Tips In Becoming A Web Designer

Ever looked at an unsuspecting web page and thought to yourself, "Oh, even I can do better than that?" After all, you think, with the help of programs like Microsoft Frontpage and Adobe Dreamweaver, you can probably make pretty websites in just a matter of minutes. But can this basic knowledge and reliance on top-of-the-line software really get you anywhere in the itty gritty world of web designing? If you, my friend, are thinking of setting up your own company for web design, then you need to think clearly and thoroughly before rushing things through like this. Becoming a good web designer requires not only raw talent, but promise, determination and a willingness to learn.

Web designing is a popular idea in many online forums for discussing possible jobs. Why not? After all, this way, you are your own boss, you don't have to be under anybody's watch and you can freely choose when to work and who to work for. But the problem that many companies who hire designers for their web pages often encounters is how to differentiate the good from the best. With the number populating and advertising their wares on the Internet, finding the one that can deliver exactly what you want may be a daunting and frustrating task.

Nowadays, it's very easy for just about anybody to come into contact with their artistic sides, especially with the boom of digital art and the ease to get a hold of these softwares. Forget basic HTML coding, for now, every Tom, Dick and Stanley can easily style websites with the handful of tools available on the Internet. Why bother to spend half your life studying for something that you can learn and master in a matter of days? Sadly, this kind of genius is a one in a million chance, thus this happy go lucky behavior should not be the case. Taking the job lightly might end up with your work being treated lightly too.

The very best way to become a good, functioning designer is first, not just to know, but to understand the manipulations you do with the websites. To do this, you would need some real in depth training, not just the ones you get online, but the ones from a full fledged university. A lot of universities offer bachelor degrees on web design and digital media - you just have to shop around for them. Just learning web design from online tutorials isn't considered as good as actually finishing a degree or course. Having a degree will entail you qualification and credibility that you really know what you're doing.

Indeed, being a full fledged, qualified web designer gives you an edge among the competitions. Companies wanting to make sure of a job well done would look for and hire professionals. Try your local university - they might offer a course on web design nowadays. Study hard if you decide to do so, and take it seriously. Investing on this degree will not only widen your horizons but also help you find the right jobs.

We specialise in Interactive Media Marketing, comprising of Web Design, Blog Design, print Graphic Design, etc. A solution to your Singapore Web Design needs.

The Options At Your Disposal When Selecting Website Graphics

When creating the website for your business, your main goal should be to get as many visitors as possible. This can be done in a variety of ways, so your options for getting traffic aren't limited. If you want users to remain on your website, they have to have a good reason for doing so. One such reason that they remain on your site is the use of web graphics.

Using the right website graphics can do a lot for your internet business. Even though content is what will bring visitors to your site, it's the graphics themselves that will help to improve the user's experience. Many users when they visit websites they just come to the page and leave. But with the right website graphics, you give your users the opportunity to browse around and see what your site has to offer.

You have a few options for getting graphics for your website. The first option is a graphic designer. With a graphic designer, you know that you will get what you paid for. The work of a professional graphic designer will be more than worth it and your site will be made spectacular because of it.

The only drawback of using a graphic designer is the cost. There's a price to be paid when using graphic designers and their fees can get pretty steep. If price is a factor to you then you may not want to consider this option.

The next option that you have is PSD graphic templates. A lot of these graphics were created by graphic designers themselves so you are getting graphic designer quality work at the fraction of their cost. The only drawback of using these templates is that not all of the templates are of high quality and the ones that are good can cost you a good bit of money. But if you're just looking for a simple website graphic design, then you should consider this option.

The last option that you have when seeking out website graphic is free graphics. There are a lot of free graphics such as clipart that you can use on your website. These graphics usually come in JPEG or GIF format, and are ready to be used by you. The benefits of this are obvious.

Number 1, the graphics are free. You don't have to pay anything for them or get permission whatsoever. The second benefit is that you don't have to customize them. With some graphic packages, you get a nice design but you still have to modify them still - and this process can be a headache for some people. The third benefit is that it's effective. These free graphics do what they're supposed to do, and work wonderfully at it.

Now with that said, there are some drawbacks to using free graphics. The first drawback is that the image quality of some of the graphics can be sub par. It all depends on what you are looking for when looking for graphics for your website. You have to keep an open mind to the whole ordeal and select the ones that will be perfect for your website.

