Category: Guest Blogs

A few weeks ago we had a guest blog from Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk about how to set up a blog with blogger.

Now its time for the second part of that blog – how to integrate your WebEden website with your blogger blog. Over to Alison!

In this second and final instalment about setting up a blogger account, I’ll show you how to make your blog look professional by personalising the domain name and setting up your google analytics to run on your blog.

Y’see, when you set up your free blog, it will be called something like myblog.blogspot.com with EVERYONE who has a blogger account sharing that ‘blogspot’ domain name.

How much more professional would it look to have your blog showing as blog.yourdomain.com. Much more top drawer, don’t you think?

Here’s what you do

First of all, you need to tell your domain name to hold out its hand to hook up with the incoming info.  To this end, you need to create a CNAME record.

If you have purchased your domain name via webeden, they can set this up for you.

To request these changes, please send an email to ken@webeden.net

All you need to supply them with is the name that you want to call your blog (something short like ‘blog’ will do, but for illustration purposes I’m going to use ‘mymusings’) and from where to expect the incoming info.  For Blogger, this is ghs.google.com

The boffins at webeden will do this for you and thereafter the technical bit is down to you.  Relax.  I’ve done it so YOU can do it too.

Go to your blog and open it up.  Under the Settings tab, go to Publishing and there, you’ll see a link that allows you to publish to a custom domain.

Type in the details of the new domain name.  Whatever name it is that you submitted to webeden (in the case of the illustration provided above, that was ‘mymusings’) type in here:

Mymusings.yourdomainname.com

Type in the word recognition box and save and you are good to go!

Some of us own domain names via other suppliers, such as 123-reg.  In this case, you need to set up your CNAME record yourself. Again, don’t worry, it’s easy!

Go to your domain account with 123 or 1and1 etc and open up your control panel for that domain name.  There will be a section that allows you to footer about with the DNS records.  Click on that tab.  Somewhere on that page – possibly as a drop down menu option – there will be the option to add a CNAME record.

For 123 Reg it looks like this.

Underneath ‘Add new entry’ select the CNAME option and in that first box, type your blog name mymusings and in the end box type ghs.google.com.

Save your changes and then go on to your Blogger account and make the changes there as shown above.  Give it a couple of minutes for your domain name and your blogger account to ‘shake hands’ and voila! Your blogger account will have its new name!

Nearly there!

If you have google analytics set up on your website, get the SAME code as you used for your website and insert it into the HTML of your blog. To grab the code, just go to your Google Anayltics account and click on Edit (far right)  next to your report details. When that page opens up, there is a text link called ‘check status’ in the top right hand corner, click on that and you will see, half way down page, a box with all your coding in it. Copy it.

Then open up your blogger account. Under the Layout tab, you’ll see an Edit HTML option. Don’t panic! First of all you should ‘download the full template’ just in case you make a mess of things! Scroll right to the bottom of all the code until you reach the </body>  tag.

Paste your google analytics code above the </body> tag.

Save your changes!

And that’s it!  If you HAVE made a mess of fiddling about with the HTML, then just upload the template again :- )

If you have any problems or queries that my burbling hasn’t answered, please give us a shout here on the webeden blog or in the forum.

About Alison

Alison Cross is a self-confessed Twitter addict who occasionally tears herself away from the world of social-networking to build or revamp websites, to design logos and website banners, to blog shamelessly about the joys of the intertubes and who sometimes even manages to factor in some light housework. She also runs alisoncross4webs.co.uk

OK, I know, it seems a bit odd doesn’t? We’re talking here about setting up a blog on a website other than WebEden! But thanks to some domain trickery, its possible to link a blogger blog with your WebEden website.

So its time for another guest blog from Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk.

Blogs are not new, but they should not be overlooked as a powerful weapon in your armoury to keep people interested in your goods or services.  These days, you can even use your blog to earn you some cash!

Webeden does have a blog page option in the software.  However, no disrespect to the designers but * whispers  * it’s not very exciting nor very flexible.

There are many blogging tools available – wordpress and blogger being two of the most popular free options.  Note of caution – if you’re new to blogs and not confident with coding, make sure that you visit wordpress.com, not wordpress.org.  The former has easy to use templates whereas the latter is more complicated.

What do you want a Blog for?

