If you are a business or an individual in the Sheffield area looking for Microsoft Access training you should contact our specialist IT Training provider at www.introspective.co.uk

Eye4Design has teamed up with leading training provider “Introspective.co.uk” to deliver a wide range of half day ‘byte’ sized Microsoft training courses in the Sheffield area. Subjects include:

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Access

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Project

For details on course availability please contact Introspective on 0114-243-7368.

Eye4Design are pleased to announce the opening of their new offices and training suite at Sheffield Business Centre, in the building previously used as Sheffield Airport.

The new facility is superbly located just 2 minutes off Sheffield Parkway and enables Eye4Design to provide its comprehensive range of web solutions, database development and Internet marketing training right across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

The site also boasts superb on-site cafe facilities so whilst you’re calling in to get your new website up and running you can partake in a latte and a nibble!

The new address and contact details for our new office are as follows:

Eye4Design
Sheffield Business Centre
Europa Link
Sheffield
S9 1XZ
Tel: 0114-243-7368

A truly search engine friendly shopping cart is something of a rarity. So rare in fact that we at Eye4Design spent weeks looking online and couldn’t find one.

Some carts came close to what we wanted but they didn’t quite have it all. The carts with the best search engine friendly features were often restricted in user license or updates were infrequent.

As a result, we decided to roll our 12 years of experience into developing what we consider to be the ultimate search engine friendly shopping cart (PRIMA CART) with features including:

No More Tables
PRIMA CART does not use HTML tables and uses CSS instead which improves search engine optimisation and web accessibility.

URL Re-Writing
Most shopping carts are database driven and produce URL (web page addresses) in a format that is not helpful for search engines.
E.g. http://www.mywebsite.com/index.php?cPath=22&osCsid=c77554e1c1e8ea0b57b42bbe100d59eb

The above URL does not help search engines determine what to list in their search results.

In comparison, PRIMA CART produces URL’s as follows:
http://www.mywebsite.com/books/science-fiction/the-time-machine.htm

Internet marketing specialists agree that the above format is recognised as being hugely beneficial in search engine optimisation.

H Tag Control
Any text wrapped in H tags (in particular H1 tags) is seen as important o by search engines. Having the flexibility to wrap selected text in H1 tags is a feature not usually available on database driven shopping carts. PRIMA CART has this feature incorporated.

Individual Headers & Footers For Each Category
Another feature built into PRIMA CART is individual header and footer information. This enables you to customise category pages and helps reduce the risk of duplicate content.

Individual Title, Description & Keywords Tag for each Category, Sub Category and Products
Title, Description and Keywords tags are extremely important to search engines, especially Google so the ability to modify them separately for each Category, each Sub Category and each Product is vital. PRIMA CART has this facility.

Individual Title, Description & Keywords Tag for each Content Managed Page
As above, PRIMA CART’s capabilities extend beyond product based pages and also includes information pages such as About Us or Terms & Conditions pages.

Automatic Content Population for Alt Tags & Title Tags
Manually inputting data such as Alt tags and Title tags is required on many of the carts available on the web. PRIMA CART removes this time consuming task by automatically populating content which then may require only minor edits. 

Character Counter Recommendations for Meta Tags
Anyone who’s used software to create Meta Tags knows how tedious it can be counting characters and trying to stick to the recommended limits. PRIMA CART has in-built character counters and flags up warnings when recommended numbers are exceeded. These can of course be manually over ridden if required.

Worpress Blog Integration
Wordpress is a great tool for keeping website content fresh and updated. In addition, it pings search engines when articles are posted and can literally help content get listed on search engines within minutes. PRIMA CART can utilise Wordpress content by pulling your latest posts into your homepage.

Social Media Bookmarking Features
The facility to bookmark pages through sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace can help drive thousands of visitors to your website. PRIMA CART uses advanced bookmarking technology that encompasses all the top social networking websites.

Google Base Product Upload
Base is Google’s shopping directory. Anyone with an e-commerce website can list products free of charge so it makes alot of sense to be on there. PRIMA CART has a built-in export facility specifically for Google Base. 

Google Adwords Keyword/Landing Page Extraction Tool
For anyone wanting to use Google Adwords to promote their website the first task is usually to copy and paste product titles followed by the relevant landing pages into their Google Adwords account. On a large site this can be a massive task. PRIMA CART can automate that task for a quick export of all product data or by category/sub category.

The above is just a selection of the search engine friendly features incorporated into PRIMA CART. In addition to these features it also has great ‘front end’ features such as:Multi Currency Display
List or Grid View
Include or Exclude VAT
User Specific Advertising Banners
Category Specific ‘Recently Viewed Items’
Advanced Zoom Facility For Product Photos
Tabular Format For Product Descriptions (Reduces page scrolling)

 PRIMA CART is THE Next Generation Shopping Cart and is designed for operators of already successful e-commerce websites recognising the need for a truly search engine friendly cart. For more details and an online demonstration please call Eye4Design on 01709-373911.

