The process involved

The process involved in website marketing is quite a long and complex one. There isn’t a single process through which, you may be able to achieve the required status within the website marketing platform. You can in fact market your website in numerous ways starting from the affiliate marketing, to simple advertising, to cell phone marketing and email marketing, and so on.

So, in order to market your website, you will be required to:

1. Research the market – Research on the need and plans that most of the others, in your business type follow. Based on that, you may have to plan the way you are going to market your products.
2. Create a marketing plan – If you would want to get more number of customers, it is important for you to create a plan. There are various things which you will be required to consider. You will have to consider the worth of a customer for your business, and your affordability to pay so that you can get new customers or even retain the existing ones. You will have to consider what are the needs of the target audience, and what are the ways in which you may be able to get their attention.
3. Use web analytics – If you have invested money in order to build your website, you would also want to promote it at the same time. For this, it is important for you to have enough information about the behavior of the visitors. What each of the online businesses would need to know are:

• Number of visitors coming to the website
• The source of the visitor referrals
• The main keywords that visitors use
• The pages which invoke greatest interest
• Number of visitors completing the objective (the conversions).

4. Work on website optimization – You will have to work on optimizing your website, so that you can get a better ranking in the resultant page of the search engines. This si going to help you with getting more number of visitors to your website.

The cost of website marketing

The cost of building a website is in itself high enough. If you are required to shell out more dollars, for the purpose of website marketing, you will have to make sure that you are going to succeed in it. If you are opting for affiliate marketing programs, you will be required to use quite a large amount. You will have to consider the cost of print advertising, the public relations which you will have to develop online. The cost of designing the website too is a great part of the total cost which you will be required to consider.

Therefore, planning is extremely crucial for your business and the website marketing process.

This article has been contributed by a member of http://www.all360.net

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has some ideas about how to proceed.

• Making yourself indispensable to your clients is the difference between working just one project and being called back again and again. By assimilating yourself into your client’s team, you become as invested in their success as they are — and they’re sure to appreciate your efforts. “Use your knowledge of your client’s business goals to pitch ideas and suggestions they may not have thought about for current or future projects. So, instead of simply receiving a brief and running with it, you’re demonstrating that you not only know your stuff but that you’re committed to their success,” the SBA advises. “From there, a stronger relationship will follow and there’s a good chance you will become their ‘go-to’ person.”

• Step up your role by coming up with ways you can handle additional tasks involving more responsibility; in other words, be proactive in a way that helps not only yourself but you client, too. Ask yourself how you can grow in your role, and then make your move!

• Be consultative and professional by staying on top of industry and market trends, new tools and best practices, and then bring them to your client’s attention. “Being consultative is about knowing your client’s needs and pitching solutions that will solve their problems,” explains the SBA. “If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, ‘My client should be doing this,’ then go for it. Bring it up on an informal call or the next time you meet.”

• Follow up like you mean it! Don’t just complete one project and move on. Chances are there’s more work to be done, and you’ve (hopefully) already proven to your client that you’re up for the challenge. Follow up with them a month or so after you’ve completed your initial work. Be very specific in how you word your follow-up and get the message across that you’re ready, willing and available! If the client mentioned goals for the future, use them as your springboard. If they were waiting for budget approval, ask how that’s coming along. Be persistent if there’s no immediate work because there could be just a few months down the road.

• Propose a bonus structure for projects that directly impact the client’s bottom line. This could be along the lines of a profit-share or bonus tied to performance and applied to the top of your standard rate. A marketing consultant tasked with managing a lead-generation campaign or launching a new product could propose tying the performance of the campaign to their compensation. Or a writer asked to assist with a large proposal that could mean big business for their client could request a 10 percent bonus on top of their agreed project rate. Note, however, that this approach is best reserved for clients of long standing who already value your work.

In short, prove to your clients that you’re a productive, savvy and hard-working freelancer who has their best interests in mind, and chances are you can improve both their bottom line and yours as well!

