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The Complete Guide to Website Design on a Dime

Posted: Thursday, July 29, 2010

What is the difference between a website that a user will navigate away from vs. a website a user will stay and perhaps purchase from? A professionally designed site will often install trust into the visiting user. It shows that the owners of the website have put both time and money to produce a site that is highly professional and appealing for their users. Chances are the vast majority of the sites will share a professional design where content is well defined, navigation is user friendly, and the page layout is visually appealing.

In an increasingly competitive market where literally billions of websites exist, websites without a high quality professional design will never reach their full potential. A site that is built upon a professional design and layout is more likely to succeed over a competitor without a professional design.

The Web Design Myth
Professional web design is expensive. Web design companies will charge you a base fee for the initial design and layout, and then charge an additional fee for each page in your website (usually starting at $75.00 per page). The only way to put forth a professionally designed website with beautiful aesthetics to draw a user in is to hire a professional company to do it. You can put out a professionally designed website without ever needing to enlist the services of a web design company!

Getting Ready for Your Design
Before the secrets of designing on a dime are revealed, take a moment to think about the website you want to create. Perhaps your website is going to provide SEO services. If so, your site would fit into an IT business category. Maybe you plan on selling beautiful wedding cards in which case your site falls into a wedding category. Try to narrow down the most relevant
category for your site content.

The Best Kept Secret for Web Design
Two words... Template Monster! Template Monster is revolutionizing the web by providing webmasters with pre-designed highly professional website templates at a fraction of what you would pay from a web design company. In fact, all the templates on Template Monster are designed by true professionals and rival that of any web design company.

At Template Monster you can browse thousands of high quality professional designed website templates in any number of categories. Remember that category you choose for your website earlier? Visit Template Monster and choose your category from the drop-down list that appears in the center of the home page. A listing of a hundred or more category-specific web designs will be displayed.

Chances are if the site is appealing to you, it will be appealing to your users as well. Now that you have your template chosen, purchase that template and you'll be WELL on your way to web mastering a high quality site that will rival your competitors!

The Competitive Edge
Congratulations! You've just gained the competitive edge over your competition and are now the proud owner of a professional website template! Of course, the web design templates are just one piece of the puzzle to designing on a dime. Next we'll walk you through the process of finding equally cost-effective web hosting and domain registration services.
Know Your Domain

Now that you have your website design, you'll need to secure a domain name. The domain name is the URL that users type into their browser to visit your site (ex: http://www.freelinksdirect.com). Chances are, you can get that domain name for free.

Hosting for Less, Domains for Free (and more)
When it comes to hosting, your goal is to find the hosting service that offers the most bang for the buck while also providing a stable environment and excellent customer service. Here we present two viable and cost effective hosting solutions. Our highest recommendation is Yahoo Small Business hosting. Remember your domain name? It's FREE when you sign up with a hosting plan at Yahoo.

Also included with your hosting plan (for as little as $11.95 per month) is an invaluable $50.00 Google AdWords credit, $100 Yahoo Search Marketing Credit, free search engine submission, 100 free leads on infoUSA mailing lists, and much more! You'll be doing yourself a huge favor by signing up with Yahoo Small Business hosting, one of the most respected companies in the business.

With Host Gator you pay $10.00 per month for UNLIMITED website hosting!

SEO For Free
As important as great content and a professional presentation are, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is equally important. SEO is what will drive traffic to your website. Since SEO is itself a huge topic to cover (and one often of debate), it's suggested that you visit Free Links Direct for free SEO articles, one-way links, Google AdWords hints and tips, and SEO services.

A. Tips For Professional & Search Engine Optimized Website
It should be properly coded and designed to give the site an optimized and professional look, so search engines can locate and categorize it in search engine listings. The following are the steps for building complete professional & search engine optimized website:
1. Graphic & Layout Designing
2. Optimize For Search Engine (S.E.O)
3. Domain Name
4. Website Hosting
5. Submitting To Directories & Search Engines
6. Search Engine Marketing
7. Web site Promotion

1. Graphic & Layout Designing:
All the pages need to be consistent in background,color usage, text format and screen layout.

Background and Text Colors-
The color scheme expresses the characters of your website and makes it unique
and attractive.Choose carefully a set of colors for background & text. While choosing, remember to use dark against light. In other words, use light text against a dark background or dark text against a light background.

Fonts-
One of the most important parts of a web page is text. Always be consistent In other words, avoid using different fonts throughout your pages. Formatting

Page-
Underline your links & use a different color for visited links, put a link to your homepage on all your internal pages. Provide text navigation links at the bottom of long pages, so users don't need to scroll back up.).

Page Contents-
It should give clear intention of the web pages. Load the top of the individual pages with most important and essential content with a brief header.Create a simple logo with captivating tag line on the top of the page as a identity of the website.

File Size-
Web page size is defined by the total size of text, images and supporting files (including JavaScript, flash etc.) within the page download from the server. So, try to keep the size of a web page small by keeping less use of bulky contents such as video, audio, flash animations etc, which slow down the display of the page.If the page has too many items to load and slows to display, break it into smaller pages and link them to a new web page, with link back from the second page.

