Go To Web Design Home | Add to Favorites
You Too Can Have An Amazing Website
It is a well-known fact that a successful business depends greatly on how it is marketed. With an ever increasing dependence on the web, the use of a professional website is not only a necessity, but a priority. Although it is a common thought that only large businesses can have top-notch websites, with the tools available today what seemed impractical can now be a reality. Best of all, designing an extraordinary website can be done without hiring expensive web developers to create your site from scratch. Usually the first comment I get from my customers is, "I have the idea, but not the tools." In this article, I will recommend which tools are the most helpful and where to find these tools so that you too can have an amazing website. So you say, "I have the idea, but not the tools. What are these tools and where do I get them?" Let me answer that question with a question. Have you ever heard of web site templates? If not, they're your answer to a professional website at a very reasonable price, usually around $60 to $70. A website template is a ready-made website design created for you to use as the foundation for quick and high-quality web development. There are thousands of templates available online so you are virtually guaranteed to find something that suits your design and format needs. It can be as easy as simply adding your text to the template or rearranging photos along with your text to produce the outcome you have been searching for. Finding web site templates is easy, but be aware of the differences in template providers you will come across. Performing a Google or Yahoo search with the phrase "web site templates" will yield several vendor choices and not all of them offer the quality you demand. They all promise the best templates around, but that is obviously not the case. So, how do you find the right template vendor? First, visit some of the sites you come across and examine their templates. You will know you are on the right track if you answer "Yes" to the question, "Am I impressed with these templates?" Always trust your taste. Next, explore how many templates the vendor offers and how often their database is updated. As a rule of thumb, the more they have the better they are. This helps assure you that your choice will be more unique than otherwise. If you choose a template from a vendor who only offers a few select quality templates then the chances are that a great deal of other customers have chosen that same template. You certainly don't want a website that is practically identical to dozens of others online. You will also want a vendor who updates their site on a regular basis. Weekly updates are good, but daily updates are even better. This guarantees that they will have fresh templates on a regular basis for you to choose from. Finally, you want to make sure that your template is editable. This means that your template will come with the appropriate files (PSD, HTML, SWF, and FLA) that will allow you to make the necessary changes to your template. Ask you vendor before making your selection. Most templates come with these files, but it is better to be safe than sorry. You should be able to download your selection immediately or your vendor will provide a link to do so. Great! Now you have a really impressive template and can't wait to make the changes that will get you a completed website that blows away your competition. Well, you're halfway there. You have one more important choice to make. Who will do the editing? You will either have someone internally run with the project or you can hire someone and outsource the job. If you decide to handle things internally make sure you have the necessary software to edit your files and someone who is somewhat familiar with how to do the editing. This is what your template vendor probably didn't tell you. Certainly it isn't as easy as purchasing a template and plugging in text. If it were then there wouldn't be a market for web design and development companies. If you're confident about handling it yourself then great, but be careful. You might find yourself investing a lot of time and money trying to get your desired results. Your alternate choice, hiring a development firm, will almost certainly get your site looking and functioning the way you want it, but for a fee, of course. It is easy to find a development firm to handle your needs and you can find several online. Simply search with the keyphrase "web site design". Call or email a few of them explaining your situation and needs and ask for a quote to perform the editing for you. Depending on the amount of editing you will require you should receive price quotes in the $500 -$1500 range. This is a very reasonable price to pay for a professional website. Most likely, you will be glad you did. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I have a background in business and technology with a Masters in Business Administration and am an owner of a website design firm located in Houston, Texas. The mission of my company, WebChrysalis, is to help individuals and businesses look like a million dollars online through the use of web templates and expert design.
Basic Web Design Principles
Home PageHome page should clearly indicate what the site is about. Provide top level navigation on the first page, your logo, and tell to the visitor what he can found on your web site. Your home page should be informative, and should call your visitor on action. Home page is the place where the visitor decides what he will do, click on some of your links, or leave the site. If you have a discount, or if you offer some free service in attempt to make a contact with potential customers, make sure to provide link to that service on your home page.If you decide to implement flash intro on your first page, make sure to give the user possibility to skip the flash intro. The link "skip intro" should be outside of the flash, because you will force the visitor to wait until the Flash movie is loaded.Navigation structure
You Had Me At The Search Engine
You've likely heard of the movie, Jerry Maguire, with its famous line, "You had me at hello." Jerry Maguire was luckier than web sites we find in search engines. Many web sites don't attract user devotion at the first word, let alone after scanning the home page.
