If you were in the market for a new vehicle, would you choose a car that gave you excellent fuel economy, a roomy interior and attractive design that fit your budget, or would you go into debt to buy a luxury yacht? Cheap websites are the Internet equivalent of economical cars; they get you everywhere you need to go in comfort and style for reasonable prices. Paying too much for website design is like buying that luxury yacht - it's lovely, but impractical for your daily commute. Buying extra features that take your website in directions you don't need it to go isn't cost-effective.

The first step toward effective website design is understanding what you need your website to do. A yacht is ideal for sea travel, but it's a terrible choice for an afternoon drive. For most small businesses, a website acts as an online brochure, informing visitors about the company and encouraging them to contact you. As the online presence of your business, it sets a tone for potential customers, subtly casting your tax preparation service as reliable or your shoe shop as stylish. A cheap website that uses the fundamentals of good design will cost little more than a print run of brochures, but reach a huge client base.

Some websites also serve as online catalogs, allowing your customers to buy directly from the site. Designing an online catalog doesn't have to be costly; cheap website packages can include an e-commerce function that lets you plug in your merchandise descriptions and create an instant online shop. An inexpensive website building service can also create the site architecture to support an online shop. By structuring the site to showcase the merchandise and facilitate payment, a talented website designer makes it easier for shoppers to become buyers.

Whether your site is promotional, educational or informational, its content must create the right impression. No amount of spending on fancy mouse-over menus or animated design elements can compensate for clumsy content. Website design services can create content for you or polish your existing content. Any money you pay a professional writer or editor to perfect your content is well-spent. Clients may not notice mistake-free content, but they will notice a grammatical flaw and wonder if you're similarly heedless of other small details.

A cheap website doesn't have to look cheap. On the contrary, clean, straightforward design often has a contemporary appeal that sites overloaded with costly widgets lack. Overpaying for a website results in features you don't use and elements visitors don't want. Save your money and invest in a cheap website that gets you where you need to go in comfort. Economy can be a beautiful thing when it comes to website design.

Small businesses benefit from attractive and functional cheap websites, they don't need to spend a ton to be online. See our Squidoo lens on cheap website design for more info.

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For many people who could not afford the cost of laptop and other operating systems they can make do with netbook computers. They are usually cheaper than the other operating systems and that could be as a result of the limited functionalities which these netbook computers are fitted with. Normally the netbook computers were associated with just ordinary typing and having access to the internet. However it appears that lots of people are showing interest in netbook computers as can be seen from the increase in the number of users. Many of the users are even calling for an improvement in the capability of netbook computers by increasing the functionalities. However it appears that the different producers of netbook computers are coming to terms with the demand of the lovers of the device by manufacturing computers that can perform the type of functions that are performed by the other types of laptops.

Recent products of netbook computers are fitted with such features as WI fi, Bluetooth, card reader, web cam as well as cellular modems. This means that the users of netbook computers can do any of those things which the other computers can do. The implication is that many people are going to take to netbook computers because of the advantages which it has in terms of portability. One can do any of those things that one do with regular laptops and computers with netbook computers. One of such things that would do with netbook includes watching of videos which can be transformed from one format to another format. Netbook computers can now be used to edit photos as well as uploading of images.

Netbook computers are fitted with more technologies than all other types of computers. It is only most recent operating systems that can be compared with the type of features that are added in netbook computers. Before one buys netbook computers there are certain factors that he must consider. The most important factor that determines the effectiveness of netbook computers is the efficiency of the processors. One should always try to buy fast and reliable processor. That is one way of making sure that one enjoys the best of the product. Depending on the need the best type of processor should be Intel atom; it is one of the best processor that one can buy to fit his netbook computers. It could be seen that the popularity of this type of laptop is on the increase and that has to do with its portable nature.

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Creating a student blog is a great way to stand out from your competition. The theme and format of your blog should be closely intertwined with your global social media strategy and how you wish to position this new blog. Now that you have a theme for a student blog, how do you make it a reality?

Here are the first 3 steps to take to create an effective student blog:

1. Choose the right writer

The answer to "Who should write for our school's student blog?" should be found when defining the type of student you want to reach. A student interested in your most popular program? A student going back to school after years spent working? You will need to identify your school's personas to answer these questions precisely.

