According to a group of researchers in Canada, you’ve got as little as one twentieth of a second (50 milliseconds) to make a great first impression with your website.

People form their opinions quickly about sites they see, although young people see much more detail in the first brief exposure. Informational content isn’t as important, but those initial impressions last.

According to scientists, people want to be “right” about their initial impressions, so a phenomenon called the halo effect comes into play. Once they get that gut reaction, they look for things that confirm that impression. So when they return to the site, they’ll find things that validate their first feelings.

If they had a good feeling about the site, they’ll return again, find positive things, and will often translate those good feelings into sales.

So what do you need to do with the design to create those positive impressions rather than negative?

Speed: Make sure you site loads quickly and reliably.

Simplicity: People actually recognize and remember sketches more easily and quickly than realistic photos, for example.

Visual Cues: Interesting, good design, good color, good layout, imaginative – these are the words viewers used to describe the websites they found visually appealing.

So what’s the message for you and your business website? First, it doesn’t matter if you have the best product or services in your niche, if your usability is off the charts, or if your customer service is the best around.

A slow-loading or visually poor website can generate initial poor impressions that translate into lost sales. A clean looking, quick loading and professionally designed website, on the other hand, brings visitors in and helps turn them into customers.

Let the professionals at Webdatamation create that ideal website for you. Put their expertise to work and generate great first impressions with a high quality web site.

Both have the advantage of being open source programs, which means they are constantly updated and improved. There are many plugins and applications created by a core of invested users, increasing functionality and removing bugs with regularity.

Still, there are plenty of differences, as anyone who has used both systems will note.

Here are some things to consider about Umbraco:

• It can be edited in Microsoft Word, making for easy editing for most users.
• There are OSS or commercial install options
• A high-quality, highly functional CMS
• Install gives you a blank page – no template, not much of anything else – This means plenty of freedom and flexibility – freedom to succeed or freedom to fail. Success of a site is entirely up to a developer, meaning you must have a highly qualified and creative developer who also knows legal compliance and standards compliance.
• Umbraco has high requirements for hosting, so it is difficult to find a “shared” hosting environment that will support it
• Still working on good ecommerce solutions
• Version 4 has better support for Safari and Firefox
• There are good plugins available, and a management system built into Umbraco

By contrast, here are some items to consider about DotNetNuke:

Has a proprietary feel, despite being open source

• Dot NET developers like it, those who are not dot NET developers have trouble with it
• Based on Microsoft’s ASP.NET, which is the most popular web technology currently
• Cheap to use and reduces total development costs – no ongoing licensing fees
• Full access to source code so it can be altered to fit individual organizations
• Can manage text, image, documents, links, events, news, banner ads and threaded info
• Supports multiple websites
• Installs easily
• Can manage site hosting, content, security, web design and membership in one program
• Multi-language ability
• Fully extensible and scalable
• User friendly interface and intuitve site wizards, help icons and interface for those familiar with Dot NET
• DNN has a large user base (125,000 registered users) and a core programming team dedicated to the system, so it is a large community. There are also an increasing number of third party developers of plug-ins, etc. for DNN

Which open-source hosting program is right for you? It depends on your abilities, wants and business model. Either way you go, using an open source CMS might be the way for you to save money and still have a strong, attractive site.

The DotNetNuke system is particularly focused on small businesses and organizations that operate on a tight budget (for example, many non-profit organizations), giving them many of the features of a large CMS on an open source platform.

DotNetNuke benefits from community sites that host developers. End users can join these communities and benefit from the combined experience of hundred or thousands of other developers who are also using DotNetNuke for the same kinds of projects daily.

Developers are able to share ideas and solutions and propose and tweak the program constantly so everyone benefits with improved projects and results.

Some advantages of DotNetNuke include:
•    Flexible and adaptable framework that can accommodate websites, extranets, and intranets
•    Intuitive and user-friendly design that allows users with little technical knowledge manage a web site
•    Site wizards, help buttons, and a user interface that is constantly updated for ease of use
•    CMS support from a dedicated core development group
•    Straightforward, simple installation for quick deployment
•    Many language options, making DotNetNuke viable for users in many different countries
•    No-cost, open source – users can do whatever they like with the program under a BSD agreement. Users can use the program for commercial or non profit purposes, with no requirements other than directing credit to the DotNetNuke community
•    Lowers the cost of managing multiple websites
•    The opportunity to create and upsell premium content for clients – site templates, content management modules and many database options, for example
•    Utilizes all the latest technologies, including modules, module packaging, ASP.NET 2.0, Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 Express, and Visual Web Developer

There are over 150,000 registered users  of DotNetNuke, and a number of active producers of plugins, modules and templates for the program, making it a growing and dynamic content management system.

