Everything About eMarketing

Clayton Industries International WebSite

2011-05-14T12:14:00.005-04:00

After several months, we have finally launched Clayton Industries new WebSite. Thanx to Carol Maisto, Designer, its a Beauty. Check it out!

WebSite Beacon Launches Another One!

2011-01-26T16:18:00.002-05:00

Well, we released another one at WebSite Beacon. This time, its another hot Dance Club, and this one is in Hartford, CT. Check it out at: www.clubchez.com. If if you are local, sign up for the mailing list!

WebSite Beacon Believes in Community Support

2011-01-11T17:18:00.010-05:00

Our hard work has paid off. Thanks to the support of our extensive client base, we have been fortunate to grow our business and have enjoyed many successes. We believe in the practice of "giving back to the community." One effort that we feel is an issue in this country is health awareness. Therefore, WebSite Beacon has donated its time and facilities to a well-known New Jersey-based non-profit organization that supports victims H.I.V. and their famlies—Buddies of New Jersey.

This organization has been integral in the improvement in the health and "quality of life" to so many individuals and families in New Jersey.

For this, we commend them.

We feel that an organization which is solely based in the improvement of society and the perpetuation of good health among its members deserves our support. So, when we heard that they were launching a new HIV Awareness initiative—"Knowing Is Key"—we volunteered our services. WebSite Beacon has designed and is hosting this initiatives' Website at www.knowingiskey.org.

Please stop by the WebSite and show your support. And please support their effort by getting tested and urging your friends and loved ones to get tested.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

2010-04-03T00:43:00.011-04:00

Happy Spring Website Beacon fans!

For the past few months, we've been sharing tips and hints with you on how to give your company website the edge it needs in the fast-paced world of eCommerce. Now, it's time for us to walk this walk we've been talking so much about. For our April blog, we will be walking you through one of the websites we developed for a client, and show you how we tried to apply lessons of good web design in its creation.

The website we will be looking at is for a business called BrowZone in New Jersey. Its main focus is, you guessed it, eyebrow treatments. They also provide other facial services, including makeup application and eyelash extensions. Additionally, it offers a line of makeup available through an eCommerce catalog.

For this website, we first had to make sure we were creating an image that attracted Brow Zone's main demographic. Unsurprisingly, the majority of their customers are women looking to spruce up their face, often for special events. With this in mind, we set out to create a theme that would suggest elegance and polished beauty. The main color theme of this website was pink and pastel. The soft, feminine colors would attract woman looking to up their image without appearing like a clown. If you look at the framing, you'll notice that the site is laid out with distinct boundaries on a lighter background. This gives the site a clean, elegant appearance.

Focusing just on the front page, you can see the various elements used to give the website an attractive appearance. We incorporated two quotes onto the main frame, one from the owner and the other from a celebrity client. The first one gives the viewer a more personal feeling. Brian B. is speaking to the visitor, giving a bit of his philosophy in a short statement. This is more personalized and warming than just having the phrase as "company policy" or floating around on the page. The second quotation will draw in visitors. An important lady with a high position in a women's television station is pleased with the results of something having to do with her appearance. Because she is more likely to be discerning about what looks good, it is more likely that BrowZone does an exceptional job and will take good care of its clients.

Let's take a look at the navigation now. The angles on the buttons are sharp, again enhance that clean cut impression. Navigating through the pages shows that the front introduction frame has been removed to keep the rest of the site, filled with text and images, from looking too busy. While we separated the main sections of the website, we kept the important information (company name, address, etc.) on each page, placed out of the way but easy to reference.

As with any good company website, we wanted the customer to be sure of quality results and honest service. One of the main ways we did this was by providing a large array of photos as evidence. This allows potential clients to see the proof of BrowZone's work, and will make them feel more comfortable than if they were just expected to read the website and believe everything that was said. Testimonials show that there are customers who were so pleased with the services that they were willing to attach there name to something seen by people all over the internet. Additionally, there is a large amount of transparency on the site. Gallery shots show Brian B. at work, there is a store to buy the same products used in the salon, and the links page shows more about who they are through the organizations they donate to and affiliate themselves with.

Overall, we set out to create an elegant, attractive website to women who hope to look and feel better. Through the use of various aesthetic and structural elements, we sought to convey the impression that this is a salon that will cater to your beauty.

