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Transitioning Your Printed Materials to the Web – Part 5: Don’t Go Overboard

November 24th, 2010

Star Wars pimpin'

photo credit: popculturegeek.com - "Hey baby, I'm a website. Check me out! I'm totally pimped to the max with animated graphics, starburst effects, page wipes and text so bright you can't even read it! Cost me almost as much as my gold tooth!"

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

The following is Part 5 of our series on transitioning your business materials to the web. To review the past articles visit the following links:

Part 1: Layouts
Part 2: Images, Resolution & Color Profiling
Part 3: Web Safe Fonts
Part 4: Dealing With Navigation

Over the past 5 weeks we’ve taken you through some of the thought process that goes into taking printed materials and bringing them to the web. Now that you understand some of the challenges that web designers and developers have to face and some of the limitations that the web imposes in different areas, it’s important not to go overboard in trying to make up for certain shortcomings.

Make no mistake, the web is one of the best marketing tools at your disposal. But just because you CAN do just about anything you want with your website, doesn’t mean you SHOULD or HAVE to. Often, businesses see the web as an opportunity to really clang the bells and toot the whistles with all kind of flashy gimmicks and animated graphics to fill out their websites. While effective if used properly, animation serves a functional purpose to enhance web content and not necessarily to turn your website into the command center of the Star Ship Enterprise. You stand a much better chance of winning over your audience by keeping it tasteful. It’s kind of like those fashion models who drone out along the runway wearing an outrageously designed $200,000 gown made of recycled car batteries. After the shock value (no pun intended), there’s really not much use for it.

Remember that your content is what people come for. A great website shouldn’t have to rely on such extreme tactics to get the point across. By utilizing some of these ideas that we’ve brought forth during this series, it’s our hope that your designs will be easily adaptable to the web. Just keep in mind that for all the technological restrictions that the internet may have, it’s still very flexible. No matter what your design problem may be there is likely a solution for it.

If you’re having problems translating some of your printed materials to the web, Point Click Media can help with providing feedback and recommendations on getting the job done right.

This concludes our 5 part series on transitioning your printed materials to the web.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Transitioning Your Printed Materials to the Web – Part 4: Dealing with Navigation

November 17th, 2010

IMG_0034

photo credit: KF

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

The following is Part 4 of our series on transitioning your business materials to the web. To review the past articles visit the following links:

Part 1: Layouts
Part 2: Images, Resolution & Color Profiling
Part 3: Web Safe Fonts

Dealing with Navigation

Navigation in printed media is fairly simple. You flip to the table of contents, find out where you want to go and flip pages again until you get there. A table of contents is essentially one big listing of everything held within the material you’re holding or reading. Although websites can have these types of listings as well (commonly called site maps), navigating through a website can become much more complex than simply clicking a link or flipping a page.

First, let’s look at how a book is typically structured. The contents of a book are usually sliced up into chapters and can often be divided up even more into sub-sections of each chapter. Chapters can go on for several pages at a time. This is where a table of contents comes in handy to find out where your desired information is located. On the web, that same chapter or section of information can be placed on one single page and be structured with the same sub-sections without the user having to flip pages continuously. Just visit any page on Wikipedia for a perfect example.

Navigation on the web is also about convenience. While when reading a novel you must return to the index or table of contents each time you want to find a new piece of information, a website typically has built-in navigation on every page so that a user can get where they are going in one click or minimal clicks. Web navigation can be quite elaborate with several drop-down menus or interactivity with animations and rollover effects. Your navigation is an extremely important piece of your website. The average website visitor doesn’t have the patience to search meticulously through an index of pages to find a piece of information, so your navigation needs to be prominent and easy to use.

The idea behind a table of contents is the same in print and web, but they are presented in very different ways. When transitioning your printed materials to the web be sure to plan your navigation properly and structure your content in a way that adapts itself to being found quickly and easily. You don’t want your users sifting through a menu of 1,000 links to find what they want.

In the final segment of this series, we’ll examine the consequences of going overboard with your website.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Transitioning Your Printed Materials to the Web – Part 3: Web Safe Fonts

November 10th, 2010

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

The following is Part 3 of our series on transitioning your business materials to the web. To review the past articles visit the following links:

Part 1: Layouts
Part 2: Images, Resolution & Color profiling

Learning About Web Safe Fonts

Ah… fonts. Every designer’s best friend and secret love affair. Having access to great typefaces is bliss for us font freaks. We love them and cherish them. It’s a match made in heaven…

*Cue needle scratching across the record*

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN’T USE THEM ON MY WEBSITE? SMASH! KILL! DESTROY!!!

