Where Is The Junk In My Web Design?

How much junk is in your web design?

Junk is always the stuff you can throw away and it is not missed. In fact, when you clear out the junk the good stuff can then be seen, and this is particularly so with business web sites.

I find that the trendiest piece of junk is the popular image slider. It takes up the richest home page real estate and does not offer any practical business value. In my research about quality content the image slider does not show up at all. It has an aesthetic use but no practical business use, but it sure takes take up prime space.

What does the image slider do?

It rotates (slides picture in) up to 6 images, as a rule. That's all it does. Maybe you think I'm being too harsh because there can be beautiful pictures presented, but do the test and then you'll know.

The test is to cover up the slider with a book or black paper to hide it. Now look at the rest of the page and see if you can tell what the page is about. Whatever remains without scrolling down should provide a heading or text to indicate what else to expect on the page. Even product promotion and pushy sales copy is better than no info.

Okay, now remove the paper from the image slider and cover up the rest of the screen as best you can. What does the slider tell you? Do you have any clues from those rotating images that tell you anything of interest about the site?

More junk

The King Kong of all headers takes up to to of of the whole screen. Although a header is a necessary part of your web page it does not warrant much more space than a letterhead on stationary.

Those huge headers with big images says only one thing - "Let's see how big and important my site can look because I do not have much to say otherwise."

And if this King Kong header is repeated on every page it simply compounds the problem. We all know that a web design can make a peanut stand look like a department store - no one is fooled.

Other people's junk

There are tons of third party ads with images or widgets to add filler in a column, but they just distract from what our site can offer to our market. The deal is that if these ads generate a sale for that third party you get a tiny return. Sounds good but our web site is not attracting a lot of our market to our own site with all this junk, so there's no revenue.

The value to the third party is they get a link back to their site boosting their link popularity. We get zilch.

Self promoting junk

Oh, now I've done it. I'm killing the sacred cow of marketing. Every one tells you to advertise on your web pages. You are invited to shout out your ads and promote like crazy, and then you absolutely must ask for the sale and push those folks into filling up their shopping cart.

Well, maybe it's time to see things in a different light because we are working with a web site, not newspaper or TV.

Newspapers are daily or weekly, television is prime time every day. Our web site may only be seen once and for only a brief bit of time. To have visitors come back we need more than ads and pushy sales. We can get ads and pushy sales in our face all day long, but how often do we come across a web site that helps us by talking about our problems.

The real reason self promoting ads on our own site are negative marketing is because members of our market have already arrived. The external ads or links bought them to our site and advertising has done its job. It is not needed anymore now that we have our market's attention. If anything, more advertising will send them away.

We need to talk to our market about their problems and how we can solve those problems. Why are we not doing this? Maybe most web marketers do not know what they are talking about.

Even good content can be turned into junk

Our eyes are wide open now. We see that we need to move a prospective buyer into talking the next step in the buying cycle. We talk about their pain and our solutions and they like this. It helps them, but they only have 5 minutes so we ask to have our site bookmarked. Better yet we offer a free white paper to download if they give us a name and e-mail address. Cool, we can pull them back in later.

All these good marketing ideas are given to our web designer who promptly turns it into small text and then fades the contrast. Our best marketing material just got turned into junk because it is now hard to read, so it gets skipped over.

People do not like reading at the best of times, but making it difficult just gives them the excuse to file it under junk.

A web designer should be working everything else on the page to enhance our text content that joins the customer in the first place. Instead the designer wants a perfect picture that can be held at arm's length so the eyeball can appreciate the balance and beauty even while sacrificing the ability for people to read the content.

As you read this article do you feel it? Does it move you so that you want to change your web design? Have you got a head and heart full of new ideas?

If so then this is the kind of web content you want to write and get your market moving. And you can do this when you first get rid of the junk.

10 Ways to Attract New Business at No Extra Cost

Last week I went shopping and saw a sign in the window: "Going Out Of Business Sale". This week I noticed a new cardboard headstone "Space For Rent" in my neighborhood. These are results of the same problem ... not enough business.