About the Author

Beth Longware Duff is a professional editor and award-winning writer whose work on a wide variety of topics has been published in print and electronic media. She currently writes on a wide range of topics dealing with electronic payment processing for Merchant Express.
http://www.merchantexpress.com/resources.htm

If you dont have a Facebook page for your business, what are you waiting for!? It’s one of the best ways to get in front of a ridiculously large audience. The game is constantly changing, so here are the new rules for kicking ass with facebook in 2013.

First things first, you need to know how to make a facebook fan page, which is what will be covered in this article. I’ll show you where to get started plus a few tips to help your page stand out.

In order to create a page, you’ll need a personal profile first. If youre totally new to the facebook game, go to facebook and sign up. Its quick and painless and the only account you’ll need to create any amount of pages. Use your real name and the email you check most often, you’ll want to respond quickly. You can skip most of the preliminary steps if you just want to get a page up quickly.

Make sure youre signed into your personal account and let’s get started creating your first page.

How to Make a Facebook Fan Page

Facebook is CONSTANTLY moving things around. If you cant find the ‘create page’ button, Go to this url: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Click on your business type from the icons listed, fill out the information and then click Get Started.

First, Add a Profile Picture. It COULD be your logo, and thats fine, branding is good. But Facebook is for engaging with your people, you want to be personable. If your company is very corporate, or there are a lot of employees behind the scenes, your logo might be the right option. My fan page promotes my individual products and services. So I want people to see me. When you comment on other pages, this is the image that shows up. Its your choice whether you want them to see you or your brand. Either way works just fine.

How to Make a Facebook Fan Page Cover Image

A Cover Image is that huge image across the top of your entire page. They are as scientific as they are artistic when promoting your business. Facebook has a strict policy against anything overly promotional, yet this is the PRIME space to promote, and its used as such by some of the greatest facebook marketers. It might be confusing, so lets go over the rules.

Facebook States:

“This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements. Your cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. Learn More about choosing a cover photo.”

So what CAN you do? I’ll show you some really great examples to get your gears turning.

Sarah Zeldman, The E-Marketing Maven just gets it, doing an amazing job at combining just the right marketing elements in her cover. First, she’s personable with her profile photo, just what Facebook wants. Then she doubles her impact to CONNECT with her prospects, with the use of both text and graphics to focus on their confusion with social media marketing. Shes addressed a common problem that she can now solve, with the big whammy, her call to action. “Talk to Sarah, she makes it simple”. If you follow this example in your covers, you’re sure to do well.

Sibyl Chavis is absolutely killing it… with positivity. Her website The Possibility of Today is all about creating an inspired life. Look out, Oprah! In this cover example, I see no better way to portray her website and her message. She includes her name, the name of her site, a really great motivational quote and a heart drawn on a sandy beach. Id say she nailed it.

And finally the kings of social, Social Media Examiner In this cover, they’re promoting an upcoming event, their Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. Very clever use of graphics to represent what you might find in San Diego, as well as their fun side. I love their use of a character as a logo for the website. Keeps it personal and still branded.

Stay tuned for MORE tips on how to use Facebook to promote your business. Got some great stuff down the road.
Like Me on Facebook for updates!

There is no website that is completely free of cost. You will definitely have to bear the expenses that are related to running your website successfully. You may use a free host and free website creation software that is available. However, you need to know that
free should not be suggested to anyone because you cannot get anything absolutely free without paying at least some money for it. As such, spending a little money can help you save a lot of time and make your website look more attractive.

When you create the website on your own, the biggest cost involved in it is the software that is needed to make the website. You may either purchase commercial software such as Dream Weaver or use free software if you do not have sufficient money. You need to know that there is nothing absolutely free of cost and as such, there will certainly be some hidden costs associated with it. For the creation of website, the paid software has more features and can be used easily in comparison to the free software.

The other costs associated with website creation are the domain name and the hosting. The costs of the website design software should be considered as the capital investment of equipment while the hosting and domain name should be considered to be the
maintenance costs.

