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Web Design Trends for 2010

Web Design Trends for 2010

Well, 2010 has finally arrived, and with it are new, innovative Website designs that will usher in the brave, new look of tomorrow’s online marketplace. There will be Web design trends that people will love and some they hate, and what is hot at the beginning of the year may be cold by year’s end. Additionally, the trend doesn’t begin and end on January 1st; there is a definite shift in ideas and trends as the year progresses, albeit a subtle one, as new ideas emerge and become more streamlined.

The trends that evolve help Web designers evolve as well, allowing them to master and refine their skills and to reach new heights of creativity and discovery. The team of Web designers at Active Web Group have identified the Website designs that we feel will be the hottest trends for 2010.

For a FREE WEBSITE DESIGN CONSULTATION, Contact Active Web Group TODAY!

The Web design trends Active Web Group outline below mark a different trend view from 2009, but not a drastic one. Contact Active Web Group to incorporate any of these new and latest design trends into your custom designed Website.

  1. Oversized Logos/Headers

    Oversized logos with an oversized header are one trend that is already growing in popularity, and will likely populate many newly designed or redesigned websites in 2010. The main objective behind a huge header is to increase brand recognition and leave a lasting impression. They are intended to take over a significant portion of the splash page, enticing visitors to scroll down.

  2. Sketches/Hand-drawn Designs

    Sketching or Hand-drawn designs in 2010 will become not so much the main focus of a Web design, but rather a method used to personalize standard web copy and thus become an elemental part of corporate design. The sketch will help distinguish between a cold Web site and personal interaction.

  3. Slab Typefaces

    While slab typefaces have been around for quite some time, they are just now gaining important significance in Website design. Slab typefaces are usually all capital letters and are bold and imposing. They go hand in hand with large headers and can help express who you are as a company.

  4. Typography

    Typography was a big trend in 2009 and will quite possibly remain so in 2010. Websites utilizing Typography as their main design element may be more interesting to a reader than the same site with a large amount of images.

    For a FREE WEBSITE DESIGN CONSULTATION, Contact Active Web Group TODAY!

  5. One Page Layouts

    The development of one page layouts in 2010 will focus on personal profiles with a reduced corporate influence. Think online business cards. This Web design will focus on the individual, their blog, social media hangouts, etc.

  6. Huge Images

    A huge image is about creating a visual impact that the visitor will not forget, similar to the oversized logo/header. They are designed to draw the visitor further into the Website

  7. Change of Perspective

    The change in perspective to a more realistic view will mark a definitive trend in 2010. Playing around with different perspectives, such as a side-shot aerial, may be a particular element that finds its way into the web design mix.

  8. Interactive/Intuitive Design

    The development of Websites with Flash has come a long way, with the advent of swfobject2.2, sIFR and other Flash technologies that enable it to be more accessible to major search engines. 2010 will see Web designers move towards some of the more redeeming elements of Flash. Since the average visitor is now more Web savvy than in previous years, designers will begin to create sites that are more intuitive and interactive.

    For a FREE WEBSITE DESIGN CONSULTATION, Contact Active Web Group TODAY!

  9. Modal Boxes

    In 2010, modal boxes are picking up steam. They are similar to a popup but much more engaging and less intrusive. Modal boxes are easy to design and use, making them a great solution for designers due to their ease of usability.

  10. Minimalism

    One of the trends Active Web Group sees coming in 2010 are Websites featuring loads of white space, bold typology and different color schemes. Minimalism will showcase some fresh colors that bring forth warmth and websites that are primarily focused in their delivery on information.

  11. Oversized Footers

    While we have seen only a small amount of Websites with oversized footers thus far, we believe 2010 will see this web design feature become an integral part of the overall design of the Website. Footers will highlight such features as: feed updates from social media outlets, photo and video feeds and more.

  12. Retro

    In an attempt to honor vintage art, 2010 will find Web designers turning to retro design. While a site that is done in retro might seem incomplete, the key to a successful retro design should be a focus on an inspirational tone and ‘playfulness’.

    For a FREE WEBSITE DESIGN CONSULTATION, Contact Active Web Group TODAY!

  13. Intro Boxes

    The attraction towards the development of an intro box on a Website in 2010 is the simplicity of introducing yourself to the visitor instead of struggling with the development of a creative ‘About Us’ page.

  14. Magazine Layouts

    The magazine layout in 2010 has come in part due to the migration from the traditional press to online infotainment. The development of a magazine layout gives the visitor all of the information they are seeking on one home page; this gives the visitor the opportunity to view everything quickly and at their convenience.

