An appealing website - WHATS THAT ??

Wish to have some change on personal or business front..a house makeover...some shopping...some gift ideas..selling your products..rendering your own services to earn. One is your requirement and the other is your fulfilling someone's requirement. so what's common in both ?? You have a need..hit google and find out solutions for your requirement..so do others, so when they have a need you wish to be elegantly visible to them to be able to reach out to them to fulfill their need. What's common is - online availability and thats through a WEBSITE.So, here, I would discuss some basic  features of the same.

An appealing website...Whats that??

 I have come forth websites that have components that are well designed but not well executed. A nice header with some sound effects, it looked very nice when I first opened the site, very expressive. I click on navigation bar to reach another page of the site, there begins the header all over again and again each time..it was annoying than being appealing!! A few pages and you or your visitor might not look into what  all he can get from you. SO such few issues that need to be taken care of –

1.       Music  - Choose music as per  the website industry music for a spa cannot be put into a site displaying a children play school or a corporate business or a rock band. Until n unless the site is for a music station or the like, music replaying on each page should be avoided .

2.       Fonts  and colors -  Fonts for a website is almost like speaking to your online audience.... so speak , don’t shout!! Too big fonts and very bright colors is like shouting. Who likes that?? Be soft, polite, pleasing...expressive. Colors should be uniform all throughout the site to create a kind of brand identity.

3.       Pop-up windows and overlapping message layers – That can be the worst thing on a website for a visitor. He’s there looking out for may be something particular, he might be short of time or something. Do not lose him by forcing him to read your messages. Keep them in highlight somewhere not hiding your website info behind them.

4.       E-commerce sites – If thats what you own, win trust by providing enough information and make it easy for the visitor to travel through your online shoppe and come out as easily for payment. 

5.       Cross – browser compatability -it will look more or less the same in all of the existing web browsers. The most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Firefox and Opera. Each one of these browser implements HTML, JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) a little differently. So, it becomes important that the site is so coded  and checked on the validator so as it looks more or less the same in all browsers. Look for your site being W3C validated too hand in hand.

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8.       Navigation and footer  - All elements on the page are equally important. I have heard clients as well as designers say ...put this in the footer..how does it matter!! It does! Big forums, blogs or any sites  usually put up their help center or FAQs in the footer, addrress in the footer...at times social networking links in the footer, because footer too is important. It not only gives a complete look to the site but also helps share more information at first glance rather than visitor needing to hunt for it within the site pages. So, be sure navigation at top or side as well as footer should be balanced with information and looks.

So, next time you go for a website design or redesign, keep in mind to be practically available to your visitors :-)

 

Will you pay for being at Facebook?!! How true is this?

You too must have received some of the messages stating that facebook has released its price grid for membership and so on and that it is true and officially declared and just to chek how many really do believe....I too posted this on my wall and to my surprise, there were many. It was just that..why to take a risk??!! But tell me guys how would facebook benefit from just copy pasting a message that it would not charge its members if they did so?? Revenue of such social networking sites totally revolves around the advertisements as for the TV serials.

The latest message was spread by some hoax page in this september itself but this was not the first time. Since 2009, such messages have been seen spreading now and then and to such an extent that "facebook has decided that if 20,00,000 users come up against this, then facebook will reconsider its decision" and there was a site which alone had 83,000 users who religiously posted that they would be quitting facebook on such n such particular date. More so, a special petition page was built up at facebook to protest against all this by some user...none thought that why would facebook take a risk to loose all this millions users to other free social networking sites. Even that rumors had spread even among employees of Facebook as to whether advertising will remain their primary source of income or the website will completely change their profitability strategy.Facebook is what it is today just because it is free and easy :-). Apparently another page was built to declare that ll this was fake...but I doubt these declaration pages were spread as well as was the hoax page !!

So,pals be as active on the news browsing on the internet as you are on facebook itself :-)!!

Do all Corporates know all about Online Marketing?

The basic purpose of a website is to help a company build new clients by selling their services/products. 

When potential new clients shortlist two companies with whom they aren't familiar, they are most likely to compare their websites to actually see beforehand what he/she pays for. Usually, more than 90% of these potential new client's decisions are decided upon the impression that is reflected from the website. 

Therefore large amounts are invested in corporate website development. 

Without having an authorotative and influencing web presence almost no new visitors will end up at your website. And since every company wants to expand, they need to focus on improving their web presence in order to increase the chance of getting new customers. The best and most effective long term solution to increase your web presence is through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It is a sort of customized study that focuses on improving the amount of trust the rest of the world will have in your website. The more trust you have, the more potential new clients will visit your website daily. 

The amount of trust your website has, is mainly determined by search engines (for example Google, Yahoo, etc.). This is because these search engines have the most advanced mathematical algorithms available today. Of all these search engines, the world's most accepted benchmark of website trust is known as the Google rank (or page rank) of your website. Therefore, if you could increase your Google rank, your number of new visitors to your website will most certainly increase. 

Another reason for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) being so important is because of the quality of the traffic (website visitors) on your website. If somebody visits your website due to a search engine query, as opposed to other reasons (such as typing in the web address/clicking on a link from another website, etc), the new visitor will most likely already be looking for your services and be interested and prepared to hire one like you. For example, if someone types in the word "jwellery" in Google, they are probably looking for jwellery. So if your site comes up on start page on Google you can probably make a customer to buy your jwellery if your offering is satisfactory. The contrary is that the person accidentally lands on your website, but has no immediate desire for the product or services.

