Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Submit Solution has four new Squidoo lenses, all focusing on different aspects of the Internet-marketing company’s services. Web pages on Squidoo are called lenses, I suppose because they give you a view into someone’s mind, life or company.
I’ll give a brief description of all of the new lenses below. Be sure to check them out and rate each of them, if you like.
One lens focuses just on Submit Solution’s Internet-marketing blogs. Each of these blogs has a different focus: search engine optimization, paid search, social media and Web design. You can find it here: Submit Solution – 4 Internet Marketing Blogs.
Another lens gives you more information about Submit Solution’s services, including Web design, SEO, PPC and website content. You’ll find it here: Submit Solution – The Best Internet Marketing Services.
Submit Solution’s website launch is spotlighted on another lens. It includes the news release announcing the updated website’s release in September 2009 and the company’s new features and services. You can find that news release on Submit Solution’s website under “Press.” It’s entitled, “Submit Solution Launches New Web Site with Web and Logo-Design Services.” The lens can be found here: Submit Solution Online-Marketing Website Launch.
The final new Submit Solution Squidoo lens is short and sweet. It includes some of the newest blog entries from the site’s four ecommerce blogs, as well as Submit Solution’s contact information. If you want to get a hold of a Submit Solution representative, that’s a good place to go. Check it out here: Submit Solution: The one-stop hub for internet marketing.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog. It is entitled, “Submit Solution launches new Squidoo lenses.” The Submit Solution logo is the copyright of Submit Solution.
Tags: blog, eHarbor, Internet Marketing, magellan commerce, Real Estate Promoter, squidoo, Submit Solution, website
Posted in Web Design, eHarbor | No Comments »
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Happy Thanksgiving! I would love to write an entire blog entry on this wonderful holiday, but instead I’m going to talk about another celebration: Firefox’s fifth birthday.
Imagine trying to beat Microsoft at its own game. Microsoft, the giant of software and Web browsers, seemed all but unstoppable in its dominance of the Internet with its Internet Explorer browser five years ago. However, a small browser, which was originally called Phoenix, debuted on November 9, 2004 and started giving Explorer a run for its money.
We now know this Web browser as Firefox. And it just turned five years old. Better late than never, I’ll wish Firefox a happy birthday!
I talked a little about Firefox in my Submit Solution blog entry, “Google Chrome is the best Web browser.” I mentioned that it’s my favorite browser, even if it’s not exactly as fast as Chrome.
I read about Firefox’s anniversary in the Webware article, “After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges.”
Many factors led up to the swift success of the Firefox browser. Microsoft got a little lazy on creating new features for Explorer. Plus, viruses were specifically designed to target Explorer, giving Internet users a strong incentive to try something new. Right on cue, Firefox arrived with its innovative tabbed interface, customizability and popup ad blocker. It was an instant hit, receiving 10 million downloads in the first month alone.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Web Design Blog on December 1, 2009. It will be entitled, “Firefox fights fresh foes after 5 years.” The photo of the Firefox birthday cake is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Christopher Blizzard.
Tags: Chrome, computer virus, Firefox, google, growth, holiday, Microsoft, msn, search engine, Submit Solution, success, Web Browser
Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Google Chrome is the best Web browser by far, according to a study by Jacob Gube, the founder and chief editor of Six Revisions. Chrome v. 3 beat Firefox v. 3.5, Safari v. 4, Opera v.10 and Microsoft Explorer v. 8. Take a look at the results below.
You should definitely check out the whole chart by clicking on this link to the blog entry, “Performance Comparison of Major Web Browsers.” Fascinating stuff. I’ll discuss some of the highlights and their impact on ecommerce and Internet marketing.
I’m a Firefox user, myself, so some of this study’s results came as a surprise to me. I’m not sure if they will change my mind about which browser I use right now, but it’s definitely helped me think more about why I prefer one over the others. Here are some of the highlights of the study’s findings:
JavaScript Speed
Chrome won this competition with an average download time of JavaScripts in just 542.3 milliseconds. Safari was No. 2 with 863.9 milliseconds and Firefox was No. 3 with 1,230.6 milliseconds. Explorer was last with a comparatively long download time of 6,305.5 milliseconds.
JavaScripts are important because they are heavily used on websites like Digg, as well as in Gmail. It’s no surprise Google is the leader in this category because it definitely wants people to be able to quickly use its own applications.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog on November 16. It will be entitled, “Google Chrome is the best Web browser.” The graph of the results of this study is the copyright of Jacob Gube and Six Revisions.
Tags: Ecommerce, Firefox, google, internet, Internet Marketing, Microsoft, research, search engine, study, Submit Solution, web, Web Browser, website
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Few people are as intriguing and visionary as Nikola Tesla. If this American immigrant had been as beloved and accepted as Thomas Edison, we would have had 2009 technology back in 1909. Unfortunately, this revolutionary genius was given short shrift by many and his image has become obscured by history.
