Designs have fascinated mankind since the beginning. Be it on clothes as fashion designing, walls as paintings, paper as sketches, or anywhere as anything, designing conveys the imagination in both its wildest and sincerest moods, immaculately. Indeed, designing is indefatigable expression of ours, which will not perish until we.
With the advent of Internet, designing has entered into a marital alliance with the web this time, which seems not to be divorced too soon. So, it’s now known by the term, ‘web designing’. Strange, but true, designing could not have thought ever to be addressed by the term, Web Designing. Today, web designing is the term, which dominates the popular interpretation of designing, as the moment we say, designing, people take it as web designing. It might seem ambiguous but that’s what’s hot these days.
But what exactly do we mean by the term, Web Design? Let us grasp its literal meaning first before going through its various associative terms and those terms, which have been born out of this term.
Web design, as it technically means, is the skill where one creates presentations of content, delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web. The channels involved in the process of communications include the Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, micro blogging clients and RSS readers.
Now let us move to the other dimensions of web designing, as what it has resulted in to, or the birth of other similar terms, which has been born out of web designing. In the first instance, web designing has given birth to web development as well. The terms may seem interchangeable, however, they aren’t. Web development means the process whereby one makes the website including designing and development of that website and that’s where web development incorporates the terms, web designing and web development. Since the process of web design and development is rampant in India, there have erupted many companies, known by the term, Web Development India. Now that’s where you can outsource web design and web development work anytime, as India offers excellent web designers and developers at your disposal. There is no dearth of cheap web design and development work being assigned to India after wed design and development got popularity. Now, that’s interesting as India gears for entering in the 21st century with élan.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
AuroraFlash Builder
After making a long way in web design and development our team decided to make something really useful and absolutely free – please welcome free flash site builder from AuroraFlash.
This product is aimed to help people starting their business or just creating personal home page for fun. We know that good online start can be a real challenge, especially if you are on tight budget . That’s why we created a powerful and professional tool allowing any inexperienced web surfer create stunning flash site without any difficulties. No special skills required, no additional software needed as well. All you need is simple and intuitive Aurora Desktop application which comes absolutely free of charge, as well as all flash templates, design layouts, additional graphics libraries and updates. We are non profit open source project and our main goal is changing the standards of web design.
So what actually you get when you download free flash creator AuroraFlash? You get a visual interface allowing to create flexible xml flash websites based on one of the designs included in the application. After defining the general look and feel of your site you create the structure of pages. When the structure is ready you can assign one of content layouts to every page, add external links, create menu. It’s really easy and can be done through WYSIWYG editor.
Due to the fact that we provide source files to 3rd party developers we are planning to have large collection of flash template designs, content layouts, flash widgets, interactive backgrounds and intro pages. Every user of our software have full and unlimited access to all graphics libraries and design elements.
Our free site builder can be used by small and middle business companies, private individuals, photographers, artists and other people willing to share their files online.
The websites created by AuroraFlash builder are truly flexible, you can always add new pages, integrate new layouts and widgets, share your photos, videos, zip files and so on and so forth.
Besides that we created flash site builder with a though of search engine optimization. Every single page have its own URL(deep linking) and page title. Now you can promote your flash websites on the net, they become much more SEO friendly.
This product is aimed to help people starting their business or just creating personal home page for fun. We know that good online start can be a real challenge, especially if you are on tight budget . That’s why we created a powerful and professional tool allowing any inexperienced web surfer create stunning flash site without any difficulties. No special skills required, no additional software needed as well. All you need is simple and intuitive Aurora Desktop application which comes absolutely free of charge, as well as all flash templates, design layouts, additional graphics libraries and updates. We are non profit open source project and our main goal is changing the standards of web design.
So what actually you get when you download free flash creator AuroraFlash? You get a visual interface allowing to create flexible xml flash websites based on one of the designs included in the application. After defining the general look and feel of your site you create the structure of pages. When the structure is ready you can assign one of content layouts to every page, add external links, create menu. It’s really easy and can be done through WYSIWYG editor.
Due to the fact that we provide source files to 3rd party developers we are planning to have large collection of flash template designs, content layouts, flash widgets, interactive backgrounds and intro pages. Every user of our software have full and unlimited access to all graphics libraries and design elements.
Our free site builder can be used by small and middle business companies, private individuals, photographers, artists and other people willing to share their files online.
The websites created by AuroraFlash builder are truly flexible, you can always add new pages, integrate new layouts and widgets, share your photos, videos, zip files and so on and so forth.
Besides that we created flash site builder with a though of search engine optimization. Every single page have its own URL(deep linking) and page title. Now you can promote your flash websites on the net, they become much more SEO friendly.
