ATILUS - Web Design | Internet Marketing

How to Create Website Shortcut to My Desktop

Question of the day:

How to Create a Webpage Shortcut On Your Desktop (Windows)?

That’s the question I was asked today by 5 different people.  It makes sense for those who visit a particular website very often, sometimes it is easier to create a shortcut on your desktop rather than always looking for it. This method should work fine for Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Enough talking, here is how you can create a shortcut on your desktop for your favorite website:

1. Place you cursor on an empty part of your desktop.
2. Right click and select: New  > Shortcut
3. A shortcut wizard will open up.

Right Click On Desktop

Enter Shortcut Destination

Enter the destination to the shortcut you want to create. In that case you will simply enter the website or webpage URL. Click Next

Type a Name for the Shortcut

1. Type in a name for the shortcut that will help you   remember what it is for.
2. Once you have entered the new name, click finish.

Test it

That’s it

Now you can create a shortcut for everything you need whether it’s a file, folder, or your favorite website. Just follow this instruction and you are good to go.

What Your Site Can Look Like: A Design Trend Overview

The web today has a very wide spectrum of creativity running through it. Site design has expanded exponentially over the past few years. There are a lot of things people are doing to get noticed and have their site stand out above the rest. With this in mind I am going to give a brief overview of four design trends that are popular today in the world of web design.

Minimalism

Minimalist styled sites are really popular right now. They offer sleek, simple design with an emphasis on content. You can go traditional black on white or mix in a color or two. The concept is “less is more”.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 touched down a few years back but is still a great design trend to use. It has grown a lot since its birth. Web 2.0 is “simplicity with flare”. Gradients, white space, icons, use of color, bold logos, and reflections are just some attributes in line with the web 2.0 design movement.

Grunge/Texture

Grunge/textured designs have become popular for companies and individuals looking for a more edgy appearance. These sites may follow some web 2.0 attributes but throw in textured backgrounds and dingy attributes/scenery to the mix. A good change of pace if you are going for that feeling in your website.

Abstract/Large Imagery

Abstractly designed sites are just that, abstract. They slightly fit any conformity or normal sense of structure. Along those lines are sites that use large images/illustrations. This use of imagination is for grabbing the user visually. Normally this style is reserved for micro sites and for the enjoyment of the user.

These are just some of the styles that are out there today. What kind of site do you have? Does it fit in to any of these categories? Maybe it’s time for a design update.

Twitter - Right For My Business?

I found an article late last night entitled “Bye Bye Birdie: Why Twitter is on the Outs” that really sparked my interested in writing this article. The question of 

“Should your business use Twitter?” 

has come up more than once and it’s mostly been lumped in with social networking. In general I feel, and this is entirely my personal opinion, the answer is simple - it’s a NO. 

SHOULD YOUR BUSINESS USE TWITTER? 

NO!

But, such a huge conclusion requires some back story and justification. First what is Twitter?

What is Twitter?

Twitter’s mission, or explanation of their service has changed over the years. It started out as a “micro-blogging” service, that allowed you to answer the question, “what are you doing right now?” They have since updated this mantra to read “Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” Although each is relevant, the term “micro blog” might be the best answer to what exactly is twitter. It allows you to setup a page and immediately begin broadcasting content (small messages). Those that follow you are immediately notified when you post something. And alternatively you can read what others are writing and be notified when someone you are following makes a post.

My history with Twitter: I was initially introduced to the service and started using it lightly in 2007 at a web application developers conference in Miami. Back then no one had heard of it (I feel like I should be wearing this T-Shirt). It was hot in the web development community, mostly because of its creator Evan Williams, who also created Blogger. It was hyped as the next big thing… and guess what, it’s become the next big thing. But, I personally feel it is a trend, a site that, while allowing a valuable conversation to be discussed, is being ousted by similar features on more relevant, and better aligned tools (ala Google Buzz or Facebook’s status tool).  I remember being introduced to the tool at the conference and literally thinking “what the f@#! is this? who is going to use it? and how will it make money?” To me it always seemed like a cool little tool, but one that the masses would never fully adopt. 

And they haven’t. 

Here’s the problem with Twitter: 

Twitter introduced the masses to the idea of a “status.” Allowing all of us to tell everyone we found necessary, or everyone that was curious, exactly what we were up to, what we were thinking, doing, etc. But, unfortunately I think others are taking the reigns and soon Twitter will be no more. Let me explain.

As outlined in the terrific article Bye Bye Birdie: Why Twitter is on the Outs… very few people actively use twitter. Here are the stats from the article, broken out from the linked video regarding social media from Edison Research.

Twitter Usage in America 2010 from Tom Webster on Vimeo.

The Good: 

• only 5% of people in the US knew what Twitter was in 2008
• Nearly 90% of people  in the US know what Twitter is in 2010! (That’s an 1800% increase!)

The Bad: 

• in 2008 less than 1% of people in the U.S. were using Twitter
• in 2010 approximately 7% of people use Twitter

The Ugly: 

• Only 1/3 of twitter users use it daily
• in 2010 roughly 41% of the population has a Facebook profile, making Twitter, relatively speaking, very well known, but not widely used.

