Don Lewis Designs

Content is king. Your web presence needs content that your audience will be interested in, period. People go to websites for the content they provide. They read web comics for amusement, visit consumer advocacy sites to inform themselves, visit political blogs to find causes to champion – in short, people visit websites to find things out. Whether it’s for shopping or simple erudition, a large part of the web process involves reading, and the people doing the reading want to look through something of quality. You have a website, you have a product, and you have the motivation. Now you need to ask yourself – do you have the writer?

Who Needs a Professional Article Writer?

At the basic level, everyone seriously looking to make an impact on web audiences needs a dedicated article writer. Hobby writing for web content is fine for personal projects, but it doesn’t drum up a great deal of interest in the long term. It has been demonstrated again and again, the most successful websites are those that regularly produce the content their audience wants, the more frequently the better. So the need for an article writer should actually be taken as a given. The more pressing question then becomes, “Who should that writer be?”

Who Indeed?

In some cases, the answer is obvious – you. You know your material, you’re able to write confidently, and you’ve got inspiration in buckets. In this case, good, the problem is solved. Go and write that content, and perhaps pass it by a talented associate now and again for review.

However, this obviously isn’t always the case. Some site owners are good promoters and businessmen, but lack the highly developed writing skill necessary to really dig into a piece and make it shine for the audiences even once, much less week after week or day upon day. Or perhaps the owner feels comfortable writing some articles, but wants another point of view in specialized or technical pieces. In this case, the owner needs to acquire a professional writer to provide these services. The trick here lies in recognizing your strengths and limitations, and identifying exactly what the needs of your site are.

The Writer You Need

As with any hiring process, selecting a good writer requires understanding the business in question. Each site has its own unique needs, and should seek to acquire writers who meet those needs. It certainly is true that many people can write effectively on many topics, but the impact will be greatest when the writer is chosen for abilities directly relating to the job at hand.

For example, a site focusing on producing highly technical how-to manuals for home chemistry will demand a very different writer than a site focusing on topical, biting political satire. Each demands a professional who cannot only write well, but understands the topic itself and can write believably. Someone with no experience in politics will quickly be identified in the latter case, and in the former someone who flunked basic chemistry won’t be able to write more than superficial material at their best.

Obviously, the writer also must be good at writing itself – they must be able to construct effective sentences, use proper syntax, and command the language in a manner that keeps readers both interested and informed. Most importantly, they need to be able to write specifically at the level of the typical audience for the site. Masters’ degree level academic writing can be marvelous and compelling in peer reviewed journals, but would be entirely out of place on the aforementioned satirical archive.

How to Find Them

The key to getting the best writer for a website is research. Once you understand your needs as far as the writer goes, it’s time to begin looking for them. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to do so despite the overwhelming anonymity and size of the web.

First, consider your own colleagues and acquaintances. Frequently we have many associates in our field of specialty, and many of them harbor hidden talents. Consult with your co-workers and others that you know, to see if they can meet the needs at hand.

Another source of information on professional writers is the plethora of freelance writing websites. There are dozens of sites employing short-term writers on a variety of projects with skill levels ranging from high school and college level writing to highly technical productions involving text and multimedia elements. Frequently, these sites employ a ratings and review system, allowing you to look into their reputation and perhaps their prior work history.

Additionally, there is always the interview. This need not be a physical sit-down session – it can consist of posting an advertisement seeking a talented writer along with a requirement that they submit writing samples (either previously published pieces or unique work based on the site’s requirements). This will frequently result in a deluge of applicants, so owners are advised to be prepared to so some heavy reading in this case.

For good content on your website, the key is to identify the exact needs of your site, find the exact style and skill of writer you need, and then to strive to meet that need unfailingly. Have an open mind and be willing to adapt to new, good ideas, but stick with the goal and vision for your site and find the best person to fill the position you’ve created.



By: Enzo F. Cesario

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

Why do you think Joomla is so widely accepted in the online industry today? There are many reasons to it. Let’s see some of the advantages a Joomla designing can offer a web master.

