Need Some Advice for Cost-Effective App Production?

We love to share tips from other developers that we deem helpful . Share this article with others so they can benefit from the information in this article.



When selecting content delivery channels, a digital-first publisher can’t ignore the mobile app. Today’s digital-savvy readers expect a market leading publication to have a mobile app. Moreover, advertisers expect to be able reach the most loyal subscribers via the publisher’s app.

This said, as mentioned in an earlier post, the ROI on a mobile app should be carefully evaluated. The key challenges with apps are discoverability and the higher expenses related to building and maintaining the app. While apps are generally superior reading experiences for subscribers, app discoverability is difficult due to the sheer size, fragmentation, and limited search functionality of app stores. As a result, launching a new publication app today requires significant marketing expense to grow an audience. Similarly, building and maintaining an app can be quite expensive, and native apps by definition are not cross-platform solutions, so you’ll need to build separate apps for each operating system that you want to support (iOS, Android, Windows 8, etc.).



Third-Party Provider

First, consider working with a third-party mobile platform provider that is willing to build and host a mobile app for you on a revenue share basis. These platform vendors typically have template solutions that you can leverage to get to market quickly for little cost. Their offerings normally include the key features that you’ll want already built in (e.g., push notifications, sharing functionality, and rich-media advertising). Additionally, these providers will ensure that your apps continually work even on the latest operating system releases, leveraging their scale to quickly update their platform and app environment. The main downside of these solution providers is that their templates may limit your creativity. Additionally, supporting a different CMS can create editorial challenges.

The 'Native Wrapper'

Another approach to building an app in a cost-effective way would be to consider rebuilding your website in HTML5 and then placing it in a “native wrapper” rather than building a pure native app. Some consider this approach the equivalent of “having your cake and eating it too.” Three key benefits of HTML5 are that it is operating system agnostic (e.g., code works for Android and iOS), it offers offline reading capabilities, and, depending upon how it is architected, you can make updates without app releases. HTML5 code in a native wrapper allows you to access native features such as push notifications, in-app purchasing, and native sharing capabilities. You could also consider building this “app” using a responsive/native HTML5 design which could reduce future development costs. That said, I would caution that this approach is not necessarily the panacea some purport it to be in that it’s challenging to build an HTML5 mobile site and there are a lot of nuances that will require an experienced programmer (which are hard to come by). If it’s done wrong, users will see a degradation of app experience in terms of speed and functionality.


Pick One OS

The third cost-effective approach would be to build a native app for only one operating system (e.g., iOS) using your CMS and internal platforms. The value of this approach will depend upon both the concentration of your user base (i.e. is the majority of your readers using one platform over another) and your access to skilled developers, either in-house or contracted).

In the next article, I’ll address some best-in-class approaches to driving app revenue as well as provide some stats on ALM’s app performance.

http://www.foliomag.com/2013/3-tips-cost-effective-app-production#.Unk1Ovlwrmc

Tips for Ensuring Your Company's Website Continue to Rank High in Search Engines

Most businesses are worried about keeping their high position in search engines. This is a valid worry due to the fact that Panda and Penquin can move a top ranked website and push it down to a lower ranking. There are some good tips that you can implement that will help to stay to the top on the web.



Search Friendly Structure:

For dynamic website address URLs (like the default URL links used in WordPress pages) it is important to use the "Permalink" settings. For example, “mysite.com/page-name” vs. “mysite.com/?page_id=123” can be easier for users to remember and better “symantically” for search engines. Another good suggestion is to create a Site Map to help search engines “crawl” the company website. This can be especially important for larger sites with complicated navigation. Also good for Search Optimization is a well thought-out web page description for every page on the site.

Content

Integrating great web content in 2013 is paramount for not only communicating with site visitors, it also helps a website get a boost in rankings. Good content helps build brand awareness and authority in a sea of competitors all trying to convey why they are the best at what they do. Ensuring the site has an up-to-date list of company ethics, privacy policies and product/service guarantee’s, can go a long way to build loyalty. The web page content should include a “sprinkle” of important key phrases related to the company business for search engines, but more importantly, good content should convey information that will prompt site visitors to return to the website at regular intervals, guide visitors to make contact with site owners or perhaps make visitors want to "bookmark" site pages for return visits.

