Posh Design Studio

Gone For A Bit...and a few other things

2009-10-12T01:23:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I so have not wrote in the blog in forever but I am still here :) I have decided that I will be taking a break from designing due to family issues and not having any time between moving, getting setup for college in December, my kids etc... but I am still going to ramble about random things here at the blog as well as going to be posting some blogger templates here that will be extremely affordable :) Which I can not wait to get done :) I will post the premade blogger templates as I get time to do them, and hopefully within the next week or two have a giveaway for a custom logo design YAY! Super excited about that so make sure you stay tuned here so you don't miss out ;) I am also considering giving the blog a new look hopefully within the next couple days to be more fitting to a wahm journal blog since I probably wont take any new customers until the beginning of next year. Anyway I am super tired and better get going but I will be back to post some web design tips tomorrow and a few other things.

Kiwi Interiors Custom Design

2009-10-02T15:17:00.001-07:00

Hello,
I am bad I know I have not posted to my blog in over a week, but we have been so busy here at our house the kids keep me extremely busy as do many other things and we are getting ready to move soon and I am starting college soon. I am trying to balance everything the best I know how to. So if anyone has any tips on how to balance working at home with two toddlers and well working please leave a comment, I'd love to here your ideas :) Anyway I finished this site up a little while ago that I was working on for Lindsey over at Kiwi Interiors she does Home Staging and Design. She had come to me and wanted a very simple clean site created for her business as well as a business card to match so I wanted to show you a quick preview of the finished work :)

It was really a great pleasure working with Lindsey and if you would like to visit her site you may do so at

www.kiwinteriors.com

Ways to Take Payment on Your E-Commerce Website

2009-10-02T15:09:00.000-07:00

If you are just starting out as an internet retailer there may be a lot of things that you need to consider. One of these is the way in which you accept payment on your website. The aim of this article is to explain the differences in the options to help you come to a decision.

Firstly let us say that we are going to split this up into 2 major options, basically whether you want to use PayPal with your customers going to their website or whether you would like to have payment directly on your website. We will look at the advantages and disadvantages of both and give you as much detail as possible.

PayPal Advantages

1. It is quick and easy to set up. Although you will need to verify your account this can be done in a very easy way and does not involve the same approval processes as setting up a bank account.

2. There are no fixed charges. It is free to set up a PayPal account and one you have it you will not pay anything unless you sell anything. This can be particularly useful if you are a new business as while you are getting started your sales volumes may be reasonably low.

3. Cheap and easy to add to your website. When you are getting your website set up you will find that it is much easier for your developer to set you up with PayPal. This is mainly because the secure payments do not need to be processed on your site.

4. No security risk for you. As the buyer will be taken to the PayPal website to have their payment processed it will be them that is responsible for the security of the transaction. This also has the added benefit that you do not have to pay for security certificates.

5. PayPal is known and trusted. As PayPal is used by ebay is means that it has been used and seen by a large section of internet users. This means that most visitors to your site will be comfortable using the PayPal payment process.

PayPal Disadvantages

1. Carries a High Transaction cost. Compared to other options out there PayPal charge a high transaction cost which, as your sales volumes grow, may not be cost effective.

2. People leave your site to pay. As people go to the PayPal website to have their payment processed they will be leaving your site to pay. This is not a major problem as they will be redirected at the end of the payment but may be something you do not like.

Direct Online Payment Advantages

1. Payments are processed in simple steps on your site. This is very consistent for the buyer as they move from page to page on your site.

2. Low Monthly charges. The charge per transaction can be low using the right providers, which if you are selling a lot of products, may be vey cost effective.

Direct Online Payment Disadvantages

1. High Fixed Costs. You will usually have to pay a set up fee as well as an ongoing monthly charge before you sell anything. Obviously when you are starting out it may not be an ideal situation as the costs may be larger than your sales. It may also cost you more to get it set up in the website build phase.

2. Need for Personal Security. If you take credit cards directly on your website you will need to ensure you have a secure server and a security certificate. This will be additional costs for you.

3. Potential lack of trust. Customers coming to your website may have a lack of confidence in the security on your site if they do not know you.

Conclusion

The above are all things that need to be considered before you make the decision of how to accept payments on your website. We would normally recommend that if you are a new business you should go for PayPal and then as you grow and increase your sales you should move on to direct online payments.

Posh Design Studio Will Be Closed

2009-09-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

I posted this to the site and several other places but I figured I would post it here as well. Posh Design Studio is going to be closed from September 24th-28th. I have to go to lower Michigan to get everything settled so I can start college this December and will be there visiting family as well. I will have very limited access to my email but will respond to all emails as soon as I can. All orders that are placed during this time will be started no later than October 1st, 2009 . If you have any questions please feel free to email me using the contact button above and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

How to Choose Fonts for your Website

2009-09-22T12:20:00.001-07:00

The way your website is designed is very important to your business and part of this is the fonts that you use in the main text and the links. However there are a few things you need to consider when selecting fonts. The aim of this article is to give you some advice on the best fonts to select.

