Web Design New Jersey

You may be asking yourself if what you put on your website is as important as the way that it looks. Well think about yourself, are you going to be interested in reading something that has little to no relevance to what is actually being offered on the site. The primary reason why someone is going to go to your site is so that they can learn more about you and what you offer, if you are providing little to no viable information, then there is no real point being there. This is why quality is as important as quantity.

This is why it is so important that not only should you have content on your site but you need to have relevant as well. You need to take the time to consider everything you put on your site. You do not want to end up having a site that does not make sense or provides the information that your potential customers are looking for. You do not want to have people commenting on how you have a nice site, but there was no useful information on there.

What You Should Include

You should as always make sure you are including the important information that is vital to your business on your site. Things to include are as follows.

The vital statistics on your company, items such as location, ways to contact and what it is that you have to offer.

Create a company history. Let your potential customers know who you are and how long you have been doing what you do.

You will also want to include the products that you are offering or the reason for your business. This is essentially, why they came to your site in the first place. You should at least demonstrate a working knowledge of what you have to offer by way of the content on your site.

Regardless of what you like to think, people want to know about you and what it is you are about. At least as a small business, this is why it is so important to make sure that what you are telling them through your site is something that will not only keep their interest, but is viable and pertinent to what they are getting.

No matter what you are selling, offering or promoting on your site, if it is not blatantly clear people will leave. This is why it is so important to give such careful and critical consideration to what you are putting up on your page. It may be best to consult a few outside sources before you decide which content you want to put on your site. Once these propel provide input you will better be able to make final decisions in regards to what will be the best things for you to post.

Make sure that what you are posting is relevant and that it does not drag on too long. You need information that is quick and easy to read, preferably providing some sort of benefit to the visitor. Unless the information has relevance or is intriguing, your audience will be bored and click away, just like that! Any time you lose a visitor, you’ve lost a potential customer.

Creating content for your website doesn’t need to be a difficult process. Basically, talk about what your business does and all the knowledge you’ve collected in over the years in this industry. If you now what you’re talking about and the information is clear and precise for readers to easily understand, then the content you created will work very well for you.

Here are a couple more tips for content creation on your website:

Make sure it’s original. Search engines are not fans of duplicate content.

Update the content on your website. Dynamic pages are the way to go, with constant updates and changes.

Have an entertaining mix between videos, pictures and text. Maybe even slideshows!

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Still not doing business online?

No matter what size of business you are running you need to understand the fact there is a large untapped place you have yet to explore. You may have considered going online or getting a webpage, but you in all likelihood has not given it serious thought. This is where you are making a huge mistake. There is unlimited growth and selling potential by going online. Consider all of the people who are online at any one time. Now think about how many of them you could turn into potential customers. Whether you are being realistic or not, just increasing your business by 5 to 10 percent would be more than enough to pay your online ventures.

Why Go Online

Whether you are just looking to get your name out there or you are looking to increase the amount of your sales, you will find that by tapping into this resource you will be able to increase your business drastically just because of the exposure. Just getting your name out there for people to see is a great reason to go online. The thing you need to realize is that it is not simply putting a picture of your logo out there. You need to find the people that will be able to help you develop what you need and will get you a site that will draw attention and get people looking at it.

Now consider what if you were to start to accept new business through your website. In other words what if you were to not only advertise online, but you were to begin selling your products on the web as well. This is a completely new opportunity to explore especially as a small business. Not only will people know who you are, but also they will be able to order what you have if it fits their needs. Think of the growth potential that this would create for you. You would greatly be able to expand your business without having to make sales calls and you would be able to let your company market itself as opposed to simply having to go and follow up on potential sales leads.

What The Web Can Do

Think about all of the potential customers that you now have the ability to reach. Now think about all of the options that are out there to e able to reach them. What is the most prominent and easiest to use medium for advertising today. It is by having a web presence of course. Now think about what you could do if you were to go and actually have a site that was designed to be one of the first that people see.

