Snake Oil Antidote

Let the music play!

2011-04-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Times have been pretty busy here at Asni: Multimedia - not just with web design work, but various other projects. I have been working on some illustrations, designing next year's calendars to sell in my online shop, planning my trip to Europe in June, and harvesting large quantities of apples and walnuts from my garden.

In amongst all that, I do occasional still find time to do some work on my own website. The main task at the moment is to bring the old part of my website, which was originally intended to promote my work as a musician, up to scratch. Quite the undertaking, for this part of the website has been growing like a fungus for the past eight or nine years. Weeding is as much part of the job of running a website, as it is in the garden!

The obvious thing to do for a site which is intended to promote a musician, is to put on some music clips. I used to have audio files for download on the site, but these days this seems like a very clumsy and old fashioned way of doing things. So this past month, I've been busy developing my very own flash music player, which enables me to offer music streaming, for instant listening gratification. No more twiddling your fingers until that download finishes!

So far, I have completed the page with music samples from my most recent CD, "Travels in Middle-earth", which you can listen to here. - the other CDs will follow suit eventually.

Please note that this is an application which I have developed from scratch, and if you have ever programmed a computer, you will know that things never quite work the way they were intended, for everyone, in every browser and operating system, instantaneously and without protracted testing. I have already spent a month fixing up things in response to feedback from various people for whom it was not quite working as intended - as far as I am aware, it should be perfectly operational now, but if you do experience a problem, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ABOUT IT. It always surprises me how many people assume that they're probably just to stupid to operate a computer, when something does not work, instead of yelling at the web designer to fix things. We do need to be yelled at. It's the only way we can spot if something doesn't work.

Moreover, I have also just signed a digital distribution contract for this album with CDBaby.com - so if you like what you hear, you can download a couple of tracks, or indeed the whole album, for a moderate amount of money, here. I promise to report on how this goes for me, sometime in a future blog post!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

A word on my own behalf

2011-04-07T03:54:00.000-07:00

I shall make this a short note today, mainly because I feel a bit cranky. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the "Online Promotion for Everyone" classes at the Featherston Community Centre, starting on Tuesday (for more information, dates and times please go here )

So far, 2 - in words, two - people have signed up. A third said she was interested, but eventually told me that she thought it was too much money. Now, to state such a thing about a professional training course which, to keep it accessible, is held in a community evening course format and costs 12 dollars a session, quite frankly, I find that a little rude.

Perhaps next time I should book the Grand Mariott Hotel and send out shiny emails with bland promises every thinking person should know no one can keep, and charge a hundred dollars for the two hour session? Would that create more of a perception of value, and attract more people? We have a saying in Germany which comes to mind, something about pearls and where to throw them, but it's not flattering, so I might just want to omit it here.

The secret is, there is no secret. The internet is a tool - and a very powerful tool - but you have to learn how to use it in order to make it work for you. And you have to invest the time to go online and figure things out yourself. Find sites. Get involved in online communities. Meet people. Buy things. Sell things. Share things. Comment on things. Pass things on to others.

There is no "magic formula". But there is a whole new set of social rules, and it helps to be aware of them if one wants to venture out there and make the most of it. There is also a whole grand cyberverse of new opportunities, but if you do not engage, they will pass you by. It's everyone's own choice. Every one of you. But some offers are limited in time, and this will have been the last time I offer my classes at the Featherston Community Centre, for 12 dollars a session

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Content Management: Keeping Things Fresh

2011-03-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

So you have a bright and shiny new website, the launch went well, people have complimented you, and everyone is excited. What happens next? Do you just let it sit there for the next couple of years? In that case, you shouldn't wonder if your visitor statistics are disappointing, the search engine ranking goes from poor to non existing, and the site generally doesn't do much for you.

The importance of regular updates cannot be stressed enough. There are the obvious reasons: Information, prices, services, timetables will go out of date. It is frustrating for a client to look up information on the site, then find, when they call you or visit your store, that the model they are after has gone out of production last year, or the class or event they were coming for isn't actually taking place. Do you think it promotes trust in your business if it presents information which has not been updated for the last three years?

The other good reason is that search engines favour fresh content. The principle behind search rankings is, simply put, that the engine tries to find the content which is most likely to be relevant to the person doing the search. The four main factors which play into this are: keyword match, popularity of the page (i.e. the number of previous visitors), number (and reputation) of sites linking to the page, and how recent the content is. So updating your pages regularly already takes care of one quarter of your search engine optimization!

This is one reason for the popularity of blogs: blogging sites allow users to input text and other content themselves, with no need for any web design or programming knowledge. Blogs are, by definition, frequently updated - and it turned out that search engines really liked this! Many people even choose to only set up a blog, not an entire website with their own domain. For some businesses this makes perfect sense - especially if you're only just putting your feelers out in the online realm. Most blogging sites are free to use: some of the most well known are Blogspot (which is hosting this blog), LiveJournal, and more recently, WordPress.

Wordpress even offers the ability to sign up for your own domain name, and a few other features which allow you to set up an easy to manage site yourself. These services are available for a monthly fee. Again, this can be a good solution for a first web site - but as with all out-of-the-box solutions, there are limitations to how well you can adapt this system to your own requirements.

Easy to use online content management systems are quickly becoming the standard for personal websites. They are often built using one of the available content management packages as a backbone - Drupal is one such package, which is popular with website developers. These packages offer a wide range of advanced interactive features: blogs, forums, image galleries, shopping cart solutions, password protected areas, you name them. The capabilities and adaptability of such a system go well beyond a humble Wordpress site - but it still is limited in some ways, particularly in the ways you can lay out and structure your site.

My personal preference is to create my own content management systems for my sites. The last two sites I have built - www.margarethiley.com and www.wellingtonyogacentre.co.nz - are both fairly small sites, and using a massive online content management system requiring hours and hours of setup or programming, seemed like overkill. Instead, I choose to work with text files, which can be updated by the user in one of the common word processing programmes, without the need for special web authoring software, or being fluent in html. This does require a certain level of feeling comfortable with computers, and a willingness to familiarize yourself with setting up an FTP connection, folder structures, and a minimal amount of html tags. But it helps to keep the cost down - in both cases, adding an online administration area would have doubled the work, and hence the price.

The site I am currently working on is a gallery site for a photographer. Here, one of the main requirements is that the client can easily add new images, and the associated information. This site will have a full featured online content management system - fully flexible, and adapted to this specific client's needs.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Success Stories

2011-03-09T01:25:00.001-08:00

It seems that in my eagerness to spread online knowledge, and promote other people's sites, I have completely failed clap myself on the shoulder and pass on the fantastic feedback I got from a recent client, Margaret Hiley (I've introduced her site in a previous blog post). So here is what she said:

"When I set up my translation and proofreading business, I knew that having a professional-looking website was a must. However, I also wanted it to stand out from the crowd and have a quirky, creative feel to it that would attract my clients, many of whom work in the creative industries themselves.

Astrid has created exactly the kind of website I was hoping for. In fact, she obviously realised exactly what I wanted right from our initial consultation, as the first draft she provided me was so fantastic we decided to go ahead with it! Astrid also provided me with valuable feedback on what to include on the site, and kept me up to date on her work throughout the entire design process, so I felt fully included in the creation of the site.

The website was finished to deadline, and Astrid even gave it a first publicity push through her own blog and website. If you want a professional, individualised and creative web design service (and who wouldn't!), I wholeheartedly recommend Asni Multimedia!"

***

"Online Promotion for Everyone" kicks off again at the Featherston Community Centre on April 12, through to May 17 - six evening classes, Tuesday nights from 7.30 to 8.30 pm. The classes need to be booked and paid for in advance. The price per class is $ 15 for any individual class, or $ 72 for all six classes - this amounts to $ 12 per class. Please contact me to book your place! The maximum number of participants is 12, on a first come, first served basis.

The course will cover the following topics:

12 April 2011: Planning your website — When planning an online presence, ask yourself: who are my visitors, and what do I want them to do? We will draw up a site map and think about how visitors should navigate through a website. We will also discuss alternative options, such as using a blog, Facebook page, or other online service as your main web presence.

19 April 2011: Internet: how does it work — This session will explain some of the basic technologies used on the web. We will look at some samples of static and dynamic websites built with HTML & CSS, PHP, and Flash. This knowledge will be very helpful when communicating with your web designer. We will also look at security considerations, and what to watch out for when choosing a web hosting service.

26 April 2011: How to be found — SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is only one way to promote your site. Understanding the logic of search engines and optimizing your web presence so it comes up on top in search results is important., but we will also look at other ways to drive traffic to your site: the use of social media, email, offline promotion, and paid advertising such as Google Adwords.

3 May 2011: Content management — There is nothing worse than a website which is hopelessly out of date. This session will introduce ways to keep your site fresh, and interact with your visitors: Content Management Systems which enable advanced interaction, as well as more low key options such as regular news updates and blogs, RSS feeds, and feedback forms.

10 May 2011: Selling things online — E–commerce presents the chance to sell your products to a potentially worldwide market, quite literally from your bedroom. This session will look into some of the available options for trading on the internet: auction sites (Trademe, Ebay), online marketplaces dedicated to a particular kind of goods (e.g. Etsy), using Paypal to process payments, or setting up your very own online shop.

17 May 2011: Getting fancy: Multimedia on the internet — With the increased availability of fast broadband internet connections, videos, podcasts, and other multimedia content on the internet continues to be on the rise. Youtube, anyone? This session will take a look into the future, and introduce some creative options to share your content, which are available even on a modest budget.

***

Speaking of online promotion, here is a strange thing that happened recently in the weird and wonderful realm which is cyberspace. Some little while ago I posted a drawing of The King of Elfland with the face of David Tennant (he of Doctor Who fame) on my Facebook profile, with a comment along the lines of "wouldn't this face make a great elf king face". As indeed, there are persistent rumours flying around of David Tennant's possible involvement in the Hobbit movie, and I am a great advocate of him being cast as King Thranduil. I mean, David Tennant in a blonde Legolas wig? Who could resist.

A couple of weeks ago, it came to my attention that IMDb now semi-officially lists "The Hobbit" as one of David Tennant's upcoming movie projects ("rumored", it says) – and the part he is supposed to be cast in is King Thranduil ("rumored", it says – mind you, most of the other possible parts are already very officially taken). Well hurray I thought, just what I've always been saying – but I wonder how much substance there is to that rumour. It turned out that there was an article posted on TORN on 11 January, citing an article from Digitalspy.com, to the effect that there are persistent rumours of a possible involvement of David Tennant in the Hobbit movie, and "he has been linked to the part of Thranduil".

Not to sound paranoid-megalomaniac or anything, but it did seem like a bit of a weird coincidence. I posted that image, and my suggestion that David Tennant has a great Thranduil face, on Facebook on 8 January. The people on my friend list include Michael Regina of TORN, and a few others prominently involved in the fan community, or indeed the making of the movies themselves. Serendipity, or a butterfly fluttering its wings? I guess we'll never know for sure, but I have begun to think that at $12 per class, my online promotion tuition is *REALLY GOOD VALUE*. :D

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Ave Christchurch

2011-02-22T01:08:00.000-08:00

I've made a new year's resolution to stick to a stricter schedule with this blog in the future, and that means an entry is due today - but at the moment my thoughts, and I am sure everyone else's in New Zealand, go out to the people in Christchurch.

Gone are the days when most of us would be blissfully ignorant of the day's events until after dinner, when it was time to watch the tv news. The first I heard about the earthquake was via a friend on Facebook, about an hour after it struck. He'd been following the news, and he was posting links as the news came in.

Within the space of perhaps another hour, pretty much everyone I know on Facebook who lives in New Zealand - and quite a few people abroad - were aware of the disaster that had struck, and had posted something, thoughts, good vibes, or hard news.