Web Based Applications
The World Wide Web (WWW) has changed how today's businesses communicate. WWW is not only used to get and disseminate information but now is also employed as a tool for performance. Today's websites are not just static pages but interactive tools that enhance your business capabilities in real time. These responsive sites are powered by the web-applications that are capable of responding and interacting with the user and allow skimming the information that is relevant and is up to date. To be more precise, a web- application is the one that uses a website as a front end and you can access this website viz application from any computer connected to the Internet. The application is delivered to users from a web server.
The most common web application you must be using almost everyday is an e-mail like hotmail, yahoo etc. Other web-application that are used frequently to interact with clients, partners and other businesses are:
Customer Relationship Management
End-to-end web based recruitment
Online customer support software
Online data collection, analysis and reporting
Online quote software
Online product database development
Online ordering systems
Personalization of web page content
SMS messaging integration
Secure client areas
Secure areas to allow collaboration with business partners
Web Content Management Systems
Strategic Advantages of a Web Based Application
Web-based applications are all about convenience and getting the combined power of desktop and server applications with the accessibility of 24 hrs, anywhere and anytime. Let's see how they become the most strategic business tools:
No Installation and Maintenance of the Software: These web applications run on a web server, which you can access through the Internet. You don't have the hassles of installing and configuring a program. So, one does not need to worry about the maintenance and troubleshooting or on heavy backups on the disk space.
Cost Effective: Since you are running the program from someone else's computer and no license and space management on your disk is required, so save heavily.
Latest Updates Available: Since someone else is hosting the program and maintaining it remotely for you, whenever there are latest updates you just need to click on your web browser as usual and avail the latest features of a web application.
Readily Available Data: To access your data you just need to be connected to the Internet through your PC, which is no more a novelty. So, wherever you are, you can get connected your data anytime. So the accessibility to your data is 24x7.
Multiple Platforms: Almost all the web application are suitable for every web browser like Internet Explorer, Netscape etc or whichever operating system you have on your PC. The web application will always look and function uniformly.
The most common web application you must be using almost everyday is an e-mail like hotmail, yahoo etc. Other web-application that are used frequently to interact with clients, partners and other businesses are:
Customer Relationship Management
End-to-end web based recruitment
Online customer support software
Online data collection, analysis and reporting
Online quote software
Online product database development
Online ordering systems
Personalization of web page content
SMS messaging integration
Secure client areas
Secure areas to allow collaboration with business partners
Web Content Management Systems
Strategic Advantages of a Web Based Application
Web-based applications are all about convenience and getting the combined power of desktop and server applications with the accessibility of 24 hrs, anywhere and anytime. Let's see how they become the most strategic business tools:
No Installation and Maintenance of the Software: These web applications run on a web server, which you can access through the Internet. You don't have the hassles of installing and configuring a program. So, one does not need to worry about the maintenance and troubleshooting or on heavy backups on the disk space.
Cost Effective: Since you are running the program from someone else's computer and no license and space management on your disk is required, so save heavily.
Latest Updates Available: Since someone else is hosting the program and maintaining it remotely for you, whenever there are latest updates you just need to click on your web browser as usual and avail the latest features of a web application.
Readily Available Data: To access your data you just need to be connected to the Internet through your PC, which is no more a novelty. So, wherever you are, you can get connected your data anytime. So the accessibility to your data is 24x7.
Multiple Platforms: Almost all the web application are suitable for every web browser like Internet Explorer, Netscape etc or whichever operating system you have on your PC. The web application will always look and function uniformly.
E-Commerce Solution
Today enterprises have different models to choose from when it comes to implementing e-commerce solutions. The choices vary from a buy model, a build model, a hosted build model or an SaaS model, better know as a software service model. For small to medium sized organizations, and for non-profit organizations the choices are quite often more limited to either an open source hosted model or an fits-all SaaS solution.
I will elaborate on each of these models and develop their pros and cons, and also develop the levels of skills you need within the enterprise to implement these delivery models.
When you are evaluating models and vendors within the different models, it is important to first have a solid look at your requirements, your budget, the level of risk you want to take and also your IT skills altogether.
It is also in a first instance more important to evaluate what model is best suited for your enterprise or organization, and then choose a suitable vendor within this model, and surely not the way around.
I will cover 4 delivery models and elaborate on their pros and cons:
The first delivery model is the buy model, whereas the customer is actually buying an e-commerce software and buying the licensed software that goes with it.
A licensed software is usually Feature-rich, is robust and well tested and has some pre built integration tools available. There is a continuous investment done by the vendor on new features and enhancements, although they might come at a steep additional cost to the purchase price.
Your time to market will be relatively slow, but faster then the build model, which will be discussed later. Most likely there will be sufficient system integrators and developers available to help you with all integrations with needed with internal systems.
On the negative site of the buying model, you have:
the difficulty of choosing the right product for your requirements. Quite often you end up with a software that you only use half of a quarter, but you of course pay for the entire application
most of the software's are stand alone and difficult to integrate with existing systems
future enhancements and updates might not be useful for your particular needs
it will always be an expensive solution compared to the hosted or SaaS solutions
the IT skills required to implement the solution might not be in house, so your cost will be augmented
your switching cost is very high, so your risk will be higher then with other models
and last this is not a fits-all solution as you will need to host the software in your own or in a hosted data center.
