Web Development

The Internet car buyer is an elusive animal. Trying to hunt them down for the kill is not to be taken lightly. Dealers across the country continuously ask me what other dealers are doing to improve their closing ratios and CSI. I am constantly working to bring more traffic to their sites but as the old saying goes - "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink". I have compiled some things that definitely make the horse thirsty and can provide a continuous water supply, but a little help from the dealer is still needed. This month we'll work to circle through the cycle of the Internet car buyer with an effective CRM process so that you can reach and keep improved CSI scores.

If you read our Tutorial on Include Files (SSI) then you learned how to encapsulate ASP code within include files and the benefits it brings us.As developers, we should endeavour to make our lives easier wherever possible... no one wants to re-invent the wheel after all.Functions and Subroutines exist to not only save us time, but to bring power to our ASP.They are just another way of encapsulating code, but have a lot more functionality than just 'saving some code for later'.First, let's look at Functions... Imagine a balloon salesman in the street. We've all seen them they require one piece of information when you buy a balloon, the colour.Let say we asked for a red balloon... The balloon salesman armed with this 'information' then does a pretty basic action... he hands you the balloon. The balloon you received is a direct result of the information you gave the balloon seller.Functions are just the same... they return to you a value based on the information you provided. Lets look at an example Function: - <% Function getBalloon(strColour) Dim Tempstr strColour = lcase(strColour) 'This converts the value lowercase. Select Case strColour Case "red" Tempstr = "Here is your red balloon" Case "yellow" Tempstr = "Here is your yellow balloon" Case "green" Tempstr = "Here is your green balloon" Case "blue" Tempstr = "Here is your blue balloon" Case Else Tempstr = "Sorry, we have sold out of that Colour" End Select getBalloon = Tempstr End Function%>

If you're fairly new to the Internet scene, you may just be a bit overhelmed with family members, friends, collegues, and advertisements urging you to get your own website for your business. Typically, this is good advice for businesses. However, for most small local businesses, running your own website may not be the best idea. Here's why:

Web sites are not just places to sell things; they are a medium where people can get insight into other people?s lives. Take the musician Xavier Rudd for example. I recently saw this guy play at a concert and had never previously heard his music. He was really cool, literally blowing me away with his many skills, beautiful music, positive energy, and humble attitude. So being thus affected, I decided to check out if he had a website on the Internet. After finding his site (http://www.xavierrudd.com/) I automatically got to become more acquainted with the man, not as a fan looking up to a so-called ?star?, but as a human being receiving real insight into the workings of another individual in our global human community.

I can't think of any business alive today that couldn't benefit from at least a minor presence on the web. Now that I've made that statement, I'm sure someone will point out one. My point is, however, that having a web presence today is about as cheap as anything going and if you ever get one client or sale from the web you are way ahead.

So what do you do if need to get a web site but you're not sure how to go about getting one. The good news is you have several options. To help determine which option is best for you, ask yourself the following five questions:

With search engines putting a damper on direct reciprocal links, the hunt for the elusive one-way inbound link is on.

Whether you have your own business already, or are looking for a way to cash in on the profit potential of reaching millions of internet users ? you can?t afford NOT to read this??..

As increasing numbers of people search for information on the Internet, it becomes more imperative to have a compelling Website to promote and support your meetings.

After deciding what kind of internet business you want to do, it's time to start planning the design and content of your business. Many people make the mistake of skipping this step, choosing instead to immediately start work on their website. However, a website is just a door into your internet business; and a door is pretty useless if there's nothing beyond it. An internet business, like any other business, requires proper planning and design if it's going to succeed.

After planning the design and content of your website, it's time to actually physically set up your website. This is the step where you put all your designs and plans into action, creating a website that will attract visitors and earn income.

Below, I have listed 8 simple steps that you can take to optimize your web pages. By following these, you will improve your chances of increasing your rankings:

What happened on your website yesterday? What about last week or last month? How about in the past hour? How many visitors come to your website as a result of using a search engine? How long do people stay on your website for on average? Which pages do your visitors go to?

Just like all things in life, the ways to run a business are rapidly changing and evolving. The potential involved with having a domain name/web site is staggering to say the least. A web site gives the consumer a ?shop front? that is not only open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but is also situated right on their desktop. Instead of being locked into only the immediate area, the whole world?s marketplace becomes your sphere of interaction.

If you?re an up and coming graphic/web designer just out of university, you?ll know it?s quite hard to break into the workforce. You have to contact employers one by one, spend your time traveling and lugging your portfolio to their offices. Well, things have changed, and for the better let me tell you. Now you can make your own on-line portfolio on the Internet, and send its web page address to numerous design companies at once so they can all see your work easily. You don?t even have to leave your house and organizations all over the world can access your work easily.

Although designing a great web site is an important part of developing a successful online business, it is often becomes a problem for newcomers to the internet business.

When marketing your website, it's important to know which of your efforts are producing results and which of them are a waste of time.

In 1995 a new era of accessibility for disabled people began. The Disability Discrimination Act was passed, stating that:

When people think about the Internet, they think about technology. When people hear that I am a Website strategy expert, they see me as a "techy type".

With all of the factors involved in designing and building a web site, one of the most influential questions is often overlooked:

Recently I was reviewing the keyword specific conversion rate data of a consulting client of mine. I have been working with this client for a few months now, helping her improve the sales conversion rate of her website and we have had very good results, taking average conversion rates at her site from below 1% to just over 4.3%.

If you ever want to create a state directory, article directory, dating site or link directory, you need to know about creating database driven web sites. This may seem like a daunting task at first, if you have never done it, however I was in the same boat as you. It is not as difficult as you think.

One of the biggest mistakes that most online retailers make is they do not take into account typical buyer behaviour. The conversion from real world to online provides many benefits to the retailer, but present some real challenges for the customer because their buying decision is made more difficult in an online environment.

And whether your business sells products or services, you can use a Web site to increase your revenue and reduce your start-up costs. While you're at school, your Web site can take orders, answer common customer questions and introduce potential prospects to your business, among many other possibilities. For example, Ryan Allis, a 19-year-old entrepreneur now attending the University of North Carolina, was able to successfully create and market a Web site that sold a product that helps people with arthritis. As a result of his efforts, his company was able to generate more than $1 million in sales by the time Allis was seventeen years old.

"Don?t Sell the Steak, Sell the Sizzle."