you should do in order to have top spot in the search engine listings. In SEO Elite the data provided by the computer software advises you on links, the most profitable keywords, and even an extensive listing of article submission websites for reference. In summary, the results generated are the same kind of information that an SEO professional might offer. Once you know what market segment you want to concentrate on, have your product advertisements, and your website has been constructed, it is time to get your website up in the search results. You’ll pick up regular payments and wonder why you did not try affiliate marketing sooner!
This type of marketing is very much like e-bay. Your internet site promotes assorted good and services and in return, you receive a percentage from every sale or lead. It isn’t nearly as much work, very low overheads, it works 24 hours a day, and what’s even better, it’s relatively simple to learn. At the start, you must decide what items or area you wish to specialize in. A method of going about this is, you need to find out solutions to problems a specific group of people are anticipating, and determine a means to address those issues. One of the better ways to determine this is to look for specific highly drilled down words and phrases; there are less searchers for these in general, but they convert far more.
To find these profitable keywords, use Micro Niche Finder. Data gathered from this software or other computer programs and software makes associated keywords and phrases in an extensive list providing worthwhile information to achieve a high listing in an internet search and generate website traffic.
Additional information is supplied from the program, for example search frequency, exactly how many other websites use them, even competitor information. Last but not least, the information produced can help determine suitable domains, aid you in putting together your internet site, and point out the best sales opportunities. Now it’s time to put together a site; however there are still crucial things to do. Getting the best ranking on the search engines requires the fine tuning of your site. Applications such as SEO Elite should make this easy. Competing internet sites are examined by Seo Elite information which then provides advice to better search engine performance. With SEO Elite the info produced by the software package suggests where to look for links, which words to concentrate on, and a list of sites to submit articles to refer to. In a nutshell, the results obtained are similar to the information you may get from a practised SEO professional.
Once you have discovered which market segment you’d like to sell in, design your advertising, and your internet site is finished, then it is time to literally upgrade your search results. The money will roll in on weekly basis and wonder why you didn’t try affiliate marketing before!
In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration relaxed its restrictions on direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals. Prior to this ruling, drug manufacturers were prohibited from mentioning both the name of the drug and its indications in consumer-directed advertisements without also including a large amount of technical information about the drug, including all known side effects, contraindications, and dosage recommendations (Stevens, 1998).
In addition to interfering with the appeal of the advertisements, such requirements
rendered broadcast ads infeasible due to time constraints, and hindered ads in print
media due to cost and space availability. These requirements were abolished in the
1997 FDA policy changes, and pharmaceutical companies were permitted to market
drugs by name as treatments for specific conditions, with the minimal requirement
that ads give mention to major risks identified in clinical trials (Melillo, 2001). As a
result, manufacturer expenditures on direct-to-consumer advertising, which totaled
$791 million in 1996, rose to $2.6 billion for the year 2000 (Mitchell, 2001).
Television, radio, and print media became saturated with ads promoting treatments
for conditions ranging from depression to high cholesterol.
Names such as Zoloft, Claritin, and Lipitor, which were previously known mostly to
health professionals, quickly became part of the national vocabulary. Consequently,
spending on prescription drugs has increased significantly over the past several
years as consumers are enticed to seek advertised medications (HealthBizNews.com,
2001). This new face of drug marketing has sparked a raging debate about the
accompanying effects on the health of the American public: does direct to consumer
marketing benefit the public by providing education about available treatments, or
does it diminish the quality of healthcare by raising costs and causing unnecessary
treatment? Proponents of direct-to-consumer, or DTC, pharmaceutical advertising,
most prominently the drug companies themselves, argue that DTC marketing
results in improved public health by increasing consumer awareness. According to
this view, direct marketing to the consumer alerts the public of the availability of
treatment for a given condition, a fact of which it may not otherwise be aware. This
knowledge may prompt people to seek medical help rather than unnecessarily
accepting their ailments (Miller, 1998). Furthermore, supporters claim that ads raise
awareness of undiagnosed conditions by providing information about symptoms.
