When it comes to understanding content strategy, you need to realize that not everyone can understand it in the same manner, and that it is a relatively new concept which does not have a clear definition. First of all, you have to keep in mind that content strategy is not just about content writing. A number of other things related  to it concern web designers, such as development, production, design and presentation.

This post intends to study the relationship of content strategy and design in the processes of creation, arrangement and display of web copies. An interesting interplay of content and design is capable of bringing in a breakthrough result.

Content Strategy in a Nutshell:

Content strategy is basically a bridge between effective writing and eye-catching designs. This bridge stands on the pillars of good communication. The right communication can speed up the progress of a project. Here’s what happens when a new project arrives:

• The project manager wants to get the landing page designed quickly so that it can be showed to the client.
• The designer cannot design until he gets the content and
• The content writer cannot write until he sees the design.

The only solution to this is to create the content first. The fact that content throws the cornerstone for designers to build their designs on, should not be forgotten. For example, to create content for a landing page, you should consider things like the target audience, the message being conveyed, the word count and the call-to-action. A clear idea about these aspects will help the content writer produce effective content and the designer create a good web design.

Web development team depends on web design, web design team depends on content team, content team depends on project management team, which depends on all three. To ensure the work-flow is in the right direction:

• Entrust someone with the sole responsibility of content strategy.
• Co-ordinate between the content writing and website designing teams to ensure the professionals in both teams understand their responsibilities clearly.

Using content templates can free the designers’ mind from guesswork to a great extent. It also helps clients get a basic idea of how their website will look and decide the word count and text placement more comfortably.

There are some dedicated software for project management which can be used for streamlining communication. The best thing about such software is that they provide a common platform for professionals to interact and manage tasks. It saves a lot of time for the teams as well as the project manager.

Now, regardless of how many steps have been taken to ensure a smooth work-flow, there will be a conflict between the design and content writing services at some point of time. This is commonplace in any and every project. But did you know that this conflict is essential? Otherwise a project is considered to be in trouble.

In the next post, you will find some ‘content-design’ conflict issues along with ways to deal with them. Happy strategizing until then!

After creating a blog of your own, comes a series of tasks that would help you popularize it. Known as blog customization, it’s basically implementing some ideas into your blog. This post will discuss those ideas. So let’s get started:

• A page on you – As the author of the blog, you need to take care of the fact that your readers get to know you. Add an ‘about me’ page wherein you will provide information about yourself, what you do, what you like and so on. But present all these info in an interesting manner, otherwise nobody will be interested to know about you. Your ‘about’ page should be interactive and inviting so that people feel like reading more of what your write. Don’t forget to create a ‘contact’ page along with it, where people can get in touch with you easily if they wish to.
• Put the default template away – and bring in a template that goes with your blog. It has to be relevant with the theme of your blog.
• Customize the ’404 error’ page – so that visitors get something nice to look at when they land on an article that you have already deleted. Put a link to your blog’s home page in the ’404 error’ page so that visitors get something to read.
• Optimize your blog and put a ‘search’ button – In addition to blog customization, optimization of the blog is necessary because it will give your blog a prominent position in search engines. Having a search function in your blog will help visitors look for something specific. Also, create relevant and crisp meta tags for every blog of yours with appropriate title, description and keywords.
• Allow your readers to comment – Your blog reflects what you think of something particular. Give a chance to your readers to put across their opinions on the matter you wrote about by keeping a ‘comment’ option at the end of your blog. This will help you build two way traffic.
• Choose a copyright type and put it up on your blog – As your blog becomes popular, other people may want to use your write-ups. Go for a copyright protection and allow or prohibit (whichever you want to) others to use your content.
• Place a plug-in for related content – If you want readers to be hooked on to your blog, put a plug-in to what you have written elsewhere.
• Use Google Analytics – Yes, there is some web development to be done in order to make your blog successful. By using Google Analytics, you will be able to keep track of your visitor count, trace the sources they are coming from and do a lot more. Studying the analysis will let you know what people like to read and you can create your future blogs accordingly.
• Put your blog on various search engines – Not all web-users use the same search engine. You need to be on every popular search engine out there to increase your visitors.
• RSS Feed – The best service to opt for is Feedburner. It will keep you informed about your RSS feeds.
• Have a sitemap – Let your readers navigate with ease on your blog by using a sitemap. If you use an XML sitemap, it will augment your visibility in search engines because it’s easy for search engine bots to crawl an XML sitemap.
• Sign up for Technorati – It is a great community for bloggers like you. You can claim your blog so as to allow your fellow Technorati users to read your writings and link back.
• Sign up for StumbleUpon -  StumbleUpon needs no introduction. If you can index your blog’s home page in StumbleUpon, users will land on it and if they like what they see, they will probably share it with their near and dear ones.
• Submit your RSS feeds to various RSS directories – This would let you easily inform a lot of people about your latest writing.
• Index your blog into different blog directories – Some top directories are BlogDup, BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. Search the net and you will find several other weblog directories.
• Use social media to let everyone know about your latest blog – Share the link to your blog in various social networks and also in the information box of YouTube when you upload a video.
• If you are part of a forum, spread the word about your new writing there – Post your blog’s URL in your signature and talk to other members in the forum. Do not try to spam. If your comments are interesting, other members will come to your blog.
• Visit other weblogs and comment – Needless to say, you should leave your Blog URL in the comments you make. A good idea would be to visit and comment on blogs that are relevant to what you have written about. This way, other visitors will be interested to visit your blog.
• Sign up for Google AdSense – If your blog garners success, you can make money from it by using Google AdSense. It will provide you with links relevant to your content.
• Install widgets – This is also a part of your blog customization. You can promote your blog better with widgets.
• Have an option for linkback – Most of the people who read blogs have blogs of their own. If another blog owner likes your blog, he may share your link on his own blog. This would be a nice linkback to look forward to.
• Submit your write-ups in various social bookmarking websites – If you can do that, you may get points from readers and the higher the number of points, the better it’s for you. Some top sites are Del.icio.us, Digg and Reddit.

Now that you are geared up with these ideas, blog customization will be easy for you.

Care to share your thoughts? We are all ears!

In recent times, guest posting has become a popular way to expose a company to a wider base of audience. Interesting guest posts can increase your site traffic and provide you with free publicity. An article published in San Francisco Chronicle also echoes this fact.

According to the article, website owners are now realizing the role that guest posts can play in enhancing advertising revenue and search engine rankings.  Naturally, everyone is now looking for guest authors who can contribute articles to their sites or blogs. In this article, we will discuss different benefits of guest posts in details.

Widen your Exposure with Guest Posts

One major benefit of publishing guest post is that it increases your visibility. As you start posting in various blogs, you would gain greater exposure. If you offer readers valuable information, chances are high that they will start visiting your site.

Apart from increasing your site traffic, guest posts can also help you to establish brand image of your company.

Acquire Backlinks

Writing good quality guest posts will help you to acquire backlinks. If people avail good information via your blogs, they will share your link with others. This, in turn, will enhance search engine rankings of your site. If you own a web development or web programming company, for example, increased rankings can bring in more clients.

Earn Money

Some sites organize contests for guest authors and pay a good amount of money to the winner. You may search for these sites, participate in the contests, and earn money. Even if you do not win the contest, you can always enjoy the exposure and appreciation that your article brings in.

Share Expertise

You can use guest posts to share your knowledge and expertise with readers. Of course, for this you have to write about familiar topics. You have to choose a topic that you have studied and acquired expertise.

Enhance Knowledge

Guest posts allow you to increase your current knowledge. Since thousands of people read guest posts,   you need to come up with topics that are interesting and well-researched. This will prompt you to gather more information about the topics, which in turn can increase your knowledge.

Market your Website

Guest post is another way of article marketing. It allows you to introduce yourself and your website before millions of visitors. This in turn, will encourage readers to visit your site.

Develop Professional Network

By publishing guest posts, you can come in touch with new people, including readers, bloggers, and website owners. This will allow you to create a strong professional network.

Increase your Confidence

If you publish good quality posts regularly, chances are high that people will offer you positive appreciation. This in turn, will enhance your confidence and encourage you to handle issues with greater gusto.

