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Don’t play the waiting game with YOUR website !!!

November 28, 2012 By
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Despite a general acceptance of how important having an effective online presence, nearly half of Australian small businesses fail to launch their website within the 1st 6 months of operation, and 15% actually put it off until their second year of business.  Nearly a third (29%) of Australian SMEs don’t even have a website at all- indicating  a remarkably slow take-up of online by small business owners.

According to Snap who recently announced the results from their survey of more than 250 SME owner-managers on how small businesses are adopting online technologies – websites and online are rated as the second most important marketing channel – more important than marketing, PR and having a showroom or shop front.

There is also a growing interest in  “DIY Websites” among business owners,  with nearly a third (30%) choosing to create and manage their own websites.

More than two thirds of the survey respondents have chosen to have some involvement in the development or management of their websites, while a little under 30% depend on friends and family for assistance.

The study also asked business owners what they thought of a supplier or partner with a badly designed website – Almost 60% said it reflected badly on the company, and 47% said it made them less likely to use that company’s products or services

Most Australians are now active online, so to compete, it’s increasingly important  for Australian businesses to have a web presence too.

If you have been considering establishing a website for your business, NOW is the time to act… don’t wait until your competitors get a significant lead.  Creating your website doesn’t have to be a complicated , confusing or expensive exercise.  In a Day can guide you through the process of creating, managing and “taking control” of your own website.

For more information see our Website In a day Workshop, or Contact us for a chat.

 

 

Filed Under: Investing in Websites, Training News

QLD Public Service Job Cuts – NOW is the time to Re-Skill !!

September 15, 2012 By
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The recent announcement of the retrenchment of 14,000 Qld public service employees will mean that 1,000’s of people are likely to be looking for new jobs over the coming months.

The 14,000 job cuts announced in the Qld State Budget is made up of 10,600 redundancies and another 3400 in axed temporary contract workers and vacant positions.

Qld Public Servants Re-training?

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has said that employees deemed to be surplus to requirements will have a choice about whether to be redeployed to another position or to take a generous voluntary redundancy payout.

It expected that those public sector employees being made redundant will receive counseling, retraining and support in being redeployed (or finding new jobs), but many accepting redundancy packages may largely be left on their own.

Online Business Options

In a Day has Training already started to see an increase in inquiries from public sector employees looking at work options outside the government. Public servants nervous about their futures in government roles, are considering other employment opportunities.

Establishing an online or web related business is becoming an increasingly popular – either as a replacement or supplement to their traditional “job”.

Learn to Create a Website

Domain and hostingIn a Day’s Website In a Day Workshop is a great way for absolute beginners to learn quickly and efficiently how to create and manage their own website. The skills and experience gained in this one day, hands on workshop provide an excellent grounding in establishing an online business and can even provide the skills required to start developing websites for your friends and family.

Advanced Website Training

We also offer more advanced training in a variety of web and business related areas (e.g. WordPress, Marketing, Copywriting, Blogging, Graphics, Search Engine Optimisation, eCommerce, etc..) that can be customised to meet your specific needs. We can provide advanced training one on one or can develop specialist training workshops for small groups.

If you’d like to find out more about how you can re-skill and give yourself greater opportunities in establishing and running your own online business, please contact us today.

 

Filed Under: Investing in Websites, Training News, Website In-A-Day, Workshops Tagged With: , , ,

Creative Strategies for Improving Traffic to your Website

September 7, 2012 By
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No matter what the primary goal of your website (selling products, promoting services, providing information, generating leads, etc..) , there is one aspect which is common to almost all websites – the need for traffic – usually the more the better.

One of the best ways to get traffic to your site is obviously via search engines, but many traditional Search Engine Optimisation “tactics” designed to improve rankings and increase traffic are no longer effective.  Changes in the way that Google and other search engines determine which sites should rank for which keywords, are changing regularly. SEO strategies such as Content Amalgamation (gathering content from other sites and combining and restructuring it for use on yours), or aggressive Link Building (generating large numbers of links from 3rd party sites) – which used to be effective – can now actually have a negative impact on your rankings.

Search Engine Algorithms are Changing

The “job” of search engines is to provide the best possible results for any given search query.  If they fail to produce useful results users will start to look elsewhere for their web searches.  Google and other search engines are getting smarter at recognising websites that use strategies to artificially raise their profile in an attempt to improve rankings and traffic, and essentially most tactics designed to “trick” the search engines into providing good rankings are ultimately doomed to fail.

How Can You Improve Rankings

So how should you go about improving the rankings and traffic for your website?  The approach I recommend is deceptively simple…. Give users something that is actually useful…. If you focus on strategies designed to help your users (rather than tricking the search engines), your rankings and traffic WILL  improve – guaranteed, and you will not suffer dramatic drops in rankings at some stage in the future when the search ranking algorithms change again.

What Do Your Users Want ?