What do you think? How effective were these techniques? Have you tried any of them in your websites? Leave a note in our comments and let us know.

Until next time, enjoy the weather and happy designing!

Trimmings and Trappings: Creative design for your Website

2010-01-30T11:14:00.005-05:00

Welcome back and Happy New Year! The WebSite Beacon blog is back from holiday break and we're ready to return to discussing and spreading the word on website development! This month, we will be sharing some helpful tips and guidelines about the structural and aesthetic site design.

Now that we've shown you how to fill your business website with rich, meaningful content, it's time to learn about the beauty of presentation. There are many websites out there that have much to offer, but you wouldn't know it because you aren't able to navigate through it without being distracted or bombarded with popups and dancing images. By following some simple guidelines and tips that we've found useful, you can ensure that your website will hook viewers and entice them to look deeper into what you have to offer.

1. KEEP THINGS CLEAN! I absolutely love the way that Website Helpers worded this. "Avoid sleazy elements." This is most definitely true. Dumping graphics, moving icons, blink text, and other "attention grabbers" often end up distracting visitors and giving the wrong impression. Whereas you might think that flashing red bold text will direct potential customers to an important point, it may instead make them think your site, and therefore your company, is just a gimmick or maybe even a scam. Additionally, features such as pop-up windows and other in-your-face elements greatly detract from the sense of professionalism your website is trying to convey.

2. Keep things interesting. Conversely, there is such a thing as going too conservative with your site design. Remember that the website must first attract a prospective customer before they will be willing to consider using your company. Avoid monochrome or flat color schemes and generic text that will make the website look more like a placeholder or filler site (one of those "This domain has been purchased, please try again." type places).

3. Keep design elements relevant. Similar to the above, it is important to ensure that your website doesn't just appear to be a cookie-cutter page. One way to avoid this problem is to make sure that all of your images, graphics, color schemes, etc. fit in with your brand identity. Using stock images and clip art is generally a no-no, as they are often irrelevant to your business and plan. For example, a random picture of a boy and his dog, while adorable, does little for a bank's website unless the entire point of the page is to say how family-oriented the bank is (and even then, you should really decide if it fits or if you're just looking for a filler image). Remember that there is such thing as effective use of white space, and often times it's better to let the site look a little less full and containing only relevant links, texts, and images, then to try and overload your visitors with pictures of smiling happy people.

4. Design with your audience in mind. Just because a website is designed using the basics that I shared with you in my first post (effective fonts, use of white space, etc.), it is important to remember that you are making this website for a variety of people. Just because you might like something for your personal website doesn't mean that it is useful or appropriate for your audience or even for a business site in general. Going along with matters of accessibility, a website should be designed to give the users the easiest and best experience while visiting your site. In order to do this, Design 21 suggests looking into the demographics you hope to serve. A little research into the typical professions, life situations, needs, and limitations of the people you hope to attract can go a long way to ensuring that your site is accessible and appreciated by your audience.

Using these tips, as well as the many that have been shared in the past few months, we hope that you will be able to create a website for your company that will exceed even your own expectations. As always, please leave comments and vote in our new poll. We encourage you to contact us with questions, concerns, and possible topics for future blog entries. On behalf of WebSite Beacon, thank you for your participation in helping shape this blog and have a great year!

Sources:
http://websitetips.com/
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

WebSite Beacon's www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com Makes the NBC News in Los Angeles!

2009-11-08T11:07:00.004-05:00

One of our latest WebSites, www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com made the NBC News in LA last week. Check it out at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/around-town/events/I_Want_That__Los_Angeles.html (time stamp 2:50)

Creating Effective Web Content aka Keeping the Meat of Your Website Delicious and Nutritious

2009-10-29T13:45:00.016-04:00

Happy November, WebSite Beacon friends! As the winter arrives, the world of eCommerce becomes even more prevalent than it already is. With the holiday season comes the holiday shopping season, and with that comes increased traffic to online stores and catalogs. The BBC reported that in 2007, online sales increased by over 50% from 2006 during the October to December shopping season, leading to a whopping £46.6bn (46.6 billion British pounds, or 7.6 billion dollars U.S.) in electronic sales alone. Even with the recent downswing in the economy, internet sales still make up a major part of the revenue earned during this time of year.