Think about if your site were to be at the top of a search list based on the content and keywords used when people are searching for what you offer. Once this happens you will be able to draw a lot more interest and have that many more potential customers contacting you or at least looking at your site. Think about how much this could help a small business like yourself to reach the potential you have.

You would no longer need to wallow in mediocrity. You would be able to climb to the top of the pile and to grow your business exponentially in a short period of time.

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This week’s question comes from Robert S.,who runs a textile company in New Jersey.

He asks:

Should I Care About Search Engine Optimization For My Internet Marketing?

No matter how good your site is and how much praise it has received if the search engines do not think that it is relevant that will not matter. That is why it is so important to make sure you know what it is that the search engines are looking for. Be aware of what the keywords are that people think of most often when they are searching for something that relates to your company. However, this does not mean you should let it affect the quality of your content, you need to simply use the knowledge you gain from these various search engines and apply it to the content you have for your site.

In essence, you need to learn what it is that will drive the ranking of your website up and into prominence before you are able to take advantage of being popular. In other words, you can create and improve your popularity and ranking with the search engines based on making sure that you are using the right words that they are searching for. This is why you need to make sure that when you use someone to help provide the content for your site as well as to design and create your site that they are SEO focused. Unless they are using that as part of their criteria, you will have what is simply a normal website.

If you take advantage of the research and the opportunities that are created through proper web research, you will not really be doing what is best to help your small business to grow. Unless you can allow your company to flourish as it should now that you have put it on the web, then you will be doing yourself a great disservice as well as robbing your company of potential income based on the fact that you did not do all you could.

Is This True?

Think about the fact when you look for something online, which site are you most likely to click on. That’s right- the one that was the first to show up in the search engine. This is why search engine optimization is so important when you are putting content on your website. If you do not do all that you can, in order to be able to enhance your position and to get yourself out there, you will be left in the dust by competitors. If that is the case, then some other company will be taking your potential business by virtue of better web position because you did not use the right keyword, or you did not do all that you could to make sure you were getting your name out there to the search engines.

However, you need to realize this is something that changes on a regular basis. Search engine optimization is a not a static aspect of the Internet. You will need to update your site and your content regularly in order to keep up with the ever-changing environment and market for your business. This is why every second and every penny counts especially in the online world where a small change can mean a significant increase in sales.

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Paramus, New Jersey, September 1, 2011 – Dotcomweavers, a leading web design and development company out of Paramus, New Jersey, launch Crazy Susan’s Cookies e-commerce website in preparation for the premiere season and early episodes of their Food Network Show, “Tough Cookies.”

In anticipation of a large amount of site traffic after the premiere, the producers of the show, Manhattan based Sharp entertainment contracted Dotcomweavers to redesign Crazy Susan’s existing website to be more efficient and easier to use, have a better online shopping experience and go-live in time for the early episodes of “Tough Cookies.” Forty percent of Dotcomweavers web projects involve ecommerce solutions and clients can normally expect 6-10 weeks for custom development.

“We were very excited when Sharp Entertainment, a high profile, New York production company chose us for this project; given the requirements, we were up for the challenge and knew we could build a very robust, customized e-commerce solution that would finish on-time and on-budget,” said Amit Bhaiya, Dotcomweavers Co -Founder and President.

  Dotcomweavers launched a new and improved Crazy Susan’s website on July 22, 2011 just days after the premiere but ready for the second episode . The site was built using an open source, customized e-commerce platform and features an interactive cookie menu with pop-up descriptions, customer accounts to track orders, automated shipping process and a customized content management system that allows the admin to view orders and their status and view top selling and most viewed items. Visitors to the site can benefit from a fast, easy and secure checkout that is seamless to the Web 2.0 design.

“We are very happy with the new design and functionality of our website” commented Linda Brand, Crazy Susan’s Cookie Company Co-Owner and sister of the company namesake, Susan Adair. Linda goes on to mention through an e-mal correspondence that “ease of use for customers” is something that Dotcomweavers has specifically improved upon from their previous website design and credits Dotcomweavers for being very responsive to their needs.

