Archive for July, 2010

By Tammy Embrich

First of all, you need to ask yourself why you are creating a website? What are you hoping to gain or benefit from it? Most sites are created to make money. If this is your case, then you need to determine how you are going to make that a reality.

Are you going to make money through a service you offer or products you are going to sell? Making money through a service you offer is web design, ghostwriting, proofreading, virtual assistant, and the like.

You have skills in a particular area and you are going to make money offering a service. So, what do you think needs to be included on your homepage? What about a welcome message? Remember this as you contemplate…”First impressions are important.”

On a website, first impressions are everything! You need to grab your reader’s attention with the home page to get them to seek further what your site is all about. You want them to hopefully, stay on your site. And thus, land on the sell page, and of course purchase your services.

So, what do you need in order to motivate your reader into finding out more and to purchase your services?

Well for starters, many people think that a web design is more important than the content. Nothing can be further from the truth. The content on a web page speaks volumes. People are searching for information…meaning letters put together to form sentences and paragraphs. This content must be simple and to the point. Most often, a person won’t remain on a site where you have to translate fancy long words into understandable english. Simple and short paragraphs are key.

A landing homepage will need the main facts of what the website is all about and to further contain additional pages that are incorporated and structured around that home page. So, you want to include just the main points, it’s important to not go into great detail on the main page of your site. You want the reader to click through onto your other pages, get them on your sales page, and finally, entice them into a call of action to purchase.

What exactly should I include on my homepage?

* A brief summary on the kind of services you offer, remember, don’t go into great detail

* A frequently asked questions link that leads to the answers you provide

* A testimonials link that leads to what people are saying about your services (if available)

* Contact information, usually a working email address where you can be contacted

* Site map link that leads to the various pages throughout your site

* Main menu list, this list includes the names of the various main pages of your site and is often located either in the upper right or left corner.

A Few Highlights

1. Don’t include any pricing information on your homepage, make an additional “pricing info” page

2. Determine if you are going to offer advertising space and include something or the text “Advertise Here” in a specific area where the ads will be located. Make a separate page that includes headings of the ad options and pricing.

3. Include a links page where you will list various websites that have exchanged links with your site. This will also warrant a “link to us” page where you will include a text link option as well as graphics for your site. (banner or a button)

4. Name your website according to what key phrases you would like to be highly ranked for. You will also need a description in you code and keywords as well. This helps you get indexed with the major search engines.

One final thought: Always proofread your website content. There is nothing worse than a site with a lot of typos and poor grammar. You want a professional, well-written, and search engine friendly website.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy has been successful in the work at home industry for 4 years now. She is an Internet marketer, article marketer, and ghostwriter. She offers free job leads for the job seeker, as well as other work at home resources, work at home articles, tips, and more at Work At Home Jobs

You can also find Tammy at Work At Home Job Leads, offering legitimate work at home companies, more free job leads, work at home articles, and much more.

If you are looking for ideas or opportunities to work at home, you need to be aware of scams and stay away from them! There are many different types of scams coming in all shapes and sizes, and often times they are very difficult to spot. Most of them try to target people who are highly vulnerable and desperately need to make money quickly. If you are currently in that position you need to step back a bit before you jump into any opportunity because you are exactly who they prey on. Scam artists want you to believe that you have found the solution to all of your money problems but in reality they are only going to add to the problem.

You can often spot work from home scams by their aggressive hype and unrealistic claims. You are promised the world by a company or an individual who sells the idea of a perfect opportunity to earn insane amounts of money for doing something very simple. It will usually sound too good to be true but be convincing enough for you to fall for it.

One thing that really gets a lot of people is that advertisements for legitimate opportunities also make them sound great. So you need to read all of the details and fine print carefully, then sit back and think about whether or not it sounds realistic. A legit opportunity will make it clear that you will have to do some work for your return and they won’t promise you something for nothing. You should be very suspicious if it claims all you have to do is sit back and watch money roll in. Nothing works that way so they must be hiding something! If it were that easy to make money we would all be rich.

Sometimes you will find that the work promised is more difficult than they led you to believe, or more time consuming, or requires some monetary investment. That isn’t technically a scam by definition, but it is something that you need to be aware of before you start because it is misleading. The opportunity may not really be what is described and therefore it might not be what you are looking for.

Some of the most dangerous scams are the ones that convince you to send large sums of money upfront or give them information about yourself that you shouldn’t be giving away, such as your bank account numbers or social security number. It is VERY important to make sure you do not fall into one of these traps because they can leave you in some major financial troubles, or worse. No legitimate work at home company is going to make you send a large sum of money or really personal information before they will hire you.

Finally, just remember that there’s no such thing as a genuine “get rich quick” opportunity. Trust me, if there was then everyone would know about it by now and we would all be getting rich. But that is economically impossible. It simply cannot happen. Use your better judgment and do your due diligence before getting involved in anything. Don’t fall for hype and promises. Work from home scams can easily make an intelligent person look like a complete fool.

About the author:

Trent Brownrigg is an internet marketing specialist who loves teaching others how to make money online. Contact him if you have any questions or need any help.