Designer & Client – A Partnership of Sorts

Posted Oct 5, 2009. Leave a comment?

I have found that sometimes web designers and clients both don’t realize and understand that developing a successful website (it was two words instead of one) doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of the developer. Rather I find that the best possible results will come by way of a partnership of sorts. It’s a team effort. The client needs the developer’s help, but the developer needs the client’s help, as well.

Content Needs

Content is king, yet it is often treated as an afterthought. That’s a shame. The content is the message; the reputation; the public image. The message should be clear in the client’s mind and properly conveyed to the developer. But not (but shouldn’t be a start of a sentence. You need to find a different word or add a comma) necessarily directed in an absolute manner. As I wrote, making a good site is a team effort. So while the client must have a firm idea of what he or she wants to get across, the web developer has valuable experience in regards to what works and what doesn’t, how much content should be presented, and where it should be on a site. Great content is meaningless if it won’t be properly digested by the site’s visitors.
Assuming the developer isn’t the copy writer, which is usually impossible unless the developer has an intimate knowledge of the client’s business, the method of content delivery (from client to developer) is important. The site’s content must be presented to in an organized manner once pages and sections are determined. (needs to reword this sentence. Either take the to out or add another word) Content shouldn’t be given in a random fashion spread across multiple emails without regard to the predetermined organization of the site-to-be. The site’s content is usually best given as text files organized by page and section sent as a single email’s attachments or on disc. I say text files because it is usually best provided as plain text. Spending hours un-formatting a fancy Word file is difficult and time consuming. Plain text files work just fine.

Imagery Concerns

For most users, the web is a largely visual medium and should be utilized in this way to the fullest. The developer must be sure to let the client know that important content delivered via imagery will need to be backed up with text for accessibility and SEO reasons, but the client needs to deliver quality imagery unless other artistic or photographic arrangements are made ahead of time. Like written content, imagery shouldn’t be an afterthought. Ideally the client will provide a wide selection of images from which the developer can pick and choose. These images are best presented in reasonable sizes on disc or zipped up and sent as an email attachment, and organized if pertinent to specific bodies of content. Images will usually be sized and optimized by the developer so they don’t have to be delivered in finished sizes.
If no images are available, then provisions should be made so the developer can purchase stock photos and such unless, again, other artistic or photographic arrangements are made ahead of time. Personally I’ve had some clients give me a disc with a ton of high quality photos while others have only provided a single small, fuzzy photo. For creativity reasons the former is greatly preferred and can have a huge impact on the outcome.

Post-Launch Promotion

The web developer can do everything right and work in the best interest of the client if the client is given this information and both parties work as a team towards a common goal. But the site can still fail. (Can’t start a sentence with but) The site needs to be promoted. This part really falls on the shoulders of the client. The client needs to tell people about the site, advertise the site, and get others to link to the site. The developer can submit the site to search engines — which isn’t even that necessary — but this hardly guarantees success if the client doesn’t work towards site promotion as well. I have some clients that get most of their visitors from our web portfolio because they haven’t done anything to help their own cause. Other clients, with the same basic structure and site organization, have had tremendous success because they put forth the required effort to make it so. Regardless of how optimized the site is in terms of accessibility and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), without the client’s help, it’ll never rank high unless its content is extremely unique and highly sought after (a rare combination indeed). The client can request a site that reaches the top-spot on Google, and the developer can do what’s required on his or her end, but working only from one end, it’ll likely never make it to the top.

Want Your Organization Featured In Our Newsletter?

Posted Jul 7, 2009. 1 comment.

As we get into the groove of writing for our monthly newsletter, we would like to showcase clients that we work for. Clients who we have implemented a solution to help them save money or help them become more productive in their business.

Our first newsletter showcased GPI, Inc. We helped them move to a new solution to help them run more efficiently. We will be showcasing one client every month from now on.

If you are a client and would like to be in our monthly newsletter please send an email to arod at ontimecomputing.com.

We would love to show the community what you are doing with technology.

Our Newsletter and Blog

Is Facebook Dangerous! It Might Be!

Posted Jul 6, 2009. Leave a comment?

The headline is not meant to scare you away from sites like Facebook or MySpace. I just want to make you aware of the dangers out there and what to watch out for as you make posts on your favorite social networking site. It can be fun if you just take a few precautions when posting about how you just got a new job or how you are going on that date with the girl you have been crushing on.

Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and many others are no more dangerous than email, chatting or downloading music from peer to peer sites. You still need to be aware of the dangers because hackers are just waiting for you to click on their nasty set of tricks!

Facebook Worms

One thing these worms have in common is that do not tell the truth. They compromise your privacy and the privacy of your Facebook friends. I am not saying to stop Facebooking just be careful!

Koobface Virus – It makes you think you are going to watch a funny video or a funny photo of a friend.
Profileye Worm- It tells you people are looking at your profile which makes you curious as to who it could be.
Error Check Worm- It tells you that some of your friends are having trouble viewing your page.
Facebook Shuts You Down- Instructs you that Facebook has just shut down your page because you did something wrong.

It’s Just Not Facebook!

Facebook is not the only one in the news with worms, but there not the only social networking site that’s being targeted, or can be targeted. All of them are vulnerable, just as are other forms of online media.