Since countless Americans suffer from undiagnosed disorders-only half of the
estimated 16 million Americans with diabetes know they have the disease-the
motivation to seek treatment provided by these ads is a valuable public benefit
(Health Matters, 1998). Similarly, by prompting people to visit a doctor, ads may
help identify conditions unrelated to the specific area of concern. For example,
according to Mike Magee, a medical adviser for Pfizer, a large proportion of
consumers seeking Viagra would not otherwise see a doctor, so visits seeking help
for erectile dysfunction often uncover conditions warranting medical attention, such
as diabetes (Shapiro and Schultz, 2000). Some doctors support DTC ads as well,
claiming that they make their jobs easier by resulting in better informed patients.
Many ads, particularly for diabetes, stress the importance of self-management of
disease, which may increase compliance with doctors orders and result in reduced
need for more extensive medical care (New York Times, 2001).
Doctors appreciate having patients who are already briefed about current drug
therapies, which saves time in a medical system that often requires doctors to see
as many as thirty patients per day (New York Times, 2001). Critics of direct-to-
consumer drug ads, including the American Medical Association, insurance
providers, and many physicians cite increasing healthcare costs, improper
prescriptions, and corrupted doctor-patient relations as this type of marketing’s
major resultant evils. Substantial evidence exists that the escalation of DTC
advertising has increased expenditure on pharmaceutical purchases. Prescription
drug spending increased 84% between 1993 and 1998, and it is estimated that
consumer-directed advertising increased drug expenditure by $13 billion in 1998
alone (Cassels, 2001).
The twenty-five most advertised drugs of 2000 accounted for forty-one percent of
expenditure on new prescriptions (Sherrid, 2000). Escalating prescription cost is of
particular concern to healthcare providers such as HMOs and large corporations,
which face a choice between curbing costs and cutting benefits (Cassels, 2001).
Additionally, those without prescription drug coverage must pay the increased rates
out-of-pocket (Shapiro and Schwarz, 2000). DTC proponents counter arguments
centered on rising costs by claiming that increased outlays on prescriptions save
money in the long run by preventing the need for more extensive medical care
(Moore, 2000). Critics, however, cite the fact that the largest portion of the drug
industry’s advertising budget goes toward drugs for non-critical ailments such as
heartburn, allergies, and hair loss (Moore, 2000).
Another argument presented by DTC opponents holds that these ads result in
incorrect prescriptions by creating consumer demand for products regardless of
actual need. Critics believe that consumers are sold the idea that a pill can instantly
provide them with good health (Health Matters, 1998). Often, however, the drugs to
which consumers are exposed are not even the most effective, but simply the ones
with the largest advertising budgets (Headden and Melton, 1998). According to
Shapiro and Schultz, patients, if refused specific prescriptions, will frequently visit
another physician, who may comply with the request (2000). In addition to
unnecessarily adding to healthcare costs, patient demand pressures doctors to give
patients the drugs they request for fear of losing business (Shapiro and Schultz,
2000). Specific drug requests, according to Dr. Angelo Agro, often cause physicians
to lose credibility in the eyes of the patient, who has been convinced by
advertisements that the drug a physician refuses to prescribe is nonetheless the
best option (Tanner, 2001).
Responding to such concerns, the AMA, at its July 2001 meeting, debated a
proposal for the organization to encourage the federal government to ban all DTC
prescription drug advertising (Tanner, 2001). While I agree that public exposure
through advertising of the latest treatments for common conditions raises public
awareness and prompts people to visit physicians, I nonetheless believe that direct-
to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising does not adequately justify its social costs.
In the case of overt maladies, such as allergies or depression, for which a large
share of advertised drugs are indicated, a condition affecting a person’s life to the
point of warranting medication would certainly cause him or her to notice it and
presumably to seek treatment. While many other products, such as cholesterol
lowering drugs, are used to treat conditions of which an individual may not be
aware and that may eventually adversely impact health, these conditions would, in
nearly all cases, be uncovered during a routine examination. In both cases, the
central benefit accomplished by these ads is getting people through the doors of
doctors’ offices, an end that can easily be achieved more cheaply without the use of
DTC advertising. For example, less expensive public service campaigns encouraging
people to have routine checkups and informing the public of warning signs of
common conditions would achieve the same results without affecting the cost of
healthcare. As the situation now stands, the benefits that do result from DTC
advertising are purchased at the price of reduced healthcare quality for some.
