Michelle Stephens's Blog

Posted by Michelle Stephens

There is nothing more annoying to Web surfers than to trying to visit a page just to get the dreaded 404 not found page. Not only is it annoying to users, but it can also mean the loss of a customer to a Website owner. Most visitors will click on the back button and try to find another site with the information they are searching for.

This day in the Internet age, getting and keeping a customer or visitor is very important to your Websites’ overall success. To avoid losing and possibly annoying your visitors, you can create a custom 404 not found page for your Website. The custom 404 page will allow you to direct your visitors to other areas of your Website.

The first thing you need to do is find out from your Web hosting company what files you need to modify in order to customize the page. Typically, if you are on an Apache Web server, you will need to modify the .htaccess file. Once you have that information, you can start creating your page.

So, what are some of the items should you include in your 404 page? Probably the best item for you to put there would be a link to your main page with a pleasant message, rather than the standard default message. You could also create a link to your sitemap page that displays all the areas of your site. If your site uses a template, you should customize the page so that it displays your navigational links throughout your site.

Lastly, make sure that you test out your 404 page by typing in a URL that you know doesn’t exist; doing this will make sure that the visitor is getting the custom page.

Posted by Michelle Stephens

Marketing your Website correctly is an important factor in the overall success of your online business; one way of doing that is using promotional marketing. I’m sure that at one time or another we have all seen someone walking around wearing a hat or t-shirt promoting a companies’ product. Let’s face it; this is an excellent way to get some free advertising for your business!

Normally to do this type of advertising though, can cost you a quite a bit of money. Many companies will buy the products in bulk and just give them away to their customers. This, of course, is an excellent idea if your budget allows for the expenses. But what if you just don’t have the budget to launch a campaign like this? Well, all is not lost, there are other ways to do it and all you need to be able to do is be creative.

I found a Website called Cafepress.com. This company allows you to create custom products that you can sell directly from your Website without any costs up front! You can customize t-shirts, bags, coffee mugs and even thongs!

Let’s say you go to this Website and create a coffee mug with your logo and Website address on it. What are the chances someone will buy it? In the beginning, the numbers will probably quite low unless your company is already very popular.

Here is where the creativity comes in. Let’s say you have a Website that sells pet items. You could easily create coffee mugs, t-shirts, hats or any number of other products with catchy sayings and/or pictures that people would be interested in buying. And best of all, you can include your logo with your Website address in small print somewhere on the item. When someone buys the product, you have instant marketing in the works.

This is just one idea that you may be able to use to promote and market your Website. With Cafepress.com you are only limited by how creative you can be!

Posted by Michelle Stephens

I often hear people talking about building credibility on Websites to earn the trust of the visitors, but exactly how are you supposed to do that?

Actually, building credibility is not as hard as you would probably think. Here are some credibility building tips to get you started in the right direction:

• One of the best ways to start building credibility is to show that there is a real company running the Website. How many sites have you visited lately that doesn’t provide a physical address or even a phone number list anywhere on the site? I know personally, I have visited several Websites like this. It doesn’t make me feel very secure about ordering something from a Website, when I have no of calling them about my order. So establish that security with your users, you’ll be glad you did!

• Include information about your staff on the about us page. If you have several people working for your company, you can include brief bios and pictures of your employees. This helps build credibility because your visitors can connect a face with the employee when contacting your site.

• Avoid making mistakes on your Website. Even the smallest mistakes such as a typo, can hurt the credibility of your website. Make sure that your content is not only spelled right but also grammatically correct.

You can get more information on building credibility for your Website at Stanford University.

Posted by Michelle Stephens

I had a chance this weekend to checkout some of the features of this new custom search engine; and I do have to say it is very cool. For instance, you can choose to add only Websites that you want to appear in the search engine results, or you can use the ‘search entire web’ feature that gives you all search results.

If you plan on placing the custom search engine on your site, you can customize the look and feel so that it fits right in with your design, making it look like it’s an actual part of your site.

As you create your custom search engine, you can truly make it a co-op search engine by allowing other users to post sites on it. You do have a choice though. If you only want to allow users to be able to post to your search engine, you can set it up to be ‘by invitation only’ or keep it open to anyone.

Making money with your custom search engine is a cinch! That’s right; Google’s Adsense is part of the custom search engine features. Just as you would use Adsense to make money from displaying ads on your Website, the ads that are displayed in the search engine results are also tied into your Adsense account.

Google’s Co-Op search engine opens up a whole new array of possibilities for marketing your Website, generating income, and having new content for your Website. Definitely worth stopping by Google and checking it out.

Posted by Michelle Stephens

I am one of those people that tend to come up with all kinds of ideas for new websites; the problem is though, I just don't have the time to implement them all. I usually find myself scouting the 'Net looking for the right system to manage the site, so that I can get it online fast and get to the goodies of building content and promotions.

This weekend, I had a chance to review the content management system (CMS) called Joomla!, and I have to say that I am impressed. Joomla! is powerful open source system and is also free to use which makes it even better. It’s great tool for managing even the smallest website right up to the most complex e-commerce site.

I experienced little trouble installing the content management system on my web server, and I even installed some of the extensions that are available on their site without trouble. It was so easy, I just couldn’t believe it! Speaking of extensions, there is over one thousand extension available to download from their website; everything from admin modules, to content and e-commerce plug-ins that can help you add even more features and functionality to your site.

If you are looking for a new, faster way of managing your Website, Joomla! CMS could be exactly what you are looking for. They have a demo on their site that you can try out, and because it’s free, you can download it and install it on your web server and test it that way too.