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I’ve got a real treat for you here, it’s my top 10 best online resources to help you create your own “big selling” websites (be sure to bookmark it!)….

1. Create professional Internet Marketing websites and blogs for zero cost…
(This one is great when you need to get a new product online for some rapid fire testing)

Create internet marketing sites on the fly

2. Here an excellent style guide to how to design Web 2.0 graphics…

An Essential Web 2.0 Style Guide

3. Here are 59 thinks you should be doing with your website but probably aren’t…

Creating a big selling website is all about these 59 things

4. Building a strong visual brand identity online is crucial to your business success.
Image is everything online when you only have a few seconds to create the best first impression.

Here are 7 deadly branding mistakes you can’t afford to make…

Even if you’re as rich as King Solomon you’ll still want to check this out

5. Here are a few of my favorite fonts (free to you)…

40 excellent free fonts ready to download

These are excellent for creating very cool looking navigation with…

Get these Pixel perfect fonts when size is an issue

A very nice sans serif as used by del.icio.us

This font makes your graphics sing!

6. Keyword research is an important part of creating a big selling website, here are a few of the best online tools to help you…

kwbrowse.com

synonym.com

Google’s keyword research tool

Here’s a page full of other SEO tools and resources to help you get that top 10 Google ranking…

More SEO tools than I can count

7. Tracking how people use your website…
You’ll also find lots of useful information here on search engine optimization…

Stomper Scrutinizer

This website will give you some interesting data on what people are looking at on your website and how their eye moves around your pages…

Crazy Egg

8. Tracking and conversions
Creating big selling websites is all about conversions and getting more visitors to take specific actions on your website.

Before you can do this you need to know what people are doing so you can make the changes needed.

Fortunately Google give you everything you need with their superb tracking and conversion tools.

This is an absolute MUST HAVE tool everyone serious about their online success should be using on all their websites…

Google Analytics

9. Split testing
Google does it again and gives you one of the very best online tools there is for setting up split testing all of your website components.

If you’re not split testing things like headlines bullet points and design elements you have no excuse with this tool…

Google Website Optimizer

10. Here’s where I get all my photos from.
This is without a doubt the best collection of royalty free photos I’ve ever come across in over 10 years online.

Using the right photo can massively boost your conversions. You’ll find plenty to chose from here…

iStock Photos

If you like this post please be sure to stumble a thumbs up and subscribe for more ways to create BIG selling website designs.

Popularity: 79% [?]

In the past I’ve had people ask me… “what’s simplest and easiest way for creating a website?”.

If you’d asked me this 1 year ago I probably would have said download an HTML editor like Dreamweaver or NVU and learn how to use it.

That was until recently… you see I discovered this amazing online system for creating great looking, highly functional, highly interactive websites in an incredibly user friendly and intuitive way that requires few technical skills. (Did I say it’s also free?)

If you’ve been reading any of my other blogs or articles you might have heard me mention it, but just in case you haven’t here’s the link you need to check out right away!

www.Weebly.com

Don’t ask me what weebly means, it sounds just as strange to my ears too! But don’t let this put you off, it’s an outstanding example of web 2.0 programming.

Heres a quick 7 step guide to setting up a website using this “foolproof ” system to get you started ASAP…

Step 1: Go to www.Weebly.com

Step 2: Create a free account

Step 2: Give your website a Title (Make sure your title includes your main keyword phrase). Recently I created a short video that shows you a powerful method of keyword generation using the Google AdWords tool. You can watch it here.

Step 3: Add the elements your home page is going to need, I would select “Paragraph with title” and start from there.

Don’t worry too much about how it looks right now, you can easily edit things later on, including the design of the website.

Step 4: Once you’ve added the elements you think you’re going to need to get started you can begin editing them…

Step 5: Remember it does not have to be perfect! just get started.

One other thing you can do is add your own custom HTML code which is perfect for adding your autoresponder form code.

As I’ve suggested before you should include your optin form on every page of your website. Building a list of subscribers is critical to your online success!

Step 6: Once you have the basic structure of your page in place you can change the design of your website.

Step 7: Now you have your first page more or less set up you can start thinking about what other pages you’re going to have on your website. Take out a piece of paper and plan out the content of your site.

