Domain Search and Registration
Starting with a domain name that is both memorable, and descriptive of your organization is an important first step in setting up your web site. Choosing the right combination of words for a domain name can have more influence in the long term over the marketing effectiveness of your web site than you might initially realize. Once you choose a name, there is the additional problem of availability of the chosen domain name. Using a set of tools at my disposal, I can come up with a list of several suggested and available domain names, and if you wish, register the domain name of your choice in your name.
Web Hosting
If you have your own web server and DNS server, hosting your web site is not a problem. For most small organizations, purchasing, maintaining and housing a server with a high bandwidth dedicated internet connection is not an option.
Generally, the preferred solution is to have the web site hosted on a professional web site hosting service. Hosting services charge a monthly fee, which is usually billed annually. The choice of hosting service also depends on what other technologies they provide, such as databases, email accounts, scripting languages, and so forth, that may be an important part of your hosting solution. After discussing the goals of your web site and your hosting service needs, I can locate a reliable hosting service. I can either do the hosting research for you and refer you to a preferred service, or I can provide hosting on your behalf with consolidated billing for hosting, development and maintenance costs.
Web development
The actual process of writing web pages involves more than just writing. A thorough technical knowledge of HTML is needed to create pages that utilize the fullest capabilities of the most modern browsers, while still being workable on older browsers. Skilled use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) lends attractive presentation and layout. If your intent is to influence your visitors, attention to the more subjective design principles utilizing color, layout, fonts, and graphics helps to create pages with the greatest impact possible. With specific training and certification in each of these areas from the International Webmasters Association and HTML Writers Guild, I can design web pages that more effectively fulfill your web site goals.
I also have software for creating and manipulating simple and impressive graphics. If at any time you want an adjustment or change of any nature to any page or any feature of your web site, I will be more than happy to address your needs.
Web Site Components
There are a large variety of web components that can be used in a web site, such as forums, shopping carts, scripts, database components, and so forth. Custom programming of such components can be an expensive proposition if the component is completely "home grown". Often, there are affordable off-the-shelf components that will serve the purpose of most small organizations. Unfortunately, installing and customizing such components is frequently beyond the capabilities of non-technical individuals.
With many years experience in the computer and software industry, I have become quite accustomed to searching for affordable and effective software, installing and customizing such software. It is my pleasure to engage my technical, analytical background to make off-the-shelf web components work for you.
Keyword Research
Any successful search engine marketing campaign necessarily begins with a list of keywords or keyword phrases. Keywords are what brings visitors from "the world" to your web site by means of the search engines. Proper selection of keywords is crucial to getting the most traffic from your search engine marketing campaign. But if you choose the wrong keywords, you can get visitors who aren't interested in what you offer, which is wasteful of your entire web marketing effort.
There is a science to selecting keywords, that involves research of search statistics, related words, and relevance of keywords to your web site. I have gathered resources and developed methods of compiling keyword data into a concise and ranked list of suggested keywords. Once you have these words, you can use search engine optimization (SEO) methods to incorporate the best words into your web page copy, or you can use those words to buy relevant, targeted traffic through a pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaign. Then, ongoing attention to web site logs and other traffic tracking tools can give you feedback about which words are bringing the most traffic to your web site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you rely heavily on the search engines to bring new traffic to your web site, your site should be optimized in such a way that places your pages near the top of the listings for your chosen keywords. Evidence indicates that users most often either find what they are looking for, or abandon the search in favor of a different search after looking at no more than three pages of search results. If your page does not rank within the top 30 positions for your keywords, it is unlikely that any traffic will come to your site from those search terms.
Search engine optimization is a process of rewording the content and meta-content of your site so that the search engines are more likely to place your pages higher in the search results. I have various tools at my disposal for evaluating and adjusting the effectiveness of your web pages in getting well-positioned in the search engines. While good search engine positioning is important, it is also important to keep the web site user friendly, so that you can get and keep the business of new visitors. Attention to the human value of content must be combined with any SEO effort.
PAD File for Software Developers
For independent software developers, the backbone of marketing software includes listing your software product on the hundreds of available software download and referral sites. The key to doing this effectively is to use a Portable Application Description (PAD) file, which was defined and formalized in XML format by the Association of Shareware Professionals specifically for the purpose of submitting descriptive information to software download sites. There are tools for creating and editing a PAD file, however the guidelines are not entirely clear. The process of writing a PAD file that will work with the download sites can be an unpleasant chore of trial and error on the first attempt. For a nominal fee, I will take your description and essential information, and construct a workable PAD file for you. I'll even translate the description into the major foreign languages.
Download Site Submission
Yes, there are literally hundreds of software download and referral sites. Another key component of a software marketing campaign is to get, and keep, your software listed on as many download sites as possible. This has two effects. First, you get more traffic and downloads from all those sites. And second, all the referrals from the top high-traffic download sites will increase your ranking in the search engine listings. Submitting to all those download sites can be a time-consuming chore. Locating all those sites, and registering with the ones that require registering can be another time-consuming chore. I have contact with people who dedicate their time to tracking these download sites and the details of submitting software listings. Even with semi-automated tools, it's still a chore. If you would rather have someone who is experienced in submitting to download sites take on this task, I would be happy to help you accomplish this part of marketing your software.
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