Conclusion

Considering the ubiquity of twitter, the fact that it is here is undeniable. But, the numbers speak for themselves. As the video referenced above highlights towards the end, traditional media has been responsible for the explosion of the KNOWLEDGE of twitter.

I remember it was being referenced daily during the elections in Iran as a source by CNN and others on what was happening on the ground at that time.

But, awareness is NOT the same as use, and relatively speaking very few Americans actually use Twitter. And this makes sense. In comparison to similarly released tools from Facebook (which has a MUCH larger national and International audience) Twitter is confusing and requires one to duplicate their efforts (IE, why would I use twitter when I’m already connected to those that are important and can broadcast what I need on Facebook?).

The answer is simple - Twitter is more public - but your average user may not want that and even if they do, explaining the difference is difficult.

Finally, there’s the matter of simple business sustainability. How will Twitter stay afloat against juggernauts like Google? Google is already making money from AdSense/AdWords, monetizing their newly released Google Buzz through their network of small text ads. Twitter has yet to find a way to make money.

For all of these reasons I believe that although Twitter can and does provide value, it will not generally be the best use of your time as a person or company looking to market your business online. It should definitely fall to the wayside at this time in terms of priority. And I hesitate to say this trend (twitter) will continue to be around in the next 2 years. 

LinkedIN Advertising Review

Are you thinking about using LinkedIN’s advertising? Well I was too! And as I explained in a previous post… I like to test all advertising and new technology on Atilus BEFORE applying it or pushing it to clients. 

About two weeks ago I wrote a post about our decision to test out LinkedIN’s advertising system after being offered a substantial coupon via email.

After two weeks of using the system (and the entire $250 coupon) we have come to some conclusions.

LINKEDIN STILL HAS A WAYS TO GO BEFORE IT’S ADVERTISING SYSTEM WILL BE OF LARGE VALUE

Okay, let me clarify some points on this. First of all, if you’re considering using LinkedIN you must first consider WHO is on LinkedIN… consider the website’s audience. Personally I like that it’s NOT facebook. It is not a site for everyone and their grandmother (no offense to grandmother’s out there).

...I love grandmothers (that was for you Jessica)...

Attempts at getting inflated birthday gifts aside LinkedIN is a business networking site, geared towards the true networking of business professionals. Personally I am ONLY connected to people I have actually met and done business with. I don’t have “friends” on LinkedIN. However, I don’t really use LinkedIN. I keep my resume up to date. I keep my recommendations up to date (for Atilus’ references/testimonials). I will occasionally go on the site because an old associate messages me. But, other than that I don’t use the site. I only see it being used for the above purposes as well as two others:

• Searching for a Job
• Asking Questions (they have a nice, if redundant Q/A section)

With that said… do all of the above offer enough opportunity for YOU (a potential advertiser) to get your message in front of a targeted audience? To give you an example if you were promoting a full-proof method to get hired, perhaps a guide to resumes/job solicitations, LinkedIN would be perfect. Personally, after millions of impressions and hundreds of dollars spent, we received only a few clicks and no actual leads. LinkedIN turned out to be MUCH more expensive, and less targeted (at least for our business), than other pay per click methods (AdWords, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook).

Additionally even if the people on LinkedIN performing the activities I mentioned above appeals to you and your business, I think the system has just a little bit farther to go in the way of targeting. For example only a limited number of targeting options were allowed and geographically speaking, their are a very limited number of major metropolitan areas offered. This meant I had to make a trade off between how targeted my audience was AND I wasn’t able to present my message in front of a geographically relevant audience.

Have your own opinions on LinkedIN’s advertising platform? Leave a comment!

Standard Homepage Content Practices

A website’s homepage is one of the most crucial aspects to any site. It can, a lot of times, make or break whether someone stays or goes. Every homepage should be made up of certain elements to draw in the user to want to dig deeper in to what that site has to offer. You should know what content to use and how to use it.

Homepage content usually consists of a variety of things that your site has to offer. The whole idea of the homepage is to tell/show the user what you have to offer without telling them everything; a teaser if you will. At the same time you want to highlight/feature what your services/information/products are that the user is truly looking for and what you what them to find. So with this in mind we have come to what a homepage may consist of:

Featured content

What you want them to notice most (products, services, blog posts, etc.) is usually shown in a large banner area at the top of the page.

Welcome text/images

This text/images welcomes the user to the site to what you have to offer.

Services

This is what the user most likely came to the site for in the first place. I recommend highlighting these to be a main focal point.

Blog/news posts

List of recent posts or a snippet of most recent blog/news post is a good source of content to be displayed on the homepage.

“Call to Action” Buttons

A highlighted button/text that can easily direct people to important places on the site. This could be places that users will be going to on a normal basis if they are using your site for a service. Sometimes used for quick direction to a contact page.

About us

Sometimes companies will like to place a small teaser about who they are if they don’t have much other content to work with.

Here are some examples of sites that have content and how it was used for the homepage.

These are just a few examples of standard content and placement most likely found on a homepage and are good practices to be aware of. What do you have on your homepage?