Does your website deserve to be sacked?
If your website was one of your sales staff would you be happy with his results? A good website design should deliver you quality leads and generate a return on your investment - not just than just sit there and look good.
Remember that website design is a marketing activity not a technology decision. So many people seek out a web developer as their first port of call when they need a website. But that’s putting the cart before the horse.
Your first activity when contemplating a website should be to think about your marketing objectives and what job you need your website to do for you.
To do that let’s revisit the sales person analogy. If your website was a sales person what should its sales process be? How will it get customers to engage with them and your company. Thinking about this analogy forces you consider what information and functions your website needs to get you real sales results.
For a start, You need to arm your ‘online salesperson’ with information to they can appear knowledgeable about the benefits of your products and services. He needs to be able to succinctly articulate what your unique selling proposition is.
You need your salesperson to acknowledge that customers are different stages of their buying process and therefore have different informational needs. For example, provide product comparisons for people who haven’t yet decided on the right product, but also provide in depth product information for those who are further advanced in their decision process.
You need people to trust your online salesperson too – so consider what do you need to do or say on your website to engender trust. Even the aesthetics of your website can contribute to trust. A shabby looking website from 1992 isn’t going to help your image.
Not everyone will buy or engage on their first visit. Your online salesperson needs to provide a reason for the customer to come back. Constantly updated content gives people reason to return. Make sure your website is a worthy destination. A website that never changes is like a retail store that doesn’t change their window display. It makes people think they’ve already seen everything you have to offer and they won’t bother to come in.
At some stage in the process, your ‘online salesperson’ needs to ask the customer’s name and contact details. To do this, you usually need to give them the promise of something in return (eg. early notification of specials, a free assessment). This is a critical point in your sales process. Now your visitor isn’t anonymous – he has a name and you know how to contact him and have permission to do so. At this point, you can call them an actual ‘lead’. Yippee.
Once your online sales person has promised something they have to deliver. They need to follow up on their promise. If you promised email notifications of sales, make sure you do it. Take every opportunity to re-engage with them. That means more opportunities to communicate with your customers and ultimately make sales.
If you actually want to sell your products online, at some point you need to facilitate the sale. Online shopping cart facilities make this easy. Design your sales process so that it provides a good shopping experience. No-one likes waiting in a checkout queue and similarly online shoppers don’t like clunky purchase processes.
So when you’re ready for a new website - remember, the brief to your web designer should read more like a job description than a shopping list.
Jane Davies is founder and Director of Cat and Moose Marketing Solutions and specialises in online marketing in Brisbane. The core philosophy is to create and design websites that deliver real marketing results rather than just sit there and look good. Cat and Moose Marketing Solutions also advises clients that online marketing be used as part of a broader marketing plan.
Ten Things to do in Brisbane
Brisbane is Queenslands capital and a fabulous place to visit. But what to do when you get there? Here’s some suggestions:
Sightseeing bus tour
The best way to find your bearings in any new city is to do a “City Sights” tour. Brisbane has a “City Sights” tour which operates in the day time. There is also a Brisbane Lights Tour which showcases the spectacular night lights of Brisbane.
Stay at a boutique hotel in Brisbane
While Brisbane does not have a massive amount of heritage buildings, a few of them have been beautifully restored as boutique hotels. These typically have modern amenities and luxury facilities. Boutique hotels have more space than other hotel rooms with a special ambiance not found at other Brisbane hotels. Situated in the heart of the city, the heritage listed Royal Albert Hotel is one of the best located of the boutique hotels in Brisbane.
Steak-out at the Brekky Creek Hotel
The Brekky Creek Hotel (officially the Breakfast Creek Hotel) is about 15 minutes from the heart of the city by car. If you want the best char grilled steak in Brisbane, the Brekky Creek Hotel is the place to go! Choose your own steak from the array in the window, and sit in the Spanish beer garden while the chefs go to work. The trimmings, which haven’t changed for 40 years, include salad, bread roll and a jacket potato, but they like to leave enough room for your steak!
Australia Zoo
Just one hour from the heart of Brisbane Australia Zoo is more than a zoo. It is home to many communities of crocodiles, koalas, tigers, leopards, snakes, and elephants. Become a Wildlife Warrior by hand feeding the elephants. Watch the Crocoseum shows where you may see Terri, Bindi and Bob feed the crocodiles.
Lone Pine
A great way to see Brisbane is to catch a boat from the city centre along the majestic Brisbane River to Lone Pine.
