Choosing the right zen cart hosting can be a web-based entrepreneur’s nightmare. Good hosting is the first vital step to building a viable website for your e-business. The selection of your e-commerce web host is most important because the calibre of services that your e-commerce web host provider offers can either empower or limit the functionality and efficiency of your e-commerce business.

Therefore you can only conclude that the functionality and stableness of your e-commerce web host is of great concern purely because your e-commerce website is only as reliable and sustainable as your hosting service and in turn the servers on which they choose to host their clients. 

Probably the most important factors to consider when selecting an ecommerce web host are the longevity and dependability of the company. In other words the amount of time that the hosting company has been in business is really important simply because in this day and age there are so many people pursuing Net-related business opportunities that scammers and the fly-by-nights don’t have the experience or invest the time and money to ensure that their ecommerce web host services are top-notch.

What happens with these dubious companies is that they quickly launch a hosting business using substandard equipment which provides poor service. As a result, they soon lose clients and the next thing you know, they have ceased trading and your website goes down right along with them along with them always remeber backups are a good idea . There is no greater setback for an internet business than losing their hosting and the associated resources; especially if they have no back-up copy of their site.

If your hosting provider unexpectedly goes bankrupt and simply disappears and you do have a backup of your website you can quickly re-launch with a new, more reliable web hosting company .

nevertheless, there is a danger that over time, you will have spent a lot of time and money on your website development and little things that are worked out here and there in regard to your website’s functionality may not always get backed up since you expected to depend upon your e-commerce web host to backup your website regularly.

Reliability is a major factor when choosing an e-commerce web host. Internet business owners must accept that website downtime results in lost traffic, lost sales and even lost page rank. Most hosting services that are truly reliable guarantee at least 99% uptime. It certainly pays to find out what your web host’s policies and practices are in regard to uptime, backup procedures, disaster recovery and downtime prevention.

It is best to use a web host that uses automated backup solutions that backup their servers regularly to an offsite server. If one server goes down or needs maintenance, the backup server can then kick-in and continue web hosting without interruptions.

Extremely reliable web hosts use mirrored servers that are located in a different geographic area so natural disasters should not affect their clients. Unfortunately occasionally with the best will in the world this is not always imaginable and from time to time even with a good hosting company you are going to experience the odd period of down time.

It is usually best to avoid free web hosting services, high-quality e-commerce web hosting will never be free or really cheap, but reliability is well worth what you pay for it. Other than longevity and reliability, things to consider in regard to your e-commerce web host include the genuine web hosting packages that are usable and the potential of the hosting company to provide you with automated e-commerce solutions.

Security, speed and space provided by your e-commerce web host’s servers is also very important as is technical support, scripts, software system, email services, control panels, FTP access and access to server logs and activity reports.

Once you find what you think is the right hosting for you don’t be afraid to Google the company. If they have a bad track record or offer poor back-up you will soon be able to read about any problems in the many online web business forums.

That kind of client is going to ask you to execute never ending revamps to the mockup you put up – be it to move an website element a bit over here, or change the font and vice versa – well you surely know what I am writing about. This can not only be irritatingannoying, it also costs you valuable time as well as euros. Although every customer is distinct, here are some useful hints how to deal with that sort of clients:

Always – and I mean at anytime – pen down a written agreement or arrangement.

It’s just usual that – even if you are a freelance designer – you wish to put to paper what you are accomplishing for the customer. If that particular customer denies already in this early state to sign anything, you are better off to resign from the project.

Stipulate exactly what your design task will include.

Have a plan – pen down each part you are going to work on on the clients layout – for example if you do a web site draft, stipulate the steps you are needed to undertake, the time needed, how many alterations you will allow, which is surely the most vital note on your written agreement. Put down something like “design creation includes 2 changes for free to the overall draft, additional revamps or changes required in a later state of the ongoing design process are charged accordingly”. Also pen down your hourly fees, so the customer will know right away what is coming up on him. Furthermore set up a rough timescale needed to finalize the project.

