Everyone who uses the web knows that advertising is a huge part of the entire experience.  The internet is full of advertising for every possible company and product you can imagine.  Although many complain about the forms of advertising, there is not much difference in internet advertising and telemarketing phone calls to your home. 

The interesting thing is however that web users prefer to be annoyed by internet ads over unexpected phone calls.  This acceptance of ads has created a breeding ground for millions of pop-ups and banner ads on the internet.  Sites use them individually or together, but some still wonder which is better for increased website traffic.  Consumers have offered a response, perhaps not verbally, but with statistics of effectiveness.

Pop-ups are typically seen as annoying advertisements.  Those that include blinking lights can even be hazardous to some users with certain medical conditions.  They have been considered the most hated form of web advertising available.  With pop-ups being so annoying however, consumers may wonder why they are still being used so frequently. 

The truth is that pop-ups are terribly aggravating, but they are indeed effective overall.  For some crazy reason, there are millions of people who actually utilize them when they appear on their screen.  This is partially due to many sites using pop-up ads as an excuse and reason for offering free services to site users.  They will state that they must use these forms of ads in order to offer the site for free.  Users, who don’t want to pay, but still want to use the site, will likely accept the excuse without question.

The trouble with pop-up ads these days are that there are many programs to install on a computer that will not allow pop-ups through.  This means that when a pop-up is meant to appear on your screen, your installed “pop-up blocker” program does not allow it to happen and instead blocks the advertisement from reaching you, the user.  These programs are very effective most of the time and can cost advertisers a great deal of money if the ad is not reaching the intended target.  Advertisers are now coming up with newly programmed pop-ups however that can bypass these “blocker” programs and still deliver the ads to your screen, whether you like it or not. 

Banner ads began to appear on websites in response to the annoyance consumers felt from pop-ups.  Advertisers thought that if banner ads were not as bothersome, they may offer even better results than the pop-up ads.  Sites began sticking banner ads in every free area of their site.  Upon doing so, they soon realized that although banner ads are not typically as bothersome as pop-ups, they are also not as effective.  Users were less likely to utilize banner ads for their purpose.  Many of the banner ads were perhaps not as noticeable as an aggressive pop-up ad right in the user’s line of vision.  Some are off to the side of the screen and out of the direct eye contact. 

Many users prefer banner ads when asked, because they claim they are easier on the eye and they are often unnoticeable.  This may mean more comfortable use for the user, but it means something completely different to the advertiser.  An advertiser wants their ad to be noticed, even at the user’s expense.  They would rather annoy the user and get the ads noticed than the ads simply sit being unnoticed.  In whole, advertisers were not seeing a large turnout with banner ads, and therefore many sites no longer use them for advertising purposes. 

The answer to whether or not pop-ups or banner ads are best really lies with who you speak with.  Consumers will likely tell you banner ads are much better than troublesome pop-ups.  Advertisers however would tell you the exact opposite.  They both have a place on the internet and their own group of “fans”.  The conclusion is however that unless users completely boycott pop-ups in an extremely dramatic way, they will likely continue to replace banner ads.  The power of the choice lies in the hands of the advertisers at this time and until users want to force them to change their ways, the advertisers will continue to support pop-ups over banner ads.

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So you've decided that it might be best to leave web design to the professionals, have you? Well, the unfortunate thing about web design professionals is that not all of them are exactly professional. Some of them are working from wildly out of date knowledge, and, well, some of them are working from their parents' basement.

How can you protect yourself when you decide to hire a professional? Well, here are some guidelines.

Qualifications are Meaningless.

Web design is a new enough industry that what qualifications there are have ended up being largely stupid and meaningless. I've never met a good designer who has a qualification in web design – a qualification in proper graphical design is, of course, something else entirely. You can guarantee that most people with web design qualifications did them at a community college to try and get rich during the dot-com boom. These people know nothing about web design.

What you should pay attention to when you're looking at web designers is which of their skills they think are important. If they're marketing their Flash expertise to you, you probably don't want to hire them. If they can competently explain what XHTML and CSS are and why they're good for your website, then they're a better candidate.

The Portfolio.

The easiest way to tell whether the designer you're considering is any good or not is to take a look at their portfolio. Good designers will have a diverse portfolio, with plenty of attractive sites that they've built for all sorts of customers, and they'll be able to explain to you why they built each site the way they did.

If the designer doesn't have a substantial portfolio yet, you shouldn't write them off there and then – but do say that you're going to need to see something before you commit yourself. A good designer will happily do a first-draft design for one of your pages just to show themselves off. If you're happy with what they've done, then the chances are that they've got the rest of the design in their head, ready to code up and send to you.

