Example Site Wednesday: Special Earth Day Edition

Happy Example Site Wednesday Everyone!

With International Earth Day just a few days away, we thought it would be amazing to showcase one of our websites that is helping to save our beautiful earth!

Our Example Site Wednesday comes from Simply Birgit that provides organic, raw and fair trade skin care products.  Let’s take a look at their website, because the simplistic yet sophisticated beauty of this site is extraordinary.

Simply Birgit does a great job of showcasing their products by proudly displaying images of top products front and center on the homepage. This simple action allows visitors to quickly understand what the website is about and sets expectations of available products and their look. The skin care products found on this site are raw and natural, so to capture that essence Simply Birgit created a simple website that, like her products does not feature any unnecessary ingredients that throw off the main objective. We also love the ‘Call-To-Action’ message on the homepage; it is clear, straight to the point and invokes a specific reaction.

The most important reason why we all should start using eco-friendly products is because of the devastating effect of harmful gases, non-biodegradable materials, and dangerous gases which pollute our environment. It is our responsibility to take care of this planet, and we all should do our part to help make Earth a better place not only for ourselves but the animals as well. We commend the job Simply Birgit is doing by providing organic products that come wrapped in 100% biodegradable packing materials.

Earth Day is a reminder that we ALL need to work together to REDUCE pollution, REUSE paper and plastic and RECYCLE our wastes.

Thanks for checking in!

Tune in next Wednesday

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Example Site Wednesday: Boogiebabys + Tips to Enhance the Appeal of Your Products

Happy Example Site Wednesday! This Wednesday we are bringing to you a delectable website that features a successful family oriented business that strives to make the world a beautiful place with each creation. Boogiebabys makes personalized hand-crafted, wedding cake toppers, decorative figurines, wall letters, name plaques and keepsake decorative greeting cards.

The site owner does a great job of providing clear information on the services the website offers and the quality of materials utilized to create their products.  Additionally the website offers special promotions,  FAQ’s page and much more.  Attention to such little details is what helps to enhance the overall website visitor experience.  Looking to improve your website experience?

Be The Customer:  In order to provide value to your customer, you must put yourself in their “shoes”.  When coming to your website, what are customers looking for? What type of information would help them make the purchasing decision? What could showcase your product better? Simple questions such as these can help you figure out ways you can improve HOW website visitors/potential customers view your products. Quick Tip: Think of ways you can organize your products into organized categories to help customers find what they need on the go. Make sure that your pricing and shipping information is easily located and descriptive of what is and isn’t included.Special Offers: Creating a page where you advertise special product discounts can help push conversation rates with customers who are in limbo about whether they should purchase from you or not. You can also utilize a blog or a forum page to bring attention to relevant news pertaining to the products you offer. Information t hat is updated on regular basis  can be a great way to keep customers checking in on your website just to see what new deals you are unraveling.Strong Foundation: Make sure that you utilize the correct pages offered by Webs to enhance your products and help your customers find out everything they need to know before making a purchase. Here is some information on pages that are essential for a successful small business website.

Quick tweaks to your website can make a big impact on its overall look and feel.

See you NEXT Wednesday!

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Example Site Wednesday: Adventure Maine + Website Enhancement Tips

This Wednesday we are going to be featuring an adventurous website that shows how you can utilize inbound links to drive your website traffic. Our featured website is Adventure Maine, where you can go to find out the many attractions Maine has to offer.

This website is chock full of information about the many things to do in Maine, and today we would like to offer a few suggestions to take this website to the next level:

Simplicity can help drive interaction. While a lot of relevant content is important for a website to rank well in search engines, it is important to strike a balance between content and usability. As you look at the homepage, you can see a lot going on and it can be hard for site visitors to know where to go. Discover few tips on how to simplify your homepage.Alignment can help improve readability.  Did you know that a simple step of ensuring that items are aligned and easy to view on your website can improve your website readability? Thus our next tip for this website would be to ensure all content is centered and spaced correctly. Clear content can help to make your website call-to-action stand out more.  Learn how to build a call to action that can boost conversion rates.Intuitive navigation can boost retention rates. If website visitors can’t quickly and easily locate specific information they are more likely to leave your website and head for the nearest competitor. Deter this from happening by simplifying your navigation bar. 3 Tips for a more intuitive website navigation.

Take today as a reflection day to look over your website one more time to see if you can apply the above mentioned tips to improve your website interaction, readability and retention rates. Think your website has what it takes to be showcased next week? Comment below!

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Example Site Wednesday: The Bead Place + Tips to boost your e-commerce website

Posted by Ryan on March 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

It’s WEDNESDAY and that means…. (HMMMMM…) YES you guessed it!  Example Site Wednesday! Today we present to you http://www.beadplace.net/ , where you can always find the perfect accessory for every occasion.