Publishing guest post creates a win-win situation for all the parties. Blog owners and authors can enjoy greater exposure. Readers, on the other hand, can acquire fresh information.

What do you think about this statement ? Do you agree with our opinion about guest posting? Did you try it? How was your experience? Share with us your views and opinions.

In our last post, we discussed the importance of a proper website development plan. In today’s post, we will highlight the goals of a website blueprint. Furthermore, we will discuss crucial components of this blueprint and ways these can help you to develop an interesting website.

Definition of the term ‘website blueprint’ and its goals

Website blueprint shares certain similarities with the blueprint that one refers to, while building a house. In simple term, it refers to the various aspects a developer should consider, while creating a website. A good website blueprint should aim to-

• Gather detailed information about your site
• Create plans for each page of your site

An impressive website blueprint consists of the following aspects-

• Content
• Web design
• Architecture

To develop an intriguing website, paying attention to these three aspects is critical. Remember that these three aspects should complement each other for creating the desired effect.

Content

Visitors explore websites for acquiring good information. Therefore, to create a strong buzz about your site, you should offer them valuable content. Consider these following tips.

• Include interesting and new information in the content
• The topics should complement your website theme
• Ensure that the content does not contain any grammatical or spelling errors
• The content should motivate readers to act
• Do not insert keywords unnecessarily
• Opt for keywords that are related with the purpose of your site

Architecture

This represents the basic structure of your website. For creating a strong website architecture, you should answer these following questions.

• Navigation buttons- Did you place them in upper section of the site? Have you thought about a left navigation system?
• Content area- Where do you want to place your main content? Will it encompass the entire page?
• Image slider- Are you planning to incorporate an image slider in your site? Where you would place it?
• Footer- Do you want to place navigation buttons in the footer? How would they look?

Find out answers to these questions, before developing the site. It will help you to avoid confusion in later stages. Try to maintain a consistency between various architectural elements of all pages.

Website Design

A beautiful website design appeals to aesthetics of visitors, thus encouraging them to explore it. Do not forget to pay attention to the following aspects, before you start designing.

• Opt for designs that suit your website theme. If your site revolves around topics, such as fruits and flowers, you cannot use images of car.
• Pay attention to the major design elements of your site. These can include site logo, site colors, and colors of navigation buttons.

We discussed the major components of a website blueprint. Paying attention to these issues will simplify the process of developing the website during the final stages.

For any individual or website design company, creating an interesting website is a huge responsibility. First, you need to create a proper website development plan. The next step would be to implement components of this plan in a logical way.

In this article, we will highlight various components of a website development plan. However, first, we will discuss why you should opt for a website development plan.

The importance of a good website development plan

Some companies/individuals prefer to develop websites, without creating any plan beforehand. They believe that by performing certain tasks straightway, they will save time and money. However, they are unaware of the fact that lack of a good plan can create various problems and even force one to redo certain tasks. This in turn, demands more time and money.

When you develop a plan beforehand, on the other hand, you can sense potential problems and take actions accordingly.

Components of a robust website development plan

While creating a good website plan, paying attention to few components is critical. These can include-

• Find out your website goals. What are your aims?
• Figure out your target clients. Try to understand their preferences.
• What call-to-action option would you opt for?
• Determine the navigation procedure.
• Develop a list of targeted keywords.

We will now discuss each of these components in details.

1.  Identifying goals of your site

The first step is to identify goals of your website. What it wants to accomplish? Figuring out goals of your site will help you to incorporate right information in it. If you have an online chocolate delivery service, for example, your goal would be to offer high quality chocolates to your customers.

On the other hand, if you want to develop a corporate website, your goal would be to provide customers with specific information about the company.

2.  Figuring out the target audience

Who are your target clients? What do they like? Do they love receiving information via newsletters or RSS feeds? Finding answers to these questions will help you to modify your site, according to the preferences of your target audience. This in turn, will encourage them to visit your site regularly.

3. Creating a powerful call-to-action statement

Including a strong call-to-action statement in your site is critical. If you do not inform your audience about the way they should act, chances are high that they will feel confused and leave your site.

