Websites are not flat things... like the earth once was, apparently. At first a website looks like a flat page in a book. If you're not used to getting around websites and clicking on things it can seem like an endless book with no start and finish. But, they're not...

Websites are more like a layers of a translucent onion with interchangeable and customisable skins and flavours, adaptable and controllable according to the desired yield. Each web page is a layer of the website, not all over the place but organised into a shape. Each layer (page) will remain intact in it's original location, like in a book.

Unlike the screen you view them on, the 'shape' of websites are not flat. Imagine a book that is not flat but goes in a circle or spherical shape, end to end. The screen is just the thing that projects each 'page' of the website ('site' meaning a bunch of pages). Sounds obvious but this is worth writing out loud. How you think about what you look at changes the way you see.

Humans have throughout many eras, it seems, had feelings of being enslaved and having resentment towards machines, devices and technology. It's HARD to use! It can hurt, give you headaches and sore thoughts; well, sometimes it's ok, sometimes even fun, joyous but sometimes it's painful, sometimes a bloody waste of time and let's all go on long holidays!

Humans we are and will always be but just remember to take heart - machines are to serve us, as our helpers. They're great really when you think about it like that. That's the point. These machines (the internet is a machine too) are designed, even on a website level, by us humans.

Again, maybe obvious but worth stating out loud. There's still a feeling of disassociation with our control over what goes 'up there' on the web. But if you get a friendly, useful, smart human to design the thing, the thing will be friendly, useful and smart looking. So, if you want a good looking website, get a model who works as a web designer by day!! Ha ha ..only joking.

The feeling needs to be that the website you are paying for to serve you is going to serve you. It's purpose is that and the objective is to succeed. You have control over your 'onion'. It's a nice thing and continually regenerates.

When you have your own website, you have ultimate control over what goes on it. The onion can be peeled back or put together the way you want it to, for salads, stir fries, roast or whatever; referring to your style, taste, objective and purpose.

Your business website reflects and represents, like a mirror, your business. The beauty of it is, you can shape that reflection to put your business in the best light and make ongoing changes as it evolves.

What??  Don't I need a computer to have a website? Actually, no, not really.

You only need to get online, on the internet. Online is not limited to a computer anymore. You can get online with phones, iPads and all other devices that can connect to the internet and therefore your website. This is no longer unusual. Although most people have a computer at home and / or at work, many many people also have these online devices. Phones in particular are multi functional like never before and often take the place of computers in this globally mobile world.

A website is online everywhere. Now, what you do with it is the key..

You don't have to touch it to make it work! That's the good news.. You can direct it, like a good business movie, a promotional window to your business soul so to speak and let us (Pixelfire) make it happen. Use Pixelfire's Website Maintenance Package and get back to business or leisure, anyway, away from the computer! You already talked to us, had a Website Design made and OK'd it to your total satisfaction before this (talking hypothetically here) and in doing so, understand everything and anything can be changed at will on your website, so you're not locked into something being published that you then change your mind about. It's not print!

You never know (or maybe you do); you may want to get online and play with your exclusively inclusive (excuse the psuedo-poetry) website once you've had a stress free go. It is actually good functional fun once you get into it. Changing the images on your website, changing prices so they reflect exactly what you want when you want it, changing descriptions or adding bits of words or stories, personal touches that you think of on the fly etc..this is fun and fact!

Best of all, it's yours! Your business, your income, your life and control, a feeling of accomplishment, not here and gone but continuing. If you like doing it this way, you can take advantage of Pixelfire's Web Maintenance Video Tutorials (go halfway down the page) and DIY it.

Either way, i.e. DIY with guides, prep and help or get us to do it, having your own business website in your favour whethr you hate computers or love 'em or don't give a wobbly either way. The website works FOR you. And your business of course.

Technical details are available of course, if you happen to adore this side of it. Please contact us and let us know what you'd like to know. Behind every good website is a really good conversation with a really good designer in the first place.

Think of this - Can you remember when having a mobile phone was decadent? And now? Are you kidding? It's unusual NOT to have one! In just about every home, even if the 'older' lings don't have one, one or more of the kids will without a doubt have a mobile phone, along with heaps of other computery type things no doubt.

That's home, then there's the office, factory, businesses everywhere in the world, all the places that house the people that need to know you exist in business!

The point here is, that was then, but this is now..

You can do some promotion and advertising using print, some in radio and some in word-of-mouth. But there are some major differences when it comes to promotion and advertising these days.

We think of a traditional phone as a physical device, now referred to as a handset and for those less used to mobiles, the mobile seems like talking in the air, even though there is still a little 'handset'.

Enter the internet!

Funny thing is the internet is not as we as we generally think. Like the difference between a phone and a mobile phone. Way before the internet as we generally know it, was the internet in it's original form; really just a new form of communication device, after radio, print and mobile phones. Phones and radios work with the transfer of signals or 'data', so does the internet. This is what makes websites possible.

So, the evolution of communication devices is a continuum. The beauty about websites are that they are not one off's, i.e., they can be shaped and grown to house your business like a shop window, leading into a shop, or factory of office or enterprise or home based business, small business, etc. You get the picture I'm sure.

The great thing about having a website for your business is that it's an ongoing investment, as opposed to a one-off form of advertising.

A lot of people think word-of-mouth and print ads are good enough. But, in this day and age of multi-media, images and text (traditionally known as pictures and words) are more than two dimensional ads. Audio likewise goes hand-in-hand with video now and these forms of communication are all perfectly geared towards the medium of a website. A well designed website is a purpose built window for your business.