It is great when you can open a business and attract new customers immediately or when your website guarantees you a constant stream of income. But, none of these simply 'just' happened. Growing your business means self marketing and planning ahead every step of the way. Here are ten strategies to help you attract more business. And the best part: They will not cost you anything.

1. Be a walking example of how effective your product or service is

Let's say you sell beauty products. Make sure your own skin, make up, etc. is perfect whenever you go out for business. If people see how beautiful your products work or look on you they want to buy them. Or, you're a professional organizer. What will people think of you if you're late for a meeting, forgot to bring the promised brochures, and when you open your calendar it looks all chaotic. BE A MODEL for your business.

2. Seek to serve instead of just seeking to sell

What comes around goes around! Help others to grow their business or supporting them in any way you can go a long way in growing your own business.

3. Add value by networking all the time. Carry business cards wherever you go

Networking opportunities are everywhere where: at the supermarket, the doctor's office, even at the playground. I know that for a fact! When someone asks you what you do, give them a card. You want them to be able to hear and see the name of your company. You would be surprised how often business cards will be passed around and / or turn up months later. Also, find out how you can help. What does that person need? Whom do you know who could help? BE A MATCHMAKER every single day.

4. Sell the benefits, not the features. Nobody buys features anymore

People buy what those features will do for them. Everyone hates to buy insurances, so why are so many sold? Simply because of what insurances will do for you. So, know your benefits and practice your elevator speech.

5. Add value to your potential customers by expanding their professional vision and goals

People appreciate it when they feel that you understand their business needs and you're able to provide creative ideas that will help them to realize or even expand their vision and goals. Go on an exploratory journey with your potential customer.

6. Follow up, follow up, follow up

The secret of keeping your current customers is to show interest. Add value to your customers by making sure they're making the best use of your product or service. Let them know that you have their business at heart, that their success is your success. Show them that YOU CARE!

7. Turn your customers into your company's research and development department

It is of much more value to you to find out why people buy your product or service instead of focusing on why certain people are not interested. Ask your customers why they buy your products and service and use this information to improve your marketing and refine your value proposition.

8. Improve your communication skills and be an active listener

Take time to listen to your clients, prospects, and business partners; listen carefully - do not let your mind wander during the listening process. Never make any assumptions. Take time to find out the real motives and emotions, perceived and real problems. If you can refer to people they want to be around you.

9. Learn from people who are naturally attractive

Some people are; some people are not. Spend time with those who are and emulate them; ask them for help. They will be happy to tell you how it works. Just be ready to make changes in your assumptions, thinking, actions, and behavior.

10. Strengthen your personal finances, so you do not need the money anymore

When you feel financially secure you will become an even stronger magnet for attracting new business - because you do not needily need it anymore.

To improve your business, challenge yourself! Pick one of the 10 strategies described above, the one where you seem to struggle the most. Then, see if you can implement this strategy in the way you do business. Please feel free to share your successes with me - and any questions about how to grow your business.

Adults With ADHD - Do You Need an Attitude Adjustment?

I hate to say it, but a lot of adults with AD/HD have an attitude problem. Many of us are negative thinkers with low self-esteem.

It's understandable; life with AD/HD can have us feeling bad for being so "different" from everyone else. And we feel worse when we try to improve our lives using the wrong systems.

Mainstream advice doesn't account for the unique wiring of AD/HD brains, and when this advice fails, we feel like we've failed. It chips away at our self-esteem.

As a result, many people with AD/HD grow up to be BMWs-people who constantly B*tch, Moan, and Whine! This is one of the reasons that adults with AD/HD often have trouble making new friends and maintaining relationships. It's also why so many of us struggle to get along with our family members, coworkers, and neighbors.

No one likes to hang out with a BMW. Their constant brooding, complaining, and finding fault can quickly bring a happy person down or zap that person's energy. Simply put, BMWs are a drag!