For example, if you have a job site, the most appropriate call-to-action would be ‘post a job’ or ‘find jobs’. Place this statement at top section of the webpage, so that it grabs attention.

4. Simplify the navigation procedure

Navigation is a critical aspect of any website. People love exploring various sections of the website and a navigation system helps them to move from one page to the other. Without a proper system, visitors will feel confused how to explore the website. Remember a website that contains a poor or complex navigation system cannot retain interest of visitors for a long time.

Let us assume that you have a photography site. In such a situation, your navigation system should allow visitors to find the photos, acquire information about them, and thereafter buy or download them. A good navigation system encourages users to move through various pages smoothly.

5. Develop a targeted keyword list

Incorporating specific keywords in your site is crucial for attracting relevant traffic. However, you need to ensure that these keywords complement theme of your site. Additionally, avoid placing excessive keywords in your web content.

Today, we discussed the important aspects of a website development plan. In our next article, we will discuss how you can actually develop these aspects. Stay happy and have fun!

Internet marketing experts often implement dubious strategies to increase profit rates of the company. Surprisingly, hardly any one talks about it. However, today, we will discuss few popular ‘dark patterns’ (in simple terms, it means unethical strategies) that many web development companies implement these days.

Why people hardly notice unethical strategies?

The unique thing about dark patterns is that they are incorporated in website design cleverly. As a result, users hardly notice them. Let us clarify the issue by discussing an example. Let us assume that I have an e-commerce site and want to increase its profit somehow. If I plan to gain more profit by increasing product costs, chances are that high that users will move on to other sites.

However, if I request the customer to pay $20 extra as ‘order processing fee’, I may succeed in availing greater profits. The customer will think that this is a justifiable charge and will complete the ordering process. Even if the clients find it out, they may think that as compared to registering for checkout process in another site, it is better to pay this small amount.

This example explains the trick applied by evil web designers. In most cases, these dark patterns are so small and subtle that users hardly notice them. And even if they do, they do not consider it as an unjustified demand.

Dark patterns interfere with informed decisions

Dark patterns do not allow users to take informed decisions. For example, a promotional e-mail offers you two options. The first one says, ‘Click here if you would not like to receive special deals and discounts’. The second option declares’ Click here if you would like to receive carefully selected messages, offers, and discounts’.

This example highlights the perfect implementation of dark patterns. The first option uses negative in a way so that it confuses viewers. People who will ignore both the options will give marketing permissions. Those who click at both the options will also permit the company to send mails and deals. People who will click on either, will continue to receive mails.

Dark patterns is strongly associated with forced continuity

Many businesses struggle with the problem of low conversation from free to paid customers. To solve this problem, business owners sometimes opt for the forced continuity strategy. They lure customers by offering free trial that asks for credit card information. With expiry of this free trial period, the person is automatically upgraded to a paid customer.

When it comes to continuation of services, Apple’s MobileMe service adopts an honest approach. It clearly states that at the end of the free trial, customers will have to pay a certain amount of money. Seven days before the trial period expires, they send a mail to the customers, reminding them about the switch. In brief, they provide users with an honest and transparent experience.

Now let us discuss strategies of another company. A famous DVD rental company highlights the switch from free to paid plan in clear words (similar to Apple). However, they do not remind clients about expiry of the trial phase. Some customers would obviously forget about this expiry and it would increase conversation rate of the company.

Of course, some would argue that not sending remainder mails does not make a company fraudulent. Frankly speaking, this argument also contains some logic. At the same time, it is true that sending or not sending reminder mails can affect your conversation rate. The problem lies in the fact that a definite answer to this debate does not exist.

Still, business owners should always remember that to earn trust of the customers, one needs to adopt an honest approach. A sustainable relationship can be created when you consider your interests, along with that of the customers.

Panda’s first appearance was in February this year and its effect was felt across a significant number of popular websites like eZine Articles. Five more Panda updates have been unleashed by Google since then. Webmasters need to equip their sites with acceptable SEO features to safeguard them from Panda updates.

Google has said that website owners should be really cautious about quality of content. Websites with low quality and irrelevant content will be affected by Panda, irrespective of what SEO measures they resort to. For a SEO company, this is the right time to re-evaluate its existing SEO tactics to survive Panda updates in the near future.

