มารู้จักการ Compress ไฟล์รูปภาพ เพื่อใช้บนเว็บไซท์กัน

ในปัจจุบัน แม้ว่า เทคโนโลยีทางความเร็วของการใช้งานอินเตอร์เน็ตจะสูงขึ้นมาก การเข้าถึงเว็บไซท์แต่ละที่ทำได้อย่างรวดเร็ว และ ตอบสนองผู้ใช้ได้อย่างดี

สิ่งที่ผมจะมาแนะนำนั้น เป็นเทคนิคของการทำเว็บไซท์ให้เร็วขึ้น ซึ่งมีหลาย ๆ เรื่องในการทำให้เว็บเราเร็วขึ้นได้ หนึ่งในนั้นคือ การ reduce ไฟล์รูปภาพ คือ ทำให้ขนาดของรูปภาพเล็กที่สุดเท่าที่จะเล็กได้ อ่านให้ดีนะครับ ขนาดของไฟล์ ไม่ใช่ ขนาดของรูป นะครับ ซึ่งวิธีการที่จะนำมาใช้ก็มีหลากหลายวิธีอีกเช่นกัน เราเรียกรวมรวม ๆ ว่า การ Compress and optimize images for website

ก่อนอื่นมารู้จักศัพท์ของการทำ compress ก่อนว่าแตกต่างกันยังไง ในปัจจุบัน การทำ compress นั้นมีอยู่ 3 รูปแบบดังนี้
1. Lossy compression
2. Glossy Compression
3. Lossless Compression

แล้วแบบไหนล่ะที่ดีที่สุดสำหรับเราในการเลือกใช้ ก็ให้ข้อมูลตามนี้ครับ

Lossy compression
Lossy เป็นตัวเลือกที่ดีที่สุดสำหรับผู้ใช้ส่วนใหญ่ รูปภาพที่ประมวลผลด้วยอัลกอริธึมการสูญเสียเป็นภาพที่เล็กที่สุดที่คุณจะได้รับ ดังนั้นหากความเร็วของเว็บไซต์ของคุณเป็นสิ่งสำคัญและคุณต้องการความสมดุลที่ดีที่สุดระหว่างการปรับให้เหมาะสมและคุณภาพของภาพเราขอแนะนำให้คุณใช้การเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพที่สูญเสียไปต่อไป

Glossy Compression
Glossy เป็นตัวเลือกที่ดีที่สุด หากคุณกังวลเรื่อง Google Insights แต่คุณเชื่อว่าการสูญเสียความเร็วของหน้าเว็บเล็กน้อยนั้นเป็นสิ่งที่ยอมรับได้สำหรับคุณภาพของภาพที่ดีที่สุด

Lossless Compression
ภาพที่ปรับให้เหมาะสมแบบไม่สูญเสียนั้นมีขนาดพิกเซลต่อพิกเซลเหมือนกันกับต้นฉบับ แต่มีขนาดเล็กลงเมื่อเปรียบเทียบกับไฟล์ที่ประมวลผลแบบ Lossy หรือ Glossy หากคุณต้องการให้ภาพของคุณไม่ถูกแตะต้องให้เลือกตัวเลือกนี้

ทางเลือกในการ compress image นั้นมีหลากหลายวิธี ตัวผมเองผมใช้ tools ตัวนึง รันบน windows ชื่อว่า RIOT เป็น free tools ที่โหลดมาติดตั้งบนเครื่องใช้งานได้สะดวกดีครับ ค่อนข้างอัตโนมัติดี ส่วนอีกทางเลือกก็ต้อง online compress ซิครับ แนะนำที่นี่ ผมถือว่า ดีพอใช้ได้ https://shortpixel.com/online-image-compression ง่ายและสะดวก มีให้เลือกใช้ครับผม

ส่วนใครที่ใช้ wordpress เป็นเครื่องมือทำเว็บ ก็แนะนำ plugin ตัวนี้ครับ https://wordpress.org/plugins/shortpixel-image-optimiser/ ของเจ้าเดียวกัน

Become a Wedding Planner

Become a Wedding Planner

by: Patrick Ryan

Creating your own business in this day and age is more important than ever. The trick is to find a niche market and tap into it on the way up. It is no secret that the wedding industry is huge. There are somewhere around 2.5 million weddings every year in the United States Alone! So…. About $40 billion is spent on weddings every year in the U.S. Some believe that number is low! The # then rises to be around 80 billion! Today’s average couple will spend roughly $18 – 30 thousand dollars on their wedding!

