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.

Last week we invited everyone to submit articles and ideas for a guest posting on the WebEden blog. To kick it off, we’ve a couple of articles by Alison Cross from AlisonCross4Webs.co.uk on how to spot Spam on Twitter. Over to Alison.

How to spot Spam on Twitter

This is a screen shot from my own new Twitter account.  This area of an account can help you slice your spam.

1    See my ‘friendly web maker’ logo?  Real people load up logos or photos.  Spammers tend to keep the brown double-circle Twitter logo or have a ¾ pose of a really pretty girl. Beware; she may be a spam lure!  Look for additional clues…

2    Look at the yellow bio column, you can see that my followers/following ratio looks reasonable.  Spammers follow thousands of people and have few followers.  The followers they do have are accounts that have an automatic-follow set up, or worse, just other spambots.  Exceptions to this rule are well known names or brands.  Join the hundreds of thousands following Stephen Fry with gay abandon.

3    My postings are a mix of replies, questions and broadcast information. Anyone who just has solely broadcast information MAY just be spam….or a business whom you are following purely for info, not to chat with - eg @bbc @cnn.

Note: Many spammers have no tweets at all.  They are just building up a list to sell off the ‘parked’ twitter account to an advertising company ;-)  Am I sounding cynical?!

4    RT spam (retweeting spam). This is when spammers retweet one of your postings and, because you are flattered that someone thinks you’re so informative or witty that they share your comment with their followers.  You may be tempted to follow them (after all, they have shown some discernment by retweeting YOU!). Don’t be fooled, zip over to their timeline and check the above points – you’ll find that lots of them are spammers.

Finally, don’t block someone just because you can’t see an obvious reason why they would want to follow you. Twitter is about building up links, either for chatting or for business. Not every stranger is a spammer, some of them might turn out to be future customers.  Have fun!

Next week we’ve got the second part of this guest article: How to slice through Spam on Twitter.

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.

Over the last few months an increasing number of you have been leaving comments, ideas and points as feedback on this blog. There’s lots of people who have lots to say, and your passion for building websites and all things Internet is plain to see.

So would any of you like to write a guest piece on this blog? If you’ve got something interesting, unique or relevant to say about building a website, search engines, social networking or any of the other topics we cover on here then please get in touch.

We can discuss your ideas, and if you’re happy to go ahead then its up to you.

Apart from the satisfaction of knowing that your opinion will be read by upwards of 10,000 people, you will also have the opportunity to talk about your own website and of course include a link back to your site.

My email adddress is ken@webeden.net. I look forward to hearing from you!