· It’s FREE: This is one of the biggest advantages. Joomla is a free open source open source content management system. It is available to anyone under the GPL license. Why would anybody outsource their website programming to a professional and spend a huge amount when you can do it yourself in a very professional manner?

· Large number of modules: Any CMS system is becomes competent if it is supported by modules to enhance their inbuilt capacity. Joomla has more than 2000 modules currently showing online.

· Available in many languages: Joomla is one of the few CMS which is multi-linguistic. You can design your website with different languages using Joomla.

· Maintenance: It can be bit of a task when it comes to managing a website. Even tech savvy professional find it difficult to maintain a website. Let alone a lay man. But websites designed by Joomla are not at all difficult to maintain as it is quite user friendly.

· Updating: Joomla is a self-updating application. You do not have to be on a look out for individuals or software to keep updating Joomla. A person with good knowledge of Joomla can look into updating the application on their own.

These are some of the advantages of a basic Joomla application. In case of advanced Joomla applications, one can find even more features which make a Joomla powered website more fun to work with. Since Joomla offers so many valuable advantages, people all over the world have well accepted it to create small time websites to large complex corporate websites or portals and community portals for gaming, blogging and profiles.

You can get instant topic-specific joomla websites, joomla extensions, joomla templates, joomla video tutorials all at ReadyMadeJoomla.



By: bandeep

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

I was in the market for some up to date web traffic software and I first drew up a list of the particular items of software that I thought may be able to achieve the objectives I had in mind. Some of the items were just not suitable but once I had developed my shortlist I set out to read some reviews of the items from the list and gather as much information as I could before deciding which web traffic software I would add to my Internet marketing toolbox.

The main idea of searching for the software reviews was that I was hoping to get a completely un-biased and independent opinion of the features (or lack of features) of each of the software programs on my list. I was disappointed to find that many of these reviews are written by affiliate marketers who lean heavily towards the web traffic software they are promoting. This is probably quite understandable but obviously defeats the object of my exercise and was of no help to me at all.

I think I was hoping to see reviews which made various comparisons of the different web traffic software available, going through every feature and commenting on the pros and cons of each item. I thought about where to find the information I needed and who could offer me the most un-biased information. This was a harder task than I had assumed and I searched through some Internet marketing forums to see if any of the web traffic software on my list had been recently discussed. I was able to find a few comments but nothing to satisfy my curiosity.

I decided to contact the developers of each of the items of software on my list with a questionnaire highlighting the particular features that interested me, and was disappointed once again to note that only one of them answered my email within 48 hours. When you are hot to buy, 48 hours is a long time to wait. Also it makes you wonder how long they will take to answer you if you have a problem after you have purchased your software and need after sales help. I was beginning to lose my interest in even investing in web traffic software as I was not keen to spend cash on more tools that do not achieve.. I have been burned too many times in the past.

Then out of the blue, and quite by accident I found a web traffic software review that was written more in letter form than as a review.. Almost like a story board and yet it had me convinced that the particular software the writer was discussing was exactly what I needed. There was no information about any of the features of the product and the review simply described the writers own experiences in purchasing and using this particular item of web traffic software, and the results he was able to achieve in doing so.

Needless to say I ended up purchasing the web traffic software in question, and experienced even more success with it than the writer of the review had described. It is refreshing to read of other marketers experiences using software or even different methods of marketing than to read about features and facilities which may work for some but not necessarily for others. The success I had with this project, and the web traffic software in particular, has led me to change the way I search for information about marketing products and has introduced me into writing more about my own experiences, not just with web traffic software, but with a variety of Internet marketing issues.

Other peoples experiences can be deemed more relevant than their opinions and apart from making more interesting reading, may provide a deeper insight into the subject in question. I am totally happy with the software I purchased and more than happy to pass on my own experiences to others..



By: Trevor Taylor

About the Author:

Website content

Recently I stayed in a house where the owner was a keen collector of clocks. There were two impressive grandfather clocks, several pendulum wall clocks and a number of mantle clocks. Most of them chimed every hour.

However, they did not all show the same time. The first to strike the hour was long before the last. The irony seemed to be that the more clocks there are, the less sure you can be of the time!

