Don’t scare away potential customers because they don’t trust you. An SSL certificate says: “We’re legit.” “We value your privacy.” “Your online transaction is safe and secure.” When customers see that little golden padlock in their browser, they know they are protected.
What is an SSL Certificate?
It’s a certificate that verifies your online identity and encrypts sensitive information that is sent through your website. It should contain information like: your domain name, certificate holder’s name, issue date, issuer name, and possibly details about your business like organization name and location.
Check out this video for an explanation:
Why would you need an SSL Certificate?
You have an online store
Your website has a login to a confidential area
You need to transmit sensitive customer/business information
You need to ensure privacy
You want to gain trust
There are countless companies offering SSL certificates. Verisign claims up to an 87% increase in transactions when businesses use Verisign Extended Validation SSL. GoDaddy is another option. Shop around and see what is best for your small business needs and budget.
There are tons of places to find free fonts. I didn’t say good fonts, I said free. But anywho, I did come across a blogger who promotes a selection of free fonts every Friday. Now some of these are very cool. You just might have a specific application where one of these would work splendidly.
So check them out. And let us know how you used them!
Are you a bit intimidated when speaking with your local printer? Do you get befuddled when he throws out terms like ‘saddle-stitch’, ‘full bleed’, or ‘Postscript’? Don’t leave the quality of your printed materials to chance. And don’t be afraid to ask questions!
I’ve compiled a short list of resources to get your feet wet. These are not intended to make you a printing expert (the list is hardly exhaustive), they’re meant to help you understand ‘printer-speak’, and if you’re designing your materials in-house, to plan your designs with the limits and capabilities of your printer in mind.
First of all, why is this so important? What’s so wrong with click here and see more?
Effective website links draw the eye and spark interest. They encourage clicking because people want more. Click here is an oft overused link term which is nondescript and uninteresting. No one will click anywhere without a good reason. Get a $10 discount for commenting on this blog would entice more clicking ; ) If you want a “sticky” website that offers findable information, you need to write effective links.
Jakob Nielsen recently conducted a study (First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye) based on their findings that web users typically scan a web page in an F-pattern. They tested 80 users understandings of the first 11 characters of 20 different website links. The most effective links followed these guidelines (excerpt):
(Read the study summary here. You can also learn more by signing up for their Writing for the Web course at the Web Usability Conference. If you do any writing for the web for your small business, this is a must-do.)
Notice the F-pattern? People generally read the first few lines in a list and read less as they go down.
I did a quick little test on my own website. Here’s a truncated list of a few of my links:
Not too bad. Areas to work on: (1) Learn More and See Example are too generic. (2) And the two links starting with Web Design are two different links, but you can’t tell because they’re truncated. Other than that most links use plain language, are specific, or use action words at the beginning. So I’ll go back a tweak a few of my links.
HOMEWORK: Scan your website‘s links (especially ones that are in list format). Without reading the context, can you predict where they’ll take you? Let me know how you make out!
Do you have a logo for your small business? Great! Have you crafted a logo style guide? Sometimes people outside your company need to use your logo. And a style guide is a brief document that will help to protect the use of your logo. After you’ve paid all that money for a well-designed logo, you don’t want somebody changing up the colors, stretching it, or putting their own initials on it!
I’ve listed some important elements that should be included in your logo style guide below. If you think of others, please share them with our community!
Size: such as smallest size it can be printed at
Surrounding white space: least amount of white space around the logo — usually determined in proportion to your logo
Colors: for example, specific Pantone colors you use
Background: provide examples of the logo on permitted background colors, or specify what is allowed
Fonts: permitted fonts that can be used in conjunction with logo
Options: give optional logos for people to choose from
Make sure you follow your style guide once it is complete. Give a copy to everyone in your company with access to your logo. Make a copy available online if your logo is downloadable. And refer your web or graphic designers to it when contracting out creative assignments.
** Call Mindspring Design at (856) 393-0385 to publish your own personal, custom logo style guide. **
Are you a small business owner or marketing manager seeking to hire a website designer or graphic designer? Before you do, you must read this great article by Andy Rutledge entitled Don’t Walk; Run.
He discusses how to save yourself time and money, and to get what you want out of your company’s creative projects. Too many designers simply don’t ask questions or ask the wrong questions, and are more concerned with where a pixel should go rather than meeting your business needs. Rutledge’s article is frank and to the point, and will help you identify a designer who is just as passionate about achieving your business goals as you are.
When choosing a printing company to produce your marketing materials, you want the best quality for your money. Here are a few tips to help you find the best printer for your marketing needs.
Get multiple price quotes from reputable printers. Make sure to send each printer the same project description so that you can compare apples to apples. Include the size of the paper, whether or not the artwork bleeds off the paper, number of ink colors, number of pages, type of paper, file type, etc. Be as descriptive as possible, a good printer will often follow up your enquiry with additional questions and suggestions.
