All You Can Eat Internet -Because the people are hungry!

AYCEI has opened up a second office to solidify its presence in the US.
This increases AYCEI’s reach, and adds additional resources to the AYCEI Family.
Our office are located in Orem, Utah @ 1555 N Technology Way.

1) Private Ads – Every website owner dreams of the day when they can have direct advertising and no longer have to rely on third party sites. This way you get to keep all the profits, and don’t have to share any percentage with google, or the various other advertising networks. This is something that you can strive for but it will take time.
You must first establish a base of users or consistent traffic to your site to be in a position where you can justify charging significant ad rates.
We recommend establishing at least 2,000 unique visitors per day , or 1,000 and above if you have a very specific niche website.

2) Subscriptions- This model is a great one because often times it recurring, either monthly, quarterly or yearly. Many times sites will give you a free trial, with an automatic renew if you do not cancel. If you price your product or service reasonably this can be quite popular, and can create a very profitable and recurring revenue stream.

3) Contextual Ads - Contextual ads are excellent if you can find ones that match your sites content. Google’s adsense program does a great job of this and will show relevant ads the vast majority of the time.
Recommended Contextual Ad Companies include:
Google Adsense
Yahoo Publishing Network
Adbrite
Valueclick
Adpepper

4) Affiliate Marketing – This works on a CPA (cost per acquisition) model where you get paid for an action either a signup for a service, or your users submitting information.
This can be a very successful if you can find appropriate companies to promote that compliment your sites’ content/ theme.
Recommended Affiliate marketing companies include :
Azoogle Ads

5) Display/Banner Ads- As opposed to contextual ads that are text based, display ads can be quite effective in attracting users to click on them. Since users are becoming used to seeing ads all the time, and are good at blocking them out, many people have turned to animated or flash banners that catch your attention even if you try to ignore them.
Banner ads mixed with contextual ads often make up 75% + of a site’s revenue. Most advertising companies that offer contextual ads offer display ads as well.

What’s in a design? Everything! It’s what prospective clients come to look at when deciding whether or not to do business with you. It’s what users base their decision on whether or not to ever come back to your site, or to register for it. Here are some tips on what your web design should focus on to ensure you have a successful website

Fast Loading Designs

Although lots of people enjoy flash, and sites with animation this can also take longer to load. This is especially true for people with older computers or old browsers.
We are a big fan of flash elements, but producing an entire site in flash is not recommended. If your site is going to take more then 10 seconds to load visitors are going to leave, and no one is going to see your beautiful piece of art that has been created.

Simple Navigation

This should be rule #1, as I have been to hundreds of sites that have so much going on that you can’t even find what you are looking for. Your site can’t just be easy to navigate for a tech savvy individual, it has to be easy to navigate for the non tech savvy, the young, the old, and everything in between. In general its recommended to minimize the number of navigation areas on your page.
Typically a site will have a top navigation, and then a secondary navigation on the left side of the page. once you start adding hundreds of links to every page it becomes too cluttered, and quite difficult for users to find what they are looking for.

Resolutions

Looking at website stats we see that approximately 70% of internet users have a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or grater. As a result all websites should be optimized for viewing on a monitor that uses this resolution. If you have a user with higher resolution that is fine, but at least they won’t have to scroll horizontally ( a big no no) or vertically to view most of the content you have to offer.

Above the fold

Above the fold is the area on  a website that is viewable by a user without having to start scrolling to read more. Ensure that your most important messages, or marketing material is “above the fold.” A user often comes to a site and then decides within 10 – 15 seconds whether or not they are going to leave. Make sure you capture their attention by showcasing the most important benefits,information, or products your company has to offer.

Browser Compatibility

Every browser out there renders a website differently. This means that even though your site mike look perfect in firefox 2.0 it may not look proper in the latest version of Internet Explorer or vice versa. Ensure that you do browser testing for all popular browsers including : Safari , Firefox 2.0 , Firefox 3.0 , Internet explorer 6, 7, and 8. by doing so you will be ensuring that your website displays properly for 98% of users who will come to your site.

Web Safe Fonts

Although photoshop, ms word and various programs will give you some excellent fonts to choose from you need to pick a “Web safe font” This is a font that will be installed on 95%+ of users computers /browsers ensuring that your site will look consistent for all users. If you decide to use a  non web safe font then many of your users won’t be able to see it and instead will see their default font.

Arial
Courier New
Georgia
Times New Roman
Verdana
Trebuchet MS
Lucida Sans

For more information on how to design the ideal site contact us at AYCE Internet , a professional Toronto web design firm

AYCE Internet is a toronto web design firm that has over 15 years of combined experience in monetizing, developing, and selling websites. Click here to contact us or get a free quote

Starting a new website, or improving upon an existing one is an exciting challenge. The first step is to determine what your goals are.

Saying that you want a “popular website” is not a proper goal, and will not allow you to get the most out of your project.

The following questionnaire will help you outline your goals allowing you to get a proposal web design proposal and ensure you get the most out of your hard earned money !

Project Scope Overview

1. What is the scope of your project? Check all that apply:
[  ] Web design         [  ] Graphic Design
[  ] Web development         [  ] Branding & Identity design
[  ] Web Programming        [  ] Other Graphic design (labels, brochures, etc.)
[  ] E-commerce         [  ] Database development
[  ] Content Management     [  ] eLearning
[  ] Blog            [  ] Forum

[  ] Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Marketing
[  ] E-Marketing / Newsletter campaigns
[  ] Website maintenance
[  ] Website hosting

[  ] Other:

2. Overall site objectives:
[  ] Establish a new Web presence,
[  ] Increase marketing and product branding
[  ] Increase sales
[  ] Generate business leads
[  ] Increase international presence of the organization
[  ] Generate requests for information
[  ] Support existing advertising, promotional efforts
[  ] Offer customer service
[  ] Provide latest information on new products/services, sales, promotions or events
[  ] Build a database for emailing
[  ] Provide directions to consumers
[  ] Feedback forms, contact forms, auto-responders
[  ] Online search
[  ] Survey customers/prospects
[  ] Recruit new employees/post job opportunities
[  ] Sell a product or service online
[  ] Display a sample portfolio of products or work online

Web Design Objectives

1. What are the main objectives of your website?

2. How has your current site achieved / not achieved your goals?

3. Key messages to convey?

4. Design aspirations?

[  ] High caliber design    [  ] Mid-range design        [  ] Very basic site

5. Key words to describe look & feel?

6. Brand consistency & Marketing materials

Have it        Need it
[  ]        [  ]        Professional logo, identity & brand standards
[  ]         [  ]        Corporate collateral
[  ]         [  ]        Other print collateral

By simply answering these questions you will make the process much more smoother and ensure that you are satisfied with your project!

At AYCE Internet we have been developing sites for ourselves since 1998, and for clients since 2005. Over the years we have learned alot more then just how to design and code a pretty website. We have learned how to take a site from scratch, build up a following, monetize it, and later sell it as a viable business. This blog will share the tips and tricks that we have learned, and will feature regular updates from out top marketers, designers, coders, and website brokers from the AYCEI family.