If you’ve ever studied what makes businesses successful, you may have encountered the concept of the “slight edge.” In the world of websites and blogs, that means it isn’t always the big flashy websites and blogs that get the business, but the smart, well-designed sites that anticipate what your visitors need and want, and supply it to them.

Sometimes that means a well-placed graphic, or text with highlights that make your point stand out, or subtly-placed credit card logos that reassure people that they’ll be able to afford your product or service.

This coming Tuesday night, June 15th, at 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern time, I’m going to show you one of my web design secret weapons for placing these kinds of cool features where they will do the most good. Here are some things we’ll cover:

• Adding backgrounds and border to text with a simple set of instructions you create once, and use again and again.
• Adding hyperlinks to a newsletter or long web page that jump within a page and back again.
• Putting an image on a website, blog, or ezine someplace OTHER than the top left corner. It could be your photo, a set of credit card logos, a Copydoodle, a BUY button, or any other kind of image!
• Adding an opt-in box or a block of contact info to your website without having to copy and paste it 14 times.
• Placing audio buttons and video frames anywhere on the page and having the text wrap around them.
• Creating FAQ pages whose questions appear in a list while answers show or hide when you click the button. I have 2 versions to show you!

Simply click the red Register button at right, and you’ll be taken to the registration page. You’ll then receive an email with the GoToWebinar link. Complete the GoToWebinar registration form, to receive your customized Join link, and you’re done!

I’ll see you Tuesday, June 15th at 6 pm Pacific time, 9 pm Eastern time!

Thanks!

Toolie®

Thinking about making changes to your websites or blogs, but not sure what might improve them? Got a gnarly issue that keeps popping up on your site that you’d like to get fixed once and for all? What about adding some new pages, a new widget, a new opt-in box? Need help figuring out how to squeeze in the changes and balance everything?

This coming Wednesday night, May 26th, at 5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern time, you can get answers to these questions on-the-spot during my free “Website and Blog Makeover Night.” Whether you just want a second opinion or you’d like me to look at code and offer suggestions, this is your chance to get technical help, so that you can have the websites and blogs you want.

Simply click the big red button in the box at right to go to the webinar sign up page. When you get to the GoToWebinar registration form, enter the URL of the website or blog you’d like me to review. If I can show you how to fix your issue during my review, I will be happy to do so. We can also meet later to discuss a plan to make the updates.

I will review as many websites and blogs as I can during the 90 minutes, in order of registration. I will also be revealing some new websites and programs of my own that are designed to further support your web-savvy education, so you won’t want to miss those details!

So sign up by clicking the big red button in the box at right, and I’ll see you Wednesday, May 26th at 5 pm Pacific time, 8 pm Eastern time!

Thanks!

Toolie

HTML Emails (e-zines, newsletters, email broadcasts) can be a great way to showcase your business, especially for markets that care about a professional appearance in every aspect of the business. However, having an email template that doesn’t LOOK like YOUR business can be a drawback! With a little HTML and CSS knowledge, you can create an email template that delivers not only your message but also enhances your brand recognition.

Unlike creating an HTML page, you can’t rely on a Cascading Style Sheet to control the appearance of your HTML emails, so you have to do a little planning and embed CSS instructions in the HTML tags. It’s not at all hard to do, you just need to pay attention to details, as always.

On Thursday night February 25th at 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern time, we’ll look at exactly how you “Brand Your Emails with Custom Templates.” I’ll take you behind the scenes of those pre-fab email templates and show you how you can attach YOUR colors and images so your customer list recognizes YOUR message among all their emails.

If you’ve never attended one of my webinars, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the practical, hands-on, how-to nature of my demonstrations. You’ll learn a lot, and you’ll feel empowered to handle tasks like this yourself.

I will also go over the details of my “I Can Fix My Website” training product, coaching program, and membership website during the webinar. 

Sign up for the webinar by clicking the button in the box on the right, even if you’re not sure you can attend. Don’t worry, this webinar WILL be recorded, so you can view it later, but I need your signup so I can send you the link to the recording.

I’ll see you on February 25th at 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern time!