The beauty of this kind of business is that it’s not a huge investment. It can easily be done from your home. All you need is to be professional and very very organized to gain people’s trust. But once you have planned a few weddings you’ll find so long as everything went smoothly that people will drop your name to others and more business will come your way.

Things that you’ll need to consider for your new planning business includes:

Image:

When creating a Wedding a Consulting Business one of the most important aspects is your image! You need to create a look that shows both professionalism and beauty. You can hire an expert for this but I suggest just doing it yourself! I create many logos using royaltyfree stock photo that I purchase from istockphoto.com. This logo needs to go everywhere, your letterhead, business card, brochures and most importantly ขinvoicesข. Remember image is one of the most important aspects of a business!

Business Supplies

Much of the investment when first starting out will be getting the proper supplies. However in today’s day and age most things can be done relatively quickly and cheap even from the comforts of your own home. Although this may be the case, you need to remember that you must look professional! Brides wont be letting Jo Schmo with a cheap brochure plan their Wedding! You want to wow your potential clients and turn them into potential paying customers.

You need some Planning Software. For this thee are professional options and free options. I prefer the free options since many can do just about everything the paid ones can. I suggest checking out versiontracker.com and doing a search for Wedding. You will be amazed at the software you can get. One of the best pieces of shareware I have found was located here. seatingarrangement.com. Imagine how pleased my recent couple who were having an outdoor tent Wedding was when I gave them a complete professionally drafted paper which included each person, table, chair! The drawing looked as if a large construction firm using AutoCAD did it! Don’t just go out and purchase this software! Take a look around! Thousands of programs exist out there to make you more of a professional Wedding Consultant! Most people can accomplish many of these tasks with Microsoft Word or Exel!

So I have outlined just a few things to consider before starting up your Wedding Planning Business. Take the jump and try your hand. This is a great niche business to set yourself up in. It’s a time consuming process but it’s better to set yourself up now rather than later. I have no doubts you will be a success.

About The Author

Patrick Ryan has been in the wedding industry business for years now but has noticed quite a few dramatic changes in recent times. Check out his wedding ebooks at www.videographybusiness.com and http://www.startaweddingbusiness.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 08

by Patrick Ryan

Grow Sales Using Image Tactics

Grow Sales Using Image Tactics

by: Sharron Senter

In my dreams, I envision being the marketing consultant equivalent of Oprah or Tiger Woods. Oprah, for her premise, ขYou’re a woman and only you are responsible for yourself.ข Tiger Woods, for his ultimate dedication to the game. Respectively, this is what they’re known for or what their personal value can be identified as; put another way, this is what their brand identities are.

Once you’re known for something and people perceive value in ขthis something [your brand],ข it’s at this moment that you start to make money. Once you have perceived value, other entrepreneurs and businesses will pay money to be associated with the perception for which you’re known.

To be an entrepreneur, the first decision you must make is, ขWho do you want to be?ข Or, put another way, ขHow do you want to be perceived by others?ข The answers to these two questions are equivalent to the foundation that’ll drive all of your future marketing decisions, from what advertising vehicles you’ll use, to the type of customers and clients you’ll target.

For example, would you like to be known as the world’s most prestigious dietician? People all over the world seek you out and pay money for your advice on how to integrate more color into their diets. To build a foundation and reach such prestige, your image marketing plan might involve the following actions.

Complete appropriate credentials such as certifications and higher education.

Obtain and make visible reputable references including popular media personalities quoting you as an expert, current and past clients quoting specific things you did to help them, and a variety of print articles and electronic news bulletins in which you’re quoted.

Build credibility by hosting, writing or producing a weekly healthyeating column called, ขGot Colors, Get Healthy.ข

Socialize and be seen with other healthrelated wellknown experts or people who exhibit healthy behavior such as: other dietitians, diet book authors, athletes, personal trainers, physiology professors and food scientists. Why? Because a person can create an implied credibility about themselves simply by hanging out with other experts. Generally speaking, people assume that because the other experts let you hang with them, then you must be worthy of your ขexpertข status.

Pick a unique clothing and makeup style and stick with it. A simple example, perhaps every time you leave your house, you always wear something purple, a scarf, pin, shirt, tie or nail polish. The repetitive purple creates a subliminal image, that, after awhile, causes people, when they see you in the news, at an event or in a magazine, to say, ขI’ve seen her somewhere.ข And from this statement they extract that you’re sought after, and therefore, you must know what you’re talking about.

Always evolve your image based on current trends. However, remember to make small changes, so as not to walk away from the image you’ve been working hard to build.

