Vintage Collectible Toys » web design

Surviving the Current Financial Situation

Tucker — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:59:11 +0000

In the current climate of apparent worldwide economic crisis there has been a traumatic worldwide economic meltdown which has put the world economy as we know it at risk. There are many companies who will not survive but there are some who will not only survive but will benefit in these unfortunate times. For instance our business in web design has increased recently because in an effort to reduce costs companies are turning to the internet to improve sales without incurring huge overheads. So companies like ours suddenly are in greater demand. However for the majority of the population it is a question of surviving and getting through it. If your business is on a sound financial footing and you have money behind you then this will be beneficial in the coming months. You may even be able to reduce employee salaries for a period of time, rather than have lay-offs or even closing down, but whatever strategy you apply it will need to be with the agreement of the workforce because a company is dependent of the good will of its employees at such a time. During the early stages of the crisis the British company JCB, which makes big machinery like bull dozers and diggers, chose with the agreement of the workforce, to reduce everyone’s salary for 6 months rather than lay off people or go out of business.

Cash flow

Most businesses go to the wall because of problems with cash flow. If there is not enough revenue coming it to pay for goods and services then it will not be long before a company goes into liquidation. Constant monitoring of the financial position is crucial. It is so easy to spend and not realise how much is leaking out and where it is all going. Keeping a tight control on costs is always a vital activity because that is what makes or breaks a company. More profits always come from reducing outgoings whether it’s reducing waste or cheaper purchasing or decreasing the workforce. I once listened to an audio tape on how to become wealthy and the one item to impact me was the advice to plug the leaks. Most people when running short of money try to find a way of making more money, but without a balance of reducing outgoings they never seem to resolve their problem. The simple reason is that when people earn more they spend more. If you imaging a bath with the tap turned on to fill it up. If the plug is securely in place the bath will fill up fairly quickly. But if the bath was full of holes no matter how much water you pour into the bath it will never fill up. The analogy is that the bath is your bank account, the tap is your earnings and the holes are your spending. Since listening to that tape, I have made a point of keeping expenses to a minimum at home and at work and every little sum of money coming in I see as a positive step to achieving wealth. To achieve sustainable wealth it is essential to take control of your spending and plug the leaks.

Avoid buying anything unless you absolutely have to or defer some necessary purchase for a few more months if possible. It’s amazing how you can manage without something for a period of time by using up existing or old stocks and making sure that waste is reduced to an absolute minimum.

Look for Discounts in Purchasing.

When you do have to procure goods to run the business, make sure you look out for bargains or negotiate for a better deal than you may have achieved previously. When times are tough, sales with no profits are better than nothing and there are some good deals to be had. One company I recently heard about sold a house for half the price when a customer came along with a cash offer.

We were recently tasked with setting up website hosting on a seriously low budget for www.presentsmen.com and we actually managed to find a hosting company who are providing free website hosting if you buy a domain name from them. So just because you have a pre conceived idea that something has to be paid for, or costs a certain amount, it might not necessarily be the case and it is worth investigating all markets and reviewing all costs continuously.

Look for Discounts in purchasing.

By taking a good long hard look at all of the business overheads I am sure it will be easy to identify those areas similar to ours where you have large outgoings. If those costs are essential to the functioning of the business then looking for better deals with other providers or renegotiate with current provider to maybe save thousands of dollars. So in many ways the current economic climate could be seen as a good thing because it forces businesses to review their outgoings and get rid of the dead wood. In any business, the higher the outgoings, the smaller the profits. When there is an economic downturn or some loss of business unless you have unlimited capital set aside, it is vital to reduce spending otherwise the business will not survive. Most really successful businesses understand the value of controlling outgoings and constantly review costs, even when times are good.

Tighten your Belt – No need for Fancy Spending

Although looking at reducing large overheads is one way to improve the viability of your company, another is to pay attention to the small amounts going out. It is so easy to think ‘Oh it’s only a few pounds’ but small amounts add up and can so easily get out of control. Remember that old saying ‘take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves’ I think it is so true. So cut out unnecessary spending, no perks on the business such as lunches or dinners to woo customers. They rarely actually need it if your business is offering honest value for money and top class services, and in most cases customers and prospects will appreciate you being prudent if it means you stay in business and continue as their valued suppliers. Managing directors can lead the way by paying themselves less or taking a pay cut showing that they are willing to tighten their own belts.

