Just recently we had to do an exercise at Uni to discuss the Nine essential principles for growing your business on the World Wide Web written by Schwartz in 1997 and how, if at all, any of those principles had changed and what our views on such. Below is a very brief summary of his 9 principles and below that my 2 cents worth on the subject.

Webonomics: Nine essential principles for growing your business on the World Wide Web

1. The quantity of people visiting your site is less important than the quality of their experience.
2. Marketers shouldn’t be on the Web for exposure, but for results.
3. Consumers must be compensated for disclosing data about themselves.
4. Consumers will shop online only for information-rich products.
5. Self-service provides the highest level of customer comfort.
6. “Value-Based Currencies” enable you to create your own monetary system.
7. Trusted brand names matter even more on the Web.
8. Even the smallest business can compete in the Web’s global “marketplace”.
9. Agility Rules – Web sites must continually adapt to the market.

Webonomics – my 2 cents worth.

Schwartz was fairly accurate with his predictions and analysis of the web for business. The micropayment stuff as mentioned by other students was probably one area he did not foresee in taking off, however I believe he was referring more to content and information rather than a product, such as music or videos. Choice magazine is an example he gives, and I must admit from personal experience I would not pay, even if it is a small amount for a bit of info I might find somewhere else. Today in particular with affiliate advertising and CPP advertising (google) a website that is popular does not need to charge for the info. I hate advertising as much as the next however you can choose to ignore it and what you are really after is free.

Another point Schwartz makes is about businesses adapting to what the consumer wants, I think now days quick instant help and answers is the way forward. Some online businesses such as ISP’s and Website Hosting companies have an amazing online chat help system where you get to chat with someone about your problem with a very little wait time. The fact that is is a person at the other end, you normally don’t have to wait long and they can usually sort your problem out is huge plus for businesses. I can see this type of help system will be growing in the future.

The only other aspect which is of concern to me and is not mentioned or foreseen as such by Schwartz is the fact that the internet, which is meant to be a massive mesh of free exchange of ideas and information is slowly but surely being controlled by one giant and powerful entity – Google.

It is scary to think that online businesses can be made or broken by one swift tweak of their search algorithms, it has recently happened with their latest update codenamed PANDA, it has had some drastic effects on some very legitimate businesses. I will give them credit for trying to enhance the search user experience, to give relevant and information rich search results, however when one can yield such power over small and even large businesses world wide it must look at the consequences before taking a swipe.

To add to the pain their help system is almost non existent because the search indexing is a free service. Get onto their Adwords program where you are a paying customer and you have a very extensive almost immediate response help system, and yet the free service can have a much more drastic effect on your business! Lets face it if your online business is not coming up on the first couple of pages – at least – you lose a large chunk of the market.

In conclusion it is sad to see that one corporation, one entity has such so much power over a supposedly “free as in speech” and “free as in lunch” resource.

Sources: Schwartz, EI 1997, Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing your Business on the World Wide Web

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Color to Get Your Message Across

Color is an integral part of Web Design just as is layout and functionality. A good Website design will have the use of colors to achieve a purpose, and the purpose will depend on what the website is intended for.

Websites are predominantly visual media, they lack the emotion that smell and sound can give so the the emotion of the user or audience must be targeted by the use of color and graphics.

For centuries artists have been using color to evoke emotion. Marketing uses color very cleverly to evoke emotions for selling products or services, and so a cleverly designed website should also use the power of color to trigger the emotions you wish to target.

Color and Emotions

The use of color in design can be subjective. Different colors can evoke different emotions depending on things such as personal preference, cultural background, and past experiences.

Below are some colors and the emotions they are generally perceived to evoke. Keep in mind that this a generalised perception as different colors can have different effects on different people.

Red: Excitement, Lively, Passionate, Urgent.
Pink: Sensitive, Kind, Sweet, Romantic, Peaceful.
Yellow: Happy, Playful, Optimistic, Spontaneous, Bright.
Blue: Calm, Trustworthy, Regal, Powerful.
Gray: Reserved, Unbiassed, Serious.
Green: Safe, Goodwilled, Generous, Lush.
Brown: Dependable, Loyal, Boring!
Purple: Mysterious, Groovy, Deep.
Orange: Gregarious, Dynamic, Fun.

The Color Wheel

A color wheel is used to represent the basic six colors, the shades in between them and their relationship to each other.

Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue. These three colors are the base colors for every other color on the color wheel. This is why they’re called “primary”. When you mix two primaries together, you get a secondary color. Also note the triangular positioning of the primary colors on the color wheel, and how the secondary colors are next to them. Primary colors are useful for designs or art that needs to have a sense of urgency. Primary colors are the most vivid colors when placed next to each other, which is why you’ll notice that most fast food outlets, for example MacDonnalds, use primary colors in their logos, as it represents speed.

Secondary Colors: Orange, Green, Purple. These 3 colors are the result of mixing the primary colors together. They are located in-between the primary colors to indicate what colors they are made from. Note the the green is in between yellow and blue (the two colors mixed to get green). Secondary colors are usually more interesting than primary colors, but they do not represent speed or urgency.

Tertiary Colors: These are the colors in-between secondary colors like Yellow-Green and Red-Violet. They’re made by mixing one primary color and one secondary color together. There can be endless combinations of tertiary colors, depending on how they are mixed.

Complementary Colors: Red and Green, Blue and Orange, Purple and Yellow. These are the colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Complimentary can be misleading as, they rarely look good when used together. They are called complementary because, when used together, they become extremely vibrant and have heavy contrast so they actually complement each other. Complementary colors are useful when you want to high-lite something. For example, if you use a green background and have a red circle on it, the red will jump off the page and be almost blinding.

Analogous Colors: Red and Orange, Blue and Green, etc. These are colors right next to each other on the color wheel. They will usually match very well, but they also create little or no contrast. They’re good for a peaceful serene feeling such as designs and artwork to make your users or audience feel cosy and comfortable.

What Colors Should I Use

This obviously depends on what message you want to get across and the emotion you are targeting. If you observe you will find that most “Hard Sell” type websites or even TV advertisements will use Red, Black and White, to evoke the emotion of urgency, just like News and Sports websites, where as a Gardening or Pet information website or even TV show will use more calming colors such as Green, Blue and Pinks.

So have a think about what emotions you want to stir up in your audience or users, there are many resources including countless Psychology books which explore further the relationship between color and emotion.

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Step 4 Types of websites: CMS dynamic or HTML static

Website and Graphic Design – Website hosting – Multimedia – unbeatable prices – banoncom.com

The two main types of websites which are available today are:

• Static, which is the traditional HTML web page. It basically consists of files in HTML format which the web server displays on demand.
• Dynamic, also referred to as a CMS or Content Management System, this is a website which uses scripting and a database to manage and serve content as requested.

The most common now is the dynamic CMS type. The beauty of CMS is that managing the content and keeping it up to date is relatively easy compared to the traditional HTML web site.

The down side of using a CMS type of website is that the load on the web server is greater as it has to use more processing and memory resources. This can slow down the page load time as well.

A CMS compatible web server needs to have Mysql database and PHP services installed to be able to host the CMS or dynamic web site. The most compatible being a Linux based web server with Apache, Mysql and PHP or as it is commonly referred to – a LAMP server.

Most large web hosting companies today have LAMP servers with very user friendly Control Panels (CP). They also have a “host” of tools and utilities to make life easy, such as “automagic” CMS installing interfaces like “Fantastico”. They also have management tools such as Backup Wizards, Domain managers, email redirectors – you name it.

Dynamic CMS style websites are most suited to websites that will be continuously added to or changed like Blogs or e-commerce sites. The database handles the content and the administrator / website owner can login via a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and edit the web-pages directly, almost like using a word processor. The changes are reflected in real time and the database keeps track of page names, links, content (images, text, multimedia), document hierarchy, time-line etc.

There is still a place for the traditional HTML style of web page, however they are fast becoming obsolete. Even for a simple web site that may consist of a few static pages, a CMS can be far more Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) friendly with custom designed plug-ins that make SEO management far more efficient.

So, if your looking to set up a new website or upgrade your existing web site, look into a CMS or dynamic website setup. They are not expensive to set up and have many benefits over the traditional HTML web site, including being able to easily manage it yourself.

Original article source by: Henry Banon http://banoncom.com/website-design/how-to-get-your-business-website-setup-types-of-websites/

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Website and Graphic Design – Website hosting – Multimedia – unbeatable prices – banoncom.com

This is the third in a series of posts which will look at exactly what you need to know in order to get a website for yourself or your business up and running. This is step 3; Name Server setup.

Step 3 – Name Server setup

Well by now you will have your Domain name registered and a server for your website hosting. The next step is to set the name server or DNS settings so your domain name will be directed to the IP address of your host server.

When you signed up for your hosting server you would have got details including the Name Server settings. An example of a Name Server is: ns01.hostgator.com and ns02.hostgator.com. Usually you will have 2 name server details, this is for redundancy in case one should go down.

