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Net Results
Helping your business succeed online.
Published by nrichmedia (www.nrichmedia.com)
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Volume 1, Issue 4 – Winter, 2006
In This Issue
Welcome
We’re now well into the New Year and, hopefully, all the new
projects you’ve set out for yourself are well underway. This seems
to be a good time of year to finally get going on that new web site
you’ve been putting off or on revamping an old one much in need
of a facelift! I’m happy that I can finally say that myself about
my site, www.nrichmedia.com.
Web site material often seems to take longer to put together than you
anticipate, as was the case for my new one. The trick I’ve learned
is, no matter how busy you get with “higher priority” client
work, keep coming back to your own site (or other marketing) when you
can and it will eventually get done. Trust me!
Aside from nrichmedia.com’s new look, the site contains more
information and will continue to grow, so check back often. For those
of you who are new to receiving this newsletter, you will find archived
versions of Net Results at www.nrichmedia.com/archives.htm.
I hope you enjoy them and find them informative and useful to your web
site’s success.
Don’t Forget… Chance to Win a Free
Web Site Review
If you haven’t gotten your entry in for the free draw, do so
before the end of the week. Deadline is this Friday, January 27th. And,
in case you don’t know what I’m talking about here…
nrichmedia and Juliet
Austin are offering a FREE DRAW to win a professional review of
your existing web site. The review will point out what's working and
what's not in your web site and will be an invaluable tool in helping
your site to get the results you're looking for - more visitors, more
clients, more sales. We will provide
suggestions to help improve the site's design, navigation, copy (text)
from a marketing perspective, and make your site search engine friendly
so that your site will be better indexed in the search engines.
The lucky winner will have their site reviewed on our blog,
www.websitedesignandpromotion.com,
which will also provide you
with some additional exposure for your services.
To be automatically entered in the draw to have your website reviewed,
simply send an email to
with "web site review" in the subject line and include the
URL of your web site in the message body.
FAQ: How Can I Avoid Search Engines Indexing a
Specific Page?
There may be instances where you don’t want a certain page on
your site to be picked up by Google and the other search engines. For
instance, if you have set up a test page or a page that only certain
people should be able to see (without the need of password protection),
then you won’t want other people innocently finding it in a search.
The method is quite simple, actually. At least if you don’t mind
going into the page’s code (or if your web editing software will
insert the code automatically). In the page’s <head> section,
insert the following line:
<meta name=”robots” content=”none”>
That’s it. This tells the search engine’s spiders to skip
the page.
If there’s a web-related question that you’ve been wondering
about, feel free to send me an email (). Chances are you won’t be the only person to find the answer
useful in improving your web site.
Featured Article: Three Pillars
of a Successful Web Site
Often, when someone goes about creating a web site for the first time,
what he or she is thinking about is what it will look like. While design
is definitely important, it is not the only thing you should consider.
It is one of the three, what I term “pillars” of a successful
web site.
Before I get into what the Three Pillars are, let me introduce an analogy
(someone once called me the “King of Analogies” so why not
live up to that name?). Creating a successful web site can be compared
to throwing a great party. Got your attention now, didn’t I? Everybody
loves a good party…
Now, the obvious things to think about when planning a party are the
food, drinks, music, decorations, theme, dress code, etc. These are
analogous to your web site’s design – style, colors, font
choices, music/animation (if any), layout, and so on. Design is Pillar
1.
Okay, so you’ve got a fantastic party planned, with all the food
ordered, music selected, and decorations up. Isn’t that enough?
Well, you might actually want people to show up. Ah, yes, invitations!
What’s the point of throwing a party if nobody comes? Same goes
for your web site. You could have the most beautiful site on the Web,
but if no one knows about it, it might as well not exist. So you need
a way of getting people to visit. Just as party invitations can be varied
– you can mail them out, email them, phone people, or any combination
of these methods – so can, and should, the invitations to your
site. The more invitations (and the greater the variety of methods)
to your site, the more visitors you’re likely to get. These invitations
include word of mouth, including your URL on your business cards and
other printed material and email signatures, incoming links, and the
big one – search engine optimization. Let’s call all of
this Pillar 2.
