Great Web Design Equals Great Sales

You have a fantastic idea for a business online. You know your industry and your products inside and out. You have a great marketing plan and you even shopped around and got the best rates for your merchant account, your shopping cart program for your website and you even calculated the shipping for your products so you got the best deal possible. Then, you bought a domain name, web hosting and your brother-in-law offered to do your website for free which saved you thousands of dollars. 

You held your breath as your site was loaded onto the server and ......nobody came. You can probably go back to two reasons that your site isn't working for you. Number one, the pages on your website aren't targeted so the search engines can index them for relevance. This means if you're selling electric dog polishers on your website, then you should name the specific page with the subject, mention that subject a few times on the page and if you have an image of an electric dog polisher - use the alt text option to describe the image as well because not all web surfers use images when they are checking out web pages. 

If you want the search engines to index your pages properly, give the text robots (called "spiders") food in the form of keywords that pertain to your website So the next person looking on Google for electric dog polishers will find your website. Number two will be a bit more labor intensive to fix. Your website needs to look professional. This means no blinking text, no flashing police siren lights over your specials and sales, no dancing dog graphics; in fact - your site should be as fast loading and low graphic as possible. 

Look at some of the top sites on the internet such as Yahoo, Amazon, and MSN, they all have light backgrounds, graphics are kept small and most of all, their pages are text rich. Don't copy any of these designs for your site but rather learn from then and incorporate those winning techniques on your own pages. You may have to make the hard decision to hire a web designer if you're not proficient in html yourself. You need someone that can make your site clean and fast loading. 

Use graphics on your site but keep them small - offer the option for someone to click and see a larger picture of an item. Also, create a text only page that is a site map listing every single page on your website so people can look up where they want to be quickly and the search engine spiders can index your website just as quickly. Make sure that your shopping cart is easy to use and all the pages work. 

If your sales method isn't easy to use - your customers will go elsewhere where the shopping carts work quickly, are easy to use and don't require a lot of labor intense information giving. Also, put a privacy statement on every page - if you don't sell your customer's information to third parties, let them know. The more people know about your site and what your policies are, the more comfortable they will be doing business with you.

Earn On Offshore Web Design and Development

If you have some experience in web site design and want to make good money you can try acting as IT-outsourcing partner. Learn more what you should know and how to start.

Why offshore web design and development?

Offshore web site design and development help to keep prices at least 3-5 times less, for example, average hourly rate of web development services in USA is $35-75; in UK - $25-50, in Ukraine - $5-20.

How it works?

Typical plan is like that:

• You find a client who needs a web site, ask his/her requirements for the project and send to your offshore partner company.
• The partner makes a proposal and gives you the project estimation basing on his hourly rate, for example, $10.
• You mark up the rate $10/hour as high as you wish (and can - taking into consideration competition in your region, level of demand for web design services, and other marketing factors), for example to $30/hour, and sends the proposal to the client. So if the web design project is estimated on 50 man-hours of work, you charge the customer $1500, from which $500 you pay to your offshore partner company, and $1000 is your profit.
• The partner company works on the project and delivers it to you along with copyright for the work.
• You deliver the site to the customer.

Result - you have a satisfied client and good profit from the marked up price.

How to start?

The first and most important step is to analyze market in your region and decide if it's worth to start this business.

If you already have your own web design company it is easier for you because you already know situation in the market, gain certain reputation, have clients list, etc.
But don't be afraid if you are new to web design business. Believe in yourself and work hard and finally you will be rewarded for all your efforts. As in any type of business, starting the one in web design area, you must ask yourself general marketing questions:

1. Who will be your customers?

2. Why they will order the web design services exactly form you?

3. Where and how they will get to know about you?

Without having clear answers to these questions you shouldn't try to start anything.

The second step is to find trustful and reliable partner - offshore web design company - that will work as "development center" for your business. This company must have good experience in web design and development area, good reputation, top level of customer care and communication. There are many resources in the Internet where you can find necessary information - search engines, web design directories, outsourcing portals.

The 5 Advantages of Web Designs For Small Business

One of the techniques that small scale businesses can use for vigorous marketing is through a good web design in their landing pages. When you launch merchandise through the internet, your aim is to introduce products that will reach millions of people world wide. So, it is essential to have an eye-catching web design to promote your business.

The advantages of building good website design for small business are to:

1. Promote small business world wide Small businesses struggle hard to be recognized in the business world. That's why proper promotion of small businesses should start with a web site design. A web site design with a reasonable price is the only way to promote your business on a global scale. While small business is run for generating profit, and to target the worldwide market.