Reason 1 – Saving Money on Your Monthly Online Budget

Now we’re down to the number 1 reason to manage your websites and blogs: money. It’s simply less expensive to learn how to handle most website and blog tasks than it is to pay someone to do them for you.

The most obvious cost to your business is any ongoing website or blog maintenance you’re paying to a web designer. I’ve heard from clients that they’ve spent anywhere from $75 to $600 a month on maintenance. The difference in pricing is related to the amount of work done in those contracts.

• A $75 a month charge included 1 major update a month, in this case, my speakers association chapter adding their monthly meeting to the site. 
• The $600/month charge was for website hosting, maintenance, and keyword optimization; that’s what my dentist pays to maintain his page 1 Google status in his geographic area.

I hope your webmaster costs are either zero or somewhere between those two numbers!

What other costs might there be? Well, you remember the true story of my client whose website was shut down by a disgruntled team member, yes? She directly lost revenue because her website wasn’t available. It would have been difficult on short notice for her to replace the site she had planned, but if she’d had control of her domain, she could have pointed it to an alternate site until things were resolved.

What about creating opportunities BECAUSE you have HTML and CSS skills? The Internet likes speed! Being able to come up with a custom page on your website or blog that specifically addresses a new opportunity provides a huge advantage over your competitors who can’t or don’t provide such targeted information.

In fact, imagine being able to send to a prospect in email the URL of a specially created web page on your website. Wouldn’t you sit up and take notice if I said I have a message just for you at  such-and-such a page? With a simple tool, I created custom pages with individual names on them  for the folks on my mailing list, using a simple HTML page and a tool that merges names into those web pages. Like so many other highly-targeted messages, custom web pages have a big impact. And this technique is easy and inexpensive to do. (sample here)

So with basic HTML and CSS skills, you can not only save maintenance costs, you can create opportunities for new business in targeted, memorable ways. I hope by now that you’re all out of excuses now for putting off  earning something that can make you money.

It’s time! The product is now available for purchase. There’s no time like the beginning of a new year to make a difference in your business by learning HTML and CSS. Head on over to http://www.ICanFixMyWebsite.com and
get all the details of this program. I look forward to working with you in our coaching sessions, and getting 2010 off to a great start.

The “I Can Fix My Website” program is up and running! Get your copy right now at http://www.ICanFixMyWebsite.com.

Toolie®

Reason 5 – HTML/CSS Skills for More Than Just Web Pages and Blog Posts

When I showed the first draft of my website training product to my mentor 2 years ago, he sent it back saying, “where’s the Internet Marketing information?” He was absolutely right. There’s no point in putting a business website or blog on the Internet unless you plan to do the necessary homework and preparations to turn your website or blog into an Internet cash-producing machine. The days of “having a website to have a website” and “if you build it they will come” are long past. You must be attentive to and proactive with your sites to attract the customers you want. You want to make it easy for them to contact you, and if applicable, enable them to buy online.

In my “I Can Fix My Website” training program, we start with HTML and CSS skills to learn how to build a website (the skills also apply to blogs). Before we even begin, though, we start with keyword research. When someone types a search into Google, Yahoo, or MSN (the big 3), they’re typing the words and phrases that are meaningful to them. You’d better know what those phrases are before you build your site. You don’t need to subscribe to a keyword research service like Wordtracker (though I’d recommend it for at least one month while you’re planning), but you must know what words your customers think of when they go looking for you. They don’t always use the right vocabulary for your product, service, or profession, so you must include the words and phrases THEY use, as well as the correct keywords and phrases.

But there’s more to Internet Marketing than just keywords. And there’s more to having a website or blog that markets for you than just the site itself. The initial “currency” of your site is your email list. How are you going to collect your emails and build your list without the opt-in box AND the sequence of pages that ensure that they complete the opt-in loop? What if you decide to give away a free report or downloadable product? Do you know how to create a squeeze page, and its accompanying thank-you page and autoresponder?

These are specialized pages that you could create using your existing web page template. However, one of the keys to a successful opt-in sequence is not allowing for other choices on the page (with certain exceptions). You will have a better opt-in rate if, when they arrive at the “squeeze” page, you limit or eliminate other things they could do on the page. If they see your website or blog navigation and can go elsewhere on your site, you miss out on capturing their email while their curiosity is highest. Do you know how to create a custom page for this purpose? You can learn how. It is NOT difficult: my course will teach you how.