The second delivery model is the build model, whereas the customer is building its own e-commerce application in-house and integrating this with the existing ERM, CRM and other applications.
In favor of this model are: you can build exactly what you need, you can take full advantage of your internal systems and your internal IT competencies, you can be unique in the marketplace with a unique solution, and you can tie all your e-commerce channels to market together in one system that fits it all for you.
The minors of this model are:
it's a risky and expensive model, which is using highly competent and skilled staff at a high opportunity cost and with a risk of losing these assets to companies for which IT is a core competency, not an add-on business.
Time to market can be long and even too long as you want to build a completely integrated and unique system
cost of maintenance and upgrade could be become prohibitive, as you need to employ the same skilled people as the ones who build the system
build solution can become obsolete, technology wise as the project needs to stick to its technology choices for too long to justify a return on investment
The third delivery model is a platform model, that is a kind of hybrid between buying a software license and building an own platform. This is the open source world, whereby there is a platform that can be designed and enhanced by an internal IT team, system integrators or vendors that are familiar with the open source platform. The source code is available, API are developed and services are to a certain extend reusable and you have a community of developers readily available to give you a hand. There is the flexibility of ready made volumes that if needed can be adapted to your needs, and existing applications can be integrated more easily then within the build model.
Although this model is relatively risk free and easy to control budget wise, it still requires a solid IT skills sets, ideally internally or sourced through a vendor that has good knowledge of the open source platform and the internal e-commerce requirements. It will overall cost more time to implement then a straightforward SaaS model, described hereafter.
The fourth and by far the model that has the most appeal and traction lately is the SaaS model, whereby the E-commerce application is sold as a service and whereby the software is provided to you as a one-size fit-all solution.
There is first no customization needed, as everything is out-of-the-box and all data input can be done via a standard browser and Internet connection.
Your time to market can be counted in days, not weeks and certainly not months. Whatever your input is, can be in your e-commerce application almost immediately.
There is literally no upfront cost and there is no scaling issue, as the application will scale with the growth of your e-commerce application.
Updates and upgrades are part of the contract and included in the monthly or yearly service fee, so no extra hidden cost for that.
There is no hardware investment needed, as the service is hosted on the servers of the software vendor.
And most importantly, you do need to have an IT staff to run your e-commerce application, you can leave it in the hands of the business people making commercial decision, not technical decisions.
There are very few negatives for the SaaS model, but a few objections could come from:
customers that have security issues as they share a platform with other customers
the pace of innovation and new features that is not fitting with certain customer's requirements
difficulty of integration, although the application can sit alongside other web applications.
I will elaborate on each of these models and develop their pros and cons, and also develop the levels of skills you need within the enterprise to implement these delivery models.
When you are evaluating models and vendors within the different models, it is important to first have a solid look at your requirements, your budget, the level of risk you want to take and also your IT skills altogether.
It is also in a first instance more important to evaluate what model is best suited for your enterprise or organization, and then choose a suitable vendor within this model, and surely not the way around.
I will cover 4 delivery models and elaborate on their pros and cons:
The first delivery model is the buy model, whereas the customer is actually buying an e-commerce software and buying the licensed software that goes with it.
A licensed software is usually Feature-rich, is robust and well tested and has some pre built integration tools available. There is a continuous investment done by the vendor on new features and enhancements, although they might come at a steep additional cost to the purchase price.
Your time to market will be relatively slow, but faster then the build model, which will be discussed later. Most likely there will be sufficient system integrators and developers available to help you with all integrations with needed with internal systems.
On the negative site of the buying model, you have:
the difficulty of choosing the right product for your requirements. Quite often you end up with a software that you only use half of a quarter, but you of course pay for the entire application
most of the software's are stand alone and difficult to integrate with existing systems
future enhancements and updates might not be useful for your particular needs
it will always be an expensive solution compared to the hosted or SaaS solutions
the IT skills required to implement the solution might not be in house, so your cost will be augmented
your switching cost is very high, so your risk will be higher then with other models
and last this is not a fits-all solution as you will need to host the software in your own or in a hosted data center.
The second delivery model is the build model, whereas the customer is building its own e-commerce application in-house and integrating this with the existing ERM, CRM and other applications.
In favor of this model are: you can build exactly what you need, you can take full advantage of your internal systems and your internal IT competencies, you can be unique in the marketplace with a unique solution, and you can tie all your e-commerce channels to market together in one system that fits it all for you.
The minors of this model are:
it's a risky and expensive model, which is using highly competent and skilled staff at a high opportunity cost and with a risk of losing these assets to companies for which IT is a core competency, not an add-on business.