You see, with printed materials you don’t ever need to worry about a lack of fonts. When the product is printed, that’s it.  It looks great!

“That Awesomesauce-Italic-Bold-Condensed really makes Bob’s fax number POP!“

“That Awesomesauce-Italic-Bold-Condensed really makes Bob’s fax number POP!“

Unfortunately the web is a lot more dynamic and not every computer on the planet has all of the same cool fonts installed that your designer has. Alas, the mighty designer is left with a short list of common fonts referred to as ‘web safe’ to spice things up.

There are only a handful of fonts that are considered web safe, all of which you’ve likely seen in every email you’ve ever received from your grandmother. Yeah, those ones. She thinks she’s being stylish and hip by using bright yellow Comic Sans at size 72 to remind you about the pancake supper at church this Sunday. Unfortunately you’ll be unable to attend as the medicinal eye drops you require after this seizure-inducing invitation won’t wear off until Labour Day. Maybe by then her shoes will match again.

Here’s an official list of web safe fonts. (Pretty uninspiring, I know)

Until now the most common way around this was to turn your fantastic fonts into images. The problem of course, is that now your text can’t be read by search engines. Designers then began building Flash websites with all of their fonts embedded for your viewing pleasure.

“I just sat through 14 hours of pre-loading and my daughter’s wedding to access this guy’s contact information, but it was worth it. Look at those fonts!”

Finally, after much protesting and castrating of internet overlords, the technology exists to embed fonts dynamically into web pages.

photo credit: superfem - "WE'RE SAVED!"

photo credit: superfem - "WE'RE SAVED!"

Not so fast, Pancho Villa. Embedded fonts still increase page load times, and this new technology doesn’t account for older browsers. Remember Comic Sans Granny? That Netscape 4 browser she’s using to explode your retinas has no chance of displaying your fonts correctly. Although web standards are improving by leaps and bounds every day, we still need to realize that it’s just too impractical to be pixel perfect to every last person in front of a computer screen. If you truly want to play it safe, sticking with web safe fonts may be your best bet.

Next week we’ll bring navigation into the equation.

Posted in General News, Tips and Tricks

Transitioning Your Printed Materials to the Web – Part 2: Images, Resolution and Colors, Oh My!

November 3rd, 2010

You're CMYK'n Me Crazy

photo credit: bjornmeansbear

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

Last week we opened up a new topic that will hopefully help ease the transition of getting your business materials onto the web. To review last week’s opening article on layouts, click the following link:

Part 1: Layouts

We continue the theme this week by examining the differences in how images and content are displayed visually between print and web and the technology that binds them.

Learning About Images, Resolution & Color Profiling

Have you ever wondered why those photos you grabbed off of your friends’ Facebook page just don’t print out very well? They’re all blurry and pixelated… Well, the issue you’re facing when trying to print photographs from the web is that the web displays images at 72 dpi (dots per inch). This means that there are 72 dots of color defined within each inch of your image. Printed materials traditionally begin at 300 dpi and up. The higher the dpi on your images, the better quality and better definition your prints will have. Unfortunately for the web, 72 dpi is all we have to work with, which is fine for viewing on monitors or hanging up on your fridge at home, but don’t expect to be able to grab a photo off of the web and use it professionally to print a billboard advertisement.

Another thing to keep in mind when transitioning between the web and print is the difference in color profiling. The print world typically uses a four-color process to print your materials called the CMYK spectrum (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). As you overlay each of these four color channels on top of each other, you’re essentially presented with a full color image. The web on the other hand utilizes the RGB spectrum (Red, Green, Blue) to view digital images. Monitors, televisions and other digital screens all use the RGB spectrum.

To learn more about how CMYK vs. RGB works, this article explains the differences quite well:

http://www.printernational.org/rgb-versus-cmyk.php

Due to the differences in the way the CMYK and RGB modes display colors, there are bound to be discrepancies when switching between them. Whether you’re attempting to convert printed materials to the web or vice versa, if your color modes are not adjusted properly, you’re likely to notice a difference in colors during the transition.

Finally, printers often use a numerical value to determine colors used in printed works to ensure that a color comes out properly.  While the web also has a numbering system to identify colors, it’s impossible to adjust the color balance of a user’s monitor. Colors will always vary from monitor to monitor, so if you’re set on getting that shade of red just right, let it be known that it will never be perfect for everyone.

