Webdesign NO-NOs

Hate Sites

2010-06-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

While this isn't really a post about web design per se, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to those of you that might be considering starting a hate site. It's really easy to hide behind a keyboard and spout off nasty, sniping comments about other people or groups. The question is why would you want to? What's the point? Is your hate site going to make the world skinny? Is it going to stop acne? Will it prevent mullets? Or horrible dressing? Or is the purpose of your site to make you feel cool or superior? There is a much more constructive way to approach this than turning into a "mean kid". Instead of starting a "I hate..." site, consider the opposite. A website about how to dress, accepting one's body, or even weight loss tips, or trendy hair cuts is much more constructive.

Before you begin setting up your "I hate..." site, ask yourself this: "Would I HONESTLY say this to the face of the person I'm about to offend or hurt?" "Would I want someone saying this to my mom, dad, or someone I care about?"

I know this sounds like fluffy bunny stuff kids, but dang, we have enough hate in the world. Spread around some love ay???

So You Want A Website

2009-03-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

So you'd like to have a website designed for you or your company. You're probably feeling pretty overwhelmed by the process. What should go on the site? What should it look like? What web designer should I hire? All very important questions of course. But, before you lose your mind and get caught up in the mire of the actual design aspects, we'd like to give you a few cliff notes as it were, to get you on the right track.

1. Answer this question: "What is the goal of my website?" There are all different kinds of websites. Some provide information, some are used to interact with family and friends. Others may be used to sell products, while another might simply provide information about a company. Once you know what you would like to achieve with your site, you've jumped a major hurdle.

2. Since you've already decided the purpose of your site, it will now be easier to figure out what to put on the site. Company information, biographies of chief executives, information on how to get in touch with you, etc. Do you have products for sale and will you need a shopping cart and a means of accepting online payments? All very important questions!

3. Now that you know what you'd like to put on your site, it's time to get the copy ready. Write up your biographies and/or a summary of your company. Compile a list of your products, their cost and short descriptions and take quality pictures of each item. Why is this important? Because this will help in deciding how many individual pages you're going to need on your website. Having this information will certainly enable your webdesigner to give you a more precise quote for services.

4. Ask yourself this question: Do I have the money to pay a webdesigner? You would be AMAZED how many people seek out the assistance of a webdesigner, spend oodles of time explaining what they want, and request a quote from a webdesigner--only to find out that they can't afford a website in the first place, sufficiently wasting both their time and that of the designer. A good webdesign is not going to be cheap. (We're inexpensive here at WebArt WebDesign, but we're not FREE). If you've gone through the steps above and know what you need, consider doing some comparison shopping on line. What do various web designers charge for a site matching the size of the one you have in mind? Can you afford it? If not, start saving.

5. Once you have the funds available, then, and only then, should you contact the designer and ask for a quote. Why? Well, for one, prices change. A quote that a designer gave you six months ago will have probably increased in price. Plus, there is no better feeling on both ends, than to request a quote, accept the quote, and be able to get started right away.

So that's it, five simple steps to get you on the way to building your own little home on the web.

One thign before we close, however. We know that everyone wants to get the best deal for their money. This is also true when requiring a service such as web design. Keep in mind that while you might be paying a hefty amount for a website and have nothing tangible to hold in your hands, a website is an essential tool in your marketing portfolio. Don't be too cheap, or cut too many corners, or you'll wind up with a cut-rate website that fails to acheive your goals.

Let The Creativity Flow...

2009-01-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

A thought for the day... or something like that.

We'd like to offer a bit of advice. When you're working with a web designer, do yourself a favor--try to stay out of the design process.

If you've given your web designer enough information about you and your company and have provided a copy of your logo if available, your designer will already be conjuring ideas of what to do to create a professional looking (and hopefully still fun and engaging) website. DO NOT try to force color schemes or layout restrictions on the designer. Sure you can tell them that you wish to avoid black, or that you prefer a column type layout, but ultimately, you want to let the designer's creativity and skills produce the prefect site for you.

Look at it this way, if you wanted to have a couture dress made for you (or your significant other), you might say "Just so you know, I look horrid in green." or "I'm shy and prefer something conservative." - that's fine! Beyond that you'd let the designer create the perfect dress for your body shape and coloring. After all, that's what you're paying them for right? The same goes for web design! So allow yourself to get out of the way and let the process take it's course.

