CyberArtisans Newsletter Vol 5, Number 1

Welcome to the January 2006 issue of the CyberArtisans monthly newsletter!

Our goal is to present information that will be useful to you as a website owner and as a user of the web. If these newsletters are useful, please forward this to a friend. To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the bottom of this email.

This Month's Topics
The Web in 2006
Design Makes a Difference

The Web in 2006

The web is now an accepted tool for business, so much so that when business people meet they no longer ask if the other has a website but
simply "What is your website?" We are already seeing that in our marketing conversations -- businesses that until now haven't felt the need for a website are asking us about inexpensive ways to establish a web presence.

But what pressures will be on those businesses that have had a site for years? The answer to that is: Interactivity. 2006 will see many small businesses
moving into interactivity for their websites. Part of this is a response to competitive pressures, but part is because interactivity now costs much less than it used to. Here are some examples:

E-commerce. This may be the best-known form of web interactivity. It's attractive because your customers can buy when the desire hits them, rather than being forced to wait until your business is open. E-commerce is no longer awkward and hard to use, so fewer customers are discouraged part-way through the process. And many people have come to accept that providing a credit card online is as safe (or safer) than giving the card to a waiter in a restaurant. PayPal and similar services have made e-commerce simple and inexpensive for small businesses. Even service businesses can offer PayPal to their clients as a way to pay their fees.

Restricted client areas. Your clients feel especially well taken care of if you give them a password and tell them there is an area of your website reserved just for them. In that area you can show them the status of projects, display items under development, and invoices, while giving them an area to send and receive private messages about their project. You can even set up a bulletin board where a group of people involved in a project can exchange thoughts.

Surveys. Want to know what your target audience thinks? Set up a survey. You can open it to the public or restrict it to people you send passwords. Either way, it's a great way to gather valuable information about your audience. Example: Campus Continuum

Email newsletter. An email newsletter (like this!) is a great way to keep your name in front of your current and recent clients. Having a page on your website to allow visitors to sign up is a great way to gather potential customers.

Photo gallery. Displaying a group of photos is nothing new. But it's more interesting to visitors (and a much better use of web page "real estate") to present a group of thumbnails and have a single large photo location, which changes when a visitor mouses over or clicks on a thumbnail. Examples of mousing over: John Altobello Architecture and FNB productions. Examples of clicking: Roma Tile, Richard Wood Photography, and David L. Carpenter. Another neat way to show different photos is the slide show effect. An example of this: Stewart International Travel.

Flash. Flash is a great way to put up a series of photographs that change over time. It's also a great way to make an interesting splash page. Example of changing photographs: Conroy Development. Example of a splash page: Center for Balance.

If it's time to add interactivity to your website, contact us.

Design Makes a Difference

We've been saying this for years, but it's nice to have official confirmation: website design DOES make a difference. A recent article on CNN says that Canadian researchers found that Internet users form an impression of a website in one- twentieth of a second.

A good graphic designer can make a big difference in how people react to your website. Yes, good graphic design costs. But the upfront cost is paid back many times over by the additional business a good design attracts.

Thanks for joining us this month. See you next month.

Want to see back issues of this newsletter? Go to http://www.cyberartisans.com/newsletter and select an issue.

Jonathan Spencer
CyberArtisans Web Developers

http://www.cyberartisans.com/
617-965-4110