What is not included in making the website is the cost of labor since in this case the labor charge is absolutely free. If the cost of labor needs to be included, then it will no doubt be the most expensive one for you. So, if you are thinking to appoint somebody to create your website, then expect the cost of making the website to be your biggest expense. Make sure you are able to afford the cost of hiring a labor or else you may have to face unnecessary difficulty in maintaining your website.

The basic websites cost too much to maintain however, there are still some hidden costs that tend to increase every now and then. The website needs to change with the business so there may be some ongoing web design and web development work along with its
cost. You must be aware that the successful websites will have rich, continuously updated information along with interactive elements such as forums, blogs and so on. So, you should make it a point to manage all of them properly. The large businesses will possibly have IT departments on website with its staff that are trained to handle the technical problems but smaller businesses or self-employed individuals may find that they require the help of the professionals in order to update their website every now and again.

This article has been contributed by a member of http://www.discussionoftheday.com/

Under the present economic situation, where so many businesses are failing, it’s extremely crucial to have an active online presence. These days, it’s all about social networking, especially for businesses. Social networking is nothing but an online service that is primarily used for building relationships between consumers and organizations. In order to have an active online presence, it’s extremely important that your organization holds a Facebook account, a LinkedIn Account and a Twitter account. Following are few valuable tips for successful business marketing.

• Consider Facebook games. You could try to formulate a game that’s in connection with what you sell or the field you’re working in. Your game might just get popular and be enjoyed by millions of Facebook users. However, you might have to sign up a professional to actually formulate the game. Nonetheless, you would have to read out the specifics.

• Choose a Twitter username that you can effortlessly remember and that’s in connection with the product you’re offering. It would be a wise decision on your part to avoid lengthy usernames with numbers, since it’s not only difficult to remember but might also cause target audiences to visit some other page.

Keep your professional Facebook account and personal Facebook account separate. When you’re using your professional Facebook account, you shouldn’t share personal information or pictures. In case you don’t want other clients or others to locate you on Facebook, consider using a nickname.

When you’re hiring an agency to handle your business marketing via social networking websites, just remain a bit cautious. A majority of these organizations are fraudulent and scam business owners. They make use of falsely registered, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts and employ proxy servers to escape automatic abuse control procedures. This basically means that your advertisements won’t get viewed by any real visitor, even though the number of views will keep on rising and you have shelled out your cash.

This article has been contributed by a member of http://www.onediy.com/

Updated for 2012

Facebook is still kicking butt. Everyone and their mother is on there and fortune 500 companies have caught on with contests, fan photo uploads and so many other promotional ideas that Facebook marketing strategies is an entire science of its own. Even still, its just as easy for the little guy to own some facebook real estate and run great promotions.

I’ll show you the right links and how set up a page, but learning how to make a facebook fan page goes beyond filling out basic information. So I’ll include a few tricks to make your fan page really shine.

First let’s understand the rules. Facebook makes a clear distinction: Profiles are for personal accounts. Facebook Fan Pages are for business. Even the new timeline layout states that cover images (the large image on top) should not be of a promotional nature. So fan page it is for business – but you will need a personal profile to create those nifty sidebar tabs on a page. I’ve tried setting up a business page outside of my personal account, it just doesnt work.

Now that were up to speed, sign in to your personal facebook account and get started.

How to Make a Facebook Fan Page

Finding your way in facebooks everchanging landscape can be difficult. At the time of this writing, the correct link to create a fan page is here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Click on your business type, choose a category, then name your business. The ‘name’ will show up as the name of your fan page. Create your fan page and verify your email.

Go through the steps of including your business information. Your basic fan page looks like the image below. Click on Edit Info and go through the settings links to get a feel for whats there.

Make a Facebook Fan Page Image

The first suggestion is to upload an image. This is your first opportunity make an impression. You can use it to introduce your ‘call to action’, showcase a product or define your brand. Think about what your fans NEED to know and include it in the image.

