Designed by Krista
Web Design

The following quote is often attributed to John Ruskin, but that is currently in dispute. However, it’s tough to dispute the meaning of these words – a more elegant way of saying that you get what you pay for. What does this mean for web design? It means that saving money is about trade-offs, and I’ve compiled a list below to help you weigh these out for your web project. In some cases, the trade-offs are worth the risk, perhaps because you are a non-profit or just starting out your small business. There is nothing wrong with this, because you can always upgrade as funds become available, but knowing what you’re getting can help you make the best choice at your budget level.

“It’s unwise to pay too much, but worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money; that is all. When you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balances prohibits paying little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Risks of Paying Too Little for Your Website

Do-it-Yourself: You may have to do all or much of the work yourself. This can work if you are technically savvy and you have reasonable writing skills.

Templates: Most websites in the $200 – $500 price range are built using pre-made templates. This means that your site will not be perfectly unique, but it can still be very serviceable. Watch out for search engine ranking problems, though. (see below)

Inexperienced Designers: If the hourly rate of your web designer is very low, he or she may possibly be just out of college and can’t demand any more. Everyone has to start somewhere, though, so just do your best to make sure the person sounds like they know what they’re doing and that they have a good work ethic. It may not be worth the risk if you have complex programming needs on your site.

Language Barriers: Off-shore web developers are becoming more common, and usually offer attractive pricing. If you are satisfied that they are experienced enough for your project, you must decide if a non-native speaker can write effectively in your language and if you will be able to understand them even when discussing technical issues.

No Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Many low-end websites are not constructed with search engine rankings in mind, and this is detrimental to your site, especially if you are running a for-profit business. Does the template or developer use a lot of tables? Is key text, such as your company name, shown only as an image? Is the browser’s title bar show just your company name, or worse, just a generic term like “Home” or “Welcome”? If so, you are likely to get low search engine rankings.

Websites that don’t work: Broken links, misspelled words, missing images, and random error messages all detract from your professional image, and usually make your users go to another site. If you choose to work with a low-end provider, make sure to do a lot of testing yourself to try to prevent these things from the outset.

Popularity: unranked [?]

I get pretty excited about saving money, and thanks to the recent economic downturn, everyone else seems to be in the same boat. These tips will help your printer supplies last longer, which saves money and it’s good for the environment besides.

1. Print in Black and White. Just because you have a color printer doesn’t mean you have to use color every time. In fact, I find that most of what I print looks just fine in black only, which saves on color print cartridges. This is especially important if you have a combined color cartridge, in which you have to replace the whole thing as soon as one of the three colors runs out.
2. Switch to Fast Draft mode. I lower my printer quality to fast draft as a default, which uses less ink. The prints are noticeably lower quality, but still completely legible – I just have to remember to switch to a higher quality for print-outs for clients or Christmas letters, etc. As a bonus, the printing is a lot faster.
3. Narrow your margins. Sounds a little nit-picky, but if you regularly print long documents, this can save paper.
4. Don’t print it. How many times have you printed something when it really wasn’t necessary? You can proofread on your screen, save files in on-line archives instead of file drawers, print just the first page if you don’t need the rest, and use print preview to prevent avoidable re-printing.
5. Print selection. In most software, including web browsers, you can just print the portion of the page that you need, without having to print a bunch of extra pages. In Internet Explorer, select the text or images you want to print and type CTRL + P or choose File: Print. When the print dialog box appears, make sure to choose Selection in the Page Range section before you click Print.
6. Use both sides of the paper. Once you’ve used one side of the paper, you can just flip it over and print on the other side: Voila! Green printing… I usually keep this type of paper in a stack next to the printer. If you’re really committed, you can save junk mail from companies and print on the other side. Warning: This could drive your spouse nuts. My husband hates this because invariably he ends up with something private or confidential on the back of something he printed at home and then took to work. Whoops.
7. Use recycled, refilled, or remanufactured ink cartridges. Any of these will save money, but printer manufacturers say that this can cause problems with your printer. Whether true or not, in my experience, if you call tech support and you are using a recycled ink cartridge, they are likely to blame that without delving further into the issue. I also noted that about 1 out of every 5 recycled cartridges I tried wouldn’t work at all. So, I do not use either of these methods – I’m just listing it here so that you know the consequences.
8. Do cost comparisons Good, old-fashioned smart shopping works well – on the internet, just type the part number of your ink cartridge into Google, e.g. hp c8721w. Watch for sales and use coupons, buy in bulk if it’s a good price, look at Costco, etc. I typically find that Costco is the best, so you’re pretty safe choosing that if you don’t have the time to make detailed comparisons. Warning: don’t stock up too far in advance, because many ink cartridges stop working when they are past the expiration date. If this happens, you can try rolling back the date on your computer, but that’s obviously quite a hassle.

