Tourneau's Focus - Entertainment, Vehicles or Watches?

This past holiday I was searching for a new watch for myself. I didn't want the basic jewelry store watch, I wanted something a little more special. So I decided to use the 'world wide web' to get some education and what styles were available... then I would break down to price and brand. So I stumbled on to Tourneau.com and I stopped and gasped. Was Tourneau a watch store or something else? I couldn't tell once I clicked in.

Here's what you see once you enter Tourneau.com. It's their logo, a black and white photo showing a boat, waves with red painted in. Yes there is gears from a watch floating in the water, but what on this great Earth does a boat have to do with a watch? I'm still confused. But okay, on the lower right there are 7 more pictures to come.  Here comes picture number 2.

Where Was I?

I've been on a loooong vacation from YouDonkey.com. One thing led to another and time flew by. Well I'm back. What did I do that took so long?

1. I've been working non-stop on my other blogs, one about my passion and one about useless rants. I had to get the rants out of my head and now I'm done and deleted it. My passion blog is well... still there and still receiving good traffic so I decided to take a break.

2. I have a new residence and a new job. Moving is a lot of work and work was a lot of moving. During my move I noticed I had an abundance of items I don't need. So I donated lots, sold some and gave away a few to friends/co-workers.

3. My professional schooling is in art and designing with computer/network programming/installation mixed in so I also indulged in these studies and now I have more completed paintings hanging around a wireless house.

So I'm back and ready to start dissecting the new internet and the junk people made. 2011 will be a great year.

Quick Facts on a Mobile Web Site Layout

Article by YouDonkey and protected by CopyScape

Design with lists, not tables. Why? here are some reasons:
1. To display a table, a device must perform floating-point calculations, which slows down the rendering of the table.
2. Different devices render tables differently; at least some browsers will render every table with equal-width columns, no matter what you do.
3. Lists enable vertical designs (top to bottom design). Tips on using lists:
a. Use ordered lists (ol) for lists where you need numbered access and do not need formatting control over the numbers. (don't forget to assign access keys).
b. Use definition lists (dl) when you need numbered lists and you need formatting control over the numbers (or you need an item 0). You'll need to render the number as well as define an access key.
c. Use definition lists (dl) for situations where you need subsections. The dt item will be left-aligned; the dd item will be indented. There is no need to define a dd for every dt.
d. Use ul or dl for other lists. ul will give you bullets, dl will not.

Mobile Web Sites - Design Do and Don't

Article by YouDonkey and protected by CopyScape

Don't - Use external CSS. It requires more download time which is not a good thing
Don't - use drop-down menus (select lists) for navigation. Users won't understand or use them.
Don't - use tabs. They require graphics and tables, making them very time consuming to load. They also require the user to scroll past them to get to content.
Don't - put breadcrumb navigation at the top of the screen. To make it fit on one line, you would have to use graphics (and probably tables). The user has to scroll past them to get to the content. If you use them, put them at the bottom.
Don't - use black or dark background images or colors, including shading regions of the page. Some browsers do not support coloring text, so your page could become unreadable.

Cellular Sites are You Mobile?

Article by YouDonkey and protected by CopyScape

Part 1:
Why is it important that you and your web site are viable for the mobile age? If you didn't notice already, the internet is unplugged and more and more people are using their cellular devices to make purchases. They can do it without laptops (or notebooks) while standing in line for their coffee.

Maybe not today, but within a few years it will be VERY popular and so wide spread that the computer I'm using to type this article will be in some museum about ancient history. This is possible because more and more inexpensive, mainstream, wireless hand held devices are being sold everyday. The industry is growing everyday and the devices are becoming cheaper and cheaper too. That means more and more people will turn in that direction instead of using their heavy lack luster computers.

Frames - Why or Why Not! Your Choice

What are FRAMES and why should I care?
- Frames allow web masters to create and show many pages in one view, which may be independent windows or subwindows. Example:
within the main window, one frame might display a banner ad, one frame a navigation menu, and another could contain main text... all could be scrolled independently without hurting the others placement.

There is a downside to FRAMES besides the GOOD and BAD facts listed below. Many Web masters say frames are a little outdated but all agree they do have their uses even being outdated. Many Web masters agree if you can use CSS or PHP (just two examples) to achieve the frames look and many of the frames strengths without all the weaknesses... then do so. You will be ahead of the game! Especially when the "rumored" internet laws on FRAMES comes through.

The Importance of Keeping A Focus on Your Site

Article written by Marc McDonald.

What's the focus of your Web site? If you can't answer this question in one short sentence, you're going to find it difficult to build an audience.
It's important to remember that when first-time visitors click in to your Web site, you've only got a few seconds to grab their attention. Web surfers are an impatient bunch. If they can't figure out the purpose of your site quickly, then they'll click off elsewhere.

In my Web business, I get a steady stream of submissions from Webmasters who want me to review their sites. I'm constantly surprised at the many submissions I get for sites that lack a clear focus.

We're not just talking about shoestring sites that have been set up by newbies on GeoCities. This goes for even large, corporate sites that are run by teams of Webmasters. In the latter case, I can only surmise that it is indeed true that "too many cooks spoil the broth."

Why Have A Web Site?

One of my clients once asked me, why should I have a website when so many fail? Why make my business an eCommerce web site?

To put it in to simple terms:
1. Improving Your Brand - the ability to project an identity and to build your brand equity, both over a shorter period of time. This can be done with promotions to increase your communications to your client base.

2. Increased Reach without Hurting Your Bottom Line - bringing in new business online with a professional web site because you are expanding your business nationally and to international markets. The internet gives you and your business the ability to reach new markets that would have been potentially out of your reach before. Plus this is all done without extra payroll. More sales with the same payroll before going online equals better production rates... need I say more?

3. Increased Communications - besides standard email blasts and mailing letters, having a web site is a great to make sales even if you chose not to go the eCommerce route.

As I mentioned many times over, going online isn't as easy as it sounds. For many businesses it will feel like you never left work at work because you will be building/ tweaking and promoting your website to people and search engines at the same time, all the time. But once your site takes hold in your community, then expansion is easier and you gain more time to yourself.

I can only show you the tools, you need to do the building...