A Good Time is Blog Time

The description says ‘Website Design Guide’ and ‘Demystified for Beginners’ which does sum up this offering very succinctly. But the content works equally well for blogs, especially the sections on search optimization and using the WordPress platform to create a static style website; if that is what you want. The focus of the book is very much on understanding what makes a good website or blog so that defining the requirements to a professional web designer is made much easier.

That said the second part of the book does go into the technical details of the design approach, not as specific lessons but rather in terms of how you can ensure that updating, maintaining and adding new content is relatively straightforward. There are links out to specific lessons that cover the essential design aspects required for an effective website, of the static variety, for those that do fancy taking the DIY route, but even that information is there primarily to aid understanding. There is also a whole chapter dedicated on deciding whether to take the blogging or static website design route, simply because the sophistication of blogging software allow you to seriously consider that option for either type of design approach.

There are many benefits to having a well designed website, the primary one being that it meets all the requirements of the owner. But also that it functions as required and delivers on the promise you make to potential visitors. There are many aspects to meeting that particular statement, first one being that the website is available at all times, conforms to basic website standards and essentially works on the most basic functional levels. And that is all before you consider the quality of the content and whether visitors value what is provided on the website in terms of products, services or information.

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How much it costs to run a business will obviously depend upon factors such as the number of staff you employ, the service or product you offer, and the location from which you operate. The goal of a business should clearly be to bring in more money than is being spent on operations but this can be difficult if the overheads are too large. In the first months and years of a business in particular, there will be a continuous struggle to keep the income greater than outgoing costs if you are not sensible about where and how you invest your money. This article will look at some of the ways you can make the right decisions to reduce the costs of your business.

Invest reasonably in technology

Technology enables the faster and more accurate production of goods or services and should, thus, be embraced. Technology such as computers can be expensive but if you invest wisely and seek the correct level of computer support then you will be able to purchase computers which will last for a long time and serve your purposes well. Rather than buying a new computer whenever one breaks or slows down, it is far more sensible to utilise computer repairs which cost far less and can often return your computer to its initial condition.

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The Home Page Pays System being delevoped by Smart Media Technologies moved a step closer to full release today. The ‘use your own browser option’ was released for beta testing and has been made available to all Full Members. This is a huge step forward in the development program and means that the progam will be in general use across the world allowing full members to flag any issues, glitches or bugs to the development team.

This is a stage, that any software developer will understand, is essential prior to a full release. Basically  to ensure that when the program is made available to the general public and free members, the experience will be as problem free as possible. A requirement for any software development program in this word of rapidly changing high technology and the Internet. Also watch this space for the adaptation to mobile platforms.

Home Page Pays will rival Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and other such Social Media Sites, but the burning question is ‘why – how can that possibly happen?’

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There were expectations by some that Google Checkout would be serious competition for the well established and primary online payment system that we all know as Paypal.

There are big differences between the two however and Google Checkout is limited in the number of currencies it supports and as a pure online system it only accepts payments in the UK and USA. Plus Google Checkout cannot be used to transfer funds.

Paypal on the other hand operates in multiple countries and currencies and allows easy transfer of funds through their system. Question has to be asked then if having a Google checkout account is really a serious competitor to Paypal or not.

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Google checkout came into existence to become a direct competitor to Paypal who hold the prime position as the go to facility for accepting online payments.

Both Google checkout and Paypal are what are called a 3rd party payment processors, which means when you register with them you are given access to software that places different payment options on your website. When a customer clicks on the payment button they effectively are dealing with a 3rd party i.e. Paypal for example take over the purchase, accept the payment on your behalf and redirect the customer to a page that tells them what happens next. This might be a page where they can download a digital product or a page that simply informs them that the payment has been accepted and that the product will be shipped to them in the next few days.

For a merchant, Google Checkout or Paypal is a great way of handing off the responsibility of dealing with secure payments. This does of course come at a cost, both Paypal and Google Checkout charge for the service and Paypal insist that you have a business Paypal account for providing this service as opposed to a free personal Paypal account.

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