The first thing to consider when selecting your fonts is whether people can actually see them. This seems like an odd thing to say but there are only certain fonts that are installed on computers as standard. These are the browser safe fonts.

The problem with browser safe fonts is they are different for Windows and Mac with only a few overlaps. Basically to ensure you font is seen on all computers you have a choice from the below fonts:

Browser Safe Fonts

Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Arial Black
Comic Sans (Bold)
Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Impact
Symbol
Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)

As you can see, this does not give you a very big selection to choose from. However for the main text on your website one of these should do as you want people to be able to read you text easily.

The problem is for your links, as with most people you might be thinking that these fonts are a little bit boring for your links. But how do you use something more interesting? Well basically you can use an image rather than a text link. This will allow you to use any font that you want and create the exact look that you desire.

However there is something you need to think about if you are going to use an image rather than text and that is the search engines. Basically the search engines can only read text links and so if you use images they will not be able to crawl your website. There is a way to get around this and that is to add a text link at the bottom of your page to a sitemap. Then in your site map you can have a text link to every page on your website.

The problem with this could be that you might feel the links at the bottom of your page ruin the look of your site. In our experience though you should do one or the other. If you want to appear in the search engines then it is really important to set up your website so that the search engines can get around it.

If you are going to use an interesting font for your links you need to also make sure your visitors can easily read them. The worst thing would be to select something that looks great but is difficult to read and so people lose interest.

One place where you can be very adventurous with your font and have no problems is in your logo. This is purely for show and branding and so you can pick a font that defines you and create an interesting logo.

As you can see the choice of font is not as easy as it originally seemed. We would normally recommend using a web safe font for your text and links. You can then add life to your website through images and set up. This will ensure your website is clear and easy to navigate.

7 Quick SEO Tips

2009-09-21T15:17:00.001-07:00

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can seem like a daunting task to some. Especially when you are starting out. Search Engine Optimization requires a lot of time and work.

These seven quick tips are meant to help get you started on the endless road of SEO. Yes, it is endless. You must ALWAYS be optimizing your site if you want it to be and REMAIN successful.

Search Engine Optimization Quick Tips

1. Fresh Content. You must have more original content than non original.
2. Directory Listing. Submit submit submit.
3. Write. Write original content for your site and then submit to article sites.
4. Socialize. Blogs, message boards and social network memberships can help you get the word out about your site and products. NO spamming though!
5. Site Map. This will help visitors and crawlers find you and what you have to offer.
6. Stay updated. Keep yourself informed of what is going on in the world of SEO.
7. Consistency. A website is like a baby. It needs regular attention to flourish and grow.

Like I said, this is endless. If you want a website and you want it to be successful Search Engine Optimization is vital. Without a good SEO strategy you will fail. Websites do not magically become successful and gain high traffic. If they did then we would all be rich!

Successful websites require commitment, consistency, active involvement, originality, trial and error, continual Search Engine Optimization education and hard work. I believe that if you give it your all, you can't go wrong!

Photo Shoot

2009-09-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I wanted to share with everyone some pictures of Ashton and Jadyn that I had taken that I think turned out great considering how the day went lol :) Believe it or not my oldest was screaming almost every second during the photo shoot, thank god the photographer was patient and lets just say very outgoing to be able to get a smile out of him. I was going to give up and take him to the car but the photographer was persistent didn't give up and we finally got some good pictures. The only issue is in some of them Jadyn was very scared he doesn't like loud people and the photographer had to be loud and funny to make Ashton stop crying well anyway the pictures are below and thought I would share

Will Be MIA (Missing In Action)

2009-09-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a great day today. I know I did and I wanted to share with you a sneak peak of a premade template I am working on you can see it above, It is coming together nicely and I hope to release next week sometime :)

Also I wanted to let everyone know I will be taking next Thursday-Friday off and will be back to work Monday. I have to go to lower Michigan to finish setting things up at my college I will be attending this coming December which I am super excited to start but...not super excited for the move it's about 5 hours away from where I currently live and am dreading moving all of my things that far and hoping that it doesn't take to many trips back and forth to get everything.

Anyway don't forget I will be having a giveaway soon and would love your input on what you would like to see me giveaway :) See the post below for more information or to leave a comment.

Well I better get going since it is 3:55am and I am soooo tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. Goodnight.

Ideas for a Giveaway?

2009-09-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Well today was a very busy day for me working on a couple projects and found the time to give the blog a little makeover still need to make a few minor changes, but it is pretty much done :) Anyway I would like to do a giveaway here in the near future and was wondering what everyone would like to see for my giveaway? A Free custom design, banner designs, logo design? If you would like to leave your opinion please leave a comment or even if it is something completely different from what I mentioned I'd love to hear your ideas :)

Communicating with your Web Designer

2009-09-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

If you are in the process of getting a website and have gone through all the
steps to select the perfect web designer to create your site you need to make
sure they know what you want. This is often easier said than done and it is
important to remember that unless you are completely clear your web designer may
get it wrong which could result in frustration from both sides.

