LightenWeb Technologies - Blog: Website Design and Development

Many small businesses, especially new small businesses, run a lean operation. They focus on necessities and urgent matters, only spending money when they need to. So, it’s easy to see why some business owners might think a website is a luxury item they can afford to live without.

They might even believe a Facebook page is enough for an online presence, or that a sign with their phone number will generate calls, or that a traditional mailer will help them sell products. But the truth is, the only way to start promoting a business is by building a professional website.

Your website acts as a portal so customers can learn more about your company, as well as research product information and determine if they want to do business with you. If you’re a small business owner, you need to realize that a website isn’t an expensive luxury or a frivolous endeavor — it’s an affordable, fundamental tool that every company needs.

A website is the anchor for your marketing.

Before you print a business card or spend a penny on advertising, you need to start marketing by building a website.

A website will act as an anchor for all of your advertising efforts. All business details, product information and promotions should live on your website first. Then, you can create marketing materials that fall in line with your domain name, which will drive customers to your website for additional information.

A website sells your products/services online.

Your website acts as a digital brochure, sharing up-to-date information about your offerings. A benefit of web publishing is that you can change information in real-time — no waiting or paying for new print materials.

Think of your website as a 24-hour sales staff. It provides answers to frequently asked questions and can even process sales. Websites with e-commerce and purchasing options allow users to make direct purchases online, thus simplifying sales for both your staff and your customers.

A website helps you connect with new customers.

While you might already have an established customer base, a website is a surefire way to connect with new customers who might be unfamiliar with your business.

More often than not, people turn to the internet when they have a problem. Searching for solutions is easy — but is your business a potential problem solver? With a professional website, you position your business as a solution for your customers’ needs. Plus, you can optimize your site with search terms related to your industry. This will expose your business to new customers on the prowl.

A website has big benefits for local businesses.

One misconception about websites is that they’re only for national companies or worldwide corporations with audiences around the globe. Actually, websites are just as, if not more, beneficial for small businesses. In fact, it’s a great way to connect with locals.

“70 percent of Indian households now use the Internet when shopping locally for products and services.”

Plus, search engines often rank results according to location. In other words, if you’re looking for “shoe stores near me,” Google won’t offer you a name-brand result in Bangalore (unless of course you live in Bangalore).

So it’s pretty clear — an online presence has big benefits even for small businesses who deal locally. No matter where you are located, you can get started with an efficient website that draws in customers.

A website builds credibility.

Nothing is more important than the ability to be found. If you don’t have an established online identity, then customers can’t find you. Not showing up in the search engines (or on the Internet at all for that matter) is one of the fastest ways to lose credibility as a business. It makes you and your company look dated, out of touch and untrustworthy.

Even if you’re fantastic at word-of-mouth marketing, you could be missing out on a ton of referrals. Happy customers are quick to share what they think about your business, but what about their friends who haven’t experienced your services yet? They’ll take to the Internet. And when they come up empty handed, you’ll have missed your chance for brand new customers.

A website helps you control your online destiny.

If you think having a Facebook page or an online directory listing (like JustDial or Yellowpages) is enough to promote your business, you’re wrong.

When you publish through, or rely on, a third-party platform, you’re at their mercy. If the platform decides to close your account, change their policies or revise their programming, you might lose the ability to connect with your audience. Yet, when you run your own website, you’re in control of both the content you produce and the platform you maintain.

Websites are simple and affordable to set up.

Many small business owners rely on using third-party platforms or avoid setting up their own website because they think it’s complicated or expensive.

But building and maintaining a website is easier and cheaper than ever before. Even if you aren’t tech-savvy or creative, you can now use simple web publishing tools to build a website in a couple of hours. And the fees for hosting a website start at less than 600 INR per month — probably one of the cheapest marketing costs out there.

Take my advice, small business owners — there are no more excuses. If you’re putting off building a website, you’re hurting your business. It’s time to get started!

Lets get started !!!

There are not many trusted and easy payment processing gateways in India. There are quite few but again there are many limitations and not very user friendly. Here I found a payment processing network called Instamojo using which you can sell products online either physical or digital with just a link. InstaMojo allows users to buy & sell digital files like reports, code, documents, photos, templates, tutorials, music, videos and offer physical goods. Thousands of users are using Instamojo to collect payments for ebooks, reports, tickets, tutorials, merchandise, invoices, services, and much more.

