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Archive for category Website design

The ultimate social networking tool!

Feb 16

Posted by admin in Website design | 2 Comments

Hold on to your marketing hats! A new social media and networking tool has surfaced that allows webmasters and website owners to dramatically improve their websites marketing prowess in less than 60 seconds. No, that’s not a typo or a silly gimmick and no your not going to be sold anything!

Sharebars.com provides a free networking tool that is easy to install with no coding required. You simply enter your email address, website address, choose the background colour and voila you are instantly emailed the code to paste into your website.

So why would someone want this on their website?

You have to ask yourself, who is the face or voice of your brand and what do they share? Social media for business is about return on engagement. Most business owners know that when a customer has a good experience with your business they will often tell several people that will potentially become your customers as well. This is true with the online aspect of your business as well. Your customers may want to share your website with their friends on Facebook, or Twitter, or any of the other popular social networking websites that are out there on the world wide web.

Now imagine if you could add something to your site in 60 seconds that would allow your happy customers to promote your website 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Would it be worth a minute of your time? Of course there are many people who would say “I don’t use those social networking sites so why would I bother?”. Well the answer is simple. Although you may not personally use social networking sites, your customers and website visitors probably do use them on a daily basis. So you would be trading one minute of your time and effort for the relatively guaranteed possibility that the majority of your customers will share your website with their friends.

In literally less than 1 minute you can have one of your own Sharebars on your website allowing your visitors to share your website with everyone that they know on 19 different social networking platforms. To top it all off, they even offer a video tutorial that shows you exactly how to install the Sharebars from start to finish.

Not too bad for a completely free service that does not require you to setup an account. So put on a pot of coffee and before it finishes brewing you can have a completely free, extremely powerful marketing tool on your website courtesy of Sharebars.com.

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Design it yourself or hire a professional website design firm?

Sep 17

Posted by admin in Business, Website design | Comments off

Whether you should design your website yourself or hire a website development firm depends on several important factors. Of course one of the most important things that you should consider is your level of IT expertise and available resources (i.e. IT staff or employees with development experience). There are several website technologies and development techniques/methods that can turn a plain, boring, and difficult to use website into a user-friendly, search engine optimized, professional looking, and functional company website. The decision to design and develop yourself or hire a professional website design company comes down to your skill levels (or that of your staff), the features you want or require, the image you want to project for your business, and the amount of time and energy you have to devote to developing your company website.

Some necessary skills you will need in order to design and develop a website are:

  • Knowledge of HTML – There are visual editing programs that can help you with design but some basic knowledge of HTML is necessary.
  • Artistic ability – In order to make the site visually appealing you will need good eye for color and generally good taste as well as creativity.
  • Graphic software expertise – You will also need some knowledge and experience with graphic editing/creation software in order to produce attractive web-ready photos, images, and graphics for your website. You will also need to optimize your images for the web so that they load quickly while preserving the quality.
  • Navigation expertise – Another critical skill is understanding how to present information and create a flow within your website. This means that you will need to have an understanding of navaigational structures, design, and implementation in order to develop a website that presents your information in a user-friendly way. If your website visitors have difficulty finding information they will leave and go somewhere else. Imagine yourself in a store where you are waiting for someone to come help you. Most people would leave after a brief amount of waiting time and go somewhere else. Now you can just imagine how many of your website visitors will leave your website instantly if they have difficulty finding what they are looking for on your site — all it takes is a simple click of a mouse and they are gone.
  • Programming knowledge - Depending on the features you require in your website, you may require advanced programming knowledge. If you require a database or interactive and dynamic content then you will need at least some knowledge of JavaScript, JQuery, PHP/MySQL, ASP or programming languages to add interactive web pages or integrate your website with an online database.
  • Marketing, advertising, and business experience – No matter how you cut it you need to have marketing and business experience to build a professional, feature-rich, user-friendly, and effective website. There are major business and marketing concepts and aspects that need to be taken into consideration when developing a website from the beginning stages to the official launch and maintenance.

I can’t do all of that, what do I do?

If you don’t have the time, energy, experience, or skills needed to develop your own website then the best option is for you to hire a professional website design company. Now, one important thing to note is that I mention company and not freelancer or designer. Website companies and firms can offer you three very important things:

  1. Reliability and professionalism
  2. Business and marketing experience
  3. Quality assurance

Furthermore, website design firms will be there in the future when your business needs their services/products whereas freelancers come and go and may not be around in a year or even a month when you need website maintenance, support, or other products and services. Can you really afford to risk losing your investment or time, energy, and money by choosing a freelancer to work on your business website? Over the years I have seen several clients who have lost a lot of time and money because they were trying to save some money by hiring a freelancer. This is your business we are talking about and if your business is important to you then it should be worth the proper investment in order to create a professional image and increase sales.