So there you have it, 7 steps to foolproof website design.

Once you start exploring Weebly some more you’ll soon discover many other useful tools and features including having a blog that you can have run along side your main website. What I like about this idea is you can have a blog design that matches your main website design, not forgetting that search engines also love blogs!

Let me know how you get on won’t you? I’d love to see what you create using this awesome online website design tool.

Popularity: 56% [?]

It doesn’t require years of training, it doesn’t even require years of “hands on” web design experience (of course these things do help!).

However… there’s a shortcut to becoming a “genius” website designer I’d like to reveal to you that not enough people take advantage of…

Let me ask you this… how many times have you visited a website that looks like a “rabid dog” chewed it up and spat it out again? If you’re anything like me once too often, am I right?

If only they knew this shortcut to website design they’d have better success online selling or promoting whatever it is they’re offering…

This approach to becoming a genius website designer is so deceptively simple, you might even think “I knew that already!”. If that’s you my reply would be… why aren’t you doing it?

With that said, here are the ingredients needed…

1. A copy of Adobe Photoshop or GIMP
Adobe Photoshop CS2 (even the older version is fine)
GIMP 2.4 (works much like Photoshop except it’s free)

2. A copy of Adobe Dreamweaver or NVU
Adobe Deamweaver CS3 (Professional level HTML editor)
NVU (A simple “pro” standard HTML editor that’s free)

3. A website hosting account
DotEasy (They offer both free and paid hosting accounts)

4. Here’s where your website design genius can be found…

Go here now…

Your personal genius comes through your leveraging of the design skills of others who already have the knowledge and the ability you need to take your project to the next level.

All you do is purchase high quality website templates designed by a professional website designer. Then use the tools I’ve given you above to adapt those designs to suite your purpose.

Ok, it’s not “literally” turning you into a “genius” website designer, but what it does do is it gets you to a point where you don’t even need to think about how to design a website (isn’t that genius enough?).

Popularity: 100% [?]

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get a post out today as I’m on vacation for few days in Vienna, Austria. So what I did was I got Google to do my research for me. How did I do this?

First of all I did some basic keyword research to look for some popular keyword phrases, then I went to Google Alert and asked it to keep an eye out for any blogs it comes across on “How To Design A Website” (the search term I chose).

Within 24 hours I was give a whole list of blog posts all about how to design a website, pretty cool!

Here’s the best blog post I found about how to design as website:

This it the first ever rap music video about how to design a website that I’ve ever seen, you really need to take a look at this, it could be a world first!!…

How to Design a Website

Popularity: 37% [?]

I don’t know about you, but when I was in grade school, my teachers had one thing they said every time we took a test… “Keep your eyes on your own paper or you’ll flunk the test!” This is great advise if you’re in school. But once you’ve graduated, this rule may have out lived it’s usefulness.

Now don’t get me wrong here. I’m not advocating cheating or stealing other peoples information. Just remember, this blog is about making your websites better, stronger and certainly more profitable.

No matter how creative you think you are, EVERYONE has times when those great ideas just don’t come out.

When I’m stuck and can’t get my mind focused on solving a website design problem or feature, I often do just what my grade school teacher told me not to do. I look over at someone else’s work!

By watching what others do on their sites, you’ll be able to see the website design and marketing principals, functions or procedures that you might never have considered before. Then use that as a starting point (or inspiration) for your own unique website design or marketing solution.

I’ve also found that when I go outside my market and see how other industries present content and design their websites, I learn things.

So if you’re stuck on how to design your next website, or in how to structure your offer, just lean over and see what little Johnny’s already done and how that might be the answer you’re looking for.

One word of caution… make sure Johnny’s a great website designer or marketing expert before you turn to him for inspiration!

Popularity: 33% [?]

I don’t know about you but when I come across a website that can help me build mine, drive traffic or boost sales I always bookmark it. Here are the 7.5 slightly baddass links I’ve found to help you create big selling websites…

1. 19 Tutorial Websites And 97,200 Visitors In 3 Months
I’m sure you must know by now that creating tutorial videos to show people how to do certain thing can generate some good traffic when you submit them to places like YouTube.com and Video.Google.com.