As drug advertising drives up the cost of treatment, healthcare providers will be
forced to cut costs in other areas and may find it necessary to compromise coverage
by denying certain procedures or raising premiums. Increased premiums may drive
people who fund their own health insurance out of the system by making personal
insurance unaffordable. Additionally higher premiums may discourage large
employers, which often independently provide their employees with health
coverage, from continuing this practice. General Motors spent $900 million covering
prescription drugs in 2000, a 19% increase over the previous year (Cassels, 2001).
Escalating costs may render those without prescription coverage unable to afford
necessary medications. Furthermore, the production of a drug is only possible when
the disease it treats becomes understood through years of basic research, most of
which is conducted by publicly funded academic investigators. Since public money
lays the groundwork for pharmaceutical production, drug companies have a
responsibility to the taxpayers not to engage in practices that will result in a
reduction in the quality of healthcare.
The major problems underlying this situation is that, under our current insurance
structure, the costs of increasing drug prices do not accrue to the consumer and
thus do not decrease demand as they should in a free market system. As a result,
the pharmaceutical companies are not given proper incentive to control prices.
Insurance providers, rather than transferring rising costs to consumers through
reduced care, need to restore the incentive to curb drug prices and hold the
pharmaceutical companies responsible for their exorbitant budgets.
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Traffic is the common denominator for all marketers. It does not matter how great the product or opportunity we offer, if no one visits us, then our marketing life will be short lived. Take a restaraunt for example. What good will it do to have the best food, the best service, but no customers? I hope you like to eat your own cooking.
Traffic will be the key to your success. Folks get started in the Internet world with high hopes and expectations. With no knowledge of a plan to market their business, most will drop out due to disappointment and failure. It really does not have to be that way.
Allow me to offer some advice that may help you stay in this thing long enough to decide if this is for you or not. Will all succeed? Will all get rich and retire early? Let me be blunt an to the point. No! But you know what? You can at least have a chance, and the more you know before hand, can save you lots of money and time. Here are a few pointers to get you started on the Marketing journey.
Know the WHY. Why are you marketing. What are your goals?
Once you answer the why, you are ready to begin building your model to help achieve your dream. Learn before you get burned. Do you have a product or service? If so, do you believe in them? In other words don’t try to offer up something that you know does not work. It can ruin your reputation and your reputation means a lot. That may the one thing you carry with you to your grave. So do the best you can to keep it clean. Educate yourself on web hosting, site building, where and how to draw folks to your site. Whether it be on the Internet or the corner lot, you gotta have customers. Find out for sure what is working the best.
Some ways to educate yourself is by joining forums. There are tons of knowledge in forums and it gives you a perspective of what you will face. You can get great advice from seasoned veterans, and you will learn how to utilize forums to build your traffic. Study ezine articles. You will find ideas by reading what others are posting in directories. You will have to spend some money for advertising. You can waste a lot of time by trying to join free list or surfing traffic sites. Regardless of what the sites promise, be leary. Feel free to use the free sites, just don’t expect lots of results.
Remember you are looking for targeted traffic. You will see ads that will offer you thousands of leads that will build your business. One of the pitfalls of ordering leads is that you may be getting someone who filled out something for free, and have no concern for your offer. So you pay for them and then get jolted into reality. They did not even know what they were signing up for. Some lead places are better than others, so if you do use leads, study the company first.
This marketing concept, especially Internet marketing offers each one of us a great opportunity that otherwise we may not have. Don’t wait until you think you know everything there is to know about marketing before you take off. Just know the basics, you will learn more along the way. If you stay patient, be honest, educate yourself, and work to reach your goals, then you may have a very rewarding marketing experience. Remember you very well can be the one to control your destiny.
