It’s time for a contest!!! Are you up for a Website Design Contest?

Contest Over!

What You Will Win

You could win two things actually. The first is my web usability and design analysis that I do. Five of you will be winning this. The second item up for grabs is a new feature that I am adding to BWI. The site of the month winner. When I do my analysis on a site I have an internal scoring system that I use. On the first of every month (see comment #4 at the bottom of this post), starting in November 2009, I will be announcing the best site that I have done an analysis on during the previous 30 days. Basically, the second item up for grabs is an opportunity to be declared the best site of the month. I will post the winners greatness here, mentioning all of websites strong points.

Review of Web Design Contest: A chance to be announced the best site of the month, and an even better chance to win a free web usability and design analysis. Continue reading »

 

I decided to give a little surprise today, a free web usability and design analysis! If you are the first one to comment on this post you get a free Web Usability and Design Analysis! In your comment make sure you say “I want a free analysis!”. I will then contact you by using the email in your comment submission.

To see what the analysis is all about check it out here: Web Usability and Design Analysis

 

bosscartwin

The quick instructions on how to enter: Post a quick comment on this post. How easy is that? Comment form is at the bottom.

I am very please to announce the first give away offer Best Web Image has ever had. I’m am going to give away a free copy of Boss Cart’s premium version shopping cart at the end of July. Those of you that can’t wait, and want a great deal, I have some more great news. Boss Cart is currently on sale for $289, and I have a promo code that will get you 50% off of that. Just use “bestwebimage” as the promotional code. It’s a win win!

To enter this contest all you have to do is comment on this post using the form below giving a brief reason why or how you plan on using it. I will be drawing a random winner from the list. Rules are listed at the end of this post. Continue reading »

 

It’s Friday, and it’s time for some site feedback. If you are new to Best Web Image, and the Site Feedback Posts, it’s about giving some feedback on the site listed below. The best way to improve a sites usability is listening to visitor feedback!

Today’s Site: FreeGlypeThemes.info

Description: FreeGlypeThemes.info offers free Glype Themes.

Visitor Feedback: Please take the time to look at their site, and let them know what you think by making comments on this post below. Positive and negative comments are welcome, but comments like “it sucks” or “it’s nice” have no value because you don’t say why. Were looking for tips that can improve usability, accessibility, and comprehension of site concept.

Your Site: If you want your site to get posted here let me know. Just make sure to include your email, the url, and why you think I should pick your site. It’s free, just not everyone is going to get picked.

 

OK. So a while back I started my Site Feedback category. For those of you that don’t know about it, I make a new post every Friday about one of your sites. In the post I request visitors to visit the the site in review, and then offer feedback about it on the post. Website owners value the feedback, and a little bit of free publicity.  I value the posts because it gets a lot of attention from webmasters, my target audience. The most important group though, the ones making the review get nothing though. That’s a problem.

So What’s in It for You the Reviewer?

So in the past I simply hoped that some of you would make some comments on the reviews. I encouraged other webmasters to make comments, and at first it seemed to work. Without my encouragement though, it’s border line dead. Yesterdays post has only received one comment so far, and it was the final straw for me. Something has to be done to get visitors to want to write a review. So here is what I am going to do.

The Prize

So far now on, when a site Feedback post (not including this one) gets TEN unique quality comments, I will give away a free usability and design analysis. This offer will even work on previous posts that have not yet received ten posts. What makes a unique and quality comment? To make a comment unique, I mean the authors website is unique. On the comment form there is a spot to fill in your website url. Make sure you fill this out. It’s the site I will do the analysis on. What defines comment quality? Comments like, “I like it, it’s great” don’t say anything, nor do the offer the webmaster anything to work with. You can say you like/dislike, but you must give an example why. That is what will make it high quality.

When a post gets the ten unique comments I will simply use a random number generator to pick. I will contact you by the email used to submit the comment, and let you know you won. It’s as simple as that. I will also make a comment on the post that a winner has been picked. So if you don’t see my comment about a winner feel free to make a comment. You could still win, even if there is more than ten comments.

Hope to start seeing more of your comments!

 

It’s Time!

If you are the first one to comment on this post you get a free Basic Usability and Design Analysis for the website of your choice!

In your comment make sure you say “I want a free analysis!”. I will then contact you by using the email in your comment submission. How easy is that?

 

Free equals a new member. It’s not a new idea, but it is hardly being used as far as I am concerned. Why? I have no idea. I am actually working on a free guide based on my popular Basic Usability and Design Analysis. Why give a free guide? To get visitors to subscribe to my RSS by email. Why not give it for free to begin with on the site? Because I worked hard on it, and I value my time.

ebookLooking at this bike repair site, Bloom Bike Shop, you will see a great example of how they are offering a free e-book. In exchange, they get you to sign up for their weekly newsletter. You can always unsubscribe to their newsletter afterward, but if the content is good, you probably won’t. You are the target audience after all. To slam dunk this up-sell they have positioned the offer in the top left corner.

I refer to this as an up-sell because that is what it really is. A visitor goes to your site expecting to find some tips about biking. They find some, but being the great sales rep that you are, you up-sell them by getting them an even greater list of tips. The cost? Their email, but then they get even more tips. How hard of a sale is that? You are doing a greater service to the visitor, and your membership count increases. It’s a win win.

Imagine how effective their campaign would be on this site if the offer was located on the bottom of the left menu. Think they would get many new sign ups? Maybe 1/10th at best.

May 202008
 

So you have spent hours working on an article, you post it on your blog, and think, “This article is so dang good I could make money off of it.” Before you start selling it, or submitting it to eZines or whatever, do you want to give them the exact article that you wrote? You could save the best written version for yourself, and then sell the pretty good version. Why not use a free online article rewriter?

I thought it was a little funny at first, going to a site called Bad Article Rewrite, but really it makes sense. Why give away your best work to someone else? What they do is replace synonym’s within your article. They have three levels or rewriting, bad, worse, and worst. Bad is most likely the one you will use because the article will still closely resemble the original. The worse, and worst levels I think are for those bloggers whom blog just for money, and really don’t care what content they put in it.

To use the site you do need to use IE, and not Firefox. IE works with your Microsoft Word application to change the grammar. I had a little trouble at first, but the author of the site was responsive, and helped me out. He said he is also working on a new version of the site. Hopefully it will support Firefox.

May 012008
 

Here is another hosting site, and this one charges the big ZERO. HostBot.com offers free web hosting. These are great if you are running a quick promotional item, and want some dedicated space for a low low cost.

Hostbot offers free php server web hosting. Here are some of its free features:

  • 5000MB (5GB) Disk Space
  • 2500 (2.5GB) Bandwidth
  • 20MB Max File Size Upload
  • subdomain (yourname.hostbot.com)
  • Full FTP Access
  • File Manager
  • 24/7 Technical Support

The free server space is ad free, and after signing up you can immediately start working on your site. It supports php, and has a mysql database so you can create a totally dynamic site on it if you want. This could also be a great place to host a blog, since most don’t get a ton of traffic.

Ready to upgrade? Of course they offer paid services for you bandwidth hogs. 3,000 Gigs a month, $4.95. 6,000 Gigs a month, $7.95. Unlimited data transfer, $12.95. All three packages offer unlimited pop email  accounts, and all of the services listed above for the free space are included as well. Just click their upgrade link to see all of the options. They have a side by side comparison.

Hope that info helps some of you, and any one reading this, let me know if you try the free service.