Protect Yourself
Here are some simple things you can do to protect yourself from online problems:
• Use antivirus and adware software—This will only protect you against certain things. It won’t protect you against many of the worms that are application based, but it will protect you against some of them (and many other things).
• Only Update From a Software Site—If you go to view a video on Facebook and you’re told to update your software, think twice. Don’t update it from there. If you think you may really need to update your software, go to the website of the software itself and update it.
• Don’t Click Strange Links—If you get a message saying something like “Facebook has a message for you, click here”, don’t click there. If Facebook has something to tell you, they would have emailed it to you. If you have a question about a message you received, email them.
• Ask First—If you’re not sure if your friend sent you something, maybe it looks suspicious, ask them. Just send them an email asking them if they sent it before clicking on anything.

Don’t Be Scared

Facebook is just as safe, if not safer than your standard email client. Facebook is safer then downloading music or videos from a peer to peer website. Safer then browsing some personal sites.
These are not the kinds of worms or virus’ that shut down your computer or anything like that. These just send out messages to your friends using your own friend list, or something similar.

Social networking has, in some ways, replaced email. In some ways it’s better; less spam, more people get the message. As long as you’re careful, social networking can be a great way to make friends and network.

Is stuff in life really free?

Posted Jul 6, 2009. Leave a comment?

You just bought a new laptop or desktop computer. You boot it up and see that there is not any anti-virus installed. If there is, it is just a 90 day trial of Norton. What are you to do? I mean you just spent your hard earned money on the laptop and now you have to spend more money on software?!!
Not to worry! There are a lot of software out there that will help you secure your laptop from viruses, spam and hackers. Here is a list of 4 programs that will get you started.

1. Anti-virus: Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware is high-performance security software that doesn’t slow down your PC like older, traditional antivirus products. Vipre combines antivirus, antispyware, anti-rootkit, anti-malware, and other security technologies into a seamless, tightly-integrated security solution. Vipre delivers comprehensive protection against today’s highly complex spyware, viruses, and blended malware threats for PC and e-mail security.

2. Spam Filtering: Mail Washer Free- Introducing MailWasher, the leader in spam filter software, and the easiest way to check and manage your e-mails before you download them. MailWasher is free to use and won’t ever expire. It works with Outlook, Outlook Express, Incredimail, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, GMail, Hotmail and every other email program. Use this powerful spam blocker software to effectively stop email spam. Discover the safe way to stop unwanted e-mails before they get to your computer.

3. Firewall: PC Tools Firewall Plus is a powerful free personal firewall for Windows® that protects your computer by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network. By monitoring applications that connect to the network Firewall Plus can stop Trojans, backdoors, keyloggers and other malware from damaging your computer and stealing your private information.

4. Backup Solution: FBackup is a free backup software for both personal and commercial use. It protects your important data by backing it up automatically to any USB/Firewire device, local or network location. The backed up data can be either compressed (using standard zip compression) or an exact copy of the original files.

We have made it easy for you to download all of this software at one convenient location. Just point your browser to www.ontimecomputing.com/freestuff and enjoy!

Are You a Regional or a Global Business?

Posted Jul 6, 2009. Leave a comment?

It’s a simple question, but amazingly, a large percentage of business owners only think and operate on a strictly local or regional level. Often times they view expanding their business as simply running an ad in the “next towns’” newspaper and hoping for the best. In some regions like the Texas panhandle the “next town over” can be quite a long distance for someone to travel to get to their store, so advertising in other towns has a diminishing return the further away the town. The truly surprising thing is that many of the businesses with this type of thinking have web sites that either they did, or a buddy was able to build one with a web development tool. This is a good step in the right direction but is still regional thinking just like running an ad in the local newspaper. To think on a truly global scale they need to take the next step and not just offer a web site that is little more than a sales brochure, but actually have a ecommerce web store where anyone can purchase their products or services from anywhere in the world. This simple thing can catapult your potential customer base from being only the closest two or three towns of maybe 100,000, to literally hundreds of millions of potential customers worldwide. Real online web stores can get quite complicated when all the different aspects such as secure payment processing, database management, order processing, and many other details are addressed. This is why many businesses stop with a simple brochure style web site, but web site generator tools just cannot handle all the details. Here at On Time Technology Solutions we took care of all the complicated details and are now proud to offer a full featured ecommerce solution for virtually any type of business. It features a complete web store with full featured shopping cart, order processing, product browsing, and many other items. A complete administration program is also included to allow you to manage your own web stores products, pricing, appearance, order processing, shipping, and statistics to help you manage your business.
It has been estimated that by 2008 50% of U.S. population will shop on-line. In 2000 ecommerce sales were reported to be 27 billion dollars and in 2008 had grown to 134 billion dollars. That is almost a 400% growth in just eight years. Online retail sales accounted for 10 percent of total U.S. retail sales in 2008.
A professionally built web site and integrated web store can be about the same price as a few news paper ads and provides not just a global market presence but a permanent advertisement that is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Visit www.ProVentory.Com and see what the web development professionals at On Time Technology Solutions can do to help your business expand and become truly global.