Not only do we create websites where owners can update the content through their browser but also sites that allow users to customise content according to their need.

We love user-centred design, keep it simple, make it useful.

We have the knowledge and skills associated with good ranking on search engines but still embrace the approach that the best SEO comes from great content and ease of use not from practices that ruin the internet experience.

As with any project the best place to start is with a good discussion about what you want to achieve and any possible ideas or plans you have for doing it. So give us a call or email and we'll set up a meeting for you to take that first step towards your greater online success.

1. Define the purpose of your site

The sort of website you need is determined by its purpose. Ask yourself this: "What do I want to achieve with my internet presence?" The starting point for any website is to address the following: a) what purpose your website is serving and b) what sort of content you would need. There are pages designed to be a 24/7 sales outlet, Amazon.com is one of them. Then there are portals, forums, social networking platforms and so on. Equally important is to clearly define a call to action. Once visitors land on your page, what would you want them to do next? Contact you? Sign up for a presentation meeting or place an order?

2. Looking good is one thing, but you're here to do business

Based on point 1, you will then define the layout and design. The information architecture defines the pages of the site and their relation to each other in a structured flowchart format, like a site map. After pages are defined, content is then mapped to each page. A good site will be leading you through the content, ensuring that you find what you need. This is possible because the site has been built anticipating the path you would go. The site is built in a way that guides you right from the start. You are either new to direct mail, or you have experience. As a visitor you would not have to guess where you may find the information relevant to your query.

3. Consistency is king

Some companies simply assign someone to produce a website for them. Chances are, it will look different from their existing sales and marketing material. The problem is that visitors will be confused and may think they are looking at a different business. It might be more expensive in the short term to bundle items such as the website, brochure and flyers, but it will pay out in the long run. In addition to a consistent look, one will also save some money as the handling of a bundle is much more effective, by reducing the management fees of an agency.

4. Don't let the programmer get carried away

Web programmers have a lot of sophisticated tools, widgets and applications at their disposal. Question is, do you need video streaming, forums and all of that? Some websites actually require it. Others don't. If you are setting up your first ever website, you may want to hold back on the gadgets. These can be incorporated at a later stage (see points 5 and 7). For certain markets it is vital to keep your site "light" to allow fast download. Not all countries have high speed broadband.

5. Drive traffic to the site

Once the site is up and serves the purpose defined under point 1, you will then need to drive visitors to the site. A site just sitting there is doing nothing for you. You need to create a vehicle that will make people want to visit the site. One can use this to gather valuable data. A website equipped with analytical tools can act as a data gathering tool. An offline campaign could ask people to sign up for a special promotion. Different campaigns will generate various amounts of traffic. This way, companies can evaluate the efficacy of their campaigns in different markets.

6. Build a campaign around the website

Just as one would use different media and channels, the website can be incorporated into any campaign. Launching a new website can actually be the campaign. Use public relations to announce the new site and the benefits it will offer to clients. A print ad could promote your products or services, pointing to the new site. On the new site you can ask visitors to register for a free e-newsletter; which you will send out a month later, thanking receivers for signing up for the newsletter. This newsletter may get forwarded, driving more new visitors to the website. This simple campaign uses four channels, touching people at different points.

7. Plan the next site before the current one is up!

When the World Wide Web became popular, many companies set up websites. There are sites that are almost 10 years old and have never been updated. However, during that time your service offering may have changed, the requirements of your clientele could have shifted and if nothing else, technology has advanced. Just like your office building or your furniture, you may need an overhaul of your website once in a while. If your website is stating a copyright 2000, it signals something to the visitor: We don't care about this site and we do not think your visit is important!

8. Don't use Yahoo! mail for business

If you have a website, please refrain from using any Yahoo, Hotmail or such addresses. With your website, you have the possibility to set up specific e-mails. In a recent project for our client, we found the following in their database -- Users of Yahoo: 2.1 percent, Streamyx: 5.4 percent, Gmail: 3.7 percent and Hotmail: 1.9 percent. Some companies have made it a policy not to respond to messages, unless it is a company specific mailname with a proper web domain.

