Websites play a very important role in successfully running a business. The websites have now become the display picture for companies. Looking smart in the eyes of customers is what a company wants from its web existence. Whether the company is small or the business is crossing geographical boundaries, the importance of having an appealing website carries the same weight.

The Cost Factor

A small company can decide to choose a freelance web designer to design its website. It can save its budget because the requirements are very low, the activities are limited. The preference of the freelance designer may be because of the lower cost incurred and the lower rates of the web designer.

The Quality Factor

Can a company that is very conscious about its image among its customers and that knows the value of the loyal customers as its asset, compromise over quality?

The answer is obviously ‘NO’. Customers are the real profit of any company. So why to step back at the point of quality of your website?

A web designing firm offers its services though at rates higher than a freelance web designer but the standard of the website is much better. The web designing company provides all the necessary support in developing the design for your company website. In most of the cases the companies don’t know what they want in their web presence. Web designing firm gives you solution to all of your problems.  You have to tell them your mind and they will give you with the options. Go with the best one that you think will brighten your company’s picture. The web designing firm will never let you down with your expectations.

Professional Approach for more revenues:

Web designing firms are more professional in performing their tasks. You don’t have to worry about any change in design and to pay someone else for the said purpose because web designing firm takes the responsibility of all the matters involved in web designing.

Online marketing through websites needs a serious approach for the website design because you are doing your business through your website.  If it would appeal your clients then you can think of high revenues. This is possible only if you hire the services of a more professional web design firm. A freelance designer can’t do the best thing as the team of more expert and more experienced members of a web design firm.  You have to beat your competitors, you want to have a different look for your website, you want best color schemes of your site, and you want your website to be the most searched site over the search engines. All these demands are met only by getting the services of a web designing firm.

Avoiding risk in promotion strategy:

Lastly developing your company website is part of your online promotion strategy. Can you afford to put your strategy at risk by handling all the matters in the hand of a single individual instead of a whole company comprising of specialists in areas of designing and marketing. Of course not! Then decide quickly. The decision can make or break the image of your company. Be critical in your thinking.

Here’s a few pointers and best practice guidelines to help you along the way. This article is designed to help with the design and coding of the email and not the content itself. You’ll have to wait for that one along with an article on the best ways to actually send and manage email marketing campaigns.

Not too wide

These days we’re designing websites for 1024×768 giving us around 960 pixels to play with. Unfortunately, email is typically displayed in a much smaller space (depends on the email client and the setup of the individual user) so keep to less than 600 pixels wide. Somewhere between 500 and 600 pixels should be fine.

Use tables for layout

This is probably the most important thing to consider when designing HTML email. We have to go ‘old skool’ when it comes to HTML email with the use of tables to layout the content. CSS based layouts remain very much unsupported with email clients.

You’ll also need to say hello to your old friend ‘spacer.gif’ to help force table cells to work the way you want. Don’t forget to set the border, cellpadding, and cellspacing values for all tables.

Include the DOCTYPE and validate the HTML

Make sure you use valid HTML or XHTML and include the DOCTYPE definition and character encoding tag. This is best practise for any HTML document which should be no different for HTML email.

Always make sure that you test the HTML and CSS using one of the numerous validators on the Internet.

Don’t use an external CSS stylesheet

External CSS files are normally stripped out by email clients so make sure you include the CSS in the email body. External stylesheets will also require downloading which will result in email display issues until the file is downloaded.

Put the CSS styles within the BODY tag and use inline styles

Typically, content within the HEAD of the document is removed by many webmail clients. To avoid this, place the CSS code just below the opening BODY tag. Where possible, use inline CSS styles on paragraphs, table cells, headings etc. to ensure the content is formatted correctly. Otherwise, you’re relying on the email package to render the CSS correctly and not overwrite any defined styles.

No JavaScript or Flash

The use of JavaScript will almost certainly result in the email being identified as spam and if not, it’s likely that the JavaScript code will be blocked. Flash is generally not supported in the majority of email clients so it will be rendered useless. Animated GIFs are OK, but shouldn’t be relied upon since Outlook 2007 only shows the first frame of the image.

Forget about background images

Many email clients don’t support the use of background images. Of course, feel free to use them but don’t rely on their display. Make sure the email still displays well without them.

Use ‘live’ selectable text where possible

Using text rather than images (with text on) increases the chances of the email being delivered, reduces download times, and ensures users can read the email without relying on the display of images.

If the email contains just images and no text, many spam filters will block the email. Users that have images turned off will see nothing. In this case, you may as well just send a blank page.

Don’t attach your images to the email

This may sound obvious but it happens all too often. Make sure all images are hosted on your web server and linked to rather than physically attached to the email. This reduces the file size and subsequent download times of the email.

