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Newsletter - July 2008

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:17:06 +0100

Dear Valued Customer,

Newsletter: July 2008

Welcome to Virtual Web Designs newsletter. You are getting this newsletter, because you are or have been a customer of Virtual Web Designs.

To unsubscribe from our newsletter please email us at unsubscribe@vwdesigns.co.uk with the subject heading “unsubscribe”.

Please note if you currently hold an account with us, this will not unsubscribe you from important system announcements.

Contents

1. New Data Centre – Server Move
2. Nominet Registrar
3. New Online Invoicing System
4. Search Engine Optimisation & Registration
5. New Software Planned for 2008
6. PHPTracker.co.uk
7. Bespoke Software

New Data Centre – Server Move

We will be changing our current data centre to a new data centre from July 2008. All our customers will be placed on new Xeon Dual Core servers running either Unix or Windows. The planned changeover will take effect from mid July to the end of August 2008.

We will be introducing a new control panel and webmail, all users will have greater control over there own hosting accounts. We will release more information, once the new servers have been setup and are working correctly.

On behalf of all clients we will be voluntarily offsetting the CO2 emissions caused by our servers in this new data centre.

The data centre currently uses a conservation charity World Land Trust as the organisation to carry out their offset. World Land Trust regenerates degraded forest in Ecuador, working through local partners. Planting native species on land next to standing forest not only takes CO2 out of the atmosphere it also extends existing wildlife reserves, thus preserving threatened habitat and biodiversity.

Features

New Xeon Dual Core Servers
New Anti-Spam filtering software with user control
New Control Panel
New Webmail

We apologies in advance for any inconvenience caused, by this move.

Nominet Registrar

Virtual Web Designs (Webnetics UK Ltd) has now become a member of Nominet enabling us to register all .uk domains for our customers. Our new IPS TAG will be WEBNETICSUK

We are in the process of writing new software to comply with Nominet Automation, EPP Systems and email PGP Encryption using our servers. Once the software has been completed Nominet will then test to make sure it complies with their rules. Once it has been approved by Nominet. Our IPS Tag will then be made active.

Search Engine Optimisation & Registration

Our search engine optimisation & registration service has also done very well last year and also looks like it going to be just as successful this year. All our customers who have signed up for this service have found their websites doing very well on Google, Yahoo, Msn, etc. We have also increased there Page Ranking and Alexa Ranking. Some of our customers are no longer paying for Google Ad words, saying then a lot of money. We have also increased the number of visitors by up to 65%. How do we know this is by using our own live tracking system. This records live stats in real time, unlike Google stats you don’t have to wait 24 hours for results. This will also tracks PHP websites, as well as static html pages. VrStats has been in beta testing for 1 year now and works very well. Using VrStats has helped us to target our clients websites to the right audience.

If customers what a FREE demo using VrStats for 7 days, please contact us.

New software planned for 2008

Virtual Web Designs has some existing new software planned for this year. We have seen a gap in the market for high quality software at very affordable prices, under cutting a lot of the software supplies for bespoke software by up to ¾ in some cases. How de we achieve this? Over the last three years we have designed and developed software for various clients. We always try to design our software in modular format, so we can quickly put new software packages together at very low prices. This way the client does not pay for the development of new software. We are also planning to sell all our software from our new site VrScripts.com

PHPTracker.co.uk

PHPTracker.co.uk will be selling VrTracker from its own website, this is due to be launched in August 2008. PHPTracker will be totally independent from VrScripts.com. PHPTracker will also be the main support and selling site for VrTracker. All further upgrades will come from PHPTracker. Upgrades will still be available from VrScripts.com, once they come available.

VrTracker is a complete PHP licensing and distribution system for Independent Software Vendors and PHP Developers from start to finish. Through the very flexible administrative panel, you are able to configure your settings and then simply sit back and dedicate your time to developing your product - without needing to worry about ordering, licensing or distribution.

Completely automated, you are able to setup multiple order forms across different sites, which your users can use to purchase your product. VrTracker then handles the invoicing and payment from your customers, and once completed can automatically issue a license key and provide access to your product downloads through the client area.

Bespoke software

If you're ever in need of a particular bespoke software application then drop us an e-mail for a free quote, All prices quoted are fixed and firm, unless you require additional work outside the original quote.

