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Rick Saldan is an excellent inspirational speaker who tailored the seminar to the needs of the individual students being instructed. This office thanks the Mayors Office of Information Services for having such a vendor.

 

Timothy K. Lynch

Office of Fleet Management

City of Philadelphia

 


 

Rick has a magical approach that provides a clear and concise message specifically designed to the needs of his audience. Rick will provide all the motivational magic you will ever need, propelling your organization to the next level of greater success.

 

Thomas Mulhern

Frontier Communications

 


 

Rick Saldan is a compelling and absorbing motivational speaker and magician.  I have been to five of his Motivational Magic presentations and it is amazing how he keeps our college audiences on the edge of their seats. A highly entertaining performer with great comedy flair. Rich content to increase students' productivity, peak performance and motivation. If you need an outstanding motivational speaker for colleges, Rick is definitely one of the world's greatest speakers and magicians!


Dr. Rob Gilbert, Sport Psychologist,

Montclair State University

 


 

Rick Saldan has the wit, wisdom and sorcery of a wizard. He has a dynamic personality, and all will enjoy his captivating stories, comedy and magic!

Dennis Slaughter
Credit Suisse First Boston

 


 

Rick Saldan delivers a first-class show! A pro in every sense of the word. Funny, unique, entertaining and polished.

Brian Letscher, Actor

Hawaii Five-O, NCIS, Cold Case, Law & Order and The Mentalist.

 


 

Rick Saldan is a wonderful combination of master magician, comic improviser and first class speaker. The audience loved his program, which was music to our ears. If you love celebrity motivational speakers such as Tom Hopkins, Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar, then you'll love Rick!

Dottie Burman, President
Burtley Productions, Inc.

 


Rick Saldan is an incredibly talented performer and motivational speaker with great insight. He shares many powerful motivational messages that will enhance your life for the better!

Jack Murray, President
Dream Illusions

 


Rick is one of the best inspirational speakers on the scene today. Funny, fun loving and highly energetic. If you want to make your next event into an extraordinary one, then invite professional speaker  Rick Saldan and his amazing  Motivational Magic.

 

Andres Lara, President

Inspiration Times Magazine

 

 

Seven daft things not to do to your website
Author: Gareth Davies

1. Splash pages

Most of the time splash pages are uncalled for. There are only a handful of reasons why you may ever need to use a splash page on your website but these reasons don’t seem to apply to most of the splash pages you can see on the Internet. The worst example of a splash page is when a company creates a page and adds their logo with no content. They may also add a ‘click here to enter’ button link when there is no reason to have not entered already.

If a website was a printed brochure then it may be fine to put a company logo on the front cover with no text to accompany it - however on the Internet it is a bit of a no-no. Print and web are different mediums and as such require different approaches.

I say get to the point and get to the point fast, as you only have about 8 seconds to impress the typical visitor so you don’t want to throw obstacles like splash pages in their way.


2. Create large file size Flash Intros

Its ill advised to put a heavy loading flash movie right at the top end of a website, especially if you actually want people to read pages on your site. A flash intro can look impressive but used irresponsibly can alienate a proportion of users. Even for those interested in motion graphics the novelty will likely wear thin after a couple of viewings so you need to offer a skip intro button if you use a Flash Intro Movie.

At the same time you can make sure you do get value from any Flash motion graphics you commission. Think of a flash movie more as a commercial and they become more useful tools. Get the intro made as a general purpose sales movie and you can put it on CD ROM or include it as part of any online or mailing list promotion.


3. Make pages full of exceedingly small text

Really small text is an often ignored but growing problem. Webmasters can spend time and effort creating content for their website, upload it to the web server so the world can see what they have to say, but then they decide to show it in a tiny font size.

There is a simple rule here; text needs to be easy to read if you want people to absorb your message. It’s respecting the user to provide any content you wish them to read in a size that is suitable for the web. Font size 2 would be the smallest size you would want to use. If your target audience is over 40 then it is recommended font sizes are increased to point size 3. Do not assume your website visitors all carry a magnifying glass with them - keep body fonts at a sensible size.


4. Very long or complicated enquiry forms

Most folks have a million and one things to do, and one big reason people like using the Internet is to SAVE TIME – so bare this in mind.

Whilst website owners need to capture a certain level of customer info on lead generating websites, visitors like things to be quick, easy and simple. So an online form with 25 mandatory input fields so a user can make an enquiry is not a good idea.

Keep online enquiry forms down to essential info only. Keep it simple but get the information you need. Quick and easy signup forms can still be effective and you could always chose to offer a short form and a longer option - that way the user can decide which option is best for them.


5. Complex rollover navigation systems

Complex rollover navigation bars using JavaScript or a similar code can seem like a great option and you can be excused for wondering why this is seen as a bit of a no-no.

The reason why these rollover or drop downs are not always such a hit is that after analysing user behaviour on a number of websites, it shows that very few people seem to use rollover button options more than one deep. In essence the idea that these navigational tools made things easier for users seems a little flawed.

The simpler the navigation is, the more it will connect with users. Limit the options and use clear common sense descriptive labelling for buttons and this will often out-perform a complex roll over approach. Keeping the navigation simple also makes for smaller file sizes and quicker loading pages.


6. Excessive movement & animation

Contrary to popular belief, constant movement and flickering may not be a successful way to engage a website user. The reason being is that web users are developing a level of ‘advertising immunity’ or what Jakob Nielsen of www.usit.com has referred to as ‘banner blindness’.

Banner Blindness is a technique surfers have developed to filter out adverts and promotional material. They have learned after some experience that these types of ads are generally unhelpful and so are less likely to click on them. So if you use a lot of moving pictures and flickering images on your website you can run the risk of key areas of your website being ignored.

Where once banner ads got reasonable click through rates, the number has fallen dramatically in the last few years. A safer way to promote important areas of the site is via static buttons that are clearly identifiable and use descriptive language to tell the user which page they lead to.



7. Lots of links out to other sites from your homepage

When time and effort is put into attracting a visitor to your site why would anyone want to give that user a chance to leave the website on arrival? It makes sense to avoid placing lots of links out from your homepage to other sites - unless you’re an advertising or affiliate website.

Visitors are your prospects. You work to get them there and your job is to keep them there and direct them to your key destination pages. If you need to link out to partners from a top-level page on your site, then think about creating an internal page for this purpose and link to that from your home page.







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Written by Gareth Davies 2005. You are free to reprint this article with both disclaimer and copyright notice in tact. Gareth Davies is a web design & promotion consultant working for GSINC Ltd based in the UK. If you have any questions then feel free to email Gareth at garethskettyATyahoo.co.uk or visit http://www.garethsketty.com/html/e_marketing.html

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