Yesterday, Starbucks unveiled their brand new logo.  It’s a bit revolutionary in that they removed their name from the logo!  Their move is designed to be minimalistic and use a recognizable image as a logo, allowing them to enter markets other than coffee.  I like it – what do you think?  You can see it here:
http://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-gives-logo-look-20110105-100942-929.html

You know those little icons that appear in your browser next to a url when visiting a website, and the ones you see next to the site name when you bookmark a page? Well, if you want to create one for your site, it’s pretty easy. All you need is the graphic you’d like to use as the icon, best in .jpg format. (It’s best to make it a simple and small icon, since it’s so small when it appears on your site’s url.)

Then, go to this site: http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/ to convert the .jpg file to a .fav file, and then upload it via ftp to your site’s root directory, and your done. In some cases your favicon may take a few days to show up, and please note that certain older versions of Internet Explorer may not show them for some strange reason.

Do you have a backup of your website files? If your website goes down and the hosting company cannot bring it back up, will you be in deep trouble? While most hosting companies back up their servers regularly, it’s still a good idea to back up your files. If you own an e-commerce site, you especially should back up often, since your hosting company’s backup may be several days old, and you risk losing all of your more recent transactions. Continue reading →

Getting visitors to your website is one thing – converting visits to sales, what is known as the “Conversion Rate,” is something else entirely.

Most experts say that you should expect a conversion rate of 1-3%. This low figure may surprise you, but if you think of how many searches are done daily on any given term, how many competing websites are out there, and consumers growing distrust of many website scams, then it may shed some light on this percentage.

So what can you do to increase your conversion rates?

Have your contact information displayed so it is easily found. If people need to search endlessly to find a phone number or e-mail address to reach you, they will either give up trying, or lose trust in you as a legitimate business. Have your phone number and e-mail prominently displayed in the top area of each web page.

Make sure your site is secure. Nothing takes the trust away like a site that takes credit cards, but is not encrypted and secure.

Make sure your site looks professional. If your site looks like it was created over the weekend by your teenage nephew, don’t expect people to buy.

Get some good buzz out there. Referrals and word of mouth are very effective, so generate some good buzz on social networking sites, forums, etc. Have testimonials of satisfied customers on your site as well.

Don’t neglect traditional forms of marketing. So many new net entrepreneurs rely solely on internet marketing, and that is a mistake. Print business cards and brochures or postcards, do some personal networking, and you’ll get people to visit your site.

Repeat business is always easier to get than new business. Send monthly e-mail newsletters to customers who have already purchased from you. Promote new products and specials.

These are just a few ideas, and the basic idea is to build trust and confidence in those who browse your site. Good luck!

A start-up company recently hired us to help them with their website. They had their entire site designed using Photoshop, and needed our help making it functional and giving it a professional look. They had a product line of about 10 products, so this project also involved implementation of a custom shopping cart, which is one of our specialties.

One of their requests was that we review the home page to ensure that it was effective and made the right first impression, so that visitors would hopefully purchase something while they were there. I was reminded of a valuable lesson while reviewing their home page.

I had formed an opinion of their home page rather quickly, and to ensure that it was sound, I had 2 of my designers and a non-designer employee take a look at the site. We all agreed that the home page had a major flaw – it was nearly impossible to tell what products the company provided! Only after clicking around the site did it become obvious what they did – but we felt very strongly that the home page would leave the visitor feeling baffled, and that as a result visitors wouldn’t hang around the site long enough to find out what it was all about.

This was HUGE flaw!! The basic problem was, the business owners were so engrossed in their website, so involved in everything, that they were unable to step back and take an objective look to realize that it needed to be simplified and made more obvious.

After we made them aware of this problem, they had us redesign the home page, and since opening their online store, they have thanked us for the thousands of dollars we saved them in potentially lost revenue.

So the lesson is – keep it simple, and always get a 3rd party’s objective opinion.

Although most shopping cart systems are up virtually all the time, stuff still happens. Maybe the credit card processor is down…maybe your employee messed things up and now your cart isn’t functioning properly.

First, don’t panic. In the internet world, things go down. Customers understand – as long as they have an alternate means of communicating with you. Is your phone number and e-mail address clearly posted on your website? If not, make sure it is. Often, customers will e-mail you letting you know that they’d like to place an order, and then you can take their credit card number over the phone and not lose the sale.

Have a back-up page ready in case you go down. Prepare a page that can be quickly uploaded in case your shopping cart is down. It should say something like, “We’re sorry, but our shopping cart is currently down. Please e-mail us your order at info@xyz.com and include your phone number and a representative will contact you shortly to take your order. You may also call us at 1-800-555-5555 to place your order. We apologize for this inconvenience and are currently working to resolve this matter.”

If this page is prepared ahead of time (now is a good time), then it can be uploaded immediately, so you don’t lose orders while the issue is being resolved. This is also a great back-up to have in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster, disgruntled employee mess-up or any other business interruption.

If you want to sell a product or service online, there are various methods available to you. You may have heard the term “shopping cart” before, but what exactly is it? After reading this article, it’ll all make sense to you.

A shopping cart is a generic term that simply refers to the presence of a payment system in some form, on a website. You need to know the different options of shopping carts since they vary in cost of implementation as well in the image they convey.

The following is a list of shopping cart options, from least expensive to most:

1. No shopping cart at all. Although technically this shouldn’t even make the list, it is worth mentioning. The cheapest method is not to accept payment online at all, but instead have a payment form on your site that your customers can print, fill out, and either fax or mail to you with their credit card number or check. (Or they simply call you to place an order over the phone.) This costs little to nothing to implement, and also looks unprofessional, but may work well in certain situations.

2. Payment via Pay Pal. You customers select the items they want on your website, and when they click on the “pay” button, your site takes them to Pay Pal, where they can pay with a credit card or their Pay Pal account. This method is convenient for many of your customers who may already have a Pay Pal account, and the cost of paying your web design company to set it up is very affordable, maybe $100-$500 depending on how many products you have and the complexity of shipping calculations required. It is not the most professional looking, since your customers have to leave your site to make payment, but can work well in many cases.

3. Payment via a 3rd party payment gateway. This method is similar to using Pay Pal, except that instead of Pay Pal, your customers pay on another 3rd party website. The reason to use a 3rd party website is that it will provide a secure and encrypted payment, giving your customer piece of mind, and act as the credit card processor. This website can often have your logo on it and other features which make it look just like your website. An example of such a gateway is Linkpoint Connect. Many customers may not even realize that they’ve even left your site, and after paying you can set it up so they return to your site. This is more professional looking than Pay Pal, but costs a bit more to implement.

4. Payment on your site. Using this method, a payment system is implemented on your site to accept credit card payments with a secure and encrypted process. The customer never leaves your site, making this the most professional-looking method. There are many shopping carts available, or your web design company can develop a complete custom cart for you. The cost to implement this is the highest of all the methods, and may range from $750 to several thousands, depending on how much customization is needed, the number of products you have, and other features you need.

Keep in mind that any shopping cart will have recurring costs of $20 to $30 per month which is paid to the processing company, and sometimes a one-time set-up fee of $25 to $200 as well.