We feel so confident about our bespoke software prices, if you find a quote cheaper than us we will match there price and take 10% off.

Advanced Notice – New Data Centre

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:21:21 +0100

We are changing our current data centre to a new data centre from July 208 All our customers will have the option of being placed on new Xeon Dual Core servers with 4gb memory running either Lunix or Windows. The new data centre is also carbon neutral, offsetting its carbon against conservation projects.

We will also be introducing a new control panel and webmail on all our new servers, also all users will now have greater control over there own hosting accounts. We will release more information, once the new servers have been setup and are working correctly.

We will be emailing all our customers, once the new servers are fully operational.

Virtual Web Designs - Nominet Member

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:20:43 +0100

Virtual Web Designs (Webnetics UK Ltd) has now become a member of Nominet enabling us to register all .uk domains for our customers. Our new IPS TAG will be WEBNETICSUK

We are in the process of writing new software to comply with Nominet Automation and EPP Systems.

Carbon Neutral Data Centre

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:17:45 +0100

Virtual Web Designs now becomes carbon neutral with a move to a new data centre. On behalf of all clients Virtual Web Designs is voluntarily offsetting all the CO2 emissions caused by our servers in this new data centre.

The data centre currently uses a conservation charity World Land Trust as the organisation to carry out their offset. World Land Trust regenerates degraded forest in Ecuador, working through local partners. Planting native species on land next to standing forest not only takes CO2 out of the atmosphere it also extends existing wildlife reserves, thus preserving threatened habitat and biodiversity.

VrEncoder v0.5 Beta

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:28:16 +0100

Virtual Web Designs are now in the process of Beta testing of our latest software called VrEncoder. This will be sold as a standalone package and will also be incorporated in our VrTracker software, which is PHP licensing software system.

VrEncoder has been specifically designed to protect software or scripts written using the PHP programming language from being altered in any way. This means they cannot be viewed, changed, or run on unlicensed computers.

VrEncoder protects PHP / HTML scripts with obfuscated bytecode protection and a custom execution engine. In addition, any other project files can be automatically encrypted if required.

Features

• Works with PHP4.x or better
• Requires no additional software to be installed on your server or on your clients server
• Works both on your localhost server OR online via HTTP
• Requires no changes to the default PHP installation
• Works in PHP safe mode and with globals off
• Encrypts PHP or HTML files (including HTML or javascript embedded into PHP)
• ZLIB compression as part of the encryption.
• Encrypts Browser HTML Output (Protects HTML source! / form data / image URL's and email addresses - the right click function is also disabled!)
• Encrypt only segments of your page(s)
• Encrypt individual files, complete directories, or ZIP files
• Password protect scripts with your own unique unlock key
• Unique page Encryption
• LOCK your script to specific IP addresses or domain names
• Create your own expiry date so that trial software, scripts, or pages run out after a specific time or on a specific date
• Create and Save multiple projects
• Runs super fast
• Can also be added into our VrTracker, PHP licensing software system.

VrAutoTrader v1.0

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:14:37 +0100

Virtual Web Designs have now released our latest software called VrAutoTrader.

VrAutoTrader provides you with all features you need to setup your own car dealership website.

General Features

• Easy installs into any website design
• Print A Listing
• SEO Friendly URL for Listings.
• Language Customisation
• Change Money Format
• Cache Technology for Pictures
• Database Backup
• Re-Create Cache
• Integrated Search
• Full Featured Listing Page
• Built In WYSIWYG Editor
• Listing Management System
• Online Preview
• Display / Hide Options
• View Map Option
• Unlimited Pages
• Unlimited Categories
• Unlimited Showrooms or Dealers
• Unlimited Car Information
• Web Based Secure Administration Panel
• Email Template Management
• Content Management System
• And many more …..

VrPhotoStock v1.0

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:05:47 +0100

Virtual Web Designs have now released our latest software called VrPhotoStock. VrPhotoStock will provide all the features you need to setup your own eCommerce stock photo website on your own domain name.

VrPhotoStock will display your photos in any way you like. You can choose to display the thumbnails based on Proportional Method, Forced Method, Crop and Enlarge Method, Fit Width Method or also Fit Height Method. Adjust the way each picture should display according to your needs.