As with any social networking tool, it’s good to have your blogging goals clarified before you press fingers to keyboard. Of course, if it’s just for the simple joy of sharing common interests just get cracking on the creative stuff below.  However, if it’s for your business or club – it should have a defined purpose.   Remember, they say that if you can’t jot down your idea on the back of a business card, you need to give your concept a bit more thought.

Having a goal will stop you from rambling off topic into areas that, while interesting to you, could result in a drop in your readership numbers.  Don’t forget that there are millions of blogs out there and people need to be selective about what they read – so make your blog content rich and aimed at your target reader every time.

So – no chatting about your dog on your photography equipment blog – unless you are talking about how to photograph dogs and any special kit you might require.

Keep it up!

Speaking of dogs, you should think of your blog as something that’s for life, not just for Christmas – like the dog charity advert warns.  A blog needs to be looked after, just like a puppy. If you can’t commit to making regular postings on your blog, maybe you need to reconsider whether having one is a good idea.  A stagnant, lifeless blog is worse than having no blog at all.

This is going to be a 2-parter blog entry for Webeden.  This initial posting will show you how to get your blog up and running and the second part will focus on the technical part of placing it on a subdomain of your Webeden site.

Get a Blogger account

First of all, you’ll need a blogger account.  As seems to be the case with with most things on the internet, it is owned by Google, so if you already have a google acount, you’re good to go.

To set up an account from scratch is easy – you need a username and password. To get started, go to https://www.blogger.com/start.

Now that your account is created, click on the ‘create a blog’ button and off you go!

Choose a name

You’ll need a name for it; and an url.  If the url that you are after is taken, Blogger will let you know.  Remember, don’t make it too long, complicated (ie hyphens) or have odd combinations of numbers; these just increase the chances of things going wrong when people try to find you.  You will, in the second part of this blog, have an opportunity to assign your blog to a subdomain on your website.  I appreciate that some of you reading this won’t want that hassle, so it’s worth choosing a blogger url that’s easy to use.

URL settled, you need to type in a word to show that you are not a spambot, and then you are on to the next section – choose a template!

Choosing a Template

Don’t worry about them being a bit boring-looking – there are pages and pages of free blogger templates out there for you to experiment with later.  Just pick one of the standard templates just now.

And that is your basic blog!

The next screen that appears invites you to post something, but instead, I’d like you to look at the tabs along the top – postings, layout, settings and monetize.

Pick the layout tab – this is where you will add and arrange widgets on your page.

Widgets

Blogger creates the page with some widgets already inserted into your page – navbar, header, followers, blog archive and About Me.

All these widgets can be edited and dragged around the page. In the layout shown here, you can drag items above and below the blog posts or display down the left hand side.

Note that you can also change the fonts and colours used – see the tab next to ‘Page Elements’.  You can upload a banner heading image to further personalise your blog and so extend your website ‘brand’ to your blog.

If you are confident with HTML you can even edit the code directly in the next tab. But that’s not a topic for today’s blog!

If you click on Add a Gadget, you will enter the world of Blogger widgets.  Helpfully laid out in Basics, Featured, Popular etc, you can even upload your own!  You can make widgets with an outfit like www.widgetbox.com

One of the most recently added widgets is Pages which allows you to have stand alone pages on your blog.  For example, your weekly blogs could be on photography equipment, your additional pages could be examples of how you used them?

Making money from your blogger site

Importantly you can monetize your site by using Google Adsense [like WebEden!] or Amazon Associates.  Adsense is a free service allows Google to put targeted advertising on your site and when people click on the adverts, you earn money!  The Amazon service allows you to choose Amazon items to display on your website.

You can preview your blog – with all associated widgets – prior to making live.  Remember and ‘save’ if you like it!

Reskin it!

If you find the blogger skins boring, you can find other skins at many places, including http://freeskins.blogspot.com.  You download the skin and then upload the HTML on the layout>edit HTML tab.

That’s it so far

Next time I’ll show you how to integrate your WebEden website with your blogger blog!

If anyone has any difficulties setting up their blog or finds something I’ve written impenetrable (or simply wrong!) please don’t hesitate to post here on the webeden blog and I promise to deal with your query as quickly and efficiently as I can.

About Alison

Alison Cross is a self-confessed Twitter addict who occasionally tears herself away from the world of social-networking to build or revamp websites, to design logos and website banners, to blog shamelessly about the joys of the intertubes and who sometimes even manages to factor in some light housework. She also runs alisoncross4webs.co.uk

Today we’ve got another Guest Blog by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk. This time its all about Twitter tool ‘The Twit Cleaner’.