There’s some great site consistency when using DotNetNuke (DNN) and easy site navigation. The pages turnaround quickly, a number of people can work on a site at once, and there is great growth potential with DNN.

DotNetNuke is another highly versatile and functional open source solution for Content Management, particularly for small businesses and non profits.

For businesses that consider their website and their customers who contact them online to be an integral part of their business, using a content management system is only logical. It will allow those businesses to provide a seamless, high quality online experience that open source or low-end solutions simply can’t provide.

For many of our customers, their website is a strategic part of their business. The added security and performance features of a CMS allow these businesses to focus the website and the usability features that make the customer experience truly superior.

By giving developers and content providers a simple to use and intuitive system, a CMS allows the marketing department or the sales department to create website content and design elements of the site. These professionals understand the customers and their needs better than developers or IT departments. With a CMS, the control goes to the people with the ideas, not only to the people with the programming expertise

The easy integration with business applications also provides a great opportunity for businesses to provide a better integration of Customer Relationship Management software and Enterprise Resource Planning software, as well as any analytics tools.

Because you, the company, are in control of the content and the programs and tools that you use on your site, you are able to better tailor your customers’ experience on your website, offer them seamless integration of eCommerce products and Web 2.0 feature, and fully optimize your site for search engines, so current and new customers can find you easily.

With so many advantages for developers and for the end customers, its easy to see why Content Management Systems are increasingly popular.

We think we offer you the best possible CMS with Sitecore. While there are still features they can improve, as we’ve mentioned here before, overall they provide a powerful program that is fully scalable so it can grow with your company. It’s also easy to use and forward thinking, constantly updating the product and forecasting the next trend, then responding to it.

Their “Gold” partner status with Microsoft ensures continuing support for all its best features.

If you haven’t utilized the power of a great CMS to provide your customer with the best possible experience online, I’d suggest giving it a try today.

Thanks to the Google Maps. Satellite based imagery and point to point detailing of terrains as well as route planning, that is what Google Maps is all about.

Imagine you go on a hiking trip, you are not sure of the terrain and you wish to explore. Google Maps shows you the terrain and plans the route. It is a free Web mapping service application from Google that powers numerous map-based services.

Google created Google Maps API to help the developers in integrating Google Maps into their own web sites with their data points. Developers just need to apply for an API key from Google, which is bound to the web site and directory given whilst creating the key. If you want to create your own web page you need to include Google Javascript into your web page. The Javascript functions add points into your Mapping application.

Initial Google Maps API lacked a geocoder. One had to manually add points, latitude and longitude but now it has been rectified.

One of the main adopters of this API was the real estate mashup sites. Today even the weather stations use it for local weather predictions.

The Google Maps API has been now integrated with the Google AJAX API Loader which creates a common namespace for loading and using multiple AJAX API’s. This allows one to use the optional google.maps.* namespace for all classes, methods and properties that are being used today into Google Maps API. This replaces the existing G namespace. This framework allows to load one API key for all supported Google AJAX API’s and also gives a common namespace for each API. This allows different Google API’s to work together.

Generally, people familiar with Javascript, object-oriented programming and Google Maps will be able to work with Google Map API.

Google Maps API adds support to Mapplets, i.e. Map + Gadgets, which allows the developer to embed externally hosted applications within Google Maps. The Mapplets run within their own iFrames that help developers to create mixed code from multiple sites.

The Google Map API uses the browsers preferred language setting when it displays textual information.

Here is a little bit about the project:

“The Life Raft Group (LRG) launched this website, What does a cure mean for you? to find out exactly that…

We want to know what a cure actually means to those people who are dealing with cancer every day.  Unfortunately, cancer has touched us all in some way – whether you’re just concerned about it, you or someone you love has cancer, or you have lost someone to cancer.

We also want to show the scientific world that their work REALLY means something. We want to remind them that we are here, we are counting on them and we are real people.”

Don’t…

Blindly test

Traffic in December is unlike any other month of the year. Conversion rates go up, and cost per conversions go down. If you are running split or multivariate tests throughout the month to see which ads or pages convert the highest, do not blindly trust that the data will carry over into January. It is not uncommon to see the highest converting pages (or ads and keywords) not be the highest performer once the buying excitement of the holidays melts away.

Make major site changes

According to a recent Advertising.com study, 75% of all shoppers are visiting 2-5 sites before making a purchase. We also see many visitors come back to a site a few times during a short span of time in completing their purchases. You do not want to confuse these shoppers. These visitors should be able to use the exact same navigational method to find that product or shopping cart every time they come back to the site. If you are changing a website’s layout, you can confuse those potential buyers and lose their dollars.

