It seems that while there are millions of different websites on the internet, there are many elements which bind them together, including a frequently asked questions section (FAQ). But are you making the best use of yours, or is it just for show?

Many web masters will have a FAQ section because everyone else does, and the chances are that you will not update yours after the site has been launched. Is it really import? Yes, and it can save you hours of time answering the same questions over and over again.

Imagine the scene :-

You have set up your site, explaining each and every process and action that can be taken, but someone finds a small bug in your program, maybe you don’t accept GMAIL account email address, or something similar, which is very easy to explain. Lets say your site gets 10,000 hit’s a day, and of that 10,000 say 100 have a GMAIL account. When they try and register on your site, they do not receive the acceptance email and cannot log in, what do they do now? They will no doubt check your FAQ section, and if it is not there, they will email you direct (or worse, they will leave the site).

Imagine if each of these emails takes 2 minutes to open, read and then send a reply, that is 200 minutes a day (over 3 hours a day) which you are losing. If you had simply added a small FAQ entry to your list, explaining that you do not accept GMAIL accounts, you could save yourself over 20 hours a week - on an 8 hour day, that is 2.5 working days!

Imagine if you had 2,3 or 4 similar queries, all taking up the same time?

Now do you see the power of the FAQ section?

When setting up a business on the internet there are many different factors to consider, including where to target your budget, how much you should put aside for the future, and how best to attract and keep your readers. These are all vital questions which may sound a little complicated, but are they really that difficult?

The bottom line is that if you have a decent product / service to sell then the rest should fit fairly easily into place. If on the other hand your product is not uncompetitive or not popular, then you can spend all of the money you like on advertising and web design, but it will just never happen. The internet is a market place which offers very little compassion, you are either up there with the best or you are no where - or possibly fighting over the scraps at the bottom of the market.

Once you have a product, you need to allocate a budget for web design and search engine optimisation (SEO), but which is more important?

The truth is that both SEO and your web design are important, if you cannot get the customers to your site (SEO) then you have no chance of closing a sale. However, if your website design is not user friendly then your potential customer will not stay long, and a sale may be lost. The trick about a tight budget is finding a balance, and maybe planning to invest more, as and when income starts to flow into your site. The best business and the best sites on the internet are self funding, i.e. they bring in sufficient income to finance their own future development.

After all, who can afford to finance a loss making business forever?

While many people joke that Christmas starts earlier each year, this is never more true than in the retail sector, where plans are already afoot for Christmas campaigns, offers and marketing strategies. Is it really any different for the online retail sector, or are reaction and preparation times less?

In short, it is no different for the online retail sector - you need to sort out your Christmas stock now, check your marketing plans and ensure that your online exposure is at its highest in the run up to the Christmas period!

The most successful online retailers will already be increasing their exposure at this time of the year, looking at adding more and more affiliates to their list and making sure they are ready for the Christmas rush.. Those who believe that the sale is the end product are the ones who will pay in the new year, when gifts have not arrived, and their reputation is tarnished in the forums and chat rooms around the internet.

While the point of sale may be the main focal point for any business (bringing in the money!), you need to ensure that you are able to deliver on your promises, that gifts are posted well in advance to avoid the Christmas rush. It is all well and good increasing your sales to record levels over the Christmas period, only to see record returns and complaints in the new year!

This is also the time of year when many online business people should be looking at their hosting packages, checking to see if there really is sufficient bandwidth and ensuring that their site will be up as near to one hundred percent of the time as possible. More than any other period of the year, an extra minute offline can lose you sales and decrease your cash flow - something you need to avoid at all costs.

Start planning now for the Christmas rush, and ensure you are ready because you can guarantee that your competitors will be!

As the market for online sales continues to become ever more competitive, with more and more people fighting for a slice of the pie, many people are turning to professional website designers for help and advice. These professional designers do not come cheap, with some of the better designs costing thousands of dollars! So what should you expect from a professional designer?

While there are a number of actions and procedures that you would expect from any designer, before we cover them, you need to be clear in your mind exactly what you want from the designer. What are you asking them to do? Do you really know what you want? If you cant tell the designer what you want, how can you expect them to do it? You need to sit down and have a long hard think about the design, what you are hoping to achieve and exactly what you want.

After you have decided what your require, the procedure should follow something like this :-

Approach the designer with your ideas and ask for a quote for the work - this will give you an idea whether you can actually afford it!

After the project has been finished, and all payments made, there should still be a period whereby you can return to the designer if you find problems. This should be standard procedure where large sums of money have changed hands.

That is the simple process of creating a design and finishing the job - ensuring that you convey exactly what you want, and the designer understand what you want. The trick is to talk and always keep in touch, as this is the best way to avoid mistakes at the end.

Every day on the internet sees a new style, a new format and various new designs making waves in the webmaster world. However, there is a growing feeling that the fancy banners, flashing menus and expensive designs are having less and less of an effect on the consumer. We expect flashing banners, we expect fancy menus, so what would really catch our attention?

Many are now looking at “Retro Web Design” which is basically a step back to day one on the internet, when all we had we words, hyperlinks and a few lines to differentiate certain areas of a website. No flashing banners, no multi menus, just good old fashioned “what you see is what you get”. Will it work? Would it catch you attention?

Research has shown that you only have few seconds to catch the attention of someone visiting your site - after that they have gone. What if you saw a screen with only words, lines and a few headlines - would that grab your attention for those vital few seconds? Would it surprise you and catch your curiosity?

There is every chance that you would stop in your tracks if you saw a basic site today, but would you actually stay or buy from such a site? After catching your initial attention it is then down to the content of the site to keep you interested and prompt you to buy. There are thousands of content writers out there who could put together some great packages for you, something that is detailed and professional. So would it work?

At this moment in time it seems that all webmasters are sheep, looking after their web design and often taking their eye off what the site is actually all about. Massive amounts of investment often go into the design of a site, when in some cases it may be better spent on content and products.

While it would take a brave company to revert to Retro Web Design, it may just prove something of a ground breaking move, but until someone tries it, how will we know!

Like any good business, you should constantly review your web site and what is on offer to the outside world. You need to move with the times, take a lead sometimes and throw in the odd calculated risk to really push your business ahead, but do major design changes work? Or are they counter productive?

If you site is low in traffic and low in the rankings then a major design change would not necessarily have a negative effect - it may just get you noticed and jump start the business. However, if you have a well established site with good traffic and good income, there is more risk associated with a complete overhaul of the design. Customers get used to seeing the same layouts, they get used to where each option is and they do actually begin to associate with your branding.

If you are looking to introduce major changes to your web site, it may well be an idea to get your customers involved and flag potential changes well in advance. Ask them what they think, ask them for ideas and bring them into the fold - they will appreciate it. If possible it is always an idea to stagger any major changes rather than someone opening the site one day and thinking they have typed in the wrong URL!

The internet is a very fickle market, if a customer is not happy with your new design or has to look a little harder for that menu option they always use, there is a chance that they may look elsewhere. Treat you customers well and they will keep coming back, treat them with contempt or take them for granted and you may be in trouble!