More importantly, messages were being passed on - such as Vodaphone's nationwide appeal to please stay off the mobile networks, so that emergency calls could get through. And not just to organize help and support - at the time, there were people trapped under rubble, and some of them had phones on them. A good priority.

I then jumped on Twitter, and punched "Christchurch earthquake" in the search field. The tweets I found included links to a people finder tool set up by Google at short notice: http://christchurch-2011.person-finder.appspot.com/#chch%20#eqnz - incidentally, very much in the spirit of keeping worried friends and relatives off the mobile networks. The count of records they are tracking has gone up from 1600 approximately an hour ago, to 2500 at the time I am writing this paraqraph, to 3400 by the time I am finished with this blog post.

The University of Colorado, of all places, chimed in with a crowd-sourced map of earthquake damage, enabling people to check which parts of town were the most affected, and to post their own observations: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~starbird/TtT_eqnz_map_byEvent.html - well, at least if they can work out how it works.

I would like to point out that this has been by no means an in-depth search: the Facebook messages came to my attention in the course of my habitual casual internet browsing while doing work on my computer, and looking up the links on the Twitter feed took all of five minutes. ‎

The message Vodaphone has been posting, to request people to stay off the mobile networks, read like this: "Vodafone is requesting no non-essential calls across the whole country - pass it on".

"Pass it on" - three magic words. All this cutting edge modern technology, and it's back to the oldest news spreading mechanism in the world: One person who tells some others, who tell some others, who tell some others. And it's still by far the fastest and most efficient way to spread a piece of news.

I remember well the time, 1985, the big earthquake in Mexico City. My father had been posted on a work stint to Queretaro, ca 200 km north of Mexico City. I remember the date so well, because it was the very week I was writing my final examinations to finish high school. The tv news, in their usual sensationalist way, made it look like not just Mexico City, but half the country was affected, but without being very precise about what exactly where exactly. Phone lines were down due to the damage, and for a week we couldn't get through. There was an information phone number broadcast on the tv news - but when that wasn't overloaded, the info they could give you wasn't very helpful. Eventually, my father made one of his routine calls home. It had never occurred to him that we might be worried sick, because in Queretaro, they'd hardly felt the quake at all.

I remember well the time, September 2001. I was two weeks into a six week internship at ZDF, one of the two public tv stations in Germany. The editorial staff of the programme I was working on was assembled for their weekly meeting, when one of our colleagues burst in to say that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. "Stupid sports plane accident" was the first thought ... then we stood and watched, in real time, as the Twin Towers collapsed and Manhattan disappeared under a thick cloud of dust, leaving everyone in suspense, throughout that whole long afternoon, just how much worse was to come. I remember, most vividly, taking the subway train home that evening, looking at the faces of my fellow passengers and thinking "They don't know yet". Thinking, they'll go home and have dinner and switch on the tv news, and find out that someone has just declared war on the United States of America, and we don't even know who it is.

Though that wasn't quite doing the tv news justice. They were perfectly sure who it was, perhaps an hour after the first White House spokesperson had tentatively mentioned the possibility of Al Qaeda being behind the attack, and well before there had been the remotest chance for anyone to find any actual evidence, let alone analyze it. That I also remember very well, and this is when I stopped watching tv news.

These days, I get my news on the internet. And by that I don't mean online media channels or magazines, or even political blogs. Mostly, I rely on Facebook. If something is so important and earth-shattering that I need to know about it, someone in my online network will be talking about it. Then is the time to do a Google search or jump on Twitter, to find more information. Or I might know someone who lives close by, and might have some more first hand information than what trickles down through the traditional mass media.

What is the point in knowing how many people have died gruesome deaths in the latest war or plane crash or natural disaster, if there is nothing you can do to influence the situation? That's just sensationalist voyeurism and an unhealthy fascination with the gruesome, if you as me. Not to mention a good livelihood for a whole professional caste of media people.

Most of us, most of the time, think of the internet mainly as a tool to promote ourselves - our businesses, our professional expertise, our artwork and music, our ideas and worldview, or even just how cool we look with that new haircut, or what a great time we had on that last holiday. But at times like these, it becomes apparent that the internet can be far more than that.

Passing on information, Tweeter to Tweeter and Facebook friend to Facebook friend, about where to find information about family and friends in an earthquake zone, or where to direct yourself for food and shelter, or finding beds for passengers stuck in an airport unable to travel on to their intended destination, or staying off the mobile networks so that people trapped under rubble can get through with their calls - that on the other hand, might quite literally save lives.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

New Year, New Projects

2011-02-07T02:39:00.000-08:00

A Happy New Year to all my cherished readers! I hope 2011 finds you all happy and healthy, and your businesses going the way you want them to go.

I am fortunate to be able to put a tick on all three points. After a nice long summer break - during which there was no blog! - I am now back in the office and ready to tackle whatever the new year may throw at me.

So far, it's been all good. I had a nice long break - not so much lazing in the sun, though there was a bit of that as well, but mostly working on a few things whose benefit is likely to be more long-term than immediate.

I have had time to work on improving my programming skills, both in PHP - which I have come to LOVE - and in Flash Actionscript. I am now able to offer customized content management systems even for my smaller sites, and already have the first two clients queueing up for it.

I have also been able to do some work on my own web page - music streaming is now available, though there are still a couple of issues with the new Flash play buttons: so far, you need to manually stop the previous track before you listen to a new one, otherwise there will be a cacophony of simultaneous tunes. This is obviously no good, and I am working on the issue. I think even so, it is a lot more elegant than it was before! Bearing in mind that this is a work in progress, you are welcome to have a look and a listen here.

This month, there has been a steady flow of smaller projects - mainly updates and site improvements for previous clients. It looks like once someone has got a site, they want more! I assume this means that their sites are really working for my clients.

One interesting new project I am involved in is more consultation than design work: I have been setting up a Facebook page for 50 plus Travel - a business based in Upper Hutt which offers escorted tours to Russia, Central Europe, the Ukraine, Vietnam and China for singles and couples of the older generation. Anna Jones, the business owner, emigrated to New Zealand from Russia half a lifetime ago, and I can't think of a more fun, or expert person to organize your travel and introduce you to the local culture. Do follow her on Facebook if you want to find out more!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

To Facebook, or not to Facebook ...

2010-11-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

... Actually, that is not really the question. Whatever else one may think of it, Facebook is, hands down, one of the most efficient online tools for people who run small businesses or work as independent professionals. Its ability to to automatically find and suggest contacts on the basis of shared friends, shared interests, or a shared work history, is incredibly useful especially for those who are operating in a niche market, or a particular local environment.

There are two different types of profiles one can set up on Facebook. The personal profile is intended for private, personal interactions. Access to it is restricted to those people who are on your "friend" list. Users can send friend requests to another user, and these need to be individually, and mutually approved. As per Facebook rules, personal profiles are required to be registered under your real name - though this is a rule that gets bent quite a bit. I admit that I myself have registered two profiles, one under my real name, which I have set to private, and strictly limited to people I actually know in real life, or from other online forums. My other profile is registered under my stage name, and this has turned out really useful for making contact lots and lots of other harpists. My sheet music sales have gone up noticeably since I started posting on Facebook!

Ideally, this second Facebook profile should have been a "page" - but I admit that when I first joined Facebook, it took me a little while to get my head around how to best set it up, and by that time my second profile had already accumulated a sizable friend list! I do have a page as well, but have found that people are more likely to send me friend requests to my personal profile. Perhaps it feels less one sided? Or perhaps it is simply a snowball effect. There are several other musicians on that friends list who also use their stage name on their profile, so I don't feel too bad about it. Personally I think it should be a person's choice if they want to share their real name on the internet, particularly given the recurring issues about Facebook privacy policies.

The other option is to set up a Facebook "page". These are specifically intended for promoting your business or service, art, music, or personal or public interest. There are "Community pages", which can be created by anyone, and "Official pages", which may only be created by an official representative of the business, organization or person in question. Official pages come in three different flavours: "local business", "brand, product or organization", and "artist, band or public figure". It is necessary to register a personal profile first, which is used to administer the page.

Unlike personal profiles, pages can usually be seen by anyone browsing the internet - you need not be logged in to Facebook to access it (though this depends on the privacy settings you choose). They are also more one-sided than profiles: people can decide to "like" a page, which means that anything posted on the page will appear in their news stream. This does not require approval from the owner of the page. Also, unlike becoming "friends" with someone, the things that the users who have subscribed to your page post on their profiles, will not appear in your news stream! If you have ever managed a profile with more than a couple of hundred users - each of whom may be promoting their own pet cause or interest - you will instantly grasp the advantage of this. ;)

Two other useful features on Facebook deserve at least a short mention: "Events" can be created either on your official page or your personal profile. Creating an event allows you to send invitations to the people on your friends list, and to update them with posts on the events page. People can also respond to say they are attending, or not attending. A very economical way to inform and update your core audience about anything from opening and launches, to special offers or new websites.

"Groups" are in some ways similar to community pages, and can be used to interact with other people who share a common hobby or interest. If your business operates in a niche market, this may be a good way to get the attention of people who may be interested in your service or product! However, bear in mind that groups are not primarily intended for self promotion - it really is all about the interaction, on Facebook.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Introducing: www.margarethiley.com

2010-11-11T03:08:00.000-08:00

This month has been mostly busy with proper paid web design work, which is just how it should be. I've already introduced the Wellington Yoga Centre website in my latest - it is now properly online and live, and can be admired here: www.wellingtonyogacentre.co.nz

Next up was a business website for a client in the UK, Margaret Hiley. She is the sister of a fellow budding illustrator friend I met online, and a specialist on Tolkien and music! A little while ago she asked me if she might cite from my Travels in Middle-earth CD booklet for a review she was writing, and things sort of developed from there. Incidentally, her father is a professor of Musicology, and the author of a big fat scholarly study and reference on Medieval Plainchant, which has been gracing my bookshelf long before I ever met either of his daughters. Such is the smallness of the planet.

Margaret is a professional academic and keen folk musician, and - having grown up bilingual - has recently set up a business offering English/German translation, editing and proofreading services for academics, writers, and the cultural and creative industries. Her areas of specialist expertise include fantasy and science fiction literature, music and musicology, myth and mythology, media studies, and breweries … so we do have quite a few interests in common!

This site has been a real pleasure to work on - not least because I could play with the beautiful cartoons created by Margaret's sister Catherine, an illustrator and print maker currently residing in Edinburgh.

I am really pleased with the look of this site, and even more pleased with some of the behind-the-scenes functionality, which is based on some smart and economical application of PHP scripts: for instance the "testimonials" page, where new referrals can easily be added by uploading a text file to the appropriate folder on the web server. This task is easy to do even for the not so computer initiated, and it is a much more simple and streamlined solution than setting up a complex content management system requiring a database.

Have a look at my latest brand spanking new website! Proudly introducing: www.margarethiley.com

Some feedback from the client: "Well, what can I say - I love it!!! Very clever what you have done with the watercolour image - thanks!" :: "I can't wait till the site is up and everyone can see how great it looks!"

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Introducing: www.wellingtonyogacentre.co.nz

2010-10-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

The other day when I was having my exhibition at Thistle Hall, I got into a chat with one of the visitors, who asked me about my web design work. She told me she was having a bit of grief with her website. Apparently she had gotten a young person who had offered to do the job for very cheap, for the sake of the experience (really, *very* cheap - in fact, on hearing the price, it was quite apparent to me that this poor person probably did not know what she or he were doing, though unfortunately, I am also aware that quite a few potential clients seem to actually expect that they can get a decent site built for that amount of money) - but she was now getting the impression that this person was not really up to the job.

When I looked up the site, it was quite apparent that indeed, whoever had set up those pages, had not the first clue how to write a proper CSS layout. The paragraph text was floating awkwardly next to the main navigation menu in a way that was clearly not intentional. There were no proper page margins, one link in the main navigation menu was not functional, and what layout elements there were, were plain to say the least, and somewhat oddly proportioned. The logo and existing branding elements that were available had not been integrated at all, apart from the general colour scheme.