9. Use appropriate and relevant images, in good quality

Images play a vital role in websites. They are used as part of the layout, design and also as icons guiding visitors. When selecting images, it is crucial to ensure that they are relevant, appropriate and of good quality. A great picture of an oil rig is counterproductive if you are running a law firm specialising in trade marks.

10. Do it yourself is death

As the saying goes: you do not want your plumber to do your taxes. The same applies for any website. You are an expert in your industry. Unless you are a web-design company, chances are, you do not have the expertise to produce your own website. At the core of this thought lies the notion of division of labour and specialisation. Let people who do this for a living help you. It will save you time, frustration and if nothing else, money.

Whether you are setting up your first website or thinking of re-developing your existing one, the above tips may be helpful for you. There are, of course, many more issues to watch out for. Your marketing council or digital agency will know best and they are able to assist you with your requirements. While all of the above may sound very costly, rest assured. Websites can be produced with a small budget. However, the budget and the intended result will correlate.

You may not yet enjoy a clear bandwidth that consistently delivers the standards you already experience from TV but they are set to catch up. Google didn't buy Youtube for nothing.

Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

• Review of your site content or structure
• Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
• Content development
• Management of online business development campaigns
• Keyword research
• SEO training
• Expertise in specific markets and geographies.

This can be done by Adviews, an online advertising agency, supplying a little bit of code to place on your webpage and then managing the whole process from creating adverts, measuring the response and feeding sales leads and revenue back to you.

It's no secret that consumers are cutting back big time. Frugality is the new chic. Tight budgets and high fuel prices are leading to an increase in cocooning that can't be wholly attributed to bitter winter weather. Even New York City is reporting subway ridership has scaled back to levels not seen since the 1950s, as workers lose jobs and shoppers don't leave home to shop.

Hard to find bright spots in such scenarios, but grim economic times could bode better for online retailers than their beleaguered meatspace counterparts. A recent Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates survey finds 26 percent of consumers saying they'll shop more online if their personal financial situation worsens in the coming year.

These so-called "recession shoppers" aren't just buying online to save shoe leather and tire treads. They're hunting for rock-bottom prices, deep discounts and solid deals.

Most of all, recession shoppers love coupons.

68% of "recession shoppers" (and 79% of "weekly shoppers") purchased something online they wouldn't have otherwise because of a coupon or discount.
64% of "recession shoppers" (and 70% of "weekly shoppers") said they purchased something from a particular online retailer they wouldn't have otherwise because of a coupon or discount.

Additional findings include:

74% of online shoppers receive e-mail alerts from their favorite retailers
Recession shoppers are 17 points more likely to research products or services online several times a week than average users
Consumers - 34 year olds make more online purchases every month than any other age group
34% of those surveyed plan buy more online in 2009 than they did last year
While on the surface these findings would seem to bode well for online retailers, there are more than a few caveats and unknowns tied up in the findings. Where's the ROI? Where's the customer loyalty?

In short, are recession shoppers the customer segment retailers should work, and spend, to attract during tough times? Sales are sales, and orders are order. But the bottom line is still the bottom line, and profit matters. Navigating the treacherous waters of a recession is hard enough without being held hostage by customers insisting on ever-deeper discounts and ever-sweeter deals before they'll hit that 'buy' button.

1. How much of your range will be online?
2. How frequently will it be updated?
3. How will you handle out of stock items?
4. What supporting functionality will you offer? (wishlists, 'save for later', email a friend etc)
5. What user groups do you need to cater for and how should you reflect this on your site in terms of how you position your product offer? (eg: early adopters look for the newest products on the site under a 'what's new' section; bargain hunters will be looking for a sale category)

Site sections

1. In addition to the shopping sections, will there be additional content areas such as magazine areas, news updates, user forums etc?
2. Does this content currently exist and, if not, how will it be created?
3. How would you like these sections to be structured?

Navigation

1. How do you want your range to be structured (section & sub-section names)?
2. Do you want persistent or context sensitive navigation?
3. Do you want fixed or dynamic visibility of the menu structures?

Browsing

1. How will customers want to view & browse your products? By Category? By Price? By other means?

Personalisation

1. Do you wish to be able to offer content personalisation and what form should this take?
2. Do you wish to be able to link products in your catalogue to encourage cross-selling, if so, how do you want these products to be selected?

