Business Development Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Ramirez Creative Solutions

Free Websites Are Headaches for the Consumer

Warning: To anyone searching for free websites, you will find what you are looking for, and you will get what you pay for. In my years of developing websites, I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity of scrapping many free templates for a more effective website. Though I’ve made money on these ventures, which is always a plus, but it burdens me, that companies will sell a hosting service to a customer, and then give them a free website builder. It’s criminal because most customers don’t know what they are doing, so when they’re done, the website will be horrendous. Secondly, they are stuck to that layout, which stifles their creativity. Thirdly, the company will then charge the consumer for layout changes and separate themes. So my point is, that if you are serious about your business, then you should be serious about avenues that you take to advertise it as well. If you have a template builder that you just plug your information into, chances are, there is probably 100 other people with that same free website template within your demographic.

Be Willing to Invest in Your Website

When you think about advertisement, you think of business cards, flyers, posters, anything that you get printed to display to the public. Well, this is true, print advertisement is good advertisement. Your website is part of your advertisement as well. The same way you invest money into your print advertising is the same way you should be willing to invest in your website. Count it as an investment, because with investments you should see some kind of return, Correct? If your website is designed properly, it should be able to expose you to the public enough that you at least have people signing up for an email list, which will be potential customers.

Determine What You Are Willing to Invest

Set yourself a budget aside for your website. The same way you budget your bills, roll your website into your bills as part of your business expenses. Don’t be afraid of the price, most of the time you are not paying the whole bill up front. Most companies will take half up front and half when the job is finished. Your best bet is to go with companies that have design packages, so not only are you getting your website designed, you are also getting some other benefits with the package, such as logo design or some initial Search Engine Optimization done, and etc. Once you are willing to invest, then you’ve already bridged the gap from consumer to business owner.

Do What You Do Best

Whether you know what you want, or you are not sure, do what you do best, and that is run your business. The reason you chose to hire a web developer to develop your website is because 1.) You probably felt overwhelmed with the whole web design thing. 2.) You don’t have time to work on a website or to manage it. 3.) It was just easier to go with a professional. Trust me, there’s nothing worse than being disgruntled with any aspect of your business, because it makes you disgruntled in other aspects of your business. If you are disgruntled, it’s probably because you are trying to tackle a project that isn’t in your skill set. Someone along the way said that doing “this certain thing” would be a great idea, and they were probably right. What they failed to mention was that they didn’t do it all by themselves, they had help. Be willing to outsource the things that you don’t know how to do, so that you can concentrate on the daily operations of your business.

Conclusion

As you can see, trying to upkeep a free website could be your worst nightmare. You will lose sleep, with how much time and effort it is taking you to build and construct this website, and it’s not as beautiful as you want it to be. After you finished it really is just a website, and it’s not doing anything for you. Hire a professional. Sit down with them, and tell them what websites you have seen that you like. What things you would like to see in your website, and what you hope that your website can do for you. Sky is the limit. I hope this helps retrain your thought process on why free websites are probably not the best idea. I pray I help save you from a future headache, and I encourage you to hire somebody to take care of your website for you.

God Bless!

Traffic Jams & Social Media Gridlock

In order to have Social Media Gridlock that means there has to be some kind of workflow stoppage. Is social media working for you? Are you seeing an increase in page hits on your website because of Social Media? If the answer is “No”, let’s identify the problem. There are probably going to be 5 Main Reasons that Social Media Gridlock occurs, let’s discuss them!

1. Simply Not Taking Advantage of Social Media

Just by opening an account on Social Media alone can increase the opportunity for more website traffic. Once you open up an account, then you are immediately qualified to submit information to millions of users. Take advantage of it, you will never know how much it will help you, if you never try it out.

2. Posting Irrelevant Information to Your Followers

Think about yourself, are you going to read something that has nothing to do with you? Neither are your followers. When you are posting information, no matter what social media platform it is, make sure that your information is relevant to your followers. Nothing is worse, then being spammed with a whole bunch of information that has nothing to do with you. Find your outlets, if you are posting information that might not be relevant to all your followers, so up some kind of follower list or group, so that it can only be seen by those who would be interested in your post.

