Here are the top 10 websites mistakes for 2009!

Ready to start your Pay Per Click Campaign for your website? Exclusive Concepts specializes in pay per click management. Managing a campaign yourself, if you have never done before; can be costly, time consuming, and far from profitable. Using a PPC management service like the one provided by Exclusive Concepts could actually not just save you money, but actually make more than if you ran the campaign yourself.

Not All PPC Service Providers are the Same

Comparing Exclusive Concepts to competitors you will find a few feature where the other guys just don’t compete. They will make sure only profitable keywords or being used, align keywords to the right product pages, help you set up strategic goals, manage your landing pages, and make sure on-site copy is set up to close to the deal.

Doing it Yourself

I know from personal experience that setting up a campaign can be very expensive, and still have a horrible return. Mainly, because I used to do that kind of stuff myself. It’s not my expertise, but in the process I learned a lot. Most of what I learned was that there is plenty of room to waste money, and do it wrong. If you have a real budget for a PPC campaign, I would strongly suggest using  a professional to help you manage it.

Thank you goes to Exclusive Concepts, for supporting Web Check First Aid with this paid editorial.

Another webmaster I know has started a new blog, Create A Website for Free. It’s still a baby, so don’t expect much in layout and style, but the content is good. His latest post offers tips on improving your sites design. The blog is being developed for new website developers just starting out. You can find posts about tools you can use, plugins for your site, how to create a free site, and more.

Calling all hosting companies! Here is a killer domain name for you that is for sale. I know a bunch of you that read WCFA have your own hosting sites, well here is a great domain name for you, Personal Web Hosting. How is that for slam dunking the keywords?

The site is not actually owned by me. Just one I came across, and thought it would make a killer domain name for one of you out there. The site has literally been squatted on. It’s been around since 2001, and has only accumulated about five back links. Looking at the Way Back Machine it looks like it has really has not done anything. Apparently, a great idea that never developed.

This could be a really killer web hosting domain name; keyword rich, has PR so you know Google still likes it, and is also well aged. I didn’t see it listed anywhere, so it look like it’s a for sale by owner kind of deal. You can find all his contact information under the For Sale sign on the website. If you have never bought a domain name from someone who owns it already, I would always suggest using a third party to handle the transaction. I have heard of too many cases going sour on this kind of stuff.

If you get it, post it here, and let us know!

One of the things that this blog is full of is directories. I’ve listed a lot of them in the past, and you can find them all here: Directories. What I don’t usually talk about though is how easy it can be to submit to those directories. So here is a post about the directory submitter by Sliq.

I must say that is a pretty sliq…I mean slick logo. Sliq is a semi-automatic directory submitter software. Pretty much every directory submitting software is “semi-automatic”. You basically preload all your info, the software takes you to the directory submission page, fills in all it can, and you are pretty much set to go. Just hit submit, or fill in any blanks and submit.

Sliq offers a free trial version, but it’s only $10 for the full license. Cheap. The hard part is submitting. Even with a killer software package like this, you still need to do some work, but websites don’t market themselves you know. Sliq just makes it so you can submit to 300 directories in a day vs 300 in a month doing it manually. Think it’s worth the $10? Maybe after trying it the hard way you will.

Cool little tip at the end when looking for directory submission software. They often come preloaded with a bunch of directories. Until today, the most I ever saw was 300. Sliq has a cool 1,000 preloaded so have some fun!

Similar to the service provided by WebHostingGeeks I do post a few reviews of my own here. I just don’t get as technical. Mine are more basic, in an effort to get the word out. There are so many hosting companies out there, and just going with the first one you heard about could very easily be a big mistake. Some of the reviews I do are based on actual experience, and some are just ones I have heard good things about. I came across HostNexus right after I wrote the WebHosting Geeks post, so I though I would do another one of my own. I have never used them, I just found their service recently.

HostNexus is a web hosting provider. There specialty is having a cheap reseller hosting plan, something I have been considering myself. I figure if  not for my clients, at least for myself. I have enough domains to make myself my best customer! A starter reseller plan is just $24.95 a month. If you don’t need a reseller package though, and just want a place to host one website, then know you can get in on their system for just $3.95 a month.

A Few Extras

Many of the hosting companies out there pretty much stop at the basics. The offer shared hosting, maybe reseller hosting, and then sometimes dedicated. HostNexus offers a full package.

