Small and Start up Business Advice

Why Your Business Needs a Website Manager

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Guest Author

In terms of function and content, websites have become increasingly more complex over the years and are now one of the most important components of business marketing. A well-maintained website can be the difference between a success and failure, and this is why the role of website manager cannot be played by just anyone.

In the beginning, a business’ webpage was nothing more than a digital billboard. It usually consisted of the business’ name, address, phone number, email address, storefront photo and perhaps a brief explanation of services and products. Back then, the success of a business did not hinge on its online marketing efforts. Things are different today. Customers now go online to find information on just about everything. Not only do they expect your business to have an online presence, but they also expect an online experience that is fully functional. A business that does not meet this expectation could be setting itself up for failure.

This is especially true for businesses that are just getting started. Well-established storefronts and companies can sometimes get by with having a less-than-exciting website, but new businesses must market themselves using all the latest bells and whistles. By hiring a website manager, these businesses can ensure that their online presence will reach (and impress) its intended audience.

There are essentially two reasons why every business should consider hiring a full time website manager; great websites require constant attention, and effective online marketing requires advanced knowledge.

Some small business owners believe they can manage their website on their own, in their spare time. This is a costly mistake, because it takes a lot of time to properly maintain a site. As a general rule of thumb, the more components to your site, the more you need a full-time site manager; especially if you have your own domain.

Website managers perform a wide range of duties, such as creating and updating content, coding, updating software, managing social media accounts, SEO and tracking website performance and statistics. The completion of all of these tasks is essential for a great website and requires constant attention from one or more persons.

In addition to time, website management also takes knowledge. Although anyone can learn how to create and manage a website, it’s not really feasible for a business owner or manager to learn all of these things while also focusing on their primary jobs. Not to mention, there are new internet technologies and marketing techniques emerging every day, so the learning really never stops.

It’s a bit like trying to do something you haven’t been properly trained to do. A business owner or manager who has no internet marketing or website maintenance experience will always find it difficult to create the great online experience they envisioned, because they simply don’t have the time or knowledge.

Behind every high-quality website is a high-quality web manager who has the education, experience and time to produce a successful website. If your business’ online marketing efforts and website traffic isn’t where you want it to be, it could be because you need an experienced website manager to get it back on track.

Pepper Givens is a freelance writer whose foremost passion is writing for her blog about education. While her primary writing focus is trends in higher ed, Pepper also enjoys writing about personal finance, parenting, sustainable living, small business strategies, and more. She can be reached for questions or comments at pepper.givens@gmail.com.

New Innovation Enterprise – Looking To Expand? Get The Right Help

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Guest Author

In the modern business world, there are a great many different business types. Where industry was once driven by manufacturing and production, today it is the service industries and knowledge capital industries that are driving forward new areas of corporate growth.

An innovation enterprise will seek to do business based on its innovation and creativity. This intellectual capital will offer consultancy, agency services, training, management, new product development or other services associated with driving forward business.

The nature of these businesses is fresh and evolving – they seek to pre-empt the curve and work ahead of it. Because an innovation enterprise must educate their potential clients and the market in general about the nature and value of their work, many value advice and guidance on the best way to promote themselves and their services to prospective customers.

Quality Business Guidance

This is where quality business guidance is invaluable. There are a range of business services available to all types of businesses, particularly focused on high growth and start-up / SME companies, which are a prime focus area for the government. Some of these services have charges attached, others are free to the customer or subsidised, being funded by a variety of local economic partnerships, public funds and private sources.

Interestingly, a number of large blue chip corporates and multinationals fund business programmes for small businesses, particularly in the creative and newer innovative sectors such as digital, to develop. Banks are a good example of this, as they recognise that successful small businesses are their valuable customers of the future.

Seeking Out Support

The sorts of services to look out for are broad and if you can find a single business support organisation or regional hub, you will be allocated a business advisor who can understand your particular requirements and can point you in the right direction for the services you need.

An example might be training, where your staff need sales or customer services training, marketing strategy training or even compliance and regulatory training to reach an accreditation. It might be consultancy – whether to implement a carbon neutral operating system or to effectively market your green credentials to customers, or it might be the implementation of an IIP framework.