Recently it was announced that Bruce Forsythe was taking a cut in salary for his position as the host of Strictly Come Dancing, one of the most popular programmes on TV at the moment. He believed that they were being paid too much and put his money where his mouth was.

Another major area of expense is salaries and the costs that go with them. If you employ a large number of people the overhead expenses are huge. However there is always a natural wastage where people leave or retire so without actively having to make people redundant there may be opportunities to reduce the wages bill when times are hard. Efficiency and effectiveness of the people working in the company is critical and communicating with the workforce as to how they can reduce wastage and be more effective can be a rewarding policy.

One example from my previous work in organisations was when running a supervisors workshop. One of the delegates was complaining that when he needed to order supplies he had to sent the request up the line and wait until the senior manager had given the go ahead. As he was responsible for keeping supplies stocked and felt very frustrated at the time it took for him to get the approval he needed. I was amazed to hear that he was being so hampered in doing his job properly. So when I asked the question. ‘What’s to stop you ordering the goods yourself?’ after a long think, he said it had always been done that way. Nobody had questioned the procedure and whether it was still necessary to follow it. The outcome was that the he was given the go ahead to do the ordering himself and the senior manager was freed from one task he could happily do without.

Do Your Customers have Financial Liquidity?

If one of your customers is a very large company and they are source of the majority of your revenue then you are in a high risk position. It is a good idea to ensure that you have more than one high volume customer as well as lots of smaller ones so that you will be covered if one suddenly defaults on payment.

Find out the financial viability of your best customers. When the income of a customer falls then their ability to purchase goods and services is affected. If they are able to pay, then you will be able to pay your suppliers. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work or selling a lot of stock to customer and then not getting paid. Situations like this can often cost you money, and that is the road to financial ruin, so be sure to be aware of your client’s economic situation as best as possible. We use the free Dunn and Bradstreet financial tracking service to identify any negative changes registered against any of our major clients

One of our clients, a firm of, Nottingham town planning consultants were unfortunate enough to have one of their major clients go bust on them with an oustanding balance of about £10,000. This was a huge sum to lose. View their planning website now. They survived because their business was very healthy with positive cash flow.

Find out the financial stability of your best customers. When the income of a customer falls then their ability to buy goods and services is reduced. If they are able to pay on time, then you will be able to pay your suppliers. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work or selling a lot of stock to customer and then not getting paid. Situations like this can often make the difference between success or failure. The cost to you in money and wasted effort and resources could be the road to financial ruin, so make sure you are aware of your client’s economic situation as much as possible. When the financial crisis happened one of our best customers suddenly switched to a two month payment plan which meant that we did not get any money from them for a month. When we protested the chief executive told his manager to find another suppler. There were a number of outstanding invoices worth thousands of pounds and we were powerless to do anything. Our overheads were compromised for that month but we were fortunate enough to have access to a reserve fund to tide us over. And yes we did get paid the whole amount over time.

Avoid Borrowing Money

When the world is in a financial crisis it is better not to borrow money if you can help it. If you have already borrowed significant sums of money then make sure you talk to your bank and get the best deal on repayments you can. If it’s possible to repay a chunk of money to reduce the interest you are paying out then do so. To me interest is money going out for nothing in return and is not good money management.

Having said all that, the interest rate in America is just over 1% and recently rates have been radically reduced in the UK. But that in itself is what caused this whole financial mess in the first place. People borrow money cheaply then re-lend it at a higher rate of interest and take the difference in profit. Once the interest rate rises to a more normal level they will bail out and take their billions off to buy an island somewhere while everyone else pays the price. I know that is an over simplification of the problem, but it serves to demonstrate that the greed of a few has caused the distress of millions of the majority.

In my property rental business, a few years ago I had to let a house at a reduced rent but found a good long term tenant. This meant that the income was only just covering my costs but subsequently, because of the drop in interest rates, the mortgage repayments on the property have been reduced by £150 a month. This means I have been able to realise a small profit and with that money I am reinvesting it in improvements to the house. Long term I see it as a good investment to maintain the standard and value of the property. So for some companies who have had to borrow money to stay afloat there is the benefit of lower interest rates to reduce the burden of repayments.

