Atricles from Web Design by Gaynor Tilley

Create a 3D view from your photos.

This mini video was created using Photosynth

The images show a garden which was designed and created by Contours Landscapes.Visit their website at www.contourslandscapes.co.uk

Labels: photography

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 20:01 0 Comments

Online Competitions

If you are looking to generate a mailing list or collect emails of people interested in your products, one way to do this would be an online competition.

PotteryPainters came up with their idea and I created the online version of the competition entry form which they are also printing and distributing offline.

They looked around online, found other similar competitions and adapted the format to suit their business, including all the terms and conditions.

Why not have a go and see if you can win a pottery painting party for the kids!
Online Entry Form

Alternatively if you would like to create something similar for your website, contact me.

Labels: contact form, web marketing

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 11:20 0 Comments

A Company Presentation on YouTube

The increasing popularity of YouTube means that more companies are beginning to place adverts online. You may not have the resources to create video ads but an easier solution is to convert a PowerPoint presentation, set some background music and let YouTube advertise your business, products or services.

Follow this link to see the QMUK Company Presentation about ISO Standards

If you are interested in marketing your business via YouTube, contact Web Design by Gaynor Tilley

Labels: web marketing

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 16:28 0 Comments

Internet Browsers

I was astonished to read that Internet Explorer and Firefox had an equal share of the market when it came to browsers used on the internet. I tried to verify these statistics and came across another set of figures which showed that IE (Internet Explorer) is the more popular web browser with a 68% share of the market and Firefox accounts for 21%.

Whichever version is the more realistic, it clearly shows that your website must be tested across different internet browsers to ensure it displays and functions correctly. Otherwise, you will lose potential customers.

Other internet browsers worth a mention here are Safari, Chrome and Opera which account for about 10% of the market between them.

If you have built your own website or have an older site, it may not be viewable in all web browsers and you could be losing customers.

Contact me today for a free review of your site, I can either reassure you that your site is fine or help you to improve it.

Labels: internet browsers

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 17:48 0 Comments

The best way to start your own internet business

Read this article from Business Link. Click here

They discuss the latest research figures which indicate that online shopping is up almost 50% despite the current climate and they take you through the initial steps for setting up your own internet business.

Websites obviously play a crucial role within this. E-commerce sites vary enourmously but I charge very competitive rates, from £600. Talk to me about your ideas and I will give you a free no obligation quote.

Labels: e-commerce, new business, sell online, sell products via your website

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 10:09 0 Comments

Should I Display an Email Address on My Site or Use a Contact Form?

Christopher Heng at thesitewizard.com writes an interesting article as to whether you should have a contact form on your website.

Read article

I would add to this.
When I include an email address on a website, I do so using code which makes it harder for spammers to harvest the email address.

The inconvenience of not receiving all the relevant information from a customer when they send you an email (e.g. they forget to include a contact telephone number) is, in my opinion, much better than the problems which are often encountered with contact forms.

• A contact form sometimes just stops working....but you don't realise until a customer actually tells you...how many other customers were lost as they just clicked away onto another site?
• Your webhost may change parameters on the server to limit spam mail, but this may result in you receiving some but not all of the enquiries via your contact form. How can you check this...only by regularly sending yourself half a dozen test enquiries from your website and making sure you receive them all.
• Internet "bots" can hijack contact forms which are not well protected, they then use them to send spam emails to others....but it looks like it is coming from your site. You could get blacklisted. Again, you often have no idea that it is even happening.
• Internet "bots" can send spam to you via a contact form on your site which does not have proper validation on all the content entered.

My advice is to use contact forms when you need to collect specific information from potential customers but be aware of the problems I have mentioned above.

Call me if you have further questions about the contact form on your website.

Labels: contact form

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 13:57 0 Comments

Promoting your website

The following article appears on www.bytestart.co.uk If you need help to achieve any of the points below, please call me.

5 ways to promote your website online
These days a website is a must for the vast majority of businesses. But there's no point in having a great looking website if nobody can find it, so here are 5 tips to help you to promote your website online and get visitors to your website;
1. Get more links to your website
Forget all the "quick fixes" to building links that you see advertised, the best thing to do is build up a bank of links yourself over time. You should look to exchange links with other relevant websites. Also, take part in business forums, visit relevant blogs and add comments. Add some value to the website you are contributing to and make sure you always have a link to your website in your signature.
2. Write articles
One of the best ways to display your knowledge is to write articles on subjects that you have an expertise in. If you write good quality articles, there are a host of websites that accept original content from experts. You will be spreading the word about your website and getting another link.
3. Use email marketing
When visitors come to your site give them the opportunity to leave their name and email address. The option to sign up to a regular email newsletter is a popular way to do this, as it's an excellent way to encourage repeat visits.
4. Add a blog
If you have a fair bit to say, why not add a blog to your website. By including social media tags for aggregators like del.icio.us, Technorati and Digg you can make it easy for people to spread the word about your blog.
5. Pay per click advertising
If you need visitors right away – the only guaranteed way to do that is to buy traffic by advertising online. Pay Per Click (PPC), advertising is popular with lots of small businesses because you can target your advert very specifically and you only pay when someone clicks on your advert.

For the original article and other useful information about this topic, please follow this link http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/news/1_14/business121-newsletter-144.shtml

Labels: blogging, pay per click, search engine optimsation

posted by Gaynor Tilley @ 10:48 0 Comments