You might be looking for mentoring or coaching to access experienced advisors to guide you or your staff to achieve specific goals and to aid development.

You might be looking for access to funding or grants, or business angels and potential investors to get your new scheme off the ground. You might be interested in networking and events to meet your future suppliers, partners, customers or stakeholders.

You might also be looking for apprentices to develop your skilled staff of the future, accredit your existing junior staff or play an active role in community development by providing valuable training opportunities to young local people.

Whatever service you do require, get in touch to get on the path to receiving the right services and the help you need to maximise your chance of business success. In a challenging market where economic forces contrive to make start-ups’ lives as difficult as possible, it makes sense to tap into existing frameworks and support networks and get all the help you can.

Article brought to you by Grow Cornwall, the South West based support company offering business plan help to aspiring Cornish based businesses.

Posted in Small Business | Tagged business plan, business planning, business plans, simple business plan, small business plan | Leave a comment

3 Responsive Word Press Themes to Get your Business Blog Started

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Guest Author

When small business owners decide to start up a blog to help promote products and services, all too often it can be a confusing ordeal. Even those with an MBA in entrepreneurship and take intro web design classes can get completely lost when it comes to picking out the right blog design, color scheme, and layout. Not to mention that small business owners need their websites and blogs to be “responsive”—have the ability to automatically covert to fit other electronic devices like smartphones and tablets. You can hire a web graphic designer to make sure your business blog has all the proper bells and whistles. But that option can get expensive. If funds are low, instead you can choose from an array of responsive word press themes to help transform your business blog into a work of beauty. To learn more about my favorite word press responsive themes from Elegant Themes (whom I have no affiliation with), continue reading below. Bonus: At only $39 for full access to its complete word press theme gallery, Elegant Themes is one of the cheapest in the biz.

Evolution

Evolution was one of the site’s first fully functional responsive word press themes to launch, but it’s still one of the best. It has all the basics so it will automatically convert images and layouts when viewed on smaller electronic devices and browsers. But it also has some added perks as well, such as four unique color schemes, widget-ready sidebars, the ability to make custom thumbnail images, and a collection of short codes to make the process of creating a beautiful blog so much easier.

Daily Journal

If you know your business blog will focus more on content rather than selling products, then Daily Journal is a great responsive word press theme to try out. It’s designed for avid bloggers who like to share their stories and experiences. Thus, this theme can really give your business blog a more “personal” feel. And it’s fun! Like the word press theme mentioned above, Daily Journal comes equipped with four unique colors but it also comes with the ePanel option. This crafty feature lets you build your blog without having to know a lick of html coding.

Trim

Last but not least is Trim. This word press theme is fairly simple in design—it uses clean, crisp colors such as white and gray to create a mature and professional experience for your users. But it’s still a really great word press theme to use. If you’d like to change the color scheme, however, you can. Trim has an unlimited color control panel. And like the other word press themes Elegant offers, this one too has short code libraries, is widget-ready, offers textured layers, has page templates and even has room for a slider.

Creating your business website and or blog may seem like a daunting task, but if you use services that make the process simple, you can have a successfully business website/blog up and running in no time.

Amanda Watson is a freelancer blogger who writes about online mba programs and other topics pertaining to online higher education. You can reach Amanda at watsonamanda.48@gmail.com

Posted in Blogging | Tagged elegant themes, elegant wordpress themes, word press blog, word press themes, word press themes for business | Leave a comment

Contract or Full-Time? What’s the Best Option for Your Business?

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Guest Author

So your business is booming, growing and expanding faster than you anticipated, and you have to bring more people on board. Sounds like a great problem to have right? Minus the ensuing legal headache and technical process this entails, it is.

With so many things to consider—from writing and placing the hiring ad, to interviewing potential candidates and performing pre-employment background checks and screenings—it can be an overwhelming and arduous procedure for smaller, start-up companies. What’s more, amidst all of the chaos and excitement of change, small-business owners often overlook the option to bring in contract workers rather than traditional full-time employees. But how do you even know if this is the best option for your team? Before you make the decision there are some things you should consider.

Permanent Upswing or Temporary High?