Its Almost Springtime!

Spring is about to be sprung so while you are busy hoovering dust bunnies from beneath the beds why not give your Twitter account a bit of a spring clean too?

Fortunately, instead of spending hours trawling down the back of your Twitter account for sticky spambots and dusty twitterers, there is a marvellous tool to make this tedious chore a breeze: The Twit Cleaner.

What does The Twit Cleaner do?

What Twitcleaner does is run through all the people you follow and sorts out the time-wasters, spammers, the boring, the bots etc. All without you having to lift a feather duster…

All you need to do is allow the twitcleaner account access to your Twitter account – which uses the secure ‘oauth’ scheme (which means the twitcleaner people don’t get to know your twitter account passwords etc)

The Twit Cleaner Report

Twitcleaner compiles a report that shows just how many of the people that you follow are, frankly, a bit rubbish.

The report splits them into groups:

a.. People that aren’t following you back
b.. people that tweet nothing but links
c.. tweet the same links all the time (ie repetitive behaviour)
d.. folks that haven’t posted in a month
e.. accounts that totally ignore you
f.. accounts that hardly follow anyone

Be Selective!

Now, there are many reasons why accounts behave as they do, and Twitcleaner gives you the option to save some of those potentially rubbish accounts.

For example, if you follow celebrities such as @billgates or @tonyrobbins, they will pop up as an account that hardly follows anyone – but you’ll still want to continue following them if you’re interested in their work. If you want to save someone, just click on their icon and watch them fade off the report.

And purge those followers!

Satisfied that you’ve saved everyone that you want to save? Then hit the button and watch those dull, dreary tweeters vanish……

Twitcleaner is a really useful tool for keeping on top of your Twitterverse – after all, if you are using this for business, you want to make sure that the people you are following are worthwhile.

Twitcleaner is free and it will allow you to unfollow the folks that you agree are needing cleaned out of your account. However, if you need to unfollow more than 25,000 they will levy a charge for the unfollow!

Now, where did I leave my duster…

About Alison Cross
Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice about social media or web design, visit her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.

At the end of last year we contacted WebEden custom Laura Hood from RubyBoutique.co.uk to ask her about the experience of building and running a successful website.

Why did you decide to build a website?

Having always enjoyed making jewellery for friends and family, I wondered if there was room in the already crowded online jewellery market to sell what I make. I created the site because of genuine enthusiasm for making things rather than an expectation of making loads of money from it (although granted that would be nice, and will hopefully come in time!!).

Is this your first website?

I have always been interested in creating a website but it has taken until now to take the plunge.  I literally did not have the first clue how to get started so (as with everything) I Googled it. That is how I came across Webeden. They have made this whole process possible and I still can’t believe how well priced the packages are. I chose the standard package so I pay only £5.39 per month, which included a free domain name (!!). [I honestly didn’t pay her to say that – Ken]

Like I said, I have no experience in web building or design and have been really pleased with the help WebEden have given me. The whole process is explained in basic terms on the Webeden website, giving helpful step by step instructions. I have also found it really helpful to ask questions on twitter as a friendly response is always given really quickly.

Are you going to sell anything?

Yes, Ruby Boutique is a fashion jewellery store selling reasonably priced jewellery, some of which is handmade. Postage is free and items come gift wrapped in lovely presentation bags. We have had a 100% positive feedback rate on our items, delivery and customer service which we’re really pleased about as our main aim is to provide well priced jewellery and excellent customer service.

How long did it take you to build your website?

Considering I started the process of building my site without any real knowledge, I have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly I learned how to build and design it and get it up and running.

I first looked into the idea in September, then purchased the standard WebEden package in October (after taking advantage of the two week trial period which was very useful).

The design process kind of developed as I went along so I was constantly tweaking and changing little bits (e.g. the font on the Newsletter page changed several times before I was pleased with it).

I would say, however, that if you are new to building websites to expect things to take a while. I spent pretty much every evening and weekend building the site from the beginning of October until the launch in December. It’s also an ongoing process as stock comes in and is sold – the site needs regular updates to ensure it remains interesting and up to date.

How did you decide on a design?

The background floral design of the website is the same as on our twitter page. We trialed the design on twitter before launching the site, and had great feedback about it.

