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Top 10 Web Designers & Web Design Company Blogs

November 5th, 2010

Top 10 Web Designers  & Web Design Company  blogs have been ranked based on Google Page rank,  Alexa traffic  rank and Technorati authority.  The three sources have been used to  score the Web Designers &  Web Design company blogs from 0 to 10, where 10 is the highest score. The highest aggregate total score for a web designers  blog, therefore, is 30.

Web Designers Blog

Google

Alexa

Technorati

Total

A List Apart

8

10

10

28
Smashing Magazine

6

10

10

26
456 Berea Street

7

8

8

23
Brian Gardner

6

7

10

23
Pearsonified

7

6

10

23
Meyer Web

8

7

7

22
Warpspire

7

4

10

21
Tutorial Blog

5

8

8

21
Sitepoint Design Blog

6

10

4

20
The Undersigned

7

3

10

20

Top 10 Web Designers & Web Design Company  Blogs considered: the above list considers Web Designers & Web Design Company blogs that have a high percentage of website design content. The  web design  content might range from latest web development technologies, website designers tips to general best practices and web design forums etc.

Google Pagerank: the actual Google Page Rank was used in the score.

Alexa Traffic Rank: Scores were calculated based on the Alexa Traffic  Rank (i.e., 150k-100k, 100k-50k, 50k and up) and each range was assigned a score  from 1 to 10.

Technorati Authority: Scores  were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-100, 101-200,201-300,301-400,…) and each range was assigned a score  from 1 to 10.

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Top 10 Merchant Cash Advance Companies

October 17th, 2010

If you have a small business that is unable to get approved for a coventional small business loan or don’t want to deal with the hassles of a long business funding approval process, lots of paperwork, secure collateral and fixed monthly payments, many merchants including small business owners are turning to merchant cash advance loans as a means of raising capital for their business. A merchant cash advance loan works by paying merchants a cash advance for a percentage of future sales. The cash advance is then paid back over time in the form of a small, fixed percentage of the business’ credit card transactions so the repay is more flexible and based on cash flow. Merchant cash advance helps business owners get the cash they need for equipment, services, inventory, settling past debts and just about anything they need to grow their business and here is a list of the top 10 merchant cash advance companies:

  1. Benchmark Capital Funding
  2. Accelerated Business Capital
  3. Merchant Rewards Network
  4. Paramount Merchant Funding
  5. North American Bancard
  6. Business Cash Advance
  7. First Working Capital Group
  8. Advance Me
  9. Sure Payment Solutions
  10. Next Level Funding

Don’t agree with this list? Recommend a Merchant Cash Advance vendor that you believe should be ranked higher or log into Tradeseam Business Network and recommended your preferred vendors that are best in the business.

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Top 10 SEO Blogs for Search Engine Optimization Strategies, News and Discussions

October 7th, 2010

The Top 10 SEO blogs have been ranked based on Google Page rank,  Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority.  The three sources have been used to  score the SEO blogs from 0 to 10, where 10 is the highest score. The highest aggregate total score for a SEO blog, therefore, is 30.

   

Top 10 SEO Blogs

Google

 Bloglines

Technorati

 Total
 

#1

 Search Engine Land

7

9

8

26
 

#2

 Search Engine Watch

7

10

7

24
 

#3

 Search Engine Journal

7

9

8

24
 

#4

 Search Engine Roundtable

7

8

8

23
      #5 Search Engine Guide

7

4

6

17

   #6

 SEO by the SEA

6

5

5

16

   #7

 Link Building Blog

5

5

4

14

  #8

 SEOpedia

6

4

4

14

  #9

 Tropical SEO

5

3

4

12

 #10

 Small Business SEM

5

3

3

11

SEO Blogs considered: the list considers only SEO blogs that have a high percentage of SEO content. The  SEO content might range from SEO strategies, SEO link building, search engine optimization pricing to general best practices and SEO discussion forums etc.

Google Pagerank (0 to 10): the actual Google Page Rank was used in the score.

Bloglines Subscribers (0 to 10): Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., 1-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-300) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Technorati Authority (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-100, 101-200,201-300,301-400,…) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

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How to Maximize Your Return on Search Advertising Spend?

