EBizInsider

Archive for March, 2009

Choosing a Color Palette for your Site

Whether you are launching a new website or redesigning a classic one, choosing a good color palette should be an essential part of the process. More often than not, poor color choices can disguise a strong brand or even steer customers away because of hues that have emotional effects (more on this later in the article). Since color is a subjective experience, it can be tough to determine the proper combinations that best suit your brand or industry.

To really learn about color you would need to first understand the structure of color. Of course, I am referring to the color wheel and the three primary hues: yellow, red, and blue. We then have secondary hues (orange, violet, and green) and third level hues which are combinations: yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green. The colors opposite each other on the wheel are called “complements”. Of course, you can choose colors without having a deep knowledge of how it works by relying upon your emotional responses.

The first place to start is with your business plan. The reason for this is you want to use a color palette that best represents your industry as well as your definition of your business. Referring to your business plan allows you to choose colors later that are a visual summary of your goals.

For instance, your plan states that you are offering electronic products but you want to be known as an ecofriendly company that is loyal to customer satisfaction. What does any of this have to do with color choices? Well since you are selling electronic gadgets and such, typically you would choose from a palette that appears mechanical, futuristic, modern, etc. Generically, this would be some sort of grey-blue and black combination. By referring to your business plan first, you identified that you want to be known as a more earthy electronics company. In this case you might instead go with a palette that has a softer tone, with more pastel and natural colors. Color reflects personality, so you want to be sure to choose a combination that defines the purpose of your offering more than the industry.

Another place you can begin is by creating a “mood board”. A mood board is a collage of images, text, colors, etc. that represent your business mission and branding. For example, if you were a company that sold car accessories and you were from New York, you might make a mood board that was a combination of vehicles, roads, local scenery, etc. If you step back and look at the images you decided to use in this mood board you will start to identify repetitive combinations of color. From here it is a bit more obvious from what palette your primary and complementary colors should derive.

When you are working on choosing your color palette make sure to choose shades that offer contrast. Additionally, you want to have at least one complementary color. Using contrast will help deliver a well-balanced design. The addition of a complementary color will deter from the palette, thus avoiding the risk of appearing too aggressive. It also allows a resting place for the viewer’s eyes. Complementary colors should be applied in a subtle way to avoid complicating the design. The goal is to create a harmonious effect. Optimal results can be subjective but if your palette is harmonious, then you still achieved the goal.

There are a variety of online resources to help you pick your palette. Some that designers use all the time are:

http://kuler.adobe.com/ is my personal professional favorite. Adobe has done a terrific job offering users the ability to submit their favorite combinations. The program allows you to search by industry, emotional responses, etc. It also allows you to download the swatches to be used with their software.

http://www.colourlovers.com/ A great resource of commonly used color trends.

http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/ An interactive color wheel that helps you define color combinations and offers up the hex codes.

http://www.colorhunter.com/ Allows you to upload images and picks out the color combination. This is great way to assure your site theme complements your product images and vice versa.

As a designer I will always recommend that you allow a professional to choose your palette; but if you decide to do it yourself, follow these simple guidelines and use the recommended tools and you’ll be off to a colorful start.

All posts by Chris Pawloski | E-Mail the author

Put On Your Creative Thinking Cap

Someone once told me the three most expensive things in life are your wedding, your house and your divorce. In today’s economy houses aren’t selling, divorces are advertised in the classifieds for $99 and now there is the $150 wedding package.

I had some business to take care of in the Palm Beach County courthouse and when I stopped by Clerk & Comptroller Sharon R. Bock’s office, I found an advertising card for what is billed as the “Sensible Start Wedding Package”. With a price point “less than $150”, what a bargain! That is of course, if you’re willing to say “I do” in a non-religious ceremony.

For $150 you get your marriage license, the ceremony, a photography package and the all-important commemorative certificate. While a courthouse wedding may not be the extravagant event every little girl dreams of someday having, in this economy it may be all that some can afford.

When I saw this offer, I immediately began thinking of ways businesses can market themselves in a down economy:

• Bundle Popular Products - Everyone likes a deal, so give them a bonus for spending just a little more. Take three or four of your most popular items, bundle them and take off a couple percent.
• Take Advantage of Local Search - Do people in your neighborhood know you’re right around the corner? Create listings in local search engines such as Yahoo! Local or Best of the Web to drive local traffic to your door. Local sales + no shipping charge = more profit.
• Speaking Opportunities - Is your local Lions or Rotary club looking for someone to speak to their group on e-commerce? This is a perfect opportunity for you to spread the word about your business and hopefully make friends who become customers.
• The Morning Zoo - If you have a unique product that deserves a few minutes of fame on your local radio morning show, send it to the jocks along with a note and some samples of other products you sell. If you catch their eye, they’ll talk up your product or invite you into the studio for an interview. DJs love free stuff; trust me, I was one in a previous life and always plugged the company who gave up the goods.