Time to market can be long and even too long as you want to build a completely integrated and unique system
cost of maintenance and upgrade could be become prohibitive, as you need to employ the same skilled people as the ones who build the system
build solution can become obsolete, technology wise as the project needs to stick to its technology choices for too long to justify a return on investment
The third delivery model is a platform model, that is a kind of hybrid between buying a software license and building an own platform. This is the open source world, whereby there is a platform that can be designed and enhanced by an internal IT team, system integrators or vendors that are familiar with the open source platform. The source code is available, API are developed and services are to a certain extend reusable and you have a community of developers readily available to give you a hand. There is the flexibility of ready made volumes that if needed can be adapted to your needs, and existing applications can be integrated more easily then within the build model.
Although this model is relatively risk free and easy to control budget wise, it still requires a solid IT skills sets, ideally internally or sourced through a vendor that has good knowledge of the open source platform and the internal e-commerce requirements. It will overall cost more time to implement then a straightforward SaaS model, described hereafter.
The fourth and by far the model that has the most appeal and traction lately is the SaaS model, whereby the E-commerce application is sold as a service and whereby the software is provided to you as a one-size fit-all solution.
There is first no customization needed, as everything is out-of-the-box and all data input can be done via a standard browser and Internet connection.
Your time to market can be counted in days, not weeks and certainly not months. Whatever your input is, can be in your e-commerce application almost immediately.
There is literally no upfront cost and there is no scaling issue, as the application will scale with the growth of your e-commerce application.
Updates and upgrades are part of the contract and included in the monthly or yearly service fee, so no extra hidden cost for that.
There is no hardware investment needed, as the service is hosted on the servers of the software vendor.
And most importantly, you do need to have an IT staff to run your e-commerce application, you can leave it in the hands of the business people making commercial decision, not technical decisions.
There are very few negatives for the SaaS model, but a few objections could come from:
customers that have security issues as they share a platform with other customers
the pace of innovation and new features that is not fitting with certain customer's requirements
difficulty of integration, although the application can sit alongside other web applications.
Google AdWords
Google has just updated its Adwords editor to include the columns Conv. (1-per-click), Conv. Rate (1-per-click), Cost/Conv. (1-per-click) and Conv. (many-per-click), Conv. Rate (many-per-click), Cost/Conv. (many-per-click).
For those who haven’t tried the new Google AdWords interface, 1-per-click and many-per-click are Adwords’ new conversion metrics.
Conversions (many-per-click) count a conversion every time a conversion is made within 30 days following an AdWords ad click. Conversions (many-per-click) will count multiple conversions per click. These metrics are useful for measuring conversions that are valuable every time they happen (e.g. e-commerce transactions).
Conversions (1-per-click) count a conversion for every AdWords ad click resulting in a conversion within 30 days. This means if more than one conversion happens following a single ad click, conversions after the first will not count. Conversions (1-per-click) count a conversion for every AdWords ad click resulting in a conversion within 30 days. This means if more than one conversion happens following a single ad click, conversions after the first will not count (e.g. leads).
It’s a good idea to make sure your conversion tracking code is properly setup before you start taking advantages of these metrics. Ideally speaking, there should always be more many-per-click conversions than 1-per-click conversion, if not equal, but there shouldn’t be a huge difference between the two numbers. Depending on the particular industry you are in, the difference can vary. For a typical e-commerce retail website, the difference should be around the %30 range. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but if the number of many-per-click conversions is close to double the number of 1-per-click conversions, then it’s worth digging further. The last thing you would want to do in PPC world is making decisions on the wrong sets of data.
For those who haven’t tried the new Google AdWords interface, 1-per-click and many-per-click are Adwords’ new conversion metrics.
Conversions (many-per-click) count a conversion every time a conversion is made within 30 days following an AdWords ad click. Conversions (many-per-click) will count multiple conversions per click. These metrics are useful for measuring conversions that are valuable every time they happen (e.g. e-commerce transactions).
Conversions (1-per-click) count a conversion for every AdWords ad click resulting in a conversion within 30 days. This means if more than one conversion happens following a single ad click, conversions after the first will not count. Conversions (1-per-click) count a conversion for every AdWords ad click resulting in a conversion within 30 days. This means if more than one conversion happens following a single ad click, conversions after the first will not count (e.g. leads).
It’s a good idea to make sure your conversion tracking code is properly setup before you start taking advantages of these metrics. Ideally speaking, there should always be more many-per-click conversions than 1-per-click conversion, if not equal, but there shouldn’t be a huge difference between the two numbers. Depending on the particular industry you are in, the difference can vary. For a typical e-commerce retail website, the difference should be around the %30 range. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but if the number of many-per-click conversions is close to double the number of 1-per-click conversions, then it’s worth digging further. The last thing you would want to do in PPC world is making decisions on the wrong sets of data.