VrPhotoStock watermarking system will allow you to protect your photos with your own logo.. Just put your logo as transparent PNG file and let it works for you. Also if you used crop and enlarge method for photo enhancement, then you can make sure where your logo should be displayed Also, you can make your photos rounded
VrPhotoStock Statistics tells the customer about the basic statistics such as how many this photo has been downloaded, send as e-card, purchased, viewed and added to favourites.

General Features

· Search Engine Friendly
· Keyword Index
· Integrated Paypal Payment Module
· The Built-In IPTC Function
· Shopping Basket
· Accepts multiple currencies
· Integrated Search
· Automatic Watermark
· Online Gallery
· Administration Panel
· Website Properties
· Email Template Management
· Built In WYSIWYG Editor
· Photo & Picture Properties
· Payment Preference Method
· Automatic Photo Enhancement
· Custom Layout
· Products Management
· Font Management System
· Photo Management System
· Online Keyword Index Report
· Online Search Logs Report
· Online Order Management
· Automatic Download
· Preview Tool
· Slide Show
· Send As E-Card
· Coupon Codes
· Template Driven
· MySQL DB backup
· Photo Favourite
· Language Conversion
· Basic Photo Statistic

VrShop Update v1.2 to v1.3

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:57:55 +0100

Version 1.3 of VrShop has been released today. This update contains a number of bug fixes, logic improvements and a couple of important changes. One of these is for a minor cross-site scripting flaw in the search routines in VrShop Server (although a default installation would not be prone to this and it depends upon certain template changes) and the capturing and dealing with a particularly poorly written robot that is not handling URLs correctly and can cause undue load on servers through requesting erroneous URLs when safe URLs are activated in VrShop.

New Features / Enhancements

_ mySQL 5 STRICT_TRANS_TABLES compliance. This has required a variety of coding changes in the system and changes to the database structure which will be actioned when running the update
_ Code to handle a particularly poorly written bot that cannot handle safe urls correctly and may cause excessive bandwidth usage. This change will not stop the requests happening, as there is no way for us to achieve that as it is outside of our control. This change will, however, try to stop VrShop executing these as a normal page request leading to less PHP processing and no mySQL connection being made. Patches have been made available for older versions to include this change without upgrading
_ Several new spiders now detected by spiderDetect.php
_ Changes to the Worldpay integration for test and live URLs

Bug Fixes

_ Changes to session handling, specifically for AOL users
_ Strip slashes on Paypal response (for characters that are 'escaped')
_ Removed double line break in email headers
_ Fix for minor XSS flaw in search results page (please note that this is not a problem in the default VrShop installation and search.html template, however if you are outputting the search string anywhere other than the search string entry box, you should apply this) Patches have been made available for older versions to include this change without upgrading
_ Changes to replace insert logic when importing
_ Several other import and export logic changes
_ Stock warning emails with product options may not have output the product options on the email
_ Erroneous > by supplier selection field on the product editing screen
_ Minimum quantity field now available on Import
_ Searching for & on admin searches may have led to being logged out
_ Quickbooks COGS account now correctly output on the exported IIF file
_ Improved logic for picking normal price when base prices exist for different account types and other discount structures are used
_ Improved stock control logic for items where you only wish to track option level stock
_ Stock level table (for product template) now created correctly
_ Remote password now saves correctly on SecPay settings screen

Dev/Beta and Release Candidates

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:57:07 +0100

Work is already in progress on a number of new software applications and updates for our existing software. As items are developed we will be releasing development builds, betas and eventually, when we prepare for the actual launch, release candidates. This will help us to test, and obtain feedback, throughout the development process.

These releases will only be made available to the same users that qualify for this, e.g. if your license is less than a year old or your license has a support level with us. We are doing this for several reasons but mainly this is to ensure that those who continue to support our system are given access to, and can provide feedback on, new facilities in the development phase and influence their implementation. In addition this will enable those with support to potentially use the beta and release candidate versions on their live sites and obtain support for any problems they encounter. This, we hope, will provide us with much better testing results. In the past our open betas have been of limited success with the majority of the testing being cursory and not representational of the data and demands of live sites and we feel that providing support to those who wish to use them in a more meaningful environment will help provide us with greater feedback.

Much of the new functionality will be coming from our current users and over the next few weeks. We're hopeful that the first of the development builds will be made available within the next month.

