Setting up a web design office

You have dabbled in web design and designed and developed a few sites for some local businesses. Now you fancy doing web design for a living. Maybe you are a web design who has recently found them self out of work and are considering setting up on your own.

Setting up your own web design business can be exciting and daunting at the same time, the potential is great, but so are the pit falls. You could set the hours and projects you work on, but you could also not be able to pay your bills. There are also lots of things to consider, like tax, do you lease an office? where will the work come from?

A couple of tips for success

Build up your business contacts while still in full time employment - this way you will get a steady stream of work.

Don't work on your own! If you work with somebody else or in a shared office space, that way you won't suffer from the dreaded cabin fever and lose motivation when clients are thin on the ground.

Beg steal and borrow. You will have to use you initiative to get a business up and running successfully so think creatively. If you can reduce bills by designing a web site for your land lord then do it, you'd be surprised how many people actually agree.

Share your experiences with us by leaving a comment on this post.

What are website cookies?

A web site cookie is a small text file that is placed onto your computer when you visit some websites. The text file stores information about you as a visitor, for example if you login into Hotmail to pick up your email and select to remember you a cookie (text file) is stored on your computer. Next time you go to hotmail your email address is already there, which saves you time.

As soon as you mention information is stored about you some people freak out, but in the above example it is useful to you and saves you time. Cookies can store all types of information and are generally useful.

If you are worried about your security on the web you can block them, but you won't be able to use some website if you have them blocked.

To disable in Internet Explorer go to Tools then Internet Options and select the Privacy tab. Move the slider upto High which will block all cookies, which is not recommended.

More information on Cookies and how to add them to your web site

Where to buy a complete website or online business

You don't have to setup a website or online business from scratch. Like in the really world of bricks and mortar you can buy websites that have already been build and are currently running and making money.

Buy existing website or online businesses

This is a great way to get a website if you have no web design experience as all the hard work has been done for you. Just make sure you check out all the facts they are claiming before parting with your cash.

What is a black hat SEO?

If you are new to web design you have probably already worked out that if you make a web site its doesn't guarantee people will visit it, you have therefore looked into Internet marketing, and discovered one of the best ways is Search engine optimisation [Define].

However you maybe not aware that search engine optimisation is open to cheating/abuse, this is using dodgy techniques that the search engines don't like. An example is keyword stuffing, which is making a web page with the same word repeated 100's of times in an attempt to trick the search engines to show that page when somebody searches for the word used for stuffing. People who do this are are known as Black Hat Search engine optimisers, or Black Hat SEO's.

Black hat SEO techniques

Black hat SEO techniques are anything search engine don't like, which is basically anything against Googles guidelines, if you do practice Black hat techniques you run the risk of getting your site banned from the search engines, which is likely to mean a massive drop in visitors to your website.

BMW recently got banned from Google for using Keyword stuffing, which shows search engines are really cracking down on it. In short don't do it, you may get some short success - if your lucky! More likely it will reduce your rankings, which nobody wants.

What's the alternative?

The opposite of Black hat is White hat SEO, using search engine approved techniques to promote your site. Using White hat techniques will ensure long term promotional success for your site and is highly recommended.

Learning Search engine optimisation is very useful and anybody who runs a website should be aware of the basics. If you are interested start by reading How to get to the top of Google, all white hat stuff of course!

If you want somebody else to do your search engine optimisation we recommend using White hat media seo services, as the name suggests, they only use white hat techniques, which will ensure you get long term success.

Special Google Logos

I'm sure you have seen from time to time Google changes its logo to reflect a current event, like St Patricks day or the winter Olympics. Its a nice touch isn't it? Here is a link to every design they have ever put on the home page...

Special Google logos

How to improve your website

Take inspiration from Google and theme your logo or whole web site to reflect a current event, that way visitors can tell your site is regularly updated. The classic example is putting snow on your site at Christmas, but try and be a little more creative and see what you can come up with.

How much does web design pay?