The best way that I have found to help business owners and entrepreneurs answer this question is to use an example that everyone understands. Deciding whether or not to hire a website design company to develop your website is like repairing a car. You can repair your own vehicle if you have the knowledge, tools, and the time and it will not cost you very much with your largest expense being time and energy. Of course if you are not highly trained or skilled in car repairs then the quality of your repairs may be much lower than the repairs completed by a professional mechanic. This is why the majority of people take their vehicles to professional mechanics in order to properly repair their vehicles. If you want or need your car to run smoothly then it is better to take it to a professional; especially if their work is guaranteed. Similarly when it comes to your company, you probably want your website to function properly, always be available, be user-friendly, search engine optimized, and feature-rich. So does it not make more sense to have a professional website design company manage your business website. This will allow you to use your time and energy to run your business while providing the peace of mind and security that your website is being developed and maintained by a reliable and experienced company.

Summary

The decision whether to hire a professional web design firm or to design and develop the site yourself depends on the skills and experience you have, how much time you can spare, and whether or not you want to do the work yourself or focus on the other tasks required to run your business.

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How to market your business on a small budget

Sep 17

Posted by admin in Business, Website design | Comments off

There are several ways you can market your business on a tight budget. Here are five cost-effective tips that you can use to kick start your marketing campaign and expand your client base.

When it comes to marketing your business there are many different options and strategies that each have their benefits. Even if you have enough capital and marketing dollars to fund an expensive and large marketing campaign you can usually achieve your marketing objectives by exhausting less expensive but equally effective options first.

Five Inexpensive but Effective Marketing Tips for Businesses on a Budget

1) Contact your existing clients and offer them discounts on services or products in exchange for referrals.

The establishment of an affiliates or referral program is an inexpensive way to foster new business. This tactic is great because it encourages old or existing customers to use or buy your products and services again while bringing you new clients. Another advantage with this approach is that the discount you offer your clients for the referral does not have to be substantial since they have already used or purchased your services or products at full price before. By offering them a discount or other incentive you are able to entice your previous customers to return and bring you new customers at the same time.

2) Stop marketing to customers who are unprofitable.

Many business owners have this idea that the more sales or clients you have the more successful your business is or will become however many business owners waste a significant amount of time, energy, and money with “break-even” customers. Essentially, you will be far better off if you market your products or services to new prospects than you would be to continue servicing or marketing to customers that are using more of your resources than they are contributing. Of course the familiar saying “It is less expensive to keep an existing customer than it is to find a new one” still rings true; however more often than not you will find that there are quite a few clients that are costing you as much or more than what you are investing in keeping them as clients. One easy way to curb this or at least minimize the impacts is to keep detailed records on all aspects of your business in order to determine which customers are break-even customers and which ones are worth a more serious investment and more marketing efforts.

3) Contact local media networks.

Local editorials convey far more credibility with prospective clients than paid advertising. Contact your local newspaper about running an interview about your business. Of course you will have to give them something to write about and it will have to be news worthy. Perhaps the new release of a service or product that benefits the community, some recent charity work, or even the launch of your business just to suggest a few.  Also, preparing a press-release and other information destined for the media will increase your changes of getting published.  In many cases, if you submit a ready-to-be-printed article your changes of getting printed are increased as local papers etc. often have “spots” that need to be filled from time to time. Why not help them fill that spot with your editorial.

4) Don’t let your customers fall through the cracks and slip away.

We have already covered the benefits of putting more effort, money, and time into customers that are profitable vs. those that are not, however every successful business owner knows the advantages of hanging onto clients that are worth hanging onto and you will most likely be able to distinguish between the two the longer you are in business. It is true that it costs far less to retain an existing customer (whether inactive or disgruntled) than to acquire a new one although you will need to use your business intuition to determine which ones are worth the investment of time, energy, and money. Send a personalized email or card, make a brief telephone call to see if all is well, or even send a small gift or discount card/customer appreciation card to let them know that you are and should still be a part of their day to day life.

5) Put your information on everything you hand out.