With these figures, it becomes clear that having a strong corporate website is not only good advertising for your business, but can be a very lucrative endeavor. We took a poll this past month regarding our article on designing the best possible website. We asked you what you felt was the most important aspect of a site, and we found that both content and design tied for the top spot. As such, I'll be writing this month's article on web content, and the next on basic design strategies.

Last month, we gave you some tips regarding a website's overall structure. This time around, we want to focus in on what we have found to be important factors when actually writing the content of your site. Here are some suggestions that we have discovered which lend to insightful, informative, and interesting web content.

1. Research your topic, and know what you're writing about. It goes without saying that it is important to actually be knowledgeable about what you're supposed to write, especially for a business site. Not only will it make the site more impressive, but correctly representing information to your customers can help you stay out of trouble. If writing an informational page, make sure to check your facts and keep your information up to date. When advertising or creating an online catalog, make sure your pictures have the correct captions and all product information is straightforward and accurate.

2. Keep things organized and readable. When writing any webpage, the content within should be readable. What this means is that your language should be concise and understandable, though not so bland and academic that it seems robotic or uninviting to the customer. Information should be clearly and consistently presented, and not scattered. As with website structure, the information in your pages should be easily accessible, and each page should have as much information as you need to get your point across without appearing verbose or desperate. The Keynote NetMechanic site suggests using an outline to organize your writing, which will help keep you on topic while drafting your pages.

3. Make SEO work for you. When writing for a website, it is important to think not just of your current customers but of potential clientele. As is described in the WebSite Beacon company website, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the use of key words and phrases throughout your site to help it appear higher up in search engine databases and lists. To take advantage of SEO, make sure your titles and headings are key-word rich and accurately explain the information inside, so that when customers click on the link, they aren't unpleasantly surprised by what they see. Remember, excessive use of irrelevant, random, or inappropriate keywords in your site is called Black Hat SEO and is highly unethical. Now, a caveat. While SEO is important, it's just as necessary to make sure you don't overuse it. Many of our sources make a point of saying that more is not always better. Include as many keywords as you can, but only put them in if they can logically fit into the flow of your page.

4. Speak to your customers. Even though this one may seem like a no-brainer, it's much easier to gloss over than you may think. In an effort to appear professional and knowledgeable, companies will sometimes overuse corporate jargon, large vocabulary, and esoteric references to sound like they know what they're talking about. While this may seem impressive to a casual looker, people trying to actually discern information are going to be so confused with your "demiurgic and propitious oeuvre"* that they'll probably just navigate away to a page that doesn't require a thesaurus. Even though you should avoid sloppy writing and unprofessional slang terms, there's no reason not to show that you are talking to your audience, not just at them. Letting customers know that there is a person behind the page will put the reader at ease and can give them a better feeling about the company.

5. EDIT!! I can not stress this enough. Once you've written your page, it is absolutely vital to revise your work. Look for spelling and grammar mistakes, using both spellcheckers and just reading through. And don't just search for grammatical errors. Act as if you are a customer and make sure that when you read "the company's" writing, it comes across as informative and attention-grabbing. Odds are, if you aren't interested after reading it, they won't be either. Reread the entire page multiple times and don't be afraid to walk away and come back to it later with a fresh eye or, even better, ask a coworker to read it over for you. It is never a bad idea to have someone who hasn't already spent hours on the job look at it. And remember, even after the site is published and up, it is never too late to go back and fix an error to clarify something small. To keep clear of confusion, try to avoid changing large parts of the site (unless you've announced updates to your customer base), but keep rereading your writing, because sometimes small things can slip by, even after the third readthrough.

That's all we have for this month. Thank you for reading, and make sure to comment. And keep your eye out for new polls and features, such as the monthly employee highlight. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7193714.stm
http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no8.htm
http://www.wellwrittenwords.com/good-web-content-the-definitive-guide/
http://websearch.about.com/od/keywordsandphrases/a/goodcontent.htm

*"demiurgic and propitious oeuvre" is complicated-speak for "innovative and profitable work"

Come for the Design, Stay for the Info

2009-09-20T14:34:00.011-04:00

When designing your company's website, one of the first questions that comes to mind is "How do I keep visitors coming back for more?" If you do a little research, it quickly becomes clear that when it comes to designing an informative and useful website, content is the most important factor. Every "How to" site that we visited made a point of saying that no matter how attractive your site is, it's the content that keeps your customers interested. It is true, however, that in order for visitors to actually care enough about your site to read the information you are providing, it's important to have a "hook," something graphically, aesthetically, or rhetorically pleasing that will move their cursors away from the Back button and onto the scroll bar. But how do you achieve that with your site? How do you attract prospective clients and keep them interested in what you have to offer? This month's blog feature will provide some suggestions for bringing visitors to your site and keeping them there.