Features of Instamojo:

Upload the Digital goods, buyer pay via Instamojo payment gateway & everything else including delivery is taken care of Instamojo.
You can also collect payment for physical goods.
All the product page can be SEO optimized along with support for the canonical tag.
Only 1.9% transaction fees.
Instamojo apps (Paid & free) let you add features such as SMS alerts, Affiliate program.
There are no setup fees & it takes 5 or maximum 10 minutes to get started.
Google Analytics integration enabled
You can create a discount code for your product.
You can allocate separate commission for individual affiliates ( Enjoy the power of super affiliate)
Export your Sales & Affiliates. You can import them to your email list for up-selling.
Request payment by sending SMS (Yah! this is for real)
You can either buy or sell your digital products and physical products online.
Payment processing with just a single link.
Accepts all major modes of payments like Credit Cards, Debit Cards and Net Banking.
If you are selling some products online then you can receive payments every Friday directly to your bank.
There is also a feature to directly mail your customers directly from your Dashboard.

Getting Started with Instamojo:

The signup is pretty much simple and straight forward process. As I already mentioned there won’t be any initial fee to join the network. Its complete hassle free process.

Go to Instamojo.com
Click on Get Started Now and register over a free account over there.
Once you are registered for a free account you will see the below Dashboard.

Instamojo has a processing fee of 5% per transaction if you are selling something online. But if you make sales of a good amount then this transaction fee can be decreased.

Collect Payment in few easy steps:

Once you are signed up on your dashboard you will see Create a Link
Click on that and then choose a product you want to sell.
Just fill out the information of your product and proceed.
Your product will undergo approval which will not take much time.
Once its approved get the link and share it on either social media or your own website to accept payments.
You can also use buttons to accept payments from your website.

Few more Features of Instamojo:

You can easily integrated Instamojo buttons on your website if you are selling some digital product. These buttons are complete SEO friendly and very easy to integrate.

There is also one more feature called Social Pay using which your customer can pay you via Tweets and Facebook Shares.

You can set a base price for a product and ask customers to pay how much ever they want. This can be helpful if you are collecting donations from someone.
You can track the number of clicks, sales, traffic sources and conversion rates directly from the dashboard.
Last but not the least Instamojo is trusted and reliable payment processing gateway and its hassle free.

Conclusion:

Instamojo is the one and only payment processing network of its kind. If you are looking forward for sell something online then without any question get started with Instamojo. As of now this service is available only in India and in future you might expect their expansion globally to receive payments globally.

Click Here to get Started

AngularJS is a JavaScript framework that can be used when you are building a CRUD client side app. CRUD stands for create, read, update, delete majority of web applications that are made for rich client sided applications.

So why do people developers slant towards AngularJS

The main reason could be because it allows for rich client side interaction. If, in the past, you had to put up with boring static pages with text and more text, that is no longer the case now. AngularJS can be run anywhere that JavaScript can run and it is written completely in JavaScript framework. AngularJS is thus completely a client side support framework.

Have a look at the advantages and disadvantages:

The good side

Developed by Google

The first advantage of AngularJS is that Google developed it. So you can be assured that the code is reliable and efficient. This framework was built by a community of dedicated developers and not by a community of amateur hobbyists, as was the case with several other frameworks. AngularJS is maintained by a very large group of Google engineers and even though you may not have access to a large pool of engineers to clear your doubts and post your queries, you have the advantage of gaining the guidance of highly skilled and talented engineers.

Getting started is incredibly easy

Starting with and using AngularJS is incredibly easy. You can actually add a few attributes to your HTML and reap the benefits of a simple Angular app in as much as five minutes. You can use HTML attributes to access Angular S directives.

Two-way data binding

It is possible to do two-way data binding with AngularJS, meaning you can make any data related changes and it would immediately be propagated to the corresponding views and when any change is made in the view, that would happen in the underlying model as well. As soon as the app data changes, there will be corresponding changes in the UI as well.

