Hi,

Can anyone suggest how to bring traffic to a website offering webdesigning, and all webservices, link in my signature..

Hey Techno,

this is such a broad question:

there are 2 main ways to get traffic/sales:

1) from Search Engines
2)  from advertising

I suggest you go to the SR Homepage and type in "generating traffic" in the search box on the left

Pick a few articles that are of interest to you and start reading...this will give you some good starting points to work on

then when you narrow down what "traffic generating strategies" you want to pursue we'll be better equiped to help out

look forward to being able to help

It looks like a good site, but I would suggest validating your code on w3 (http://validator.w3.org/) or using the HTML Validator plug in for Firefox.  Especially when selling services as a web designer.  Not every customer will check, but there are some that will take a look under the hood to see how good a designer you are.  If your own page has errors, they may not want you to build theirs.

Thanks for replying to my quote now my answer first of all is, what is the good and cheapest way to advertise, Like i read in one post in this section only, about if i have 100dollars to putin for advertisement in India what will you suggest.?

and yea one more thing, we have PR3 in google, and growing , what else to do ??

Well if you have a LOT of $...you usually don't have to do a lot of work

However when you have NO money...you'll need to put in LOTS of effort and creativity

this may come in the form of writing articles, participating in social media marketing tactics, trading services with people, etc

this article should get some ideas going for you: http://www.site-reference.com/articles/ … ising.html

Steven_A_S wrote:

It looks like a good site, but I would suggest validating your code on w3 (http://validator.w3.org/) or using the HTML Validator plug in for Firefox.  Especially when selling services as a web designer.  Not every customer will check, but there are some that will take a look under the hood to see how good a designer you are.  If your own page has errors, they may not want you to build theirs.

I agree with Steven 100% -- if you're advertising web design; SEO services; etc ... make sure your sites validate 100%; otherwise, what credibility do you have?

Yea TA we are workng on it,,our validation are 100% on some aspects, of that website, but we are workin now on what we are not 100% with, but what about the marketing and PRs, they also charge money,

ok keeping in mind PRs another question too, what are the basic free or cheap methods to market a product, A

nd one more thing we dont use templates, only 5% in our portfolio websites is a mixture of templates,, (not exact templates) rest all designs are designed by ourselves,

hey we have increased our PR from 3 to 2, but i dont know how is it, as we still have no results from the keywords we are usin, Can anyon help?

have you INCREASED from 2 to 3

or

DECREASED from 3 to 2?

Let's be brutally honest here.. if ya ain' got no $$ to advertise.. things are grim. I spend more than $100/month on text advertising alone... soooo...

Creativity and long hours may not do the trick either. In the web design/development game, the best route is to do some Pro-Bono work or at least some loss leader projects. Building a client base and portfolio is paramount. Honestly, if you are good at what you do and affordable, the rest takes care of itself.

Repeat business and WOM (word of mouth) clients are 80% of our business.

you could also look into sub work. We did a lot of sub contract and 'branded' type projects over the early years. Even a place such a eLance or Get a Freelancer type spots can get a base of new clients in short order.

Point is don't expect top $$ and build things out as you go. The same 100 hrs spent on promoting could be spent on loss leader activities that are building out a portfolio. A client base and networking partners (sub contract) will go a long way for ya.....

In my particular market, the best source of traffic and dollars have been natural search... hands down.

Tricky thing about advertising, I found at least, is people actually have to be ready to physically buy, or literally on the verge of making a decision. If they're not, then advertising is naturally grouped with all the noise out there.

However, in your field, it would do you much good to spend time in many communities like this one. Although, most of the crowd here already builds their own sites, there's always those people that are just passing through trying to find information. Having your profile up front and center could help.... maybe not a lot, but it's something, which is better than nothing.

Then spend a core chunk of your time getting links.

Also, your field is pretty saturated, so you're facing an uphill battle from the get go. Somehow, you're going to have to separate yourself from the pack. Group a ton of competition together and figure out what they're NOT doing, and capitalize on it.

Good luck to ya!

we have 100% validated, can I know,. what else we can do to increase traffic to the website,.

Also keeping in mind elance and gaf,. we have started biddingover there not to get projects as they are really paying so small amount for such big work...duh!! thats so silly

technoportsolutions wrote:

we have 100% validated, can I know,. what else we can do to increase traffic to the website,.

Also keeping in mind elance and gaf,. we have started biddingover there not to get projects as they are really paying so small amount for such big work...duh!! thats so silly

First... I could care less about validating my fricken sites. Since when did W2C become the be all and end all of running a web business - which is what most of my clients are after -? They want a quality product at a reasonable rate. The last time I checked validated HTML doesn't bring more traffic nor convert more sales. ... soooo... puuullleeeaaaazzeee....


Second - don't be so quick to discount GAF/eLance. Sure the bucks may not be the best, but it's about the residuals. We started at eLance back in 1999 (not there any longer) and it is good for 'loss leader advertising' basically. You may do a job for what you consider to be a cut rate, but if you do it well, they will refer you to 2 friends and so on. Before you know it you have a client base.

Ultimately we staffed our company with folks from India, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe which keeps our costs down. When busy we have 10+ projects on the go and 5-10 staffers ( on contract basis). If we hired from North America we wouldn't be competitive. So place like GAF/eLance/Scriptlance etc.. can be profitable - even for western companies....

