In an effort to impress the visitors (potential clients) who find your website, here is a list of common website design mistakes that you should try to avoid.

1.  No splash or intro page.  We’ve all seen the beautifully designed intro page with flash text and music that we can’t wait to get rid of.  Have you ever waited until if finishes playing. No, you find the button that reads “Skip Intro”, hoping that you’ll be able to get to the information you’re looking for.  Spare your visitors this extra step and a bit of aggravation, don’t use a splash or intro page.

2.  Nothing screams amateur more than page counters, scrolling text boxes, swirling email boxes or “last updated on January 5, 2008”.  Refrain from using any of these.

3. Try to keep the color of your pages light in color with black text.  A dark color background with white text is more difficult to read, especially for individuals who may have a slight visual impairment.

4. Download speed is a critical issue.  Not everyone who visits your website will have a DSL or high speed internet connection.  Many people still use standard modems with a 56k download speed.  Thus the size of your webpage should not exceed 50k.  Anything larger and you may be unknowingly eliminating 30 – 40 percent of your potential visitors who will not want to wait for your website to load.

5. After you design and launch your website, open it up in every different type of browser on the market.  Although Internet Explorer and Firefox may be the two largest, many other browsers are used by a large portion of your viewing audience.  Unfortunately, browsers will not always display the content of your website in the same manner.  It’s important that each page be formatted in such a way that it will be displayed correctly by a wide variety of browsers.

6. A footer should be found on every page of the website. A footer should contain your contact information and links to your privacy policy, disclaimer and copyright pages.  Either in your footer or directly above it, text links to your main pages should be located.

There you have it.  Six easy tips that will make your website a more enjoyable experience for all who visit.

Since you’re determined and feel confident that a cleaning business is right for  you, you must have weighed the pros and cons of such a business venture.  First, you know that a cleaning business is always in demand and you have what it takes to make it work.   Second, you have the appropriate amount of start up capital and sufficient cash flow to sustain your business through the first year.  And third, you have the time and energy to commit to your new business venture.  Now, have you stopped to think of the “cons” of starting a cleaning business?  Here are just a few that should be considered:

• Very low profit margin
• Employees who are not paid enough to care about their job
• Employee theft
• High employee turnover
  
• Terrible work hours
• Lot’s of competition
• Customer complaints

Your idea to start a cleaning business isn’t a terrible one however, you should take time to consider the type of cleaning business you will start.  For example, will you concentrate primarily on office buildings or homes, restaurants or doctor’s offices.  In your haste to start a traditional cleaning business, have you given any consideration to a less than traditional business concept, such as crime scene cleanup?  Although a traditional cleaning or janitorial business may be more suited to your personality or individuality, a crime scene cleanup business is worthy of careful consideration.  If you’re intent on starting a cleaning business, start thinking of a business that will allow you to charge $150 to $400 per hour, per employee.  Think of a cleaning business that will allow you to pay your employees $23 to $45 per hour.  Think of a cleaning business that will allow you to work nearly any hours you want to work, with very few customer complaints.

The type of cleaning business you should think about starting is a Crime Scene Cleanup Business.  Although the popularity of this type of cleaning business is growing, the competition in most states is minimal.  And, even in areas that already have two or three such companies, many are poorly qualified to conduct this type of cleanup work, charge too much for their services or don’t follow industry accepted standards for waste disposal.

Start a cleaning business that allows you to accept a wide variety of different types of cleanup jobs.  Here is a partial list jobs your company will be called upon to clean or restore:

• Crime Scenes
• Suicide Scenes
• Accident Scenes
• Meth Labs
• Decompositions
• Unattended Death Scenes
• Gross Filth Homes
• Hoarding
• And many others

Crime & trauma scene cleanup services will always be in great demand.  So if you’re serious about starting a cleaning business, consider a career in Crime & trauma scene cleanup.  The industry is in dire need of honest, hard working & dependable people who care about those who are less fortunate and in need of help during a traumatic event that has claimed the life of a loved one.

To learn more about starting a crime scene cleanup business, please visit www.keybusinessideas.com/crime-scene-cleanup.html.

The start-up costs for a crime scene cleanup business is no greater than a typical cleaning business.   Start a cleaning business that makes sense.  Start a cleaning business that allows you to enjoy the ability to make a great profit margin while being able to pay your employees a decent and respectable salary.

Affiliate income, although a source of residual income, involves the promotion of other’s products and services in return for a percentage of the sales revenue.  Again, this usually involves very little work or effort on the part of the affiliate marketer.  If you have a website or a list of opt-in email addresses, you can make money with affiliate products.