Sketch up samples

Before getting into the development phase, get your customer a first sample design. It’s often easier to change the layout (PhotoShop, illustrator etc) than redesigning the whole thing itself later on. Sit together with your client to talk about what he wants to have changed and what he likes. That’s a good starting point to get close to the final layout. Only then start bringing your sketches to real life applications / websites.

Help yourself by getting a down payment

Don’t do anything before you have not retrieved a fair amount of the total worth of your work. Get your client to pay you in advance at least 25%, as in case you will split up with the client ( which surely shouldn’t happen ) and he refuses to pay the rest of the sum, you have secured at least a bit of the money you are accredited to receive. ( What is happening to the rest of it, relies on the fact if you did a good job and if you are strong enough to claim the rest of your money – worst case inside a courtyard ).

Plan in an total time frame

Before you are starting the designer’s job, get yourself a basic overview, how much time this specific webdesign work will take. Calculate your quote appropriately and plan in overtime; 15% is a good rule of thumb.

What to do if the client continuosly demands more and more changes?

Well, don’t be shy – it’s business. If your customer signed the contract, you can refer to that written consent and let him/her know that he surely understands that any additional work will require more money, as using too much time on one working project is just uneconomical and that he/she of course would do the same. Most clients understand this, and will pay you for your time. Stay polite, there is no need to become unfriendly.

In case you weren’t that clever, and no agreement was made, well then it’s surely not that easy to find a consensus. If the client demands that these additional requirements have  be made and is not willing to pay more than the total you both have defined, you can attempt the sentence above, but if this is not working out, give him the possibility to either take the project as it is, pay the fixed fee and let the changes be done by another designer, or give him an escape route by lowering your price for the overwork. So or so, this is a unhappy situation, in which you can lose a client, earn less and lose a lot of precious time or even get your reputation harmed. So keep in mind to setup a written contract next time.

Dare to say no

If nothing of the above worked out, or the customer even agrees to pay more but still claims infinite changes, dare to say no. Tell him there has to be a point when the design is not to be changed again. Some clients simply require one to say when the point of time has come to go with the draft, and even won’t be unhappy about.

Note down changes and send a new estimate

If you are willing to make more changes, be smart and note down what is required to get these revamps done. Think of a price for it, and get your client that new estimate. Most of them will then stick with what is done so far, as seeing real numbers on a paper maybe make them realize what it costs to have such demands. Come on – what the heck is really free today? Surely not your work time.

Surely all of this relies on the client type, your ability to express yourself and not all of those tips will work out in all cases, but they are taken from long time experience and can be applied to many situations.

artViper™ designstudio is a high end website design agency serving SME to major players all over the globe. Professional website design bristol develops AJAX and mySQL/PHP applications, designs websites, develops webshop designs and additional modules.

Mini Site Graphics can boost the image and reputation of your Mini Site to ensure that your mini site will attract more customers and bring in more earnings to your business by using Professionally configured Mini Site Graphics that truly represent the kind of service or product you’re selling.

Sure, content is king when it comes to Mini Site creation, but that content should be presented in an appealing manner if you want your site visitors to stick around for a longer time and read all that you have written. A page filled with lines and lines of text alone is plain, bland, and boring. You wouldn’t want to read it yourself, and neither would your site visitors.

By using visually appealing mini site graphics statistics have shown to dramatically boost the amount of people you get to your web site, plus they tend stay longer . This is because the attention of your site visitors can be easily caught by using animated GIF images, especially if they truly reflect the product or service represented by the mini site.

The header graphic is considered the most crucial Mini Site Graphic because it’s through this graphic the mini site owner wants to attract and hold the attention of the site visitors and keep them from clicking away from the site. It’s a must that the mini site designer incorporates a well designed header graphic. A professional designer is therefore recommended to do this type of graphics creation for your website.

To spice things up you need to incorporate colorful and appealing images and colors in your Mini Site Graphics to visually impress your site visitors and make their visit and browsing a more enjoyable experience.

Mini Site Graphics play an important role in the creation and advancement of your mini site and your product. It is therefore important that you choose the right graphics that you will incorporate in your site. When choosing these graphics, you have to consider a lot of things. You must theorise about the size of the graphics, their format, as well as the overall effect that they will create on your page.