Finally, you can have people come to your nicely decorated party with
good food, drinks, and music and people will probably leave, saying
it was a good party. But, what if everyone had fun, new acquaintances
– both business and personal – were made, nothing was broken,
and everyone got home safely? Then, it’s likely people will say
that you threw a great party! All of these can be arranged if you plan
activities, introduce people, place the bar and the food at opposite
ends of the room so that mingling is encourage (that’s a “Fab
5” tip), hide the breakables, etc. So, how do you do this in your
web site? By including compelling copy (text) that will grab your readers’
attention, keep it, and get them to take action – make a purchase,
contact you, sign up for your newsletter. Good copy (and site layout)
will point the visitor in the right directions, so they know where to
go next and where to find the information they’re looking for
quickly and easily. So, good copy is… you guessed it, Pillar 3.
So there you have it: the ingredients to throw an awesome party that
people will come to, enjoy, and talk about for a long time. Oh yeah,
and a recipe for a successful web site.
In summary, the three pillars for a great results-oriented web site
are:
- Unique, professional design
- Search engine optimization (and other
methods of letting people know about your site)
- Compelling copy
Keep these three pillars in mind and you’re on your way to creating
a successful online presence.
Want more valuable information like this to help your socially responsible
business become an online success and get the results you've been looking
for? Subscribe to Net Results, our FREE
quarterly newsletter by filling in the form at the top left of this
page.
About nrichmedia
nrichmedia creates innovative and unique web sites and other multimedia
for ethical and socially responsible businesses and organizations.
We also offer green web hosting, web site maintenance, CD-ROM production,
and more.
nrichmedia was founded by Nathaniel Richman in 2000. Nathaniel graduated
from the Vancouver Film School with a Certificate of Recommendation
in Multimedia Studies in 1997 and has been working in the web design
and new media industry ever since. He previously received a Bachelor
of Mathematics degree (Honours Actuarial Science) from the University
of Waterloo and worked in the pension consulting field.
Nathaniel works with several other designers and programmers, according
to the needs of the project, to provide the client with the most professionally
designed web site or presentation possible.
"Nathaniel Richman, of nrichmedia, has transformed poststone.com
from a web site that was difficult to navigate and update into a
very clean, well-organized news hub that presents a variety of media
(articles, interviews, videos) in a clear and logical manner. He
is very creative and collaborative and comes up with elegant and
cost-effective solutions to problems. I've found him to be very professional
and enjoyable to work with."
- Rick Wolfe, President, PostStone Corporation (www.poststone.com)
To learn more about nrichmedia’s services, view
our online portfolio, and read glowing
testimonials from many satisfied clients, please visit www.nrichmedia.com.
Web Site Design and Promotion Blog
For plenty of tips and tricks on designing, marketing, and promoting
your web site, have a look at www.websitedesignandpromotion.com,
a blog co-authored by nrichmedia and Juliet
Austin.
Feel free to place a comment on any of the posts there. It’s
an easy way to get a link to your site, which can increase your exposure
and help your site’s search engine rankings.
Charitable Causes
At nrichmedia, we donate 5% of proceeds on all projects of $500 and
above to charitable organizations. We are pleased to have supported
and continue to support several worthy causes. To see a list of the
organizations we support, please visit www.nrichmedia.com/causes.htm.
Pass it on and Enjoy
Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone who might find
it useful.
Want more valuable information like this to help your socially responsible
business become an online success and get the results you've been looking
for? Subscribe to Net Results, our FREE
quarterly newsletter by filling in the form at the top left of this
page.
Printable
PDF Version
nrichmedia
is located in Courtenay (in the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island),
British Columbia, Canada, and thinks and works globally! Thanks
to the Internet, we're able to create web sites and other multimedia
for clients all over the world. You can contact us by
or by telephone, at 250.871.7424.
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