HTML email templates are another item that many marketers use online. They’re an attractive way to deliver your message, but those templates are also fraught with layout problems. I learned recently in working with one of my clients that some of the online web-based email programs almost shred the layout of a typical HTML email if you don’t know how to set up the template to keep it together. Because of my skills, I was able to research the issues and set up an HTML Email template for my client (and one for myself) that still look good in programs like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Windows Live Mail. (Those of you who read my emails using those programs have probably already noticed how much better my HTML emails look now!)

The “I Can Fix My Website” training product comes with a free 3-month membership to my support forum. If you have questions or problems with your email templates, your site, your squeeze pages, your autoresponders, your graphics, or anything else related to building your site, you’re going to be able to post your issue online and get answers right away. You can also research solutions that I’ve provided to other members, not to mention having access to my virtual “Rolodex®” of website and blog tools, links to good scripts, and lists of recommended utility websites to support you as you build and customize your sites.

It just makes sense to learn HTML and CSS: they’re your ticket to building and maintaining the websites and blogs that work to bring you paying customers. My course will teach you those skills quickly and easily.

Tomorrow: Reason 4 – Making Changes to Your Site on YOUR Schedule

Toolie®

When I describe what I do to folks who are not business owners or who don’t operate on the Internet, they’re baffled. “There are plenty of free website templates out there: do you have customers for what you do?”

Yes, absolutely. If you’ve spent any time on the Internet trying to attract customers, you quickly discover that simply putting a website up is not enough. You can set up a website or a blog and have it live in relative obscurity for months, even years. I know this from personal experience…!

“You don’t need to learn HTML to have a website.” That’s true as long as you don’t have a preference as to whether the website is blue or brown or purple. Perhaps you don’t mind that your website looks like the 762 other websites using the same template. However, when you begin to develop a brand for your business and you want your sites to reflect your brand, your colors, your logo, you will start to care very much.

“Have your web designer add this, (and this, and this) to your site.” Why do the experts say use this phrase? Because the assumption is that you as website or blog owner are not willing to learn HTML or Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) skills necessary to make the changes yourself. Perhaps not at first; but as time passes and your sites sit in cyber-obscurity, your priorities change. You can certainly choose to depend on your web designer to make updates, but why not learn how to do the simple things? It makes fiscal sense, and your site updates will certainly move along a lot faster. And on the Internet, fast updates are the name of the game.

When it comes to marketing over the Internet, you need more than just a website or a blog. You’re going to want to create squeeze/opt-in pages, confirmation and thank-you pages, custom HTML for the top and bottom of your shopping cart pages, and of course, pages where you post downloads or giveaways. You can certainly copy and paste from existing pages, but are you confident that you know what to add and what to remove without breaking the template?

There are plenty of things you can do to attract traffic to your site. And what do they usually involve? More often than not, it’s jumping into the HTML or CSS to make changes. The good news is that HTML and CSS are a lot simpler than you think. They’re detailed, but they are not difficult. And that’s where my business is: showing entrepreneurs, virtual assistants, and small business owners a simple method for learning the HTML and CSS they need to feel confident and be competent to work on their own sites.

I’ll have more to say on this subject in the weeks to come. Stay tuned for more of my gentle truth-telling…

Meanwhile, be sure to sign up for Thursday night’s Free Website and Blog Makeover Webinar.

You know it’s coming…the New Year. You can tell because the frenzy over Holiday shopping has begun. Not long after that, the January will arrive, and you’re going to be thinking about how to make 2010 even better than 2009.

On Thursday December 3rd, I can have a look at your websites and blogs and offer you suggestions on how to enhance them to attract and keep more visitors. I’m having another one of my acclaimed “Website and Blog Makeover Nights” and you’re invited! We’ll start at 6:00 pm Pacific and wrap up by 7:30 pm. You can sign up for the webinar by clicking on the ad on the right to sign up for the webinar.