Search and merchandising

1. How complex are your search requirements and how important is this to your customers, for example do you wish to be able to provide search on product features?
2. How intuitive does your search functionality need to be, for example, do you want to allow synonyms/spell check/stemming etc?
3. Do you want your customers to be able narrow down the choices available to them by product attribute?
4. How extensive and complex is your product hierarchy, and do you need to consider 'guided search' functionality?

Basket & checkout

1. Do you wish to provide gifting functionality, such as a gift message and gift-wrapping, if so, where do you wish this to appear in the customer journey?
2. How many checkout stages would you like to have and at which point do you wish to require the customer to login?
3. Do you want a 'fast checkout' process for existing users? (eg Amazon's 'one-click' checkout)
4. How important are attachments, up-sells, cross-sells to your business and how and at what stage do you want these to be presented to your customers?
5. What payment methods would you like to be able to accept?
6. Will you cater for payment methods such as PayPal, as well as traditional debit and credit cards?
7. Do you have store cards, loyalty cards etc that need to be taken into account?
8. How susceptible are your products to online fraud and what steps would you like to put in place to avoid it?

Customer communication

1. What emails do you wish customers to receive and at which phases of the purchase process?
2. What order tracking functionality do you wish to provide your customers?
3. Do you want to provide your customers with the facility to feedback on their purchase or returns process?

Other functionality

1. Would you like to provide any community content/functionality such as product reviews, forums, blogs etc?
2. Do you have any requirements to feed or receive any of this content to other sites with which you are associated?

1) Make it something you want people to see

There are millions, if not trillions, of viral videos all over the web. Why should browsers click on your short over anyone else's? Are you offering important information? Or a profound message? Have you captured the most hilarious human belly flop of all time? Whatever it is, identify the reason why people want to watch your short.

2) Make it fun

The vast majority of people who get a kick watching viral shorts are BORED. Those seeking their online fix are looking for something entertaining. Have fun with your videos and other people will too!

3) Post it everywhere

After uploading your viral vid on a site like YouTube or Vimeo, don't just let it sit. We have tons of options to seamlessly post videos. Facebook or MySpace will allow you an interface for your video to show right on your profile. Twitter is also a great forum for links, and all your followers will be interested in clicking. The more spaces you post, the more hits your short will get.

4) Tag it!

Another way people will stumble across your video is through search engines. Look up the top 100 most popular search words on Google and eBay, and apply as many of those as you can to your video.

5) Give it an interesting title

Treat your video's title like a headline on a magazine cover. Since viewers have a lot to choose from on the net, they'll be drawn to the most attractive heading. Strong adjectives like, hysterical, unbelievable, exclusive, leaked, or important can convey specific, compelling feelings.

6) Give it a great thumbnail image

On websites where your video will be surrounded by many others, the thumbnail image displayed will play just as big a role as the title in grabbing peoples' attention. Your thumbnail image should be clear, and show either someone's face or a key still in the action of the clip.

7) Keep it brief

Obviously the term 'short' implements a certain constraint to the length of your video. But as an Internet maxim, the briefer the better! If you're making a scripted short with a budget, somewhere between 2 and 4 minutes is best. Live footage of a funny, touching or spontaneous event can be kept below 2 minutes.

8) Make it 'remixable'

If you look at the most successful YouTube videos, you'll notice that people frequently answer with video responses, or 'remixes' of their own. You can even invite people to get creative. Canadian rock band The New Pornographers had a YouTube contest and challenged viewers to recreate their music videos in different themes, a Michael McDonald motif being one. The idea was great fun and still gets a lot of hits!

9) Link to your website/blog/other videos

At the end of your viral short, offer viewers other options for looking at your work. The more they get to know you, the more they'll return-whether it's to watch all your other videos, or to watch one of your fabulous clips over and over!

10) Get it onto blogs

There's no shame infusing your video into relevant conversation. These days, everyone has their favourite blog, and people love to comment like crazy. If you can comment on a blog post that's relevant to your video, why not drop in the link? The blogger will be glad you read their post, and those who comment will have something to look at after the reading is over.