From echidnas to emus, wombats to wild lorikeets, kangaroos to koalas, Lone Pine is one of Australia’s oldest and best known animal sanctuaries. After spending a few hours cuddling a koala and hand feeding the kangaroos, you can return to the city by boat or bus.
Wheel of Brisbane
Erected in 2008, the Wheel of Brisbane has become a land mark for Brisbane. Sit in air conditioned comfort with views around Brisbane as the world rotates below.
Bridges
Brisbane has two relatively new bridges. The Goodwill Bridge connects the Botanical Gardens and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to Southbank. This bridge was named after the Goodwill Games hosted by Brisbane in 2001.
The Kurilpa Bridge opened in 2009 and links Roma Street Parkland to QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre), the Queensland Art Gallery and GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art). Kurilpa is the Aboriginal word for West End and means “the place for water rats”.
Both bridges have a reasonable amount of shade and are architecturally significant in their own right. It is a matter of time before the Kurilpa Bridge is nicknamed the Spiderweb.
Southbank - Botanical Gardens - Roma Street Parkland
Starting in Albert Street, walk down to the Botanical Gardens in Alice Street and explore the lakes and forests, or walk along the river through the mangroves. Walk up the hill through QUT and across the Goodwill Bridge as you admire the Brisbane River and city skyline. At Southbank you can walk through the 17 hectares of sub-tropical landscaped gardens and rainforest, swim in the city beach while enjoying the stunning CBD and river views. Walk along the Southbank Arbour, a spectacular steel framed structure constructed to support the bougainvillea vines which provide continuous shade. After crossing the Kurilpa Bridge, you will find the lush Roma Street Parkland. Roma Street Parkland is an oasis in the heart of Brisbane’s CBD, set over 16 hectares of green space and is the largest urban subtropical garden in the world. The Forest and Fern Gully offers the chance to explore a subtropical misty rainforest in the centre of Brisbane!
Exploring the river
An easy way to explore the Brisbane River is by City Cat. Explore the university grounds at St Lucia, stop off for a XXXX (beer) at the historic Regatta Hotel (where you can smell the hops from the XXXX brewery), and stroll through the Sunday markets at Riverside. Other good stop offs especially for lunch include Bretts Wharf and Bulimba.
Cycle along the river
There is an extensive network of shared cycle and pedestrian paths along both sides of the Brisbane River and elsewhere. This is a great way to see the city skyline and river, and healthy as well! Valet Cycle Hire will drop off your bikes to your Brisbane Boutique Hotel with suggested bike tours. The Brisbane City Council plan to have 150 bike parking stations across the city where bikes can be picked up and dropped off at little or no cost.
There’s a variety of boutique hotels in Brisbane. For a list of boutique hotels in Brisbane and other hotels in Brisbane, visit hotelsinbrisbane.com.au
Learn Blues Piano
It is not really difficult to learn to play the piano. Almost every individual loves music. Some like rock music, pop, jazz, alternative, rhythm and blues, and many others. Whatever style of music you love, you can play it on the piano. For you to learn to play different song styles on the piano, the very first thing that you have to learn are blues piano.
When you want to get started with a certain piano style, you will find that it is time for you to look into finding the style that works well for you. This might mean that your personal style is going to be the blues, so make sure that you consider how you are going to give it a shot.
If you want to play blues piano, start by getting to know the 12-bar blues. This is the progression that is essential for playing the blues. To begin, make use of seventh chords. When a song is broken into three set, each set will have four bars. Play the song in the C key, and then use I tone show off the tone in the C key. Then the IV tone will be F while the V tone comes out to be G.
This means that the initial set is going to be played as I, I, I, I. After that, you have the next set played with IV, IV, I, I. Finally, you will have V, IV, I, I. You will use your right hand to play these three sets, and get used to mastering the seventh chord.
With your left hand, make sure that you are following the 8 note pattern. This pattern will run along I-III-V-VI-VIIb-VI-V-III. Then, when you are looking at playing the C chord with your right hand, you have the notes as C-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E. Finally, when you are looking at the F chord, you will have F-A-C-D-Eb-D-C-A, and then for the G chord, you will be rendering it as G-B-D-E-F-E-D-B.
When you are looking into learning to play blues piano, make sure that you look at the chords and the notes that are played by your left and right hand. Consider the different piano chords and notes that you are learning and realize that blues piano is no where near as hard as you might think it is.
If you want to establish a good foundation in playing the piano, you must learn to play the blues first. Many successful pianists started out by playing blues and then they slowly made their way into playing the music style that they love. Once you develop a strong foundation, the new lessons will be so much easier. Learning the different music styles is challenging but if you can play them with elegance and grace, your audience will love and praise your performance.