3. Engaging with Your Followers

When you have a group of followers the most courteous thing to do is follow them back. At least they feel valued enough by you, that you followed them back, if not, your follow list will continue to be low and shallow. Be interesting. Don’t just post your agenda. As a business, you might have a post schedule, Good! You should. Don’t just post your blogs or your marketing post and expect to see some kind of response. To tell you the truth, the public can care less about your product or service. If a person doesn’t feel comfortable with you as a person, then chances are they’re not going to do business with you anyway. Relate with your followers; engage with them in conversation, talking about issues that interest them. As you do this, take a mental or physical survey, how people feel about certain topics so that you can measure what interest your followers and what doesn’t, so you can continue to post topics that draw the attention of your readers.

4. Posting Without Links Back to Your Website

If you’re posting posts that don’t have direct links back to your website, then you are wasting your time on Social Media. As a business, your time is valuable; you don’t have the time to just randomly post remarks that do nothing for your business. As a business the best way to bring traffic back to your website is by writing blogs, and posting these blogs on a regular basis. You guys have heard me say this before, but it is vital. If your posts don’t contain a back link to your website, then your time spent is pointless. The whole point of Social Media as a business is to drive traffic back to your website. If you are not accomplishing this with your posts, then you should be re-evaluating. You might ask, well how can I know where my traffic is coming from. There are plenty of free services out there that can help you with this. Google Analytics is an excellent and specialized tool that will not only tell you where your traffic is coming from, it’ll tell you what pages they clicked on, what browser their using, what country it’s coming from, it’s an incredible resource, I recommend it to all businesses that are trying to track their traffic.

5. Being an Absentee

As a poster, you have to be consistent. Don’t post an extreme amount of post one day and then disappear for a week. It doesn’t do anything for your social status. If you know that you are going to have a busy day or busy couple days, then schedule some relevant post with free programs like www.timely.is, at least to make it look like your available. Not posting is a good way to lose followers, and to lose the interest of those who choose to still follow you.

Conclusion

If you can follow these 5 simple steps, I guarantee that the traffic on your website will start to increase. Don’t be satisfied with the traffic you already have, there can always be more. Be aggressive in your attempts to bring traffic to your website, and however you choose to do it, be consistent. If you don’t have the time, hire a content manager to take on these tasks for you. You will be amazed at the results, and you’ll start to see that traffic is starting to turn into income.

God Bless!

Advertising On A Budget For Startup Businesses

So, you’ve finally decided to take a leap of faith and venture out into the world of entrepreneurship. Good for you. Now as you go through all of the rigmarole necessary to become a legitimate business, you will quickly find out one thing for sure. It’s expensive. As if you haven’t already put a lot of money into your dream already, one of the most critical and expensive areas in business ownership is waiting to be addressed.

Let’s face it; your business needs to grow. But, for that to happen, you must sow the seeds of familiarity. You may have the greatest product this side of the hemisphere, but without customers, it will just be your little secret. You must find an inexpensive way to advertise. Do something that can effectively get the message out, and bring the money in. Most of all, something that won’t put you in more debt than you already are. Here are a few tips to get you on the right track:

1. You’re a small business that is just starting to spread its wings, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ready to fly. The most inexpensive way to advertise is word of mouth. Take business cards wherever you go. If you don’t have any, make some. They’re not just to make you look business-like. Those are a form of advertising. Speak to those individuals you come across that may have a need for your services or product. If they don’t have a need, they may know someone who will. Give out two to three cards at a time. That way they can distribute your card to friends and keep one for themselves.
2. Just as you are a small business trying to make a living, there are others out there just like you. Maybe, just maybe the two or three of you can work out a deal that saves you all some cash. Pamphlets, business cards, and posters can be displayed at each other’s business. Viola! Instant advertisement. Most of all, it’s usually free.
3. If you have looked into posting an ad in the local yellow pages you have learned something of great value. It’s ridiculously expensive! If your business is not large enough to warrant that type of expensive advertising, I recommend this alternative. If you are a member of a church, organization, or know of someone else who is, it’s likely they have some sort of business directory. Usually, the cost is very minimal to post an add in something like this, and compared to your local phone directory its dirt cheap.
4. Finally, if you’ve looked into possibly getting a website you’ve found that this to may be expensive. If you are not computer savvy and wouldn’t know where to start, look into other small business startups like yours. A lot of times their fees and rates are much less expensive than businesses that have been overcharging its customers for years. Negotiate your costs. You will find that other small businesses will be willing to do that just to get your business. Online advertising is fastly becoming the overall choice of advertising by small and large businesses alike. Don’t be scared away by over priced bullies.