This is an analogy for the complexity of life: we can get many contra-indications as to the path we’re really on and route ahead. In the confusion we have no clear sense of direction.

If you were in dense jungle (and perhaps it feels like it sometimes!), it would be helpful to climb a tall tree to get a clear view of the way ahead. Or maybe you would scale the slopes of a hillside to get above the tree line. Either way, a strategic view is essential to reach your objective.

Inspiration is the mountain top from where you can see what really matters. Then you can simplify on that basis, throwing out what you no longer need and prioritizing what remains. Most especially, being inspired can put you in touch with a real sense of purpose.

A strong sense of purpose will naturally simplify life. It becomes the gold-standard for our decision making. We can choose what to think and what to do depending on whether it contributes to our purpose or not.

Getting practical, how do you become inspired?

There are many techniques you can use: here are two simple yet powerful steps that work for most people:

1. Book yourself a date with inspiration – set aside some time. Even ten minutes will be a good start

2. Think back to a time when you were really inspired (it doesn’t matter whether it was recent or some while ago). Get into the memory and, in your mind’s eye, see what you saw then. Listen again the sounds that you heard then and re-experience the feelings from that time

To discover your true purpose, when you are inspired notice what is really essential in your life. What elements of your life are non-negotiable? (You may like to jot these down – eg. goals, relationships, ambitions, values, ethics, causes, challenges, talents, life-work). Your true purpose will be connected in some way with these essential factors.

Continuing in the quest for simplicity, now ask yourself:

- How closely is my life aligned to my true purpose?

- How much am I high-jacked by unnecessary complexity?

- What steps can I take to increase simplicity?

In the jungle, these are questions you can ask at the top of the tall tree; you can revisit them on a regular basis to check your navigation – to see whether you are ‘on-purpose’.

As you progress towards greater simplicity, you will find that all your clocks begin to tell the same time!

By: Trevor Hill

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

Web Designing for Clients — Ask this questions first !

If you are a web designer and have just landed that plum web designing contract, to design an attractive website for a client, than you would have already started preparing yourself to deliver on the deal, but before you start web designing, ask the following questions to your client.

Asking these questions and getting proper answers for them will help you immensely as a web designer in understanding the client, his business and his sensibilities. Also it will help you a lot in selecting the suitable structure and colors for your web designing contract. It will give you a precise understanding of what needs to be done. You can either ask this questions to the client, face to face or you can send the questions to client and receive the answers by email. While at first it may seem a bit odd to ask questions regarding web designing, but it definetely helps in the long run.

1. Business

What business is the client in, and what type of website will suplement the clients business.

2. Purpose

The client already has a business, and probably it is running well right now, without a web design. Than what is the purpose of having a website.

3. Business Growth

How does the client expect the website to help them achieve growth in business. What message is the website supposed to give?

4. Target Audience

Who is the target audience of the clients website. Is it a B2B or a B2C website. What is the age group of the audience. What is geographical location of the audience.

5. Primary Goal

What is the primary goal of a website? Is it an information site, revenue generating website, ecommerce website or inquiry generating website?

6. Uniqueness

What is the USP of the client that the web design will offer to potential customers.

7. Web Knowledge

What is the depth of the clients knowledge of internet and world wide web. The answer to this question will be an indicator to the understanding the client possess about the overall working and web designing.

8. Web Hosting & Domain

Does the client need web hosting and domain registration services or has it been already subscribed and registered. If the domain is already registered, than are the registrant details correct with the registry.

9. Final Approval

After the website design is complete who will provide the final approval on the web design contract? If it is someone else than people on the team, than make sure that he understands the web designning concepts well and is kept upto date of the web designing progress.

10. Data Format

The data which is to be provided by the client is it in electronic format or does the web designer need to type all the content. If it is in electronic format than does the designer need to handle file conversions

11. Design or Resdesign

Has the website got to be designed from a scratch or is it to be modified or just redesigned. If it is to be modified, than what additions is the clinet looking to make to the existing web design.

12. Client Preferences

What are the client preferences regarding the look and feel of the website. If possible, the web designer should show a few samples to clients and give them references of the previous websites designed by the web designer.