Site Promotion


There are many ways to promote one’s website which can include writing articles with a link back to one's website, creating a company blog to post updates and events, participating in online forums within the company niche, creating quality press releases and listing a site in local web directories, just to name a few. Business owners must also understand that when it comes to "links", quality, trumps quantity. In other words, understanding what a quality back-link is, will ensure owners look to gain links from web pages that are important, relevant, newsworthy or "nich" sites, rather than trying to obtain a mass quantity of low-quality links.


Don't Put All the Eggs in One Basket

There are many search engines on the internet today. And although Google controls the market share in traffic, those website owners that follow all search engines guidelines and utilize other methods of generating qualified traffic by not depending on just one or two search engines for business, will never see major declines in business. This is especially true when Google decides to make a major update in their algorithm.

Analytics

In weather circles, they say "if you don’t analyze it – you can’t track it". The same principle apply to website statistics. Knowing how much traffic a site is getting, how many visitors are “returning” and “new”, how long visitors stay or how quickly visitors leave the site, are just a few important statistics to consider reviewing, on a regular basis. These statistics allow web developers to make small subtle changes to websites to generate positive results.

These are just a few suggestions to help business owners maintain good website positioning in an ever changing Internet landscape. Contact a local web developer for more suggestions on how to improve one's website and search positioning to take on new business this year and in 2014.

FM Web Services offers Responsive Web Design, website analysis, SEO Press releases, Search Optimization and Facebook pages for businesses. Located in the Toronto area (GTA), IFM has helped business achieve an effective online presence and has helped clients as far away as Bermuda and Mexico. For more on Social Media, SEO or Web Design for businesses, visit IFM at http://www.ifm.ca


http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11152104.htm

A New Website Plan Must Include a Foundation of Processes and Reviews for a Great Outcome

                                   thereviewbin

When building a website there must be a an orderly plan to follow to completion of the project. This plan involves more that just the web designer/developer. The following activities have been recommended to use to insure a great website.


Keyword research. Identifying strategically important keywords is crucial not only for search engine optimization, but also for developing the thematic structure of site content.

Sitemap. A sitemap identifies each page of the new site and where it appears in the site’s navigational structure.

Wireframe. A wireframe is like an interactive construction blueprint that allows users to see what the site will roughly look like and how the navigation works. It allows a firm to tweak design and content placement before actual design and content development begin.

Content. Once site pages have been locked down in the sitemap and word counts locked down in the wireframe, writers can get to work.

Design. Designers can proceed as well at this stage.

Development. When content and design are complete, the new site can be programmed and made functional.

Pre-launch testing. Make sure everything works before going public.
Launch. A variety of tasks go into moving the new site from test mode to live mode.

Post-launch troubleshooting. Something always goes wrong, but there is nothing to worry about if you have a system in place to make corrections.

Define the Review and Approval Process

A firm must obviously approve the keyword research, sitemap, wireframe, etc., before the project can move to the next phase. But what is the procedure for internally reviewing these creative outputs, and who exactly is responsible for giving approval?

An effective review and approval process involves enough people to provide balance and thoroughness, but not so many as to create endless discussion and division. Review teams may vary somewhat depending on the item under discussion, but continuity and consistency are enhanced when team members stay connected in some degree to all project phases.

Most important of all, a firm must empower a specific individual to make final review and approval decisions. If this is not done, one of two things will happen:
Decisions won’t get made and the project will never get done.
Poor, rushed, or inconsistent decisions will be made, ruining the quality of the site.

Create a Project Schedule

To meet a launch date, work schedules must be organized carefully. Left to their own devices, writers and designers can tweak ideas forever; on the other hand, if deadlines are too tight, quality suffers.

A good schedule provides adequate time for production, review, and revisions. Common sense, evaluating talent, and understanding the corporate culture are the most important factors in scheduling. For instance, it’s reasonable to assume that a design won’t be approved without at least one round of revisions. And, if the firm tends to be very particular about branding and image, allowing for two or three rounds of revisions makes sense.