These are just a few tips that can get you started in the right direction. There are plenty more ways to save a dollar in this anti small business economy. For more tips on how to save money for your small business, subscribe to this blog and receive more helpful articles like this one.

Do My Graphics Compliment or Compromise My Content?

One question you should ask yourself when putting your website together is, “Do my graphics compliment or compromise my content?” Compliment vs. Compromise in the world of web design will effect what Google Analytics describes as “Bounce Rate.” Your Bounce Rate is how long a visitor visits your website. If your graphics compliment your content and your content compliments your graphics, then most likely visitors are going to visit your website longer. Granted, if your graphics have nothing to do with your content, or they’re just not innovative or cutting edge, then most likely that potential customer that you worked to get to come to your website will, “Bounce!” I’m going to talk about these two very important roles that should co-exist in the life of your website.

1. Professional and Relevant Content Writing

The content on your website should be standardized by the leading specialist in your certain field. So suppose you owned a carpet cleaning company, your research for your content writing would be on companies such as Stanley Steemer and Chem-Dry. You want to study what your top competitor is doing in order to write your content. You don’t want to be totally out in left field while your top competitor is steadily gaining new clients. The reason why your top competitor is your top competitor is because they have a formula that works. So as you begin to write your content, you want to use the same buzz words that the competitor is using, and ultimately these buzz words should double as your keywords to help with your search engine optimization. There’s nothing new under the sun, and there’s no business that hasn’t already been done or thought of. Your services are probably going to be very similar to what your competitor is offering, so study their work.

2. Graphics That Adhere Your Content

When you’re communicating the look and feel of your website to your web developer, they should have enough common sense and knowledge in graphic design to find or create pictures that are relevant to your topics or services. Not only do you want relevant graphics, but you want your graphics to act as an adhesive, tying the two together to create a marriage between content and graphics. Without graphics on website, your content would look like one long run-on sentence. This would work, if people were information first. Unfortunately, people have short attention spans, and like dogs, we need to see the shiny object in order for us to run towards it. Instead of this being a problem, this is part of the solution, because it gives you and your web developer the opportunity to be creative. We were created to create, we have divine revelation, and creative integrity written into our DNA, so use it. Be as creative as possible, without being overwhelming. The same way that you study the competitors website for content, see how they are using their graphics to marry their content, so not only does the content tell the story, but the graphic speaks as well. There should be no reason why your website should look and feel like it stepped out of the 1990’s. With evolving software like Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, your web developer should be able to create some graphics that separate you from the competition. You and your competition should be running a leg to leg race. Don’t allow the competition to have the upper hand, study their work once again, and then be innovative and unique in your approach. As long as you have dreams and ambitions for the success of your business, then your ideas should come by the handful. Don’t think because you are not an artist or a graphic designer that you don’t know what you want. Sketch out some ideas, verbalize it, and a good graphic designer will be able to capture your vision, and supply you with a physical copy of your idea.

God Bless!

5 Valuable Tips to Increase Your SEO Ranking

When developing a website, one of the first things you should have in mind is, “What is my game plan for the SEO Ranking of this Website?” Most likely, the first question that a customer usually asks before having a website designed is, “Am I going to be able to be found?” The answer to this question is conditional. It could be “yes” based on the amount of work you as the customer are willing to do, or it could be “probably not” if you’re not willing to update your information on a regular basis.

1. Keeping Your Information Fresh

The best way to keep your information fresh, is for you to make up your mind, and say that I’m willing to do what it takes. So if you’re willing to do what it takes, then the same blog that you are reading now, is what you will do to keep massive amounts of information coming to your website. What if you’re not a strong writer? There are individuals called Content Managers and this is what they specialize in, is Content Management, writing and editing information. The best person for this job is probably the same person that developed your website.

