Posts Tagged ‘Credibility’

Web Design Mythology

Monday, December 14th, 2009
Shahid Hussain asked:


A Good Website design is an important step to register strong online presence. Although there are many factors contributing towards a classy website design, here are some common myths of web design we must take care of:

Role and choice of colors:

A nice and pleasant website design is imperative to attract web traffic. Most web designers believe that using lot of colors will add value to the website, where as in reality plenty of colors may destroy the appearance of a website. The website visitors may get irritated with too many colors and hence may never return. Website designers should focus using colors and affects that go well with the theme and purpose of the website. As a principal, maximum of 2 or 3 colors should be enough during a web design making sure that use of these colors doesn’t obstruct the visibility of the website.

Use of Graphics:

It is an absolute fact that graphics make things look nicer and communication easier, but it’s over dose may make these difficult. Few website Designers believe using too many graphics will add pleasant affects and credibility to their website. Yes Graphics can be utilized to lend it to a webpage but excess of it may prove intrusive and hinder usability of website. The web page carrying heavy graphics will take a lot of time to load thus affects accessibility. Web design which is a result of simple elegant graphics and loads easily is always appreciated by the web visitors.

Flash Affects: Are those attractive?

Flash is extensively used to create advertisement banners and liveliness in a website design. Flash banners, although deliver your marketing message with powerful eye-catching visual graphics, can serve their desired purpose only if they are used proficiently and carefully. Flash banners may add energy to a particular website design, but they can have many drawbacks as well. As Web designers use too many frames to illustrate an animation, flash banners are not downloaded easily in a web page unless you are connected to high speed internet.

Main drawback of Flash website designs is the fact that content of the web page is not yet indexed by any search engine. So the websites developed fully on Flash technology makes them a risky business option for companies seeking to enhance their online presence through search engine optimization.

All Flash websites need a plugin to view flash components in a web browser. Just think if just 15% of your prospective web customers don’t bother to download the plugin and install it to view your website; you have a good opportunity to lose a significant share of web business. And believe it that many wont simply bother. If used reprehensively, Flash website designs have an amazing capacity to be a serious frustration to your website users. Hence Web designers should offer the choice of non flash versions along with the flash versions, which permits the visitors to browse through the information with ease.

Your Website looks same in all browsers?

After building some successful websites many web developers love to pretend that the website will look all the same in different browsers as it appears on their machine. In reality there is a good probability that the website may not look same in all web browsers. Even worse is the fact that sometimes Website can look perfect in every Web browser on one machine, but other machine will render it other way in those same browsers.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a body that sets standards for how all Web browsers, like Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google’s chrome, should render HTML. However all these standards are merely guidelines and problem is that the programmers who develop Web browsers interpret these guidelines as they assume it is best to display HTML on your machine.

Therefore Web designers should test the website in all browsers and make sure that website is optimized with web standards adopted by different browsers. Also the resolution varies from pc to pc. Some users prefer to view the websites in 1024 X 768 resolution while others may view the website in 800 X 600 resolution. The web designer should ensure that the website looks good and same in all resolutions. The table width should be set in percentage instead of pixels while assigning properties to the table because it will help the viewer to view the website properly in any resolution.



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Public Relations or Advertising: Which is Best for Your Business?

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Tom Trush asked:


On Tuesday night, I caught a couple minutes of my favorite television show – The Big Idea. Hosted by Donny Deutsch, a long-time advertising executive, The Big Idea is an excellent source for getting daily advice from a wide range of entrepreneurs.

 

Tuesday’s topic was how to make your company a household name. Included on the panel were professionals from the public relations and advertising industries.  

 

Donny is always eager to create a little controversy (one reason why the show is so entertaining), so I wasn’t surprised when he presented the following question to his guests:

 

If you’re a business owner on a limited budget and you could pick only one area to concentrate on, would you focus on advertising or public relations?

 

Without hesitation, I blurted out my response.

 

Ask this question to a random set of business owners and it’s likely many will tell you there’s little difference between the two. But the truth is these industries are completely different, especially when it comes to print.

 

While advertising requires payment for space in a publication, effective public relations results in free exposure (assuming you don’t hire an agency) for your product or service.

 

What’s more, readers realize you’re trying to sell them something when your information is presented in an advertisement. As a result, they’re naturally cautious. With public relations, you get a third-party endorsement from the media – a factor that boosts your credibility.

 

An issue some people have with public relations is that you have limited control over the way the media portrays your company, but I think that’s a risk worth taking.

 

If you’ve read to this point, my answer to Donny’s question is pretty obvious. But there’s one big reason why I believe in public relations … and it has the potential to impact your business on a grand scale.

 

You can multiply your message with public relations.

 

Here’s what I mean: When you’re featured or your product/service is mentioned in some type of print media, there’s a strong possibility your news will be seen by more than just that publication’s audience.

 

Most media these days have an online presence. Thanks to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and reddit, information – including news articles – is shared more than any other time in history. Regardless of your industry, social media makes it possible for you to reach a global audience without spending big bucks.

 

Also, the popularity of blogging has turned anyone with Internet access and an opinion into a reporter. Underestimating the blogging community’s publicity power is a huge mistake.

 

And, remember, writers and editors don’t just read their own publications. Fresh news comes from many sources, including competing publications. This is one reason why you sometimes see similar features in multiple publications.

 

So now that you know public relations is a cost-effective tool for your business, how do you use it?

 

As a regular contributor to several publications, here are my suggestions:

 



Learn which writers cover your industry. This task is as simple as studying the publications you want coverage in and watching to see who writes about topics related to your industry.



 

 



Volunteer yourself as a source. As a writer, it’s not easy finding qualified sources for articles. Once you learn the writers covering your industry, contact them and offer to answer questions for future articles.



 

 



Request editorial calendars. Most trade journals determine themes for future issues months in advance. Editorial calendars are a great way to find out planned topics so you can offer your knowledge or, in some cases, submit your own article.



 

 



Send out press releases. I don’t think enough companies send out press releases. Newsworthy events happen all the time. You just might not realize it because you’re too close to daily operations. Start asking yourself the following question: Would what we’re doing today interest someone outside of our company?



 

 



Pitch article ideas to writers/editors. This is a challenging task for many people, but it’s worth the effort. When you pitch an idea, grab the writer/editor’s attention by describing why your topic is unique. Also, explain why it will benefit the publication’s readers.



 

 



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