The Client: Jeff Kaller.com

Project Description: Investment and Short Sale eCommerce Site.

Project Features: Logo design, graphic web design, HTML, XML development, PHP backend administration, automated templating system, content management, complete web hosting control panel, dynamic input forms, and WordPress search friendly development.

Client Testimonial: “Sam and image-biz.com built my JeffKaller.com website, the display offer ads, and our new logo. Sam was always available for questions, and NEVER says no… Never… I love that!” – Jeff Kaller

Visit the website > www.JeffKaller.com

The Client: Matt and Randy.com

Project Description: Investment and Short Sale eCommerce Site.

Project Features: Logo design, graphic web design, HTML, XML development, PHP backend administration, automated templating system, content management, complete web hosting control panel, dynamic input forms, and WordPress search friendly development.

Client Testimonial: “Sam and image-biz.com built the MattandRandy.com website, the display offer ads,  and our new logo. These guys are the real deal!”

Visit the website > www.MattandRandy.com

By Lynette Crase

One of the benefits of using WordPress for your blogs is that you can easily change the layout of your blog by changing the theme. There are many free WordPress themes, or free blog templates, that are available. You can also choose to have a unique theme designed for you. In addition, you can also purchase a pre-made theme.

A WordPress theme is a collection of files that will create graphics for your blog. This provides a type of skin for your blog, almost the way a book cover will change the look of a book. By choosing a theme that reflects the subject of your blog, you can make your blog more appealing to your visitors. It can also make your blog much more memorable.

WordPress has two themes that come with the basic installation of your blog. These themes are very simple and are a very generic design.

WordPress has their own theme directory which contains over 500 themes and the number is growing. When you look at the directory, you will be able to see a list of the most popular themes. You will also be able to see a list of the newest themes that have been added. Still another section will show you themes that have been recently updated.

To easily find a theme that goes along with your blog, use the Search feature at the top of the page. Type in a word or phrase and you will be shown the themes that go along with those search criteria.

WordPress encourages each theme designer to come up with their own installation instructions for their theme. When you select a theme, be sure to read the directions for installation so that you would be able to use the theme correctly.

Another option that you will see in the same section where you will see the different themes is an option for headers. This is slightly different than choosing a theme because it does not affect the entire blog page, but it is simply a different graphic at the top of the blog. You can use something like this if you want to keep a clean, crisp area for your text without any clutter.

One thing to keep in mind is that you do not only want to choose a theme that will be aligned with your subject matter, but you also want to consider the purpose for your blog. If you have a blog that is for business purposes, it is best to keep a theme that is either business oriented or is somewhat plain. You want to avoid whimsical designs (unless whimsical designs would be a perfect complement to the subject matter of your blog and your business).

Remember that you can always change your theme later. There are plenty of free WordPress themes to choose from, and it is very easy to switch from one theme to another. Be adventurous and try something different with your WordPress blog.

You can download ten free original WordPress themes, from WordPress How To Pro to use on your own WordPress blogs. For more WordPress hints and tips please visit http://www.wordpresshowtopro.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynette_Crase
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Find-Free-WordPress-Themes&id=1956243

By John Frey

With the advancement in Information Technology around the world, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has accentuated in making world-wide web a mainstream business platform for its local organizations and companies. However, the software solution providers, especially, the web designers in UAE face many challenges to cope up with their competitors across the globe.

Here are the top 8 mistakes that UAE based web designers make:

1. Lack of strategy and plan for the website
The lack of strategy and plan before they design a website is the biggest problem the designers face. The idea behind the website should be clearly defined and the target audience should be identified. When we define our users and their usability goals, we can then devise a better approach to design the website.

2. Complex designs
The web designers lack the real usability asset in their websites. They go for designs that are too complex for the visitors/users to understand. The website design and the content navigation guide the visitors/users and help them find what they’re looking for. The web designers should make the users feel comfortable when they are navigating through the website.

3. Contradiction of design and the theme of the website
You might come across those eye-catching websites that tickle your senses but that’s not all what a website design should be about. The contradiction of the theme of the website with the designs is also a huge hindrance to a user-friendly website. The design of the website should brand your company’s look and feel. For example, if you’re designing a law firm’s website and using a flashy design then it may not be able to deliver your brand identity to your visitors.

4. Lack of SEO in design
Search engines are the biggest traffic referral sources for websites. The web designers fail to design search-engine-friendly websites because they don’t realize that search engine optimization has paramount significance to a good website design.

5. Non-interactive designs
Some web designers in UAE often design websites that are not interactive; in fact, the design is just a dictation from the designer. The design of the website speaks out your business idea and converts visitors into customers. When a visitor feels that website is letting him do what he wants, that’s when your website gets starred. The web design should follow the principles of orchestration and hide redundant details from the user.

6. High scrolling pages
Most of the web designers overdo the page length incorporating stale text. Too much scrolling tends to loose the visitor’s interest in your website. Every time he wants to look up for something, he has to scroll up and down a million times, therefore, wasting the time and effort of the visitor. A good website design should be kept simple by maintaining a single concept per page.

7. Increased number of clicks
The most common mistake by the web designers is that they don’t reduce the number of clicks required to reach a certain page. The visitor gets lost into the hierarchy and don’t feel comfortable using the website.

8. Language errors and left justification of Arabic websites
Some of the web designers are not even adequately adept at Arabic; therefore, they don’t understand the most important difference between an English website and an Arabic website: English websites are left justified and the Arabic websites are right justified. The language errors in the content of the website may dissuade the users resulting in the decrease of website traffic.

