To Land over Landing Pages!!

Today's blog is for all the PPC people...
I'll be telling you how important your landing pages are (of course, you'll be knowing it yourself but i'll just be throwing a bit more light over a few things).

Let's observe contradicting scenarios:

You run a beauty saloon & you've put up an advert about nail art. An interested person clicks on it & the landing page turns out to be your home page; having hair-dos & makeup bars & stuff......& there you have some linked section about nail art too. Though it's relevant but still there are 98% chances that it'll be a big turn-off for the viewer; as they were looking for pure nail art & not the show down of your whole saloon services.
So, you don't wanna do that!!

Now, the objection arises that if we don't do that then only 1 of our services will be viewed by visitors. Well, that one has a very simple solution, make an advert for other pages too. Yeah, i know it's costly but don't go after making 1 for each page (that will be a total waste of money); just focus on the most wanted services.

Coming to the design of the landing pages, people usually choose them to be different & simpler (for ease of loading) from the rest of the website. The "simpler" part is OK with me but i don't favor making them different from the website.
Suppose your visitor has landed on a page through an advert; the look or feel of the page being different from the site won't matter in this case. But now, let's suppose the visitor has actually typed in the URL of your website & is going through it page-by-page. Then, what will happen?
The whole of the website was a simple black & white combo & suddenly one of your landing pages showed up & it's red & yellow (or some other contrast)...woah!! that'll be such a big & negative blow to whatever the image was there in the mind of the viewer.
So, don't do that!!

Your landing pages are actually promoting your business, along with persuading the visitors to become your customers. So, they are really important.
Now, i know you want that whoever lands on your website must know each & everything about you & your company or business & so you either make your home page the landing page or you put info about yourself on the landing page. Both approaches are wrong!!
It takes time to gain customers...if your service page caught their interest once, they will themselves navigate through the rest of the site to see who you are & what you do.
More importantly, if they thought that you really provided them with what you had shown in your advert, they might actually spread the word around too.
So, put up the things that you have promised them via your advert & DON'T forget to put up an action-call on the page to make them instantly contact you!!
For the rest of the details about yourself, you don't wanna do that with your landing pages (unless it is really relevant to what your ad was saying).

That's all from my side...

HAPPY LANDING!!

E-Commerce - Easy's & Hard's

E-Commerce is a very rapidly growing trend in today's world. Presence of a business in a well-known shopping plaza is bound to get you more customers, but add a successfully running website along with it & then you have everything you could ever wish for...let me repeat that "everything you could ever wish for"!!

Now, just from a general perspective, let's see what's so easy about this field of E-Commerce that it is growing so rapidly & what is so difficult about it that still attracts people to jump into the competition.

So, we'll begin with the "Easy" part...
Firstly, making up a website can be considered as one of the easy things to do here.
Why?
Because you can find companies doing that task for you very easily & effectively. All you have to do is to tell them you requirements, set up a budget & voila!! it will be done.

Then, the process of taking orders via the website is as easy as anything.
Why?
Because the customers will fill in the order form or send email or sign up for different packages displayed on facebook (or whatever might be the process specified over the website). You will only have to maintain a record of those orders, as they are requested.

Then comes the part of receiving payments, as easy as a pie!!
Why?
Because you have companies doing it for you. You just need to go take the cash whenever you need (a big grin on your face i suppose).

So, things like these fall under the easy side of E-Commerce!!

Now, come to the "Hard" things it has in store for you & me...
Let's go step-by-step:
So, start with getting traffic for your website...that's a tough job now. Working your way through SEO & keywords & search engines & adverts etc. is not an easy task.
Suppose you emerge victorious from this 1st struggle-battle...& there is another thing waiting for you on the other end
How to get people to visit you a 2nd time??
See, now it is not that easy, is it??

Moving on from the traffic issue, you don't just need people to visit your website, you need them to interact with it, buy things & sell things & all. You need to work on how to make them type in their credit card numbers (how to make them shop from you)..

& with all these things going on at one side, there are competitors to look out for...
I mean E-Commerce is a growing industry, isn't it? So, there are millions like you out there, striving for the very same thing as you are. You have to make your presence not only noticed but unique too.

So, you see, the hard things are as hard as the easiness of the easy things (bet you wouldn't understand this line in one go).

In short, if you're planing your future in E-Commerce...i've just got 2 words for you


GOOD LUCK!!

Why ask for Website Maintenance??

