MH1 Web Design Blog

We are very proud to receive the following kind words from Pastor Frankie Mazzapica at Spirit Filled Celebration Church in The Woodlands. Thank you Pastor Frankie!

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“I am the Sr. Pastor of Spirit Filled Celebration Church in The Woodlands, Tx.  We have worked with several web design/hosting companies over the last several years.  In the past, we have been very frustrated with not only the quality of the product produced for us, but also by the customer service as well. 

Working with Mike and his team at MH1 we have had an incredible experience!  MH1 worked at a high level of excellence to produce a site that far exceeded our original expectations.  Anytime I ever need to talk with Mike or a member of his staff, I am able to contact them with no delay.  MH1 is easily reached over the phone and they reply to my emails with incredible speed.  We have been so impressed with MH1, we have volunteered to put a link to their website on our site.  I give MH1 my highest recommendation.”

Frankie Mazzapica, Sr. Pastor
Spirit Filled Celebration Church
www.SpiritFilledCC.com

This blog topic could also be called “Avoiding Paralysis by Analysis”. On occasion we sign on a new web design client who wants to monitor the course of their website project by committee. Composed of some four or more well intentioned employees, each feels they must contribute their fair share of criticism. This scenario often breeds a nightmare where no one gets what they want and our designers are left spinning in confusion. Our advice will help you prevent this train wreck when managing your next web design project.

In small companies and non-profits, owners and managers sometimes appoint a committee of staffers to oversee these projects to avoid making their own decisions or taking responsibility for them. In theory, the committee members will each bring some experience or value to the process. In reality, this is only true before the design or development of the website begins. Afterwards, it is a simple case of too many cooks spoil the soup.

The best time to put your committee to work is before you begin working with your web designer or developer. The committee should look at website examples, competitors websites, hash out goals, features, colors, and other aspects of the new site. This information can be distilled into a very effective design brief that will guide your web team to your final goal. A goal that is agreed upon after much argument, exploration, and debate.

Once the web designer has your design brief to serve as a guide, the committee’s work is done. Then the decision-maker or a liaison assigned to the project can make sure the project meets your organizations goals and design criteria. The design brief is the rich culmination of your committee’s hard work and preparation. It will keep your website project on track. It is impossible for a designer or developer to be effective when facing a flurry of repetitive changes from several different and usually contradictory voices. So, make sure your company speaks with only one voice.

And if the owner or final decision-maker appoints a liaison to oversee the job, be sure they are frequently shown progress updates. Their buy-in is critical at every stage of the development as they will sign the final check.

Save yourself time, money and heartache by using your committee to your best advantage.

Here is MH1 Web Design’s Design Brief template for your use: http://www.mh1webdesign.com/files/design_brief.pdf

by Brenna Ehrlich on www.mashable.com

Despite Facebook privacy changes and serious cases of Twitter Fail Whale, social media use has increased astronomically since this time last year: During December 2009, global users spent an average of five hours on social networking sites, up from three hours in December 2008. That’s an 82% increase.

Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:

- Social networking sites are the most popular online destinations globally (based on the amount of time people spent there in December), with games and instant messaging coming in second and third, respectively. (Side note: As gaming becomes more popular on sites like Facebook, it will be interesting to see how this affects time spent.)

- In December, Facebook was the most popular social networking site globally, with 67% of social media fans logging in. In addition, time spent on Facebook has been on the rise; globally, people spend close to six hours per month on the network.

- In the U.S., people continue to spend more time on social networks, but year-over-year growth for Facebook and Twitter individually outpaced overall growth for the category at large.

- Twitter was the fastest-growing social networking site in December 2009, during which it had 18.1 million unique visitors. That’s up from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008. Still, month-over-month, unique visitors decreased 5%, lending credence to the notion that the microblogging site’s popularity may be flatlining.

Here are some charts from Nielsen showing social media’s ascent:

So what does all this mean? Basically what we and a bevy of social media experts have been saying for months now: Social networking is a force to reckoned with.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter are getting the most eyeballs, which means we have to figure out how to use them to their maximum potential — whether it be by optimizing ROI or attempting to mine them for journalistic purposes.

Many of you using MH1 Web Hosting are receiving false emails disguised as support emails generated by our technical staff. Do not click on the enclosed link or reply if you receive one of these emails.

If you click on the link you will verify that you are a live email address and they will send you more spam on a regular basis. The link could also download harmful spyware or viruses to your computer. Please delete these malicious emails immediately.

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Dear user of the mh1webdesign.com mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (yourname@mh1webdesign.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://mh1webdesign.com/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=mike@mh1webdesign.com&from=mh1webdesign.com&fromname=mike

Best regards, mh1webdesign.com Technical Support.

Letter ID#491173EN5DYG6U2BE2F

by Ed Rivis, www.leavehteminthedust.com

Some people have lost a tonne of money by incorrectly configuring their Cost per Click, Daily Budget, and myriad of other Google Adwords account settings.

Something as innocuous as a decimal point accidentally typed in the wrong position has cost some advertisers dearly because like the majority they didn’t think to check their account regularly.

Check your Google Adwords account as often as possible. Most business owners I know delegate this task – but even so just a few minutes a day and even the most stressed business owner can monitor their account.

When you’re logged in you can quickly see how much money your current advertising is costing. If it’s more than you’re happy with then it can all be paused at a single click, from which point nobody can see your adverts until you choose to start them running again.

If you fail to check your account daily, if you leave it too long then you may get a nasty shock when you do eventually return to check expenditure! Don’t make that mistake.

What should you check?

1) CPC: How much you pay Google every time someone clicks any of your adverts.

I recommend you check that daily or as often as possible to make sure that (a) it’s been entered correctly – no costly typos and that (b) it’s set at an optimum in terms of positioning your adverts.

2) CTR: How many times your adverts are being clicked.

Click fraud is a nasty hazard if you use Google Adwords.

Basically it means other people – but not your prospective customers or clients – deliberately click your Adwords adverts in an attempt to ratchet your charges.

By monitoring your account regularly you get to see that type of activity sooner rather than later and do something about it.

3) The average position of your text adverts in relation to your competitors.

If your adverts are displaying too high (in say the top 3 positions on the first page of Google) then your almost certainly paying too much per click. (See point 1 above.)

Position numbers around 6 to 8 (ideally 7) has been shown in most cases to be optimum.

By appearing lower down the page you get a much better return on your Google Adwords spend. Less traffic, but more sales per visitor to your site resulting in a much better profit margin.

There are more things to check but those are important metrics to keep an eye on to start with. Google Adwords comes with a report centre where you can automatically schedule to have the above information emailed to you.

Why not create a daily report emailed to you or your delegated staff member so it’s not forgotten?

If your web site needs a fresh injection of heavy traffic (more people who visit) then Google Adwords is a fantastic and cost effective method… but keep a very close eye on it or you could lose your shirt!

Ed Rivis recorded more than 4 hours of live ‘on-screen screen footage’ in his Google Adwords online advertising home-study course. It shows exactly how to create, enhance and optimise ‘killer’ Google Adwords marketing campaigns.
Visit: http://www.GoogleAdWordsVoyeur.com