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Net Results
Helping your business succeed online.
Published by nrichmedia (www.nrichmedia.com)
Printable
PDF Version
Volume 5, Issue 1 – March 2009
In This Issue
Welcome
A lot has changed since our last newsletter… there is less snow on the ground, the days are longer and there is a new President in the White house. It seems that the economy is on everyone’s minds these days and we wanted to contribute to these discussions by sharing a number of ways for you to save money on your web site updates.
Featured Article: 10 Tips To Save Money On Your Web Updates
As designers and updaters for over a hundred sites we have seen a lot of different requests for changes. Sometimes a client will ask for a seemingly simple change that can involve new graphics, new layouts, optimizing photos, editing, adding new style sheets, changing a web site’s template and more.
Changes to menu bars, the site’s design and graphics are generally more time consuming than adding or changing text. However, text changes can vary greatly depending on how they are sent to us.
To help you save money and understand what it is web developers do when they update your web site we have compiled a list of helpful tips.
- Send web site updates in an email or Word document whenever possible.
Transferring text from PDF into Dreamweaver can take longer (as can relaying changes by phone or fax because we need to then type those in). If you have a lot of changes or have re-written an entire section it is best to send updates in a word document or multiple documents.
- Paste in the link to the page you would like changed.
Web developers update a lot of sites and the easier it is for them to locate the page you are referring to in their files, the less time it takes them and the less it costs you. An example of this would be: “I would like to add a new employee to our ‘about us’ page (http://www.nrichmedia.com/about_us.htm). Please add the attached information as the fifth paragraph on the page - just above the quote from the therapist.”
- Send web copy that has been edited.
If there are obvious typos we will fix them but if there are a lot of grammar and punctuation errors, and you haven’t requested our editing services, we will spend time emailing you to let you know that the copy may need to be edited again. Your web site is often people’s first impression of your business and a well-written site is much more professional than one that obviously wasn’t edited. If you don’t want to pay for editing, have a friend look over your copy – even professional writers and editors need others to review their work.
- Do not use FULL CAPS.
Unless your original site used full caps for headings it is better not to use these. When we receive copy with full caps we have to search through and change to lower or title case in each instance. Using bold instead of full caps for emphasis will save you money and is in keeping with web etiquette as full caps implies shouting.
- Do not double space after periods.
HTML only allows a single “soft” space after periods and a quirk of transferring over copy that has “hard” double spaces is that we have to search through the HTML code and remove each instance of the extra space so that your pages do not have awkward line breaks.
- Only use bold, italics, or different font colours if that is how you want the text to appear on the page.
Make sure your emphasis is the same as the text that is already on your site. So, if you have client quotes italicized on your site, sending them in bold will mean an extra couple of steps at our end.
- Do not underline text for emphasis. On the web, underlines are normally only used for hyperlinks.
This is another area where we have to go through, find each instance of an underline and remove it. If you want the words, email or web address to link to something on your site or the web in general just add the full URL in brackets after the text and highlight (using Word’s highlighter tool) the exact words you would like linked. For example: “nrichmedia was founded by Nathaniel Richman in 2000. Nathaniel graduated from the [Vancouver Film School] (http://www.vfs.com/) with a Certificate of Recommendation in Multimedia Studies ...”
- If you have tables you want changed you can copy and paste them into your document and make changes right in the tables.
- Keep text sizes consistent with your web site.
You don’t need to figure out exactly what text sizes are on your site but if you have three sizes on your pages (header, sub header, and regular text are the most common) then there is no need to send us a document with 6 different font sizes or 6 different colours. These don’t take us long to change but it will save you time when you are putting your web edits together.
- Send graphics in separate files.
Sending high-resolution photos allows us to crop, size and optimize them for your site.
The key to quick web updates is communication. The clearer your description of the changes, the faster it is for a web developer to implement your changes. Often the longer you work with a developer the less you need to say about the regular updates such as newsletters that tend to be the same each time. However, for other changes, if you follow the tips above your updates will be quicker and cost-effective.