Because its an important first step, lets learn from the big boys. CSI Miami keeps it short, simple and to the point. A defining image of the show, their logo and where to find them offline. Simple, yet effective. Motorola takes it a step further by featuring products in their image. Dallas Cowyboys go all the way by running a contest, then pointing to that contest in their fan page image. Thats truly interactive and brilliant marketing from the start.

My fan page is a little different, intended to brand my website which promotes my individual products services. Because I like to keep things more personal, I incorporated my photo, so people can see who I am. In this way, I can edit the thumbnail that shows when I comment, to show my photo. I also include my name because the page is named after my business and not myself.

Creating the Fan Page Image

Create an image 180 pixels wide. Image height is not fixed, but dont make it too tall because your tabs are located directly underneath. Add your photo, logo or other pertinent info. When your image is just right, click on the ‘Upload an Image’ link in facebook and make it live!

To control the icon that shows when you post and comment, go to ‘edit page’ > ‘profile picture’ then click ‘Edit Thumbnail’ and move the image to the desired spot.

Note: Every time you upload, facebook throws the image into your ‘profile pictures’ gallery. If you’d like to delete the mishaps, go to your page > photos > profile pictures. Inside each image, there’s a delete link.

Fan Page Tabs

‘Facebook Fan Page Tabs’ are the icon links in the left sidebar under the fan page image. When you click on each of these tabs, it loads different information. Facebook gives you power to customize the information you display with the ability to create custom tabs.You can also set your welcome page, or ‘default landing tab’ to load one of your custom tabs instead of your ‘wall’, so it will be the first thing visitors see when they come to your page. Featured content can be very powerful for your business.

The goal of a featured fan page tab is to create content that works for your business and is also useful to your fans. You might like to simply introduce your company by featuring what you do. I’ve also seen free giveaways, sign up forms, videos, and in the previous example, a contest. The sky is the limit in a custom tab. Facebook pulls this information from a real web page elsewhere on the internet, so whatever you can do on a regular webpage, you can do in a facebook tab. As long as the width of the page is confined to 520 pixels wide, you’re golden.

Creating Tabs on your Facebook Fan Page

To create the content that will appear inside your custom fan page tab, you’ll need the ability to either write an html page or customize a template, and be able to upload it to your web sites server. Your server must have at least a shared secure server (SSL) or you can purchase a private one.

Create your content in html format max 520 pixels wide and upload it to your server. You’ll need to copy the url where the content is located so we can plug it into facebook by creating an application.

Creating the Facebook App to install a Fan Page Tab

Creating the app is a whole new ballgame for 2012. So much that I rewrote this post and made a full video tutorial in a separate post dedicated to tab creation and installation, right down to setting up a secure site. You can check it out here.

Facebook Landing Pages for 2012

Ive also updated How to Make a Facebook Fan Page for 2013 With steps to get your page up and running quickly and some GREAT cover examples.

While there are services that will build a facebook landing page for you, you might be a do it yourself kinda person or not have the cash to have a landing page made professionally. This video is for you. I’ll guide you through 11 steps to get it done. Plus I’ve created a stripped down WordPress theme to use for your Facebook Landing Pages and included a text version of the steps. Enjoy!

Create Your Own Facebook Landing Page

Download: FanTabs WordPress Theme
Download: 11 Step Text File right click to save

Does a matching website/facebook theme sound awesome? Like a little mini version of your website right in facebook where visitors can shop, sign up, read about you – anything you can do in WordPress. I thought so! So I created one especially for my visitors for a very low price of $14 until the end of January. Snag it today before the deal is gone!
Check it out Here!

This wordpress tutorial shows how to get it working front to back, from editing user roles to the slick jquery form for wordpress. I just finished pulling this off on one of my other sites, so naturally, a wordpress tutorial ensues…

First, I want to set up author accounts manually in admin, then allow access with a form for wordpress in the header of the site. Placing a login form in the header is not only functional, it also calls out that Im accepting guest posts in a stylish manner. After a lot of picking and prodding, none of the other wordpress tutorials floating around really worked, or explained how to set the user roles…

Where theres a will, theres a way. Here’s mine.

