Goodbye to my contact forms

August 28th, 2010. Posted in Information

I finally removed my contact forms from my website this week and as a result had quite a few more new enquiries and contacts than usual.  Plus no more spam – deep joy!  I have been advising clients for ages that people don’t like forms, I asked quite a few people and most said they didn’t like plugging their information into a form because it felt insecure.  A surprising number said that they spent considerable time scurfing around for an email address to avoid having to fill in the form.  Who would think that something so innocuous could be such a business deterrent!

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Feedback from Ali Berry Weddings

August 24th, 2010. Posted in Client Feedback

Thank you so much Tracey I am really….REALLY  happy with it all!!  You have been amazingly patient and I can’t praise your work highly enough. You are absolutely brilliant at what you do.  The final product is beyond my expectations.  I will be recommending you to everyone who needs a website.  I apologise for all the extra work that I’ve given you and thank you for being so accommodating to all my changes and indecisions.  I have no doubt that the new website will generate more enquiries and bookings.

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My dog, apple picking his own way!

August 22nd, 2010. Posted in Free time

Here he is in action. He also picks ripe blackberries and leaves the unripe ones behind.  Once he’s learned pastry making we’ll be sorted!

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WordPress Database Requirements

August 15th, 2010. Posted in Wordpress

Official WordPress Logo

For a WordPress theme or CMS a MySQL database will need to be provisioned as part of the hosting service, minimum requirements:

  1. PHP 4.3 or greater
  2. MySQL 4.1.2 or greater
  3. The mod_rewrite Apache module

All hosting companies will know what this means.  Hosting companies will be proud if they support WordPress installations, and the logo will usually appear on their website.  I always recommend setting up hosting for WordPress on a Linux server.  This Linux server choice relates purely to website hosting, it bears absolutely no relevance to the server in use on a local computer or network.

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10 Reasons to Hire a Professional Web Designer

August 8th, 2010. Posted in Information

Someone asked me yesterday why they should hire me rather than build their own website.  Here are my answers:

  1. Credibility, a professional design gives visitors the right impression of your business. Communicating your message in the right way to your target market.
  2. Your website should be easy to use and navigate, not something that your visitors will leave because they can’t find what they want.
  3. Your website should be accessible to all, for example non text items should contain descriptions for partially sited users.
  4. Security is a very important issue, especially if your website has input forms and login systems.  There are nasty people out there who could try to hack in to your website to cause damage.
  5. Your website should conform to modern standards, search engines are starting to clamp down on this.
  6. Getting ranked well in search engines is important, search engine optimisation should be built into the code, structure and content of your website.  This forms the building blocks to stand you in good stead with SEO. (See SEO article).
  7. Your website needs to render correctly across multiple web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.
  8. People with differing screen sizes should be able to view your site correctly.
  9. The look and feel should be consistent throughout all pages, the correct styling to suit your business is vital.
  10. It will allow you to use your time to do what you are good at, running your own business.

So a list to provide food for thought (not exhaustive!).

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5 quick SEO tips. Things you can do to help your website’s search engine ranking.

July 29th, 2010. Posted in Information

  1. Make sure that the content text in your home page says who you are and what you do.  This should be fairly natural but also remember to include your location too.  People will be searching for your product or service potentially in their local area. 
  2. Add descriptions to your images that relate to your product or service.
  3. Complete the page title* with relevant information rather than just “home page” (usually a maximum of 60-80 characters).
  4. Complete the page description* (usually a maximum of 250 characters)
  5. Keep the sizes of images as small as you can to ensure speedy page loading, search engines are starting to penalise slow loading pages.

* The title tag and description tag are those that you then see when you do a search, shown in the image below, so they are very important:

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10 places for my web design inspiration

July 29th, 2010. Posted in Information

I have a list but I would really like to hear ideas from others if you have time.  I take lots of photos and some of them even come out OK!

  1. The countryside and the beach where colours blend naturally
  2. Towns and cities for colours, styles and lines that have been man made over time
  3. Images of a clients home help me to understand colour preferences and styles
  4. Everyday groceries, especially for fonts
  5. Magazines and publications for imagery ideas, colours and fonts
  6. What people wear, colours and lines
  7. Images provided for the project by the client – blending from logos
  8. All kinds of galleries, photo and art blogs
  9. Interior design, as in the photo below
  10. … and lastly in the strangest places.  Inspiration came recently from an amazing green chair!
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Loobie Campion – Porthtowan Holidays

July 24th, 2010. Posted in Client Feedback

“Have just looked at the website and I am absolutely speechless (well almost)….it looks absolutely amazing….I honestly couldn’t have dreamed of anything better. Thank you so much for ALL your work.”

This was a website that I developed exactly to the client’s colour, font and layout specifications. www.porthtowanholiday.co.uk

Good luck in your new venture Loobie!

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Seeing bananas in my sleep!

July 9th, 2010. Posted in Fits nowhere

I have been able to get away with murder this week because my husband has been away on a sailing expedition. While the cat’s away and all that.  I have been able to do what I want, eat what I want and carry on exactly as I did when I was single.  It has been fantastic to be able to work till all hours without anyone nagging me to get away from my computer!  What did you think I was going to say?!  The first three days were great, whizzing along getting through loads of stuff until last night when I was woken by a nightmare involving a giant banana.. could this be anything to do with my latest website project?

I have enjoyed my freedom, I really have but it has worn me out a bit and given me a stiff neck. I mean I love a pizza as much as the next man but I am no longer convinced that I can live on it!  I think I am ready now for normality to kick in again.

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Think about your needs before selecting a web host

July 5th, 2010. Posted in Information

The problem is that some web hosts are better at certain things than others.  I had an instance recently where someone had purchased a hosting package, which on the surface looked fine.  It  included a database and so should deliver what was needed for any open source CMS.  However, this wasn’t the case, the limitations placed on reading and writing certain files meant that the chosen product was never going to work properly.  If you think you would like to have your site built on a CMS platform, such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla it is important to check that the host supports these services.  They are usually proud to shout about it if they do and show the logos on their website.  Then all you have to do is make sure you buy the right package.  On the other hand, you can always let your web developer do it for you.

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