Put all of your contact details on every promotional material, letterhead, envelope, car door etc. that is used for your business. This may seem like common sense but you would be surprised at how many times we have received a business owner’s promotional materials with missing information or watched them drive past in an unbranded vehicle. Of course there are some objects such as vehicles that may be used for personal use as well so you would not want to permanently brand the object; however there are always alternatives. For example, you may share your vehicle with your spouse and would not want to invest in a vehicle wrap that permanently (can be removed but not easily or inexpensively) displays your company information. An inexpensive and easily removable solution is to invest in vehicle magnets.  There is really no reason why you should be traveling in a vehicle without displaying your company phone number, email, website, address, or at least your logo. Furthermore, only under extremely rare circumstances should you continue to distribute promotional materials with missing information. If you have a website then it should be clearly printed on every piece of paper, business card, envelope, or other item that you hand out. If you have recently acquired a company website but you still have thousands of business cards without this piece of information then you should order new ones with the website and put the old ones on reserve. Notice that I said reserve and not to toss them away. The reason you should keep the old ones is because they still have value, just not as much value as the new ones. Of course if you have paid for your website and/or would like customers to visit the website then you would not be doing your business or yourself any favours if you continued to hand out the promotional materials without the website address. The old ones are handy for specific circumstances and therefore are still valuable business tools. For example, you may find yourself in a situation where you are speaking with clients who would not be interested in visiting your website or do not have internet access. These are the perfect situations to distribute the old cards. Additionally, you can use them to give to acquaintances that have requested your number on a personal/friendship level. This serves two purposes: A) your acquaintance now has your contact details and will be able to contact you, and B) your acquaintenance may show the card to someone who would want your services or products or your acquaintance may even purchase or use your services or products themselves.

Conclusion

While these five steps may or may not benefit your particular situation, every business owner should invest some time in considering alternatives to expensive marketing strategies in order to utilize available resources and tools. There is no right or wrong approach to marketing as there are too many variables. The important thing to remember is to keep detailed records and statistics of your business practices, previous marketing strategies/results, customers and conversion stats, and any other form of data that can help to minimize the risks associated with marketing campaigns. Furthermore proper research, brainstorming, and a closer look at traditional forms of marketing can often yield great results while keeping within a small budget.

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Advantages of getting a website

Sep 17

Posted by admin in Website design | Comments off

Many people think that getting their website on the Internet is an expensive venture, fortunately though, this need not necessarily be true.

Whether you are established and selling products to customers, or you are wishing to increase your public recognition and reputation by bringing your work to the attention of a wider audience, a website is essential in today’s electronic world.

Reaching More Customers

A website will expose you to a larger number of potential customers and increase the size of your target audience.

The people who visit your website are already interested in what you have to offer because they have reached it through searching the internet by content and location. Therefore, your business promotion is more effectively targeted.

Internet Purchases are Increasing in Popularity

Researching and purchasing products and services on the internet are becoming increasingly popular. Customers can browse businesses at any time of day and night in the comfort of their own home. They don’t have to run all over town and there are no pushy salesmen, no parking hassles and they don’t have to worry about the kids. A website puts the customer in control of the purchasing process and as a result, shopping on the web is becoming ever more convenient and popular.

Get Customers Early

For many people, a purchasing decision starts with research on the web. They often make their choice long before ever entering a store or making the first phone call. Having a website will mean that you are part of their selection process from their very first step.

Promote Yourself Continuously

For the small initial cost and effort of establishing a website, customers have access 24/7. They can read about you and your work when and where it is convenient for them – often, long after you have finished for the day. With an informative website, you can effectively communicate with potential customers all day and all night.

Win Customer Confidence

By providing appropriate content on your website, you can answer visitor queries and provide valuable information that goes beyond mere marketing. Potential customers value this service and can see that your business is knowledgeable and professional.

Inexpensive

As a form of advertising and marketing, a website is cost-effective and great value. Compare the cost with other forms of advertising, such as printed media, Yellow Pages, or radio and television.

More Information

A website does not limit the volume of content you can present. Other promotional media like print, radio and television, charge you by the word or second. A website allows you to fully explain and display who you are and what you do. You can tell potential customers about your work, qualifications, existing clients, completed projects – in fact just about anything that will benefit your purpose.

Dynamic

A website is a dynamic, easily updateable resource through which you present information to your visitors. Unlike other forms of marketing that are either static, or difficult and expensive to change, a website is easily updated.

Have a new product launching? Just developed a new service for your clients? Need to update your pricing or menus?

Do it quickly and easily on your website.

Increase Customer Interaction

Visitors can contact you via e-mail directly from your site. You can also have online forms that allow visitors to request more information, provide feedback or place an order.

Increase Your Profile

Customers will perceive you as more professional, dynamic, modern and better able to meet their needs. Can you imagine companies like Toyota, Colgate, Pizza Pizza or Telus not having a website? How will potential customers perceive you if your competitors have websites and you don’t?

Measurable Success with Statistics

You can analyse the comprehensive statistics reports provided by your website to see how many people are visiting, what pages they are viewing and how long they are spending on your site. You can also track search engine results, keywords, and phrases.