2. Why Is It Important To Blog?

Not only does blogging keep massive amounts of information coming to your website on a regular basis, but blogging keeps relevant information coming to your website on a regular basis. Blogging relevant information to your website is significant, because it increases the amount of keywords that are in your website. When your web developer develops your website, he should develop a keyword or key phrase list that will be imbedded in the source code of your website. The more times these keywords or key phrases appear in the content of your website, the higher the possibility of your website ranking within the search engines.

3. Driving Traffic To Your Website

Once you’ve established a writing schedule for your blogs, once a week, twice a week, once a month, then you are going to start posting links to your blogs via social media. I truly believe as a business, that social media makes blogging all worthwhile. Every time you blog and you post these blogs through Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, you are creating what is called back links. Back links are exactly what they’re called, links that lead back to your website. This starts to create traffic. With back links available, this increases the validity of your website. The more back links that you can get back to your website, the more your traffic will increase. Thus, increasing the possibility of your website ranking within the search engines.

4. Video and Picture Tags

You may ask, “Is there any way that I can label my pictures and videos, that would help my SEO Ranking?” Absolutely! With pictures and videos you can add titles and alt tags to them to make them SEO friendly. Your title tag is going to be the label of the picture when someone rolls over it, and your alt tag is what will show, if the picture doesn’t show when being viewed on the browser.

5. Basic SEO Rules

When the search engine spiders or robots are scanning through your website, there are some basic things that they are looking for. Side Note* If there is a whole bunch of useless code in the header of your website, then it will take the search robots too long to get to the content of your website resulting in a low SEO Ranking. That’s why it’s important to use external style sheets and external files for your javascript and jquery files.* The first thing that the search engine robots should see is your list of keywords or key phrases and your meta-description. Secondly, your keywords and key phrases should be used in your heading tags. Naturally, the order of importance matters based on the chronological order of the heading tags, with H1 being the most important, and H6 being the least important. Then after you enter your heading tags, you want to make sure that your content is saturated with your keywords and/or key phrases.

Conclusion

So as you can see, developing SEO for your website isn’t just one thing, but a group of things working together to help create a ranking for your website. Working together with your web developer to help you manage these task, will help your website begin to appear in the search engine rankings. If you do these things continuously, then you are setting your website up for a very successful campaign, and more importantly increasing your public visibility. Warning: Do not get complacent or satisfied with where you are currently ranked, because chances are, you won’t be there next week!

God Bless!

Phishing Still Happens, Just With a Different Hook

The internet has become our main source of information. OK, that first statement was for those of us that have been living in the pre-desktop era and refuse to venture off into the “New World Order” of free information. Not even Bill Gates thought the internet would be as popular and important as it is today. Every day there are millions of transactions that occur between people, families, and even businesses without even giving a second thought of doing it the old fashioned way. Besides, who ever heard of a face to face transaction anyway?

Truth is with all of this information being passed everywhere; there are those that would use these powers for evil. Phishing has long been a method that online predators and hackers use to gain access to valid important information. Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information, by any means necessary. There have been millions of innocent people scammed by those who have no shame and pry on the unsuspecting. Here are a few ways to protect yourself against phishing:

Ensure you have some form of anti-phishing software loaded on your PC. This will either disallow phishing emails or re-direct them to the “junk” folder in your email.
Never offer any sensitive information to anyone you don’t know over the internet, over the telephone, or through email. That includes social security numbers, address, phone numbers, and banking information. Most legitimate businesses will not ask for such information outright, and require you to log-in to a secure website before requiring such information from you.
Do your research. If you are being solicited by a “business” online or over the phone, do your due diligence and check their website. Ensure the website is secure. Look for the little padlock on the web page. Also check the Better Business Bureau for report on the history of the business.

Remember that a good scam requires that it sound legitimate. It wouldn’t be much of a scam if it weren’t. So protect yourself, your finances, your families and your businesses.