One of the best kinds of free graphics that you can use are bullet points. You can use arrows for example in replace of a standard bullet point. This is one advantage of using free graphics.

You will have to make the decision as to what kind of graphics that you want to use. All have their benefits and disadvantages, but the decision is ultimately up to you.

Good luck with picking the graphics for your website.

FOR MORE INFO: Learn how to get 35 website header graphics that you can customize and use on your website. To learn more, visit the following website for more details: http://www.instant-downloadz.com/plrheaderpack.html

The IT and Web Design Industries in Telford

Telford - it's the silicon valley of the UK, a hub for technology companies and a base for the current and next generation of web designers and coders. But how did a town that's named after a famous civil engineer, become famous itself for something so completely different?

Well, it all happened in the 80's and 90's when a string of government incentives and a reputable UK workforce attracted a number of high-tech and IT industry companies. These companies set up their massive factories and Head Offices in Telford and over the next 25 years gave the town a reputation for being a centre of computing excellence. Of course, this has had a massive knock on effect for Telford which now has multiple IT training facilities and plentiful qualified IT experts to feed both the large companies and increased consumer demand for web expertise.

This environment for learning produces many well-trained specialists every year and students have a great many courses to choose from. One can study UML Systems Modelling, C++ or web design in Telford's plentiful colleges and many local children go on to train and work in the locale as part of the IT industry.

So it's clear why Telford is well positioned to offer IT and web design services but why, specifically, does the town provide such talented individuals? This is because of the highly focused number of companies based in the area that are IT related. As a result of this focus, web designers and SEO specialists have the support they need in the form of local expertise and as such can provide a strong service. These companies also have a large catchment area for business, stretching down to Gloucester and South Wales and across the Black Country, which helps create a very stable area for success. As a result, customers who are looking for an expert in IT or web design in Telford have a great many successful companies and trained individuals to choose from.

Ultimately then, if you need IT support or want to get a web-based idea off of the ground - Telford has all the web design and hands-on specialists you could ever need and you should never need to look outside of the town for the computing services you require.

Anthony Rome

Web Design Telford

Redesigning Your Website? Redirects Are Your Best Friend

A friend (to remain unnamed) recently relaunched his website. It looks cool, but they instantly lost years of deep search engine links and ranking, killed in-bound links from other websites, and generally blew away a lot of tasty, wholesome search engine goodness.

How did they do that?

They neglected one of the key elements of a redesign project - something called "redirects."

The good news for you is that it is very easy to prevent this ranking loss, but it needs to be managed BEFORE you relaunch, then implemented simultaneously with the relaunch. All you need to do is talk with your web designer/developer about "redirects" before you start your redesign project. The designer should know what to do after that.

So, what is a "redirect" and why is it important for website relaunches?

A redirect simply tells your browser to go from an old page URL to a new page URL. This is important for website relaunches because your old website's URLs (like /clients.html) might either not exist or change (to something like /clients) with new the website design or content management system. The difference between "/clients.html" and "/clients" might not look like much to you or me, but to a search engine or a web browser, it is as different as night and day.

Redirects are important because:

1. The search engines could take weeks or months to re-index your new pages so they appear in the search results. And, if you have important keywords in the old page's content, it could be a long, long time before your organic ranking returns for those keywords.

2. If another website linked to your old URL, any visitor who clicks on the link will get an error code on your website rather than a page with your content. So, you made someone who was kind enough to link to your website, or yourself, look incompetent (visitors will assume either the website with the link or your website has a problem).

3. If you are a high-tech company, could be a big bummer for your street-cred, dude.

Technical aspects

Technically, a redirect is often called a "server-side 301 redirect." We don't need to go into the specifics because this is pretty basic stuff for good web developers - you just need to be sure your web designer/developer understands and commits to implementing redirects for you.

Also, Google has all kinds of info on this. Just search "301 redirect" and you'll find all kinds of great information.

Practical aspects

The first thing you have to do is create a list of all your existing pages/URLs. Then, decide what new pages/URLs they should redirect to. Some people will use Google Webmaster Tools to see which pages are indexed and/or have inbound links and only redirect for those pages/URLs, particularly if they have a lot of pages. Then, rather than show a 404 error code when someone visits any other obsolete URL, show your sitemap or another page on your new website. Also, your developer might have a simple technique for managing redirects.

