Primary skill:
Websites-Brochure (Standard HTML)
Secondary skills:
Flash for Websites, Search Engine Optimization (SEO/M)
Employer questions:
(1) Would you be willing to send a resume that details your past experience with website design?
Following this link, you will be able to download the PDF version if needed.
(2) Would you be willing to offer references for any past work that you have done?
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We would provide some of the text that would be used; however, we would need someone with
expertise in website content writing as well. |
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A wall of text intimidating, and painful to read if the font is too small.
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There are some Areas Of Concern that you haven't mentioned.
- Website hosting
- Accessible by the site owner
- Site growing with a business
- Search engines
- Notifies customers that your site has updated.
- Google indexing
- Easy design changes
- Content Management
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A blog URL with free hosting.
Yes, it's tempting to start a new blog on one of the services that offer free accounts. It's easy, it's
quick, and it's obviously cheap. But it only costs $8 per year to get your personal domain name
and own your own future. Having a blog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will
soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a
naive beginner who shouldn't be taken too seriously. The longer you stay at someone else's
domain name, the higher the cost of going independent.
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There's a limit to the value you can provide with a short comment. Such postings are good for
generating short-term traffic, and they're definitely easy to write. But they don't build sustainable
value. Think of how disappointing it feels when you're searching for something and get directed to
short postings in the middle of a debate that occurred years before, and is thus irrelevant.
For most blogs, daily updates are probably best, but blogs take a lot of work to maintain. You
shouldn't post when you have nothing to say. It might take you only an hour to write a blog posting,
but thousands of people can do that too. Sometimes a single paragraph holds the idea that can
increase a site's conversion rate, such as mentioning guest bloggers, or new additions to products,
like you've done. But generally your posts should be considered a resource, and not a news flash.
Demonstrate Leadership
What matters is that the comprehensive treatment of a topic. The beauty of the blogosphere is that
it's a self-organizing system. Whenever something good appears, other blogs link to it and it gets
promoted in the system and gains higher visibility. Thorough content's added value can rise above
the threshold where customers become willing to be separated from their money. This is the true
measure of a sustainable business.
Why are paying customers (the people who matter) attracted by detailed information? Because
systematic and comprehensive coverage is more actionable. It also protects them against the risk
of losses caused when something important is overlooked. |
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Tell people where they're going and what they'll find at the other end of the link. Provide information
on link mouseovers that fits with your content. Quality links from external websites will help get
more of the right people to your website. Well written links within your website will ensure your
readers can act in a way you want them to. Linking is about driving action. It’s about getting the
right people to the right content as quickly as possible.
Quality links within your website is very important. Here are some tips:
- Avoid the use of “Click here”, “Find out more”, “Download now”.
- Links should be clear and precise. They should create a call to action. Correct: “Book now for
Boston content management workshop”.
- Always have a HTML version of your links, as this makes your page more accessible, as well
as easier for a search engine to index.
- Have a site map/index that is presented in HTML format, as this makes your website easier for
a search engine to index.
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Anonymous postings have less influence than something that's personal.
SOLUTION
Readers want to know more about you, and your business is based on connecting on a personal
level with customers.
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A photo is important because visitors relate more easily to somebody they've seen. The brain is
better at recognizing faces, and that often works better than logos. Also, if you expect to be quoted
in the press, you should have high-resolution photos available for download.
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Visitors should get a good understanding of what the article talks about, by reading its headline.
Avoid cute or humorous headlines that make no sense out of context. Descriptive headlines are
important for search engines and whatnot.
Sample bad headlines:
- More Winners!!
- More Prizes and Today's Winners!
- New Product
Sample good headlines:
- Headbands To Keep Cool
- Lynn Anne Cutler as our guest designer for the month of August
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Example Calendar
WordPress blogs have a calendar feature. A timeline is rarely the best way to find information. Use
the category feature so users can see all postings on a certain topic. Ten to twenty categories are
appropriate.