REMEMBER – YOUR BUSINESS NEVER CLOSES ON THE INTERNET

Shouldn’t you be asking: “Why DON’T I have a website?”

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Using Colours on a Website

Sep 17

Posted by admin in Website design | Comments off

Selecting the right colours for your website can impact the success of your website and the wrongs colours can often send your site visitors running for the hills. Website colours are just as important as selecting the right text or graphics.

Colours have many different effects on people and certain colours invoke particular emotions in people. These reactions affect your company’s image and can significantly impact your company’s brand and the response from your potential customers.

There are several things that you should consider when choosing which colours you would like to display on your website and which colours you would like to incorporate into your company’s brand and image. People associate colours with specific moods, emotions, and feelings. In fact, many scientific texts have proven that different colours and colour combinations invoke specific emotions in people such as happiness, sadness, anger, and even fear. Anything that can alter your customer’s feelings should be looked at very carefully when designing your company’s image or website. You can probably already imagine the benefits of being able to control your customer’s feelings.

In the website design world, colours are usually classified as Neutral, Warm, or Cool.

Neutral colours typically include whites, grays, browns, and blacks. These colours are often associated with purity, reliability, home and family, elegance, or sophistication.  Warm colours typically include reds, yellows, oranges, and pinks. These colours are often associated with warmth, happiness, innocence, romance, and passion. These colours are often used in a combination with other colours to create a powerful effect. The warming effect of these colours makes them widely used and great for attracting attention.

Cool colours typically include blues, greens, and purples. These colours have calming effects on people and are often associated with wealth and royalty. Purples are not used nearly as much as blues or greens but purples can symbolize creativity and royalty in powerful ways.

Web Safe Colours

All types of monitors and displays present colours differently. In every type of monitor there are 216 colours that will be displayed virtually identically in all browsers. These colours are commonly known as “web safe colours”. If you are looking for colour consistency and would like your colours to display identically across all monitors and browsers than you are best sticking to using these 216 colours for your design.

Colour Schemes and Combinations

Colour schemes are composed of either a single colour, complimentary colours or contrasting colors. Single colour schemes use many different shades and intensities of one single colour on a background. Complimentary colour schemes use two or more colours that complement each other to create a visually appealing look.  Contrasting colour schemes use two or more dominant colours to create an attention grabbing effect. This colour scheme should be used with caution as you will usually have greater success with one of the two previous colour schemes when marketing your company image/brand. When designing or planning your website you should really sit down and think about your target audience. Consider the impact that your desired colour scheme will have on your company image, potential customers, and the emotions that your website will evoke. The following colour guidelines should help make your website readable and visually appealing for everyone that visits.

Colour Guidelines and Suggestions

  • Text should be readable without having to squint, adjust browser resolution or contrast, or highlight text areas. Of course dark coloured text will always be more legible on light backgrounds and light coloured text will be more legible on dark coloured backgrounds.
  • Try and use colours that are attractive, pleasing to the eye, and present the effect you are looking for (remember Neutral, Warm, Cool).
  • If you want consistency across different browsers, use the 216 web safe colours only.
  • Do not use a normal colour intensity images as a background behind text. It makes it nearly impossible to read.
  • Colours should be uniform and consistent throughout your website to create a company “brand” and let your visitors know they are still on your website.
  • Select the colours that portray the image you want to give your visitors.

When you begin designing or planning your website, choose you colour scheme just as carefully as you choose other elements for your website such as graphics and content. The colours and colour schemes you choose for your website will determine the impression that your visitors get of your company and will usually mean the difference between success and closing your doors.

Artists need websites too!

Sep 17

Posted by admin in Website design | Comments off

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If you’re an artist or craftsperson you probably know from experience that one of the most challenging parts of your job is marketing your work. If you have tried various forms of advertising and marketing then you already know that it is expensive, and consuming of both your time and energy. Unfortunately, investing in a website is often a path that few artists venture down.

You don’t need a big e-commerce website where people can buy your works, although you can setup an online store to sell your works if you want. All that you really need is a website that displays your work and portfolio with pictures, provides people with an easy way to reach you, and has information about upcoming shows, exhibitions, or locations and galleries that showcase your work. Of course the more content you have the better, such as a newsletter, but at the very least you should have an online presence.

Why is having a website so important?

Recently I went to a local art fair in Ottawa, Ontario and I had found a booth where a young couple were selling custom made jewellery. While they did offer traditional styles of necklaces, bracelets, and rings it was their unique hand-made amber jewellery pieces. I decided to invest in one of these stunning pieces to give as a present for an upcoming birthday, and I was more than happy to take a few of their business cards to pass around to my clients and keep as a reference.