See this jQuery slide panel live in action on CreditExaminer.org

As always in the development world, there are two pieces to the puzzle. The front end and the back.

1. In the front, we have the login form for wordpress. I’ll show you how to plug a slide panel into your theme files using the super cool jquery SlideToggle. It hides at the top of the page and pulls down when the tab/trigger is clicked.
2. In the back, logged in authors land in their administration dashboard. We need to grant access to publish a page, a post and edit their profile, plus hide a few things from their dashboard.

Setting Up the Author Role

WordPress already has an author role, but its far from ideal. It doesnt allow authors to publish pages (which im using on my site for articles). The authors admin area also displays all kinds of site info that’ll just get in their way, such as every post, every page, comments plus some plugins show up there too. Real messy, so I want to hide this from their admin.

Three plugins make this all happen.

User Role Editor
Allows you to change default role capabilities. Authors are allowed to write and edit posts, but not pages. So lets give them that capability. Under Users -> Role Editor, scroll down to Author. Click ‘human readable’ so you know what youre letting your authors do. I set the following.

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I Used: Delete Pages, Delete posts, delete published pages and posts, edit pages, edit posts, edit published pages and posts, levels were set for me automatically, 0, 1 and 2, publish pages, publish posts, read, and upload files (it might be wise to disallow upload files)

Manage Your Own Posts
Imagine how difficult it would be to find your posts (and pages) among hundreds of other authors posts. We gotta clean this up, and this little gem does just that. It shows only the authors writing and hides the rest.

It isnt really a full blown plugin, but one function that packs a lot of punch. If you’re already staring at a sea of plugins and would just rather keep things tidy, you could actually copy the code and throw it into your functions.php. Heres the tiny function that saves the day…

function mypo_parse_query_useronly( $wp_query ) {
    if ( strpos( $_SERVER[ 'REQUEST_URI' ], '/wp-admin/edit.php' ) !== false ) {
        if ( !current_user_can( 'level_10' ) ) {
            global $current_user;
            $wp_query->set( 'author', $current_user->id );
        }
    }
}
add_filter('parse_query', 'mypo_parse_query_useronly' );

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Adminimize
At this point the author admin still isnt quite right. All kinds of things are showing that shouldnt be there. Comments, media, even the ContactForm7 admin control is available. Adminimize is quite hefty, but necessary to hide all these details.

Under Settings>Adminimize – You can use the mini-menu to jump to my settings:

Menu Options – Deactivate for Author
tick the following: Media, Links, Comments (all others are hidden by default)
scroll to the bottom of this chart and look for additional plugins you have installed that need a-hiding. then Update Options.

Write Options – Deactivate for Author
This controls the sidebar options in the editor when authors ‘add a new’ page or post. I left all of the post options blank but I dont want authors to be able to change the page template. So deactivate the entire ‘Attributes’ panel. then Update Options.

There are tons of other details for all user roles, but this is all I needed get it working right.
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Setting Up the Form For WordPress

Now that the back end is ready, its time to build front end access.

The jQuery

A few elements go into the code to get it working as planned. Lets start with jquery’s slideToggle function. In its entirety, the example code looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
  p { width:400px; }
  </style>
  <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <button>Toggle</button>
  <p>
    This is the paragraph to end all paragraphs.  You
    should feel <em>lucky</em> to have seen such a paragraph in
    your life.  Congratulations!
  </p>
<script>
    $("button").click(function () {
      $("p").slideToggle("slow");
    });
</script>
</body>
</html>

Lets pull the jQuery out and edit for use in wordpress.
Open header.php in your theme template file and add the following above and below the wp_head call like so:

<?php wp_enqueue_script('jquery'); ?>
<?php wp_head(); ?>

<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function(){

	jQuery(".btn-slide").click(function(){
		jQuery("#panel").slideToggle("slow");
		jQuery(this).toggleClass("active"); return false;
	}); 

});
</script>

Heres what happened:
1. We called the built in jquery library with enqueue –> before wp_head
2. Added jquery with my classes -> after wp_head
3. Changed medium to slow
4. Changed all $ to jQuery so it doesnt conflict with other scripts
5. Added “active” class. This toggles the arrows switch – up or down
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The HTML

In the first example above jQuery gave us this html code for containers.

