msgbartop
Current IT field related information
msgbarbottom

09 Jul 11 What Makes a Website Get Thumbs Down?

Everyone has a website these days, but every website is not attractive? Why is it so? All websites have typical website structure, yet fail miserably in terms of appeal and level of interest grabbing. Have you ever thought why some websites simply put you off and you never want to get back to it? Here are some reasons what makes a website draw thumbs down.

Poor Layout

Foremost reason for a website to fall flat on its face is its poorly designed layout. A poorly designed layout may not only appear bad, but also lack proper user friendly structure, legibility. Many people try to save little amount of money by putting all information in a page and cluttering the webpage to the maximum level. Such layouts ask reader to scroll down and find entire information; which is highly annoying for the reader. It looks like a novel, especially when the content is long.

Poor color combination

It’s often seen that few websites consist of bright and warm colors just for the sake of drawing attention. Such color schemes like warm red with bright yellow may surely draw initial attention, but will immediately put off a reader. He may get a headache too if exposed to such colors for long and soon leave the website. Play safe with colors, know which colors are complimentary and most importantly do justice to the website or brand. Suppose it’s a pharmaceutical company’s website, you can’t afford to keep it flashy red. If you have a corporate color you may use the same, to build your brand identity on web.

Poor content

Often people think writing is a job that anyone can do and they themselves try writing, while abandoning the entire purpose of the website. Even if it costs to you, make sure you get the web content written by some expert. Make several tabs for content under different headers and make sure it’s not too lengthy. Crisp, simple yet interesting text always works. Make sure you don’t go abstract in your communication and people can easily locate your purpose behind the communication.

Complex URL

Several times people think of a complex name for their website or end up choosing a rare URL for unavailability of the simple ones. Instead of going for a real rare and complex name choose a simple and easy to remember name with .ORG or .NET or .UK and the like for availability sake. An easy URL is not only remembered but also talked about and passed on from one person to another.

Keep these faults in mind, and you will never end up making the same mistake like those not so good websites.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

26 Feb 10 Freelance Writing: How Many clients You Should Keep?

A better title would have been: “Freelance writing: how many clients you should keep at one time?”, but I didn’t want to make the title run for miles.

Whatever! The answer is all the same, which is: as many as you can handle. Do not chew more than you can digest. It will give you an upset stomach.

What’s the benchmark?

There is no external benchmark; the benchmark is the quality of work you produce. The moment your quality starts deteriorating you should put a stop sign outside your home office. You would not like to risk producing second-rate content, articles, or whatever it is that you write for your clients.

Then…

How many should I keep?

I cannot say for sure how many you should keep, but I can tell you about how many I keep and how you can decide how many you should keep. Generally, I keep 2-3 fulltime clients—depending upon the volume of work given— and work 1-2 one-off projects that do not have too tight deadline.

How you can decide how many?

How much you want: Say what you may, but you are doing freelance writing to pay your bills, be it your fulltime venture or part-time juggle. Therefore, you need to keep in mind your monetary target for a month.

How many hours can you devote: You also need to find out how many hours in week you can put aside for your freelance writing job.

How many articles can you produce in an hour: I understand this sound like absurd, but bear with me because I know people who can produce two articles of 500 words in one hour. Initially, you will not be able to write more than 40-50% of an article in an hour, but soon you will improve.

Do the math

Use the number you got from the above and calculate to find how many articles you need to write in a month to meet your monthly monetary target. The number you will thus get is the amount of work you need per month. If one client can fulfill this requirement then you do not need a second client—which is unlikely.

So, how many clients do you need at a time to fulfill your goal? Post the number you get after doing the math. I am eagerly waiting to hear from you.

Tags: Benchmark, Content Articles, Find Articles, , , Math, , Rate Content, Stop Sign, , , Upset Stomach, Writing Articles,

10 Feb 10 Freelance writing – Have You Read Your Job Description?

If you thought by choosing freelance writing as a career you will just write, write, and do nothing else then let me prick the balloon. Your client wants many more things from you. Do not get scared, you will not be asked to do any fancy stuff like coding, scripting, PPC campaigns, and all.

Then what other works a client will demand?

Basically, you will be asked to do stuffs related to writing only. And in my career, primarily I have been asked to do following types of work (other than writing):

  • Many clients have asked me to do like keyword research, for writing purpose only. This actually is not all that bad. It helped me conceptualize the article or press release while researching.
  • At times, clients also asked me to submit articles to various social bookmarking sites. I helped my clients with 2-3 submissions, at max. I do not think I would have agreed to submit an article to 100 or so social bookmarking sites. It would have been waste of time for me, but for 3-4, I never said no.
  • Clients may also ask for content suggestions, and about other things he can do to meet his goal. This in fact is an opportunity in disguise to cross sell other services that you offer. If you are writing only articles for your client then you may suggest him to use press release to get some link juice, or may be forum posting and all.
  • I have also given some marketing and SEO suggestions to my clients. Depending upon your background (I have my background in marketing), you can either say yes or politely say no.

Word of caution

Do not say no to your clients’ request, at least not directly, if you can help him. And also do not ask for money for every suggestion that you offer—I know people who do so—because it looks cheap. For that work you may get paid, but it will reflect badly on your professionalism. You may lose the client.

If the work is going to take hours of your work then say this to client, and if it is going to take hardly 10-15 minutes then do not bother. It also depends upon your relationship with your client.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Low cost and high quality provided by the top Website Hosting providers.

Meet Michael Fertik with Reputation.com.