Bob's Home Business Blog

Most people who are just starting out online with their own home based business usually don’t have the technical knowledge or just couldn’t be bothered building their own website. Because of this they usually join an affiliate program where the web page is provided for them.

However, after you’ve spent some time on the web with your business it’s a good idea to create your own site because you can construct it the way you want by adding differently designed layouts and color schemes and therefore give it your personal stamp. There are several different approaches you can take when constructing your own web page including these 6 options:

1. First of all you need to find a reputable company to host your newly designed website. If you look for the cheapest you will probably be sorry in the end because as the old saying goes you usually get what you pay for.

These companies more often than not experience server problems because of lack of space and as a result your web page will be offline more than it’s available for your visitors and your customers. In order to make money on the web you need your home page online and ready to make sales.

2. Look for a hosting company which provides videos or tutorials on how to build your site. Most of these hosts do provide this benefit for new business owners or bloggers and creating it step-by-step isn’t as difficult as you may think.

3. Make sure you host your own web page instead of having a replicated site which is hosted by the provider. This way you can make changes any time you want and design it as you wish. However, and most importantly, you don’t have to worry about the website provider taking down your home page without notice and losing all of your hard work and your home business or your blog.

4. Another approach would be to build a blog using wordpress. If you decide to take this route the web page is basically provided for you and all of the hard work has been done. However, once again, be sure to pay an outside party to host your site for you and don’t take advantage of the free service offered by wordpress. When you’re starting a home based business one thing you need and you should want from your website is absolute control over it’s content and how it’s presented as well as when, if ever, it’s taken offline.

5. After you’ve created your wordpress blog one huge advantage provided by this platform is the fact that your pages are created for you automatically. When you write your article and post it wordpress generates a page to present it on therefore you need never have to learn HTML or create a web page from scratch.

WordPress also has many different plug-ins available for your use which are very easy to install and which provide your website with the look and feel of a professionally designed product.

6. One final avenue available for the so called newbie’s online when it comes to website creation is to hire a professional to do it for you. Many people are intimidated or feel overwhelmed at the thought of designing and building there own home page so to avoid the stress and headaches which you may encounter at the thought of doing it yourself pay someone to build it as you want it built by over seeing the design.

These are some of the options available to would-be home business owners on the web and which ever path you take I’m sure your first website, whether you build it yourself or have it created for you, will prove to be a very rewarding experience.

Bob Withers

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Designing your home business website is one of the most important stages of your Internet business creation process. Your home page has many critical functions to perform throughout the entire sales cycle and for this reason it’s vital that you avoid these five blunders when creating your website:

1. Always remember your visitors are the center of attention; not you. Some people make themselves the star attraction of their own site by devoting too much time and text to their life story. Your visitors are there, usually, for one reason and for one reason only and that’s to find a solution to their problem. The first thing they need to know is if you can help them not where you’re from or how much money you’ve made online.

Make the information people are looking for readily available and easy to find. They should know immediately when your page downloads what you’re selling and what your product can do. You can always tell them about you and your life on a separate page when they aren’t so anxious to find a solution to meet their needs.

2. Don’t make your website too confusing for your visitors. Some people, when designing their home page, get too hung up on graphics and buttons without explaining what will happen if you click on one of them. Graphics can not only confound your guests but can make you’re site look jumbled and unattractive.

Remember you only have a short time frame to make an impression on your visitors and an ugly website won’t make them want to stay and look around. A simple clean looking web page with a place for everything and everything in its place will make it much easier for your potential customers to find what they need.

3. Your website should be designed with your targeted potential customer in mind. If you’re selling widgets then your home page should contain everything and anything anyone who’s interested would want to know about your product and it should shout out to your perfect customer who has a burning need for your merchandise and who is willing to pay for it no matter what the cost. If you’re selling widgets why would you waste your time and your visitor’s time by having information about doodads on your website?

4. Your website should be designed to persuade people to come back for another visit. Return traffic is the life blood for any home business online because if you have a 10% conversion rate for first time visitors this means that 90% leave without buying anything and you want these people to come back so you can have another chance at convincing them to buy.

Therefore your home page must not only be attractive but entertaining and informative for your potential customers. By adding new articles on a regular basis, free resources, videos, video games, and perhaps a forum or chat room your guests will have a reason to come back again.

5. People should know what they’re getting into when they decide to do business with your enterprise. For this reason your terms and conditions should be easily accessible or prominently displayed, and these terms should be written in easy to understand language and not in legal ease which can confuse people who are considering becoming clients and may deter them from buying.