<button>Toggle</button>
<p>
 content
</p>

To build the html framework, I referenced WebDesignerWall’s jquery tutorials. Some great stuff here. The slide panel demo is super simple.

To break things down to their lowest common denominator, view the demo source code or download their files to grab all the example code and images.

The Form For WordPress

To incorporate the wordpress login form we’ll plugin the code provided by kriesi

Place the form code inside your header.php where you want the form to show up. You might have to play with placement and css positioning for it to behave correctly.

Heres my complete html form for wordpress

<!-- AUTHOR LOGIN form -->

  <div id="panel"> 
     <?php if (!(current_user_can('level_2'))){ ?>
        <div class="login-box">
        <form action="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-login.php" method="post">
        <label for="log">user</label><input type="text" name="log" id="log" value="<?php echo wp_specialchars(stripslashes($user_login), 1) ?>" size="12" />
        <label for="pwd">pass</label><input type="password" name="pwd" id="pwd" size="12" />
        <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Send" class="button" /> <br />
        <label for="rememberme"><input name="rememberme" id="rememberme" type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="forever" /> remember me</label>
        <a class="lost-pass" href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword">forgot password?</a>
        <input type="hidden" name="redirect_to" value="<?php echo $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; ?>/wp-admin/post-new.php" />
        </form>
        </div>
     
        
	  <?php } else { ?>
        <div class="admin-box">
            <div class="admin-col">
            <a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-admin/post-new.php">Write New Post</a><br />
            <a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=page">Write New Page</a>
            </div>
            <div class="admin-col">
            <a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-admin/">Dashboard</a><br />
            <a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/wp-login.php?action=logout&redirect_to=<?php echo urlencode($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) ?>">Log out</a>
            </div>
        </div>
      <?php }?>
  </div>

  <!-- p class="slide"><a href="#" class="btn-slide">Author Login</a></p -->
  <!-- to change button classes when an author is logged in or logged out use the following -->
  <?php
  if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {
    echo '<p class="slide-loggedin"><a href="#" class="btn-slide">Dashboard</a></p>';
  } else {
    echo '<p class="slide"><a href="#" class="btn-slide">Author Login</a></p>';
  }
  ?>

<!-- end login -->

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and last but not least

The CSS

Here are my adapted css styles:

/* AUTHOR LOGIN */
#panel {background: #333; padding:10px; border-bottom:1px solid rgba(255,255,255,0.1);
	display: none; height:50px; border-bottom-right-radius:3px; border-bottom-left-radius:3px; box-shadow:1px 1px 5px rgba(0,0,0,0.7) 
}
.slide {float:right;
	background: url(images/trigger-login.png) no-repeat center top;
}
.slide-loggedin {float:right;
	background: url(images/trigger-logged-in.png) no-repeat center top;
}
.slide-loggedin a {color:#777; text-shadow:none; line-height:20px}

.btn-slide {
	background: url(images/white-arrow.png) no-repeat right -46px;
	text-align: center;
	width: 110px;
	height: 26px;
	padding: 10px 10px 0 0;
	margin: 0 auto;
	display: block;
	color:#fff; text-decoration:none; text-shadow:0px 2px 0px #5b0108; 
	font:bold 12px "Century Gothic", "Apple Gothic", Arial;
	text-decoration: none;
}
.active {background-position: right 14px;}
.slide a:hover {text-decoration:none;}

