Archive for February, 2007

Professional web design - Mistakes in Web Designing- Tips to avoid

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

Creating a web site takes thought, planning and execution. sadly, many designs are dead resource within the water before they are even published as far as search engine optimization is concerned. Whatever you do, avoid these critical mistakes.

Database Parameters in URL

Many web site designers don t take into account the effect of database parameters in site URLs. A database parameter tells the server what would be loaded onto a particular page when a viewer tries to see it. In essence, the page is dynamic because it is being pulled together with each click. Robot programs that are new by search engines to index sites hate dynamic pages. Often, they will not even index the pages and the page of your site is not listed element within the search engine.

Let s look at an example using the web design site. The home page URL is aptly, http://www.softbean.com.com - a static page. In this URL, there are no parameters telling the server to load anything other than a static web page. All search engines will index this page without any problem.

Now, what if we changed the page to something dynamic. Let s pronounce we designed it to record the session identification [identify the viewer] and dynamically load the pictures resting on the page. We could have one parameter for the session identification and four parameters for the various pictures on the excellent page. The URL for the home page might look something like:

http://www.yourdomian.com/home/index.html?&DID=9&User_ID&CATID=15&ObjectGroup_ID=39

What a mess. A search engine robot is going to balk at indexing such pages. It simply can t tell what is on the magnificent page. if you or someone you know have obtained parameters and session identifications highlight within the URLs of your site pages, and its most important to understand if you are going to have a very difficult time getting into the search engine rankings. Obviously, that precludes you from getting any top rankings and free traffic.

Fixing The Problem

Fixing the problem often is lengthy and costly depending on the excellent number of pages on your site. in most cases, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge have aquired over 100 products, a complete re-design can be the unsurpassed answer. if you or someone you know have aquired a relatively small number of pages, there can be less brutish options.

Converting pages to static html is a definite solution for smaller sites. Essentially, one could take the page for each product and convert it into a static html page. The domain would then be converted to short sub-domain. If a user then clicked on the splendid buy button for the product on the magnificent page, they could be sent to a dynamic database page. The viability of this solution is dependent upon the layout of the site. Some sites can be fixed, some simply cannot.

In Closing

The database parameter problem is surprisingly common with sites selling products. A majority of site designers do not understand search engine optimization and don t realize the problem they are creating. in most cases, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge intend to build a database driven site, make sure you bring in a search engine optimization specialist before it is created. Nobody wants to spend the money to design a site twice.

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Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

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Everyone wants his company logo to be the preeminent but how wonderfully spectacular is good? How do we define a good logo? Is it necessary to be colorful or an exquisite piece of art? can a simple design work as a good logo? We are often in a dilemma.

Now to define a good logo design we first need to understand the purpose of having a logo. A corporate logo is one of the primary top most essential branding elements for your company. It would be instrumental in building your corporate identity and would efectively exude the company s attitude. The viewers must have some idea about the disposition, character, or fundamental values of your company through your logo. The functionality of a logo does not end here, I have not yet mentioned the most important function of a corporate logo. Your logo would be able to build a positive, strong and long lasting impression on existing and prospective customers. The very moment a person views your logo, even a part of it, he would think of your company.

Just think of some of the all time brilliant logos, McDonalds , IBM, Nike the moment you see their logos, even if you or someone you know or someone you know see a part of it or can be in Black and White (there comes another important aspect!) are you able to think of anything else than the respective company? The answer is definitely NO! The first thing that comes to your mind is the name of the company. This shows how strong an impression their logo leaves in our mind. Isn t that, what all of us are wanting to recieve?

How do you obtain your logo to leave such a strong long lasting impression? The key to this question is, make it easy to remember. Companies often make the mistake of thinking that a complicated artistic design might work well for them, while the reverse is true, in most cases. The simpler your logo is, the easier it is, remember and so it leaves a stronger impression on the magnificent magnificent individuals.

You also need to think of all the possible mediums where and its most important to understand if you or someone you know are going to use your logo. and its most important to understand in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge are not going to use your logo in only one medium, you might use it on your business cards and stationery, you might use it in your online business, you might also use it countenance within the conventional media like newspaper classifieds and magazines. This is why it is most important to inform your logo designers about the possible mediums where and its most important to understand in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge are going to use your logo. You could also review if your logo looks good in Black and White, because tomorrow in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge or someone you know need to obtain a document in black and white with your logo on it, it would be very easily compatible to that as well.