If you are a BMW, then don't fret. With a little work, you can adjust your attitude and improve your social skills. Here are three practical things you can do right away to overcome being a BMW.

1. Accept compliments with grace and gratitude-even if you don't agree with them.

If you're a BMW, then chances are that your self-esteem can use a pick-me-up. Accepting the compliments that are paid to you will go a long way in helping you feel better about yourself.

You'll find that most people genuinely mean what they say. If your friend says she likes your haircut, believe it! If you argue with her compliment by disagreeing and saying something like "This is the worst haircut I've ever had!", then you're essentially telling your friend that her opinion is wrong.

2. Avoid putting yourself down in front of others.

People often view self-deprecation as "fishing for compliments" and feel a responsibility to lift you up and make you feel better. After a while, this becomes annoying, and you can easily lose friends who might view you as high maintenance.

There's a big difference between expressing your challenges, and putting yourself down for them. It's perfectly okay to say "I would have liked to have the house cleaned up by the time you got here, but unfortunately I didn't have enough time." In contrast, a BMW might say something like "I'm such a slob! My house is always a mess and no matter what I do I can never get it together!"

3. Surround yourself with positive, happy people.

One of the easiest ways to adjust your attitude is to surround yourself with people worth emulating. When you choose to spend time with other BMWs, you're choosing to be a BMW.

Make a concerted effort to ditch the BMW within, and then invite a pleasant coworker to join you for coffee, take a walk with a friendly neighbor, or reconnect with a supportive friend. You'll absorb the positive energy of these good influences. And positive, happy people will be much more understanding when you do find yourself running late for lunch or forgetting a birthday!

When you adjust your attitude by increasing your self-esteem and adopting a more positive perspective, you'll find that you have an easier time creating and maintaining social connections. People will enjoy spending time with the real you, and you'll feel better about yourself, too!

Mobile Payments News: The Latest Mobile Payment Trends

Ever since the idea of ​​mobile phones was first introduced years ago, it has evolved tremendously. It has changed the ways we communicate on a daily basis & not only that but it has made many daily activities much more convenient. Checking your email, keeping up with mobile payments news or browsing the internet have all turned mobile phone usage into a big trend.

Mobile payment trends, for example, have changed the way we all make payments. We do not have the hassle of having to go to the actual store itself and wait in long lines just to make a payment. Mobile payments news outlets have reported many advances in the field through the years. Changing the way point of sales are conducted as well has changed everything for the better. It's changed the state of things so that if you want to buy something, you do not have to go to the store to buy it anymore. Similar to how the mobile payment trends are becoming big, the shopping trend online is starting to grow as well. You can even have the convenience of having your mobile payment deducted from you bank account on a monthly basis.

As mentioned before, payments at the actual point of sale at the store have also undergone changes. Most of the time you do not even need assistance to make a payment at the store. There are kiosks available that carry "touch free payment screens" making it easier now more than ever to make a quick stop at your mobile phone carrier and make a payment.

While we may be seeing a fast rate of change in the technology, there are still some of us who might feel uneasy or question the safety of these payments with identity theft rampant. However, keep in mind that while technology is making phenomenal progress in the industry, so are security concerns on how these payment transactions are being processed. That is why when you go through the payment menus there are plenty of security measures to make sure your account is being kept safe.

So what are the advantages of having these luxuries in our daily lives? Well, now more than ever there just does not seem to be enough time in the day. From working, house work or whatever else you might have on your plate, our daily lives seem to be moving at a faster pace and making payments, shopping through your mobile phones online, or paying your bills online can make a huge difference.

Get Quick Payback With Cheap EDDM Marketing

Every business needs a marketing plan to be successful. An effective way to get a fast return on promotional marketing campaigns is Every Door Direct Mail ( EDDM ), a US postal service for local business that can benefit from targeted zip codes to every house or house and businesses right down to the individual carrier route . Compared to traditional direct mail has very low distribution costs. The cost is $ 0.183 for each piece. This is a cost-effective marketing solution that generates fast sales to new and old customers. Another benefit to EDDM is that it is delivered the day after it arrives at the post office. Direct mail can take weeks to be delivered and you may not know when it is delivered.