Software Development
While some enjoy large cost cuts through outsourcing software development offshore, for others it’s a nightmare. Offshore software development is no doubt a trump card to race your competitors but one should know to play it right in order to reap the best. Always remember that you are not out to “get the cheapest” but to “get what you want at the best price.” Here are few handy rules you must follow to keep your offshore software development project in place:
RULE 1: Work out what you exactly want:
It is very important to detail your requirements while outsourcing your project offshore. Just remember that you cannot communicate a vague idea and then shape it through the process. It does not matter if you are a technical person or not you can at least work out the functionality and features that you want your project to have. You can even try look for similar websites or software to present as an example. Provide as much detailing as you can starting from color, design, look to the minutest trait you want it to have. Knowing what you want helps in clear communication of idea and it also provides you grounds while negotiating cost and timelines. Furthermore it also helps the development party to provide you with quicker and more exact quotes when the scope of your work is clearly defined.
RULE 2: First hand documentation:
After you have figured out all your requirements the next thing to do is documentation. Most small and medium companies ignore documentation and communicate the requirements through emails, IMs or phone. This is a wrong practice. No matter how small and obvious the work is it is always good to have a first hand documentation done by you before the other party does it for you. To make the documentation more organized and traceable you can segment the work on the basis of scope, features and/or timeline. If you have certain technical considerations then mention them clearly in a separate segment. Offshore software projects always need timely monitoring and proper management in-house and documentation is the first step to it.
RULE 3: Do your home work right:
The very motive of opting offshore software development is the cost variance. It is not always required to play safe by choosing the big brands because then you are not looking at great savings. You can get quality work at good price if you are ready to explore the marketplace and do a bit of homework. Firstly, categorize your work on the basis of technology, field or functionality. Start searching web, bidding portals and job hiring sites for companies with experience in similar technology or domain. For short-listing the companies you can start from the portfolio listed on their websites and credentials to judge company standing. It is always good to seek the listed clients for a reference check.
RULE 4: Seek Different people:
As you are done with listing prospective companies you start approaching them for quotes. Established and professional companies usually sent a well defined proposal including technical architecture, functional specifications and a payment plan with project timelines. You should use this as a base to compare the cost and the offerings. One can easily judge the level of experience and sincerity through the document itself. Don’t get tempted by the cheapest but try to figure out the best deal out of it.
RULE 5: Terms and conditions are important:
Before allotting work to a certain company it is very essential to clarify terms and conditions they propose and also set few on your side. See what terms and conditions a company follows regarding payment and delivery. You can also define few by yourself to ensure on-time delivery. For example you can set penalty charges for late delivery. You can also include meeting time slabs and review schedules to make it even more defined.
RULE 6: Timely Monitoring:
Lastly you need to do timely monitoring to ensure that the benchmarks are being met. Make sure communications are clear and timely and all the requisites are presented as and when required. Follow the practice of directing all the mails and conversations to a single person to avoid miscommunication.
Offshore software development is not as daunting as it is made out to be all one needs to do is practice it right and do a good research before jumping into it.
RULE 1: Work out what you exactly want:
It is very important to detail your requirements while outsourcing your project offshore. Just remember that you cannot communicate a vague idea and then shape it through the process. It does not matter if you are a technical person or not you can at least work out the functionality and features that you want your project to have. You can even try look for similar websites or software to present as an example. Provide as much detailing as you can starting from color, design, look to the minutest trait you want it to have. Knowing what you want helps in clear communication of idea and it also provides you grounds while negotiating cost and timelines. Furthermore it also helps the development party to provide you with quicker and more exact quotes when the scope of your work is clearly defined.
RULE 2: First hand documentation:
After you have figured out all your requirements the next thing to do is documentation. Most small and medium companies ignore documentation and communicate the requirements through emails, IMs or phone. This is a wrong practice. No matter how small and obvious the work is it is always good to have a first hand documentation done by you before the other party does it for you. To make the documentation more organized and traceable you can segment the work on the basis of scope, features and/or timeline. If you have certain technical considerations then mention them clearly in a separate segment. Offshore software projects always need timely monitoring and proper management in-house and documentation is the first step to it.
RULE 3: Do your home work right:
The very motive of opting offshore software development is the cost variance. It is not always required to play safe by choosing the big brands because then you are not looking at great savings. You can get quality work at good price if you are ready to explore the marketplace and do a bit of homework. Firstly, categorize your work on the basis of technology, field or functionality. Start searching web, bidding portals and job hiring sites for companies with experience in similar technology or domain. For short-listing the companies you can start from the portfolio listed on their websites and credentials to judge company standing. It is always good to seek the listed clients for a reference check.
RULE 4: Seek Different people:
As you are done with listing prospective companies you start approaching them for quotes. Established and professional companies usually sent a well defined proposal including technical architecture, functional specifications and a payment plan with project timelines. You should use this as a base to compare the cost and the offerings. One can easily judge the level of experience and sincerity through the document itself. Don’t get tempted by the cheapest but try to figure out the best deal out of it.