2. Optimize For Search Engine (S.E.O):
Professional websites can be successful only if they receives most targeted traffic, the source for traffic are the search engines, hence the websites should be made search engine friendly or rather say optimized for search engine. Coding and writing content of the site, as to get sequenced in the list of search engines is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Below are the basic points for coding for search engines. Two or three main keywords are to be decided for each page (the words that most commonly search engine users will type to find the page) These words are to be repeated often say in the page title, description meta tag, links and page body.

Title of the Page-
The tag must contain keyword rich phrases, place name and company name respectively.

Meta Description Tag-

Meta Keywords Tag-
The tag should be placed after Title and Meta Description Tag. The tag includes the keywords and key phrases from title, description and some other phrases (believed to be typed by search engine users in order to track the page) but it should be tried not to exceed 1000 characters. It must contain company and place name.

Heading Tag-
Each page should have at least one heading tag at the top of the page with primary keywords/key phrases and subsections of the page with h2 tags, and so forth. all the heading tags have to be relevant to the title and content of the page. The tag should be short and descriptive.

Alt Tag-
The tag is used for images along with img src tag. When the cursor is placed over an image a text called as alt text is highlighted. The tag should limit to 70 characters.

Content Of Pages-
The content weighs heavily for all major search engines. The content must grab search engine attention by including all keywords and key phrases in a balanced ratio (keywords: Total text). Density for keywords should lay under 3% to 5% to the text of the page, excluding stop words (words which search engine automatically ignores).

Navigation-
Proper navigation carries lot of importance for optimizing search engine. The navigation tab must contain Keyword rich anchor text on the top of the page. It should have descriptive title indicating summary of the page. HTML hyperlinks that lead to major pages inside the website are to be added to the home page. A successful navigation design should include a sitemap for Search engines, so that they can scrawl all the links and this "Site Map" is to be placed on the home page of the site.

3. Domain Name:
Short Domain name having keywords and phrases of the website along with the company name should be chosen as, search engines do give importance to key word rich domain names. Hyphenated domain names are easy for search engine as can be distinguished for keywords occurring in domain name. Common TLDs (A top-level domain) the last part of an Internet domain name; the final dot of any domain name available are ".org",".net",".com" else country specific use.".

4. Website Hosting:
Web Hosting empowers sharing information, selling products and services, and interacting with people through a web site, so, a reliable Web Hosting Service that gives fast loading, 24/7 tech support, client owned domain name, minimum 20MB - 50MB server space, back-up system, Unlimited free access via FTP/Telnet, email accounts, Easy access to log files should be chosen.

Types of web hosting server that can be selected:
1. Shared Web Hosting.
2. Dedicated Web Hosting
3. Managed Hosting
5. Co-located Hosting
6. Reseller Hosting
7. Free Web Hosting

5. Submitting To Directories & Search Engines:
The next step is to submit website to directories. Directories are search
engines powered by human beings. Human editors compile the list of website in respective categories. Select the required category for the website and submit it to "add site" page with the required data information.

Submit only home page, as search engine will follow the links from the index page. Submit website to major search engine manually, don't rely on software; it may result in over submission. Actually, handful of major search engine and directories distributes their results or indexes to many huge portals and search engines, in other words there are many affiliated search engines. If you submit to every front-end search engine then you will be submitting the WebPages to same search engine, which can result you in penalty by removing from index or
de-ranking the site

6. Search Engine Marketing (S.E.M) :
Search Engine Marketing involves marketing of your Website through Goggle ad words, MSN Ad Center, banner ads and other keyword purchasing programs as well as purchasing links, ads, and sponsored listings.

PPC advertisements
are usually text written ads placed near search results or indexes.

7. Web site Promotion:
A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Above steps ensure a search engine optimized and professional website, which can probably gain good traffic and good page rank with top position in result pages.

B. Website Design - The Difference Between Success and Failure
Website design is the most important factor for any business starting out in the world wide web. Understanding and making sure you have the perfect website design could determine the difference between the success and failure of your online business.

The internet holds a vast amount of information and is probably one of the fastest growing networks in the world. Thousands of websites are being built on a daily basis and if the business is similar to yours these websites are now your competition!.

You may take comfort in knowing a majority of these websites are built without a specific plan or website design in mind, this brings your competition down. If and only if, you take the time and effort to build a website with good website design you are far more likely to succeed

Building a website is basically giving your customers an online catalogue by which they can view your products and obtain more information. Poor website design could discourage a potential customer, this is normally the case if your website is hard to navigate around and difficult for the customer to find what they are looking for.

When thinking about navigation it is important to remember that is determines the search engines will rate your website as well as affect the number of pages your potential customer will view. Most sites have some sort of menu and the easier and more visible this is the better!

If on the other hand, you have decided to enlist the help of a professional website design company it is important to play an active role so that your thoughts and ideas are taken into account. Make it clear you need a site that has structure, structure means having a clean and coherent hierarchy to the site and good page structure. This will mean that your visitors will be able to recognize the significance of different sorts of information on the page as well as access exactly what they are looking for.

Make sure you understand exactly what the professional website design company include in the package you have selected, it is common for a business to think they are getting a lot more than they receive. Do not assume that promotion of the site is included for instance.

Website design packages vary in price but lets face it you get what you pay for these days!, with this in mind it is worth paying that little bit extra for a more professional service. Most professional website design companies will offer you a free quotation so make sure you shop around and not only compare prices but what is on offer.


