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A question I often get from perspective clients is: “should I build my website in Adobe Flash?”

To answer this question lets look at the cost vs. benefit of an all/ partial built flash website.

Benefits of a Flash Site:

• Slick Look
• Able to animate just about anything
• Strong potential for great looking portfolio
• Excellent presentation piece
• Attractive for Splash Pages (home page)
• Great for applications that might be used on your website

Downsides to Flash Sites:

• 

  Image via Wikipedia

  Search Engines can’t read the website because it is essentially a movie embedded in an HTML page. So if you care about Optimizing your website for search engines don’t even think about going fully flash. Think target audience! How is Flash going to help in the use of your site? No search engine to date is able to extract textual elements from Flash content. For most people SEO is a very valuable source for bringing visitors to you website – without a search engine’s help you could potentially loose up to 80% of your web traffic!

• Hard to update – you need a Flash Web Master to update the site, as they need to make edits in Adobe Flash.

• Long Download time - means you are waiting longer for the website to load in your browser. Most people don’t have time to wait, or aren’t patient enough.

• Flash requires bandwidth – even though most people use DSL Internet, there are still people who use dialup or other limited bandwidth internet connections. Flash files take a much longer time to load then HTML, especially those with sound effects, embedded movies or bitmap images.

• Blogging is hard – if you blog often this would be very tedious with flash as you have to update the site through an FTP (File Transfer Protocol). There is no way to directly update your website content online.

• No Content Management System (CMS) – How regularly do you want to update content? Using an all Flash website means you are uploading all your content manually to the web server and manually updating. This means opening up the Flash software and adding new text or pages. This can be a problem after a while as its time-consuming and increases the size of your Flash website. Ultimately it will slow down your slick looking website, and might have some impatient visitors leave the website completely.

On the other hand, if you have a Flash designer working on your case, the website can be set up to use text files to automatically add content to your website. Problem solved? Wait, putting in all those text files will take download time, and again you will lose impatient visitors.

Flash can be a great tool and limited use draws spectacular results. It involves understanding your audience before letting your site run loose on the Internet.

One solution is to have two versions of your website on the splash page (first page that people see, or your default page). A Flash and a non-Flash version of the site. We all get excited about fancy animation power with Flash, but you have to step back and sit in the shoes of the user. Some animations are distracting and can deter from what your site is actually offering. At Sayenko Design, we create hints of Flash in most of the websites we create to enhance the professional look but never do we wrap Flash around content. The conclusion is: use Flash wisely if you do and don’t sweat it if you don’t include it in your design.

This may seem like a trivial thing but it actually has a big impact on our market exposure – and it allows us to market in a very economical manner.
Please take a few minutes and help us let the facebook community know who we are.

We are in business today in this tough economic market and we are hoping to bring brand awareness to others by having you on our list of Facebook friends/fans -

You can click here to the Sayenko Design facebook page
or search for (Sayenko Design) in the search box and click on “become a fan” – I would
love to add you to my friend list and stay in touch with you.

Thanks much – I hope your doing well!

Mike Sayenko

Northwest Canopies, INC, based in Bellevue, Washington, builds custom canopies in order to meet the specific needs of their customers. Founded in 2000, the company provides long lasting shelters for RVs, boats, heavy machinery, livestock, and sports equipment. These canopies have proven to be a wise alternative to shipping containers or monthly slip and storage fees.

In designing NW Canopies’ website, our goal was to create a professional, clean design, by highlighting the website with strategic key word placement for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes.

We also kept in mind the possibility of ecommerce expansion in the future and designed the website to accommodate that possibility.  We started with market research by sifting through different websites on canopy products. We then pulled together a branding strategy that would make NW Canopies’ website stand out from the rest.

This led us to create a logo and color scheme that communicated a northwest feel through the use of a green palette. From there, we re-branded from the old website, pictured on your left, to a green earthly tone and an easy to use navigation that symbolizes a shelter like covering over each menu item.