August 12th, 2010

The internet has become the primary media outlet to find, research and buy products and services today.  Media buyers and planners are constantly debating on what is the most effective way to target these audiences with digital advertising that will result in the highest conversions maximizing the return on advertising spend (ROAS) for their advertising clients. A few digital advertising agencies have the opinion that search advertising is the most effective means of  targeting audiences based on consumer intent resulting in conversions while some are of the belief that search engine optimization is the most cost effective sales channel.

However, performance marketing must mix both strategies to achieve desired results. Large and Small businesses should use  a combination of pay per click advertising and search engine optimization to drive conversions across the entire sales funnel.

The long tail

The great recession has compelled large and small businesses to operate within tight budgets and cut costs. Though pay per click ads help increase traffic to the website and have demonstrated a return on investment for most businesses, they have become expensive. One way businesses can get higher returns from PPC ads is by focusing on the long tail and determing user intent.  Long tail keywords cost less as there are fewer competitiors bidding on them and they can also help in determining user intent so the advertiser can reflect it in their dynamic ad copys and landing pages resulting in higher conversions at lower cost per clicks.

Augmenting pay per click with SEO

 Any digital advertising strategy should be augmented with relevant keyword rich website content. This strategy automatically improves the seo ranking of the website. This enables large and small businesses to appear for relevant search terms in the organic search engine results pages thereby increasing the exposure to potential target customers.

Many new age, online advertising agencies recognize the value of this combined approach and offer a combination of search engine optimization and keyword selection services to clients.

All clicks are not customers

All PPC clicks are not the same. Large and small businesses must recognize this fact and keep it in mind when building and managing search marketing campaigns. Digital advertising companies help businesses in building online campaigns by educating them on the different  tactics based on the clients objectives. For example, if an antiques business bids on the phrase that includes the location of the store + ”antiques”  to target local area traffic only, the ad copy can still appear and generate clicks that are related to users looking for antiques information or jobs but are not buyers of antiques products. Digital advertising companies can track the keyword phrases used by majority of the users searching on the antiques related keywords and help identify the buyers based on the keyword  intent so the client can maximize its return on advertising spend. 

Smart businesses look to continuously trim their advertising waste by improving their profit margins by incorporating data to evlove their digital advertising strategies.

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3 Ways A Small Business Can Beat the Double Dip Recession

August 10th, 2010

A small business can beat the double dip recession by reducing the consumption of resources, and optimizing time and money by outsourcing business functions and incorporating efficient systems.

1. Answering services

Many small businesses have downsized to maintain profit margins in the recession. However, downsizing should not affect the quality of customer service. Phone answering services make sure all calls are attended by trained personnel, basic questions and issues are addressed by them and only callers needing special information are directed to business experts. This allows small and mid sized businesses to devote more time and employee hours on revenue generation while keeping track of incoming calls that could be business leads.

2. Business VOIP

Small businesses can cut down costs drastically by replacing traditional PBX phone systems with partial or complete VOIP phone systems. Small and mid sized businesses can save on the costs of calling long distance customers, partners and suppliers,  and free up resources as only one network needs to be managed for voice and data transmission by using VOIP communication tools and conferencing technologies. Small business VOIP systems are scalable, easy to maintain, user-friendly and reliable.

3. Collection agencies

In lean times, many customers hold on to payments to maintain cash flow. Their gain is your loss. Bad debts can squeeze the life out of small or mid sized businesses as they rely on immediate payments to maintain daily operations. Collecting payments is a delicate task that takes up valuable time and resources. Small businesses can outsource the job to professional collection agencies to receive timely payments without hurting customer relationships.

These measures are relatively inexpensive and offer both short-term and long-term benefits for the business. A smart business implements timely solutions to overcome problems, and converts the solutions into opportunities of growth and profit.

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Top 5 Ways To Generate Sales Leads

August 4th, 2010

A business that hopes to expand cannot afford to be complacent and content with its existing customer base. By limiting customer outreach, businesses limit future potential income. To help with growth and sustain revenues, businesses should add to their prospect list every day. This can be achieved through effective marketing strategies that generate more qualified sales leads and conversions.