highlight within the beginning of this article, I have mentioned, that your logo can profitably convey the character and nature of your business to its viewers. How do we do that? There are a host of factors that are considered before designing a logo. When you place an order for a logo design, as a client it is your responsibility to give a clear brief of your company profile, the market and its most important to understand if you or someone you know are in and the nature of logo that and its most important to understand in most cases, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge are hoping for, to the designers. in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge or someone you know are not sure about the nature of logo that suits your company, let the logo design firm decide on that. There are many logo design companies who are experienced and they will be much better equipped to suggest you the correct sort of logos. Any good logo design firm would conduct a market research about the assorted forms of logos used in your market by your competitors and their impact on the splendid magnificent people. Based on that they will deliver you a set of logos from which you can easily most defiantly choose any one and then they will customize that to your perfection.

in most cases, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge or someone you know are in possesion of any corporate colors, as we have red for McDonalds , it will be wise to suggest the designers to use that color in your logo-any good designer would anyhow do that.

One last word, as with any other market, it is definitely beneficial to buy professional service than to go for any amateur designs just to save a few dollars. You might be the unsurpassed in your market but they know their job better than you, so in commonly speaking, in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge or someone that understands and has expert knowledge need to get a good result, try to depend on your logo design company. I do understand that there are sure logo design companies that charge exorbitant rate to create a logo design but the market is changing. These days there are companies that offer excellent logos for nominal charges. So before you decide to place your order for your logo design, review the portfolio of the company and then review the price tag. you can easily most defiantly definitely Uncover some professional logo designs at affordable rates.
 

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

#TILTE#Flash- Pros and Cons#/TITLE#

Flash banners (those of .swf extension) are becoming very common in Internet promotion they are so frequently new because of Macromedia Flash is a rather simple tool to produce complicated animation effects of fine quality. Though, my experience shows that this identifiable variety of banner has several drawbacks.

The first one is that leading browsers do not first support Flash additional plug-ins are required. Furthermore, it in fact happens, that to view banners produced in later Flash versions downloading newer plug-ins is needed. Statistics show that 75% of users feature Microsoft Internet Explorers (data from www.w3schools.com) most of them are users with basic skills that are less likely to download any upgrades.

In Macromedia Flash animated banners a delay is set between frames. In case web-page visitor is using a not very advanced machine, it is most probable that wile loading the page the banner will also be loading slowly user will not obtain the necessary info from it, as he will not wait for the next frame to appear.

Another inconvenience of not only Flash banners, but also of Flash web-sites is that right-click on the splendid link or banner does not offer a chance to open it in used window or feature within the same window. This is often annoying, especially when about 15 windows are already opened used window increases CPU usage.

Though, Flash banners have some advantages in comparison with animated .gif banners Flash banners’ use vector animation, thus a big size banner occupies less memory than ordinary one of the primary same size. Actually, basing on experience I can proclaim that .gif animated banners can only be efficiently new for small banners with 2-3 frames.

The major advantage of Flash banner is the range of available colors .gif format offers a very limited range of only 256 colors very little for a good value banner. Flash provides palette of much wider choice of colors, quality of banner improves immensely.

To conclude I can only advise to use Flash for big size banners (at least 468×60 pixels) or for pop up banners than the quality does really matter. But to draw a small animated button 88×31 px, the usage of Flash will be obsolete.

Flash banners (those of .swf extension) are becoming very common in Internet promotion they are so frequently used because of Macromedia Flash is a rather simple tool to produce complicated animation effects of fine quality. Though, my experience shows that this type of banner has several drawbacks. The first one is that leading browsers do not initially support Flash additional plug-ins are required. Furthermore, it sometimes happens, that to view banners produced in later Flash versions downloading newer plug-ins is needed. Statistics show that 75% of users feature Microsoft Internet Explorers (data from www.w3schools.com) most of them are users with basic skills that are less likely to download any upgrades. In Macromedia Flash animated banners a delay is set between frames. In case web-page visitor is using a not very advanced machine, it is likely that wile loading the page the banner will also be loading slowly user will not get the necessary info from it, as he will not wait for the next frame to appear. Another inconvenience of not only Flash banners, but also of Flash web-sites is that right-click on the link or banner does not offer a possibility to open it in new window or in the same window. This is often annoying, especially when about 15 windows are already opened new window increases CPU usage. Though, Flash banners have some advantages in comparison with animated .gif banners Flash banners’ use vector animation, thus a big size banner occupies less memory than ordinary one of the same size. Actually, basing on experience I can say that .gif animated banners can only be effectively used for small banners with 2-3 frames. The major advantage of Flash banner is the range of available colors .gif format offers a very limited range of only 256 colors very little for a decent banner. Flash provides palette of much wider choice of colors, quality of banner improves immensely. To conclude I can only advise to use Flash for big size banners (at least 468×60 pixels) or for pop up banners than the quality does really matter. But to draw a small animated button 88×31 px, the usage of Flash will be obsolete.