These are just a few of the most important Web designs Active Web Group believes will be the major trends in Website design for 2010. For more information contact Active Web Group today for a free consultation or let us redesign your current Website with a custom-designed Website for your online presence.

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How to Redirect a Web Page Using a 301 Redirect

By Herman Drost

You’ve just redesigned some pages of your web site. The
pages have high search engine rankings that you don’t want
to lose. How can you safely redirect web site traffic from
your old pages to the new pages without losing your
rankings? You can do this by using a ” 301 redirect ”

What is 301 redirect?

301 redirect is the best method to preserve your current
search engine rankings when redirecting web pages or a web
site. The code “301″ is interpreted as “moved permanently”.
After the code, the URL of the missing or renamed page is
noted, followed by a space, then followed by the new
location or file name. You implement the 301 redirect by
creating a .htaccess file.

What is a .htaccess file?

When a visitor/spider requests a web page, your web server
checks for a .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains
specific instructions for certain requests, including
security, redirection issues and how to handle certain
errors.

How to implement the 301 Redirect

1. To create a .htaccess file, open notepad, name and save
the file as .htaccess (there is no extension).

2. If you already have a .htaccess file on your server,
download it to your desktop for editing.

3. Place this code in your .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm

4. If the .htaccess file already has lines of code in it,
skip a line, then add the above code.

5. Save the .htaccess file

6. Upload this file to the root folder of your server.

7. Test it by typing in the old address to the page you’ve
changed. You should be immediately taken to the new
location.

Notes: Don’t add “http://www” to the first part of the
statement – place the path from the top level of your site
to the page. Also ensure that you leave a single space
between these elements:

redirect 301 (the instruction that the page has moved)

/old/old.htm (the original folder path and file name)

http://www.you.com/new.htm (new path and file name)

When the search engines spider your site again they will
follow the rule you have created in your .htaccess file.
The search engine spider doesn’t actually read the
.htaccess file, but recognizes the response from the
server as valid.

During the next update, the old file name and path will be
dropped and replaced with the new one. Sometimes you may
see alternating old/new file names during the transition
period, plus some fluctuations in rankings. According to
Google it will take 6-8 weeks to see the changes reflected
on your pages.

Other ways to implement the 301 redirect:

1. To redirect ALL files on your domain use this in your
.htaccess file if you are on a unix web server:

redirectMatch 301 ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com
redirectMatch permanent ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com

You can also use one of these in your .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html
redirect permanent /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html
redirectpermanent /index.html http://www.domain.com/index.html

This will redirect “index.html” to another domain using a
301-Moved permanently redirect.

2. If you need to redirect http://mysite.com to
http://www.mysite.com and you’ve got mod_rewrite enabled on
your server you can put this in your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=permanent,L]

or this:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Tip: Use your full URL (ie http://www.domain.com) when
obtaining incoming links to your site. Also use your full
URL for the internal linking of your site.

3. If you want to redirect your .htm pages to .php pages
andd you’ve got mod_rewrite enabled on your server you can
put this in your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule (.*).htm$ /$1.php

4. If you wish to redirect your .html or .htm pages to
.shtml pages because you are using Server Side Includes
(SSI) add this code to your .htaccess file:

AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml .html .htm
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
DirectoryIndex index.shtml index.html

Frequently Asked Question:
What’s the difference in using a 301 redirect versus a meta redirect?

Meta Redirect
To send someone to a new page (or site) put this in the head of your
document:

<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”10;
url=http://mynewsite.com/”>

Content=”10; tells the browser to wait 10 seconds before
transfer, choose however long you would like, you can even
choose 0 to give a smoother transition, but some (really
old) browsers aren’t capable of using this so I’d suggest
putting a link on that page to your new site for them.

With a meta redirect the page with the redirect issues a
200 OK status and some other mechanism moves the browser
over to the new URL. With a 200 OK on both pages, the
search engine wants to index both the start page and the
target page – and that is a known spam method (set up
10,000 domains full of keywords for the search engines to
index then meta redirect the “real visitor” after 0 or 1
seconds to the “real site” ) so using it gets you
penalized.

The 301 redirect simply issues a Permanently Moved message
in the HTTP header which tells the search engine to only
index the target URL.

Conclusion: The safest way to redirect old web pages to the
new pages or old web site to the new web site and keep the
same search engine rankings is to use the 301 redirect. It
will also pass on the page rank from your old site to your
new site.