Official releases to the core products will continue to be made available to all license holders on the day of release

Reseller Licenses

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:56:40 +0100

We will be launching a reseller system to enable existing users to purchase additional licenses at a discount for our software. We'll provide more information as the systems we're writing to support this are closer to completion. In the meantime, if you would like to provide some input on what you would like to see in the reseller system please contact us.

Master Your Keywords, Part 1: Organise

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:59:30 +0100

Too often, clients either perform no keyword research, or do their research on an ad hoc basis. As a result, they miss out on many opportunities to drive more traffic to their sites. In this article, I'll explain why planning is so essential and should be closely aligned to your business strategy.

Good planning and a systematic approach will allow you to get the best results from your keyword research. Don't dive straight into a project! Take the time to think it through and understand exactly what you're trying to achieve before you start work.

People who think about keyword research before jumping in are much more likely to spot and exploit major opportunities.

Organising your Keyword Research

Why do we need to conduct keyword research? Can't you just publish useful content? Won't people find it anyway? If you simply guess at what people are looking for, you take the very real risk that you'll be wrong. Why take that risk when keyword research can give you such tremendous insight into what people are really looking for?

You’re Keyword Research

To perform keyword research properly you must put yourself into your customer's shoes. If you do your research properly, not only will you be able to optimise your existing website content, but you'll also be able to tap into an endless stream of ideas for new content that you know people will be interested in. You may even uncover valuable niche markets for your existing products as well as some clever ideas for new products.

The aim of keyword research is to help you make more money from the content you've got at the moment, and lay the foundations for creating even greater profits in the future. So what's the basic approach you should take for a keyword research project? Here's how I approach the challenge of keyword research.

Step 1: Start with a Good List of Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the words you use to start a keyword research project. In themselves, they 're not very useful, but the directions they take you in can produce a rich source of money -making keywords.

Suppose I'm researching keywords for an information site on family business. 'Succession' might be a promising seed keyword, because it leads me to 'succession disputes,' 'conflict resolution,' 'mediation,' and so on.

The greater the number of promising seed keywords you have at the start of a project, the more comprehensive your final results will be. Jotting down notes will get you started, but it won't give you any thing near a full list of possibilities -- you'll need to do something to stimulate your creativity.

When I start a new project, my favorite method is to get my self out of the office and deliberately give my self some thinking time.

I'll go to the nearest newsstand or magazine store and buy three or four magazines in the area that I'm researching. Then I'll sit down in a coffee shop and read through the magazines looking for good articles. I want to understand the subject area and the important issues or ideas that are currently being discussed. I'll pick the best of the articles I've found and go through them in detail. I'll keep a notebook by my side and jot down the main ideas and concepts that are covered in the articles, and list what I think might be important keywords.

Ideas and concepts that are covered in the articles, and list what I think might be important keywords.

From this exercise I'll generate a list of at least 20 seed keywords. Now's the time to go online and do some real keyword research.

Step 2: Find Related Keywords

We can offer our clients at Virtual Web Designs these services, and one of my favorite is the fact that we provide two main types of keywords: 'related keywords' and 'long tail keywords.' research.

 Related keywords are words that are often used in a particular subject area. For example, related keywords for 'back pain' would include 'sciatica' and 'spinal problems'; related keywords for 'home business' would include 'weekend entrepreneur' or 'working from home'.

 Long tail keywords for 'back pain' would be 'back pain treatment,' 'lower back pain,' and 'exercise for back pain'; long tail keywords for 'home business' would include 'home business opportunities,' 'how to set up a home business,' or 'home business support.'. I'll take those seed keywords that I collected from my magazines and look for 'related keywords' for each in turn. You may be tempted to delve into detail, but you should resist this temptation for now. Find as many related concepts as possible -- you're not looking for the first right answer, but for many right answers.

If I'm researching a website on buying property overseas, I'll not only be interested in keywords such as 'homes abroad,' 'property abroad,' and 'international property ' but also 'international mortgages,' ' global real estate,' 'property rights,' 'buying off plan,' 'health insurance abroad,' and 'expatriates.' Always look for niche opportunities. Keyword research is one of the most effective way s to identify niche markets that others have failed to recognise. This process should give you hundreds of related keywords. You can now test their popularity -- how often each word is searched for on average every day. These numbers, together with your own assessment of how important the keywords are for your business, allow you to prioritize your keyword lists.