The type of content that you provide on your site will depend on the product/service you offer and the target market you are trying to reach.  But whatever it is, it needs to be :

  • Unique – DON’T Copy and Paste content, write it yourself (or have someone write it for you).  If necessary  find some good content elsewhere and rewrite it in your own words.
  • Keyword Rich – your content MUST contain the keywords and keyword phrases you are trying to rank well for… If you don’t even mention a keyword on your site, how can you hope to be found for it in search results.
  • Useful  - there are a whole lot of things that can allow your content to be considered useful including : Informative, Entertaining,  Educational, Controversial, Funny, Shocking, Thought Provoking, Emotional, Cute, etc…

Ultimately though, the one rule to remember is if it is good for your users, it will be good for your rankings.

If you’d like to learn more about effective SEO strategies and how you can Optimise your own WordPress website… see our SEO for WordPress Workshop.

Filed Under: Investing in Websites, Training News Tagged With: ,

School Holiday Workshops – Web Development Courses for Teenagers

July 18, 2012 By
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We often get asked by parents if our Website In a Day training workshop is suitable for kids.  It certainly is, and over the last year or so have we have had a number of teenagers attend our workshops – and done extremely well.

Tech-savvy teenagers have been brought up in the digital/online world.  They have little fear of technology and are full of confidence when it comes to using online tools and resources, so tend to thrive in our workshops.  They are also used to taking direction and (when motivated) can actually achieve much more than adults who are sometimes cautious or even “scared” of the technology.

We have in fact had so much interest in web training workshops for kids, that we have decided to establish some school holiday workshops designed specifically to meet the needs of teenagers.

Many of our adult students create a website for their business – obviously the average teenager does not (yet) have a business, but there are many other things they could find a website useful for :

  • A Hobby based website – news, info and resources related to a hobby or sport they are passionate about
  • A Personal Blog – their own perspective on day to day life as a teenager
  • A Portfolio Site – an online portfolio of art, fashion, writing or music
  • An Online CV – an outline of skills and experience to assist in getting a job
  • A Business website for their parents business – what better way to get the kids involved in a family business than to have them help out on the technology side (and learn some skills along the way)
  • a Start to their own online business – for the budding entrepreneur

We are in the process of developing our teen friendly workshops, and will add more information, and publish scheduled events when they are ready.  In the interim, if you are interested in having your kids learn how to create and manage websites, or have any suggestions as to what types of training might be suitable, please feel free to contact us.

Filed Under: Courses and groups, Investing in Websites, Training News, Website In-A-Day, Workshops Tagged With: , ,

Virtual Real Estate

March 13, 2011 By
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There are many parallels between websites and traditional forms of investments such as bricks and mortar real estate. And over the past year many companies, venture capitalists, private equity funds and also mum and dad investors are identifying quality websites for their strong investment potential.

Similarities between traditional real estate and virtual real estate investing include:

  • cashflow – you can rent out websites to companies and businesses, sell products from them just like a real store, or lease advertising space (banner ads)
  • capital growth potential- the right type of website in a fruitful niche can produce huge gains on investment
  • renovation- often just some minor tweaking to a site can make it more productive in conversion or traffic generated
  • portfolio additions- buy buying multiple websites or domains in particular niche you can become a big player in that area, just like a property developer would buy up houses side by side for redevelopment

Return on investment or ROI can be huge as many sites can repay their initial capital invested in such a short time depending on the relationship between sales price and net incomes produced. Unlike most traditional offline businesses a website can be open 24 hours a day, and often does not have huge overheads such as staff, rental of the premises and rates bills.

If you know what you are doing you can quite easily own and run multiple income producing websites for very little outlay.

We have just released our new dates for upcoming Website In A Day courses where you will walk out with a fully functional live website that you have created yourself, plus the knowledge and tools to repeat the process many times over. To find out more or to book in to the next course click here.

Filed Under: Investing in Websites

Websites For Sale

March 8, 2011 By
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Is 2011 the year of the great website boom?

The great boom in websites for sale is underway. Domain and website investing is emerging as the popular investment vehicle for this decade.

In January the Australian website Spreets sold to Yahoo7 for $40 million, following reports that the American player Groupon knocked back an offer of over $5 billion from Google. Last December another huge sale was RetailMeNot for $90 million. But it is not just group-buying sites that are booming. Hot markets include fashion, cars, health, investment and just about every other popular niche that you can think of.

With the majority of us now researching products and services online, the traditional forms of advertising including television and print media are no longer viable. Companies are now seeing the value in buying up keyword rich domains and sites of value in their niche to control a larger slice of their market.

Venture capital and private equity firms are now also chasing the enormous profits that can be made from virtual real estate. Even mum and Dad investors are entering the market and beginning to see certain websites and domains as assets.

So what makes websites and domains into valuable assets?

There are many variables that can turn a website or domain into a valuable and desirable commodity.
These include:

  • age of domain (domains more than 2 years old are regarded higher by most search engines)
  • keyword rich domains (e.g realestate.com)
  • profit derived from the site
  • automation (a business that runs with little input from the owner)
  • traffic (access to a large group of targeted customers day and night)

We are running our Website In A Day course so that you can create your very own search engine friendly website. You will leave with a fully functional live site and the knowledge and tools to create a portfolio of your own websites.

We hope to see your websites for sale in the near future with muti-million dollar price tags!

Filed Under: Investing in Websites