They offer:

• Shared hosting
• Reseller hosting
• Cold Fusion hosting
• Ruby on Rails
• VPS hosting
• Dedicated hosting

They also do domain registrations, and SSL certificates. They had SSL certificates for $16.95. They said cheap on their website, and that is cheap. Additionally, HostNexus has been around since 2002 so you should be getting an established, experience hosting provider.

One thing I really liked about them is their one click install program. Every account includes WorPress, Joomla, oSCommerce, Gallery, and phpBB. For those of you that crank out a ton of blogs, this could be an easy way to  go since WordPress is already on it. Live support, 24/7, looks like a good way to go.

Looking for a new web host, or just to start your first website? Web Hosting Geeks could be a good staring place for you. They don’t actually do hosting though. What they specialize in is reviewing the hosts that are out there, and listing some of those hosts prices and options. It can even be helpful for experienced webmasters. Not every site needs a full blown server. Just write down your criteria, go to their web hosting reviews, and pick the site that right for you. They also review dedicated server hosting.

Details of Hosting Companies

On their home page, you can find the top ten hosts that have been rated by other users. They have the five star ranking (that has been made by voters like you), they have the main comparing features like price and traffic for easy comparison, and they have links for more detailed information.

The break down on the home page is nice, but what I really like about Web Hosting Geeks is their detailed page for each hosts. Besides getting more information about a host (I think that is expected), they have the voting form. This is how they rank those sites. Visitors like you an me, and submit a written review about a host, and also vote on how the hosts ranks for certain common web hosting aspects.

Having scorecards like this for hosts are great. You can see how they rank in general, and you can see any additional moans that other have experience.

Web Hosting Geeks has been around for a few years now. They get tons of visitors (at least 2,000 a day, probably more), and tons of users using those forms making their rating system very effective. Ready to get a new web host? Check out Webmaster Geeks first!

Here is a cool little plugin to help you get more comments on your posts. It tweets every time someone makes a comment: Vikinghammer Tweet

Need a website for your group or club? A blog can be a great platform. They are easy to updated, you don’t need to be a webmaster to set up, and are nearly perfect for groups or clubs.

Check out the Hereford Runner site for example. As you would guess the Hereford Runner is a club site for local runners. On the site you can find upcoming events, some suggested training, and results from past events. Looking a little deeper though, they really put to action the full functionality of a blog, making it really work for what almost all groups and clubs need.

Common Needs for a Group or Club on a Website

Clubs, like this running club, have many common needs out of a website.

They need:

• A home page to explain who or what they are
• A new user registration form or details on how to become a member
• Contact information
• Upcoming Events page
• Past events page
• Archive of announcements
• A method to easily communicate a message
• A method to easily add new content without the requirement of a webmaster (most groups are on a very tight budget)

Using a blog as the format for a club the club can easily make static pages for all the static about us kind of stuff, and adding new posts makes the ideal way to make announcements for new members. Most blogs automatically come with RSS feed software. This makes for easy subscribing for your members, and setting up a Feedburner account makes for an easy addition to let subscribers use email instead

WordPress as the blog software can also allow you to create member only available content, and if you budget is really tight can be hosted on WordPress for free. A blog will also automatically archive your content so new members can easily catch up on previous events. Blogs come with search ability, and additionally make it easy to add pictures (a common request for groups or clubs).

A few months ago, I did a second round of my 1,000 website review. I was basically looking at random sites trying to see what got me to dig a little deeper. I am also currently working on decreasing my bounce on my main blog so I am really looking closely at these notes now.

A big winner? Pictures of people. Using this website, BestRateSource.com as an example, you can see the power of people.

Using the topic of mortgage rates you are in for a challenge for keeping your visitors for longer than one page view. The market is competitive, and if left to just written context, pretty boring.

People bring the site alive though, and smiling faces certainly helps the credibility on this site. Another important note here, house in background. A common mistake is to add a picture like this, and miss out on that extra subliminal message. This site helps you get a house. The picture should have people and a house.

Adding pictures to a website is a great way to attract visitors, but they need to keep focused, and they need to be used sparingly. In this particular case it was used fantastically. An example of a big mistake, one that I have seen on another home mortgage site before? Showing a picture of their large commercial building. Home owners are not looking for buildings.

Looking at their sub pages like their best mortgage rates page, you can see less emphasis on the image, they use an icon in this case, and more emphasis on the content. The visitor is now less concerned with credibility, and their interest has already been gained. Now they just want the facts, so give it to them!