If the project has one writer handling 100 pages, one week will hardly be enough time for content. In this situation, the firm can decide in advance whether to hire additional writers or extend the timeline – a much better option than scrambling as an impossible deadline approaches.

Designate a Process Owner

A successful site project has a specific person responsible for keeping the process on track. This individual, the project manager, makes sure deadlines are tracking to be met, that changes to the schedule are made and communicated to all team members, and that unexpected problems are handled in an organized and efficient manner.

Whoever handles this role needs an understanding of the technical aspects of web development and extraordinarily strong communication skills. This is not a job for an efficient executive secretary or a brilliant technician with minimal people skills. A lot of firms that do everything else right get into serious trouble by putting the wrong person in this position.

Document the Process

Even when project management has been assigned to the ideal candidate, the process must exist in documented form, not only in the head of that individual. Why? First, if anything happens to the project manager, the entire project will be thrown into disarray; second, without a documented process, team members and company leadership will have a hard time visualizing the entire process and understanding where they fit in it; third, without a “scorecard,” assessing the performance of the project manager and making appropriate revisions to the process for the next time around become difficult.

Firms always get caught up in the fun aspects of a new website: cool designs, snappy content, amazing animation, and the like. But invariably, firms with high-performance sites have people on staff who love to plan and live to organize. If those skill sets are in short supply, stock up before building your next company site.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/09/11/a-bad-building-process-will-kill-your-new-website/

Best Tips for Better Search Engine Listings and Increased Conversions

                                             diversitydesign.com

Developing a website and implementing a few key words does not guarantee good rankings in search engines. Loren Doren ,Creative Director, of IFM shared some great tips to stay ahead of the competition.

Len says. “When a prospective client comes to us to develop a new website for their business, they don’t ask us to help them understand the technology and their options, just offer them solutions to their current site quality issues. However, although we manage many client sites, the technology available today can now allow clients to manage some parts of their web presence.”




For good ranking for any website, on any search engine, here are some key pointers to follow:

Website layout – keep it simple. Make sure important information is “high” on the page and less important information is at, or “below the fold” (below the viewing portion of a website at bottom of your computer monitor screen).
Content – Make sure content on web page is “to-the-point”, covers all or most aspects of the topic at hand, but does not run-on forever. Make sure pictures have the proper “alt tag” descriptions and the page font has an adequate contrast from the page background so it’s easy to read.
Forget about keywords, and make sure to use “key phrases” on company web pages. Many people over-stuff the keyword meta tag code and page content, which could be perceived by some search engines as unnatural and poor rankings could be the result. So it’s not so much the keyword tag that can be a negative thing, as very few search engines actually use that meta tag for ranking these days, but more the page content.
Ask for the sale! Make sure there are more than one “Call to Action” items on all site pages which lead visitors to sales page or at least a contact page.

•Lastly – all search engines have “guideline” pages. It doesn’t matter if it’s Google, Bing or any other engine – they all have guidelines. If the site owner is managing the website, read those guidelines. Otherwise have the site developer or manager read those guidelines to make sure all is well.

In Front Media designs Responsive WordPress websites and also offers Social Media Optimizing, Search Engine Optimization and standard Web Design services. For more information visit IFM at http://www.ifm.ca.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/8/prweb11038910.htm

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1421661#ixzz2cVzTNFI4










 

Tips To All That Are Involved in Relaunching Your Business Website

The first question you need to ask yourself is "why do I need to change my website ?".  Is the function and appearance of the website pleasing my customers.  If you think that a makeover is what you need then there are some great tips out there for you and your web developer.

Joe Griffin has served as the co-founder and CEO of a digital marketing firm and he shared some great tips in the article that he wrote.


Re-launching a website is a massive, multi-layered task for any business.
You have make decisions not only about design and branding — a re-launch requires a seemingly endless checklist of tasks: benchmarking, content strategy, audience research, SEO, back-end hosting … the list goes on. Plus, as a business every decision is hinged on ROI: What impact will the remodeled website have on your business’ traffic, engagement, and conversion?
Your business’s flaws and weak links are often exposed when it comes time to reinvigorate your web presence.
Whether this comes in tandem with an organizational restructure, a change in services or products, a reinvigorated brand strategy, or simply after realizing that your current website is not converting customers at the level you’d like, every business should re-convene on their web strategy at least every few years.


