11 Things Every Successful Website Needs

11 Things Every Successful Website Needs

By Merle (c) 2009 MerlesWorld.com

So you've put together a spectacular website, and you're ready to go live on the Internet for the whole world to see. Not so fast there Bucky. In case you didn't know, there are a few essential requirements that every site needs to include in order to be successful.

Let's review, shall we:

1) Privacy Policy/Disclaimer: Now, I'm not a lawyer and don't claim to be one, but these two documents should be standard issue for every site you have. People want to know how you're going to use their personal information, and a "privacy policy" does just that.

In today's litigious society you'll also need to include a disclaímer/terms of use page. This protects you and spells out to your visitors what they're agreeing to by using your website. If you don't know where to start in generating these documents, you'll find plenty of help online.

• DMA Privacy Policy Generator
• OECD Privacy Statement Generator
• Google Adsense & other Ad Networks Privacy Policy Generator
• Privacy Policy Generator
• Free Site Disclaímer

This is not legal advice, and if you need help in this department, consult with a local attorney.

2) Contact Us Information: I can't tell you how many sites I've been to that fail to include a way to contact the owner. If you can't include a phone number, at the very least have an email address or a "contact us" form. By providing this information, you'll make your visitors feel more comfortable knowing there's a way to reach you should the need arise.

If you need a form and don't know how to create one, try these free form services.

• Bravenet
• Freedback
• Email Me

3) Search Box/Site Map: If your site is rather large, you'll also want to include a way to search, or have what is called a "site map". There are many ways to add a search function to your site, the easiest being to use Google's free service or try PicoSearch A site map sounds technical, but it's just one web page that contains links to every page of your site, usually broken down by category. Some resources to help can be found at FreeFind.

4) Google Analytics/Tracking System: Once your site is up and running you'll want to keep your eye on traffic. Who's visiting your website, what pages are the most popular, where is the traffic coming from. All of these questions and more can be answered by using a good analytics program.

There are several ways to add a thorough tracking system to your site, but the easiest and one that won't cost you a dime is Google Analytics Once registered, you can add as many sites as you like all under one user ID and password. You'll be given some code to copy and paste on your pages. Simple, easy, and you're done.

5) Newsletter Sign Up/RSS Feed: There's an old saying that people won't buy from you the very first time they come to your website, so you need a way to stay in touch with them to bring them back again and again. By offering a newsletter, also known as an ezine, you'll be building a list of possible prospects which is invaluable to any site owner.

You'll find a multitude of free and low cost newsletter services online. It's up to you, depending on your needs and what you can afford. If you don't want to pay anything, my favorite free services are:

• FreeAutoBot
• Yahoo Groups

You can also provide an RSS feed for your newsletter, or updates to your blog or site. This makes it easy for others to keep up with your most recent posts. The best service for this is FeedBurner.

6) Consistent Navigation: This might sound like a no brainer, but many folks get it wrong. No matter what type of menu system you decide upon, make sure it stays the same across the board on all pages of your site.

Your job is to guide your visitors through your website, making sure they always know where they are and how to get to where they need to go.

For more see:

• Eye on Web
• Web Page Mistakes

7) Search Engine Optimized Copy: At first glance you might not think this is so important, but trust me it is. You want your pages to rank well with the search engines and there are a few steps you can take to ensure this happens.

Each page of your website should be optimized for 2, or at the most 3 keywords/phrases. Weave the keywords into your titles and into the body of each page. You can also include them in your image titles, alt tags, even in the names you give your pages. Look at each page individually and decide what it's about, then optimize accordingly.

For help see:

• MarketLeap
• CopyBlogger

8) Social Media Share Button: With the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, you'd be foolish not to include an easy way for your content to be shared with others.

You'll find many free services that will give you the code you need to instantly add a "share button" to your web pages so that visitors can instantly share them with their friends.

To generate your buttons see:

• AddThis
• TwitThis

Awesome Blogging Resources

The amount of awesome blogging resources on the net today is outstanding, and can truly make any average blog a special one in no time. There are millions of resources for you to tap into when it comes to blogs, a few of the best ones are highlighted here for your consideration.

Blogger.com is a website owned, and operated by Google that allows users to post blogs for free, and make money with AdSense. While blogger.com lacks the power of a Wordpress, it is easy for those that are interested in implementing their AdSense ads in a simple, little code, manner.

Wordpress.com is another blog publishing software that is known on the net as the most powerful, and sophisticated blog publishers out there. Wordpress is also free, and allows users to build blogs that are much more advanced than a blogger.com site would be. Wordpress.com also allows users to customize their blog more than most, and even implements free plug-ins that are also worthwhile.

Blogrankings.com is another great site that ranks all the latest and greatest blogs. The value of this site is to look at what other top bloggers are doing, and attempt to emulate it with your own blog. Understanding what makes a certain blog in your niche so popular can revolutionize the way you think about and post to your own blog, which could have long lasting positive effects.