We are happy to see the website grow in success and enjoy our friendship with the fantastic people at NW Canopies.

In reality, most people glance at each page and, if you’re lucky, scan some of the text, clicking on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles what they are looking for. Usually there are large chunks of the page that the user doesn’t even look at.

The Home page of a website gives a first impression and thus should have some thought invested in its design. It needs to be straightforward, easy to navigate, and possess a clear message. Below are some questions you need to ask yourself about your current website or the one you plan on building. If you cannot quickly answer the questions below then you might want to redesign your website.

Lets Start with the Trunk Test:

• What site is this?
• What page am I on?
• Where am I in the site scheme?
• What are my options from this level?

Design

• · Conventionally, the logo should be at the upper left hand corner because we read left to right and it is the first thing that catches our eye. Also, the logo should be easy to read, conveying useful information or enhancing the branding value of the website.
• · The home page should have Call to Action and contact info placed prominently.
• · Click-ability should be obvious
• · Scan-ability – fast info
• · Text entry areas are obvious – Empty space effectively ends the page and no one is going to scroll beyond it. Anything below this will be lost, so design page layout and flow to maximize sales potential of page real estate.
• · Formatting applied via CSS (Cascade Style Sheets)
• · Conventions applied to all pages
• · Busy-ness and background noise are minimal
• · Footer includes copyright date and text
• · Correct Spelling/ Grammar
• · Image Quality – make sure images are not pixilated (stretched out)

Navigation

• Site Map
• Sense of scale, directions and location
• Page name matches that links that bring people there
• Breadcrumbs and site-level Navigation

When it comes to site design, most think of a product brochure, while the users reality is much closer to “billboard going by at 70 miles an hour.” People don’t read pages. They scan them. Try the three second scan-ability rule on your website. What can you remember about it after that time span? The most important information should stand out from the rest in those three seconds and you should be able to recall what that information is.

Does this all make sense? If you use these easy usability conventions, your site will communicate clearly and effectively.

In a previous article we went over Blogging Basics. Now we switch our focus to the importance of weekly blogging. Blogging is about sharing your interests, desires, and experiences with others. Your blog is the central hub from which you share those experiences with others. A blog could also be thought of as your article or news section of your website. Since, you want to share this information with as many people as possible, your blog should be visible on search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

This process, called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, maximizes your blog or website in order to attain higher rankings on search engine pages. If SEO isof great importance to you, blogging should be done on a weekly basis and key words cleverly inserted into your blog post. This effectively brings the target audience to your website as they hunt for specific key words on their search engines or follow links from other sites.

Researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations and popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll) The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly. Permalinks are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog’s content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.

Will People find you in the search engine?

If you plan on blogging then you might as well go to the effort of doing it right. This means performing a keyword research analysis to narrow down a list of words that would help people find you on their search engines. SEO and blogging go hand in hand, complementing each other. Blogging helps with SEO by building fresh new content and strengthening your keywords. Conversely, SEO helps blogging by defining the list of key words you will use, thus setting the parameters. You want to emphasize the top terms within each post’s title, body, categories, and tags. The more often a key word appears, the more powerful that keyword is, thus potentially ranking you higher in search engines. But don’t be excessive with your keywords, rather, they should be added cleverly and creatively so that the blog flows naturally. Achieving these features correctly boosts the chances of acquiring comments from authoritative readers and gaining links from outside websites, therefore achieving better search engine rankings for your blog!

Now, get out and start blogging with strategy! Don’t know where to start? Our favorite free blogging websites include: Blogger, Wordpress, and Blog.com. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact us, we would love to help.

1.    Potential Client meets Designer – to get a good grasp of the project we will get in contact over the phone, email, or set up a meeting.

2. Project Quote Issued by Designer – an email sent to the prospective client with an attached PDF quote for the project.