When determining whether or not to hire a contract worker or offer the job as a full-time position, one of the most important things to consider is if the current business flow is a natural progression and indicator of things to come or, rather, a temporary high due to rare circumstances. If it’s the latter, obviously you might want to hire someone on a temporary, contract basis for the simple fact you may not have the revenue to keep them permanently on staff.

This is a better alternative than of hiring someone as a full-time employee (which is quite an extensive process considering all of the paperwork and legalese involved) only having to lay them off six months later because business has become stagnant. Given this economy, many small businesses are opting for this option, simply because of the unpredictability of the market. Plus, there’s always the option of approaching the contractor about joining the team full-time if it appears that the favorable conditions will continue for the foreseen future.

Worth the Benefits?

The major drawback to full-time employees is that they come almost always come with benefits. And vacation time. And sick days. The list goes on, but the point stays the same, they come with a lot of extra expenses that only add to their overall price tag. Sure, if this is for the long haul investing in a hard worker shouldn’t be seen as a burden, but if this is for a more short-lived role it would be in the company’s best interest to simply contract out a temporary professional for the time being. This an especially desirable option if the company is in the middle of an extensive project that has a set end date. Most likely things will calm down after that and the need for extra help will diminish.

Overview

Overall, when your business is booming it’s easy to get ahead of yourself and get “hiring happy,” but it’s important to recognize that you have options and alternatives to the norm. What you choose will depend solely on your company’s specific needs and situation.

Familiar with personal information screenings and online background checks, Jane Smith regularly writes about these topics in her blogs. Feel free to send her comments at janesmith161@gmail.com.

Posted in Small Business | Tagged business advice, contract or full time employment, small business advice | Leave a comment

Website tips for small businesses and/or starters

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Guest Author

Having a business means you have to attain people networks for connections and customers. Needless to say that the internet is a very good and sometimes free method of getting your business on the internet, so let us discuss tips about a website for that start up business!

Why Build a Website?

As cliché goes, the internet is really the number one medium to release or attain information. Anyone can post various forms of information from almost any place at any given time. Businesses require the exposure for it to be known to customers. It is vital that people will know your vision mission, your products or services, and how they can reach you, more so if the business is a start up so you can start your venture the soonest possible time. A website can do just that! You don’t have to be a techie web developer to have a website, nor should you shell out tons of cash. Let us get into the advantages of having a website for your business.

Your website can give you extra income

If your website looks really good and has gained popularity that many users visit your site, some may be interested to put in classified ads there and this will merit you cash! Also, there are options for people to put in their links or banners on your website that will still give you income. Joining Google Adsense can also give you money from contextual ads.

A Website can help to grow your business

Your market niche has to be updated so having a website will do just that. A website may display all information about your business, more so the products and services, and all other updates that can spread like wildfire that can grow your business!

You can share your opinions, experiences & visions easily

Sharing all sorts of information is possible in websites. These may not just be beneficial for you, but it may also provide help for other aspiring businessmen out there. Who knows, you might be a philanthropist via your informative website which will further boost your business and reputation!

Ways and Tips to Build a Website

Basically you can build a website in 2 ways, one is by yourself, or hire a web developer to do the work for you! If you are the techie kind or if you plan to save money or you have time, and want to learn at the same time, you may opt to design your own website. When you do begin your quest for your website, there re lots of software you can use, but the hardest parts will be for you to learn web programming languages like PHP or HTML and learn how to make interesting graphics so study up! Creating your own website can give you your own domain which will be very advantageous in the long run but will cost you a little money.

But, if you are not the techie type or you just don’t have the time, you can opt to use free website builders and hosting. They are easy to use and may be free if you don’t plan to upgrade features so this is also a good option. But take note of these advantages and disadvantages before you decide to go for free website hosting.

Advantages of Free Website Hosting

· Free website hosting is of course free. No monthly fees are required and everything can be uploaded to your website.
· It is generally user friendly and may be a good starting point for newbie website developers.
· It practically saves you time and effort.