You Only Have to Make it Through

The world economic situation is currently, I realise, much more complicated than we are suggesting above. Although it is true that the simple way of managing crisis is often the best solution. If you cut everything back to the bone and try to recreate the days when people did not have such complex lives, it can allow you to get on top of a situation. Years ago people used to manage their company without armies of specialists to provide tax advice, many coped without water coolers and other such luxuries such as cleaning services and people who come round every few weeks to disinfect the telephones! they coped through carrying out extra work on their own when required or they just went without. As your company regains its footing, or recovers, it probably won’t make commercial sense to sit and trawl through your business accounts doing book keeping yourself or to have to do a lot of extra research and administration, so you can restore those facilities that help to make you more money once the business has recovered.

Now I am not suggesting that we should go back to the good old days. What I am saying is that we might think we can’t manage without all our gimmicks such as mobile phones that take photos, but the reality is that we can do more with a great deal less, as long as we put ourselves into the right frame of mind and think positively about what we can achieve rather than what we haven’t got. Obviously as your business grows, or recovers, it doesn’t become economically viable to sit and trawl through tax return forms or to have to do a lot of extra research and administration yourself, so you can reintroduce those facilities as and when you have recovered your financial equilibrium.

Think what the Victorians did with the limited resources they had at their disposal. The horse was the main mode of transport and they used the manure to heat cold- frames and managed to grow pineapples without any other form of heating. They did not have cars, computers, mobile phones or even phones. The railway was only just coming into being, and they did not even have electricity. But with their energy and ingenuity they conquered the world. The industrial revolution with their steam driven engines changed our economy for ever. In the past there was no such thing as ecommerce web design and yet businesses survived|thrived.

Stay in a Positive Mode

By this I do not mean be in denial and pretend the world is not going through a financial challenging time. But if you are continually thinking and worrying about the negative aspects of the financial situation, then you are likely to make it come true. Don’t forget you get what you wish for and by concentrating on something then it will work like a wish, so why not concentrate on ways of getting new customers, giving better value to your existing customers and how your company could offer new products or services to your existing customer base?

Conclusion

Although during this recession there is no doubt times are hard for people who have lost their work. No work, equals no money coming in, so how do people pay their bills and their mortgages? If consumers have been prudent during times of prosperity and they have a nest egg for a rainy day, then they can probably manage for a few months until they get another job. But if they are already up to their eyes in debt then they will face personal bankruptcy and could lose everything.

In spite of all that, some people are managing quite well if they have jobs or some other type of income. One article I read recently said that the death rate reduced noticeably during recession and put that down to eating more economically at home and not eating so much junk food. So OK we can’t afford to go out for meals as much, and things are more expensive, but home prepared food is often better for you and sharing meals with the family is a way of coming together and communicating. So it’s not all bad. Good luck for a prosperous future.

All About Golf Villas

Good Web Design Practices

Tucker — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:33:52 +0000

Your website is where your business resides, it’s like the headquarter of an offline company. It is therefore important to follow good web design principles to make sure that you attract and retain the maximum number of people to your site.

The navigation menu should be clearly marked so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.

Reduce the number of images on your website or at least optimize the images that you have on your site, so that they do not cause your website to load slowly. Optimizing images mean that you must reduce their size without losing the image quality.

Keep your text paragraphs short and do make use of bullet points to illustrate certain principles. Make sure that you use a bold font for the headings of paragraphs so that these will catch the eye. It has been proven that people tend to scan websites for information rather than read every word, and using headlines in a bold font will catch their attention and draw them into the paragraph.

Make sure that your website complies to web standards and is compatible with all browsers. The most popular browsers are Internet Explorer and Firefox and your website must at least be compatible with these two browsers. A professional web design company spends a lot of their time making sure that the site performs equally well in both of these browsers.

Make sure that your website is hosted by a reputable hosting company, since the last thing that you want is that your site is down when prospective visitors come by. Rather pay the little bit extra each month to make sure that your site is not hosted by a fly-by-night company.

Using CSS Instead of HTML Tables

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:21:26 +0000

Times have changed on the internet and back when you thought coding couldn’t be made any easier for you to style your websites you were wrong. CSS has taken the basic HTML coding to the next level and again when you thought your coding couldn’t look any neater, you were wrong. CSS doesn’t need the likes of HTML tables and what a superb advantage CSS is and I’ll explain why.