Next up is every designer’s worst nightmare: Dealing with web safe fonts.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Transitioning Your Printed Materials to the Web – Part 1: Layouts

October 27th, 2010

Erathic identity 2010

photo credit: Erathic Eric

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

If your business is looking to start leaving a footprint on the web, you should know that it’s not uncommon to start by using existing branding and materials to create a website. Let’s face it, we all have budgets and unless your business is brand spankin’ new or growing money on trees, doing an entire branding overhaul just to put together your first website can be overkill. Chances are there’s a lot of value in the materials that you already have, so transitioning those very items to the web makes sense.

There are some things to consider, though, when bringing printed literature to the web. In this series of articles we’ll look at 5 things you should keep in mind when crossing the print and web worlds.

Learning About Layouts

In print, the designers’ layout restrictions tend to be focused mostly on bleed and cut/fold lines. You have a predetermined canvas size to work with but as long as you follow your printer guidelines and keep readable texts a sufficient distance from any of the cut or fold areas you’re essentially free to do what you want with the canvas.

With the web however, there are many more restrictions to deal with. First, due to the variance in all of the different brands and sizes of computer monitors, you now have to deal with a slew of different canvas sizes all at once. In addition, since web pages are scrollable, you could have pages of text that go on for quite a while. Making sure the design of your website can accommodate these technological barriers is important for achieving brand unity.

Next, we have the issue of those pesky little things called ‘search engines’. You may or not be aware, but search engines are rather important. Whereas with printed brochures or business cards you can physically hand them out to people, on the web you rely on search engines to do that for you. Making sure that the content of your website is structured well enough to be able to be found by search engines is not necessarily as easy as it sounds either. The print world allows a designer to do all kinds of funky graphical layouts like using angled, curved, or overlapping text, etc., but on the web everything is read in good old fashioned straight lines. Keep in mind that all of the cool text effects that were done for your printed literature will either need to be stripped down or become part of your website’s imagery, and text found in imagery is not indexed by search engines.

Believe me, web designers have been pitchforking and torching their way through the streets of the internet for years trying to get these standards updated and we’re making progress, but new technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3 aren’t yet fully supported by all internet browsers. Until a technology is adopted universally there will always be hurdles to overcome in making web layouts more versatile. Web designers and developers still need to plan for browsers that don’t support these features.

Next week we’ll look at a reversal of roles, so to speak, and talk about resolutions.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Encouraging Teasing on the Web

September 29th, 2010

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

Whoa, before the anti-bullying activist SWAT team rappels down from the rafters and jams a 12-gauge into my mouth, let me make one thing perfectly clear. Teasing is not cool, unless it’s on the web or in media in general.

OK! OK! Wait, don’t shoot!

Teasers have been around in printed media for a long time. No, I’m not referring to bullying at all, but rather the art of the editorial teaser. A teaser is a shortened piece of information that is specifically written to entice the reader to engage your article further. In fact, the headline of this article is indeed its own teaser.

You see this all the time in magazines and newspapers, where an article on the front page will be truncated at a specific point that leaves the reader wanting more. Bloggers and websites have widely adopted this method of attention-grabbing and, love ‘em or hate ‘em, teasers are pretty much around for good in blogs, news sites, RSS feeds and even advertising.

Look at the teaser headline of this ad. It wouldn’t matter if the rest of the ad was apostrophes and ampersands or Neo Nazi propaganda; if you’re lookin’ to party, chances are you’re going to click that ad.

Look at the teaser headline of this ad. It wouldn’t matter if the rest of the ad was apostrophes and ampersands or Neo-Nazi propaganda; if you're a university student looking for a place to party, you’re going to click that ad.

So how do you write an effective teaser?

Let’s be realistic. Not everyone is going to click on every link on your website, but you can certainly optimize those opportunities. Here are a couple of options:

1. Break up your article at a key point in the story with maximum tension to stimulate curiosity.

“I was eating some Corn Flakes at the diner when I saw a ninja ordering Cheerios at the counter. I couldn’t believe what he did next!”

2. Promise the reader some useful information.

“5 things you can do to relieve stress and enjoy your job.”

“According to recent studies, watching Frasier increases the risk of brain damage. Here’s why…”

A good teaser doesn’t just simply read “Click here to find out more”. We’ve seen that a thousand times and there’s nothing exciting about it. It’s up to you, the writer to charge up the readers’ emotions and get them clicking like John Rambo at a POW camp.

If the content of your website is lacking a pulse, contact Point.Click Media.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Part 2: Driving Traffic to Your New Website for Pennies a Day

June 23rd, 2010

Obsolete Book - 5/365

photo credit: Jamiesrabbits - "Hello? Operator? I'm looking for someone who can point me towards the 21st century..."