Use of custom directives

For many developers the directives AngularJS is a personal advantage. If you have been wishing for a browser that would do a couple of tricks for you like creating custom HTML tags or decorate elements with behavior, then Angular JS makes it possible. Additionally, you can also manipulate DOM attributes in several exciting ways.

Dependency injection

The built-in dependency injection is something most developers love about AngularJS. This feature helps them to develop, test and understand applications in a better way. With the DI feature, you no longer have to go looking for dependencies, or make them yourself, but would be made and brought before you. In order to ensure you have AngularJS’s core features, you can simply add that parameter and customize it as well.

Client side MVC framework with Angular JS

Client side MVC framework is important when you start working with HTML and data on your page. MVC frameworks are tools that would help you manage web page interactions and data collections. Angular JS provides the best “lightweight solution” for creating a balance between the client logic and server. Apart from the other advantages mentioned above, like two-way data binding and dependency injection, AngularJS enables you to quickly write client side web applications by using the basic principles in the MVC software design patterns as well. Though you cannot make use of MVC framework in the traditional sense, you can do it in the MVVM model. MVVM model stands for Model-View-View-Model. Here Model means the JavaScript objects or data in the application.

Use of filters

Filters are used in AngularJS to transform data. The various kinds of filters used are:

Filter
Currency
json
limitTo
Lowercase
Number
OrderBy
Upprcase
Date

Additionally, you can also make your own filter by registering a new filter factory function when you are working with your module.

The bad side of AngularJS

There is a not so popular side to AngularJS. Lets explore that:

The libraries have to be AngularJS specific

Most developers feel that AngularJS increases test time considerably and this in turn affected build time. The framework does not work very well with tools or libraries that are not AngularJS specific. If you want to test rich single page apps that have several JavaScript iterations spread across pages, you may have to use two different testing stacks. But developers do not advise it.

Nature of AngularJS framework

Developers say that AngularJS framework has its own specific view of the world, and people who are going to use this framework would have to accept its way of doing things. Though frameworks are useful in helping you generate that MVP (Minimum Viable Product), you still have to ensure its maintainability. The only way to work with AngularJS is to come around to its terms. You can only use a tool that is within its ecosystem, hence, that makes the JS library very restricted.

Additionally, you will have to be aware of any memory leak in JS, because if there is one, it would lead to slow browsers, however powerful your system may be. AngularJS do not support older versions of Internet Explorer 8.0.

The framework is complicated

Some developers say the framework is overcomplicated and unless you are highly experienced, it is not possible to use it. You need to be aware of what is happening in the front end to read the code.

Conclusion

Even so, Angular JS is still the most popularly used framework. You might run into problems, but those are “fixable” problems. Perhaps, developers like using Angular JS because it allows the developers to fragment their logic into modules, making the codes more granulated.

So you want to start a business – congratulations! Once you get over the initial excitement, it’s time to break down the process of launching your startup into manageable chunks.

You might get overwhelmed with the sheer number of items on your to-do list. But not to worry; I’ve broken down this startup checklist into the primary tasks you need to do now, and those that you can defer until later.

What You Need to Do Now

Do the following tasks either before launch or during the early days of your startup.

1. Determine viability

Be brutally honest. Your startup needs to be something you can make a profit doing or delivering. Ask yourself: would you buy it? Run the numbers: will customers pay enough so that you can cover costs and make a profit? Here is a list of 29 more questions to ask.

2. Create a business plan

It’s easy to convince yourself that you don’t need a business plan, but creating a business plan with financial projections forces you to think through details. Keep your plan a living breathing thing that you revisit and adapt regularly.

3. Figure out the money

Most startups take a lot more time to get off the ground than you expect. Know where your living expenses for the first year will come from (savings, a job, spouse’s income, etc.). If you need financing for the business start investigating as soon as possible.

4. Get family behind you

Spend time to make sure your spouse and other close family ‘buy into’ your startup. You’ll have enough challenges without resistance from family.

5. Choose a business name

You want a name that will stick in your target audience’s heads. And it shouldn’t already be taken by another company. Do Google searches and use a corporate name search tool to see if the name you have in mind is unique. Check at the state and Federal level.

6. Register a domain name

Get a matching domain to your business name. An AOL email address or a website with free hosting and a name like mysite.wordpress.com makes it seem like either (a) you are not running a real business or (b) you don’t plan to be around long.