If you’re like me, you first heard about him in 2006’s “The Prestige,” an excellent movie, by the way. I’ve been thinking a lot about him recently, and I want to share my thoughts on this great man and what he might have accomplished if the world had been ready.
Without Tesla, we wouldn’t have car engines, long-distance radio, radar, fluorescent lights, energy-efficient light bulbs (which Tesla created more than a hundred years ago, but was not allowed to manufacture until a few years ago because of patent issues on the socket) and many other useful inventions.
If Nikola Tesla had created the Internet, I’m sure it would be many times better than what we have come up with. First of all, he would have come up with a much better means to transfer information online than comparatively inefficient phone lines, coaxial cables, fiber optics or copper wires. He probably would have started with a wireless system and made it faster than we’re used to. Then he would invent something truly amazing to replace that, just like he always did.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog on November 9. The photo of the Tesla Coil is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of maveric2003.
Tags: history, internet, movie, Submit Solution, web, website
Posted in Movies, Web Design | No Comments »
Monday, October 19th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Talk about a captive audience. The government of Finland says it’s a human right to have access to the Internet, so companies must provide Internet with a speed of at least 1 megabit per second. Doesn’t that seem a little strange? You can read about this in the CNN article, “Fast Internet access becomes a legal right in Finland.”
Apparently, it’s not an unalienable right to own a car or a house, but somehow it is an essential right for every person to be connected to the Internet. To me, that is faulty logic. We can all work hard to gain access to new tools, like cars, cell phones or the Internet, to make our lives easier, but there is no guarantee we’ll get those things without effort.
Ninety-five percent of Finland’s 5.2 million citizens are already connected to the Internet. This law makes little difference to the vast majority of the population. However, officials say they are trying to not only bring Internet access to rural areas, but also increase the speed for everyone to at least 100 megabits per second by 2015.
If you ask me, this whole thing is silly. I don’t have the right to a fast Internet connection. I have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, according to the Declaration of Independence. I also have many other rights enumerated in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. But luxuries or necessities like the Internet or food, respectively, are not among them.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog on November 9. The photo of the dangling cat is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Al Abut.
Tags: article, CNN, international, internet, news, Submit Solution, web
Posted in Web Design | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
In Internet marketing, your website can be your first and best defense against lawsuits or it can be a huge liability. It depends on how strong your disclaimers are and how carefully you check to make sure your statements are all factual and ethical.
I bring this up because I just read an eye-opening article on InfoWeek’s website, entitled “Website disclaimers – yes, they do work.” In that piece, author Guy Burgess describes a recent case in New Zealand where an ecommerce website had given customers the wrong impression about the soundness of some of the companies it advertised.
A customer sued the website owners when he received the short end of the stick on a deal with one of the companies the website advertised. But a judge ruled in favor of the owners because they had included a provision on their website to protect themselves. The judge found the owners to be both negligent in their faulty information and protected by their admission that their site didn’t have all the information customers would want to make a final decision.
We all make mistakes, and it’s unfortunate when others are negatively affected by our errors. If we want strong relationships with our customers, we have to make sure our ecommerce websites are accurate and that our products or services are as good as we say they are.
You can read the rest of this blog entry in the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog. The photo of the zombie warning sign is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of rchurch74.
Tags: advice, article, customer service, Ecommerce, funny, humor, Internet Marketing, website
Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
By Robert Lockard
The new Submit Solution website is quite amazing, isn’t it? If you haven’t checked it out, be sure to visit www.submitsolution.com right now to see all the great Web design, SEO and other services we provide there.
In fact, Submit Solution’s new website is so cool that we actually held a launch party in its honor on Monday, September 21, 2009. Alyssa Udall and Britnee Nguyen, the other two writers on the four ecommerce blogs on Submit Solution, and I planned a company-wide get-together in which we enjoyed refreshments and gave out prizes. The refreshments were made up of drinks, as well as orange and white donuts, which were shaped like the new Submit Solution logo. See for yourself.
That S-shaped group of donuts was one of my favorite parts of the celebration. After that, we held a fun scavenger hunt. Employees had to search the Submit Solution website for clues to lead them to prizes cleverly hidden throughout our eHarbor, Inc. office. We hid clues on Submitsolution.com in the site’s blog tags, image titles and in the text of Web pages.
The prizes people could win by finding and unscrambling the clues included toys, candy bars, eHarbor mugs and Bigler Bucks, which we affectionately named for Oliver Bigler, the CEO and cofounder of eHarbor, Inc. We use Bigler Bucks to buy company products, like pens, mugs and shirts. Our employees enjoyed this friendly competition. Most of them are used to playing foosball, so this scavenger hunt was quite tame in comparison.