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************************************************
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles at: subscribe@isitebuild.com You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
************************************************

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Dell, Moonfruit Claim Twitter Campaigns Effective

Dell, Moonfruit Claim Twitter Campaigns Effective

Representatives from Dell said, at a Twitter for Brands event hosted by New Media Age in London on Friday, that it has seen tangible uplifts in sales which can be directly attributed to marketing on Twitter. The brand’s Twitter account has driven $3 million in sales since it began operation in 2007, Dell said.

Moonfruit, a website builder, also said Twitter campaigns have helped the brand. Moonfruit said it spent around 10,000 pounds ($16,400) on prizes for the campaign, and that it brought in more than twice that amount in a single month in new subscriptions, reports ClickZ.

The Moonfruit campaign – which gave away a MacBook Pro each day for 10 days to someone who had sent a message using the hash mark and keyword #moonfruit – was extremely popular, though controversial. It was criticized because it was thought to be spamming users without adding value to the community.

Twitter and Facebook are go-to places for brands hoping to be seen as trendy and in-the-know. But the effectiveness of such branding efforts is questionable. Only 8% of advertisers and consumers think it’s a very effective promotion tool, according to results from a LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll.

The study also found that advertisers are more likely than consumers to know about Twitter and are more likely to believe in the microblogging tool’s future power to help promote products and services.

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Long Island SEO

Long Island SEO

website-conversionWeb users who visit any site do so because they focus their search using keywords that match or are similar to your products or services. The challenge is to compete with the escalating number of contenders with sites offering similar services or products as yours. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into the picture.

SEO can be defined as positioning your site for maximum search engine visibility. Maximum visibility can be reached through obtaining top rankings on search engines. Many people would be inclined to think that achieving top rankings on search engines is just about the creation and addition of meta tags, and the submission of your site to the major search engine indexes and directories.

But it’s a lot more than that. Internet directories are managed by Human Editors, while search engines depend on crawling “spider robots” as well as index pages, based on the specific engine’s algorithms. Many people are unaware that Internet Directories such as Yahoo!, LookSmart, About.com, Zeal, and The Open Directory Project do not use meta tag information at all.

SEO is a complex blend of variables comprised of research on keyword popularity, clear and easy navigation, marketplace research, website design, call-to-action, conversion ,measurement, , metrics analysis and reporting. It is a procedure that makes one’s website content more search engine friendly, thereby pulling relevant traffic to your site via the major search engines and directories.

Another important point to be remembered is that mere submission to these directories does not ensure a top search engine ranking for your set of particular targeted keywords. There are specific submission criteria that have to be followed in order to achieve a high rank in these directories.

The two-pronged approach for UnReal Web Marketing is fundamental focus on Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. Our extensive research on every intrinsic aspect of search engines for over nine years has yielded us beneficial insights. These insights have helped us to offer the best possible search engine optimization solutions.

Our full range of services include search engine registration, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing, website hosting, monitoring of search engine activity, screening of websites for search engine readiness, and intense search engine directory marketing campaigns for large corporations and small businesses alike.

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Long Island Web Design Services

Long Island Web Design Services

web-design-gWhen it comes to web design, industry expertise makes all the difference. Long Island Web Design provides a full range of business consulting, implementation services and training courses for your long-term success.

The focus of web design should go beyond the aesthetic aspects of a website. Today website design needs to do much more than just look good. A website may be aesthetically beautiful, but if it is not designed correctly it could hamper your search engine optimization process.

In today’s complex Internet environment, various factors affect a web design in several ways. Designs that were once perceived as good might not hold the same merits now. Website design has to be completely reengineered to suit today’s high-tech demands.

Long Island Web Design has studied the evolution of website design in depth, and its team of designers are constantly monitoring factors that come into play.

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Twitter Can Help Your Online Business

Twitter Can Help Your Online Business

twitter

Most people shop online for convenience rather than customer service. And while inroads have been made into providing better customer service online, the personal aspect is often still missing.

Enter Twitter, a social networking and micro-blogging tool that allows you to send 140 character updates to whoever is following your profile and to the public Twitter stream. Although 140 characters may not seem like enough for meaningful information, you’d be surprised by how much you can fit into such little space. But, it’s the ability to have conversations with customers that makes Twitter extremely valuable to any ecommerce site.

Listen to Your Customers

Brick-and-mortar retailers have the benefit of being in the physical presence of their customers when they are making purchases. But, ecommerce merchants may be unaware of customer problems or questions unless they are contacted directly–or worse, if the customer publishes a complaint online. With Twitter, an ecommerce business can monitor what people are saying about its brand and products and respond with assistance. As an example, the cable provider Comcast uses Twitter to monitor when people are talking about the company, and to quickly respond to people’s concerns and provide assistance, which has improved Comcast’s reputation.