• It is very important for SEO services providers to evaluate content in their sites using effective web analytics software. They need to assess relevance and popularity of site content using various metrics like bounce rate, exit rate and page views. This will help them understand which web pages are not liked by users.

Panda update is basically meant for presenting web users with sites that offer relevant and quality content. By quality, Google does not only mean fresh information; quality of language is also a parameter in this aspect. Hence, web content writing should be checked for punctuation and grammar related errors.

• Panda updates also cracks down heavily on websites with thin content. This means websites that do not provide readers with adequate information on topics will not be spared Panda’s wrath and their ranking will definitely take a nosedive.

On an average, website owners should ensure that any content in a page does not contain less than 200 words; 350 words content is recommended. In case content cannot be expanded in a page, website owners can consider removing that page altogether and making a fresh one in its place.

• Google has indicated since the start, no website with duplicate but cleverly spun content will be tolerated. This is also true for web pages featuring syndicated content. Panda is smart enough to trace pages that contain near identical content, recomposed cunningly.

Google Webmaster Tools are quite useful for detecting and removing duplicate content from web pages.

Web development and SEO veterans think that web pages with better design and page layout are likely to be favoured by Panda over others. However, Google has not said anything on this aspect officially. Of course, websites that have not received any update in structure and layout for long can benefit from a revamp.

While revamping, website owners should keep an eye on the number of ads. Google prefers pages with more relevant content and fewer amounts of advertisements these days. In any case, adverts can be placed in the sidebar and footer sections in web pages.

Without proper shopping cart solutions, no ecommerce website can succeed in a competitive environment. This fact has prompted business owners to opt for quality shopping cart software for their websites. Web design companies have woken up to this trend and are trying to offer top notch shopping cart solutions to customers.

Shopping cart systems can be purchased from third party companies or companies can opt for open-source shopping cart development. However, plenty will find customizable and secure shopping cart softwares more useful. Volusion is a shopping cart app that can help in this aspect.

Volusion is different from other ecommerce shopping cart solutions softwares in its blend of feature and performance and also reasonable pricing. From ease of use to security features, this app will please even the most finicky of web developers. It is ideal for those businesses who want their ecommerce sites to look visually appealing and aesthetic. They can make good use of the templates offered by Volusion that comes complete with zoom feature for magnifying product photos.

Setting up an online store with Volusion is a cakewalk for any web development professional. The store setup wizard is there to help out new users and customizing the online store design is quite simple. In fact, web developers with some experience in using shopping cart apps, would be able to set up a complete ecommerce site with Volusion in a few hours. This app also gives web developers the option to include a side-by-side comparison feature for the benefit of customers.

Volusion can beat many shopping cart apps with its outstanding administration features. With version 11, controlling various aspects of the website has become simpler. Every section, including inventory, marketing, reports, orders, and overall design has a lot of features for developers. Generating inventory report with this app is quite simple. There are also plenty of marketing features in this shopping cart; web developers can easily add discount coupons and promotional offers to selected products. This app can also be configured to send promotional email to encourage buyers.

Volusion scores better than many competing apps in providing shopping cart security. Besides support for SSL for secure online transaction, this app comes with an innovative Fraud Score feature, which can be used to thwart hacking attempts or fraudulent card usage.

For customer support, Volusion offers various options like live chat, email and telephone. It also comes with an extensive user manual.

Web development newbies often make mistakes while working with HTML and CSS. Sometimes, developers try to write codes too fast and make small mistakes unknowingly. If you make mistakes in coding, you have to spend extra time rectifying those errors and it’ll delay the project completion time. To help you avoid mistakes, here’s a list of common HTML and CSS you should stay away from:

HTML Mistakes

• Improper DOCTYPE- You must start the HTML document by declaring the correct DOCTYPE.
• Forgetting to Close a Tag- If you open a tag, you must close a tag – be it for a link, div, paragraph, table, or even strong, span, color, etc.
• Writing Tags in Capital- Writing tags in capital should be avoided. It won’t affect the code validation process, but if you want to follow the standard rules, then you should write <div></div>, instead of <DIV></DIV>.
• Improper Tag Nesting- You must open and close the tags in the perfect order. For instance, if you have opened <div><p><table> tags, then it must be closed as </table></p></div>. What opens first, closed last, always.
• Forgetting to Encode the Special Characters- If you want to display special characters like, “©” or “£”, use proper HTML codes for those characters. For instance, the HTML code for “©” is “&copy;” and for “£” is “&pound”.
• Inline Styles- Inline styling should be avoided as it makes the code editing process difficult. Instead of inline styling, you should use an external stylesheet for flexibility in the editing process.
• Forgetting to Open and Close Quotes- Whenever you write a quote (“), you need to use double quotes and close the quotes correctly. If you open a quote with double quote mark and forget to close it, the page won’t function properly.
• Confusing Classes With IDs- Classes are elements you will use various times in one page and IDs are for items you will use just once in one page. Wrong classification can lead to confusion.

CSS Mistakes

• Forgetting to Close Codes Properly- Every div must start with opening a second bracket and end with closing a second bracket. Each style called inside the div should end with a semicolon. Web developers often forget to use the brackets and semicolons while working in CSS.
• Not Giving Unique Names to Classes and IDs- If you don’t give unique names to your divs and classes, it will be difficult for you to identify them in the stylesheet later. For instance, a div name like “#home-right-column” is much easier to identify than a “#right”.
• Avoiding Shorthand Code- Shorthand code helps you keep the stylesheet clean and organized. For instance, instead of writing the page padding as -top, -left, -bottom, and –right, you can write “padding: 10px, 20px, 0, 20px.” Color codes such as #ffffff can be written as #fff and that helps you to clean up the CSS.
• Incorrect Positioning- In CSS, you get four positioning options: static, relative, absolute, and fixed. Depending on where you want to place an item in your webpage, you must use the positioning options carefully.

Validating your HTML and CSS files is essential to make sure that there is no coding error. Validating the HTML and CSS also helps you to find out the coding errors and fix them.

To be a web design expert, you should keep an eye on these common mistakes and try to write cleaner codes. Always check your codes for small mistakes and validate them to develop a functional website.

In recent times, the concept of cloud computing has taken the web development industry by storm. The fact that Google, the Internet search giant, is endorsing this emerging technology cannot be ignored. As per the industry veterans, Cloud computing is going to change the way people use the web and store data in near future. This is beneficial for the average web users for sure, but how relevant it is to a website design professional?

Cloud computing helps the users in transcending the limitations imposed by hardware. With time, big technology companies are introducing their apps that run on web. Microsoft has followed Google by bringing in an online version of its ever popular Office suites. Given the way web access speeds are going up by the day, it is not far when web designers will be able to launch web editing apps directly within the web browser interface. This is ideal for graphic and web design companies that lose a lot of revenue through piracy worldwide. Web browser technologies are also advancing at rapid speed.

Working within the browser interface is going to help the web development solutions in speeding up workflow. They will no longer have to juggle various applications while making a site. If every application remains accessible within a streamlined interface it reduces interface clutter and allows the developers to focus on their design better. On a more practical note, it may not be possible to run software with heavy system requirements like Photoshop in a browser in near future, but light web graphics editors can be used without many hassles.

This will be helpful for web development companies as they will be able to save a lot of money that is required for buying commercial web and graphic design apps. The renewal and supports costs are also a burden on them. By resorting to cloud based apps for all their work they will save a lot on software infrastructure development. A number of online image editing apps are already available. They may not be suitable for mainstream graphic design but for web image editing optimization these are quire decent.

Web designers can also think about resorting to online data storage for their projects and work. Google offers useful options for storing various design elements like images, video, spreadsheets and many others through its email accounts. Online storage is much more reliable than hardware based storage. By resorting to online storage the web designers will be able to work from anywhere as long as they have access to internet. This eliminates the need to carry storage devices for data backup and storage. There are other online services that offer online storage options but the benefit of using Google is that users can access various online services by using just one account and password.

As of now, web designers can resort to cloud computing for their need. The only limitation they face is Internet speed. However, with blazing fast broadband speeds becoming the norm the future of web designing may lie in cloud computing.