When properly chosen, Mini Site Graphics can do a lot in attracting and maintaining a constant stream of visitors to your website.

Free web hosting can be a great choice for those wanting to dip their foot in the water as a website owner. Those who are intending a serious venture will probably want a bit more than what the free sites have to offer. But there are still some good deals out there. When it comes to choosing free web hosting deals the following tips can help you decide.

- It is important to note that quite a number of free web hosting services which are in operation at the moment may not be doing business in a few months time. The free web hosting market is extremely competitive and a lot of these companies really do not know what they are doing. Don’t be surprised if you join a free web hosting service only to find that it has closed down after a few months. This is why it is probably better to stick to the more well know free providers as they will have more of a chance of surviving past the weekend.

- Always remember that you get what you pay for. Free web hosting is not going to allow you to provide a professional looking website and you are not going to get top rate customer service.

- You can’t really get anything for free so be prepared to have to provide something in return for the service you get. This will usually be a condition which means that the web host can place ads on the owners website.

- Bandwidth and storage space are not normally provided in generous supplies by free web hosting providers. There are exceptions but usually both of these things will be in very short supply, but enough for an amateur site.

- Make sure you shop around as there is a huge variety in what is available. There is everything from exceptionally good to utterly appalling make sure you choose wisely.

Anybody thinking about venturing into internet marketing should have UK web hosting dealt with beforehand. The web hosting world can be a confusing one though for a newbie. For instance, you could find free web hosting or even dedicated servers while searching different options.

The unwritten law of freelance graphic design is to target a group of web visitors and convince them to act on site by means of message, concept or idea. Freelancing seems to be a major opportunity even for the domain of graphic or web design, because the chances of personal achievements are higher than when working as part of a corporation. Freelance graphic design emphasizes order and clarity in information first and foremost, but it also serves as the tool that influences the marketing success or failure of a business.

There have been very many changes in terms of graphic and web design work over the last twelve months, and the market seems to be very unstable and versatile in the context of the unclear business context that characterizes world economies at the moment. Work in freelance graphic design remains available on web sites that intermediate transactions between clients that need various kinds of graphic services and skilled freelancers who need contracts. Some freelance graphic design home businesses have grown to such an extent that they even sub-contract the back end work. Results are the same, technically speaking, but the client becomes a substantial advertising peon in this domain.

There is a not at all negligible level of responsibility that comes with freelance graphic design, for freelancers that use subcontractors. Should there be problems in the design, it is only fair to ask who bears the consequences, the freelancer or his/her subcontractor? When you hire someone to do the work that has been entrusted to you, no doubt that you answer for any inconvenience to your client. The work quality is relevant in the experience, in the number of finished projects and the search engine rankings achieved by the sites one has worked for.

Keep in mind the fact that someone who works in freelance graphic design is best represented in the finished projects. Your clients’ business success mirrors your success; this explains the fact that the achieved and supported graphic design plays its role well in generating traffic and money for the client. Freelance graphic design goes hand in hand with other freelancing jobs such as web development, content writing, editing, Internet marketing, SEO consultancy and the like. One who starts with basic freelance graphic design and understands how the electronic market operates, won’t have difficulties to improve the range of provided services.

Clear and easy navigation is a central part of effective website design. Effective navigation can enhance user experience, build trust and loyalty and add to your client base. Conversely, difficulty in accessing information and outdated links can greatly degrade the reputation of your business and make you lose your customers.

Before you start designing your website, determine the number of pages it will have, the content of each page and how the pages will be linked to each other. Linked pages should use consistent font styles, graphics and colors. You can also look at the styles, colors and graphics of other popular websites and how they change from one link the next. There should never be any conflicting information on linked pages, as this can negatively influence your reputation and diminish your client base. Additionally, a web page must have all relevant links to enhance customer experience and satisfaction.

Quick and Easy Search

Your business website should be designed in a way that it facilitates quick and easy search of desired information. In general, it should not take more than two to three clicks for customers to access the required information. If they cannot easily find what they are looking for, and have to browse through several pages before reaching their search items, they will get bored and turn their attention to other websites. Easy search capabilities make visitors’ browsing experience an enjoyable one.