There are 6 standard sizes for EDDM: 4.5 X 12, 6 X 12, 6.5 X 12 6.5 X 9, 8 X 6.5 and 8.5 X 7. All sizes cost the same to mail. In addition to cheap mailing fees, there is no need to buy expensive mailing lists and address imprinting. Just select the zip codes in your target areas right down to the individual carrier route. To make this even easier, let your printing service handle the paperwork and delivery to post offices of your choice.

With this EDDM marketing, you can mail directly to local residential customers in the address area of ​​the card. The maximum quantity allowed in this retail program is 5,000 to 25,000 a day at any one post office. Mailers must be bundled in 50 or 100 so they can be quickly distributed to the right carrier.

Put in your target zip codes and choose using breakdowns showing residential, business, total, age 25-44, size, income and cost. This free easy-to-use demographic guide map lets you select the best neighborhoods to give you a fast return on your investment.

You can deliver to other post offices as long as you send a minimum of 5,000 to each. This is so the post offices are not overloaded with EDDM mail. Another advantage is that many printing services offer full service mailing. They do the paperwork, bundling and delivery to your post offices of your choice. Having your printing service do the mailing for you allows you to not pay sales tax as you are not taking possession of this printing.

This quick return marketing plan is best with local businesses such as take out and restaurants, realtors, dry cleaners, retail stores, auto dealerships, contractors and home services, medical professionals, health and beauty services - to name just a few business that can benefit from this promotion.

One very important tip is that this is not a one-time test to see if you can recover your cost in your first mailing. If you offer a valuable discount sale you should get your investment back in a short time. The best way to get high returns is by making your EDDM campaign a monthly mailing to keep you brand in front of people's eyes so they remember your business.

Using this EDDM program is a great way to get a fast return on your promotional marketing campaigns. It can save you in mailing costs as well as saturate any area you want to concentrate sales. Whether you use full service EDDM printing or do it yourself, this is a successful way to target your audience without spending a lot of money.

To determine your best demographics go: https://eddm.usps.com/eddm/customer/routeSearch.action

Women's Bodies Are Where We Start Real Change

Women's Bodies seem to be getting a major hit from media coverage these days. The latest I've heard is there are blogs that promote how it is cool to be anorexic. The promotion an obsession with top Hollywood star's diminishing bodies as a form of worship or adulation for fans who wish to emulate those bodies. Some of the statements from participants say if they are going to die, they prefer to die skinny. Another frightening connection between the affect of the media and advertising on anorexia is that in Fij, where women and girls have been naturally bigger for millenia, there was no anorexia until they introduced advertising!

Hmmm ...

There's not a lot of press out there that supports how women WANT to live. Is it my imagination or even since Oprah left the daily television screen There has been an outcry for women to find ways to enjoy women who just love being women, no matter what their size? Oprah's departure has brought me to think that many of us now need to step up and claim the pride in ourselves that she inserted on; while in the same breath expressing her exasperation and pain with being a woman in her body and unable to conquer binge eating habits or those emotional ups and downs.

For me, Oprah was the queen of championing that the ups and downs of being a woman are perfectly powerful, perfectly normal and part of everyday life.

The concept of "perfect" was skillfully destroyed by Oprah's at one and the same time larger than life success and vulnerability.

Women do NOT need to be perfect to be powerful.

But women DO need to accept the power of the imperfection of their body.

Women's Bodies are CONSTANTLY changing through our lives.

Daily - we face the ordinal of having to see new variations in our bodies, thoughts, feelings, and we have pressures to maintain a certain grooming level to keep up appearances. Physically, our body changes depending on our cycle, our mood, the argument we had last night, the worry we have for our kids, the joy of having a new flirtation or a great conversation with a friend. Women's bodies are somehow the most fluctuating thing on the planet! Just smelling a flower can make a woman change!