 “More than seven out of 10 internet users are online buyers” –EMarketer.com

What makes The Bead Place such a wonderful website is the simplicity and usability of their online store. The homepage header includes the logo (placed in the left hand side) as well as a large and clear title. The main image shows a picture of the inside of their store, showing some of the most popular products they have to offer. The background contrasts smoothly with the main content of the site and creates a creative and serene mood for users. If you take a look at the navigational links you can see that “shop” is the first link under the homepage, inviting users to go there first. They use the video section of their website to upload videos of tutorials for customers to learn new innovative techniques. The calendar section shows all of the upcoming classes, which are available for users to comment and view. There is also a Guestbook section that allows customers to leave testimonials and reviews of the store and the products.

Tips on how to give your e-commerce website a little boost:

Simplify Product Description: Using simple to read product descriptions can help improve your conversion rates as opposed to providing only manufacturers description of the product. Additionally, including tips in your product description, like telling users if they would need any tools to better use your product, can help to set expectations of potential customers and decrease customer service inquiries.Improve Image Quality: Using high quality vibrant photos can help to make your products look enticing and attractive to potential customers.  Discover other ways graphics can help enhance your website.Create a Clear Site Flow: Providing potential customers with clear paths to helpful how-to videos/blog posts can help to elivitate common question and help to build your site credibility. The Bead Place, for example deals with customers who may not know how to sew or create jewelry. So they included many media resources that show potential customers how they could use their products. Learn 6 Essential Characteristics of a Business Website.Customer Service: Make sure that you give accurate and clear details about your business. The easier a customer can contact you, the easier it is for a customer to purchase from you. Create a relationship with your customers as well; try to form a system where you can follow-up with them 3-4 days after product arrives. Find out if the product matched the description that you gave them and if there were any stages of confusion as they moved around your website. This shows that you prioritize your customers and can help you learn more about the way you customers operate.

The world of ecommerce is growing at a fast rate, according to eMarketer “From 2010 to 2015, nearly 30 million consumers will join the ranks of online buyers”. With so many people buying products online, the importance of a simplified buying process that accurately showcases products is becoming more important. The Bead Place is an excellent example of how to use your website to relate with your customer and increase sales.

Do you have a great looking website? Post below for a chance to be chosen as our next week’s example website!

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Example Site Wednesday: Rags to Riches Dog Spa + Product/Service Credibility Tips

Posted by Irina on March 14, 2012 | 2 Comments »

This Wednesday we present you with a well organized site that exemplifies how to effectively leverage the quality of your product/service. Rags to Riches Dog Spa is a professional mobile dog grooming service started by Kelly, an avid animal lover. Kelly felt that every dog client should have her UNDIVIDED attention, leaving clients feeling satisfied with the service she provides. Her passion for the business translates into the design and feel of the website.

Rags to Riches Dog Spa website clearly communicate its purpose. Furthermore, the color scheme of the website utilizes 2 primary colors that blend well creating a unique brand identity without distracting visitors from the main content. When it comes to the psychology of colors, purple means royalty and yellow tends to represent cheerfulness so what better color scheme to represent her slogan “Your Dog Is Treated Like Royalty”.

Another thing that the website owner does well is the ability to communicate her strong product knowledge and dedication to services offered.

Here are some tips that can help your small business website showcase your product/service superiority:

Theme Is Key – Make sure you take a look at the psychology of colors and find out what emotions and traits colors mean. Figure out which colors coordinate best with the subject of your website that run congruent with the personality of your business. Do not use more than three main colors as a color scheme; the key is to set the mood not to distract your visitors. Setting the mood is very important because it allows visitors to feel comfortable, which means they’ll stay on your website longer. Discover other design elements that impact the quality of your website.Quality photography - A simple way to increase visual appeal is to use high quality photography for your products/services. You can also use pictures to go along with your content to help you drive your point better, be mindful not to overload pages with too many photos that take away from the main content. Learn how to use graphics to enhance your website.Simplicity - Be clear and direct when you talk about your services, don’t try to impress visitors with overwhelming animations and huge words. When you think of your web content try to think of the EASIEST way you can word your services so that anyone can comprehend your site with ease. Simplicity can help you add additional value to your website.Personal “About Me” - A personal “About Me” page will help you to connect with visitors on an emotional level that gives insights into who you are, your interests and visions for your business. This emotional connection builds trust, loyalty and confidence in your skills as well as your product or service.Brand Strength - Make sure you are keeping current with your website and updating your site with reviews and awards that your business receives. Everyone can rave about themselves, but having others praise your product and service helps to establish the strength of your online brand. 5 tips to market your new website.