There are hundreds of ways to earn a residual income.  Here are just a few links to income opportunities that I have either personally profited from or find very worthwhile.  Not all of these links involve residual income.

• Medical Transportation Company
• Apartment Building Wealth
• Free Lance Writing
• Work from Home Opportunities
• Work from Internet Opportunities
• Work with Pets
• Sell Your Digital Photos
• Start a Lawn Care Business
• Day Job Killer – Internet Income
• Crime Scene Cleanup Business

To learn more about residual income, affiliate income and passive income, please visit www.keybusinessideas.com.  Take time to explore some of their links and business leads.  This type of income can be very lucrative and may be the start of an improved and more prosperous way of life for you and your family.

In speaking with the staff of one of the larger crime scene cleanup companies in the Midwest, I learned they recently had a student from London attend their crime scene cleanup training course.  Amazed that someone would travel that far for training, I asked for her number so I could chat with her about the crime scene cleanup business in the UK.  Based on her somewhat limited knowledge of the industry (as she is relatively new to it), it seems there is much less competition in the UK (or at least London) than in the United States.  A simple search of “Crime Scene Cleanup News London” only returns a couple of articles that briefly mention the industry.

After conducting several internet searches of crime scene cleanup businesses in the UK and Europe, and several phone calls later, it does appear that the industry is becoming more popular with each passing month.  In that aspect, I suppose it’s very similar to the industry here in the US.  I did notice however that the UK does seem to lack in available training facilities, especially in some of the more remote parts of the United Kingdom.  Maybe that would explain the reason why a student traveled to the US for training.

All that aside, ALERT Worldwide, LLC has recently sold several copies of it’s Crime Scene Cleanup Business Development Package to individuals located in London and other parts of the UK.  If you are interested in starting a crime scene cleanup company in London or the UK, please take time to visit Starting a Crime Scene Cleanup Business. The complete package sells for US$29.00, which is a very good price based on the exchange rate.  We use 2Checkout.com, so you’re able to choose your payment currency during the checkout process.

We continue to add additional items to our development package. The upgrade will include a complete set of forms needed for the crime scene cleanup industry.  These will be emailed to all of our previous customers once they are finished.

Should you have any questions about the crime scene cleanup industry, please feel free to contact us at support@keybusinessideas.com.

Check out crime scene cleanup news in the UK at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7170181.stm

The technicians spent the next couple of hours removing all of the affected carpeting and padding.  They then removed and replaced the blood stained sub-floor.  A carpet contractor was brought in to match a new piece of carpet with the existing carpet.  Once complete, there was no evidence of the suicide and the odor soon began to dissipate.

To make matters even worse for the family of the deceased, insurance paid nothing for this cleanup job and the original crime scene cleanup company charged twice as much as what we would have charged had we been initially called upon to do the job.

The crime scene cleanup industry is now a very competitive industry.  Crime scene cleanup companies come and go almost as quickly as day turns to night.  If you are serious about your business and want to stay in business for any length of time, do the job right and stop overcharging innocent traumatized families.  I and my staff are tired of trying to explain why “ABC Cleanup Company” charged $5,500 for a cleanup job that wasn’t done correctly.  If you, as a fellow business owner, cannot represent our industry with the utmost honesty and integrity, please seek employment in another industry.

Over the past several years, Bio-Trauma 911, Inc. has had the pleasure of working with Cory Chalmers and his staff.  In light of the professionalism and integrity that define Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC, Bio-Trauma 911, Inc. now refers all service requests in the California area to Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC. 

“Many companies in this industry continue to overcharge clients for either work not performed or services poorly provided”, says Brandon Stone, President of Bio-Trauma 911, Inc.  Brandon continues, “Cory and his staff at Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC are a true blessing to both his clients and our reputation.  When we receive a call for services in California, we know we can refer them to Cory and he will take care of them as if they were his family”.

Although the number of new companies entering the Crime Scene Cleanup Industry has exploded during the past couple of years, few if any will ever be able to establish the type of remarkeable reputation that Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC has been able to consistently maintain. 

If you are in need of the type of services provided by Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC, please take time to contact them before you waste your time with a less reputable company.  They can be found at http://www.crimecleaners.com/.

ALERT Worldwide, LLC is involved with a number of different types of businesses in several different industries.  Much of our business is conducted via the internet and the majority of our sales is directly related to our ability to write an effective pitch page.  For example, one of our eBooks was not selling very well.  Only 4.8% of our site’s visitors were actually purchasing the eBook.  Not happy with this percentage, we made consistent changes to our pitch page, which slowly nudged our sales closer to 6%.  Still not satisfied, we completely re-wrote our pitch page and our sales jumped to nearly 30%.  Through a bit of trial and error, combined with some experience, we were able to determine what it was that our site visitors needed to learn or understand before they felt comfortable enough to complete the buying process.