As a rule of thumb, do not use more than five navigation bars. Additionally, provide options for your customers to review previously viewed content areas without having to use three or four links. In other words, it is always advisable to provide a link to the homepage on every web page of your site. Site maps can help customers and search engines to find web pages on your sites.

Selecting Navigation Links

Depending on the types of your business, you may need to provide links to different elements. The commonly highlighted elements include customer testimonials, return, guarantee, privacy and warrantee policies, credentials, discount and promotional offers, contact information, shipping cost, tracking information, site maps and the like.

Personalizing Navigation

It is always a good practice to personalize your website design and navigation to make your web pages more intuitive. Let us say you run a pet care service. Navigation buttons at the top of the page may include Home, Cat owners, Dog owners, Services, Rates, Contact. The faster your customers can navigate through your website and find what they are looking for, the more likely you are to get repeat visits from them.

Adding Links for Alternative Online Payment Methods

If you are selling products or services through your website, you should provide your customers with an alternative payment option. This could include an online order form and fax line or toll-free number. This gives cautious customers who do not want to use their credit cards online, an excellent payment option. This link should be included along with all other payment links.

Testing your Navigation Scheme

Once you implement a navigation scheme, get your friends, family and customers to test it out. Get people of different ages and backgrounds to use your website and evaluate the link and navigation structure. Their feedback will help you to assess its effectiveness and how it can be improved and refined. Further, your website links should be functional on more than one browser, for instance, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Monitoring Links

Regularly monitor your links to ensure proper functionality. Outdated links are annoying and may seriously affect your business reputation.

Simplicity and logical consistency in your navigation design makes it easy for customers to search desired pages and also puts your business in the best light and wins loyalty for your brand. Follow the above mentioned rules of website development and attract more visitirs to your site.

Graphic Designers particularly the beginners go wild on the easy way to go about it.  It must be interesting, absorbing, easy to use and operational.  Thus, unraveling the secrets will certainly stick the internet site. If you would like a complete blueprint for site improvements check out my Dominating Google Bonus package. 

And So, what are these layout secrets?  

Unitedly let us stretch out them one after some other

1.  Centring it wholly is no good.  The mystery is doing the in contrast and not centring everything.  The latter will just make the page disorganised, scattered and dull.  The alinement may also appear feeble and desiring.  

2.  The function and command of contrast is indispensable.  Contrast is one thing that makes the page attractive.  The utilisation and control of it in color, value, weight and size will seriously impact the site’s visual aspect and edge.  In fact a typeface may come out extended with the utilization of contrast in coloring.  The second can also have an effect on the spirit of establishment of the page.  At a peek, a page may appear arranged or the exact opposite.  That is the secret of contrast.  

3.  Use differences if necessary.  The majority of the designers employ today is to build up a ‘uniform-pages’ look.  They try to use the same backdrop colours and other idiosyncrasies to establish likenesses to the home page or other pages.  But the reality is that viewers can be simply exhausted with that scheme.  Viewers perpetually desire something fresh and by presenting them a repetitious work, they are peeved off and transfer to another website where they can banquet both their hearts and head. If you would like to learn more on how site development can help boost your website rankings and increase your online profits then read my Dominating Google review for more information.

Committing lines in between subjects also manifests segmentation.  Instead of using these lines, use void ‘buffer areas’.  This path what are made are hidden lines to make the effect sophisticated.  

4.  Do not forget that functionality is the mogul of net evolution.  Moreover, keep the message and information full, strong and pretty useful.  Utilise the space, do not waste.  Just leave a tiny percentage for blank spaces.  Utilise the blank space deftly in order for the internet site not to look huddled at the same time loose.  Manifold columns are also better in order to maximise space.  

These 4 topmost methods in page layout are so crucial that to wreck them may spell catastrophe or the conclusion of your valuable internet site.  If you would like more information on site development techniques and blog marketing please read my blog.

Web Standards

What are web standards?