The owner of the site was understandably concerned that this would not give a good impression of her business - but she had also noticed that the website was definitely doing the trick, in that she had already been getting some enquiries through the site. She was quite anxious to get it fixed up and looking professional as soon as possible.

At first I thought this would be a matter of simply turning what existing design there was into proper HTML and CSS, but as we got talking, she decided to invest in a proper redesign of the site. The result went online earlier this week: www.wellingtonyogacentre.co.nz

The main thing I concentrated on was to create a simple, calm and functional design with pleasing proportions and a clear structure, and on making the site look good regardless what screen size, resoluation or browser is being used. I was fortunate to be able to base this design on the excellent logo and branding done by another design studio - I really do love the colour scheme they came up with, and decided to stick with it throughout, apart from introducing a couple of matching shades for the graphics on the home page.

The "rising sun" logo gives a calm yet structured background for most of the pages, and works well in that it does not distract from the main content and images. For the home page, however, it did seem a bit dull, so I introduced the yoga silhouettes in their concentric circles. After a bit of initial resistance (not uncommon when one sees something that is a bit different from what was expected for the first time), my client ended up loving them.

In terms of functionality, it was important to enable my client to create news announcements on the home page, and to be able to update the timetable. To this end, I set up a couple of PHP includes which can be edited without having to actually change the code of the respective pages. It does require an understanding of simple HTML, and an ability to upload pages via FTP, but the site owner assured me that she was confident to be able to learn those skills. It is a far more simple and streamlined - not to mention less pricey - solution than setting up a full database integrated content management system for what are, in effect, only a couple of items that need to be regularly updated.

As a bit of an extra, I also created a PHP script that builds the image gallery on the gallery page, which will make it easy for the site owner to upload additional images without having to change the page code at all.

Here is what my client said: "It looks really terrific, Astrid (i'm not just saying that)" -- "The site is really good, thanks Astrid" -- "It is a lovely site Astrid. Do you want to make up a flier for me now??"

Mission accomplished. :D

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

How to Choose a Web Host

2010-09-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

One of the first things to think about when planning a new website, is where to host it. Unless you have the technological know-how and equipment to host your site on your own computer or dedicated web server, you will likely end up choosing a web hosting service.

There are half a gazillion of those out there - so what should one look for when choosing a host?

Don't be tempted to simply jump for the cheapest package. The first decision should be the location of your server - search engines take geographical location into consideration for their search results, so if your business mainly operates locally, choosing a New Zealand based server is definitely a good idea.

If you are aiming for a global market, it might make sense to host your site in the US - web hosting contracts there tend to offer more bang for your buck, but do make sure you read the fine print. One web hosting company I have been dealing with in the past, kept sending me "upgrade offers" which I had to opt out of within a certain timeframe, to avoid being forcibly upgraded to a more expensive contract. Not a good look - and definitely not a company I would consider ever dealing with again!

Another thing I have come across a few times are "budget" web hosting packages which do not enable PHP. These days, one should be able to expect that PHP is enabled as a matter of course - while it is possible to work around it as long as no interactive features are required, it does mean more work for the web designer, and a lot less flexibility when it comes to keeping the site up to date. PHP 5 is the standard that should be expected - make sure your web server enables PHP 5, and at least one MySQL data base.

It always pays to compare features such as the amount of data storage, bandwidth, email accounts, number of parked domains that are allowed, and any other limitations that the hosting contract might impose. Having access to your own web statistics is also vital - make sure your hosting service offers a decent package of applications.

This said, most small business sites do not require vast amounts of bandwidth - unless you plan to upload large amounts of images, video, audio or other multimedia files, you will be fine with a smallish space and bandwidth.

If in doubt, it is probably a good idea to talk to your web designer before signing up for a hosting contract - they will be able to tell you exactly what features they will need to pull of the site of your dreams, and how much bandwidth and disc space this will require.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

HTML Basics 5: Lists

2010-09-09T03:15:00.000-07:00

In previous blog posts, I have introduced some of the basic HTML tags that format a web page: paragraphs, headers, the tags that make up the page <head>, links, and images: HTML Basics 1*** HTML Basics 2: The Head Tag *** HTML Basics 3: Links *** HTML Basics 4: Images

The next most important tag is the List tag - which comes in three different flavours: Unordered lists, Ordered lists, and Definition lists.

An unordered list is a list of items in no particular order. Unordered lists can have bullet points or various other symbols that mark each new list item, or no particular list symbol at all. The default formatting for lists is to have them indented from the main text, and list items separated by a line break - this is called a block list. But with a Style Sheet (CSS), a list can be formatted whichever way you want! Lists offer a lot of flexibility in that respect. This is because for each type of list, there are at least two different tags. All the more opportunity to define a variety of styles.

One of the main uses for unordered lists are navigation menu. In this blog, all three main navigation menus are unordered lists - the navigation at the top which says "Home - Shop - Look - Listen - Read - Interact - Join", the one on the right side linking to the various subdomains and main sections of the site, and the subnavigation menu on the left, which allows you to navigate to the other parts of the "webdesign.asni.net" subdomain. (Remind me that I should write a blog about domains and subdomains sometime soon!) As you can see, they all look completely different, even though they are built using exactly the same tags.

The tags for an unordered list are <ul></ul> which encloses the entire list and marks it as an unordered list, and <li> </li>, which encloses each separate list item. So the code for the navigation bar at the top looks more or less like this:

<ul>

<li>Home</li>

<li>Shop</li>

<li>Look</li>

<li>Listen</li>

<li>Read</li>

<li>Interact</li>

<li>Join</li>

</ul>

As you can see, even though the code is written as a block list, with line breaks between each list item, the navigation menu is displayed as an inline list. This has been defined in the style sheet - if you view the page without the style sheet (if you're browsing with Firefox, go to "View" "Page Style", then choose "No Style" - or equivalent in other browsers) you can see thebare bones of the page navigation, without all the fancy formatting.

Ordered lists are lists where items are listed in a particular order - they are typically preceded by numbers, or letters of the alphabet. A list of the days of the week might look like this:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

(unless you prefer to count Sunday as 1)

The tags for an ordered list are very similar to the unordered list - the main list tag is <ol> </ol> (instead of <ul> </ul>), and the individual list items are enclosed by the same <li> </li> tags as the unordered list - this makes it easy to convert an ordered list into an unordered one, or vice versa, if you change your mind - it is only the main list tag that needs to be changed, not every individual list item. The list tag automatically inserts a bullet point or the correct number for the item, and if you need to insert a new item in the middle of a numbered list, the numbers of the following items will automatically increase by one. Handy, eh?

The third kind of list, the Definition list, is a little bit different in that it consists of three parts. A definition list is a list such as can be found in a dictionary, consisting of a word or expression, and a definition of the meaning of that word or expression. For instance:

Monday:: The first day of the week
Tuesday:: the second day of the week
Wednesday:: the third day of the week

etc, would be a definition list.

By default, the word or expression to be explained (the "definition topic") is formatted differently from the explanaition, for instance it could be bold, or a different colour. The tags for the definition list are <dl></dl> as the main list tag, <dt></dt> for the definition topic, and <dd></dd> for the definition. In code, the list above would read as follows:

<dl>
<dt>Monday:</dt>: <dd>The first day of the week</dd>
<dt>Tuesday:</dt>: <dd>the second day of the week</dd>
<dt>Wednesday</dt>: <dd>the third day of the week</dd>
</dl>

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Fantastic Journeys

2010-08-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

These last eight weeks I have been taking a bit of a break, and exchanged my funky web designer's hat for a more exuberant artist's head gear. "Fantastic Journeys - Paintings and Music inspired by Ursula Le Guin" at Thistle Hall in Wellington was my first solo exhibition, and an opportunity to dig out the old harp and showcase my musical talents as well. The good news that the space at Thistle Hall was available came at very short notice, leaving me all of seven weeks to put together the show, do all the publicity and advertising, as well as finish a few more paintings! Which explains the recent gap in my blogging.

Being an online promotion expert comes in handy when planning such a show on a shoestring budget. One of the first and most obvious things to do was to set up a dedicated page with information about the show, and downloadable press material, on my website - I even created an appropriate CSS layout for the purpose!

Once I have had time to catch a breath, I will expand this page into a little self contained section of the site, with photos and feedback, and perhaps even a bit of video. That way all my overseas friends who have posted on my Facebook event page that they would love to come, if only they could get the teleporter to work, can at least share some of the experience!

I have also made good use of my monthly newsletter, and dedicated the last two issues mainly to the show.

New Zealand in general, and Wellington in particular, are quite well endowed with sites which provide free events listings, and I have availed myself of that that opportunity very systematically. The Eventfinder website is a relatively new site which offers the great advantage that a whole host of other sites pull their content from there - so with one listing, one can get a plethora of adverts all over the net.

The Big Idea is considerably less streamlined - I had to upload my information in three different places and fill in a lengthy upload form each time to do it - but offers the advantage of a large and dedicated readership of people involved in, or interested in the arts sector in New Zealand. I also managed to find a couple of wonderful volunteers to help me with the preparations for the show, and with making things go smoothly at the opening!

Wotzon, Feeling Great and WellingtonNZ.com are sites which are dedicated to events in and around Wellington - I found the last site to be particularly well presented, and they even showcased my show, which was very kind of them!

Apparently my media release did the trick this time - apart from scoring two radio interviews, on RadioActive and VBC (both also streamed on the net), and having one of my images printed with the events listiing in the Dominion Post's Thursday Arts Supplement, I was particularly pleased that the staff at Wellington City Library took the opportunity to write a blog post recommending Ursula Le Guin's books, with a mention of my show and a big picture of the bright yellow dragon which also graced my posters and flyers for the show.

Last but not least, the show offered an opportunity and and excuse to send out nicely designed html email invitations featuring some of my work, to all the publishers and gallery owners in Wellington, along with a great bunch of friends, business contacts and fellow artists. Over the six days, I had a total of 246 visitors come through my show, which, for a little self promoted first show at Thistle Hall, strikes me as a fairly solid number. :)

Fun was had, and valuable lessons learned. But now, back to web design!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Planning your Site: The How

2010-07-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

In my last blog, I talked about two of the most important questions you ought to ask yourself when planning your website: "Who will this site be for?" and "What do I want them to do?"

In this blog, I will look at some of the most obvious tasks a website can perform for you, and the technologies that are needed to make those tasks possible.

Most professional or business websites fulfill one or more of the following functions:

present information about your work or your products in an easily accessible manner that can conveniently be kept up to date - the "brochure" website
sell things, either directly through a shopping cart system, or by enabling people to place orders from a product catalogue - the "online shop" website
offer user interaction: guest books or message boards to leave feedback, search functions to find targeted information, forms to request quotes, online booking systems, online help desks - the "interactive" website
inform and entertain: blogs about topics relevant to your industry, collections of helpful or fun links, image galleries, online video or flash presentations, interactive games - the "brand building" website

Different technologies are needed to fulfill these different functions: a brochure type site may only require straightforward html/css - though it may be advisable to include features like a search function, login system, or catalogue type features, which would require Php/MySql, or another programming language that works with a database. And unless you are comfortable to update your own html, by using an html editor or even writing your own code, you may wish to have a content management system included, which also requires some programming.

Shopping carts can be installed either as ready made packages - Zendcart or Cubecart are popular systems, though it requires some programming expertise to set them up - or they can be custom programmed. Security is an important issue when it comes to e-commerce applications: you would want to make sure that your client's credit card information will be well protected! The simplest (and free) solution is using the Paypal system. This is only really advisable for shops with relatively few products, but it is a feasible solution if for one reason or another, you cannot run Php/MySql on your web server.