No matter what stage or interest in web design, if you have enjoyed doing it you will have thought "I wonder if I could do this for a living" , which then begs the question, "How much does web design pay?"

Well it all depends on different factors, are you a web designer or developer? Where do you live and how much experience you have, but it is defiantly a career worth considering. Some web developers can easily earn £50K a year.

For a full answer to the question read How much does web design pay?

NEO pets cheats

I know its slightly of subject, but we all need a break from web design now and again. Ever heard of Neo Pets? If not your missing out, a Neopet is "A popular online virtual pet simulation game". You earn Neopoints by feeding your Neopet and generally looking after them. It's a great past time that will bring out the kid in you, especially useful when you get web design block!

As always there are ways to earn more Neopoints and bump up your score, check out The Ultimate Neopet Cheats Site, to get all the top tips to bum up your Neopoints.

Predesigned websites

Predesigned websites are one way to save time when designing a website. If you haven't any design flair or HTML [Define] knowledge they are by far the best solution to get your website up and running in no time.

There are literally thousands of predesigned websites to choose from, so how do you know where to start? Well we recommend you start at this link Predesigned websites. This is honest impartial advice to helping you choose the right one for you.

How to choose and buy a Predesigned website

Online spending on the up

Online UK spending increased to 1.4 billion and now accounts for 7.8% of all advertising market share, according to IAB.

What does this mean to website owners?

You are in a growing industry that is set to continue growing especially if you sell advertisements on your site, which is reassuring to know.

If you don't currently run adverts on your site and would like to you should check out Google's Adsense program. It basically allows advertisers to display adverts related to your sites content on your site. Every time a visitor clicks an advert, you get paid.

Added related website links to yours

Google now offer a service where you can place links to websites that are related to yours. A small link unit can be added to your site by copying and pasting some simple code to your site.

The advantage of doing this is your visitors will be able to find related websites, and hopefully they will come back to your site again because you gave them a good recommendation.

Find out more at...

http://www.google.com/relatedlinks

How popular is Dreamweaver?

Around 65% of web designers use Dreamweaver to make their websites, according to research by Actinic Web Design and Ecommerce Report 2006.

Dreamweavers popularity has been on a steady decrease for the last couple of years though...

2003 = 76% Use Dreamweaver
2004 = 70% " "
2006 = 65% " "

What do you use?
What do you use to make your websites? If you use Dreamweaver what do you think of it? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Is my website in Google?

To check if your website is in Google do the following...

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Enter the following in the search box...

site:www.giantmouse.co.uk

3.Replace www.giantmouse.co.uk with the address of your website
4.Hit search

This will show you the pages Google know about from your website. If it returns no results then Google doesn't know about your website - bummer!

Learn how to get into Google

Increase and decrease website fonts

Here is a little gem of a tip. You can increase or decrease the font size of website you are viewing. This will make text easier to red. Hold the "Ctrl" button down (bottom left of keyboard) and use the scroll wheel on your mouse. This will increase and decrease the font size of the website you are viewing!

Hey it doesn't work

If only some or none of the text resizes the web designer had used absolute font sizes, i.e. font size is 12pt rather then %. This is generally bad practice as visually impaired visitors won't be able to resize text.

Web design font tip

In light of the above fact use % size when setting your fonts on your website.

Website width - 800, 1000?

When designing a website how wide should it be? The easiest answer to the website width question is make a fixed width website that will fit into the smallest standard screen resolution. The smallest screen resolution is 800 pixels by 600 pixles. Therefore design your site to be about 780 pixels wide, this will allow for a scroll bar and "web design creep".

Learn more about website widths

Warning! Internet Marketing scam - Search Engine submissions

This used to be the biggest scam going, companies offering to submit your site to 100's of search engines for a monthly fee. However it had appeared to die down, until recently. We we're emailed the below link (they probably found us by using a search engine!), it's another company trying to flog a dead horse...

http://www.ineedhits.com/submission/premium-submit.aspx?source=blog06-05-02ps1

(It isn't a link because this would help improve their search engine ranking, to learn more read Get to the top of Google.)

