Looking for innovative ways to create cool website designs for your company or personal blog? So there you have it, a great collection of expert insights and strategies for creating attractive and stylish website designs that attract visitors. Step up your cool website design game with unique techniques for an engaging online presence.
WHY WEBSITES?
If history can be reduced to one overriding principle, it’d be this: every new technology changes society forever. The development of ironworking changed military and construction forever, enabling us to wage longer wars, build taller buildings, and develop tools to move beyond agriculture for the first time in history. The development of the printing press allowed ideas to be spread to the common man, pushing us toward democracy and putting a market value on ideas. And the development of corporate law allowed industries to develop to the point that ever-higher levels of industrial development and research were possible, completely transforming the world in the space of about 150 years.
Today, the new technology is the Internet. And in the fifteen-odd years that the Internet has been available to the masses, it’s created nearly as many opportunities for promotion, communication, and business as all the massive technological development throughout history.
In this book, we will focus on one of the most profitable opportunities available to prospective online businessmen today–direct response website marketing. We’ll talk about just what direct response cool website design is, and how to design your web pages in order to convert as many visitors as possible into satisfied customers.
We will talk about the nuts and bolts of building a cool website, whether you want to do it yourself or whether you want to hire a professional coder to do it for you. We’ll talk about what to include (and what not to include) on your website, and we’ll give you the tools you need to write a sales letter for any product you choose to promote. And Finally–and most importantly–we’ll help you come up with some ideas to promote your website that’ll bring in the traffic you need to
make your business idea a proven success.
Sounds good? Then let’s get started by talking a little bit more about your chosen medium–the Internet.
DIRECT RESPONSE COOL WEBSITE DESIGNS:-
So, we’ve talked about the Internet in general, and we’ve talked about some of the key rules of direct response cool website design to keep in mind when you’re actually building and publishing your website.
As a reminder, here are those rules again:
No external links
A small user base and a high conversion rate
Keep it simple, stupid
If you have your product ready and a good amount of marketing material related to it, then it’s finally time to start building your direct response cool website–and it won’t be long before you’ll start raking in the profits!
THE FIRST STEP: SITE MAP AND DESIGN
To return to our tried-and-true television metaphor: imagine this.
You’re a young producer for NBC, and you’ve been given the task of creating a new half-hour drama program for prime time. You’re alone in your office, all set to make your first crucial notes that will become the finished program. So, before you even think of some basic structural components–what’s the concept behind the show? What characters will I feature?
How will I fill thirty minutes every week, and keep viewers coming back? –you take out a blank piece of paper and start doodling costume designs for your Christmas special.
You create a great design, throw some story and characters around it, and start filming your first episode. On the appointed day, the viewers tune in, hang around for two minutes, and then tune out. Your costume designs are just as great as you intended, yes–but by choosing the wrong starting point, you couldn’t control every aspect of the viewer’s experience of your show–and they respond by leaving your network, never to return.
This kind of approach is problematic for any kind of creative work, but with enough work put into a project from any starting point, you can achieve some success. But when you’re talking about a programming project–and all websites are, essentially, programming projects–choosing the wrong starting point is disastrous. If you start to work on your website by firing up an HTML editor and blindly layout out pages, you’ll be rewarded with an inconsistent, buggy, and hard-to-use website–which violates one of our most important rules for site design.
In order to follow those rules–and thus achieve success with your online business–start at the right place: by creating a workable site map. A site map is just what it sounds like: a diagram showing exactly what content your website has, and how that content connects to other content through hyperlinks.
In order to understand how to build one, let’s look at the simplest possible example of a site map: the classic “Hello, world” program used by beginning programmers worldwide. “Hello, world” programs consist of a single screen with a single message: “Hello, world!” The site map for this would be a single page with a single piece of content on it, saying exactly this.
A more complicated site map might involve creating two pages: a “Hello, world!” index page, followed by a page with other information. The site map for this would be the same single page with “Hello, world!” and a link to the next page, followed by another page with other content. A mark should be made for cool website design.
