UNIQUE Advertising Solutions + Graphic Design

Web Design, Marketing, and the aimless thoughts of an entrepreneur

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Category Archives: Business Tips

Can’t I use Frontpage or Google Pages to build my website?

As a web designer I constantly hear “cant I just use Microsoft FrontPage or Google pages to build my site”?  With the invention of WYSIWYG editors there has been a massive increase of poorly coded D.I.Y web pages introduced to the Internet. Everyone and their grandmother now has the power to build a website. This is a wonderful thing,  you no longer have to hire someone to build your personal website, family reunion site, pet site, etc. However, there is a flip side to this. Self proclaimed website designers have sprouted up everywhere, that are more than willing to take your hard earned money to build you a substandard site.  I see it every day, and a new client comes to me and says I spent $1000 on this but it doesn’t quite work right.  After a 10 second glance at the code I immediately know that the fix is a complete rebuild, and at that point I am forced to explain to this individual that they were basically ripped off.  Now with that said I’m not saying that the designer intentionally ripped them off, many times the designer is as much in the dark as the client is and the simple fact is that they are not experienced enough to be offering a service but with the current economy they have to do something to attempt to make a living.

 

There is a huge difference in a hand coded, professional grade website compared to a website made in  FrontPage’s design view or Google Page builder. Website code, either you know what you’re doing or you don’t. Using any program’s Design View will 99% of the time eliminate any hopes of XHTML or CSS validity. You can also scratch off cross browser compatibility, it’s not happening.

 

Design view takes one very important element out of the website design process, Intelligence. That may sound harsh but it’s true. Both FrontPage and Google Pages along with a myriad of other WYSIWYG editors are designed for one thing and one thing only, to provide a means for the average computer user to throw together an amateur web page and that is awesome for family reunion, kids sports teams and so on but not for a business.  In fact a site like this will most likely do more harm than good.  When someone builds an amateur site like this for a business and I visit it I will usually automatically dismiss them with the thought “If there website looks like this what does their _____ look like” and then move on till I find someone with a professional appearance.

 

There are other immediate downsides as well.  If you have ever used a WYSIWYG editor and looked at the “code view” you have almost certainly asked “What’s all this extra code”? Well that’s the problem I can’t tell you. In fact, in most cases it extremely outweighs the actual content on the web page. The reason this code is there is that these WYSIWYG programs don’t have the ability to figure out the most efficient way to accomplish something (the intelligence factor I mentioned earlier).

 

The next question that is probably going through your head is what’s wrong with a little extra code? Isn’t it all about how it looks? Did you know that the code to content ratio actually has an effect on your search engine ranking? It is a very important factor in determining a websites ‘worth’ on search engines.  This is bad news for any website hoping to pick up traffic from search engines. Also this completely eliminates the chances of a website working in multiple browsers.

 

This is quite simple. There is no WYSIWYG editor or “easy to use web building software” that can efficiently write code and use proper design principles.  Now if you are looking to have someone build your website for you don’t be afraid to ask them about W3C Code validation and what programs they use to design in and then ask them ask them if they build in design view. If they do, you’re probably not where you want to be.  There is a caveat to this is using WYSIWYG editors to edit elements on a page is fine.  Me and my programmers use a program called Dreamweaver to “EDIT” pages once they are created.  What I mean by edit is swapping out pictures or something simple for a client the code is always hand coded.

 

UNIQUE Advertising Solutions is a North Carolina Web Design Company, all of our sites are hand coded by professionals based in the USA, we never outsource your project.  Our programmers are employees of UNIQUE.

 

Cheap Logo Design, Not Really Cheap In Reality

In the web design industry we have 2 types of clients, we have the “how much is it”s and “I want this”s. These two types differ greatly, the first type, the “how much is it”s leads with that question and typically they want something cheap. The other kind, the “I want this”s know what they want and they are willing to pay to have it done right. Here at UNIQUE we have both of these daily, and we build sites for both. With prices starting at $600 for a completely custom design we can usually please everyone.

I have been wanting to touch on the “cheap ways” for a while now and really show what the difference is. So the other day I found a budget logo designer and paid for 2 projects. I chose 2 designs that I currently was working on myself for clients so that I would have comparisons. Now obviously if my “cheap designs” had turned out good I would not be writing this right now, but as expected they came out garbage.

