The back and Donts of starting a small business Site

Thursday, May 8, 2008 | | 1 comments |

Launching a new site for small businesses is often a long and laborious process. And for most small businesses, efforts rarely ends in success. The terrain is mapped with independent companies and consultants who does not offer the same services and most certainly don t the same price. The projects are often full of expectations unclear deadlines, ridiculous and time. What? S worse is that many developers have the audacity to ask even more money halfway through the project. Even after all the hard work is complete, most companies don t even see a return on investment.

If you haven? T been there, you probably know someone who has. IT and outsourcing markets is often so traumatic that many of us vow never to deal again with him. But the whole process should not be so difficult and unproductive. The purpose of this article is to help you successfully launch a site with a minimum of pain and effort. Who knows, if you play your cards right, it May even be within budget and on time!

The Don? TS

Don t spend too much on web hosting. If you are a small company that has only begun to define your online presence, you don? T need a whole lot! You most certainly does not need 10000MB (10 GB) of web space and 100000MB (100 GB) of bandwidth each month. So don t pay for it! You may be thinking? Well, if it? S relatively cheap and May I need in the future, why do I t just spring for it now? This type of reasoning opens the passing lane. In addition, web hosts these offers are hoping that you won? T really use the massive features. D'experts web developers and users will be able to use this type of space and bandwidth, however, and the final result is a stalemate and the slowness of the host. Go to something reliable and economical, but l? Probably even faster.

Don t mold your site to a pre-defined set. Although your local newspaper advertising for developing one? Page 5-site with a logo for only $ 995? May be tempting, don t for the fall. Any company that sells pre-established Web site packages (or charges based on the number of pages) a bad idea. Web development should be a custom-fitting jobs. Your site is a business tool, and should be put in place to exact specifications that enable it to complete the rest of your business. If you compromise your site? S feature, you jeopardize its ability to help you make money.

Don t start the project until you're fully prepared. The best way to ruin a Web development project is to start before you're ready. All need not be in perfect order when you're shopping around for development, but once you select a developer and begin work, be prepared will only slow down your project and lead to many rising costs. Avoid this by purchasing your domain and web hosting, wrote to all content, and decide on the general layout you like, all before the project began.

Don t compare apples to oranges. Not all web developers are created equal, it is fruitless and unwise to compare them on a single reference (the price). Although some? Full-service? companies will create your website, upload it to your domain, and maintain the site to make sure you? s up-to-date, others simply an e-mail folder full of files and you know what must be done from there. Similarly, some companies will revise the finished product more and more until you? Re satisfied while others believe that you pay for a work project and no more. Be aware of these differences and understand what is incorporated in different price for each supplier.

Don? T too much focus on eye-candy. Remember what your site is for. Unless you're the exception to the rule, the purpose of your site is either: a) provide information about your product / service or enterprise, b) allow users to buy directly from the site or c) both. In all cases, the site must be easy to understand, navigate and exploitation. If your site is so new-age and graphs that users have no idea how to get around, or worse? It takes too long to load, you? Fri defeated the purpose of its creation.

The Do? S

Have a marketing budget for your website. Launching a website without a marketing plan in general always results in a zero return on investment. Why? Because there are millions of sites on the Internet, and if you don? T market your site, nobody will come. Contrary to a type of brick and mortar institution that benefits from exposure to passers-by, your site will not be seen by anyone until you tell people there. Enjoy the fact that your site can reach more potential customers than a small window ever could. Set aside funds marketing at the beginning of your project.

Improving conversion rates? The loading time

| | 0 comments |

Your site is the traffic, but conversion rates are horrible. Everything seems to work, so what? S bad? May your site simply to slow.

The loading time? Are you driving a Ferrari or a moped?

Reflecting the sites you've visited in recent weeks. Were you willing to wait 20 seconds for a site to load or did you hit the back button? Why visitors to your site behave differently? They won? T.

Webmasters, designers and site owners universally access the Internet at high speed. As a result, it is easy to forget roughly 45% of Internet use connections. If your site appears May to charge quickly on your broadband connection, have you tried loading on a 56k connection? The results can be shocking.