Be Personable

Internet shopping is usually impersonal. Ecommerce sites often try to connect with customers via blogs or comments, but Twitter makes it much easier to have direct conversations with customers and also show a bit of personality. Zappos, the popular online shoe store, has embraced the use of Twitter company-wide, supporting and encouraging its employees to use Twitter to connect with customers. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, is so enthusiastic about Twitter that he has dedicated an entire portion of his website to it, including a Twitter quick start guide, a list of employees who use Twitter, employee tweets, and mentions of Zappos on Twitter.

A Bit of PR Is Fine, Too

Sometimes customers just want to know when you have a sale. It’s okay to use Twitter to provide useful information to your customers as long as you are clear about your intentions and can do a bit of listening as well. In fact, Dell was so successful in using Twitter to alert followers about sale items that it has now set up a separate Dell Outlet Twitter account that offers discounts exclusively to followers on Twitter.

Getting Started

The best way to get started on Twitter is to learn as much about it as possible. Sign up for an account, listen to what people are saying and find interesting people and companies to follow.

Using Twitter for Your Site

Once you’ve decided to use Twitter to promote your online business, it’s important to fill out your company profile and upload an image that your customers will recognize. Make sure to identify the people within your company who will be monitoring and using the account, and the more people tweeting the better. Unless you already have a very reputable and popular brand, your company will probably need to use your Twitter account for a while before people will want to follow it. Encourage your customers to follow you on Twitter by adding a link to your website, your emails, business cards and any other place with company contact information.

Twitter Tools

There are some tools to make Twitter easier to use. For example, Twitter offers widgets on its settings page which you can use to put your Twitter updates right on your website. You can automatically send updates to Twitter by using twitterfeed to import items from any RSS feeds you have, a good way to let customers know about updates from your blog or featured items on your site. Monitor what people are saying about your company and products by using tools like Twitter’s search or Tweet Scan. You might also try applications such as TweetDeck, twhirl, or Twitterific to post updates and have conversations on Twitter.

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FEATURE: Dear C-Suite, Wondering About the Value of SEO?

by Christopher Hart, February 17, 2009

In conversations with potential clients, I have often heard bottom-line, just-the-facts questions such as these:

  • How long will it take before I see results?
  • What is the ROI of search engine optimization?
  • What is the business value of SEO?

In order to explain the true scope of the questions being asked and why such questions about the value of search engine optimization are so complicated to answer, I will draw parallels between a typical executive’s traditional work experiences and the new online business environment.

How Long Will It Take Before I See Results?

The Traditional Business Experience

Think back to the first days of your first job, or for that matter, your first days at any new job. Remember how overwhelmed you may have been, not knowing where anything was in your office or who to go to for each issue. Then, just as soon as you thought you had the hang of things, you discovered that seemingly simple decisions were made more complicated by office politics. Choices that appeared obvious turned out to be misaligned with the company environment, market conditions or an executive’s point of view. Eventually, through the course of conversations and trial and error, you slowly got into the flow of things. You became more prepared as you adjusted to the new environmental conditions. These adjustments allowed you to make quicker, more informed decisions.

The Online Business Experience

The standard answer for how long an SEO campaign will last is “forever”. Search engine optimization is something that must be done as long as you’re doing business online. But, to answer the more pressing question of how long an SEO campaign must be in place before results occur, an executive must ask a number of questions of themselves and their organization:

  • Has every member of executive management gotten behind the SEO initiative and told the rest of the organization of SEO’s importance and of your commitment?
  • Does the executive management understand that each individual’s commitment is required (and expected) for online success?
  • How long will it take all employees to learn and embrace this new business model?
  • Do all employees understand the consequences of SEO failure and commit to this new initiative? Are they a part of the solution, or will they be a problem?
  • Will executives support the alignment of the offline production process so it is properly aligned with the online business process?

The length of time an SEO campaign lasts is not absolute — SEO must become part of the online way of life. However, a company’s executives are able to accelerate the organization into a position where planning, development and reaction to environmental changes are easily done. How long it takes is in great part dependant upon the ability of the executive team to hold true to this initiative. If it is unimportant to you, then it is unimportant to the company. An important point is that if you can lead the entire organization to support search engine marketing and SEO in all that they do, the synergistic effect is a rapid acceleration of your online presence beyond that of your competition.

What is the ROI of Search Engine Optimization?