Great Logos Drive Clientele & Income

Logos are a dime a dozen. Logos come and logos go, but Great Logos will last a lifetime. Some logos have become timeless, for instance, the McDonald’s logo, when you see this logo, or even your kids see this logo, they know it is McDonald’s. McDonald’s Logo is so popular now, that they have removed the company name from the bottom of the logo. That is logo staying power, and this is just one example of how logos stand the test of time. This blog is not only for logo designers, but business owners who need a logo, or have a logo and are not happy with it. Hopefully business owners will say, “I really need a professional to design a timeless logo for me.” Hopefully this blog will also challenge logo designers, including myself to say, “When I create this logo, will it represent this business 50 years from now?”

1. Brainstorming With The Client

Creating logos for customers sometimes can be hair-pulling, but be patient with them, and coach them into understanding what they need and what they want. Pick a time to sit down with them, and create some open ended questions, that cause them to respond with descriptive answers. Don’t worry though, not all customers need coaching. Proactive customers will already have 2 or 3 designs pieced together with some clipart they found on google. If a customer is proactive enough to take the time to figure out what they want, then blow their mind with what you produce, based on their mock-ups.

2. The Decision Process

When creating your logo, you must first make the decision, whether it’s going to be a text logo, a picture logo, or a combination of both. It doesn’t really matter which one you choose, just know that the logo’s presentation is dependent upon how unique it is, and this should set it apart from others. Rule of Thumb: All logos must work in black and white first, before adding color. If it doesn’t work in black and white, then it’s not a good logo. The reason why is because logos should be able to look good on all platforms, including news print. For this reason, it is also good to have more than one version of the finished logo.

3. Beginning To Illustrate

Personally, when I begin to create a logo, if I’ve decided on an image that is going to represent this company, then I’m going to draw it. Freehand is not my specialty, but the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator is incredible. So what I tend to do is find an image on google, and trace it, then create the logo around it. Once you’ve illustrated your logo, then you’re going to transfer the logo into photoshop to stylize it. In order to accomplish this affectively, all the elements of the logo must be created in layers, so that you can transfer them into photoshop individually.

4. Stylizing the Logo

Stylizing your logo is going to be the last step in the logo making process. You want to be careful though, stylizing a logo for the web is different than stylizing a logo for print. When you stylize a logo for the web, basically anything goes, for example, drop shadows, strokes, bevels, glows, etc. When you stylize a logo for print, you can use your bevels, and strokes, but be very gradual with your glows, and very subtle with your drop shadows. Drop shadows don’t print well, so you only want to add enough drop shadow to make the logo pop to give it that 3-D effect. As we talked about in the illustration phase of the logo, putting your effects and drop shadows on your individual pieces of the logo, really give it that professional edge.

5. Conclusion

Creating logos is a process that’s been around for ages, no matter what name it has gone by. Whether it was called Hieroglyphics or the King’s Coat of Arms or branding animals through blacksmith, these were all forms of logos in the past. Logo Design is not going anywhere, just getting more innovative. Ultimately, you want a logo that has staying power, and to be a logo that people on a broad scale recognize your business by. Be creative and coach the customer. If you’re a customer, be willing to receive coaching, so that you and your logo designer can come up with a logo that both of your are proud of.

God Bless!

Word of Mouth: The Best Advertisement

In the course of a year, the average business will spend thousands of dollars on advertisement. Rightly so, if we don’t advertise our businesses, how will the public know that we exist? From print marketing, to websites, to social media, there is a cost for all of these. Even social media, which is for the most part free, but if you want to up the ante for your advertisement, then you pay to run your ad through their click marketing tools. Let me go on the record by saying, “That Word of Mouth is not only the best advertisement, it is also the cheapest advertisement.”

Word of Mouth Travels Fast

Have you ever heard the old saying, “Word of Mouth travels fast?” Well it’s the truth. Suppose you were a restaurant, and you sold a bad stock of meat that caused food poisoning to about 100 different people. There’s not enough money in the world to keep this bad publicity from reaching the public. On the opposite side, suppose your restaurant had the cleanest facility, the best food, and outstanding prices, this would not be enough to drive the public to your business. Understand that you have to convince your customers that you have the cleanest restaurant, the best tasting food, and unbeatable prices. Once the customer is convinced, then you have just gained yourself some free advertisement.

