Monday, December 2, 2013

WHAT YOU SHOULD LOOK FOR IN A CUSTOM WEBSITE BUILDER!!!

What You Should Look For in a Custom Website Builder

Custom Website
Lately I have had quit of few people contact me inquiring about possibly getting a custom website built for their business, and what I have discover is that a lot of people are new to the world of custom websites and what to look for in a custom website builder. So I decided that I would share a little bit of knowledge that I have on the topic. Searching for a  custom website builder that fits the needs of your company is a lot like trying to choose the right real estate agent. So before diving straight into the selection phase, arm yourself with 5 basic questions to ask when reviewing companies.


  5 Things To Question About Your Custom Website Builder 

1) How Much Experience Do They Have?
Experience is king! It translates to high quality design and functionality practices and more importantly, no painful mistakes that cost, you the client, time and money. You want to know what skills do thy offer, skills like HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT,  PHP, Flash, Ajax, SEO, content writing, and graphics creation. The more of these skills that thy know on their own, the less  time & money you will wast with them having to subcontract your custom website work to someone  who has those skills. You should confirm that your candidate knows as much of the entire alphabet soup of protocols, web markup languages and coding utilities as possible.


2) What Is Their Availability & Do They Work Within A Timely Manner?
     (Is your project their top priority at the time? How easily you get in contact with them?)
Let's be  honest as a client,all of us want to know that our questions and concerns are going to be responded to in a timely manner. Additionally, we all want to know that our custom website projects are not getting put on the back burner due to an overwhelming workload, unrelated job issues, or overall not being prioritized. We all want to know if  the person that I am spending my money with, has the attitude of making customer service a priority. If a custom website builder/developer is too busy to answer e-mails or phone calls, will they be able to keep the production schedule and project deadline? Most importantly, don't hire anyone won't explain unknown terminology, you have to communicate with this person about things that are important to the very survival of your business, so you need to be clear at all times.

3) How Is The Quality of The Work in Their Portfolio?

Take a look at their work and ask yourself, are the designs clean, functional, and user-friendly? Are they original designs or are they produced by some template software. How the websites they've built actually work. This is important if you're looking for a designer to build any type of interactivity for your website.
It is also important look at their portfolio because, most custom website builders design their business site when they're not working on paying jobs, so how their personal custom website looks isn't necessarily an indicator of their quality of work. In most cases they don't have tons of time to modify their business site, because they have a lot of  paying clients, which is usually an good measure of the quality of work and experience of that custom website builder? So you have to judge for yourself, s if they have a good portfolio

4) Will They Help You Get Your Custom Website on  the Top of Search Engines 
     (Will they continue to manage your custom website once it is completed)
In order to be accepted by the search engines, it is really significant to have an expert who will make sure your keywords, page formation, links, on page and off page SEO has been set up suitably. This will make sure that your website is search engine friendly as well as being visitor friendly.  It can take months to correct the search ranking of a website that was poorly formatted originally. You want someone who is not only knowledgeable, but pays attention to detail and understands how to drive traffic and get conversions. Someone that will assure meta and title tags are added, and properly formatted, along with making sure copy for the webpage will comport with how search engine crawler bots read and index pages.

5)  What Is Their Pricing Structure?
        (How much will it cost you?)
Custom Website design costs can vary from $500 to thousands of dollars depending on the design and functional complexity of the site. Fair pricing for a professional custom website of 10-15 pages with the standard features runs all the way from $500 to $5000.To insure yourself of getting an accurate estimate of the cost of your future custom website, the first thing you want to do is sit down and determine what  features you would like your custom website to have. For a full picture of all the costs involved in your project, ask for all the costs to be broken down on an invoice individually - domain name and hosting, graphic design work, marketing fees and web development  and maintenance matters. If the job is large enough, you may have to place a deposit down, but you should have all payment terms worked out before work starts. You can work out an hourly rate, a flat fee or some combination of the two. Do not leave nothing unstated or assumed, get every detail in writing, including deadlines and how many revisions are included.



FLYASABIRD.com Custom Website Services

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Thursday, November 21, 2013

4 REASONS YOU SHOULD HAVE A CUSTOM WEBSITE BUILT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Why You Should Have A Custom Website
CUSTOM WEBSITE vs TEMPLATE 

When deciding which is the best option for your business between a custom website, or a template website the 1st question you should ask yourself is... What first impression do you want to make? But while you're contemplating your decision, here are a few things to consider: Templates Are One-Size-Fits All, so therefore are pretty much generic and do not take into consideration who the audience is that will be using the site or how they will be using it. They also are loaded with graphics, copy and code that are used by dozens if not thousands of other businesses, you'll end up with a website that is very similar to everyone else who used that template. (Any trust me people will notice) Bottom line is that in most cases, using a template for your website makes your business look generic, non credible or even unprofessional.