Take time to create an image of your ideal customer and keep them in mind when mapping out the flow for your website. Be sure to include information that is beneficial to your website visitors and potential customers and helps to relay information about products/services you provide.

Happy Site Building!

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Example Site Wednesday: Scarab Pictures + Website Personality 101

Posted by Ryan on March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

When you are walking into a building for the first time, you automatically begin to think about your feelings about the establishment. Websites work in the same way, when visitors come to your site they are formulating an impression of you or your organization. In order to land a strong impression your website has to display a sense of pizzazz and style that can keep visitors interested in the main content of your website. This week’s Example Site Wednesday belongs to Scarab Pictures, a delightful website made by an artistically intuitive freelance photographer named Claire. Claire has created a website that not only showcases her talents, but does it in a way that is very innovational and original.

“I’ll make an image out of anything, everything can be beautiful if you look at it a little differently.”
- Claire

Claire has created a website that not only showcases her talents, but does it in a way that is very innovational and original.

The homepage message is clear and direct to the overall purpose of the website. The navigational links are personal and positioned neatly. The ‘About Me’ and ‘Contact Me’ links have been changed to ‘Who I Am’ and ‘Write To Me’ to not only stand out, but place a personal touch to the website. Doing so helps to invite users to explore. The ‘Links’ page extends external links to her colleagues within her profession; this is a great way to establish a back linking relationship that can help your site receive more hits. The color scheme for her website sets a calm and serene atmosphere that openly welcomes you into further navigating through her website.  If you take a look at her blog, you can see that Claire keeps her blog relevant and with each post Claire uproots a deeper beauty of life.

Personality is very important in not only making your website stand out, but in establishing a personal relationship with visitors.

Tips to help add/showcase personality to your website:

Passage- Try to improve the passage, in which a visitor navigates throughout your website, you do not want a homepage that pulls users into too many directions. Offer a clear message of your purpose and lead them to the next destination of your site.Supporting Cast- Backgrounds for your site are not meant to be the highlight of your website. Try to make sure your background does not distract visitors and take them away from the main content of your site. A good background sets the mood for your site and makes sure your visitors eyes are easily directed to the main content of your website.Revise Other Web Content- Looking at other competing websites is a good method of gauging your website’s creativity level. Give your competitors an honest creativity review; figure out ways you can customize your website to be different from your competitors.Storytelling- Try to compose your web content on your pages like a story, like all stories there is a beginning, middle and end. Make sure that the beginning draws your visitors in, the middle effectively covers your main objective and your end has a clear ‘Call to Action’ message.Atmosphere- Build a good atmosphere so first time website visitors can experience an amazing first impression when they enter your site. There are certain elements that can help you build a good atmosphere such as, text font, colors, organization and unique content. Think of a great atmosphere that runs parallel to you or your organization, a good atmosphere can increase the time a user stays on your site.

The blueprint to becoming creative is to be yourself, whether you own a business, group or own a website for personal reasons. There is no better determining factor of creativity than uniqueness, so do not be afraid to do what it takes to stand out.

Until Wednesday rolls around again,

HAPPY SITE BUILDING!

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Example Site Wednesday: Bows for Hope + How to Improve Website Usability

Posted by Ryan on February 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »

This week’s Example Site Wednesday comes from a beautiful website dedicated to selling adorable duct tape bows to raise money for a cancer charity foundation, Bows for Hope. This website provides an excellent example of how a simplistic homepage can help you capitalize on your unique web traffic.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.”

-Albert Einstein

Bows For Hope is an organization started by Lauren Chelenza, a 13 year old, who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) in 2009. She sells bows made of duct tape that come in many creative designs for $1.50, and all proceeds are donated to the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation. Lauren first started out selling her bows in school, and to date she has raised thousands of dollars for her cause.

Within seconds of visiting Bows For Hope, you are greeted with an warm angelic design that directs you to the main content of the site. The content is straight forward and allows visitors to comprehend the objective of the site instantly. Right below the main paragraph is a ‘Call to Action’ message that is a personal statement directly from the founder of the site. The navigational links are placed on the left side of the site, and the links are precise and easy to read.