Forget to add a recommended gift buying section

We’re all short on time. Choosing the perfect gift takes time. Many of us never know what to buy for our spouse, let alone for the office Christmas party gift exchange.  Offer a recommended buying section. Break the recommendations into several sections. While you should examine your products in determining how to section them out, here are some common categories:

Ladies	Under $25
Men	Under $50
Niece (or young lady)	Under $100
Nephew (or young boy)	Over $100
Mother
Father
Grandmother
Grandfather
Wife
Husband

And the chart could easily keep going. Think of these categories: Infant, Toddler Boy, Toddler Girl, Boys (4-12), Girls (4-12), Teen Boy, Teen Girl. Examine your products, and then see which audience demographics fit best for classifying your recommended gift section.

Treat the Thank You page as just a thank you

Just because someone completed a purchase on your site, it doesn’t mean they are done shopping. If someone gave you their credit card, they put some trust into your site. Offer  additional suggestions for complimentary products, either yours or your partners, on the thank you page. At the least, call out your email newsletter where they can be updated with your latest specials and products.

This marketing should extend past the Thank You page and be included in the confirmation (receipt) email as well.

Forget about first page bids

The holiday season converts well. Bid prices will go up. The ads on the first page receive most of the clicks. At this time, you cannot forget about first page bids. Have your keyword report emailed to you each morning so you can quickly make sure your top keywords are on page one.

Always use the negative keyword ‘free’

‘Free’ is one of the most commonly used negative keywords. However, if you use it, you will not show up for highly desirable searches like ‘last minute Christmas gifts with free shipping’ or ‘free delivery Sony plasma TV’.

Make shoppers register before buying

The fewer barriers to conversions that exist, the higher your conversion rate will be. Forcing someone to register before checking out adds a barrier to conversion. Do not require shoppers to register, confirm an email address, or do any action other than inputting their credit card and shipping address.

Give up too early

Last year, as the days grew closer to Christmas, the online spending grew as well. According to comScore, last year there was $430 million spent on black Friday, $610 million on Cyber Monday, and an amazing $660 million spent on Green Monday.

Do…

Show delivery dates and shipping options

Everyone wants to make sure their package will arrive before Christmas. One of the fastest ways to lose a repeat customer is for your shipment to reach someone on December 26th. Reinforce delivery date options throughout your site. “If you order by today, we guarantee your package will arrive by December 21st”. In your shopping cart, make sure you call out the delivery options and the arrival date for the product.

Offer multiple delivery options

You will have some shoppers who want to ship their purchases to multiple locations. Do you allow your shoppers to ship to either an address that is not their billing address or to multiple addresses?

Offer gift wrapping

This is a quick way to add a few dollars to each checkout. You should also allow the buyer to choose not to have the receipt included in the package in case it’s being delivered to another address. Don’t forget, some people will want the receipt included so that the item can easily be exchanged (especially in the case of clothes).

Offer gift cards

Even if you have a nice recommended gift section, there will always be those who don’t know what to buy. Offering gift cards is a great way to have the undecided audience buy from your store. You should also allow someone who buys a gift card to receive either an email certificate (for those who are shopping on the 24th) or a physical card which they can put inside a nice envelope.

Give affiliates special banners or offers

Do not forget your affiliates. Your affiliate manager should reach out to your affiliates over the holiday season. Special banners, offers, or even some recommended products can go a long ways towards increasing your sales through your affiliate channels. If you have a sale, special shipping offers, or guaranteed returns – make sure affiliates know that information so they can use your offers in their presale pages.

Have wish list options

When we’re shopping for Christmas gifts for others, we often find things we’d like ourselves. Let your shoppers save items into a wish list that they can share with others. Make sure others can easily find wish lists and can search for someone they know. This is a great way to increase your shopper’s interaction with your site.

Save for later

Admit it, you shop from work. Most of us have. However, we’re often reluctant to actually pull out the credit card while sitting at the desk. Make sure that your visitors have a way to save their shopping cart items so that when they return from their computer at home they can finalize their purchase. According to Advertising.com, one third of consumers spend 2 or more days researching a purchase before actually buying. Make sure this third of consumers has a way to easily find their way back to the products they are interested in on your site.

In anticipation of Cyber Monday and in preparation for the few weeks of consumer frenzy that follow, here are some of the global brand marketers strategies for making sure that ecommerce environments are ready to make the most out of the smaller opportunities that this season will inevitably afford.

Holiday specials content: launch it now. Although I cringe every time I get hit before Halloween by an ad for holiday shopping, now is the time to be launching your seasonal content. It is important to get your calls to action properly indexed and ranking in search results in anticipation of the interests of potential shoppers. Look back over last year’s analytics to see the seasonal search phrases that were driving high-conversion traffic to the site and build content to target that behavior. Get ready with your “holiday gift ideas” and plan ahead for people seeking “last minute holiday gifts” or looking for “gift ideas for mom.” Get this content featured on your home page so that you can contribute maximum link popularity to these specials as quickly as you can.

