Website Content

This blog was originally written for Australian Businesswomen's Network herbusiness blog on the 15th February, 2012 - by Bianca Board 

If you’re in small business, chances are you need to become a publisher to survive online. The way people buy these days has changed dramatically. Your buyers seek out information when they want and how they want, whether you like it or not. 97% of people will research you online before they even call or email you, so it’s vital you provide them with the information they need to make an informed choice.

You no longer have control over the sale. So I say, jump on board and enjoy the ride! Embrace it! Have fun with it. I know I was scared to death at my first blog post years ago but now I love it.

I’m going to show you my proven method for creating great content quickly and I promise, it won’t hurt a bit.

So grab your egg timer, set it for 60 minutes, turn off your phone and let’s go!

A website is always (and should be) a work in progress. In order to entice visitors to come to your site again and again, you need to keep the content fresh! But as a busy business owner, we know that it can be hard to find time to come back to work on your website once it’s already up and running. Updating content doesn’t have to be a huge drain on your resources. With a little foresight and organisation, keeping the content on your website up-to-speed with your business will be easy as pie.

With every project, from a huge skyscraper to a small DIY job, you will always need the right tools to get the job done quickly and professionally. The same is true when building a website, and doing business online. Most popular software that exists on the market today has a free alternative, who says you need to spend big to get big results? Here is a list of 7 of the best free tools to get things done online.

 Launching a website can feel like having the weight of the world on your shoulders. There are many things you might like to do to make your website the best there ever was, but you might not have the time or the resources to work out every last detail. If you’re launching a new website, clearly you’ll want everything to be perfect -- but does it have to be?

Are you looking for ways to increase your website traffic organically? Been thinking about starting a business blog but don’t really know if it’s right for you? It can be daunting and it does take time but if done right, the rewards can be well worth the effort.

A very successful blogger, Dan Zarella reported that about 50% of people read blogs every day. That sounds like a goldmine just waiting to be tapped by small business if you ask me so let’s look at some pros and cons of starting a business blog.
 

Building a website is a big and sometimes very expensive exercise so you want to make sure it’s right. There’s a lot of web designers out there who can design pretty things but don’t necessarily know what makes a website profitable for your business.

Here are 7 deadly website mistakes you don’t want to fall victim to.
 

We’ve all heard that it’s a bad idea to judge a book by its cover, but with no fewer than a bazillion websites out there (give or take a few), sometimes the “cover” of a website is all you can go by! The average internet user reads only 20-28% of the text they see and spends roughly 7 seconds on a page before they click away to the next page or site.

Grabbing and keeping the attention of visitors to your site is something that requires a certain level of finesse, but with a few tweaks any site can be more clickable. Here are some rules of thumb for how to make your website worthy of clicks -- one of the first and most important steps for attracting customers.

In Part 1 of this series we touched on the importance of great photography, writing compelling product descriptions, categorising your products and the free shipping debate when it comes to selling products online. Here we’ll highlight some other killer tips you may not have thought of yet, but can be implemented with relative ease. Remember, if your customers are raving fans, they do most of the selling for you.

It’s no secret that Aussies have been slow to embrace the online retail market. Gerry Harvey only recently announced that Harvey Norman will start selling product online in the next few weeks. He says he’s been reluctant to go online but knows he has no choice.

Myer is now selling products direct from China by setting up another site called myfind.com.

According to Forrester Research, the online retail sectors in Australia alone grew 17.5% to $28 billion last year but about a quarter of all online sales are going overseas.

Some say it takes 9 visits on average before a customer will buy from your website. 9 visits! You might think that’s crazy, but sadly it’s true. People need to feel as though they know and trust you before opening their wallets. If you’re not doing your ‘Bruce Almighty’ to capture their details on their first visit, how are you going to remind them to come back those other eight times? So just how can your increase your website conversions?