Web Site Design Companies

Posted: Sunday, July 25, 2010

As a result, web designing is amongst the fastest growing professions in many parts of US. Several web design companies are located all over the world. Choosing a web site design company for a personalized web site is not considered to be an easy job. It is advisable to scan through previous projects that have been designed by web sites design companies to evaluate their work. Some companies are also ranked by the number of web designing awards they have won.

It is advisable for people to primarily decide what their web site should contain before selecting a company that can perfectly fulfill them. There are certain companies, which specialize in creating Web site designs for particular kinds of clients. This can pertain to professionals or small businesses or even Fortune 500 companies.

There are numerous professional website design companies available who create impressive web sites for industries as varied as manufacturing, retailing, aviation, pharmaceuticals, entertainment, information technology, and banking. It is essential for web designers of these companies to have their designs and formats organized and well maintained.

A. Know The Need And Importance Of A Professional Website Design Company
Today's world demands an equal share of show as well as content in your website. Unless you revise your website design and update it regularly, it fails to attract new customers. Also, old customers are happy to have it in a renewed format. You can always hire professional website Design Company to do your job. Nowadays, a large number of website design companies are rendering their services to be more consumer-friendly. Instead of giving just design, they give you a package deal.

It includes website designing as well as maintaining it for a fixed time period. Whatever your specifications are, you need to inform your website builder team. As you are aware, the basic utility of a good website is for advertising your products. You can email the link of your website to the existing and potential customers. People get more confidence in you when they see a well designed website that personifies your services.

If you are unable to find a good professional web design company that fits your needs, for the time being, you can be your own website designer. Evidently it will lack the skillful presentation that can appeal the customers. This is the skill for which you pay your web design company. Self-help at the time of need is must!

Professional help for website designing may be just a step forward to initiate a good market deal. Definitely you can talk to your ecommerce web design company regarding your requirements and your financial position. To build a good website in a cost-effective way can be then easy. Developing your own pages to your website can look substandard and clumsy. Your customers are your winners of bread and butter. These are the people who can flourish or deteriorate your business. So, an investment for a professional web design is said to be the best outlay in the online world!

B. Custom Website Design For Best Results
Technology is a constantly evolving element that surpasses various paradigms in the path of its journey. Encompassing the areas of web content uploading, scripting and website designing, the entire process of website development is a huge responsibility. In professional website design, a team of website designers are entrusted with the task of understanding your business goals and converting them into illustrative expression spread across your website.

For the sake of enhanced performance and a more professional result, it's always best to hire the services of a well known and reliable website design company. The beauty of putting your money and trust on the professionals is the advantage of getting custom website design for your website that speaks for itself when it comes to expressing your business propaganda.

This means that you can ask the website designers to create the design according to your business needs. This may include the placement of your company logo, necessary categories and other design elements where you want them on the website.

What you need to look out for is the capture of affordable website design services, which is not much of a task anymore. There are a whole lot of website design companies operating in the industry who are willing to work for you at very reasonable rates as the competition is getting quite stiff out here. This comes across as a great advantage for people who want to get small business website design and have a tight budget to take off with their business.

There are certain things however, that one must keep in mind when it comes to hiring the services of a website design company.


5 Website Design Tips to Make Your Site More Attractive

Posted: Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Well, driving high traffic to your site is important, but what's even more important, is designing a website that makes them stay. After all, what's the use of spending all your time and money on creating a unique product that many people want, building a 100-page site, winning top rankings on search engines, and spending $5,000 in advertising if visitors don't stay once they arrive?

In this article, you're going to learn 5 important website design tips to make your site more attractive.

#1. Your Site Should Be Fast Loading
People just don't have time and patience to wait that long. The best way to make your site fast-loading is to use more text and fewer graphic. If it takes more than 10 seconds for your web pages to load, chances are you're losing as much as half of your site's traffic! Don't assume all visitors have fast connections. To make sure your website loads fast, view your site with slow connections. If it doesn't load in 10 seconds, reduce the number and the size of graphics.

#2. Make Your Website Easy to Navigate
Don't make your visitors click on 10 links, scroll down each page, and click on the "back" button several times to finally find the page they're looking for. Statistics show that we lose up to 50% of visitors each time we make them click on a link. Make your visitors enjoy surfing your site. Also remember not everyone enters your website from the home page, especially if they find your site through search engines. So make sure each page should have a title so they always know where they are at, and a link to the most important pages of your website (e.g. home page, order page, contact page and so on). Another way to make your site easy-to-navigate is using clear link texts. The key is making it easy for them to find what they want, so make your site easy to navigate.

#3. If you use inappropriate colors that make your copy difficult to read, few people will bother reading it, and if no one reads your copy how are you going to make sales?

#4. Don't Overuse Pop-ups
What's a pop-up? It's a window -- usually a small window -- that is opened when you click on a link and open or close a window. Unfortunately many webmasters go overboard with pop-ups which only results in annoying visitors. Pop-ups are best used to offer something of high value to your site visitors... something that you know they're very interested in.

#5. Remember Your Purpose
Why are you creating your website? What do you expect from your site? Decide on your purpose before you start designing your site. Sometimes people are so wrapped up in being a website owner that they forget their site is to sell. Instead of designing a sale-oriented website, all they're trying to do is designing a "thing of beauty". It doesn't matter if your visitors are impressed by professional Flash animations and graphics on your site.