When I first started website design back in the early days there was only one way to do it . You had to code content, behavior and layout elements all on the same page You had one HTML file with many lines of code all containing your layout , content and javascript elements  . This made for some rather large HTML pages and slower page loads . Web standards would bring some refreshing changes to the web developing community.

Web standards bring three essential elements which has opened the door for new and exciting opportunities and web advancements. The first important element in web standards is seperating out your content from your design. The second is using semantic markup for all of your content. The third element is the ability to seperate out page javascript elements .

When we differentiate content from layout what we are doing in essence is leaving meaningful content within the HTML files and using CSS (Cascading Sytle Sheets) to do the work of positioning the content. The take home here is Edit this text  the HTML files should now only contain material relevent to content and CSS files should only contain that which is relevant to design and layout . For example, images are not meaningful pieces of content, though they are meaningful to design and design . So best practice is to let the CSS drive your image position and layout . When telling your story to your site visitors using your “about us” or “mission” page you would allow the HTML file to tell your story. Your CSS is now what drives all layout and content formatting elements.

Semantic markup is about seperating presentation from meaning. Showing what is important about the content you are displaying and what its purpose is. Basic markup includes heading elements represented by <h1> through <h6> tags. Paragraphs of texts should employ the <p> tag showing that it indeed is a paragraph. In essence, think about the meaning of the content you want to get across and mark it up accordingly.

Separating behavior means using unobtrusive Javascript and DOM scripting. When this is done, Javascript commands are for the most part not embedded in the HTML page.

So why should this matter to you?

Why web standards matter

There are myriad benefits to using web standards. Here are some highlights:

It saves you money due to the ease of maintenance. HTML files contain unformatted content , it is quick and easy to change that content. This means that site changes take less time and money.

Improved search engine rankings: Search engines interpret HTML tags semantically – they assume the title is most important, that headings are summaries of the content to follow, and meaningful content is contained in paragraphs, lists, and the like.

Changing the layout is easier: You may want to update your website in the future or maybe you want to make your website available to mobile devices. Web standards go a long way in allowing fast and easy site-wide changes. One change in your CSS can change the look and feel of your site in seconds. With the advent of the mobile device more and more websites are becoming mobile. Use CSS to ensure that your website looks good on mobile devices . Web standard HTML and CSS make changing your site easier than ever .

Web standards help future-proof your web site: The web is evolving at a very fast pace. When content is seperated from the design and behavior this paths the way for a smooth transition to the technologies of tomorrow.

Accessibility: Accessibility means making your website available to site visitors using technologies other than visual, large-screen web browsers. Vision impaired surfers may be using screen-reading web browsers. Using web standards makes it much easier to make your content useable in all these cases and also to the most important blind visitor of all -the search engines.

Our Ohio website design firm are believers in web standards. If having a site designed in accordance with web standards is important to you, contact us today.

Depending on the kind of service you are offering, brochures can create the exposure that gives you clients. With a colored printer that has just been taken out of the box, your skills are enough to develop an effective brochure design and come up with an amazing company brochure. The tendency of people to become overconfident about certain things, especially in business matters like this brochure being talked about here, can cause them a significant amount of problems. Go to this site for further information on corporate brochure design.

Most small businesses consider brochures as great tools that can help them become household names but sadly this is not always the case with more attempts ending up in failure than success. A good brochure will need time, effort, and money and businesses try to take the faster route by ignoring these. Consumers react differently to brochures and you want them to give you a positive response, but everything winds down to how well you were able to convey your message based on your brochure design.

Several elements that work together to form a good brochure design involves context, word styles, images, section folds, layout, and color schemes. As you go over the different details for your brochure, remember that the output will serve as your company’s representation not only for customers but for potential investors, suppliers, and employees. Companies can benefit a lot if a brochure effectively satisfies an intended purpose and this article will talk about the necessary details involved.

Customers have the tendency to judge a business based on how they promote themselves and this includes their brochures. The primary goal for these brochures is to catch the attention of people further necessitating the importance of brochure design. You may resort to the do it yourself kind in the beginning but later on you should consider hiring qualified professionals to do the work. Visit this site for further information on product brochure design.

