Archive for August, 2008

Email inquiries received this week from two visitors asked for advice about web design audio and video tips including audio or video templates. Advice given on web design for podcasts, audio books, and video tutorials is presented here for all website and blog or podcast owners.

Here’s some advice for do-it-yourself multimedia audio or video production. The steps involve planning, production, and distribution, so understanding more details helps me offer advice for each step. As just one example, if multimedia is informal just for site visitors, or a downloadable video, you most likely won’t need a CD cover or other artwork unless you need something virtual like an online website graphic.

If I had to specify a quality range for production it would be 1) amateur, 2) advanced, and 3) professional and certainly the costs for production would relate to the quality requirements.

My podcast of web design advice is done at home with a usb stereo microphone and then I use Audacity (freeware) to edit out the uhms, ahhs, and mistakes. I then mix the background music and narration tracks into a single mp3 file. The same process is used in website video production for screencast tutorials on my site except I’m adding the audio track to the video during post production edit.

For podcast episodes, audio interviews, or free online video tutorials I’m content with advanced level quality. For multimedia intended for sale my advice would be higher quality equipment beginning with a condenser microphone to achieve the professional level. Booking time in a recording studio would ensure top quality depending on your audience and budget.

For my readers and site visitors interested in web design services and assistance in do-it-yourself projects for audio or video, be prepared by providing details on those key steps: planning, production, and distribution. Custom website design services include html or xhtml code templates plus scripts or flash for audio players or video players to add to a custom web design.

The demo section of custom CMS web design and Blogger template services of the Small Business Resource Center was officially released today. View actual customer designs being prepared for review and approval in this web design and cms demo showroom of customer web design projects including custom Blogger templates.

The web design demo section for custom web design services displays client project work in progress and finished web designs. The CMS custom web designs may rotate, yet for now there are 2 finished websites, and a new demo cms design in work. The custom blog demo includes 3 posts that demonstrate adding an audio player, a video player, and other basic options.

The demo blog features an audio program with a podcast episode about adding Integrated Blogs for Small Business Websites, and the video is a tutorial showing advanced methods of creating web graphics. The blog post content will not change, but the look will. The color scheme and graphics of this demo Blogger blog template will change often to match new customer projects for approval prior to launch.

Visit the CMS Web Design and Blogger Template Demo home page to view web design and custom blog projects for launch in the near future, as well as finished designs.

A new custom integrated blog template design and site addition launched recently for Pacific Rent A Car, a car hire rental company in Cyprus. The new Blogger template for this international client matches their main website except for the addition of a new blog button in the top navigation. Here is a graphic of the matching blog top header and navigation buttons shown smaller than actual size:

The company manager made several comments about the completed car rental blog integration:

I am totally happy. Thank you for the great job. I worked with two different companies from India and they were not able to finish it. You are so professional. I am glad that I trusted you. Thank you very much.

Berkan Ocal, Manager, Pacific Rent A Car, Kyrenia Cyprus

The matching website integrated blog graphics and color scheme are nearly identical and passed tests for cross browser compatibility. While confirming my custom integrated blog design matched their main pages correctly in all major browsers, I reported that their main website only displays properly in IE.

Depending on when they correct their code, readers comparing my design of the Pacific Rent A Car blog and main site are reminded that I only created the custom integrated blog which was done in xhtml with css and displays well in all browsers. Their main site may not depending on your browser. The customer has contacted their original site designers to correct the cross browser compatibility.

A special thanks to Mr. Berkan Ocal for placing his order and confidence with me for a custom integrated blog. The trust of an international client more than 10,000 km (6600 miles) away for custom web design services is certainly appreciated.

Today’s podcast episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag was released earlier and included a free download pdf tutorial for adding a do-it-yourself desktop blog pinging service. The motivation for the podcast episode entitled DIY Desktop Blog and Ping is recent trends with online pinging services, and the need for an alternative method of announcing new blog posts.

In addition, the audio program explains the basics of using blog and ping to easily contact blog tracking services of new blog posts. You may view the DIY Blog and Ping PDF Tutorial online here, or right click to save your copy now. You may want to listen to the podcast episode, and then read along with the tutorial as I follow the step by step process of downloading free software, custom program the software to load your blog info, program a list of ping services, and finally set up an instant one click ping service on your desktop.

For new custom web design projects my first question is about site performance and expectations. After an inquiry from a new client about getting their first website online with a new custom web design, the stated goal of a one page web design and attracting search engine traffic is a contradiction.

This one page web design contradiction is a matter of being more hopeful than realistic. Google and the other major search engines have a reputation for presenting relevant search results for a given search phrase, so it is nearly impossible for a one page website design to include an overwhelming wealth of information on a single page.

More realistically, the success with a one page site will depend on direct marketing and driving people to that site by printing the www domain on your vehicle, business card, and flyers, and encouraging customers to tell a friend. For small business owners with a limited budget, the prestige of a website address on their card can enhance their corporate image, and a one page website is better than none.

Owning a website should not be a one time expenditure, so attracting search engine traffic will require an ongoing annual budget. My advice when asked to summarize the one secret to success online has always been “add original quality content often”. For website owners forced to cut down on expenses during an economic downturn, launching a one page web design is fine as long as the future plan includes adding more pages and content.