“Tough Cookies” operates as Crazy Susan’s Cookie Company with a storefront location in Ocean City, New Jersey. Crazy Susan’s Cookies has been featured in various venues and has been seen on the Rachel Ray Show.

About Dotcomweavers: is a cutting edge web design and development company headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey. Dotcomweavers builds end to end web solutions using various open source platforms, proprietary solutions and customizable technologies. Founded in 2005, Dotcomweavers has become the leader in providing first to market innovative web solutions that are flexible and efficient. [email protected]

About Sharp Entertainment: is a Manhattan based television Production Company founded in 2003 by veteran TV producer, Matt Sharp. Sharp Entertainment has produced hundreds of successful shows for various television networks including the Travel Channel’s, MAN VS. FOOD, BERT THE CONQUERER, and TLC’S, EXTREME COUPONING. Sharp Entertainments employs over 100 employees and is considered the premiere production house for witty and exciting television.

About Crazy Susan’s Cookies: is a bakery specializing in elaborate, ingenious and great tasting cookies. Owners and sisters, Susan Adair and Linda Blank work together to manage and operate their business that mostly consist of family members. Susan opened her first storefront location in Ocean City, New Jersey.

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As you work to plan your financial future, have you thought about writing it all down into a plan? A plan is a step-by-step process that creates a goal and offers a path to getting to that goal. When you put it down onto paper, you make it a goal you can actually work towards achieving. You can visually see where the future is, what you need to do now to get there and measure where you are along the way. Without this type of plan, well, you are unable to actually have any vision into your financial future.

Measure It

There is an expression that’s important to keep in mind as you think about your financial future. “If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” The fact is, virtually everything in your life is something you can measure.

Weight is measured in pounds.

Length is measured in inches.

Height is measured in feet.

Health is measured in doctor’s results.

Physical fitness is measured by body fat percentage.

Hours worked is measured in dollars and cents.

Career success is measured in a bigger paycheck and that corner office.

When it comes to your finances, though, what is the measurement? How do you know when you have attained success? It can be hard to know this if you have yet to think the process out. Each person’s success is measured differently than another person’s in this regard. You have to answer the question for yourself.

The MBA Graduate

Consider the average MBA graduate. There are numerous fields of specialty in this area. Within it, there are various levels of potential success. However, each person’s long-term goals will be different. Here’s a look at measuring success in this regard. The average salary of MBA’s without a career plan will be less than those with one. On average, a finance MBA makes between $54,000 up to $118,000.

Without a plan, you are likely to make the lowest common denominator here. That’s because you have just the basics, the average ability and skills and the average drive.

A person with a plan but without having it written down has an idea of what he or she wants to be. This gives some direction and drive, and therefore he or she is likely to make something in between these two ranges.

The person with a plan that is written down has a clear path to the top. He or she has actionable goals to help them to get to where the result should be. This persona is likely making the most money.

The most important thing you can do to manage your finances is to measure them. What are the best financial measures for you? This will depend on your particular financial goal. For example, if you wish to focus on a successful retirement, consider this. Most retirement plans are measured by net worth. Are you worth enough to have the retirement that you want to have? It is a decision only you can make. Ask yourself is money all that you need? Is that what your goal is? If not, or even if it is, how are you going to achieve it? Set measureable goals that give you a key point in the road to know how to get from here to where you want to be.

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This week’s question comes from Albert T., a small business owner in New Jersey.

He asks:

How do I choose an E-Commerce designer for my online business?

When it comes to being able to make a decision in regards to who you will be working with when you finally decide you want to get your company out of the stone ages and online you need to make sure you know what you are looking for. This is not as easy as many would make it sound. Just like you have many competitors, there are many e-commerce designers who will be competing for your business. Once you discover that you have options, you will need to look at your potential candidates.

