How To Set Up the Backend of Your Web Hosting Business
by: Eric Holmlund
What is a backend?
I’m sure many business people and “scholars†have much better definitions of this than me, but I like to think of it as the guts of the business that make things run behind the scenes. When I think of a backend as it pertains to web hosting, I consider the following elements:
- Billing system
- Order processing
- Support system
- Accounting and recordkeeping
Billing system
As you contemplate your billing system, the first piece of information you should look at is what types of payments are you going to accept. Hopefully, you’ve already outlined this in your business plan. Will you take Paypal, or will you accept credit cards through your own merchant account, or will you accept checks and money orders by mail? Accepting payments by mail significantly complicates your business, so I would suggest not accepting payments by mail, or if you do—only accept annual term payments.
The easiest payment system to implement, and my recommendation, is to use a third-party payment processor such as Paypal or 2Checkout. These third-party payment processors allow you to accept credit cards, debit cards, and e-checks securely through their web-based system. They also allow you to create automatically recurring billing, which is the most powerful billing tool that all resellers should implement. Rather than having to bill your customers each term (month, quarter, etc), the third party payment processor will automatically bill your customer on their due date, based on the terms of the subscription that you created. In other words, if you create a $10/month subscription, it will automatically charge your customer $10 on the day they sign up, and then it will charge them $10 on the same day of each subsequent month. This is a huge timesaver, by automating the billing process you can eliminate the need to bill your customers at all.
If you do wish to send your customers a formal bill, or if you aren’t using automatically recurring payments, there are several software programs that can help automate the process for you. The ones specifically designed for web hosting that I would recommend are WHMautopilot, Lpanel, and Modernbill. There dozens of other billing programs available, but I recommend those ones because they also have auto-setup scripts and various client-management features built in to them, which we will discuss next.
Order processing
This part of your backend can basically be broken down into two options: manual processing, or automated processing. Manual processing is pretty much self-explanatory. Your customer places an order and pays using one of your available payment methods. When you receive the order and payment, you go into your Web Host Manager (WHM) and set up the client’s account, and then send them a welcome email with the pertinent information. Using this method there are a few different ways you can set up your order form to collect the information you need. The most important piece of information you need is the domain name. If you use only Paypal as a payment processor, Paypal has a form tool which will allow you to collect up to two form fields along with each order.
For example, you could set up your form so that the customer types in their domain name and username along with their order. When you receive the order confirmation from Paypal, this information will be included. Another method is to simply use a form mail script. This is easily implanted using a two-part order form. In the first part, they type in their applicable information and click “submit”, thus emailing you the form. When they click submit, they are then redirected by the form mail script to your payment page. The third method is to use a shopping cart application which integrates the collection of data and payment processing. The advantage of manual order processing is it can help reduce the possibility of fraud and abuse because each order is screened by you as you process it.
Automated order processing saves a lot of time for the reseller, and also creates a smooth ordering process for the customer. Automation is a huge key to building a successful online business, and this is one form of automation that I would highly recommend. An automated order processing program collects the pertinent data from your customer, directs them through their online payment, and then interacts with your web server to set up the account and then sends out a welcome email to your customer.
The programs I would recommend are WHMautopilot, Lpanel, and Modernbill. I am certain there are several other equally viable software programs available as well. The risk of automated order processing is the potential for fraud, and abusers such as spammers signing undetected. However, I would say the benefits of automated order processing typically outweigh the risks. If a customer on the other side of the world orders at 3:00AM, they don’t have to wait for you to wake up and check your email. Your program will go to work for you and set up the account. On top of performing all of these tasks, it also creates a nice customer database which can be used for billing and a number of client administration tasks such as suspending accounts, performing server checks, etc. Just make sure you manually review each order after it has been set up. This will help catch fraudulent customers before they have a chance to run their malicious activities (like spamming) on your server.
Support system
Your solution for a support system depends largely on your own aptitude and preference. If you are familiar with the web hosting platform (such as cPanel) and with basic server administration tasks, you may wish to support your customers yourself. This is especially true while your business is in the startup phase with only a few customers, or if you intend to keep your customer base small. If you choose not to be your own support tech, there are a few alternatives. The obvious one is you could hire a support tech to work for you. While this is often the most ideal situation, most startups can not afford to hire an additional person initially.
