Posts Tagged ‘Build’

Improve Web Designs - What You Must Know About Graphic Design to Build Web Pages

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Ultimately, the goal of any Web page is communication. You are trying to communicate through words, pictures, and layout your site or company’s goals. This might be information or it might be to sell something, but you have to communicate to be successful.

Design is all about communication. When you’re a designer, you’re not an artist first and foremost (even if you thought you were), you’re a communicator. Sure, it would be nice if you could create works of art for your Web pages. But most of us don’t have the time or the need. Instead, what you need are concrete rules to follow so that your pages look good and get their message across.
Basic Rules for Design

1. Every element on the page needs a purpose. If you put an image on the page or a block of text or a line, there should be a reason for it to be there. If the reason is something like \”because I like it\” take it off. Your design elements are part of your design to communicate the message of the page. Anything that doesn’t contribute to that message should be dispensed with.
2. Don’t make your customers struggle. Your fonts should be a legible size and a reasonable scan length (no more than 7-10 words on a line). If your customers have to struggle to read your page, they won’t. And they won’t be your customers.
3. Make it obvious what’s important on the page. Use styled heading tags to call out the important sections of your pages and use images to highlight important features.
4. Use the best images possible, the fewer the better. One awesome image will do more to enhance your message than three mediocre ones. And simple styled text will go further than one poor image.
5. Visual aids communicate more quickly than blocks of text. Tables, charts, and graphs are easier to grasp quickly than a block of text. And readers of Web pages are typically in a hurry.
6. Don’t be afraid to be bold. Hesitant design, whether it’s colors or layout, makes the customer feel hesitant as well. Make your sites stand out so they’re memorable.
7. Simple designs have more punch than complicated ones. A one- or two-column layout is easier for your customers to grasp than multiple columns.
8. Sometimes you need to hire a professional. If you’re creating something that needs to last a long time, hiring a professional designer, brand manager, or marketing guru will help make sure that you get the best possible site.

Build A Website - 5 Factors You Must Consider

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

I have seen and heard crazy things…ah! But how to build a website! In my endeavor and quest for success I have heard people ask weird questions and I have seen those professing to be internet gurus give astounding answers.

I know of a fellow who posted a question on yahoo answers. This particular question kept me staring at my monitor screen lost of words. This fellow had bought a domain name and registered it with one of the leading domain name registrar. His question was simple yet to those familiar with the art of online business, the question leaves a lot to be desired.

My friend was seeking advice on what to do with his domain name. He had no plans or ideas on what to do with it! Think of lack of planning and we don’ t need to go further than this example.

To avoid being on the same predicament, here are 5 factors to consider as you ponder on your next move. Before you build a website, think about the following:
Type of web site.

Identify the type of web site you will be building. Are you going to build a website whose primary purpose is to sell hard good or e-goods? Would your site be composed of affiliate links or are you going to sell your own service or product? Is your web site going to be primarily informative in nature with google ad sense and other form of advertisement or is it going to be purely visual with little or no content.

Identifying the type of web site you are going to create will make the next step easy to identify.
Niche based.

Gone are the days when all a web master needed to do was to stuff their web site with links leading to all type of product and services. In the current internet world you can not succeed in building a web site designed in the form of a shopping mall with all kinds of goods and services.

The internet is increasingly and exponentially becoming a specialized super highway. Only those web sites that are able to distinguish them selves as authorities in a given area are poised to reap the benefits of online business.

Start out by identifying a profitable niche that you will enjoy writing about, identify an area that you already have experience on, have passion or will be comfortable learning about.

Only build a website in an area or niche that you believe in.
Research you market.

It’s not just enough to develop and build a website based on your strength and weakness. Care should be taken to do a little bit more research about the potential and profitability of that given field.

There are great tools out there on the net that would enable you to come up with a profitable niche, those tools will also enhance your research by shading light as to the exact phrases that your potential visitors would under normal circumstances type into the search engines in their quest for information.
Domain name and hosting.