Before we dive into the work let me explain a little about design, specifically our design process. When we design a logo we make the rough draft and with that rough draft we use a program to scan the internet to find similar or same images. If our new design comes back with no matches then we are typically good. But if something comes back too similar then we make something new. Why go to all this trouble? Well a company’s logo is probably one of the most important visual elements they have and if it is the same as someone else then it is not really unique, plus there are the trademark and copyright issues that are also important to avoid. When we design a logo we take all these measures to ensure that the user gets something truly UNIQUE and that reflects positively on their business.

The Cheap Designs

Now let’s get into the designs, I gave the designer some basic instructions. Simple, clean, and modern and here is what I received.

As you see both are quite bad, the first looks like a descent concept but it is very glitchy in the curves.

Here is the Real Design

Now here is the logo that we designed for the same project, and of course the client loved it.

Here are some other logos that we have designed.

Conclusion

Getting it done right the first time may cost a bit more initially, but getting a professional design, that has been checked to make sure that it is legal and original to use, the first time, saves you time and money in the long run. Paying for 2,3 maybe even more designs can get expensive, far more expensive than just paying for it initially to be done right.

New Press Release

With Google logging more than 2 billion searches per day the web has become an integral part of most businesses, even businesses that have been around for many years are having to build a presence on the web to continue to grow their business. Growing a web presence as many know is not an easy process and finding the correct company to design and manage a program is probably more complicated than ever. With what seems to be an endless supply of so called web designers how does one pick the right one?

Well UNIQUE Advertising Solutions + Graphic Design makes that choice a little bit easier. They have broken the traditional web design company mold with in-house financing. With a partial payment to start and payments as low as $100 per month it has never been more affordable to have a professionally built website. UNIQUE does a lot of things differently, with roots as a marketing company there is a solid understanding of advertising works. Building a successful website is far more than simply making a cool design.

A website is nothing more than a sales tool, sometimes that tool drives customers to a physical store or restaurant and sometimes it closes the sale before the user leaves the website. These variables are extremely important. A website should drive it’s users to the website owners ultimate goal, whatever that may be. To make that happen the web designer needs to have a solid grasp on marketing to specific demographics, and this is something UNIQUE thrives at.
With UNIQUE’s in-house financing programs and their unique out of the box style they are an affordable and solid web design solution for any business that is trying to build a web presence

Visit UNIQUE today at UNIQUE Advertising Solutions

http://www.uniqueadvertisingsolutions.com

See the Full PR Here

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UNIQUE Advertising Solutions Commercial with Morgan Freeman….

UNIQUE is a North Carolina Web Design company.

Why choose UNIQUE for your website project?

• We provide our clients with first rate design and website building services. We are ranked a top ten design firm by http://top10designer.com/
• We are a marketing company so we understand that there is more to a website than simply the design itself.
• We provide you with the cost beforehand and there are never any hidden charges down the road.
• We make our deadlines.
• Our prices for a fully custom information site begin at $600 and the average turnaround time is 10 days.
• We work very closely with our clients throughout the design process to make sure that we build exactly what you want.
• We do it RIGHT the FIRST time.
• We also can provide hosting, quad core servers, 100 mbit connections speeds, GUARANTEED 99.9% uptime $16.99 per month.
• A few other services that we provide, business card design and printing, brochures, promotional items, screen printing, direct to garment, we are a one stop shop for all of your advertising needs.

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There’s more to a website….

There are literally thousands of website designers out there but as with many things they are not all created equally.  Learning to write code and put a website together is not nearly as hard as most would think.  There are many elements to a website, far more than just the code.

You can think of a website as a map for the user, creating that map is easy but making the user take the route you want them to take can be far more challenging.  Let’s take a look at the basics of a website, usually the main objective is to make a sale or create a lead.  Many designers overlook this basic fact and spend all their efforts driving traffic to a site.  But in all reality if you get 10000 hits a day and the site does not convert those hits into sales then that traffic is useless.  That’s where the psychology of a website comes into play.

Creating a website that drives its users to the goal is the key to a profitable website. This is what really sets UNIQUE apart from many others out there, we take all these variables into consideration.