3. Approval of Quote by Client – usually an email sent back stating the approval.

4. Contract/Project Outline Issued by Designer - the designer emails the contract or meets in person.

Mike Sayenko

5.    Contract is Signed/Project Outline is Approved – paperwork is given back to Sayenko Design.

6.    Client Provides 50% Retainer Fee – along with the signed paper work we require a check of 50% deposit, you know to make sure you are serious about the project.

7.    Consultation – Client and Designer Meet, this may or may not happen as most of the communication is going to be over email/ phone. If there is a need to meet to understand the project better and to hand off project assets for example as CD with images, products that might need to be photographed, and anything that might need to be accomplished over a meeting.

8.    Proposal Provided by Designer – the designer sends an email to the client with a composition of the design usually in JPG (image) format.

9.    Proposal Reviewed by Client – client sends back revisions in an email.

10.    Revised Proposal Provided by Designer – the designer emails back the revisions.

11.    Finalization of Project – project is approved by client and ready to go live (if it’s a website).

12.    Final Payment Submitted by Client – client sends the rest of the payment (usually 50%) within 30 days of completion of the project.

Again nothing is set in stone we are flexible and try to work together with a client on things such as payments, sometimes things aren’t so linear. If you have any further questions don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

1. Take a look at other Blogging sites
Get familiarized with other blogging sites. This sounds very basic, but many people confuse corporate blogging with advertising and PR. Blogging is not a platform for advertising your products and services. These sort of blogs usually fail. Think of blogging as a social experience – real people share their personal experiences and engage others in interesting and thoughtful conversation by adding value to the reader.

To be successful you need to be able to add value through relevant, insightful, and interesting content with a sense of style. Do some research on your competitors. What are they blogging about? Are they successful? What makes them successful? What tone do they use? How do they engage with others? What kind of comments are left on their blog? These are all things you need to know about the culture before you get started on your own.

2. What are your goals?
Sit down and write down your company’s goals. What is your PR strategy? Can a blog help you with your marketing goals? If your goals includes search engine optimizatoin (SEO), demonstrating credibility, showing expertise in your field, demonstrating innovation, and more press coverage, then you should highly consider having a blog.

3. Strategy
This is highly important and should not be overlooked. There should be a deliberate strategy involved in the style, length of the post, how to bring new users to your blog, and how often will you write. Who will write your blog? A product manager who knows the product in and out? You have to find someone that is passionate about the subject and be able to write, quickly! Again these are all things to consider when coming up with your blog strategy.

4. Be Conversational
This is the key to blogging. Readers tend to ignore faceless advertising. The more you interact with customers the more likely they will share and post positive recommendations about you. To be successful you need to be relevant and demonstrate authority on relevant subjects. This will bring credibility to your blog. Look for websites that have related information to your sector and check back often. Blog about someones controversial opinion on a news story, these sort of posts should be cited by linking to them. Referencing other links and bloggers will turn into links, traffic and hopefully more exposure for your company, thus leading to sales.

5. Don’t be Lazy!
You have a blog now. Use it! The biggest problem with most of us is we just have too much on our plate, and are quite frankly just too lazy. Publishing a new blog post often leads to more followers, because RSS feeds draw more traffic as publishing increases. Writing a new post at least weekly will help tremendously with a higher search engine ranking.

6. Guidelines Guidelines Guidelines
You must have an understanding of how to react to comments and customer blog posts. A blog should have guidelines have constraints. For example: How big will your blog posts be? Remember no one wants to read an essay. How often will they be posted? How many times will it get proof read?

We encourage everyone to go through the steps carefully while really thinking about the process, as blogging is as much about the process as it is about the blog. You want to communicate with the user – not just making a sales pitch but a added value that works strategically.

In a recent blog post on Flip the Media, Hanson Hosein, Director of the Master’s of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program at the University of Washington did a great job of summarizing this change:
“Effective communication in the 21st century requires us to build relationships by telling our story and providing value-added content to online community platforms, quite often with inexpensive, amateur content creation and distribution tools.  This approach reflects current economic and budgetary realities, as well as a need to engage people with entrepreneurial zeal.”

