Most website owners struggle with the issue of getting their most valuable pages and content in front of their visitors. At the same time, many of these website owners are neglecting a few areas where they could easily add more information or links to specific, targeted pages.

Here are 5 places many website owners can improve:

1 – 404 Error Pages

If another website links to one of your pages but makes a typo in the link, what does the visitor see? If your site contains a broken link, what does the visitor see? The answer to both of these questions is that the visitor sees an unfriendly, default error page that tells the visitor “what you are looking for cannot be found.” It is possible to provide visitors with a more useful and professional-looking page that can help them find what they are seeking.

By creating a custom 404 error page your visitors will not see the generic error page that shows up everywhere when a site can’t be found. To create a quality custom error page, see information provided by your web host, or ask them how you can create a custom 404 error page. (WordPress users should see the Marketing Technology Blog for a possible solution).

Use your website’s template, or at least the basic design, colors, and images so the visitors know they are still on your site. You can include a standard message, something like “We’re sorry, but the page you are looking for has been moved or does not exist.”

The key though to the custom error page is not just the appearance, but rather the ability to help the visitor find what he or she is trying to find. If possible, include a search box on the page. With the search function the user may be able to find the specific page very quickly. The error page should also include links to your homepage and sitemap as they may also be helpful to a visitor that is lost.

Even with all of the items we’ve just mentioned, your custom 404 error page will have a lot of unused space. This is an opportunity to promote the pages on your site that are the most important to you. Provide links and invite visitors to go to your sales pages, email list or RSS signup pages, etc. With this method you may be able to get some value out of error pages.

2 – Thank You Pages

Most websites have a form that allows visitors to send their questions or feedback. After the form has been filled out and the user clicks on the button to send the form, the thank you page will be loaded. Most thank you pages have a simple message like, “Thank you for contacting us. We will respond to you as soon as possible.”

Much like the 404 error pages, thank you pages typically leave a lot of unused space. Take the same approach mentioned above providing links to your most valuable pages.

When you are working on enhancing your thank you pages, keep in mind that the visitors are on this page because they have already contacted you. They have taken the time and effort to complete the form and they have some reason for contacting you. In most cases this means that they’ll be a warm prospect. You will typically have better results asking them to take some further action (like buying a product or signing up for your mailing list) than you will with visitors on your error pages.

3 – Signature File on Emails

Some of you already use signature files, but many do not. Just about every email program allows you to set up a signature file, which is a few standard lines of text that will go at the end of each of your emails.

Typically a signature file may include your name, position, and business name. If your website isn’t already included in your signature file make sure you add it. Also, remember that you can add links to other pages besides just your homepage.

4 – Automated Response to Your Contact Form

Sometimes when visitors fill out a contact form on a website it is several days before they get a response. By setting up an automated email response you can let them know that they will be contacted shortly, and you can also include links to pages on your site that might be useful to them in the meantime. The automated email is just one more opportunity to keep your name in front of your visitor and one more opportunity to encourage a repeat visit to your website.

5 – The Bottom of Your RSS Feed

If you are using WordPress the PostPost plugin is a must-have. With PostPost you can add content to your RSS feed that you do not want to appear on your blog. Your RSS subscribers and email subscribers will be able to see special messages or offers that you don’t want your website visitors to see. You can use PostPost to monetize your feed by placing advertisements at the end of the feed (or at the beginning).

Another possibility with PostPost is to add a link to a special bonus or giveaway that you only want your subscribers to be able to access. Special subscriber bonuses like this are a proven way to grow your subscriber base.

Try adding to these areas of your website if you haven’t already. They’re small changes, but they have big potential to help your visitors and encourage them to come back to your site.

This was a guest post by Steven Snell at Vandelaydesign.com.

Elton John, the pop legend, wants the internet closed down for five years to see what art can be created without the internet.

He has been around for decades and decades to come, and suggests that the internet is destroying good music, but has he thought about the ways that the internet has actually help him along his music career? For example, his albums are on iTunes and Verizon, and his concerts are often streamed live on the internet, especially his 60th birthday bash. He also announced that his albums will be available for digital download, which involves the internet.

Elton hopes that “the next movement in music will tear down the internet”. Unfortunately, The Captain & The Kid, when newly released, barely sold 100,000 copies, which was quite a disappointment.