What's A Brochure Website

2008-10-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

A brochure website is generally a single page website that provides information about your company. This is usually the most inexpensive option and is very often a sufficient solution for small businesses. Unfortunately the brochure style website seems to be getting a bad name, mostly because designers are creating "templated" websites - bland, boring, and certainly not unique. I came across the example of a brochure website gone wrong:

Think how easy it is for a company to rake in the dough when charging, say $295, for such a site. All they have to do is change the logo and maybe the color, add some text and in a matter of 15, maybe 30 minutes .... Tah dahhh... Another cookie cutter website.

Listen, brochure websites do NOT have to be boring! There is a lot that can be done in the space available on a single page. Take for example this site: http://www.commercialsweeping.net/
It's much more professional, it has personality, and it gets the information across quickly and concisely (And to think they only paid $100 for this design!)

Free Websites?

2008-10-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

So you found a company that is offering to give you a "free website" huh? Let this serve as a warning!!! I've come across quite a few of these in recent weeks. I was curious what web designer would offer up their services for free. So I did a bit of investigating. What I uncovered was a refresher of the old rule - "You don't get anything for free!"

I have found, in most cases, these "free websites" are offered only in concert with super-inflated web hosting fees. I actually saw hosting fees as high as $199.00 a month! That, in a word, is RIDICULOUS! And what most people don't realize, these "free website" companies are actually re-sellers for well-known web hosts. So they're in essence buying up space and then turning around and re-selling it to their clients at whatever price they choose.--Space their clients could have received for a fraction of the price if they had gone directly to the web host and purchased an account themselves.

As a web designer, I myself am not a re-seller of web hosting. I personally feel web designers should get paid for their actual design work, not padded hosting and domain name fees! I actually offer a $100 design fee, with a webhost and domain name fee of $30.00/yr (paid to the hosting company, not me!) How anyone can charge $2,400 a year is beyond me! I suppose that's residual income, but how dishonest!!!

Finally, another trick I've seen includes "free websites" when you purchase a video. The video being a promotion for your business costing $140 and up. The free sites in both instances are plain, unprofessional looking, templated websites. This guarantees your site will look exactly like every other site the company has created aside from maybe changing the colors and adding your logo and text. Further these companies for the most part are not employing professional designers or those who know proper technologies and coding.

Here's the thing - Sure you want a high ranked page. Sure you'd like to have a video. But you CAN have these things without sacrificing the over-all look of your site. You don't have to pay a premium for a cookie cutter site just to get what is promised by these "free website" companies. You can get a high ranked $100 website, with a $100 video without paying a huge monthly fee for hosting! It's true! Don't be tricked by these dishonest marketing ploys!

Getting Top Ranking

2008-10-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

Being in the web design business I've seen tons of conflicting information about Search Engine Optimization and getting high ranking on Google. Everything from optimizing your meta tags to getting back links and having the right "key words" in the text of your site... Some say meta tags are dead. Others say they're just as important as they always were. Meanwhile Google managed to change its algorithms on a frequent enough basis, thereby changing the rules. It's enough to make any normal human being want run in the other direction. There are companies out there that offer to optimize your site. There are other companies who want to sell you books and software to achieve that goal. In all honesty, what you want to do is make sure you find a web designer who knows what they're doing. If your company has a website and it's not listed in the top 10 search results for your location, then you're missing out on a slew of potential clients/customers. Do your homework before you choose a web designer. Shop around and ask the right questions. Obviously we suggest WebArt WebDesign, but hey, it's your money!

Signed Up With DrivenHost

2008-07-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

Okay I did it. I signed up one of my clients (www.CommercialSweeping.net) with DrivenHost. The sign up process was pretty simple. The only problem I had was the credit card processing. It didn't take the card at first (despite having the proper information). But by the time I got with the client to figure out what was going on they had resubmitted and the account cleared. So I'll caution if you get an email saying your payment didn't go through, give it a few days - it's probably their credit card system.

I had no problem hooking up with Dreamweaver or uploading files. And the system was up and running very quickly. I'll report if I have any problems.