1. A good website is clean. When creating your site, we have found that it is very important to have an organized, clear layout to your page. This in and of itself is a two-fold process.

First, the design of the page should be neat. Everyone has a different opinion of what looks good, so tailor it to your company's needs and tastes. However, it is important to make sure you follow basic tips, such as effectively using white space, keeping your layout consistent, and not cluttering your page with banners and images that detract from the content.

Secondly, the information that you present should be properly written and displayed. It is a fact that something well-written with proper grammar, spelling, etc. will be taken more seriously than an article riddled with errors and inconsistencies. Additionally, be careful with text colors and fonts. There are a variety of choices in both regards, so mix it up, just make sure you don't go overboard or choose text types that will cause your business to not be taken seriously. You can decide which fonts best suit your purposes by doing a simple Google search for "What different fonts convey" and looking at what some marketing blogs say about different types of text. For example, when using smaller texts (12 points and below), a sans-serif font is generally easier to read.

2. A good website is intuitive and easily navigable. Even if your home page is impressive from a design standpoint, it's very hard to have all the necessary information up front. The vast majority of company websites have multiple pages, so it's important that your customers can navigate through them. Again, we don't want to tell you what design layout your buttons and links should have, as there are many styles to choose from. Just make sure that no matter what you choose, it makes for easy navigation through your site. One source suggests designing your buttons so that you can navigate to any page on the site within three clicks, except for the main pages, which should be directly accessible from anywhere on the site.

3. A good website is noticeable. In order to actually get business via the web, a website should be visible on the internet, to the degree that you need in order to be seen by your potential customers. There are many ways to do this, including advertising, blogging, database subscriptions, and more. Search Engine Guide has an article (link at the bottom of the page) that lists a number of SEO resources, some of them free!

4. A good website is accessible. Web accessibility refers to making a site in a way that anybody can get around it, regardless of ability or disability. This can also branch out into making sure a website is accessible from every major OS and computer type. While not every website needs a text-to-speech converter or plain-text version (though neither of those are bad ideas!), it is good to keep your audience in mind. For example, if your company supplies medical equipment for people with sensory impairments, that text-to-speech converter might be rather handy. Or, if your main demographic is a more artistic crowd, you probably want to make sure your website is completely Mac compatible. Again, the features of your site are up to you, but it's never a bad idea to keep these things in mind.

As was mentioned above, it is important to remember that no matter how attractive a site looks, informative, accessible content is still what visitors are ultimately looking for. Even the best designed, flashiest website will fail to bring in business if there is no information of substance behind the impressive layout. Only after you have planned out a useful website with significant, relevant information should you focus on its design.

What do you think? What brings you to a website and keeps you there? Please take a second to vote in this month's poll, and don't hesitate to leave your comments below. Thanks for reading!

Sources:
http://www.pallasweb.com/fonts.html
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/navigation.html
http://www.searchengineguide.com/david-wallace/increase-the-vi.php
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility

Introducing WebSite Beacon

2009-07-17T09:13:00.005-04:00

An Official Launch into the Future of Internet Technologies

Welcome Colleagues, Friends, and Guests to WebSite Beacon's Everything About eMarketing blog. This venue is an open forum for discussing anything and everything regarding the eMarketing industry. Share your views on Web Site Design, Hosting, Online Marketing, Functionality, Coding Languages, or anything else pertaining to this broad area of commerce. Over the next several months, we will discuss a wide variety of topics related to eMarketing. Ask questions about these topics and discuss answers with other companies, designers, and users. Whether you are an expert Designer/Coder or a novice assigned to setting up a website, there will be a great deal of information for you to browse. Be sure to look out for our links to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and several other social networks all currently in development and ready to launch in the days ahead.

Thank you for stopping by and please visit often. Don't forget to bookmark us.