You should ask yourself: Does your website sell or just impress people? Do people say,"Wow! If you expect your website to sell, then design it the way it makes visitors interested in your offer and motivates them to buy.

A. How To Build A Website - There Is Only One Way To Learn
Well, it's been three months, since I launched my first web site online, and in that time frame I learned that; There Is Only One Way To Learn How To Build A Website. If your wondering why I would say that while there are so many software programs written to design programs online. But, no matter what program you use to build a website, you will have to build it your way, and that is the only honest way to build a website. My web host didn't even give me access to my domain, and if I wasn't using XSite-Pro, I would have lost all my designed web pages. I had to transfer my sites to a new server, but the best learning system online is to learn the hard way, isn't that also in real life.

I watched the launched of many great programs that will build many sites within one month, and I also watched those that had no knowledge of how to use such programs fail miserably, your goal online should be to build a website and learn from your mistakes.

I just made $105 in affiliate commissions today, I didn't make this because I do nothing, I made this because I have figured out how to build a website that works for affiliate programs as well as your own programs.

Build a website that you will be proud of, don't try to build more than one until you have first built a profitable website. If you want to learn how to build a website online, then visit my website and take your time browsing around my site, because I have mastered how to build a website that works, you can learn a thing or two.

B. How To Build A Website - Seven Steps For Building Optimized Websites For Affiliate Programs
How To Build A Website - The web has developed into such a mass marketing arena, that many offline advertisers are now coming online. Google indexes about ten million sites daily, yes, ten million web sites per day. In short, you will only see a bigger bloom and that mean that the best medium for earning online will be with affiliate programs. Yes, affiliate programs earn cash for you even if you don't have your own product.

How Can You Learn To Make Affiliate Programs Earn Cash For You?

The key to making any kind of money online is to master these seven steps:
1) How To Build A Website That Is Optimized For Search Engines
As far as I am concerned, you must learn to how to build a website that is simple an fast, because the online world is like a giant real estate market. If you can't build enough websites, you won't own enough virtual space to build enough income to survive online. Even if you have your own product, you must learn to use other peoples products and make back-end sales. That is what affiliate marketing is about and you must learn how o build a website based on making back-end sales from other peoples products.

2) Master Keyword Research, using the number one tool online
If you have been online long enough then you will obviously know that anyone building successfully optimized websites are using, wordtracker or KeywordElite. So, your task is to learn exactly how to perform keyword research using wordtracker or Keyword Elite.

3) Where To Get The Cheapest Hosting Online
The online medium has grown so huge, that any kid out there can start his own hosting company. No one pays $100 monthly to host a site anymore, the prices range from as low as $5 up to $25 to host one site. Your plan is learn how to build a website that will survive online. I know, this sounds a little strange, but many marketers online pay $1500 or more just to have someone design their site. Well, the sad part is a well designed site without the right words won't sell anything.

4) How To Use Ad Tracking, To Improve Your Business
Ad Tracking, is the key to success online, you have to know where your visitors are coming form. Just get yourself something to track, while improving your website conversion.

5) The Secret To Writing Ad Copy, That Your Visitor Will Love
The best part of online marketing is that even if you have no product, you can earn more than someone who has his own product. Easy, if they are not using affiliate programs to earn from other peoples product they are depending on one source of income. To be successful with this method you also have to learn how to build a website that captures email addresses - so called List Building.

Anyway, I have shown you the seven steps you need to master to learn how to build a website, now go out there and build your first web site.


Traits And Tasks Of Interior Designers

Posted: Saturday, July 17, 2010

The career of an interior designer combines creativity with business expertise and people skills. The traits of successful designers are varied and include:
•Attentive to colors, textures, materials, lighting and layouts in various settings.
•Enjoy designing or remodeling their own and other's environments.
•Communicate and work well with clients and other design professionals.
•Have ability to analyze designs and plan spaces.
•Possess expertise in interior construction, materials, furniture, equipment and local building codes to help coordinate projects.
•Fit together artistic, functional and technical requirements.

The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), formerly known as FIDER, oversees programs at colleges and universities and certifies that certain principles and practices are taught. A bachelor's degree from a CIDA school is highly recommended and is the minimum for doing commercial work. It is imperative that designers understand not only aesthetics, but also the safety aspects of interiors. Because of this, interior designers are now licensed professionals, much like architects and nurses.

The National Council for Interior Design Qualification offers an examination to certify interior designers who have met the minimum standards for professional practice. This exam is the standard to measure the competency of designers.

You cannot advertise or represent yourself as a registered interior designer unless you meet the minimum education, experience and examination requirements established in your state/province, and apply for use of the state-regulated title with the proper state board.

There are residential and commercial design jobs. Within commercial business, you could specialize in schools, hospitals, banks, malls, hotels or restaurants. In larger commercial projects, your job could be project manager, draftsperson or specifier of products. Some professionals go on to be sales representatives for interior products, business owners of design firms, drapery manufacturers or even specialized installers. As long as there are homes and businesses, there will be a need for interior designers.