The Traditional Business Experience

Currently you have collected data points from your offline business and built them into a business formula. This formula has been developed over time and is relative to the marketplace you currently reach through your current distribution methods. On top of this formula you apply your education, on the job knowledge and intuition. These are all things you have taken time to learn, absorb and turn into decision making qualifications. So in the end, return and ROI are based largely on your ability to make decisions from knowledge of topic and historical data from said business line.

The Online Business Experience

Just as you need well established data points to develop an estimate of an offline business return, so too do you need such data points to estimate the return of an online business initiative. In many cases, until we have begun a project with you, we are not exposed to such data points. It is also usually the case that most new online businesses are not collecting and tracking the proper data points required for any online return estimates to be made. On top of that there is the unknown variable of how long it will take to educate your staff so they are able to make proper decisions once the online data is presented to them. As you can see, without data or an educated staff, there is no way to provide an exact number.

What Is the Business Value of SEO?

The Traditional Business Experience

In your traditional offline business, value is recognized over time and is largely based on the return you receive. The value of traditional marketing is assessed by collecting data from a number of points that somehow reflect your business’s success.

The Online Business Experience

If at this point in time you and your competition are not engaging in SEO, you will see that as soon as you integrate the new media business mentality into your business model, the value of search engine optimization will be obviously clear. If your competition has already started down the SEO path, then you are late to the game. You will likely need to expend at least twice as much energy to catch up. Whether you are looking to jump ahead of the pack or trying to close the gap on a competitor that is pulling away, the value of SEO should not be overlooked.

In the end, it is YOU — the business executive, the person in the finance department, the director of marketing, the IT manager — who has to embrace the difference in doing business online. And it is your commitment to a successful online business model that will make or break the value of SEO within your company.

Internet and search engine marketing is not a fad or a short term project; it is a cultural business evolution!

My best advice is to stop clinging to the traditional business model and embrace a new and different way of thinking. If you take the time to let your SEO consultant teach you, to energize and set vision for your organization, and to maintain momentum, then the answers to your questions will become self evident in short order. SEO will change your corporate life.

But the commitment is required on your end first.

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Buying Your First Home

Finding the right first home starts with a price range and a short list of desirable neighborhoods. But there are many other factors you’ll need to consider before investing in what may be your biggest asset.

Before You Start

  • Grab your current household budget so you can consider your financial situation and your ability to make mortgage payments.
  • Ask family and friends if they can recommend experts, like a lawyer and an inspector, who can help with the home buying process.
  • Think about your lifestyle and how it might affect your choice of home and neighborhood.
  • Do a little research on current home prices in the neighborhoods you plan to target.

Topics

  1. Buying Your First Home
  2. How Much Mortgage Can You Afford?
  3. Costs of Buying a Home
  4. Ongoing Costs
  5. Choosing a Neighborhood
  6. Finding a Broker

Buying Your First Home

Home ownership is the cornerstone of the American Dream. But before you start looking, there are a number of things you need to consider. First, you should determine what your needs are and whether owning your own home will meet those needs. Do you picture yourself mowing the lawn on Saturday, or leaving your urban condo for the beach? The best advice is to look at buying a home as a lifestyle investment, and only secondly as a financial investment.

Even if housing prices don’t continue to increase at the torrid pace seen in recent years in many areas, buying a home can be a good financial investment. Making mortgage payments forces you to save, and after 15 to 30 years you will own a substantial asset that can be converted into cash to help fund retirement or a child’s education. There are also tax benefits.

Like many other investments, however, real estate prices can fluctuate considerably. If you aren’t ready to settle down in one spot for a few years, you probably should defer buying a home until you are. If you are ready to take the plunge, you’ll need to determine how much you can spend and where you want to live.

How Much Mortgage Can You Afford?

Many mortgages today are being resold in the secondary markets. The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) is a government-sponsored organization that purchases mortgages from lenders and sells them to investors. Mortgages that conform to Fannie Mae’s standards may carry lower interest rates or smaller down payments. To qualify, the mortgage borrower needs to meet two ratio requirements that are industry standards.

The housing expense ratio compares basic monthly housing costs to the buyer’s gross (before taxes and other deductions) monthly income. Basic costs include monthly mortgage, insurance, and property taxes. Income includes any steady cash flow, including salary, self-employment income, pensions, child support, or alimony payments. For a conventional loan, your monthly housing cost should not exceed 28% of your monthly gross income.

The total obligations to income ratio is the percentage of all income required to service your total monthly payments. Monthly payments on student loans, installment loans, and credit card balances older than 10 months are added to basic housing costs and then divided by gross income. Your total monthly debt payments, including basic housing costs, should not exceed 36%.