Whether you have an e-commerce or personal site, it is very important to improve the visitor experience of your site. Here are some reasons why a SIMPLER site will improve website usability:

Accessibility: Think about the visitors who come to your site who may be using a special tool or program to view your site. There will be users who may have trouble seeing, or maybe blind and they utilize a tool to read aloud your site. A simple design will make it easier for your site to be accessible by anyone.Speed: Having fewer things to load makes your site much faster, and we all know how important page loading is in the overall user experience.Improved Navigation: Make sure that your menu is easily accessible and well organized; users should be able to effectively find exactly which page they are looking for without opening unnecessary links. Try to place navigational links either as the top header or on the left side of your site, those are the first places where users look. Make sure the links are in order by most popular to least popular, and that they are easy to understand.Clear Message: Users come to your websites for a purpose, and if they cannot meet their objective in a reasonable amount of time they will leave. Your homepage needs to have a direct message that tells your users they will meet their objectives on your site. It may be beneficial to ask a question about your website or company and answer it with a clear short paragraph. If a user has to analyze a confusing homepage to find out the clear message, more than likely they will be gone within the first 10 seconds of coming to your site.Mobile Access: A simpler design means that Smartphones will be able to access your full site features.

Lauren has been given a second chance at life and takes great pride in knowing that she has generated thousands of dollars for the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation, an organization that is near and dear to her heart. We invite you to view her website and check out her beautiful bows and learn more about her story.

Until Next Wednesday,

HAPPY SITE BUILDING !

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Example Site Wednesday: How Webs Users are Taking a Stance Against SOPA & PIPA

Posted by Irina on January 18, 2012 | 2 Comments »

January 18, 2012 will now be known as the day internet companies took a stance in the largest internet protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) bills. Today we would like to showcase how some Webs.com users are taking their freedom of speech to express their points of view on these bills:

Creators of pinkmoonwebdesign.com decided to redirect their website today to http://sopastrike.com/:

While the creator of AG Lovers has put up a tombstone over their website:

Some are taking a less aggressive stance by posting custom made banners:

Learn more about these bills and how you can take a stance.

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Example Site Wednesday: Pimp My Cake with Mama Rhu + Guidelines for Showcasing Your Business Personality

Posted by Irina on February 1, 2012 | 15 Comments »

Our weekly tradition dictates a showcase of another awesome Webs website. Today we are showcasing a fun website from the UK:  Pimp My Cakes with Mama Rhu. What makes this website stand out above the rest this week is the website owner’s dedication to not only showcasing their products, but also her letting her personality and enthusiasm for her business shine through on every single page on the website.

What can you take away from the creator of this website? As a small business it’s perfectly acceptable to showcase your personality to help you and your business stand out from the competition. For this site, “Mama Rhu” lets her site visitors know she’s serious (but has a good time) about her cake decorating business.

Guidelines for Showcasing Your Business Personality

Your business personality should support your business growth both externally and internally.Don’t get too personal, but do show your enthusiasmShowcase your passion for what you do.Be yourself.Show how much you are dedicated to  customer satisfaction

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Example Site Wednesday: Alpha Wrestling League

Posted by Irina on February 22, 2012 | 7 Comments »

Today’s Example Site Wednesday goes to an action packed, adrenaline filled website that exemplifies how to keep your website interactive and fun. The Alpha Wrestling League is an online role playing website dedicated to fantasy. The strength of this site is the interactive engagement which allows for anyone across the globe to combine creative energy to produce an amazing user experience.

This site is entering their 2nd month of existence and already has accumulated an amazing and loyal following. AWL’s forum has over 2800+ posts and is home to over 50 members. If you would like to gain similar gains in user interactivity, it is important that you make your site as user friendly as possible.

Here are some tips that will help to keep users glued to your site and grow your site activity:

Don’t Be A Stranger: Open up a forum post that offers users a place to voice their opinions or suggestions to make your site better, give all of your users a sense of ownership to your site.  Furthermore, you can encourage forum interactions by responding to posted issues/comments and asking thought provoking questions.Be Consistent: Keep your site updated with new media, blog or forum posts on a consistent basis. Give your users a reason to check your website on a daily basis. New content will not only give your visitors reasons to keep coming back, it will also provide a way for site visitors to get to know you better. The more they feel comfortable on your site, the more willing they are to become interactive.Keep it Simple: Make sure your layout is neat and organized; the key is to allow users to navigate your site with ease. So make sure your header links are accurate and are easily visible and your layout is consistent throughout your site. You can simplify and improve your website navigation by utilizing drop-down menus. Make your content easy to read by using bulleted lists and short paragraphs.

There are many tricks that you can pull away from AWL to keep users buzzing about your content. Interactive content with positive atmosphere can help you go a long way towards success when it comes to website building.

No matter what kind of website you are creating, there are many features that are available for you to use to make your site easy and fun to use. Website hospitality goes a long way in ensuring a relationship with tremendous longevity between you and your website visitors.

As always,

HAPPY SITE BUILDING!

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