I can’t count how many clients I’ve had over the years that paid some big company to build their site and spent sometimes 20,000+ for a site that looks really nice but doesn’t do it’s number one job, convert.   It’s unfortunate that this happens and in most cases the designer has no idea they are missing a critical piece of the puzzle.

Awesome Marketing Idea

Me and my better half were sitting around watching tv and were discussing food, as in we wanted some but were feeling a bit lazy and neither felt like cooking. I was at my “small desk” playing around on Facebook and one of my friends had the new Dominoes Tracker thing in a recent post, he ordered wings and a pizza that seemed like a good idea so I did the same. I clicked the “grab some grub” and a few mins later I posted my own tracker. That little cheesy (no pun intended) facebook app did its job, perfectly.

Intriguing marketing strategies like this are hard to come by, the guys at Dominoes have a winner. If you would like to see what UNIQUE ideas we can come up with for your business give us call!

On an added note: From the time of order to the time the pizza was in our hands was 16 mins, that’s killer.

New Website for City Computer

I just put the finishing touches on Tom Roberson’s new website.  I used a basic HTML CSS design with some custom graphics.  Check it out, and if you are local to Rutherfordton NC Check out Toms store, on Main St in Forest City NC.  When if comes to computer repair there is a difference in a technician and a “parts changer” City Computer is absolutely technicians.

Link to City Computer 

City Computer Website

City Computer Website Design by UNIQUE Advertising Solutions

 

 

 

Why your business needs a website..

Businesses come in all shapes and sizes; each business has its own variety of needs.  When it comes to advertising, the methods vary greatly but it doesn’t matter if you are a fortune 100 or a small mom and pop shop, you want more customers.

So now for the “Why your business needs a website” part, a website can be a somewhat large expense for a small business, but what most people do not realize is the fact that every dollar spent on online marketing reportedly brings back ten dollars within the first year.

Did you know that Google has more users than phone books and radio ads do combined, so if you do not have a website listed with Google how many new clients are you missing out on?

Your existing customers also use Google too, take a pizza place as an example, a customer may use the same place 10 times a year and every time they need the phone number they get on Google and try to find it. If your site isn’t on Google then the customer will go with the one that is listed instead of yours.

Did you know that 80% of customers will visit a store’s website before they ever actually go in; they say you only get one chance to make a first impression.  Your website is that first impression, what do you want it to be?

You can use your website to help create loyalty with your customers by using mailing lists, utilizing Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.  This gives you the ability to connect your customers and develop relationships with them, nearly guaranteeing that they will come back to you.

OpenCart vs Miva Merchant

As a web designer and business owner I like open source software as much as the next guy because its free.  However I am not willing to sacrifice features and ease of use to save a few bucks.  Recently we have been cranking out a lot of ecommerce sites and I have had the chance to test out numerous platforms, some were ok, some were great and some were terrible.

Ill start with Miva, basically everything with Miva was done in a proprietary format.  I personally spent well over an hour attempting to create a theme for a miva cart, after that I tried to do a few more things unsuccessfully.  Basically every single thing that I attempted was exceptionally difficult.  On top of the difficulty level of design and operation there is the cost for a little more than $50 bucks a month you can have an ecommerce setup that requires a degree from MIT to use.

Now we have OpenCart which is a free open source software.  Again I spent a little over an hour with OpenCart, in that same hour I had the entire cart configured and was about 80% done with a custom theme.  Needless to say after screwing around with Miva, OpenCart was a huge relief.  Everything with OpenCart is done in basic CSS and PHP making it very easy to customize the site.

I have  recently converted a couple of my clients from Miva to OpenCart and they all love the admin section because it is so much easier to use and add products to than Miva.  I still have not figured out why one of the most expensive ecommerce solutions is so difficult to use and a free one is so easy, that somewhat defies logic.

I know this may sound like a Miva bash but if I had started this post under the principle of  “if you cant say anything nice don’t say anything at all” this post would have been very short, at least the Miva section would be.

When you take all the factors into consideration ease of use, no monthly fees, vs extreme difficult to use and fairly expensive monthly fees, choosing OpenCart over Miva is a No Brainer.

opencart vs miva