2. Have faster product consumption for small businesses An important advantage of a good web design is, it permits customers to consider your small business online in a much quicker and suitable way. It boosts visit from potential buyers of your product. The products are often consumed much faster, fetching profits for your business.

3. Directly communicate with customers You webpage allows you to get in touch with people. Plenty of online forums can give you an idea how to make a web design that will profit. A web design is beneficial for a small business since customers can be reached through the website and vice versa.

4. Reduce expenses A good web design can lessen the cost of marketing people to promote your small business. It functions as a store and an advertisement in one. The only expense you have to incur is during the process of conceptualizing and developing the web page. The owner can cut back on costs such as manpower, electric and telephone bills and others.

5. Advertise hard-to-sell products A good Web design helps small businesses to promote hard-to-sell products, through the web page that can reach consumers to all parts of the world.

What is Web Design?

Web design is a method of forming an approach, modeling, planning and executing internet content on the web through markup language which is suitable for web browser interpretation and will executed as GUI or Graphical User Interface. The purpose of a web design is to develop a website which is a group of electronic contents which lies through a web server and current information as well as interactive attributes to the online audience using web pages. These components like text, bit mapped images such as GIF, PNG and JPEG forms may be put on pages that utilizes XHTML, XML or HTML tags. 

Trying to execute more complicated media such as sounds, videos, animations, or vector graphics may necessitate plug-ins like Flash, Java, Quicktime and others. Plug-ins are placed as well on web pages utilizing XHTML,XML or HTML tags. Web site consists of information pertaining to a certain matter or subject. Web development of a website is distinguished though the structure and establishment of web pages that will create a website. Web page includes information wherein the website is established upon. Website may be associated with a book, where the book pages resemble the web pages. 

There are various conditions or design concerns in web design, and for the reason of fast evolution of the Web, new conditions are coming up. To non-commercial websites, the objectives may depend on the preferred exposure as well as the response. For usual commercial sites, the basic features of the web design are the content which is component as well as the information on the website must be significant and related to the website; also it must focus the public which the website is designed with. The web design must me user friendly having an interface that is easy and reliable for navigation. 

Appearance of the website is very essential; therefore the text and graphics must encompass a sole style that runs all over to promote concurrence. The style must be appealing, associated and professional looking. The website should be able to be found on various chief search engines as well as advertisement media. A website usually includes text and images. The initial we page is called index or home page. Several websites utilize the typically known Splash Page. This called Splash Pages may have welcome message, region/language selection or a disclaimer. 

Every web page included in a website is called an HTML content that includes a URL. Once web pages are created, they will be connected with a navigation menu that is made of hyperlinks. Because of rapid browsing speeds, this had brought lesser attention time and then greater challenging online audiences and for this there is reduced rate of the utilization of Splash Pages, specifically where commercial websites involved. After the web design of a website is done, this is needed to be released and uploaded for the audience to see it publicly on the internet. This can be accomplished through an FTP client. Once it has been released, the web developer may utilize a wide range of techniques in order to enhance the traffic.

Eight Steps to Web Design Best Practices

A commercial website is your virtual business residence; it's your online headquarters. If you want to reach the maximum number of visitors and sell to as many people as possible; it's important to practice good web design principles to make sure your site is successful. Many of the people who manage websites aren't aware of the many pitfalls awaiting them when they decide to become web marketers. There is more to a website than meets the eye. The most important principle of web design best practices is knowing what components to use on your website and how to ensure browser compatibility. 

With the new bells and whistles being introduced to make your web experience more enjoyable, it's hard to know what to use and how to use it properly. Here are eight tips for ensuring that your website is up to speed. 

1.) Optimize the images on your website. They make your site load very slowly. Be sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size. 

2.) Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into separate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content. 

3.) The website navigation menu should be clear and easy to follow so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion. Have clear directions on the navigation of your website. 

4.) Make sure your website complies to web standards at http://www.w3.org and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors. 

5.) Watch the use of scripts on your web pages. Too many scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that. 

6.) Use Cascading Style Sheets to develop your web content; they save a lot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go. 

7.) If you want to have professional web designers build your site, be prepared to spend quite a bit of money to get the job done right. Start with a good professional web template to keep costs down. You can buy WC3 standard templates and contact freelancers to work on your website. That will speed up the process of design and production. You can choose freelance designers from many online sources. 

8.) You could design the website yourself with the help of WYSIWYG software, (what you see is what you get) such as Microsoft Frontpage, HotCoffee, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on. If you do, remember to view the website on several different computers and on several browsers. Be careful when creating your own site. If you are new and inexperienced, have a professional do the finishing touches to ensure smooth operation of your site for years to come.

