Flash

Thinking of incorporating Flash into your site- here’s some issues to consider:

Pro:

Flash is exciting on a site- no doubt about it. It’s eye catching.

A dynamic Flash section can be used to focus a prospect on something you want them to notice.

Flash can be used to include music or video on a page.

Flash avoids other web technology display issues. It displays the same no matter which browser or resolution. This can’t be said for html/css.

Of course, the above assumes that the visitor can see the Flash. The Flash Player is a plug in to the browser not necessarily included. However, the Adobe site does claim that “Adobe® Flash® Player is the world’s most pervasive software platform, reaching 98% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets as well as a wide range of devices. “ (stats as of March 2007)

Con:

On a fully flash site, your visitors cannot use the back button on their browsers unless the Flash designer works this in. It’s also difficult for your visitors to bookmark a particular page.

Site cannot easily be indexed and tracked for SEO unless you provide for this with additional html or embed Flash sections into html content.

Useless Flash intro’s (splash page) that are too long, or take too long to load or don’t have a Skip button can drive people away from your site even before they’ve gotten into it.

Loud pulsing music with no volume or off controls can turn people away.

Visitors should be given alternative content for those who are not running Flash or don’t have the Flash plug in.

Accessibility is another issue.

Screen readers * cannot scan Flash movies. You’ll need to provide alternative content if you are required by law or want to serve the market that uses screen readers.

Bottom Line:

Key question: What is the purpose of the site and how would dynamics of Flash enhance that purpose?

Like anything, Flash is a tool that can be used well or badly. Think through where dynamically changing content would be useful in a business sense or where it would further the objectives of the site.

 

 

* A Screen Reader is the commonly used name for Voice Output Technology. Hardware and software produce synthesized voice output for text displayed on the computer screen, as well as for keystrokes entered on the keyboard.

(Source:http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:Screen+Readers&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title)

Marie Kolanda

HTML Developer/Project Manager/Designer

Central Mass Web Design, Inc.

Gardner, MA

978-632-5300 Ext. 114

Where we care about your business, and it shows

Content is an integral part of your website. It is what keeps people coming back to your site.  Take CNN.com for instance, as news breaks they are updating their website with up to the minute news and always changing the content to their website.  They currently are receiving almost a million hits a day to their site (click here to view statistics about CNN.com). 

One of the main reasons we emphasize content is this reason, if you keep the same content on your site month after month how do you expect to change the way visitors use your site?  Taking a few steps to keep them coming back will not only increase the amount of traffic your website sees, but can help your company increase business.

1. Change your content frequently. This does not have to be an everyday event, but reread a page and add/change content periodically (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly).  For instance read your About Us page; Have you added new employees? Is there any information on there that has changed since the last update?

2. Add a page to your website.  Adding a page will give your readers as well as give search engines a new page to read (yes, even search engines read your site).  Keep your readers coming back for more.  Another way to do this is to add a blog to your website (click here to read our blog entry on blogs).  Real Estate Exchange has taken advantage of this recommendation.  Some of their topics for their blog have been; 6 Things to Remember when Moving, Insurance Policies, and Precocious Killdeer joins the Real Estate Exchange just to name a few.  A blog gives you an easy user interface to add pages and content to your website.

3. Add a Refer A Friend Box. By adding a refer a friend box on your website will allow your visitors to easily send out an email to them from you saying, “Hey, checkout this website, I think it is pretty cool”.

By using these examples to improve your company will give people a reason to come back to your website.  Feel free to give us a call to answer any questions you may have or to help you implement any changes you would like to have happen to your website.

Greg Whitehead
PHP Developer
Toys for Tots Liaison

Directly from Yahoo’s Blog
“We’ve been rolling out some changes to our fresh web data and crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms over the last few days. We expect the update will be completed by the weekend. So, as you know, throughout this process you may see some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages in the index. ”

Do you even know where you rank on yahoo? If you don’t, you should contact your web company and have them run a ranking report for you. You should be able to have such a report run for you on the same day for less than $100. If you don’t know where you rank, then you likely don’t know if this yahoo change is affecting you in a positive or negative way.

If you are affected in a negative way, then you need to make changes to your site to ensure that you can move back up to the top of the results. It will take time, but it will take less time if you are aware of what is happening then if you sit back and watch and don’t make any changes.