In the old days of HTML coding, website designers would have to use the HTML tables tags which made the coding looking messy. Not only that, without the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) coders would be coding for a lot longer which resulted in a lot of time was wasted. This all changed when CSS was introduced and don’t get me wrong, a lot of cross browser problems still occur but it’s such a good transformation to the web design industry all this is worth it.

Cross browser problems do occur a lot more often with the use of CSS because some browsers render the CSS functions differently and cause the website to be displayed differently between most common browsers such as IE7 and FF. There are many myths and different information on the internet which discusses cross browser compatibility and how coders should only code for the latest browers which are the likes of IE8, FF, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari etc. None of this information is true and if you do only code for the latest browsers, a huge percentage of internet viewers still use Internet Explorer 6 so you’re not catering for a huge amount of internet users who can’t view the sites you code properly.

There are many hacks and different CSS functions you can use to cater for the whole internet browsing industry and all you need to do is learn to code for one browser such as FF (as recommended by professionals, given that IE7 doesn’t compile the codes correctly) then once you’ve mastered to code for one browser you can make the specific changes so your site is viewable in all browsers and on all systems.

Building My Website

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:14:22 +0000

Introduction

When I decided I needed a website for my business I had no idea of the very many processes involved. Like most people, I thought web design meant deciding on the graphics and the look of the pages and then by some magic it would all happen.

I have a friend who is in the business of web design and website development so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what my requirements were.

I had no idea about the various aspects and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learned about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process and I have asked my friend to supply the technical information for this article.

Stages in the Process

Target Audience

The objective of the website

Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website?
Did I want to sell services on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for possible customers? Maybe I would want to use it as an online brochure to showcase products. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussion and being supported by advertising on the site.

I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful planning went into the preparation before building a website.

How to be Found on the Web

One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. Generally most users only look at the first page of results so you will also want to promote your website to get on this page for your chosen keywords. By using a keyword research tool you can find the single most popular keyword for your industry.

Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is often quite a problem because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have already been registered.

So looking at names with endings such as .net; .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you are after.

When a building is scheduled for demolition part of the process is to undertake asbestos survey research which our company does, we were able to register a domain name with the word demolition in it back in 2004 because we were given good advice and this ties in quite well with the service meaning we get quite a few enquiries about it via our website, apparently these days there are less choices for really good domain names but given enough time and creativity you can usually find something suitable.

When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.

Creating a Site Map

The importance of creating a site map is to get it clear in your mind of all the pages you will have on your website so you can prepare the content for each page and begin to design the flow through the website, such as when a user adds a product to their basket, then enters their delivery and billing address and makes the credit card payment in the correct order.

The aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website. For that reason often user name and passwordz are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register.

For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding junk email.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided in advance before starting on the construction of the site.

Copy

The next stage is preparing the copy. This is not the design of your website – just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages.

For each image you could also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation.

Navigation

Another important consideration when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works.

Website Design

Finally we come to the design of your website. My web design colleague says that due to the subjective nature of design it is a very difficult process to get right every time.

What one person might like, another person might not like. If you are setting up a website for yourself alone then you will probably have some idea of what you want to see on the site. But if, as so often happens, the website is for a large corporation there will be inputs from many people or departments and you can be sure that they will never all agree!

There are a number of ways to approach website design but ultimately you need to create a design brief for the designer(s) to work from. Look at other websites and your competitor’s websites to find out what you like or dislike. The design brief should give reference to the logo, any existing brand guidelines or schemes and fonts and colour schemes, and should also detail which pages of the website that the designer is being tasked with creating visuals for.

If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the selected graphic designer to work up as the final artwork.

The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before development of the site begins.

Production

Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be built. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.

Accessibility and Compliance

Website Development

The best way to develop a website is on the web Server where the site is going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide feedback throughout the development.

Unforeseen items

There are always some things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the web designer prepares and asks the right questions, there will always be a last minute change or addition. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the website going live.

Launching Your New Website

The moment of excitement comes when your site finally goes live and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process. I was over the moon to see my demolition website go live.

Reporting and Monitoring

Once your website is up and running, you will want to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of visits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.

Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site goes down. Google Analytics doesn’t yet provide a comparable uptime monitoring service, maybe they just decided it was too much of a headache as it is an intensive service checking a website every 5 minutes to make sure it is still responding and indeed web-stat do promote this difference as one of their unique selling points but it is pretty hard to compete with free. In fact Google Analytics is not quite free, which makes it an even better marketing decision for Google because sometimes it is harder to give things away for free than it is to sell them! Google Analytics is a free service available to Google AdWords advertisers, you don’t actually have to have any AdWords campaigns running but it will cost you a one-time activation fee of £5 (or similar in your local currency) to open your AdWords account, but once you have done that you can go on to use Google Analytics for as many websites as you like.

Marketing

Once the website is live there are lots of things you can do to market your product or service. The first step is to submit it to the search engines and at the same time write articles, and press releases. Getting links to the site from forums, blogs and other social networking spaces are other options. For more on this subject ask your agency about SEO

Conclusion

Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer buff, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article will give readers an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.

So You Want To Build A Website?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:22:56 +0000

Introduction

I have a friend who is in the business of SEO web design and website development so I approached him for a quote. As a complete novice who is computer literate up to a point, I was amazed at the depth of initial questioning required to find out exactly what my requirements were.

I had no idea about the various elements and the structure of the site and I found it mind blowing when I learnt about the amount of work involved. So I thought other people would be interested to know more about this complicated process particularly if you consider yourself a non computer person and have to get a website built. I have asked my SEO friend to supply the technical information for this article.In case you are wondering ‘SEO’ stands for search engine optimisation, and refers to the practise of getting your website ranked as close to the top of the results for a particular search term in a search engine. You see you’re learning already!

Stages in the Process

Target Audience

Before building a website there are important questions to consider. I was asked who would be my target audience. Who are my customers likely to be? Would they be children, businesses, home owners, sales people, parents or teenagers and so on? If you are not clear on your target audience then you are not going to be able to set the tone of the site correctly so this is a very important consideration.

The Objective of the Website

Then I was asked, what was the purpose of my website? Did I want to sell services on line or use it to market my business and get more leads for potential customers? Maybe I would want to use the site as an online brochure to showcase my services. Another possibility was to use the website to foster a community so that I was in contact with other like-minded people, with chat rooms, online discussions and being supported by advertising on the site. This didn’t really apply to my business, although I did think about offering to advertise allied services!

I hadn’t quite realised the scope of a website but as I was asked these questions it became clear that a lot of careful thought went into the preparation before building a website.

Creating a Site Map

By creating the sitemap well in advance of building the site will also help with all other aspects of the build and promotion of the site later. Yes even your search engine optimization strategy will benefit from a well thought out site map.

The aim is to make the site as simple to use as possible so that there are no barriers to getting into the website or making a purchase. For that reason often user name and passwords are set for the customer so that they are not put off making a purchase by having to register. How many times have you gone to buy something online and then been faced with having to choose a user name and password to create an account, and fill out all of your address details and decided not to bother in the end? Well they just lost a sale!

For a non e-commerce site things are simpler with a contact form which allows you to receive enquiries by email without publishing your email address on the website, thus avoiding spam.Web forms can also validate the information before you receive it, so ensuring that the phone number provided does not contain words, and that the email address is in the correct format, for example. These things may sound very technical to us lay-folk but I assure you everything has to be decided in advance before starting on the construction of the site. This avoids delays later, and it is best if your developers can complete the work in a single sitting, rather than having to keep putting it down and revisiting it.

Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is often quite a challenge because every name you initially come up with will almost certainly have been taken. Domain names ending in .com are by far the most popular and internationally recognised; the snag is that it’s very popularity means that the majority of the shorter names have probably already been registered. However, you can usually think of some domain name that is available, which is much less time consuming than trying to purchase a previously registered domain name from its existing owner, most of the time just contacting them, and getting a reply is a challenge.

So looking at names with endings such as .net; .org .co.uk or .info may be able to provide you with the domain name you want. When choosing your domain name it is very important to include one or more of your keywords if possible as this can apparently help with search engine rankings. So although the name of your business is the obvious choice for a domain name, it is not necessarily the only option.

Copy

The next stage is preparing the copy. This is not the design of your website – just the words and visuals you want to have one each of the pages.

Having gathered all the previous information you will need to decide what imagery you want to use within the website content. As we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words and remains in people’s memory far longer than just words. It is a popular concept that people don’t read, and is even more true on the web today, so use as many images, diagrams, cartoons and illustrations as possible.