Love It... but....

2008-06-30T05:52:00.000-07:00

I came across a website the other day that I absolutely loved. Though a few red flags flew up during my visit, making it appropriate for discussion here.

First, It was a flash site with a lot of interactivity involved. In this instance, the page was VERY entertaining so I didn't mind waiting for movies to load and having to click here, there and everywhere to view the individual flash. Key words here: "very entertaining". So...Unless you have something that is extremely interesting or funny, keep light on the flash. Most people will not wait 30 seconds for Flash to load on every page of your site!

Next, the site was essentially a web designer's biography, hence I'm not going to post it here because hey, if you're looking for a web designer than you should be looking in MY direction thank you! Not only that, but there is no need to "ding" the guy because he did a great job for what he was trying to achieve. He's a seasoned designer who has done some major work for big names and can get away with a large amount of curse words, some fairly dark (emotionally) images and even a bit of nudity. Plus he's British. But the point is, HE can pick and choose who he wants to work for. The rest of us however (for the most part) do not wish to alienate with that type of content. So the lesson here - over personalization can be dangerous! What do I mean by that? While you're site might be a biography and should be "all about you", adding a dash of personality by the images, colors and maybe even some fun photos is one thing, but showing off your trucker mouth, expressing how you like to get seriously drunk on a frequent basis and posting naked images of yourself is probably going leave a good chunk of potential clients running in the other direction. (And quite possibly bring in some stalkers). As an aside, if you're website is NOT a biography, keep the personal stuff to a minimum.

Finally, one thing I CAN ding the website for - There were many occasions where the Flash was covering up the text of the page. In fact, it took me a good few minutes to find instructions on how to get rid of the guy's photograph on his front page so that I could actually read his biography. That's not good. Other pages, the text which plays the movie in the forefront was partially covered by an image - it took me another minute or two to realize what text needed clicked to play the movie. So the lesson here - If you have Flash on your site - Keep it Simple! Don't cover up the main content of your site. Consider plain text for your main content (for those that have Flash turned off), and certainly try to keep your navigation obvious.

No Out Sourced Tech Support

2008-06-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

I verified that DrivenHost does NOT outsource their tech support. So it's final. They're the ones. Obviously I'll post regarding set up and customer service as I go along with them in the future. Thus ends that project. Back to finding what "not to do"...

Choosing a Web Host Finale

2008-06-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

After extensive searching according to my past posts, I've made a decision to try out DrivenHost at DrivenHost.com. I'm doing this for five reasons 1) They were suggested on more than a couple of message boards 2) They are totally lacking in any "sucks" posts that I could find online 3) They have 24/7 tech support 4) They have really good prices and 5) they provide photographs of their data center (proof that it's not a server running out of some14 year old's bedroom). Based on my search, I feel I can trust these folks. Plus I think they're not outsourcing their tech support which is FABU. I'm not sure on that last point. I'll find out soon. (Though a word of caution. Their "online chat support" sucks. I've been looking at "an operator will be with you shortly" for about ten minutes just to find out if they ARE outsourced). The good news is, what i need this server for will be a simple one page design with no extras and no frills so I shouldn't (God willing) need tech support. I'll post any problems here of course! But for now my work here is complete!

Choosing Your Site

2008-05-21T04:39:00.000-07:00

We'll skip the segment where we talk about choosing your web designer. After all, we're a bit biased believing WebArt WebDesign is the way to go! That saves you one major step (choosing a web designer). The next step is to think about your design. There are some very important questions you'll want to answer and some rules we suggest you follow:

1) What is your website about? Is it an extension of your business? Maybe you're putting together a high school or family reunion page. Or maybe your an artist of some sort (writer, musician, painter, sculptor...) and you'd like to display your works. Each of these types of sites will have it's own needs. You'll want to weigh professionalism versus personality and decide which weighs heavier based on the type of site you're dealing with.

2) Certainly you may wish to incorporate colors and font styles based on your latest album, a letter head or your store sign. Here is where I'll warn that these items should also take into consideration the "feeling" you want to display with your organization. If you're going for a rock and roll site using a lot of black is acceptable -- albeit a bit predictable -- so make sure you do it right. On the other hand, if you're selling spa products you're probably going to want to choose more relaxing colors and images like leafy greens and soft florals (Think nature and soothing waterfalls here people!). But be sure to offer your logo, text color and font style to your designer (Your typesetter can provide these).