Step 3: Map Out Your Web Content Structure

You can use the keywords to map out the content of your site. Group them into themes -- for example, 'legal pitfalls' might be grouped with 'property rights' as part of a major section on the laws of buying and owning property overseas.

How you perform this grouping task is entirely up to you. You should aim to have groups that reflect your products and services and are targeted to specific target markets. Start with 6 to 10 themes, then build on this later. services and are targeted to specific target markets. Start with 6 to 10 themes, then build on this later.

Step 4: Find Long Tail Keywords

Now's the time to get into detail. The keywords you've grouped into themes are the starting point for digging into the long tail. Take each of the keywords you've researched in turn and analyze how they 're used in longer search terms. For example, 'property abroad' is used in these longer search terms:

 property for sale abroad
 property abroad
 investment property abroad
 buying property abroad
 mortgages to buy property abroad
 mortgages second property abroad
 residential property investments abroad
 eco investment property abroad
 resale property abroad

Next, look at the daily search counts to get an idea of the relevant importance of each term. Using this technique, you can very quickly build up a matrix of hundreds, if not thousands, of keywords.

Step 5: Create Your Detailed Content Plan

Now start looking for specific content ideas. I'll often go back to my original notes and follow this formula to create content ideas:

Hot issue + Popular keyword = Content Title

If, for example, you know that working with local estate agents and officials is a hot issue, you could combine this with the keyword 'homes abroad' to create the content title: 'Legal pitfalls in buying a home abroad'

Don't be afraid of highly competitive terms. Include them in your web site copy, even if you have no immediate chance of ranking well for them -- you're laying the foundations for the future. Good keyword research helps map out a detailed content plan. This means that you won't waste time on irrelevant content, but will focus on highly relevant content ideas that will bring the traffic you're after.

Keyword Research Complete?

Now that you've established your focus, you're ready to start creating your content. But your keyword research needs to be an ongoing process. Once you've published your pages, your need to monitor your performance, make adjustments accordingly, and then systematically expand the keywords that you rank well for. We'll look at how to do that in future articles in this series.

To be continued …..

Making Domains Your Business – Part 1

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:56:49 +0100

More people who asked me about domains, or told me that they've started their own portfolio of domains. I registered my first domain in 2000. I wouldn't suggest that domaining has gone mainstream y et, but the industry of domaining does seem to have sparked interest in a far wider demographic over the last twelve months than it had previously.

What is Domaining?

The classic definition of domaining is to buy domains for the sake of buying domains. A domainer is someone who purchases domains as an investment without planning to develop them. I know clients who register domains, develop them, and end up with a portfolio of sites, but I wouldn't really consider this to be domaining in the true sense of the word. Of course, many domainers also register domains in order to develop them, so there is significant crossover here, but in this blog we'll look specifically at domaining without developing. To make domaining work for you, you need to start out with a strategy that details how you're going to make a profit on a domain without developing that domain.

Making Domains Your Business

There are two primary strategies for domainers:

1. Buy a domain because you think you can sell it for a higher price than you'll pay for it.
2. Buy a domain for the traffic it attracts, which, you hope, will produce a steady stream of revenues.

Most clients that I know use both strategies, but buying domains on a speculative basis, with the intention of reselling them for profit, is certainly the most common approach.

How to Value a Domain

As with property, there's often a lot of hype around domain purchases. When you're planning a purchase, it's very important to remain calm and rational, and not allow yourself to become too invested in the idea of acquiring a specific name.

You'll hear comments from domainers along the lines of, "this is a 'category killer' domain, "but I personally don't buy into this hype. Even though having a premium domain is a great start for a new web site, I don't believe there's such a thing as a 'category killer 'domain. If there were, Software.com would have knocked out Microsoft.com long ago. Amazon would be a rainforest in South America and we'd buy our books at Books.com. Auctions.com would have surpassed ebay .com years ago.. And did I mention Google? It should be easy enough to knock them off, right? After all, their domain is just a typo of a word that nobody knew anyway.

Having said that, it's important to understand that there is a basis for the hype. I think big business is missing a huge opportunity because of its lack of understanding about the quantitative and qualitative values of web traffic that high profile domains naturally receive. Companies that don't take web domains seriously now are going to be behind the curve -- and they 're going to pay for that mistake.