For each image you should also have a caption, as the caption of an image is the next ‘most read’ words on the page after the page title. Images and their captions need to be clickable. When you click on a picture it should take you to the next stage of the process such as the sale page or placing an enquiry if your website is for lead generation. All images should also have alternative text or alt tags. Alt tags will display the hover text when you position your mouse over the picture, but also they are used by screen readers to assist visually impaired users know what the image is about. See the section below on Accessibility and Compliance.

Website Design

Finally we come to the design of your website.

With web design unlike something technical, it is not black and white, it is up to the person viewing the designs if they like it or not. This can make the actual design stage a bit tricky because there is no clear right or wrong.

The very best results will be achieved by using a graphic designer, and beware – not all graphic designers are the same. A graphic designer who designs specifically for print is working in a different discipline than a graphic designer who designs for screen and specifically the web. So choose your designer carefully, look at other work that person has done and determine whether or not you like their style. It is also worth remembering that design is a personal thing, just because you have used a company before and liked their work, do you know the same person will be doing the work if you use that company again?

If you are working in the big time and budget allows, use multiple graphic designers who have all been given the same design brief and request three concept designs from each designer. If the client themselves also do a graphic design, even if it’s a back of the envelope scribble, you will then have 10 concept designs. The next step is to get them all together and select the preferred elements from each design. Then give the work to the preferred graphic designer to work up as the final artwork. Once you have reviewed the final visuals the artwork files will then be provided to the developer, usually in layered Photoshop files.

The artwork should be finalised and agreed on by everybody before construction of the site begins.

Navigation

Another important aspect when building a website is how you want your navigation to work. You can have links within the content of your website, in the text, so there are not just links from the menu. You will need to decide whether the links will open into a new window, retaining your original page open or just change the page to the one clicked on. Next time you go online, you will realise how much thought has gone into the way in which a website works. You will may also have some ideas for improving how some of them work after reading all of this!

Production

Finally the preparation has been done and the site is ready to be constructed. Now for the more technical stuff! You will need to have decided which programming language to use to build the website. There are two main types for developing a website, one is Unix based, and the other is Windows based. Each one has pros and cons. If you are starting from scratch then it probably won’t matter, so you can go with the preference of your professional doing the work. My website is built on the Unix platform (apparently!) which is the same as many of the more well known websites such as Ebay, Facebook, Google and Amazon. Also your website hosting must be compatible with the development language with which your website is built.

Work In Progress

The best way to build a website and be able to monitor work in progress is on the web server where the site is ultimately going to live. This way, those involved in reviewing the work can see work in progress and provide feedback throughout the development process.

Going live

The moment of excitement comes when your site finally gets launched and you see the results of all the thought that has gone into the whole process.

I spent many hours working with the web agency to get the demolitions site just right for our company before taking it live, and when the day came to publish it I was really pleased at all our hard work.

As soon as the site has gone live there is no substitute for real world testing though, so ask as many of your friends and colleagues to view the website from their own offices and give feedback..

Accessibility and Compliance

The website has to meet the current standards for website coding and doing so insures that disabled users, such as the visually impaired, can still access the entire website if they are using a screen reader. It is also a good idea to also discuss conformance moving forward, particularly if you have a web content management system, because and accessible of compliant site may become un-accessible after six months of being edited by you if you do not add or edit the website content in an accessible manner.

Unforeseen Items

There are always things that arise in any project which you suddenly realise you have forgotten, so no matter how well the web designer prepares and asks the right questions, there is bound to be a last minute change of mind or addition to the site. The main aim is to minimise the number of glitches that might arise because they aren’t calculated in at the start and they could cause extra costs and delays on the date of the web site going live.As a general rule it is always a good idea to get he site live to the original plans and then look at an update after it has gone live, unless it is a very small deviation from the initial plans.

Reporting and Monitoring

Once your website is up and running, you might like to know how many people visit your website and from that number how many actually buy the products or place an enquiry. From these statistics you can work out the ratio of visits to sales and gradually make changes to improve the ratios. There are some reliable statistics packages such as Google Analytics or Web-Stat.com which allow you to collect and review website visitor data in near real time. All you need to do this is to have a small block of code inserted into each web page on your site.

Another useful service that Web-stat.com provides is to monitor the website and warn you by email or text message if the site is offline.