There are lots of creative ways to get free or low-cost PR for your business; you just have to put on your creative thinking cap.

Now, I’ve got something free for you!
If you’re a Yahoo! Store owner and you’re hooked on that amazing Internet browser called Firefox, you need the
Solid Cactus Toolbar. Click over to
http://toolbar.solidcactus.com and download this spyware and adware free time saver that is packed with features that I don’t have enough space to explain. But trust me, it’s useful!

Co-Founder, President & COO of Solid Cactus

All posts by Scott Sanfilippo | E-Mail the author

Tech Corner: A Well-oiled Machine

One of the most frequent questions I get about computers is that the once impressively fast computer is now running as slow as a snail. This week’s tech corner tips can help get your productivity speedy again.

1. Uninstall Unused Programs: Did your computer come with programs that you’ve never used? Look on your start menu for programs that you can uninstall to free up resources. If you’re using Windows, use the “Programs” or “Add/Remove Programs” feature to determine software you don’t use. If you’re not sure what a program is, do a Google search to find out if you really do need/use it.
2. Add Memory: Use the tools at Crucial.com
   to increase your RAM memory. Different from hard drive space, this memory is used in processing activity on your computer. Your computer will have a maximum memory limit. The closer you are to this limit, the faster your PC will operate. Also, if your hard drive space is depleting rapidly, consider a clean-up or upgrade. Drives fill up fragmentation and slow performance result. Speaking of which…
3. Defragment your Hard Drive: Think of a hard drive as a sheet of graph paper. As you add files to your hard drive you fill up a row of boxes. As you delete a file, certain boxes are cleaned out. Now, you save a larger file. Those boxes are filled up and then somewhere down the page there is another open box and that gets filled until the file is saved. Defragmenting your hard drive takes all the pieces of that file and puts them next to each other in the correct order. This increases performance and extends the life of your drive. A good utility (better than the one that comes built into Windows) for defragmenting can be found for free at Defraggler.com.
4. Get a Laptop Desk: If you’ve ever heard the term “Fried Circuits” then you know that heat is bad for computers. Overheating can be disastrous. If you’re using a laptop with no cooling system, you’re probably doing some amount of damage. A good laptop desk
   (http://lapdesks.ebizinsider.com) can keep your machine running well and also help with ergonomics. Cool, right?

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by ebiz Insider Staff | E-Mail the author

Chef Knives to go – Freed Up to Run the Business… Instead of Handling Order Entries

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Mark Richmond of the Wisconsin-based Chef Knives to Go (ChefKnivesToGo.com) signed up for Solid Cactus Call Center’s Rapid Start program in October 2007. After several months of using the service, Richmond wonders why he “didn’t do it sooner.”

Richmond provided a quick training and a set of frequently asked questions for the customer service reps to follow.

“The nice thing about it is that we were able to give specific instructions on how much or how little we wanted the reps to handle the calls. It’s really great and flexible — we provide them with information about the products so they can be knowledgeable… but if they aren’t sure on the answer to something they simply send an e-mail with the question and the contact information for the caller and I call the customer back,” added Richmond. The process has also helped Richmond streamline the customer service operations at his location too.

“It’s freed me up to be able to do what I do best – running the business and marketing … instead of order entry for customers,” Richmond said. “We aren’t losing the human connection, though. People are more likely to place larger orders over the phone. The representatives clearly answer questions. In the time we’ve been on the program, the return has been huge. I’ll be keeping it after the initial agreement period! “

The average order value that comes in from orders taken by the call center is typically two to three times that of standard web orders. Richmond attributes the increase to the fact that Solid Cactus’ reps are very good at explaining features, upselling, cross-selling, and closing the sale.

Solid Cactus Call Center takes on average 48 incoming calls for ChefKnivesToGo.com on a weekly basis. Of those, less than 1% are service inquiries, 40% are orders or product inquiries that convert to orders, and 29% are policy inquiries. The remaining 30% of calls consisting of product inquiries did not result in purchases.

Prior to using call center services, customers would call Richmond’s office and, if the line was busy or he was unavailable, leave a message. By the time Richmond could call them back, many had purchased elsewhere.

Richmond is no longer on the phone all day. December 2008 was ChefKnivesToGo.com’s seventh holiday season and call center services provided him the chance to really focus on his operations and keep holiday shoppers happy. After all, a happy customer is a repeat customer!

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by ebiz Insider Staff | E-Mail the author

Killing Your SEO Softly: How to Ruin Your Rankings

The two-plus years I’ve come to know and love the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are also the same two years I’ve become a website perfectionist. I can’t surf my favorite online stores nowadays without noticing whether the title tags are all the same, or if the site is just a bit too image heavy. I went from looking at the cute tees and dresses to either admiring a site’s SEO tactics or grimacing and bouncing off the site. I even once e-mailed the web designer for a popular women’s clothing site and complimented them on their on-page SEO techniques. It’s been an eye-opening two years where I’ve come to have a very close relationship with the SEO industry (eat, breathe, sleep SEO), and it’s given me time to pause from thinking about how to improve client rankings to, well, pondering how a site owner can ruin SEO rankings. Take a few minutes to learn what not to do in SEO.