Web Design Company, to Make Your Website a Symbol of Beauty and Technicality

Online business is gaining popularity, because of the quick services and innovative opportunities that it provides. As a result, entrepreneurs who are interested in expanding their business are establishing it on the internet. Looking at the present day scenario it can be said that the online business is the most effective medium by which any company can promote its business. It is also one such medium which provides the entrepreneur with the opportunity to interact with its clients and above all it provides services instantly with ease. Now that you are in a position to start you online business easily, then the first and foremost thing that you require is a proficiently designed and beautiful looking website. 

Websites that can catch the attention of the visitors on the internet. These websites can act as the perfect tool, by which you can promote your online ventures and become a popular figure in the online business world. Primarily a mirror to reflect your image, it even helps you in getting a speedy sales and a fast business growth. All these factors have led to the vast increase in the demand of a variety of websites. It is because of this that there has been a tremendous growth in the website design company in India. These web designing companies have been dominating the World Wide Web. The other important reason behind the emergence of such organizations is the technical advancement and the upcoming of various new business platforms. But as this web designing business field is overflowing with the online competitors and every organization is trying to prove its worth by a perfect web site. 

So in this case, just possessing a website on the internet is not enough for any body. Therefore these web designing companies have been trying to use the latest technology and designing tools to design website which can retain the interest of the viewers. These web design companies also pay attention on several other aspects such as graphic designing, coral draw, content management, logo and brochure designing and many other things. All these aspects are kept into consideration during the overall development of any website. So, some of the important things that you should keep in mind while choosing a web design company, are that you should choose a company which is well versed with the designing of a perfect website. 

This thing includes layout and the design, navigational keys, font, color, text, theme, images and flash elements as the effectiveness of the website depends largely on it. A good web design company is the one who is aware of all these factors and can balance them properly to develop a beautiful website according to the business requirement of its clients.

Web Development and Web Design Insights

For very large business bodies, the development team is usually made up of hundreds of employees or developers. Smaller organizations usually hire a single webmaster to do this job. There are secondary employees as well who perform the jobs of graphic designers or technicians. Web development is essentially a collaborative effort. Web development has been a growing industry since the mid 90s. To add to this, the cost of web development has also come down to a huge extent. A person can now develop a decent website with little money. That is the charm of the World Wide Web. A number of companies have also come up that help people design and maintain their websites at negligible rates. 

Softwares like Dreamweaver and others have made it possible for a layman to build and develop a website with ease. The work culture has also changed in the software scenario. Instead of resorting to the age old technique of executing code on a local host machine, users are now interacting online in order to create new content. This has broken all barriers in communication and has created newer methods. Users can now interact with new applications and interfaces from various locations. Web development has caused serious transformation in communication and commerce. An example of this would be eBay. 

Online auctions and other interactive processes have literally changed the way in which people used to purchase their goods earlier. Also social networking sites like orkut and face book have created a path breaking method of communicating freely over the Internet. Web development has several subdivisions and hierarchies. We shall enlist a few as follows: Client side coding: AJAX provides various techniques of utilizing the JAVA script and other languages to improve the user's experience. 

JavaScript is a ubiquitous programming tool. Server side coding: this includes ASP, cold fusion, CGI, C server scripts, java, lotus domino, PHP, python, ruby, Smalltalk, SSJS and Web sphere. (Client + server) side: Google web toolkit, pyjamas and tarsus would best illustrate this. Another very important concept that we need to know is database technology. Database technology is the basic backbone of any information system. A few examples would be apache derby, DB2, firebird, Microsoft SQL server, MySQL, oracle, etc.

3 Important Aspects of Social Networking Web Design

Creating social networking websites is getting easier each day. However, designing successful websites has three major requirements:

1. Uniqueness
2. Lots of creativity
3. Lots of patience (time)

If a website is designed based on these three aspects there is no doubt that the project will be a grand success. Here, in this article, you will find the necessity of the three main factors of social networking web design.

The need of Uniqueness

Everyone using the Internet will be aware of the fact that the Networking arena is overcrowded. Hence uniqueness of the websites is very much essential to stand out from the crowd. To make your website unique, you will have to spend lots of time in analyzing the aspects of other popular websites like Facebook, Myspace and Orkut. You have to offer the users of your social networking website with something different and useful that most of the other popular websites do not offer. One of the reasons behind the popularity of Facebook is the handful of useful applications. There is a cool application called "Compare me" which allows users to compare themselves with the peers. Providing such cool, interactive applications in your own website will attract more people.