My name is Wayne Clark and I feel blessed to have the opportunity
to make it in the marketing world. The Internet offers each one of us the means to succeed. Don’t pass it by. See if we can help in your journey. Come see us at http://www.youropportunitycenter.com
We have a running joke in our office that one day we’ll load a page and it will say “You have reached the end of the World Wide Web” and it will be the truth. I’ve visited so many web sites in my time, it’s unreal. There are a few web site features and practices that keep popping up, in spite of their highly detrimental nature. I find myself, day in and day out, advising clients to remove something or other from their web site, as it is stunting their online business potential. But cleaning up the World Wide Web one client at a time isn’t very efficient, so I’ll share with you the Top 10 most ludicrous things you can do on your web site, and hopefully we’ll get this mess cleaned up.
1. Frames - Most of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, saying “I know, I know” but there not only still is a large amount of sites that use frames, there’s actually a very dangerous counter-argument to this going on.
Frames section off your web site, making multiple smaller windows within one page. It sounds harmless enough, but the code behind a page with frames is very short, only referring to the pages that fill in the smaller windows. This hides any text you have on the page, any headings, any links, image names and alt text, comment tags, and a lot more from search engines. In short, frames hide 99% of your site’s content from the view of search engines, fooling them into thinking your site is virtually bare.
Now, recently Google has announced that their search algorithm is newly able to see past frames and find all of your site’s content. Problems remain, though, in that the algorithm does not yet index pages with frames well. This also doesn’t fix the problem with other search engines.
There’s some kind of Rebel Frames Force or something that use Google’s new indexing ability as an argument for frames, among other even less valid points. “But what about this and what about that?” they argue. I say to you, rebel framers, why bother? I really don’t understand why this inane argument continues. You can easily avoid any potentially harmful side-effects of frames by using tables. It looks exactly the same, if not better, and we know for sure that all search engine robots can decipher the uncomplicated table code. A smart site owner would simply not take the risk.
2. Keyword-rich Text Embedded in Images - Another fabulous way to shoot yourself in the proverbial foot. Search engines can’t read text in an image, so if most of your web site’s textual content is within images, you’re pretty much done for. Come on people, keywords are what make the Web go ’round! The idea is to have as many applicable keywords as possible within your site visible by search engines, right? So it really doesn’t make much sense to take some of those keywords and hide them. There is no counter-argument to this. It’s simple, if you want traffic, get your keywords out of images.
3. Entrance Pages/Flash Intros - This practice will not just have a negative impact on search engine optimization, it also subtracts from your site’s user-friendliness.
Search engine robots want to find out what your site is about as soon as they can. In other words, they want to find content on the front page. This means that there absolutely must be keyword-rich text on your opening page. It is fairly easy to comply with this while having an intro page, but it doesn’t solve the user-friendliness issue.
Think, for a moment, about how you surf the web. If you’re like the majority of surfers, you’re looking for information and you want to find it fast. Simply put, an intro page is one more step that has to be taken before getting to the good stuff. Speaking from personal experience, if a site has a flash intro or an entrance page and I’m in a rush (which defines my life), I’ll leave and find another source of the info I’m looking for. Essentially, I feel that sites with such opening pages, have little respect for my time and I don’t want to venture into the site any further to find out how many other ways the site owner has found to elongate the simple act of supplying information. It’s simply easier to find another site. Really, what exactly is the purpose of an entrance page? Try as I might, I just can’t think of one.
4. Music - O.K., This is my biggest pet peeve. There is nothing more annoying than sitting down on Sunday morning, steaming cup of coffee in hand, opening iTunes to listen to the latest R.E.M., starting to surf the web and suddenly hearing a midi version of Greensleeves turn Losing My Religion into something that sounds more like a cat dying.
With the growing popularity of mp3s, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t listen to their own music while they’re on the web. It is absolutely guaranteed that you’ll turn some visitors away from your site if you insist on having music load with it.
“But, what if I offer a button that will turn the music off?” some people ask. Most web site visitors who are listening to music won’t stick around long enough to find your off button. In my case, as soon as I hear one note, I hit the back button. There is always another site to find the information I’m looking for.