Usability is Vital.

You should make sure that the designer you're talking to realises that they're building your website for users – all users, no matter how they want to use it or which web browser they have. Amateur web designers have a tendency to come up with things that they think are impressive-looking, either visually or technically, while ignoring who the website is actually for – your visitors.

Some questions to ask the designer include: Which browsers are you going to test with? (They should reply with 'as many as possible'). What is the purpose of my website? (They should be able to explain the point of the site simply).

Setting a Price.

Many web designers simply have no idea what kind of price to charge for their services. If you post a project to a freelance site where designers can bid on it, you'll get bids ranging from $50 to $5,000. Both ends are pretty obviously ridiculous. At one end, you've got kids with no experience and Indians who don't speak English; at the other, you're paying pointless committees to have meetings for a week.

Your best bet is to find someone professional but independent, experienced but not corporate, and with a price that reflects the quality of their portfolio. As with all things in life, though, don't be afraid to negotiate – and never agree to let them do however much work it takes and pay by the hour.

Hosting Offers.

Finally, beware of web designers who are trying to sell you a whole package, together with a domain name, web hosting, and the rest. Operations like this are almost always flawed in one area or the other, since designers aren't really very technical people on the whole. They'll either be web hosting specialists who think design is so easy anyone can do it, or they'll be designers who are reselling some cheap hosting package for a premium. On the web, it's better to buy hosting yourself.

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If you want to sell niche products from your own website, physical store or even on eBay, you need to be able to compete with your local retailers. This means finding a wholesaler willing to trade with you at prices which give you enough leeway to make a profit.

The first place to look is locally, why pay shipping charges for goods sent from a supplier across country when you could take a drive in your own car to a local supplier for small goods or hire a van for bigger stuff? Some local wholesalers might even provide a cheap or even free delivery service.

Wholesalers as a rule don't advertise in the mass media such as TV or newspapers and so they are often difficult to find. To get you started, here are a few ideas for locating wholesale sources of niche products for you to sell:

1) One of the first places to look is in your local trade directory, many wholesalers place advertisements in local trade directories and even in the Yellow Pages for the products they carry.

2) Another place to conduct your research is on the internet, and there are search engines which are wholesale specific such as www.wholesalecentral.com and www.wholesalequest.com. These wholesale specific search engines allow you to search for wholesale sources by browsing categories or by entering keywords (related to the products you want to sell) into a search bar.

You can find other wholesale specific search engines or directories by typing "wholesale search engine" or "wholesale directory" or "wholesale directories" or even "wholesalers" into the search engine of your choice.

3) Nearly all wholesalers will belong to a trade association and these trade associations will often host trade shows all over the world. It stands to reason that an excellent place to discover new wholesale sources is to visit as many trade shows as you can. Here are two ways of finding suitable tradeshows:

    i) Join a trade association related to the goods you wish to sell and subscribe to their periodicals or newsletters as these always carry details of local, regional and international trade shows.

    ii) Conduct research on the internet by visiting websites such as Trade Show News Network (www.tsnn.com). You could also search for others by entering "trade show directory" or add a keyword related to your products to the search phrase - for example, "jewelry trade shows".

4) Look for the items you wish to sell in a local store, when you find the item look carefully at the packaging as many suppliers provide their contact details and often include their website URL. You can either contact them directly or visit their website to discover how to either purchase from them directly (which is often cheaper than buying from a wholesaler), or if that is not possible ask them who your local wholesaler is and if they can give you the wholesaler's contact details.

Once you have a list of possible wholesale sources for your niche products you need to do some due diligence on each wholesaler. You need to find out if they are legitimate businesses and are approved by the manufacturers. They last thing you want to get involved in is a copyright lawsuit because you are inadvertently selling illegal copies of the original product.

From a purely business point of view you need to find out their payment terms, return policies, shipping charges and methods. If you can, you need to get references from other customers; are they happy with the wholesalers service or not?

Once you have decided on a wholesale source, there's one thing you need to be aware of… When you purchase from a wholesaler you have to buy in bulk, you cannot buy individual items. If you're just starting out you're probably going to find this quite expensive, but there is a way to reduce this cost. If you can, find another established customer who buys the same products as you, you can approach them with a joint venture whereby they sell you products for a set profit, say 20% on each item you buy. Your end of the joint venture will be that you agree to buy a set number of items each month and that don't compete with them directly.

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