TheFreeSite.com offers free blog resources that are as much fun, as they are useful. The site offers users free software, and plugins to enhance any blog, or even create one from scratch. Since so many blog updates are costly these days, TheFreeSite gives users a nice alternative with their free downloads of blog software.

Blogarama.com offers users a virtual telephone book of blogs from all areas of subject matter. No matter what your interest, or niche, this website can bring out the best and most popular blogs. This site is full of directory style listings, and even user ratings to help you search the net.

Ultimately the best blog resource is the one that caters to your needs, and thus must be sought out by you according to what you are trying to achieve. Seeking out your own best blog resources will certainly help you profit from blogs in the near future.

Financial Literacy Education

" If you think Financial Literacy Education is a waste of time. TRY IGNORANCE " by Bro. Bo Sanchez.

Financial Literacy Education is the sole key to everyone's Financial Independence.

Financial Independence means freeing yourself from financial bondage of working for money instead you let your money works for you. Do you know what is the best employee that doesn't complain even for a lifetime without compensation? IT'S MONEY. Once we learn how to employ money to work for us. Money never never complains, works 24 hours a day 7 days a week including holidays, no compensation or salary increase, no vacation leave, no employees benefits, none at all. Money only knows how to work, work and work by compounding which will last generations to generations.

Financial Literacy Education teaches people to stop being slave for money nevertheless understand psychology of money.

WHY?

Financial Literacy answers why rich people getting richer and poor getting poorer.

Financial Literacy is the solution to have early retirement with comfortable lifestyle.

Financial Literacy gives you time to spend with family.

Financial Literacy is the formula of financial abundance.

Financial Literacy builds financial foundation to be left as your children's precious inheritance.

Financial Literacy opens door to lucrative opportunities.

Financial Literacy guarantees Financial Independence.

Financial Literacy makes you a man of charity that shares blessings to others.

WARNING: Financial Literacy Education is not a get rich quick scheme..

Financial Literacy Education is more of setting one's mind. In fact, it is investing in mind and character thus correct wrong beliefs about money, for myriad money alone doesn't make you rich. Most of the time, it is one's downfall because money gives shallow feeling of euphoria and security, for if we don't know how to handle properly and invest money wisely, that money will just vanish into thin air.

As they say, " It doesn't matter how much money you make what matters is how much you keep."

Achieving wealth through Financial Literacy Education way is not easy and instant. The Education it teaches is contrary from teachings of traditional school beacuse in order to be rich it allows evryone to encounter failures and commit mistakes in order through these difficulties we will learn.

The best things it teaches in order to be be wealthy and successful we must possess VISION and PERSISTENCE. VISION and PERSISTENCE are what seperate unwealthy and unsuccessful from wealthy and successful people.

To be wealthy and successful: VISION outstretches our perspectives to what is beyond which I can still achieve. If we have vision we persevere until our wealth is achieve, we don't mind if it'll take time or years, beacause our main focus sees beyond time and stint. Our vision makes us see our goals achieved, makes us feel our success and touch our wealth.

To be wealthy and successful: PERSISTENCE doesn't let failures defeat us. We simply don't stop no matter how difficult the circumstances are and how cruel the people around us, because STOP is not part of our vocabulary. Persistence pushes us to keep going.

" PERSISTENCE is the essential factor in the procedure of transmuting desire into its monetary equivalent " by Napoleon Hill.

Getting Traffic to Your Blog

No matter what the website, in order for it to be a success one needs to have a constant and steady stream of traffic to profit, and this is certainly the case for those creating blogs. There are simply too many factors to ignore when it comes to getting traffic, and thus people that are able to harness traffic to their blog are known as masters of the internet. The interesting fact is that getting traffic to your blog is easier than you might think, and just takes some creative thinking, and a few hours a day of shameless promotion.

So after you hit up your family and friends, who else is going to read your blog? The answer is likely nobody unless you give them a reason to read it. This is where the traffic driving secrets come into play when dealing with a blog. The best way to get traffic to your blog is by using free promotional methods. The key is to have something on your blog worth checking out once they get there, but for this part we’ll simply focus on getting traffic.

Start out by joining all the forums, and social networks in your niche. If you have a blog that is aimed at giving dating advice, make sure to join all the dating forums you can, and any free dating sites possible. The first thing to do is find out where your link is allowed, and post your blog link in your signature. Once this is done take a few hours each day to make posts, eventually people will start considering you an expert, and gladly check out your site.

Next it is important to start submitting your blog posts as articles to free article directories. The free article directories will help promote your blog by distributing the articles to thousands of resources, which will also get your blog, and your article higher search engine ranking at the same time.

Finally start to collect email addresses and setup your blog for RSS feeds. Allow the membership to enjoy your blog in the comfort of their inbox by choosing the option on your blog software to email the blog post every time a new one goes up. This will be a way to attract daily traffic to your blog for free, and keep the traffic you receive from your expert forum posting coming back.