December 2009 - Newsletter

Counting down to the Festive Season

Zeald.com - The Great 09 Advent Calendar

December's here so we figure it's time to have some fun counting down to the Festive Season. We've searched the net high and low, and pulled together some of the funniest and quirkiest moments of the year passed for your viewing pleasure.

Bookmark the 2009 Zeald Advent Calendar and visit it each day to enjoy a few laughs with us.

Spring cleaning: A tidy site builds credibility!

Users really do judge a book by its cover – it has been repeatedly shown that if your site looks messy it will give your visitors a poor first impression of your business. Remember that 95% of New Zealand adult internet users research goods & services online before making a purchase, so it is highly likely that my first impression of your business will be your website. This first impression has a big impact on your organisation's credibility - a big factor when I’m deciding if I should buy your products or services!

So what looks professional when it comes to my content?

Most web pages are made of text and images. So the first place to start is to use quality images with well formatted text that is easy to read. The key is to pay attention to the details. When you are inserting and formatting the text in your page, use the following tips as a guide:

Text should be broken up with heading styles... and they should be in the correct order. So start with 'Heading 1' at the top of your page and only use it once. Use 'Heading 2' as the next most important topic of your webpage and so on.

Avoid using large clumps of text – it will make your users' eyes water and they will simply scan over all that important detail. Limit each section to one idea and start each section with a strong compelling headline that summarises the section below.

Don’t align the text to centre of the page. It's hard to read and does not look professional. It's best to stick with left aligning your text.

Have even spacing between all your paragraphs so the page looks neat and tidy. You can do this easily by following a few basic guidelines when pasting and formatting text. We've written an article to guide you step by step through this process.

Keep an eye out for out next issue where we will take a closer look how to lay out those images like a pro!

Zeald Online Store: We can help you improve results - and fast!

Zeald.com Online Store

So we've heard what you have to say – rather than spending your precious time trying to find ways to improve your website results, you want to fast-track the process with a helping hand from the experts. People are also always asking us about our new products and services, so we got our best guys on the job and created a new website – just for you!

This new site has all the information you need on our key products and services along with tips on improving various aspects of your website results. And to top it all off, there will be regular special offers, so everything you need is in one convenient location.

You can access this new feature by logging into the admin section of your website and clicking on the Online Store banner under the 'Reports' tab or simply click here now.

The Success of Neuservice Plumbing

Neuservice Plumbing

Brothers Greg and David Neumann started the plumbing business Neuservice in November 2005. Between them they had 30 years of plumbing experience and a wealth of knowledge to service a range of plumbing needs. Like most businesses they didn't have a website to begin with, but soon realised the benefits of having one and invested in an E-Promotion site that would generate enquiries and more revenue in return.

One short month after establishing the website, Neuservice's turnover was up 300% - enough sales to cover the website costs, three times over.

Read their amazing story here.

Zeald Christmas closing hours

Just a friendly reminder that we will be closed over the Christmas and New Year break to give our hard-working team a chance to recharge their batteries. Our offices will be closed on Friday 25th of December and reopen on Monday 11th of January

During this period our technicians will be available to rectify any critical issues, such as live websites experiencing down time. And rest assured all our live servers are continuously monitored so any issues will be dealt with in a timely fashion.

However, if you are experiencing any serious issues with your website, like a website outage and need emergency support, you can either:

  • Submit an Emergency Support Request on our website

  • Or call our support line, 0508 932 748 and when prompted press 9 to speak to an after-hours engineer

Please note that we will need to charge $250/hour for any non-critical emergency support requests. And if you have any non-urgent queries, please feel free to email support@zeald.com and we will respond once we're all back on board after the 11th of January.

Also, as you know, during the lead up to Christmas things can very busy so in the final few days we will only be able to process important support requests and technical faults. So if you'd like to launch your website, need to make changes or have other new requests like having your payment gateway setup, domain or website changes made, please submit them by close of business on Tuesday 22nd of December. This will mean that we can process your request this year, rather than early next year.

We hope you enjoyed the read. If you have any further questions regarding the content of this newsletter, or any of Zeald's products or services, please feel free to contact your E-Business Consultant, or the Zeald Support team.

Thanks (and bring on the holidays!)

The Team at Zeald