A more affordable solution may be to outsource your technical support to a company who specializes in providing support for web hosting companies. Many outsourcing companies are located in technologically advanced areas in low-cost countries such as India. Outsourcing to an overseas company can be a very cost-efficient solution, but can also result in additional problems and challenges so you want to make sure you adequately research your solution before making any commitments. Outsourcing companies typically offer one or more pricing solutions including per-ticket, per-customer, per-server, flat fee per month, or per representative hired.
There are also other creative support solutions available. One solution I’ve seen work with success is creating a community forum where customers can help each other, guided by more experienced moderators and administrators. A host can offer free hosting to moderators in exchange for their help in running the forum. Other forms of bartering have been done successfully as well. For example you could provide free hosting in exchange for 5 hours a month of answering trouble tickets in your helpdesk.
As for the support options themselves, again hopefully you’ve outlined this in your business plan (see http://www.howtosellhosting.com). Are you offering email only, or a helpdesk, live chat, or telephone? Email and telephone are self-explanatory; if you’re even considering starting your own business I’m sure you know to use email and the telephone. Live chat is a nice option if you decide to use it, however you need to be diligent in being available or it could be counteractive. Have you ever seen a site that offers live chat, but the operator is never available during business hours? I think it shows a lack of professionalism, and I rarely buy from such companies. On the other hand, if you run it properly it can be a valuable tool that helps you get customers problems resolved in one chat session rather than a back-and-forth email or support ticket conversation. To run live chat you could simply post your IM screen name (handle) for one of the popular IM platforms such as AIM, MSN, or Yahoo. The other method would be to use a web-based chat client from a free download, or on a subscription basis from a chat provider.
Regardless of whether you offer any other methods of support, the one method I will strongly suggest is an online helpdesk where customers can submit trouble tickets. There are several free helpdesks available, as well as more powerful applications available for purchase. The helpdesks I would recommend are Kayako or Perldesk, both available on a monthly or yearly subscription. Some client management programs such as Lpanel also have a functional helpdesk integrated into them. It is best to choose a helpdesk that supports email piping. In other words, you can send an email to support@yourcompany.com and it automatically opens a helpdesk ticket. Then when you answer the ticket, it also sends an email reply to the client, who can then reply from within their helpdesk account or by replying to the email.
Accounting and recordkeeping
This side of the business can easily be overlooked by enthusiastic startups, and is often the less-favorable task for creative entrepreneurs. However, a solid accounting and recordkeeping system is essential to the long-term survival of your business. If you use an automated system such as WHMautopilot, Lpanel, or Modernbill, it will automatically keep track of much of your financial information which is a useful tool and database.
However; regardless of whether you use one of those programs, I would suggest keeping an offline record of your customers and financials. This could be done through an accounting application like Quicken, or with a customized database in Access, or using a simple spreadsheet (which is my preferred method) in a program like Excel. I personally prefer Excel for its simplicity. Your records should include the following information at a minimum:
- Customer name
- Domain name
- Billing Due date
- Subscription ID number
- Price
- Size of plan
- Email address
In addition to your customer information, it is good to keep track of your overall finances using at a minimum a general ledger and P&L (profit and loss) statement. These documents are much simpler than you may think; in fact if you know how to balance your checkbook you’re almost there. Your general ledger is basically a list of all the expenses and revenues for the month. Again this can be a simple Excel spreadsheet.
Your expenses would include any expense related to the business such as your reseller account, advertising costs, support costs, Paypal or merchant fees, etc.
Your revenues are the money that you receive from your hosting clients.
You can then add up your expenses and revenues for the month, and if your revenues exceed your expenses, you made a profit! A P&L statement simply summarizes the information from your general ledger in a format used by most businesses to gain a good overview of a company’s financials in one page. I’m not going to give you an Accounting 101 class here in this e-course because you can easily find a lot of information about P&L’s and accounting on the web.
If you’ve done your accounting each month, your taxes should be a breeze, especially if you remain a sole proprietor with no employees. All you need to do is take the information from your year-end P&L statement and fill out a schedule C (profit or loss from a business). NOTE: This is NOT official tax advice. I am not an accountant, and you should consult your tax adviser before filing your tax return.
Regarding business status, the simplest type of business with the least amount of paperwork is a sole proprietorship. Another way to simplify your business and paperwork is to avoid having any employees. You can avoid hiring employees by only using help on a contractual basis (in other words they are a contractor vs. an employee). There are several restrictions in this regard (you can’t set a contractor’s hours, etc.), so it would be best to do some serious research and/or consult an attorney before making any contractual or employment arrangements.