Sites that appear to load quickly over a high-speed connection can take forever on 56k. It is not unknown to find one? Quick site? actually takes 30, 50 or 80 seconds to a charge of 56k. Sometimes the load time is so slow the browser to do? Time? and fail to show anything. If your site has this problem, 45% of occurrences are worthless. Worse still, these frustrated surfers are unlikely to try to access your site in the future, even if you fix the problems of speed.

How fast should a page load on a 56k connection? As fast as possible, but not slower than 25 seconds. If you can get 56k load times under 10 seconds, you can turn a negative into a competitive advantage. Surfers quickly return to sites.

Determine the time of loading

The best way to determine the time to load your site is to use a 56k connection. Although this solution isn t technology in particular, you will see exactly what your prospects see when they visit the site. You will be able to see what loads quickly and what appears slowly. That should help to isolate those elements which need optimization.

Statistics server can also provide evidence of slow load times. Users spend much time on entry pages, but not visiting internal pages? Either you have poor content or a loading problem.

Finally, you can also use diagnostic programs to test load times. Typically, the programs up loading time estimated for dial-up, DSL and T1 connections. Make sure you test your home page and internal pages. Programs are excellent diagnostic tools, but don t get lazy. Make sure you physically watch your site load on a connecting line. The experience will be invaluable to improving your site and conversion rates.

Improved performance

Necessary measures to improve the performance of your site often depends on the nature of the site. A database-based site is an issue that the site graphic intense. There are, however, universal factors that can be checked:

1. Graphics: Typically, browsers must be a connection for each image on a page. The more you have, the more time loading. Limiting the number and size of graphics can help.

2. Tables: If you use tables, try to break into small modules. Large tables can negatively impact load times.

3. Multimedia: If it flashes, explodes, towers or blinks, consider ditching. Yes, it seems very well, but is it worth 45% of your audience?

4. Size: consider the size of your pages. More page, the slower loading time. It shouldn t be a problem if the page is composed of text, but large pages with lots of code load slowly.

Art, artists, and the Web: Part: 2 - First steps in building an Artist? S Site

| | 0 comments |

What you should do and whether you are an artist and you've decided to have a website.

1) See "Web Sites That Suck."

If you are an artist and have never had a website, the concept of an Internet site may seem a source. The first thing to do is look at a website called "websites that Suck", www. Websitesthatsuck.com by Vincent Flanders. This is a site that is so funny and so rewarding and it is very difficult to stop looking to it. You learn a lot as an artist on the Web and feel much more at ease after this experience.

2) Get a domain name.

A domain name is "www. Name.com" of your website. Artists need to have their own names in their domain name, "www. Yourname.com" or "www. Artist.com yourname". This is not a good idea to have the gallery that represents you May as part of your domain name. The visitors are looking for the artist, the artist works of art, not the gallery. But with the Web site to your name, you are contributing to the gallery, because you can promote the gallery on your site.

3) Find someone to design the site.

People like the design for artists, which is one of the "advantages" of being an artist. There are many people involved in the Web who do not have huge overheads that can design a very good site for you. The cost can be as low as $ 500 or less.

4) Find a hosting company.

There are many places that will host your site for $ 100 or less per year. Your web designer should be able to help you.

5) Web browsers come from different sizes.

Web browsers come in all shapes and sizes, from very small to very large. It will be impossible to examine your wesite perfect for all sizes Web browser. This means that you as an artist must make some compromises. It is a good thing whether you are thinking of your web design.

There are Web sites that let you watch and see how your site looks in different sizes and different Web browsers for free. Once your Web design is complete, seek "web browser size test tool" on a search engine to find one.

6) copyright information.

It is impossible to completely protect your images on the Web. The simple people not to pay attention to the copyright information. Your best protection is to keep the images small, if a visitor enlarges the image, it will be blurred. Also put your name © year "under the image of your artwork. All things fantasy, which are proposed for protection do not work. You can put all information concerning the copyright on your works of art , I? Ai seen done, but it defeats the purpose of your website and visitors will not return.