Every entrepreneur’s imagebuilding plan will be unique. In fact, it must be. It’s the subtle differences about you as an entrepreneur that distinguish you from your competition. More importantly, it’s also these differences that help your customers find you, since you’ll be more able to effectively and affordably reach customers by selecting an image niche.

About The Author

Sharron Senter is a New Englandbased marketing consultant, speaker, writer and founder of Senter & Associates. She helps small and homebased businesses deploy affordable marketing strategies. She’s well known for her free weekly emailed marketing tips and her ข14 Imagebuilding Dos & Don’ts,ข small biz survival report. Receive Senter’s free marketing tips at http://www.sharronsenter.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 20, 2003

by Sharron Senter

Service Marketers; How’s Your Packaging?

Service Marketers; How’s Your Packaging?

by: Jay Lipe

When a shopper picks up a product in a store, what’s the first thing they notice? The packaging, right? The same holds true for someone buying a service.
Yet instead of a folded carton with colorful graphics, you are the packaging for your service business. Intangible points of contact, including your clothes, your briefcase, maybe even your breath, all burn a lasting image in your buyer’s mind.
Here are some of the more common packaging elements all service marketers should pay attention to:
Your clothes
All your technical expertise won’t mean diddly if you wear a tie dye tshirt and striped bell bottoms to your first client meeting. ขAlways dress better than you need to,ข says Sue Morem, author of How to Gain the Professional Edge; Achieve the Personal and Professional Image You Want. ขEven when dealing with a casual company, remember you are not a part of that company; you’re an outsider.ข If you’re not sure what to wear, find a personal shopping consultant.
Briefcase
I’ve seen people use briefcases that looked like they carried the first batch of Pony Express mail. Resist the temptation to use that briefcase Uncle Joe bought you at WalMart and instead invest good money in one at a reputable luggage store.
Briefcases are one of the few personal effects almost every business person carries into a meeting and this simple item speaks volumes about your image.
Your notebook
When you pull out some paper to take notes, do you pull out a sturdy, professional looking notebook or just a pad of paper? This item, which sits on the table throughout the meeting, may go unnoticed by many of your buyers. But then again, it may not.
Etiquette
Saying please and thank you. A firm handshake. Looking someone in the eye when talking to them. ขEtiquette is the equivalent of the ribbon and bow on a package,ข says Morem. ขGood etiquette lets others know you are in control and finishes off your image.ข For a good primer on professional etiquette, consult her book.
Proposal covers
Up until five years ago, I routinely faxed my proposals to prospects. Then, one of these prospects said to me ขJay, I have two proposals here. One is handsomely bound and the other is faxed. Which do you think I should go with?ข Point taken. When final packaging your proposals, estimates or RFP’s, use the highest quality binding system you can afford.
Envelopes
Do you still handaddress your envelopes? A lot of business people I know do and I sure wouldn’t penalize them for it. But if your competitors are ink jetting their envelopes, your image will suffer ever so slightly.
Email address
What image does your email convey? If your email address is [email protected] or [email protected], you might take a step back and ask yourself, what image does this convey? If you’re after a professional image for your service business, and you have an email address that doesn’t synch up with this image, you might want to consider upgrading it.
Domain name
These days, with the costs of taking your business online dropping precipitously, your business really should have its own domain name. I’m not knocking AOL or Yahoo. But if you want to project the image of an established business that operates in a professional manner, having your own domain name is a giant leap. For more information about availability of certain domain names, visit InterNIC at www.internic.com.
Email fonts and colors
I’ve received some very professional looking emails. I’ve also received some emails that were laughably amateur. Increasingly these days, buyers and sellers make initial contact through email, and casual fonts or background colors that bury the body text penalize you right from the start. Consider your email address and template as ขwrappersข for your business and treat them accordingly.
Voicemail greeting
Talk about a moment of truth for your business. The vast majority of business calls (including calls from your prospects) reach voicemail, thus underscoring the need for a professional, wellcrafted greeting. Don’t have your daughter recite her new poem or feature a rap version of ขOld Lang Syneข. Keep it simple…and professional.
Punctuality
At the root of being on time is respect; respect for someone else’s time. So, be on time for all appointments. If you do run late, call and let someone know. If you’re running a meeting, end on time or announce that the meeting may go longer and give anyone an opportunity to bow out.
If you think any of these packaging elements aren’t worth investing in, then you’ve missed my point. Each one of these is a defining contact point between your service business and your market, and forms an important element of your packaging. Pay attention to your packaging; your buyer will.