You don’t need any technology fancier than a pen and paper to make a site map: just draw out the pages you want, determine and note what should go on each page (including text, images, links, and tools for ordering your product), and connect the pages with lines to show how your viewers will navigate your site.
If you want to get fancier with your design, there are also cheap (or even free) programs for mapping out cool websites before you build the pages. If you’re doing your own coding, investigate this option: some of the most popular web authoring clients integrate site mapping functions into their page editing software, which can save you money and reduce the amount of time it takes to learn how to use a new piece of software.
Site mapping may seem like an unnecessary step in the design process, especially with the simple sites that direct response marketing demands. But without a fully-detailed site map, you run the risk of increasing your costs beyond your original budget when you find out that the page you’ve designed doesn’t work properly, or that you need some additional content or images but aren’t sure where to put it.
At best, this leads to costly revisions (in terms of time if you’re doing your own coding, and in terms of money if you’re hiring a coder), and at worst it can mean paying for a complete overhaul of your website. Think of your site map as your business plan: write it first, then stick to it unless you have a very good reason to change it once the site goes live.
SITE DESIGN AND THE THREE CLICKS RULE
Before you finalize your site map, let’s think in more detail about how a good direct-response cool website should be organized.
Our first rule forbids the use of external links. Therefore, you can eliminate any links pages, sidebars with site affiliates, advertising banners, or such things from your site map. Although selling advertising space on your cool website may seem like a good idea for building revenue, it distracts your viewers from your central goal: selling the product. So, keep it simple, and leave the advertising off.
Our second rule dictates that content on your site should be limited to only that which is essential for persuading people to buy your product. The policy that goes along with this rule is to consolidate most of your site’s information onto as few pages as possible. This reduces the chance that viewers will come to your page, click a link that takes them to another page on your site about your product’s features, and then forget to come back to your main page to actually buy the product.
Of course, there are situations where you’ll want to divide your content among several smaller web pages on your site as opposed to putting everything in one massive index page–if you have a wide variety of technical data about your product, as well as photos and testimonials, you run the risk of boring your viewer long before he gets to the crucial “Buy” link.
Above all, remember our third rule: keep it simple, stupid. One easy guideline for doing this is to follow the three-clicks rule:
• Upon arriving at your site, your viewers should never have to click more than three links in order to buy your product.
One way to implement the three-clicks rule might be this: your viewers start at
an index page that describes the product information. They then click a “next” link to take them to a page about prices and ordering information. They then click a link to start ordering the product. That’s two clicks in total.
Another way to implement the three-clicks rule: your viewers start at an index page that talks in general terms about the product. They click on one of your subpages (features, testimonials, pricing, etc.-whatever best suits your specific product) to learn more about the product. They then click on a “Buy Now” button to learn about pricing, and then they click on a button to begin ordering the product.
COMMERCE SYSTEM:-
The one site feature that you’re unlikely to be able to provide on your own is a working system for buying products, sending shipping orders, and transferring customers’ payments to your account. Systems like this are extremely complicated to code, difficult to integrate into a page, and above all risky in terms of security. You don’t want to take a chance on building your own commerce system from scratch, starting to take customer orders, and then finding out that someone has hacked your system and reduced your business bank account to zero.
You have two options for getting around this problem: hiring a very, very good coder with experience in this area (which we’ll talk about more in the next chapter) or going with a proprietary coding system. The former option–hiring an experienced coder and building your system from scratch–is riskier and costlier up front but has some advantages in terms of site design and simplifying your accounting operations.
BELLS AND WHISTLES:-
Once you have your basic site design, you have a skeleton–and a skeleton is nothing without flesh. We’ll talk more about developing your text content in a later chapter, but at this point we’ll think in terms of the basic look and feel of your page: images, sounds, and Flash effects that you may want to use in order to enhance the look of your page and build your business’s personal identity.
Here are some good rules to follow:
- Use graphics that you already use in promoting your business as a basic template for your site design. This builds a brand identity for you, which can be invaluable in attracting customers and building sales.