.login-box {text-align:center;}
.login-box label, .login-box a {padding-right:5px; font:12px "Arvo";}
.login-box #log {margin-right:10px;}
.login-box .button, input#log, .login-box input#pwd {font-size:11px; padding:3px 5px;}
.login-box #rememberme{margin-top:7px;}

/* box content if logged in */
.admin-box a {font:12px "Arvo"; color:#fff; background:url(images/white-arrow-right.png) no-repeat; padding-left:20px; line-height:24px;}
.admin-col {float:left; padding:0 25px;}

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I used the Arvo font available from google web fonts

and my images – right click and save

What happens now?
Hopefully all works well and you enter the world of guest authoring! Keeping things maintained is equally as important though, so a word of caution…

Maintenance.
Editing posts and pages can bloat a wp database with a quickness. Page hangs and serious lagtime may result. If you have a lot of authors, making a lot of changes, you might be doing something right, but to slim down the database to a manageable size, run the plugin better delete revision every so often to clean up your database and get your site flying again.

To come: Take it one step further. Setting up an Author Profile Template to showcase authors on their own profile page.

• ’1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook’.
• ’40% of Facebook’s user base is age 35+’
• ’64% of Facebook users have become ‘fans’ of at least one company. ‘
• ‘US Internet users spend 3 times more minutes on blogs and social networks than on email.’

That’s gigantic. And good insight into how the world is changing the way they spend their time each day online. Even still, I dont need to convince you that if you have a business, it should own some Facebook real estate.

I’ll show you the right links, and how set it all up, but learning how to make a fan page on facebook goes beyond filling out basic information. So I’ll include a few tricks to make your fan page really shine.

First let’s understand the rules (bear with me). Facebook makes a clear distinction: Profiles are for personal accounts. Fan Pages are for business. Facebook can disable profiles made for business for violating their terms of use.

HOWEVER. In order to amp up your fan page with custom content, we’ll need to create a facebook app (dont worry, its not hard) and this is only allowed through a personal account. So to stay in compliance, create a personal account first, then make your fan page. I know it might be a pain, but thems the rules.

Now that were all up to speed, sign in to your personal facebook account and we’ll get started.

How to Make a Fan Page on Facebook

Finding your way in facebooks everchanging landscape can be difficult. At the time of this writing, the correct link to create a fan page is here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Here, click on your business type, choose a category, then name your business. The ‘name’ will show up as the name of your fan page. Create your fan page and verify your email.

Go through the steps of including your business information. Your basic fan page looks like the image below. Click on the ‘edit page’ or ‘edit info’ and go through the settings links to get a feel for whats there.

Make a Fan Page Image for Facebook

The #1 suggestion Facebook makes is to upload an image. This is your first opportunity to create a stand out fan page and really brand your company. Use that space wisely, because it will mold your fans first impression. Think about what your fans NEED to know about your business and include it in the image.

Because its an important first step, lets take a look and learn from the big boys. CSI Miami keeps it short, simple and to the point. A defining image of the show, their logo and where to find them offline. Simple, yet effective. Motorola takes it a step further by featuring products in their image. Dallas Cowyboys go all the way by running a contest, then pointing to that contest in their fan page image. Thats truly interactive and brilliant marketing from the start.

My fan page is a little different, intended to brand my website which promotes my individual services. Because the business is of a more personal nature (you’re hiring me personally through my website) I incorporated my photo, so potential Facebook clients can see who they’ll be working with. I also include my name in the photo because the page is named after my business and not myself.

Creating the Fan Page Image

Create an image 180 pixels wide. Image height is not fixed, but dont make it too tall because your tabs are located directly underneath. Keep at least the first couple tab icons visible without scrolling. Add your photo, logo and any pertinient information. When your image is just right, click on the ‘Upload an Image’ link in facebook and make it live!

To control the icon that shows when you post updates, go to ‘edit page’ > ‘profile picture’ then click ‘Edit Thumbnail’ and move the image to the desired spot.