7. Incorporate / figure out legal structure

Incorporating your startup can protect your personal assets. Talk over structure (corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship) with your attorney and accountant.

8. Apply for an EIN

An Employer Identification Number (EIN) helps you separate yourself from your business. You’ll need it if you plan to incorporate your business or open a business bank account. Plus, with it you can avoid giving out your social security number (an opening to identity theft). EIN numbers are free; apply online.

9. Investigate and apply for business licenses

You may need one, if not several, business licenses for your startup, depending on your industry and where you are located. Most licenses are at the state or local level. Here in the United States, the SBA has a helpful business license and permits tool.

10. Set up a website

Get your website up and running as soon as possible. Today, it’s necessary for credibility. Even if your product is not yet built, you can start with company information.

11. Register social media profiles

Getting set up on the major social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, to start) will make marketing on them later easier. Also, it’s important to reserve your brand as a profile name. Try Knowem.com to reserve the names.

12. Start your revenue stream

Start generating revenue as soon as possible. At the early stages of a startup there is never enough money – resist the temptation to wait until things are “perfect.” Oh, and get your lawyer to create any customer contract forms necessary.

13. Rent retail or office space

If you’ve got a brick-and-mortar business, you’ll need to sort this out early. If you plan to run a retail business, pay attention to foot traffic, accessibility, and other factors that will affect the number of people that will walk in your store. EXCEPTION: If you don’t have a brick and mortar or retail business, then hold off renting an office as long as possible to avoid saddling your startup with lease payments.

14. Order business cards

As a startup founder, you’ll be doing a lot of networking, so order plenty of business cards. They are inexpensive enough that you can reorder them later if things change. Without cards you lack credibility.

15. Open a business bank account

It’s all too easy to use your personal bank account to pay for business expenses, but it becomes a gnarl to untangle later.

16. Set up your accounting system

Once you have your bank account set up, choose an accounting program. Start as you intend to go. Few things will doom your business faster than books that are a mess.

17. Assign responsibilities to co-founders

If you have one or more founders, it’s imperative that you decide who will do what up front. Put it in writing. Co-founder disagreements can destroy your business.

What You Can Do A Bit Later

While you don’t want to put off these tasks too long, they don’t need to be checked off your list before you launch.

18. Upgrade your Smartphone and choose apps

As an entrepreneur you are going to be on the go – a lot. I can’t emphasize enough how useful a good phone with good business apps can be, in running your startup. Get a credit card swipe device to accept payments, too.

19. Find free advice

Your local SBA office, SCORE, and other small business resources can provide you with free advice, access to business templates, and other tools.

20. Consult your insurance agent and secure coverage

Depending on the type of business you’re starting, you may need insurance of one kind or another, like liability, workers’ comp, or health insurance, especially if you hire full-time staff.

21. Hire your first employee

Depending on the type of business you have, you may need staff from day one (retail) or you may be able to outsource to freelancers, interns, and third-party vendors for a while (service and tech businesses). Just remember, trying to do everything yourself takes you away from growing the business.

22. Line up suppliers and service providers

Finding a good source of inventory is crucial, especially in certain types of businesses (retail, manufacturing). Beyond inventory, line up good reliable suppliers and service providers so you don’t have to sweat the details.

23. File for trademarks and patents

The best thing to do is consult an attorney early about the need for patents, especially. Get the advice early. Then you may be able to defer filing for a while, depending on the nature of your business.

24. Work your network

Reach out to former co-workers and colleagues, as well as friends and family. Don’t pressure them to buy your products or services. Instead, tap into them for introductions and help with other things on this startup checklist.

25. Don’t waste time on “partnerships”

Be careful about wasting time on “business partnership” discussions. Your business won’t be attractive to potential partners unless and until you start making headway. Focus your precious time to make sales and get customers.

26. Refine your pitch

You need a good elevator pitch for many reasons: potential investors, customers, prospective new hires, bankers. If you can’t persuasively and clearly pitch your business, how can you expect key stakeholders to buy in?

27. Refine your product and marketing and sales approach

As you go along you will learn more about the marketplace. Use customer feedback to refine your product and service offerings, and your go-to-market approach.