Disadvantages of Free Website Hosting

· Has a limited amount of space and bandwidth you can use.
· Your website can be spammed with ads and other entities as it is through these that website hosting companies earn money.
· Your domain name will be appended with the host’s name. It may not give you the personal touch and may let people think that you are not successful, therefore may ruin your reputation.
· You are limited in the website design and system. You cannot also upload features like WordPress into the free site.
· Free sites may not be stable. Once the company dies, so does your website.

So upon looking at the pros and cons of free website hosting and you decide to just do the website yourself or if you hire a developer for you, always remember to design your website simply and ensure user friendliness and at the same attractive to the users in the internet. Make sure to always include basic information about the business, and always remember to include stuff that sets you apart from your competition. As a startup business, it is vital that people will see your business’s value and uniqueness that will turn them to you. Be simple in your design, and make sure that everything will be readable from you and your audiences’ ends, but also be creative! Being unique and artful will be attractive to your customers. When you hire someone, take into consideration a freelancer friend as it might save you money and will give you ease to communicate all sorts of design concerns. Always remember too to ask from him or her how to update the website’s text or image contents so it will be easy for you to update the site. As the old Chinese proverb goes, “Give man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.” So make sure to learn the updating process so your business will always be in sync at the soonest possible time possible!

Author Bio:

Maria Park is an aspiring writer and an online enthusiast. A former food outlet owner.
she also has a passion in singing and an interest in traveling. Today, Maria is currently writing for Luke Roxas a renowned real estate business tycoon.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged small business tips, web design for small business, web design for small businesses, web design packages, Website tips for small businesses | Leave a comment

Do You Know How To Make The Most Of Printed Marketing Materials?

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Guest Author

I’ve seen numerous so-called marketing experts nowadays who minimize the importance of printed materials, shouting out lout that they are a waste of your time and budget compared to online advertisement. Shocking to say the least!

Printed marketing materials are here to stay and they are unlikely to go out of style anytime soon. Perhaps the confusion experienced by certain companies comes from one or more unsuccessful advertisement campaigns. However, in this case, the low ROI is not due to the ineffectiveness of the printed ads, but rather from the company’s erroneous approach to selecting the right printing medium. Commercial printing comes in many forms, yet not all of them are suitable for each business niche or purpose. They comprise of:

Catalogues
Brochures
Flyers and postcards
Magazines
Posters
Books (Yes, books!)
Calendars

Let me show you what I mean.

Catalogues

Printed catalogues constitute the optimal medium for companies that need to market a wide array of products or services. The advantages of the catalogues include the larger amount of space (more pages of bigger dimensions) and the flexibility of the layout. Simply put, it is much simpler to organize the information when the available space does not pose limitations.

A word of advice though, always select the type of paper and binding method in accordance to the price of the products or services you are advertising, lest you want to end up paying more for the marketing than you stand to gain. It is natural to utilize expensive thick paper and state of the art bindings when you sell Rolex watches, but this approach is inadvisable for 1$ pens.

Brochures

Brochures can be a more cost-effective alternative to catalogues when the services or products advertised by your company are not that numerous.

Brochures typically have a lower page count and in some cases they are actually made from a single page folded several times, so it is easy to see why the costs of printing them are significantly lower.

Flyers and postcards

The printed mediums do not serve the same purpose as brochures or catalogues, but will mostly act as follow-ups to them or preceding notifications regarding the Coming Soon offers. Flyers and postcards go hand in hand with direct mail marketing and companies should send them as reminders.

Magazines and books

A magazine is always received better by customers because, unlike the other mediums which have the exclusive purpose of promoting the products and/or services, it enables you to integrate the information within a story. Just like the newsletter, details and updates related to your inventory are the main content of printed magazines, but in a version that also includes cleverly written text content complemented with attractive images on the background. There’s nothing quite like a carefully redacted magazine to help you keep in touch with your clientele!

However, the books’ scope is slightly different: establishing your company as an authority in your niche by presenting the services and products in an eloquent manner and from an expert’s point of view. Keep in mind that most people would rather listen to the facts presented by a reputable professional with a wide background of relevant experience in the field, rather than an average Joe stating his personal take on the matter.