As a small business owner, you should explore several different options to expand your customer base. Businesses have successfully tried one or all of these strategies to generate leads.

1) Customer oriented marketing

There are way too many businesses out there offering products similar to yours. To make your marketing material – newspaper ad, brochure, newsletter, email, direct mail, internet ad – stand out from the crowd, you need a headline that grabs the customer’s attention instantly. How do you do this? You do this by addressing the customer’s need. A headline such as “No more bad debts” is more noticeable than “Collection Agency“. By focusing on the customer’s immediate problem, you stand a better chance of attracting attention.

2) Measure effectiveness and weed out wasteful efforts

A business usually employs more than one marketing effort to promote its products and services. But how do you know what works best? You know this by measuring the results of each marketing effort individually. Marketing involves money, time and effort, all of which are wasted for unproductive marketing tactics. For example, a web design company may find that 90% of qualified web design leads are generated through search engine optimization and pay per click advertising online. It makes sense to cutout other strategies and focus only on what delivers the best results.

3) Use your website to attract leads

Your business website is a great opportunity to influence customers. The appearance of the website should appeal to prospects and the content should convince them of your commitment to solve their problems. The web design quote should guide customers to enter the desired information in minimal number of clicks. Contact numbers, email addresses, fax numbers and inquiry forms should be clearly displayed. A user-friendly website wins customer’s favor and leads to repeat visits and recommendations.

4) Cross marketing for increased value to customers

Cross marketing is tying up with another business that sells products and services that complement what you sell. By doing this, you offer customers a complete set of services that meet all their needs and increase your own chances of making a sale. For example, website designers can build a relationship with copywriters. A green consulting firm can tie up with a company that sells energy-efficient equipment. These symbiotic relationships offer customers one-stop solutions and cost savings – an irresistible combination.

5) Address customer’s needs through questions

The goal of any marketing piece is to generate sales leads by getting customers interested in your products or services. One strategy that works well is to ask customers about their problem and provide a solution. A direct question that hits the nail on the head gets noticed immediately. For example, a question such as “Is loss of teeth making you lose your smile?” will have greater impact than “Do you need a dentist?”

Each of the above mentioned strategies work to increase sales leads. Analyze your marketing techniques and incorporate the suggestions to fill gaps. The effort will be worth the results.

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How to Choose a Credit Card Processing Service?

August 2nd, 2010

A small or mid sized business that selects a credit card processing service, solely because of its cheap merchant card processing rates, is making a grave mistake. Credit card processing fees are only a small part of the complete merchant processing solution you buy from the merchant services provider. You must evaluate the other services offered by a merchant account services provider before signing up.

Follow these guidelines to assess a credit card processing solution:

Verify the customer support

A small business may need the help of customer support often in the initial days of using the credit card machines and installed software. It is important that customer support personnel respond without delay, or you may lose the sale. A credit card processing company that has 24×7 customer support is always preferable since an immediate solution is required when you run into credit card processing issues.

Always check the quality of customer support b cuy asking for current customer references. This will give you an idea of the credit card processors attitude towards customer support, promptness of their response and what they are being charged for it.

Enquire about the security features offered for card-less transactions

Most online credit card processing agencies offer security features for card-less credit card payments to reduce the risk of credit card fraud. Security features include encryption of credit card information, address verification, IP address blocking, etc. Advanced security options make the credit card transactions safer, but may result in additional credit card processing costs. 

Understand the credit card processing fee structure

Credit card processors charge fees other than the discount fee. Make sure all the fees are included in the contract and that there are no hidden fees or ambiguous terms and conditions.

Verify the reputation

The market is full of small business credit card processing services offering cheap rates. Some of these may not be legitimate. Do not deal with a credit card processing company without checking its references. If the agency does not have any customer referrals, check out its rating with the Better Business Bureau. Any complaints or disputes against the agency should be listed here.  

Get contact names, numbers and email addresses

The merchant must have details such as the name of the credit card processor, physical address, a contact person’s name, phone number and email address. Having the contact details of other company representatives is also a good strategy to assure fast and timely response.