The Name Server is a Domain Name System Server (DNS Server) it has maps for domain names to IP addresses, so when someone looks up your domain name eg: wwwebdesigngeek.com the Name Server will say – yep I have that record and then directs it to the IP address of your host server. Otherwise in order to use the Internet and look up web pages we would have to remember IP addresses such as 74.125.237.51 which for most humans is much harder than a name such as google.com.

So in order to set the Name Server for your Domain Name you need to log into your registrars Control Panel (CP) and go to Domain Name management (terminology may differ with different registrars) then simply enter the two Name Server details in the appropriate field and save your settings.

The change in setting can take up to 48 hours to percolate through the “www” this is a matter of major Domain Name System Servers and ones that serve your host to update their DNS records.

Now you can put your site up on the server, or even just a very simple index page (default home page). Some hosting companies already have a simple index page in your domain directory when you sign up.

Once al the relevant Name Servers have updated their records you will be able to type in your Domain Name eg: wwwebdesigngeek.com in the URL or address bar at the top of your browser and voilà you will see your web page.

Original article source by: Henry Banon http://banoncom.com.au/website-design/how-to-get-your-business-website-setup-name-server-setup/

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Beware of Internet Marketing Scams

Two years ago I didn’t even know what a blog was, I had heard about them and basically I just thought it was like an online diary which you could share with the world – if you wanted to.

I guess I wasn’t far off, however I somehow stumbled upon the world of Internet marketing and blogging by chance.

Email lists and SEO applications

I vaguely remember now but I do recall I signed up for a free SEO application which basically was an interface for the Google Keyword tool, with a few bits and pieces added to it. This got me onto an email list and I started to get emails of these articles on Internet marketing and how to start up your own blog and how much money you can make etc. etc. And it didn’t cost me anything for this seemingly valuable information.

I then got an email recommending me to another Internet marketer and a bit of software they developed to help you increase your page rank, which then got me onto another email list.

This particular marketer was good, and I must admit I did pick up a lot from the tips in their posts. I learned how to set up a blog using WordPress and the plugins to use to SEO and monetise and how easy it was to write posts even if you didn’t like or weren’t very good at copywriting ( I hate that term) I will call it writing!

I was privy to this information as I was on their exclusive mailing list as a reward for downloading and using this absolutely useless piece of “software” they had developed, or was it the other way around – not sure.

Anyway I must admit that did get me going in the world of blogging and Internet marketing. Ironically I can’t stand marketers and the principles they stand for (none). Or should I say (make a dollar any way you can even if you have to sell your own grandmother). Perhaps I am being a bit judgemental here; you be the judge of that!

Copywriting and Monetising

So I set up my blogs and started at first to take the advise of the scrupulous marketers, which basically was – yeah it’s easy, search for YouTube videos and or articles on your target niche and change it a little or add a bit of writing and bob’s your uncle – easy. In the mean time I am getting hot tips as an exclusive member of their opt-in email list on how to make big buck$ in Internet marketing. This is all leading up to something I tell myself, why would any one give away such valuable information.

I was dead right – I knew it, it was the perfect grooming toward the final kill and it was almost perfectly executed (maybe for some it was) but not this little puppy. The final crunch came when after they gave you enough info to get started and set it all up and see how easy it was. But there was one thing that was missing – The secret of how to monetise big time on your blog. The fool proof secret which they will reveal to you when you sign up to the personalised 10 week (or so) course – but wait there is more – there are a limited number of places so be quick, don’t miss out – and if you sign up right now you will get a discount, but hurry – places are limited for this exclusive personalised course where we will reveal how to make Mega Buck$ from your simple blog, blah blah blah. And it only cost$ “A small Fortune”, that’s right, it will only cost you an arm and a leg. I am sure you have all come across something similar before.

In a sense they were right, you see the way to make big buck$ is to do what they are doing – creating their own market and customers. We the wanna-be internet marketers are the prey for the more savvy, well seasoned internet marketers! It’s a dog eat dog world out there.

Tricking the Search Engines SEO

This is when I lost all interest, and I just went at it on my own, I started to enjoy writing my own stuff and enjoy researching, learning and sharing what I am passionate about – Design, design for web and particularly Graphic design, and hopefully make enough to cover the costs – we’ll see.

I also began researching the best methods for SEO. Again these Internet marketers, particularly the ones that target us blogging type, have fabulous claims about how to ‘trick” the search engines for better rankings. Even to the point of software or plugins that auto generate content so you don’t have to do a thing, just set it up and sit back.

