The purpose of italic typefaces is to aid comprehension by separating off certain words and phrases from their surrounding text. But when exactly should you use italics?

The basic purpose in typesetting a story or article for a book, newspaper or periodical, for print or online, is to enhance understanding of the text and thereby make the reading an easy, pleasant experience. Continue Reading

Last week a sales rep from a local printing company walked in to my office to pimp his company’s “superior” printing services. I gave him a few minutes and he proceeded to give me his pitch, walk me through his large list of printing capabilities, and show me a smattering of past print jobs that included an impressive mix of brochures, folders and binders with fancy die cuts, foil stamping and intricate embossing.

His sales presentation was actually very good and I imagine that he does a great job of new business development for his company. As I walked him out the door, he handed me his card and some cool branded notepads and I told him that I’d keep him in mind on future print jobs.

Upon sitting back down at my computer, I grabbed his card and typed in their website address. This is where things went down hill. Continue Reading

There are so many websites on the internet nowadays, so if you want a great website that stands out from the crowd, you are going to have to have brilliant web design incorporated into it.

A website that is badly designed will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. If you want a website that is remembered for the right reasons, you are going to have to have a design that makes your website unique. Continue Reading

As much time as business website owners put into finding a good web designer, it’s amazing how little time gets spent in actually creating the website content – also known as the sales copy. This is the content that will help the customer make a decision whether to take action – or leave.

It’s one of the most important keys of any successful website, and yet it’s often ignored or patched together at the last minute and rushed off to the web designer to add to the site. Unfortunately, this can leave a lasting impression on that company’s target audience. Continue Reading

Registering a domain name is a quick process that often seems complex. It is far easier than most general web surfers suspect. You can quickly learn how to register a domain name with a little forethought.

You need little know-how to register a domain name. Your first task is to find a company that will let you perform a search in what is known as a “WHOIS” database. These databases contains all registered domain names worldwide. Domains that are currently in use will offer the name of the individual or company with ownership. The WHOIS will also tell you if your desired domain is free. Continue Reading

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) both the bane and boon of many a person’s existence. It’s a known fact that the best way to get traffic to your website is by simply having your site show up in the first page or two of the major search engine’s results. Visitors that come in from those search engine results pages (referred to as SERP) have two main things going for them. They are more likely to buy, and they didn’t cost you any money to get there. Getting your site onto those first two pages can be a struggle, and people are always watching what you are doing and gunning for the top spot. You have to keep aware of all of the latest tactics and methods and measure yourself against your competitors. Continue Reading

There are a lot of ways that you can improve your site’s page ranking in search engines, unfortunately, not all of them are good.

Some people employ certain methods in acquiring a high page rank in search engines, even if these are considered to be deceitful in the sense that they are designed to trick the search engines – one of these methods is actually duplicating web content. Continue Reading

Networking has long been one of the most valuable and viable tools a marketer or salesman can have. Way before the Internet became such a business powerhouse, marketers built up lists of potential leads and business relationship partners through networking. Even though a lot of businesses have taken their sales efforts online, there are still lessons to be learned from offline business networking. Continue Reading

In the world of search engine optimization, we all know the value of back-links, these can be better defined as votes of trust which point back to our website. There are several types of links and they are ranked differently by the search engines, a few are: one-way links, reciprocal links, three-way links, etc.

The most important type of links are the one-way links since reciprocal links have somewhat lost their value due to the incredible link spamming which took place a few years ago. Continue Reading

Many new and even seasoned internet marketers find it hard to stay focused on their tasks. When you work online it can be nearly impossible to get anything accomplished when you run across new opportunities, are tempted to visit websites, watch videos, check email, browse forums, check your stats, listen to tele-seminars, browse Google and do other distracting online activities. Not to mention other offline distractions. Continue Reading