If you would like to interact with your clients via message boards, have "members only" features on your site, enable visitors to do site searches, or even upload content themselves, you will not get around using Php/MySql or one of the other web programming languages, such as ASP. All these features work with an online database, where information can by uploaded, by yourself or even by visitor to the site, depending on how it is set up. The Php scripts then pull this information from the database and automatically write the html code that is at the base of what your site visitors see. Not only does this make site maintenance and updates much faster and more painless, it also allows for all sorts of customizations - to the point where no two people will see exactly the same content when they visit your site! It does require a bit of setting up and programming, and the price tag for an interactive site is therefore quite a bit higher than that for a simple brochure type site or even an online shopping cart.

Flash is another technology which is very prominent on the web. Flash has got a bit of a bad name in some web design circles: not just because of the infamous (and once so popular) "Flash intro" that takes fifteen minutes to load and is a surefire way to make most prospective visitors click on to the next site - but mainly because sites which are built entirely in Flash, cannot be indexed by search engines. Obviously, this is not good for your search engine ranking! A Flash site essentially is a self contained file that is embedded in an html page. Search engines only read html, they do not read Flash - so any keywords you display within your Flash site will be invisible from the search engine's point of view.

The beauty of Flash, however, lies in using Flash components within an html context. Flash also comes with its own very powerful programming language, Actionscript 3.0. It is an essential technology if you wish to include rich multimedia content in your site: music clips, video, slide shows, animations, little interactive games or even just a few cool buttons that do interesting things.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Planning your Site: The Who's and What's

2010-06-17T04:53:00.000-07:00

The two questions you ought to ask yourself when you are planning to set up a new website, are: "Who will this site be for?" and "What do I want them to do?"

Determining your audience really needs to be the first step in any web design or online promotion project. If you are planning a business site, you will probably have some sort of a business plan, even it it is just in your head (though writing it down really *is* a good idea, I can tell you from experience!). Who do you want to sell your products and services to? Who is likely to buy them? What, in other words, is your target market? Those are the people you want to design your website for.

Are they older people or younger people? Educated? Professionals? Employees? Business owners? Stay at home moms and dads? Kids? Elderly? LIberal or conservative? Rich or poor? Idealistic or cynical? Are they likely to have visual impairments or disabilities? Is English their main language? Will they be able to deal with long chunks of text, or might it be better to rely more heavily on graphics or video? A lot of younger people are accustomed to take in information by audiovisual media - video tutorials, slide shows, comic style storyboards - rather than read through long reams of text. If you are targeting a younger audience, you might want to think about integrating video, audio, or perhaps even an interactive game into your site.

What is the visual style that would appeal to the people you are trying to get interested in your site? Colourful and playful, artsy and sophisticated, or down to earth and businesslike? More importantly, what are the keywords they might be looking for, and what is the information or functionality they might expect to find on your site? How computer literate are they likely to be? Will they be comfortable doing transactions purely online, or would it be best to leave a phone number so they can call you and chat you up? Or if you are targeting an overseas market, why not get your pages translated into their language? This is bound to immediately get you better search results, seeing that the vast majority of content on the web is in English - so any content in any other language will have much less competition.

Location is also important for your choice of a web hosting service. Search engines rank sites according to geographic preferences - if you are entering a search term in New Zealand, the search engine will assume that pages from New Zealand are more relevant than pages from overseas. It is the physical location of your web server that determines this: if you are targeting a local or national market, you should definitely choose a web host located in New Zealand. If you are targeting your products or services overseas, it is often a better idea to get off shore web hosting - if you are targeting a particular country, choose a host in that country, or if you're going for world wide coverage, you might be best advised to pick a host located in the US. Hosting is usually cheaper there, or at least, you tend to get more bang for your buck.

After you have figured out who the people are who will come to your website - a good exercise is to actually draw up a few "typical" personality profiles and even give them names - then you need to think about what it is you want them to *do*, once they have found your site.

If your site is an online shop, the obvious answer would be "I want them to buy something". But there are many other ways you can sell things over the net, other than getting people to click ye olde Paypal button. You could offer them a quote calculator, or ask them to fill in a form so you can get back to them with a quote. You can ask them to email you, or give you a phone call, or visit your store. You can advertise events and special promotions. You can use the site for your market research and introduce quizzes or polls to get customer information. You can get people to sign up for a newsletter and leave you their email address. You can ask people to tell others about your site - perhaps via Facebook, or Twitter, or Digg, or any other of those new fangled social media. Or you can even just use your site as a portfolio to refer people to for samples of your work, your cv and recommendations. You could also use your site to be blatantly political and get that opinion out there that none of the newspapers wants to print - though this option would be mostly interesting for non-profit organizations.

The point is, you have to ASK people to do whatever it is you want them to do - don't rely on them figuring out for themselves.

If you want to sell an item, put a Paypal button where people can see and click it, ideally right on your home page. If you would like for people to give you a call, put your phone number in bold on your front page. If you want to get emailed, put an email link. If you want people to sign up for something, set up a login system so people can't access all of the content of your page unless they sign up. If you want people to tell others, ask them to, and make it easy for them - Facebook, Twitter etc have applications that allow people to post links to their profiles at the click of a mouse.

Sometimes it is better to not be too much "in people's faces". If you have a new and innovative product or service, it might be best to get people to read up your information and recommendations first, before you try to get them to click that "Buy now" button. In those cases, think carefully about the click flow - the sequence of pages - that you want people to follow, and make it easy for them to follow that flow. A good web designer will be able to assist you with this. That is, in fact, what good design really is all about!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

HTML Basics 4: Images

2010-06-10T05:43:00.001-07:00

Another tag which is very common is the <img> tag - this embeds image files into your page. Imagine how drab the internet would look if it weren't possible to display images on a web page!

Images are separate files which need to be stored online separately, and then embedded in the HTML document. You could almost think of the image tag as another kind of link tag - except that, instead of opening a new document on a new page, it displays an external file as part of the page you are looking at. It is important to remember that all image files you are using in your website need to be uploaded to your server as well - unless they are already stored on another website, and you are pointing your image tags there.

In another blog, I talked at some length about the image formats that are used on the web - the most common are .jpg and .gif. Say you have written a piece of text for your web page, but now want to embed a graphic logo on the top of the page, and a photo next to your first paragraph. Both things are achieved with the same tag. The logo will most likely be a .gif file - which is more suitable for text and line art - say it is called logo.gif, and it will be stored on your own web server, in a folder called "images". To embed it in your page, you need to write the following line of HTML: <img src="/images/logo.gif"> - that's it! The part after the img src, between the quotation marks, needs to contain not only the file name but also the *path* to your file - directions for the browser to where your image is stored. In the above example, the file would be stored in a folder called "images" which is in the main directory of your web page (more about directories some other time!).

What if you want to use an image that is stored on a different website though? Say, your brother has taken some beautiful photos on his last holiday in Switzerland and uploaded them to his personal website, and you have asked him to use one of them to decorate your essay about dairy farming in Europe. In this case, you use the same tag, but your path is the full url of the image - that is, ithe precise location on the internet where the image file is stored. So your brother's website is called www.mybigbrother.com", the image is called "cow.jpg", and it is stored in a folder called "images within the main directory of your brother's website. The tag would then read: <img src="http://www.mybigbrother.com/images/cow.jpg"> - as you can see, the tag itself hasn't changed, only the information where the image is located.

By default, images are displayed at the point in the site where the image tag is inserted, and displace text. If you would like to float it on the right or left side next to a piece of text, insert the following in your image tag: <img src="http://www.mybigbrother.com/images/cow.jpg" float="left"> - this will display your brother's photo of a beautiful Swiss dairy cow on the left side next to the paragraph of text that follows it in the HTML code.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

HTML Basics 3: Links

2010-05-20T04:44:00.000-07:00

In my last blog, I have been looking more closely at the <head> tag which is one half of every valid HTML document. A couple of blogs ago, I already talked about some of the most basic HTML tags that make up the <body> of the page: <p> for Paragraph, and the different levels of headers, <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4> and <h5>. Today I'll introduce the next most important tag you'll find in almost any web page: Hyperlinks.

Hyperlinks - or links, for short - are fundamental to the whole idea of the internet. The very name of the coding language we use, HTML - short for Hypertext Markup Language - includes the idea that there be links. "Hypertext" means an enhanced form of text, where virtually every word or piece of information can lead off in a different direction, by virtue of linking that word or short piece of text to another page with additional information. Remember that originally, the internet was intended for academic and research purposes - and Hypertext is the triumph of the footnote. If you've ever written an academic paper of any sort, you may know how tempting it is to drown your main argument in reams and reams of footnotes providing additional - but sometimes barely related - information. With a Hypertext document, you can have all the footnotes you want, at a mouse click, without burdening down the main argument of your text.

All you need to do is insert a link that leads off to another page. And obviously, without links, there would be no World Wide *Web*, but only a vast collection of individual and separate pages, with no way to navigate from one to the other.

The link tag has a slightly different format than most of the other tags we have encountered so far, which simply open and close - for instance <p> and </p> which are the tags that surround a paragraph of text. The link tag also consists of an opening and closing tag, but the opening tag contains some additional information - most importantly, the url of the page you are linking to!

Say, I would like to insert a link to my own home page, www.asni.net. The correct url for this page actually read: http://www.asni.net - and if you are linking to a different domain on the net, you always need to include the http:// prefix (links from one page to another on the same website are a slightly different matter, but I will cover this some other time when I talk about navigation menus and directory structures).

The format of the link tag is <a href="http://www.asni.net">Link to Asni's home page</a>. The basic tag is <a></a> - this stands for "anchor" - these tags enclose the link text which is displayed on the site. Note that the text of the link does not have to be identical to the url of the page you are linking to! I could have written this link as <a href="http://www.asni.net">www.asni.net</a>, but still, the bit that tells me where the link is pointing to is the part after the 'href=' - the url of the page I am linking to, which is always enclosed in double quotes, and needs to include the http:// prefix.

By default, the new page opens in the same browser window or tab you have just been looking at. It is often a good idea to tell the browser to open a new window or tab intead - for instance if you are linking to an external page but would really like your visitors to come back to your page after they have looked at your link. This is achieved by inserting a target="_blank" into your anchor tag. The tag then reads as follows: <a href="http://www.asni.net" target="_blank">Link to Asni's home page</a>.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

HTML Basics: The Head Tag

2010-05-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of blogs ago, I introduced the most basic HTML tags to build your own web page. As I mentioned then, each HTML document consists of two main sections: the <head> </head>, and the <body> </body>. The <body> contains most of the things that are actually displayed on your screen when you view a web page. Today, however, I'd like to take a closer look at the <head>.

Most of the information inside the <head> tag is not directly visible to anyone viewing the web page. That does not mean that the contents of this section of the page are unimportant. Quite on the contrary! The head contains information that is vital for the functionality of the website - such as <style> tags that ensure the page is displayed the way it was set up by the designer, and <script> tags that specify any scripts running on your computer while you are viewing the page - for instance the popular Javascript, which enables a lot of the enhanced functionality you can admire on a professionally designed site. These can either be included in each individual page's <head>, or they can reside in an external file - a CSS style sheet or a script file - in which case the <head> tag would include a link to the external files which are needed to display the page correctly.

The <head> tag also contains information that is very important for search engines - if you are keen on improving your site ranking and get your pages found by more people, don't neglect paying attention to the tags in your <head>.

In my last blog on this topic, I already briefly covered the <title> tag. The line of text inside the <title></title> is what is displayed on top of your browser window. It is not to be confused with the main page headline inside your <body></body> tag, though it may well be the same line of text.

Next to your domain name, the <title> </title> is the single most important part of the site that determines how a search engine ranks your page's relevance for a certain keyword. Say you have a site about biking equipment. If you are lucky, you might have secured the domain "bikingequipment.com" which ensures that if someone enters the search term "biking equipment", your site is likely to be ranked quite high - if your domain name is equal to the search term entered, the search engine will assume that your site will be a good match.

