The Net Impact Roadmap

Back in the early days of the Internet, banner ads and pop-ups were all the rage.  In fact, companies would spend outlandish amounts of money on these sorts of ads. 

Banner ads are still popular, but advertisers are using better judgment in the prices they pay, as well as the creative and marketing messages that they are conveying.  Banner placement and size, in particular, is more advanced and well thought out than ever before.

While the trend in the early days was top and side ads, now the 300×250 medium rectangle ad is king.  This ad, as seen here from a Google AdWords sample, fits in well with content.  At the same time, it is unobtrusive within the content compared to other ad sizes.  The price of these banners can be as much as double that of the top banner ads on a web site. 

Why?  Simply put, readers are more likely to click on these ads since they blend in with the content.  Therefore, this is a premium positions that advertisers and those web sites selling advertising covet.

If your web site is advertisement based and you have not implemented these 300×250 ads, it is certainly a good idea to do so.

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For those that need the functionality of a content management system but don’t have the budget, the last few years have created the revolution known as the open source content management system.

There are several extremely popular open source content management systems that provide a nice balance of features, customization and ease of use.  I can only speak for the content management systems that I have experience using, and even in that case the experience is limited.  Still, perhaps my experiences with these open source content management systems will have some benefit for you looking ahead if you are faced with the decision of using an open source CMS or having something custom built.

Drupal

Admittedly, my experience with this CMS is quite limited.  What I do know: Most experts claim that Drupal provides the most customization and tools of any content management system.  There are seemingly a limitless number of plugins for Drupal, and I have also run into more than a few very nice looking web sites with outstanding functionality built on this platform.  The downside?  I installed Drupal on my own host account, and I had no clue where to even begin with it.  That seems to be the consensus from what my own discussions with experts.  There is a big learning curve with Drupal, so if you want to get something launched quickly, there are probably better options.

Joomla/Mambo

Joomla and Mambo are two separate content managment systems which forked from the same CMS.  For the purposes of this discussion, we will look at them as the same.  Each provides lots of modules and plugins like Drupal, and there are also some very cool features that would otherwise seem to be custom-based such as Facebook-like community building.  The claim by many experts is that this content management system is more limited in functionality than Drupal, but it is also easier to use and get off the ground.  Take that statement for what it is worth.

WebGUI

I was introduced to this content management system by a friend.  It is not nearly as popular as the latter two open source content management systems, but it is probably the easiest to use of the bunch.  WebGUI is actually designed for people without much technical experience, making it the lowest learning curve if you are hoping to get something up quickly.

Other

In a literal sense, even Wordpress (the software that runs The Net Impact Roadmap) is a content management system.  All we do is plug the blog into an online interface, and off it goes to cyberspace.  However, it is not known literally as a content management system since the overall capabilities are limited for the most part.  Rumor has it that this idea will change within the next few years and Wordpress will develop far more CMS ability, but that is something we will just have to wait on.

There are plenty of quality content management systems that are on the internet and even available to be installed automatically from your host.  The above list is certainly not the end all in the open source CMS game, and you are likely to find some other content management systems that you like if you have time to look around.

Our next look at web design and development tools will be a look at a couple tools that are ASP.net based.

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Adobe Photoshop is widely known as the standard for graphic design.  In fact, it has become part of pop culture and our daily vernacular.  How many times have you heard, “That was Photoshopped”?  It is really no coincidence.  Photoshop really is an incredible tool for creating and editing photos and graphics.

Other extremely popular graphic design programs include Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Paint Shop Pro, and of course, the timeless Microsoft Paint.

Those are the popular graphic design programmers, but there are also some lesser known gems.  We profile those below:

The GIMP

The open source revolution is upon us.  The GIMP is one of the leading graphic design alternatives for Adobe Photoshop, and it happens to be 100 percent free.  The program allows you to do many of the same things that were previously only completed on Photoshop such as creating PSD files, editing photos easily and creating quality-looking text.  Like Photoshop, there are also some nice mods for The GIMP that make it a more useful tool.  Of course, Photoshop does have far more overall capability, but The GIMP is a nice alternative if you don’t want to shell out the money for Photoshop.

Paint.NET

From an interface standpoint, Paint.NET looks more like Microsoft Paint than it does Photoshop.  That layout means that it is very simple.  Like Photoshop and The GIMP, Paint.NET includes layers, neat graphic effects for photos and other graphic adjustment tools.  The interface does take some getting used to if you are more familiar with Photoshop, but some of the features are unique and very useful for editing photos.

Picasa

Picasa, from Google, is more for editing and organizing photos than it is creating and editing graphics like the tools listed above.  Even so, Picasa is a wonderful tool for editing photos and, in fact, has some advantages for photo editing over those more advanced tools.  For one, the simplicity of Picasa allows someone of any technical skill level to quickly and easily adjust photos to their liking.

MS Paint

We save the best for last, of course.  Windows has changed throughout the years, but thank goodness Bill Gates and company have kept MS Paint the same - or similar, at the very least.  The uses of Paint compared to the programs listed above is limited.  However, everyone with Microsoft Windows has Paint, and everyone has probably used it at one time or another.  So even while the uses of the program are so limited, it gets my seal of approval.

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Today we are going to discuss color and how it relates to designing web sites.  Granted, I am hardly qualified to provide an art lesson, as my colleagues can attest.   However, color choice goes well beyond “what looks good” when you are designing a web site and have revenue on the line. 

The right or wrong color choices can make a difference in revenue for your web site.  This is a well-known idea for restaurants and stores, with such businesses spending thousands of dollars on design experts to help design interiors and providing customers with a certain atmospheric “feeling” due to the color.  Below is an outline of color meaning, as explained by About.com:

Blue: Calming, cool, importance, confidence, intelligence, stability, unity, conservatism, corporate

Green: Life, nature, growth, renewal, balance, harmony, stability

Silver: Sleek, modern, glamourous, distinguished, elegant, earthy

Red: Hot, anger, power, danger, emergency, attention

Pink: Physical weakness, delicate, feminine

Yellow: Happiness, joy, deceit, cheerful

Gold: Wealth, prosperity

Orange: Stimulant, vibrant, energy, warmth, attention

Purple: Royalty, nobility, spirituality, moodiness

Black: Conservative, mysterious, elegance

White: Purity, cleanliness, innocence

Brown: Wholesome, earthy, simplicity, friendliness

So what does any of this mean when designing your web site?  It can be important to keep in mind the nonverbal meaning of the colors you use on your web design and logo as you build your brand identity.  Certainly, a quality product and/or marketing campaign can override choosing the wrong color for your logo or web design, but your color choice does often have a quantifiable impact.  This is just one more thing to think about among the millions of considerations when starting a web site.

Seth Trachtman is a Web Marketing Account Manager for The Net Impact Web Design St. Louis.

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