- Don’t get too complicated. Too many beginning web designers feel the need to show off their skills, drag every HTML/CSS trick they know out in order to make a flashy, impressive page, and end up with an inconsistent mess that drives customers away. Choose a simple look for your page with a few colors and a general feel, and either communicate this to your coder or build it yourself.
- Avoid music on your page (unless you’re selling CDs, instruments, or audio equipment.) Music is often irritating to web surfers, makes your page load more slowly, and doesn’t add much to your online image.
- Keep load times on your page low. Any images you use should be optimized for web use (a good Photoshop tutorial or an experienced web designer/coder can tell you how to do this), background images should be avoided whenever possible, and complicated scripts running on your page (counters, message boards, or Java effects) should be kept to a minimum or eliminated entirely. Every second your viewers spend waiting for a page to load is a second in which they can easily decide that your product isn’t worth the effort–avoid this at all costs.
So now you’ve mapped out your site with an eye to the rules of direct response design, you’ve decided on the images your page will use and the basic look of your site, and you’ve made some preliminary steps to deciding on what commerce system you’ll use.
At this point, it’s time to start laying bricks, as the builders say. And even if you plan to hire a coder to build your site for you–as many people choose to–it’s a good idea to know a little bit about what materials your page will depend on. In the next chapter, we’ll learn just that.
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How to Create Cool Website Designs-
In this computerized period, a site is many times the primary resource between your image and possible clients. Creating a visually dazzling web composition is a blend of creativity, client brain research, and specialized ability.
(1) Understanding the Importance of Web Design-
Web composition reaches out past feel. It impacts how guests see your image, explore your site, and draw in with your substance. A very much-planned site fabricates trust and validity.
(2)Defining Your Design Objectives-
Begin by identifying the purpose of your website. Is it an e-commerce site, a portfolio, or a blog? Understanding your objectives will guide your design choices.
(3) Choosing the Right Color Palette:-
Colors bring out feelings and set the vibe for your site. Select a variety range that lines up with your image personality and reverberates with your ideal interest group.
(4) Typography Matters: Selecting Fonts Wisely-
Typography upgrades meaningfulness and adds character to your site. Pick text styles that are readable and predictable across various devices.
(5) Crafting Engaging Visual Content-
Consolidate excellent pictures, recordings, and designs that supplement your substance. Visuals ought to upgrade your message, not overpower it.
(6) Navigational Simplicity: User-Friendly Menus –
A natural route menu assists clients with finding what they’re searching for rapidly. Sort out your menu intelligently and try not to overpower clients with an excessive number of choices.
(7) Embracing Negative Space for Balance-
Negative space, or whitespace, provides visual breathing room. It enhances readability and directs the user’s focus to key elements.
(8) Responsive Design: Ensuring Mobile Compatibility-
With a critical part of web traffic coming from cell phones, guarantee your web composition is responsive and capabilities consistently on different screen sizes.
(9) Optimizing Website Speed for Enhanced UX-
Slow-loading sites frustrate users and affect search engine rankings. Optimize images, minimize code, and leverage caching to improve website speed.
(10) Incorporating Interactive Elements-
Engage users with interactive features like sliders, quizzes, and surveys. These elements create a dynamic user experience and encourage longer site visits.
(11) Consistency across Pages-
Maintain a consistent design throughout your website. Consistency in layout, color scheme, and typography fosters a cohesive and memorable user experience.
(12) User Testing and Feedback Integration-
Accumulate criticism from clients to recognize trouble spots and regions for development. Consistently test your cool website‘s ease of use and make important changes.
(13) The Power of Call-to-Actions (CTAs)-
Powerful CTAs guide clients toward wanted activities, whether it’s making a buy or buying into a pamphlet. Utilize convincing language and vital arrangement.
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Conclusion-
Integrating these planning parameters will help you build a cool website that looks great while also providing an exceptional customer experience. Keep in mind, a well-planned site is an ongoing task that requires constant improvements to take into account customer criticism and changing patterns.
