I spend most my days talking to potential clients on the telephone and through e-mails. And I love my job, I love what I do and I love the fact that I am pretty damn good at it.

However, there is one question I should ask clients that I never do.

What makes you different from your competition?

What are 25 interesting things about your business that would make me want to do business with you?

When it comes to making a living online, you will be competing against a lot of people. You need to know why someone should do business with you instead of your competition.

For example, when I started my business I did not look for what unique abilities we brought to the table. However over the years I slowly began to standout from the crowd.

Let’s see if I can name 25 things that make my Web Design business unique.

1. I am one of the only Web design companies that offer unlimited design changes. I do not limit the number of changes a customer needs to make to the design to get exactly what he or she is looking for.

My goal is to make the customer happy. We do this by not limiting are charging more after a certain number design changes.

2. I’ve got people here 7 days a week 15 hours a day to answer the telephone. We try to answer all business e-mails within one hour.

3. We’ve got people whose only job is studying and understanding conversion. This means that when it comes to building websites to convert traffic were on top of the game.

4. We have designers that do nothing but design and programmers who do nothing but program. And this allows them to be on top of their game.

5. We offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee. At any point in the process the customer can get their money back. This means we have to work extra hard to keep the customer happy.

6. We do our best to be efficient in what we do. This allows us to get the websites back to the customers in a timely manner and allows us to keep our prices low.

7. We not only understand how the search engines work, but we rank for some of the most competitive keywords in the industry.

8. I’ve got no problem giving away free information or trying to help someone make money online. Whether it profits me or not.

Their posts all over the Internet that I have written giving free advice on what works and does not work online.

9. We practice what we preach. Unlike most Web design companies, we make our total living with our website we do NO off-line advertising of any kind.

10. We’ve been building and designing websites for the last eight years and have been able to make our total living online throughout that time. This gives us knowledge and understanding of the Internet and the Web design industry that most people do not have.

11. Our desire is to make our clients happy. We don’t care how many hours on the phone it takes, how many e-mails we have to send, or how many design changes are needed. It’s all about and for the client.

If you don’t know what makes your business unique and different from your competition maybe you should take a minute and try and come up with something.

Cool Designs

The neat thing about designing and building websites is that we have to be able to use every form of artwork you can think of. We have to be able to combine those forms into a single unit that tells a story.

A lot like the cover of a book.

The Art of Dan dos Santos is one kickass book cover designer and has some really cool book covers below.

Custom Website Designs

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when you are building custom websites day after day you need something to inspire you.

While it’s easy enough to build one website a month, building 4 and 5 a week can cause your brain to lock up. It’s for this reason that I post pictures, graphics and other things on the site from time to time in hopes of inspiring my web designers to work outside the box they are currently living in.

The below images were found throughout the internet and posted here.

It’s important that you understand a website design is more than you see, it’s purpose is to show the benefits of your product. Everybody wants a professional looking website that will create more business; the problem is in finding someone that can create that site for you.

Your web design is the competitive edge that sets you and your company apart from the rest of the world.

How to Make a Website

Done correctly your website should be able to combine three powerful tools: the website itself, the search engines and the power of social networking.
Steps

Coming up with an idea for your site. In the past it’s been repeated over and over to build a site about your hobbies, passions, a topic you know well or even a health condition or problem you know lots about.

But what if you can’t think of something?

Well here are some tools to help in finding that perfect niche.

New York Times – Top Searches Word Cloud – Find out what’s hot in the minds of Americans

43 Things – Most popular goals – Discloses popular pains, goals, needs

43 Things – Homepage word cloud – great for finding ideas

del.icio.us / popular – If lots are bookmarking it, there’s interest and it’s hot

Ebay Pulse – What’s hot and most searched. Drill down DEEP by category to find sub-niches

Ebay Want It Now – They want it NOW! – Dig DEEP by category

Yahoo! Buzz – Shows popular product searches

Technorati Popular – Top searches

Google Hot Trends Top 100 Google searches of the day

Search.com Top 1,000 Searches

AOL Hotsearches

Ask IQ Weekly top searches

Lycos 50 Weekly top Searches

Twitterverse – Most popular word cloud for Twitter. What are they twittering about?

I’m going to assume that you were able to find a niche to get into.

Now that we’ve decided what we’re going to market we need to identify and understand the people we are going to be marketing to.
There are some websites that are general websites like Google however in most cases it’s better to understand your customers and tailor the website towards them.
Who is your audience?

What do they do?

How old are they?

What are their other interests?

Knowing these things allows you to tailor your website around the people that will be using it. And in return this helps to increase conversion.