Without the help of the internet (iTunes, live streaming, etc.) would his album numbers continue to go down?

If Elton really is opposed to the internet, he would demand to have his albums off the internet and oppose to live streaming on the internet.

What do you think about this movement?

Source 

This was guest posted by Rob O at 2 Dolphins. 

Character.  It is the standards, principles, and distinctive qualities that distinguishes one’s effort from those of others.   Certainly few goals are more worthwhile as to blog in a manner that demonstrates those attributes.   Indeed, character is very likely the thing that keeps readers coming back to your blog.

But as worthy and productive a topic as that is, I’m actually here to talk about a different kind of character.   ASCII characters.  Y’know, the symbols, letters or punctuation marks that make up the set of computer characters that most of us are at least somewhat familiar with.

Whether you’re crafting a blog post about Älmhult (the Swedish birthplace of global furnishings icon, Ikea), waxing nostalgic about when soda pops were only 25¢, or trying to inject a little international flavor (¡Hola!) into an article, there’ll probably come a time when you need to use special characters in your blog.   Even with a fairly basic blog, there may be instances where you need to nest a double quote within a TITLE or ALT tag, for example, and this can cause all sorts of unintended effects.

Fortunately, once you know the trick, using ASCII characters in your blog posts is easy to do!

ASCII character charts are abundant on the Internet, but none so straight-forward and readily usable as Vincent Heemskerk’s HTML Codes - Characters and Symbols.  Referring to Vincent’s chart, you can see that the ASCII decimal number for the copyright symbol is 169, which translates to  &# 169 ;  for the HTML code for that same symbol.   So, to insert a copyright sign in a blog post, you’d use:

&# 169 ;  2007 MyCompanyName

…to get:

© 2007 MyCompanyName

And as the chart linked above shows, there are ‘friendly’ HTML names for some special characters.   So you could also use:

& copy ;  2007 MyCompanyName

…to get the same results.

The same technique can be used to place other special characters, such as the greater than (>), ampersand (&), or even common fractions (½) into your HTML code.

So, now that you know how to insert special letters & symbols into posts, the possibilities are endless.   Go give your blog some character!

Hi everyone! I’m Darr and I’ll be the star at this blog while Grace is away! I don’t author a blog right now; I like to just write guest posts. If you’d like to write a guest post for this blog, contact me (I’m in charge right now, remember?) and we’ll talk it out.

And I definitely am the star, because Grace let me do the One Word meme “for” her, because she didn’t have enough time to do it, what with the award making and organizing guest bloggers.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I promised, the people who have supported me in the Blogathon 2007 will receive their award right now.

Once again, the three people who donated $25 altogether in half a few hours are:

Rhys- $5
Anonymous- $10
Benedict Herold- $10

The awards come in three sizes. You can now proudly display this award at your blog!

The Blogathon 2007 was quite a success; $25 was raised in a few hours to half a day, because I joined when there was a little time left.

The following people supported me in the Blogathon 2007:

Rhys- $5
Anonymous- $10
Benedict Herold- $10

These people will receive their graphic recognition award tomorrow. (Excluding “Anonymous”.)

I also won a pewter polliwog (a tadpole) from BlogsWeLuv via the Win a Polliwog contest during the Blogathon 2007!

Like the Blogathon 2007? Join next year!

Be yourself! Be honest! Be real! Be opinionated! It’s your blog afterall. And be anonymous (safety first)! Don’t try to imitate another “popular” blogger’s style and don’t look at sitemeter all the time or try to cater to the “masses” in order to get “popular” or gain a readership. If you do, you’ll become a slave to other’s whims and you won’t be yourself anymore.
-Spit Out the Cat

This again, builds your character; how much do you want your character to be built or revealed? Do you want readers to know the real “you”?

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Redesign your site often. Visual boredom breeds textual complacency.
-9 to 5 Poet

This actually depends on what you want to achieve– if you want to build a brand for you and your blog, do not change your design too often; your brand is your design!

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Networking isn’t just for Fishermen.
-Bookie Monster

You will need to network even if you don’t like to fish! (And remember to throw in a little humor like a fisherman!)

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.

Veganize favorite recipes from your childhood!
-Where’s the Revolution

A veggie blogging tip from a veggie blog! What do you think?

This post is part of the Blogging Tips meme.