Search Engine reputation management is a core need of many businesses today - likely including yours. Technology has fundamentally changed the way companies like yours interact with customers. Like it or not, your company will be Googled by potential customers. Any negative reports that are easily found can destroy your business. The threat is real. Check out this article entitled It only takes a click to damage your company's reputation. The wealth of information and resources your web site visitors now have doesn't necessarily lead to better customer satisfaction online. “The schadenfreude of [social network users] drawing satisfaction from another's misfortune is part of the popular culture that enjoys the downfall of companies or celebrities”, according to Jim Carroll, a Canadian-based trends and innovation expert. Your best cure is prevention, since the speed of new social network technologies can quickly proliferate negative websites before you ever realized that an irrate customer had an ax to grind with your company and was taking great delight in tearing your company down. Companies have been destroyed by these vicious attacks on their online reputation. Get started monitoring your search engine reputation now.

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Your Personality Type can affect your purchasing decisions: Did you know that your personality type can actually influence your buying decisions?  Effective copywriting can influence a non-believer to believe, persuade someone to do something, or it can do the exact opposite and repel a potential customer.  So why will your copywriting persuade some people to buy what you’re selling on a website and other’s to click right out of it?  Widespread knowledge within the sales and marketing world indicate that most people decide to purchase something at an emotional level.  If your copywriting does not appeal to them on a personal, emotional level, then chances are they won’t buy what it is you’re selling.  Each human is incredibly distinctive and the key is to try to cater your writing to appeal to 4 distinct personality types. Over the years, there have been many behavioral scientists and psychologists that have categorized personality types.  The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Carl Jung to identify 16 unique personality differences.  Another physician, named Hippocrates, observed 4 distinct personality types: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric and Melancholic.  In more recent years they were labeled: Driver, Expressive, Analytical and Amiable.  These distinctions in personality can determine what kind of content speaks to you the most and what influences you to buy. Driver types:  All about Results “My way or the highway!” These people are impatient, practical, in control, assertive and concerned with the bottom line.  Driver types do not care about all the fluff; they just want to know what the product or service can do for them, how long it will take to get to them and how much it will cost.  Everything else is irrelevant.  Not overly emotional people. Many Driver types are: •    CEO’s •    Managers •    Sales Representatives •    Businesspeople •    Bankers Analytical types: Detail-Oriented These types don’t care too much about the results.  They are mostly interested in all the details about your product or service.  They are organized, deliberate and systematic. They thrive off even the tiniest detail about your product. What is the exact size?  Where was it made? What are all the features? What guarantees are offered?  What makes it work? The more details and statistics you can include in your content, the better.  They prefer solid information opposed to emotional stories.  Provide plenty of truthful details to back it up. Many Analytical types are: •    Mathematicians •    Computer Programmers •    Developers •    Scientists •    Doctors Expressive types: care about Perceptions Expressive types care a lot about approval and status.  These are the people that buy things just for the status of ownership, or to impress others.  They are very impulsive, undisciplined and self-centered and are very concerned with how others perceive them.  Tell these types of people how your product or service will make them look good, or how it will boost their status in the world. Many Expressive types are: •    Musicians •    Teachers •    Artists •    Graphic Designers •    Comedians •    Actors •    Directors Amiable types:  involved with Feelings These are the people that are emotional, humanistic and care deeply about their relationships with others.  The question they want answered the most is “why?” Try to cater your writing style around why your product or service will help others or why it will strengthen your relationship with them.  These people need constant reassurance.  Use a lot of testimonials, case studies and stories to highlight your product. Many Amiable types are: •    Social Workers •    Human Resource •    Entrepreneurs How to Structure your copywriting to appeal to these Personality Types: Your market will primarily consist of 1 predominant category, depending on the type of industry you’re appealing to and what product or service you’re selling.  Carefully structuring your content to appeal to that 1 type can persuade them to buy.  Yet if you try to cram 4 distinct writing styles into one marketing page, you may repel everyone involved.  If you know that there will be 2 major personality groups viewing your content, then it would be best to incorporate these unique styles into 2 different pieces of content.  Creating a couple of marketing pages can easily appeal to different personalities.  For example, you can focus one marketing page to appeal to the analytical types by including lots of details and statistics, and create a separate marketing page about the same product that appeals to the expressive type by including comments on how the product would make them look better or improve their status. Focusing your copywriting efforts to appeal to all 4 distinct personality types by creating separate marketing pages can improve your chances of selling the same product to various personality types.  Remember that not everyone who reads your content will respond to your words the same way.  Different people respond to different things.  Conversions are important to any website.  By appealing to different personalities, you can greatly improve your conversion rate and attract a wide array of customers.

Web development is often broken down into two categories, design and coding. There of course are many more aspects that go into it such as dealing with clients, customer service, billing and all the other business management. I'm focusing primarily on the break down of a site construction start to finish. The beginning of the process starting with talking with the client about what they want and how they want it to look all through the back end building of the site to the beta launch and actual launch of the site.

 

First, a site starts as a client's vision of what they want their Internet presence to be. The client then finds a company like dallaswebservices.com to build out that vision for them. In a couple of meetings the idea of the site and what the site should generally look like and the company will begin to work on the site.

 

Second step, the designer steps in. The designer will spend as much time as is necessary to complete a design with a look and feel that is clean and satisfactory to the client. Their job can be complicated and time consuming as they need to stay up with the design trends of the web and make sure their sites look futuristic and always have a new edge in the market.

 

The next step is one that often confuses some people. This is the stage where front end programmers take over. They are programmers that take the design that has been built and cut it up and code it into html and CSS. These types of front end programmers are very important as they are the link between design and functionality. They are the people that are making the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the model view controller. They are not hard core back-end programmers, but at the same time they are not full blown designers.

