7 Effective Homepage Tips that will have your Visitors Begging for More! by Anthony Jewell

The truth is how you present your website will determine how customers view you and your product. This can directly translate into how effective your website actually is and whether or not you get a lot of sales or just a few. Think of it this way. Whenever you go into a store you usually always go in from the front entrance, not the side or the back, but the front. Just like when people visit your website, they probably always come in from the home page and go around your site. Sometimes they may come in from another link to one of your sub-page but trust me they will jump on your front page to check it out and rightly so.

The front page is where all of the best information should be. Now this is not to say that your sub-pages as useless and that there shouldn't be valuable information on them. I am just saying that the main page should contain tit-bits of all the valuable information located throughout your site.

Usually your front page is the main attraction and includes features and elements that your sub-pages won't have. It is almost like a "wow page"full of rich content.

Here are some tips on how to impress your visitors as soon as they get to your site:

Tip Number 1: Offer something to the visitor as soon as they get to your site: -This is important to really grab a visitors attention. Some things you may want to put at the top or near the top of your site are free offers like "free e-book" or "free domain" ect...

Tip Number 2: Give them content that is updated daily: -Make sure you have content on your front page that is updated daily. This will not only give them something to look forward to every day but it will show that your site is updated often and gives them a reason to keep coming back.

Tip Number 3: Showcase new and featured product:- Showcasing products on the front page will immediately get visitors interested on what you are offering. It will help show them what your site is about as well as it will make them want to browse more of your e-store.

Tip Number 4: Add highlights from other parts of your website: Add little bits of info from your sub-pages to give them a view of what your site contains. For example if your site has an article section post a few new articles each day.

Tip Number 5: Offer sales and discounts on your front page: Offering discounts and coupons will definitely get people interested in what you are selling. Saving money and getting a good deal is always a good reason to look around and purchase something off of your site. Make sure the sales can be seen clearly and do have an expiration date that you stick to.

Tip Number 6: Add content that is only specific for your front page: - Another great thing to do is offer content that can only be found on your front page. This will give your visitors even more content to choose from without having to view it on every page. Some things you may just have on the front page are tips, news headlines or article samples.

Tip Number 7: Don't post full stories or articles on the front page but timbits of them so they click through your site: - Whenever you are posting articles or stories on the front page make sure to post only a sample of the article. Include a "click here for more" link so that they can view the whole article. This will interest them more will have them going to new parts of your website. It will also help keep your front page from being cluttered.

About The Author
Anthony Jewell

Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business and join in
conversation at our forum at http://www.logo2d.com/forum & http://www.logo2d.com

10 Essential Blogging Tools by John Jantsch 2006

So, you finally decided to take the blog leap. You've heard all about the marketing and search benefits so you stepped up to the plate and signed up for a TypePad, MovableType or WordPress blog software package and now you're a blogger.

Okay, now what? Add the ten essential blogging tools listed below and you will also be well on your way to creating and promoting a blog that is a powerful marketing tool. I'll explain the use of the tool and offer some suggestions, including the tools I use on my own blogs including the DuctTapeMarketing blog.

Feed Reader

The best way to learn about blogs and blogging is to read, or at least scan, lots of blogs. One of the wonders of blogs is that you can have every new post from every blog you want to read delivered to your desktop or to online location via RSS, so you can easily read and scan the posts of many blogs in a very short time. Newsgator is a good online choice for feed reading and also has a version that integrates with Outlook. I use a frëe online service known as Bloglines.

Subscriber Center

You need to make it easy for your blog visitors to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed – so they can read your blog in their favorite feed reader. The best way to do this is to go to FeedBurner and burn your own RSS feed there and use the tools they provide to set up automatic subscriber links so people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo or Pluck, for instance, can clíck on one button to subscribe. Tech types can figure this out without the buttons but why not make it easy for anyone to figure out.

Side note: Subscribe to each of these yourself and you will force some blog spiders to visit your site.

Email Subscription Option

A lot of people will nevër get the whole feed thing, but everyone gets email. Create an option for people to subscribe by giving you their email address – they will simply receive your blog posts like an email message. FeedBurner offers this service for frëe. FeedBlitz is another option or, if you already have an autoresponder email list service they may offer this service. AWeber offers this and helps me integrate these blog email subscribers into my other mailing lists.

Blog and RSS directories

There are hundreds of blog and RSS directories and getting listed in many can be a good thing. I use a piece of software called RSS Submit , but you can also visit Robin Goode's frequently updated list and submit your blog and feed by hand.

Hint: Subscribe to the RSS feed he offers and you will be notified when new directories are added.

Ping Service

Pinging is a term used for letting the various blog and RSS directories know when you have posted new content. Again, FeedBurner offers this as an automatic option called PingShot and you should activate it. PingGoat and Ping O Matic are other options but they require that you visit and update your record each time you post new content. Bookmark Manager

As you surf around the web or hop from blog to blog you may find sites that you want to point out to your readers. Online bookmark managers allow you to bookmark and categorize web and blog pages as you collect them and are a great tool for managing all of the stuff you find on the web. I use del.icio.us but BlinkList does a fine job as well.

Blog Stats

I like to track a few key stats in real time because it shows what other blogs might be linking to you or posting about your blog. A lot of people just like to track this kind of thing for fun and frequently visit sites like Technorati. I like to track it for networking opportunities. I use a tool called MyBlogLog because it allows me to see where traffïc is coming from but also tracks what links on my blog visitors are clicking on. It's amazing how this data can help you write more effectively. (MyBlogLog also ranks your links so visitors can see which links on your site are the most popular.)

Desktop Posting

With most blog software you must go online and post using a set of tools provided by the blog software. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application to create and submit their posts as it gives them some extra tools and allows them to more easily integrate content and files on their computer.

I use w.blogger but also like Performancing, Qumana and ecto (apple folks) (w.blogger also doubles as a really simple HTML editor.)

Tell A Friend Script

My blog software (pMachine) has a feature that allows a reader to clíck a link and send the post to a friend. This tactic brings me lots of readers. You might try looking here for some simple scripts that do that same: http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/tellafriend.shtml
http://www.stadtaus.com/en/php_scripts/tell_a_friend_script/

Republish Your Feed Headlines

The ability to republish your blog posts on other web pages, sites you own or sites of strategic partners is a great way to expose folks to your blog content. One more time we turn to FeedBurner for a painless way to republish your blog post to any web page you choose with something they call BuzzBoost.

About The Author
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com.