Sounds scary doesn’t it? If you are terrified of hairy spiders this is not a website for you, but if you want to see some of the fantastic things that can be created using Adobe Flash this website is definitely a good example. There are games and other fun stuff to do that is sure to help you kill an hour or so.http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/Be sure you click along the menu at the top of the website to see the other great things that Tomas from OneMotion.com has created. Have fun!
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How the Apple iPhone converted me to Macs
I thought it was time to write some general interest news. Having used Windows computers for the last 20 years, it was with reluctance that I accepted an iPod to have a play with. I know, computer trainer for 15 years and just received (not bought) an iPod to play with. Loved it so much that I decided to buy an iPhone as my next mobile phone/camera/calendar/music storage etc….One of the best things that Apple have done is link their iPods and iPhones to their iTunes music player. iTunes not only organises and plays music, but acts as the syncing software to ensure that you have what you want on your iPhone, this includes images, videos, music, calendar entries, emails etc. Another great features of iTunes is the massive library of songs which you can purchase individually for a couple dollars, but the most amazing thing I found was that you can also buy software for the price of songs.I downloaded a program called SpeakEasy for $2.49 and am now able to make audio recordings on my iPhone. Now, OK, I had that same functionality with the last phone I had, an iPaq, running Windows mobile software because all the functionality was built-in. In other words, it was FREE, but the amazing thing about the iPhone software is that it’s only $2.49, no minimum transaction size and no extra charges. How else could you actually buy software that cheap? This is the beginning of the next software explosion.Why will there be a software explosion? Well, if software can be sold easily for as little as the price of a song, there will be more incentive for entrepreneurial software developers to write software programs with the home of selling much more software through sites like iTunes. This will be encouraged by the fact that devices, like the iPhone, won’t come equipped with everything on them but you’ll have to download software to use the features you want, like video for example… you can’t take videos using your iPhone as it comes in the box, but there are several softare programs out there which will allow you to. All the hardware is there, it’s just the software that’s needed.Finally with the ease of using the iPhone and it’s delicate touching interface, the logical navigation to get things done and the ease of connecting to your computer, I can see a huge rush towards consumers buying Macintosh computers. Think I’ll go along and check out my nears Apple SuperStore today 😉
Create your own flash intros for free online
Here is another example of everything becoming free online. I’ve just discovered a website where you can create your own flash animated intros without having any experience using Flash.
You can create either html or swf files from the site and if you decide you want to use more of the features that they have to offer, you can join the site for less than $5 per month. Have fun with it.
Specific is terrific for your website and online marketing
Many website owners believe that they can create content and plonk it anywhere on their website and they’ll be inundated with emails and calls. They are missing the fundamental fact that people who are browsing the internet have potential 10-30 other website to visit until they find the one that they think is the best.
Here’s a couple examples of the goals I have for some of my websites.
- Get website visitors off your home page (otherwise they’ll bounce)
- Get people to take a short tour of what you can do for them (using images and maybe audio)
- Give people a reason to interact with your website (like a free sample or information report)
- Know the website goal and how to measure it (eg. the number of people visiting the website compared to the number of people who actually get to your Contact/subscription/ordering page etc).
Some fantastic news for you is that Google has all the tools to help you attract website visitors, funnel them to goal pages and measure your success. Advertising with Google costs you money, but most of the other tools are completely free (like Google website optimiser and analytics).
A great aspect about Google Adwords is that although it costs you money, you actually attract very specific potential customers to your website, customers who have typed in very specific search words and/or phrases. Better still you only pay for actual clicks to your website and not the people who just see your add.
So remember that when you promote yourself online you are looking for people who want something very specific so you need to find them and then funnel them to your own specific goals for them.
If you need some help please call me on 0413 007 481 or email steve@slisar.com.au
Landing Pages to focus your website
A landing page is a web page that contains specific information on it that will appeal to website visitors who are looking for something specific.
For example, if I send an email newsletter which promotes Microsoft Excel Training and I insert a link to my home page (eg: www.slisar.com.au) then people who click on and follow the link from the newsletter may be a little disappointed. Why? Because they were expecting to find information about Microsoft Excel Training but now need to navigate around my website to find the information.
So, I create special “landing pages” that cover a specific topic and when a website visitor gets to the page they are pleasantly surprised because they see all the information they were searching for. This is an example of a landing page: http://slisar.com/main/page_landing_learn_microsoft_excel_online.html .
You could put special links on your landing page that “funnel” website visitors to exactly where you want them to go and thus acheiving your website goals. Notice that the URL of the above “landing page” contains keywords that are used to search for the service offered? This is one aspect of Search Engine Optimisation and makes your website attractive and “Relevant” to Search Engines.
After creating some specific landing pages I can create ads on Google Adwords, Microsofts adCentre or promote these ‘landing pages’ in email marketing campaigns so that when people click on them, they get a very specific response and are funnelled to the webpage that you want them to get to.
Creating these pages is possible using the 123ezy website builder and I have used this technique to successfully attract thousands of people to my websites and online services. If you need some help with your website design or Internet marketing, please contact me in Australia on 0413 007 481 or email me at steve@slisar.com.au
Auctions! Exciting? Ebay – everyone’s pouncing at it
In the Neanderthal period of the Internet, when everything ‘internet related’ was worth 50 times it’s commercial value, no one understood it’s real value, compared to bricks and mortar businesses. Anyone who had computer programming experience was writing software programs for the internet.
Online auctions were the buzz because rather than someone just searching for a product to buy, contacting the seller and then negotiating over the phone (like we all used to do with the Trading Post … “tell’em they’re joking about that price”), online auctions made you come back to the website time and time again to see if you’d won the auction.
Ebay used some fantastic, “operate your own business” campaigns to make ordinary people realise that they could operate a business from home just by selling unwanted items and as a result bulk sellers make about 80% of all sales in online auctions. This is where we meet the next fork in the road for online auctions. Ebay with it’s market clout is trying to force all their sellers to use only Paypal as the method of payment, PayPal is an online payment system owned by Ebay.
In view of this turmoil, other online auction websites are promoting themselves like ravens to get some of the spoils of this turmoil and one of the biggest launches is that of Telstra owned business, Sensis, which owns the Trading Post (an other big Australian online portals like the Yellow and White pages).
If you want to check out some other online auctions here is a list:
http://www.tradingpost.com.au/
http://webshop.cashconverters.com.au/items
and a new service that is currently going to be launched: http://offerme.com.au/
One more thing that you might like to know is that almost anyone can now start an online auction website because the software that allows you to create is available for free! Yes, the Open Source movement has created many software programs that take all the hard work out of setting up and auction site of your own…. all you have to do is add products.
Happy buying and selling
