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To Flash, or Not to Flash
When considering whether or not to incorporate Flash into your website, you must also consider the target market you are trying to reach.
For instance, a website which serves as a depository for articles and information catering to lawyers would probably not be a good candidate for a Flash "makeover". However, if you are a rock band, you may want to consider it.
Those are two very opposite ends of the spectrum, but exemplify how you should consider your audience.
In our business, we always suggest "hybrid" Flash sites over full Flash sites when we are not dealing with an entertainment industry client. By using limited and specific Flash, it can take your website from "average" to fantastic.
Corporate, retail, industrial, informational and many other types of websites can actually benefit from a little bit of Flash if it is created professionally and used properly (especially in combination with "static" design).
Flash is quite a complex program, and with every version that is released, there is more to learn. When you do decide to incorporate Flash into your site, make sure your designer is skilled with the program. Using older versions of Flash, not optimizing graphics/audio/video and poorly written actionscript (the language of Flash) can be a detriment.
Current statistics show that over 90% of internet users have the ability to view Flash. It could benefit your online presence and give your site a higher-end look.
Like the web itself, Flash is a technology that is constantly evolving and there are designers that are pushing the envelop to create amazing, interactive user experiences with it.
And remember Flash isn't just for fading in and out photos or moving text around. Below are just a few of the other ways to use Flash on your website:
1. Flash "tour" - would your business benefit from an interactive "tour" of your facilities? Or a "tour" of how your product works?
2. Audio player - you can stream audio and offer user controls such as stop, fast forward, and track selection.
3. Games - Flash can be used to program interactive and educational games.
So consider your audience, and choose a designer/company with a high level of Flash experience and your website is sure to benefit.
Sherry Holub received her degren in design from UCLA in 1995. She is now the Lead Designer and Manger at Southern California firm, JV Media Design. http://www.jvmediadesign.com
Website Polls For You And Your Visitors
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor. Choose interesting topics, poll opinions on recent events related to your site, and people will participate to find out what other people on your site think. Second, if you write your surveys in a way that keeps them interesting and useful to yourself you can gather important information about your visitors in order to build a site better tailored to their interests.
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Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site
Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good. On top of that, your guestbook is filling with great comments and you're getting a few emails now and then with praise and perhaps a question or two.
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Tried and Tested Tips to Improve Your Website - Part 1
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Designing your website can be a difficult task especially if you decide to do it on your own and you have no experience. There are many websites and web hosts that provide tools to allow you to build your website, but if you have no knowledge of what works and what does not work in web design, you could be setting yourself up for a big fall. Review the following suggestions, implement them into your web design, and forget about being the guy with a badly designed web page.
Discover 7 Proven Shopping Cart Enhancements to Increase Your Sales
For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it is important to know.
Your Site Map: Spider Food or Just A Light Snack?
Mechanical spiders have to eat. In fact, they usually have bigger appetites than the real-life spiders you squish under your shoe. What spiders am I talking about? The automated programs sent out by search engines to review and index websites. These "spiders" (sometimes called "bots") are looking for a reason to list your site within the database of their particular search engine. It's hard work roaming around the 'Net non-stop, and these little guys need some nourishment from time-to-time. In fact, when spiders find some hearty "spider food" (a.k.a. a site map with some meat to it), they sit down to stay a while. That's a good thing!
Database Driven Website
The solution lies in creating a 'Database driven website', through which web pages are created dynamically which further gives a web site visitor an up-to-dated view of information stored in the database. When the information in the database is updated, site visitors will immediately see the changes that have been made.
Creating Quality Websites
Websites, there are literally billions of them out there in cyber-space. How many of them do you go to and just think this is boring, bland, or hard to use? It seems like too many to mention. So what makes a good website? I reckon it's about interaction. You've got to make the visitor interested. You've got to grab their attention. Many sites use plenty of bright and shiny gimmicks to attract you, but once you make it through to the content of the site it's just not worthy. A good site uses easy navigation, relevant content, and interactive media like comments and message boards. If you're fortunate, whoever builds your site may even have a few tricks up their sleeves to make it really fun with sound, video, and other interactive fun stuff.
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Keep Your Navigation Highly Visible
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Are You Driving Away Potential Customers?
When a prospect lands on your website will he or she understand what you are presenting? Do your ordering/sign up instructions make sense? Can prospects easily find the information they are searching for? If you don't know the answers to these questions you may be driving away potential customers.
The Brutal Truth
Not too long ago while looking for businesses that do web design I stumbled upon website. It looked great. It had cool pictures arranged in a grid. But I couldn't figure out what to do next. So I moused over one of the pictures. Nothing happened. I moused over another picture. This time some words came up.
The Ultimate Web Site Marketing Strategies That You Should Know
Most of us know that we need to advertise our products and our services, some of us still believe we are too small to invest in a advertising campaign. Now while a full-fledged marketing effort may be too much for your operation, it is however crucial to your success that you are involved in some kind of marketing activities. While putting a few strategies into action will make a big difference to your business and will certainly help in reaching your intended audience. However, if you do not spread the word about your business, no one will know you are there.
Give Your Web Site a Small Business Marketing Tune Up
Your web site is like your car. Both are significant investments that require the right features and regular and proper maintenance to ensure maximal satisfaction and performance.
Why Hire a Professional to Design Your Web Site?
Creating an appealing, functional, and effective Web site is much harder than it looks. It's not simply a matter of taking a company brochure or catalog, converting the text to HTML, and throwing in a few pictures (although many sites seem to have been created using this technique!).
Hiring The Right Webmaster
The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You Should Be Receiving