Whether
you have a clear idea about the layout of your site or are not that bothered it
is vitally important to give your web designer guidance. Many web designers will
furnish you with a brief that will ask all the questions that they need
answering in order to prepare initial designs for you. However if this is the
case remember to give as much information as possible to ensure that everything
you want is included at the beginning. The more you go back and make changes the
greater the chance the cost will go up.

If you are not given a brief
there are a number of things that you can supply the designer with to ensure you
get the website you want. Below is a list of our top points of things to
include:

1.If you have a logo, make your designer aware and supply them
with a copy to incorporate in their design.

2.If you already have company
colours or know what colours you want to have, tell your designer so they know
what colours to use on your website.

3.Tell your web designer what your
target audience is and what you want your website to say about your company.

4.Provide your web designer with at least one example of a website that you
like and explain to them what you like about it. It might be necessary to supply
more than one, as you may like one for the colours and design aspect and another
for the layout. Be as specific as you can so your web designer is clear what you
like.

5.If there are any websites that you don’t like or things that you
don’t like appearing on websites, give your web designer examples and explain
the reasons.

Going into this much detail might make you feel like you are
being picky, but remember you have hired a professional web designer and they
will appreciate the information you are supplying. This will make life much
easier in the long run as their objective is to make their client happy and if
they know what you want it is much easier to achieve this. For example, in the
past, some clients have said that they really don’t mind what they get and have
given no clear instructions. The designer as a result has done what they think
would be good only for the client to come back and say, "I don’t like that
colour" or simply "I don’t like it". The web designer will then have to go back
to the drawing board but without knowing what the client does like may again do
something the client does not like, after all we are all different and all like
different things. This is not only frustrating for both parties but also wastes
a significant amount of time.

Remember to check what revisions are
allowed in designs as your web designer will give you a quote for your website
and this will include a certain number of changes. However changes over and
above this may be charged for and you should be aware of this, particularly at
the design phase, because if there are numerous revisions it is likely you will
be charged for it. This leads us back to our advice above, give as much
information before work begins and you are less likely to be disappointed and
will keep the price at the original quote.

So I am back!

2009-09-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

So I am back finally! Well I have been back online for like a week now just did not have time to post the update to my blog. So there it is anyway I redid the site gave it a new look stop in and check it out @ http://poshdesignstudio.net I think it turned out awesome! Now I have to make the blog match, well that is going to have to wait for a bit until I can find the time I have been so busy lately between work, kids , and many other things that happen in my life :) Also I have temporarily taking the premade templates down due to the fact that I lost every bit of information that was on my computer and no longer have the images etc... that go to the templates however with that being said I am working on a whole new collection of lots of premade templates that I hope to list the beginning of Oct, but in the mean time I am still open for custom designs for September so shoot me an email if you are in need of a great affordable and professional design E commerce/Information website. Well I better go have lots of work to do.

Hardrive Failed

2009-09-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Last night my hard drive failed on me, I am waiting for a replacement hard drive to come. You may still order anything you wish, but please note that I will not be able to begin filling new orders until September 10th. As of right now my computer will not even start and I had to borrow my mothers computer to be able to post this notice. I am very sorry for any inconvenience.

New Premade Template Available {Posh Baby Blue}

2009-09-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have just added a new "Limited Edition" Template to Posh Design Studio this template is called Posh Baby blue and would suit any site nice but think it would go especially good as a Baby Boutique. All limited edition templates are sold once and then retired forever. You can View this template and purchase by clicking here

Crazy Day

2009-09-01T05:10:00.000-07:00

Wow so yesterday was just a crazy day all around, We lost our power so I was without any internet most of the day, and then we know more than get our power back and my internet decided it did not want to work at all! I worked on it for over an hour and nothing, so I decided to let it sit for the night and I wake up this morning and tada! it was working again so hopefully it stays this way. I have much work to catch up on, and am very sorry to those that have been waiting on me to answer emails and finish up there projects. I will be working all day today (considering my internet stays working) and catching up :) Also I am very much trying to figure out how to make the Enews & Updates gadget to the right work not much success yet but as soon as I have time I will be fixing that so it will work and you will be able to sign up to receive updates via email

Have a great day

Welcome to Posh Design Studio's New Blog

2009-08-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

First of all welcome to Posh Design Studio's new blog! Yay I have been wanting to get this up for quite some time and finally managed to do it lol :) Anyway I wanted to get this blog going so I can update customers easily as well as have some awesome giveaways and offer everyone some freebies. So feel free to follow us or subscribe to our blog for awesome giveaways, sales, updates, coupons and freebies and who knows what else I may offer up ;) I really look forward to getting to know everyone here through our new blog.