28. Secure your IT

Whether you’re running a tech company or not, you likely have sensitive data on computers and devices that you want protected. Protect it from intrusions and disasters. Back it up! IT problems can derail a fledgling company.

29. Get a salesperson or sales team in place

In many startups the business owner starts out as the chief salesperson. But to grow you need a dedicated sales function, so you can focus on activities other than day-to-day sales.

30. Get a mentor

It’s all too easy to work “in” your business rather than “on” it. As Michael Gerber tells us in The E-Myth, we need to be working “on” our businesses if we want them to grow and flourish. A mentor who has succeeded in your industry can provide you with priceless advice and serve as a sounding board.

Your checklist might be longer than this, but organizing what needs to be done before you launch and what you can take care of down the road makes it easier to prioritize your tasks.

Creating the perfect website for your small business is about much more than simply picking the right domain name and pictures. Companies must instead be able to include practical information about their business while also avoiding common mistakes that often plague websites.

"Small businesses need to be represented in those consumer online searches even if they don't actually sell products or services online". "However, just having a website isn't enough. If a website isn't appealing or functions poorly it could hurt a business more than help it."

1. Avoid Complicated Web Design

"Don’t use every technical trick and all the bells and whistles you can fit into your website,"If your website doesn’t load quickly and accurately in a visitor’s web browser or mobile device, they’ll leave and might never return. Choose design elements that enhance your site rather than damage the user experience. Less is more when it comes to Web design."

2. Avoid Overflowing Content

"Research shows that you have just three seconds to communicate your message on a web page to visitors before they’ll click away"."Oftentimes the first thing you will want to do is fill up the page with text, photos and as much information as possible. By doing this you commit the deadly mistake of overkill and end up sacrificing quality for quantity. Instead, make it clear through your website messages that you specialize in one type of business, product or service. Determine your niche and become the go-to business for that niche. Complement this message with clean and relevant images. You want the website to be a simplistic guide, easy to follow and useful."

3. Don't Look Like Your Competitors

"Copying your competitors is dangerous"."You have got to find a way to stand out from the competition! Create your own messages, reputation and strategies, and allow those unique aspects of your business to shine in your website design, promotions and communications. You need to stand out from the crowd, not blend in."

4. Don't Just Build and Wait

"Getting traffic to your business website is not as simple as the famous line, 'If you build it, they will come"."In order to drive traffic to your website you have several options, you can advertise on sites like Google or Facebook, or you can join online conversations happening on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn."

"By publishing comments and sharing your own expertise, you can post links to your relevant content. It takes time to build credibility in search engine keyword results. It certainly doesn’t happen overnight and will take some proactive measures on your part. You can also join affiliate programs, send emails, newsletters and partner with other sites and businesses to find traffic-sharing opportunities."

There are many static websites on the Internet, you may not be able to tell immediately if it is a static or dynamic website, but the chances are, if the site looks basic and is for a smaller company, and simply delivers information without any bells and whistles, it could be a static website. Static websites can only really be updated by someone with a knowledge of website development. Static websites are the cheapest to develop and host, and many smaller companies still use these to get a web presence. Here at EDinteractive web development, we can advise or help to develop both static and dynamic websites.

Advantages of static websites

Quick to develop
Cheap to develop
Cheap to host

Disadvantages of static websites

Requires web development expertise to update site
Site not as useful for the user
Content can get stagnant

Dynamic sites on the other hand can be more expensive to develop initially, but the advantages are numerous. At a basic level, a dynamic website can give the website owner the ability to simply update and add new content to the site. For example, news and events could be posted to the site through a simple browser interface. Dynamic features of a site are only limited by imagination. Some examples of dynamic website features could be: content management system, e-commerce system, bulletin / discussion boards, intranet or extranet facilities, ability for clients or users to upload documents, ability for administrators or users to create content or add information to a site (dynamic publishing).

Advantages of dynamic websites

Much more functional website
Much easier to update
New content brings people back to the site and helps in the search engines
Can work as a system to allow staff or users to collaborate

Disadvantages of dynamic websites

Slower / more expensive to develop
Hosting costs a little more

Summary

Many sites from the last decade are static, but more and more people are realising the advantages of having a dynamic website. Dynamic websites can make the most of your site and either use it as a tool or create a professional, interesting experience for your visitors.
This article aimed to tackle some of the questions faced by website owners. If you’d like to comment on this article or have any questions, please contact us.