Teach Yourself Css The Easy Way
I taught myself HTML back in the mid-nineties and was proud of the fact that I was able to accomplish the design of fairly complex web pages with nothing more than a starter HTML book, an HTML reference book, and the knowledge I had stored in my head. But back in those days, we web designers had what looking back was a fairly limited amount of tools with which to work, and the quality (or lack thereof) of sites on the web was lackluster at best.Fast-forward to today: The hand-coder has more powerful and intuitive software packages available that will still allow us "to get our hands d...
|
 |
|
|
How To Boost Your Chances At Having A Successful Web Site
New Web sites are springing up online by the millions. However, when they don't reach a level of success, the Web site owners assume that they can't make money off the Internet.Wrong.The one thing that is important to know, however, is that you do have to work to make money online. Just like having a regular offline business, the online business needs to be taken care of, the Web site continually updated, and the customers made to feel safe and secure when doing business with you.So, let's devote this article to simple things you can do to have a successful onl... |  |
| Save Time And Boost Profits With Free Content
Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses, newsletters, teleconferences, website content and email registration incentives you need to keep in constant touch with clients and prospects.Public domain refers to information free from copyright protection. The two most important sources of public domain content are:1. Books with expired copyrights. Copyright protection for many books written early during the previous century has expired. In addition, millions of other books, published later, have lost their protection because their publishers did not renew their copyrights in time.2. Th... | |
| Stop Sabotaging Your Sales
Do your web pages, sales letters or personal presentations include subtle distractions that unnecessarily cause you to lose sales?Sometimes prospective customers get distracted during the selling process by outside interruptions. You cannot control those. But many sales-killing distractions are caused by what you put in your web pages and other sales messages ...or by what you say in your personal presentations.Here are 3 unnecessary distractions you may be creating that sabotage your sales - and how you can avoid them:1. Requiring Customers to Make Unnecessary DecisionsDesign your selling process so prospects do not have to make unnecessary decisions.Some prospects have difficulty making a clear decision when they have several options. They often react by procrastinating and nev... | |
| My Top Ten List Of Extremely Annoying Web Page Design Elements!
Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important aspects of creating a "user friendly" website. However, there are still a "plethora" of web-sites out there that are, to be politically correct, "functionally challenged." Does your website keep people captivated, or does it send them fleeing as soon as they get to the first page? Do you offend your visitors by employing these ten web design faux pau's?1) Music, or any voice recording that automatically playswhen you enter a site, without giving me the option of turningit off. Yes, there are still website owners who think that putting their Midi version of "Play That Funky Music Whiteboy," will some how impress their visitors. Always give people the option of listening ... | |
| Creating Your First Website? Your Options
Creating your own website is great fun! But how is it done? Well, there are five main options, read this carefully and choose which one you think is best for you!Use software you already have:You may not know this, but you can actually use Microsoft Word to create webpages! This is great, since you can save yourself the cost of buying expensive new software. Just create your document as you would do normally, and then just select "Save As" from the File menu. A new window will open, choose where you want to save your page, give it a name and then select "Webpage" from the drop-down box next to "Save A... | |
| Web Site Templates And Their Benefits
Unarguably, the most important part of your website is content. To draw in clients or customers, you need captivating content and search engines are blind to web design. They only see content. The images, structure and colors of your website go out the window when it comes to search engine placement, which we all know is the single best traffic generator. Your web design is really only a shell that makes your content look pretty. Don't get me wrong, your site's design can be very important. People are influenced by colors they see, and the quality of your design lends credibility to your brand-image.So why are so many people spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for someone to build them a custom shell for their content? The answer is simple: be... | |
| Color Psychology In Marketing
On the internet we don't deal with face to face selling. The internet is a visual and psychological medium. The words, or sales copy, on your website have by far the greatest psychological impact on your visitors and thus becomes your most important communication and sales tool.But another important psychological aspect of your website that is often overlooked are the colors. Yes, that's right... I said colors.Just as you use words to express yourself, colors can be use... | |
| The Newbie?s Guide To Small Business Web Design
You've got a concept for a business, are excited about putting it out on the Internet, know a little bit about computers and the Internet, but know nothing about building a web site, or web design.You can still be highly successful and save money by doing the job yourself so long ... | |
| Your Free Guide To Obtain A Cheap Web Design Quote
Website design is a very competitive area and there is no longer any reason why people should pay large amounts for web design services.This article describes and explains where to find very very cheap web design services.The first place to try of course is the internet search engines themselves. The best place to try could be paid adverts on the right hand side of the search engine Google. These are called Google adwords and these companies are actively seeking business. The results on the left hand side are normally the more established companies who will probably try to charge a lot of money for their services.I have heard a lot of people who have had great success on auction websites, like ebay. People or companies at times offer their servic... | |
|
|