Blogs are the new websites

Yes, your website can be a blog!

New software such as Movabletype and Typepad are progressively making their blog software look more and more like websites.

For example, they are making it easier to add (with a little help) special navigational features such as "About", "Home", "Specials" and any other menus that you wish.

Of course, the main part of your website will then be blogging. But, for updating your clients and visitors about your latest activity, even on a daily basis, this could be the route to take.

It also adds a slightly less formal aspect to your website, where you appear to be conversing or chatting with your "visitors".

You can even activate the comments section, and let people drop in their views, questions and suggestions.

This actually means that you don't have to depend on your designer 24/7 to update some aspects of your website - specifically your latest activities. You can manage parts of your content yourself.

An Attractive Website Is To Your Advantage

There are a million and one websites to click through. Many focus their attraction quotient on their product. Some on their marketing ability. Others on bells and whistles. And still others on their interactivity.

There is no question that all these are important points to consider in the overall design. But, I have seen very few websites which genuinely consider how good they look as one of their selling points.

Part of the reason is that many websites are designed by "techies". People who love to fiddle with codes, scripts, and other structural aspects of websites. Even amongst a team, the person who's considered the "designer" often has no formal background in color, composition, graphics or typography.

Quite frankly, most people can build their own basic website. Some of the technical components are not so complicated anymore. You can choose from thousands of software to do the rudimentaries. Of course the trained web designer will be able to narrow in on the appropriate, cost-effective and most reliable software in very short notice, saving you both time and money.

But, a trained graphic designer, with an eye out for aesthetics, is hard to find. As are those especially attractive websites. One of your criteria for your website should be how good it looks. And spend some time finding the designer who can do that for you.

Merry Christmas

And A Happy New Year!

Online Music

Sam the Record Man recently shut its doors forever, leaving the building and the neon sign to Ryerson University. I used to buy my classical music CDs from there, for bargain prices of around $7. There were also knowledgeable salesmen who could advise me on the smallest details from the quality of the recording studio to the proficiency of the musician.

At another music store, this time a second-hand one, the owner was describing how he was losing customers due to online music stores for CDs and DVDs (Amazon.com is a well-stocked online store), as well as downloadable music (iTunes is a popular download program available for free).

Patrons can also find all kinds of help online, including a community of like-minded aficionados, where discussion boards, blogs, and other sources of information have replaced the music store salesman.

These digitized music sources are a great advantage for music on websites. Downloadable music from iTunes (or other web sources) are relatively easy to acquire since you can usually buy a single piece of music at at time, rather than whole CDs.

Once at iTunes, you can convert these songs into the appropriate files, which you can then incorporate into your website for whatever purpose you desire: either as samples of music, or as a background music for your website.

Or, if you have even the rudimentary software, you can convert your songs from your CDs into digital files, to use for your website.

Of course, you have to provide credit for the music, to avoid copyright issues.

Here is a good comprehensive web article which describes all the various facets of online music.

Website Navitation and Layout

This blogger provides the same kinds of tips that I do in my articles and blogging topics.

His main advice is:

A clean layout and neat navigation... enhances its looks.

Not only does a clean layout and neat navigation enhance the look of our website, it will also attract, and keep, your visitors since they will find it easy to get around your website the get the information they need.

Here is the rest of the post titled: "Give importance to layout and navigation", which I've posted in its entirety (with a few of my additions, in italic). You can read other tips and recommendations here.

Give importance to layout and navigation

· Prepare your site navigation before designing to prevent cluttering up the site with forgotten links.

· A clean-cut and uniform navigation system is a must.

· If you have too many links then you should use drop-down menus for your main topics.

· The navigation should be flexible enough to accommodate any amount of additional links since you probably will be adding pages periodically. For this using drop-down menus or section home pages is a must [Not necessarily a must, since you can add more links horizontally. But drop-down menus will accommodate a large number of links.]

· Keep your main links together as much as possible so that visitors can absorb them at one shot and know what your site conveys about your company. Check out how all our major links appear in our top navigation bar and all related section links are listed in the right hand side menu.

· There is no harm is showcasing important links (even repeated links) that you think might interest the visitor. Small boxes describing the link should look good.

· If you like a graphic intensive site and find there is not much space for accommodating all your links, you can have a separate home (splash) page and all other pages as content pages. Thus your home page can have visual appeal and your inner content pages can have elaborate navigation structures while focusing on the content.

· Use your navigation space efficiently. Use short, clear and precise words in your links so that your visitors know what the corresponding page will contain.

Background Colors Revisited

I am reposting this important blog entry on background colors.

The background color of your site affects how people read the information at hand, and is therefore extremely important.

News sites, which mostly on text almost always have a white, or very light, background. And most professional museums and galleries, whose main attraction are the images, also use white as their background.

My recommendation will always be: keep the background light. A little creativity (pale yellow or cream) may add to the uniqueness of your site, but for maximum clarity, keep the background light.

Addendum: Try the link at the end of the post to view different background colors with a multicolored of text.
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Background Colors

One of the most difficult decisions to make with a website is the background. Text is usually best read when on a contrasting background. But, usually, it is much easier on the eyes if the background is light, and the text is dark. Even different colors are easier to read if the background is lighter.

Think about it, most of the time we're looking at things in daylight - a light background. At night, a dark background, even with as many lights as we shine on things, it is still more difficult to see our way around things than during the day.

See what you think (and see) by clicking on different background options at this very ingenious link.

Websites Can Counter the Economic Crunch

Websites catering to small and mid-sized businesses report increased demand for their services - some as high as 24% - as a result of the economic downturn.

Most savvy business owners have already realized that a website provides for exponential benefits if it is designed well, and advertises cleverly. But, especially during harder economic times, small and mid-sized businesses are beginning to realize the benefits of having websites.

The cost of designing and maintaining websites are minimal, compared to print and third party advertising venues. The web, like its name indicates, builds an endless network of contacts, attracting clients from far and wide, increasing its business base through low-cost and high visibility.

So, now more than ever, a website will definitely bring in those extra benefits, and the gains will certainly exceed the costs.