Many business owners don’t really understand the difference between having a custom web design done and using website templates. In this article we’ll look at both ways of having your website built and the costs involved.

Custom Web Design

Many think having a custom web design is too expensive but let’s look at the advantages of hiring a web designer over using a free website template or purchasing one.

Benefits of custom web design:

Unique design.
With a custom web design it is created just for your business. Your website will be different from anyone else’s.
By hiring the right web designer, it will be constructed so it is search engine friendly.
How the background coding of your website is done will influence your success in the search engines.
The website will be more adaptable to your company’s needs.
If you have done your website planning, you will have a list of features you wish to have. By prioritizing this list of website features, you will give the web designer an idea of what to accomodate for in the future if your current budget doesn’t allow all the features to be implemented from the start.
Scalability.
Just like adaptability, if you have planned what you want in the future for your website, a good web designer will take this into consideration as they select the technologies to use while building the website.

Other points to take into consideration when deciding if custom web design is for you are:

Are you planning to maintain the website yourself?
If you do not intend to learn how to code a website (or have someone on staff that can do this well) then you are going to have to request that a content management system be incorporated into the web design. There are limitations on some content management systems so be sure to review our Choosing a Content Management System article so you ask all the right questions about the proposed content management system the web designer is planning on using.
Are you permitted to use the graphics created for the website for other purposes?
The website design should incorporate your company’s branding. If you have already established your company branding, then that branding should be incorporated into the website.

For a business that hasn’t established a branding or is under going a revamping, then you are going to want to know if you can use the graphics on the website elsewhere, like your letterhead, brochures and signage to mention a few. This will increase the price of the custom web design, but then you will have everything match.

Another idea if considering a custom web design is, just have a template made incorporating the website theme. You can then, if you have the skills, recycle the template theme to create the web pages for your website.

Website Templates

There is a misconception on how beneficial and economical using free website templates or purchased website templates is. Let’s look at some points about website templates:

Website templates are good for:

Getting inspiration on colours, layouts and features.
You cannot have your web designer copy these, but they do give the web designer an idea of the look you would like.
Very low budgets where you need to get up and running as soon as possible.
If budget is holding you back from getting your business up on the Internet, then maybe a website template might be the way to go.
Shorter development time.
It would appear that using a website template would include a shorter development time required for your website. Not really, read on.

Now onto other considerations when choosing a website template.

Using website templates do have some downfalls:

There is going to be a ton of other people using the same template.
Unless you pay the “Exclusive” price for the template, the template website is going to keep selling that same template to anyone that comes along. Keep in mind, even if you pay the exclusive price, there are others who have bought the template prior to you and they still have the right to use it.

If it’s a really appealing template, there may be lots of other people who have already bought that very template.
You will be limited on the customization of the website template.
Without web page coding skills, you are still going to have to either spend the time and money to learn how to code a web page or hire someone to help you.

Some templates are laid out very specific. Meaning if you incorporate your own graphics or have extensive content, the template could break.
Some website templates are not built to be search engine friendly.
As explained above, it is important how the background coding of your website is done. If not done correctly, it could hurt your marketing efforts on the internet.
Antiquated coding.
If the website template uses antiquated coding, it might not work in all browsers.

Browser specific features are another sign of antiquated coding.

Custom Web Design or Website Template?

When deciding if a custom web design is the way to go or if a website template is a better choice keep in mind that you want your business to stand out from the crowd and be memorable.

In either case, you are still going to have to do some work to get up there in the search engine results. Having a website that looks nice is only part of the internet marketing package. You will have to research the phrases that your target audience would type in the search box to find you then incorporate those phrases into the content of each of your pages.

To maintain or build the website yourself you are going to have to invest some time (and money possibly) into learning all there is to building a web page.

Now, sit down and figure out exactly how much each method of building the website is actually going to cost. Include the time it is going to take you learn whatever you need to learn to use a website template and compare that to the cost of a custom web design where you will have time to market or build your product in the same time frame.

Why a website is necessary for your Startup Business