This is where you will begin to have some fun. Think of it as preparing to hire a new employee. You will have many candidates in all likelihood. The problem is you will need to narrow down those candidates so you will be able to make the right decision. You will have many different criteria and expectations for this new employee before you go and make a decision on which professional e-commerce developer it is you will hire. You will have a list of what it is you will want them to be able to do. You will want to know how much it will cost to get them to work for you and if they fit into budget. You may want to know what it is that they have done in the past. You will want to make sure that what they are offering to do for you will be what you will need and will provide added benefits.

Now that you know what it is you are looking for in an employee, you need to apply it to your new e-commerce designer. The best way to select an e-commerce developer for your business is to make sure that they will meet all of your needs and be available to you when needed. This is true no matter type of service you are looking to have. Now think about how important this is when you are looking to get into the realm of e-commerce and want to get from your company as much as possible the money you invest as well as a dramatic increase in your overall business. A small business owner cannot afford to choose poorly (Indiana Jones reference!), not when the very livelihood of your company can depend on the decision. Taking your storefront online is a big step, but working with professional e-commerce developers will make the transition smooth and hassle free.

Do Your Research

There is a reason some companies have so much success on the web: they made the right choice from the start. Extra costs were not incurred from having to go and restart or to tweak the work that was done. They made a good decision from the start. This is because they did their homework. They knew what it was they were looking for in a web presence and acted on it. This is the goal you need to have in mind when selecting an e-commerce designer. Pick the team of professionals most likely to meet your needs and provide your business with the best options available to get the increased sales you are seeking through your online presence.

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This week’s question comes from Donna G., a Salon owner in New Jersey.

She asks:

Is Online Marketing Important to Local Businesses Who Only Work Locally

No matter what level of business in large, small, near, or far, you need to look at where it is you are going to get your business from. You also need to know how it is you are going to be able to keep up with the other companies competing for your business. Even if you are a small business and you only want to remain local, you need to understand that the rest of the world is at your door and they want your business.

In order to be able to keep these other entities away, you are going to need to compete with them at least to some degree on their own playing field. This is where it is important to make sure you are using all of the tools at your disposal to get your name out there. This means you will need to make sure that you are looking at establishing some sort of online presence. You may be thinking to yourself that everyone in my community knows who I am and what I have. That may be true, but many of them are looking at what is available in other places as well. They will look online to see what it is they can get and then if you have a presence and it is well established and well put together, then it will show up for them.

Do You Really Need This Though

A thousand times over, unless you want to be closing your doors a lot sooner than anticipated, then you will want to make yourself known in cyberspace. Even if you feel as though it is something that cannot benefit you, you need to look again. Start to look at how your sales have started to change and consider the different trends. It is not all because of the economy. People will look to other places if you are not prominent and the first thing that comes to mind when they are looking for what you have.

This means you need carefully to consider how it is you want to make yourself known to the online world. You will need to make sure that not only do people know who you are, but how to find you online as well. This is why you will need to make sure that your regulars as well as the people who you do not see very often know you have jumped into cyberspace. Once they are aware of where they can find you, they may come back to visit periodically and if your site is memorable enough they will tell others about it and you. So, you will be building business not only through the internet, but through word of mouth as well.

Now think about what would happen if you decided you did not need to be online. You would be losing more and more business as more and more people look for where to go by looking online. If you are not there, then they will have no reason to even give you any consideration. They think to themselves that you may not even exist anymore, because you are not in the most common place for them to look in order to find what they need. So not being online will cost you business no matter how you look at it.

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Professional web designers provide you with a service. Just like hiring a plumber or hiring someone to come to your home to fix the electrical problems you have, when it comes to your website, you need a professional to help with it. Consider your home itself. You could go out, chop down some wood and build your own home. You could do that but you know it may not provide you with the best-finished product, unless you are a skilled homebuilder. The same is true of web design. A professional gets the job done better.