Hi,

I am the owner of a small jewellery business (& other fashion accessories). I started 5 years back from my friends' circle and in a very little time, i was famous in the local community. The next step was to give a bit more exposure to my business, so i made a fan-page over Facebook and Twitter. It helped a lot & i started getting orders online. I was very happy.

Someone suggested that i should make contracts with bigger companies & agencies. Now, that was an attractive thing to do. But it required a more professional approach...beginning with the development of a proper website.

I contacted a company to get me a website. It was a long process but i got what i wanted & it was beautiful. After deployment, they asked me if i wanted to go with their discounted maintenance package which is offered to clients along with website deployment. I was not sure what that was so i asked a friend.
"You have the website, you can manage it yourself. How hard can it be to manage? You've been managing your Facebook & Twitter pages for so long now, you can do it easily. Why waste more money?", was my friend's answer.

I took the advice & refused the offer politely (i want to mention here that i am not at all a technical person)...this was the 1st mistake i did in my business career.

For a few months, everything worked perfectly fine...& then something happened...something really bad.

My website had a login system too; i had a long list of members who received special offers based on their membership type.

After reaching a limit of 350, new members stopped getting added to my list. They were able to register, their membership payment was being deducted from their accounts but their information was not being updated in my records.

I discovered it when a client called me up. He was very angry. He said he called up to talk about his orders & my manager told him that he is not one of our members & is not allowed to have the deal he wanted. I apologized on my manger's behalf & checked the records myself but the result was the same. The client told me that he registered a week back under the golden membership category (OMG!!).


That was the 1st incident & many followed afterwards. I don't know for how long it had been going on. I tried every possible thing i could think of but still could not find what the problem was. Then someone told me to contact the website makers again. I reluctantly did (reluctant because i refused their maintenance offer back then). They agreed to look into the matter but obviously i had to pay full amount this time (bad luck!!).

They worked on my site & figured out something wrong with the database (that was what they called it). So, they had it all sorted out in 3 days.

I had to figure out who went missing from my records & send apology messages to them. So, the reason behind telling this story was that, technical or not technical, you should never ever ever turn down the maintenance offer from the company responsible for creating your website.

I was lucky that they agreed upon working out the problem in my website; otherwise, all would have been lost.

Social Media Marketing - A Must!!

For the millionth time i argued with my brother over the social media importance. My brother is a newbie in the field of business. Now, he ain't anti-social but he sure is an anti-social-media person (he doesn't even own a Facebook account, can you believe it!!).

The day he announced that he'll begin with his own business, i kept on poking him to create pages and links over social media channels. He was of the view that they are a total waste of time. "Who would have time to look up for my name over Facebook & see how many fans i have? Or how many people are following my tweets? People are too busy updating & commenting on their own posts & pictures", he would say.

"It's the youth we are targeting here bro. How can you expect the younger generation to use any other means of information when they spend 95% of their times sitting in front of their screens?", i would ask.

"It's useless..", he would conclude & walk off.

Then, one day, it happened; an event that changed his life & his negativity against the social media. He had a friend (a very good friend, in fact) who moved somewhere abroad. He came to know about my brother's business & promised him a very heavy budgeted project. My brother was very excited about it. He spent days & nights gathering enough resources to make himself impressive & eligible for his upcoming clients. And, of course, he had even bigger plans for the money he'll soon be earning (I had a long list of things too that i'd ask him to get me).

In short, we were waiting anxiously for the clients' call...a week passed...then another week...& another week...& the whole month passed...no sign of the good friend or the heavy budgeted project.

One day, he caught his friend online. Upon inquiry, it was revealed to him that the clients thought a company having no social presence is not strong enough to handle such a big project (having a website was not enough in their view).
& CRASH!! came down my brother's big dreams.

When i came back home that night. I found him waiting for me (it was enough for me to guess that something was not right). A few moments of fumbling & mumbling & finally the truth was revealed to me.

I felt like laughing out loud, pointing to him & say "See, i told yaaa!!", but the dejected look on his face stopped me from doing so.
"So, what do you want from me??", despite feeling sad for him, i asked firmly (I can still get a few items out of the list i made....hahahahaha *evil laugh*).
"Please make accounts for me over the social media channels... I don't know what to do with them. Please manage them on my behalf", he pleaded.

"What?? I don't have that much time... It's a very difficult task", i lied to him.
"Please, i'll pay you...promise", he was near to tears.
"OK OK!! but i'll decide my salary myself", i grabbed the opportunity.
& it was settled.