Of course, understanding the value in a domain can be a matter of perspective. One person might view recent sales prices of domains and be astonished by the high prices, while another wishes he had more cash on hand to take advantage of the bargain pricing. To illustrate the point, imagine you had the vision to get hotels.com years ago, or even now, when there are still undervalued domains. "Millions of people type hotels.com directly into their browser each month. This could equal millions of new customers for a fixed, one-time expenditure.

Pricing domains based upon revenue is fairly simple. You'll find that many sources will quote a valuation of "10 x annual revenue" as a good starting point for traffic domains (that is, domain names that attract type-in traffic which produces measurable income -- typically using a domain parking service). Don't even bother trying to argue with a domainer that the multiple should be more inline with the market for web sites (generally 1 to 3 times the annual revenue). The key difference is that parking a domain takes absolutely zero effort. You don't even need to make a trip to the bank to cash the check, as most domain parking services pay by direct deposit these days. This is the reason why it can be difficult to convince a domainer to sell a revenue-generating traffic domain in the first place.

Other types of domains can be more difficult to value. The best advice is to see if you can categories the type of domain you're after and search out comparable sales. You'll notice, after observing the market for a while, that domains of a given type often sell for similar prices. For example, currently there's a trend towards four-letter domains. Naturally, four-letter domains that form common words buck the trend, but otherwise you'll notice four character domains selling at around the same price regardless of the marketplace at which they 're posted for sale.

You can use this kind of knowledge to your own advantage in pricing. You'll always find domainers who will hold out for prices much above what the market justifies, but armed with knowledge of the market you'll be able to avoid those domains and go for the ones that are priced below market.

How Do You Identify a Great Domain?

Before you begin surveying the market for available domains, you need to identify in your own mind the reason why you're buying a domain. There are many legitimate reasons for buying a domain -- more than I could list here. Some of the more common reasons are:

• because the name fits the business
• because you know it's already receiving significant traffic

When you buy a domain because the name fits a business, your goal is usually to establish it as a brand. Traffic domains are self-explanatory for the most part -- you want them because you immediately get the boost of attracting relevant traffic to your web site without having done any thing other than build the site and buy the domain.

Buying Brandable Domains

Since buying brandable domains is a more opaque business, we'll start there. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that it's the buy er who holds the upper hand when you're buying brandable domains. When you truly understand what a brandable domain is, and why you should buy it, you'll realize why .

A brandable domain is a domain that's unlikely to receive much type-in traffic, usually because it doesn't consist of a dictionary word -- for example, vwdesigns.co.uk. It could also be a keyword domain, but one that doesn't receive a significant amount of type-in traffic (one that gets significant type-in traffic is a traffic domain). Remember the vwdesigns.co.uk brand? A keyword domain that would work in the same field is volkswagen.co.uk . Take away the established branding and user loyalty to these domains, and I doubt there'd be much (if any ) natural type-in traffic that pre-existed the web sites.

The task of finding a great brandable domain is intertwined with creating the company name. It can involve a much more intense creative process than finding keyword domains, which is more a matter of crunching data. If you're looking at
brandable domains, you'll want to find something that sticks in the memory and is easy to pronounce -- usually , the shorter it is, the better. I usually look for a single word that contains fewer than twelve characters. However, a two -word domain might also be perfectly suitable. Some companies make up new words, like Wufoo. Two-word domains that are descriptive often work very well -- for example, WordTracker and RapidShare work well to evoke a sense of purpose.

Buying Traffic Domains

Traffic domains are another animal altogether. It's much easier to place a value on a traffic domain, and they 're usually more expensive than brandable domains. As I mentioned earlier, the industry standard for a traffic domain sale is ten times the yearly revenue. The most common problem with traffic domains is convincing the seller to part with them. It's also important to make sure that the traffic isn't fake (fake traffic is usually created by bots, or may be the result of a click farm. You also want to make sure you're not buying a domain that infringes on an existing trademark, but for the purposes of this blog, I'm speaking about generic domains. For domains that are product-oriented, or can be utilised in lucrative service industries such as mortgages, health, and so on, you may consider paying a higher multiple of revenues.

To be continued ….

SEO Honesty

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:54:39 +0100

We have spoken to a few companies of late who feel they've been led down the garden path by so called SEO 'specialists'. Years of monthly payments, time and effort, and what to show for it? Mediocre rankings (at best), sloppy design, clumsy copy, and unfulfilled promises.