But did you know there are quite a few websites out there specializing in tutorial videos where the traffic is even more targeted?
www.wipeout44.com

2. 37 Viral Post Ideas You Can Use Today
Regularly posting to your own blog is a superb way of generating excellent traffic to any offers you might have not to mention establishing you as an expert when you give people useful content. Here’s a blog I found recently that gives you some excellent ideas that turn your blog posts into viral marketing tools.
www.skelliewag.org

3. The Cosmo Headline Technique for Blogging Inspiration
Here’s an excellent blog post that reveals a simple technique for creating some really eye catching blog post headlines.
www.copyblogger.com/cosmo-headlines

4. 50 Common Web Design Mistakes
Go through this essential list with a fine tooth comb to see if you’re making any of these mistakes then get them fixed ASAP! you’ll thank me later.
www.designrefugee.com

5. Free article spinning and content rewriting using JetSpinner and JetSubmitter.
This is such a powerful idea! Take your content, re-write it using this software and reconstitute it across the web avoiding Google’s duplicate content filter.
JetSubmitter.com

6. 85+ Free Killer Resources Every Designer Should Know
This website gives you all the inspiration you need to get your website design off to a flying start. Whilst it’s aimed at website designers these killer resources are for anyone who likes to design things themselves.
www.snap2objects.com

7. How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic – The Ultimate Guide
The number of excellent resources that have come out since the beginning of the year on attracting links and building traffic has really mushroomed. Here’s an extensive and thoroughly uncompromising list of the best resources you’re ever likely to find that help you increase your traffic.
http://www.copyblogger.com/increase-web-traffic

7.5 Top 10 ideas for testing your headlines
Having the right headline on your website can make or break your website sales, so getting it right is critical! This article will give you 10 things you can test to find that winning headline…
www.grokdotcom.com

Popularity: 60% [?]

Take a look at and carefully study this award winning blog post that explains an extremely simple way of making your website design more effective…

This one might surprise you!

How a pretty face can push visitors away

We all know the importance of using peoples’ faces in your website design, after all people’s faces always attract attention.But what you’ll discover in the article above is that whilst this is true there’s an interesting twist you need to be aware of that can potentially skyrocket your results.

(The clue is in the photo I’ve used with this post, see if you can figure it out before reading the article I’ve linked to).

Popularity: 36% [?]

I’ve just started to reading this superb book called “Be Unreasonable: The Unconventional Way To Extraordinary Business Results” by Paul Lemberg. What I like most of all about it is how it encourages you to challenge the “norm” or what you might consider being “reasonable”.

It’s all about stepping beyond what’s expected and transforming yourself into something extraordinary. In fact this is a step-by-step guide to the rule breaking and destiny making mindset that helps you take control of your business future.

So what the heck has this got to do with website design you might ask!

Everything!

I want you to think carefully about the last website you designed…

As you were designing it were you saying to yourself “I’ve got to get this perfect” before I can upload it and finally launch it? Was there a huge list of things you just had to get done before you considered your creation perfect enough?

I want you to consider this… people have a tendency to get stuck in trying to think of the “perfect idea” and create the “perfect website”. Instead they’re always polishing, always making small changes here and there, knowing someday they’ll be ready to launch (just don’t hold your breath!).

According to Paul Lemberg “Perfection kills market place opportunity” and nobody knows this better than Bill Gates.

Why is it Microsoft has so many different versions of their software? you know version 1.003a or version 4.3.456b or some other long coded number. These numbers simply mean that Bill Gates isn’t a perfectionist, he’s a realist who understands the importance of being unreasonable to get things done and into the hands of his customers as quickly as possible, even if it’s not yet perfect.

His programmers don’t sit around endlessly polishing their software until it’s an absolute masterpiece. They gets his products created so Microsoft can make money.

So if you’re still working on your website design, polishing it, perfecting it I need to ask you a couple of question….

If you launched it today will it work? will it still be able to make you money, even though it’s not perfect yet? If your answer is “yes” and “yes” again, my suggestion is to “just do it”, get it launched and shoot for excellence by testing in the real world instead of looking for perfection in isolation.