You can read more about this website’s great features in my blog entry, “Submit Solution launches updated website with new design features.”
Tags: blog, company, eHarbor, event, Fun, oliver bigler, positive, Submit Solution, website
Posted in Fun, Web Design, eHarbor | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
In honor of Submit Solution’s newly redesigned website, I will talk about four Web-design strategies you can use to make your website look more pleasing and hold viewers’ attention longer. These strategies come from a blog post on the Think Vitamin Blog, entitled, “How to Make Your Web Design Stand out from the Crowd.”
The first strategy is not to be afraid of empty space in your Web design. On news sites, like CNN, you won’t find a bit of open space; all of it is taken up with headlines, graphics and numbers. That is useful for people looking to cram as much useful information as possible into a confined space. But it can feel cluttered and overwhelming on ecommerce websites that are selling products and services.
Giving viewers space to breathe can create a relaxed atmosphere on your website. We’re already bombarded with information, so it is refreshing to find a website with some elbowroom.
You can find the rest of the steps in a blog entry on the new Web Design Blog on Submit Solution on October 5. The new Submit Solution website is now online, and it will get most of the Internet marketing blog entries from now on, while the eHarbor Blog will mostly be about topics related to eHarbor, Inc.
The photo of the spider web is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of dann solo.
Tags: advice, blog, Ecommerce, Internet Marketing, redesign, Submit Solution, Web Design, website
Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Do you feel lost when it comes to Web design? You don’t need to be an expert on HTML, Ruby or other programming languages to end up with an effective design for your ecommerce website. You can use Magellan Commerce’s custom-design services to handle the actual design part.
But there are several steps you can take before you go to the experts to make sure your site does precisely what you want it to. These steps come from an Examiner article entitled, “Website design starter plan for clients.” That article has horrible spelling and grammar, but it has a few good ideas I want to share, so I’ll cut its author a little slack.
Anyway, here are two of the steps you should take before requesting help from a Web designer:
1. Look at what your competitors are doing. Plagiarism is illegal, but finding good practices and Web-design ideas is perfectly legal. This will give you a good starting point to see which elements of a website you would like to use in your own. Try to stick to general ideas, such as navigation, structure and what subjects are covered in the text.
2. Once you have an idea of what others are doing, start mapping out your website’s outline. Start with the main pages, such as home, services, products, about us, etc. Then add subpages under the main pages to build on more specific topics. Fill in as much detail as you can about what information and messages you want those pages to contain. This will help the designers be more precise in meeting your needs.
You can find the rest of the steps in a blog entry on the new Web Design Blog on Submit Solution. The new Submit Solution website is now online, and it will get most of the Internet marketing blog entries from now on, while the eHarbor Blog will mostly be about topics related to eHarbor, Inc.
The photo of the blue dog is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of lepiaf.geo.
Tags: advice, Ecommerce, grammar, research, Sitemap, spelling, Submit Solution, Web Design, website
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
By Robert Lockard
Submit Solution, an Internet-marketing company, just released an advanced new version of its website, submitsolution.com. The updated site now includes two new services – custom Web and logo design – as well as four ecommerce blogs and free search-engine submission, in addition to its search engine optimization and paid-search packages.
Submit Solution is already an expert at getting qualified traffic to clients’ websites via SEO and PPC campaigns. By adding custom website design and logo design to its services, Submit Solution can now help turn a higher number of site visitors into customers.
Submitsolution.com has a more user-friendly design, allowing visitors to quickly navigate its Web pages. The site boasts free search-engine submission, as well as four new blogs focusing on SEO, PPC, social media and Web design, respectively. It also provides additional Internet-marketing tools, definitions of ecommerce terms and FAQs to help newcomers learn the ins and outs of Internet marketing.
“The new Submit Solution website helps potential clients understand both the intricacies of a successful search-engine marketing plan and what we can do to help,” said Oliver Bigler, chief executive officer and founder of Submit Solution. “Internet newbies can often be drowned in a sea of conflicting information. Our website helps clients navigate their way toward information and services that fit their needs best.”
For 14 years, Submit Solution has worked in the Internet-marketing industry. Its SEO packages were recently updated to add social-media posting and inbound linking to its traditional tactics of optimizing site content, such as adding Meta tags. Other new or improved services include:
- Website design
- Logo design
- Paid-search advertising
- Competitive analysis
- Website consulting
This launch of Submit Solution’s new website makes this the second week in a row in which we’ve introduced an innovative product or service. Be sure to check out my blog entry on Magellan Commerce’s new online merchant service: “Magellan Commerce the 1st to offer ecommerce and merchant services.”
Tags: blog, eHarbor, internet, magellan commerce, marketing, new, news, online, search engine optimization, SEO, Submit Solution, website
Posted in Web Design, eHarbor | No Comments »