In any event, it is critical that you discuss redirects with your web designer (1) before you hire them (so you're sure they understand it), and (2) during the redesign process so you're sure your existing URLs are all cataloged and the redirects can be properly implemented.

Conclusion

If you are relaunching your website, it is critical to your SEO and online friends that you utilize redirects:

- They're easy to do.

- Good web developers and designers can handle the whole process for you.

Eric Weidner, President & CEO, Workbox, Inc.

A seasoned web design and development executive, Eric Weidner co-founded Workbox in 1997. Eric's expertise lies in helping clients translate their business goals into something highly usable on the Web.

Company website: http://www.workbox.com
Blog: http://blog.workbox.com

What is Needed to Have a Website

So you've decided to create a web site for your business. That's great! Having a presence on the internet can help your business establish credibility, increase sales and serve as a means of communication with your current and potential customers. But to some, the thought of putting their business online is overwhelming. This article will help to clarify what is required to have a presence on the internet.

STEP 1 - Purchase a domain name

A domain name is the unique name that identifies an internet website. (e.g., google.com, amazon.com). As the internet grows, getting the perfect domain name to represent your business may require some creativity. Most, if not all, of the more common names are already taken. You can visit sites such as godaddy.com or netsol.com to see if the domain name you wish to use is available. You can also purchase your domain name from these domain registrars or, if you've hired a web designer to assist in the creation of your site, they can purchase the domain name on your behalf.

A domain name can typically cost between $7 and $40 for a one year registration. Once you register a domain name and continue to renew it each year, no one can use that domain name except YOU!

STEP 2 - Create a web site

Do-It-Yourself - There are many web sites out there that offer services that allow you to create your own web site online. For those of you that have no web design experience, this can be a great place to start. Costs can run from $15.00 a month and up, depending on the features you are provided.

Hire a web designer - If you do not have the time or the inclination to invest in a do-it-yourself web site, you may wish to consider hiring a web designer. While typically more costly than a do-it-yourself web site, a professional web designer can create a custom web site for your business. A professional web designer can also guide you in terms of the "look" for your web site as well as the content. Having the right content (text) on your web site is very important if you wish to appear in the popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

So, if cost is your major concern when creating a web site, a do-it-yourself service may be the best choice. Otherwise, consider speaking to a web designer about your site requirements, the services they offer and how they may be able to work within your budget.

NOTE: If you are considering an e-commerce site (selling your products or services on the internet) there are other factors to consider including site maintenance and credit card processing.

STEP 3 - Select a web hosting service

A web hosting service stores your information (web files) on a server (computer), allowing it to be seen by the world on the internet.

Pricing for web hosting varies and depends on the features offered by the web hosting service. Monthly costs for hosting can be $5.00 and up. Questions to ask your web host provider (or web designer if they provide web hosting services) include: How much web space am I allowed? How many email accounts are included? What statistics are available about my web site once it goes live? Am I under a contract or can I cancel my web hosting plan at any time?

Follow the three steps above and you will be on your way to having your business on the internet!

Loretta Rinaldi is the owner and web designer for Crystal Clear Solutions, a Baton Rouge web design company, and has been designing web sites and providing search engine marketing services since 2001.

Why Most Web Designers Aren't Marketers

As someone that has been in the web design world for over 15 years, I get one question all the time.

"Why didn't my old web guy tell me about that?"

Well, it's because most web designers are not marketers. They know the programs that make your website, brochure or business card look great. They are very creative. But, most of them have never learned marketing, copywriting or the power of persuasive marketing.

Honestly, most don't even care about it. They just want it to look great.

I know, I was one of them. The difference was I wanted to expand and grow my business so I started learning from the best marketing gurus out there.

So how can you work with a designer if you don't quite see eye to eye on things? You have to give them direction. You need to take control and make sure that your website not only looks good but is also as effective as possible.

Here's three tips that will help you both stay on track and get you both pretty design AND a marketing tool that will work for you 24/7.

Copy Is King

Don't go for the fluffy corporate boring stuff. Keep it personal. Talk to your site visitors and make them feel at ease. Don't just brag about how cool you are with all your awards and certification.

If you can write, I highly suggest writing your own copy text. This gives it all your own voice. Add your own personality to it. You can easily build a great relationship with someone without even actually meeting them if you can write it with the right voice.