By avoiding all five of these gaffes when designing your home business home page you will increase your odds greatly of improving your website’s conversion rate and of attracting more targeted traffic to your offers. 

Bob Withers

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After you’ve decided to create a home based business online and decided what you’re going to promote on the web your next focus should be creating your website. Surprisingly, this may be the most important step in the whole business creation process. Building your home page shouldn’t be taken lightly because when it’s completed it has many vital functions to perform for your enterprise.

First of all, your website must be a dynamic lead generator. When someone visits your home page they must feel welcome and at home just as you would try to make a guest feel in your own home. When people feel this way they will spend more time on your site checking out your product offers as well as any other information you may have to help entertain them while visiting.

If your potential customers enjoy their first visit they will be more inclined to return and they may also tell their friends about your home business home page. Return traffic is one of the prime ingredients in laying the foundation of a successful Internet venture. 

Your main goal when creating your site is to attract targeted traffic; people who are interested in your product or service and are willing to leave their name and email address so you can follow up with future promotions and try to persuade them to become paying clients.

Your website should convey to people the feeling that they know you and trust you as an entrepreneur online. Your home page is the first impression you make on your visitors and you know what they say about first impressions. It’s also the first stage of the relationship building process and is the all important first step toward creating what you hope will be a life long relationship with a loyal and happy customer. A well written and carefully constructed page about you and your enterprise containing pictures will go a long way toward helping build this affiliation with your guests.

Your website should tell your visitors who you are, what you stand for and should state unequivocally what you’re customers can expect from you and your enterprise by way of service and guarantees. People should leave knowing they can do business with you without fear of regretting their decision at a later date. Your potential customers should exit your site with a feeling of anticipation and excitement about what may happen as a result of having visited your home business.

A well crafted home page should create a powerful presence online for your enterprise. When searching for information related to your topic and products your website should rank on the first page of the major search engines on the web for search results. This of course can be accomplished with a well developed search engine optimization strategy.

Eventually you want your site to become an automated income generating machine working 24 hours a day, 7 days per week to help you reach the financial independence we’re all looking for from an online business. The first step toward realizing this goal is to add a dependable autoresponder system to your web page. Automated email responding to customers requests and following up with them on a regular basis to entice them to become paying customers is a must for your home business.

If you approach your website creation process with all of these goals in mind and continue to work toward reaching them on a daily basis, you and your online home based business will be headed down the sometimes bumpy road to success on the web.  

Bob Withers

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After you’ve decided to create a home based business online you now have to turn your attention to designing and building your website. During this process there are many things to consider and sometimes it can be very easy to overlook some obvious mistakes. Here are the top 5 gaffes people make when designing their home pages:

1. Some people seem to be of the opinion when creating their site that more is better, however, in many cases the opposite is true. In this situation the KISS principle should be applied meaning, of course, “keep it simple stupid”; no offense intended. When laying out your home page don’t clutter it up with a lot of so called high tech gadgets which take up a lot of disk space and which makes your download time very slow in other people’s browsers.

As we all know from our own experience when trying to access other people’s web pages, when they take more than a few seconds to download we will usually exit the page and continue to browse somewhere else. This can translate into a death sentence for your home business even before you get it off the ground.

2. Be sure to get your message across to your potential customers. Usually people are visiting your website for a specific reason. Either they’re interested in a product you have available for sale or there’s a specific topic you’re discussing on your home page that they need more information about. So when you’re adding text to your site make sure you repeat your main theme or topic several times so people understand what your home business is all about.

3. Space your text and paragraphs evenly throughout your web page. Make it attractive to the eye and easy to read. People often make the mistake of trying to cram everything on the front page. This makes it very difficult for people to read and to find only the headings or sub-titles in which they may be interested.

Your visitor’s aren’t going to spend a lot of time looking for what they need so you must always keep the ease of use for your guest’s in mind during the design process. Remember, you can add as many pages as you want to your website with the links visible on your home page.

4. When you’re adding your website content don’t forget who you’re targeting. Another blunder people make is trying to satisfy everyone’s needs. This doesn’t work in our personal lives and nor does it work on the Internet. Your content should be related to the people you want to visit your home business.

For example, if your enterprise sells Internet marketing information products there’s no reason to add movies or music to the mix. You can always create another business related to tese media after this one becomes a success.

5. This is perhaps the most costly blunder people commit when creating their website and that is not having a compelling and attention getting headline or header on their home page. You only have a limited amount of time to grab your visitor’s attention in order to get them interested in staying and exploring your website, so a gripping headline is a must. If you make this mistake your website traffic and your sales will suffer making it very difficult to succeed with your home based business.