The overall design of the site, i.e. which pages to include, came about as a result of looking at similar websites and also from our own experiences of shopping online (there’s nothing worse than a complicated, messy layout – it puts people off looking around the site).

Have you looked at competitor websites?

www.dollipops.co.uk (twitter @Miss_Dollipops)
www.funkyjunkjewellery.com (twitter @Funky_Junk)
www.finaltouchesjewellery.com (twitter @FTJewellery)

The girls who created the above websites are lovely – I follow them all on twitter (which is how I found out about their sites). The thing I’ve found most surprising is that although we are all technically ‘competitors’ there is a genuine friendly community on twitter and we are all happy to offer each other help and advice.

For example, I was given loads of advice from the lovely lady behind Funky Junk Jewellery about how to promote the site, and following her advice have built a Facebook fan page for Ruby Boutique.

How will you use Twitter to market your website?

I am still fairly new to twitter (only had my account since about October 2009). I have been so impressed by how helpful people are in promoting my site.
I hold a ‘Winning Wednesday’ Competition on Twitter each week on, you guessed it, Wednesday. This has proved to be a great way to promote the site, get new followers on twitter and increase sales (one lady bought 5 or 6 additional items after winning a necklace).

At the moment I am primarily promoting the site through twitter so most of my sales have been generated in this way. It is a fantastic way to let people know what you’re doing and what’s coming up – although I would recommend that you don’t overly plug your items and spend time just chatting with people as otherwise they will soon get sick of the overt advertising and will ‘unfollow’ you.

I like to think that people are following me to find out what I am personally up to as well as finding out about Ruby Boutique.

A little bit about Ruby Boutique

Ruby Boutique was founded in late 2009 and is based in North East England. The main range of fashion jewellery includes necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets – many of which are handmade. Our costs are kept to an absolute minimum and this is reflected in the prices of our items. Postage is free* (no minimum spend).

Visit us www.RubyBoutique.co.uk
Follow us on Twitter @Ruby_Boutique
Email us Enquiries@RubyBoutique.co.uk

And that’s it.

If you’ve got any questions for Laura, or you’d like to share any of your website building experiences, please leave a comment below.

And if you’d like to be interviewed about time building a website then leave a comment too or contact WebEden on Twitter (@webeden).

Today we’ve got another Guest Blog by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk. Its all about how to develop a Social Networking Policy for your business. Over to Alison.

Last week we had a (cue Mrs Merton) heated debate about whether or not its OK to use Social Networking websites at work. There’s no doubt that some businesses lose money because employees are spending time on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, blogs and Twitter. On the other hand, some actually benefit from employee involvement in Social Networking.

Time Wasting or Money Making?

These sites CAN be enormous spinning vortexes of wasted time and energy, but they can also provide a brand new channel through which your target audience can access your goods and services.

Today more than ever it is important that companies are seen to be part of the discussion about their own goods and services. To stay out of the discussion suggests that your customers’ opinions don’t count. Who needs that kind of reputation?!

It requires courage to join the discussion because you won’t be able to control the comments, but to be seen to be listening to clients’ comments and opinions can help your business/brand enormously.

Developing a Social Networking Policy

But – before you create your Facebook account, jumping into the social networking waters for business purposes without some kind of plan is to court death by drowning in Tweets!  Having a plan – a flexible, regularly updated plan – will help you turn social networking from a Business Suck to a Business Success.

If you have many employees, this would be a task for your Human Resources Department (Personnel!).  However, if you are only a small business with a handful of employees and no distinct HR Department, designing that policy is going to fall on your shoulders.

This post is aimed at YOU, the small business who needs to get a grip on those man hours lost by employees adrift in cyberspace and busy doing the work that YOU are paying them for.

I don’t recommend creating your Social Networking policy without consulting your employees in some way.  It’s such a fast-developing area, they may be more clued up than you! Listen to their input fairly.  You never know, it might just result in a truly inspired business presence on the networking sites!

I envisage that there are two types of employee here:

A)    The employee whose job remit is to be the public face of your business on Social Networking platforms.
B)    The employee who’s just faffing around on company time.

14 questions you need to answer in order to develop your social networking policy:

1.   Goal – what is it that you want to achieve with your involvement in social
networking?

2.    How will you quantify your business’s success in social networking?

3.    Will it be a project with a time limit or an ongoing involvement?

4 .   To which social networking platforms are you directing your efforts and why have you chosen them?  E.g. – is there any evidence that being present will have a positive influence on your business/customer interface?

