While creating a logo if it’s for your site allows for expanding your creativity, many times you’ll feel even more constricted than other aspects of your site’s design. The reason is that it can be difficult to completely come up with a design out of thin air that completely grasps what your site is about. If you have a client that has already given you ideas then you have nothing to worry about. If not, then remember these safe tips for creating an effective and sound design.

- Simplicity makes the concept of your design easier to translate for your visitors. While having an amazing logo is great, if people aren’t translating what it means then you have a useless image taking up space.

- Keep the colors to minimum. While seeing a rainbow after it rains is nice, that doesn’t mean you want every colors of said rainbow showing up in your logo.

- Logos are about taking the concept of site, or business and creating an image that will last with people. So, be sure that a connection between what your site is about and the logo is made.

It’s funny and eye opening to hear some people talk about images, specifically image types. The two major image types you’ll be using online is GIFs and JPEGs, with PNGs being used slightly. It’s vital that you understand the differences in these image types, and knowing their strengths along with their weaknesses.

A good rule to remember is that if it’s an “animation” you want to use a GIF, if it’s a picture use a JPEG. These are very general and have a couple of meanings. If you’re creating an object of your own and creating things like buttons, horizontal spacers then you’ll want to save an image as a GIF. Also, if you’re creating an image that animates and moves you’ll want to use a GIF as well.

When dealing with JPEGs, you’ll want to remember your ‘picture’ rule. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be a photograph, but if you’re dealing with a screenshot or are dealing with something of a picture like quality then JPEG should be your choice. JPEG deals with millions of colors and stores information based on color changes. This means that when dealing with a larger image with larger amounts of shade JPEG is your choice.

Of course there are always hybrid type images that could go either way. Here use the fundamental rules to your best judgement. If there’s any kind of moving animation at all then go gif. If your image is highly color intensive and has a large amount of shade then go JPEG.

“Walk a mile in a man’s shoes” should be the saying that should be continually running in your head. When you’re making a site; if you’re making it for money is never about you. Because you like the design, doesn’t mean that others will and they’re what your website should be all about. Trying to understand the everyday internet browser is a daunting task that even the most respected experts still struggle with.

Here are a couple of tips to help you keep the user in mind when creating your website:

- Have distinct, large if possible visual cues on your site. When people first load up your site, you want to make sure they know what it is within the first three seconds. So be sure and have a nice header image, with the title of your site. Be sure there is a distinct site description, and the benefits of your site.

- Use people you know to test your site. Friends, family, should all be used as test subjects when creating a site. You can also use complete strangers if you’re out going enough. But anyway you do it, testing a site’s functionality is very important.

- Keep your site as small as possible, while still providing plenty of useful information for the internet user. Balance is the key.

- Use some of these visual cues for your site navigation:
meta description, meta keywords
advanced site search engine
Site map
Alphabetized Index

So, keep these tips in your head when creating your website. Hopefully if you follow them you’ll see some increased page views.

When it comes to browsing around the internet, it’s all about speed. When someone sits down at their computer, all they are thinking about most of the time is finding what they want, as fast as they possibly can. So when one of these internet surfers comes by your site, you want to make sure that it loads promptly. Once it loads you want to make sure that the site can quickly be navigated around.

In terms of loading speed, what you will want to pay attention to most is your images. The first things you’ll need to decide upon is just how many images your site will require. Although images make a site prettier, you really want the last amount as possible. The less images, the faster your site loads; hence the more people are apt to browse through. Once you’ve decided on how many images you want for your site, then you must make sure that the images are optimized.

Image optimization is a pretty easy process. Basically you’re deciding on the balance between ‘quality & size’. A good general rule is to try to keep most of your images below 30 kb, although this range could increase depending on site content. Another good way to save on size is to use thumbnails. Where you’ll have smaller images, that if clicked on will open up the full image in its own screen.

As for simplicity, the best way to make sure people stay at your site is making it easy to navigate. Don’t use fonts that might be artistic but are hard on the eyes. Don’t use hidden menus, or alot of rollover menus, but if you can make them simple enough then they should be ok.  The cliche’ but always true simple applies to sites like any other business, “keep it simple, stupid”.

‘Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

- Tim Berners-Lee

Trying to define “Web 2.0″ can be a lofty task. Mostly, because depending on the person you ask, you’re going to get a different definition. Heck, even I don’t have a complete definition to provide.

The reason that Web 2.0 is hard to pin down, is that there are so many things that encompass its’ spirit. The idea behind Web 2.0 is that the internet is becoming more of a platform for the public to shape the information provided on the World Wide Web (WWW). The best examples of Web 2.0 are blogs, wiki pages, social networks, and web-based communities.

When your tackling your next web based project, keep the idea of Web 2.0 in your mind. If you want people to come to your site, and stay, what better way then get them involved in what your site is all about.

If you create a site based around the Floral Business, add a forum, or a blog where people add comments to your projects.

The internet is becoming more about empowering the importance of an individual. “In real life” a person’s opinion is very hard to be voiced, and heard by a group of people. But if you’re able to provide a means for them to have a voice, then needless to say they’ll be returning. Hopefully with a few more friends as well.

Pretty much everything in the web design business is a series of balances. You have to find a balance between creativity and business. You have to find a balance between site management, and site design. Another area where balance is a key issue, is the wide world of imaging.

When building your site, one of the top priorities is making it appealing for return visits. Images is the most important component of making your site stand out. The problem with images, is while you’re going for the best quality you have to keep an eye on file size. The reason being is that you want your site to be able to load as fast as possible. People are probably at their least patient when they are browsing the internet. So if your site isn’t loading at a clip of 4-5 seconds (atleast) there is a good possibility they are moving on.