If you can't write, be sure to work closely with your copywriter to make sure they write with your voice. You need to add the personality to it.

Don't let them keep you hostage

Make sure you have a content management system with your website. You need to be able to make simple text edits yourself without the need to go back to them every time you want to make a change.

This will save you money but more importantly, keep you from having to wait to fit in their schedule.

If you want to add a special to the website, you shouldn't have to wait a week to get it up there.

Keep it customer focused

What problems do your visitors have? How can you help? What solution do you offer?

Remember to keep this in front of your designer at all times. This is the most important part of your website. Not the pretty pictures.

You need to talk this through with them. Make sure they understand up front what you want. You will quickly find the difference between a good designer and a great designer. Good designers might argue with you about what to do. A great designer will keep your focus in mind while making your website look like a piece of fine art.

And with this, you can win on both sides.

Tired of that stubborn web guy that charges you a fortune for every word you want to update? Whether you are just getting started on your first website or want your website to be an effective 24/7 lad generation machine for your business, check out http://YourWebsiteStartsHere.com and claim your free training videos and learn how to make your website an income stream for your business and not just another expense!

The 5 Basic Requirements of Great Web Design

The main purpose of any website is to communicate with its visitors and how each visitor experience the web site will largely depend on the actual visitor, i.e. a teenager will be more attracted to a new funky website, than a more mature person, who is just looking for the actual information in the content.

However there are basics that must be adhered to in web design to make the web site pleasing to visit, easy to navigate and that will leave a lasting impression on the visitor. These are:

• Layout,
• Colour,
• Texture,
• Typography and
• Imagery

Using a balanced combination of these 5 elements, will allow a visitor to:

• Enjoy a pleasing design, but that will allow for easy access to the actual content
• Move around the website easily with intuitive navigation
• Recognize that each page belongs to the web site

When it comes to layout, the main aim must always be to use the golden ratio or as it would be used in web design is the rule of thirds. The page is divided into thirds and navigation, content and imagery is then placed in these different sections to allow for a more pleasing layout.

Colour plays a very important role in web design. Colour associations are one of the most important aspects to take into consideration for example red is always associated with love and thus no one will design a Valentine's web site in green or blue. Similarly green is associated with nature and blue symbolizes openness, intelligence and faith. Blue is not part of Nature's appetizing colours and is therefore not a great choice to design restaurant or food web sites. Rather use a combination of red, orange and yellow.

Texture is anything that gives a specific feel being it in the background or in imagery or even in the fonts used in the text. A rough texture may be more suitable for web sites that is used for outdoor activities or safari travel websites, where as smooth, silky texture would be great for weddings, ladies clothes or baby web sites.

The core purpose of all web design is communication and therefore typography plays a very important role in this. Many web designers do not think about typography as an important part, however if you look at magazines and the numerous different font styles and sizes used, the importance of typography cannot be stressed enough. There are numerous obstacles in using typography on web sites, one which is that a visitor may not have the specific font loaded on his computer and will therefore not see the exact font. This can however be overcome by placing such "exotic" fonts in images.

When it comes to imagery the points to keep in mind is to ensure that they are relevant to the content, they must be interesting and they are appealing to the visitor. Relevant images can add interest to any web layout and also enhance the content of the site, but these should also be interesting and appealing so that it emphasis the content and ensures that the visitor is hooked to the content.

In summary, if the basics of web design, layout, colour, texture, typography and imagery are used in a balanced relationship with each other you should have a web site that will be aesthetically appealing and functional to your visitors ensuring more visitors to your web site.

Petrus Keyter

http://www.pankey.co.za

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Professional Means to Obtain a Good Design For Your Website

The best way to start an online business is to get prospects to your website. There are many out there who are overwhelmed by the opportunity to create their own website. Many believe that creating a website is extremely difficult. But it is not true. If you have a website, or you're thinking of having a website for which you want to optimize the taste of its viewers, so trust me, this is the need to design your site to the article because I am about to tell you all the advice you need to plan in great style. While there are forms, web design, which are very complex (and the software can be very expensive), the HTML is understandable and useful!

Before you begin your journey of design, you're going to have to...