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Last week, in the first half of this 2 part series, we offered a few ways to help you get your website off the ground by providing free methods of driving traffic to your website to help your organic search engine rankings. This includes updating your website with regular content and link building with your closest business partners and associations, among other things.

All of our provided free methods work great, however they can take a significant amount of time to produce results. Now, we’re not all perfect – often, when we don’t see results right away we’re bound to fall off the wagon eventually. There’s no real reason to fret over it though, because unlike those 10 unsightly pounds you have circled in red permanent marker on the top of your New Years Resolution list every January, your immediate problems can be resolved with only a pocket full of change. We’re not talking thousands of dollars or even hundreds. You can essentially purchase extra traffic for the cost of a ham sandwich. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Branding Tips, General News, Tips and Tricks

Part 1: Driving Traffic to Your New Website – For FREE

June 16th, 2010

141 Little Suamico House 26

photo credit: MorrowLess - Corn on the Ty Cobb anyone?

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

It’s the nature of the entrepreneur. You’ve invested some money into your website, giving it a fresh new look and all kinds of great new features that are going to have your customers drooling and itching to throw fistfuls of cash at you like Steve Jobs at an Apple Developers Conference. Now you want to start cashing in a return on your investment.

Alas, you’ve launched the website and not much is happening. You’ve built it, so why aren’t they coming? Well unfortunately, unlike the vast cornfields of Iowa that are inhabited by hoards of dead baseball players just waiting to flock to Kevin Costner’s house for a game of poltergeist stickball, search engines don’t give you that automatic drawing power just because you’re there. You need to earn their respect. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Branding Tips, General News, Tips and Tricks

Avoid Being Locked Out of Your Own Website

April 14th, 2010

Locked

photo credit: _RoScO_

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

It’s a common problem that pops up from some businesses… “How do I get control of my domain?” It could be that you purchased the domain several years ago and have lost the account information, or perhaps you had originally hired someone else to manage the domain for you and you’ve since parted ways. Whatever the reason, it’s important that you always keep a record of where your domain is registered.

So what exactly is a domain?

It’s pretty simple really… your domain is your website’s address. For example, the domain of this website is www.pointclickmedia.ca.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Sniffing Out A New Home

February 17th, 2010

Not Me. I'm an Angel.

photo credit: Patrick Hoesly

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Everyone wants to be the top dog when it comes to search engine rankings. It’s a highly competitive field out there. But for small businesses who are just beginning to establish a web presence, it can be like trying to observe the constellations through the Hubble Space Telescope. You can see it, but how will we ever get there? Proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not something that just magically happens. It’s not as simple as placing some keywords underneath your pillow and hoping that the SEO fairy pays you a visit with a nice new ranking.

In reality, search engines are more like an abused dog that you’d adopt from the local animal shelter. He’s very hesitant to trust anyone due to years of being beaten and mistreated by others and it will take time to earn that trust. So you put food and water out for him, take him for walks, pet him and scratch him behind the ears, but in the end, he’ll come around when he’s good and ready.

SEO works much the same way. Due to years of people trying to cheat search engines to obtain a higher ranking, search engines will not begin ranking you until they see what you’re all about. When search engine robots are sent out seeking data across the world to index pages, they’re looking for certain things such as:

Are you new?
Are you a legitimate business?
Are you spamming or trying to cheat me?
Have you done anything to your site lately to make me come back?

As these robots keep returning to your website and seeing that you are in fact a legitimate business and are not looking to beat the system for a few extra ad impressions on your website, they’ll begin to come around and you’ll start earning brownie points over time. As you keep performing credible updates and keeping solid content flowing throughout your website it adds to your online reputation with search engines. The process takes time though, so you’ll need lots of patience.

But I need traffic now…

Most search engines now have what are called ‘artificial rankings’, whereby a business can purchase a top ranking. Many companies prefer to purchase a higher artificial ranking while they wait for their organic search ranking to climb the ladder. The cost for these rankings are dependent on the competitiveness of your industry and the keywords you want people to find you with, however many artificial rankings can be had for merely pennies a click.

The days of filling the background of your page with white text to trick search engines into thinking you have loads of important content are long gone. Google and the like don’t care much for the funny business and you’ll find yourself blacklisted pretty quick for trying such techniques. Much like our canine friend, he’s been through a lot of trauma in his life and he’s not ready to start wagging his tail when you come in through the door just yet. All you can do is keep treating him like the best friend that he is until he returns the favour.

If you’re in need of some Kibble n’ Bits for your search engine ranking, contact Point.Click Media.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

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