Note: Every time you upload, facebook throws the image into your ‘profile pictures’ gallery. If you’d like to delete the mishaps, go to your page > photos > profile pictures. Inside each image, there’s a delete link.

Fan Page Tabs

‘Facebook Fan Page Tabs’ are the icon links in the left sidebar under the fan page image. When you click on each of these tabs, it loads different information. Facebook gives you power to customize the information you display with the ability to create custom tabs.You can also set your welcome page, or ‘default landing tab’ to load one of your custom tabs instead of your ‘wall’, so it will be the first thing visitors see when they come to your page. Featured content can be very powerful for your business.

The goal of a featured fan page tab is to create content that works for your business and is also useful to your fans. You might like to simply introduce your company by featuring what you do. I’ve also seen free giveaways, sign up forms, videos, and in the previous example, a contest. The sky is the limit in a custom tab. Facebook pulls this information from a real web page elsewhere on the internet, so whatever you can do on a regular webpage, you can do in a facebook tab. As long as the width of the page is confined to 520 pixels wide, you’re golden.

Creating Tabs on your Fan Page

To create the content that will appear inside your custom fan page tab, you’ll need the ability to either write an html page or customize a template, and be able to upload it to your web sites server. If you dont want to mess with html code, I offer a facebook template built into a wordpress theme to make it simple to create custom fan page content.

Create your content in html format max 520 pixels wide and upload it to your server. You’ll need to copy the url where the content is located so we can plug it into facebook by creating an application.

Creating the Facebook App to install a Fan Page Tab

If you go through the process once, you’ll have this down. But facebook doesnt explain the settings clearly, so I’ll show you exactly how to set it up in a video walkthrough.

Update! As of October 1st, 2011 Facebook requires all face book iframes be hosted on a secure server. Your webhost should offer an SSL for free. Host your facebook pages on an SSL to meet this requirement.

Full Facebook Landing Page Creation Tutorial Now Available here

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I hope this article was helpful. If you make your own fan page, leave a comment and link us there. Id Love to see it!

Happy Facebooking!

Its so important to check for cross browser compatibility so that the website design, and more importantly, the message isn’t lost in browser translation. For designers, developers and webmasters, it’s assumed by the client that your job will be done professionally and their site will work for everyone. Here are four steps to ensure that your site is cross browser compatible.

1. Use Clean, Valid Code
Whether using a template or creating your own design, I cant stress the importance of clean, valid code. When your code is valid, a browser knows what to do with it. Cleaner code helps search engines crawl through your information more easily, and gives your visitors a better ‘as-intended’, faster loading experience. For template users, look for a mention of HTML/CSS validity. For code writers, check w3schools for reference to valid code. If you eventually opt to use a piece of invalid code, understand the purpose of that code, then check and double check, in multiple browsers, that it’s not messing up your pages.

2. Validate HTML/XHTML
Run your site through W3′s HTML Validator. When I started writing code, my pages would come back with 100s of errors. Validation can be a long, arduous process. Starting with good code can help avoid major headaches (for you and your clients).

It can be tricky to find errors in code. The Validator reports each error by line number. The actual line of code the error is on is sometimes hard to find, and will become even harder when using PHP software (like a WordPress theme) that pull pages together from separate files. If you go through errors with patience, I believe anyone with basic html knowledge can get through validation with a little practice. Don’t Give Up.

3. Validate CSS
Next, run your site though the CSS Validator. This tests for CSS level 2.1. CSS3 is available and working in many browsers. Obviously CSS3 will not validate here, but I personally feel that its Not a good enough reason to ditch CSS3. Just make sure to check in your browsers to see if it works as intended.

4. Check with BrowserShots.org
Most users have either Firefox or Internet Explorer on their local machine so its easy to test your designs. But what about all of the other browsers available? Thanks to BrowserShots.org, cross browser testing is easy.  Check the browsers you want to test from their list, let the site do its job. They’ll take a screenshot and show you how your pages look in each browser platform. Be patient, it takes a while to deliver your screenshots.