About The Author
Eric Holmlund operates several successful online businesses, and uses the flexibility of working at home to spend time travelling, working in the ministry (http://www.prayway.com), and having fun with his wife and kids in beautiful Colorado. Be sure to check out his full e-course on setting up a web hosting business at http://www.howtosellhosting.com
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Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
1. The reputation of the web hosting company.
Most web hosting companies on the web have been in existence for at least 2 years and they are usually handled by experience and IT savvy network engineers who can provide the necessary support and services to their customers. However, there are also several "mom and pop" set ups out there which are handled by amateurs who are greedy to make plenty of your own money without even knowing how to do something as fundamental as setting up your user account. Be sure to check the credentials of the web hosting firm by either reading their about us or the technology they use for their server farm. Make sure you pick a company that has been around for at the very least 2 years and have a successful track record with 95% up time for all its servers. That’s a reasonable expectation as 100% is not a realistic aim in the computing world.
2. How much of storage space are you given?
Most web companies out the offer space that range from as small as 20 MB to as big as 2GB or even more. However, this depends largely upon you the user. Make sure you do not get sold into buying more space then you need. This is a common trend amongst novice web owners who tend to feel that the bigger space the better and the more powerful their website can be. That is the most contorted statement I have ever heard in my 5 years as a IT expert and internet marketing consultant. Personally, I would recommend you to use Host4profit as your hosting company because I find that they provide the most innovative packages that even reward you by paying you to be a member & in many other ways too one of which includes a trip to the Bahamas. Find out more at my website at: http://www.neptune500.com simply click the blue button on your left which is animated when you get there.
3. What is the available bandwidth space for you to transfer data each month?
We all need to transfer data to our website and update its content often in order to stay afresh and also to keep our ratings high up on the search engines right? Well all web hosting companies offer a certain bandwidth or "transfer window" if you will to enable you transport your data from your local computer hard disk drive to your web server. However this transfer window has a limited space. This is set to prevent the servers on their side from having a bandwidth overload from users repeatedly transferring large amounts of data to and fro without any limits being set. A bandwidth space is allocated to enable you to manage the amount data that you want to transfer each month into the storage space allocated. Note that the data you transfer is constantly kept track of until you have reach the transfer limit for that month. Most web hosting companies tend to be stingy on this so as to provide so called "high speed data transfer" to their clients. They usually cap this bandwidth off at 1GB. Host4profit however offers its client a 3GB bandwidth per month. Can you see why everybody is switching to Host4profit now?
4. The support provided both online and offline to ensure you can sleep soundly at night.
This is the area that is overlooked most often whenever the novice webmaster signs up for a webhosting contract. It is absolutely important ( burn this into your head) I repeat absolutely important to ensure that you get a web hosting company that will answer your calls and ensure your website stays up and running even if you call them at 2 am in the morning to request for help. I am talking about 24 hours support everyday of the week and also relevant safety measures implemented in the data center at which your server resides. I highly recommend you find out more about the location of the data center about the power supply facilities, where it is situated and also the safety measures that have been put in place such as fire protection and relevant data backup facilities to a remote location as a safety should a physical destruction occur that literally wipes out the whole data center ( although I think this is highly unlikely unless George Lucas must have been tingling with the wrong button at his huge animation studios and manage to bring Darth Vader back to life).
Arvind Gawade is a fully certified IT expert/consultant. He holds a Diploma in Information Technology specializing in Network Engineering. He is also an internet marketing expert that has been providing marketing services on the web for the past 2 years. Arvind and his team will train you to become an internet expert within a year for free and also build a free website for you within 24 hours. Visit his site for more info at: http://www.neptune500.com
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Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
The Web’s Press Releases Paradox
by: Daniel Borel
Search Engines love text, the more the better, they do not really prize images. People do not read anymore, the less the better, they favor images. Leave the fancy writing alone! So what?
On one side, a great number of press releases services ask for articles that count at least several hundred words, meaning several thousand of signs. On the other side, Google Adwords allow ninety-five signs to summarize one’s whole purpose.
What is the solution?
Just read press releases, they give you the answer.
First of all, a spectacular title with a maximum of ten words preferably easy-money or instantaneous-success or secrets-for-richness or income-without-work oriented…
Then a compelling first paragraph that depicts a first-class ticket to success with no struggles, no risks, no failures. Just to make the reader go on, dream on.