Posters and calendars

There are two types of posters I want to talk about. First of all, you have the immense posters that are displayed in key locations around town, notifying your audience regarding certain events organized by your company or the launching of a new line of products/services. The second type refers to those handed out to the public during the actual events, which have smaller dimensions and can be hanged on your clients’ wall.

In order to display street posters, you will need to pay advertisement space, but they get the message across easier because people passing by will inadvertently notice them. On the other hand, the handout small frame posters are useful marketing tools only when their design is in accordance to your audience’s preferences. To put it simply, carefully constructed designs are instrumental in determining a person to decorate the walls of his home with your company’s posters. On a side note, the useful nature of calendars (displaying the date and time) makes them a superior alternative to standard wall-hanging posters, but the same design rules apply.

Hey, I’m Chad and in addition to the topic of presentation folders, I also enjoy blogging about other forms of printed media utilized in marketing!

Posted in Small Business | Tagged marketing, marketing materials, print marketing, printed marketing, printed marketing materials | Leave a comment

Want to Improve your Online Business? Write Guest Posts!

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Guest Author

If you are in the process of starting a small business online, then you’ve likely followed all the advice you’ve been given. You’ve set up a fancy, well-designed, user-friendly website, you’ve used social media to get the word out about your business, and perhaps you’ve optimized your site for the major search engines. While basic SEO can go a long way to bring in more customers, there’s another method that both helps optimize your site in search rankings while also spreading the word about your business. And that’s guest posting. Many of you may think that writing guest posts are too time-consuming to be worth it. But consider the following ways that guest posting can benefit your small business:

1.Getting quality links out in the blogosphere improves your search ranking on Google.

Whether you used basic SEO to optimize your site, or if you hired someone else to do it, chances are that your SEO strategy hasn’t gone beyond inputting keywords and messing with tags, coding, etc. Google rewards sites who have many “outbound” links on other quality sites. In other words, if people are linking to you, then you become more visible in search rankings. When you have guest post published on quality blogs and sites, you’ll be doing your business’ website a favor.

2.You can tap into a large market by presenting your expertise on other industry blogs.

If you’re writing guest posts, you’re likely approaching blogs that are in your specific industry or niche. When you write stellar guest posts with lots of informative advice, readers will naturally flock to your site. The curiosity from wondering just who this intelligent guest poster is may have potential customers clicking the link in your byline to find out more. In my personal experience, writing guest posts has been one of the most effective ways in drawing in new customers.

3.You’ll connect with other bloggers who can prove useful as you embark on your journey of starting a business.

On my favorite parts about guest posting is that it builds relationships and a greater community. When you offer to guest post on someone’s blog, it’s just like introducing yourself to a future friend. Once you’ve given the target blogger content, the conversation doesn’t stop there. You may be asked to write guest posts in the future, and perhaps the blogger would like to write a guest post on your site. As these relationships develop, you’ll start building a community of like-minded entrepreneurs in your industry who can help you as your business grows.

4.You’ll become more knowledgeable about your business the more you research and write about it.

They say that the best sign of having truly learned something is to be able to explain or teach it to someone else. When you offer advice on a guest post, you’re doing just that. The more you write about your industry for the general public, the more you’ll think about your business, research the ins and outs, while figuring out new ways to present this information. Writing guest posts is good writing practice in general, and great way to get to know yourself, others, and your business.
Of course, churning out guest posts one after the other only to get a quick link is the wrong way to go about it. Write guest posts for interesting, targeted blogs, and you’ll see how quickly the strategy can help your business grow. Good luck!

Carol Wilson is a freelance writer and blogger who specializes in topics related to the business world, including marketing, entrepreneurship, small business ownership, and even business insurance.

Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment

5 Eco Friendly Tips for a Successful Business

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Guest Author

Why Go Green?

If you’re setting up a business consider building it around the theme of ‘Going Green.’ Why? Because with so many people concerned about environmental issues today the fact your company is part of the campaign can be a major attraction for clients. It doesn’t mean you should do it only because it’s good for business but realize caring for the environment is everyone’s responsibility and when you take it upon yourself to do your part others notice.