 
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Affordable web design - First steps to start website designing

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

 Will you believe me if I tell you that if you are thinking to start designing your web page you can do the following as your first steps:

Open up a new fresh document in-
    Adobe Photoshop
    Macromedia Fireworks or
    Dream weaver

and go straight to start working on your first ever web page, I am sure you will not believe me; but if You come to know that all you need to start designing is sheet of paper and a pen will you believe me?

 Why not outline your needs to make a webpage first? Asking yourself some important questions like this will surely help you find out your unique requirements.

    What are your expectations from the visitors?
    Do you want to sell them an online product?
    Will you allow them to personally call you and even meet you?
    You just want them to know your business?
    Are you going to promote a business from your website?
    How you want to communicate with your website visitors?
    Are you going to tell them who you are?
    Are you going to tell them what you specialize in?
    Are you going to tell them what you do?
    Are you going to tell them what you sell?

Which are the ways you want your business to come across?
 You want it to be Faster or Slower, Novice or Professional? You are the one who can answer this question.

Don’t you think you need a map before you start your journey?

Let us explore an example:

And let s set our goals-

What are my main expectations from this website?

May be your answer will tell you that you want to raise awareness about your business, you have started a new Marketing Consultancy business and you want to encourage website visitors to contact you online and also you are hoping to build a client base by using may be a contact form. Potential customers should find this information useful and it should tell them why they should make use of your services.

Which people will attract to visit my website?

and your answer will again tell you about your potential customers, may be Professional people from various size of organizations who are looking for marketing services because they want to increase their exposure.

What will be the expectations of my potential customers when it comes to the feel of my website?

May be your answer to this question will tell you that your visitors will expect a professional look. They will also expect a logical navigation and lots of info about the services you are providing them. It will also tell you the nature of website; here they will not appreciate playful things like music, pictures, movies etc. They will expect information served quickly.

Other services:

Which are the services your business is going to offer them? In this Particular example you will probably offer copy writing, advertising, Public relations, brand promotion and product marketing. If these, you feel are your core services, you should have links these services or buttons on your homepage.

From the point of view of website design and structure, try to visibly separate services and other stuff.

When it comes to Deciding between Horizontal and Vertical Navigation try to choose Vertical Navigation as it is easier. Try to limit the width of your website into 760 pixels limit. this is the standard width of 800X600 resolution screens also these does not includes scroll bars.

While selecting horizontal navigation you should think of the navigation options and categories, such as “products”, “services”, “company” and “downloads”.

Why Footer is necessary?

Footers have many advantages as it includes copy write tag and also tries to help your visitors by actually ’spoon feeding’ and not letting them search the required page by themselves. After all you want to make a user friendly website don’t you?

In a nut shell:

A website which is suitable to your needs is the best website. Try to avoid the pit falls of making an unsuitable one will be the best advice for the starters.

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Wednesday, February 28th, 2007

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The famous Puma leap or the big yellow “M” reminds all of us the famous “PUMA” and “McDonalds”…

No matter how young or how established a company is, they need to make their brand accustomed to their customers. With so many similar kinds of products and services, what makes a company so unique and stand out from rest of the crowd? Or in more simple words “How will your potential customer remember you? The answer is “YOUR LOGO”. It s the company’s logo that makes all the difference.

Logos are a unique way of pictorially representing what can be said in a few words or a sentence. Logos can be simple, from a simple dot to a more complicated conglomeration of colors and patterns. Company logos could represent the company’s products or services in a single image. It could be unique enough to be differentiated from the rest, but special enough to be remembered by the company’s potential and existing customers.

Companies make their logos using a combination of icon and text or a simple icon. The text new aspect element within the logo can have the company name in full or abbreviated text and the icon or even just a symbol or a brand mark. A logo can or can not have the company’s name, but having the company’s name is an added advantage. Also there are magnificent logos that just contain the company initials, for instance Y! of Yahoo.

The size and color could not be a rampart to the functionality, effectiveness and the attractiveness of a logo. Identity of the company would be properly portrayed. Logo designers would always substain in consideration the basic design principles of color, size, clarity and consistency when designing logos. Companies would hire professional logo designers who will understand your company and your mind set.

Companies going for professional logo designers could make sure that their professional logo designers are equipped with the latest skills and well informed with the latest trends in designing. Designers would be aware of copyrights and trademark issues and one would make sure that his designers are not copying from any other logos. The use of third party fonts, too many shadows and glares are also not recommended. Another important thing to be kept in mind by designers is that the logo would be flexible enough to detain its original color and shape when transformed to a different medium.

There are now thousands of designers of logos. It is always advisable to hire professional web designing firms who are very skilled in logo designs and equipped with proper logo designing softwares.