What’s your commitment? How much time and money are you willing to put into your website? If you’re looking for a personal site it’s easy enough to find some free hosting and software that will allow you to put your information online.
However, if you’re looking to make money online then it will require both time and money.

Content sites – If you’re looking to sale a service online then a content site should work. You can place information about your company and services online with your contact information and let the website generate leads.
To get the most out of a site it needs to be professionally designed and set up to convert the traffic into visitors when they land on the site.

E-commerce sites – This is a website set up to sell products. A website selling products needs to have an administration panel that allows you to change prices and products whenever it is needed. You’ll also need to deal with shipping, sales tax, order form security, inventory updates, and everything that a person with an offline storefront would have to manage.

If you’ve got a list of several things you’d like to try it’s best to narrow it down to one and get that one making money before trying the others.

You’ll find making money with one website is very time consuming, trying to do three or four at one time is beyond time consuming.

Go to godaddy.com and find a domain name that is easy to remember and easy to spell and register it.

Once we’ve got all the above done it’s time to decide how we want to develop our site. Below are a couple options to consider.

Use a website-building program and do it yourself. It might save you some money in the short run but chances are it’ll never make you money. Having an eye of the design and the ability to make it work isn’t as easy as you might think. Even more so if you’re trying to get people to part with their money.

Hire a professional. This is the best option for anyone who is serious about making money online. However finding the right designer want be easy.
Tips

People don’t want to wait. This means that you have between 3 and 5 seconds to capture your visitor’s attention.

Your site will need an SSL certificate if you plan to accept credit cards Online. They normally run around $300.00 per year. You can avoid this charge by using something like PayPal, although in the long run it’ll cost you more money.

Find some websites you like, they don’t have to be in the same industry as your own, and use them to get ideas.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between a programmer and a designer. A programmer takes care of the way the site functions and a graphic designer takes care of what your site visitor sees.

It’s rare to find one person that is really good at both.

If one more person asks you, “what’s your website address?” you can politely tell them, www.i_dont_have_one.com. After all, building a website is not on your list of priorities and with all of the costs of doing business, why should you spend money on a website when you don’t “need one?”

As the owner of a website design company in Tampa Bay, I can give you 10 Reasons Why You Should Have a Website:

1. Marketing

A website is a great way to compliment your existing marketing strategy and when compared to radio commercials, tv ads, billboards and even the yellow pages, nothing is as economical and versatile as your website. In the United States there are more than 220 million internet users; developing a website that will enable you to reach this market-share should be part of any businesses’ marketing plan.

2. Educational

People want to know what you can do for them and what you have done for others. More and more consumers use the internet to get information about products and services so include testimonials from other satisfied customers; provide background information about personnel, give some history about your company or post some photos. People like doing business with people they know and trust, so make your website informative and educational and you maybe surprised at the results.

3. 24/7 Access

Customers shop and compare prices now more than ever before and the internet offers a powerful, quick and efficient way to do so. If your competition is online, you should be there also. Your customers can go online 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get answers and information about your business.

4. Resource

Your website gives customers and potential customers all the information about your business they need. This can include a map (if you have a bricks and mortar location), your hours of operation, contact information (phone, fax, email) etc… Customers will have an immediate resource with important information about you business.

5. Interaction with Customers

Your best customers are repeat and referred customers and there is no better way to interact with new and potential customers than keeping in touch with them online. Through your website you can post a newsletter, take a polls or surveys and promote special deals. When you keep in contact it shows customers you care and will keep you “top of mind.”

6. Instant Legitimacy

As a customer you want to know the company you are buying from is legitimate and runs a reputable business. A well designed website lends legitimacy to your business and can lead to increased sales.

7. Marketing research

The web is interactive and can provide valuable information about what your customers want and need. To get a handle on your potential customer base you can set up a survey to figure out exactly what visitors are interested in. By finding out what they are looking for you can also learn what new trends are on the horizon. This marketing research will help you efficiently grow your business.

8. Level the Playing Field

Look and act bigger than you really are. Every big business has a website and every small business should too! A well designed website presents a more professional image than a larger competitor whose web presence appears weak or amateurish.

9. It is Lucrative

If you develop an effective online marketing strategy, your website will bring in new business and new customers that you may not have acquired through other traditional advertising strategies.

10. Customers Expect It

Isn’t this where we started? In today’s business world, the internet is the way we do business and without a web presence, your business risks never being found by prospective customers.

Now that you understand why you should have a website, your next step it to determine what you want your website to achieve and then get to building! Questions? Just send me an email and I’ll be happy to help provide you with a variety of website design services!

Author:Tampa Website Design