This Is Your Image

When you turn to a company to handle your web design needs, you ensure you get a professional, clean image that represents your company properly. You also get the type of service you need for your customers. In short, a professional website helps to make your business shine when a customer visits it.

Consider the alternative.

You have probably visited a website where:

The site does not load – you don’t have the time to wait around

The site’s graphics are so over the top that you hate being there

You cannot submit a request for help, order a product or even get more information

You don’t feel safe providing the service

Navigating the site is nearly impossible

These are all situations that happen often when people do not employ the services of a trusted professional. Web design is not something everyone should do on their own especially for a business.

It’s Your First Impression

What do you want your business’s first impression to be on a new customer? Imagine a local store. You ensure it is clean and organized. You probably spend time displaying the most lucrative products in displays so your customers can easily get to them. You provide a place for your sales people to interact with customers so that customers can get the help they need.

The website is the same thing. When you turn to a professional web design company, you get enhanced services. Here are some you can count on finding.

You get a customized finished product. You do not have to worry about creating a website that does not fit the bill. Your site fits your business.

You get a website that functions properly for you and for your customers. You can rely on it to always provide the information and resources for your customers every time.

You can have more intense graphics and web play than you think. The good news is that these services can work very well for you and can provide you with the reaction you want, rather than just slowing down the site.

You can utilize social media, contact forms and newsletter mailing lists, manage contacts and even develop a strong presence on the web with professional help.

You can rank well in the search engines when you choose a company that can help you to design a site that does just that. It starts with the foundation, after all.

As a business owner, you can just use a basic, boring site and hope for the best. The problem with this, of course, is that you do not stand out. Your business will not seem special, different or better. That is not the impression you want to give. A better option is to hire a professional team of web designers to help you to pull off the winning site you want and need.

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You Don’t Just Need a Website

You are moving or upgrading your business online. All you need is a website, right? While this may seem like it is the only thing you really need to focus on when moving your business online, there is more to it than that. In fact, you should not think of this as a single investment but rather a series of decisions you need to make regarding the updating of your site. In other words, a website is made up of smaller, individual decisions. The compilation of each one of these decisions will create the website you want to represent your business.

Your Domain Name

Like the address of your brick and mortar business, your domain name’s actual website domain name is critical. If you choose the wrong name, or just a series of letters, your potential customers will not find you. Location is everything in a local market and your domain name also makes a big difference.

Choose one that helps with search engine ranking.

Choose something that customers can easily remember.

Choose something that represents the company as a whole. It should say something about you and your business.

Once you have the domain name in place, you can then work on the next decisions.

Web Hosting

You may have a name for your site but you do not own the property that it will sit on yet. In other words, you need a company that will allow you to connect through the Internet through their servers. This is a big decision to make, too.

What type of server or web hosting is right for the size of your website?

How much space do you need, (based on the size and structure of your site)?

You will need a company that is responsible and able to keep your site up no matter what.

Web hosting services range widely. However, the right company can be both reliable as well as cost effective.

Web Design

You are linked to the Internet now, but what will you show to the world? This is where web design and website development come into play. In short, you need to create a website that looks and works the way you need it to and the way your customers want to interact with it. Functionality and flexibility are key factors as well.

Web design should make it easy for your visitors to navigate through your site.

Web design should ensure security of any processes that take place on your site, like purchases or customer input.

It should work well for search engine ranking, too.

In addition to this, you may want to consider things like the use of multi media. Work with your web design and development team to come up with a site that is functional, while achieving your goals.

Website Goals

Speaking of goals, what are the goals of your website? Do you want to grab customer’s attention? Do you want to sell services? Perhaps you want to simply get more information or give information. Maybe, you are only concerned with lead generation. With the right website, that takes into consideration the goals of your business, you are able to make a better decision overall. Take the time to find web designers that can contribute to all of your needs are experienced in creating websites for businesses in a similar or the same industry. Each of these factors can make a big difference in the overall finished product.

Remember, this is an investment you are making in your business and its online identity. Make it count.

