Inflikt

My first web site was nothing more than a brochure that was transformed into an HTML document and installed on the web. Since then I have learned that web pages can do a lot more than printed brochures, because they can offer several different ways to involve the visitors. Here are some of the ways that I use to bring my sites to life.

The first and most obvious kind of interactivity is to have a way in which someone can send you a message or contact you. You can do this by putting your e-mail address as a “clickable” link on your web pages. This is normally enough, but sometimes people are not surfing on their own computers and can’t click on the mail link because they don’t have an e-mail program on that particular computer. The answer is to put a contact form on the web site. This allows anyone to contact you, no matter where they are surfing. Also, as far as I can see, the contact form seems to get more responses than a simple “mailto” link, perhaps because it requires so little effort to complete.

If you do use a clickable mailto link on your website be sure to encode it and protect your email address from being harvested by spam merchants–see our article.

Forms can be activated by a CGI script, or if you are using Front Page, through the Front Page extensions. If you are unable to use either of these methods then you can get free form processing on a third-party server (such as bravenet.com), but you will have to put up with advertisements or pay a fee to have them removed.

Another way you can involve your readers on a regular basis is to offer a newsletter related to your site. The newsletter or e-zine in its simplest form can be nothing more than an update of new features on your web site. Or you can be more ambitious and write an article on themes related to your web site. For example, if your web site represents your bicycle shop, your newsletter could contain articles about cycling. Explain the scope of your newsletter with an announcement on your web site: “Get updates and information related to the themes of our website in a free e-mail newsletter” followed by a sign-up form where the people can sign up for the newsletter.

Start a Newsletter

In your newsletter provide links to your web site, and your products or services order pages. I find that whenever I send out a newsletter, traffic on the website increases as do orders for my products. Also provide information on how people can subscribe and unsubscribe, and tell people to forward the newsletter to friends and people who might be interested in your website.

You can keep people coming back to your site by using a bulletin board or online forum. The beauty of the bulletin board is that your visitors create your content. However, in order for this to work you must have enough traffic. If you have a Britney Spears fan site, then it should be no problem to get your bulletin board up and running. If your site doesn’t have a strong flow of visitors there is still a way in which you can use a bulletin board. Hold a special forum. Announce, on your site and in your newsletter, a specific period in which there will be a discussion on a topic: “Visit our special forum on Racing Bicycles which will be held from September 1-5. Participating in the discussion will be the webmaster and his staff of racing experts”. This is a good way to tie together your newsletter and your bulletin board to sustain interest in your site.

Put Up a Bulletin Board

In order to have a bulletin board you may have to install a script on your site. Or perhaps your hosting firm has a pre-installed bulletin board script. You can get bulletin board scripts for free or for a small fee. If you are not able to install a bulletin board once again you can get one hosted on another server for free (with advertisements) or for a monthly fee (without advertisements).

Finally, here is another idea on how to draw your visitors into the site. You’re an expert on something, that’s why you have your website! Start a questions and answers column on the site let your web visitors send in their questions and you and or your team of experts can give the answers. Award a prize to the person who sends in the best question of the month. It will help you to generate some useful and new content for your site and also let you know what your web visitors are thinking.

Taking this further, you can offer free advice on a one-to-one basis for visitors who have questions related to your product or service. Put a form on your web site. It can be right next to your product’s order button. Give the people a chance to either order your product or ask for more information. By offering good advice you will win the confidence of your web visitors, some of whom will eventually go on to purchase your products or services.

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been
working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization,
http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization,
copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He
publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at
http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

As the year comes to an end, you will see plenty of websites
offering stock guidance for 2006 and what you should expect for
years to come. This guide can be had for free if you buy this or
subscribe on that or sign up for newsletters. This is just
marketing gimmick. Sure, they have their use. But they want to
get you back by offering you a set of stock guide every year.
You only need one stock guide for your entire lifetime and I
will give it to you for free. Well, your time is not free so
that is what you need to read this guide.

2006 will be similar to any other years. In fact, it doesn’t
matter what year you are in. You can be in 1921, or 2105 and it
will bring the same thing to investor. Therefore, stop reading
‘Stock Guide from 2007′ one year from now. You just have to read
this once.

2006 will bring out the best to undervalued investment and
companies having stellar balance sheet. It doesn’t matter what
economic condition we are in, these stocks will give you
outstanding return. Now, these stocks will not give you the best
return ala Taser ( up 2040 % in 2003) or Travelzoo ( up 1070% in
2004), but it also will not give you Taser-like loss ( down 80.6
% in 2005) or Travelzoo ( down 75.3 % in 2005)

After all, Warren Buffet becomes rich by getting a return in
excess of 20 % annually for a long time. His stock holding does
not move up 1000% in one year and move down 80 % in another.
Yet, he is doing fine, more than fine. Slow and steady wins the
race and apparently it has been time-tested by some of the best
investors in the world.

Yep, so your 2006 guide is to find undervalued investments and
invest in them. You think oil price will go up in 2006? Then,
whip out your calculator, determine the fair value of any
Chevrons or Exxons of the world and compare it with the current
stock price. Be sure to look at the balance sheet too. Having a
positive net cash will ensure that the company you picked will
survive one year from now at the very least.

How do you determine the fair value of a stock? Quite simply,
you compare it with the prevailing interest rate and add a risk
premium to arrive at fair value. For example, if current
interest rate is yielding 4.5 %, the fair value of a common
stock is when it yields around 7.5 %. This implies a Price
Earning Ratio of 13.3

Anything else you need to know? Nope. Your only guide for year
2006 and beyond is to find undervalued investment. It has stood
the test of time.

Home remodeling is an effective way to give your home a brand new look. If you are highly creative, you can certainly come up with a whole new atmosphere for your home. But let’s face it - your ideas are only be ideas if you do not implement them. You need home remodeling to bring your ideas to life.

You are probably hesitant to do any remodeling for a very understandable reason -

Cost. Labor and materials can set you back many thousands of dollars. It would be great to have an exact budget for your home remodeling project, but you can never really determine an exact cost for your home remodeling project. The cost will depend on a lot of factors.

First, you have to think how simple or complex your home remodeling project will be. Are you just considering wallpapering or repainting your exterior? Perhaps you are thinking of replacing some of your bathroom and kitchen fixtures, or you want structural changes and elaborate reworking of current electrical and plumbing circuits.

The simplicity or complexity of the work to be done will determine the cost. If your project is complex, you will have to consider a building permit, hiring an electrician and plumber and purchasing more material. This will certainly cost you more than just repainting or adding some accessories.

The cost of home remodeling will not be as expensive as you think, if you have done some pre-planning beforehand. Remember that the cost of your home remodeling will greatly depend on how you plan and organize the things that you want done.