I created the accounts for him & started managing his business & clients over them...posting new things he added...introducing new clients & projects...answering queries etc.
It took time to make him get noticed but finally we succeeded.
In the end, he got his accounts & a strong base for flourishing his business & i got my greens!!

Make way for a Freelancer!!

Hello everyone!!
My name is Susanne & Michael & Sandra & Alexandra & Tom & Jerry & Larry & Diana & Charles & Raj & Raja & Rani...tell me any name & it's me...
Because
I AM A FREELANCER!!
I go by any name, at any location...tell me your project & my profile will change accordingly. I don't have a fixed identity, yet i create identifying marks for you (whatever you hire me for adds more to your name...right?).

People think freelancing is not a proper job...the general rule book says if you leave your house at 9am, sit on a desk in a building crowded with people like you, go about getting commands from your boss all day long & come back home at 5pm, only then you have a proper job. Well, i tell you that freelancing is even more a tougher job in itself than the 9 to 5 routine you call a job. Let's see...shall we??

Freelancer - A CEO
I formulate my own rules
I set my own goals
I formulate my own budget
I communicate with the clients
I make decisions based on his requirements & my resources
I promote myself, my-self
I myself take care of my PR

Freelancer - A Project Manager
I formulate my own working strategy
I motivate myself, my-self
I do self-evaluations
I categorize my own tasks
I monitor my own performance
I manage my own projects

Freelancer - A Developer
I write my own code
I test my own code
I find errors in my own work
I update my tools myself
I update my clients myself

Freelancer - A Designer
I make my own designs
I implement my own designs
I ammend my own designs

So, you began by giving job openings in newspapers & websites, then you call for interview, then you ask questions from each & every person, then you select some of them & reject others, then you assign them posts, then you brief them their work & then you begin with your project.
Whatever things you do after formulating a complete team, i do all alone.
I AM A FREELANCER

PM - Behind the Scenes!!

Hi!!
I am a Project Manager...

When you normally tell someone that you are a project manager, they picture you as a person:

• Roaming aimlessly in the office (with a devilish smile)
• Giving commands (or lectures in case you've done something wrong)
• Sitting all day long in his cabin doing nothing (coming out only to check if everyone's at his workstation)
• Circling around you all day long if a deadline is nearby (shouting over your head that you should have hurried with the things)
• Finding faults with whatever work you have done (& you were thinking he'd be thanking you for your hardwork)

etc. etc.
In Short, if you have a forceful Boss, you are for sure to have a bossy Project Manager.

Now, this doesn't mean that i am a bossy one...nooo, my team is really fond of me =]
But we are talking about general perception here...right??

So, as i was telling that the overall image...general image...of a project manager is not very good. People think that it's an easy way of earning money, without doing anything.
Now that's wrong!!

You see, even when i am sitting idle, there are a whole lot of hurricanes twirling & swirling through my brain. I am constantly thinking about ways to meet deadlines, fully utilize the allocated resources, solve issues between teammates, brief the newly demanded feature from client side (in a manner that won't make my team's head go CUCKOO!! CUCKOO!!) & other issues that my team has not even the slightest idea of.

If you think developers & programmers spent sleepless nights meeting deadlines, we project managers spent sleepless weeks arranging & scheduling the time preceeding those deadlines...i can't recall when was the last time i slept peacefully...maybe a month back...oh no, that was when i had my vasovagal episode (fainting) (yeah, that can happen when you are in a condition as i was).

You people think that PM stands for Project Manager only...wrong again
The P is for:

• People you have to look after (clients, boss, team)
• Pressure you have to bear
• Problems you have to deal with
• Projects you have to manage

The M is for

• Money matters you have to handle (even if it means a simple lunch arrangement for the team)
• Machines you needs to look after
• Motivation you have to provide to your team
• Messages you have to convey from boss to team, clients to team, team to boss, team to client, boss to client, client to boss (woahhh!! i lost track of my words...)

So you see, this is not an easy task. Yet " I ", the project manager:

• Greet everyone with a fresh face
• Walk around the office with full energy
• Solve problems with an innovative mind
• Guide you with a smiling face

& still they say i have no work to do...*sigh*!!

