Archive for August, 2009

Joomla! vs WordPress

WordPress as a CMS

Are you using Joomla! as your CMS system? Are you having problems figuring out the admin area or making changes and not seeing anything change on the site? Joomla! is a powerfull software, but can be difficult to understand. 314media is powered by WordPress and is so stupid easy to update, I’m writing this paragraph from my iPhone. Just copy, slide to a new window, paste and update post! (If you understood that, bravo!)

From Slashdot:
An anonymous reader writes “PlayingWithWire profiles two open source tools for Web development, comparing Joomla! and WordPress through the lens of usability. The article has apparently upset a few people at the Joomla! forum, but it does bring up a good point. Many open source projects are developed by engineers for engineers — should they focus more on usability? PlayingWithWire makes a bold analogy: ‘If Joomla! is Linux, then WordPress is Mac OS X. WordPress might offer only 90% of the features of Joomla!, but in most cases WordPress is both easier to use and faster to get up and running.’” The article repeatedly stresses that blogging platform WordPress and CMS harness Joomla! occupy different levels of the content hierarchy. How fair is it to twit Joomla! on usability?
Click here to read the original slashdot article.

Contact 314media in St. Louis to convert your existing website into WordPress goodness. We love it and know that you will too!

Common Web Site Mistakes

Top Small Business Website Don’ts

Based on our experience, we’ve compiled this list from internet sources, information regarding web design, and just our general experience. We thought this list applied to a lot of people and we also found this funny too…

Have your cousin create your website… Your cousin might be a great person, but unless he is a professional web designer, he is likely to create a website that is almost unusable for first time visitors.
Leave Under Construction pages… Back in 1996 it was common to have Under Construction pages on websites, but nowadays it makes a website look unprofessional.Don’t link unfinished pages to the website until it is done being constructed.
Force visitors to view a splash screen before entering your real website. Customers are looking for information not impressive graphics. If they have to wait 30 seconds to get through your introductory (splash) screen before actually viewing your content then they will leave.
Create confusing navigation… Content is very important, but the best content in the world is useless if customers can’t find it. Put your navigation, or list of links, on the top or left-hand side where people are used to finding it on most websites.
Make visitors guess what your business can do for them… If a customer comes to your website and within 20 seconds can’t figure out what you can offer them, they WILL leave. On your home page, prominently display the purpose of your business in a few sentences.
Hide your contact information… You want customers to be able to communicate easily with you. If they get frustrated trying to find a way to contact you then they will likelyleave your website and go to a competitor.
Fill your website with every piece of information you can think of… Overloading customers with information is a very common mistake. More isn’t always better. A clean,easy to read website is more desirable than one cluttered with unnecessary content.
Use Free Web Hosting… Free comes with a cost. Free Hosting adds banners and pop up ads which make your website look cluttered and unprofessional.
Have out of date content… Nothing make a website look more irrelevant then outdated information. It’s great that you had a company picnic, but the time and location for it should not be there six months later. Revisit your website often to keep it updated.
Ignore submitting your website to search engines… Even the best designed website is useless to your business unless people can find it. Submit your website to all of the major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo .
Test your website in only one browser… Unfortunately every browser interprets a website differently. Yours could look great in Safari on a Mac, but look awful in Internet Explorer on a PC.

This seems to cover the majority of topics, but there are always more. For a free analysis of your website, contact 314media today.

WordPress Development

St Louis WordPress Website Development

314media has been on the cutting edge of open source software utilizing the latest tools in personal publishing. WordPress allows you to update your website by simply using a web-based WYSWYG editor. If you have word processing skills, you can edit your website online.

St. Louis based 314media can provide you the tools you need to take control over your website and only call a web designer when you are looking for major changes or other such large projects. This can eliminate your day-to-day web designer and give that job to someone with basic word processing skills that can save your company a great deal of revenue.

Contact 314media today for a comprehensive analysis of your website and see how we can reduce costs and still allow you to have full control of your website via an online website design interface.

Our Web Design Process

The process…

Everyone always asks me “So, how do we get started?” … Our approach is a simple, three step process.

Step 1 – Talk With Us

Tell us about your business, your website objectives, and your ideas

Receive expert guidance on site content, layout, and search engine optimization.

Submit any images, text or promotional materials you’d like us to use

Step 2 – We Design / You Review

We take your information and design a site that is professional looking and visitor friendly

You approve our design or suggest changes

We publish your site on the web, and submit it to major search engines

Step 3 – Maintain Your Site

We show you how to update and change your site using our easy-to-use online tools.

You can make changes to your site anytime at no charge.

Monitor your sites growth by reviewing an extensive collection of visitor statistics.

Tame Your Website

Content Management Solitions

Is your current website unmanageable? Do you have 400 web pages that need to be edited individually? Is this too much for you to handle??

314media will convert your existing website into a content management solution that will allow you to edit and add content to your website with no HTML experience necessary. You can even keep your current design!!

Using basic word processing skills, you can add, edit, and remove content from your website on the fly. Contact 314media to learn how we can take your out of control website and get a handle on your content.

Page 1 of 212