Mt Sac Computer Graphics Advisory Committee

I was recently invited to be part of the Mt Sac Computer Graphics Advisory Committee. It is quite a departure for me, but time to give something back.

The meeting was insightful to the workings of school systems and certainly life as self-employed reduces the stacks of paper work and justification in order to implement what is without a doubt a good step.

My hope in all this is being able to bring a helpful career perspective. No doubt I will walk away learning the most. 

Pay Per Click

Pay per click advertising has always been a tough call. How to manage it to optimize your ad budget is the critical and frustrating question.

Here is an article which indicates a drop in this market.
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2009/05/13/paid-search-down-organic-up.aspx

The question seems to be if Google will try to circumvent the SEO we web designers put into our sites.  The ever changing Internet! Always challenges.

Why not let my friend/son design my website?

The price is always right to have a friend or relative create your web design - for little or no money. Questions to ask: Are they willing to go the distant to create the website YOU envision? Can you continue to ask for changes without fear of offending them? Is web design a hobby or a profession? Do they follow the W3 standards? How much do they know about search engine optimization?

If your website is a personal site let someone do it for free. However if it is your business there is more at risk. Even a beautiful website design is only part of the equation. Your site needs to be Google friendly to be indexed and ranked. Part of this is done on the page content and part is in the code. Both are equally vital. It can be a lot to keep up with as the Internet changes and finds better ways to serve the user searching for information or products.

More questions visit my FAQs page.

Web Hosting

At some point you’ll need to purchase web hosting. Web hosting is still a bargain and we keep getting more for our dollar. You need to not under buy or over buy.

If you are going to put a lot of video and audio on your website you will begin to pull “bandwidth”. Bandwidth results in extra charges from web hosting which has a very low monthly rate. Be sure to find this out before signing up.

Business sites are often online brochures with static pages, which have very low band width requirements. Still the lowest price web hosting is not the best deal. Somewhere in the $15.00 and up range is a better place to be. You don’t want your website to packed into such a dense server (the physical computer of the web hosting service) that your site is slow in responding to visitors’ requests. You can read my guidelines on my website:
http://www.brendasimon.com/custom_web_design_pricing.html

The company’s reliability is a huge issue. Are they actively maintaining their servers? Are they investing in newer servers? In this economy: will they be there tomorrow? I am currently keeping my clients on a month to month billing cycle. In the past we purchased hosting annually to get a bit of a break financially. All web hosting has down time – there is time when the servers are maintained and upgraded performed. MOST companies schedule this during off peak hours. Recently one of my client’s hosting made changes on a Friday morning which disrupted a client’s email for 6 hours, and they received no advance notice.

Talk to the web hosting you are considering, check out their tech support. Only email tech support is tough to deal with as a web designer and webmaster. It might work for you. Know the rules going in.
For those who like to read more: http://whreviews.com/

To Flash or Not

With browsers capable of delivering so much content it is tempting to add Flash to your website - or even have your entire website in Flash.

While I work in Flash and love it - I use it selectively on my site. On my Home Page at the bottom you'll find one simple snippet:

http://www.brendasimon.com/

You'll find other examples, more complicated here:

http://www.brendasimon.com/animated_titling.html Click the motion titles. Some are Flash.

In choosing to include Flash I considered my clients. Since my visitors are from a wide background and different computer platforms and cofigurations I located the Home Page Flash near the bottom, which means it loads last, it won't annoy the slower computers. The animated titles are on their own pages which lets the visitor choose to view them or not. This removes the annoyance factor we all run into and has been one of the major stumbling block for Flash sites. Another key factor has been the lack of indexing for dynamic pages, but Google has been making headway on this (jury still out on their effectiveness).

The best use I find is including some Flash, but not your entire website. One of my clients uses it on the Home Page banner and this is a perfect touch of movement, but they also recognize their visitors and clients will NOT be on dial-up or older computers.

If your budget permits embracing the beauty and fun of Flash keep your client's convenience primary in your web design and you'll find the right balance.

Keywords, choosing website name, domain name

Search engines rely on keywords to connect you with your potential clients. How would someone find you? What words would they use? Those are the questions to answer.

Go to Google and test drive your keywords. You'll see, as you type, the results Google will return. If you include your top keyword in your domain name you have a sounder footprint online. If you're an appraiser include it in your domain name (your website name): www.johnsappraiserservices.com. You can look at variations: www.appraiserserviceslosangeles.com
www.johns-appraiser-services.com (Hyphens need extra thought - they are not easily remembered.)

Does ".com" matter? For simplicity sake: yes. Unless you are a charitable organization (.org) we're all used to ".com" and even if told ".net" - we mistakenly will type in ".com". Make it easy on your clients.

Including your region strengthens your name if your business is local. But keep in mind the length of the website name. If it becomes cumbersome to speak it - it's too long. In print you can use capital letters to make it more readable and memorable: www.JohnsAppraiserServices.com Browser address bars will downsize to lower case.

If you have a business name and you are only seeking new internet traffic you do not have to use your business name for your website address. You can purchase your business name (if available) as a domain name AND the new keyword driven domain name. Your business name/domain name is redirected to your keyword driven website and you've not lost your current clients.

There are many resources for finding available domain names. Here's one:
http://www.namesecure.com

The purchase price is the same regardless of where you buy - some offer attached services and reduce the first year's rate, but it isn't worth tying yourself to one company. Your total bill will be $8.95/year plus $.20 regulatory fee.

Your first website?

Hello everyone,
If you are considering having your first website created it can be overwhelming trying to figure out the questions to ask.

While I have many of the typical questions on my website:
http://www.brendasimon.com/custom_website_faqs.html
there isn't enough room to cover everything.

The place to begin is your domain name, which is your website name or URL. Part of the confusion is many names to describe the same item.

If you are hoping to get traffic from search engines you need to design the foundation and structure of your website with this in mind. That begins with a domain name with your keywords included.

Not everyone wants or needs search engine results. If your website is going to be your online brochure you will be driving traffic TO your site by other means. The money saved from printing costs is welcomed. I have had clients with no interest in search engines.

There is your first question: Are you looking to make friends with Google? This means aiming for Google ranking and indexing. If yes is the answer you need to make a list of your keywords. What's that? I'll explain more.