13. Color Preferences

Does the client like any particular color? The color to be used on the website is to be matched with the colors of the existing stationery or marketing material.

14. Design Preferences

Is flash to be used ? or only HTML website will suffice.

15. Credit Link

Can the web designer provide a link to his website crediting that the client website is designed by him.

16. Maintenance

Who is going to care of maintaining the website, the client will do it in house or the web designer has to do it. Whoever takes the charge of maintaining the website should make sure that the conetnt on the website is relevant, good and fresh. Do remember to update the website atleast once in a week.

That should be all. If you ask the above 16 questions to your web designing client before starting to design a website, and get all your answers you will definetely design a fabolous website.

Web Design Temple, is a web designing company which provides web designing and search engine optimization services.



By: Akash Mehra

About the Author:

Create a video blog

Custom application development tailor-made to the client’s definite business requirements endeavor to deliver rich internet applications with a combination of solid cross-domain experience, technological expertise and a recognized development methodology.

Application Migration and Porting:

The migration services include porting applications to a new technology platform, database and server porting, data migration, standalone-to-web migration of legacy applications.

Application Reengineering and Enhancement:

Generally in most web development companies there are reverse engineering of existing systems to recognize the business functionality and technical architecture of the clients and introduce new/enhanced business logic and improved performance.

Application Audit and Testing:

Independent software audit and testing of the web application including code reviews, functionality-to-requirements verification, GUI usability and HTML standards compliance testing and performance/security/stability testing is done by custom web development.

Application Maintenance

The web application maintenance and support services are concerned for ensuring stable and uninterrupted operation of your business system. The services include problems analysis, resolution as well as application enhancement.

What is the required technical expertise?

The application and web servers required are the following: Apache, MS IIS, JBoss, TomCat, BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, and Oracle.

Databases

The required databases are the following:

MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2, MS Access

Business-oriented Solutions

In most web development companies there are some seasoned technical and project management team which will guide you from a business idea to implementation of a cost effective software solution. They are also able to deliver valuable business tool specially designed to give out the specific needs of your business:

Enable effective management of online business together with customer service, inventory, supply chain management, procurement, etc. Produce additional sales by building a permanent gainful relationship with the clientele through a supplementary responsive customer service Facilitate straight communiqué with customers, vendors, suppliers and employees Decrease resource requirements and operating costs through business processes automation

Custom web development has brought a new wave of revolution in the present competitive market. It has actually given a complete new dimension to the entire concept of marketing. Therefore, businessmen who wants to create a website of their own, relies on custom website development for betterment of the companies and for getting more clienteles in this manner. Custom website development is thus one of the blessings encouraging the process e-commerce applications, shopping cart applications, social networking sites and e learning sites.



By: Tyler Moon

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

The most important step in finding a right job is to look for one that is most suitable to your requirements and most compatible with your personality. This may sound easy, but often we don’t have a clue about what each job provider has to offer and what would work best for us. Resources for career counseling can be a great help in this process of identifying the next career move.

Web Resources

The Internet is an exhaustive information source that allows us to select from a large list of options. Most organized online resources help job seekers find a viable job based on their personal preference and skill. An interested candidate needs to key in some specifications to narrow down the search that is applied to a massive job database. It is very important to know what to key in when checking online resources for career counseling as selecting the right keyword will get you the desired information.

Identifying What Is “Really” Important To You

There are many factors that may affect the kind of resource you can find on the web. Geographic preference can narrow down the response. Personal preferences such as amount of travel involved can further focus the results. Its important to note that if a user puts in too many preferences the result may be zero help, so its important to keep key factors in mind. This kind of “what if” analysis is possible when using automated resources and is generally not available when using counselors.

Too Much Information Can Confuse You

Web can be a boon or a curse to a person seeking career counseling. The curse of the information explosion can confuse rather than help. Therefore, for some, the old fashioned personal approach is more suitable.

Benefits

A beneficial aspect of career counseling resources is that they help job seekers understand their shortcomings and prepare accordingly. Most jobs that are posted online usually mention what an applicant’s ideal profile should be. This enables job seekers to see for themselves if they fit in or not. It can also spur self-development efforts such as enrolling for additional training, education, and certification or licensing.

