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Tuesday, February 19, 2008
E-Commerce Equals Convenience, Risk to Consumers An important finding for those who have online shopping sites or selling anything online.
This can be avoided, you know. You can increase sales by putting your customers at ease with their online transactions. If they’re concerned, tell and show them why they don’t have to worry.
Example: Check out PayPal’s homepage. Notice how PayPal tells and shows their customers about online website security.  Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:17 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, Web General Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year! Have you made any New Year resolutions? I plan on expanding the business in a few different ways. One way is to broaden our network of designers and developers so we can accommodate our growing client base. Another is a new website for MJS Web Solutions. You know the old adage, “A carpenter’s home never gets built”? Well, us web designers know the saying. We were so busy last year, we didn’t have time to concentrate on ourselves, especially our website. Which brings up an article I saw last weekend, in the SF Chronicle, about small-business owners making New Year’s resolutions. What caught my eye was this quote from someone who had setup her new website: “Creating a Web site is a lot of work when you’re a small business without a marketing department,” she said. “You’re constantly proofing text and bringing people together to answer e-mails from the Web designer. It was an odyssey to get it done.” She’s right. It takes a lot of time and patience when building a new website. There is a lot involved.
The major challenge is time. Know that you will have to spend quality time on your new website. That’s good because it’s your business you’re showing to the world. Happy New Year! Posted by: Michael Swartz at 11:42 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, News, Business Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Hello. We’ve been creating many HTML email newsletters recently, but today we received a question about just sending out branded emails. You know, emails with your logo and stuff. In Microsoft Outlook, it’s easy.
To brand your own email though will require you to create a HTML file. You can do this in any HTML editor like Dreamweaver. Then import it into Outlook. Don’t forget to test your email, making sure it looks good in all the popular email programs like Gmail, Yahoo, etc. Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:28 am Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Computer, HTML Monday, November 19, 2007
They tricked me. I don’t want to be treated this way from my email newsletters. I just received an email from Vertical Response with the Subject: Is there such a thing as too much business? “Yes, if it’s the wrong kind of business.” I was going to submit my comments above but no where in the email was the answer OR the question.
At least match the Subject line to a Headline or Story or I’m not going to read the email. I didn’t. It’s been deleted. If you’re not going to deliver, don’t bother. Please. When you write your Subject line deliver on your promise. Don’t trick your users or try to give them something that’s not. They won’t read it. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 7:06 pm Comments: 2 Comments | Filed under: Web Design, Web Marketing, Writing For The Web Wednesday, November 14, 2007
As promised, we are announcing another website launch, designed and developed by MJS Web Solutions and Gunderson Design. The Town of Danville’s Transportation department has a program called Street Smarts for educating kids on traffic safety. Gunderson Design and MJS Web Solutions were brought in to develop the It Happens website exclusively for high school students. To get high school students to learn more about traffic safety, we partnered with Planet Jam/Stickyfish on designing a rewards program where students could watch traffic videos, submit their own stories and earn points by doing so. With these points, students can purchase prizes such as iPods, Nintendos and Playstations. The local media has received the story too. Mike Swartz says, “Check it out“. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 10:36 am Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, News Monday, November 12, 2007
We’ve been very busy around here the last couple of weeks and that’s lead to a limited amount of postings. What could be taking up so much of our time around here, you ask? Well, it’s preparing and launching 3 separate websites in a week.
Both sites were created exclusively using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and built for maximum search engine exposure. Mike Swartz says, “Check ‘em out”. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 2:30 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, News Thursday, September 6, 2007
I work with a lot of web application companies and I wanted to say there is one company in particular that I am proud to work with: Interspire. Have you heard of them? They’re a web application firm that specializes in creating web software in PHP. I recently purchased two products by them and am very satisfied with the results.
Not only do they provide great web software solutions, but their technical support is by far the best I’ve experienced. Every question I have raised (and they’re has been plenty of them) they were able to answer and assist with the coding. Interspire StoreSuite Well, if that’s not enough, Interspire is set to release - later this year - a shopping cart software program called StoreSuite. I have no doubt that StoreSuite will be a well designed and fully customizable program for any business that wants to setup an eCommerce solution. I’m sure to purchase a copy. Mike Swartz says, “Check it out”. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 4:10 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design Monday, July 16, 2007
There is a lot of talk about website usability, but I’m unsure people really understand what it means. It basically means: is the website usable? Having Trouble? I was getting an error while trying to login to our online registry at Williams-Sonoma. Well right next to the login area and on the same page is a telephone number in case you are “Having trouble accessing your registry”. I was, so I called and got a representative right away who helped solve my problem. That, my friends, is usability. Website Usability Placing the telephone number and stating why the telephone number was there is brilliant (and useful) web design. It it hadn’t of been there, I would have had to hunt down throughout the site looking for the number and then route back to the registry page once I began speaking to customer support. A lot of time, effort and sanity was saved thanks to a small decision to add the contact number right next to the login page. I got off the phone a happy and satisfied customer. If you have a telephone number, don’t hide it from your customers. Display it in areas where it will be helpful and useful to them. Posted by: Michael Swartz at 8:14 am Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design Monday, April 9, 2007
Not all web designers are SEO specialists. When they are, you get an added bonus. I am redesigning a new website for a client of mine. She has excellent rankings (i.e. #1 rankings) for a majority on some highly competitive keywords. When redesigning a website, usually the name of the files or web pages may change or they will be placed in different locations on the web server. For example, let’s say the page products.html has the #1 ranking on Google. If this file is moved or it’s name is changed to, let’s say index.html and placed into the /about/ folder, your #1 ranking may disappear. Why? Because after Google and other search engines re-index your site they essentially have to start all over - from the beginning. In their eyes, it’s like you just launched a new site. So now you’ll have to wait (maybe forever) and work real hard to gain top position you once had. To avoid this easily, do not change or move files that have top placement. If your site is currently going through a redesign and you have web files in top SE positions, make sure your webmaster/web designer understands the implication of making web filename changes. Being a web designer is good, but being a SEO web designer is great! Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:22 am Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design, SEO Monday, February 5, 2007
MJS is strictly a CSS shop now. No more tables. Why does this matter? Ever heard of CSS? CSS or Cascading Style Sheets is a new (really a few years ago) way of designing a web pages. CSS is used in conjunction with HTML, the language of the internet. Websites were designed in tables during the first stages of internet web development. Now a new way of building web pages has emerged and MJS Web Solutions is taking advantage of what CSS has to offer us and our clients. Developing your web pages strictly in CSS have many benefits:
Check out some of the amazing designs that are produced using only CSS (instead of tables). Zen Garden Mike Swartz says, “Check it out.” Posted by: Michael Swartz at 9:44 pm Comments: None | Filed under: Web Design
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