 

Next phase is the back-end coding and database integration. Once the site has a good look and feel and it is cut up and coded in html is when the back end programmer steps in. This can be one of the most complicated processes depending on the site. First the coder takes all the functionality and has to install what the client wants and build out every little detail. As the back end coder is making the site he does what is called white box testing. This is where the person that is coding it (or someone else who has access to the code and can view what is really going on) tests the site to make sure that it works right using the code and watching what happens as values are passed though it.

 

Once the back end coder is done white box testing and considers the site to be near completion the site is sent quality team which begins black box testing. Black box testing is defined as testing where one does not know about the code on the site hence this means the testers have to be people other then the ones that coded the site. This testing is a testing that goes though all the phases of the site process, design is testing to make sure it looks good, front end coders are tested to make sure all the browsers look good, and back end functionality is tested to make sure everything run smoothly. Any errors found are sent to the respective department tested by the department and returned for more black box testing.

 

After the black box testing we send the website to the client for more black box testing / teaching the site to the client. This is the phase where the client learns to use their own site and they also test to make sure everything works to their expectations. Anything that goes wrong will again be sent back to the respective department and work its way back up the tree till it gets back to the client.

 

Once all of those phases are completed fully the site can be launched usually in beta mode. This "beta" mode is another form of testing. No software is written perfect and even with all the testing that software runs though before launch it still needs to be updated and fixed. It is extremely hard to catch all the errors on a site before launch. Beta Users will report any errors they have to the client or web development company that will send the problems to the right department running though the process again till it is updated on the site.

 

Once the beta phase is complete the site is ready to be launched. There is still the possibility of errors in the code of the site but after all the testing that it goes though they should be kept to a very minimal.

 

There are many things that go into building a site. Some of these steps are overlooked by companies which can lead to poorly made products being produced. It is important for all web development companies to take all of these factors into account so that the internet is not cluttered with poorly made websites.

Suppose you look up inspiration in the dictionary. What do you find? It describes inspiration as: 'stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity'. This is exactly correct when discussing how we are influenced to create something in a world of design. Being stimulated and influenced to a high level is sometimes difficult. The design world is filled with so much "JUNK" A lot of this 'junk' is so readily accepted as normal, that everyone, not just designers, are calloused like the tough end of an elbow as to what they think 'works' and what doesn't. Everything we see, touch, hear and feel is ready to inspire us. And no, I'm not talking about epiphany's here. I'm talking about the motivation that drives creation.

As designers, we want to understand inspiration properly in order to create a piece that motivates others to ponder over WHY and HOW. Although inspiration is a very complex subject, I hope I can direct you to places that will motivate you to creation. Whether you are a designer, developer, CEO, project manager or art director we all are involved in the design process in some aspect. As a designer, there is nothing more satisfying than to complete a project and be content with the end result. But where is inspiration derived from? And where can we get it? Being inspired is different for everyone. What inspires you may not be anything close to motivational for someone else. But one thing still stands; we all need it to create. When trying to find an inspirational piece, it may be a good idea to view a favorite designer's portfolio. In my quest for motivation I have found designers such as Eric Jordan, Shane Mielke, Stefan Sagmeister and Adrian Shaughnessy to be very eye opening in the possibilities of design. We all have our own style, but the mark of a true professional is one who is open to others creative works and accepts that they alone do not posses the only right way to do something. Also, working with other designers is a sure way to gain inspiration and learn new styles that we wouldn't otherwise stumble upon.

Another way to find inspiration is to view showcase sites that contain designs from many different people around the globe. Some of these sites are: http:www.thecssthesis.com http://cascadingstyleshit.cocoagrove.com/ -(This site is excellent! It contains MANY different showcase sites. And the name is interesting, isn't it?) or http://www.csstux.com/ While these sites primarily showcase css websites, the designs give you something to think about. Web designers in particular are bombarded with so many different choices on how to convey information. Having so many options can lead to a distinct, preferred style. But as designers, we sometimes forget we are not creating ONLY for ourselves but for others as well.

Last week Google officially launched Knol. The story behind Knol is explained here:

"Knol is a free service from Google that allows you to communicate, collaborate, and share your knowledge with the world. We believe that Knol increases the availability of information, encourages freedom of expression, and makes possible new connections between authors and readers."

I've written some Knols in the past few days and found a strong online reputation benefit inherent in this service. Think about how social networks have changed how we do business online. Social media and social networks have had an undeniable impact on online business. These social networks have changed the way almost everyone communicates online, and this can have a serious bottom line impact on your business. It's not overly pessimistic to say that negative online reputation spread through social media networks can destroy your business. The ownership of social communications channels and the entire balance of power have shifted. Suddenly, your company is not in complete control of your online message anymore. Are you doomed to just sit on the sidelines and let your message spin out of control? No. There's compelling business value you can find in Google's Knol. I'm definitely not saying that there are no problems with Knol in its current state - but that's a blog post for another time. Today I'll talk about just 1 simple way to use Knol to help improve your online reputation. Google says that the main principle behind their new service is "authorship". Knol authors put their name on content and can be verified through Google. And a business can create articles to promote their company's products or services. Are you starting to see how your business can benefit from using Knol? As the author of content about your products or services, you have more authority than a random irate customer who chooses to bring down your company by posting gripes on various popular social media networks. Theoretically, Google ranks websites partly based on their authority. So Knol gives you an opportunity to take back some control of your online brand by allowing you to judiciously create Knol articles that carry more authority than anonymous consumer generated content. It's certainly not a fool-proof method of cleaning up your online reputation, but even at this early stage, it looks like an important part of your online arsenal.