Firstly, I urge all so called SEO 'specialists' to take a good look at Google Webmaster Guidelines. Other resources are at hand, too: High Rankings and Search Engine Land to name but two. There's really no excuse in not knowing what is and isn't permissible — and thus avoiding turning off your visitors.

Spurious tactics include keyword spamming, excessive links on any one page, tiny invisible text, multiple cloaked pages, paid link schemes that bring a whole new meaning to 'bad neighbourhoods' and reams of duplicated content. And do the redirects correctly, too. If you must move a document to a new location, the old one requires a 301 redirect code, not a 302 temporary redirect to fool users.

Ultimately, avoid deception. Furnishing pages with content aimed squarely at engines, and not your users, will not only reduce your coverage but dilute your conversions, too. Ask yourself, is this what you'd want as a visitor? In the long run, shortcuts rarely work and the adage, 'what works for the user, works for the engines', almost always rings true. Tricks blatantly designed to improve rankings rarely work, so don't let any firm you outsource SEO to pull the wool over your eyes.

IE8 Testing

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:53:03 +0100

We have just download IE8 for testing on our website, still in the beta version.

The changes Microsoft has implemented see the browser going standards crazy. In the past, this would have been good news, but coming from a world where the majority of people are using the distinctly quirky IE7, there's going to be a generous crossover period where developers just have another browser to check against.

However, IE8 sounds a lot smarter. Top new features outside of the fabled Standards mode include 'Web Slices' and 'Activities'. The former is a kind of syndicated feed widget and the latter is a form of live contextual menuing for web pages. Both need a little work before they impress me.

At first glance, the new Internet Explorer looks much the same as the previous version the interfaces are almost identical. But explore a little further and you'll spot a few changes. For example, wave goodbye to the Phishing Filter and say hello to the Safety Filter, which also protects you from sites that are known to host malware.

The Address bar features something called 'domain highlighting'. This displays the top-level domain name in a bold, black font while the rest of the URL appears in grey. Presumably, the idea is to help you figure out where you are if you've followed a link to some intentionally misleading URL. Sounds reasonable, although if you've clicked on a spam link and IE8's Safety Filter hasn't blocked the page then it may already be too late.

Elsewhere, the Manage Add-ons dialog has been revamped. There's no doubt it looks prettier, but we see no real improvements in functionality — perhaps they're being saved for a future beta.

Technical improvements include the ability to restrict ActiveX controls to one particular site, which is handy as it limits possible exploits by hackers. And the current Data Execution Prevention (DEP) option is enabled by default. This means code cannot be run in memory that's marked as non-executable, making it more difficult to attack the browser through a buffer overrun.

There are some small, incremental security gains in IE8 beta 1, then, but nothing dramatic; no killer feature that's likely to restore the faith of IE doubters. It's early days, though: the final version isn't likely to be out until the end of the year, so there's time for Microsoft to deliver.

A quick tour of the new browser

1 The IE8 right-dick menu now includes many Activities that you can apply to a page — perhaps automatically translating text or mapping an address.

2 WebSlices enables ,you to subscribe to content from within a web page: an eBay item, for instance. You can monitor any updates on your Favourites bar.

3 Improved reliability means it's far harder to make IE8 crash (no, really). And even if the worst happens, IE8 will restore your open Tabs within it restarts.

4 And let's not forget perhaps the biggest step forward of all: the much improved standards support that sees IE8 finally pass the Acid2 test. Well, almost.

The changes Microsoft has implemented see the browser going standards crazy. In the past, this would have been good news, but coming from a world where the majority of people are using the distinctly quirky IE7, there's going to be a generous crossover period where developers just have another browser to check against.

However, IE8 sounds a lot smarter. Top new features outside of the fabled Standards mode include 'Web Slices' and 'Activities'. The former is a kind of syndicated feed widget and the latter is a form of live contextual menuing for web pages. Both need a little work before they impress me.

Project Plan

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:03:05 +0100

These days, in the competitive world of web design, we find having some kind of project management plan helps.

We currently use our own in-house software, which has been designed to reflect our own needs. We use this software for planning and delivering the projects to our client’s. Not only that, we use it to make sure everything happens on time and on budget. We try and make sure our client’s are happy.

We try and define, and agree with our client, exactly what the project is — and what it isn't. We always ask key questions before we even think of firing up Dreamweaver. This will help us to build a clear picture of the project and could spare us some headaches later.

