Marketing Online Secrets

The Importance of Header - Lesson Learned

I have a niche website on weight loss that is doing relatively well. Every week when I check my adsense account, there will be visitors and clicks.

Clickable header seems to be the ‘in’ thing nowadays, and I thought why not make my header clickable and send the traffic to an affiliate link and make more $$$. Great idea, isn’t it? So I started researching on how to insert clickable headers and succesfully inserted a banner ad as my header. I was quite proud of myself too for coming up with that idea.

Then, one week goes by, no clicks. Another week goes by, no clicks. For an entire month, I didn’t make any sales for that affiliate poduct. Heck, according to my stats, nobody ever click on that banner header either.

It begin to dawn on me that the banner ad is the problem. The ad showed the trim torso of a man and a woman. With lots of bare skin, it has made my website looks cheap and drove customers away. Not only that, the new header does not blend in with the overall design of the site.

With that light bulb, I quickly pull off the banner ad and replace back the original header. The very next day, my clicks started coming in again.

Lessons learned:

1) Headers are important.

2) Better to have no header than to have one which is not appealing to your visitors.

Some so called ‘gurus’ had said that website design is not important and it is ok to have garish looking website. This case study proved that they are wrong.

If you need help in your header or website design, this is a resource that I recommend.

Tags: header design problem, Importance of header

Wordpress Theme Problem

You’ll probably have noticed by now.

Yes, I am having problem with my wordpress theme. It keeps reverting to the unpretty default Kubrick theme
I have googled for a solution and found that I am not the only one with this bug. It seems that lots of wordpress 2.2 users are having the same problem.

Some of the suggestions to overcome includes:

1) deactivate all your plugins (did that)

2) upgrade to Wordpress 2.3 (did that too)

3) delete your default theme and rename the theme that you want as ‘default’ (I thought that’s a really clever solution. I did that and got a blank screen instead)

So in the end, I reloaded my Kubrick as default. Better to have an unpretty theme than a blank screen. I even tried upgrading my theme to the latest version and tried uploading WP2.3.3 compatible themes. Nope, none of them works.

I’ll be eternally grateful if you have a solution for me. Meanwhile, I’ll just got to make do with Kubrick for the time being.

24/02 update: Finally! My theme problem has been resolved by changing to another wordpress 2.3 compatible theme that I like, and by naming the folder as default. Well, I sure missed the SuperAdsense theme but this theme is just as good!

Tags: wordpress theme problem

Comparison of the Top 3 Web-host

Getting a web-host is a difficult decision. It is just like choosing which town to set up your shop. If you chose the wrong town and the amenities are not on par, you would have lots of headaches and your shop may not be operating while you’re asleep. If you have problems with your web-host, it is going to be a great hassle to move your domains to another host. Inevitably, there will be down time and your business will be affected. Some web-hosts are even known to make it difficult for you to move your domains.

When looking for a web-host, it is important to compare notes before committing. There are a few things that you must do to find your perfect web-host.

Firstly, find out whether the up-time of the web-host is at least 99.8% (that’s the minimum standard).

Secondly, test out their tech support by sending them emails and guaging their response time. Test out their live chat and toll-free lines to make sure that they really work. Ask them technical questions and see how they measure up. This should give you some idea on the response time, user friendliness and technical competence of tech support (very, very important because you’ll need their help more than once!).

Last but not least, check out users reviews of the web-hosts. You will find that every web-host would get some negative reviews no matter what. Yes, there are one or two with no negative reviews. But that’s only because there are so few reviews on them. So it is best to put more importance on the overall ratings.

To make things easier for you, here are my recommendations of the top three most highly rated web hosts.

Hostgator - voted #1 best reseller web-host, shared hosting with $7.95 monthly plan available, unlimited domains, 45 days money back guarantee. Highly recommended by many internet marketing experts.

Get 20% discount here with Coupon code valid until 1 April 2008. Free ebook on how to sell web hosting for a profit

Blue Host - one of the most popular, award-winning shared web hosting, with unrivalled features, one-for-all plan ($6.95/mth, slightly cheaper than hostgator but must commit 24 mths), unlimited domains, pro-rated money-back guarantee. Currently hosting close to 500,000 domains.

Site Build It! - Best All-in-one web host, 30 days money back guarantee, pro-rated thereafter.

This is a unique web-host that provides not just web-hosting but everything that you need to succeed in your internet business. It includes brainstorming/research tools on the niche you should go for, site-building tools, web hosting and marketing/traffic tools. You only need to worry about the contents of your website, that’s all.

I had come across Sitesell when I first started. During then I gave it a miss due to its seemingly high cost. Now on retrospect, after spending hundreds of dollars on courses and ebooks and got myself totally information overloaded, I wish I had started with them first. The results and case studies of their clients speaks for themselves.

My recommendation is:

If you are new to IM and you just want to test the water, go for Hostgator which allows you to pay monthly. You can pull out easily if you find that IM is not for you. Go for Hostgator too if you want to make money as a reseller.

If you are in it for the long-term, check out Blue Host for the great features and reliable hosting.

More than 99% of internet marketer are not making money online. If you are planning to quit your job and make a living online, you will get an edge with Site-Build-It!

I hope this post has helped you in your decision making.

Tags: best web host, bluehost, comparison of top web host, hostgator, site build it, sitesell, web-hosting