Furthermore if advertising yourself as a Green business isn’t a priority at least consider how being more eco-friendly in house affects employees. Fewer chemicals, cleaner air, and less clutter all have a tendency to boost production and make staff happier. Here are five tips aimed at greening your business and getting the most out of your office while keeping its impact on the environment in check.

1. Building materials/furnishings: Whether you’re constructing a building or simply remodeling a space consult with a green-minded contractor about using eco-friendly materials in the process. For instance, many types of insulation, processed wood, sealants and paints contain chemicals like formaldehyde that emit fumes and pollute indoor air. Similar effects occur with furnishings like desks, shelving, and tables. If you’re wondering how to tell the difference between something with toxic ingredients and one without that ‘brand new smell’ which many new things have can be a good indication.

2. Electricity: How energy is used in the office not only affects monthly bills but levels of pollution outside. For example many electric companies still use coal based fuel which means the more electricity a business uses the more greenhouse gasses spew into the atmosphere. Some tricks for better electrical usage in an office include installing ceiling fans which use less power than air conditioners or central air, utilizing sunlight to heat and light a space, turning off computers and other electronics over night, putting timers on certain rooms where lights don’t have to be on constantly, and switching all incandescent light bulbs for compact florescent lights (CFLs).

3. Paper usage: You’d think with all the technology around us paper would be a thing of the past or at least a specialty item but many companies still use it as if there is an endless supply. To bring your business into the Green era encourage employees to print out as little as possible, send memos through email, and to document everything digitally so as little paper will be used as possible.

4. Plastic usage: Plastic is another item to keep tabs on at your business, especially in the kitchenette, which is where it’s probably used the most. Instead of disposable cutlery, plates, and cups make reusable ones available. Also, hand out company water bottles and mugs for hot drinks to cut down on paper and plastic cups. For those who don’t like tap water installing a water filter will limit the amount of plastic from bottled water being brought into the office.

5. Recycle: Chances are in the course of the day any number of materials will need to be disposed of. When it comes to the easy stuff like paper, plastic, glass, and tin set up a recycling station that can be accessed by everyone and appoint someone or make a rotation for emptying the station out. For other items like Styrofoam and electronics which need to be brought to special recycling centers have their info readily available so when it’s needed you can act quickly before these things turn into clutter and end up getting tossed in the regular garbage out of impatience.

Jakob Barry is a home improvement journalist for Networx.com. He blogs about Green topics for pros across the U.S. like Pittsburgh, PA, electricians.

Posted in Small Business | Tagged eco friendly, eco friendly business, eco friendly business ideas, eco friendly companies, eco friendly tips | Leave a comment

How Important Is It To Have A Mobile Friendly Website Design?

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Andrew

I am sure this is a question you have heard before. Do you have a website? Do you have a mobile friendly website design version of that existing website? Do you not have a website yet but see the huge potential for a mobile friendly website design? Below are some figures for you to drool over and I will let you draw your own conclusion on weither or not you think your business should have a mobile website.

Success Leaves Clues

Have you ever heard the expression ‘success leaves clues’? Do you know what it means? Basically it means if you can learn the methods that someone else used to succeed, then you can do the same thing. This applies to anything and everything in life. Success leaves clues. Follow them

When huge brans such as Samsung and Dr Pepper have mobile friendly websites you have to ask yourself why? Then you need to say to yourself success leaves clues. These big guys see an opportunity and they have taken it.

The Figures!

I am going to give you some figures and I want you to really study them. Go do your own research, draw your own conclusions.

There are roughly 6 billion phones in use Worldwide today. 6 billion! Around 80,000,000 of those are in the UK and almost 330,000,000 are from the good old USA. Now of course not all phones in the world are smart phones. Such as Samsung Galaxy, Apple iPhone, Blackberrys etc. So lets talk about smart phone figures. Worldwide there are around 1.8 billion smart phones. Around half of the UK population have smart phones and that works out around 32 million people. Around 92 million own a smart phone in the United States.

9 out of 10 people use their smart phones on a daily basis. Want to know something even more interesting? Are you guilty of this? Around 75% of the U.S population admit to using their smart phone while on the toilet! What could they be doing on their phone? They send texts, read emails, surf the web and of course use facebook!