My question is: WHY ARE WOMEN'S BODIES CONSTRUCTED TO CHANGE SO MUCH?

Sure - biologically we have to adapt to crazy wild painful things like giving birth! And hormonal driven changes like lactating, ovulating and bleeding ... or not bleeding.

Fine - those are some biological reasons why women's bodies fluctuate so much.

But sure - there is something we are underestimating in the POWER of women to change with the demands of nature AND time and so many different influences in their life.

Women's bodies are the place where we SURRENDER to change. When you get - really get - that change is a part of you, change is a DAILY part of your life - that CHANGE can happen in a moment - then you get the power that comes from women's bodies.

WE are not in control of our bodies, our bodies by their very design are designed to change. AND your body is designed to teach the power of change, growth, different experiences, different emotions, strength AND vulnerability, thin and fat, happy and sad, angry and peaceful.

WOW - we need MORE women to come out and just breathe - let their belly hang out and say - it's OK to be a woman and not be perfect.

The media will forever tell women their body should look this way or that way - that's the nature of the advertising beast. Advertising feeds on our weaknesses.

So how do WOMEN - turn their weakness into a strength?

The modern woman spends so much time worrying about wrinkles and getting rid of belly fat that we've forgotten the whole point of being a woman. "Aging" starts from the moment you are an embryo. Think about this: AT ANY MOMENT YOU ARE AGING.

Women's Bodies can embrace that CHANGE, IMPERFECTION and BEING REAL are just as POWERFUL as anything the media, advertising or anyone else is going to tell you.

Face it - you were born with a body to experience change. So ... ENJOY IT! And notice - how do you respond to change in your body?

Ask yourself: Can you accept that even if you are not perfect - you are fine just the way you are?

And more pointedly ask your BODY: HOW can you ENJOY YOUR BODY, even if it is not perfect? What can you do for your body to be it's friend? What does your body truly wish to do?

Just try asking this to yourself and see what answer comes to mind. YOUR BODY is waiting for you to listen to it and treat it as your friend.

There's a lot of people out there trying to make your body your enemy --- do not let them .

Asus Eee PC 1215N: Best Atom Dual Core Mini Laptop

Atom based laptops are well known for their long lasting battery which can easily provide any user 5 hours of usage time to as high as 15 hours in some models. The only trade off to this advantage is that they are sometimes underpowered and not strong enough to handle demanding applications. This is about to change with the introduction of the Asus Eee Pc 1215N, which is the company's latest dual core mini laptop.

The Asus Eee PC 1215n uses a dual core Intel Atom D525 processor with a speed of 1.8 GHz. Instead of using the normal Intel 3150 graphics that other similar models have, this model uses an Nvidia Ion 2 GPU which adds more power to the device. The end result is a dual core mini laptop that is extremely portable yet powerful enough to handle HD videos and processor intensive applications.

When you look at this model closely you will appreciate its brushed metal finish which does not attract fingerprints. Holding it in your hands you will feel that it is solidly built and is actually light weighing in a little bit over 3 pounds. When you open its lid you will see its 12.1 inch screen which is capable of supporting resolutions of 1366x768 pixels. Its keyboard uses the chiclet design and is just the right size, making it comfortable to use when you want to type your documents. The trackpad has a multi-touch functionality and has a single button at the bottom for your left and right click commands.

Performance wise you will get an excellent result with this dual core mini laptop. Would you believe that you can play the latest StarCraft 2 on this model? You will not get blazingly fast frame rates but it is still quite playable. You will also be able to easily playback 1080p HD videos and watch it on its screen or better yet output it to a large flatscreen HDTV via the HDMI port.

When you get the model that comes with the 6 cell battery pack you will enjoy almost 6 hours of usage before needing to plug in your power adapter.

If you're looking for a mini laptop with excellent features then the Asus Eee PC 1215N is a great choice.