I’ve had a lot of questions from clients about marketing. Once you have your web site up, you want to bring traffic to your site. That means being found on Google and other search engines. And, more importantly, you want to bring in customers. It’s not really enough that they visit your web site. You want them to buy your product or service. How do we make all that happen?

I have an interest in this topic for 2 reasons. First, I have a service to sell. Second, I really want all my clients to succeed. To that end, I have been researching what it takes to promote your web site.

There is a part of promotion that is the job of the web designer. Once a site is running, there are a number of things that the web site owner can do to make sure their web site gets more traffic. I’ll be addressing many of these things, for both the web designer and web site owner, in this series.

Marketing on the web is different from other marketing formats. I often hear marketers tell web site owners that their home page needs to be flashy, have bright colors, even (shudder) that it should have a splash page. Flashy, colorful, attention-getting printed advertisements or magazine covers may work well. But their purpose is to draw attention to that ad or magazine. That way you’ll look at that ad or magazine. But that analogy doesn’t extend to the web site.

In this series, I’ll be addressing what works and what doesn’t for your home page. I’ll be talking about SEO and Black Hat SEO. I’ll also be presenting some ideas on marketing - both online and offline.

Stay tuned for more on Marketing Your Web Site.

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Here’s a bit of show and tell from recent Close Up Jewelry Photography Classes. I have before and after shots taken by 2 of my recent students. Well, truthfully, the after photos were taken in class. But, these are pictures taken by the students with their cameras. Add some instruction, proper lighting, focus techniques and staging and improvement happens.

First, here is a picture that Maureen had taken, before taking my class:

And this is a picture that Maureen took during class:

Maureen works with Polymer Clay and created the pendant and earrings in the pictures. Somehow she combines the Polymer Clay with Swarovski Crystals. I think there’s a bit of magic in there.

Maureen doesn’t yet have a website, but that should change, don’t you think?

And now for some work by Sue. Sue works primarily with Swarovski Crystals. Though she also does some nice PMC work too. You can see Sue’s work on her website on Etsy.

Here’s a picture Sue sent me - this is Before class:

And here’s After:

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We’ve just scheduled Close Up Jewelry Photography Classes for the Fall of 2007. They are as follows:

• Sunday, October 14
• Sunday, November 4
• Sunday, December 2

All classes run from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Click on a date above to sign up for a class. See bwh Web Designs for full class description. Can’t make any of those dates? Leave a comment here telling when would be a good time for you.

And, there’s still room in the class scheduled on Saturday, September 1!

Hope to see you in a class!

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Last Friday, I held a private photography class at my house for a mother/daughter team. We had loads of fun, although once or twice we got a bit off topic.

And again, everyone learned something. If you’re interested in Close Up Photography, let me know. I do arrange classes at other times and places than what is scheduled.

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Many people have commented that, on my websites, none of my links open in a new window. The only exception is when a client, having heard my reasoning, still insists on opening links in a new window. I’ll do it for them, but it’s really not the best practice.

Those who argue for it will tell me that I am driving my potential customers away. Maybe, but if they leave that easily, they probably weren’t all that interested anyway. With modern browsers, someone interested in staying on my site can open the link in another tab, at their choosing. I do that all the time.

There is another school of thought on the subject. It has mainly to do with accessibility issues. While it may be obvious to you that a new window opened, it isn’t to everyone. Some people have their browsers maximized so that they can see it better. When you open a new window, they may not realize it. And so, when they try to go back using the Back button on their browser, the back button doesn’t work. Also, people with poor or no vision use readers such as JAWS to read web pages and are likely to miss the fact that an entirely new window has opened. Furthermore, they have lost the ability to use the Back button.

I’ve done a lot of research on this topic and have made the decision to make my websites accessible to as many people as possible. While I’m well aware that I could lose a visitor by not opening a new window for an external link, I’m also thinking of those who will encounter problems BECAUSE I opened a new window. So for my sites, I choose NOT to open a new window.

Most browsers make it easy to open a link in a new window, or as a tab. Someone who is truly interested in my site is likely to do this if they want to follow another link. I’m also likely to irritate a visitor by opening a new window.

If you’re interested, here are just a few places that talk about this issue:
Not opening new windows - from Dive Into Accessibility
Top 10 Mistakes of Web Design - Points 1 & 2
Strict HTML 4.01 doesn’t validate when you open links in a new window

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In today’s world, the savvy online visitor wants to be sure they are dealing with someone reputable. Here a couple of things you can do to assure your online visitors that you are who you say you are.

First, if you use PayPal, are you verified with PayPal? If so, it should say verified when you log in. It looks something like this:

If you are Verified with PayPal, then you can get the seal and have it put up on your website. It will let your visitors know that you’ve been verified with PayPal. Here’s what the seal looks like:

When a visitor clicks on the seal, they will see a page similar to this (they have to be logged in to PayPal to see it):

Another thing you can do to provide an extra level of assurance to your visitors is to have your domain certified. I’ve actually had people contacting me wanting to know how they could be sure I was legitimate. There’s a fee associated with this, but it’s fairly cheap and is good for 2 years. The process involves confirming that the contact information in the WHOIS database is correct and points to a real person. It’s simple to implement. You’ll then have a seal to put on your site that looks something like this:

When a visitor clicks on the seal, they see a page like this:

Contact bwh Web Designs today if you’re interested in either of these options.

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