Of course, in advertising your services and/or your products, you want to target certain people, businesses and potential customers to your business. This area of marketing can be done in spades in website design!

Basically, if you choose to not have a good functional website for business, your business will be left out of the search results of the majority of people, therefore potential customers or clients looking for you!

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I have read recently that backlinks to your website from top other ranking sites can help push your site up through Googles page rank.

I am prepared to create a back link page on my website and swap links with other businesses who are interested.

I am looking for businesses that operate in the following fields:

• Business Coaching
• Business Developement
• Printing
• Website Design
• Online Marketing
• Email Marketing
• SEO
• Graphic Design

If you would like to link to my site please use the following code.

<a href="/http://pixelfire.com.au/web-design-melbourne" title="Pixelfire Melbourne Website Designers" target="_blank">Melbourne Website Designers. Affordable professional business website design.</a>

NEXT
Let me know that you have linked to my site and the webpage it is on by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Give me your link so I can link code to your site.

Please note that I am only looking to swap links with the business types I have listed above as the content of those websites will be similar to mine and therefore the back links will be relevant.

Many thanks,
Neil.

Author: Neil Forrester

Melbourne is full of website designers and web developers - I am one of them so I should know!

What kinds of web designers are there?

Choosing a web designer to create your website can be a daunting task because it's hard to compare one designers capabilities against another.

• Some web designers only design the look of your website and these people are called Graphic Designers.
• Other web designers only code and build websites - these people are called 'Web Developers'.
• Thirdly there are those web designers that can design websites and code. I myself can both design and code websites which saves my clients a lot money only having to use one person to achieve the same results.

Choosing a Web Designer

When it comes to choosing a web designer you should really use a professional if you are serious about your business. Using your brother in law to create a site for you is cheaper but your site might actually look like your brother in law created it too - not cool.

Take a look at your chosen web designers portfolio. Do you like the designs he or she has done for other people. You want your website to look unique to your business. That said people do expect to find information in the usual places such as menus at the top, the telephone number top right etc...

Read through the web designers testimonials and see what past clients have written. You could even call their past clients to get a reference.

Finally trust your gut instinct - do you like your web designer and do they listen to what you have to say. Good communication is vital when it comes to web design so that your requests can be interpreted correctly into the design you wish for your website.

Your visitors first impression of your website needs to be:

• This business looks professional
• The navigation works and I can find what i am looking for
• I feel I can trust this business and want to work with them.

What does your website need to do?

Before building a website it's always worth asking yourself why you want a website. What are the objectives of having a site? Brand awareness, to give information or sell products and services online. Which ever one you choose, each website needs to have a goal or an objective. This is known as the funnel which pushes the user towards some kind of action. At the end of the funnel there might be a 'Contact Page' prompting people to call you.

How much do websites cost?

This is a question I am always asked and it's difficult to answer because each site usually has different requirements which means different levels of development time. In order to give my clients a reasonable idea for website design cost, I charge $1299 which has upto 15 pages, basic functionality and includes hosting for the first year.

In order to give a more detailed quote you would really need to give a detailed description as to what you need your site to do and get 3-5 separate web design quotes. What you shoud look for is not the cheapest quote but the best value for money in terms of design, functionality and customer service.

Why are Content Managed Websites better than Static websites?

Not many people have a static website any more because they are notoriously difficult to maintain as your site grows. The hardest part is ensuring the menus are updated across all of the pages in the site.

Content Managed System (CMS) websites don't store information on pages. Information is stored in a database which is displayed as a styled page depending on what you wish to show when a person clicks a link on your site. The other main advantage is that design is separated from content which means updating the look and feel of your site is much quicker through a linked style sheet.

We create websites using the Joomla CMS because there are so many extensions we can utilise from galleries to ecommerce.

What every web design should include

Below is a quick break down as to what every web design should include:

• Good web design
• Easy to use interface and navigation
• Primary navigation above the fold so people will see it
• Repeat navigation in the footer - a good idea if a visitor scrolls to the bottom of the page.
• Well written content. I can't emphasise this enough - you're reading this aren't you :)
• A well written About Us page. People want to know about your history, why you do what you do, how long have you been doing it for etc. Don't scrimp on the writing. Visitors are already on your page so give them the information they're looking for.
• Contact information. I advise people to give there real business address and not PO Box address. This is because people want to know you are a real business. Anyway, what have you got to hide?
• Search bar - make it easy for people to find content on your site.
• Sitemap. A sitemap is a simple non-styled menu list of all of the pages on your site - a kind of index.
• Sign up and Subscribe. Get people to sign up to receive special information or content. Once you have their details you can continue marketing to them with offers and more importantly - information. Become an expert in your field and people will want to know what you have to say.
• Search Engine Optimisation. Optimise your website content and images so that search engines can index your content correctly.
• Add Google Analytics to your site so that you can track where visitors are coming from and the keywords they used to find your web pages.

If you would like more information regarding web design please visit our web design quote page or contact us page.

We know that it's tough out there and cashflow can be an issue, particularly for small business. So we have created a flexible payment plan that are detailed below:

The web page you have tried to find has either been renamed or deleted from our website and we appologise for the inconvenience. Please select from the menus below to locate the page you are looking for.

Our sitemap display the menus listed on this website in a simple list format for you to quickly find your way around our website.

We will be in touch with you soon.

Kind regards,

Neil Forrester | Proprietor of Pixelfire
03 9789 1189