The key concepts from this quote include:

• Building relationships
• Telling stories
• Providing value-added content
• Use of inexpensive, amateur content creation and distribution tools

Building Relationships

With the advent of social networks and social media in general, the world has started to build relation

ships in new and exciting ways.  Staying in touch with friends is easier than ever.  With web 2.0 we can now connect with people we never would have met before.  Communication is cheaper, faster, and more convenient then ever before thanks to social media around the web.  These things are all positive and have helped strengthen – not destroy – personal relationships.

What is perhaps even more exciting is the change we are starting to see in the business world.  In the latter half of the 20th century, advertising was based on broadcasting to people.  Communication was very top-down.

Advancements in technology have flipped the traditional structure upside down.  If companies wish to succeed, they must have conversations with their customers through social media.  Companies are going to have to be personal, and they must actually listen to their clients.  Being faceless isn’t going to work in the 21st century

How much will this cost me?

Until recently, creating content was difficult.  Cameras were expensive and editing equipment was difficult to use.  To make make things worse, distributing content was difficult.  Television, radio, and newspapers/magazines were the only viable ways to reach a mass market, and buying ad time/space was unreasonable for small businesses.  Now you can buy a high definition camera that has editing software built into it.  Simply plug it into any laptop, and you can edit and distribute your video through free social video websites such as YouTube.  Sure, you have to have some basic video training and creativity to produce a decent video, but the barriers are far lower than ever before.  The inexpensive nature of content creation and distribution means connecting with costumers in ways unheard of in the past.

What does this all mean?

What this all means is businesses need to rethink the ways they do marketing.  Consumers are looking for personal stories and relationships, not faceless advertising.  Fortunately, telling these stories and building these relationships is far easier and cheaper than ever before.  We believe this is great for both business and consumers, as it helps connect your target prospects to your business emotionally, increase user loyalty, deliver your company’s message clearly, and confirm your credibility.

Call us optimistic – but at Sayenko Design, we believe the days of manipulative advertising are slowly fading away.  These ads are being replaced by more honest and authentic communication between consumers and businesses.   One thing is for sure – business and brand loyalty has taken leaps and bounds to help connect small businesses to their consumers.  It is time to take advantage.

There appear to be misconceptions about what branding really means. With that said lets start with the basics – what is branding?

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”

Who needs branding and why?

Every business – big or small – needs branding. Just because you are a small firm with a small budget does not mean you should skip the most crucial aspect of your business.

Your brand is what people remember your company by.

Think about Coca-Cola, Microsoft, McDonalds and Nike. These companies didn’t get to be as big as they are without an effective branding strategy. This includes the customer experience and perceptions, which you have influence over. What is the first thing you think of when you see the Golden Arches or the Swoosh? That feeling is the brand experience, and is the essence of a brand that connects your buyers to your business emotionally.

Okay, I went out and got a cool logo. Am I good to go?

Branding is not a logo. Your logo is just one piece of the puzzle. The logo can provide consumers with powerful brand recognition of your business but remember developing your brand identity before your logo is the first step to success. Without a strong brand strategy, the logo can actually weaken your branding.  It is also important to keep your brand message consistent throughout your marketing material to build consumer recognition.

Alright, I’m starting to get a hang of this, but how do I brand effectively?

First you have to understand that branding is not about getting customers to choose you over the competition. It is about getting your prospects to see your business as the only solution to their problem.

An effective brand aims to achieve the following:

• Deliver your company’s message clearly
• Confirm your credibility
• Connect your target prospects to your business emotionally
• Motivate the buyer to buy
• Increase user loyalty

Whether you are big or small, branding will help build and strengthen your business. To be successful at any level, branding must be the first step – not the last. If you would like more information or help with branding of your business, feel free to contact us.