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Today we have an email that was submitted by one of our readers:

I am a resident of New York and recently started my own business. I thought I had done a good job researching everything I would need, especially for my website. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money hiring a professional team of web designers, so I opted to find a freelance web designer online. I used a service similar to Elance.com to find this person.

Let me just say that I have followed DCW’s blog for the last 4 months and usually put the advice you guys offer to good use. It has helped me greatly. SO of course, the one time I go against it, it bites me in the rear-end.

It turns out that relying on a single freelance web designer is a terrible idea. When I needed something looked at right away, I was always waiting at his convenience instead of mine, which was incredibly frustrating. He was able to build an e-commerce store for me, but it lacked the functionality I specified when I contracted the job to him. Basically, the whole ordeal was a mess.

I have definitely learned my lesson. When it comes to my business I do not scrimp anymore. I am expecting most of my customers to be online, which means my online web design has to be immaculate. I really need a complete overhaul now and I’m hoping you guys can help me.

Tom D. White Plains, NY

What happened to Tom is a common occurrence. Everyone, if they think they can, wants to save a buck wherever possible. In the last two to three years especially, start-ups have sought out the cheapest labor for business services such as web design, development and hosting packages. Sometimes it can work out for you, but in many cases, such as the one above with Tom, it ends up costing you more in the end.

We will definitely get Tom’s business website overhauled, so look here for a follow-up  blog post in a couple weeks about how his project is going!

In the meantime, keep in mind that any money spent toward your business is an investment and you get what you pay for. The more resources an expert already has in place, the better deal they are likely able to offer you. That’s why here at DCW, our team of professionals can plan and implement incredible web design for a cost that’s within your budget.

Thanks Tom, for sending in your story.

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Are you using Cloud Computing and Drop Box yet? If you are not, you may want to find out what you are missing. Cloud Computing is a program that allows you to reach everything you need to maximize your experience online in one place. Drop Boxes is a software program that allows you to share all of your important documents in a cloud, meaning that anyone who has access to that cloud in cyber space has access to your documents (of course, you limit who has this right.) The benefits of these services are improved productivity, ease of use and effective management of your systems.

What Is Cloud Computing? Cloud Computing is easy to get into. All you need to go is to log into a Google account (if you do not have one, you can sign up for one without any fee to do so.) Once there, look to the top of the screen where you will see a link marked as “documents.” Click on that link and you’ll see all of the features it offers, including:

Create a new document or presentation that anyone who has access to your file can view and participate in

You can create a template to follow.

You can create a form that those who have access to the account can use.

Use it for other features, too, including sharing a collection, sharing a drawing, or even a spreadsheet.

You can create your own collections and set who has access to them. You can also log in and check the collections others are sharing with you. Upload information, including files to your account for others to see. This service, simply, allows you to manage everything in one place. Instead of having everything on your hard drive, where you can only access it from one computer, this allows you and your colleagues to access everything easily.

What is Drop Box? Drop Box is very similar to cloud computing online. Here, you have a software program that you download and store on your computer. It works like any other folder on your computer except that you share it with others. Share a video. Share files that you want people to have access to. You can share information and documents to numerous people without having to actually send files to them. The program comes with 2GB of storage and allows you to upgrade it for a fee.

Why Use It? There are many reasons to use cloud computing as well as Drop Box features.

Using these systems can reduce the computing costs of businesses.

It gives you better freedom to share and access data and application from anywhere.

You can access data and information from various devices, including your netbook or your mobile phone, not just your desktop.)

Everything is centralized and readily available. This makes everything simply to have at your fingertips when you want it.

The security when using cloud computing is thought to be better than using network based security that changes in overall protection from one service or device to the next.

Are these enough reasons to start using cloud computing online features or to turn to Drop Box? If you are still not sure, download the program and begin using it. You’ll find it easier to use than you thought. …

This week’s question comes from Denard N., a talent agency executive from New York. 

He asks:

How Can I Tell If the Marketing I Do Online Is Working Well?