If the web designers avoid these common mistakes, design simply and creatively; and follow the HCI guidelines, they will be able to achieve better ROIs. Going through this checklist will make sure that your website attracts more traffic.

John Frey is an author of a number of online business development articles. He has been working for highly reputed Software Solution Provider, Elevation New Media, for over decade now and is an expert in providing useful tips to optimize websites. For more details, Please visit: http://www.elevationnewmedia.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Frey
http://EzineArticles.com/?Website-Design—Top-8-Mistakes-Most-of-the-Web-Designers-Make&id=2602117

By Jamie Ratliff

Many people are looking to the Internet these days to either expand their business or simply to connect with others by creating a blog or even a family website. There was a time when creating a professional looking website meant that you had to either hire someone to design the site for you or you were required to learn programming such as html. Those days are in the past, as long as you know where to look.

• XSitePro
• WordPress
• Dreamweaver

There are many resources for website designers, but very few are geared toward creating a streamlined website that is easy to update and also looks like it was professionally created. A major problem is that there are millions of websites today that simply have not been updated in months, or even years! I think many times people will create a site, and then they find it is too much of a hassle to keep it updated, or they might have paid someone to create it but cannot afford to pay someone to update it. There are a few tools that make it very easy to not only create a website, but also keep it updated. As someone who has designed websites for over 6 years now, I even find myself attracted to these tools. They are not only a great solution for the non-programmer but they can even save a seasoned designer a lot of time when updating sites or refreshing the design structure.

One of these tools I will discuss is XSitePro. This software was originally created with the Internet Marketer or Affiliate Marketer in mind, but don’t let that intimidate you. The software makes creating a website as simple as choosing a template and then using an interface similar to word to type in your content. One of the biggest benefits to new webmasters is that they include quite a few templates with the software, so you can browse through and choose how you want your website to look.

Although XSitePro is a great tool for beginners, it does offer many advanced features for the experienced webmaster. You can create snippets of code that are easily inserted into every page. For example, suppose you are using a javascript type counter and want it to be in the header of every page. The software makes this as easy as putting the code into one box and it will automatically be inserted into every single page that is created. There are many features that are beyond the scope of this article.

I imagine in a few years, it will be almost a requirement to have an online presence. Most businesses have already realized the benefit of a website, and many people are using the Internet as a way to express themselves or become involved with online communities. If you have been dreaming of creating a website, but have no clue about html or design, you should know that there are solutions available that can help you realize your dream.

Jamie Ratliff is a website designer and Internet Marketer. He has recently introduced new ways for beginners to get started with building websites or expanding their business to the Internet. You can learn more about Jamie at his blog at http://www.jamieratliff.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jamie_Ratliff
http://EzineArticles.com/?Web-Design-For-Beginners&id=584351

CSS Secrets – CSS Table Less Format and HTML Table Base Format, Which One You Prefer

By Vaishali Kapote

I have been doing extensive research on net regarding people’s opinion on building website using CSS div based format over HTML table based format and have found that there is a lot more improvement in terms of page size, load time and search engine positioning after switching to CSS div based format.

CSS is syntactic, it’s fast and lightweight. Compared to HTML, developing a site in CSS table less format is more systematic. The clarity of the code in CSS makes you feel much in control where as in HTML table based format we just go on pumping the tables into the design leading to more complex and cluttered html code. CSS is definitely more of an efficient way to code, as the style sheet is loaded once and cached, versus loading the table code with every page.

Depends on how complicated website design is I would recommend CSS over HTML. In CSS the basic principle is to use div tags as containers to hold different elements instead of table cells. Assigning an id or class to those div allows you to add styles and to position them using an external style sheet instead of over and over again in each td. Many times instead of going for 100 percent CSS table less development people use partial CSS div based and partial HTML table based procedure. For e.g. They use a table for holding things in place and assign ids or classes to the tds for styling, which is still better than a purely table based design with inline styles.

As far as code goes, we all know now that CSS generates less code and it is search engine friendly but it has certain limitations and problem, often it is because of browser incompatibility. I’ve seen lots of website layouts done with CSS, where the content breaks the layout and boxes overlap each other, making certain parts of the content unreadable. Such things are easily manageable using tables where as CSS would require multiple “hacks” to produce the desired outcome.

Redesigning a CSS div based site is much easier and less time consuming than HTML table based site. This is because CSS designs have separate files for content and visual data including web page structure whereas table based designs mix layout information with content in the same file. Table based HTML sites heavily relay on spacers (transparent gifs) to control blank spaces within the sites, where as this can be easily achieved using margins and padding in CSS layout.

Although CSS based design appears to be simpler, neat and tidy you need to spend significant amount of time learning the rules of the CSS. This comes through practice only. If you want to make pure CSS div based designs, be prepared to invest time in learning. No matter how seasoned developer or designer you are, be prepared to hunt down the bugs relentlessly for endless hours.

Web developers must consider their clients preference before finalizing the format. If the client is more concerned about standards and wants to be sure not to use any deprecated strings in their webpage then CSS div based design is the best option.

Finally we can say let the war continues between CSS div based and HTML table based design to our benefit. In the mean time designers and developers can add on more knowledge and practice with both tables and CSS and become more versatile to handle any situation.

Vaishali Kapote

For WebsiteDesign.in

- A unique and creative design studio providing Custom website design & Graphic design services for Branding, Web, Application development, Interactive, Print, Programming, and Specialty projects.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vaishali_Kapote
http://EzineArticles.com/?CSS-Table-Less-Format-and-HTML-Table-Base-Format,-Which-One-You-Prefer&id=2306045