Marketing

How to be Found on the Web

One of the first questions I was asked was, ‘Do you want it to be found by Google the main search engine?’ If I did then there was a whole process of establishing Keywords. So finding the best keywords are vital if you want to be found in Google. He says there are two main types of keywords. The first is the trophy, or generic, keyword for the industry which in my industry is simply ‘demolition’. The second kind of keyword is the long tail keyword. These are not searched for as frequently but if you can get a match then they are much more likely to convert into customers. A good example of this in my industry is ‘factory demolition company Derby’. So it is very important to do a lot of research on keywords to find both those that are the most popular and the most specific. Generally most users only look at the first page of results so you will want to get your website promoted so as to get on this page for your chosen keywords.

Conclusion

Wheww. What an amazing amount of work! I hadn’t realised when I started the process of getting a website up and running, how complicated it all is and how many factors you have to consider before even designing the website. The word web design is really a misnomer, as people often think it’s just about the graphic design on the home page, and the branding of the product. Unless you are a computer whizz, most people have no idea how much goes into designing and building a website and the systems that support the work you want it to do. I hope that this article gives you an understanding and insight into the whole process of website development from start to finish.

Http://www.yahooadsense.info

XsitePro- The Best Reasons To Buy XsitePro!

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:42:29 +0000

Building a website can be one of the most stressful parts of business. Many people go to the web first to find out more information about your company or store before visiting or contacting you. That is why it is essential to make sure that you have a fully functional website that is easy to use.

With Xsitepro, you can design the website on your own. You no longer have to worry about hiring a website designer to create and maintain your website. With a few clicks of a button, you have hundreds of individual templates that you can use to design your website. These templates are separate from the data that you have entered into your website, so if you want to change the theme with the season, it is quick and easy to do.

When it comes to adding in the content of your website, this is some of the easiest steps that you can take. What is going to take you the longest is putting together exactly what you want your website to say. Entering in the data, changing the font and formatting of the letters is done with a few clicks of the mouse. Making this the easiest way to build a website.

If you have considered adding in audio and video to your website, you will be surprised just how easy this can be done. With Xsitepro, adding audio and video to your website can be done quickly and without hassle. It does not take a degree in programming a computer to be able to successfully use this tool to add audio and video to your website. With the simple to follow wizard, you will be able to successfully add it to your website.

One of the best reasons to buy Xsitepro is the perfectly formatted quick pages. These are pages that will help you to get content on your website when you just do not have the time to put into developing all of your content. These are easily edited quick pages, so you can add your own personal touch.

No matter what your reason for designing your website on your own, this is the quickest way to create a professional website. You have the option to completely edit and change every part, including the templates that you are using. This will give you the ability to have a fully unique and professional looking website. This can be done without having an education in computer programming or web design. You can easily create an amazing website yourself with XsitePro!

Web Design Javea

Sat, 30 May 2009 16:41:32 +0000

Total search engine marketing solutions, online shopping cart systems and web sites for small to medium sized businesses, helping business owners promote their businesses within the major search engines, web 2.0 sites and beyond seems to be the mainstay of many webdesign and seo agencies, including Web Design Javea

When people want to find a product or service on the Internet chances are they will use a search engine to produce a list of suitable web sites. Website Design Javea can help with your Search Engine Optimization

Because the Internet contains billions of web pages the list of suggested sites produced by each search engine can be huge. And, getting your site to the top of those lists is our priority, as this will dramatically increase the number of visitors to your site, and therefore increase the amount of business you do!

Getting a top listing for your site, product or service is usually a time consuming thing to achieve and also maintain, and involves optimising your site (SEO) and building relevant content pages and as many inbound links to your site as possible, on an ongoing basis.

Because each search engine is only as good as the results that it produces, Javea web design are very careful to ensure that they do not mislead the major Search Engines. Attempts to mislead a search engine (or mistakes that look like attempts to mislead a search engine) can lead to permanent blacklisting of a domain name.

When choosing an expert to manage your SEO, choose wisely and don’t just go for the cheapest deal you can get.. the consequences could be dire.

Business Web Design

Sun, 24 May 2009 14:22:50 +0000

Been thinking of setting up a web presence for your business? Well, it is easy now with the availabilty of cheap hosting plans.You can opt to register a domain of your choice,get an inexpensive hosting provider, organise your design and content and publish your website! Hang on there! Maybe I’m over simplifying things. content, hosting and domain registration are all things you can do yourself. But a business web design? Unless you have some sort of experience with professional web tools, you’d better not try this by yourself. Instead, go for a cheap web design from an affordable web design company.