These days, however, really obvious domain names are getting quite rare, and it is likely that if you are starting a new business and building a new website, someone else will have secured the domain "bikingequipment.com" already, and even alternatives like "bikingequipment.biz" or "bikingequipment.net" or "bikingequipment.co.nz" may already be taken (if the first business is smart, they will have registered all those variations themselves, to avoid having a competitor with a very similar domain name in the future).

Even if your domain has to be called something else - like "Petesstylishbikes.com" perhaps - no one can keep you from having the keyword "biking equipment" in your page title. If you are a biking equipment business located in Featherston, it would also be a good idea to include this geographical indicator in your page title - so your page might be called something like "Biking equipment Featherston Wairarapa". But beware of the temptation of making the title too long - keyword stuffing is not something that search engines appreciate. In the case of the title tag, most search engines only consider them up to a certain length - about 35 characters would be good measure.

Another tag that has some relevance for search engines is the <meta> tag. There is some dispute about just how much value search engines place on <meta> tags, and some search engines ignore them completely. Since they are not visible to the viewer, this is a place where much keyword stuffing and attempts at manipulating search engine results have occurred in the past, which has given the tag a somewhat dubious name. However, some search engines - Google included - definitely take them into consideration, so it is worth paying them some attention.

There are several kinds of <meta> tags, and they don't all have to do with content - some of them specify which language or character set is used, and if the content is mainly text, or some other media type. The meta tags relevant for your search engine optimization are the "keywords" and "description" meta tags. As the name implies, "keywords" contains a list of keywords relevant to your page, and "description" contains a short line of text that describes your page. This is often the line of text that appears in your Google search results under the link to your page.

The format of those tags is somewhat different from what we have encountered so far. Say you want to include this short page description: "Pete sells the most stylish biking gear in all of the Wairarapa". The tag would then read as follows: <meta name="description" content="Pete sells the most stylish biking gear in all of the Wairarapa" />. If you wanted to break it up into keywords, write: <meta name="keywords" content="stylish biking gear Wairarapa" />.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

Site Maps, or the Importance of Planning

2010-04-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

A client recently asked me what a site map was. An excellent topic for my blog, I thought ! One can hardly overestimate the importance of planning, when it comes to web design.

One way to look at a site map is as a blue print, or the building drafts for your house. It is a graphic representation of how the website will be structured, and how the individual pages that make up the site will relate to each other: which pages visitors will see first, and where do they lead them? What are the main sections of the site? Which page links to what other pages? This will also determine how the main and secondary navigation menus are built and structured.

As a design document, the site map should also indicate any features that are needed: will there be a database, a login system, a search function? Any content that is dynamically generated? If so, what will be the sorting criteria available to the user? Will there be media files that require special treatment? Will parts of the site be built in Flash? Will there be feedback or enquiry forms, or will the users be able to leave comments and feedback? All these things should be at least considered, and hopefully decided, before work on the actual site design even starts.

The more thoroughly a site is planned out beforehand, the less risk there is of wasting time and money walking down a blind alley somewhere. The site map will also help the designer to give a more accurate estimate of the cost, and of the timeframes involved - particularly if it is a complex site with many sections and/or rich media and interactive content.

It is not only in at the planning stage that a site map is of use, though. It is a document that should be kept up to date as the design process develops - there are bound to be changes or additions at some stage, or things that seemed desirable initially, but may turn out a bit superfluous. A clear structure is user friendly, and keeping track of the site map ensures that this goal will be achieved. It will be extremely helpful when new sections need to be added to the site at some later stage!

Eventually, a site map also will be relevant to your search engine optimisation (SEO). Once the site is live, there should be a page that contains links to every page within the website. This will make sure that the robots which crawl the internet on a regular basis for Google and other search engines, will find and index every page that is part of your site. As you will probably have noticed when browsing on the internet, search engine results always return individual pages, rather than web domains - the page a potential visitor finds in Google may well not be your home page at all. So making sure that *every* page that makes your website is accessed by the search robots, and indexed, increases your chances of being found on the net.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

Of Servers and Clients

2010-04-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Before I delve into more HTML tags - as promised in my last blog - today I would like to have a look at some of the actual pieces of hardware that make the internet possible. What precisely is a web page? What is it that you see on your computer screen when you call up a page, and how does it get there?

At the most basic level, a web page is a HTML file which is being opened in a computer program which has been specifically developed for this purpose: your browser. Whether you use Firefox or Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera, or even an outdated browser like Netscape, they all do the same thing: They find the location of the file you are looking for, and render it out for you the way the web designer has envisioned it (well - at least, most of the time).

What makes a web page a bit different from your usual word document, or spreadsheet, or the holiday shots you downloaded from your photo camera, is that the file is usually not sitting on your own computer. It lives on some computer which may be in the next town, or on the other side of the country, or halfway around the globe. Apart from slight differences in loading speed, you'd never notice the difference.

The computer where the file is stored is called a *server*. You can host your website on your own computer if you have the appropriate computer equipment and software - which can be downloaded for free from the internet, and Macs even come with all the necessary software already installed. One of the disadvantages of doing this is that the computer needs to be connected to the internet 24/7, or else the website will not be available when the computer is not online. There are also security risks, such as that your site might get hacked. For this reason, most websites are hosted by a dedicated web hosting service - for a reasonably small annual fee, you can hire a certain amount of storage space for your website files, and the company provides all the necessary setup, software and security. Usually they also include a regular backup service, which can come in handy for those times when things just go wrong.

How does your browser find the right file, among all the gazillion files that make up today's internet? That is what the URL is for - that little line of text that appears in your browser navigation bar, and starts like this: http:// . "URL" stands for Uniform Resource Locator - a unique tag that tells the browser where the page (the "resource") is located. URL's don't only apply to the main HTML document that is your web page: Each and every file that makes up the page you end up seeing on your screen, has their own unique URL. For instance, if a web page displays an image, that image will be a separate file with its own unique web address, or URL. The file does not even need to be located on the same computer as the main HTML document - a page can display images, or movie, audio or flash files, which are each located on a different computer, in completely different parts of the world.

The browser's job is to locate all these files, pull them down the wires that connect the server with your own computer, and assemble them in such a way that they look nice, and make sense. Not a small job! Your own computer, when it displays a web page, is called a "client" - as opposed to server. In one of my next blogs, I will go into the difference between server-side and client-side web programming, but for now, I will call it a blog post! Otherwise, it might end up being information overload.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

HTML Basics

2010-03-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

This week, I had the pleasure to teach my first class "Online Promotion for Everyone" at our very own Featherston Community Centre - the classes are scheduled to take place once a month, on the last Wednesday of the month, from 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm. The next class will take place on 28 April. The cost is $ 12 per person per session - and they're definitely not only open to Featherstonians! So if you want to get some hands on introduction to web technologies, and how to use them to promote your business and career, do come along. More information here: webdesign.asni.net

As is often the case, the first class turned out a bit different from what I had expected to cover. The participants were very keen to get their hands on to actually building a simple website, so instead of dwelling on the theory, we got very hand-on right away. Participants had written their very own web page by the end of the class!

HTML is all about structure. The code consists of a number of tags which indicate the function and level of importance of each part of the page, and each bit of text or other information within it. At first sight, it might seem as if HTML is just a means to format text - different sizes of text for headlines, sub-headers and paragraphs, bulleted or numbered lists, indented block quotes, and tables. These tags make up a good part of the html we use day by day.

Browsers render these tags in a particular fashion - however, this is different depending on what browser is used. A site written in simple HTML gives the author very little control about the details of the graphic representation, such as what fonts are being used, or the precise size of text and headlines. But the beauty of the language is that if the tags are used correctly, the *structure* of the information will be comprehensible no matter how precisely each browser is programmed to format the tags.

The structure of a basic HTML document is very simple, really. The page opens and closes with the <html> </html> tags - usually this tag includes some information as to which version of HTML is being used, the language, and character set, but it can be used on its own, to tell the browser that this is an HTML document.

The rest of the page consists of two sections - the <head> </head>, and <body> </body>. Inside the <head> tag, there is information as to the content of the following page: keywords and/or a short description inside the <meta> tag, styles used, and script languages, if any. Most of the information inside the <head> does not get displayed - but it is an important section for your search engine optimization.

The only tag inside the <head> which is actually visible in your browser is the <title></title> tag. This is the short line of text which is displayed on top of your browser window when you view a web page. It is also one of the first places search engines look to find out what a web page is about - therefore it pays to pay some attention to finding a good title for each of your web pages.

The <body> </body> tag contains all the information which is actually displayed on your web page. This will be mainly text, as well as images, links to other pages, and other media files such as audio, video or flash animations. The most commonly used tags for text are <p> </p> for paragraph - the main body of text on your page - and the varying levels of headlines: <h1> </h1>, <h2> </h2>, <h3> </h3>, <h4> </h4> and <h5> </h5>. These tags ensure that text is displayed in a comprehensible fashion, with appropriate breaks and whitespace, as well as varying sizes for the headers and sub-headers, even if no other styling information is supplied.

The idea of the different levels of header tags is not so much to give different options for size, but again, to make the function of each headline clear. The <h1> tag should only be used once in each page and contains the main title or headline that is displayed inside your page (this is different from the <title> tag inside the <head> section of the HTML document, which appears on top of your browser window - though it may well contain the same line of text).

<h2> is the first level of section header, which can then be subdivided further into sub-sections with the <h3>, <h4> and <h5> tags. Of course, not all header tags need to be used in every page! Often a <h1> and a few <h2>'s will provide all the structure you need for your page.

(to be continued)

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

Size matters

2010-03-12T02:21:00.000-08:00

Of the many things a web designer needs to juggle in order to deliver the best possible site, loading times are an aspect that sometimes does not get the attention it deserves.

With broadband connections becoming ever more common, it is easy to be a little cavalier about this aspect, but it pays to remember that not everyone is working on a Macbook Pro with a turbo speed internet connection. In that respect, the fact that professional web designers are likely to work with equipment and setup that is at the more capable and up to date end of the spectrum, sometimes is a bit of a liability.

Loading times are determined not only by the nature of the internet connection (broadband or dial-up, wireless or cable, etc.) - which are largely the choice of each individual consumer. Factors outside the consumer's control also contribute: the quality of the phone lines if it is an ADSL broadband or a dial-up connection, modem speeds, the distance from the server, or how busy a site is at any given time. As a web designer, one has little control over those issues. What the web designer *can* control is the size of the files that make up a web page, which is the third part of the download speed equation.

A regular html document is usually tiny, in terms of byte size. Where the problems arise is when the page includes a lot of images or media files. Video and audio files are notoriously heavy and require special treatment. Images, however, are a standard component of most web pages, both as part of the information that is being presented, and as part of the CSS style that makes the page look pretty.

Browsers only accept certain image formats: JPG, GIF and PNG, with JPG and GIF being the most common. All these image formats save file size by loosing information. JPG files use compression - they calculate averages for areas that are of a similar colour. GIFs and PNGs use indexed colour - only a certain pre-determined number of colour values is preserved in the image. JPGs are generally best for photographs and images that use gradients and smooth colour progressions, while GIF and PNG are appropriate for images (such as logos or fancy text fonts) which use lines and flat areas of the same colour.

Once the colour information is lost, it cannot be retrieved. Incidentally, this fact offers some protection for artists or photographers who are concerned that their images might be used illegally if they are posted on the internet. Generally the quality of images which are used within websites is so low that they are useless for most commercial purposes, such as printing them out. They can still be used on other websites of course - therefore it is advisable to watermark each image with your copyright notice and website url. That done, you can then look at it as free advertising. :)

Downsizing the image to the smallest possibly file size without visible loss of quality is a bit of a balancing act. There are no standard rules for this - what is acceptable depends very much on each individual image, and so it is best to adjust each image individually. A good eye will serve you better than any mathematical formulas! But it pays to make the effort: nothing is worse than a web page that wastes people's time by taking too long to download. Chances are most people will never wait that long!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

Introducing: Topnotchnz.co.nz

2010-02-25T02:18:00.000-08:00

Just in time for this web mailer, my latest website has gone live: www.topnotchnz.co.nz is a classical example for a simple html/css based business web site, with some PHP interactivity thrown in, in the shape of a contact form to obtain a quote.

