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- Finally!!! You can now pay
your invoices ON-Line! Just go to
www.DogRiverDesign.com
and click on the Pay On-Line
link on the left. On the next screen type your invoice number in
and the amount you wish to pay*. You will be taken to a secure
server to complete the transaction. *If this is your first
PayPal transaction or you
have not verified your account, your payment amount will be
limited to a maximum of $2000.
- Would you like to have us
automatically debit your credit card for hosting and other
services? Give us a call and we can set it up for you!
- Either of these services are
easy to add to your site. If you'd like to be able to take
credit cards on-line or setup recurring transactions for your
clients, give us a call and we can get you setup in no time!
Net Watch
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Review]
Having A Successful Website Part 4
Designing your Website
Designing your web site will be an ongoing process. You will need
to design and redesign your site until you find the right balance
of form, function, and content.
When starting to design your web
site, the most important thing I’d like to express is, there are
many ways to design a site. What’s perfect for one company may not
be perfect for yours. Your site is an extension of your business
and your personality. Both you and your business are unique. Be
ready to commit time and effort into making your site portray this
uniqueness.
Here are a few guidelines that
can help you to design a unique and effective web site. First,
realize that the actual “look” of the site is a small piece of
your web project. Be sure to integrate your web business plan (see
articles one and two) and web marketing strategies (article to
follow soon) into the design of your site. And the most critical
part of your site is content. We define content as the actual text
that people read to learn about you, your business, and ultimately
your products and services. Without good content all the planning,
marketing, and fancy graphics won’t convert viewers into
customers.
When you sit down to create the
content for your site, remember you may know your business,
products, or industry very well but don’t assume that others do.
You have to think like the consumer. For your opening page, try to
keep things short and to the point so that your potential
customers don’t get lost. Use your secondary pages to really
deliver details. Your secondary pages are where you want to use
your detailed graphics and images as well.
Many people find it difficult to
prepare content for their site, so don’t be afraid to ask for
help. Consider hiring someone to help you develop the materials.
When consulting with clients, we find that most just need a little
help in bringing what they know about their business onto the page
in a structured format.
Once you have the basics of your
content, you can start looking at how you want to present the
information. Many clients really don’t know what they want their
site to look like. To help streamline the design process and save
our clients money, we recommend that they visit a site like
www.pixelmill.net before we
start designing their site. Pixelmill sells web site themes of all
types. Most of the time we can find something that perfectly fits
their needs saving them hundreds of dollars in design costs.
If your company chooses to create
a site from scratch, try to avoid spending a great deal of time
and resources developing elaborate graphics and animations. All
those bells and whistles can be counter productive as you only
have a few seconds to convince your viewer to stay on your site.
The more elaborate, the more time it takes for your page to load
and for you to present yourself to the viewer. Remember to keep
the opening page of your site simple and fast. Use the other pages
of your site to present more detailed information about your
products and services.
If your company is looking to
start a web site or to update your existing site, give us a call.
With over 8 years experience helping our clients build successful
sites we can help you too. Just give us a call at 843.835.5624 or
843.851.2824
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Product Review
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[Net Watch] [Product
Review]
The Perfect
Notebook?
About eight months ago I
purchased a Toshiba notebook from Circuit City
(http://www.dogriverdesign.com/product-reviews/pr2003-02-01.asp).
For the most part I was thrilled with it. It had all the
necessities that I needed and only lacked a couple of things
that I wanted. But for the price, it couldn’t be beat.
Recently an associate
purchased a Toshiba notebook that was much faster, with an
integrated DVD burner. Naturally I wanted to get one too, but
they were out of stock. At long last Best Buy received the
Toshiba A25-S307 and I bought one for around $2,000 with a $250
rebate.
The basic specs can be found
at
www.bestbuy.com. Needless to
say this thing should be a rocket with a 2.8GHz processor, 512
megs of ram, wireless, usb 2.0. You name it, it probably had it.
I finally began using it and I have to say that I have never
been more disappointed. My previous 1.7 GHz Toshiba totally
outperformed this one. The main bottleneck being the video card.
Toshiba removed the dedicated Nvida GeForce 2go processor and
replaced it with an integrated Trident Cyberblade.
The disappointment increased
when I called Best Buy and asked what I needed to do to return a
computer which I’d had for less than 3 days. They said it would
cost me 15%, (nearly $300!) for the restocking fee! WHAT!!!
Fortunately there were dead pixels in the display and they took
it back.
 Now
what was I supposed to do? I’d already agreed to sell my old
Toshiba and needed to replace it and fast. To my surprise Best
Buy had a new eMachine notebook on display. Two things
immediately caught my attention. The display - a high resolution
15.4” wide screen display which I’d only seen on Macs and second
it had built in 54g wireless. The price, $1199 with $150 rebate!
Well, I think I’ve found my
perfect notebook. Here are the basic specs: AMD 2400+ mobile
processor, 512 megs of ram, ATI radeon igp video, 40 gig hard
drive, usb 2.0, firewire, 15.4” wide display, DVD CDRW combo
drive, modem and network interfaces.
The bottom line is that I
can’t stop using this eMachines notebook. The performance is
great even for games, the wireless card works with both my home
and office wireless routers, the display is gorgeous (basically
giving dual display functionality on a single display), the
keyboard is a total delight to type on, and the battery just
seems to last forever. I’ve been writing for over two hours
straight and I’ve still got over an hour worth of battery life
left.
I’d recommend this computer
to anyone in the market for an inexpensive and feature rich
notebook. Time will tell regarding the reliability of an
eMachines notebook, but if my experience with our work desktops
is any indication, I’ll be using this notebook for a while.
In closing this article I
have just a few comments. Toshiba-I don’t know how much was
saved by pulling the nVida video processor but it wasn’t worth
it. You’ve ruined the product. Toshiba, if it ain’t broke DON’T
FIX IT! Next comment - It’s not what you buy but where you buy
it. I bought from Best Buy because of their no interest credit,
but now that I know they charge a restocking fee, Best Buy isn’t
going to be the first place I go. The benefit of purchasing from
a mega store is that you have recourse. If you don’t like the
product you can take it back. Best Buy has really hurt
themselves in my book. Circuit City allows a true 14 day tryout
on all their computer products. If you don’t like it, they take
it back, no questions asked.
Please send any questions
about, or ideas for product reviews to
Staff@dogriverdesign.com. |
