Janice Schwarz's Blog, page 5

Book Naming Contest: And the Winners Are….

We took a combination of titles, submitted by two people, and created a mashup to get the perfect title.

This gives us the book title:

Website Wonders Made Easy: Websites Unwoven

The winners are Steve Lorenzen of Lorenzen Chiropractic, a Richardson-based chiropractor in the DFW area (his contribution was Websites Unwoven)

and

Tracy Elise at Mother Medicine Wheel who suggested Web Wonders Made Easy (we went with Website Wonders).

Runner up is Matt Illingworth. We loved his list of titles, but couldn’t quite make them work. So he gets a copy of the book and 3 months of web hosting. You can visit Matt at Your Warranty is Void, where he posts articles, and documents some of the interesting things that he experiences while continuing to learn about computers, hardware and electronics.

The book will be up for sale on this site soon as a PDF download.

It takes time to convert it for sale on Amazon, and the various other book marketplaces. But it will eventually be available there too, including Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Smashwords.

Congratulations winners! Now that we have a title, check out the book cover!

The post Book Naming Contest: And the Winners Are…. appeared first on GeekArtist Web Solutions, LLC.

CONTEST: Help Me Name My Book!

That’s right! I’ve written a book. It’s in the editing/polishing/formatting phase. This will be an e-book available on Amazon and other sites, or for purchase on my site. Hopefully, in time for Cyber-Monday. Worst case, in time for December holidays.

Current customers get a free copy!

But my book has no name! And I’m stuck! Help me name my book and get 6 months of FREE web hosting and a free copy of the book!

What’s the book about and who is it for?

This book is for website owners or people who want to get a website. It’s also for web designers and developers that may not know much about the legal aspects of site ownership and/or are fairly new to the businesses. It’s for web designers and developers looking to strike out on their own in the world of website creation. It’s also for businesses that need to hire specialists to make their websites.

This book teaches you to avoid the pitfalls I’ve seen people make in my 14 years of making websites for customers. It’s full of Do’s and Don’ts, handy checklists, terminology, and more. It’s not just a book to read, but a handy reference guide as well.

This book is written as non-technical as possible, so anyone can understand it.

In this book, you’ll learn:

what you need to have a website
how to make your website attractive to your audience
how to plan an e-commerce site (if you plan to sell online)
how to hire other people to make your website (if you decide not to do it yourself)
how to promote your website
laws and common rules regarding your website and online business.

Here are a few excerpts:

Chapter 3 – Setting Realistic Expectations

Most people step into getting their first website with very unrealistic ideas. The average person tends to mis-estimate:

the amount of time and money involved in having a professional make a site for them;
the amount of time needed to learn to do it themselves;
the amount of time they have available to assist their website creator in making a website for them;
how quickly they’ll see a return on their investment;
how quickly they’ll see their site listed in a search engine; and
what a realistic search engine ranking is for their site based on the time and money they have put into the site.

So let’s get you moving with some realistic expectations on what you can expect while creating a site and after it is built.

 

Font Combination and Color Choices

Example 1 – Ineffective

Read the following ad. What do you take away from it? What is the emphasis on? Can you scan it quickly? Does it look like something a professional would put on the web or in a newsletter?

Example 2 – Effective

Now read it again. What do you take away from it? What is the emphasis on? Can you scan it quickly? Does it look like something a professional would put on the web or in a newsletter?

Example 2 is still a bit overdone, but if you really feel you need lots of emphasis on certain text, that’s a better way to go.

 

Common Myths and Misconceptions

Let’s start with who should not make your website. Later in the book, we’ll talk about how to find someone to make your website. To be fair, if your budget is limited, these may be your only options. But I can’t tell you how many new clients I’ve found who went these routes, only to come to me a year or more later after realizing how desperately they needed professional help.

People Who Should Not Make your Professional Website

Hobbyists
Jack of all trades (the kind that wears 5+ hats in the tech industry)
Someone who hasn’t made a site in years
Children
Condescending people/Prima donnas
People referred to as rock stars, gurus, or ninjas
People who charge to provide an estimate? Maybe.
People without functioning links to websites in their portfolio
You

Hobbyists

While anyone can make a website; not everyone can do it at a professional level. Look, we can all cook, but are we all qualified to make five star meals for a few hundred people at a corporate event? We can all drive, but are we qualified to race in the Indy 500? Of course not.

As with all professions, there is a difference between a hobbyist and a professional. Often, hobbyists can make some decent sites, but needs for a personal site, a non-profit, an individual, or a business trying to promote itself, are all different. There may be design nuances missing, usability issues, or even coding problems.

Several times a year, I find new clients that start off with “well, a friend/cousin/etc. made this site for me and now they can’t anymore/it’s broken and we can’t fix it/we don’t know where they are anymore/etc.” At that point I am introduced to pages upon pages of what we call “spaghetti code” that is very challenging to work with and full of problems. I end up spending a lot more time trying to update these types of pages than I should, because the code is so messy that applying correct coding practices just doesn’t work.

This is not to say there are no hobbyists or amateur site designers and developers who can’t make a professional site. This is just to say that in my experience, most of them are not qualified.

 

 Chapter 8: What To Do When Things Go Wrong

We don’t want to talk about it, but things can go wrong during the site creation process or later when the site is live for the world to see. This is a section you will hopefully never need to use, but it can be helpful if a crisis does arise.

The following are common problems that I’ve seen many times in the past 14 years. Any experienced web designer or developer has run into any one or more of these, at least once. Most likely, they’ve run into it many times. For some of these there are fixes. For others, I’m sorry, but the answer is: there’s nothing you can do.

 

That’s just a taste! This book covers everything from how to find and hire someone to make a website, to DIY websites. It teaches you website planning, promotion, and more. It covers laws and website security. All in simple, easy-to-understand language.

So help me name my book!

Email me at janice@geekartist.com and you’ll be entered in the contest. When I find the name I like, you get 6 months free web hosting and a free copy of the e-book.

 

 

The post appeared first on GeekArtist Web Solutions, LLC.

New Site Launch: Rachel Blaufeld, Indie Romance Author

Rachel, our current customer of BackNGrooveMom fame, has become a published author! She has 2 e-books available in 4 formats.

We took a simple Elegant Theme and made some slight modifications, just to get her up and running so her book info was out there. Website re-design coming in 2015!

Get to know Rachel and buy some of her steamy e-novels!

The post New Site Launch: Rachel Blaufeld, Indie Romance Author appeared first on GeekArtist Web Solutions, LLC.