Aside from your graphic designer, ask your printer any questions you have. They are knowledgeable about design layout, paper weights, ink colors, and more. Once you find a printer you like, try to build a relationship. You may even be able to visit the press facilities for a tour. This has been very helpful to me in the past.
Local Printers
I’ve had good experience with these local south Jersey printers. What printers have you used? Have you had good or bad experiences?
FedEx Kinkos (the Cherry Hill branch is open 24-hours — I’m listing it only for if you’re in a bind, but don’t expect miracles at this location, let alone a good print job)
I’ve also had good experiences using online printing services for pop-up banners, tablecovers, t-shirts, and direct mail postcards. Just make sure you use a reputable company that gives you a proof (so you can see what your final will look like) and has a good return policy. And make sure to call their customer service reps for any guidance and practical suggestions.
Ways to Save Money
Design with only 1 ink color.
Don’t let your design bleed off the paper.
Choose standard paper sizes.
Avoid folds, special cuts (die-cuts), special colors (like metallic inks).
Have you found a creative way to save money in your business printing endeavors? Let us know.
So you’ve spent lots of time and money designing your small business website, and you’ve just launched it for the public to see. But wait! Do you know you could be ignoring a large percentage of the population and thus reducing the market audience you are targeting?
You might take for granted that some users cannot use a mouse.
When designing your website, you should design web content in an accessible format (not as an afterthought), keeping in mind people who have:
Visual impairments (Blind, Color blind, Senior citizens)
Hearing impairments
Physically disabilities
Learning disabilities
English as a second language
Slower internet connections
Access to Internet content on multiple platforms (mobile phones, etc)
You will reap several business benefits by following web site accessibility standards:
Increase information access to more people using assistive technologies and adaptive technologies.
Accessibile web design is required by law in some places, so your business brand will benefit by complying with accessibility standards.
9 Accessibility Mistakes to Avoid When Designing a Website:
All your links read: “Click Here.” This could be confusing to visitors using screen readers and other assistive technologies. Instead, use a descriptive link that gives useful clues about where you’ll take them once they click.
You use tables to layout your web pages. Instead, use tables for organizing ‘tabular data’ (for charts and such) to eliminate confusing and repetitive table tags. Opt for CSS to layout and style your web content.
Your pages use extremely small type (because “it looks cool”) that can’t be resized in the browser. People with sight disabilities may need larger text in their browser. If your design breaks or doesn’t allow that, they will have to leave your website.
Color is used as an integral design or navigation element. That would confuse those who are color blind (take the color blind test). And remember some monitors don’t display colors accurately.
You’ve got light grey text on a white background or dark grey type on a black background (because it’s “so Web 2.0″). This makes reading a difficult and painstaking process. You need to use a bit more contrast for users with challenged vision. You don’t have to completely sacrifice design for functionality, but do keep this in mind. And do allow users to make their own decisions about how they browse your page.
All description, title and alt tags have been left blank so people must guess what your page and images are all about. Make sure your web designer goes that extra step, labeling and describing the contents of your page. This may mean that you, the business owner, must provide content for the designer to input.
There are no captions on any video or audio recordings, and no transcripts are provided for the deaf. Physically challenged users might miss out on this quality web content. So don’t leave anyone out, and make sure to offer alternative versions of your audio/visual content.
There are no descriptive tags in web forms explaining how to fill them out. Close your eyes and imagine filling out an online form. Where do you start, what should you type, in what format? To ensure that you recieve high quality form submissions (or recieve submissions at all), try including descriptive form tags. You web designer should also insert any instructions (like “enter year with four digits: 2010″) before the form fields, not after.
You used an online validator, but didn’t do any web content accessibility testing on actual users with disabilities. An online validator is a good place to start. But it is not a good substitute for a person. Testing your page on a group of people who have disabilities will give you most invaluable feedback about your site.
Above is the first free Mindspring Design video tutorial. It’s just under four minutes and is packed with good info if you’re starting off in Photoshop. Let me know if you have any questions or need clarification. Knowing about layers and masks is half the battle in learning Photoshop. Enjoy!!!
OK, I admit it — I’m lazy. I drink hot water because I don’t feel like getting a tea bag and sugar. In the same vein — I recently started recording my web tutorials and didn’t feel like opening up software to compress and convert the files. So instead I went to Zamzar.
Zamzar offers free file conversion for an impressive list of file types for your files up to 100 MB. Zamzar emails you once they’ve converted your file (which is usually pretty fast) and you have a day to download your converted file.
This is a good time-saving tool for busy small-business owners, or for those who don’t want to search for, purchase or download file conversion software. Try it out and let me know about your experience.