The need of Creativity

Creativity is very much essential for social networking websites. The above said uniqueness in web design can be achieved only by vivid creativity. So where does the creativity come from? Creativity comes as a result of extensive research. With lots of social networking websites out there, learning what to do with your social networking website is very easy.

The need of time

Both the above said aspects involved in designing websites depend upon time. The more the time you spend in designing your social networking website, the more will be the success of the same. Researching what the competitor websites are offering and coming up with creative ideas to make your social networking website look unique will eat up much of your time.

Bottom line

If you lack anyone of these there aspects of social networking website design, it's better to get some professional help rather than do it by yourself. There are many professional web designers with hands on experience in the same. All you have to do is to express you requirement and they will take care of everything- from planning to effective social networking web designing. There are some unique web design companies who offer promotion of your website along with designing. These services offered by the experts with strategic thinking will guide you to the path of success.

Do-it-Yourself Vs. Hiring a Professional Web Designer

We are living in a day and age where doing-it-yourself is all the rage, from do-it-yourself home renovation to do-it-yourself business card design. And now most recently, we have do-it-yourself website design. The question is, is doing it yourself web design better than getting a professional web designer to do it? In this article we will examine the advantages and disadvantages to building a website yourself. Complete Creative Power When building your own website with either template software you have purchased, or a free online application, you get to choose from a set collection of colours, font styles, and fancy backgrounds etc. 

So it is easy to fully customize the look and feel of your website, right? Well, not so fast. No doubt you are given a selection of styles and frills, but you are falling short on your company branding. What do these styles and frills say about your branding? Does your website illustrate a recognizable and professional brand that sets you apart from your competition? The answer is no. Web surfers can easily tell a professional website from an unprofessional one. And when given the choice, web surfers may be more inclined to trust and do business with the more professional looking company. 

If you are a student, hobbyist, or the purpose of your website is personal, a do-it-yourself templated website may be the perfect solution for your needs. However, if you are a business, or you are selling a product or service, hiring a professional to create your website is a must for branding purposes and for setting yourself apart from the competition. HTML is not that hard to learn It's true, basic HTML is not that hard to learn. If you have a lot of extra time and energy to pour into learning HTML, you could probably create your first webpage within a few days. But what will that webpage look like? Professional or amateurish? Chances are your webpage will look amateurish in comparison to your competition's, if your competition used a professional web designer. Also, what if your code has left serious security loopholes, or your webpage displays incorrectly in some web browsers? Not everyone uses Internet Explorer. 

And not everyone uses a PC. If it is important to you that your website reach a large audience - and make a positive and professional impression, then it is a good idea to hire a professional web designer. There is a reason why web programming and web design are professions. A professional web designer can ensure that there are no security loopholes in your code, make sure users across all platforms with different browsers will see your site correctly, and ensure that search engines such as Google will be able to read your code and index your website! Let's compare this scenario with that of a recreational photographer: 

Your Uncle just bought a new professional camera. He has no experience taking photos other than candid vacation snapshots. But he has read the manual and taught himself how this new camera functions. He says he is ready to start charging people to do their wedding photos. Do you hire him to do your wedding photos? The point is, just because someone learns how to use something new, doesn't suddenly mean they have the creativity or expertise to use it well. A professional camera does not make a professional photographer. Just as learning to code HTML doesn't mean your website will look professional. 

So now that the HTML is out of the way, how will you create your professional looking logo and/or customize the graphics for your website? To do this you will need a graphical software program such as Photoshop. ...Is Photoshop hard to learn? Again, if you have a lot of extra time to learn and master graphic programs such as Photoshop and learn programming languages such as HTML, designing a website yourself may be the perfect solution. Further, your new web design knowledge could be advantageous in understanding how, for example, coding and website content affects how your site will be indexed by Google or other search engines. Saving Time and Money If you bought a web design do-it-yourself kit, it probably seemed like an affordable and easy to use solution. Simply fill in the blanks and the program will do the rest for you. Seems quick and easy, right? The first question you should consider is, how much money is your time worth? If you have a lot of extra time and taking on website design seems like a fun and reasonable thing to do, then this option may be right for you. 

But you should keep one thing in mind before you start. What if you invest your time to create your own website and it doesn't work properly, or it doesn't look professional? Then what? Let's compare this scenario to a home renovation project: You went to Home Depot and bought new shingles for your roof. The price of the shingles were somewhat affordable and they came with a user manual - which is great because it is your first time roofing. Perfect you are on your way. 

