Posts Tagged ‘blog’

I’ve finally got round to creating a new design for this blog.

I’d really, really appreciate it if you’d leave some comments with constructive feedback on how it looks, how useable it is and maybe any improvements I could make. Thanks.

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I thought I’d just add a quick post about the web hosting company I use as I see it as another service I can offer from this blog.

I don’t actually provide web hosting myself but would recommend the following company. I have been hosting several sites there myself for over a year and think their support and prices are very good. You can get support by the usual methods and by live chat, which is very good as it means you can get instant help. They provide unlimited web space and you can host as many domains as you like on them.

The above is an Affiliate link so please do use it as I get a small commission for each sale from this link. Thanks.

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I’ve just gone back to using the Wordpress ‘Classic’ Theme for this blog. This is hopefully just a temporary measure as I am updating both the content and the design. I just thought it would be better to go for something simple and useable while I re-design. But for now I want to concentrate on updating the content, which is I hope why people visit the site, and want to stay focused.

I am going to include more detail on the web design and multimedia services I provide.

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If you remember my article A Useful List of Pings you might be interested in a Wordpress Plug In that I came across that can help you manage pings. It’s called the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer and you can get it from his blog.

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The thing I like about blogs is their ability to inform popular sites that you have added new content without you having to do anything manually. For those of you who don’t know this is done by sending a Ping.
This has the potential to bring you instant traffic as people browsing sites like Technorati can see what is fresh content on your blog.

I’ve done a bit of research and have come up with what I think is a fairly comprehensive list of the most important services to ping. Add this to your blog admin area in ‘Settings - Writing Settings‘ and then ‘Update Services‘ at the bottom. Paste the list in there. (That’s the path for Wordpress blogs. Not sure of other blogs).

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

Please add a comment if you know of others to add.

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The key to an effective web site or blog is not the style or design, but is in the planning of it before you even start fiddling with code or design.

A while ago I wrote a document that I would give out to all new and prospective customers that enquired about web design. I have reproduced it here for you to mull over.

Planning Your Web Site – guidelines

In many ways the planning stage is the most important stage of the lifecycle of any web site. With careful planning of the content and overall look and feel of your site you increase the chances of getting it right first time. You may already have a clear idea of what you want for your web site and a plan of action of what to include on it. The idea of this document is to help stimulate thought and discussion to help you clarify the requirements for your site.

PLANNING:
Step 1: Draw out a plan –
The best place to start designing a web site is actually not a computer, but with a pencil and paper. You don’t have to be a good artist, as the goal of this stage is not artistic creativity, but to create a working idea to guide the design stage. Invite others to comment on your ideas.

Key questions to ask yourself:

1) What is the purpose of your site?

Roughly, web sites can be categorised as either:

• Informational – promoting awareness of your organisation or business, or of your events?
• Educational – raising awareness, providing teaching resources?
• Entertainment
• Commercial – specifically to sell a particular product(s)?

Of course, any web site can be a combination of any of the above.

List products and services that you offer and divide the information into relevant pages.

2) What are the components of your site?

These are suggestions for what you may want to include on your site. There may be others that you can add too.

• Your organisation’s mission and goals
• About your organisation – history, and key people
• Contact details – email,fax, directions, phone numbers
• Services offered
• Products
• Customer Account – are they able to check previous orders, etc.?
• Portfolio – examples of work done.
• Price list – if applicable
• Events
• Search facilities – to allow for visitors to search for specific information or products.
• Latest News
• Links to other sites you would recommend or are partners.

3) What is your ‘Target Audience’?

There can be many target audiences. In many ways this is determined by the nature of your organisation. For example, a youth group will probably be aiming at informing other young people of what is offered at their group. But that group may also want to raise awareness of lack of resources for young people in their area and so a target audience may also be funding organisations and people with influence.

4) What will the visual appearance of the site be?

Related to your target audience, the look and feel of your site should represent the style that would appeal to your intended audience.

• What colours will be used? – will it be bright and artistic or cool and laidback? (hint: if you already have a particular colour scheme in your organisation, such as one a letterhead or promotional material this should be adopted as the main colour scheme of the site.) The EasyJet web site is predominantly orange and features their logo. You instantly know that it is their web site when you go on to it. This helps your customers/members know that the site they are browsing is connected with your organisation?
• Will the site be static or have elements of animation?
• Layout: what type of font do you want to use? Small or large text?
• Do you have photos or particular images you would like to use that would help people to associate your site with your organisation?

5) Why should people visit your site?

Ask yourself this question: Why should someone give up his or her precious time just to spend it on your site instead of doing something else?

Added to this is why should they look at your site rather than your competitors’ sites? What do you have to offer that separates you from your competitors?

6) How will you promote the existence of your web site?

A great looking web site that absolutely no one know about is not an effective web site. Success on the Internet is all about visibility and the amount of traffic your site gets. It is important that your web site marketing is seen in the context of your overall company/organization’s marketing strategy, which could be
summarized as comprising:

1. Offline Marketing – (Print, Radio, Direct Mailing, Sponsorship etc.)
2. Online Marketing – (Search Engine Marketing – Banner Advertising Affiliate Programs etc.)

This is by no means an exhaustive document but is designed to help you think about what your site may look like. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to ask me.

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