Microsoft loves India too don't ya know?

2c

TheGypsy wrote:

First... I could care less about validating my fricken sites. Since when did W2C become the be all and end all of running a web business - which is what most of my clients are after -? They want a quality product at a reasonable rate. The last time I checked validated HTML doesn't bring more traffic nor convert more sales. ... soooo... puuullleeeaaaazzeee....

2c

Grumpy as usual -- you need more than 2c ... it's W3C...

bahh humbug to the W3C!!!

Can some one explain to me what financial benefits I will gain from the time and effort to validate a site? Last time I checked there ain't none. Thus most major sites ( ie; profitable) - don't validate, because it's tough for the design team to justify to those signing the cheques.

90% of all web businesses fail in the first 5 years, spend yer time working on important ( ie; profitable - again) activities.  If your farting around with code validation, CSS design, Submitting to search engines and other useless activities, you are increasing the odds of failure IMHO.

5c ( and that's all ya get )

Always knew you were cheap -- but I agree with you to a point; I think one should design / validate as they go and then upload everything ... once that's done, concentrate on SEO, etc ... now, where's my other 95 centavos?

TA wrote:

Always knew you were cheap -- but I agree with you to a point; I think one should design / validate as they go and then upload everything ... once that's done, concentrate on SEO, etc ... now, where's my other 95 centavos?

uhhh... but WHY should someone validate? What's the benefit? I see lot's of folks acting like it's an essential part of building a site/business. It is NOT.... that's a fact. It's simply a nice little thing to do.... Sure, your code shouldn't be complete crap... but validate? Who fricken cares?

bwaaa ha ha ha ha... oh I love these.. like hagglin with SEOs that think text to code ratios mean something....

TheGypsy wrote:

uhhh... but WHY should someone validate? What's the benefit? I see lot's of folks acting like it's an essential part of building a site/business. It is NOT.... that's a fact. It's simply a nice little thing to do.... Sure, your code shouldn't be complete crap... but validate? Who fricken cares?

bwaaa ha ha ha ha... oh I love these.. like hagglin with SEOs that think text to code ratios mean something....

I feel the love!!!

Validation Isn’t Everything ( and in most cases not necessary)

Like it or not, industry jargon often coughs up terms that become buzzwords. When this occurs—and it occurs across the board; web development is no exception—the terms can become diluted, even ambiguous. Two such terms lately include “validation” and “web standards.”

To be clear, the W3C provides specifications and recommendations, not mandates. In a rigorous sense, it can be argued that true web standards do not exist: they are a myth. Scary word! But don’t be alarmed. Don’t confuse myth with falsehood. So-called “web standards” are a myth in the sense that they describe an oft-repeated ideology that strives to establish popular convention.

Thinking optimistically, we might call these an ever-evolving ideal, something we as a community are still working toward perfecting. What we have, at present, are de facto guidelines, principles that serve an objective without being legally enforceable.

If a house’s wiring and electrical components are not UL-listed, the home inspector may refuse to issue occupancy permits. When ISO compliance isn’t met, products don’t ship. These are high stakes. On the other hand, in the face of invalid web markup, websites march on. The overwhelming majorities of surfers don’t bat an eyelash and don’t need to.

Provided the developer has written functional markup, failure to meet W3C validation means nothing more than the fact that a document contains something that is either not in the specification or is in disagreement with the specification. Invalid markup is therefore not necessarily in violation of anything.

These strong words—“invalid,” “violation”—may pack a punch to the layman, but in context of the web developer’s lexicon, they reflect markup that may be an addition to the specification or something the validator simply doesn’t recognize. Certain JavaScript that is universally understood by user agents, for example, does not appear in the HTML specifications.

Let’s not misunderstand. Poorly formed HTML can be a hassle to update. It may be a factor in search engine optimization (whose “standards” change often, to the chagrin of SEO subject matter experts). In some cases, it can cause content to load slowly (or appear to load slowly).

Validators are great for quickly spot-checking possible deal-breaker gaffes among copious volumes of markup. But validators are servants, not masters. W3C badges are effectively academic badges of honor. Such validation is an admirable enough goal, but is not always worth the return on investment in a production environment. Far more important is to ensure that markup is efficiently written.

Let’s see if the big boys agree.

Google and Yahoo! handle some of the thickest traffic on the market. As of this writing, neither site complies with the W3C validator. How about heavy-hitters CNET and eBay? Failed. Adobe’s and Macromedia’s websites? Failed. What about php.net and python.org? These are the home bases of open-source developers who themselves rely on evolving quasi-authorities like the W3C … but no; these sites fail, as well. How about netscape.com? Staffs of Netscape Communications Corp. are members the W3C, after all, and Netscape is responsible for JavaScript, one of the worlds’s most widely used client side technologies. Yet their site does not comply. Surely useit.com, the site of the esteemed usability guru, Jacob Nielson, is compliant. Surely! Guess again.

W3C validation is not the web developer’s Holy Grail. Validation does not guarantee a site will look the same from platform to platform, from browser to browser. Validation does not assure that markup is efficiently written or adheres to a given entity’s assessment of best practices. What it means is that the developer has coded a functional document and used no markup in addition to that specified by the guidelines.

Wearing suspenders in addition to a belt isn’t illegal, it’s just … extra.

No harm in that, is there?