So you take the time and learn how to re-shingle your roof and you complete the job. Congratulations! The only problem is that your neighbours and potential future home buyers can see that it doesn't quite look professional... and when it rains parts of the roof leak... sometimes. Now what? You have to find a professional to fix the mistakes and the leak. So not only do you have to pay a professional roofer to re-do the job, you also lose money on the shingles you purchased, and you wasted your time. Doing it yourself may save you money at first, but if you have to hire a professional to correct any problems later, it may end up costing you even more money.

Increase Your Traffic Through Web Marketing, SEO and Web Design

Web marketing provides businesses an aggressive means to push products and brands. For this reason, the desire to reach the top place in search engines can be realized and can also mean the success of any online company. Top search engines such as Yahoo, MSN and Google have been used to re-create the performance of websites, especially, in sales performance and awareness for brands. Every business in the Internet competes for attention. This made web marketing achieve global spread because almost everybody now wants to get audience. However, getting traffic may not be as easy if competition on the web is looked into. Stay ahead, and keep the lead. To create a great Web site use Web Design and HTML. Web development and Web site design to build Web sites that customers will appreciate. These methods below can provide the means to make that a reality for an Internet business. One of the most excellent methods of getting relevant traffic is called Search engine optimization (SEO). Further processes of directing traffic to sites are often expensive yet do not also assure high conversion rate compared to SEO. SEO is a proven method, which is very effective in bringing relevant traffic. It offers more of quality leads while having quantity at the same time. Here are few reasons why websites should be applied with SEO: o 400 million people or a total 92% of internet users are on Google, Yahoo or MSN to get information before they buy products or services. o 93% users have short attention span that is why they only see pages 1-2. So, if your site can't be found there, you are losing customers already. o 33% of internet users trust those sites that are advertised in the search results. o SEO is 4 times more effective than other methods of online advertising like Pay Per Click. o Getting high on search engine ranking is a 24/7 campaign. Even when you sleep, your site is still gaining customers. o Online marketing is way ahead in getting savings in advertising costs compared to traditional print advertising.

Background of Web Design

The most fundamental aspect of design - communication-based problem solving for a client - exists logically prior to the choice of media in which the problem might be solved. And while the INTERNET and the web are innovative, they and their associated design practices draw heavily on the existing knowledge. The domains and skill from which web design draw are extensive. The design of graphical user interface for software, which encompasses screen-based tools with user interact, IA a close precursor to web design. Anyone who has used a computer for some time will be familiar, perhaps unconsciously, with the conversions in this kind of design. 

The other similarity with software is that web site generally require the assistance of software engineers to be able to move from design solution to implementation. However, software is very task oriented and tends to focus on the document work area at which tools appear (a 'bring me' model). The web, by contest, is broader in its applications, and these are often more content-led and less task-centric (think of an online newspaper) and it's client -server model mandates a 'go to', rather than the 'bring me', model in which users have to move to a new page with every action. Library science and information design are closer precursor here. Product design also has a lot in common with web design.

 Like software, products tend to be task-oriented, though they interface with the user in more dimensions to communicate what they can do and how they can be used. Like the web, product design and development is more likely to be a core business activity than print non-linear narrative where user can freely navigate through the game 'content', and even manipulate or change it. In another imagination-driven area of our culture, film and other time-based media bring to web design an understanding of narrative and story-telling, scene-setting and changing. pace and drama. (Ted Nelson argued that "interaction deign is a subset of film-making".) These characteristics will be more important for web design as the INTERNET becomes useful beyond its initial commercial applications. 

Back in the world of commercial design, the mastery of visual communication and typography inform design for the web, particularly at the level of the text and image driven page. The particular skills associated with information design are also invaluable for creating intelligible and usable products given design and thus require more extensive negotiation - with, among others, engineering, sales and marketing, customer support and many other parts of the organization Both product and software design (ans thus web design) draw on knowledge of the humans physical and psychological abilities and limitations. 

Physical aspects are addressed by ergonomics and the psychological by human cognition and, in the case of computing, by human-computer interaction (HCI). The design of the mouse or of a keyboard is the ergonomics's focus, while the human cognition expert would have a view on how many items in a menu someone could take in, or the time it would take for a user to lose focuser to begin feeling frustrated waiting for a web page to load.

What a Good Website Designer and a Web Developer Should Know About Web Design

So, what it is really that distinguishes a good website from a poorly designed web site? The topic is as broadly debatable as Windows over Linux is but it all boils down to the two important keywords: development and design! A good web designer offering web site design services must know the difference between the two words. Web development in itself is a broad term for any activities related to website, web application, web solution, e-commerce development, web content development, client-side / server-side coding, web solutions and web database system. 