Yeah! What a load of crap – one thing I have certainly learned is that you might be able to fool the search engines for a little while if your lucky, but you can’t fool them for long, and you certainly won’t fool the readers, which are the ones that will make or break you, and you will run the risk of getting black listed on the search engines!

Tell me your thoughts and experiences, leave a comment!

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Website and Graphic Design – Website hosting – Multimedia – unbeatable prices – banoncom.com

This is the second post of a series which will look at How to build a website and get it online. The posts will cover the basic steps so you can tackle it yourself or at least know what to look for if you get a professional website designer to build it for you.

Step 2 – Website Hosting

After you have registered your domain name it is time to get your web hosting organised. Some domain registrars (actually most) have a web hosting service as part of the deal, however you can save money and get extra features if you shop around.

To have a website hosted basically means that all your files for your website are on a server which is accessible via the HTTP protocol, this means that they are only able to be seen by the public on the www but not changed.

To change your files on the web server you will normally get an FTP account set-up so you can access your files and upload changes to your website.

Another method which is widely used now is a Content management System or CMS such as WordPress. A CMS is a dynamic website which has the editable content managed by a database. With this type of system you can login via the HTTP protocol (via your web browser) and manage your content, so there is no real need for FTP access. Most CMS have a built in editor which can be used in HTML mode or WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). This can be used to add images, videos, text content, basically everything you need for managing the content on your website.

Hosting packages are usually advertised in monthly rates $$, however payment is usually per year $$. Most of the larger hosting companies have excellent control panels or CP. The control panels are accessed via a secure protocol from you web browser. They have many useful tools such as backup utilities, file browsers, email set-up wizards, CMS installing agents, data base administration tools, the list goes on. They usually have excellent help facilities such as 24 hour live chat and ticket systems.

As with anything it helps to shop around. Most web design companies, such as banoncom, will organise everything for you, or you can DIY and organise what best suits you. It’s a bit like getting a house built (but nowhere near as expensive) – you can let the Architect and Builder do everything for you or you can sub-contract it out as an owner builder.

There are many hosting companies on the web now days, most of the larger ones are off shore in the US, however there are also many in Europe, Asia and Australia. Currently the US is number one with over 23,000 listed hosting companies as opposed to just over 1,000 in Australia which ranks number 10 in the world.

So if you want to be an owner builder and DIY there is one hosting company we can recommend highly for their service, price and product. Use the coupon code below you will get an instant 25% discount off your web hosting package:

Coupon code wwwebdesigngeekhost

Information and original article source by: Henry Banon http://banoncom.com.au/website-design/how-to-get-your-business-website-setup-website-hosting/

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Website and Graphic Design – Website hosting – Multimedia – unbeatable prices – banoncom.com

This is the first post of a series which will look at How to build a website and get it online. The posts will cover the basic steps so you can tackle it yourself or at least know what to look for if you get a professional website designer to build it for you.

Step 1 – Domain name registration

A domain name is basically the internet address of your website. It is a unique name in a standard format which is translated into an IP address number that points to your web page.

Domain names are registered through a registrar and they are issued and controlled by a global regulatory body ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

An example of a domain name is wwwebdesigngeek.com and banoncom.com.au. The .au signifies a country code and so .com.au is referred to as a ccTLD or country code Top Level Domain.

When looking for a domain name there there are several tools which can be utilised, most domain name registrars have a search tool which will tell you if it is available. Here is a great tool to see what is available across all Top Level Domains – Instant Domain Search.

For best SEO results a domain name should have the targeted keyword/s as part of the name, for example : webdesign.com.au or web-graphic-design.com.au. Although this is not necessary it can give an edge for search engine rankings. The other alternative is to use your trademark or business name only such as banoncom.com.au.

Getting a good domain name is an important step for getting your website organised. Have a good think about what you want and or need and have a good search around for the exact keyword or keyword term and if that is not available look at alternatives such as adding another word or hyphens so you still include your main keyword or phrase.

Registering a domain name is the first step in getting a website up and running. In the next post we will discuss the next step – website hosting.

Information and original article source by: Henry Banon http://banoncom.com.au/website-design/how-to-get-your-business-website-setup/

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization

is all about optimizing a website or web page so that the search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo will find your page when someone types in a search term or keyword / keyword phrase which describes what they are looking for.

The ultimate goal when optimizing a website is to have it come up in the first listing on the first page for the targeted search term. In reality this is a difficult task, and depending on the competition for that search term determines how difficult it is.

There are 2 major factors which affect how your web page ranks with search engines and they are keyword optimization within the website and back links (links from other websites to yours).