Once you have defined the target you wish to reach, ask professors about students who fit the description and who would be interested in a mutually beneficial relationship with the school. These students should be personable, have strong written skills, enjoy telling stories but most importantly, they should be willing to tell things the way they are.

2. Create Editorial Guidelines

Once you have chosen your writer, have him/her sit down with the head of the Communication Department to present your school's general social media strategy and the part played by the student blog in it. Together, they should go over privacy and legal limits (signing an agreement about what is acceptable and unacceptable on the blog is recommended), post formats, responses and monitoring of comments. They should also draft a list of subjects to cover in the blog.

Such subjects may include:

• What the student loves about your school, what disappoints him/her, what has been a great surprise
• General life as a student
• Problems with juggling personal life, sometimes a professional life and school
• Views on the industry
• More trivial reports about life on campus or even the weather (as it gives also an idea of life on campus)
• Community events and community news
• Open houses and seminars
• Announcements, graduations, student awards, etc.

Keep in mind that these editorial guidelines are just that. The student should be responsible for all the content and there should be no pre-screening of his/her posts. He or she should also be responsible for any and all comments on your blog.

After the launch, these meetings should occur on a regular basis to give the student an opportunity to voice concerns or difficulties.

3. Commit

The last key to making this student blog a success is to commit to delivering good quality posts on a regular basis, at least once a week. This is a team effort. Your school will have to make sure your Ambassador has everything he/she needs to do his/her work well. This will include helping him/her build an audience by publicizing the blog: add a button on the homepage of your website, link the blog to your profiles on all the social media platforms.

What have you tried to make your student blog a success?

Philippe Taza is the founder and CEO of Higher Education Marketing, a leading Web marketing firm. Taza has worked in the Canadian Education market for nearly a decade, specializing in Google Analytics, Education Lead Generation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Mobile SMS Alerts, Social Media Marketing and Pay Per Click Marketing, among other Web marketing services and tools.

For a free audit of your website and marketing initiatives, please contact Higher Education Marketing today

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What is the attraction most popular blogs have that compels visitors to return time and again? What we're discussing here is not necessarily what it takes to generate traffic but rather how to get visitors to return! Of course the main component of any successful blog would have to be the content quality of the posts but there's more to developing reader loyalty than just that!

Let's quickly review the 3 main components typically found on any successful blog which of course is one that has a sizable and loyal following!

Quality

The most obvious and necessary component of any successful blog would have to be the content quality offered readers! Updates need to be informative, inspiring, thought provoking or otherwise useful and/or entertaining just to get the visitors attention. This is the starting point and as mentioned above, although critical, not always enough to develop reader loyalty! What else could you possibly offer visitors both new and returning you may ask? Remember we're talking about loyalty and this can only be developed over time, so read further to see what else needs to be added to get people to return repeatedly!

Consistency

When you first generate traffic to your site people are attracted to the topic around which you based most of your updates! Remember, blogs are really highly focused social sites that cater to those interested in a particular topic. When posting it is always important that the subject you write about maintains some type of relevance to the topic you've centered your platform around! When you start to veer away from this topic the people previously attracted begin to lose interest and you as a result begin to lose readers! You MUST maintain some type of consistency relative to the theme of your platform or you will never be able to develop the loyalty you both need and want!

Continuity

Now that you've addressed the content quality and topic consistency you offered visitors what else is needed to compel people to continually return? This is actually quite simple when you consider as already mentioned, that loyalty takes time! If you want and expect visitors to return and eventually become loyal readers, you must continue to create and post fresh and unique updates to your platform! Quite simply if people are to return you must give them something to return for and this will require a continual effort on your part to keep your site updated!

Most popular blogs have developed a loyal following based upon 3 common components they all share! As our discussion above has explained, it is not enough to generate traffic and expect these visitors to become instantly loyal to your platform! Loyalty is earned and this takes time but by paying attention to the content quality, topic consistency and putting forth a continual effort there's no reason you can't develop a successful blog! The challenge you face is maintaining the patience to stick with it till you've built up a sizable following!

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.
To learn more about how most popular blogs develop large followings and to also receive a free instructional manual that teaches valuable niche research techniques for your online marketing needs simply visit: http://blogbrawn.com/

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