Web development usually refers only to the technical aspects of building a website. Web design on the other hand is perceived as the artistic side of creating a website that involves the visual styles, layout coherence, color theme considerations and all other factors that has something to do with the general appearance of the site, vis-à-vis its functions. Therefore, we may conclude that web development equates to a programmer's logic craftsmanship while website design is a product of an artist's imaginative and creative ideas. If this is true which I'm sure most website design firms and individual web designers in the Philippines would agree that a good website must be a combination of digital landscape and well planned programming logic. 

The dilemma however is that majority of web designers falls short of these two important aspects. Worst, most website developers do not realized these qualifications. I don't have anything against talented and enterprising individual with knowledge on web design and development but there is more than simply knowing the basic of html and image editing to come up with a commercial grade website. We must put in mind that a website is our business or personal identity online. It is the sum total of our being and our business that is accessible to clients and prospective clients. 

It means therefore that a website is our front line to the information age and that should be well planned and designed in order for it to serve its purpose. There are however rampant offering on "create your own website in minutes" application and other template-based website. I'm baffled by these ideas simply because it directly contradicts to what I have just discussed above. Choosing to publish a website from a template equates to buying a white cardboard box in the department store and stamping it with your product's name, no branding, no image building, no identity! It's like the usual "Special Patis (Fish Sauce) label you see all over the wet market. All of them claim to be special but the sad truth is that non of them are. 

As I have mentioned already, there are two important keywords in the subject, they are Website development and Web site design. Development is of course straight forward and can be learned in school. However, design is a rather different zone in the battlefield of web design. As the word design implies, it has something to do with creative ideas carefully woven by an artist - a full fledge designer who is there to collate the meaning of symbols, colors, sizes and positioning of every element in a website. It is ironic though that most web design firms out there offers template based website that are available in many template stores, worst many of them are available for free. So to say, if you have your prestigious business website made from templates, chances are that you have a twin website somewhere in the internet with only its mole and hair different from yours - the logo and text content, but they are visual replica of each other.

Web Designing Tips

More and more people are getting fond of web design. Whether for work related purposes or for personal-use purposes. Some people get short courses to study web designing and some rely on e-learning and get web designing tutorials on-line. For people who works as a web designer, they know the do's and dont's of web designing, for most of them at least. For those who don't, especially those who are new in the field, here are some basic tips that would help in enhancing your web designing skills. 

Keep your index page short For the convenience of your visitor, don't place all your content on the index page. Remember that you can use several pages on making a web site. Having a single-page site with all the contents there will make a visitor dizzy and confused. Create a toolbar or menus easy navigation This will make your visitors stay in your site longer. After reading the content of your page, it is more likely that your visitor will look for other pages on your site that would interest him. Using short, clear and precise words will also help the visitor know the content of the page where your link is going. 

I suggest to place the navigation menu on top and the other main links on the right hand side menu. You can also use a drop-down menus if you have many links. Clean layout design Align the contents of the page properly. You can use as many tables as you need to be able to insert the images or whatever you need for the page. Beginners tend to put as much images as they can, thinking it would be nice to look at, but it is advisable to put minimal photos. For a safer design, you can also use templates. Use uniform fonts As much as possible, use only two to three kinds of font face and the suggested sizes are ten to fourteen points. 

Just use different font styles, italics for instance, to emphasize keywords. Also, use a font that is available on all computers to prevent having a messed up design. Cross browser compatible Keep in mind that there are other internet browsers other than what you are using. At least make sure that your codes and design are compatible to the major browsers like Internet Explorer 5+, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Opera 7.0 and Netscape Navigator 6+ . These are just basic tips and suggestions on web designing but are guaranteed useful. These can be used as guide on building your own site but still the overall design is in your hands.

Hire A Web Designer Or Build The Site Yourself?

After you've planned the design and layout of your website, you need to decide on how you're actually going to build the website. This will usually take up a lot of time and hard work, but once you get your site up and running, it should be well worth the effort, considering the potential profits you may reap. 

There're basically 2 options: One is to build the website on your own, the other is to hire a web designer to build it for you. In this article, we will discuss the pros and cons of each option, and help you decide which option is the best for you. Build The Website Yourself If you have some programming skills and are well versed in HTML or PHP, you should definitely choose to build the website on your own. 

The benefits are: You have the greatest flexibility in customizing your site. This means you get full control over exactly which components you want to include on your site and where you want to place them. Since you'll be testing a lot and restructuring your site frequently when your business is just starting out, you can manage all the changes yourself without needing to approach your web designer again each time you need to restructure your site. 