3) DO have an idea of what you want. I always love when clients provide me with a handful of websites they find appealing while fully describing what it is they like and dislike about them. It helps the designer to get an idea of the direction you'd like to take. If you have photos that you'd like to incorporate into the site, provide those at the initial consultation as well as this may weigh heavily on the page layout and color schemes.

4) BE CLEAR! If you don't like a certain color, or if you despise a certain layout, make sure you tell the designer up front. Otherwise they might waste a whole lot of time creating something you're going to be unhappy with and then you'll find yourself back at the drawing board (and possibly out more cash).

5) DO NOT tell the web designer to have at it, using their creative abilities and then feel you have the right to critique afterwards!

6) DO NOT think that your skills as a blogger or your talents at personalizing your Myspace give you any sort of experience or credibility with web design. There are a LOT of rules in web design that do not apply or are broken repeatedly on those types of pages. Trust the professional without micro managing. After all, that's what you're paying them for. Certainly give input, but if they attempt to explain why something is "bad form", trust them!

7) Save the internet from a horribly designed site. Taking into consideration point 6 above, if you have no experience in web design, please put it into the hands of a professional!!! Don't build your own site and expect anyone to take you seriously.

8) We BEG of you, check any narcissistic tendencies at the computer log in screen! You might be a fabulous person, you're probably beautiful and talented, and of course you want the world to know. However, overloading your site with "look at me, look at me" photos, phrases and three page biographies is wholly unnecessary. If you are as wonderful as you say you are, this will shine through in your professionally designed site without you ever having to announce the utter perfection that is you!

Choosing a Web Host Part II

2008-05-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

The search for the As-Perfect-As-Possible-Web-Host continues. Today I opened up my list of hosts that had been recommended by one person or another (Most of the recommendations I've found on discussion boards). This is a very daunting task, and to make matters worse, I found a post on yet another discussion board that warns against taking to heart any GOOD reviews from folks on forums and discussion boards. Why is that? We'll, does "affiliation" mean anything to you? That's right, chances are the good reviews I'm seeing are posted by some yutz that makes money off of my signing up to their suggested web host. Good God little fishes!

The good news is I found two other resources that might prove helpful. Wehostingstuff.com, which is a site that you can use to look up a host in question to get information about uptime stats. And then there's hostsearch.com which contains customer reviews. However I remain confused as to why I see ads on these sites for some of the WORST reviewed hosts out there (such as HostGator, which I'm constantly pointed away from and Bluehost, another which has received lots of bad reviews). So if you use these resources, pay no attention to the banner ads.

Another thing I'm finding out -- If you DO start to experience problems with a hosting company and their customer support -- Before you ever suggest that you'll be charging back fees to your credit card, or any other similar threats, be sure to make a complete back up of your site. You might also want to consider switching hosts before you go guns blazing. This will avoid your current host from shutting your site down, trashing your files and making it impossible for you to receive email. Yes, I've seen endless reviews where this type of thing happens all the time. A customer complains, makes a threat, and whamo! web files disappear and you can't get into e-mail. Sure, sure, you can sue them, but that wont prevent the headache of trying to rebuild your site, or the dozens or more emails from interested customers that made their way into the ether. Oh and on the back up front - you should always make a backup of your site anytime you make changes. I found out personally that you cannot depend on the "nightly back ups" offered by hosts. And back up your databases frequently (daily if you receive a lot of changes to your databases).

Adding more Hosts-to-Avoid to the list:

Bluehost: One reviewer said that they were continually getting CPU overload errors and it wasn't uncommon for their site to be down up to ten hours at a time. (Eeek!) And another reviewer cites what I'm calling the "got too big for their britches" factor - Became unstable as they grew in size and took away features that were originally offered.

Steadfast: I saw some good reviews on this one, however there was one review where a customer purchased a dedicated server. They were super happy and purchased another one. They had all kinds of problems on the second server and decided to close it down. The tech never bothered to tell them they don't do refunds. The customer explained that they'd be doing a charge back and suddenly their other server was shut down and they were unable to get into their business email. Just ONE of these types of complaints is enough to make me cross them off my list.

