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Santa Cruz SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) has written a couple of helpful articles that include pricing and professional–looking websites. What You Need to Know About Web Design. See “Design Within Your Budget” just below the middle of the page. 10 Ways To Make Your Web Site Work Harder For You. This is about professionalism, user–friendly websites, and basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Steve is my number one go-to man for SEO. I refer all my clients to him and we work together to get our clients’ websites higher up in Google rankings, and I recommend him highly if you are looking to get your website more attention in the cyber world. Steve’s article has the cleanest of instructions to follow, even if you’ve never delved into Google Places before. Read about The Biggest Change In Google’s Algorithm in Years. Freebie Images for WordPress. Adding images makes your blog makes more attractive, and conveys your story instantly to readers. It’s crazy-easy to use – and in this crazy-busy world, we love easy! Just go to the Plugin section of your WordPress Dashboard, enter ‘Freebie Images’ under ‘add’ plugins, and it does the rest. You’ll see the plugin to the right of your editing page. The images are low-res and have a watermark, and are for use only with blogs. Have too much fun with it!
A web design style that has continued its popularity is that of using light gray text on a white background. It’s a classy look, yes, but it can be hard or impossible to read for many with serious vision disabilities, and those whose eyes are just getting older and more tired (not unlike mine). Alone, this style is difficult to read, but combined with the overused small font (commonly 11-12px), it can frustrate visitors to the point of leaving your site and going to your competition. As web designers, we can see how our text and background contrast choice looks on our computer screen, but all monitors and their settings are not alike. What looks well-defined on your screen, may look subtle on another. Graphic cards and personal settings make this completely out of your control. Jonathan Snook created an amazing online tool: Colour Contrast Check that gives you a quick “yes” or “no” to the question of accessibility. You simply enter the hex codes for your text and background colors, and this tool instantly tells you whether or not you are in compliance with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). He takes care of the algorithms needed to be classified as accessible, and all you have to do is adjust your style sheet. An important piece to remember is to always define both foreground and background colors in your stylesheet for your entire site. Many people, especially those who know they have to adjust things to see a website well, will change their background and text settings, depending on their needs. If you do not specify these, combinations may ensue that render your website unreadable. Even with stock photos being so affordable these days, when you’re a web designer, the cost adds up over a short amount of time. Here are a few resources for you to find a variety of stock images. Each of them has their own license guidelines, so read carefully before downloading any images. Some require credit, some do not. Most are allowed on commercial websites, however, and at least one lets you use images on templates that you sell, too! Have fun, and feel free to let me know of other free stock photos websites I can list in the future. StockXchng
Probably the most famous of free stock photos. They’ve been bought out by istockphoto.com and will, hopefully, keep the same quality at the great price of free. There is a lot of great stuff on this site, and I am occasionally amazed as some of the images being given away for free. Look carefully for each image’s license, as there are a few important differences among them. PhotoXpress
Another great website to get free photos for your web design work. PhotoXpress also ahs a fast-loading gallery, which is a breath of fresh air, when you live in the mountains, as I do, and rely on ATT “high speed DSL,” as they call it. Image After
Image After may not have the prettiest website or easiest interface, but in answer to my inquiry, they said that you are allowed to use their images in templates for resale. Shocking! Free Stock Photos
A Digital Dreamer
Free Range Stock
Free Pixels
Free Digital Photos
Every Stock Photo
Every Stock Photo searches through several free stock photo sites, including Nasa and Flicker, and you can turn choose which sites to search, as well as whether you want tall, wide, or square images only. Dreamstime
Dreamstime has a large selection of free photos, and also premium images you can pay for. Morgue File
Save Yourself Time and MoneyI have been hired to fix many websites because the small business owner did not know what questions to ask before hiring a web designer/developer. There are many web designers who may make a pretty design, but don’t have the forethought to plan ahead, the education to write clean code (this may mean nothing to you now, but wait until you need editing to your site!), or the business experience to bring all the pieces together in a cohesive and cost-effective manner. The Lockheed Fire in the Bonny Doon and Swanton area near Santa Cruz, California displaced many small businesses that are run from home offices. The Satellite Telework Center in Felton immediately put a sign on Felton Empire Grade announcing to us that we can use The Satellite office space for free. The Santa Cruz Web Developers have been together one year, in July. Thanks to Cat Johnson, who spearheaded the group last summer. It has morphed into an educational outlet, as well as a kind of support and social group. We meet once a month for educational presentations from both within and without. Then an informal meeting at a coffee shop to talk Coffee & Code. Another thank you, as always, goes out to The Satellite in Felton, Ca for generously donating meeting space and equipment for our group – and delicious free coffee! Thank you Barbara, Ken, Jim, and John! With the thousands of web sites available on most any subject, and more being published every day, we need to organize and clarify our web searches. My friend, Tom—a highly intelligent mechanical engineer—posed the problem to my partner and I on a canoe trip in Elkhorn Slough. He said that you have to filter through too much garbage and you often don’t get anywhere. We debated him, explaining that you have to teach yourself how to do intelligent searches. But over time his complaint sunk in. If you look at the World Wide Web as being like a giant library, you can organize it like one, too. The goal of Google’s algorithms is to find web sites that are considered authorities in the field they represent. That’s great—in theory. The result, unfortunately, is that big businesses, those with money to hire an SEO expert, or web sites with lists of businesses (usually paid subscriptions) are now the ones who come up in the first page of a Google search. |
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