About The Author

Jay Lipe, CEO of EmergeMarketing.com and the author of The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses (Chammerson Press), is a small business marketing expert who helps companies grow faster. He can be reached at [email protected] or (612) 8244833.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 31, 2004

by Jay Lipe

How to Achieve a Perfect Color Scheme

How to Achieve a Perfect Color Scheme

by: Maricon Williams

Your choice of colors reflects you and your business. Color expresses intention, emotion and character. You must be cautious when choosing your color scheme because it will reflect the message you want to convey to the viewers. Wrong choice of the same may spell danger and loss on your part. Color plays a pivotal role in a websiteกs impact, thus, it must be considered warily.

There is a way to have an effective – actually a perfect color scheme. You can use Adobe PhotoShop however, this technique is also compatible with any graphic creation or editing program that has the ability to open an image file. The first step is to find an image. You can search anywhere – especially on the web where you can find visually appealing colors. Do not be bothered by the copyright because you will not be copying any part of it. If you’re perplexed if it is the design or the color that makes it attractive, blur the image in your imagination. If the color remained appealing, use it.

The second step is to save the original image and open it in your image editing application. After that, you open a new document in the same work area. We will call it palette image. From the original image, establish the color that occupies most of the area. Use the eyedropper tool to get that color. Use the paint bucket tool in your palette image to set it as a background color.

With the use of the eyedropper tool, select another color from your original image. Be cautious of the image overall proportion. In your palette image, use the rectangular selection tool to generate an area that has approximately identical proportion to the whole palette image and the source color has to the original image. Use the paint bucket tool to set the new rectangle to the new color. Continue transferring colors in the approximate identical proportions until you already achieved four to five palette image colors aside from the background. If you have an able imaging application, convert the image to web safe colors then save your new color palette. After that, write down the hex codes for your colors. Finally, decide on the relative proportion each Web page element has to the overall page. Next is to assign the corresponding palette image colors to each of them. After these steps, there is still a need for you to tweak your colors a little bit. Nonetheless, you are already saved from the tedious process of trial and error.

When choosing colors for your image choose wisely this is because colors have superior impact on viewers. In addition to the color scheme, the proportion of those colors is also critical to the overall look of your image. Try to master it all and you will never go astray.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

I love reading. Give me a book and Iกll finish it in one sitting. Reading is the chance to be transported to a different world and so is writing. Iกm more enthusiastic about writing however, since you can relay your ideas to someone else. I can only imagine that feeling when I hear a complete stranger talking about my ideas which read on an article somewhere. To relay my message to as many people is the same as touching people with music. Only mineกs less harmonic. I try to make up for it with the color I bring with words. And most of the time, it’s more than enough.

For comments, questions and additional information about web development, visit http://www.webdevelopmentpros.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 15

by Maricon Williams

Selling Yourself to Reach Online Success

Selling Yourself to Reach Online Success

by: Brian Moore

Usually, success in an online business depends upon selling outstanding products or representing really good affiliate plans. But just as important in getting people to buy from you is your business image. In this article we will look at how to define that image and sell yourself to help your potential customers decide to buy your products.
There are several things to think about when developing your online image. But itกs no different from preparing a resume or a personal history. Youกll want to look at your education or training, work experience, and your life experiences, and how all of this defines you as an individual in such a large marketplace.
We start with education, because thatกs the point where our lives began to take a definite shape. Think about what part of your education relates to who you are. Is it the favorite grade school teacher who unlocked your ambition to learn? Or is it special talents your high school studies or extra curricular activities revealed?
Remember, your personal level of education not so important. Itกs how your educational background helps define who you are and how well you can help others online.
Next, start thinking about your life experiences. What large events in your life like being married or single, raising children, and maintaining longtime friendships helped shape you? What would you change or keep the same assuming youกd have control over such matters? What have you gained from your experiences in life?
Then examine your work history. What occupation did you start out in? (This includes what has been traditionally known as "home maker", or household manager, if you will.) What various skills did you obtain? What other occupations have you had? What things about traditional employment brought you to the Internet looking for income?
Now try to decide how your education, life experiences, and work experience translate into your online goals. In general, how much income do you expect to replace with income from online? What do you think your niche market is? (This is defined by what type of customer you focus your business on.) How does your business fit into the large scheme of Internet marketing?
Okay, you say, now I have a handle on who I am. I have an image. What do I do with it? How is it going to help me sell products?
Well, announce it to the world. * Tell * people who you are.
Work up an online resume or an "About Us" page for your site. Include key points from your selfsearching. Make yourself into a real, live human being with whom your customers can do business and enjoy visiting again and again.
Publish your name, address, phone number, and email address. You needn’t worry about being swamped by phone calls and letters. In five years online Iกve had one customer ever call me, and it was not to complain. Iกve had one letter, and it was for more information. Emailing is so much easier and it saves long distance rates and postage. (I don’t have a toll free number yet, so itกs their nickel to call me.)
Provide a selfphoto. Without undue cost, "put your best foot forward" by having it taken professionally. It should be the "real you", not some computer enhanced alter ego that portrays you better than you actually are. Don’t be afraid to update the photo regularly to show you developing in your career.
Finally, letกs talk a little about being professional. Iกm not referring to how you phrase your sentences or how fancy your vocabulary is. Instead, Iกm recommending you try to be realistic confident without hype and humble without putting yourself down. In short, be yourself.
In your comments and publications avoid sarcasm. Some people may catch the humor while others may be offended by it. Don’t issue ultimatums like, "If you’re not willing to [so and so], then you don’t belong in this business." These folks are your prospects or have signed up under you. They are expecting your help and example, and you wouldn’t want to push them away from making a decision to buy.
When all is said and done, what you say and do online brands you to those with whom you come in contact. It would be far better to take time to brand yourself in a positive light than to leave your image to chance by neglecting your online presence.