Top Notch Construction is based in Eastbourne, just out of Wellington. They design and build quality residential homes, do shop fitouts, landscaping, alterations and additions, and they also offer project management for larger building sites. They're a small boutique business focused on offering quality, and the website aims to reflect that.

This project has been in the making for quite a little while. The first version of the website went online nearly a year ago, but there was still some information missing. I think for while, being busy, the website just moved way down their priorities list.

Just after Christmas Thomas, one of the business owners, contacted me again, we got together for a quick chat to make sure we were all on the same page, he supplied the information that had still been missing, and a few weeks later the site is now complete in all its new and shiny glory.

The design idea is quite simple and obvious, really. The logo and images were provided by the client, and I based my design around them. The brick wall navigation bar was quite a bit of a fiddle to write in css, but turned out neat in the end I think. The page navigation and sections are really quite straightforward - I made a couple of suggestions regarding navigability and SEO, which they were quite happy with, and I also planned and designed their contact form. Mostly this job has been pretty smooth sailing. :knocks on wood: In the end they also decided that I should sort out their web hosting as well.

Here's what Thomas had to say about it: "Looking great. Love the form! Has turned out really well. Awesome thanks Astrid is looking really good and am stoked with how have laid out the opening page."

Today, I had a call from a potential new client to whom they have recommended me. Yeah, just had to boast a bit. :-)

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

An Introduction to Web Technologies: part 4

2010-02-11T04:40:00.000-08:00

One of the most basic interactive technologies on websites are forms. As in, forms that a user can fill in and submit. These can be as simple as submitting an email enquiry - forms are preferable to an email link, because they will protect your email address from robots who farm them for nefarious use. Or they can be as complex as a full fledged market research survey. Popular uses, in a business context, are enquiry forms that prompt your prospective customer to enter some of the information you need to know about their project, or forms that return an instant quote, based on the information the customer enters.

There are various ways to set up forms, but again, PHP is now widely used for them. The code allows various functionality, such as sending an email to your address, entering customer information directly into your database, spam filters, controls that make sure all required fields are filled in, and sticky fields that remember what the customer has previously entered, even if there was an error submitting the form.

Form fields can be simple text fields that your visitors can type into, they can be radio buttons that allow them to choose one of several options, drop down menus, or multiple choise buttons that allow more than one choice.

When designing a form, it pays to take care not to overwhelm your visitors with forms that are too long, or questions that are too complex. A well designed form can save you a lot of work extracting information from your client in order to come up with an accurate quote, or gathering feedback, or even automating things like subscriptions to your mailing lists and newsletters.

They can also save your prospective customers time, by being able to check availabilities and prices online - and even streamline them directly into your online shop, as you can see on most airline or hotel booking sites.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design :: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

An Introduction to Web Technologies - part 3

2010-02-04T03:50:00.000-08:00

In my blog post on 11 November, I introduced the web coding language PHP, and some of the things it is used for. Today I will look a little more closely at one of the most important applications of PHP coding: Login systems, sessions, and cookies (yum).

PHP does not only pull information *from* a database - for instance, to automate the building of product catalogues or image galleries - it also allows you to store user input *into* your database. One of the most common applications of this are page registration systems, or login systems.

Surely you have come across sites that ask you to register with a username and password. Most commonly, you will also be asked for a valid email address, and perhaps some other information such as age, gender, place of residence, occupation, etc. etc. Often, the site, or certain sections on the site, can only be accessed after user registration. Even more commonly, users can only leave feedback - on message boards, forums or blogs - after they have registered and logged in to the site.

As well as providing a measure of security and protection from spam robots, from the site owner's point of view, collecting this information is an easy and efficient way to do market research. It helps to build a database of people who are potentially interested in what the site owner has to offer. If people are interested enough in accessing the information on your site, to take the time to register themselves, then perhaps they will also be interested in receiving, say, a newsletter - and in eventually buying from you. Of course, anti spam legislation has to be respected: often the site registration form will give users the ability to opt in or out of receiving emails or additional information in the future.

A more advanced use of this technology is to provide users with personalized information. This can be very simple - for instance, greeting people by their name when they log in. An application of this I am working on at the moment, is to offer one of my clients the ability to provide their clients with personalized updates about their building projects. Instead of being sent an update by email each week, the idea is that clients will be able to log into the site and check on their project's progress at any time.

Some of these applications can be quite complex. Amazon's customer recommendations are an example of that - the site will recommend books based on what you have previously bought there, as well as on what other customers who have ordered the same items have also bought.

The time between an user logging into a site, and logging out again, is called a session. For the duration of the session, the site remembers who the user is and what previous information they have entered. This is usually achieved with a little piece of code, called a "cookie", which is stored on the user's computer. A cookie permanently stored on the user's computer enables a website to recognize a previously registered user, the next time they log in. Cookies can also be used to track user's browsing habits - Amazon's recommendations would not be possible without this tracking.

Most cookies are quite harmless, and are really only there to streamline your online experience and make everything go smooth. Tracking cookies, in particular, can be used for malicious ends though - be wary of accepting cookies from sites that look a bit dodgy!

Besides, the idea that someone might be able to track every website that an individual person clicks on does not sit comfortably with many people, including myself. And that's not because I visit a lot of porn sites, but simply because I am wary of the uses this can potentially be put to by, say, governments, or other institutions of power.

Even Amazon's elaborate recommendation system tends to leave a stale taste in my mouth. I prefer to make my buying choices myself. Not to mention, that they are usually completely off. Being presented with a selection of cooking and knitting magazines, on account of the information I have volunteered about my age and gender, does not sit well with this web and multimedia designer!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

What is Social Networking?

2010-01-28T01:46:00.000-08:00

"Social Networking" has become one of THE big buzzwords in the last couple of years. Ever since Facebook, Bebo and Twitter became mass phenomena. Suddenly the business world is taking huge notice of what used to be a fairly geeky way to spend one's time. Internet habits one would most definitely not have admitted to in a job interview or business negotiation a few years ago, suddenly have turned into marketable knowledge.

So what exactly IS Social Networking then? I made my first forays into it back early in 2002. At the time, it wasn't called Social Networking, and the launch of Facebook was still a couple of years away. Even Myspace, the earliest of the Social Networking giants, would only launch in another year. But the social phenomenon that would drive these sites and make them the massive overnight successes they have been, was already in full flow.

The first "social networking" site I ever used - extensively, over a period of a couple of years - was the Lord of the Rings movie fan forum on IMDb.com. IMDb - International Movie Database - was, of course, not really set up for that purpose. As the name implies, the site collects, cross-references and makes accessible information about movies - anything from basic information like release date, run time, cast and crew, and plot overviews, to quotes, trivia and bloopers. It is probably one of the earliest "Web 2.0" sites, in that it allows registered users to enter information, post reviews, rate movies - and to discuss their favourite movie with other users.

To this end, each movie or TV series is provided with its own message board, or forum - nothing as fancy as Facebook's technology, but it does serve the purpose of getting in touch with other people who share a passion for the same movies. For the most part, discussions are fairly sluggish, with a few threads to each board at most, and very infrequent postings. Once in a while, when a movie is eagerly anticipated, or a smash overnight hit, or has an established geek following (Star Wars and Star Trek each have their own dedicated forums) - the interest is reflected by a flurry of activity on the respective forum.

What happened with the Lord of the Rings discussion group, was unprecedented in scale though. Part of it was that the books already had such a large and devoted fan following, and in the time leading up to the release of the first movie, these were the people who posted and shared their concern over whether the films would do the novel justice.

IMDb was only one of several sites where such discussions happened - the most famous is probably TheOneRing.net, a site that was set up by fans and for fans of Tolkien's books, specifically to find out news about the filming, and to share their concerns, not only with each other, but as it turned out eventually, with the film makers themselves. Which makes Lord of the Rings the first multimillion blockbuster movie that had direct input from its fan base.

Once the first film was released, naturally the discussion groups got even bigger and more active, as all those people who had been impressed by the movie joined in. But there were another two movies to go, to be released over the next two years, so there was a real incentive to continue the discussions and conversations over a sustained period of time.

It was not just the sheer scale of participation, and the length of time it was sustained for, that was unusual. The established fan base of Tolkien's novels was different from the people who had so far embraced the internet. Many of us were of a generation that could still remember well the days before Google, even before personal computers, and I was probably not the only one who discovered communication via the internet that way. The age range on the forum I frequented ranged from 13 (the minimum age to sign up on IMDb) to people in their 50's. While the majority of participants were based in the US, there were a number of regular posters from European countries, Australia, and of course New Zealand. People came from a huge variety of backgrounds, but many had a university education and worked in fairly high profile jobs.

It is probably not very surprising that there ended up being a lot of conversations on those message boards that didn't have a whole lot to do with the Lord of the Rings movies at all. There is only so much you can discuss about one movie, and many conversations that started out by discussing one or other aspect of it, quickly branched out in all sorts of different directions. The personalities involved made sure that a lot of these conversations were actually really interesting, and could go on for substantial lengths of time. Therefore people would return to the forum again and again and again, and spend goodly amounts of time typing up posts, or using the private messaging system to contact each other.

Eventually, a group of regular posters emerged which remained fairly stable over a substantial period of time. People began to discuss their daily lives. Friendships formed. Opportunities to work together emerged. Hostilities erupted. Loyalties were declared. Real-live meetings were organized. The group followed the same social dynamics you'd expect in any group of people, even though most of its members had never met each other face to face.

I left the group eventually, but last time I looked, several of the people I made virtual friends with then, were still busy posting. IMDB has now alloted them their very own forum, separate from the general discussion boards attached to the three individual movies.

Incidentally, it was through one of the people I met on those boards, that I got in touch with Victoria University Wellington, organized a tour to New Zealand, was offered a job, and stayed here.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design :: http://webdesign.asni.net http://www.asni.net

Devious Fun with Online Promotion :: part 2

2010-01-21T03:56:00.000-08:00

In my last blog, I wrote about my DeviantArt account and how I have been promoting my illustration work there. DeviantArt works, in a lot of ways, like a mirror image of the internet as a whole, on a more contained scale. Incidentally, one of the consequences of this is that it can serve as an excellent learning and testing ground for your online promotion strategies - what works, and what does not work.

At the end of last year, my gallery was sitting at about 5700 gallery views (counted over the whole of its four year existence) - with a noticeable increase in views over the second half of 2008, which I attributed to a combination of posting more and better works, more regular journal entries, and a natural gathering of momentum as my gallery acquired more "Watchers".

At the beginning of this year, I set myself a deliberate goal of bringing my gallery up to 10 000 views. At the time, I thought that would be a tough goal to reach. I achieved that goal by mid October, and at the end of the year, I was just short of 12 000 pageviews - which means I have more than doubled my page view count this year.

How did I achieve this?

These are the things that I found have been consistently driving traffic to my page:

1. Submitting works of better quality. When all is said and done, this is the single most important factor in making your DeviantArt gallery a success. The people who post there are all artists, and they won't be fooled by work of dubitable quality, no matter how cleverly it is promoted. But conversely, a lot of very fine work is sitting in the corners getting hardly any notice, just because the artist is to shy or does not know how to put her or his work out there.