SWS - Yippee!! & Oh-Oh!! of Public Holidays

Public Holiday is a badly awaited thing by all living souls (if some one is not included in this list, he/she is "actually" not alive!!). People make big plans for their days off; family gatherings, picnics, late night movies and sometimes carrying out all chores around the house, like:

• raking leaves
• snow shoveling
• spring cleaning
• garage sales
• fixing the pipes :p

Here at SWS, we undergo the same kind of feelings when public holidays are around the corner. Some time away from the computer screens and softwares feel good...no??

Whenever we see a highlighted holiday in our calenders, BOOM!! goes happiness in our tiny brains.

Yippee!! no more getting up early (enjoy lazy breakfasts)

Yippee!! no more staring at computer screens (blank - sleepy to even think what goes into the header line)

Yippee!! no more waiting for coffee-breaks (have it whenever your heart says)

Yippee!! no more client updates (they are all away on vacations)

Yippee!! no more executive chairs to twist on (only executive beds to rest on)

Yippee!! no more dress code (only worn-out sleeping suits all day long)

Yippee!! Yippee!! Yippee!!

Every client is happy and wishing us a happy holiday break. So, we rock and roll away the time and be as lazy as we can possibly be through the break!!

Time flies when you are having a great time & therefore, we end up back in the same building, on the same chairs, with the same screens giving us their icy-stares.

But this is only the initial description of what dreadful end lies ahead of us...

Oh-Oh!! there's a due milestone in the next 24-hours

Oh-Oh!! i still need to make the corrections the client pointed

Oh-Oh!! the client is demanding updates over his project

Oh-Oh!! didn't i already debug this part before the holidays??

Oh-Oh!! Oh-Oh!! Oh-Oh!!

All good things come to an end, an end that is as dreadful as blissful the holidays were.

Praise the Lord Team SWS!!!

You are warriors, surviving war after war between the Yippee!! and Oh-Oh!!

SEO - The Story

I was getting very late and i wanted to find all the stuff in the list my mom gave to me early in the morning, fast and cheap. I stepped out of my car. Just a minute of standing and observing all the stores around me.
BINGO!! there's a neat store that will have all the items i need...
I went inside, and within an hour, i was done.

Well, that was easy...right??

But when i reached home and handed it over to my mom, i came to know there was another store somewhere on the back side of the market that was even high in quality and low in prices...
I mean how would i know?? They should have put up some sign or something on the front... Who told them to open up on the back when there were similar stores on the front... Not my fault mom!!

Easy to understand...right??

Now that store on the back could be you IF and only IF you don't use SEO; losing all your customers to that store on the front, despite having better quality and more variety and low prices etc. etc.

In short, when people search for stuff online, they only tend to click on the websites appearing on the 1st page of the search result; hardly ever the other pages are noticed. SEO gets you on that 1st page!!

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We know how to put colors in your business concept in the most striking and skilled way. Let our designers take on your idea and give it a whole new form. Our team has the best known knowledge of how to make a remarkable impact on the people who will go through your site or content.

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We know how to implement your mind-thought into something practical. Let our developers turn your vision into a reality. We know exactly how to give you the best, most efficient site that makes your business idea look worthwhile and innovative.

Typography 
We are able to give the perfect description to your business plan. Let our typographers add that special touch of words and colors to your plan. Our team knows how to assemble stuff so no details get overlooked or unrecognized. A neat and nice outlook always creates a strong impact.

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We provide you with your own personal space in the easiest manner. You choose your type of hosting and we will have it ready for you to use for a reliable period of time. Also, we will be providing you 24 hours of full support.

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We Promise...

Commitment
We know what we want to accomplish, we develop a plan to do it, we follow it dedicatedly and we make sure we take full responsibility of what we've developed. We are great believers of long-term relations and partnerships, so we remain loyal and dedicated to our customers.

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Each business plan works in a different environment; demanding a different set of insight. Our focus is to understand the individual needs of each of our clients, to dig deep into what actually they want to end up with and to look at the problems they are facing from their perspective. We, then, guide them in the manner that is easy for them to comprehend and understand.

Prioritizing
The policy of our company is to put our clients on topmost priority. Each client demands special attention and needs things to be done his way. Our company makes sure that we end up with a product that our client actually demanded from us.

Satisfaction
Every customer wants quick results and time to time feedbacks on the progress of their work. We interact with our customers in a most professional manner and keep them updated about the progress of their projects.

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There’s always room for improvement in every plan and idea. Our team strives for continuously improving the quality of your product. Our standards are the best in business practices having strong quality consciousness; guaranteed to give you extraordinary results.