The Ratio of Verbal References

If a customer is convinced that your business and service is incredible, then they are going to verbally refer you to everyone they know. The average satisfied customer will tell a total of 10 people about their pleasant experience. Once these 10 people taste and see that your business is good, then each one of those 10 people will tell 10 other people and so forth. Now because of 1 satisfied customer, there is now a chain reaction of 100 customers, and those 100 customers, eventually can turn into a thousand and so on.

Not Every Customer is a Repeat Customer

The bad news is, that not every customer is a repeat customer, but because of the word of mouth referrals, you now have a legitimate clientele that justifies you being in business. Business isn’t always about seeing how many customers you can get, even though the more the merrier. If you can focus on pleasing the customers that you already have, then you never know, one of your customers might just recommend you to the customer that turns into your number one supplying client.

God Bless!

Dealing With The Uniformed Client

The life of an entrepreneur can be a rugged one, full of up and downs, twists and turns and before you know it your turning every which way but the way you thought you’d be turning at this stage of your business life. It can be difficult to say the least, but you wouldn’t trade it for the world. The freedom and joy you feel from a project done well. After all, that’s why you do it, right? To share your talents with clients in desperate needs of your skills and services (for a fee of course), what better feeling could a freelance have? Of course to get to that glorious point you must first traverse the field of uncertainty. What is this field that I speak of? Well, I sure there are a few people reading this that already know the answer. They’re the ones with the sly grin, reminiscing of the arch nemesis of all freelancers, the uninformed client.

Now, before we continue down this dark path, let me start by saying that this client is NOT a bad person; at least most of the time they are very kind-hearted people. The problem with these individuals is their lack knowledge. They’ve hired you, an SME (subject matter expert) to handle all the things that they don’t know about, and they usually kick it all off with something like, “I need you, to do what it is that you do, for me.” They have no idea what they want, but have every idea of what they don’t want. Well, fear not. Here are a few tips to get the information you need from the client without a clue.

1) Treat them like children. No, I don’t mean demoralize them buy insulting their intelligence. But, you just may have to hold their hand and walk them through this entire process. As a freelance professional, you already know that patience is a virtue. So, start by not asking what they want, but explain what they may need. This can be the water necessary to help sprout the ideas of an otherwise clueless client.

2) Be professional. At no time can you lose your cool and show your frustration. Remember, you are a professional, and you are being paid. That means somebody had enough confidence in you to hire you for your expertise, not your quick wit and sly side humor. Remember, this client could very well lead to either more clients, or the end of your freelancing days.

3) Think ahead. You should have already constructed a presentation for your client in their native language, clienteese. This could assist the entire project by giving the client a visual representation of what to expect and what will be needed from them. Don’t use a lot of terms that only someone in your field of expertise would know and understand. Not only will you lose their interest, you’ll more than likely make a bad situation worse. Your client’s time is precious, and so is yours. Make every minute count and get to the bottom line ASAP.

4) You’re an educator. Wait, you weren’t hired to teach anyone, right? The truth is although you were brought in to perform a certain task or service, it would be beneficial for you to “educate” them as you go through your scope of work. I’m not saying that they should be SME’s by the time that you leave, but there should be a better understanding of what you do and the work that you have completed. This will provide two things: 1) A greater respect for your craft by the client, and 2) A better understanding of what you are capable of. Remember, 40% of a small business’s customers are usually repeat customers. If they know what you do, they will call.

Remember, your skill is only one of many reasons that your client chose to roll the dice with you. Be understanding, patience, and professional; your mission demands it.

What do you think about the balance between creativity and the crazy demands of clients? Has any strategy worked well for you in your career?

Written By Anthony Chappell of Chappella Group (www.chappella.com)

Anthony Chappell is the President and Senior IT Consultant at Chappella Group, Inc.. Having over 20 years of experience in government technology instruction, security and implementation projects, he seeks compliance without sacrificing design. When he isn’t bogged down with work, you can find him spending quality family time. You can contact him directly at anthony.chappell@chappella.com or follow him on Twitter as @chappellagroup, connect with him on LinkedIn, or visit the Chappella Group Incorporated website.