Press- Release...what, why, how??

As much important today is an online representation for any kind of industry you are in...so is to bring audience to yourself. Next comes, or may be hand in hand comes, winning attention, temptation and trust of the audience. In simple words, good SEO, and making yourself, yourservices, your products visible in a transparent manner to your target audience. I , hereby will be taking up Press-Release as a consideration today. Press-release is usually interpreted to be business related news, this feature has not yet been fully utilized in the internet market...its basically an announcement that you make to your online audience about, may be:

 a new launch of product
 a new service offer
 a new take on some old problem that has been publicly under discussion
 if you have got a big donation
 if you are sending volunteers as help with some crisis
 have a deep rooted knowledge on some hot topic
 or the like !

We all know that Google and all other search engines love to have new updated contents and informations, so does our audience, hence, it becomes very important to keep the press release short and keyword rich and to begin with...the TITLE. Its the title that decides whether the visitor would care to peep into the main content and also the title too should be keyword rich, so as the right visitor reaches the content. Keep in mind the format of the Press-release using target keywords in following places-

Meta Tag
Meta Description
Meta Keywords
Title of the press release
Subtitle of the press release
First paragraph of the press release
In the subheads,if you use any to break up the text of the press release
At the end of the press release

And these can be placed for free on sites that offer or as paid releases too. So, go on...announce and win your audience !!

Its as good as renovating your house !!

Working on a design project .... having given initial options based on clients instructions and his personally referred websites of choice, his reply on it just left me surprisingly smiling :-) Even before, I could think of or move ahead to bring down a new concept altogether, a question came up in my mind, that usually does .... does he himself know what he wants?? Scraping back to communication with him, again, I peep into those sites, may be I missed on picking the best parts of those referred pages. I knew each was entirely different from the other, those layouts, but then may be what I found best in each was not what pleased him as best part...hmm...personal choices vary. Another set of communication began. Designing or redesigning a website, I feel, is as good as renovating your house. Each visitor who steps foot in will give hundreds of suggestions and will praise or find out mistakes here and there...what you do in that case..smile them away !! That's it...when it comes to your website, it should be all suggestions are welcome but I know what I wish to have and this is it, easy for clients as well as the brain working on it !!

For all designers, I'm sure, such experiences and thoughts are very common, so guys what do you do...how do you begin when you receive a web design project?? Is it always produced in your mind from the scratch?? I feel browsing good sites and work of people more experienced than yourself always gives a bank deposit somewhere back in our brains and helps us in our own innovative creativity. Like all others, I too drop at some sites to keep myself updated and afresh. BUT...PALS..THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE COPY A DESIGN !! THAT MEANS GETTING IDEAS.....BRUSHING  BRAINS...REMOVING ANY RUST OR DUST.....WAKING UP THE CREATIVE DEVIL INSIDE , PICKING UP BEST OF WHAT WE SEE AND READ AND MOVING ON TO CREATING!!

Should I share some of them?? sixrevisions.com, designreviver.com, webdesignerwall.com, css-tricks.com and few more all time favourites. But of course...many a times I happen to hit good portfolios which are otherwise not famous, why??because they never advertised in any manner...because they are just happy with whats pouring in..rofl.

And some lovely TUTORIALS . I just got one, went through and put it in my box - 7 Free Metal Textures ( http://designreviver.com/tutorials/7-free-metal-textures/#more-10523 ) , http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/htmlcss-tutorials/straightforward-seo-for-webdesigners/ ,  http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/creating-reusable-versatile-background-patterns  .......

And end of that day, mind is tired in all the RnD and work is left for the next morning :-) So, drop in at MEGASOFTWARES.COM. But for its latest, not yet updated works...contact meeee :-)

Maintain healthy eyes when in front of the computer with Eyes Relax

VishTech2: Maintain healthy eyes when in front of the computer with Eyes Relax

Have a website, then you must have heard this - DID YOU CHECK MY SITE IN ALL BROWSERS?!!

Peeping back in the past, high school it was when I just made my first email account and entered a cyber cafe not knowing how to begin about browsing to complete an assignment of mine. An automatic smile comes up when my memory flashes back and fro, from that Day one to today when I am going through the MUST HAVES OF A BROWSER !! I satrted with IE....updating versions when required...one fine day machine updation gave me Firefox ..Hey that was still better and how my eyes and brain got used to working at it. Crashing of my younger bro's lappy and my assistance and what I see...mann!! you using IE..that was the day I felt the difference in real sense between IE and Firefox.We all see that Firefox has gained huge popularity and has surpassed IE ANd what about Google Chrome?? SInce the time it has been released, there has been a huge debate upon this - which browser is superior?? I am using both and am comfortable with both but yes Firefox is much more popular and on the other  hand Chrome is adding many many new extensions daily. I personally feel that these extensions, that provide a big range to select from for a designer and a developer who wishes to keep updated, are going to make it easier to transition from Firefox to Chrome. Here are just a few I read through -

1. Aviary Screen Capture
2.Chrome Sniffer..this will solve all your wonders about BIG websites !!
3.Cloud Save
4.Code Cola - cool one for coders.
5.Diigo Bookmark and Sticky Notes.
6.Drag2Up - one of the must have downloads.
7.Eye Dropper- designers..this ones for you.
8.HTML Instant
9.Firebug Lite and so so many more...

Browse and you'll find many to select from :-)