At the beginning of last year, I posted an illustration for Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" series. Up to then, I would have described my skill level as "competent amateur". This was the first time that I felt I would be completely confident to submit this image in a professional context. It was also the first time I realized the difference between posting an image that a few people like enough to comment on or award a "favourite", and an image that truly resonates with people. The image picked up views and favourites at a rate that was completely out of proportion with any of the other works I had submitted up to then. And it quite quickly floated up to the first page in searches for "Earthsea" or "Le Guin". In fact, for a while it even made the first page in Google, for the search term "Earthsea illustration"! Of course, this would also have contributed to driving traffic to my DeviantArt page. After all, the gallery is not only visible to fellow Deviants.

2. Submitting work frequently and regularly, while at the same time avoiding to flood your watcher's message centres. This can be a tricky balance to find. Most people will come to your gallery repeatedly - especially once you have built up a following of "Watchers" and friends in the DeviantArt community - and they will watch out for your new work - so supplying them on a fairly regular basis is important, otherwise they will lose interest. But viewing Deviations does take time, so submitting works too often, or too many images at the same time, is also counterproductive. Don't we all know that if we get bombarded with too much stuff, we'll eventually just switch off.

There's no recipe for finding the right balance, really - it's all a matter of experience, and perhaps a bit of gut feeling. One of those things one can only learn by doing it.

3. Tagging your images appropriately. Tags can appear in a Deviation title, description, and list of keywords. They are what is fed to the site search engine. If you don't tag an image, it won't come up in a search. Besides: Through my severe obsession with search and ranking functions, I have discovered an astonishing thing: The Deviation title is by far the most important place to tag an image.

For instance, my Deviation: "Robin Hobb: Jhaampe" currently comes up as no 5 in searches for "Robin Hobb" - even though there are a number of illustrations of Robin Hobb's work that have considerably more fave's, including at least one Daily Deviation. Experimentally, I have tried to call the image just "Jhaampe": even though the tag "Robin Hobb" still appears in the description and keywords, the image suddenly goes down to somewhere way down the page for this search. So: Tagging matters!

4. Commenting and fav'ing other Deviant's work. This is the fun part. Of course, it can also become a major eater of hours! But there is absolutely no substitute for getting involved and genuinely participating in the community. I always check out the galleries of each person who comments on or fave's my artwork - sometimes briefly, but if I like what I see, I do it more thoroughly, fave some works or even add them to my Watchlist. Chances are that if they like your work, you might like their's! There also is an unspoken etiquette that views or comments should be returned, and many people will post a "thank you" for a fave on your gallery home page. Tick, one pageview.

This is really the core of what DeviantArt is about - to enable artists in far flung corners of the world to get in touch with each other, and share inspiration, interests, tips, tutorials, and yes, even cooking recipes and dating advice! It is absolutely and entirely possible to form genuine friendships online. That, I can vouch for.

5. Using the journal. Not just to write up regular entries - one of the most popular DeviantArt customs is to do journal features. They can be about a particular topic, or just a bunch of works you like. They can be your own work, or that of other Deviants. But, and this is important to remember: Featuring other Deviants is by far the better promotion strategy of the two.

When I do a feature, I send a note to every artist I've included, to let them know about the feature. Not only are they very likely to pay a visit to my gallery to see themselves featured, they might also let their friends know about it. And, they might include me in a feature of their own, next time they are doing one. Gratitude can go a very long way.

6. Writing up news articles. News articles can be submitted by any Deviant and appear in a dedicated news area, not on an individual gallery page, though they can be linked from there. This is very similar to using the journal, except that news articles may not be used for exclusive self promotion, and should be on a topic of general interest. A number of the journal features I have done, I have posted as a news article as well.

7. Giving critiques. This feature is only available to subscribers. Critiques are a fairly recent feature - they are similar to comments, but they require a minimum word count, and should be somewhat in-depth, constructive comments on an artwork, not just "it's nice". Many Deviants use the site to get feedback and improve their skills, and this feature is designed to encourage the giving of detailed feedback.

Critiques do have their own channel on DeviantArt, they also get submitted to my Watcher's message centre, as well as to the page of the artist I'm critiquing. If that artist is someone who gets considerably more pageviews than I do, I win, all the way! Besides, there is less competition - critiquing doesn't seem to be a thing a lot of people are very comfortable with.

8. Joining clubs or groups. DeviantArt used to have an informal system of clubs. Very recently, Deviantart has finally decided to officially support clubs - now called groups - and set up some technical features which make the administering of a group a whole, WHOLE lot simpler. In essence, a club or group is like a DeviantArt gallery, except that is doesn't display an individual artist's work, but the works of all their members, who share a common interest of some sort. There are really big and broad groups. such as "Digital Artists" or "The Pencil Club", and there are small niche groups such as, well for instance, my own "Ursula Le Guin" group.

The whole idea behind submitting your work to a club or group is, of course, to get it seen by the other members of the group. Some clubs also run contests, post tutorials and technical advice, or offer support and advice to their members. The ultimate in self promotion is, of course, to run your own group! Though it probably pays to get a bit of a feel for the DeviantArt community before setting oneself up as an expert in something. :)

9. Using the Forum. I have to admit that the only part of the forum I use regularly is the Deviation Thumbshare - as the name implies, here you can submit thumbnail images of the Deviations you wish to promote. You can open your own thread - but beware, you'll have to reply to all the posts you'll get! - or you can submit to someone else's thread. There are always a million threads along the lines of "post your newest", but every once in a while, someone is looking for something specific - often for a feature - like "Dragons" or "Pencil Works" or "The colour red".

If you manage to get your post in while the thread is still short, you're lucky, and some other forum users might have a look at your gallery. Otherwise, you'll just attract the attention of whoever opened the thread. Not the most efficient promotion strategy, but it usually gets you a few views, and sometimes you get lucky and someone features you.

10. Getting a Daily Deviation. Daily Deviations are featured on the Deviantart main page for a day, and can be suggested by any Deviant to the responsible gallery director. From what I have seen, they tend to explode your pageviews and fave counts overnight. I haven't got there yet, but I will report on what happens when I do. This is the ultimate achievement in online promotion on DeviantArt, of course!

I've written up these strategies with a particular online community and its specific features and culture in mind, but it is easy to see how these strategies can be applied to online promotion in more general terms.

Several of them come down to what any good SEO expert would tell you:

- Quality of content - sometimes also called relevance

- Regular and reasonably frequent updates

- Keyword placement and tagging

- Using promotional tools - e.g. submitting your site to industry specific directories, or contributing to topic specific forums - and getting links to your site

But some of the most successful strategies have to do more with your soft skills:

- Networking, and genuinely engaging in your online community

- Added value content - such as journals or blogs - especially if they contribute to building an online community

- Promoting yourself through helping others promote themselves

It's not just about what you can get - it's just as much about what you can give!

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: http://webdesign.asni.net :: http://www.asni.net

Devious fun with online promotion :: part 1

2010-01-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

Those who know me well will know that I am a *little* bit obsessed with web statistics. And that's not meaning just my Google or Alexa stats or my page hits and visitor count - ranking systems of all sorts of shapes hold a weird fascination for me. I want to understand them. And yes, occasionally I would quite like to be able to trick them, mostly when I see what kind of dross sometimes washes up to the top of the rankings, evidently just because someone is doing a particularly good job at promoting their stuff.

Tricking, let me say it, does not work, in the long run. But there are few things that do work if paid proper attention to, and these tend to be the same, regardless if it's a major search engine you are dealing with, or if you just want to have your holiday photos on some social networking site seen by more people.

This past year, I have been quite active on Deviantart.com, where I've had my own online gallery for the past five years. As I got more involved with the wider community there, it occurred to me that in a lot of ways, Deviantart mirrors the workings of the whole of the internet, on a more contained scale.

The site gives everyone the opportunity to post their artwork, photos, designs, craft objects, or literary works online in their own customizable online gallery. With every gallery also comes a blog or "journal", and a message centre for communicating with other Deviants. Basic service is free, more features can be accessed by paying a moderate annual fee. There is no selection process as to who can open a gallery - but there is what I would like to call a democratic selection process in how much attention your gallery attracts.

"Attention", in DeviantArt terms, can be of several kinds: Gallery views, "Deviation" views, gallery "Watches", Comments and "Favourites" are the main flavours, and as a paid subscriber, I have access to a set of fairly detailed statistics regarding how well my own "Deviations" are doing. (I do, btw, love the choice of word. A "Deviation is any submission to a DeviantArt gallery -- and those of us who practise art in any form know all too well how the rest of the race regards these activities - unless we manage to attain "genius" status, but that is usually only obtainable by dying. But I digress. --)

Like any good Web 2.0 site, DeviantArt is not just about putting your work out there and getting it seen, it is very much also about interacting with other fellow artists. When I joined DeviantArt I was fortunate to have a head start because I already knew a small group of fellow illustrators from another online community, so I started out with a few people watching my gallery.

For the first few years, I mostly limited myself to uploading artwork, and posting the occasional journal entry. Every work submitted floats up in a "channel" of most recent works, which can be drilled down by medium and genre (e.g. "Traditional Art" - "Painting" - "Fantasy"), or limited by topic through a search function (e.g. "dragon", or "eiffel tower"). People do browse those channels, and work that stands out will thus immediately attract more views than work which is a bit humdrum.

Each new Deviation is also posted to your Watcher's message centre, where they can decide to view it or not.

At this leisurely pace, my gallery was slow to gain momentum, and there was a very clear relation between the frequency of posting new work, and the number of pageviews I achieved. A couple of years ago I decided to upgrade to a paid subscription, and one of the tendencies that became immediately evident was that certain images - not, in my own opinion, necessarily my best or most interesting, or even most recent ones - were attracting a disproportionate amount of views.

This, I deduced, must have to do with the option to search images by topic - my single most viewed Deviation, to date, is an illustration for Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", which, appart from being compulsory school reading, also seems to enjoy undiminished popularity among teenagers in English speaking countries. Another popular image was a decidedly shoddy early attempt at Photomanipulation, depicting a scene from the Narnia books.

How did I achieve this? I'll tell you about that in my next blog! :)

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

The Merry Christmas Post

2009-12-23T01:23:00.000-08:00

This will be the last blog post for this year - and I am sure you are all looking forward to shutting shop for a few weeks over the holidays just as much as I am.

It's a good time to clap oneself on the shoulder and think about the good things that have happened in the business. For me, it's mostly the feedback I've had from my customers.

Julie Comparini wrote me recently that she has been shortlisted for a solo part in an opera project in Linz, Austria, and that one of the reasons was that the people there were so impressed with her website. Last week she wrote to me that she has got the part! And that's just a few months after her site went live. In terms of job satisfaction, to me, to hear about such a fantastic result just about tops the heap.

Inkibus has also been quite ecstatic about her new site - WONDERFUL, she said - but she seems to be a bit under the holiday season at the moment - stressful times, I imagine, if you help to run a home based handcrafted furniture business - so I'll expect to hear how the site is working out for her in the new year.

This month has also been one of the best ever for my own online shop. I have been exploring options to sell my articles through additional channels - Ebay, Trademe, that sort of thing - and the success has been quite impressive. My Middle Earth New Zealand photo calendar has proved a particular success. I am now down to only three copies left, and pretty confident that I will get those sold as well. Next year, I think, will see a larger print run!

Besides: Having figured out how to promote my own goods more effectively, I will be able - and most happy to - pass on that knowledge to you my customers.

Happy holidays - whatever it is that you celebrate at this time of year - and all the best for the new year 2010,

from Asni

Introducing: Inkibus.com

2009-12-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

Finally back to the computer screen, after spending most of last month dealing with the things that life throws us - such as setting up a new home in the Wairarapa!

These last few days, I've been designing away on my friend and fellow fantasy artist Inkibus - aka Alana Schmitt's - website. Alana is a young illustrator, photographer and costume maker whom I have known for several years through a couple of art websites we both frequent. She lives in a remote rural area in Arkansas (USA), and is entirely self taught. Her parents, back in the day, did the hippie thing and went to live in the woods, to grow their own vegetables, keep chicken and various other beasts, and set up a handcrafted furniture business, in which the entire family (Alana, her twin sister and younger brother) all are employed.