RULE 5: Terms and conditions are important:
Before allotting work to a certain company it is very essential to clarify terms and conditions they propose and also set few on your side. See what terms and conditions a company follows regarding payment and delivery. You can also define few by yourself to ensure on-time delivery. For example you can set penalty charges for late delivery. You can also include meeting time slabs and review schedules to make it even more defined.
RULE 6: Timely Monitoring:
Lastly you need to do timely monitoring to ensure that the benchmarks are being met. Make sure communications are clear and timely and all the requisites are presented as and when required. Follow the practice of directing all the mails and conversations to a single person to avoid miscommunication.
Offshore software development is not as daunting as it is made out to be all one needs to do is practice it right and do a good research before jumping into it.
Costs in Half
Whether your company is large or small, when leasing an office space, you can have some sort of feeling that you and your business are important and successful.
This is not a bad thing at all and believe me, I understand this concept very well. We at Vancouver Web Design and SEO also felt that having a nice office for clients new and existing to come to would help with being able to close deals and increase sales. How wrong we were.
Here's the deal...
I found as most businesses these days with the economy being what it is, that customers (paying customers that is) were becoming harder and more costly to find. I had to spend more money on hiring and training more sales associates, do more advertising, our office rent and utilities costs were going up every year substantially, and the list goes on. All this just to bring in new clients which had less money in their budgets to spend than in the hay days gone by.
So, What Did We Do?
In a nutshell, we moved out of our offices. That's right. After much deliberation and talking with our employees, we all agreed. In order to keep building the business we had to cut expenses, lower our overhead and increase our bottom line...Profits!
We accomplished this by ending our office lease which immediately cut our business expenses in more than half. This alone enabled us to offer existing clients and new clients alike, much reduced rates on our services. We were able to cut our rates in half to be exact. It doesn't get much simpler than that. We have increased our ROI more than 2x's and at the same time decreased our business overhead by half. Funny how that works isn't it.
Ok...So What Did We Do With Our Staff and Employees?
Over the years, we would allow for example someone with disabilities, a pregnant office staff, an employee with a very sick spouse or family member to take care of the option of working from their home.
This seemed to work very well and our staff and employees were thankful and pleased that we would offer this option for those times when it was difficult for them to come to the office for extended periods of time yet they couldn't afford time off.
Since this had worked so well in the past, we decided to take this idea to a whole new level...close the office and place all our staff and employees in their own home offices and let me tell you...this worked brilliantly.
Bottom line, everyone is happy, working, and business is growing in leaps and bounds.
If you have any details or stories of how you are saving money, cutting costs yet increasing your business profits, please pass your story along to me and I will add it to our news and articles page on oor website.
This is not a bad thing at all and believe me, I understand this concept very well. We at Vancouver Web Design and SEO also felt that having a nice office for clients new and existing to come to would help with being able to close deals and increase sales. How wrong we were.
Here's the deal...
I found as most businesses these days with the economy being what it is, that customers (paying customers that is) were becoming harder and more costly to find. I had to spend more money on hiring and training more sales associates, do more advertising, our office rent and utilities costs were going up every year substantially, and the list goes on. All this just to bring in new clients which had less money in their budgets to spend than in the hay days gone by.
So, What Did We Do?
In a nutshell, we moved out of our offices. That's right. After much deliberation and talking with our employees, we all agreed. In order to keep building the business we had to cut expenses, lower our overhead and increase our bottom line...Profits!
We accomplished this by ending our office lease which immediately cut our business expenses in more than half. This alone enabled us to offer existing clients and new clients alike, much reduced rates on our services. We were able to cut our rates in half to be exact. It doesn't get much simpler than that. We have increased our ROI more than 2x's and at the same time decreased our business overhead by half. Funny how that works isn't it.
Ok...So What Did We Do With Our Staff and Employees?
Over the years, we would allow for example someone with disabilities, a pregnant office staff, an employee with a very sick spouse or family member to take care of the option of working from their home.
This seemed to work very well and our staff and employees were thankful and pleased that we would offer this option for those times when it was difficult for them to come to the office for extended periods of time yet they couldn't afford time off.
Since this had worked so well in the past, we decided to take this idea to a whole new level...close the office and place all our staff and employees in their own home offices and let me tell you...this worked brilliantly.
Bottom line, everyone is happy, working, and business is growing in leaps and bounds.
If you have any details or stories of how you are saving money, cutting costs yet increasing your business profits, please pass your story along to me and I will add it to our news and articles page on oor website.
Web Design Company
There are many ways that a web design company can help you improve your online image. They can completely redesign the look and feel of your site, repair problems you may have, and even write appropriate content that is interesting for the users.