Matt Ward
President
Central Mass Web Design

With websites becoming a staple for most businesses, the need to seamlessly marry company designs for both web and print become more and more of a priority. In most cases, it is much easier to go from print to web, than vice versa. Typically, hi-res files created for print can be easily translated to lower resolution files that can be used for web. On the other hand, there can be considerable work involved in preparing web based graphics for use in print. It is best when dealing with a graphic designer, that you specify that you would like all your graphics done in a hi-res vector format, and that all bitmap based files such as those created in Photoshop, are created in at least 300 dpi for photos and 1200dpi for any graphics. If you already have files that have been created for the web, they are typically in web resolution of 72dpi. These files can be changed to a hi-res file format through a digitizing process. It is also possible to convert bitmap based graphics to a vector format for use in print, though there can be considerable costs in doing this. One of the important things to remember is that what might appear clear and sharp on your computer, can be fuzzy and or jagged when printed out.

Additionally, you can not always rely on an inkjet printout as a good representation of what your print quality will look like for various reasons. Inkjets use various processes to give the appearance of “photo quality”. Anti-aliasing, edge smoothing, etc. can give you a print out that appears to be good enough for print. The catch is that most offset and digital print processes today provide very high quality output at very high resolutions. In many cases, a client creates a brochure in MS Publisher or similar program, where they’ve pulled graphics, logos and photos from their website, or the internet in general, and then printed out on your inkjet, and thought, wow, this looks pretty good. The problem comes when they decide they want 5000 copies, and that file has to be setup for commercial printing. Because of the high resolution of the output, every low res photo and graphic is going to be very obvious. Summary: The key to ensuring that both your print and web projects look the best they can be, is by designing everything from the beginning in a hi-res file format.

Finally, one last tidbit. Be absolutely sure that you are provided with a complete set of files of all work done for you by your graphic designer. The files are your property, (though some company’s policies on this may vary), it is important to determine the company policy for file ownership up front when choosing a designer, printer, or web company. Ask for your files in hi-res .pdf format, an .eps vector format for graphics, and a .tif or Photoshop file for photos and other bitmap images. Request that you also be provided with all “live” or “native” files along with any support files such as fonts and links. This will make your job much easier when you are asked for these files in the future to put together an ad, a print piece or to do further work on your website.

Mark Smith
Sales and Marketing Manager

(Mr. Smith has almost 30 years of experience in business management, print and media design and production, along with extensive sales and marketing experience.)

Email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with your audience, and ensure you stay top of mind on a regular basis. Newsletters by email are easy, inexpensive, they promote your expertise on a regular basis and they add to your overall marketing mix by providing you extra face time with your audience. So what’s the best strategy for conducting an email newsletter campaign? Here are a few suggestions that keep your emails out of the deleted folder.

Have a purpose: Promote noteworthy deals, client acquisitions, and most importantly, provide the reader with valuable information and insight into the industry you’re trying to reach. In offering expertise, always educate the reader and do not lecture.

Provide links back to company website: In the actual email, keep your copy to one paragraph and then link them back to your website if they want to read the full article. This keeps the reader interested and drives traffic back to your website where readers can find other valuable information regarding your company.

Make your email forward friendly: Make it easy for readers to forward your email by providing a clear link. Also, creating informational, valuable and sometimes funny content will make readers want to forward to friends and colleagues. This will help to build your email list.

Here are a couple quick “don’ts” to help you avoid an ineffective email newsletter campaign.

Never send your emails on Monday. As we all catch up from the weekend, there’s a very good chance your email will just end up being deleted in favor of more important emails. Do however, try to send your email newsletter on Tuesday, preferably between 10:00am and 2:00pm. Research has shown this is one of the best times for email newsletters to pop up in someone’s Inbox.

Don’t use Outlook to send email newsletters. Bulk emails sent through Outlook can end up in your Spam folder. Use a service such as Constant Contact or another email newsletter provider.

Don’t send your newsletter too often: Sending a weekly email newsletter will surely make you an annoyance very quickly. A monthly email is adequate. You can send them twice monthly if you’re providing timely industry insight.

Follow these simple tips and you’ll be well on your way to having an effective email marketing program that will surely reap results for your firm.