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Sunday, January 6, 2013

3 Ways To Build a Business Blog That is User Friendly

By Lawana Thacker


You can increase your site metrics for the better and be more profitable with a user friendly blog or website. Or you can outsource this but you'll pay a hefty fee for your troubles. This area about websites is really one of the most important parts about IM you could know. The funny thing about this is readers won't ever think about it until it's not there and a site is hard to use.

There are so many things you can do to improve your site and its performance.

There are only a handful of fonts that are considered to be acceptable for use on a site in the main content area. Safe fonts are those like Verdana and Ariel sans serifs, and actually this is a good area for you to research and gain some knowledge. It's not necessary to load up your site with so many kinds of fonts for each little section, etc. The thing about lots of fonts is it can clash, and people may not immediately know why your site annoys them. Large sites that are nationally recognized with millions of visitors will have more font types, but for a simple niche site by an IM marketer will usually have two - one for the headline and one for the text and links.

The only other good place is on the left hand side or in the left column in the layout. What you've got to avoid is placing it on the right hand column. You can have a website that has been either two or three columns. If you create a three column website, though, you need to make the lefthand column your primary navigational area. The right handed column is where you put other information. Examples of this kind of content are ads or smaller advertising kinds of creatives or any special offers you might be running. It is this layout that people have found to be the most effective. You know that you should have a contact form on your site, but there are several good reasons for this. Anytime you are doing backlinking, reputable sites will want to see your contact page. The better places will manually review your site and they'll look for a Contact page, and don't forget you'll also want to have certain information on your Contact page such as a form. I've had my cell phone number on a sales page and only one person used it in several years - but it looks good.

Tons of ways to do this but be careful that you do this in the best way. The best way to do this is to be sure that visitors to your website instantly understand precisely what it is that you are offering. That's what people want to see every single time they visit your website. It's important that they see what you can do to help them and the number of benefits they will gain from that. Come up with a short tagline for your logo and then either include it in your header or right under it. That is one informational device down and your site's title and introductory paragraph can take care of the rest.

Your site's homepage needs to be structured and organized and as clear as possible.

Content creation and other site elements are danger zones for mistake making, that's for sure. Your side columns are just one of these areas. This is where things that also need to be promoted are going to sit--things like special offers, the opt-in boxes for your subscription list, etc. So your copy in those places has to be very effective. Most webmasters are going to just toss up an opt-in box and a graphic for their eBook--do not be one of them. Most people are used to these things and have started to ignore them. It's easy enough to include a snippet of copy written in a smaller font as well as your email field in your side column. You don't want your font to be too small for people to see and it is important that your copy be as compelling as possible. Do your best to not fall into the trap of seeing user friendliness as a universal term or something for which you can optimize, though other concepts often feel that way. Changes are often made depending on the audiences that visit your website. There are always exceptions to every rule so perhaps you'll be able to get away with things that would normally trip up others.




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