5.    Which employees are working as your official social networking staff?

6.    On what basis are they acting on your behalf?
Are they working as a team (anonymously involved under business name)?
Are they to be recognised as named individuals?
How will your logo/brand be used?

7.    What kind of communication is permitted? Eg – Product information on Facebook? Discount vouchers on Twitter? Personal comments?

8.    What kind of communication is not permitted? Eg – disparaging the company or a client?

9.    When is communication permitted (for type 1 and type 2 employees it will probably be different – if you are taking social networking seriously as a business tool). For type 2, only after certain specified tasks carried out?

10.    What are the consequences for breaching the communication rules?  Verbal warnings, written warnings, instant dismissal?

11.    Will there be different consequences depending on the level of position within the company? Is it more serious if your Director of Finance is found slagging off the CEO’s dinner party in his blog than the junior store-keeper blogging the same gossip?

12.    Do these regulations apply solely within business hours?

13.    Consider the consequences of possible identity fraud on these sites. Do you know what to do if someone steals your logo/details and sets up as YOU?

14.     Bullying – your bullying policy may need to be extended to cover cyber-bullying.  The tragic results of sustained bullying on networking sites are well-documented in the press. Make sure your company/school has a policy in place.

This list of questions is not by any means exhausted, but should be able to get you started in formulating your own policy.

What else would you add to a social networking policy for your business?

About Alison Cross
Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice about social media or web design, visit her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.

Getting the right logo is an important part of designing a website. And logos aren’t just limited to the web, but can of course be used in printed material too. This week’s guest blog comes from Vicki Willingham who runs VictoriaAnnDesign.com. It’s all about the steps she takes when designing a logo.

6 essential steps to design the perfect logo

I’ve been designing logos for a few years now. It started off as a hobby, and now I’m lucky enough to have turned it into work. Whenever someone asks me to design a new logo for them I always stick to the following steps.

1. The Brief
This bit is about asking the client the right questions. I’ll make sure I have all the details I need from the client including: style; preferred colours; orientation; and the message they want their logo convey.

2. Write it all Down
I’m someone who likes to think on paper, so I write down everything that comes to mind about the company and scribble thoughts and ideas around that.  For example, if I were designing a logo for a financial company I might write jot down the words money, wealth, success, banking, saving…then continue with further words relating to each. 

3. Start Drawing
Once I have my ideas and thoughts down in writing I begin to scribble them out as images.    I keep drawing until I find an idea I’m happy with and can develop into a logo.  I’ll usually also jot down colour ideas.

4. Get it on the Mac
Now I have my logo draft/s I’ll hop onto the laptop and get the idea onto the screen.  Depending on what I’m doing, I might also be tracing the draft using a pen tablet.  I’ll usually come up with a multitude of styles and variations and I’ll disregard probably 80% of those and work further on the 20% I choose to keep. 

It takes time
This part of the process can take any time from a few hours to a week.  Usually, if I have done the previous part of sketching out ideas properly, this shouldn’t take all that long. 

It takes colour

I’ll usually design in black first to check the shapes come together well, before I apply colour.  As well as designs looking fab in colour, it’s also important that logos work in black – it can look a mess on a photocopied corporate header otherwise!  There are a few exceptions to this, I’m sometimes asked to make a logo that will only be used online for web based companies and that won’t be used on print at all.  In that case, things are clearly a bit different and I feel happy to throw colour in from the start. 

5. Get feedback from the client
The client is sent a copy of the logo to view.  At this point I encourage revisions to ensure we’re all happy when the project is completed.  There’s no telling how long this can take, but if we both understand the requirements at the beginning then it really does help.

6. Send the final version
So, when the logo is done, the files are ready and I’ll send them over to the client.  Typically, I will provide an ai file; pdf; small jpg; large jpg; transparent png; opaque png; gif and a tiff. 

So that’s about it. 
The process looks really clear and straight forward, but life isn’t always like that. There are always some unforseen bits and pieces that get thrown into the works. But that’s the basic outline.

If you’re designing a logo for your own website or someone else, stick to these steps and your life should be a bit easier.

I’d be interested to hear from others and how they do things – please leave a comment below.

About Vicki Willingham
Vicki is a Macbook Pro aficionado who is expert in logo design and corporate identify. For more information, visit her website.