A. Making Space: a Path to Your Interior Design Career
As a career, interior design engages creative service professionals to plan and design spaces in public buildings and private homes. Interior designers work with clients and other design professionals (including architects) to create safe, functional, and attractive rooms.

The job requires a keen sense for creative visualization, as well as solid aesthetic technique, customer service, and professional communication skills, which interior designers use to present design plans to clients. Finally, interior designers must also understand technical requirements of a given space, including health and safety regulations, and building codes.

Interior Design Careers: A Flexible Living
Besides the ability to put your design skills to work, there are other benefits to working in interior design. One major benefit to an interior design career is flexibility. If you aspire to a stable, full-time position, several top-paying industries employ interior designers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics specialized design services employed 20,820 interior designers as of May 2007. Other top industries employing interior designers included architectural, engineering, and related services (with 9,680 interior design jobs in May 2007), and furniture retailers (with 5,770 jobs).

In May 2007, mean annual wages for interior designers in specialized design services stood at $51,520. Designers working for architectural, engineering, and related services earned $52,000 on average. In 2006--the last year the Bureau of Labor Statistics accounted for self-employed interior designers--26 percent of interior designers were self-employed.

College Education for Interior Design Careers
As you might expect, finding a niche for yourself in any interior design industry requires a lot of hard work. To gain entry-level interior designer positons, experts recommend postsecondary education--especially bachelor's degrees. Check out interior design career training today.

B. Become A Qualified Interior Decorator By Studying At Interior Design Colleges
If you want to further educate you and need to learn how to be creative as well as learn the techniques required to become a good interior decorator, then you need to enroll in colleges to earn at least a bachelors degree. There is much that you can learn including planning, equipping, and designing as well as furnishing both residential as well as commercial interiors, and a qualified interior decorator should have no difficulty in enjoying a good career after having studied in college.

Learn Computer Aided Designing
Students who go to colleges will also get a chance to learn how computer applications can be used in drafting as well as for using graphics in their interior designs and there are other subjects taught as well including acoustics, interior lighting, coordinating colors, integration of systems and also learning about furniture as well as furnishing.

It covers a whole range of subjects that in addition to those just mentioned above also include textiles, textile furnishing as also learning about a number of different period styles. For those wishing to earn bachelor's degree from interior design colleges in the United States, they will need to study for four years and besides colleges, some universities also offer courses while it is also common for some of the many colleges to offer stand-alone courses.


Online Web Design and Multimedia Schools

Posted: Tuesday, July 13, 2010

If the idea of learning website design online appeals to you, you ought to look into web design and multimedia online schools. In as little as 18 months, you can earn an online degree in website design that will soon have you working as a professional website designer.

Online web design and multimedia schools are designed to provide a great web design education right over the Internet, without commuting to classes. for visit to:-www.automatic-content.com You already have an interest in computers, so learning website design online is just a few keystrokes away! Just imagine being able to study website design at your leisure on your own home computer.

The various web design and multimedia online schools in the US and Canada can offer entry-level design classes leading to professional certifications or diplomas, or advanced online website design courses that culminate in college degrees, such as associate degrees in graphic arts, bachelor degrees in digital design, and even master degrees in fine art with an emphasis on graphic design. You will learn the best uses for modern web design software and computer-based digital design and illustration software, as well as scripting, authoring, HTML, and much more.

A. Website Design Schools for an Exciting Career
Website design schools can help you reach your goal. With even the most basic education in website design, you can count on a lifetime of excellent employment as a website designer
Although relatively new, the field of website design is constantly evolving, and it is essential for website designers to keep abreast of emerging technology. Website design schools are in the business of keeping current, so they can provide you with the latest techniques and methods used by professional website designers.

Students learn to use the latest web design and computer-based design and illustration software, such as GoLive, DreamWeaver, and FrontPage. Related majors might include Visual Art, Graphic Design, Web Design, or Computer Aided Design (CAD).

If you are interested in learning more about what it takes to join the fast-paced world of website design, why not select a few website design schools on our website today?

B. Way To An In-Demand Career Through Web Design Schools?
Anyone and everyone wants a Web site, and those with Web design degrees can make that happen. fore visit to:- www.html-branders.com That's where Web design schools come in.
The National Association of Schools of Art and Design accredits about 250 schools with programs in art and design. These accredited Web design degrees equip you with the design, e-commerce, scripting, and authoring skills necessary to advance in the field.

You'll learn how to develop cutting-edge Web sites that blend interactive media with consumer-targeted information. You'll explore the nuts and bolts of Web page design using HTML scripting as well as page edit software, Web graphics and animation, video production for Web, and JavaScript. Web design colleges may also provide the opportunity to study the various site design models used in personal, commercial, and government Web sites, and to try your hand at designing your own Web pages and sites.

Once you've completed your Web design courses, the learning doesn't end. According to the 2006 AIGA/Aquent Survey of Design Salaries, the median total cash compensation for Web designers in 2006 was $48,000. Boston, for visit to:-www.killer-mini-site.com Washington/Baltimore, and Los Angeles reportedly paid the top salaries for Web designers, and educational institutions, design studios/consultancies, and Web development firms were the organization types topping the wage chart.