Popularity: 1% [?]

In the late 1900’s, the Internet Mail Consortium came out with an electronic business card format called “vCard.” Because this format is widely supported by email software, such as Microsoft Outlook, you can use the vCard file (ending in “.vcf”) to save all of your contact information and pass it along to your customers and clients. Once you create your vCard (instructions below), you can either attach it to an email message to your client or post it on your website (or both). When your client opens the file, it will automatically be added to their contact folder or address book.

How Do I Make a vCard for a Website?

1. In a Contact folder, create and save a contact with your name, title, company name, etc. You may also want to add further information about your business in the “Notes” field, such as the services you offer and benefits of doing business with you.
2. Click to select the contact you just saved.
3. On the File menu, click Save As.
4. Optional: In the File name box, remove all the spaces in the file name: this will make it easier to link to this file later on.
5. In the Save file as type box, click to select VCARD Files (*.vcf).
6. In the Save In box, select the folder where you want to save the vCard file, and then click Save.

You can send the vCard file as a file attachment in any email message – just insert it like a regular attachment, and when your client opens it, your contact information will be added to their address book or contact folder.

How to Present a vCard in a Website

If you have a web server, or web-hosting, you can also upload that file to your website. You can use any FTP client to do this, or (if you use BlueHost) you can do this via your cPanel File Manager – just use the Upload button on the File Manager toolbar. You would put it somewhere within the public_html folder. Then, you can add a link to the file to your email signature block and even to your Contact Us web page.

Example: <a href=”http://yourdomain.com/vCards/YourName.vcf”>Add my contact information to your address book</a>.
Looks Like: Add my contact information to your address book

If your file just opens up in plain text, you may need to do a few extra steps.

1. Create a folder for your vCard file on your webserver
2. Move the vCard file to that folder
3. Create a blank, text-only file called .htaccess and add the line  AddType text/x-vcard .vcf
4. Save the .htaccess file to the vCard folder you created

NOTE: This file is not secure, therefore anyone who discovers it on your website will be able to have your contact information. Thus, I would not put anything in your vCard contact unless you are also willing to put that information on your public webpage.

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you haven’t heard of pet insurance and/or you don’t have a pet, you may think it sounds crazy. I know I did! However, our veterinarian’s office had a brochure for VPI Pet Insurance, and after looking at the costs, we signed up for this when we first got our labradoodle, Abby. I am about to renew for the third time, as we have really found their services beneficial. They do not pay as high a percentage of overall costs as “people insurance,” but we have appreciated that we get some reimbursement for minor or routine things (shots, exams, etc.). Plus, we don’t have to worry so much when the unexpected injury comes up – for example, when our toddler threw a fast ball at Abby’s eye from about three feet away. VPI allows us to use any vet, so there was no problem when we had to take Abby to the emergency vet after that little fiasco.

When we first got the policy, some fellow pet owners were asking me if the reimbursements kept up with the policy costs, and I was wondering that myself, so I did a little comparison, and I thought I’d share it with you.

As you can see, we have never made our money back, but I also didn’t realize until 2008 that they covered flea medication and some other handy things (included with the preventative care rider). Costs vary by breed and age of the animal, but I have so far found the extra money (i.e. premium costs that we didn’t make back in reimbursement) to be well worth the peace of mind in the event that Abby has major medical issues at any point. If you should decide to get their insurance, make sure to tell them Krista Ehlers sent you… and I’ll try not to spend my $5 all in one place.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Every business today seems to have a newsletter, so you may wonder: should I have one for my business? Good newsletters are a great way to market your business because you can provide free and valuable information to your customers, and thus foster good will and prove that you are knowledgeable in your field. However, you must keep in mind that your customers are getting bombarded with newsletters from every other company, too.

I recommend that you have a newsletter for your organization if you have something valuable to say. You can adjust the frequency of the newsletter so that every issue is relevant to your customers or clients. For example, if you feel like you have something newsworthy for your subscribers once a week, then have a weekly newsletter. If you have something of value every other month, then have a bi-monthly newsletter. Resist the temptation to just send something out in order to have your company name pop-up in people’s email inbox – that’s a fast way to lose your subscribers.