Keyword optimisation within your website is something that can be directly controlled, by the website designer , manager or owner. However back links is something which can not be directly controlled, or can it?

In order to optimise a website for search engines it is a matter of leaving no stones unturned. Attention to detail and accurate research is imperative. There are many tools on the web to help a webmaster to achieve this. Google Webmaster Tools is one such tool and is free. It has many great resources information and easy to use interfaces to get your website optimized for search engines.

You will find a lot of claims on the internet about link building, however keep this in mind – for every outgoing link a website has to another site it loses some ranking points. Admittedly this can be a bit of a grey area within SEO, as it seems that linking to another “high ranking” site within the text of your content can have a positive effect on your ranking.

There is however one very controllable factor in getting back links to your website and that is to have content which other websites will want to link to. Interesting and well researched information and articles, good products or deals, anything which another website or blog may want to link to.

This is what search engines like Google are aiming at achieving, good relevant content, giving the web user a positive experience when they search for information or a product. Unfortunately or (fortunately for the web users) there are no shortcuts or tricks in achieving this, and search engines can actually block sites which try some “dirty tricks”.

Search Engine providers like Google Bing and Yahoo are going to great lengths to ensure that they achieve the best “search experience” for the end user, let’s face it, it is in their interest to do so.

So don’t get misled by claims about SEO, it is an exact science, and if done right it can get your website in the top ranking, however keep in mind that time is also a major factor.

Here is a link to a great resource by Google on SEO – Google SEO – Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Source – Original article by banoncom

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

In the past most web designers had to rely on graphics and Java Scripting to get some cool effects. Those days are gone and with a little bit of CSS and some imagination you can get some great effects such as rounded corners and drop down menu’s.

The advantages over using CSS as opposed to images for rounded corners is that the page will load faster as it does not need to load images and it is far easier than having to create and then line up your images for the round corners and borders, and for drop down menu’s you don’t need to know Java Scripting to get a simple drop down menu effect.

Rounded Corners:
John Rasch has a great article here: http://jonraasch.com/blog/css-rounded-corners-in-all-browsers which goes through how to get rounded corners on all web browsers (including IE) using CSS. The “border-radius” property is new to CSS3 and all the popular browsers FireFox, Safari, Opera, Chrome except IE support rounded corners. There is a hack available for IE however it does not allow to specify which corners of a container are to be rounded and applies the attribute to all corners, note this only applies to IE. The hack is a .htc file which can be uploaded to your web server in the root of your website.

The IE hack can be downloaded from here: http://code.google.com/p/curved-corner/.

Here is an example of the “border-radius” property on a website which was a Uni assignment: http://bcomnet.net/swimming-pools/. The website design is compatible with 98% of browser users – FireFox, Safari, Opera, Chrome and IE 6 to 8. Unfortunately it could not be CSS validated as the CSS validator was not compatible with CSS 3 at the time.

CSS drop down menu.
The only disadvantage with using CSS drop down menu’s as opposed to a Java Script drop down menu is that IE does not support the CSS menu due to it’s lousy rendering engine.

However if you need to use a CSS only drop down menu here is a tutorial that shows you how:
http://evolt.org/node/52030/

Here is an example of what the end result behaves like (note – does not work in IE):
http://www.surguy.net/menu/index.html
Of course you can always change the look of the menu with CSS and a little imagination.

© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.

Google has recently made some changes to enhance the search experience, you can read about the changes here Google’s search changes.

Google’s goal is to make the results of a search as relevant as possible to the user conducting the search. One of the changes is called “Instant Preview” this allows the user to preview the appearance of a webpage as a thumbnail before clicking on it. The preview function currently doesn’t support flash, and it returns a blacked-out puzzle piece or black square in the preview pane. This presents a problem for flash-based websites, but Google has commented they are endeavoring to correct this.

Flash certainly has a place on the web, however it definitely more suitable for widgets, slide-shows banner ads and so on, a web page based purely on Flash can only have the advantage of looking schmick, and that’s about it.

Generally SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a problem with Flash websites. The search engine bots that scan web pages for indexing have problems seeing the content within an all-Flash website. An all-Flash website is seen as one page and therefore all the content within is ignored which can have a dramatic effect on how your page ranks with the major search engines. Here is a link to an interesting article on this subject, and even though Google did make some improvements in 2008 Flash websites still present a problem when it comes to SEO.

SEO Worst Case Scenario: An All-Flash Website.

So if your thinking about getting a web page or website built for your business, and you think the all-Flash websites look pretty good, and are easy to get set up, well think again if you want your business to show up in the search results.

© 2010 – 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.