This was an excellent opportunity to test an idea I've had to set up a real simple, low budget type of site that contains some basic information, but mainly functions as a portal to the artist's various online presences - in Alana's case, several online storefronts where she sells her artwork and photos, an equally large number of online galleries where she displays her works, her Facebook page, and a blog and a couple of Deviantart portfolios which I suggested to her she should create.

The purpose of this is to combine the professional image an own domain and custom designed web page helps to build, with the networking opportunities that online galleries and social networks offer, and the easy updateability of third party applications such as the rather well thought out DeviantArt portfolio. As a young artist just setting out to establish herself, I figure these features are particularly important, and Alana is someone who certainly knows how to use the networking opportunities that the internet offers well! The site is not quite completed yet - the "blog" and "costumes" links aren't working at this stage, and being the perfectionist I am, I may go in and twiddle with the layout a little more in the next couple of weeks, but do have a look: http://www.inkibus.com

This leads me to another matter that has recently come up: Browser woes!

I would like to point out that my pages are designed using the most recent W3C web design standards, and I do like to try and use some of the more adventurous features they offer. The problem with this - and probably one of the reasons one sees so very many very boring websites around - is that the current standards which we as web designers are encouraged to use, aren't actually supported by all browsers.

The Black Sheep, these days, is Internet Explorer - if you are using it, please be aware that even the most recent version, IE8, does not fully support all features of current CSS based design. And older versions - IE7 and below - are not compliant with current web standards and are likely to scramble up your pages.

Now, of course, as a web designer, one always aims to make the page look good in as many different scenarios as possible - different browsers, different screen sizes, different operating systems - but there is a limit to how extensively one can test, and still charge an affordable price for a site. I test my pages in IE 8 and write fixes, but have, after some deliberation, decided that I will draw the line at trying to make them compatible with IE7 and lower.

There is, however, an easy fix for this --- standards-compliant browsers - such as Firefox, Opera or Apple's Safari browser, which also has a PC version - are readily available as free downloads, and so is the latest version of Internet Explorer. If you're still stuck with a waaaaaaaaaay outdated browser like IE 7, I encourage you to make your internet life better by getting a more up to date version!

Here is a small list of download links:

Firefox - available for any operating system and in any human spoken language, plus klingon, I'm sure.

Opera - also a standards compliant, free, cross platform browser

Internet Explorer 8 - if you must.

Safari - highly recommended, if you got a machine that can run it.

Happy browsing!

cheers, Asni

An introduction to web technologies - part 2

2009-11-11T02:37:00.000-08:00

In my very first blog, I talked a little about the two languages that are the fundament of every web page - HTML and CSS. HTML defines the structure of a web document - page header and page body, headlines, paragraphs, lists, links, images and so on. CSS takes care of the looks - colours, fonts, text size, spacing, borders, and a host of other features. The main limitation of CSS, these days, is that not all browsers support all of its features! But I am sure that in a few year's time, that won't be so much of an issue any more.

Today I would like to introduce another web language which has become a standard over the last five or so years. The first time I stumbled across a PHP based website, it seemed like something that was way beyond the reach of mere mortals. Login systems, online message boards and forums, image galleries which can be updated and sorted according to different criteria (title, date, popularity, and so on), file uploads, page search functions, a little line that greets you with your name when you log on - not so many years ago, these fancy features were the domain of big money clients who could afford a programmer or fifteen, to develop a site from scratch.

Not any more, these days. PHP is but one of several web scripting languages that work together with a database to create all the features I have mentioned above, and more. But it has become the language of choice for many web designers - especially those who work on their own - because it is an open source language. Meaning, one does not have to invest in an expensive software package to use it - the code is free, if you know how to write it. There is also a large and enthusiastic community of geeks out there who are most generous with code snippets and advice - it always amazes me just how much knowledge and information is available at a mouseclick on the internet, once one has mastered the basics and knows what those geeks are talking about!

The basic function of PHP is to generate HTML code, which can then be displayed as a web page. This means that rather than having to build each and every single web page individually, one can now let the PHP script do the work. Take, for instance, a product catalogue (or any image gallery, for that matter). In a purely HTML based site, one would have to go in and change the HTML code every time a new product is added to the catalogue - image, description, price, etc. - in every web page where that new product is mentioned.

With a PHP based site, the new product is added to a database (usually via an easy to use file upload manager) and the PHP script pulls that information from the database and builds it into the web pages where appropriate. A heck of a lot less work! And much less potential for errors and oversight.

There are a whole lot more things that PHP can automate - from automatically displaying the correct "page last updated" date, to personalized pages for visitors based on user information submitted through a login system. They are too many to cover in one blog. The main point, however, is that PHP makes these advanced features perfectly accessible even on a relatively modest budget. Want to know more? Ask me about it! :-)

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

Harnessing the power of the web

2009-10-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

"Harnessing the power of the web - online promotion for artists" was the title of my recent talk in the "Arts Hub Forum" series organized by Hutt Valley Community Arts - a new initiative that aims to bring practical business knowledge to artists in the Hutt Valley and beyond.

The talk was well attended, and it turned out to be a captive audience. I am also welcoming several new subscribers to this mailing list! :)

"Online promotion for artists" is a wide topic to cover in a two hour talk. The main tools for online promotion (for artists or otherwise) - besides having one's own website - are blogs, online profiles and galleries, social networking sites, topic specific online forums and discussion groups, and online shopfronts or auction sites. Each of these topics could easily have filled its own talk!

The main point is that you should use as many of these tools as you can find the time and commitment for. Online profiles, forums, social networks and blogs are wonderful tools for building an audience and driving traffic to one's own website. Some of these sites offer advanced functionality that it would be costly to implement in your own site. Besides, larger sites get more traffic - it is often easier to get some initial traffic, and to start building an audience or customer base, with a gallery or a shop front on a well known and well established site, than starting one's own domain from scratch.

However, nothing beats the opportunities to establish a professional and individual image that having your own website offers. Online galleries or profiles, and "build-your-own-website" tools may be a fast and inexpensive way to establish some sort of online presence, but they are generally based on templates that can be quite restrictive in terms of the information that can be submitted - not to mention the design and layout features, which offer hardly any flexibility for individual "branding".

There are many uses one's own website can be put to, and promotion in the narrow sense is only one of them. Your website can serve not only as a one-stop-shop for your fans or customers to find whatever information they require. They can be your PR kit - flexible to keep updated, and certainly less expensive than sticking your media releases and photos in the snail mail! They can be a communication hub for you and your fans, audiences or customers.

A website can be your gateway to gain an audience independent of national or geographical boundaries. It can, of course, be your shop front and main distribution channel - directly from your bedroom to that of your fans, so to speak. No need to curry favour with publishers or label executives, gallery owners or artist management!

Last but not least, your website can also be an invaluable documentation of your work, and how it is received. So when you do want to apply for that grant, or impress that agent, you can confidently and proudly point them to your own url. Believe me - these people will immediately take you more seriously if you can show them a well designed, well thought out and well maintained website.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net

The Big Secret of Online Success

2009-10-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

Upcoming Events: "Harnessing the power of the internet - online promotion for Artists" :: Public talk, Tuesday 20 October 2009, 11 am - 1 pm. Venue: Public Library, Petone. More information: Hutt Valley Community Arts website or email.

A couple of days ago, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar on the topic of web promotion and “web persuasion”, which was provided by one of the bigger and better web design companies here in New Zealand (we call this “spying on the competition” – though, to be sure, those people aim at a far more corporate market than my small artsy home studio).

What have I learned on the occasion? Well, first of all, that these guys don’t know anything earthshaking that I haven’t figured out for myself by now - or if they do, that’s not the sort of info they divulge in a public seminar!

Secondly, they seem to have spotted the same issue that is my motivation for writing this blog: The need to educate people more about the whole area of web (as opposed to print) communication, and how to effectively transmit your message through your website and other online tools. The need to have a strategy, before you even begin the first site draft.

Owning and running a website is 100% a dynamic process. A site is a living document that should reflect your business or your artistic or professional activities at every stage – not something you can hand over to your web designer and then expect to never be bothered with any more.

“But how do I do this if I don’t know how to build websites?” you may well ask. Actually, these days, changing the content of your own website has become ridiculously easy. There are numerous editing tools out there – some of them freeware – which allow you to change text, links and even images like you would in a text document. When you get a website, make sure your web designer sets you up with one of those – and instructs you in how to use these tools!

Then of course there is also a massive, and steadily growing plethora of online tools that don’t even require that much effort and computer knowledge. Social and professional networking sites, blogs, image, music and video sharing sites, online forums on every topic in the world, auction sites and shop fronts - you name it.

Keeping up with all that sometimes seems like an overwhelming task that could easily suck the 24 hours out of your day! But, as the good folks at the web seminar pointed out – it is very hard to achieve a 100% change all at once, but it is quite easy to achieve a 1% change a hundred times. All it takes is a little discipline, and quite a lot of patience.

Patience and discipline – there’s one of the Big Secrets of being successful on the web! And one which the Snake Oil Merchants probably won’t tell you. ☺

Hello World :: welcome to my brand new web design blog!

2009-09-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

First of all, the good news – as of last Monday, I am officially running my new web design business! My Enterprise Allowance Grant has been approved, I’ve been given a little stack of money to buy things for my business, and all systems are go.

As a thoroughly productive start to my new business, the same day my latest website went live: www.juliecomparini.com is a personal portfolio site for my former fellow musician, and good friend, Julie Comparini, a singer based in Germany and specializing in the performance of medieval, renaissance and baroque music, as well as contemporary interdisciplinary theater projects.

The site is what we call a “static website”, using straightforward HTML and CSS. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language - this is the code that determines the structure and content of a web page – headlines, paragraphs, lists, block quotes and such – which will be displayed in a standardized format by your web browser.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets – this is where all the fancy formatting goes. CSS offer the ability to determine the looks of a site in great variety and detail: font styles, sizes and colours, background colours and images, rollover effects, positioning of the individual elements of the site, and a number of other parameters.

The elegance of the system is that the same style sheet can be attached to a whole series of HTML pages, making sure that the styling for all pages is consistent. It also enables the designer to change the entire look of the site – say, the overall background colour, or the font style - by only changing one bit of code in one file. You can even write a whole new style sheet and attach it to the same old HTML page! So one day, your website could have sober businesslike look, and the next day, a crazy jungle theme, all by changing one line of code.

As someone who has done the hard yards of hand-coding my own html pages back in the days before CSS became widely supported, I can tell you, this technology cuts down on a lot of really tedious repetitive tasks! Of course, you have to know what you are doing – starting to work with style sheets was where I realized the limits of my self-taught html skills a few years ago, which is one of the many reasons I ended up getting myself a proper Diploma in Multimedia Design.

If you’d like to get some first hand experience of what a HTML page without its attached style sheet looks, you do the following little experiment (this works best with the Firefox browser – you can download it for free if you haven’t got it installed: ):

Load a web page – you’re welcome to use Julie’s as an example – then go to “View – Page Style” and choose “No Style”. Tadaaa! Not pretty, huh? The page content will still display properly (at least if the HTML page is set up the right way) and headlines, paragraphs and lists will still be recognizable, but all the fancyness is gone. (Make sure to switch your Style Sheets back on by selecting “Basic Page Style” after you’re done.)

I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into the mysteries of the art of building good websites. But I know, most of you just want to know: “And what is a websites going to cost me?” – Well, how long is a piece of string? It is really hard to quote people a price without knowing their ideas and requirements. But I will tell you how much I charge for a site like Julie’s, if you send me an email mentioning this blog.

Asni: Multimedia Art & Design:: webdesign.asni.net :: www.asni.net