Being reasonable tells you that things should be completed in every way with no defects before you can launch. Unreasonable people do the opposite and seek excellence rather than perfection. Perfection stops you making progress, excellence can be reached quickly.

So where do you see yourself in all I’ve said?

Being unreasonable doesn’t just apply to website design. When I wrote this post I didn’t spent hours perfecting it, I just wrote it, read it through, corrected a couple or errors then posted it.

You might even have noticed a few errors I’ve missed out on… did it stop you from reading? or for even getting this far? Of course not, I’ll just correct those errors later on.

This is exactly what Paul Lemberg means about aiming for excellence rather than perfection. If I aimed for perfection, I might never have even posted this article and you would never have known that you’re actually ready to launch your new website today!

Get Paul Lemberg’s book, read it from cover to cover, be unreasonable and get extraordinary results.

Popularity: 39% [?]

So how do you use the web? or more accurately how do you read the websites you visit?

It’s amazing isn’t it when we create our website we think it’s a masterpiece of creation.

We believe that when people arrive at our new website people are going to pore over each word you’ve written and every website graphic you’ve created.

You probably even designed it to be read something like this…

I would even hazard a guess that you think your ideas are obvious and people will “get it” right away and know exactly what link to click on next.

I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong and what people do most of the time is (if you’re lucky) is glance or quickly scan your page. Then click on the first link that catches their eye.

In fact you’d probably be surprised to know that there are huge parts of your page that your website visitor won’t even look at (yes it’s true!).

Here’s the cold hard reality of someone using (or scanning) your website…

The closest analogy I could find to express what happens is this… try reading a billboard at 45 miles per hour, because that’s how your website is seen by your visitor. Don’t believe me?

Go check your Google Analytics stats and look for the “Bounce Rate” and the “Avg. Time on Site” because those numbers will tell you the true story about your website.

Here are my own stats for BigSellingConversions.com during a recent promotional campaign:

What you’re aiming for is a low “Bounce Rate” percentage and a high number for “Avg. Time on Site” …simply because this means that your visitors are probably reading more of your web page.

If you’re not already using Google Analytics to measure what your traffic is doing then you’re missing out on some really valuable statistical data about your website. Analytics costs nothing to use, all you need is a Google account.

Let’s assume you have Analytics… so how can you improve the “stickiness” of your website design so people stay longer?

Here are 7 easy to use ideas you can apply to your websites landing page, squeeze page or any other page you care to squeeze or land on:

1. Keep any links you have to an absolute minimum, you don’t want people leaving your web page to go to another website.

2. Use short paragraphs of text making them easy to scan. Ideally you want your paragraphs of text to be no more than 4 lines deep. This helps make your page easy to scan (very important because we’re all scanners online).

3. Keep your website design simple and easy on the eye, as I’ve said before “simplicity sells!”

4. Make what you want people to on your web page really clear. If you want them to take a certain action on your web page tell them what to do, don’t ever assume they’ll just “get it”.

5. Don’t go overboard with lots of graphics (unless they help people use your web page).

6. Make your navigation simple and obvious so your visitors can make clear decisions about what’s on each page of your website.

7. Use contrast in the design of your website to make it attention grabbing.

How many of these ideas can you put to use on your website today? 

Popularity: 78% [?]

Since posting my last video about how to create “aqua” order buttons using Photoshop I’ve had quite a few people find my blog looking for instructions on how to slice a Photoshop file into a website.

Not only this but a good friend of mine got stuck and had this exact same question…

“How do I slice up a Photoshop file into a website?”

Watch this 5 minute video and I’ll show you exactly how it’s done. Then I’ll show you where you can pick up some free Photoshop website templates that just need image slicing in Photoshop and turning into live websites.

(If you’re watching Joe I hope this helps!)

If you’re stuck for website design ideas or you’d like an easy starting point for your new website design then here’s a website full of layered Photoshop templates ready to go. All you do is make the changes you’d like to make then slice them up and add them to your HTML page.

Here’s where you can get some free Photoshop (PSD) website templates…
www.freepsd.com

But the very best place for Photoshop website templates has got to be:
www.templatemonster.com

As usual… any questions, just let me know.

Popularity: 45% [?]