Before anything else you should be aware of the kind of clients you will be distributing brochures to. One trick is to act like the client and ask yourself what it is that would encourage you to stop and actually read a brochure. Be observant and study your target audience to be familiar with the things that are fascinating to them and employ these elements into your brochure design.

Are the brochures the main aspect of your marketing strategy or are they intended to act as supplementary materials for other promotions? You need to talk to your clients through your brochure and so get some brochures from bigger companies to see their use of brochure design. Obtaining brochure samples from these companies can be extremely helpful as you conceptualize your own company brochure considering that they invested in the services of professionals for these materials and you are still in a position where these services are not as easy to attain.

Consumers will always demand a significant amount of information so clearly define each one of your company’s products or services in the brochure. As you work on your brochure design, remember that a consumer becomes more interested not only if what you have to offer is nothing like the rest but also if he can benefit more from the product so use this to your advantage. The way you are able to communicate with a client determines whether or not he will consider your company in doing business.

Using countless charts and industry figures will only bore the customer, so do not make the mistake of incorporating too much of these in your brochure design. Keep things brief for better recall but make sure that you still include all the relevant details your clients may need. Headlining any pertinent contact information is also very effective in encouraging people to take action.

Try to employ some professionals to revise your brochure design when the time comes for a much needed update. Without your approval, the brochures will not be printed though so you need to proofread and finalize the draft. Since you will be spending on professional services, you should be strict about deadlines and the budget, and of course see to it that the brochures do work.

One of the most important principles of effective website design is ‘Keep it simple’. This rule must be applied to all aspects of your website, including graphics, content and navigation. Use the following guidelines to implement simplicity in your web design and make your web pages stand out from the clutter of ineffective web pages on the internet.

1. Provide features and services with target audience in mind
Develop the habit of including only those features on your website that are relevant to the site functionality and carry some meaning for your target audience. Adding a feature that pleases you but does not carry any significance for your customers is a waste of time and bandwidth.

2. Minimize features that need high bandwidth
Bandwidth-consuming audio and video features must be used judiciously or they can considerably increase the time your web pages take to load, irritating customers and hindering usage of your website. Additionally, regularly monitor your web pages to check their loading time and repair any broken links.

3. Inform your customers but do not brag
Provide your customers with easy to digest information and not tall claims. When giving them information about your products and services, include references and customer testimonials to allow them to judge your performance. Successful web copies aim to initiate dialogue with customers to make them want to contact you and add to your client base.

4. Simplicity in language and clarity of thought
Use simple, concise and easy to understand language, and minimize the use of overly technical words and industry jargon, that can be understood only by a small section of people. Provide attention-grabbing headlines that encourage visitors to read on and establish a relationship with your company. All your ideas must be well thought and clearly expressed in the content. Ambiguity in language or expression can negatively affect the image of your site and company.

5. Develop good content
Developing good content for your website is very important as it can capture customer attention and help them better absorb what you have to offer. If you are on a budget, hire fresh interns or English marketing, advertising or journalism graduates, who are eager to get some real time experience, to write for your website. Effective content addresses your customers’ problems and provides efficient solutions for them. Additionally, avoid cluttering up your web pages with too much information about many products. Create a new page for each product or product category.

6. Provide your customers with unique and effective information
Your web pages should be designed to give unique information to customers. Providing information that visitors cannot find easily on other websites gives you a huge advantage. However, this information should be valid and backed by experience and knowledge. For instance, if your site sells accounting services, get an accountant to write an article on “10 biggest tax mistakes”.

7. Simplify search and navigation
Along with simplicity in content and graphics, it is important to design your pages in a way that facilitates quick and easy search of desired information. If customers do not easily find what they are looking for, and have to browse through several pages before reaching their search items, they get bored and turn their attention to other websites. Easy search capabilities make visitors’ browsing experience an enjoyable one. The faster your customers can navigate through your business website and find what they are looking for, the more likely you are to get repeat visits from them.

Follow the above-mentioned steps and it will definitely help you to improve your credibility and search engine rankings, build customer trust and loyalty, attract more customers and build your client base.