Contracts with credit card processing companies are usually multi-year and you would not want to be tied down with a below average merchant credit card processing company. You need to be wary of agencies that offer cheap credit card processing initially and then start springing the hidden costs. It is important to verify the reputation and research the fee structure of credit card processing leads before signing up with one that fits your business needs. A reliable and efficient credit card processor will not only help you increase sales revenues, but also provide financial protection against credit card fraud.

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SEO Basics For Performance Marketing

July 26th, 2010

The first step to building an internet presence is developing a website. Then, you need to attract customers. Performance marketing services generate qualified traffic to your website with pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization ( SEO ), social media marketing solutions etc.

The internet is a truly global marketplace with over 1 billion prospective customers online. A majority of them use Google to look for information including products and services. Studies indicate that 95% of all searches result in clicks on search results that rank on the first page of Google. SEO services focus on making your website more search-friendly and increasing its seo ranking such that your website appears on the first page for relevant searches.

How does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work?

Search engines crawl websites and index them based on several different criteria such as keywords, inbound links, etc. The search algorithms determine which websites are the most relevant for the specific search term while ranking the websites. Page ranking criteria varies based on the search engine. A website can have different page ranks on different search engines for the same search terms.

SEO companies work on websites continuously to improve page ranking; following guidelines laid down by experienced search engine marketing (SEM) experts. These best practices improve a website’s visibility in search results. Factors that contribute to make a website more search engine friendly are:

  1. keyword rich content
  2. effective website design
  3. meta tags – title, keywords and description
  4. fresh content
  5. inbound links
  6. navigability and accessibility in website structure

How do SEO services supplement online marketing efforts?

The internet is a constantly evolving media. To keep up, search engines frequently improve underlying algorithms to make search results more relevant to search terms. SEO service providers are always on the lookout for new keywords, emerging technologies, and better search engine optimization pricing models to offer website optimization. SEO services follow these steps to optimize websites:

1. Research the keywords

Finding the best keywords for a website is a complicated job. The popularity of a keyword has to be balanced with its competitiveness. At the same time, too many keywords should not be targeted or the impact of SEO will be diluted. Fortunately, search engines and websites provide keyword suggestion tools. SEO services may also have in-house tools to select the best keywords to optimize a customer’s performance marketing strategy.

2. Optimize the website content

SEO services strategically include keywords in the website content to increase its search engine relevancy. The keywords are used in headings, subheadings and paragraphs while keeping the content readable and compelling.

3. Inbound link building

Search engines favor a website that has many inbound links. It is taken to be proof of your website’s credibility and popularity. SEO services create articles in forums and related business websites, press releases for news websites that link to the customer’s website. They also try to get reputed websites in your business industry link to your website.

4. Monitor effectiveness of keywords and make changes

SEO is an ongoing project. The effectiveness of SEO has to be monitored constantly and content and keywords modified. An online perofrmance marketing strategy is incomplete without SEO. Customers trust organic search results more than paid searches. It is critical to optimize your website constantly to maintain business visibility and expand your customer base.

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Website Design Tips To Help Sales Conversions

July 21st, 2010

Millions of prospective customers surf the web daily giving small business an ideal platform for promoting and selling  products and services online. Great website design and content are key elements that determine how successful your website is in converting prospects to real customers.

Here are ten website design tips to help you build your website and increase your chances of success online.

Great copy
First impression is the last impression! Use attractive copy while building your website. It must effectively convey to customers what they can expect from your website and excite them about your products and services.

Effective headline on each page
Assign an intriguing and unique headline to every web page design on your site. Headlines should clearly explain the content that follows on the web page, arouse interest and make visitors want to investigate further.

Attractive website design to sustain interest
Make your website design attractive and appealing to encourage visitors to explore your products and services. A sense of appeal , elegance and mystery sustains visitor interest and ensures repeat visits to your site. The more appealing your website is to visitors, the greater your chances of turning visitors into customers.  