There are couple tricks to keep those file sizes down while keeping the overall image quality up. The first is to learn the different image formats that are compatible with internet browsers. The three most common, and ones that you should be using are JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs.

The first format is the JPEG image, which is the most common format when dealing with photos. JPEGs tend to be difficult to work with when you’re needing to resize, as your ratio of height x width needs to stay the same for your picture to look right. Here is a good site if you’re looking to lower your JPEG image size.

GIFs are used more when dealing with images you have created yourself. So if you’re making a logo from scratch, and it’s mostly been created in Illustrator or other drawing applications, you’ll want to use the GIF format. Something else when using GIFs is that unlike JPEG files, they can have transparency and also be animated.

PNG files encompass everything that is great about both formats. PNGs can be used for photos, and also can have transparency. They conserve quality well when they are decreased in size. A couple of problems with PNGs is that they tend to be very large and you will have to make them smaller to get your file size right. Also there are compatibility issues with older versions of Internet Explorer, which won’t read transparency of PNG files.

Another useful tip, is when you are putting your images on your web page, be sure to include heigh and width tags. This will help the loading times of your pages, as if the browser knows the height and width will know where the image should be placed.

When using images, learn when to be image heavy and when to go lighter. It’s a good idea to have the least amount of images on your page as needed to make it stand out.

Who would think that something as small as a word could have so much effect on the World Wide Web. Having a good layout, and good content are great ways to keep people coming to your site. But it’s the magic of the “keyword” that will help you bring them there in the first place.

Very few people are going to think of your exact URL and type it in to their search bars. In fact I’d go so far as to say less than 1% of your traffic will be from exact URL usage. This is where the use of keywords comes into play. Pretty much everyone these days uses a search engine to navigate through the internet to find their destination. Of course you want your site to be up at the top of these lists, and keywords are the way to do it.

Search engines rank sites by the keywords that users type in, compared with the relevancy of the keywords of the site. So if someone types in “shoes, stinky, store” and you just happen to have keywords relating to your Stinky Shoe Store, then you’ll probably be at the top of the list. The Stinky Shoe Store was intended to make you chuckle, but also brings up another important factor in the use of keywords. It is important that you try and be as original as possible. If you’re using the same keywords as everyone else in your business venture, than rank will be lower on the search engine list. On the flip side though, if you’re using keywords that no one in their right mind would type in than you’re going to see lower traffic (like Stinky Shoe Store). So of course finding the middle ground between originality and common sense is the name of the game, and like anything else dealing with web design it isn’t going to be easy.

Google has released a tool that you might find useful in your keyword search. The site is Google AdWords and can be found here

There is an old saying, “A craftsman is only as good as his tools”. This saying translates over for designers as well, finding the right software for your design needs is a very important step towards being successful.

Finding the right software isn’t about going out and buying the most expensive program on the market, it’s about forging your decision around the needs of the project you’re working on. For example, if you are creating a site that has very low image use, and is mainly text a simple text editor or HTML editor would suffice.

Next, it is important not to invest into a product too early. Many programs that are out right now provide customers with trial periods, so you can shop around for different products without investing thousands into it. The reason for this is so you can find software you are comfortable with and what you find easiest to use. To give another example, I use Photoshop when it comes to image manipulation, but when it comes to illustration I prefer to use Corel Draw. It’s these different styles that make it important to be totally confident in the software you are using.

Here are a few companies to look around at when shopping for software:

Adobe
Corel
Laughing Bird

So your site is finished, now take a deep breath and a drink of water. I wish I could say that the hard part is over, but this is just the beginning. The next few steps that you should take is getting your website out there.

The first step in publishing your site is deciding on a domain name. Sometimes your domain won’t be able to exactly reflect www.your-site-name.com. The reason for this is someone may have already obtained the domain. Now dont panic, there are some ways around this problem. The first solution is to buy the domain from the person, this option is mostly reserved for larger companies with larger budgets. A more cost-saving solution would be to change the suffix of the domain. So instead of calling your site www.your-site-name.com, you would call it www.your-site-name.org, or www.your-site-name.net.

So you’ve decided on the official URL, now it’s time to find somewhere to host the site. Deciding on a web hosting service is like trying to buy a car (minus the polyester suits). One of the things to looks out for is “How much space, for how much money?”. Finding the best deal isn’t necessarily about what host costs the less, because they might not be providing enough space and features. The next thing to do would be to find customer reviews of the host, asking questions like “Are their servers stable?” or “How is their customer service”.

Alright, your site is finally on the internet. If someone types in your site’s url, it will appear on their browser. The final step is making sure that more people are viewing your page. Advertising is the obvious solution to the problem, and there are a few creative ways to get started. The first step is to make sure your site’s keywords are common and will help generate views on a search engine. If you can move up in page ranking at places like Google, and Yahoo then alot of times that’s all the “advertising” you’ll need. Another tactic you might take is to actually advertise on other sites. This solution can be tricky in that you’re paying for it, and you’re trying to find a site that generates enough traffic for your ad to be seen.

I know that all of these steps seem like a monstrous endeavor, but through dedication people will be flocking to your site.

Creating a website can be a daunting task to undertake. Trying to think of an original idea can be frustrating enough, and if you’re unsure of the tools and language that you need to use it just adds fuel to the fire.

So once you have you’re idea, it’s time to start building. The more I build sites, the more I find that using CSS style sheets is probably the most universally sound style to use. The options are nearly limitless with what you can do. The greatest thing about CSS is it has the “easy to learn, difficult to master” feel behind it.

How CSS works is it acts as a reference point for your web page. You will undoubtedly be using all kinds of different properties for different parts of your website. How the CSS style sheet helps you is by being able to categorize the different sections, and applying the specific properties you want.

Here are a couple of places to get you started on learning how to code CSS-
http://www.w3schools.com
http://www.csstutorial.net/