Today we’re lucky enough to have another Guest Blog by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk. Its all about getting more from websites by using RSS.

What is RSS?

You may have noticed a little orange radio symbol on your journeys through the various plains and jungles of the internet. Usually on a blog or news site it winks at you from the corner of the page, inviting you to click it.

But what is it?

It’s an RSS feed link, that’s what it is.

‘What in the tarnation is RSS?’ I hear you ask! Truthfully, I didn’t actually know what RSS stood for, but I am reliably informed that it’s short for ‘really simple syndication’. And it is just that – a really simple way to share information.

Let’s look at a normal working day. Do you log on in the morning and visit your usual sites – perhaps the BBC for news, maybe WebEden’s blog to see what Ken’s telling us about today, maybe a couple of sites to do with your business? Twitter?!

What often happens is that you go out looking for those new links. With RSS, you tell the sites to send the new stuff in to you.

Sounds Good! So how do I use RSS?

What you need to get your hands on first of all is an RSS Reader.  This acts as your central gathering point for the RSS information that you want to read.

It will not surprise you in the least that I’m about to point you in the direction of the Google Reader. You can sign up to Google Reader here. You’ll need a Google account for this, which you will already have if you use their Analytics or Webmaster Tools. There are load of alternative RSS readers – just search for ‘RSS Reader’ on Google.

Google Reader

Once you’ve activated your Google Reader, you can add feeds to it in two ways.

The first way is within Reader itself. In the top left hand corner of the Reader screen you’ll see a box that allows you to add a new subscription. Here’s what it looks like:

You can either type in the actual URL of the website you want to subscribe to, or you can type in a search term and browse about until you find one that you really like the look of and then subscribe.

The second way is to click on that little orange radio button (like the image at the top of this post) while you are on the site that you want to subscribe too.

When you click on that button, you’ll probably find that you are offered several Reader subscription buttons – and Google is usually one of them. Click on that feed button and next time you log in to your Reader page, there will be the fascinating feed!

Get a Bundle

Subscribing to RSS feeds can save you a lot of time. In fact, Google has even bundled together lots of different RSS feeds for people who haven’t got time to go hunting for relevant feeds.

As of today’s date, there are 449 different bundles available to you – from news feeds..coffee ..crochet…surfing…yoga…everything! If you can’t find a bundle that interests you, why not create a bundle of YOUR niche favourites and submit them to Google for other people to subscribe to?!

Finally

Why you should use RSS? Because it brings your internet world to YOU, you don’t need to go rootling about to find it and best of all, you’ll never miss an update from your favourite site again.

About Alison Cross
Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice about social media or web design, visit her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.

Here’s another Guest Blog by by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk. Its all about making sure your most important website content is seen every time by every visitor.

Introduction – its about Newspapers

The web may have overtaken newspapers as the fastest moving source of news and gossip, but there is a web term that stems directly from that old newspaper industry – the fold.

Picture the scene: you’re at a news-stand and there are racks of newspapers available.  What can you see? The masthead? A title? Perhaps a photo or intriguing strap line?

Before you know it, you’ve parted with your cash and the Editorial team can heave a sigh of relief. Job done!

And Websites

In web terms, the fold is exactly the same.  When you open a web page in your browser – without scrolling – the content that you can see is deemed to be ‘above the fold’.

The media gurus at Neilson reported that more than 50% of visitors to a site wouldn’t bother to scroll down beyond the fold, so reinforcing the importance of the fold in website design.

That’s a lot of potential bounces off your site if you get your content layout wrong!

But wait – that report was written in 1997 – surely our website viewing habits have changed a tad in 10 years?!

Some people will scroll, but not all

Certainly, there ARE websites where the statistics show visitors are more than willing to scroll down to the bottom of the page for information – but, by my reckoning, most of these visitors are repeat visitors, users who all ‘get’ how the site works.  The casual visitor will still bounce off if what’s above the fold does not engage them.

So where is this fold then?

Ah – that’s the $64million question.  The fold is a bit like a rainbow – it’s difficult to find its true location.  Why? Because so much depends on the screen resolution of the viewer AND any browser add-ons that the visitor may have.  The more additions that you make to your browser bar – such as the Google toolbar – make it deeper, which means that end up seeing less of each web page.

If pressed, I’d say that it’s somewhere between 500 and 600 pixels down the page – which is a pretty wide variation!