A website should be customized to fit the needs of your visitors, so that the information they are looking for is easy to find. Using the appropriate layout, navigation, features, text-size, and so-on all ultimately contribute to the success of your website and your business. Your customization options are limited if using a template, but with a custom website, you also get custom web applications to implement on to your site. These web applications include things like shopping carts, payment systems, online ordering etc., a template website will not be as useful or as valuable as one that’s tailor made to fit your exact needs.

As opposed to most template websites that charge a "so called" low monthly fee for you to use their services, the best part is that the investment for custom website is the fact that it is only a one-time thing. There are no monthly fees, thanks to the use content management systems (CMS). For example our clients at FLYASABIRD.com  pay for our custom website design services one time, afterwards they manage nearly everything on their custom website through their CMS and then they’re able to reap the benefits for years. Now to add you conflict o your decision, that I will state 4 reasons that I believe that you should have a custom website built for your business:


1) Helps To Brand Your Business
Make Your Brand Stand Apart From The Crowd
Don't you want to speak in one visual voice through your business cards, letterheads, brochures, etc., so why would your website be any different? Creating a unique–looking website that is designed around your business will assist in helping your customers to remember your brand. Presenting your business’s true image and values with a custom web design will help increase sales and build your audience. Think you the world wide web as Superbowl, and your custom website as your TV commercial that you want to use to help your brand stand out from the crowd. A unique look and feel will help to brand your business by making sure that your images, colors, navigation, content and page backgrounds are all themed around your business' brand, thus helping you to brand your business around your personal preferences.

examples of Different Custom Website Features
 .
2) Custom Feature Availability
Perhaps you're interested in adding some cost effective marketing tools to your website, such as forums, pop–up subscription forms, business directories, or Google Analytics. With a custom website, scripts and web applications can easily be added to increase the simplicity of the navigation and over all use of each individual function on your custom website. Call-to-action features like "Buy Now" , "Click here to talk with our agent NOW", "Subscribe to our monthly newsletter", are all examples of features which can be offered with a custom website, contrary to most ready made website templates.


These Are The Top 5 Browsers
3) Cross-Browser Compatibility
Not everyone uses the same browser while enjoying the internet, so making sure your custom website works on not only Internet Explorer, but Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari as well,  is essential to ensuring that your visitors see your website the way it is supposed to look regardless to what browser or device that are using to visit your website. Most of the template coding doesn't allow them perform properly in certain browsers. The 5  browsers mentioned cover around 92% of the total market with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox covering 92% of browser market share. From just those numbers alone, you can s why it becomes very important for any website owner to design and optimize a custom website to make them fully compatible to these browsers.

4) Search Engine Optimization
 Building your custom website with valid HTML and CSS code is critical to the success of your website in search engine rankings.  If your code is correctly validated, it will make it easier for search engines to index your web pages. A professional custom website builder will always be aware of  the latest additions, updates, changes to the code which is always valuable because, if Google, Yahoo and Bing can't read your website code properly then it will be difficult for them to index your website in their search engine results, which in turn will make it very difficult for new clients to find you online. This is a common issue with free template websites, because they often contain lots of html errors, as well as have proprietary codes from the companies that made the templates, which work more against your SEO efforts than with them.

If you have any further questions or concerns regarding building a custom website for your business, visit FLYASABIRD.com and sign up for a FREE 1 consultation and join their mailing list to receive their latest updates.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

WANT TO UNDERSTAND CUSTOM WEBSITE COSTS?


    WHAT IS A CUSTOM WEBSITE?
Different Uses For A Custom Website
When I mention a custom website , I'm referring to sites that are conceptualized, designed, and built from the ground up, specifically for a particular website or online business. These “one of a kind” designs are only used for that single company, product, or service and you won’t see the same design being used by any other website. We at FLYASABIRD.com are frequently contacted by folks who call wanting a new custom website, saying things like “Ya know, like Groupon but with that Twitter feature but more like how Craigslist does it..." "Oh alright, sure that’s a great idea. Did you have a budget in mind?" “Oh, well… we were thinking in the $1,000-$2000 range."SERIOUSLY???" (Of course that is not my actual response, just what I'm screaming in my head) Why, you may ask...well honestly that budget doesn't really match the value of the  amount of time that will be required by any professional website builder to provide the necessary research & development of such a complex project.