5. Large Media - Java applets, video media and images can be a real pain in the you-know-what when they haven’t been optimized. There are so many poorly written java apps out there that will actually crash browsers. Large videos and images will cause your site to load slowly and visitors to leave before they even see the fully-loaded page.
Make sure you test any java apps across several browsers. If there’s any delay in loading, trash it or fix it.
Optimizing large images is also necessary. Adobe ImageReady will significantly cut down the loading time of your image while saving it’s quality and dimensions.
Video should be an option. Never have it load with your site. Most people don’t have the time to sit around watching videos on web sites, let alone wait for videos to load. Pictures and text will tell your story just as easily.
Internet users still use dial-up accounts and with the rise of people accessing the internet from their mobile devices, shaving every second possible off the loading time of your site will ensure that visitors do not get impatient and leave.
6. Limited ways to contact - Believe it or not, I’ve actually come across commercial web sites that have absolutely no way to contact anyone associated with the site. Unless you hope your web site visitor’s reaction to the online representation of your business to be a string of profanity, I wouldn’t suggest taking this route. In fact, I’ve always urged clients to offer as many ways as possible to contact them on their web sites. Phone, fax, e-mail, contact form, mailing address, etc.
Everyone has their own preferred method of contact. A lot of my clients prefer talking on the phone and probably wouldn’t be my clients if all I offered as a contact method was e-mail. Me, I hate talking on the phone and filling out forms. If you don’t offer a link to your e-mail address on your site, you probably won’t hear from me. But what about spam, you say? Well, you’ll just have to decide for yourself what’s worse, losing potential paying customers or getting more spam.
7. Long Pages/Entire Site in One Page - When loading a site, finding a page that seems to go on forever can seem daunting. The same amount of information, organized into several pages will seem a lot less scary to your visitors. Labeled pages and sections will lead your visitor to exactly the information they’re looking for as opposed to making them search lines and lines of text to find it. Well organized content on several pages is also something that pleases the search engines.
8. No Link Exchange Policy - A lot of web sites out there don’t exchange links as a rule. This will not only stunt the growth of your link popularity, but potential traffic that could come directly from those links would be lost. You don’t have to exchange links with every interested site, but turning them all away is a dangerous practice.
9. Cross-Browser Compatibility Check - Always, always, always check what your web site looks like and how well it functions on other browsers. Do this whenever you update, make new pages, or new versions of browsers come out. I’ve seen some pretty funky stuff around the web that’s been caused by non-compatibility. Title images on the bottom of the page, invisible links, missing images, even some sites that cause browsers to crash.
Here are some of the more popular browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)
Netscape
Opera
Mozilla
Apple Safari
Download a copy of each of these and check your site! I realize most of you use Windows and can’t check your site on Safari, so find a friend who has a Mac. Mac users are growing in numbers and can be some of your web site’s visitors. Make sure what they see is what you want them to.
10. Free Web Space/No Domain Name - This one is all about professionalism. To avoid having your business seem about as serious as little Sally’s lemonade stand down the street, don’t host it on free web space like Geocities, Angelfire, etc. Get your own domain name. It costs an average of $30/year and you can find good hosting for $10/month, sometimes less. If you can’t afford that, I suggest you turn off your computer and sell it for food. Free hosting is straight cheese, and your visitors will get the feeling you’re not taking your business seriously.
So, there you have it. The top 10 most ludicrous things you can do with your web site. I’ve heard some web site owners argue that their site visitors have complimented their videos, java apps, music, etc. Just keep in mind, the visitors who don’t like this stuff leave and you probably won’t hear from them.
The goal of your commercial web site should be to soak up every last potential paying customer from the web. Any of these 10 points can turn paying customers away. Respect your visitors’ time, try to make their experience on your site as quick and full of information as possible. Be organized and professional and let your audience see that you know what you’re doing.
About The Author
Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, http://www.abalone.ca, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney’s articles are available at www.abalone.ca/resources/
courtney@abalone.ca
