Your website design is part of the key to success. While pleasing aesthetics
are important so is the functionality of each page. The Home page, often the
first page your visitors will see, must convey the purpose, desirability and compel
them to move to the next stage thus helping them to making the correct decision
which is owning or utilising the service you offer.
Welcoming new visitors is important but not at the expense of losing regular business.
Access to member areas and simple navigation are important too. Other important
factors include giving them reasons to return and to have a way of notifying them
of special offers.
Bookmarks is a modern name given to a morgue. Most people have an extensive
one filled with places they have promised to return but never do, the holy shrine
of links is a place that has not been sought by Internet Marketing Guru's for years.
Instead you need a way to get eye-balls to new information regularly. Even
the humble Newsletter is less effective these days (but not quite the place of the
dead as the bookmark yet).
RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication
enables you to publish your data directly to other websites and more importantly
to your regular customers. If it's interesting enough it will end up the front
page of iGoogle, MSN or Yahoo or even directly to many email clients such as Outlook.
Whenever you publish new data this can be seen without the need to go to your website.
Provide teaser information and they will click through.
RSS is one way to
receive targeted traffic without the need for search sites or an advertising budget.