A few days later I decided to lookup this company to show a colleague. To my surprise there was only a phone number and no website or email address.

I wanted to find out more about the company and I had several questions running through my mind. Do they make custom jewellery customized to my liking? How long does it take to make their jewellery? How did they get started and what is their company history? Do they sell other products?

Unfortunately, all I had was the phone number and I hate talking on the phone for the most part. Of course I could have called and found out the information I wanted but it would have been much easier to simply search for another similar company online. It is very frustrating when you find an artisan who makes a product that really peaks your interest and there is no website for you to visit and order products from or find out more information.

If you do not already have a website you should really consider investing in one because if you don’t have a website it is going to annoy some of your customers and there is a really good chance that your competitors already have a website up and running.  A website is an easy and effortless way for your customers to find out more information about you and your products or services.  If you don’t have a website you are not providing your customers with an easy way to find out more about you or your works. Not everyone is willing to call you or even email you to find out information or answers to their questions. Nowadays people generally expect companies to have a website and you are missing out on new and repeat business every day that goes by without a website to showcase your work.

Artists and other creative professionals are no exception.

Getting a Website

Getting a website isn’t as hard or expensive as you might think. There are several website design firms that can build you a website with a portfolio, profile, contact form, and a few other pages for around $300. Add to that a domain name and a hosting account to store your website files on the internet and you are officially online.

When considering the price of a website, most people do not compare the cost with other forms of advertising and business expenses. As the owner a website design firm I stress to my clients that a website is probably the most cost-effective business tool on the market today.

Most artists and creative professionals have their work showcased in a gallery that takes a significant portion of your sale price. When you pass out business cards or direct clients where to find your work you are actually advertising for the gallery and not for your work alone. Now, imagine that you open a website to showcase your work. You will put in the same effort to market your work however you keep 100% of your sale price and your work is showcased 24 hours a day 7 days a week. That sounds like a huge advantage compared to being limited to a gallery’s operating hours and receiving less than your full sale price in your pocket.

I do see the advantages that come with showcasing your work in a gallery, especially for artists who are just starting out, however owning your own website allows you to capitalize on both while increasing the traffic your website.  Additionally, a website is like a gallery with an unlimited square footage for your work. You are not limited in the number of pieces you showcase, nor are you limited in the information that you provide on each piece.

Adding that one line to your business cards provides your customers with a place to find out more about your products or services, a place to revisit at anytime and anyplace to order more products or services, and a reference point that they can now pass on to friends, family, and colleagues.

By now you probably have a better understanding of just how powerful a website can be for artists and creative professionals.

Should I Hire a Website Design Company or Do it Myself?

If you are concerned about the cost of hiring a website designer than you might consider the “Do It Yourself” approach to designing your website. Before you begin creating your own website, consider a few things before you get in over your head. There are several good books and online tutorials that will help you put a website together although it may be quite challenging and will require a significant time investment in order to build a proper website. Not only will you have to learn HTML and CSS but you will also have to learn the difference between good and bad website design. Ask yourself how much time this will probably take you and how good the quality will be of the completed design. You should also consider the cost of the software required to build your website. Then of course you have to consider particular issues that you will face such as browser compatibilities (how your site looks in different browsers like Firefox as opposed to Internet Explorer), screen resolutions, strange formatting quirks, load times, search engine ranking, and more. After thinking about these types of issues and the amount of energy, time, and money required to embark on such a mission you probably see the advantages of hiring a website design company.

Hiring a website designer is a very easy process and can be very affordable; however finding a good website designer at an affordable rate is slightly more difficult. You will probably come across several website design firms that offer incredible service and prices that are too good to be true. At this point you should not rush into any kind of website design agreement without doing some research and company comparison. Of course the cost of a website increases with the level of complexity and the features you would like to have on your website, however there are several qualified and professional companies out there that will design you the website of your dreams at a very affordable price. Before jumping into anything you should be asking as many questions about the company, their website design process, their pricing structure, future maintenance, and the end product (what you are paying for). It is important to research website design, what should be included in websites for your industry, average costs of getting and maintaining a website, and anything else you can find. The more you involve yourself in the process the better your chances for creating a successful online presence for your work.

The main advantage of hiring a website design company is that you will have a professional, feature-rich, and well-designed website without the headaches.

Conclusion

This article barely touches the surface of website design, finding someone to design your website, or all of the advantages of getting a website. It does however point out a very serious issue among the artist and creative professional communities. There is no shortage of artists and artisans, yet there is a significant shortage of artists and artisans with an online presence.