You can supply the URL of a website or blog you want evaluated, or just join us to follow along. Either way, you’re certain to get ideas by observing other sites. The webinar will be recorded, so sign up even if you’re not sure you can attend.

I’ll also be going over the ways you can use my Holiday Sale 30% Off Website and Blog Coaching to get ready for the New Year. While everyone else is distracted by holiday preparations, you have a perfect opportunity to spruce up your sites and get off to a great start in 2010.

Click here or on the red Webinar ad on the right to sign up.

See you Thursday night!

Toolie®

Social Media has everyone’s attention these days — Facebook, Twitter, Social Bookmarking, and so on. There’s no doubt that you can benefit from participating in social media. You can even put icons, badges, and feeds on your websites and blogs to encourage your visitors to engage with you. Did you notice the new icon in the left column? That’s a Twitter badge.

On Tuesday night, November 17th at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific, I’m having a f~r~e~e webinar on HOW to install social media on your websites and blogs: how to decide what’s appropriate, where to put the information, and exactly how to install it.

Putting social media icons and feeds on your websites and blogs is not difficult, it just requires some attention to detail, and I can help you with that. I’ll explain the HTML that Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed are so eager to have you install, and we’ll make it happen right there, live!

I’ll also be previewing my new website training course that evening, so be sure not to miss this webinar.

Save the date: November 17th, 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific, and click the button on the right to sign up! This webinar WILL be recorded and available to everyone who signs up for the webinar.

Toolie®

This is one of the most common requests I get from my clients: how do I change the blog header? It’s a good question too: unless you’ve had a custom template created for you, most blog owners will head over to the appearance section to figure out how to customize their template.

There are several issues involved in changing the header:

• The actual size of the header graphic
• Whether the graphic is actually in one piece or multiple pieces
• If the template layered the graphic elements on top of each other
• Whether or not you intend to keep the same colors and fonts
• Whether you’re going to use text for your blog title or embed the blog title in the replacement graphic.

I’m going to address all of these issues in my upcoming webinar, “The Online Marketer’s Guide to Web-Savvy Graphics” on June 3, 2009 at 5 pm Pacific time. I’ll have demos on how to find where the graphics are and how to determine the correct blog header replacement size, as well as other customizations that can be done.

I’ve customized my own blog templates (3 of them) in addition to customizations for a half-dozen client blogs, so I’m well familiar with tracking down how to make customizations work correctly. It’s a challenge but well worth the effort.

Click the Web-Savvy Graphics banner ad on the right to join me for the webinar, or click here: http://www.fixmywebsiteplease.com/webgraphics. See you on Wednesday, June 3rd!

Toolie®

I’ve been kind of quiet lately because I’ve been shuffling websites, blogs, and databases from one web server to another. That’s an education, I can tell you! It’s amazing how many files can build up when you’re working on a websites, especially graphics and images. I ended up not only moving my websites but also doing a digital version of spring cleaning.

I’ve been through the same scenario you have: you add a photo but it’s not the right size, so you resize and upload a new one. Pretty soon you have 3 or 4 versions of a file, all with different names that you leave there “just in case.”

Over time I’ve developed a technique to help sort out the files I”m working with during those “tweaking” periods. When I upload a graphic or a photo that is sized down from the original, I add the size and bit-depth to the filename so I can see at a glance what I’m doing. For example, I name a photo “WhatItIs-175pxW-150PPI.jpg”. I use the same title (“WhatItIs”) for each iteration of the file, and then the number of pixels wide (“175pxW”) followed by the pixels per inch (“15oPPI”). You could put both width and height, but I just use width because I spend most of my time adjusting widths of files, and letting Photoshop determine the height proportionally.

Why do I use this file naming? It saves me time if I’ve gone through several iterations. In Windows on my hard drive, I can view the files as thumbnails or mouse over a filename to see the dimensions, but I can’t do either with my FTP program. I save myself a lot of hassles by using this naming convention both locally on the server. You can use upper and lowercase in your filenaming, but remember that on most web servers, everything after the “.com/” is case-sensitive. Also, avoid, avoid, AVOID using spaces in the filenames. Some programs won’t “see” the files if there are spaces in the filenames.

Got a website tip? Feel free to add yours as a comment below.