Finally the bulk of the press release. Frequently the most entertaining part of numerous press releases. The author begins with a speech about himself, his believes – some more words gained with the development of the personal reasons behind these believes – his (preferably famous) colleague’s opinion. But this is often not enough to reach the required number if words. This is the time for the fairy tale about Old Uncle Willy who was a baker but nevertheless had real good insight into
Do you notice I am doing exactly the thing I am making fun of?
To make a long story short, this is stuffing required by the rules of the press releases game.
Now, try and imagine the challenge of a fine art photography on-line gallery as ours, oneppm.com, playing such a game: we have to promote and make known images with words.
The main reason and the ultimate goal of press releases being to get picked up by Google, Yahoo, MSN and the others to get the maximum of inbound links to one’s web site and better a Page Rank that will give as much opportunities to be THE winner as playing the lottery what an apparently ironic world, isn’t it?
Not so sure: that speaks for the faith of the human being in himself, herself, a former spermatozoon that has won.
contact@oneppm.com and borel@synergetique.ch
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Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
This article is very important.
In fact, the chances are it will give you more sales from your website. Now I’m not suggesting you’re low on sales but we could all do with more sales right?
I first started using this word on my website about a year ago. Using the word changed the whole focus of my website, my business and my life!
Sounds unbelievable doesn’t it?
But it’s not, it’s entirely true and I want to share it with you.
You want to know what this word is don’t you? Okay then – no more messing around then.
This word is the reason you are reading this article and the reason you carried on reading after the first paragraph. Have you guessed it already? The single most important word you need to use on your homepage is “YOU”!.
You. You. You.
Using ‘YOU’ Brings Success
Using the word ‘you’ on your homepage can have dramatic effects on how effective your website is at converting visitors into enquiries and sales. Using the word ‘YOU’ gets across your business’ message in the only way that truly works – from the customer’s point of view.
Now you might be thinking this is all obvious stuff. And it is! But just remember to look at the next few homepages you visit and see how many site owners are not following this simplest but most effective of rules.
Most businesses fall into the trap of wording things in this way:
“We provide such and such a product. We are industry-leaders.. We are based in ..”
What you should be doing is changing the entire angle and ‘voice’ of your website around from an anonymous corporate ‘brochure-type-speak’ into a more personal YOU-focused angle. Take a look at my homepage and you’ll see what I mean – www.websitemarketingbible.com . Now take a look at your homepage – how many ‘YOU’s have you got on your page?
So Why Is Using ‘YOU’ So Important?
Because YOU are the most important thing in YOUR universe. You don’t want to hear about me, my company, what we do or what our strengths are – you want to hear what’s in it for YOU.
Studies show that you should have around 70% of all sales and marketing literature comprised of words like ‘YOU’, ‘YOUR’, ‘YOURS’ etc. This might seem like an uphill struggle at first and your initial attempts might not read too well but you will soon get the hang of it.
Can You Play YOU-Gymnastics?
You can actually start treating it like a game. It takes time but eventually you will master the skill of turning any sentence around from a ‘WE’, ‘US’ or ‘OUR’ statement into a ‘YOU’ or ‘YOUR’ statement.
I urge you to revamp your homepage and get rid of any ‘WE’s or ‘OUR’s that you have and reword everything to put the customer at the heart of the matter. Now we’re just talking about the homepage here but really you should be applying this principle to your entire website.
How The Word “YOU” Changed My Life
When I first learned of this golden rule it changed my website totally. I went from talking about my business and products on the site to talking directly to my customers and putting things across in a way which meant most to THEM. It also made me take a step back and re-draft all my corporate literature adopting this same YOU principle. But the story doesn’t end there..
I realised that putting ‘YOU’ at the heart of my business communications and my business as a whole was actually the starting point for something far deeper. Ask any successful person and they will tell you that ‘givers gain’ – that is, if you give first and receive second you will achieve more than the person who takes first and thinks of giving afterwards.
It was then that I realised that I needed to start putting the ‘YOU’ at the centre of my whole life. I realised that to every other single person in the world – they were the most important thing that existed.
I listened more and made better relationships.
I empathised more and made more sales.
I gave more and felt more rewarded.
I could go on but feel that YOU need to go off now and start implementing this powerful technique for YOUR website!
