Websites that turn a profit - Saving Time

By Tim Priebe on October 30, 2008 at 9:02 am in General

This week, let’s talk about saving time with a website. After all, time is money, so saving yourself a few minutes here and a few minutes there will end up saving (and making) you money as well.

One of the most common ways to save time is to simply answer the most common questions on your website. This should be questions that you find yourself answering again and again in the course of an average business day or week.

One of our clients who has done a good job of this is Daisy Exchange, a trendy clothing exchange store in the Oklahoma City area. On their website, they tell how the buying and reselling process works, different brands and items they buy, and even mention job opportunities.

Another way to save time is to put videos online. Before their website was online, midwestmedia and marketing had to go to a bit of trouble to show potential clients samples of their videography. They either had to show them in person or burn a DVD and mail it to them. Now, all they have to do is direct potential clients to their website to see how great their video skills are.

A third way to save time is to move processes to the website. Tinker and the Primes is a yearly event that helps connect small businesses with government contracts and sub-contracts. Registration for the thousands of attendees used to be a time-consuming, unwieldy process for the staff. Now, with online registration, the process is much simpler. The registrants sign up on the website and receive automatic emails with reminders. The staff just has to log into the website to get up-to-date numbers and view spreadsheets and reports.

These few examples should provide some insight into the different ways websites can save your business time, therefore making your website actually turn a profit. Next week we’ll be looking at how your website can save you money.

< Back to part 1    On to part 3 >

Clientside Creative Assistance within the Development Process

By Dave Roach on October 28, 2008 at 12:39 pm in Design, Development

Ultimately, in any project, we want the client to receive a website that not only works, but is easy to navigate and visually pleasing to them. So let’s say we did our research and cranked out the best design ever made, if the client doesn’t like it, then tons of time has been wasted and it’s back to the drawing board. Clients can help the designer more than they know when trying to research, conceptualize and eventually execute a website design.

First off, we need stuff. Pictures, logos, graphics, movies… anything that can help us in the design process, especially stuff that you want in the actual design. I have designed multiple websites where I didn’t even know what the logo of the company looked like until the design was finished, because the client did not provide it beforehand. Without those crucial elements, your design might not look like what you had in mind.

Another great thing clients can do to help is to let us know what you like. Give us the URL of other sites that you like. Don’t just pick some sites really quick, but actually look around and find out what you like and dislike and tell us. Don’t limit yourself to your field either, elements in different websites are not limited by field. Tell us what you like about them, color, navigation, layout, expandability, movement, theme, texture, mood, fonts…anything you like and even dislike. We can’t know what you want unless you tell us.

By doing these simple tasks, you can help out tremendously in the entire website development process. Take a little bit of time and thought, and we will be able to better understand what you want, allowing you to receive a website that we, and more importantly you, are happy with.

Websites that turn a profit

By Tim Priebe on October 23, 2008 at 6:30 am in Design, General

While it’s certainly important that your website looks good, the real goal for your business’s website should be for it to benefit you financially. There are three main ways this can be done.

  1. Save time
  2. Save money
  3. Make money

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be writing about each of these categories, and some ways different clients of ours have accomplished these goals. But let’s take a quick look at all three of them right now.

Save time

If you’re like many small business owners and dedicated employees, you’re spending plenty of time on your business. For some, the only real way they can make more money is if they can save time somewhere. A website can be a huge help in this area. At the least, it can be marketing for you day and night. But realistically, every single business has something process or task that can be sped up with the help of a website.

Save money

A website can actually save you money as well. I can’t count the number of people we’ve sold websites to that made their money back within a year just by cutting back or eliminating other forms of advertising.

Make money

Done well, a website has the possibility of being a money making machine. While this can, of course, vary greatly based on your industry, there are few who can’t actually make money with their website.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks as we go into more details about turning a profit with your website.

On to part 2 >

Printing is a Pain

By Emily Spirek on October 21, 2008 at 6:30 am in Design, General

I started designing my junior year of high school and was only introduced to print material at the time. The pain of matching of colors, printing costs, margins, sizing, and everything that printing entails was never a big deal because I had nothing to compare it to. Five years of naivety finally ended when I was introduced to the wonderful world of web design. Sure, designing web pages has its downfalls, but the headache is cut in half when comparing it to print.

I love designing logos, business cards, brochures, etc, but I always dread the end when I have to remember the laundry list of steps to prepare the files for print. Creating outlines, correct file formats, matching margins, fixing spelling errors, the list goes on. Then, probably the most nerve-racking part of it all is looking at the finished product. If there is one spelling error, the entire job is ruined and now the trouble shooting begins. I love creating a good piece of print work, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth the struggle. Jeff Jarvis from Buzz Machine Blog gives a piece of his mind:

“Yes, print is a burden. It’s expensive to produce for it. It’s expensive to manufacture. It’s expensive to deliver. It limits your space. It limits your timing. It’s stale when it’s fresh. It is one-size-fits-all and can’t be adapted to the needs of each user. It comes with no ability to click for more. It has no search. It can’t be forwarded. It has no archive. It kills trees. It uses energy. It usually brings unions. And you really should recycle it. Wow, when you think about it, print sucks.”

I wouldn’t say that I hate print, but I have a strong disdain for it and I only hope it will get easier in the future.