This service is about as useful as a chocolate fire guard, so please don't use anything like it. For a start you only need to concentrate on 3 or 4 search engines, Google, Yahoo & MSN and maybe ASK. You can get your web site into Google or any of these search engine, quickly easily and for free, just read this article - Getting into Google and any other search engine.

What do you think?

Let us know your thoughts or share your experiences of these scam artists with use and other readers by leaving a comment below.

What is more popular asp or php?

When you decide to make the move to developing dynamic web sites you are faced with a decision, should I learn asp or php? There are arguments for both that can are argued out across the Internet.

Wouldn't it be cool if knew what was searched for more asp or php, to suggest what's more popular, well you can.

What is searched for most asp or php

So what are you going to learn? Or if you already write dynamic sites what do you use or prefer? Let us know by leaving comments on this post.

Searching trends

Have you ever wondered if certain searches are used depending on the time of year? For example does the number of search for "Flowers" massively increase in the run up to Mothersday? Do people search for Christmas all year round?

Well now you can find out with Google trends. Enter a search term and see how popular it is throughout the year.

How can you improve you site with this tool?

Find out if your targeted search terms flucuates through out the year, if they do plan ahead activily promote the your site in the run up to the most active time of the year. If search terms and search engine optimisation is all news to you read this - Search engine optimisation explained.

Can your website make money?

We have all heard it a million times before, make money from your site with no effort at all, retire at 16, etc etc. Well here at Daily Web Design Tips we decided to investigate the possibility.

After doing some research we found some great sites and blogs that will teach you everything you need to know. Find out if you can make money from your site.

Let us know what you think by posting comments back on this blog.

Stop repeating backgrounds

So you have discovered the good old background image and are expiermenting with your website design, but the background image repeats across the whole screen, some people want to achieve this background effect, but what if you don't?

Simple, just set the background image to not repeat using CSS [Define]. If you've never used CSS don't worry you'll find this easy. View the html of the web page you want to change and replace the <body> tag with the below...

<body style="background:url(image.jpg) no-repeat;">

Change image.jpg to the file name of your image and make sure the image is in the smae folder as your web page.

If your a little unsure of editing and adding raw html read this...

Adding HTML to your web page

If the word tag and <body> confused you read this...

HTML tags what are they?

If you did that easily learn other web design tricks.

How many people use the Firefox Browser?

The Firefox browser has taken the internet by storm because it is the only real competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer in recent memory.

But just how popular is Firefox? Figures just released indicate that 10.5% of Internet users are using Firefox, which shows a continual increase since it was first released.

However Microsoft's Internet Explorer still has the market share with 84.7%

source: Net Applications

Do you have the latest version of Firefox?

If not download your first copy or the latest version - Find out more here

What does this mean to website owners/designers?

This means that 1 in ten people are looking at your website with Firefox, and if you haven't tested your site in this new browser [Define] it might be displaying incorrectly. This is because Firefox and Internet Explorer display website differently. A pain in the arse but if this is news to you welcome to web design! If that was news to you should also check out different website widths.

Download a copy of Firefox (link below) and see what your site looks like, and from now on when designing a website test it in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Not tried Firefox yet?

Shame on you, its a great browser with lots of neat features, for example view multiple pages in one window with tabbed browsing, meaning you don't need lots of Internet Explorer windows open which can slow your computer down.

Download Firefox

Latest search engine popularity figures

1st Google = 48.5%
2nd Yahoo = 22.5%
3rd MSN = 10.7%
4th AOL = 6.6%
5th ASK = 2.7%

Source: Nielsen//Netratings

What does this mean to you?
If you own a website and use search engines to promote it, you need to be targeting at least the top 3 search engines with your search engine optimisation [Define], as this is how 81.7% of people find what they are looking for on the web. If you are only targeting googol, then you are missing a large chunk of potential visitors.

If you aren't promoting your site in search engines you should be. Its a free way to promote it and get people there who are interested in your site. This article Getting to the top of Google explains how.

More web design advice