When you are looking into how to play blues piano, make sure that you find a good teacher. If you cannot travel for lessons, look into CD or DVD programs that can get you where you need to go. Online piano lessons or a piano guide book can help you along as well. When you want to master your lessons, take some time to look into what you can invest in learning about it.
When you want to make sure that you are going to be able to play the piano, you will find that time, effort and investment are necessary. Think about the styles that you want to conquer and what they might mean for you!
Our Founding Fathers Never Heard of Cancun
The Mexican resort city of Cancun was sleepy countryside before a building boom in the 1970s. It all started when the government decided it needed to draw more international vacation activity to a nice beachfront town on the Caribbean. In the beginning it was necessary to advertise the place with super travel deals in order to entice vacationers to the city.
It has been less than 40 years and the hotel development has been amazing along a waterfront strip known as the Hotel Zone. The town is now a major city with an urban downtown, major shopping areas and world-class dining. The competitive market in this slow economy is motivating the resort operators to offer some very attractive Cancun travel deals.
I will point out that the whole region can become very hot and humid in the summer months. It might be worthwhile to consider a trip when it is cooler in the Spring or Autumn months.
Speaking of traveling, one creative gift idea for family or friends who are celebrating a special occasion is to give them travel gift vouchers. If you buy the right voucher, you can pay in advance for certain airfares or hotel costs, car rentals and admission prices to theme parks and museums.
We’ve observed that travel gift vouchers are less common in the U.S. than in European countries. You must be careful to buy a gift card that is useful and flexible, so they are not for everybody.
Introducing Magellan Roadmate Devices
Considering the fact that a wide array GPS gadgets available in the market now, Magellan GPS navigators are amidst some of the most saleable.
The Magellan Roadmate 1700 is one of the hottest GPS gadgets to be sold late in the year. This unit will take hold of your attention straight away with its massive high resolution 7-inch touchscreen display. Though persisting Magellan users will be conversant with the user interface, lovers just acquainted with Magellan will be able to use the OneTouch favourites menu among capabilities such as QuickSpell. SmartCity search and Auto Night View. Other capabilities include preloaded maps of contiguous US, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, Highway Lane Assist, AAA TourBook and SmartDetour.
If you are considering a basic GPS navigator and can do away with the advanced capabilities of the Magellan Maestro series, or if you are looking for a GPS gadget with Live Traffic service or SayWhere, you would want to look at either the Magellan Roadmate 1475T or Magellan Roadmate 1440.
These 2 GPS devices boast an ultra-thin designs and attributes which are otherwise the exact replica of the Roadmate 1700. Nevertheless, the Magellan Roadmate 1475T boasts a 4.7-inch wide touchscreen while the Magellan Roadmate 1440 owns just a 4.3-inch touchscreen.
4 ways of finding an effective Net Hosting company
There are several factors that should be used in the process of selecting the simplest ecommerce web hosting company. One of the largest factors should be:
1) The possibility of phone support. Despite the recognition of emails they’re not continuously reliable in an emergency. A operating phone support service, can provide faster and more reliable communication between you and your hosting company.Depending on the hosting company you utilize there are toll free options offered by most companies.
2) Another area which you need to seem into when you are deciding whether or not to decide on an ecommerce hosting company is their history. How effective are they over the long spell? Do not only use the recent verdicts of web hosting review, instead check up on their past performances as well. You should be sure that your hosting company contains a long and proven record. Customer feedback can also be used to guage the true performance of a hosting company.
3) Paying attention to the corporate’s software is additionally important? This varies widely between ecommerce hosting companies. For example, the Cpanel is a commonly used means of managing web files. The range of permissible domain name and area offered by your unlimited web hosting resources is another area. It’s indeed easier to stay with modes that you’re feeling comfy with than switching to a brand new User Interface. You will conjointly notice hosting corporations who provide Front page features and a few othes who don’t support this. Choosing which is best can be your decision to make.
The type of statistics program offered by the internet hosting company ought to additionally be considered. Is there a statistic software included in your web hosting plan option? Will this include Awstats? This is one area you actually need to heavily analysis before signing up.
4) Fees. In order to get dependable service, it is advisable to pay the extra fee stated by dependable service providers. A careful search will offer you with such options set at prices as low as $4. However it is best to budget $15 per month if you wish all the bells and whistles that can be required for the hosting of a bigger site. The concern by many that prime costs aren’t matched by the provided service is principally unfounded. Finally, ensure that you reconsider the policies of your webhosing company—refund or otherwise. Most supply a full refund if you aren’t happy along with your service. If you are paying for a full year of web hosting up front, you might want to examine the company’s refund policy in detail.