Writing copy is the art of describing a product or service in such a way that it appears meaningful, useful and needed.  For example, let’s say you need to find your dog a new home, so you put an ad in the newspaper.  Here are two such ads:

1. Home needed for a small black and tan female German Shepard.  She is house broken and all shots are up-to-date. She’s a beautiful dog that will fit in to any home and make a good guard dog when she gets older.
   
2. Small black and tan female German Shepard named Peanut is in need of a loving home. Peanut loves children, is house broken, does not chew and all shots are up-to-date. She’s protective of her family, yet rarely barks for no reason.

Although both of the above ads are nearly the same size and convey the same information, one is clearly more attractive.   How attractive is your copy to potential buyers or clients?  Bringing visitors to a website is not hard to do. Keeping visitors at your website long enough for them to learn that your company is the one they need to choose is much more difficult.  If your website and marketing materials are not adequately selling your business, think about re-writing your copy.

Once you feel comfortable that your copy is attractive and effective in providing your clients with the exact information they need, implement a clear and concise “call-to-action”.  Tell your clients what it is you want them to do.  For example:

• Click here for more information
• Click here to order
• Contact our 24-hour staff for immediate service

All of the above are examples of a call-to-action, which must be conveyed to a client so he or she knows how to complete the transaction.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your website and marketing materials.  Keep changing things until you find the right combination of words, sentences and paragraphs that will convince your clients and customers to spend their money with you.

The news media is “johnny on the spot” when it comes to reporting acts of violence that involve a gun.  It’s easy for many of us to believe that guns only kill when a thief robs a store or a person wants to commit suicide or a gang member retaliates against a rival gang member.  We don’t hear about all of the accidental shootings that take place in our neighborhoods each and every day.  I know for a fact that many of the shootings I’ve investigated have not made the news, because they simply weren’t news worthy.  Why weren’t they news worthy? Because the shooting was an accident.  A simple mistake in judgment.  Sure someone lost their life, but it wasn’t intentional and most watching the evening news aren’t too interested in a story about an accident.

As a police officer and former Marine, I have been taught to treat every firearm (pistol, rifle, shotgun, assault rifle, bb gun and pellet gun) as if it were loaded.  Never touch a gun with the mindset that it is unloaded and harmless.  ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED!   We’ve all heard the saying “if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound”.  How about “if a loaded gun is laying on a table and no one is around, will it kill someone”.  Of course not.  Guns don’t kill, people kill!

My crime scene cleanup company was recently called upon to clean a scene where a woman was fatally shot while sleeping on her couch.  As more facts were gathered, we learned that she was accidentally shot by her husband while he cleaned his gun in an adjoining room.  Now some of you are thinking “likely story” or “how convenient”.  Inside information tells me that this was in fact an accident and it destroyed a once very loving family.  The husband cleaned his gun religiously, assumed it was unloaded, a round was discharged and his wife was shot in the back as she slept.  I for one could not continue living if I were to accidentally shoot my wife.

If you or any of your family members own a gun, take a course on gun safety.  At the risk of sounding redundant, “GUNS DON”T KILL, PEOPLE DO”!  If you must clean your gun inside your home, make absolutely sure the gun is unloaded.  Here is how to properly check the condition of your gun:

1. Take the magazine or clip out of the gun.  To often people will check the chamber to make sure it is empty, yet the magazine’s still firmly seated in the gun. As soon as the bolt or slide is allowed to ride forward, it chambers a round from the magazine. The person will then remove the magazine and assume the gun is unloaded, because he or she already checked the chamber and no round was present.  The magazine must be removed before anything else is done.
   
2. Once the magazine has been removed from the gun, lock the bolt or slide to the rear.  Look into the chamber to see if a round is present.  Turn the gun upside down to make absolutely sure a round isn’t in the chamber. No round in the chamber? Stick your finger into the chamber and allow it to enter the back end of the barrel through the chamber. If your finger can enter the barrel it is safe to assume that there is no round in the chamber.  Conduct each of these two steps with the gun pointed in a safe direction.  A safe direction is a direction in which, if a round were to be fired, no one within a mile would be struck by the round. A safe direction typically means into the ground, up in the air or into a clearing barrel.
   