Easy Steps to Build a Successful Graphic Design Business From Home

Posted: Friday, July 9, 2010

Being in the graphic design business is very competitive – you have to learn to swim or you will sink fast. I’ve been a graphic designer for 12 years and I’d like to share the journey I took to owning and building a successful graphic design business. One of the first things I recommend to help develop skills and learn tricks that you would never learn in school is to get an internship.

I got my first taste of graphic design in high school and by my senior year I was working as an intern for a small graphic design firm and also a print shop. My skills and thirst for design blossomed from there. I majored in graphic design in college and had landed a very high profile graphic design internship and was taught a vast amount of tricks of the trade by
highly skilled designers.

The next thing I would recommend is to read. I use design books as inspiration for a lot of the graphic design work that I do. Having confidence in your ability and being able to apply that to your business is essential to your business success. When I first started my business, I was nervous, but confident in my ability to run my business with class. I plunged right in with both feet by developing a business plan, company name, web site and logo.

Marketing is the hardest part of owning a small business and takes immense amounts of confidence and strength of character to do well, but if done effectively it will catapult your business to success. Sell, sell, sell. Building a successful graphic design business is all about selling and marketing yourself. Some practical ways I have marketed my business is by: joining my local Chamber of Commerce, building a strong web site that is correctly optimized,addingnumerous reciprocal links to my web site, handing out business cards that function as a mini brochure, joining a leads group, joining special interest clubs, attendingbusiness expo’s and conventions, and networking with other business professionals.

Marketing is all about building relationships with others and then capitalizing on theopportunityto sell your graphic design services.Customer service is key to your success. The clients you gain and the customer service they receive from you is imperative to yoursuccess. I’ve learned from my clients that they appreciate a quick response from me all the time. I recommend that you be available to your clients by email, phone and fax at alltimes.

A prompt response is a good indication of solid design work and will give your client confidence in your services. If your client has a pleasurable experience with you they willhappily refer you on to all the people around them. In the beginning, referrals are the quickest way to build your business on solid ground and with minimal costs.I’ve built my businessbystarting out working from my home. The great thing about graphic design is the ability to do the job from the comfort of your home and this is a great way to minimize costs.

Operate on a debt free basis, paying for all your business expenses with cash. You can still use older versions of software to build solid designs without your clients ever knowing thedifference, and without the constant cost of upgrading. While you are working from home, plan to meet with your clients at a local coffee shop or their place of business. Send designproofs via email instead of printing them out on costly paper. In fact most of my business operates over email.

A. Motion Graphic Design Schools Teach Computer Animation
If you are considering a career in graphic art, you may be interested in seeing what motion graphic design schools can offer. The field of graphic design has made great strides in the past few years to include the element of motion, by incorporating film, video or computer animation into the composition. Good training in computer animation can teach you how to create moving, spinning or blinking graphics to create layouts that are interesting and interactive.

Today's graphic designers and commercial artists are expected to be well-versed in motion graphics. Most arts schools will include courses in animation to accommodate this expectation. Website designers, game designers, videographers, and filmmakers can all benefit from these courses.

Motion graphic design schools teach students to use the latest technology and software to animate figures or produce active titles that create interest and keep the viewer on the page. The course will cover aesthetic visual concepts and practical techniques used by today's computer animation professionals. Students learn the professional techniques of -by-frame animation, interpolation, compositing, and much more.

It is important that all schools for motion graphic design stay current with the latest equipment and software programs used by professional digital designers, such Adobe After Effects and Motion by Apple Computers.

If you would like to find out more about motion graphic design schools, we urge you to submit a request for more information to colleges on our website.

B. Graphic Design Course Description and Curriculum
Graphic designing is a dynamic field and a great and lucrative profession. You can be an expert in this field if you learn and practice design skills by joining a course. Before you spend your money in the course, you must know the graphic design course description. You must join a reputed college or school to lean graphic design. In these colleges you will be prepared for challenging, exciting, and creative careers in graphic designing.

There are many colleges that offer certificates and/or degrees in graphic designing.
If you get training from a good college, you will be taught practical as well as theoretical aspects extensively. This helps you become professionally qualified for a solid career not only in graphic design but also in publishing, advertising, and movie production.

Apart from conceptual and formal skills you will be able to learn technological skills as well. Your graphic design course will cover different aspects of art and design. These include drawing, color, 3D graphics, and also history of graphic design.

You will find that all the multimedia courses offered by premiere schools make use of advance and industry relevant technology. This makes students up-to-date in the graphic designing as they graduate.

Furthermore, graphic design program includes digital illustration, which will help you develop electronic illustration skills. Web page design will introduce you to the ever growing media industry. In this part you will get to learn HTML coding and layout design.

Apart from multimedia graphic design programs you may also learn special effects, video editing, and sound editing. Courses focused on multimedia industry will inculcate in you logical thinking, public-speaking, and problem-solving skills that you require to add to your graphic design learning and help you become accustomed to most business world situations.



Atlanta Web Design Companies

Posted: Monday, July 5, 2010

Doing business in a city like Atlanta will require using effective promotional tools like Internet marketing. This strategy should include looking for a company that can give you the most value for your money and the most extensive services with regard to your web site.

Design and construction
Canvassing for a web design company will require you to talk to a number of companies that you are considering. To be able to have an idea of the kind of work these companies do, it would be a good idea to ask for design samples from them.

