Some time ago a client for a custom web design asked my assistance in doing research for submitting a USA trademark application for their small business. While my real business is custom web design, the customer felt I could find key information about trademarks easily, and save them the time.

Here's what I found. If considering a trademark for your small business to protect your web design or other rights, visit the US Trademark FAQs website to discover more about this interesting topic. Learn the difference between trademark, service mark, certification mark, and collective mark.

The process of applying for a trademark can be costly, and certainly takes time with up to a year of waiting during the approval cycle. Small business owners are welcome to contact me for web design projects or related online research.



TAGS: advice web design research trademark

Labels: advice, general, websites

                       

Small business owners should be wary of experts who promise web design seo performance without showing evidence of positive results. Too often web developers use deceptive means to improve ranking and lasting results are unlikely. A new Content Management System or CMS web design related free PDF download entitled Case Study of CMS Web Design Performance of Small Business Owner Website was released earlier today with the following topics:

• Introduction of Search Engine Philosophy
• Comparing CMS Web Design to Static Pages
• Overview of Web Design SEO Performance Results
• Screenshots from Actual Search Engine Traffic
• Search Phrases and Summary of SEO Results
• Appendix of CMS Web Design and SEO Training

The purpose of the report is to demonstrate to web design clients the value of the advanced seo, search engine optimization, methods being taught to cms web design customers. The report includes advice as well as screenshots of actual searches that brought recent visitors to my website after visitors searched Google for cms and related web design terms.

While the advantage of easily adding new content using CMS is key, most new pages may take time to show up in search results, perhaps months. One search result earlier today was to a new page launched yesterday, so having pages optimized for search as well as providing quality content can provide page one ranking in Google, and new traffic in less than 24 hours. Another new page featured in the web design and seo report made page two out of 457 million results.

My advice for best practice web design has always been design for visitors first, and then add quality original content often. Those words quality + often = happy repeat visitors and search engine traffic.

Right click this link to download the illustrated CMS Web Design Performance Report (286kb, pdf, 7 pages). You do not have to register or provide an email address to enjoy this free web design related report. Readers are encouraged to forward the PDF to friends or small business peers who may be interested in this web design and seo performance breakthrough using cms.



TAGS: advice cms free pdf report seo search engine optimization web design

Labels: advice, cms, seo, websites

                       

The newest page on the main site for web design using a CMS, or Content Management System, is an outline of the web design training tutorials provided to my clients for small business custom cms web design. The outline lists the initial 14 chapters of training materials in pdf that allow owners to create new content for their website without a requirement to learn html code. Some lessons may be released as video tutorials, also.

View the list of web design tutorials for cms clients here. Small business owners interested in do-it-yourself web design, or free website resources, may want to consider this outline for planning their web design project. If enough people ask, I may feature a public ebook version of the pdf training written with generic advice rather than customized for my cms web design clients only.



TAGS: advice web design cms content management system small business advice

Labels: advice, cms, tutorials, websites

                       

A new web design video tutorial demonstrates masking photographs to clip the background, and then combining two photos for a web graphic illustration. This client purchased a stock photo of a boxer being punched and wanted to convey a message about new internet users being abused in an upcoming web design. The second photo overlay in this web design graphic adds a business shirt and tie to the boxer's bare chest to look more like an internet user.

Next, a new custom business card artwork gallery #2 features 50 more full color business card examples. Most include the business card front and back to show how card backs may be used for small ads, or a call to action. The gallery uses an advanced web design technique in CSS to display 50 cards larger than actual size in half an open browser window. Enlarged business card views display instantly as you mouse over the thumbnails, and do not use javascript or flash. In addition, each card has a caption describing the company business product or service in plain text for added SEO value.

Finally, both card galleries have a new comment for clients who want to order fewer than 5000 new business cards. The printer I recommend now offers 1000 2-sided full color UV coated cards for $30 plus tax and freight.

Watch the advanced photo edit video for web graphics on my main site, or view 100 examples of business card artwork in the original 50 card gallery or new Gallery 2 with 50 more designs, and then email me from any page with questions about custom graphic art for web design or print.



TAGS: advice business cards small business advice video tutorial web design

Labels: advice, artwork, examples, tutorials, video, websites

                       

The latest episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast was released earlier today, and includes the transcript of today's program: Web Design SEO Audio Ebook. The subtitle of the free to download PDF is "Search Engine Optimization Step by Step Guide", and this SEO tutorial provides detailed methods for optimizing keywords in a small business web design. You may download the ebook without obligation because you do not have to register or reveal your email address.