My Favorite Web Development Tools

By Nick Little on October 14, 2008 at 6:30 am in Development

There are several tools that I don’t think I could do web development without. They give me the power to find out valuable information about the pages I’m viewing. They even let me edit the HTML and CSS directly, without having to refresh the browser window! I can debug JavaScript, test the page with different viewport sizes, view the size of every file loaded by the browser, and much more. All these tools are plugins for the Firefox web browser. Let’s take a closer look at these invaluable tools.

  • Web Developer Toolbar - This toolbar gives me options for disabling everything from css to browser cache to images to cookies. It also has very nice options for filling out forms and viewing just about anything I could possibly want to know about certain elements on the page. I can resize the viewport and make sure I have no CSS or JavaScript errors with a simple glance at the toolbar.
  • Firebug - This nifty little plugin is extremely useful. I can highlight any element on the page with a single click of the mouse. I can then view and change all the CSS related to the element. I can also view the DOM properties and functions of an element. I can debug javascript by setting breakpoints in the code. Firebug even lets me edit the HTML of the page and also tells me how much bandwidth is used in retrieving each file. (My favorite thing to do is edit pages so they make fun of Tim!)
  • Google Toolbar - Lastly, Google Toolbar, although it’s not technically a web development tool, is very useful. I use it to manage all my bookmarks, so when I find something web development related at home I add it to my google bookmarks and I have it the next day at work. I can also search anywhere on google.com (Google Images, Google Maps, etc) or even the current page very quickly.

These are all excellent tools that I use on a daily basis, but by no means are they the only tools. I have tinkered with several excellent widgets for Opera that do almost the same things. There are many tools out there no matter what browser you use for development.

Linking to your Facebook profile

By Tim Priebe on October 9, 2008 at 6:30 am in General

Want to link to your Facebook profile on your website? It’s not quite as easy as you might think. Unfortunately, Facebook does not provide a built-in way to link directly to your profile. Google to the rescue…

One of the features you might not already know about on Google is the ability to search specific sites only. So we can actually search Facebook only for your name, and see what address Google shows us.

Let’s try a client of ours here at T&S, Missi Bryant of MissiBryantVA.com. (Hi, Missi!) We’ll search Google by typing in the exact following phrase. Make sure you don’t put any spaces before or after the colon (:).

site:facebook.com Missi Bryant

If your search results were anything like mine, Missi’s profile is the first one that pops up. Right below it, Google shows the actual link to her profile page.

www.facebook.com/people/Missi_Bryant/1147929675

Not quite as succinct as it could be, but there it is. Copy and paste that link onto your web page (and be sure to add the http:// at the beginning), and you’re good to go.

Here’s a screenshot of the search results:

Just a warning: This actually links to your “public search listing” on Facebook. A website visitor must be logged in to continue on to your profile.

Top 4 overused design elements

By Emily Spirek on October 7, 2008 at 6:30 am in Design, General

If you were to look for stock images, these four design elements will undoubtedly show up in your results. These may add a cool effect, but I think designers should be careful and use them in moderation.

1. Sun Rays

It’s hard to find any poster, etc. without a few sun rays in the background. I would say this is by far the most overused graphic and personally, I never used the effect.

2. Silhouette

This definitely became a big hit after the iPod campaign and although it is overused, I do like this one more than the sun rays.

3. Ink Splatter

These always give a nice texture to the background, and as long as you make it subtle and it fits the design, I don’t see anything wrong with using ink splatters.

4. Swirls/Flourishes

I  guess since I am a girl, I’m a big fan of decorative swirls. I do think it’s important to vary your work, so I don’t allow myself to use them in everything.

Most of these aren’t too bad if used in moderation. Since they tend to be so overused by designers in general, it’s best to be very careful when thinking about using them.

Simple Guide to Computer Screen Shots

By Tim Priebe on October 2, 2008 at 6:30 am in General, Mac, Windows

Screen captures are extremely helpful in our line of work. We test websites extensively in mutliple browsers and operating systems, but sometimes a problem will still show up on a client’s computer that we don’t see. In those cases, a screen shot is invaluable.

Screen captures are relatively easy in both Windows and Mac’s OS X. Here’s a quick guide to each.

Windows

In Windows, pressing Ctrl and the Print Screen key takes a screen capture and copies it into the clipboard. This means you can then go into your email program and paste it directly into an email for sending to someone, or even open a graphics program, paste it in there, and save the image file.

Windows Vista also includes a utility called Snipping Tool. While I don’t personally have experience with Vista’s Snipping Tool, my understanding is that it is a much more robust tool than the built in options prior to Vista.

Personally, on the rare occasions I need to do a screen capture in Windows, I use a screen capture utility called Cropper. It makes it very easy to capture only the area of the screen you want to, and saves in several different formats.

Mac’s OS X

Unlike most versions of Windows, Mac’s operating system, OS X, comes with a fairly robust screen capture tool. Pressing Command-Shift-3 takes a screen shot of the entire screen. Pressing Command-Shift-4 lets you capture only a specific area. And pressing space after you’ve pressed Command-Shift-4 lets you take a screen shot of a specific window.

The Mac saves the screen shots to the desktop in a lossless PNG format. However, if you also hold down the control button when performing any of the above mentioned screenshots, it will send the screen capture to the desktop instead.

If the Mac’s built-in tool isn’t enough for you, you might consider trying SnapNDrag. It saves in multiple formats, makes it much easier to email the screen shot, and doesn’t make you remember a keyboard combination.

Hopefully this will help if you ever need to show someone else exactly what’s on your screen.