1. A fast PC (or MAC), but preferably a PC with a screen capable of high resolution (1900 x 1200 preferred)
2. A fast internet connection that is always
3. A reliable hosting. A domain name and e-mail your own
5. You also need the software, but much of what you need to develop your own website is free or very cheap. The only software I use right now is Photoshop really expensive, but cheap (and free) alternative to that too.

When all of these resolved the next thing you should really interested in is making your site search engine friendly. In this deal the biggest role of regions for the entire site properly indexed by search engines. All we are going through,...

1. Title Tag
2. Meta (Description and Keywords) Tags
3. Body text: a brief description of what you should write in the body text of your main (index) page.

This is a very brief description, but it would be very useful for web designers starting to get a better understanding of the basics on how to get your site indexed and listed on the major search engines. It is recommended to submit your site to search engines manually instead of using the automatic submission tool because some search engines consider them as spam and will not list your site. Remember it can take months to get the list, so be patient.

Have you ever had a website where it says "content is king",if you were at that type of sites then believe then. Are you still reading, then I must have something to offer I think, or else you would sail away from this page long ago.

So be clear and get your works done without any troubles and make sure you are on the right track. If you need to know more about designing a site then log on to http://itbaymarketing.com and start your site getting some good info's from the professionals.

Web Design and 5 Ways to Be Font Smart

Web design should make it clear which fonts are to be used on the site. It often doesn't occur to website designers to think about the fonts too much but they matter hugely. The main font used by your site needs to be a key part of the web design process.

Smart 1

Use a font that all the browsers support in the same way. It might not be obvious but not all browsers use fonts in the same way. Once you move away from the mainstream fonts quite quickly things start to go all over the place! So focus on the mainstream fonts like Verdana, Arial and Helvetica.

Smart 2

Use a decent size. 14 pt font is the size you should have as default. It's big and easy to see. This means that older people can access the site easily and quickly. This is great if you are an ecommerce site since this is the group of people that generally have a good disposable income.

Smart 3

Use black. Don't get tempted by the vast array of colours you can get for fonts. For you main body text use black text. It's easy on the eyes and so pleasant to read. If you want to use different colours use them for the headings or other parts but make the main body easy to read.

Smart 4

Don't crush up your text. Make sure when you look at the text that the text is well spaced. There is nothing worse for a reader than text that is all crushed up together. Don't do it!! If your text is crushed together get the person responsible for your web design to sort it out with CSS classes.

Smart 5

Use CSS to control your fonts. A core part of web design should always be making sure that fonts (and other page elements) are controlled by CSS classes. If you don't know what this is then ask your web designer. This is one of the things that can be really hard to sort after the site has been developed so ask at the start of the web design not after it is completed.

These 5 smart font tips can really aid your web design. You should discuss them with your web designer to satisfy yourself that they have been accounted for in the web design.

Alan is the founder of www.website-huddle.com which provides affordable website design and development. Why not see what we can do for your small business, club or organisation, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the low cost and the high quality. Go to www.website-huddle.com now to find out more.

Customized Logo Design - Today's Representative For Corporate and Professional Organizations

In the corporate world everybody is interested in wining the competition. Nobody wants to lose this race. Now the ideas for those wining race need to be changed and many companies have started working on that. These ideas must be in smarter way that differentiates from others. Today everybody takes more interest in promotion and advertisement. Now, the question is how to think smart for that. The answer is you should have your different and unique identity. Today it is developed by logo of the company. It is designed in a way that it explains about the services and business of the company or organization. It is well customized so that no one can have similar to that.

There are 3 main things that any organization should require when it is established

1. Customized Designs
2. Better and Effective Communication
3. Behaviour with good work environment

The above all things should be fully corporate and among them point number 1 must be mainly focused very first before establishment. Many skillful designers are available in the market and they can provide you quality work with competitive rates and some revisions also. For that they should be clear about the services and policies about an organization. You can include many things like logo, brochure, business cards, covering letters, letter heads, website and other required stationeries.

Why companies need that? Business incorporation is incomplete without its identity. If you want to see it at the top most position, your company should have it. It can help to attract the audience's attraction towards the company. It shows the company's name with some image which can explain about the services offered. So, just by seeing the logo anyone can decide that for what the organization is concerned with.

Well designed and customized logo help organizations in many ways as it shows the reliability, market value with better reputation, performance, product quality deliverables, future benefits and working strategies. There are many websites also like http://www.customlogoguru.com which can provide you the services according to your requirements and specifications.