You can maintain your site on your own. Each time you need to make small updates to the product catalogues or new promotions, you can make the updates on your own without difficulties. You do not have to pay the hefty fees of hiring a web designer. Thus, as you can see here, designing the website on your own is definitely better than hiring a web designer to build the site for you, if you're willing to spend more time learning HTML and building the site.

What to Expect From a Professional Web Design Company

If you are looking for a professional web design company that can provide you with comprehensive, effective web design services, along with internet marketing solutions, consider researching web design company web sites on the internet. Compare and review services, prices, and client testimonials before choosing your web design company. There are many different web design companies to choose from, be sure that you will get an expert and professional service that can lead to profitable business solutions. 

Most professional web design companies can offer the services of staff that are talented and specialized, trained professionals, all experts in their chosen fields, choose a company that values not only local and international clients. These companies can supply the services and technical expertise to not only provide an innovative and market researched web site, but also to deliver a comprehensive service. An expert web design company should be able to provide you with ideas, advice, assistance and solutions to creating an effective web site. 

Choose a company that can also offer innovation, inspiring web design, web site development, graphic design and art direction. An excellent choice for your chosen company would also be where experienced staff can also offer online marketing solutions to promote your web site. You should expect professional, speedy, versatile, open, friendly and cost efficient service, it is also advisable to research and compare other design companies to the one you have chosen to use. The web design company you choose should be able to provide you with the tools and materials to market your new venture effectively, leading to successful online business. 

Price is also an issue that may require research from your side; unfortunately, there are a number of web design companies that are renowned for over-charging their customers, where in fact there are many web design companies that can offer great services and skilled knowledge to create an effective web site for an affordable cost. Research and compare quotes, if you are still unsure, research client testimonials for your chosen web design company to prove competent and professional services. 

It is also recommended that your chosen web design company can offer follow-up services, such as expert online marketing. It is suggested that your web design company is able to provide services similar to professional search engine marketing companies. These companies can effectively promote your web site once development is complete, the idea here is that the marketing tactics will create more internet traffic (potential customers) to your web site. Get comprehensive and effective internet services from a top web design company.

Solutions for your Business: Denver Web Design and Internet Marketing

Internet marketing and web design go hand in hand. The web allows the whole world to find out about a certain product or service through online advertising. So, it's only natural that marketing strategies and the appreciated Denver web design companies are very popular nowadays. Since a pleasant web design is necessary for any website that wants to attract customers, it's not wise to avoid personalizing your business when working online. You shouldn't fear the web just because of a few tricks you haven't found out about yet. There are a lot of people that don't know their way around the information superhighway. 

One thing you should know about this great world wide market called the Internet is that it offers a lot of possibilities and the chances to sell information grow if your packaging is attractive. Denver web design and Denver internet marketing are indispensable for a successful business. Providing visually appealing sites, Denver web design puts your site in front of the competition. The information you present on your site can be very useful, but the web design matters just as much. 

Clients first come into contact with how your business services are presented. Their first impression is not formed by the formal articles that appear on your pages. Denver web design knows this and they provide professional help. Using cutting edge tools, designing easy-to-navigate sites, making user friendly pages and keeping in mind that the business has to be promoted, Denver web design creates exactly what your customers look for. They do their job in a wonderful manner because they are experts who want to please not only you, but your clients as well. So, you see, web design is the first step in making your business a popular one. You probably remember visiting other websites and recall enjoying only some of them. 

Did you ask yourself why? Could it have been the web design? Their brands haven't faded from your memory. They were easy to spot, yet they did not bother you. Their custom web design was better than what you usually see. You especially liked the flash videos. Although the wonderful colors did not distract you from the information you were reading, they had a special charm. You felt safe and everything worked smooth. "The pages load easily", you thought. You don't like to wait and this site seemed to know it. The site didn't know it, but the people that worked at it knew. 

Denver web design wants to make your business work by itself. If you want your customers to remain as pleasantly impressed as you did, then a Denver web design is a wonderful choice. You can even have your corporate identity synthesized and your standards of communication set. Web design allows your business to transmit a certain clear message to your clients: "Please visit our site again!" After you succeed in offering the best to the world, you have to make your business known. Search engines display hundreds of sites to the interested clients that look for certain services. How will they find you? This is where internet marketing comes in. There will be lots of questions you will ask yourself, but Denver Internet marketing can be the answer for all of them. 

If you need SEO, advertising, link management, banners, affiliate marketing, local marketing - shortly said traffic - , then you need internet marketing. Because there are so many options through which you can gain publicity, you will need a strategy, people to work for you and to manage this sort of problems. Denver Internet marketing offers alternative methods and puts web experience in your service. You can have several advantages because, having internet marketing done for you site you will be able to profit from illustrated brochures, business cards, letterheads and artworks. 