You may not realize it but your company may have a bad image by the way the sites looks and feels. Poor content that is incorrect with errors could cause you to lose credibility. You can lose credibility by bad functionality and more.
A web design company will look at your site and give you a list of problems that need to be repaired on your site. They may even determine you need to completely redesign your site. They can fix your image and change the way you are viewed with the entire Internet community. A complete overhaul of your company image may be exactly what the company needs.
You may have content on your site that doesn't work well. It may have improper keywords that cause the site to be pulled up on products and services that you don't even offer. The last thing you want to happen is for your site to pull up on irrelevant searches. A web design company can determine where you are pulling up and why. In addition, a design firm can help with the content by creating content that is interesting for the users that visit a site. You want content that is interesting but useful for the visitors. It is common for visitors to return to sites they find useful. They will even bookmark the site and make it a favorite place.
A web design company can also change a company image by repairing problematic web pages. Some businesses have a ton of traffic but the functionality on the site is poor. Users may be unable to make purchases when they want to and the company fails due to issues like this. It is common for an online business to fail if they are unaware of functionality problems.
A web design company can give a company a complete overhaul on their image. They can do many different things but credibility is very important when you want to have returning visitors. The company can improve functionality with problematic pages. They can write content that is useful and interesting which works by bringing the visitors back for more and give you a complete overhaul.
You may not realize it but your company may have a bad image by the way the sites looks and feels. Poor content that is incorrect with errors could cause you to lose credibility. You can lose credibility by bad functionality and more.
A web design company will look at your site and give you a list of problems that need to be repaired on your site. They may even determine you need to completely redesign your site. They can fix your image and change the way you are viewed with the entire Internet community. A complete overhaul of your company image may be exactly what the company needs.
You may have content on your site that doesn't work well. It may have improper keywords that cause the site to be pulled up on products and services that you don't even offer. The last thing you want to happen is for your site to pull up on irrelevant searches. A web design company can determine where you are pulling up and why. In addition, a design firm can help with the content by creating content that is interesting for the users that visit a site. You want content that is interesting but useful for the visitors. It is common for visitors to return to sites they find useful. They will even bookmark the site and make it a favorite place.
A web design company can also change a company image by repairing problematic web pages. Some businesses have a ton of traffic but the functionality on the site is poor. Users may be unable to make purchases when they want to and the company fails due to issues like this. It is common for an online business to fail if they are unaware of functionality problems.
A web design company can give a company a complete overhaul on their image. They can do many different things but credibility is very important when you want to have returning visitors. The company can improve functionality with problematic pages. They can write content that is useful and interesting which works by bringing the visitors back for more and give you a complete overhaul.
Development Business
There are so many websites on the worldwide web so you need to pick the right website if you wish to be successful in online business. You can begin with a website about: a social, forum, video, subscription service, news, blog, personal, membership, social networking, travel, gambling, wedding, music, or even a community website. To start an online business to generate revenue and be profitable, all depends on your fingertips. Moreover, to "launch a website" you need to have business ideas to implement your plan. Working from home to start an online business is a cheap way to make money on the internet.
How to Launch
How do you launch a website? Find a website with rich and useful information that looks like similar to what you have planned and learn from others who have a website. Finding the right .com, .org, .biz, or .net is the first step to launch a website. You can start an Ecommerce, real estate, photo, or networking website from scratch. Being successful will happen in the process.
Web Page Development
Learn how a website is developed and what should be included in your website design and development from a professional web designer’s perspective for your web page design. Get more information about how to design, web design tips, steps to start internet website, useful information on web design, custom web design, and how technology and web development go together.
Home Based Business
How do "I" start a home based business? Find out what you want and educate yourself about the topic to become a professional businessman. Offer your clients with something that is unique and with reasonable price. Many owners of the business don't do the required research on their target audience before launching a website or starting a business. Do a serious homework!
How to start your home based business - Do you need an expert web designer? The best advice is to start small and find your way up. If you have to operate from home with an online business...then do just it! Our web development service can help you to achieve your goals. Learn the basics of creating a home based business website - There are many web hosting and web development companies that can help you develop your own website. However, we think it is ideal to identify your target audience and then do research and keyword analysis before designing a website.
Online Business Start-up Costs
Our professional web development services start with a nominal charge for a website design. Business setup and legal service can be a bit more expensive. Please contact us if you have any queries about business website development.
Managing your business will be hard in the initial stage and setting up the payment system will be a difficult part of business integration. You must have thank you pages and confirmation pages on your website. This makes the customer realize that their order is complete. After receiving the money from an order, ensure the order is completed and your customer is happy and satisfied.
How to Launch
How do you launch a website? Find a website with rich and useful information that looks like similar to what you have planned and learn from others who have a website. Finding the right .com, .org, .biz, or .net is the first step to launch a website. You can start an Ecommerce, real estate, photo, or networking website from scratch. Being successful will happen in the process.