So think about that for a moment. What is your goal as a business? To get in front of your target market as much as possible. You can’t get more personal than a smart phone. Most people keep it in their pockets or at least within arms reach!

Facebook And Mobile Phones

Facebook has almost 1 billion users worldwide. Wow! Now iPhone has a facebook app. So does the android operating system for mobile smart phones. Guess what. Facebook are developing a smart phone! It could be with us in as little as a year! Facebook are using a variety of top Apple engineers that created the iPhone and the iPad to help in the project.

If facebook are building their own smart phone then guess what. Success leaves clues. smart phone usage is sky-rocketing with no sign of slowing.

Could you imagine having your own facebook business page being used by someone with a facebook smart phone and then when they click on your profile tabs they are taken to your smart phone optimised mobile friendly website design?! Oh my gosh, wow, holy smokes batman! What’s that song called from Abba? I can hear it in my head now, it goes something like… Money Money Money, must be funny, in the rich man’s world. Ah memories.

Conclusion

Has my figures surprised you? Are you shocked at the amount of smart phone users? Will you be seeking mobile friendly website design? Even if you don’t have a fully fledged desktop website do you see a mobile friendly website design as important or even necessary?

You may notice Purple Oak Design (that us) currently do not have a mobile friendly website design. This is changing fast! We want our mobile friendly website design live last year

Drop us your comments below.

Andrew McMaster is a Social Media Consultant and Web Designer. He loves to help small and start up businesses. When not on his Mac, you can find Andrew in his greenhouse.

Posted in Web Design | Tagged designing a mobile website, mobile friendly website design, mobile version of website, mobile website, mobile website design services, mobile website for facebook | Leave a comment

How To Create A Facebook Custom Tab

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Andrew

The picture above shows a typical facebook business page. The facebook custom tab has been circled for you in red. If you have a facebook business page and you want to add a facebook custom tab then follow this simple tutorial.

Download The App

You are looking for an app called ‘Static HTML iFrame Tab by Woobox’. Make sure you are logged into facebook and go to the search bar along the top of the page. Simply type in the app name. When it appears just click on it.

You will now be presented with something very similar to the above. Once you have read the privacy policy and you are happy you simply click the big green ‘Install Page Tab’.

Now you simply choose which page you want to install the app on. Once you have made your choice click on the blue ‘Add Page Tab’ button.

The app has now been added to your chosen facebook page. We are not finished yet though. The first option you will see is ‘Enable Timeline 810px Wide Mode’. If you have created your own html code for the dimentions of 810px wide then you will want to enable this. Otherwise leave it.

You can change the facebook custom tab image. Just like it is with the World of Warcraft facebook fan page that says ‘Gold Secrets’. If you are creating your own image the dimentions are 111px wide by 74px tall.

Moving further down we can see ‘Page Source’. What this means is where do you want your visitors to go once they click on the facebook custom tab. The first option is URL. This simply means if you have a website already you can load it inside facebook. The only issue here is that your website may be wider than 810px which will create an ugly scroll box.

You can also use the ‘redirect’ option. This is a good one if you want people to go to your website. Simply choose this option and input the URL (Web Address) that you want your visitors to see. They will be taken directly to your website.

You can also load an image that you have created. This is a good one if you have no HTML knowledge or a website to direct your visitors too. Click on image and then upload the file. Simple as that.

If you do know HTML then you can select the ‘HTML’ option here and just paste in your custom code.

In my case I have chosen the option ‘Redirect’. You then simply enter the full URL as I have done. I have left ‘Fan Page Source’ and ‘Friend Gate’ switched off. You can name your tab here also. When you are happy with your settings just click on the green ‘Save Settings’ button.

When you hit the ‘Save Settings’ button it will appear as though nothing has happened. Don’t worry. Simply scroll to the top of the page and you will see a yellow ‘Settings Have Been Saved’ box. On the top right is a little grey box named ‘View Tab’. Click on that.

Depending on what options you chose you should now either be inside the tab as your visitors will see it or redirected to another website.

Take a quick look at your page and you should now see the new facebook custom tab. If you did not load up a tab image then you will see the default welcome tab like the one above.

I hope this has been of use to you. If you have any questions please drop a comment blow.