Aside from this, resources for career counseling offer useful advice on career related issues. There are forums and message boards on most sites where one can post a query. A counselor answers these questions to help you choose accordingly. Some of the specialized career counseling companies evaluate your current earnings and analyze your potential to help you land a better job.

What Information To Look For

You could make a job choice based upon recommendations, reviews, write-ups, word of mouth or rankings, but the most important is personal need. The American School Counselor Association plays an important role in ranking or recommending job sites. Many graduate schools refer to these online career-counseling sites to build their own database.

Tools That Can Help You

Self-assessment and interests, values inventories, self-assessment tools, personality and IQ tests, and aptitude quizzes help analyze your true potential.

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter test helps gauge your personality profile. The Career Planning Process, Career Change, and Hoover’s Online are a few popular career- counseling resources. The Riley Guide, Resume Writing, Career Services and America’s Job Bank are helpful as well. A job seeker may also refer to Yahoo! Classifieds-Employment, Contract Employment Weekly, Jobs Online, UST Career Development Center, Monster.com, Job Web, and Career Mosaic.

If all this confuses you don’t hesitate to go to your local community college or university. They have career counseling centers that can provide a large amount of information and staff that is eager to help.



By: Tony Jacowski

About the Author:

Kansieo.com

Ever tried advertising or marketing you business on the internet? As well all know, the internet is the biggest thing in the world today, which is why many businesses, big or small, have started to market their businesses on the internet. The internet have made a breakthrough with marketing, to belong on the internet is to belong on the international market.

Because of this, many have come to realize the many possibilities of the internet for their businesses and have started to build their own in-house web developing team. But an in-house web development is very costly, which is why many businesses particularly the small ones have started to welcome the services that outsourcing companies have offered, and among them is the Optimind Technology Solutions Web development outsourcing Philippines and Web design outsourcing Philippines.

The Optimind Technology Solutions is an internet marketing firm that offers such services of internet marketing and solutions. The Optimind Technology Solutions are can also provide the services of their Web development outsourcing Philippines and Web design outsourcing Philippines that specializes on the development of a website.

The Web development outsourcing Philippines is responsible on the creation of the system within the web page. The Web development outsourcing Philippines specializes in the development of a system that can be a very helpful tool in managing a business particularly if the business is small. The Web development outsourcing Philippines provides a way for websites to be become a stand alone program that will help lighten the load of business transactions. The Web development outsourcing Philippines assures the program will not cause any problems to the client.

The Web design outsourcing Philippines are responsible on the designs of the web page. For successful internet marketing, the design of the webpage is the most important thing, which is why the Web design outsourcing Philippines makes every effort in making a suitable web page for a specific business. The Web design outsourcing Philippines designs a web page that is appropriate on what kind of business it is. The Web design outsourcing Philippines can design an eye catching web page that will sure to attract its target audience, or even more.

With the combined efforts of the Web development outsourcing Philippines and Web design outsourcing Philippines, Optimind Technology Solutions can offer a web page that will really help a business belong to the ever so growing international market.

For more information about the Web development outsourcing Philippines and Web design outsourcing Philippines, then visit Optimind at www.myoptimind.com.



By: Christine Layug

About the Author:

Website content

As the new year (2010) aproaches and during the break many people are taking time to reflect, and plan.

2009 was a great year on the internet. The global economy had a direct effect on business and saw many start-up e-businesses.

As a result of the “great global economy crash” many people found their way to the internet and decided to use it as a way to communicate their business not only using the social network sites – Facebook and Twitter et al. but with their own dedicated web site.

This is good news but has problems. The more web sites out there the more competition every web site faces.  Therefore it is becoming more important to have a web site that people not only visit but is friendly.

Sounds obvious, but it is very easy to design a web site that annoys the people who visit it and much harder to create a site the same people like, love and will keep coming back to.

Fortunately, the most common website mistakes are very easy to prevent or fix.

The first and most important aspect of any web site design is to make sure it has something to offer visitors.