What is the ‘Gold’ that you need above the Fold

That depends on the sort of website you’ve been building. But generally speaking, you need:

•    Your logo
•    Your name
•    Your menu bar
•    Your main page message
•    Your social networking buttons
•    Your Ads
•    Your Call to Action*

(*Call to Action – what’s the purpose of your website? To encourage people to read your blog? To visit your shop? To take part in a survey? A Call to Action is where you ask your visitor to take the next step towards fulfilling that site goal. Make sure that the Call To Action (EG ‘Get in touch for more information’) is therefore above the fold.)

How can you make people scroll under the fold?

You may have lots of other content that you want people to look at. So how do you go about getting people to scroll down the page?

•    Break your copy so that it’s obvious there’s more to read
•    Have something visually engaging – an image, a slideshow, a Youtube video. (This all needs to be related to your product or service, of course!)

Test your Design

To find out whether your site has a problem, you can of course check your Google analytics to see whether your bounce rate is high. (Please see this for a video tutorial on how to install Google analytics). A good bounce rate is less than 30%. Anything above 50% and you need to change your design. If its that high, its clear that the information on your website isn’t what people were hoping for. And that might be because you’re failing the fold test.

Once you’ve place all your Gold above the Fold, check your bounce rates again to see if they are improving.

Do the same for every page

Don’t forget that it’s not just your home page that you should inspect for fold issues.  Every page in your website is a potential landing page, so you’ll need to check all of them to make sure that important info isn’t lurking beneath the fold.

And that’s it. Good luck putting our Gold above the Fold!

About Alison Cross
Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice about social media or web design, visit her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.

Last month we invited everyone to submit articles and ideas for a guest posting on the WebEden blog. Here’s another entry by by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk on how having a contract can help smooth the relationship between website builder and client. Over to Alison.

Introduction

I get a huge amount of satisfaction seeing a client’s business take virtual shape on my screen.  The Sitemaker software is so easy to use, building is a breeze these days.

However, dealing with clients is not always straightforward and it can be exceptionally stressful when you’ve quoted for work and the client keeps changing their mind about what they want.

The solution is to have a contract

Don’t be scared! I’m not suggesting that you should rush out to the lawyers and get something legally binding drawn up (although if you want to you can).  But if you take the time to create a document that sets out quite clearly what both sides are expected to do/supply, you’ll see your website building life become much more straightforward.

Get your client to be specific

Many clients have only the vaguest idea of what they want for a website. Even those with definite plans have been known to back-pedal right at the last minute.

I find it very beneficial to set out, right at the beginning exactly how the game is going to be played and who is responsible for what.

Create a Mood Board

For me, this involves the initial creation of a mood board, just like an interior designer.  They send me images, quotes, colours, fonts…anything really…that lets me understand how THEY see their website.

This gives me a clear indication of what the client is after. After studying the board, I make a presentation in which I make my pitch to clarify the scope of the job.  This presentation is basically my contract and it helps prevent future slippage in the content of the job.

1. Agree on the number of pages
We agree number of pages and costs for additional pages that the client might ask for later.

2. Agree on a Design theme
Based on mood board, I have a design for them to inspect.  If they agree to this design, any significant revisions (what is ‘significant’ may change from design to design) should be priced accordingly.  How many revisions are acceptable to you?!

3. What images will be used, and where will they come from?
Images/music cost time and / or money, and if supplying them then it is a cost for me to supply. I also need their written agreement that anything they supply to me is within their copyright.  Will you need to have the images/music supplied in a particular format? Named? Sized? License limits on the images – one time only use?

4. What domain name are you going to use?
Domain names can be a thorny issue, and there are lots of questions that you need to ask. To start with, do you need to buy one? Do you need to transfer one? Repoint one? How much are you going to charge for this?

5. Will it be an ecommerce website?
E-commerce – will there be a shop requirement? How much work is that likely to involve for you? Or is it just a couple of items that need linked through to a PayPal account? Setting up an ecommerce website, along with a payments system such as PayPal, can add a lot of time (and therefore cost) to the website build.

6. Who is supplying the written copy?
The main question to answer is: who is supplying what and when! You do not want 30 pages of longhand being delivered to you for an agreed completion date the following day, do you?!

7. How is your client going to pay you?
Whilst we all love building websites, you can hardly start designing for clients for free! When it comes to payment, there are lots of questions that need to be answered. To start with, do you want paid up front? In stages? At the end? Agree these terms right at the beginning and asking for payment becomes a breeze.