By paying careful attention to detail and always keeping in mind who you want to visit your home page you will greatly improve your odds of success and prosperity with your online home business.      

Bob Withers

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You’re thinking about creating a home based business online and of course your first step, after writing your business plan, is to create a website for your products. You’ve thought about outsourcing this task to a professional web page designer but you really can’t afford the cash outlay at the moment. However, considering the time involved with such an undertaking and with your limited knowledge of website design and construction you decide to take the plunge and hire a professional.

When you finally have your finished product and you are now officially a home business website owner there are several associated technologies you should familiarize yourself with and, at the very least, know the basics of in order to be able to take care of basic web page maintenance and upkeep.

1. HTML or Hyper-text Markup Language is the most basic of the four technologies and something you should know in order to be able to make changes to your website and to upload these changes. If you don’t have this knowledge every time something very basic needs to be done you’ll have to hire a professional and wait until they’re available to upgrade your site. So the only sensible solution is to learn the basics of HTML to alleviate your concerns and to save your money.

There are many excellent resources available to help you get started including other websites on the web. Take a look at their design and then look at and study their source code to help you get familiar with the process. Alternatively there are many tools online which don’t require technical know how, such as HTML, to operate which can generate web pages and create entire business sites from start to finish.

2. After having learned the basics of HTML, if you choose to do so, the next step is to look into CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and CGI BIN. This technology allows you to interact with and communicate with your customers and potential clients through surveys, forms, and shopping carts placed on your website. Knowing how to employ CGI allows you to put a professional face on your home business website by putting the finishing touches on your web page. Once again there are many resources available online to help learn this technology.

3. PHP or PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a scripting language to help you write CGI programs.
It is commonly used to create dynamic Web pages and with syntax from C, Java and Perl, PHP code is embedded within HTML pages for server side execution. It is commonly used to extract data out of a database and present it on the Web page.

4. Finally, javascript is the show man of the four technologies. This code or language is responsible for any special effects you place on your home business website. You can use this scripting code to create flashing banners, splash screens, pop-ups and to display date and time and provide password security for your site.

So as you can see just having a basic knowledge of all four of these technical skills can provide you with the independence to maintain and upgrade a professional looking home business website while at the same time save you money which would otherwise be spent on professional web page designers.     

Bob Withers

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You’ve decided to start a home based business online and you’re going to design your own website to save money to direct to your Internet marketing strategy. When you begin the web page creation process there are several important points you should keep in mind in order to build a site people will want to visit time and time again.

1. Don’t overload your home business site with large files which take a long time to load. People aren’t normally very patient when it comes to surfing the Internet and aren’t going to spend a couple of minutes waiting for your home page to load. Be sure to test your site before launching it on the Internet to determine how long it normally takes to open in someone’s browser.

2. Please avoid using splash pages to introduce your website. They serve no intrinsic purpose and add no value to your website. People want to view your content and aren’t interested in pretty pictures or flashy designs. If you’re deigning a sales site then adding a squeeze page would be more appropriate in order to capture your visitor’s contact information.

3. Avoid using a continuous audio loop on your home page. If you’re creating a blog to redirect visitors to your sales page or you’re designing an Internet marketing sales page your main objective is to keep people on your home business page as long as possible to read your content and view your offers. Having an annoying message or a music loop repeating itself continuously will have the opposite effect and will drive people away from your website.

4. Be sure to keep in mind the old Internet marketing adage which states “content drives traffic”. Your website should be search engine friendly which means it should contain lots of information relevant to the overall theme of your home business. For example, if you’re into Internet marketing your site should be made up of articles and reports describing different Internet marketing techniques available online today as well as software packages related to your topic.

5. Make your website user friendly by insuring its ease of navigation. People lose their patience very quickly if they can’t find what they’re looking for or if they get lost in a cluttered and confusing layout. You can make it easier for your visitors by adding a site map which serves as a road map for your guests. A site map also helps optimize your site for the major search engines online. A map makes it easier for the search engines to index the various pages on your site to help you achieve top rankings during searches.

6. Excessive use of banner advertising is also a turn off for most Internet users. Too many ads make it very confusing for your visitors and also makes your home page unattractive. There are other more effective advertising methods such as writing articles relevant to your home business theme with links embedded throughout. This provides your potential customers with what they want in terms of content and also in a more attractive way.

7. Before launching your home business website online make sure you test every link you have on every page. A website containing broken links is not appealing to your visitors and doesn’t convey confidence in you or your business.

If you pay attention to each and every detail mentioned your home business home page will be a place people will visit and revisit because it will deliver everything your guests are looking for in a website. 

Bob Withers

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