You need a website and a relative or friend has offered to build one for you. If times are tough it’s tempting to use a friend or family member as you know them and trust them. Furthermore they are most likely going to design and build your site for free—or at a reduced cost. Is it a good idea? Allow me to answer the question: should you get a friend or family member to build your website?
Texelate's Blog
Can you use any font/typeface on your website?
December 13th, 2010
Before I begin this article I’ll have to address an issue of semantics. According to my dictionary a font is ‘a set of type of one particular face and size’; a typeface is ‘a particular design of type’. In computing terms a font is a digital file that stores the information needed to render ‘a set of type of one particular face and size’ on your screen. A font and a typeface are different things and pedantic designers insist that you don’t use the terms interchangeably. You need to know this because in answering the question ‘Can you use any font/typeface on your website?’ you will need to know that when I refer to typefaces I mean something like Arial or Times New Roman and when I refer to fonts I am talking about the file your computer uses to render typefaces. It may sound trivial but I can assure you it’s relevant.
Web design inspiration
December 8th, 2010
If you’ve come here expecting to see asiteaday.org it has been discontinued. asiteaday.org was my own bespoke gallery but I no longer have time to manage it. Rather than show you a bunch of out–of–date screenshots please find a list of galleries below.
Design galleries are an excellent source of web design inspiration. Here are a list of some of them. There are lots out there but these ones get a special mention as my work has been featured on them:
10 SEO techniques that won’t help your website’s rankings
December 7th, 2010
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the technique used to make your site appear at the top of the search engines (mainly Google). There are lots of misconceptions about the trade. This is primarily because of two reasons: One, the rules change so quickly it’s hard to keep up and two, no one other than the owners of the search engines actually know what those rules are!
The only way we can work out what currently works is through experimenting with our own sites. Because of that rumours and misunderstanding about SEO abound. Many of them stem from the so–called ‘experts’; some used to be true and are now out of date. The rest are just plain wrong!
So here are 10 SEO techniques that WON’T help your website’s rankings. Not everyone will agree with all of these…but that’s the way it is with SEO.
Things you should know about your site’s WYSIWYG editor
December 6th, 2010
WYSIWYG means ‘what you see is what you get’. In the context of a website it means a form of text input that allows some formatting similar to word processing software (see the above image). So unlike a regular text area you can do great things like bold, italic, hyperlinks, tables, etc. More advanced editors will even let you create forms, tables and upload images. Such editors are great as they allow people with little or no web design knowledge to add content that is far more interesting than plain text to their site. Sometimes though, a WYSIWYG editor can give you too much control—and lead to problems. So here are some things you should know about your site’s WYSIWYG editor.
The benefits of buying multiple domain names for the same website
December 4th, 2010
In the grand scheme of things domain names are incredibly cheap. They range from a few pounds per year to…a few pounds per year. If you need a domain name don’t be so financially shortsighted as to hold out buying it for such a small amount of money; you may regret it further down the line. In most cases, it is appropriate to have more than one domain name and point them all to the same site. Why? Well, here are the benefits of buying multiple domain names for the same website.
How to choose a domain name
December 3rd, 2010
A domain name is your website address to the online world (e.g. texelate.co.uk). Choosing a domain name is one of the biggest decisions you have to make with regards to your online business. Here are some tips on how to pick one that will work for you.
Note, in most cases it is appropriate to buy multiple domain names and point them to one place (e.g. texelate.com, .net and .org all point to my .co.uk site) but here I will discuss how to choose your ‘primary’ domain name, that is, the one you use for your website and emails.
Should you send email newsletters out from your own computer?
December 1st, 2010
There are two ways to send email newsletters out. One is to use your own mail program (e.g. Outlook). This method usually involves emailing yourself and BCC’ing everyone on your list in. The alternative way is to use email marketing software. You probably know about the first method and have used it yourself. How does email marketing software work though?
It’s an online service where you upload your newsletters and then they send them out on your behalf. You’ll have to pay for the privilege though. So, why would you want to use a paid service when you can do it for free from your own computer?
Email marketing software is much, much better—and here are five reasons why:
What you should blog about
November 30th, 2010
You’ve read about the benefits of having a blog on your website and now you’ve got one. The next point for consideration is what you should blog about. This blog doesn’t deal with subject matter, which is infinite in size. Rather it deals with core ideas to keep in mind when writing blog posts.
The benefits of having a blog on your website
November 29th, 2010
In case you’ve been living in a nuclear bunker for the last few years and don’t know what a blog is, Wikipedia describes one as:
“Regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video”
Each new blog post is a new page on your website but it is usually authored by the owner of the website—as opposed to the web designer. If you want to see an example of a blog post, you’re looking a one right now. Here are the benefits of having a blog on your website. Bear in mind though, you’ll only get these benefits if you keep your blog up–to–date. The main advantages are:
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