Author Archives: webpage

Happy New Year (Chinese)!

While the Gregorian Calendar was adopted by China in 1949, the much older by thousands of years Chinese Calendar has begun today, 3 February (Gregorian Calendar)! It is a time for many for family gatherings and celebrations which can last up to fifteen days. This year is the Year of the Rabbit. The Chinese Calendar is based on the positions of the earth and moon relative to each other (lunar calendar) and as such the exact date of the start of New Year can change with respect to the Gregorian Calendar. Happy New Year! Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Sun Nin Faai Lock (Cantonese)
Xin Nian Kuai Le (Mandarin)

Website Basics: An Introduction to Important Terms and Concepts

PART I: DOMAIN NAMES

Choosing a domain name is a starting point for many when beginning their first website or creating a new website. It is important to consider and understand the nature of a domain name, the factors in choosing a domain name, where is best for you to purchase one, and what might be the best domain name for your business or organization to maximize your website’s potential.

1. What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is the locational information that appears in the URL* (Uniform Resource Locator) such as “402webpage.com” for this blog at “http://402webpage.com” and “littlemountainwebdesign.com” for “http://www.littlemountainwebdesign.com”. This tells others where to find your website and the exact address location of your directory or file.

TLDs are Top Level Domains. These are domain names with endings such as the following:

.biz
.com
.info
.mobi
.net
.org

Among the most coveted are .com and .org. These were among the first TLDs and are easy to remember.

2. What Factors Should One Consider In Purchasing a Domain Name?

When you are considering your domain name, it is important to consider the following factors and strategies:

Company/Organization name
Functions/ action verbs associated with your company/organization
Nouns related to company/organization
Keyword relevance to what you are promoting
Distinctive name that is easy to remember
Branding strategy
Length of the domain name
Buying related domain names
Secrecy in selecting a domain name until purchase is completed
TLDs

Begin your search for that perfect domain name by brainstorming different names and ideas. You can use a thesaurus to help find synonyms to think of different but related names.

It is generally beneficial for your domain name to be short and easily remembered. This helps people find your business or organization quickly even if they can’t remember it exactly when they look for it via the search engines. Some domain name appraisers will recommend you keep the characters down to sixteen characters or less for your domain name. Long domain names make for long URLs and email addresses. This can be difficult later for business cards, media and sending links.

Define you brand strategy and ask yourself if your domain name enhances or complements it. To help with this, your domain name should have a memorable name that embodies your company/organization and what you are doing. Prepare a list of several choices in case the domain that you want has been taken.

If your choice for a domain name has been taken you can contact the owners directly or use a third party to contact the owner for you to make a offer. In those cases, it is unlikely that you will be able to purchase the domain name at cost from the owner. Be aware that there are many companies that purchase domain names with the sole intent to profit from selling it to someone like you who wants to own and develop it.

If that happens, you may work with a domain name appraiser. Domain name appraisers calculate how much they think your domain name is worth. Please note that it is their perception not what your future domain name is actually worth. As mentioned earlier, many people buy domain names with the sole purpose of selling it to someone later. The real state equivalent of this is “flipping” a house. Now while one does not need to develop the “property” or make repairs, some development can raise the asking price.

It is best to keep your ideas for a domain name secret and to not search for them online until you are ready to buy to keep others from buying it first by watching your activities online with various programs. Having more than one choice for a domain name ready in case you desired domain name is not available is a good strategy to prevent persons wanting to buy your potential domain name before you purchase it.

When you purchase your domain name, you may wish to purchase WHOIS privacy. WHOIS privacy, depending on your particular company, can keep more than your email address off the main WHOIS Internet searches. WHOIS searches can tell you who owns a website and how to contact them. Having WHOIS privacy helps reduce spam and scams but can give the impression to some that you are hiding something. The decision to purchase or not purchase this should be considered carefully by a business or organization.

Please return later or read on for the continuation of this series and more on domain names, including registrars, ICANN and how to purchase one from our website blog.

Website Basics: An Introduction to Important Terms and Concepts

The next several blog posts will cover the introduction and sections for our multipart series, ”Website Basics: An Introduction to Important Terms and Concepts.” In this series, we will explain some of the fundamentals in having a website and what is needed to purchase and maintain one. While these articles primarily are aimed at persons who do not have a website and want to learn more about the basics, we hope that if you are familiar with websites that you will learn something new as well. At the end of later posts, there will be a website glossary of terms and website related definitions and link section that everyone may find helpful.

WEBSITE BASICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO IMPORTANT TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Websites are a valuable component in modern marketing and branding strategies of today’s businesses and organizations and have become an important part of a business’ or organization’s credentials. They can help your business to be found in this highly mobile society where more and more people who relocate turn to the Internet to help them move and find places, news and information. Local residents are doing the same to get more out of their communities. Websites provide many different types of services to both the business/organization and both potential and existing clients. It is important to understand what websites can do, how they work and what is necessary to have them and keep them going and maximize the benefits to both your business/organization and your website visitors.