Just how well is your online marketing doing? It can be hard to tell, even if you are a professional at it. The fact is, online marketing is hard to track. You may not know how much time you are putting into any one marketing method. You may be unsure of how much money you are spending on that marketing venture either. However, chances are good you know if you are seeing more leads or traffic coming in. Unless you are not seeing new leads, though, it can be hard actually to see how effective marketing is working for you.

Analyzing Your Success

As anyone can tell you about online marketing, the goal is to connect with people. You can often gauge your success by how well you are connecting with those who you want to connect with – your potential customer, business partner or investor. The second thing you need to do is to track your marketing and to analyze its effectiveness.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Most businesses need to use more than one marketing method to draw in enough customers. You may have a hard time knowing where your traffic boost is coming from if you are using more than one method, though.

It can take time to go from one site and tool to the next and trying to calculate where your leads are coming from and how well each type of marketing message you send out is working. Did that promotion of your latest blog post draw people in or was it the comment you made about a service you offered that brought someone to your site off your Twitter account? Tracking all of this down is time consuming.

Knowing which customers reacted to which types of marketing on various social medial platforms is simply complex. The best way to avoid having to do all of this work by hand (if that is even possible) is to use tracking software. These programs can help you to learn what is happening.

Sometimes, it is best to hire third party professional web marketers to manage your marketing. That party can then submit reports to you about the marketing efforts they took and the results they got from those methods. This could be a solution for some.

In order to know how well your marketing methods are working for your business, you need to measure the right metrics and know what you are looking at. You can learn how to do this but it is complicated because of all the directions information is coming in. Software can help, but you have to use it properly to have success. Also, keep in mind there are many free applications that can help keep track of the metrics you wish to measure for your online marketing efforts.

It is often the case that small business owners think they will minimize costs by simply doing the job themselves. Building your own website and then managing online marketing yourself is a good opportunity to cut costs, but it will only make a difference if in fact there are profits coming in. For some, it may work. If it does not work for you, turn to a professional to help you through this process.

What Could Go Wrong?

Planning for the “what if” situations is an important part of overcoming the risks your business could face. Being prepared can help. The following are some of the most common mistakes that amateur online marketing and website owners have when they set up their own website and begin the marketing process.

You are limited to your knowledge. If you do not have a strong background with graphics, HTML, website design and using blogging formats, you could end up costing yourself in the long run. You may be unable to create the type of website that could do your business best.

You have to invest the time. Let’s face it – when you are working to create something for yourself, like a website, you are more likely to put it off because there is something else more pressing to do at that moment. Hire a team of web designers and the job gets done faster. More so, your time is money and may be better spent doing something else. If you plan to implement your own site and market, be sure to schedule time to get the job done.

Don’t make the mistake of becoming too personally involved. If your social media marketing does not take off right away, you may feel personally attacked. You may feel as if you are not up to the challenge. Instead, be sure to keep it all business here. You want to focus on creating a brand for your business, not for you personally.

You may not be devoting enough time to testing methods. Some people who start up a business online spend a lot of time learning and exploring options but do not put enough time into working the business. Be sure to focus your attention on the method you’ve selected to market and to do that well. Doing one thing well is better than doing five things poorly.

If you run into a snag, such as your hosting goes down or your formatting isn’t quite right, you could end up having to hire someone to fix it. If you have the time and patience, you may want to take the time to learn how to fix things on your own so that next time they occur you can fix them yourself.

Don’t fail to develop a business plan that includes a marketing plan, even if your business is just online. The problem here is that you will not otherwise have a planned out marketing campaign, which directs how to invest your money and time into marketing your business effectively. Put the time into creating one or find web marketing professionals that can get the job done for you.

It’s a new day and a new age for marketing in our society, so throw away any previous rule books you may have. As everything moves towards the Internet as the main medium of communication of any form, advertising has taken on a new skin.  These days, small business owners have two things going against them, when it comes to making their product stand-out against the rest: the many other tasks for his business and the impatience of today’s consumer.