MISCONCEPTION OF CUSTOM WEBSITE vs  PRE -BUILT COSTS 
Custom Website vs Pre Built Website
I've had people become irate, after receiving a quote from me as if I was trying to bamboozle them and for a while I couldn't understand... WHY the confusion when FLYASABIRD.com save our clients at least 20% on average for custom websites? Then I ask myself this question, why would anyone assume the custom website they’re asking for would not cost thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars?  Amazingly, the answer actually became simple and clear immediately, because the internet products and services marketplace skews perspectives about what things should cost. There are 3 factors play a major role in assisting to skewing the consumer's perspective, thy are Automation, Templatization, & Commoditization. It will provide a more detailed description of all 3 of these factors in my next post, so please be sure to join the FLYASABIRD.com blog mailing list for more information about each factor. But the point that I am trying to make for this particular  topic is the affect of these 3 factors, the fact that 'so called" free, inexpensive and nominal monthly fees for “a website” make for a conflated marketplace riddled with confusion. 
Many companies provide website designs that were put together in mass production, then they provide the templates of these basic designs to plug in text and photos and sell to their customers at a very low cost. They sell them as “Custom Designed Websites”. This is false and misleading. If you look at their portfolios, you can see a simple “cookie cutter” style design that sorely lacks in top notch creativity and branding that we at FLYASABIRD.com provide. Every day I get calls from companies saying they want the “I just want to have a small web site and not spend a lot of money” route. And now their website is obsolete, they can’t find the company that designed it, isn’t optimized correctly, and they need to have it done all over again. So actually in most cases, in the long run, it has costed more that it would've to just have a custom website built the first time.

THE TRUTH ABOUT CUSTOM WEBSITE PRICING
As owner of a custom website development company, I believe that details are an integral part of development, therefore has a tremendous impact custom website pricing. For example, a client my ask for a feature on their website for users to upload music. There is a long list of questions I could respond with from the file format, file size limit of the music uploads, to the amount of uploads at any single time or total upload amount, if any and the list goes on. That being said, please keep in mind that this long list of questions was only concerning one feature on your custom website that will require 100+ additional features which each will require the same "Question & Answer" process prior to a website builder spending countless hours designing & programming your custom website  to function properly!


Professional Custom Website example


 Essentially there are 2 ways to come up with a price for your custom website development: 
1) Fixed Bid, where your website builder charges you a fixed bid to complete full project, for instance a figure like $5000. 
2) Hourly Rates where you pay your website builder $100  an hour for as long as it takes to complete your custom website project
Either option you choose, the total cost will be relative to to the complexity of design, cost of custom photography, motion graphics, animation and interactive tools. So my advice to anyone would be, that it is important to discuss your custom website project within the budget realities you face. However I do still encourage you to talk about your expectations with your website builder, you will find that many of them are like us at FLYASABIRD.com, are willing to work with you budget. In my opinion, a simple yet professional custom website can usually be produced starting at $2,500, plus basic Web hosting. Remember that you are paying for a service that will play huge role in the success or failure of your business in this technology driven age. Now ask yourself how valuable your custom website is to the growth and expansion of your business?  

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Custom Website Development + Streaming Live Radio + Digital Music and Merchandise Distributor: ALL UNDER ONE ROOF!!!


Greetings, my name is P.J. Cannon Jr

Starting today November 14th 2013. I will be providing you with important, relevant, funny, brain scrambling information in regards to Technology including Custom Website, Mobile App, and Software Development ,  along with Live Radio Broadcasting in addition to some Financial Literacy Tips and how you can use it you increase your income, not just now, but for the future! Now please note, money has but one prejudice.. that's KNOWLEDGE! The more you know, the more ways you can create to make money, the more you know about the financial industry, the more you can make your money and other people work for you to make you more money, where you have more of something a lot more valuable than money, your TIME!

10,000 people turn 65 yrs of age daily (Retirement age), only a small percent of those people are actually able to retire, think about the Walmart Greeters, Cashiers that you know should be retired. Now ask yourself do you want to be able to retire & live off the money you've earned from understanding the latest technology & financial trends?


FLYASABIRD RADIO - Real Live Radio
I am the owner of FLYASABIRD.com. We are a  Custom Website Development Company, a Digital Distributor of Music,we are also the host site to FLYASABIRD RADIO, a streaming live radio station that offers Radio Advertisement. I am also a Financial Adviser  and my company rewards me for educating people about how they can increase their finances! Plus, I just love seeing people improve their circumstances!

Currently, any artist, of any genre, worldwide can INSTANTLY sign up on our website at FLYASABIRD.com, to start selling their music to their fans via digital media download purchases. They can also receive radio airplay on our live radio station FLYASABIRD RADIO streaming 24/7 from our homepage..(Imagine iTunes w/ the full control of Facebook)

In addition, any small business or corp can INSTANTLY send us a notification w/ a comment describing their web development needs. And within 24 hours, one of our customer service reps will contact them to discuss their requirements in full detail. Clients can make their payments directly from my website via our secure credit card gateway, and within 24 hours after we have received payment...anyone my team of 7 highly educated and extremely skilled & experienced developers can begin working on your project.

And with websites like www.screenr.com you can INSTANTLY video record, you screen shots using your voice to explain step by step, along with the video chat ability of SKYPE, we have be able to provide web development for companies local & abroad!



Please feel free to visit my website and join our mailing list to stay informed @ www.flyasabird.com