I wish YOU great success!
Michael Cheney is Author of The Website Marketing BibleTM. Take the Free 7-Part Course “Internet Marketing Made Easy” and get your free sampler of ‘The Bible’ here: http://www.websitemarketingbible.com/marketing/
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Monday, January 29th, 2007
When we speak about viral marketing, we are not talking about the newest disease. We are not talking about a Mad Cow Disease variant or something that you need to be vaccinated for. In fact, we are not referring to a disease at all.
What we are talking about is literally the most powerful traffic generation technique available on the internet. Viral marketing is so powerful that it makes the search engines look small and insignificant in comparison. Even link exchanges, as powerful as they can be, wilt into oblivion in comparison.
What you do with viral marketing is create something, anything, that visitors will want to give to other people. This thing, whatever it is, contains a link and perhaps a short advertisement for your website, ezine or ebook. So far so good, this is just good marketing. The viral part comes in because the people who receive these items want to give them to other people, who in turn want to give them away also.
So you see? What you get is an explosion of marketing for a very small price. It’s actually kind of like an avalanche, in that you throw a snowball down a slope and it just grows and grows until the whole mountain of ice and snow is tumbling down.
One very cool viral marketing technique that any web site can take advantage of is greeting cards. I’m sure you’ve run across these all over the web. You select a graphic (a drawing, photo or other image), perhaps a sound file and add some text. This is sent to one or more people via email. These people open the email and click on a link to view their card. They, of course, have the option from here to visit your web site and perhaps send additional cards to other people (or back to the sender).
If your cards are good enough, you can find this technique alone will generate an incredible amount of traffic. Of course, you have the same problem with greeting cards that you have with your web site – you have to get people to it to begin with. Once you do that, however, you will find that it becomes more or less self maintaining. The more traffic you get the more you generate. Just make sure that all of your greeting card pages are listed in the search engines, well displayed on your page (and perhaps all of your pages) and advertised elsewhere as much as practical.
In fact, it’s a good idea to spend as much or more time marketing the greeting cards as the rest of your site, since these tend to create visitors exponentially, while your site is linear.
How do you put greeting cards on your site? First, pick a theme or two. If your site is about model railroads, for example, you might get some photos of trains and train sets; you could include vacation photos, cute animal pictures, scanned drawings or anything else that you feel would make a good card. Just remember to honor copyrights – make sure you have the right to make copies of the materials before you use them.
Once you have a theme or two, you need to find a greeting card service. I’ve experimented with a few options. I’ve tried hosting it entirely on my own site, and what I’ve found is it is difficult to maintain. I’ve also tried it completely hosted on another site and found it is too restrictive.
The service that I settled upon is called CyberGreeting Network – http://cybergreet.net/. This company, in my opinion, provides the best of both worlds (local and remotely hosted).
The pages, images and sound files are stored on your own web site. You can tailor these all that you want so they blend with your pages perfectly. This is the perfect freedom, and as long as you set up the form properly all will work fine.
How do you do this? You download a template file (as explained in their instructions) and modify it to suite your needs. This may require a little effort on your part (as well as some skill with HTML) but the end result will be worth it.
The remote part of the product (which is free, by the way) is the piece that actually formats and sends the card. You see, on your page you get the visitor to supply the answers to a series of questions in a form. The form data is submitted to a CGI routine which puts everything together into a greeting card. Your visitor simply answers the questions and presses submit. You pass all of this to the routine, which then sends the card to the destination.
I was able to get half a dozen pages of greeting cards working perfectly in an afternoon. These remain on my site, and serve me well by creating a steady, growing stream of traffic. I think you would do well to take a look and determine if this will work for your site as well.
About The Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net
Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm
Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com
Posted in Email Marketing | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Directory marketing can help boost your companies performance a great deal. Not only will you get qualified leads for your business, your web site will also increase it’s traffic ranking a tremendous amount.
Here are a couple basic advantages to online directories,
- Substantial staying power
- Repetitive marketing
- Your listing grows with the entire site
- No updating unless necessary
- Not necessary to link back to the directory
Please Note: This article is meant to discuss and implement marketing strategies for local business directories online, not link exchange, a.k.a swapping links with other websites.
For many people, one/two directories always come to mind,
With web marketing, you want to have ever lasting staying power, online directories can provide you with this and more.
