Originally published in the Create Design Studio E-newsletter, to subscribe please click here and fill in the boxes on the left side of the page.

We completed a redesign and conversion of  the CanDoCanBe website to a WordPress blogsite for owner Karen Skidmore.

She kindly wrote the following and posted it on the Linkedin networking site, which has some 14,000,000+ users worldwide.

“David and Charlotte have just put the finishing touches to my new wordpress blogsite. For the past 3 years I have had a static website and a typepad blog working together fairly effectively. But this year I was determined to put everything under one roof and utilise the fantastic blog platform WordPress.org.

Charlotte, the creative director, has yet again, come up with a great new design. Simple, “shiny” and exactly what I wanted. And David has done a grand job of getting the site working, again exactly as I wanted it.

David’s knowledge of wordpress has grown significantly over the past couple of years and I would highly recommend you get in touch if you are looking for a flexible and creative website.”

As a result we have been contacted by a company in New Zealand looking for a logo design and help with a website.

If you don’t know where to begin and you want your own business blog call Create Design Studio because we can make the process easy. Get your business blog off to a flying start by calling David on 01962 737989 today.

Links:
If you are new to blogging here are some helpful hints
Why start a blog for your business?

Share/Bookmark

As markets contract businesses need to maximise their promotional activities and make every promotional pound count.

Strategies for updating your website
Our advice to website owners is to carry out modest updates and additions on a regular basis rather than major annual updates and overhauls. This is because search engines, such as Google, love fresh and updated content and making modest monthly changes to your website will heighten their interest. Regular updates will also encourage visitors to return as well.

But don’t fall into the trap of updating for the sake of it.

Making your updates more effective
Whatever content you add or update on your website, it must be of interest to your customers and relate to the problems and issues they face. Unless you are a market leader, it is unlikely web surfers will be particularly interested in you or your business. What will be of interest to them are helpful tips, free advice and solutions to solve their problems, make their life easier or businesses more profitable.

Write about THEM not YOU!

Spread the cost
The little and often strategy can also help your wallet by spreading the cost over 12 months, rather than having to budget for a large bill.

What are your options for updating your website yourself?
If your site does NOT have a Content Management System (CMS)? An alternative solution to adding a CMS to your website is adding a WordPress Blog, for maximum benefit the Blog should be hosted as part of your website under your domain name.

The cost for us to install a WordPress Blog and integrate it into a typical website, following its design and style, is £595 ex vat. (for more information on our blog services see our website.)

Software to help you with updating your website
If a Blog does not appeal, you can buy a web editing software package. We recommend Adobe Contribute CS4, it isn’t expensive and you can buy it directly from the Adobe website. It is very simple to set-up and use, it will allow you to update and create new web pages, including photos, PDFs and media files. When you hit the publish button it will also upload any new photos and PDFs etc to your site.

We provide full support for Contribute and can assist with setting up the software, as well the provision of templates for creating new pages. In our experience it takes no longer than half an hour to teach someone how to update their website using Contribute.

For those site owners who don’t have the time or don’t feel confident about doing the updates themselves, we offer fixed priced packages that are paid for on a monthly basis by standing order.

Call David at Create Design Studio on 01962 737989 for more information.

Useful links:
Making your website work harder for your business
Create Design Studio Website Design and Build Services

Share/Bookmark