Flash Design: Is it all it's cracked up to be?

Written by Jody Hatton


Continued from page 1

Torepparttar experienced Flash designer, these powerful tools have been both a blessing and a curse. Onrepparttar 134591 upside, they drastically reducerepparttar 134592 time it takes to create Flash pieces. Onrepparttar 134593 downside,repparttar 134594 low price of these applications makes them available torepparttar 134595 "Average Joe," and as a result, everybody and their dog is beginning to call themselves "Flash Designers." Their pieces, created withoutrepparttar 134596 necessary technical know-how of what it takes to make a Flash piece accessible to lower-bandwidth viewers, are beginning to give Flash a bad reputation as being bloated and boring.

To you,repparttar 134597 prospective consumer, this overabundance of so-called "Flash Designers" presents an element of confusion. Should you getrepparttar 134598 kid downrepparttar 134599 block to design your Flash site for $300? Probably not. If you're paying a "design firm" in another city $10,000 for a site, are you gettingrepparttar 134600 best Flash site money can buy?

Unfortunately, my friends,repparttar 134601 answer is no.

We were recently contacted by a man who was unhappy withrepparttar 134602 state of his site; after paying over $10,000 to a "Flash Design Firm," he had one look at what he got for his money and was shocked.

We were, too.

His site, at http://www.faustco.com/, breaks just about every rule there is. There are too many colors, too many fonts, and, as you know, Flash is intended to display images in "vector" format. Whoever designed Mr. Faust's site clearly had no understanding of this fact, and imported as many raster images as they could. This resulted in a site that not only hasrepparttar 134603 "chunky" appearance mentioned earlier, but also presents incredibly long download times to viewers trying to visitrepparttar 134604 site with a standard 56k (or lower) connection. While Mr. Faust's business has been around for a long time, no doubt because they've been producing excellent, dependable products sincerepparttar 134605 day they began business,repparttar 134606 poor quality of his site's design will no doubt harmrepparttar 134607 reputation of his company.

FLASH - WHY DO YOU WANT IT?

Like I said before, folks: Flash, "when created properly," can berepparttar 134608 best thing that ever happened to your site. Having personally experiencedrepparttar 134609 benefits of effective Flash design, I can honestly say that there is NO medium out there that gets people going to your site and subscribing to your newsletter list better than a well-done Flash piece. However, when looking for a Flash designer, beware: if a "company" doesn't have a Flash portfolio that impresses you inrepparttar 134610 least, don't hesitate to delete their e-mail and forget they existed, no matter how low their prices may be.

If you're looking for a Flash designer, I'm naturally going to recommend you contact us now. Not only are we in our seventh year of putting people's businesses online, and not only have we been applying proven marketing concepts time and time again, helping thousands of people maximize responses to their offers (regardless ofrepparttar 134611 type of business they run), we've also gotrepparttar 134612 technical know-how of exactly what it takes to make a Flash piece that WORKS. When you order from us, you won't just be getting a site that LOOKS pretty and applies our years of marketing experience, you'll be getting one that loads quickly and gets your point across effectively.

And hey, if you've received a quote from another company and aren't sure if you'll be getting your money's worth, sendrepparttar 134613 quote to me. I'm not offering to beat their price, I'm offering something much more valuable: to relieve any confusion you might be experiencing and help you to become more informed of what good Flash design is. I'm standing by to help you now! mailto:customerservice@worldprofit.com

Jody Hatton is a senior member of the Worldprofit Design Team and specializes in Flash design. Recent Worldprofit designed Flash sites include: http://www.worldprofit.com/uhbp/ http://www.animaltrainermagazine.com/flash-full.htm http://www.fightercombat.com/ http://www.worlddesignservices.com/NewWDS/galleryfiles/iddonline


Effective Small Business Web Sites On a Budget

Written by Kevin Nunley


Continued from page 1

Now it looks like a lot of sites have gonerepparttar other direction. In an effort to maximize sales, they put dense copy about all their offers onrepparttar 134590 opening page of their site. Did we over do it?

The latest thinking among advertising experts is a page filled with lots and lots of copy is jarring. People click torepparttar 134591 page and think "Gee! I don't have time to read all this."

It's often better to trim your opening page offers down to just your most essential elements. Plenty of white space is good. Rather than having a batch of graphics onrepparttar 134592 opening page, you might focus on one larger more powerful graphic that unifiesrepparttar 134593 page.

Some big corporate sites are moving to this philosophy of "less is more." See http://Apple.com for an almost extreme example.

Bottom line is customers are pressed for time. Many are surfingrepparttar 134594 Net while on their lunch break or between office chores. If they can't figure out your offer quickly, they may click elsewhere.

Web site frames have always been controversial. Inrepparttar 134595 beginning, this method of splitting a web page into two or three smaller pages didn't work on older browsers.

Later someone pointed out search engines have a hard time reading pages with frames. Web designers who really want to get listed high on search engines avoid frames.

Still, there are times when frames would be a good choice for a web site:

1. You don't care if your site gets listed high on search engines. You may have other ways of promoting your site that work well for you. Your site might be one of a great many sites in your industry and it is almost impossible to get listed as one ofrepparttar 134596 top ones.

2. Your site has lots of information. You want customers to be able to quickly switch back and forth between pages. Frames can make this easier.

3. You want to save money or time designing your site. You can have a razzle-dazzle opening page and menu bar while allrepparttar 134597 many inner pages are simple text on a page. That kind of site is quick and easy to design.

No matter what type of business you run, or how much money you have to pour into web design, there's bound to be a combination of ideas that will work for you.

Kevin Nunley provides marketing advice, business writing, and popular promotion packages. See his 10,000 free marketing ideas at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at mailto:kevin@drnunley.com or 801-328-9006.


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