Offer free anything. Regardless of the economy, shoppers love to get something for free. Adjust your pricing, messaging and infrastructure now to put a little free shipping or holiday perk into the mix to sweeten the deal. Online shoppers are not just price sensitive, they are total-cost sensitive. If you can put together a better total deal than the competitor a notch down in the search results, you will have a better opportunity to make the sale.

Get ready to pay more for search marketing. Seems a bit of a no-brainer, but it is important to understand that from this point forward this year you will need to be paying more for search. For even the largest retailers, holiday shopping time is when they earn their bread, so it makes sense for online marketers to spend more in the hopes of making more. Just be sure that you are not spending blindly, and that your paid campaigns are tied into your ecommerce back end so that you can see what spending makes sense.

Optimize XML for feed-based shopping engines. If you have not jumped into comparison shopping, now is the time. Using your data feed (unfortunately only a few of the engines accept XML feeds) get into comparison shopping engines to compete for the cost-conscious consumer. As household budgets shrink, people are looking for the best deal they can find, and comparison shopping is projected to be one of the bright spots in the ecommerce mix this year.

And don’t forget the flavor of the month: social shopping. Although it accounts for a very small percentage of total ecommerce revenue, social shopping is emerging as a way for certain kinds of consumer products to accelerate into high-touch communities of influencers.

Take fullest advantage of that XML feed by creating a seasonal shopping widget or Facebook application or other externalization of your catalog so that you can give your customers and advocates the best possible opportunity to carry your proposition into their communities.

Do a thorough analytics review. Make sure that your site is ready to handle the increased number of visitors. Check your shopping cart and conversion funnels for holes and work to be sure that you get the most out of every customer. Remove barriers to transactions and increase the visibility of the calls to action.

Tweak your merchandising and cross-selling. If you are selling a printer, include an offer to buy replacement cartridges. If you are selling running shoes, why not merchandise a warm-up jacket in the same color? Perhaps the purchaser of that particular fragrance will also like to buy a scented candle? You have them in your shopping aisle, why not try to get another item or two into their shopping cart! Embed a layer of social shopping into your cart so that you can cross-sell by showing the other items that people have purchased in conjunction with the item that is currently being viewed.

Optimize for promo codes and coupons. Any large brand has a segment of their customer base searching for promo codes for use in an online store or for coupons to be transacted offline. Build a page specifically targeted to this search behavior and extend your ability to connect with brand loyalists that are just looking for a bit of a discount.

Santa has already taken the reindeer out on some training flights, and you too should be tuning up your ecommerce strategy to make the most out of the holiday shopping period. This year, more shoppers will be looking online for better deals and for ways to save the incremental costs like the fuel it takes to drive from mall to mall. Advance preparation will ensure you get the most out of this holiday shopping season.

Sitecore is based on the .NET technology. Setting up and deploying Sitecore is quite straightforward and you can get started with creating your new website rightaway. Sitecore is totally committed to the .NET framework and hence provides regular stable releases and updates thus complimenting the latest releases of .NET, Visual Studio, SQL server and Windows server.

One striking feature that you would notice once you have started creating your website with Sitecore is the ability to edit content In-Line. This allows you (or your editor) to browse through the pages of your site, just as a customer or an external user would normally do, and edit content by simply clicking on desired areas. This provides you an instantaneous feedback on the overall appearance and content of the edited area and saves quite a lot of your time. Editing content on one browser window and then testing the results on another seems quite a hassle, does it not?

Sitecore has a rich set of features some of which we shall discuss here. It provides you with a role based authorization scheme for your page content editors to edit parts of the site, based on their respective needs. Design is totally segregated from content and designers get a WYSIWYG environment to effectively create designs and page layouts without having to code. Sitecore claims to increase your page rankings and goal conversions, additionally providing you exhaustive reports on website statistics.

There is also some real good news for advanced developers. Sitecore has Visual Studio integration with intellisense and this enables programmers to thoroughly explore and customize the rich Sitecore API consisting of over more than 1,300 classes and 5,000 methods. It has a pipeline based architecture based on the .NET framework that is both open and extensible. Thus, advanced developers, proficient in Visual Studio can make use of this open architecture to their advantage and customize it to fit the requirements of their organization. They may even add new custom features.

However, it is worthwhile to mention here that mere installation and getting started with any CMS that has an extensive set of features is not just enough. If your content is not professional and well managed, you may get disastrous results. It is worth paying to ensure that enough research has been put to create content that best defines your product and your customer’s requirements. All you need to do now is install your desired CMS and see your sales soar!