Sign-up using our home page to receive your free copy of our information packed e-newsletter. This month Managing Director David Woodroofe guides you through planning your own e-commerce website and give you all the top tips from Create Design Studio about selling your products online.

This is for those Wordpress users that host their blogs on their own domains.

We have had a few of these to sort for clients over the last few months.

The problems affect the admin area of the blog and have occurred when pages are updated or edited. We have also seen cases where you cannot view the lists of pages or posts from within the admin area.

Plugins seem to cause most of these issues, so the solution is to deactivate ALL your plugins and then re-activate them one by one, but testing your blog each time you activate another plugin.

You should find that when you reach the problem plugin the error returns. At this point there seems to be only 2 solutions, if you are using the most up to date verison of the plugin, replace it with another or just live without it.

In some cases we have found that more than one plugin has caused the problem.

If you need help please contact David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 or david@createdesignstudio.co.uk

There are three really important Meta Tags that will help get your website found by search engines: the Meta Page Title, Keywords and the Meta Description.

The Meta Page Title appears in the bar at the top of a browser window, in the case of Microsoft Explorer it is the text that appears immediately before the wording in the blue bar that says Microsoft Explorer. Most search engines place a lot of importance on this title when ranking web pages, so you should ensure that you have a unique title for each web page and that it contains your top search phrase for that page.

The Meta Description, is as it sounds, a description of what that particular web page is about. It is also the text that many search engines use to describe the web page in their search results. Again this is an important Tag that can help get the website found. Like the Title Tag most search engines do read these descriptions and place a lot of importance on them.

Meta Descriptions should also be written with real people in mind, as a well-written Meta Description can attract people to click on that site when faced with dozens of listings on a results page, even if it is listed towards the bottom of the page.

The Keyword Tag started life as the place to put all the phrases that you wanted your website to be found by, however many website owners found that they could out smart the search engines using them, most search engines no longer pay much attention to them. However some do use them and most will check to see if they have been included, so it is important to include them.

Keep in touch with your customers and promote your website at the same time
Any correspondence that you send from your organisation to a customer can also promote your website. Think about printing on your envelopes, having printed headed letter paper, printing your website address onto your invoices, comp slips, flyers and anything else you post out. Also have an email signature with your website address on it, these can be updated easily so you can always promote whatever you are doing online to any clients you communicate with via email. If you hand out any promotional items like pens, postcards or notepads then have these printed with your website address in addition to your logo.

Create Design Studio offer a range of new media marketing services, and we have years of experience designing and building websites and blogs, speak to our MD, David Woodroofe on 01962 737989.

A well thought-out website works hard acting as a salesman working 24/7 on your company’s behalf: always providing information, reassurance and your contact details to potential and existing customers who are looking for goods or services. Now that mobile devices are increasingly used for internet access your website could be guiding customers straight to your door.

A really effective website is updated regularly to remain at the top of it’s game. Without new information on products or services and company news it can slip down search engine rankings and customers may drift away from a site that always looks the same.

Take an objective look at your website: are there parts that could do with an overhaul? Make a list of things you could add to your website that could make it more effective as a sales tool for your business, always think from a customer’s point of view and try to imagine what they would be interested in. Why not survey your customers to find out what they would like to see on your website or take a look at the websites of your competitors to see what they do. Critically assess websites that you visit and work out what features you find useful that could equally be applied to your organisation’s website.

Making your website more effective means helping visitors to find you easily, stay longer once they arrive and more likely to initiate contact or leave their details with you. Once site visitors engage with your web site they are more likely to buy from you. These topics will all be covered in the next few weeks on this blog.

Personalised support to update and change your website is available from Create Design Studio if you would like to speak to us about your website please call 01962 737989.

E-mail newsletters have become popular because they give companies an opportunity to speak directly to their customers. Offers that appeal to recipients of the newsletter could encourage them to take the next step and make a purchase, or make a repeat purchase in the case of existing customers.

Send regular newsletters to customers that focus on articles of interest to them, rather than being purely about promotion of sales, because sales messages are a turn-off to readers. Newsletters get your name in front of receptive customers and provides your organisation with an opportunity to offer your customer articles, special offers and contact information. Once your newsletter is up and running it can be promoted as a great place to pick up special offers and information that will encourage interested customers to sign-up.

If you would like advice or help to set up an email newsletter for your organisation please call David Woodroofe of Create Design Studio on 01962 737989.

Create Design Studio have just completed the design and build of this website promoting green investing. After designing a logo based on the theme of growth we designed the website based around the Teak Trees that the investments are based on.

If you would like to visit the site click here.

Its a great pleasure to bring you this baggage e-commerce website. It’s been programmed and filled with images of luggage to ensure a smooth buying experience for site visitors. But most of all I love that fact that it was designed to look just like a well-travelled suitcase, complete with stitching and stickers.

If you would like to have a look at the site please click here.

Create Design Studio are experts in the design and build of websites as well as helping our clients with online marketing and search engine optimisation. If you would like to have a chat please call David on 01962 737989.

It may be November, and it may be raining but we have been thinking about the great British summer beach holiday while we designed and built a website for Weymouth-based company Charm Properties.

Charm Properties New Website

Charm Properties let holiday homes in Weymouth and Portland to customers seeking a break in the UK. They wanted a website to reflect the sights of the local area and to promote the fact that Weymouth is a great area to take part in watersports like windsurfing and sailing.

Overall the site has a relaxing blue colourscheme and postcard style images illustrating local sights. We helped them by searching photo libraries to find appropriate images for the website. Plenty of information and images from their Holiday properties can fit on every page, enabling visitors to get a good look at each property before they choose where they would like to go on holiday.

Visit the Charm Properties website by clicking here.

We are Create Design Studio and we specialise in using the web to benefit our clients businesses. If you would like to speak to the the new media experts at Create Design Studio call David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 today.

Lately we have been advising on and designing e-commerce websites. It appears that shopping on the web is now firmly established and more companies are finding their website is an effective way not just to provide information on their products but to sell them.

Handles 4 Homes Website

Handles 4 Homes is a company that specialises in all kinds of door furniture and sell successfully over the internet using their full e-commerce website. We designed their site so that they can update it themselves when they receive new products or want to add special offers and promotions, so it’s a flexible tool for them to promote and sell their products.

If you want to sell using your website first consider your products and how best to organise them in product categories so customers can find what they are looking for. The menu system you put in place is vital to help customers find exactly what they want. Once they have found the product they want to buy you need to consider a system to allow payment. Also remember that you have to deliver their purchase and detail on your website how much delivery costs, this is vital information for your customers.

Selling online could help your business to reach new customers, if you already have a website it could do more than just provide information and contact details. Updating your products, adding promotions and special offers all help to keep customers coming back for more. Because your website is available all day and night to anyone in any part of the world, and increasingly on mobile devices, there is great potential for driving sales through your website.

Create Design Studio can help you to build an online shop and advise on all aspects of selling online, from processing payments to marketing using email newsletters. Call Create Design Studio and talk to David or Charlotte on 01962 737989.

When we were asked to produce a logo, website and stationery for the new Tonicity Clinic in London we jumped at the chance to create a complete set of branded elements.

Tonicity provide health and beauty treatments for women. They wanted their branding to reflect their customers age range and style and to be welcoming in tone.

Along with the website Tonicity needed business-cards and headed paper to allow them to begin spreading the word about the clinic.

Leaflets and flyers were also produced for them to use at exhibitions and conferences.

 To visit the Tonicity Group website please click here.