These tips can serve as a blueprint, checklist, and guide for your enterprise’s future website remodeling plans. 

1.Get everyone on the same page

Talk to each and every stakeholder about the impending re-launch. Meet with colleagues (within your department and cross-functionally), shareholders, clients, board members, industry mentors, and other key parties as you embark on your re-launch planning.
Ask each group similar questions:

• What is missing?
• What do you like about the current site?
• Do you think it’s the right time to re-launch?
• Do we have the capacity to do this as a company?
• Do you think we will come out better afterwards?
• Do we want a re-skin, which impacts the overall design aesthetic of the website, or a re-launch, a total overhaul?

Answering these questions early on – and getting buy in and feedback from all parties — will help you in the long run. When relaunching iAcquire.com, for example, multiple departments within our agency combined forces to create a vision for the website. Doing this helped us define scope, high-level direction, budget, requirements, and most importantly goals — all essential for the beginning strategy documents of a website redesign.

2. Allocate a budget and bandwidth

Your overall budget for your website redesign will frame your bandwidth. If your budget is in the tens of thousands of dollars, you have the budget to utilize a big agency to create a new website for your enterprise. If your budget is smaller ($7,500-$15,000) you may be able to utilize outside help on a consulting basis.
Either way, a large chunk of change will be needed for a website redesign. Hosting isn’t free either, so even if you do everything in-house you’ll need a budget.
Also, consider the project scope and if your in-house team has the capacity to complete such a large-scale project. Creative, content, promotion, SEO, and developers will all need to commit a large part of their workload to the project. For example, our marketing and strategy team dedicated a good solid three month to the project.
CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, and legal need to be engaged from the beginning as well. And project status should be communicated at least one time per week to high-level stakeholders.

3. Ensure benchmarks are in place

Create benchmarking documents to track the current website’s design and content, layout, as well as audience targeting and current website analytics (visitor interaction and conversion) so you can accurately measure success after the new site launches. Define your current and future KPIs and keep track of them. Keep in mind that these may change as your organization grows, so be inclusive and collect as much as you can.
For iAcquire, we use the following key performance indicators:

• Leads
• Time on site
• Share of voice
• Number of links
• Organic search rankings
• Impressions
• Traffic

4. Define or redefine your key audience personas 
Consumers are getting savvier and savvier by the minute and modern technology allows users to tune out various messages. With that being said, it is crucial to craft your remodeled website around your converting, engaged personas.
Once you define audience personas, you can better direct:

• The tone of the copy
• The website’s overall design/look
• What type of content (images, copy, videos) resonates best
• Calls to action – where the are placed, what copy to use, user path

Creating audience personas helps all creative, content, and allows marketing stakeholders to maintain uniformity. Leverage audience market data, survey results, and need states to create personas and user stories. Use this template and create your own three to five personas. Utilize market research tools like Experian, Nielsen, Facebook data, and even Google Analytics to get to the core of your visitor base.

5. Plan as much as you execute

Draft a creative brief that includes all project requirements – from copy and SEO to technical hosting and color scheme requirements. This brief will serve as the blueprint for all parties working on the redesign.  The plan can be as long as 30 pages, though the length is not important; the content is the important part. If it helps you, then delegate specific sections to different leaders within your team. Come together and review the plan, and then from there start executing your strategy.

6. Consider your copy

A shiny, well-designed site is great, but like your looks it’s the first thing to go with age. If your content isn’t great, neither is your site. And it’s not just about well-written prose; it all has to be planned out, persona-driven content, created by understanding your key audiences and how they behave online. Develop a roadmap for content strategy and your copy will fall into place.
Within iAcquire, we know that governance and establishing an editorial calendar is just as important as setting up the content framework. Without structural guidance organizations can fall into content paralysis. These processes defines the players, topics, and requirements necessary to curate and publish content.