Persuasive language
Content tone, style and chosen copy have a significant impact on visitor perceptions about your website. Positive, persuasive and convincing language can turn even the most skeptical visitors into loyal customers while esoteric, overly exaggerated or dumbed down language can greatly lower your chances of conversion.

Clear and concise subheadings
Subheadings, popularly known as subheads, allow your customers to browse through information quickly and find what they need. Ensure your subheads are clear and concise, facilitate easy scanning of web page content and follow logically from page headlines.

Easy readability
Website content must be easy to read and understand. Avoid the use of overly technical or flowery language and poor color combinations that prevent smooth reading of content. The content should follow a logical sequence on a web page and between web pages for maximum impact.

Compelling offer and discounts
Sales or discount offers on products and services must be very visible on your site. If you do not allow customers to easily find products and services on sale, they will turn their attention to other websites, even if you have the best offers in town.

Get the word of mouth publicity
A great website can convince your customers that your business is the best place to spend their money. Impressed and satisfied visitors can help you find many new customers through free word of mouth publicity and greatly increase your sales and website success.

Add unique content
Use customer logos,  images and testimonials to establish your credibility and quality of service to new visitors. Complements help to capture visitor attention and favorably incline them towards your website, products and services.

Add Shopping cart 
If you plan to sell products or services online, add an e-commerce shopping cart to your website so that consumers can buy your products and services online, without having to step into your retail store front.

Compare website design pricing
Compare website development pricing by reaching out to multiple web designers and shopping your business requirements.

Follows these website design tips to maximize the chances of online success, increase revenues and turn your website into a profitable sales channel. 

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E-commerce Shopping Cart – A Blessing for Small Business

July 19th, 2010

E-commerce shopping cart is helping small business recover from the deep recession of 2008-2009, by helping them sell products through e-commerce websites and reduce the overhead costs resulting in extracting healthy profit margins. The crash of 2009 saw almost $44 billion spent on e-commerce shopping carts. And this astonishing figure is still growing at a rapid pace. The success of e-commerce as a business model can be attributed to the efficiency and convenience in buying online.

Increasing number of businesses are launching e-commerce websites as the internet is an ideal sales channel requiring no administrative staff, real estate or sales personnel. E-commerce web hosting services take away the IT overhead by offering pay as you go services for data storage and management while e-commerce shopping cart solutions handle transactions and payments.

E-commerce websites work perfectly in all markets

Most businesses have suffered the consequences of the economic crisis and are running low on funds and resources. It is to the business’ advantage to save on infrastructure and administrative costs. The internet has made the market global and competition is fierce. Businesses are compelled to tighten profit margins to stay in the market. E-commerce websites offer the perfect solution for businesses to increase sales while reducing costs.  E-commerce solutions allows businesses to be flexible where they can alter the offers, product combinations, and advertising strategies on the website at the drop of a hat.  E-commerce hosted solutions help internet businesses take advantage of evolving technology and changing internet models with minimal investment.

Hosted e-commerce solutions offer holistic e-commerce services

E-commerce website design is critical as it is the gateway through which customers can access business products and services. E-commerce companies work with businesses to create a professional website design. Apart from providing online advertising services and designing the structure of the web outlet, e-commerce hosting providers:

  1. take over IT and administrative operations
  2. deal with warehousing and inventory management
  3. offer afforable web design quotes
  4. search engine optimization tips
  5. search engine optimization pricing

E-commerce companies allow businesses to focus their time, effort and money on the improvement of their goods and services.

Maturing of e-commerce business models

E-commerce businesses have shown remarkable strength in the global economic slowdown. E-commerce websites have supported businesses by ensuring a revenue stream at a time when funds are low and costs are high. Web outlets help save further by taking away IT and administrative overheads.

Customers turn to e-commerce websites looking for competitive rates.  E-commerce outlets are cheaper as they offer more compelling bargains than their retail counterparts do. Customers also save on the time and cost of driving to retail store fronts.

The upward swing in e-commerce shopping during the 2009 slowdown is an indication of the success of e-commerce solutions and their arrival in the market.  At a time when many businesses are bearing the brunt of the credit squeeze, e-commerce businesses are growing at around 15%, a figure that promises to keep going up.

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