These questions may include:

When does it need to be done by?
What do you need it to do?
Who is it aimed at?
How much should it cost?

'Visioning' the project means getting a clear picture of what's expected of us and whether these expectations are realistic. If our client wants a 200-page, multilingual corporate website with a social networking element, linked to a secure payment gateway — and wants it done by next Friday, for 100 pounds — you'll know the vision is unrealistic from the off and you'll need to negotiate. When we work with our clients we try to a agree an achievable project vision, write it all down and get your client to sign up to it.

We like to create a 'project plan' that defines individual tasks, timescales and responsibilities. We always try and refer back to our project notes. If we agreed to deliver an eCommerce site in a month, then using two designers to spend three weeks designing the tabs on the main nav probably isn't wise. It’s best to split the plan into three phases: design, production and testing. Once we our happy with the plan, and our client is happy too, we get them to agree to it. Collect a list of risks at the beginning of the project. Like what happens when something goes wrong and what actions we can take to avoid these risks. At Virtual Web Designs, we like to hold regular meetings to review the progress, looking at where we are against the project plans, any new risks or problems and what needs to happen to keep us on track. This disciplined approach keeps us focused on the project and enables us to make any adjustments to our plan as we go, to keep it realistic and achievable. You must work closely with your client, making sure that they're happy with the way everything's going. We provide our clients with weekly updates on there projects. We use our own project management software. The client will automatically get an email when the plan is updated. This way the client can see every step of there project online in real time.

Letting our clients know where you are against the plan, presenting the work we've done since the last update and — importantly — letting them know what we need from them in the coming week.

Think of the client as another member of the project team, as vital to the success of the project as the designer or developer. Without co-operation from your client, you won't get far. If the client starts to change their mind during the project, it's wise to have a process for handling any changes to your project plan.

Design Process - Part 3

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:02:06 +0100

Defining Good Design

There are two main standpoints from which most people determine whether a web site design is “good” or “bad.” There’s a strict usability standpoint, which focuses on functionality, the effective presentation of information, and efficiency.

Then there’s the purely aesthetic perspective, which is all about presentation, hot animations, and sexy graphics. Some designers get caught up in the aesthetics and graphics and forget about the user, and some usability gurus get lost in their user testing and forget about visual appeal. In order to reach people and retain their interest, it’s essential to maximize both.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that design is about communication. If you create a web site that works and presents information well, but looks ugly or doesn’t fit with the client’s brand, no one will want to use it. Similarly, if you make a beautiful web site that isn’t usable and accessible, people may not be able to use it. Indeed, the elements and functionality of a finished web site design should work as a single cohesive unit, so that:
Users are pleased by the design but drawn to the content

One of the biggest concerns among usability professionals is the time it takes users to scan the page for the information they want, be it a piece of content, a link to another page, or a form field. The design should not be a hindrance; it should act as a conduit between the user and the information.

Users can move about easily via intuitive navigation

We’ll talk more about the placement of navigation later, but the main navigation block itself should be clearly visible on the page, and each link should have a descriptive title. A navigation structure that not only changes appearance on mouse hover, but also indicates the active page or section, as does the menu shown, helps users recognise where they are, and how to get where they want to go.

Secondary navigation, search fields, and outgoing links should not be dominant features of the page. If we make these items easy to find, and separate them visually from the content, we allow users to focus on the information, though they’ll know where to look when they’re ready to move on to other content.

Users recognise each page as belonging to the site

Even if there’s a dramatic difference between the layout of the homepage and the rest of the site, a cohesive theme or style should exist across all the pages of a site to help hold the design together.

Browser Type

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 11:52:01 +0100

Find out what type of browser and their computer details are with this simple PHP script which informs you of your visitor Browser details. This is good information so you can improve your website for a more targeted audience.

This is a simple script which will allow you to see what type of browser your website visitors are using. This can give you a better idea of your target audience.

PHP Code:
Visitor Browser Check

Visitor Browser Check

"; print "

CURRENT DATE:

$date at $time

YOUR IP NUMBER:

$IPnumber

SERVER NAME:

$ServerName

SERVER SOFTWARE:

$ServerSoftware

YOUR BROWSER:

$Browser

PAGE REFERRER:

$ReferURL

"; } ?>

Click the button below to see your Browser Statistics:

Software by Virtual Web Designs