Many home buyers choose to arrange financing before shopping for a home and most lenders will “prequalify” you for a certain amount. Prequalification helps you focus on homes you can afford. It also makes you a more attractive buyer and can help you negotiate a lower purchase price. Nothing is more disheartening for buyers or sellers than a deal that falls through due to a lack of financing.

In addition to qualifying for a mortgage, you will probably need a down payment. The 28% to 36% debt ratios assume a 10% down payment. In practice, down payment requirements vary from more than 20% to as low as 0% for some Veterans Administration (VA) loans. Down payments greater than 20% generally buy a better rate. Lowering the down payment increases leverage (the opportunity to make a profit using borrowed money) but also increases monthly payments.

How Much Home Can You Afford?

Bob and Janet’s combined income is $50,000 a year, or $4,166 a month. Their housing expense ratio of 28% yields a monthly maximum of $1,166 for mortgage, insurance, and taxes ($4,166 x 0.28 = $1,166).

Their total debt ceiling of 36% is $1,583 (4,166 x 0.36 = $1,500). Their monthly debt payments include a $200 car payment, credit card payments of $100, and student loan payments of $200. Subtracting this total of $500 from the $1,500 permitted leaves $1,000 in monthly housing payments.

Costs of Buying a Home

Many home buyers are surprised (shocked might be a better word) to find that a down payment is not the only cash requirement. A home inspection can cost $200 or more. Closing costs may include loan origination fees, up-front “points” (prepaid interest), application fees, appraisal fee, survey, title search and title insurance, first month’s homeowners insurance, recording fees and attorney’s fees. In many locales, transfer taxes are assessed. Finally, adjustments for heating oil or property taxes already paid by the sellers will be included in your final costs. All this will probably add up to be between 3% and 8% of your purchase price.

Ongoing Costs

In addition to mortgage payments, there are other costs associated with home ownership. Utilities, heat, property taxes, repairs, insurance, services such as trash or snow removal, landscaping, assessments, and replacement of appliances are the major costs incurred. Make sure you understand how much you are willing and able to spend on such items.

Condominiums may not have the same costs as a house, but they do have association fees. Older homes are often less expensive to buy, but repairs may be greater than those in a newer home. When looking for a home, be sure to check the actual expenses of the previous owners, or expenses for a comparable home in the neighborhood.

Choosing a Neighborhood

Before you start looking at homes, look at neighborhoods. Schools and other services play a large part in making a neighborhood attractive. Even if you don’t have children, your future buyer may. Crime rates, taxes, transportation, and town services are other things to look at. Finally, learn the local zoning laws. A new pizza shop next door might alter your property’s future value. On the other hand, you may want to run a business out of your home.

Look for a neighborhood where prices are increasing. As the prices of the better homes increase, values of the lesser homes may rise as well. If you find a less expensive home in a good neighborhood, make sure you factor in the cost of repairs or upgrades that such a house may need.

Finding a Broker

If you are a first-time home buyer, you will probably want to work with a broker. Brokers know the market and can be a valuable source of information concerning the home buying process. Ask lots of questions, but remember that most brokers are working for the seller, and in the end, their primary obligation is to the seller and not to you. An alternative is a so-called buyer’s broker. This individual does work for you, and therefore is paid by you. Seller’s brokers are paid by the seller.

Make sure that the broker has access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This service lists all the properties for sale by most major brokers across the country. Brokerage commissions average 5% to 7% and are split between the listing broker and the broker that eventually sells the home. Don’t be surprised if your broker is eager to sell you their own listing since they would then earn the entire commission.

Home Buying Costs
Down Payment 0% – 20% of purchase price
Home Inspection $200 – $500
Points $1,000 and up for 1% – 3%
Adjustments 3% – 8% of purchase price

Once you’ve determined a price range and location, you’re ready to look at individual homes. Remember that much of a home’s value is derived from the values of those surrounding it. Since the average residency in a house is seven years, consider the qualities that will be attractive to future buyers as well as those attractive to you.

Although it can be difficult, try to remember that you will probably want to sell this home someday. The more research you do today, the better your decision will look in the years to come.