Web Page Development
Learn how a website is developed and what should be included in your website design and development from a professional web designer’s perspective for your web page design. Get more information about how to design, web design tips, steps to start internet website, useful information on web design, custom web design, and how technology and web development go together.
Home Based Business
How do "I" start a home based business? Find out what you want and educate yourself about the topic to become a professional businessman. Offer your clients with something that is unique and with reasonable price. Many owners of the business don't do the required research on their target audience before launching a website or starting a business. Do a serious homework!
How to start your home based business - Do you need an expert web designer? The best advice is to start small and find your way up. If you have to operate from home with an online business...then do just it! Our web development service can help you to achieve your goals. Learn the basics of creating a home based business website - There are many web hosting and web development companies that can help you develop your own website. However, we think it is ideal to identify your target audience and then do research and keyword analysis before designing a website.
Online Business Start-up Costs
Our professional web development services start with a nominal charge for a website design. Business setup and legal service can be a bit more expensive. Please contact us if you have any queries about business website development.
Managing your business will be hard in the initial stage and setting up the payment system will be a difficult part of business integration. You must have thank you pages and confirmation pages on your website. This makes the customer realize that their order is complete. After receiving the money from an order, ensure the order is completed and your customer is happy and satisfied.
Quality Web Designer
You’ve got ideas and they’re great ideas. The problem is you’re not a designer and you don’t have a clue about what it takes to make all those great designs you’ve seen on other websites. Fortunately, youdon’t have to put your ideas on ice until you can go back to school and learn how to be a web designer because you can hire an expert web designer to do the work for you.
Before you rush to the search engine and type in web designer, there’s a few considerations to make. First, you need to have more than just a few ideas in mind and you should never do a generic search with just a title like the one just mentioned or you’re sure to get back at least three million hits, most of which will have little or nothing to do with the type of expert you’re looking to hire.
Take the time to give your ideas cohesion and synergy. Make sure you have a good notion what you want so that you can effectively convey those thoughts to the expert when you find them. Be prepared to accept constructive criticism and positive suggestions for the best way to design your web presence. You are, after all, hiring an expert and it should be someone that you trust to give you their best which will help you, in turn, present your best.
A high quality web presence has the right color combinations, correct wording, necessary illustrations or photographs, virtual tours if applicable and sound to demonstrate the professional look that you wantpeople to see about your business. Skillful website designers understand the importance of all of these facets and how to make them work for you.
When choosing a person or company to do this type of work for you, realistically you can expect to incur some expense. Seeking out the services of the best website designer you can find does not mean you will have to spend a small fortune to get the work done. Just be sure that prices and services are clear before money exchanges hands and work is started.
The most important factor in hiring a web designer is to communicate. If your deadline is short, this is very important to a designer who may already be juggling several projects that also have short schedules. A professional web presence that loads quickly, attracts customers and processes the transactions you need to have done is worth the investment.
There is no question that the Internet is here to stay. Businesses who advertise online take advantage of the opportunity to showcase the goods or services they offer to people around the world. Your business deserves the same attention and with the services of a smart website designer, you can continue running your business and leaving all of the designing initiatives to the professionals who are skilled at making the best website on the Internet period! Hire an expert designer today and experience the difference your website can make in profits!
Before you rush to the search engine and type in web designer, there’s a few considerations to make. First, you need to have more than just a few ideas in mind and you should never do a generic search with just a title like the one just mentioned or you’re sure to get back at least three million hits, most of which will have little or nothing to do with the type of expert you’re looking to hire.
Take the time to give your ideas cohesion and synergy. Make sure you have a good notion what you want so that you can effectively convey those thoughts to the expert when you find them. Be prepared to accept constructive criticism and positive suggestions for the best way to design your web presence. You are, after all, hiring an expert and it should be someone that you trust to give you their best which will help you, in turn, present your best.
A high quality web presence has the right color combinations, correct wording, necessary illustrations or photographs, virtual tours if applicable and sound to demonstrate the professional look that you wantpeople to see about your business. Skillful website designers understand the importance of all of these facets and how to make them work for you.
When choosing a person or company to do this type of work for you, realistically you can expect to incur some expense. Seeking out the services of the best website designer you can find does not mean you will have to spend a small fortune to get the work done. Just be sure that prices and services are clear before money exchanges hands and work is started.
The most important factor in hiring a web designer is to communicate. If your deadline is short, this is very important to a designer who may already be juggling several projects that also have short schedules. A professional web presence that loads quickly, attracts customers and processes the transactions you need to have done is worth the investment.
There is no question that the Internet is here to stay. Businesses who advertise online take advantage of the opportunity to showcase the goods or services they offer to people around the world. Your business deserves the same attention and with the services of a smart website designer, you can continue running your business and leaving all of the designing initiatives to the professionals who are skilled at making the best website on the Internet period! Hire an expert designer today and experience the difference your website can make in profits!
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