Web hosting and marketing
Picking out a company that offers web hosting services and other marketing services would also be a good idea since most of these companies offer affordable packages for clients in terms of design, hosting and marketing services. Availing of these packages can make the process of putting up your web site more efficient because you would only need to talk to one person for all your web site needs.

Picking out a web design company for your web site needs can be a challenge, especially in big cities like Atlanta because you will be faced with a very wide choice. However, employing a strategy that will help you find a company that will be able to give you the most extensive services can make the process easier and more efficient.

A. Atlanta Web Hosting
This has resulted to the proliferation of thousands of web design companies that offer web design services. Fortunately, the competition among these companies has made it easier to get the best deals for web design services. However, companies should not only focus on getting the best deals for web design but also ensure that their web hosting needs are met. Web hosting plays an important role in marketing a company’s web site to current and potential customers.

Evaluating a web hosting company
If a company is based in a large metropolis like Atlanta where there are a number of similar companies that compete for the same customers, it is important to have reliable web hosting services. To be able to get the best web hosting services, there are a number of essential elements that companies should look for in a web hosting company.

One of the first things that companies should look at is if the web hosting company offers 24/7 technical support. The next step is to ask about the company’s server specifications; it would be a god idea to pick a company that uses commercially graded computers for their servers as these have greater capacities. Another technical aspect that should be investigated is the company’s “facility,” which, as much as possible, should be fault-tolerant data centers that employ redundant configurations for all power and network components of the company. To be able to do this, companies then need to ensure that the companies they consider will have sufficient capabilities that would help them with their Internet marketing needs.

B. How to Promote Your Business Online
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is great. People go to Google, search for what you sell, your website pops up, they click on it, and there you are, offering them what they were searching for. The downside of SEO is that if you don't know what you are doing, reaching the top positions is extremely hard. You need professional SEO people working for you. It is a great investment.

Pay Per Click
Sure, you are paying for that traffic, but if you sell a superior product, price it right, and do a great job marketing it, there is nothing for you to worry about.

Forum Marketing
Let's say you are an attorney who specializes in incorporating new businesses. It would be smart to post valuable information on forums where people are asking things like "Should I form an LLC or a Corporation?" There is one golden rule, though: don't just spam the forum with self-promotion. You can also use article distribution services to post articles on subjects you are an expert at.

Online Classified Ads
Personally I haven't had much success using online ads with my clients, but some people claim that it worked really well for them. The most popular classifieds websites are Craigslist, Kijiji, and US Free Ads.

Direct Marketing
We bought a database of baseball teams in the US, prepared an incredible landing page with copy that made the offer irresistible, and email all the clubs inviting them to see the landing page.

Press Releases
Press releases are one of the best things that you can do to promote your business. However, most people don't know how to write a press release or choose the right topic. If it doesn't sound like news, it probably isn't. If the release doesn't have anything worth publishing, don't even bother writing it.

Affiliate Programs
I love affiliate programs. It is a risk-free way of getting traffic. Affiliates send visitors to your website and they only get paid when a sale is made. If you sell services, you can pay them for each lead that they help you get. It is almost impossible to screw up with affiliate marketing. Ask for professional help to set up your affiliate program.

Industry-Specific Promotion Methods
Each industry has some promotion techniques that are specific to that industry. For example, if you are a programmer you can get projects on Elance or GetAFreelancer. If you are a travel agency you can list your packages on Expedia.

Alliance Marketing
Let's go back to the business attorney example. Who are his clients? Mostly startups. What do startups need? Well, maybe a website, office space, office supplies, and startup money. He could have arrangements with web designers, office space owners, office supplies vendors, and investors.

Advertising
Graphic advertisement is usually in the form of banners, both static and animated. Text advertisement is when a blogger or webmaster writes an article about your products or services and includes a text link to your website. Some good options are Pay Per Post, Blog Ads, Text Link Ads, Advertising Dot Com, Facebook, Business Dot Com, etc.

Local Services and Directories
DMOZ is a free directory. If you are not listed there, do it right now. There are also niche-specific directories. If you are an attorney, search for "attorney directory" on Google to find them. There are also some paid directories, such as Yahoo and Business.com. If your budget allows you to list your website there, by all means do it. It also helps with SEO.

If you have a physical store or an office, local websites such as Local Dot Com, Google Local, Yahoo Local, and MSN Local will give you some free links and also show your business on the map when someone is searching for it. And they are free.

Offline Marketing
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the only way of promoting a website is online. There are a lot of things you can do to promote your business offline.

The Bottom Line
The most important thing is tracking, testing, and optimizing. Set up a tracking system to figure out how your visitors found you, which marketing campaigns are bringing you profits, and which ones are losing you money. Focus. It pays.



Hermes Birkin Bags Make the Ultimate Fashion Statement

Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010

Hermes Birkin bags are kind of manufactured handbags created by the towering leather goods manufacturer Hermes. These bags are named after famous British actress & singer called Jane Birkin who was a longtime dweller of France.

It is famously mentioned in an interesting incident in 1981 that led to the birth of this line of handbags. Hermes Birkin bags have become popular because of the actress it was named after. The Birkin Bag has gone on to become one of the most popular brand of handbags throughout the world, especially among the rich and famous.

