MarkBeljaars.com

There are few things as exciting in business as starting your website, no matter how big your company is.

Having your site look professionally designed is very important, so you need to know how to make this happen. If you don’t have a huge budget, going to a local web design company probably isn’t the best option for you since they often charge a lot of money for their services. But the budget problem can be solved by using outsourcing. It is actually possible to outsource your site design to someone who will give you a great deal and give you professional looking results. The quality of the service you receive when you outsource is the same as you would get from any local company, and many times it’s even better. It doesn’t matter if your business is large or small; the outsourcing question comes up at some point of the time.

To get a better price and faster turnaround time, any business can outsource to one of the thousands of offshore web design companies that have shown up all over the world.

First and foremost, the biggest advantage that one gets out of outsourcing web design is the quality of work.

Designing a professional website and making sure it stands out of the crowd requires you to have the right set of skills, which takes time to develop. Of course, your business can employ in-house web designers, but if they lack the necessary experience, you may not be pleased with their results. Remember that any website which doesn’t have an appropriately high-quality design will reflect poorly on the company and turn off potential customers.

Therefore, it is critical that you not skimp on web design simply in order to cut costs. A professionally designed web site will bring you customers from just visitor, a slick site this diversity training site, is a real asset to any company online. Combining many aspects of the project, the right outsourcing group should be able to help you plan a strong strategy. Building and setting your site in motion effectively will be no problem for them thanks to the skills they have. It really tops it all off that the development costs are so low. The success of your site will be tracked by your web design company, and they will always be there to help you.

Another advantage of outsourcing is that a reputed web design service has all the required resources at their expense to give you a good result. After years of working in this field, these agencies know how to balance skill and experience to create the memorable web presence you’re seeking for your online company.

No one would believe that a small firm would have all of the needed in house website design capabilities to create and maintain such a project. So it’s far more practical for a small business to consider outsourcing options than to take on the web design tasks themselves. Think of it this way: the Internet moves at a speed that’s 7 times faster than real life, so it’s crucial for a small company to have a professionally designed web site that will give it the competitive edge it needs.

You can, of course, choose not to outsource; however, many people find that this only slows them down or that they are unable to get many things to work on their own. If you want your website done in the fastest possible time and to look as professional as possible, however, you may want to make the investment in outsourcing it.

Joe Simpson is an internet marketer who also operates as a SEO article writer.

Research

It’s also about identifying those who link, what kind of content do they link to. It’s the current market that goes to define the content. You may think you have the idea, but the truth is that your readers will decide what you will publish and your idea will come from researching the space. Research is the key and if you don’t spend enough time researching your market, then you will probably fail.

Distribution

You then need to ensure that the content is shown to as many potential linkers as is possible, and the nature of social media marketing can assist you with this but a powerful online network is vital. This is a brick wall to those who have no access. But it can be solved by taking the time to build a network, or buy the people who have built that network.
It’s important that when planning your linkbaiting strategy, you realise that there are specific skills involved when creating something worthwhile. Linkbait which works usually has an element of simplicity that makes creation seem easy. In reality when you are trying to create something that looks to be so simple, it can actually be quite a complicated series of actions.

To create linkbait, this three step process should be followed

1. Find who links
2. Discover what they link to
3. Show the linkers the content

Successful linkbait must contain the following elements:

1. Attention grabbing
2. Entice the reader to consume the content
3. Instil a reason for the reader to share content

Linkbait is not a sales message whose intention is to get you to buy a particular product. The purpose of linkbait is to simply get you to link by using a range of emotional triggers. Many times it has been said that we do not buy rationally, but that we buy emotionally. Linking is no different, it must reach the linker and trigger the correct emotional triggers.

If you have defined your online marketing problem as too few links then employing linkbait as an element of your whole strategy may be the solution to your problem. It has to mesh with your other online marketing elements such as PPC, Search Engine Optimisation, link buying, blogging, article writing, social media, etc. Of course having a brilliant website in the first place will help and if you get your web design just right, it’s a good beginning.

It is imperative that it should never harm your overall branding strategy. The tone of the linkbait should not harm in any way the way your brand is perceived. Imagine if you are a bank and you have come up with a piece entitled “Great Gadgets Bankers Buy with their Bonus”, then you may want to reconsider your plan. In the current climate it doesn’t sound like a good plan at the moment. Even though I am confident that this will get the banks links, linkbait should never really be about gaining links at any cost.

Linkbait is a technique not a strategy, it involves creating web content for the specific, primary purpose of getting links pointed to your website. There are of course other areas where linkbait can be useful, but ultimately it’s about links.

Google has made the getting of links pointed to your website essential for ranking in their search engine, because of this it is essential to acquire quality links and the more the better. Some websites buy links from other websites, but Google have said they will take action against manipulation of the search ranking through the purchase of links, although things get a little fuzzy though when you start defining what it is to actually “buy a link”. Buying links of course does have it’s own problems, which can be discussed at another time.

Which is why in this day and age, linkbait is so important to enable you to succeed with your online marketing plan. If you are looking to reduce your monthly PPC spend and boost your organic listings then linkbait is absolutely something you should consider.

This sounds great, but hold off for a while as there are some serious issues to consider.

What is linkbait really about?

Linkbaiting is about getting other people to do something, it’s about persuading them to link to the web content you want them to.

It would seem to have less to do with search engine optimisation and programming and more to do with publishing. A specific kind of publishing that straddles tabloid newspapers, billboard advertising, the front covers of popular magazines and if you are of a certain generation, the album covers of long playing records. You can hear it now, all 20 something’s a trifle confused and thinking that their music all came out of an iPhone.

Attention

It’s about getting attention, users of the World Wide Web tend to surf at the speed of thought and at any one instance they have to ability to go anywhere else on the web in a few clicks. You need to get their attention with something that is going to stop them still in their tracks and consume exactly what you have on offer. An engaging headline will do this, but domain context and niche relativity are also important.

You really need to engage a company who are passionate about their web design and SEO.Get this right and you could well be on your way to running a very successful website and business.

A couple of weeks ago Fresh Egg were invited to the ‘Make it into Media’ event, which took place at the fabulous Corn Exchange venue in Brighton, and was organised by Wired Sussex. The event featured media companies from all over Sussex and was a sort of jobs fair, where anyone could come to get advice about making it into the industry, and even pick up a few leads and contacts.

The HR manager Annie Marshall and I set up a stand at the event and about midway through the day I took to the stage to give a presentation on how I got into Search Engine Optimisation and to give my advice on the best paths into the industry.

Now we all know that the East Sussex town of Brighton is well known for it’s number of creative and media talent gurus. But even so, both Annie and I were blown away by the energy and enthusiasm that the attendees displayed. Most of the attendees were graduates and students who were interested in breaking into the media business, however there was a scattering of older industry professionals, many of whom were just that little bit curious about ‘new media’, but others were looking to make the transition from print to digiral.

What really amazed me was just how hungry many of the job seekers were and how they really wanted to establish themselves in a new media sphere by basically working their socks off. Almost instantly after the doors were opened, the Fresh Egg stand was swamped by people wanting to learn not only more about our company, but also about Web Design, SEO, digital development and our fantastic new hatchling CallTrackID The interest didn’t let up all morning and it was a very constructive day, not only for Fresh Egg, but for everyone else involved in the whole event.