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Your Practical Guide to drive traffic and make money from your website.
Welcome to ServerJock.com. If you made it to this site you might be looking for ways on how to work from home, make money from your website or just plain optimize your site. Look no further I'll give you tips and tricks on how to do it and start earning and drive traffic to your website right away.
 

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How to start.

Content

Before starting to create your website, you will need to plan in order for it to be successful. It is important to know what you want before designing a website. A good idea will be to browse the internet and look for features that you want. You may want to take notes of navigation links, colors, themes, images, animations and formats. You should be able to do this yourself but it would be great to involve other people to get a second opinion. More heads are better than one.

Target or Audience

Who or what kind of people will be going to your site? Will you be selling something on your website? Will your site be an informational website or will it be a personal website? No matter who it is, you will need to take into consideration on what your audience want in order for them to get to your website.

Be open for changes

When creating websites it will not be a good idea to leave it as it was the first time it was created. Be dynamic. It would be best to look for websites and find good features that you may want to include on your website every now and then. There should always be a good balance on your website's content. Static content is good and easy to maintain but may not generate repeat traffic in the long run. Dynamic is best but may give you administrative overhead since you will need to update your site often.

Stuff that you already have

Keep track of possible content that you already have. The possible contents to include on your website may be product descriptions, company information, personal backgrounds, organization information, papers, images in digital format, -- and more importantly information and ideas you've gathered.

Tools

Now would be a good idea to choose what tools you will be using to create your website. If you're a beginner it would be best to use a "WYSIWYG" program to start with. A WYSIWYG editor or program is one that will allow you to see what your website will look like while you are actually creating it.

Do-It-Yourself VS. Outsourcing

Creating your website would be the best option if you are just starting. You will be able to save money that you can allot for other purposes if you have a capable web design staff. Be receptive of your staff as well in case of turn-over. It would be best not to rely on a single person for your web design and management. You may also outsource your web design and management but take note of how it will be done. You may want to ask for recommendations or post job openings so that you can choose someone fit and capable for the job. For companies or groups presenting themselves to design your website ask questions like who or where will the site be hosted, monthly maintenance fees, site ownership, design and content, data integrity, security, availability, ease of migration in case that you want to transfer it to another group or company.

Technology and costs

At this point you may already have your content ready but what about those stuff that you want to place on your website? You may have come across websites that have features like audio and video streaming, websites that contain "Flash" images, searchable databases, graphical sites with great animations. One of the great breakthroughs from the "static" days are websites designed as a database. Although this approach may lighten your administrative burden you may incur development costs with less design flexibility. Always take into consideration your content.  These features can be added as you progress in creating your website.

Design

Always design your website in the perspective of your audience. I've seen a lot of website with lots of useless contents and this will easily drive your audience or customers away. The most common downfall are banner exchange services. These will make your website look cheap. Before placing anything on your website make sure that the content will be relevant to what your audience is looking for. This will motivate your audience to click through different sections on your website. Make sure that your navigation links are labeled accurately. These navigation links make the difference in making your audience stick to your site.

Your vision

Throughout the process of creating your website, make sure that you and your company backs it up. If you've outsourced your website or are working with third party consultants do not forget to get a lot of details by asking questions. Remember that they are the ones building your site and you want it the way YOU WANT IT. They may suggest some features or components that may look good and all but make sure to keep your website as simple as possible.

This site is a good source for tips and tricks on how to create and optimize your site so that it can be seen. Feel free to look around and apply those you feel will add to the success of your website.

Good Luck,

Server Jock

 		  

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