The manufacture of a Birkin bag is said to take several weeks and the exterior of the bags can be made up of an assortment of leathers. There are custom bags made of varying kinds of animal skin, including crocodile skin, which is the most expensive. Typically, Hermes Birkin bags are made of goatskin and the color is given such that it matches the exterior.
The metallic parts of these bags may also be studded with precious metals or jewels as per the choice of the buyer.

A. My Designer Handbag is Cute But Not As Cute As My Eye Doctor
Right after I confessed the $7000 value of my treasured Hermes Birkin, my eye doctor took it from my arm and held it closely to his face. Thank God he was clean-shaven! Agreed, Hermes Birkin bags are special, but come on Doc! For the first time, I wished I was my purse.

To understand how or why a designer purse could reach the high cost of several thousand dollars isn't in a man's male composition, unless of course they fancy femaleness or make a habit of tuning into a woman's needs. Most men don't. Men need mentoring when it comes to tuning into women. Please don't misunderstand me. Many men make it a habit of tuning in to women.

A perfect example is the type of gifts they purchase for their partner. The truly tuned-in types purchase treasured items as memorable gifts which last a lifetime. The many men who do purchase the "right" gift have done so through the experience of making many bad choices over time. I recently sold a $6800 Orange Hermes 32cm Kelly Bag to a man in Singapore who obviously understands and adores his wife. Congratulations to this wonderful guy, he's got style, class, brains and knows how to communicate.

Why spend hundreds of dollars each year every time a special occasion pops up only to learn your savvy wife says she loves your gifts from a harmonious love for you, and not because she really does love the gifts. By now I have your attention, right? We aren't talking small change here. The beautiful, classic, hand made Hermes designs make my knees weak. Actually, I'd rather be in a Hermes Boutique shopping than out dancing with George Clooney.

The Hermes Birkin was created in the 1980s after the English actress/singer Jane Birkin spilled the contents of her over-packed, too-small purse onto a Hermes designer during a shared plane ride. Ms. Birkin was very popular on the French music charts at the time. She became the name-sake of the famous, difficult to obtain Hermes Birkin Bag. There's about a three year waiting list to obtain a Birkin bag, and there's no guarantee yours will ever arrive.

The Birkin bags range in size from 30cm to 40cm, and are also available in much larger travel sizes. The various leathers add to the cost making the more exotic skins reach as high as $25,000 or more each! The interior is fully lined in smooth, soft leather and has extra pockets. The bag includes its very own security locking system, and the lock's key hangs from one of its double handles in its own leather protective case.

The gold hardware on Hermes' handbags is 24K gold plated paladium. That's pretty high-end if you ask me. I've never been into fancy cars -- unless it belongs to the guy I'm dating. That caress to the cheek is starting to make me a little jealous of a purse. Should I carry a sign? No, I guess all I need to carry is that Hermes Birkin and start talking more openly to cute men. My eye doctor probably doesn't realize the impact of his caress.

B. Designer Handbag - Borrow Or Buy the Purse of Your Dreams
Designers must be jumping for joy to experience the craze purses have produced these days. Women will go to great lengths to carry a famous Designer Handbag. It's so very important businesses have popped up in every shape and form catering to this market niche.

Thankful for the Internets global exposure entrepreneurs reach people in all parts of the world looking for a new designer purse. Handbags in every price range are available to rent or purchase online. To those of you who aren't in the handbag circles paying $5000 for a pre owned Hermes handbag is no shock to those of us in the know!

There are authentic designer purses and counterfeit faux with hefty price tags resembling the real bags. Prior to making a high priced handbag purchase visit a Discount Designer Handbag Blog for guidance. The one many people consult prior to making a purchase is located at ValueBags.com. You can email the Blog owner and receive a prompt reply. Be safe, not sorry.
So whether you are in the market for a quality designer valuebag priced under $100 or you are planning to buy your next $5000 Hermes handbag the internet is available to conduct thorough research prior to the purchase.

Wait! There are many purchase options. Websites offer consumers the opportunity to purchase a new bag put your bag on a layaway plan or borrow the bag instead of owning it. Personally the thought of borrowing a purse rubs me the wrong way. Who carried it last? Dont laugh. A purse is a very important part of your personal equipment. Hey! I've even carried my Maltese in my purse. So borrowing a designer handbag regardless of the cost just doesn't feel comfortable.

However owning my own designer purse regardless of the cost is the price I am willing to pay for the tastes I have grown accustomed. There's nothing wrong with bargain hunting and finding the best bag for the best price. The same is true for my prized Hermes Birkin and Kelly bags. I'm so attached to most of my high end designer handbags they've become an integral part of my personal insignia.

So, heres my final word of advice to all the designer handbag addicts. Save your money and invest in the bag of your dreams. Theres websites where you can recycle pre-owned authentic designer handbags.

Shop around. Buy authentic designer products, and enjoy them for a long time. Care for your bag babies and properly store them when they are not being used. Its very rare for a hot style to fall short in longevity. Look at the famous Fendi Baguette. Designer handbags are the rage. You can buy a pair of jeans at the Gap for $60 and wear them carrying your $5000 Hermes. Now, doesn't that sound more appealing than renting a purse? Think twice about membership fees adding up to the cost of a designer purse. Save your money and buy yourself that new Prada, Fendi, Gucci or Hermes.


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