Summary

  • Buying a home can mean building significant value through the years.
  • Think carefully about how much you can afford to spend and consider borrowing guidelines like those used by Fannie Mae.
  • Prequalifying with your lender is a good way to determine how much house you can afford.
  • You will need cash for a down payment and closing costs. Generally speaking, the higher the down payment, the lower the interest rate and monthly mortgage payment.
  • In addition to your mortgage payments, you will also need to consider the other costs of home ownership.
  • Schools, taxes, services, crime rates, transportation, and zoning are important considerations when selecting a neighborhood.
  • Brokers usually represent the seller, but they can be valuable sources of information for buyers as well. A broker that belongs to the Multiple Listing Service will be able to offer a wider variety of homes to choose from.
  • Remember to consider resalability when buying your home.

Checklist

  • Update your household budget so you can begin to realistically assess how much home you can afford. Be sure to factor in all your monthly income and all the expenses that may come with a home.
  • Add up any savings you could use toward a down payment, and decide whether you need to save more before you start house shopping.
  • Start talking to lenders about your options for prequalification and preapproval.

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How to deliver on B2B email campaigns

The goal of most business-to-business emails is to acquire leads, but most miss the mark and do more damage than good. Follow these best practices for better results.

 

Business-to-business email campaigns, as a generalization, look and feel the same to me. Many show up looking like long-winded, copy heavy, direct mail solicitations. Some have one giant image with marketing department-focused jargon. Most seem to miss the mark in understanding what may attract the right buyer and how to deliver real value and relevancy to the inbox. 

Goals of B2B emails
Let’s examine the right approach to ensuring your B2B email campaigns help close the gap on your sales cycle, rather than damaging your new business opportunities.

The goal of most B2B email campaigns is to acquire leads, often accomplished by a white paper, webinar or case study, which require registration to obtain or attend. Make the path to the registration page easy for customers to transition to from the email.

For some high level, business-focused email campaigns, the goal is not to get an immediate click/lead but to get the email read and forwarded to the right person. Think about selling high cost software or IT equipment. Very few people will buy a $200,000 piece of equipment based on one email message. But if done correctly, your campaigns can get noticed by the right decision makers and the real one-to-one dialogue can begin.

Getting the email noticed and read can be a matter of feeding the ego, particularly on C-level messaging efforts. Make sure you acknowledge the importance (real or perceived) of your audience members and their time. Throwing them a bone can help get you noticed.

How to achieve your goals
Here are some best practices in B2B email marketing:

  • Know your audience: If you are mailing to IT network administrators, an image-heavy newsletter probably will not be well received. Instead, send a text-only message. Follow the cues of what your audience is like and don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • Mobile email triage is real: Escape the mobile email gauntlet. An increasing number of business executives use their mobile devices/PDAs to perform email triage. This means that if you have a weak message or lack something compelling or of immediate value to your email, you may have the busy exec delete your email while in a meeting. On the flip side, a unique email with a relevant purpose may get saved for the executive to read in the office.
  • Make it easy for the mobile audience: Click here to read on your mobile phone is becoming more commonplace on B2B emails and may help you escape mobile email rendering snafus.
  • From & Subject lines: Emails from a CEO to a fellow executive tend to resonate. Ensure your From line is from someone who matters. Combine this with a short Subject line that can break through the clutter while demonstrating a reason for the user to read this email.
  • Short and sweet: Whether read on an iPhone or laptop, make your message count. That means make sure it gets read. Long emails without clear calls to action will get skimmed and deleted. Make your value proposition above the fold and obvious to the people that will browse over your email looking for a reason to read (or delete).
  • Don’t oversell: Too many promises, customer raves or pricing information may overwhelm your audience and diminish your opportunity to have people click on a link where they can find the details of the service or product being offered.
  • Respect the audience’s time: Frequency is a significant issue for all mailings, but if a business subscriber doesn’t respond to the first two messages, it doesn’t mean you should send to him even more frequently.
  • Test: I received seven different emails from a lead generation company in the span of five minutes this morning. The emails actually contained decent messaging and links to at least one relevant case study. They had me until hello occurred seven times. Someone was asleep at the wheel when the campaigns were segmented and set. Do your due diligence before an email is sent as these campaigns did more damage than good.
  • Offer something unique: A white paper can often work, but they are everywhere, aren’t they? Provide access and perks that are gold to the C-suite audience. For example, one client attempting to register business executives for an annual event tested pricing breaks versus admission to a VIP event. Remember, the B2B audience usually isn’t spending its own money so you can guess which offer performed better.
  • Remarket: We had major success with one client recently by creating follow-up campaigns based on how each user responded (or didn’t) to the initial campaign. Using your metrics can guide you to a better and more relevant strategy. (You can find the case study of how this client generated $120,000 from remarketing here.)