Think about it-just twenty years ago, consumers had far fewer products and services to choose from, and plenty of time to make buying decisions. Today, consumers have a vast array of choices, but much less time to sort through them all. So, how do you reach those impatient, overloaded customers? How do you get their attention and win them over to your products?

                             If that wasn’t enough, how does a small business owner manage to juggle the many hats of responsibility and still have time to make sure the product or service gets proper exposure?

The answer is to find professional help to get your business online, if it’s not already, and to create a strong web marketing strategy that is customized for your business using innovative techniques, but also remains flexible to account for market research and testing.  Going any other route can lead to expensive print ads that leave you with less chance of enticing your target customer than a craps game does of making you rich. Avoid costly mailings, brochures, billboard advertisements, and other forms of print advertisement. Online, you can make use of other popular websites that are related to your business, but are not direct competitors for you; email lists that reach ideal consumers for your product or service; make use of search engines and many other tools to make it easier to find your website and promote its products.

The advantages of being online and working with professional web marketers are too many to ignore. It’s about time you got wise to the new way of promoting business.

Know your ideal customer and gear your web marketing efforts towards them. You cannot please all of the people all of the time, so do not waste time and money trying to convince someone to buy something they do not want or need. Instead, find the people who are interested and convert them to customers. Test your web marketing strategy over and over again. If you decide to work with an experienced team like the one at DCW, market research and strategy testing comes as part of the service.

Here is some great news for all those e-commerce stores out there looking for the next best thing to happen to their checkout process: Intelligent Checkout. As one of the oscommerce project partners, over at http://www.oscommerce.com/, dotcomWeavers is proud to announce a new version of their OsCommerce Online Merchant software. It features new options, less steps for checkout, allows for more product types, and much more.  All the changes have been geared towards making it easier for your customer and making it easier for you!

First, let me give you the quick technical aspects of the improvements to this oscommerce software. A new Checkout Application has been created.  It is simple to add-in and access.  The entire point is to remove all those unwanted steps from the checkout procedure, letting customers make the transaction faster and giving the owner easy control on the back-end. The checkout procedure no longer starts at the shipping page; it jumps straight to the confirmation page, which takes care of all the dependencies for the order.

Depending on the product type, the Intelligent Checkout will require certain conditions be met before the order can be placed.  Examples of these conditional actions are:

AddToShoppingCart – Called when products are added to the shopping cart.

PerformOrder – Called when the checkout application begins.

RequireBilling – If billing address and method are found, it passes true.

RequireStock – Checks for sufficient stock of item and passes true if available.

If merchants now want to require a customer to have an account with their website before placing an order, simply add in the condition ‘RequireCustomerAccount’. Adding new conditions to customize the checkout for your e-commerce website is easy. The professional developers you hire should be able to handle it.

Any change made to your own shopping cart will not add any more steps for your customers.  Intelligent Checkout guarantees that logged in customers will be taken directly to the checkout confirmation page when they are done adding to their shopping cart, with all the necessary information required for the order already available. For guests, there is a minimum of two checkout steps, including the shipping address form and the confirmation page.

With all these improvements, buying online continues to get easier. It is now 2011, no one should have to tell you to get your business online. Advice on how to improve your e-commerce store is not very helpful to those that are not online with their businesses yet. The move from physical shopping to online shopping is rapidly taking place and businesses that do not find professional e-commerce developers to help create their presence on the web will not be around to regret it, they will be out of business. The choice is to join the many New Jersey and New York businesses finding easier, stable, more assured success online or continue losing money and watching your business stagnate or fail altogether.  Find a web design and development team to get your company online now and get on the same page with winning businesses in the New Jersey and New York areas. In the meantime, checkout the demo the programmers put together for you: Intelligent Checkout Demo.

The next step for the OsCommerce programming team and partners is to extend this kind of flexibility in the checkout process to properly support services that are sold with recurring billing.