Care should be taken while choosing the domain name and hosting company for your online business. A search in any of the leading search engines for the phrase “how to choose a domain name” or “web hosting” would return tones of articles that have been written advising us on the do and don’ t do as far as choosing a domain name or host provider is concerned.

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Quality Content.

Have you ever typed the exact phrase of a given keyword while searching for information on any of the leading search engines only to end up frustrated with the displayed results after trying several times? Search engines and human traffic thirst for information, great quality information.

One sure ways to win the search engines wars and in the process please your targeted customers is to create quality content. A site owner who remains focused and persistent in doing just start will in the long run reap the benefit of having their pages rank up high if not at the top of the search query results.

Does Your Website Have a Purpose?

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Web sites are all the rage today, it seems more companies and professionals have decided they need them and have put plans in place to build a site for their business. Unfortunately outside of the basic notion that a site is needed most businesses don’t plan out what a web site will do for their business. It becomes a situation where you want one because “they” have one, but unfortunately without purpose and planning neither your site nor theirs will be successful.

A statistic regarding web sites is that over 1,500 new web sites are launched every day somewhere. With that many new sites being created every day to make yours stand out, much less provide value it has to have purpose. Here are four steps to creating a stronger web site for your business.

Know your Purpose

Is your web site designed to sell products online, build your prospect list or serve as a vehicle for information fulfillment? It could be one of these things it could be a combination of them. However even if it has more then one purpose then answer the question what is the primary purpose of the site? Rank your priorities in order of importance from first to last. Once you know the purpose you can focus the site on achieving this goal.

Build Your Site Around the Primary Purpose

Build your web site around your purpose. For example, if you goal is to build a site that grows your prospect list then you need to focus on creating ways to get visitors to give you their contact information. You could do this through an online newsletter, free reports, giving away products or consultations and other methods of giving value to a user that will trade that value for their contact information. Your site navigation, color, overall design, copy and organization needs to be built around achieving this goal.

Offer value

If your web site is a basic brochure about you or your company that ranks very low in terms of providing true value to a visitor. If you can offer articles, free reports, fresh updated content, checklists, links to other sources, a current blog on your expertise, etc. you give people a reason to explore the site and share it with others. You also create a reason for the visitor to come back to your site and expose them to your message and marketing again. If you don’t offer value and instead just have a site all about you and your company you may get visitors once, but soon your traffic will start declining. You want to create a site that is vibrant, alive and a destination for visitors, one that they will willingly come back to. The key to getting this interaction with your visitors is value, offer it and they will come.

Measure progress

Once you have something of value to offer now you need to measure how successful it is. However measurement of useless information isn’t going to help. Figure out what really constitutes a useful measurement. Is it sales, visitors or names for your list? Whatever “it” is be sure you not only know and measure it, but have the goal in mind of what this measurement needs to be to constitute success. There are several great management tools that can give you web statistics on your site, but without the right stats and goals that information is about as useful as ice in Antarctica.

It is too easy to build a web site today, so easy that most become a failure. Don’t let your site become a failure because of lack of purpose and planning. Know why you need it and what the goals and plans are to achieve the “why” then like any good plan execute it and measure your progress. If you apply this strategy your site and business will be much more successful.

Build a Brand

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Possibly one of the most important aspects of all in blogging is brand-building. As Zefrank noted, to be a great brand, you need to be a brand that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member. Exclusivity, insider jokes, emails with regulars, the occassional cat post and references to your previous experiences can be offputting for new readers, but they’re solid gold for keeping your loyal base feeling good about their brand experience with you. Be careful to stick to your brand - once you have a definition that people like and are comfortable with, it’s very hard to break that mold without severe repercussions. If you’re building a new blog, or building a low-traffic one, I highly recommend writing down the goals of your brand and the attributes of its identity to help remind you as you write.