Websites can have many purposes and fulfill many functions depending on the business/organization and its needs, its clients’ needs and its leadership and management style. These have been grouped into three general categories of purpose and intent:

1. Introduce Your Business or Organization or Ideas to Potential New Clients/Customers and Readers

Explain features, products and services of your business or organization
Explain ideas, thoughts, concepts and approaches
Entertain to increase name recognition and create a positive fun image
Educate potential clients, customers, consumers and followers
Help your business be found and connect you to your new clients and customers
Meet public expectations when researching your company or organization

For example, a list of your company’s or organization’s products and services can be displayed to make them easily found and understood by persons who come to your website. You can help keep your customers returning with new content, games, promotions, social media and more. The website should reflect not just who or what your business or organization is at this snapshot of time but meet expectations of the Internet user when they arrive. If your company produces precision made parts, your website should reflect this in its design, images and texts. If your organization focuses on creative elements such as art for children, your website should reflect that and be enticing not just to the parents but to the children. Press kits and brochures can be made easily available to the media and others.

2. Communicate with and Provide Functions to Existing Clients

Report company or organizational news
Report global or local news of interest to clients
Educate clients on more details of your business
Reward clients with special promotions and services
Easy access and logins for specialized information, updating accounts and checking results

There are many specific examples for this. Doctors’ offices can provide links to companies that can post test results securely online. Movie theaters can have special membership pages with coupons, discounts and other specials. Financial services can provide access to portfolios and have near real time access to changes in the stock market. Businesses and organizations can provide their own abstracts and news services on popular, useful and current events. News archives can be kept of important events specific to the company or organization including articles in the press.

3. Help Your Team Work More Effectively

Educate your staff with staff only sections
Post schedules and schedule requests in staff only sections
Lessen the work load and time demands of your staff and yourself by posting forms, FAQs and other information online
Share resources and collaborate on projects

For example, doctors’ offices can post HIPPA privacy notices, intake and other forms for easy download by the patient. This easy availability allows the patient to fill out the forms in the comfort of their own home saving valuable office staff time and minimizing the patient waits in the doctor’s office. Restaurants can post their menus online so that the customer can review them before coming to eat or to facilitate speedy ordering for take out.

Websites are composed of three main parts which require action:

Domain Name
Web Design
Hosting Service

We will explore each of these in our upcoming posts. Our next topic is domain names and will cover choices for domain names, domain registrars, ICANN and more.

Please return later or read on for the continuation of this series and other new website blog posts. Thank you for your visit.

Happy New Year (Old Calendar)!

To everyone, celebrating New Year’s on the Old Calendar, Happy New Year!

The Old Calendar was used by much of the world for a long time. It is also known as the Julian Calendar coming to us via Julius Caesar. Over time, people realized that the calendar was off by several days. Part of the world jumped ahead forever losing those days on the calendar while another part did not. While the New Calendar, also called the Gregorian Calendar after Pope Gregory XIII, was adopted eventually by more countries as time passed, some people still adhere to the Old Calendar for religious reasons. The difference between these two calendars at present is thirteen days.

To conclude, there is only one January 1st on both calendars; however what day one recognizes as the first can be different and offset thirteen days from the other. This is the same for Christmas and other days. For example, 25 December on the Old Calendar is 7 January on the New Calendar just as 1 January on the Old Calendar is 14 January on the New Calendar.

There are many other calendars in the world and for that matter different years and time periods to measure such time in existence and use. For example, while some use this year as 2011, others in the world have different numbers based on their cultural and other events for measuring time.

We at Little Mountain Web Design enjoy learning about different cultures. If anyone would like to add to a discussion of different calendars, please be invited to do so in the comment section or contact us to be a guest blogger. Thank you very much.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to Little Mountain Web Design’s Blog!

Our web design blog will cover many industry related topics such as websites, the Internet, social media, marketing, domain names, ICANN and hosting services. We will also cover from time to time politics, multicultural discussions, travel, business and other topics.

As promised, we welcome in the New Year with our new blog. Our first post is the fun and timely post of… Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes for the best year ever!!

At Little Mountain Web Design, we enjoy meeting and greeting people from all over the world. Here is how to say “Happy New Year” in several different languages:

Melkam Addis Amet Yihuneliwo! (Amharic)
Kul ‘am Wa Antum Bikhair (Arabic)
Sun Nin Faai Lock (Cantonese)
Felican Novan Jaron (Esperanto -Conlang)
Bonne Annee (French)
Kali Chronia (Greek)
Shannah Tovah (Hebrew)
Felice Anno Nuovo (Italian)
Xin Nian Kuai Le (Mandarin)
La Multsi Ani (Romanian for Many Years)
Prospero Año Nuevo (Spanish for Prosperous New Year)
Ruhus Hadush Amet (Tigrigna)
Chuch Mung Nam Moi (Vietnamese)

Please feel free to post a comment and to add more languages!