Stagnant SEO

Here’s a great way to ruin your SEO: Do nothing about it! Many site owners feel that they can sit back and relax, and search engines will eventually just notice that they have a great site. Not so. Although I wish search engines would show love to every site out there, it’s just not going to happen. You, as a site owner, need to stand up and take charge of your site’s SEO. Read expert SEO articles at established SEO blogs such as the Solid Cactus SEO Blog at http://SEOBlog.SolidCactus.com, SEOmoz.org, and SearchEngineWatch.com. Learn the tips and techniques to get your site on the path to SEO success in the ever changing world of SEO.

Keywords, Keywords Everywhere

Just like the What-Not-To-Wear crew says about your wardrobe, moderation is also key in SEO. Adding a paragraph of 20 keyword phrases to your homepage isn’t going to help your SEO – It will send a red flag to search engines that you may not be employing the most ethical SEO practices. Keep your site and search engine optimized copy sounding as natural as possible.

News Flash! My Site Isn’t Ranking

Flash websites often look beautiful, but they’re not the best for increasing your keyword rankings. Balance out a Flash
or image heavy site by creating informative text on the site describing the business’ products and services, and writing useful articles from which the average user can benefit.

Who Has Time to Write?

You want to add more content to your site, but don’t have time to write it, so instead, you simply pull some great copy off a competitor’s site. Congratulations, you just ruined your rankings. Your website should have unique copy that will engage your visitors. Set aside a few hours or hire a professional SEO copywriter to write unique content for your site. Investing your time or a few dollars will only help your rankings, and online business, see success.

If I Can Pay Someone to Write, Can’t I Buy, Links, too?!

Sigh, if I had a dime for every time a site owner asked that question I’d have… ruined SEO rankings! Link building, the practice of adding your link on another website to propel your own rankings to increase, is not an easy task, but must be done by hand. Whether you consult an SEO professional or contact websites or blogs in your industry and personally ask them to link to you, buying links from paid link services or cheap, low quality directories with thousands of unrelated links is an absolute N-O. I’ve personally seen a site jump from page ten in Google to page four just by having the site owner remove one paid link from a low quality site.

In addition to avoiding paid link services and spammy directories, be sure your links associate only with a good neighborhood of sites. Look for established sites that have a solid amount of incoming traffic or a Page Rank of three and above with which to link. You wouldn’t want the search engines to catch you on the wrong side of the tracks by linking to completely unrelated sites or sites that employ the same techniques we‘re warning you to avoid!

Title Tag – Same As Every Other Page

The title tag is the short phrase located at the very top of your Internet browser. It gives both human visitors and search engine spiders a quick glimpse of what can be found on that page, and can be extremely helpful for your search engine rankings. I’ve seen many sites with the same title tag on each and every page of the site – usually just the website address. Create unique title tags, just as we did for our Solid Cactus site, including our SEO page – “Solid Cactus – Search Engine Optimization Provides Online Store Visibility & Profitability”. We know it can be quite daunting to create a unique title tag for every page on your site, so our good friends in the Store Development side of Solid Cactus created our popular “Dynamically Generated Title Tags” feature to help you.

Who Cares About Anchor Text?

Search engines do, that’s who. Anchor text, the words used to describe a link, can give search engines a clue on what keyword phrases best describe your site’s products and services, and in turn rank your site higher for those keyword phrases. When creating copy on your site and including links to other pages within your site, use a natural sounding, two to three word anchor text that includes a keyword phrase for which you would like to rank.

Choosing the Lowest Price SEO Consultant

As with all things in life, you often get what you pay for in SEO. It’s usually best to leave your SEO in the hands of an SEO professional, but be sure to look at more than just the price of the services. What do they offer? Are they up to date on the latest SEO techniques? What kind of SEO reporting do they offer? Here’s one way to tell how legit they are: If they guarantee page one rankings right from the start, they probably don’t know what they’re talking about, and will have you ranked for an overly long keyword phrase that no one ever actually searches.

Heed these tips on how not to ruin your SEO rankings, and hopefully, you won’t take a step backward on the path to your site’s SEO success. Our friendly team of SEO Specialists at Solid Cactus is always here to help, and we’ve made many a client happy with increased traffic, revenue, and rankings. Check out our SEO Blog at http://seoblog.solidcactus.com for SEO tips and techniques, and feel free to drop me an e-mail at alicia.magda@solidcactus.com if you’d like to really see what we can do for your site’s SEO.

Solid Cactus, Inc. has designed or redesigned more than 3,000 e-commerce sites. Solid Cactus is an Inc. 500 company and was named one of the "Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2006 and 2007.

All posts by ebiz Insider Staff | E-Mail the author