In my recent book “50 Biggest Website Mistakes” that I’ve just launched with Bret Ridgway, we talk about problems with website images one of them being website images being the wrong size and taking forever to load.

If you’ve run into that issue you’ll appreciate this video. If you’d like to find out more about the book visit http://50BiggestWebsiteMistakes.com

In this video I show you how to use Shrink-O-Matic which is a free application you can download obviously I receive no commission for promoting it I simple think it is a good application you’ll find useful.

Ok this isn’t what it sounds like…

It’s not some promotion for a website dating service just a quick tutorial on how to add todays date on your webpage.

When creating a sales letter web page we like to include today’s date it creates the thought that the page is fresh and new and is proven to help conversion.

It is really an easy technique to implement.

I use a javascript include to do this, the main reason is to keep the code cleaner for the search engines to spider without having to sort through javascript code.

Anyway to get started just right click  on your mouse (mac users ctrl + click) on the link below and download this file to your computer and then upload to your web site.

http://www.frankdeardurff.com/files/date.js

On your webpage insert the following code where you want the date to appear. (note if you have uploaded the script to a differnet location than where the page is you will need to be sure to check the path to the script and put that in the source path (src=”") below.

<script src="date.js"></script>

Another good place to use a similar script is in the footer where you always want the current year for your copyright.

Right click and save this file and follow the similar steps above.

http://www.frankdeardurff.com/files/year.js

<script src="year.js"></script>

I hope you find this useful for your website.

“Page Not Found” This is something just about everyone has seen at one time or another if you’ve spent anytime online at all. The “web” term for these pages are called 404-pages.

Now you are probably thinking why is a “page not found” or a 404 error page a website mistake, and that would be a fair question to be asking, so let me explain what this mistake is, how you can benefit from it and how to correct it.

First we’ve already mentioned “what” it is but let me explain how “people” get there. 404′s are usually found either from a broken link on your website some where; or someone has tried to type in a url to a specific page on your site and has either mistyped it or the page is no longer there. It is possible that you will see in your stats that there have been requests for your robot.txt fie which is a common file that search engine spiders look for, and if you don’t have one then a 404 page would be triggered.

Now to explain how 404 pages can “help” you. There is a lot of discussion about what should or shouldn’t be displayed on your 404 page or if you should even display the error page. My personal opinion is to display the page but have key elements on the page, such as a logo or look and feel of your website, along with a message saying that the page they are looking for was not found but click here to go to the home page of your website.

Another option is if the visitor hits your 404 page, automatically redirect them to the home page of your website. This option works really well, but in discussions I’ve heard people say that the visitor is a little confused as to what just happened.

By utilizing the custom 404 page, you don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect with that visitor. With out any information on that page the visitor would just enter something else into the web address bar and go else where.

The easiest way to remedy this issue is to log in to your control panel (cpanel) and look for the icon that says “Error Pages”. This will list all of them, be sure to click the 404 and enter your information there. If you are unsure what to put there you can search Google to see some examples.

If you are uncomfortable doing this you can easily hire a programmer from rent-a-coder.com or getafreelancer.com to quickly do this for you. It is a quick project and once you have a template you can copy and paste it into your other sites.

To find more articles like this one visit 50 biggest website mistakes

I seen this story on the news today and it just blew me away.

The story explains how Seven-year-old Isabelle Redford takes her art and raises money to build orphanages in other countries. The first one was built in Haiti and works are already in place for the second. You can read the full story here.

This little gal is a perfect example that where there’s a will there’s a way. Isabelle took something she was good at and turned it into not only profits, but hope! She made an impact in her life and hundreds of others. I hope that others see this story and pass it on, not just for the fact the good deeds she is doing needs recognized, (and she should be recognized) but for the fact that if a 7-year old can take her passion and raise over $10,000.

Maybe, just maybe somebody that is having trouble making ends meet or just has given up hope, will see this and realize one small idea, one small action can make a world of difference and make a life changing impact.

This is a common mistake on many websites and that is either a non-existant or weak guarantee.

There are many misconceptions about using a guarantee on the website. I’ve heard some discussion about the fact that if they add a guarantee to their website they are afraid that brings to light the possibility that the buyer can return the product.

I think that’s the furthest thing from the truth. In fact by not having a guarantee on your website makes the buyer think that the product is either, a possible scam, OR you do not have enough faith in the product to warrant a guarantee.

Of course there is always the possibility you simply forgot to add the guarantee to your website. Here are some things to consider when creating or updating the guarantee you have.

Most merchant accounts and payment processors want or require you to have a guarantee policy easily displayed on your website, be sure to check out what they require and adjust accordingly.

Be sure to make your guarantee “look” like a guarantee policy. Many times I see this section look like the normal sales copy on the page or if there is a box around it, it resembles the other boxes on the page.

What I’ve found to work well is add an image that resembles a certificate as a background image or create (or have created) the whole thing as a graphic to easily place all of the elements you want in that area.

Also what is appealing is to add an official seal to that area. You can easily find these at either istockphoto.com or fotolia.com both of these stock photo websites will allow you to purchase at a very reasonable price both the certificate and seal images to use on your website.

Finally, don’t leave any doubt about what your policy is, explain the details and be sure that it fits the offer. You wouldn’t use the same policy for a live event, teleseminar or webinar that you would for say an ebook, physical product, or services rendered. Simply do a little research what others may be doing and then modify to meet your needs and of course test to see what gets you the best conversions.

Feel free to check out any of my websites as an example.