Bells & Whistles: Everything Wrong With Interactive Web Design

It’s 2012, and with the recent additions of responsive websites, it seems that the web world is getting a lot more simpler. From Ipads to Iphones, Android Phones, it seems that if your website is not mobile phone ready, then you are behind the curve. This brings us to the 5 things that are wrong with interactive web design.

1. Websites with Flash Animation

Though there is really nothing wrong with flash design, because you can do some really exciting things with flash design, but it all comes back to being mobile phone friendly, which flash is not. Actually, I don’t ever anticipate it being mobile phone friendly. In my opinion, in a couple of years, flash and web design will cease to exist, at least when it comes to sites that are going to be viewed on a mobile level. *Sidebar* Flash for Educational sites for children is incredible! (Maybe a future blog!)

The reason why flash is becoming so unproductive is because it has its own platform, it acts as an imbed, rather than a coding language. The answer to this as of late has been the introduction or the revival of Jquery, Json, and all of these other client side coding languages that are taking precedence over flash, because they’re doing the same exact thing, but with coding languages, and this not only is mobile phone friendly, but SEO friendly, not that flash can’t be SEO friendly, but is it truly SEO friendly, probably not! I’m truly convinced that flash animation will never go away, but I do believe that we will have to get a little bit more creative when it comes to using it in the future.

2. Unique and Innovative Navigation

Though on a regular desktop or laptop platform, this distinctive GUI for unique navigation can “WOW” your users, but the actual benefit of having them is most likely, next to none. The problem is because most websites being viewed on a mobile scale, will minimize the navigation to a small box in the upper right hand corner. So the solution really, is a standard navigation. You really don’t have to reinvent the wheel, there is plenty of standard navigations seen on a large scale that will give your website style and class, and on a mobile scale will degrade rather nicely.

3. Creative & Abstract Design

Websites can be creative, and still carry the business and professional feel that you desire. You don’t have to be so abstract. Matter of fact, abstract websites, carries the potential to push your customers away, rather than generate business. You want your website to work for you, and most consumers are used to doing things a certain way, like surfing the web. *Helpful Hint* Consumers don’t like change! * Don’t try to change things around so much, that you create a usability issue. Remember, you have about 8 seconds to impress a customer. If they can’t figure out how to navigate through your website within the first 8 seconds of their visit, you’ve lost a potential customer.

4. The Absence of SEO

Many people, and many companies have no clue what Search Engine Optimization is. Matter fact, many people think that it’s just this magical thing that happens when you place your website on the internet. As many of you all know, SEO takes much and perpetual work. Now the absence of SEO, doesn’t really have anything to do with what’s wrong with interactive web design, but it does have something to do with the sole importance of having a website. Why do we have websites, to create an awareness of our products or services, and if people can’t find you, how will they ever know what products or services you offer.
The answer is that we should tag everything that should or could be tagged, attach keywords to our blogs, and web pages, and do relevant searches on the words that you are using. So whether you are being viewed on a major platform or mobile platform, you will be able to be found, and efficiently viewed by the consumer.

5. Static Vs. Interactive Websites

Just because your static website is not attached to a content management system, or have some kind of flash in it, doesn’t mean that it can’t be as creatively effective as the ones that are. Remember your javascript and jquery is still supported on the mobile platforms, so your website will still degrade rather nicely. Be aware of this though, that you are not using a lot of scripting languages such as PHP, to power your website, so proportion your website strategically. Make sure that if you are going to load your websites with pictures and text that you do some research on what pixel sizes work better on mobile platforms.

Closing

So as you can see, there is nothing really wrong with interactive web design, but too much of anything is not good. This may be an old cliché, but less is more. With normal scale websites, you want to draw attention to the product or service, and not beat around the bush. So maybe we can take something away from the uprising of mobile websites, by designing strictly to the product or service, rather than trying to fluff the site up, giving the impression of more, when there isn’t, and there doesn’t really need to be.

God Bless!

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