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You have established an online presence with blogs, forums, and a store. However, they look
completely different from each other, and could have a more consistent look among all your
products.
- There is a logo on your site, but having it stretched out for different screen resolutions is
something which is easily fixed. Different sizes could be created, or maybe it's your desire to
have a new identity created.
- Coming up with a consistent look and feel for your site. The pages that feature profiles of fellow
craft people, are different color, but why?
Strip away from your website all non-core content. If it’s not directly furthering your objectives, it
shouldn't be there. If it’s not driving specific, quantifiable actions, it shouldn't be there.
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Rendering a website perfectly on all browsers isn't worth the effort. However, don't turn away
customers because they user a different browser, and can't see your content.
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Most organizations don't need content management software. Unless you have a very busy website
with lots and lots of content being published, the return on investment is not there. The promise of
a CMS, is in the magic of technology to sweep away any and every problem. But they're 10x more
complicated, and therefore 10x as many headaches. The majority of those who do require such
software need a very simple, streamlined solution like a blog. |
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We would provide some of the text that would be used; however, we would need someone with
expertise in website content writing as well. |
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Overly literal search engines are unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the
query terms. |
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Style sheets give websites the power to disable a Web browser's "change font size" button and
specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny, reducing readability
significantly for most people over the age of 40.
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Despite such good intentions, most of the Flash that Web users encounter each day is bad Flash
with no purpose beyond annoying people. Using Flash for navigation is almost as bad. Flash
should not be used to jazz up a page.
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PROBLEM
Forms tend to be too big, featuring too many unnecessary questions and options
- Picky, overly specific forms. Splitting what users see as a single piece of information into
multiple fields means that users must waste time moving the cursor around. A typical example
is credit car numbers. Many sites, for example, force users to enter credit card numbers as
1234567890123456, rather than letting them put spaces between groups of four digits, which
significantly reduces the risk of errors.
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People hate scrolling left to right. Vertical scrolling seems to be okay, maybe because it's much
more common. Web pages that require horizontal scrolling in standard-sized windows, such as
800x600 pixels, are particularly annoying.
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Yes, it appears the client needs this. |
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Yes, it appears the client needs this. |
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Nowhere on the site is an "email to friend" link because it isn't convenient for the customer.
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Interaction of navigating your site, must meet users' expectations. When you click a link you don't
expect to spawn an email program. Violated expectations create a sense of oppression, where
technology rules humans and reduces their ability to steer the interaction. |
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Continual Assistance (as needed)
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Automatic translation software IS much cheaper than getting people to manage it.
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PROBLEM:
If you don't have a newsletter, then publishing one is probably the single-highest ROI action you
can take to improve your Internet presence.
SOLUTION:
Email newsletters let you maintain a relationship with your customers that lasts beyond their visits
to your site. The newsletter is the perfect website companion because it answers a different user
need: newsletters keep customers informed and in touch with the company.
Newsletters require little technology. I discuss how to work more efficiently when writing blogs,
newsletter, etc... on my blog. Blogs are great for this. If you do have a newsletter, then improving it,
will likely make it several times more valuable. |
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People can't touch and feel your products. If you have expensive items in a store, having low quality
photos available undermines the value of your products.
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Press releases really don't need to be posted, except if your legally required to post them by
government agencies. Just know that they are not the reason any sane person would decide to
come to your website. A website that places press releases on its homepage is communicating a
clear message: We couldn't be bothered writing useful web content so we just threw up this dross.
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When you have multiple products in the same category, product differences must be obvious to
people without industry expertise. Isn't jewelry or beauty sold in a Boutique? Additionally, NEW
products should be at the top, out of alphabetical order.
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No specific programming language is required.
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General HTML page with important elements missing
Visitors increasingly depend on search as a primary interface to the Web. While search is getting
fairly good for the Internet at large, it remains miserable on most websites and intranets. People
search with their own keywords. When they scan a page of search results, they are looking for a
match. Should they decide to come to your page they are looking for an even greater match.
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1. Business Objectives