Mark Whittingham has joined Eye4Design’s growing team as Internet Marketing Specialist. Mark brings with him over 6 years experience in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing techniques.

With more and more customers recognising the need to actively market their websites on an ongoing basis Mark is a welcome addition to our busy team.

Mark says “…I’m passionate about getting websites high on search engines. I love the challenge and I make it a personal quest to get my customers higher than their competitors..”

If you feel your website could generate more enquiries and needs a lift with a pro-active search engine optimisation and Internet marketing campaign give us a call on 01709-373911.

Eye4Design’s latest e-commerce creation is a Draper Tools website featuring over 7,000 products including Power Tools, Hand Tools and Gardening Tools

The site uses our award winning e-commerce software and is integrated with Protx for secure payments and Emailer Magic for completely automated email management.

The site will be extensively search engine optimsed and is set for official launch in March 2009.

Due to the huge success of our Internet Marketing Training Centre we are looking for additional trainers with experience in one or more of the following:

Search Engine Optimisation

Pay-per-Click (Google Adwords)

Email Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

Please contact Jayson Gray on 01709-373911 for further details or email sales@eye4design.co.uk

Here at Eye4Design we like to get involved in online projects right from the start but what we particularly enjoy is working with our customers after their site is launched to help them build large successful businesses. We help with many marketing and promotional activities including search engine optimisation, email marketing, social media marketing and affiliate marketing.

The Internet is the most effective marketing tool ever created. Never before have we been able to gain such targeted exposure for our products and services for such low cost.

So given all that potential, why do some websites fail to make money? Well, here’s just a few reasons:

Problem - The ‘Build it and they will come’ theory. For some strange reason there are still people under the impression that as soon as they launch their website they will be overrun with customers falling over themselves to buy their products. This may be fuelled by the success stories highlighted in the media but this is certainly not the case. The Internet is a big place and your shiny new site will be a small fish in a big pond.

As with any other business you have to bring in the customers.

Solution - Devise a comprehensive marketing strategy with an experienced online marketing company that is designed to drive customers to your website. Set monthly traffic targets, stick to them and most of all - be patient.

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Problem - No added value. The Internet gives customers the opportunity to compare products and prices in a matter of minutes. If your store simply offers more of the same there’s a good chance you’ll lose the sale to the leading brands as they don’t have to fight so hard to break down the trust issues associated with buying online.

Solution - Find a way to differentiate your products from the rest. For example you may be able to bundle products together to offer greater added value whilst at the same time making it difficult for customers to compare like for like offers.

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Problem - The eternal seeker of new customers. Its not cheap to gain new customers. Whether you’re using pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimisation or affiliate marketing it just cost you your hard earned cash to gain that customer. The problem is the vast majority of online businesses fail to market to their OWN customers and continuously pay to acquire new ones.

Solution - Set up an effective email campaign to keep your customers aware of your latest products and news. Track the interest they show in your products and offer them incentives to return to your site and purchase again and again.

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Problem- Giving up too easily. Again, many people launch a website and expect riches beyond their wildest dreams by the end of the month and when that doesn’t happen they give up. They blame their products, their prices, their competition, their AdWords bill, literally everything except their lack of patience and planning.

Solution - Devise a targetted 12 month plan with your online marketing agency and incorporate all of the following elements:

                    a) - Monthly search engine optimisation strategy
                    b) - Monthly blog writing and forum posting
                    c) - Controlled pay-per-click management
                    d) - Monthly affiliate recruitment targets
                    e) - Fortnightly email marketing promotions

Review your success every month and you will see an increase in both unique visibility, sales and profitability.

You will then be on your way to building a truly successful online business.

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This article was written by Jayson Gray of Eye4Design. You have permission to reproduce this article on your own website as long as you retain this copyright credit and link.

Running a successful online business is the dream of many and has only increased during these times of economic downturn.

Whilst virtually all traditional sectors are seeing severe drops in business, online retailing remains brisk and continues to grow year upon year.

Its no surprise then that many people are looking to set up their own online business.

Deciding exactly what to sell online and how to go about it can seem extremely daunting but that doesn’t have to be the case.

At Eye4Design we have over 12 years experience in setting up successful online businesses and provide a whole range of Internet marketing products to help you on the road to success once your site is live. Unlike many web design agencies we actually own our own affiliate marketing and email management software which can easily be integrated into most websites.

Our e-commerce software has drop shipping add-ons that can make processing orders an automatic process which is particularly useful if you’re running a part time online business.

Start by arranging a short appointment to discuss your online business ideas and we will be happy to provide suggestions and a tailored quotation to suit your needs.

Call us on 01709-373911 and get your business online this year.