Where exactly could you begin your search for Cheap web design? Well, you could check with your hosting service provider. Since your hosting provider provides hosting services to numerous clients, chances are she/he has a website designer on board who can give you affordable web design. If you could check this out and find it, you could land yourself an excellent and affordable web design to go with your website. As an existing customer, you could ask for and get a preferential rate.

If this doesn’t work, you could try looking for an affordable website designer online. There are a number of online classifieds where you can source affordable web design. Most of the website designers who use online classifieds to advertise their services excel in providing good, affordable web design services. While they might not be well recognized professionals (in which case they wouldn’t be peddling their talent on online classifieds!), they often are talented youngsters who can give you affordable website designed at a fraction of the cost that a full-fledged agency would charge you. There is one problem though. You need to know exactly what you want and you also need to ensure that your affordable web designer is affordable because of the right reasons. Else you might end up hiring someone who is affordable, but useless or worse still someone who takes the advance you offer them and disappears!

The bad news is, it doesn’t end there What about search engine positioning If your business website is not on the first few pages of the search engines your customers will not find you. Seo services uk (search engine optimisation services)for your website is vital It is no good having a super web design if no one can find your business website.

The Importance of Good Website Copy

Wed, 06 May 2009 18:44:18 +0000

A professionally designed business website is a powerful and crucial marketing tool. It’s the first thing potential customers will look at before they decide to contact you. If the copy on your website is not written to an acceptable standard, it may be losing you business. It is not enough just to have amazing graphics and imagery, you need the words to make it complete. Is the spelling correct? Are punctuation marks accurate? Does the copy make sense? These are questions that website designers should be asking themselves before they publish a new website.

One of the biggest mistakes with website copy is inconsistency. A lack of consistency could deter a significant amount of potential customers from using the services of a company that has not proofread their website

Poor spelling on a website is another costly but avoidable mistake. The majority of visitors will leave the site very quickly if they find too many spelling errors. This again will give them the impression that the site owners don’t really care. I am also convinced that copy that has been ‘padded out’ with insignificant trivia is also unattractive for visitors. Lucid, concise and informative content is recommended.

Anything containing textual content should always be proofread. It’s very important that not only are errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar found and corrected, but that the text flows smoothly for the reader. The copy on a website should not be treated as the ‘poor relation’ of the website design project. You can have the most contemporary, eye-catching graphics available but you will still require well-written copy to compliment them.

There are some web design companies around that will happily inform visitors how they can supply them with a state-of-the-art website but then insert second-rate copy, which totally negates any good work they have achieved. This will reduce the initial impact of the site, and more often than not will have an adverse effect on business. However, there are also website design companies that employ skilled writers so shop around. It pays to have the copy checked professionally, whether the web design company has written it themselves or had it supplied by the client. It may cost a lot less than you think to have a website proofread and it could cost you considerably more if you don’t!

Remember, if visitors to your website cannot find the information they are looking for because of poorly written copy then they will simply leave your site. The only people to benefit will be your competitors.

Using Professional Joomla Templates

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:07:02 +0000

If you are looking for an open-ended design solution, Joomla is the very thing you need. Whether looking for simple or complex website design, Joomla is always on the list to offer you cheap, reliable and scalable web site development solutions. Joomla provides secure login to the administrator after installation. Administrator can login to the backend console and can well manage its content.

Another striking feature of using Joomla web design is that its functionality can be easily extended. A huge number of plug-ins and add on features are available for Joomla template design. The available free off the shelf Joomla extensions help to achieve complex web site solutions at very low cost. Many successful solutions have been delivered that help build and deliver successful online shopping applications, online portals, online image gallery, community portals, multi-lingual websites.

As a beginner I would suggest you to get a professional Joomla template and familiar yourself with the modern website design. The great part of Joomla is you can easily find nice commercial Joomla template for around $60. The commercial templates are best suited to the website owners who are tight on budget and time. The template gives fast results and it is easy to use. Due to their functional features Joomla templates fit various kinds of online web presences.

It is a common practice for the businesses today to demand websites which are easily updatable in house without any specialist skills. Businesses now understand importance of the content on website and its impact on the search engine ranking. The beauty of Joomla is that it does not require the user to be an HTML expert. Furthermore, it allows the user to easily update web pages using a simple web browser interface.

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