Download the PDF ebook to read as you listen along to the podcast episode as I read the transcript of the program. In addition, the PDF SEO tutorial has bonus information with added search engine optimization tips that are not included in the audio podcast. Here is one excerpt not in the podcast with another definition of the term SEO:

SEO has more than one meaning and stands for "Search Engine Optimizer", also, which means a consultant offering search engine optimization services. The true experts get anywhere from $5000 to $20,000 for optimizing a single website.

In addition, there are unscrupulous people who know the buzz words contained in this report, and they razzle dazzle clients into paying thousands in recurring monthly or annual fees with zero results. New clients have contacted me and reported ongoing SEO service payments for years without results, yet they accept lame excuses and just keep paying. Here’s one way they are deceived.

Search engines do not reveal their algorithms for serving up search results, so this secrecy is one weapon the unscrupulous SEO snake oil salespersons use to explain away poor results. Be very wary of anyone who promises page one. It is a lie.

Listen to the "Web Design SEO Audio Ebook" podcast episode, and then download or read the PDF tutorial "Search Engine Optimization Step by Step Guide" here (454kb, pdf). Learning do-it-yourself web design and keyword optimization can save small business owners thousands in annual fees. Your only investment is your time.



TAGS: advice pdf tutorial podcast seo search engine optimization small business advice web design

Labels: advice, audio, podcast, seo, tutorials, websites

                       

The new photo gallery display web design technique in CSS on the main site was used to redesign the post card and flyer gallery page. The old version was converted to pure CSS in perfect XHTML with CSS2 and zero code errors. This advanced web design method includes similar features to the recently created business card artwork gallery as follows:

(1) 3 rows of 6 post card and flyer thumbnails (18 examples)
(2) enlarged views of each post card on the same page
(3) seo friendly caption in actual text in enlarged views

A key advantage of this web design technique is the old design showed just 6 examples of artwork that required scrolling to view the entire page. The new css web design method displays 18 examples in approximately half the open window browser for easier viewing by visitors. An added bonus is the seo or search engine optimization of the enlarged views with descriptive text captions that may be indexed by search engines.

View these 18 graphic art examples of full color custom designed post cards and flyers as displayed on this gallery page. Gorgeous post cards or flyers in full color 2-sided designs allow cost effective advertising to mail or hand out. This Post Card and Flyer Artwork Design Gallery includes front and back enlarged images of custom flyer and post card artwork.



TAGS: post card artwork css gallery graphic art seo search engine optimization web design

Labels: artwork, examples, seo, websites

                       

As part of the web design makeover of the Small Business Resource Center website I converted the custom business card gallery in pure CSS. The thumbnail graphic of each of the 50 business card examples has been reduced in size, and the CSS layout renders enlarged versions of each, and all within a half page area. Unlike web design techniques in some photo galleries using javascript or flash, the business card gallery renders enlarged views instantly without a popup window or redirect to a JPG on a new page.

View the following screenshot from this gallery of custom business card artwork, and note that the card thumbnails and enlarged version (larger than actual size) takes up very little space on the page. The sequence of encircled numbers in the graphic below point out (1) the 5 rows of 10 business card thumbnails as contained in an area 550 pixels wide by 180 pixels high, the (2) enlarged view of one of the business card designs as displayed below the gallery rows, and (3) the seo friendly caption in actual text that appears under each photo.



(1) the 5 rows of 10 business card thumbnails
(2) enlarged view of one of the business card designs
(3) the seo friendly caption in actual text

This improved web design technique with CSS allows having 50 photographs with enlarged views in half an open browser window. The caption under each photo adds search engine optimization value to the web design because the text can be indexed by search engines. The caption text is visible to visitors for improved usability, also, which helps people viewing the business cards identify the company and their business for each design.

View the Graphic Art | Business Card Design Gallery to see this advanced web design technique for creating a business card or photo gallery with CSS. The enlarged views of the 50 cards are each 400 pixels wide, so presenting 50 cards in such a small space is a big improvement over the previous version of that page.

Finally, the web design of this page is complex yet meets W3C standards compliance with perfect code in XHTML and CSS2. A revised gallery of post cards and flyers will be next using this same technique. Unlike the current design with a handful of examples, the post card gallery will include 18 custom post card designs in a similar small space. Readers interested in a compact photo gallery web design for their small business website are welcome to email me for a quote.



TAGS: business card artwork css gallery graphic art seo search engine optimization web design

Labels: artwork, examples, seo, websites