3. Now that you have cleared the weapon of any rounds, continue to treat it as if it were loaded.

Number three above is very important.  While cleaning your gun, keep it pointed in a safe direction.  If you have a basement, clean your gun in the basement and always keep it pointed at the floor.  If you have a single level home, keep your gun pointed up towards the ceiling.  Remember, just because you may be sure that the gun is not loaded, it should be treated as if it were.  And, if a round were to discharge from the gun you’re cleaning, it will penetrate walls and furniture and can travel a great distance before striking an innocent person.

Gun safety should not be overlooked and can not be taken lightly.  Since this post does not even remotely discuss all of the aspects of gun safety, I strongly encourage everyone who owns a gun to participate in a gun safety class or program.  Please don’t become both a suspect and a victim because someone you love died as a result of your carelessness.

A few weeks ago, our company received a call from the owner of  a large abandoned warehouse.  It was full of trash, feces (both human and animal), old bedding where homeless people were sleeping, needles and just about anything else you could think of.  The owner wanted to put the building on the market and wanted it cleaned from top to bottom.  Although we didn’t know if other companies had been contacted, we bid the job and won.  When all was said and done, the total bill was well over $30,000.

Usually when a potential client calls us, we try to find out where or how they found us.  This client told us he found our website.  Fortunately, our secretary pushed a little deeper and we found out that he first found us through Cleanupdirectory.com, then went to our website from a link at the directory.

Cleanupdirectory.com is AWESOME.  We spend money on all sorts of advertising and, not until joining Cleanupdirectory.com,  have we ever received such a large job as the one we just completed. Whatever small fee we paid to be a member of this directory was certainly worth it for us.

If you own a crime scene cleanup company, be sure you find out where your business is coming from.  If you don’t know which forms of advertising are driving business your way, you may be wasting a lot of advertising dollars.  Cleanupdirectory.com certainly came through for us this time.  Even though we may not get anymore work from the directory, this one job was certainly worth it!

Every month, CleanupDirectory.com receives 200 more visitors than it did the month before.  These are not repeat visitors who look at our directory several times a month (such as those business owners who routinely improve and update their listings).  These are unique visitors who have never visited the directory during the particular month’s statistical calculations.

Now that our Google Page Rank has risen to a level three (PR3), we certainly expect our numbers to nearly double.

During the past year, many of you have contacted us to ask why our listing process seems to be so complicated.  While most who have listed their crime scene cleanup company with our directory have had no problems in doing so, we can certainly see why others might have some problems.  The short answer to the question regarding the complexity of our listing process is this:

“Unlike many directories, CleanupDirectory.com allows its members to have complete and full control over their listing.  Our members may change their listing as often as they like, upload pictures, flyers, coupons, brochures, banners, etc., etc., etc.  Our members may change the font size and colors of their listing, insert horizontal lines, upload logos, etc., etc., etc.  Members will find their listing on the front page of our directory under several different categories and their business name prominently displayed through banner ads and Google maps.  Unlike many directories, CleanupDirectory.com provides an endless array of features for both our members and end users”.

Ok, not as short as we planned, but then again, nothing about our directory can be summed up with one sentence.

Many of you have become members of CleanupDirectory.com, yet some of you have not completed the listing process.  Is our cost of $8.25 per month too steep?  Is the added exposure in this competitive industry not worth the cost of a lunch?  Our staff would certainly like to think that business entrepreneurs such as yourself would see the real value of listing your company with CleanupDirectory.com.  Just the link alone, from one very relevant website back to your website, is certainly worth something.

So we started thinking that maybe our listing process is too detailed oriented. Or, maybe business owners are just too busy to take the time to list their company.   Whatever the reason, we chose to simplify the process.  Here are the steps to become listed with CleanupDirectory.com:

1. Create an account with CleanupDirectory.com. This step will take approximately two minutes of your time. To start, please click here “Create Account”. After you create your account and click the submit button, you will be emailed a confirmation link. You MUST CLICK the provided link in the email to confirm your registration with this directory. If you have previously created an account with our directory, you may skip this step and proceed to STEP TWO.

2. Fill out our “Directory Listing Information Form” and click the “Submit by Email” button found in the top right hand corner of the page. This step will take approximately ten minutes of your time. Please use the table below to determine which membership package you would like to subscribe to before you begin filling out this form.

3. After you have created your account in STEP ONE and submitted the form in STEP TWO, we will create an invoice for you. Simply log into the directory, using the username and password selected in step one, choose “Invoices” from the left hand menu and, under “Payment Status” to the right, choose “Pay Invoice”. This step will take you approximately two minutes. Once payment for your listing has been made, we will create your directory listing.

There you have it.  Now everyone who wants to be listed with CleanupDirectory.com has all the necessary tools and resources to do so.