So you decided to use Denver web design and Denver internet marketing. What do you start with? Getting informed, of course. Try to find out which service provider is best for you. Any appreciated Denver web design or Denver internet marketing company has itself a well developed web site. Their promotion can inform you on how well they promote others. Internet marketing is their job. Their business survives because of the traffic they provide for themselves. Is their company among the best? Is it popular? Is it advertised? These are questions that will tell you how well they know internet marketing. The first encounter with their web design should talk about their services' quality. Is their site pleasant? Does it attract you like those well made sites that you can't forget? Is it elegant or stylish? If you think the Denver web design company you chose has talented people, then you can work with them without worries. The same goes for the Denver internet marketing providers.

Importance of Browser Compatibility in Web Design

Though browser compatibility is an important part of successful web design, I found that most of the clients are ignorant of this fact. Throughout my career in web development I found very few client who mention this aspect in their requirement document. I shall not hold them solely responsible for this. I came across many colleagues (web programmers) in my tenure in the field of web design who also do not take proper care of this aspect. Now I shall explain the browser compatibility issue from my experience.

 Hope you will enjoy the reading and it will be helpful for you in future. What happened when a viewer opens a web page? He sends the request to open a particular web page by giving the URL (universal resource locator) in the form of "http://www" (http means hyper text transfer protocol and protocol means rules) to the server via a software application. This software application is called the 'Browser'. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari etc. are the examples of such browsers. The browser connects the server through the Internet gateway. We send the request to the modem through the computer's IP number.

 Modem sends the request to the ISP's (Internet Service Provider) IP number and finally connects it to the Domain Name Server (DNS), the server which keeps the mapping of the IP and the Domains). After connecting the web page, ISP sends the contents of that web page to the requesting computer through the browser. Whatever may be the form of the info, it comes in the form of html (hypertext mark-up language) only and the browser converts this html to normal output what we understand. That is why html is called a client side scripting language. So, a visitor can open a web page using any of the well-known browsers he likes. The choice of the browser may vary according to the availability of the browser, using habit of the particular cluster of viewers etc.

 Here lies the basic problem. Because each browser does not read the HTML code in the same fashion and you, being the site owner, do not have any control on which Internet browser will be used to view your site. What may happen if a website is not built compatible to multiple browsers? Non-compatibility to multiple browsers normally does not effect the functionalities of a website. Rather it mostly affects the design view of a site, which creates the first long lasting impression on a viewers mind. A website may be displayed perfectly in a particular version of IE, but may look much different in Fire fox and even in other versions of IE also. The whole thing depends on the level of complexity of the design. In case of simple designs, if some conventions like W3C validation and standard resolution of 1024 pixels X 768 pixels are followed during the development process, normally it does not create any problem. But in case of a complex design, lot of other things should be taken care of. Now, to the best of my ability I shall try to write down some suggestions for the site owners and the web designers. It is nothing new; but may act as a reminder during the development process. My suggestions for the website owners: It is a common practice for a good web development company to make all the websites compatible to two major browsers, named Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Still I like to say a few words to the respectable site owners.

 Don't forget to mention this aspect in your work specifications document. Set your target audience and try to anticipate their browsing habits. Suppose your target audience is the viewers of Western Europe and there, viewers prefer Safari to IE or Mozilla. Then you have tell your website designer to make it compatible to Safari and at least another one of global acceptance like IE and Mozilla. You may have your website compatible to more than two browsers at time. But it may cost you few bucks more. My suggestion for the web developers: Even if your client doesn't mention anything about the browser compatibility or is ignorant of the fact totally, it is your moral obligation to make it compatible to the most frequently used version of IE and Mozilla (IE 6.0 & Mozilla 3.0).

If the client is specific about his choice of browsers then get relaxed. There are many tools available that will help you to make your Website compatible to multiple browsers. Alternatively you can download a version each of the browsers you need and test your Web site in each of them. It is important to know that most of the discrepancies you will find are because of the different ways the browsers handle erroneous code. Always try to get the HTML coding of your website W3C validation by using validating tools. Develop the web site of your client by setting your computer's resolution to 1024 pixels x 768 pixels. This resolution is fairly common and should take care of almost all your visitors, including those using wide screen monitors and laptops. It is a common practice for the web programmers to apply CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) for designing purposes. They develop many CSS classes that are applied to different HTML components. While creating a CSS class remember that a single CSS class may behave differently in different browsers.