http://www.nickyjurd.com Effective Small Business Websites Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:13:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I confess, I'm a member of the mobile generation. I'm not one of the annoying types who answer their phone at restaurants or during meetings, but I do carry my mobile everywhere and thanks to Telstra's NextG service, I'm continually connected to the internet. There are a growing number of constantly ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/mobile-generation/ Do you know that feeling you get when a sales assistant tries too hard to sell you something that you're just not interested in. You were perfectly content browsing the store, but they've come over, bugged you, and now you just want to leave? It's remotely similar to those Persian rug ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/web-sleaze/ A couple of people in my office have recently been searching for a new home, and have both lamented at how the real estate agents haven't quite embraced the web as well as they could, especially considering they're such an ideal web-based business. The frustrations they've experienced are echoed worldwide ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/frustrated-searchers/ A colleague of mine introduced me to a unique eCommerce concept from an Australian website, Zazz. Zazz sells just one product each day, which is a curious decision for any shop, and sells that product until it runs out. A new product is released the next day. Perhaps the thing I love ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/zazz/ ... and how long is a piece of string? Websites are like houses, they're all different! Most web development companies will custom build your website just for you - they're the consultant, project manager, architect, designer, builder and marketeer too! In Cairns, Australia, websites are known for being much cheaper than they ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/how-much-does-a-website-cost/ Did you get that title? The past two days I've noticed a number extraordinarily long domain names... they're a bad idea because they're very hard for your customers to remember. Domain names should be as short, snappy and memorable. If you have a long business name, consider dropping non-essential but common words from ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/long-domains/ If your domain is generic and keyword-rich you will have a strong advantage over your competitors. But there's a catch... the advantage is limited to the words in the domain. This is best illustrated with an example. Say you're a conference organiser, and you operate in Sydney. You might consider a strong ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/keywords-in-domains/ One of the major factors responsible for a cost blowout on website development is continually making changes and tweaks whilst the site is still under development. Most web development companies will charge you hourly for changes made to your website, so it's important from a cost perspective to get all the ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/get-organised/ Do your new customers ask the same kinds of things time and time again? Save your admin time by adding the answers to your website. You'd be surprised how many customers inspect your website prior to contacting you. Here's some logical things could consider adding to your site: Employment Information We hear lots ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/repetative-requests/ WEB 2.0 is a trendy new IT term glossing the front page of business magazines. While I usually detest the use of jargon, web 2.0 is exciting, has intelligent business applications, and is a whole lot of fun. Most of us have already had some involvement with web 2.0 websites. As ... http://www.nickyjurd.com/interaction-generation/