Verio: Outdated, downed servers - up to 15 hours... customer support horrible
and non-existent.

HagenHosting: I'm bummed because these folks looked so promising. They have Non-Outsourced tech support which made me do the happy dance. Until I found reviews that said customer/tech support can only be reached via a trouble ticket. No phone support. Tech response time is 2-3 days and there is no support on weekends. And a tech actually threatened to ruin someone's life. Yes they said "I will ruin your life". How's that for service? Ack!

DirectNic: I've used them for years for a few sites. I have my personal domain names purchased through them just for the ease of having everything in one place. However I just found out of if you let your domain lapse in a hopes of moving it, DirectNic will move it to a shell server and squat on it. You'll have to buy it back from them. So don't let your domain names lapse. Caveat - I've never had a problem with them, but I am in the process of transferring a domain name to another person and I actually have to get some paperwork notarized to make it happen. I'll update if I have any problems with that.

More to come...

Choosing a Web Host Part I

2008-05-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

As a web designer I am often asked to find and set up accounts with web hosts. A web host is the company who provides (for a fee) shared server space where you place your web files so they can be viewed by the world. These days I tend to cringe when I am asked to find and set up a web host and nothing makes me happier than a client who already has their hosting set up (unless of course it's GoDaddy whom I dislike strictly based on their advertising tactics - That's when I love the power I wield in making this all-important decision). But with the sheer number of web hosts now available (And new ones popping up every day.) how do you choose the "perfect" one?

It is impossible to find the perfect web host. Every client has a unique set of needs, and EVERY web host has dissatisfied customers. Compounding this problem - people tend to complain when things are not going right, but they don't take the time to praise when it does (Or when their complaint is answered to their satisfaction). Couple that with my recent frustrations with A Small Orange - a company who came highly recommended but whose tech support wound up lacking as they grew in size. And a similar situation with 1 and 1 who grew to the point of outsourcing and less competent tech support, all of which makes finding a decent host an increasingly difficult task.

Many of my peers are using dedicated servers, which of course is the answer in many situations. However not when clients can't afford it. So what do you do? Especially when the tried and true hosts you've been dealing with go down hill as their client base increases.

I've decided to document my search for "An Acceptable Host". I'm not sure how many parts we'll get us there, but this is Part I which includes finding recommended hosts at webhostalking.com, and then googling for "sucks" posts (i.e, POWWEB Sucks). Results thus far:

PowWeb - Found a ton of reasons NOT to go with this company. According to rumors on the web that I cannot confirm or deny, they shut down a site for political reasons, they "lost" files of a site they shut down without warning, and they immediately shut down sites that were causing server demand without assisting customers in fixing the problem.

Dreamhost - Is accused of overbooking their servers causing very slow loading.

HostGator - Seems they like to play the ol' AOL tactic, once you shut down your account they keep charging you. And I saw that they also played the shut down without notice game.

iPower.com - (Formerly iPowerWeb) Has a website dedicated to how bad it sucks... (iPowerComplaints.com)

newisp.com - ??? Couldn't find a valid website. Either they don't exist or they are down.

In my research I also came across this resource which I'm now also using: http://badwebhosts.blogspot.com/ visit them for an entirely new list of hosts to avoid. Unfortunately their last update was December 2006.

More to come!

Some Good Sites

2008-05-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

If I do say so myself... :)

Here are a couple of sites that I've recently completed. These are examples of NICELY designed sights, thank you :)

https://www.afishybusiness.net

http://www.cristywright.com

Speed and Reliability

2008-03-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

There is noting more frustrating than waiting for a website to load when you're in a hurry! I, myself, am famous for not allowing pages to finish loading before clicking links to try to find the information I'm looking for. And I know there are others out there like me who are totally missing the big bloated images and sound files these sites were intending us to see. So it's a waste of both of our time really. Now the exception to this rule would be entertainment based sites. I don't mind waiting a few moments to see a images or hear sounds of say, James Marsters (Spike of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame). Entertainment sites such as these have a bit more leeway in the sit-and-wait department.