Remember the ALT text

If the user has images turned off or they are working offline they will not see any images. Instead, they will be able to read the image ALT text. Therefore, make sure to use this text wisely. For accessibility purposes it should contain a description of the image contents but at the same time try to encourage your users to download the images to view the full email.

Test, test, test

The best way to test your email template is to create email accounts for the major emails clients and webmail services. We test our HTML emails using Outlook 2003 and 2007, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Google Mail, and Hotmail.

Many online email sending tools provide automated display testing of your email but I still recommend testing the email yourself on the big players.

It’s unlikely that your email will look perfect in all of the above but as long as the HTML degrades well you’ll be fine. Unfortunately, you’ll be banging your head against a wall if you want to be pixel perfect.

Billboard Magazine by Nelson Balaban

In this post we present a couple of extremely useful and valuable tools and resourcesthat we found over the last months. Please make sure to follow us on Twitter for a stream of useful resources, tools and design-related articles.

Getting Inspired: Interesting Redesign Projects

Boarding Pass / Fail
A boarding pass redesign project by Tyler Thompson, the Creative Director at Squarespace. How would you design a boarding pass? The result is very impressive.

You’re killing me, Zappos
Andrew Wilkinson’s attempt to redesign Zappos.

Dollar ReDe$ign Project
An attempt to rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy. Created by Richard Smith.

Useful Front-End and Back-End Tools

ie-css3.js
CSS3 pseudo selector emulation for Internet Explorer 5-8. ie-css3.js allows Internet Explorer to identify CSS3 pseudo selectors and render any style rules defined with them. Simply include the script in your pages and start using these selectors in your style sheets — they’ll work in IE. An alternative is Offspring.js.

CorMVC
CorMVC is a jQuery-powered Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework that can aide in the development of single-page, web-based applications. CorMVC stands for client-only-required model-view-controller and is designed to be lowest possible entry point to learning about single-page application architecture. It does not presuppose any server-side technologies, or a web server of any kind, and requires no more than a web browser to get up and running.

Typograph
A typographic tool that generates CSS for beautiful web typography, according to traditional scale and vertical rhythm.

Venkman JavaScript Debugger project page
Venkman is the code name for Mozilla’s JavaScript Debugger. Venkman aims to provide a powerful JavaScript debugging environment for Gecko-based browsers namely Firefox 3.x, the Netscape 7.x series of browsers, Netscape 9.x series, Mozilla Seamonkey 1.x and Mozilla Seamonkey 2.x. It does not include Gecko-based browsers such as K-Meleon 1.x, Galeon 2.x and Netscape 8.x. The debugger is available as an add-on package in XPI format. Venkman JavaScript Debugger has been provided as part of the Mozilla install distribution since October 3rd 2001.

JavaScript Frameworks Playground: jsFiddle
jsFiddle is a shell editor that eases writing JavaScript code by creating a custom environment based on popular JS frameworks.

jslib
Mozilla gives a great flexibility and power to Javascript. This popular client side scripting language can be used to create application level logic and services for cross platform application development.
Goal: jslib has a simple goal, “Make life easier for Mozilla Application Development by creating logical, easy to use API’s for general purpose routines that lend themselves to living in library code.”

PHP debug tools
A set of useful PHP debugging tools for debugging script trace, errors and database queries.

The Automatic CSS Inliner Tool
If you’ve ever sent an email campaign, you know that if your CSS is not coded inline, it is likely to get stripped out by email clients, which can make your email design pretty funky looking. Writing CSS inline can be time consuming, and repetitive. MailChimp has a CSS inline conversion tool built right in that will automatically transform all of your local styles into inline styles. Designers have found it so useful, we thought we’d share it with everyone else – even if you don’t have a MailChimp account.

HTML Purifier – Filter your HTML the standards-compliant way!
HTML Purifier is a standards-compliant HTML filter library written in PHP. HTML Purifier will not only remove all malicious code (better known as XSS) with a thoroughly audited, secure yet permissive whitelist, it will also make sure your documents are standards compliant, something only achievable with a comprehensive knowledge of W3C’s specifications. Tired of using BBCode due to the current landscape of deficient or insecure HTML filters? Have a WYSIWYG editor but never been able to use it? Looking for high-quality, standards-compliant, open-source components for that application you’re building? HTML Purifier is for you!

InAppSettingsKit
InAppSettingsKit is an open source solution to to easily add in-app settings to your iPhone apps. It uses a hybrid approach by maintaining the Settings.app pane. So the user has the choice where to change the settings.

