Archive for June, 2008

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.

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.

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.

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.

A new page of our main site provides web design advice for small business owners including a CMS web design video tutorial just released today. The video demonstrates how the Small Business Resource Center website was converted from static pages to CMS or Content Management System generated pages using plain text.

The video includes a tour of the backend admin section of this site, and a demonstration of how new pages may be added to a CMS based design in plain text without having to learn or know HTML code. An important aspect featured in the web design tutorial is how my custom designed CMS system provides simple methods of adding META information for search engine optimization, or SEO, also.

At the same time, a new episode on the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast provides advice and information about web design using CSS styles, or cascading style sheets. The podcast show notes link to the video, also. The new and easy-to-use technique for creating a new small business web design with CMS relates to CSS for separating content and presentation and is a big part of this latest web design service.

Existing customers with static web design pages created by me are welcome to inquire about converting their website to an owner managed content management system. A $500 discount off my published price is good for existing customers and valid through June, 30, 2008. Watch the CMS web design video tour and podcast episode about web design and css styling to learn more, and then don’t delay as the end of the month approaches.

The custom web design of the main site of the Small Business Resource Center website has been converted to a CMS, Content Management System, and all 70 pages are done. The advice blog and podcast graphics conversion to match will be done soon so the entire site has a consistent look. This CMS system was selected after 2-3 years of research for a simple method of creating a web design with perfect XHTML and CSS with a tableless design.

The web design makeover to CMS follows the announcement of this new service 2 weeks ago here, and in 2 podcast episodes about CMS. The purpose of a Content Management System for web design is allowing small business owners the control to add, edit, or delete content to manage their website without learning how to code in XHTML.

Unlike most CMS software out of the box, our custom web design with matching graphics, and significant template modification, has been done to maximize aesthetics and allow SEO, Search Engine Optimization, of your small business website. Tired of paying your web developer each time you need a change? Follow this link to learn about a custom web design with CMS for your small business.

Interested in a tour of a working CMS web design? Visit my main site to view the 70 page web design and CMS makeover. Technically my blog and podcast are done in CMS, so the overall content of this website has more than 350 pages of information and advice for small business web design and related services.

Staying on top of technology is part of my job in custom web design and development, and just when you thought you heard everything something new comes along. Designing sites for accessibility means making it easier for disabled persons to access your content. To my surprise, one site goes beyond simple text, and does it very well.

Here’s what happened just recently. For one of my personal blogs I use FeedBlitz for readers to subscribe to posts, and I get emailed copies of their broadcasts announcing new posts, also. I file the announcements without much thought, but decided to read the latest. WOW! As expected, a story posted on my personal childhood storytelling blog was linked in the announcement email, but it included an icon for a pc speaker. Curious, I followed the link to find that my personal blog posts are being digitized from text to audio as an RSS feed, and available for listeners to hear!

Visit Growin’ Up in Maine with the story of a photo postcard my Grandmother showed me when I was 6. Next, open up another tab in your browser and follow this link to hear the digitized audio of the story told with a female voice and matching the blog post perfectly word for word.

One aspect of web design that deserves more attention is website accessibility making the internet as equal as possible for persons with disabilities. For example, my web designs in xhtml with css are easier for screen readers to extract and present content spoken aloud digitally to blind persons. A very small percentage of web developers design websites for accessibility, and others may not care.

The voice tempo of the digitized version of my post was nearly human, and it was perfectly clear with fewer odd pauses than I would have expected. If you know a blind or vision impaired person who goes online, you may want to introduce them to this audio feed service from talkr.com that will allow them to listen to audio versions of written blog posts.

As new technology evolves, the evolution of web development design and cms web design continues to make great progress. My goal has always been perfect code to comply with W3c standards with zero code errors, and creating websites designed with seo rich content for search engine optimization. Most CMS, content management systems, create code errors yet with 1000 files in the system to tweak, getting a perfect cms site has been nearly impossible.

With the newer wide screen format for personal computers, the layout of some websites are not displayed as well as expected. The reason in some cases is a stretchy design that fills the screen and creates long sentences in wide screen view. The advantage shows up on smaller computer monitors at 800 pixels wide, yet that goal is practicaly obsolete.

From tracking stats of visitor systems used to view my site, it turns out that fewer than 5% are on 800 x 600 screens. The purpose of a flexible design is filling the screen on all sizes without needing a horizontal scroll bar, yet accommodating older technology appears to affect very few people.

As a result, my choice for the future is fixed width site design of 960 pixel wide sites that will apparently display well on any size screen. By using xhtml with css these custom web designs will also display well on small screens like the iPhone or cell phones, too.

Meanwhile, the design evolution and cms web design has conquered the problem of creating a site the owner can manage, and finally have perfect xhtml and css. To begin demonstrating this newer cms method of web design, I’ve added a section for readers to view to see the development and evolution of cms. The concept and new feature is the subject of the latest podcast episode entitled Custom CMS Web Design Demo, so you may now listen about this breakthrough in design services that I offer. Email comments or questions from any page of this website.