But I cannot over stress the importance of testing your website's loading speed. If you want to be really anal, try it out on a dial-up account. Yes, there are still folks out there who live in the dark ages (Either by choice or location). So connection speeds, file sizes and decisions on whether that sound or image file is really necessary all need to be weighed heavily when designing a site. Granted, those who are still on dial-up are pretty used to a slow moving machine. But it's still good form to ensure that you're file sizes are kept as small as possible and you're not including a bunch of bloated items that find your page still loading long after customers have already purchased what they were looking for from your competitor!

Another important consideration is your website's uptime. This issue can often be completely out of your control. For instance, a client of mine has an online store and began to receive website errors that temporarily broke her page. These errors were due to problems with her database caused by issues with her server's hard drive. Since she's hosted through someone else, she was left at their mercy (A Small Orange is the name of the company if your interested). After literally dozens of outages per day and conversations with tech support, who blamed everything from the version of SQL and PHP to the actual shopping cart script, I found out that they had been having a hard drive problem. (Mind you they never notified my client of this fact who was still checking her website 1,000 times a day to repair the database errors that were breaking her site -- Meanwhile she's losing sales!) So what do you do? The obvious answer to this question is to make sure you fully research your web host before enlisting their services! Important questions to ask- What is their uptime? Do they have any guarantees? (i.e., 99% uptime guarantee or they start kicking money back in your direction). Do they make daily back ups in the event of hard drive failure on their end? etc.

Now the sad part is, my client and I did all this research before she signed up with A Small Orange. At the time the were a quality host, new on the scene. Everyone was raving about their customer support and uptime. But it seems they, along with companies like 1 and 1 Hosting - who decided to go the way of outsourcing customer support, and many others either lose sight of their original customer satisfaction goals or they simply get too big for their britches. Sadly if you get caught in this situation, the only solution is to move to a new host. However, depending on your website, this can be a major undertaking!!! Trust me, I've been there! If you feel stuck with your current host, I'd suggest you demand proper care. Don't let them brush you off or attempt to blame others when you suspect the fault lies with them. Hey, you're PAYING for the service remember? They have a duty to fully investigate. Remind them that you have a choice in web hosts!

With all that being said, hopefully you wont have customers finding messages like the one I encountered today while attempting to find a new power adapter for my old laptop:

Sorry, our store is down at the moment. We are working on bringing it back up as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Oy!

Real Website vs. Myspace Site

2008-03-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Anyone in possession of a computer used for more than a casual browsing of the web and/or to check email has seen a Myspace page. And if you haven't seen one you've certainly HEARD of Myspace--They're in the news enough! These days it seems that everyone from my little sister to Hillary Clinton (well at least her campaign) has a Myspace page.

This begs the question: Why do I need a website when I can have a Myspace page?--For free no less! The answer? Well, it's multi-tiered (No one has ever accused me of being concise.).

1. There is really nothing more professional looking than your own domain name. YourName.com is MUCH more pro than Myspace/YourName.com.

2. Many Myspace features require visitors to also be "members" and "friends". This limits what causal viewers can see and read.

What a royal pain in the tookus!

I'm here to tell you, if I want to learn more about you and/or your company, I don't want to have to fill out a form, start to receive a boat load of spam, and then wait for you to approve me as your friend! It's much easier to just visit the website of your competitor. And believe me, no matter what your business, there is always someone else out there happy to appease your potential customers. Don't think just because you're a talented musician, or you sell the fanciest soaps in town you've got me in your back pocket. I, much like Joe Consumer, am fickle and my time is valuable. I can and WILL be won over by someone making my life easier.

3. Just because you can set up a Myspace page and you've mastered the art of modifying a template, doesn't mean you're a WebDesigner. Most of us have visited a Myspace page that is rife with horrible backgrounds and bright fonts making the page virtually unreadable. Add to that an annoying video and music automatically starting, sometimes even conflicting with one another, causing visitors to scramble and hunt to shut these things off, and extra large images that cause the entire page to be skewed and excessively wide, necessitating a scroll bar. Do I need to explain why these things are bad?

4. And what about setting up your page to be easily found by search engines, or using the right amount of text without being overly verbose? What about the proper placement of your sales message? These are all important factors not being addressed by your Myspace page.