Dabr
Dabr is a PHP web interface to the Twitter API for mobile devices.

SproutCore
SproutCore: JavaScript HTML5 Application Framework

Your Bookmarklets, On Steroids
Quix is an extensible bookmarklet, that allows you to easily access all your bookmarks and bookmarklets, across all your browsers, while maintaining them in only one spot. All you have to do is remember the shortcut for the bookmarklet, so, basically, it’s like a command line for your browser.

IxEdit
IxEdit is a JavaScript-based interaction design tool for the web. With IxEdit, designers can practice DOM-scripting without coding to change, add, move, or transform elements dynamically on your web pages. Especially, IxEdit must be useful to try various interactions rapidly in the prototyping phase of your web application.

minibuilder
Flash MiniBuilder is a lightweight IDE created for developing programs written in ActionScript 3.

Real-time HTML Editor
Type HTML in the textarea above, and it will magically appear in the frame below.

Unicode code converter v7.0.1
Type or paste text in any of the green or grey shaded boxes and click on the button Convert button above it. Alternative representations will appear in all the other boxes. You can then cut & paste the results into your document.

Detect Mobile Browser
Open source mobile phone detection script.

Show {if}
A script for a better targeting of site visitors.

typeQuery
typeQuery, change website typography with jQuery.

Gipetto’s wordpress.tmbundle
A WordPress focused TextMate bundle to rule all WordPress Textmate bundles.

Graudit
Graudit is a simple script and signature sets that allows you to find potential security flaws in source code using the GNU utility grep. It’s comparable to other static analysis applications like RATS, SWAAT and flaw-finder while keeping the technical requirements to a minimum and being very flexible.

Wordpress Plugin Maker
This plugin is made for developers or Wordpress users who love Cut and Paste and hate FTP . If you have ever been in a pinch where you wanted to create a quick Wordpress plugin to do something but didn’t have FTP info or weren’t at your terminal you can use this plugin to be a life saver.

Web development and deployment tools
Free online-based IDE for professional web-development.

Create diagrams online Real time collaboration
Cacoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts. Cacoo can be used free of charge.

UKI – Simple UI Kit for complex web apps
Uki is a fast and simple JavaScript user interface toolkit for desktop-like web applications. It comes with a rich view-component library ranging from Slider to List and SplitPane.

snap{css}: an open-source CSS editor for Windows
snap{css} is an extremely light-weight, notepad-like application that allows css designers to easily edit their code in a familiar environment while having quick acccess to helpful features such as our beautify and collapse functions.

jQuery Browser Plugin
A jQuery plugin extending browser detection capabilities.

jsPDF
jsPDF generates PDF documents using pure JavaScript

Grid System Generator
Grid System Generator includes generated grids, tutorials and resources.

User Agent Switcher Firefox Extension
The User Agent Switcher extension adds a menu and a toolbar button to switch the user agent of the browser. It is designed for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and Songbird, and will run on any platform that these browsers support including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Useful Resources For Web Developers

ASCII Table – The Pronunciation Guide
The ASCII Symbols Pronunciation Guide

Five Awesome On-Screen Rulers
They’re not the sexiest programs in the world, but for many designers, on-screen rulers are must-haves. Here are five of the best- including the one I can’t live without. All free.

Using HTML Symbol Entities

Editorial Style Guides
This page provides a list of resources available for the web designer or developer who needs to create an editorial style guide for writing web site copy.

Open standards Web design with CSS, XHTML, Java servlets and Javascript
Code Style answers key questions for Web developers. Which Web fonts are most common? How to use media dependent style sheets? Make more robust, accessible Websites with open standards technology.

20+ Must have documents for Designers and Developers
In this post, you would find a list of over 20 free PDF files covering aspects of Web Development as well as Graphic design. These include cheat sheet for web developers, client questionnaires for Graphic and Web design, helpful checklists as well as some useful resources for designers and developers. All of these are available in PDF format as they are easy to print. I have a number of them hanging around in my work area and find them quite useful. It would be great if you have any helpful documents to share.

45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires
45 checklists to make your design process easier and more organized. Consider using these checklists as a jumping off point for creating your own customized list, based on your own needs.

PowerPoint Search Engine with detailed thumbnail results
SlideFinder: a search engine for slides and presentations.

Web Development for the iPhone: HTML & CSS Support
Safari and Safari for the iPhone support all HTML elements, including deprecated elements and even some proprietary elements that were never part of any W3C specifications. In addtion, Safari supports some HTML5 elements, even though the HTML5 specifications have not been finalized.