The final touches
A B2B email campaign is a different animal from a consumer campaign. Let’s look at the three major differences:

  • Tone
  • Message
  • Measurement

Don’t spend countless hours writing flowery prose. Instead, spend time testing the right mix of design, messaging and calls to action.

Your tone should be much like it would be in a face-to-face meeting with your prospects: direct, professional and in a manner that makes your audience want to do business with you. Don’t waste your time building up to the pitch — state why you are sending this message and what’s in it for the recipient.

The message should clearly articulate the purpose and value to the subscribers while making it easy for them to identify and act on any call to action. Don’t bog them down with too many cross promotional messages or secondary marketing messages. Allow them to scan the email and find out what’s in it for them.

Your main measurement analysis should not be based on opens and clicks but on how many leads are generated. Careful attention should be paid to forwards and any additional email subscriptions generated from the campaign. A high open and clickthrough rate but lack of leads could mean you put up too many barriers to capture the lead. Ensure your landing page and relevant gateway pages (for example, the white paper sign-up page) are easy to find and utilize. This may take some coordination that goes outside the realm of a typical email manager.

G. Simms Jenkins is founder and CEO of BrightWave Marketing, an Atlanta-based email marketing and customer relationship services firm. Read full bio.

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Posted in Business Tips, Email MarketingComments (0)

10 B2B Email Marketing Best Practices

A B2B email campaign is very different from a B2C campaign. According to Simms Jenkins there are three major differences:

  1. Your tone should be much like it would be in a face-to-face meeting with your prospects: direct, professional and in a manner that makes your audience want to do business with you. Don’t waste your time building up to the pitch — state why you are sending this message and what’s in it for the recipient.
  2. The message should clearly articulate the purpose and value to the subscribers while making it easy for them to identify and act on any call to action. Don’t bog them down with too many cross promotional messages or secondary marketing messages. Allow them to scan the email and find out what’s in it for them.
  3. Your main measurement analysis should not be based on opens and clicks but on how many leads are generated. Careful attention should be paid to forwards and any additional email subscriptions generated from the campaign. A high open and clickthrough rate but lack of leads could mean you put up too many barriers to capture the lead. Ensure your landing page and relevant gateway pages (for example, the white paper sign-up page) are easy to find and utilize. This may take some coordination that goes outside the realm of a typical email manager.

Simms lists these 10 best practices in B2B email marketing:

  • Know your audience: If you are mailing to IT network administrators, an image-heavy newsletter probably will not be well received. Instead, send a text-only message. Follow the cues of what your audience is like and don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • Mobile email triage is real: An increasing number of business executives use their mobile devices/PDAs to perform email triage. This means that if you have a weak message or lack something compelling or of immediate value to your email, you may have the busy exec delete your email while in a meeting. On the flip side, a unique email with a relevant purpose may get saved for the executive to read in the office.
  • Make it easy for the mobile audience: Click here to read on your mobile phone is becoming more commonplace on B2B emails and may help you escape mobile email rendering snafus.
  • From & Subject lines: Emails from a CEO to a fellow executive tend to resonate. Ensure your From line is from someone who matters. Combine this with a short Subject line that can break through the clutter while demonstrating a reason for the user to read this email.
  • Short and sweet: Whether read on an iPhone or laptop, make your message count. That means make sure it gets read. Long emails without clear calls to action will get skimmed and deleted. Make your value proposition above the fold and obvious to the people that will browse over your email looking for a reason to read (or delete).
  • Don’t oversell: Too many promises, customer raves or pricing information may overwhelm your audience and diminish your opportunity to have people click on a link where they can find the details of the service or product being offered.
  • Respect the audience’s time: Frequency is a significant issue for all mailings, but if a business subscriber doesn’t respond to the first two messages, it doesn’t mean you should send to him even more frequently.
  • Test: I received seven different emails from a lead generation company in the span of five minutes this morning. The emails actually contained decent messaging and links to at least one relevant case study. They had me until hello occurred seven times. Someone was asleep at the wheel when the campaigns were segmented and set. Do your due diligence before an email is sent as these campaigns did more damage than good.
  • Offer something unique: A white paper can often work, but they are everywhere, aren’t they? Provide access and perks that are gold to the C-suite audience. For example, one client attempting to register business executives for an annual event tested pricing breaks versus admission to a VIP event. Remember, the B2B audience usually isn’t spending its own money so you can guess which offer performed better.
  • Remarket: Create a follow-up campaigns based on how each user responded (or didn’t) to the initial campaign. Using your metrics can guide you to a better and more relevant strategy.

Possibly Related Posts:


Posted in Business Tips, Email MarketingComments (0)

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