So, how do you make a good newsletter? Here are some thoughts:

1. Minimize images: Do not put a lot of images in your newsletter, since many email systems show images as a red “x” in the preview window. Instead, use images only for your company logo or when the image will help explain the article.
2. Write succinctly: Even if someone loves your newsletter, they don’t have a lot of time to read it. Use bold headings so that they can skim directly to the part that is most interesting to them, and don’t get overly wordy.
3. Add reader-friendly content: Remember that you are trying to write things your customers want to know about – newsletters which are purely self-promotional marketing pieces just drive people to hit the “delete” key.
   GOOD: ways they can save time or money, sales and coupons for your business, tips and tricks, or links to interesting posts from your forum or blog.
   BAD: announcing new employees at  your company or increased sales at your company.
4. Make your call to action: If you are attempting to market your product or solicit donations, make sure that you make a clear “call to action” – usually at the top and the bottom of the newsletter. You can also create a sense of urgency by adding a deadline.
   EXAMPLE: “Use coupon code ENDOFSUMMER by 8/31/09 to save 10% on your order.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

Did you know that many cars today have a little icon on the dashboard fuel guage that shows which side of the car your gas tank is on? How did I not know about this before?

We were on a camping trip with a group from church recently, and were driving an unfamiliar van. The driver stopped for gas and wondered out loud where the gas tank might be. Someone reminded him that it would show on the gas guage, and I looked: sure enough, there was a little arrow pointing to the driver’s side of the van.

I thought to myself, “Gee – it would be so great if our cars had that,” since both gas tanks are on different sides of the cars, so we forget which is which all the time. Imagine my surprise when I came home and looked – both cars have the indicator. In fact, the Toyota, which I drive most, actually says the words “FUEL DOOR” along with the arrow. Kinda’ felt a little dumb at that point, but I post here in the spirit of self-sacrifice: YOU can benefit from my ignorance!

Popularity: 19% [?]

Google: what’s not to love? Though I did have to laugh when the courts recently rejected their anti-trust suit against Microsoft, saying (paraphrase) that Google was probably big enough to handle the competition! Here are two Google features that I especially like:

Phone Info

Okay, raise your hand if you’re tired of paying $1.50 to get a 411 call on your cell phone… Yeah, I thought so. Well, memorize this number: 800-GOOG-411. This is Google’s FREE 411 service. It’s all mechanized, but it really works! Plus, you can request to have the phone number/address and link to a Google Map texted to your phone, also free. Woohoo!

Calculator

Who can ever keep track of how may cups are in a gallon? Or the exchange rate for Euros? Well, just type convert X to Y into your Google Search box, and click search as you normally would. The first line in the search results will be the answer. It’s like magic!

Type: convert 30 euros to us dollars
Answer: 30 Euros = 38.52 U.S. dollars

Type: convert 3 quarts to cups
Answer: 3 US quarts = 12 US cups

Popularity: 19% [?]

My clients often want to be able to add html to their sites – either within an application (such as product catalog or forum post) or by directly editing their web pages. I put together this quick HTML  tutorial, along with some comon html codes, which can be printed for quick reference.

The way that HTML works is that all codes are contained in brackets – the greater than/less than symbols. To apply a code to some text, you have to put the code before your text – it’s like saying: start using this code now. Then, you have to put an ‘end’ code after your text, like saying: stop using this code now. The end code is like the beginning code, but it has a slash in it.

The only hard thing about HTML is that it’s pretty picky – the codes must be spelled exactly right, all lowercase, and the symbols (<, >, /, “, “, etc.) have to be placed exactly the way they are shown below. To make it easy, you can just copy the text after “Usage:” and paste it where you would like to use it, then replace the sample text with your own text.
(more…)

Popularity: 18% [?]

This is one of my favorite keyboard shortcuts, especially as fonts seem to be getting smaller and smaller… Or am I just getting older? In any case, here is the shortcut:

Zoom IN: CTRL + +

Zoom OUT: CTRL + -

Return to Original Size: CTRL + 0

To use any of these keyboard shortcuts, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard (or the Command key on a Mac) and then type the other character. EXAMPLE: To Zoom in, hold down the CTRL (or Command) key and then type the “+” key.

What I really love about this shortcut is that it works on web pages – bye-bye, teeny-tiny fonts! (One exception: it doesn’t work on Internet Explorer 6, only the newer versions). It also works in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, which can be a big help when you are working on fine details of graphic images.

Popularity: 67% [?]