GrepDocs.com – all your docs are belong to us – PHP, Perl, CSS, HTML, Java, JavaScript, MySQL, Ruby, Python, and more
GrepDocs: a search engine for programming documentation

Last Click (= a bit of fun)

ASCII Fire Animation with JavaScript
This is when JavaScript is abused: ASCII Fire with JavaScript.

256b.htm (D)HTML Competition
256b.htm Competition: create a website in just 256 bytes

Browser Pong
This is definitely the best use of pop-ups for a long time. If you haven’t seen this, you must see it. It will make your day. Press “P’ for start.

Tags: CSS, Inspiration, Javascript, redesign

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 4:35 am and is filed under Tools.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I’ve always admired the spirit of Britain during World War Two, even if most of my knowledge has been gleaned from TV-sitcoms. As a marketer, I’m particularly interested in the propaganda of the time.

Are any of the WW2 messages relevant today? I thought I’d take a look at the slogans of WW2 and see if they hold any wisdom for the modern online marketer…

Dig for victory

This campaign was all about using home-grown produce instead of shipping in goods from overseas. Use spades, not ships was the battle cry.

I think this holds true for your website. Before you start using outside techniques and expensive online marketing strategies, make sure your website itself is working as hard as possible.

Optimise your pages, use keyword rich content, add a link-enticing blog – work hard on your own site and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Keep calm and carry on

This is one of my favourite posters, even though it was never used. The UK government had them made in case of successful Nazi invasion, to reassure British people, and prevent panic and chaos.

I do think there’s some relevance today. If your SEO campaign isn’t as successful as you’d like then it can be very tempting to throw the whole thing out and start again. Bring in a new agency, end the current campaign and scrap all the previous analytics – but this is a panicked reaction.

Don’t waste all that work, keep calm and carry on – use the existing work as a foundation for your improved campaign. By scrapping it all, you put yourself right back to square one and it’s a waste.

Careless talk costs lives

I meet a lot of small businesses in my line of work and many of them are quite friendly with their competitors. They’re local, they meet at conferences and other events, and they often have a chat about what they’re up to.

Never ever, ever, ever tell your competitors what kind of marketing strategy you’re embarking upon – I am amazed at how many people unthinkingly do.

At SEOptimise, one of the services we offer is competitor analysis, so you can outstrip them and grow your market share – so don’t go sharing that kind of information with them, even casual comments can reveal the bigger picture.

Lend a hand on the land

This slogan was designed to encourage women to sign up to the Women’s Land Army and fill in while the able-bodied men were off at war.

For the modern day marketing effort, I think this shows that everyone has a part to play in your company’s promotional success. Using Twitter, updating a blog, socialising in relevant forums – all these things can take a lot of time.

However, if everyone in the company gets involved and does a little, it can all add up to a really successful campaign.

Myth #1: Link Popularity is all about the numbers. Link building is not about getting the maximum number of inbound links. It is about developing a wide variety of links from many source. Top quality links from authority websites, from a relevant (topic) website or links from social media give the best results.

Myth#2: There is automated software that builds your website’s Link Popularity.Absolutely false. People are always looking for the easy solution… the magic bullet. Link building is hard work. The natural solution is to add a blog to your website and write insightful original postings that others will want to link to.

Myth #3: Use the name of your website in the title of the link. False. You would like the keywords you want your site found for to be used in the link text or anchor text. The keywords that appear in the link is more important than the sheer number of inbound links. You may want to email sites that display your link and request they change the anchor text. Many will accommodate.

Myth #4: Link exchanges will get your website penalized. Although reciprocal links do not provide much authority any more, they still can provide valuable links. Don’t use reciprocal linking as your only source; they still help build link popularity. Remember, you want a diversified approach to link building.

Myth #5: Directories and article marketing are a waste of time. No both work. Choose directories that are relevant to your topic. Submitting articles to article syndication sites can produce good back links. Allow your article to be re-posted onto other websites (as long as the links in the resource box are left intact) and you can pick up a good number of links.

Myth #6: Google will penalize you if you use paid text links. No, the worst case is that Google will not count these links. Use these paid text links as paid advertisements to drive traffic to your website. If you get credit for the link, this is a bonus.

Myth #7: PageRank is a good measure of your website’s back links. False. PageRank information is about 3 months old and it has been at least 3 months since Google already gave you credit for the links. Second, it is affected by the quality of links and even the number of links on a particular page. Third, the PR info is frequently posted wrong by Google and doesn’t match the Link Popularity credit Google is actually giving you. The best advice… don’t obsess over PageRank.

Myth #8: Google shows how many back links your site has. False. Google deliberately reports only a small fraction of the links it detects on your website. Usually only 5-8% of the actual number they have found. Yahoo and MSN report a number much higher and closer to the real number.