Are Most Herbal Colon Cleansers The Same?
A herbal colon cleanse is a perfectly safe and very gentle process for eliminating built up toxins and undigested fecal matter, cleansing and restoring the large intestine, or colon.
The overly refined foodstuffs that you eat every single day, especially sugary and flour based foods, make you more susceptible to real intestinal problems, increasing your risk of contracting all kinds of other diseases.
Ensuring you have a properly functioning, healthy intestinal tract is vitally important to your overall general health.
Though many experts would disagree it is becoming more and more apparent with volumes of evidence that a colon cleanse program is a natural remedy effectively formulated to detoxify, cleanse and overhaul your digestion.
Thousands of happy consumers will tell you that a colon cleanse is beneficial and colon cleansing is taking the detox world by storm.
Virtually all herbal colon cleansers are made up of 100% natural ingredients. It should be noted however that most colon cleansers will not work well without drinking plenty of water too.
The effect of these products is to dissolve stagnant waste in the colon allowing it to be passed. Always bear in mind that often these products are so good it’s necessary to replenish the good bacteria in your gut afterwards. A big pot of natural yogurt will do the trick.
There are many popular colon cleansers on the market today and to be honest there is little difference in the composition of most of them. We have used and recommend the product linked to on this site.
This article is not intended as medical advice and should not be taken as such. Please seek the advice of a medical professional before embarking on any recommendations made in this article.
Complements Safety Systems For Fire Resistant Insulation
It’s all too easy for an accidental spark to start a blaze. And, as the state has lately seen, weather can collaborate to prolong and expand the breadth of the flames. However , employing fire-retardant froth offers some defense against smaller blazes, and as easy as spraying in insulation.
Foam insulation spray offers a different method of insulating a building. It is cost effective in the energy output it saves you. It’s also greener than other insulating materials and flame resistant. Foam is effective as a sealant as it expands to fill each crevice and empty space, even between joists and joints. In this way, the insulator keeps out air and waste, among other things.
As a part of a fire protection system, its sealing feature is also of significant benefit. With the foam, you do not need to fret about air pockets within the material where combustibles can collect or cause other dangerous Problems. You also do not need to fear flames getting into unfilled pockets to either burn the structure underneath or become hotbeds should a fire happen. In addition, the undeniable fact that the insulation keeps air out stops more air from reaching a blaze or causing dangerous backdrafts.
One of the best features about flame retardant insulation is that the material itself doesn’t burn. Even if fire somehow gets into the insulation, the substance doesn’t catch fire. Admittedly, after extended exposure to flames, the surface shows charring, but the flames never take hold. Considering the cost of rampant fire damage, charring is a much pleasanter and more reasonable trade off.
In trial tests, investigators built 3 sample crawl spaces. This trial was conducted to compare the performances of one kind of insulator to an untreated’calibration’ construction. This first was employed for a calibration test. The other two were treated with one kind of a spray in insulation product. Each crawl space was tested to a’failure time’ in which the flames consumed the plywood or couldn’t be sustained.
The calibration deck exhibited steady flames from the front after 6 mins of exposure to a flame source placed within the construct. After 9:30 minutes, the fire penetrated the plywood.
The second and third tests reflected similar results, which transcended the result of commercial standard tests. Specifically, after 1:40 minutes, the controlled blaze ate into the insulation surface, but there was no ignition. After 3:40, there had been infrequent ignition of the foam’s surface. Ignition ceased after 8:30 mins. In nearly ten mins of exposure, there wasn’t any burn through of the test material nor the plywood above it.
The investigators permitted the flame source to burn until it fell down, a period of virtually twenty minutes. The test was ultimately stopped after 26 minutes. There was burning over all of the insulating surface, and some loss of material where the flames touched the surface, but the plywood was totally intact as was the majority of the spray in material.
Other products don’t last almost as long in tests. Obviously, fire resistant insulation is a useful way to guard your building. The advantages are clear from the tests. Selecting an ecological, simple to install and flame resistant product would be of great advantage. With the properties of foam insulation spray, you can install it in a new or existing building. Froth systems for fire protection are a smart and efficient choice for any structure.
John has been writing articles on blogs for about 3 months now. Not only does he specialize in a alo of topics, you can also watch his latest blogposts about serveral fire resistant workwear on: fire resistant clothes or Fire Resistant Gloves