5. Speaking of text. Unless you're going to run all of your blog posts, your profile, your photo captions, and those ever-self-involved all-about-me sections of your Myspace page through a spell and grammar checker, you WILL have typographical and grammatical errors. And even if by some miracle you don't transpose a letter here and there, or use the wrong version of the word to (or is it too, or maybe two), the environment of Myspace is purely casual, taunting one to relax their professionalism, get a bit lazy, reveal things they probably shouldn't and sometimes even engage in conversations that are best left for late night chat rooms.

Here's the thing. If you want a Myspace page because you think it's an invaluable tool for spreading your word, then by all means, do so.--But make it an extension of your professional website, NOT as an alternative to the same. While you might think all those cutsey little free graphics and backgrounds show your personality, in most cases they annoy and are best left to the "chat room" mentality side of the net. Don't down grade your online real estate by foregoing the swank office space in the good part of town and setting up shop in a room above a downtown bar. Sure, the room above the bar is probably a lot of fun, but many of your customers aren't going to visit you there. Oh, and if you're a musician looking for an analogy: Myspace is your garage/basement while a professional website is a big arena. Follow?

Help the Greyhounds

2008-02-05T06:11:00.000-08:00

I love these little furry creatures! (Well, not so little but certainly furry and definitely cuddly). Anyone volunteering their time, money, homes, and hearts to these babies certainly earn points in my book. But alas I have to pick a bit on this site. It's my hope that a little constructive criticism will alleviate some of these mistakes and hopefully make for a more professional site, which will go a long way to giving credence not only to the group but also the cause.

I give you: Team Greyhound of Ohio
http://www.teamgreyhound.com

I'll forgo giving a screen shot since the link above shows everything you need to see.

The problems:
We'll start with the structure which is non-existent. The layout is nothing but one long page of information centered down the middle.

Misplaced graphics - While cute little animated wagging dogs are adorable as heck, situating them in the middle of a text paragraph is distracting.

Lack of Navigation Scheme - to find things on this site you have to scroll the page and investigate various large chunky buttons. There are 14 in all, grouped in three different spots almost half way and further down the page. A more simple navigation scheme at the top of the page is imperative for people to easily find what they're looking for. This navigation scheme should be on all pages of the site.

The bottom line is this, a page full of centered text feels so jumbled and so extraneous that you wind up reading nothing and scouring for the links necessary to get the information you want. While I'd like to think these cute as hell animals sell themselves, they deserve the best effort to make it happen and a more professional site will give potential donors and foster parents better faith in the group they're helping or adopting from.

Because I CAN

2008-01-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

For my very first post on what I hope to be an enlightening (and hopefully mildly entertaining) blog, I bring you Fayetteville Technical Community College's website.

Yes, I'm going to go there: I'm about to pick on a website that just so happens to be the on-line home of the school I am currently attending (being a firm believer in self-betterment). So why would I choose to attend a college with a less than desirable web presence? The answer is simple: Location, location, location!!! The next closest school is two hours away. Eeeshhh.

What is so awful about this site? First, please keep in mind the school teaches and gives degrees and certifications in web design. That being said, the following screen shot speaks volumes. This is the Admissions page. It's not only completely rudimentary -- but borders on the amateurish level of the very first website I built while teaching myself HTML. The only thing missing is a gawd awful repeating image background (please note the scrolling text bar in the middle):

To see the site live in action, visit here: http://www.faytechcc.edu/StuServ/admissions/index.htm

The bright yellow text is hard on the eyes... the green highlighted text and blue links clash with the yellow. Meanwhile the large text links resemble cut outs from a newspaper (Think bad ransom note). Beyond the ugly design (which includes different looking pages, fonts, and colors, throughout the site -- admittedly some better than others) there are broken links that include the email address for the person responsible for site maintenance. (I found this out when I attempted to send an email regarding a broken link). I don't think I need to explain why that's a problem.

A word on having different looking pages throughout a website. Not only does this aid visitors in knowing that they're still ON your site while navigating through its various pages, it also give a big hint regarding your professionalism and organization. You want your website to look uniform. I promise this can be done without appearing sterile!