A Day in the Life....

Of a Tennessee Hillbilly

How Important is Website Design?

Now a days you see all these flashy websites out there.  Do these attract more people?  In my opinion the answer is no. 

Of course you want your website to be appealing and catch someones eye, but the most important reason they will linger and come back to your site is: CONTENT.  Just because a site looks good does not mean it has the content to capture a visitors interest.  You have to spend time updating your site and keeping the content current. 

I know this personally because I have been away from the computer for a while and have not been keeping my sites updated and the interest has definately dropped off.  The look of the site hasn't changed so this obviously shows that this was not the main attraction to most people.

Keep people interested.  Keep them coming back looking for something new.  The look of your site is an important element,  but the main element is content!!!

Stacy

3 Ways to Effective Traffic Exchange Advertising

Many people will tell you that traffic exchanges are not effective. For some this may be true depending on the service or product you offer. I, however, have had several customers that found my services through my advertising on traffic exchanges. So I am gonna tell you the 3 ways to make this an effective advertising option for you.

First: You need to be sure your home page is effective at explaining what service or product you are offering. Traffic exchanges have a timer so the person viewing your site has the option to leave within a matter of seconds. So your main goal is to give them a reason to stay!!

Second: Only choose traffic exchanges that offer manual surfing. Most people do not even watch the window when an autosurf is running. If it is a manual surf exchange they have to physically watch the pages in order to go to the next site. This gives you the best opportunity for them to actually see your site and be drawn in by your content.

Third: Be prepared to work. In order to earn credits for people to view your site, you have to view other people's sites. That is why it is called a "Traffic Exchange". The more you view other sites, the more your site is viewed.

With these 3 steps you can use traffic exchanges as an effective advertising strategy. It takes planning and work to get results, but doesn't every advertising plan? I urge everyone new to advertising to do alot of research to find the plan that is best for you and your business.

Web Design Essentials

Websites are created for many different purposes, such as, selling products, offering services, or sharing information. The one thing all websites have in common is the need to attract visitors and keep them coming back on a regular basis. In order to accomplish this you need to have a web design that is pleasing to look at, easy to navigate, and offers good content.

The first thing any visitor to your website sees is the home page. This should be your design starting point. You can expand on it to create other pages, but you always want to keep the design onsistent from page to page. In other words if your home page is black and gold, you don't want to do your other pages in red and green. Any graphics you use specifically for your site should blend with the color choices you make. Pleasant colors and graphics will help make your site memorable.

Easy Navigation is a must. Going from page to page needs to be as easy as possible. Each page should have a link back to the home page. Visitors want to know where they are and how to get back to where they were without having to use the back button. Nine times out of ten they will close the page rather than continuously using the back button to try and find their way back.

Content is the backbone of any website. Spelling and grammatical errors do not look professional. Have someone proofread all content before you add it. Offer content that is specific to the theme of your site. If I do a search for jungle animals and find your site, then I don't want to find content that mostly pertains to the Solar System.

Web design is ninety-five percent common sense. You know what you like to see on other websites. Be sure and use that same criteria when creating a website.

Erwin, Tennessee

Population 2000 

• Erwin-5,610
• Unicoi-2,941
• Unicoi County-17,667

Have you ever heard the story about the hanging of Mary the elephant?  Read the story http://www.blueridgecountry.com/elephant/elephant.html

Other Interesting Links

Nuclear Fuel Services- http://www.atnfs.com/globe_more.htm

Whitewater Rafting- http://www.cherokeeadventures.com/

Info about Unicoi County- http://www.unicoicounty.org/index.html  and http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnunicoi/abhist.htm

Happy Thanksgiving

A long, long time ago the Pilgrims made an ocean trip

From England to America in just one little ship.

That ship was called the "Mayflower," and it was snug and warm

And kept the Pilgrims safe and sound through every wind and storm

But after lots and lots of weeks of sailing on the sea,

The sight of land made all of them as happy as could be.

The land they saw was Plymouth Rock on Massachusetts Bay,

And they decided then and there that's where they all would stay.

Of course, there was a lot of work to get all settled in,

But each and every Pilgrim was quite eager to begin.

And they were lucky, for it wasn't long until they met

A very friendly Indian whose name was Samoset.

Now Samoset and all his Indian friends were kind and good

And tried to help the Pilgrims out in every way they could.

That spring they even helped in clearing land and planting seed.

So the Pilgrims would be sure of having food to fill their needs.

All summer long the Pilgrims kept as busy as could be

Tending to their growing crops so very carefully.

And then when it was finally time for harvesting that fall,

They found to their delight that they had lots and lots for all.

Of course, they were excited that they'd had such great success,

And they planned a celebration just to show their thankfulness.

They thought they'd fix a dinner that would really be delicious

Where there'd be huge amounts of everybody's favorite dishes.

But they didn't really feel as though the food was all their own,

For they knew without the Indians it never would of grown.

And so they asked their special friends if they would join the fun,

And Samoset and all the others said they'd gladly come.

For days ahead the Pilgrims started getting things all set

To make sure there was nothing they could possibly forget.

Then when the big day came, they set the tables up just so,

Then spread out all the food, and it was really quite a show.

At long last it was time to eat, and they all said a prayer

To offer thanks for that God had given them to share.

The party ended much too soon--

each went his separate way,

But they took away warm memories

of that first Thanksgiving Day.

WoW

My 1st blog!!!  I'm gonna give it a shot.

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