Too many people start with the design rather than with the content – remember this, a web page exists to provide something that’s useful or interesting to visitors. If your site doesn’t do/have that, then it has a big problem from the outset and you should rethink the project until you can offer something useful or of interest.

Having got over that hurdle you now have a site/site concept that is of interest to people – you are now in with a chance – so try not to annoy those valuable people further.

The next big thing – and I mean a really big thing – is one of understanding differences.  The web is a great leveler.  In theory a small company can compete with a big multi-national one but ………..can they really?

Most people have heard of the BBC, Shell, New York Times, Amazon, Exxon etc. they are familiar brand names, your business may be familiar in your locality but probably not on the web and with over 20 million websites, like me you are a small fish in a very big pond.

This means there are different design rules for us as small businesses.  We really need to be more content not design focused.  What a big business can get away with – and be expected to have in their design – is totally different to us small businesses.

The golden rule is content, content, content.

Which would you prefer:

To pay $1000 (or more – we heard of a small (emphasis small) business that paid $9000 for a site) for a great looking website that only gets a few visitors a day – or Pay $500-$1000 for a good looking but functional website that attracts 100 plus visitors a day.

I won’t answer for you but I suspect that most people would go for option no.2

Virtually everybody who designs websites (and those who run them) forget one thing.

The internet is the only media in the world where what is actually designed may not be what someone sees.

For varying reasons people change settings in their browsers – e.g. someone with poor eyesight that doesn’t use a screen reader may set their browser to show large text by default.  People can also set a default font, choose not to display images or multi-media etc.

We designed a site for one client, the client was really happy with it, it looked good (and incidentally performed really well increasing on-line sales by over 300% in 3 months).

The site was designed setting Arial as the default font in the CSS and a normal font size i.e. 100% which depending on the browser equates to either font size 14 or 16.

During the design stage the client’s wife was always on the phone complaining that we were not using the font Arial and that the text size was too big, she sent us screen dumps from here PC which clearly showed the font of Comic Sans and about font size 20.  What she forgot to say was that she had set these aspects as the defaults in her browser.

So a cautionary tale about being over fussy with design people change setting in their browsers.

I will say this now, and no doubt will repeat it again but design your web site for the people who will actually use it – not you and most certainly not your designer/programmer.  Just because you or your designer/programmer likes something doesn’t mean the people you are trying to attract will.

As a visitor too many web sites there are many frustrating things about the way people design their sites, many mean that I just “switch off” and look elsewhere for alternative content.

I am not alone, people go to a website for its’ content not to admire “add ons” like animation (graphics & text) and sounds that load automatically. These few items make it harder to concentrate on reading the site content.  Which would you rather have? someone who is focused on your content or a person who is being distracted and leaves?

Some addons may seem cool to have – but why? The big question is do they add value to the content – or are they just your designers’ way of showing off telling the world that they can add these aspects.  Don’t forget most designers include a link back to their site and quite possibly will show your site off in their portfolio.  Why do you think designers include so much that isn’t actually needed?

Consider your user.  I tell clients everyday and I will repeat it again here – make it easy for visitors to find the content (there’s that word again) on your site..

Having got them to your site what do you do?

Minimize clicking, remember people prefer 3 or less clicks to get to the information. Make sure there is a menu on each page, if not, at least a way to navigate to the home page, back a page and forward to the next page. Now we come to the content.  A sensible page will not be less than about 400 words, if it is (less) then why does it exist? You should either be adding more content to it or combining it with another page. In addition to minimal clicks, minimize scrolling.  Along with many others I find long pages frustrating and often difficult to find the information I am looking for. Try to keep a page length – that is totally different to content length) to 2 screens.  In other words people only have to scroll once to get to the bottom of the page and very importantly make sure that the ”meat” of the content is “above the fold” – that means within the first screen before people have to start scrolling. Long content should be split – page 1, page 2 etc.  If you are using WordPress or simlar blog software then this facility should be automatically built into your blog theme (if it’s not then ask why not) Think about the use of columns in the presentation.  Wide ones make it harder to read the content and narrower ones make a page longer.  Look at the way magazines and newspapers are laid out, they use columns to keep a reader focused on particular sections.

By: Russell Parrott

About the Author:

web design news