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Want more valuable information like this to help your socially responsible
business become an online success and get the results you've been looking
for? Subscribe to Net Results, our FREE
quarterly newsletter by filling in the form at the top left of this
page.
About nrichmedia
nrichmedia creates innovative and unique web sites and other multimedia
for ethical and socially responsible businesses and organizations.
We also offer green web hosting, web site maintenance, CD-ROM production,
and more.
nrichmedia was founded by Nathaniel Richman in 2000. Nathaniel graduated
from the Vancouver Film School with a Certificate of Recommendation
in Multimedia Studies in 1997 and has been working in the web design
and new media industry ever since. He previously received a Bachelor
of Mathematics degree (Honours Actuarial Science) from the University
of Waterloo and worked in the pension consulting industry.
Nathaniel works with other designers and programmers, according to the
needs of the project, to provide the client with the most professionally
designed web site and other marketing material as possible.
“Thank you so much for creating a website for my business that went beyond my wildest dreams. My desire was to communicate to the larger worldwide community who I am and what I do that is unique and useful. I love that you have managed to help me do that while creating both a work of beauty and a practical tool for potential clients. I couldn’t be more delighted! and the feedback I get from virtually everyone who has visited the website is tremendously positive. That makes all the months of writing copy with my coach, Juliet Austin and struggling to get the content right worth every minute!
I continue to receive a number of referrals from clients who have accessed the website. I also have been contacted by both professionals and students from around the world, who are interested or working in the area of addiction and trauma counselling. Another factor influencing my decision to have nrichmedia do my website was due to your commitment to giving back to the community. That is very important to me and my values and makes the outcome an even greater success. I look forward to our ongoing relationship - as my practice grows and changes, I know that with your help, my website will continue to reflect that.”
- Sue Diamond Potts, M.A. Registered Clinical Counsellor
To learn more about nrichmedia’s services, view
our online portfolio, and read glowing
testimonials from many satisfied clients, please visit www.nrichmedia.com.
Green Web Hosting
nrichmedia is pleased to be offering green web hosting services. Our
standard package includes 500MB of disk space (which is usually way
more than most small to medium sized businesses require), email and
webmail accounts, and web statistics which allow you to track how many
visitors there are to your site, where they come from, what search
terms they used to find your site, etc.
What makes our web hosting green? A few things, really:
- Our hosting is shared on powerful, energy
efficient servers so the amount of electricity we use is minimized. We maintain our
own dedicated environment within these servers so that we have full
control over performance and security.
- The electricity used by the servers comes from hydropower, which,
although not ideal, is one of the more environmentally
friendly means
of power generation.
- We’ve purchased wind power certificates to offset the
amount of electricity that we do use. Wind power is, of course, a natural, clean, and abundant energy source with
little or no negative impact on the environment.
If you would like to switch to nrichmedia’s green web hosting,
please click here for details.
Charitable Causes
nrichmedia donates 5% of proceeds on all projects of $500 and above
to charitable organizations. We are pleased to have supported and continue
to support several worthy causes. To see a list of the organizations
we support, please visit www.nrichmedia.com/causes.htm.
The Not-to-be Missed Link: ecofont.eu
I love how much time and imagination goes into green innovations these days. A Dutch company has come up with a font that is friendlier for the earth and will save you money. Here is what they have to say about their work: “Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink.”
The font is free to download and there are a number of other sites that have various eco font styles available for download as well.
Visit: www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html
Archives
To view previous editions of Net Results, visit www.nrichmedia.com/archives.htm.
Pass it on and Enjoy
Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone who might find
it useful.
Want more valuable information like this to help your socially responsible
business become an online success and get the results you've been looking
for? Subscribe to Net Results, our FREE
quarterly newsletter by filling in the form at the top left of this
page.
Printable
PDF Version
nrichmedia
is located in Courtenay (in the Comox Valley, on Vancouver Island),
British Columbia, Canada, and thinks and works globally! Thanks
to the Internet, we're able to create web sites and other multimedia
for clients all over the world. You can contact us by
or by telephone, at 250.871.7424.
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