7. Keep the bot in mind

Within your re-launch two key “audiences” need to be kept in mind: your visitors and the search engine spiders. Search engines have a very detailed algorithm for ranking pages, and with your re-launch you want to make sure that you stay even or above in your rankings. Here are three key considerations you should have for SEO:

• Redirects
  If specific URLs are no longer active, or you are changing the site architecture, make sure 301s redirects are in place. Non-existent redirects can lead to a “docked” search position.
• Conversion end-points
  Your re-designed website will probably not have the same conversion funnel or path as your last site, so make sure someone is dedicated to checking the conversion points on your redesigned sites to make sure they are a) working, b) properly migrated, and c) tracked.
• On-page keyword analysis
  Target two to three keywords per page and intertwine them organically throughout the copy and metadata. If your organization previously targeted a list of keywords, look at them again as competition and volume changes from year to year and even month to month.

8. Who’s your host?

Consider where you are going to host your site.

Is it going to sit on a server that your enterprise owns and maintains, or will it live with a hosting company? Is your hosting bandwidth enough? Consider what frameworks you will use on the front end, and what Javascript libraries you will use, such as MooTools or jQuery. PHP, .Net, or Rails? WordPress or Drupal?
All of these decisions need to be made early on.

9. Utilize Google Webmaster Tools

Once your website is in development, have your organization set up a Google account (if you don’t already have one) and get acquainted with Google Webmaster Tools. This free Google tool can tell you any problems with site/page indexing and even click-through rates. If the content is being rearranged on your new site, it could be buried deeper, making it harder for search engines to crawl, which leads to a non-indexed area.

10. Strategize a post-launch plan

Your job isn’t over when your redesigned site launches. Create a plan to promote the new site on social media, PR outreach, and blog announcements. Plan on pushing marketing messages through these channels for at least two weeks past the launch. Connect with key influencers on social who can push your message further.
Then create a plan to organize, develop, curate, and publish new content so you keep luring new visitors in: inbound marketing at its finest. On an internal communications front, make sure that your organization is kept in the loop as well. Inform all departments of the re-launch. Be clear on what has changed and how they can utilize your “2.0” or “3.0″ website to optimally conduct their respective jobs.
While every organization has needs, adopting a process is a crucial element. Use this list as a guide, and customize it to meet your organization’s unique challenges, and develop a website that reflects your company
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/07/10-essential-tips-for-your-companys-web-design-project/

 

 

 

Why Does Terradon Communications Use Kentico CMS Desk for Website Development?

TCG uses Kentico CMS because we can give customers a dynamic website with many options in order to communicate well to the viewers in which they are focusing in their business plan.


Kentico CMS is an enterprise Web Content Management System and Customer Experience Management System that provides a complete set of features for building websites, intranets, community sites and e-commerce solutions on the Microsoft ASP.NET platform. It supports mobile websites, SEO, document management, online marketing tools, multilingual websites, multisite management and it ships with 40 modules, 340 configurable Web parts and source code available.

Kentico Software (http://www.kentico.com) helps clients create successful dynamic websites, intranets, community sites and e-commerce solutions using Kentico CMS for ASP.NET. It's committed to deliver a full-featured, enterprise-class, stable and scalable Web Content Management solution on the Microsoft .NET platform. Founded in 2004, Kentico is headquartered in the Czech Republic and has offices in the United States (Nashua, NH and Seattle, WA) and United Kingdom (Reading).



Web Content Management Software Leader, Kentico CMS, announced in early July that Gold Partner BlueModus was recognized as a top 10 website in June for its responsive mobile engineering and web development with Martini (http://www.martini.com).

According to BlueModus President, Dave Baumgarten, “Martini needed a site that provided an upscale experiential interface, but did not want to sacrifice responsive behavior or the capability for its markets to translate the site to a specific region.” To achieve this, BlueModus leveraged Kentico as the Web platform. Working with Exposure, a UK-­based design agency, the website takes users through the Martini products and drinks, using an HTML5 approach to display products with lighting effects to highlight the imagery provided in these sections.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10956536.htm