8. Ongoing maintenance of the website
Building a website is just half the story. Once its up and running almost every client will require additional updates and adjustments to their website. When it comes to this maintenance, are you offering it? How much? Payable when? Starts from when? If they don’t want annual maintenance, will you charge for a brief tutorial in editing? Or would you simply hand over to client on completion with a cheery wave and hope they don’t screw it up?!  Be ready to discuss what you actually provide in an Annual Maintenance contract.

….and what if your clients DO screw up your beautiful design once you’ve handed over responsibility? Include a fee for having to take the site back on and fix it. You might not need it, but I find it helps on the uptake of an annual maintenance contract – if you price it right!

Do you need a Critical Path?
Depending on the complexity of the site, you might need to agree some kind of Critical Path with your client – agree various milestones in the job’s progress.  But that’s really for the Big Boys, not us!

Who is going to ‘own’ the website?
The ownership of a WebEden website is limited. It cannot be lifted and moved onto someone else’s servers – hosting and building come together in the package.  This must be pointed out right at the outset.

Go through the contract / agreement with your client
I go over every paragraph with my clients and we initial at each one, to show that we’ve both read and understood it.  Then we sign and date at the end.

Summary
The above suggestions are not legally binding, I don’t think.  However, if you had to go to court to claim monies due, or face copyright infringement charges, ANY kind of contract that shows you made an effort to clarify the position will help your case.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, if you want something legally binding, please see your own lawyer.

This list doesn’t claim to be complete and I’d love to hear from anyone else who has additional clauses that I’ve overlooked.

About Alison Cross
Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice, visit her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.

Last week we had our first guest posting here on the WebEden blog. Its was from Alison Cross, a self confessed non-techie webby. As part of our attempts to get to grips with Twitter, Alison discussed how to spot spam on Twitter.

Well Alison is back, and this time she’s talking about how to slice through – and get rid of – spam on Twitter.

How to Slice Through Spam on Twitter

When Sting warbled: ‘I never saw a miracle of science or progress that didn’t turn from a blessing to a curse’, he could have been singing about Twitter.

The handy little micro-blogging tool has rapidly become a magnet for spammers.

What’s a spammer?  The people who keep trying to make you visit sites that you’re not interested in; the people who want you to watch Britney Spears doing something unmentionable with a courgette.

Although Twitter mount regular pogroms against spammers, there are a few things that you can do to slice your spam.

1. Follow @spam. This is Twitter’s own route for rooting out the spam accounts.  When you follow @spam, any Twitter announcements about spam activities will drop into your timeline, allowing you to take their suggested action.

2. Stop hoovering up thousands of followers via advertised apps to artificially boost your popularity – this is a sure-fire way to voluntarily attach yourself to spammers.

Robert Scoble, self-confessed social media addict, had some 7,000 spammy accounts following him. Read his account here.

3. Vet your potential followers by using one of the many Twitter applications available.  I use Tweetlater (if Ken lets me, I’ll come back to evangelise about it!).  This app allows me to block, ignore, accept and report followers as spam.

4. Watch what you tweet! I call this the Law of Twitter Attraction. Out there are millions of tweeters, some just ready to pounce on you if you tweet their magic word.

For example, if you tweet off a complaint to a friend ‘sick of cash generator spam!’  What happens? Yup, you are suddenly followed by a slew of ‘cash generator’ tweeters.

If you have an automatic follow set up, then their tweets will enter your time line, diluting your product/services message and interfering with your conversations.

To combat this, don’t tweet the proper spelling of the trigger word.  Sticking with the above example, I’ve found that if I don’t type ‘cash’, but ‘c4sh’, that will, for now, keep me beneath the spammers’ radar.

Even better, simply adopt the New Age philosophy and only tweet about things that you WANT in your timeline!

Now that we’re nearly at the end of this guest blog, have a think about my definition of what constitutes a spammer.  No, not the Britney/vegetable people, but ‘people who make you visit a site that you’re not interested in’.

If you are not discerning enough with your Twitter marketing campaign, if you contact uninterested twitterers about your product or service….YOU’RE spam.

About Alison Cross

Alison Cross lives on the Isle of Bute where she has built over a dozen websites using our software. She also helps people use Twitter to market their business. For more info or advice, contact see her website alisoncross4webs.co.uk.