The topic for the next episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag web design podcast will cover trends in blog and ping services. From personal experience, and after feedback from a custom cms web design client for custom blogger template design, some ping services for broadcasting new blog post announcements may be in trouble.

Some have closed their websites, and others have been offline for weeks or provided sporadic service. One blog pinging service website changed their home page to a simple announcement that they closed after 4 years due to the time and effort required to track millions of blogs. A free service depends on sponsors or ad revenue to provide an incentive to stay in business. Do-it-yourself blog and ping may be the best alternative.

In addition to the review of trends in blog and ping services, I will introduce a do-it-yourself desktop solution for adding a blog and ping icon on your computer. This is an open source program that I have modified to update the list of target blog tracking services, and podcast listeners will receive links and a blog and ping tutorial that allows them to directly ping services from their desktop.

This blog and ping desktop solution for broadcasting updates to your blog eliminates the middleman, so bloggers may announce blog updates in less than 60 seconds after posting. The software download and custom modification instructions included in the tutorial should take less than 5 minutes to install. You ping 8 major services with a single click, and then a text report lists each blog service with a pingback confirmation that the ping was received successfully.

Check the title and show notes later this week to listen to the podcast episode about do-it-yourself blog and ping for DIY blog promotion.

Update Aug 12, 2009 The 2010 free business card calendar download has been released with 3 free versions in white, granite, and marble.

A free 2009 business card calendar ready for print is available for immediate download. You do not need to register or provide an email address, so right click and download your free business card sized calendar artwork. This is high resolution custom business card artwork in 4-color cmyk at 300 dpi jpg ready for print.

Bonus: Unlike previous years I included 3 versions of the free calendar for 2009 with backgrounds in plain white, gray marble, and white granite, so you may choose any of 3 business card calendars. The graphic above displays all three background versions of each business card calendar larger than actual size (zipped folder, 1.1 meg). Right click this business card artwork download to save yours with no cost or obligation.

Readers can still download the free 2008 business card calendar for this year, also.

The free pdf cms web design and do-it-yourself seo ebook promised in last week’s podcast was released today. This web design and search engine optimization tutorial includes a list of 35 search phrases at #1 or #2 on Google page one about web design that brought visitors to this website. The seo results of natural methods for page optimization, and over 130 page one results in just 6 weeks provides proof the methods in the seo section of the tutorial do work.

Visit the CMS Web Design Tutorial Outline of the ebook on the main site to view the table of content, and then download your free copy or read this 50 page CMS Web Design DIY SEO Ebook online.

As usual, you do not have to register or provide an email address to download the cms web design and do-it-yourself-seo pdf ebook. See the seo methods and results that others pay $1000′s to learn with this 50 page free download seo ebook in pdf at no cost or obligation.

One of the most prominent open source names for CMS web design systems is Joomla. My commercial website design was converted with a much simpler cms package earlier in 2008 rather than Joomla, and I use an analogy of CMS web design and Swiss army knives for comparing both. You can get either with 100 gadgets and use 10% of them, or get a simple knife (or website) with just what the average person will use. With the custom cms package I offer the learning curve for web design clients isn’t steep, and the “package” size difference is considerable.

The latest Joomla release v1.0.15 unpacked is 11.4mb with 1,740 files in 255 folders. The system I offer clients is 1.17mb with 102 files in 12 folders. For the average small business owner a universal cms website with options they will never use is overkill. In addition, the custom cms templates that I create using my custom cms web design are xhtml and css compliant without tables for layout.

Ease of use is another advantage. I reprogrammed the backend so users can use plain text boxes to enter meta title, description, keywords, and assign a friendly url file name for every page, and of course new pages are created in plain text using NotePad. Owners of this custom cms website design can modify text and upload images, too. More importantly, everything just described including the automated method for entering META code and friendly URL file names is done from one page in the backend admin panel.

Ease of use, just like the simple Swiss army knife, is one more reason to consider design services for the unique look of a fully custom cms website template. Retrofit or redesign of existing websites to this new cms website design method is an option, also. Visit the custom cms web design page to learn more.

The ideal talent combination for web design includes graphic art qualifications and website designs to the latest standards in xhtml and css. A new page on the main site features my diploma in commercial art from 1976, and I’ve been designing websites since 1996. Advanced techniques in seo, or search engine optimization, round out the basics for quality web designs.

The diploma was before computers were invented, so digital artwork was years away. My career in web design began in 1996, and then full time since 2004. With vector graphics software clients can have custom web graphics and artwork for print for consistent market branding and corporate image.

Certainly some web developers are corporations with a staff of designers and programmers, yet my reaction time completing projects is often faster. As a sole proprietor with low overhead, I provide one stop shopping for web design and modest pricing for custom cms web design and related artwork for print. Clients for web design and graphic artwork can expect high quality at a fair price delivered on time.

When considering a designer look for forward looking website design techniques to the latest standards of W3C for xhtml with css combined with qualifications and experience as a graphic artist. The ideal web design services will include advice and expertise in search engine optimization, also.