Many people who DO NOT use the internet everyday stick with the basics when they come online. Many people are usually looking for a specific service or product that they want to check up on within their local community. This is why it is so crucial that you get noticed locally online.
Every major city has atleast one or two good business directories for you to submit your business to. Many of these directories don’t even require that you have a website.
=======>
How To Prepare For Directory Submissions
Targeting Regional & International:
l right about it. Besides, if you link to it from your site, you might as well put up a banner sign outside your window saying that you fully support this other company./ppIf an online directory asks you to exchange information and you don’t feel that it would be valuable to your visitors, move onto another directory. If you feel fishy about it, so will others./pp==========>
Finding International Directories:
Placing Your Companies Directory Listing In The Right Spot:
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Monday, January 29th, 2007
For Automated Sites PHP and MySQL are A Perfect Match
by: Halstatt Pires
You’ve decided to automate your web site. Now what? Here are some ideas to help you choose how to automate your site.
A bit of programming is going to be necessary if you want to automate a site. There are many types of programs that can be used to automate a web site including JavaScript, PHP, Perl, ASP, Java and more. So, which do you use? For many, it is a personal choice.
I prefer PHP for programming. PHP is a particularly useful programming language because it allows for advanced programming and is easy to integrate with web pages. Another plus of PHP is that the language interfaces very well with MySQL, a popular type of online database.
Yet another plus of PHP is that it is Open Source Code. The actual code that is PHP is available to the public for free, while the source code for products such as ASP are not. Because PHP is open source, there is a large community of PHP programmers that help each other with code. This means PHP programmers can rely on each other by using reusable pieces of code called functions and classes rather than constantly reinventing the wheel. This can dramatically cut down on production time.
Overall, PHP is flexible, cheaper than many alternatives, and built around a community. PHP and MySQL are excellent choice for webmasters looking to automate their web sites.
What Can PHP and MySQL do for me? Just about anything you can think of. That is the beauty of custom programming. A few ideas of what you can do with a PHP and MySQL driven site include:
- E-commerce
- User Polls
- Keyword Tracking
- Set User Preferences
- Manage Password Protected Member’s Areas
- Lead Follow Up
- Customer Relations
- Content Management
- Email Newsletters
- Accounting
- Invoicing
- Scheduled Updates
The list is limited only by your imagination. Once you have decided to go with a PHP and MySQL site, you can either get a custom program created, use a prepackaged version or a combination of both. Many PHP and MySQL programs that come prepackaged are easy to customize and can save you a lot of time and money over starting from the ground up.
About The Author
Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com – an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through http://www.businesscreatorpro.com.
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Monday, January 29th, 2007
Gone in 10 seconds
by: Florie Lyn Masarate
The readers, that is. This would be their reaction 10 seconds after coming into your site and having an initial look at it. It is a known for a fact that people have the tendency to switch to another site when they are required to click on their mouse more than is necessary. It is also a fact that the people who go into sites are the ones on the rush to get the quickest information they can get their hands into. They do not have all the time in the world opening flashes and even getting rid of banners. To summarize all this, readers would be gone in a matter of 10 seconds from the time they see your site.
This is the reason the main pages of your site is one of the most important thing for a site to have. The rule states that they should be straight to the point, easy to navigate and do not have bandwidth. It is necessary for web sites to get the message through quicker than 10 seconds or the readers will be off and clicking on an other site.
People tend to lose focus on something in this short seconds. For things they find interesting and worth reading, the attraction will go on from that seconds and forward on. But if they find it boring and difficult to go into, chances are they would not attempt even a second to try and understand what is laid out in front of them.
This 10 seconds is also the basis of designers in site designs. As they go about their job, they should bear in mind that in those seconds, the page should deliver something useful, more so if everything will be. People can scan a page fast and absorb information much faster. It is said that the opening paragraph is the contract that the readers ’sign invisibly†with you. As with all contracts, they should be able to get what it promises as they continue on browsing your site. You should also make the most of the text you write into the main pages to deliver your message and deliver them effectively. It should be worthwhile to reflect a feeling of usefulness and no time wasted on the part of the readers.
People go into web sites for a purpose. It only takes 10 seconds for them to know if you have it in your site or not. Make your 10 seconds worthwhile and make the most of it.
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For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com
About The Author
Florie Lyn Masarate got the flair for reading and writing when she got her first subscription of the school newsletter in kindergarten. She had her first article published on that same newsletter in the third grade.
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