About The Author

Brian Moore publishes กBizOps Secretsก, a complete ezine resource for online success. Subscribe and receive a free 5 line classified ad. AllPro BizOps, Proven Business Secrets That Work Online http://www.allprobizops.com.

This article was posted on January 16, 2002

by Brian Moore

Create Your Own Digital Library

Create Your Own Digital Library

by: Jelaine Macaraeg

The moment you got your first digital camera, your view of the world has totally changed. You always seem to see something beautiful or artistic in your surroundings, worthy of being captured in pixels. You experiment quite a lot and keep on loading your pictures in your computer. Until one day, you thought of working on a project. You’re sure you have the kind of picture you need – you knew you have it somewhere in your hard disk… in one of those folders… You can’t run a search for it though because you pretty much use generic filenames like Flower1, Flower2, Flower 3 and so on. Uhoh! Looks like it’s high time for you to organize your digital photos!

Microsoft has something that can help you do that. It’s called the Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9, which actually consists of two imaging applications – MS Digital Image Library 9, which serves as your database of digital images and MS Digital Image Pro 9, which is a photo manipulation program.

A lot of people may like it’s familiar Explorerlike interface – the left pane being the folder pane, while the right side of the window is the image browser, showing thumbnails of your images.

The good thing about Digital Image Library 9 is that you wouldn’t have to transfer your photos from their current location. Instead, it scans your hard disk and locates folders it considers photo folders, afterwhich you may deselect folders that are not appropriate. The images may then be sorted according to date or keywords. From here, you may doubleclick on a photo to bring it up in a fullscreen view and use the basic controls for zoom, fit to screen, rotate and print. You may also select multiple photos for slideshow, the speed of which range from 1 second to 1 minute.

Oftentimes, pictures taken with a digital camera contains metadata. These are information about the photo, such as shutter speed and the date and time the photo was taken. Digital Image Library 9 allows you to add these metadata with captions and keywords to easily categorize and later on identify images. Another nifty feature of this application is that it even allows you to rate your photos! From the preview pane, simply click on how many stars, the highest being five, you wish to assign each photo.

If you wish to do some retouches on an image, simply click the edit button and Digital Image Pro 9 launches and opens the selected image. This application has a lot of quickfix features such as the Red Eye tool and the Smart Erase, which caters to novice retouchers and home users who don’t want anything complicated.

Being the allinone application that it is, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 9 comes with tons of mats, frames and templates for creating professional photo projects such as scrapbooks, photo albums, calendars and postcards. You may also get Microsoft Photo Story, an addon to the suite that lets you turn your photos into video. Simply choose which photos to include then add some narration if you have a microphone and add music and zooming effects.

About The Author

Jelaine Macaraeg

I like to read anything that contains words in the old English form, though I can’t understand it. You know, the King James Version of the Bible with words like thou, thy, thine, wilst, etc. The words used are different. The construction of the sentence is different, too, which makes sentences sound artistic. I also like gothic metal, a music genre, because most of the lyrics contain such words. It is not only the words that fascinate me; it’s the hidden meaning it contains. It’s like an abstract painting; you don’t get the real picture until you see through it.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 11

by Jelaine Macaraeg

Benefits Of Making Your Website Accessible To Disa

Benefits Of Making Your Website Accessible To Disabled Users – Part 2: The Business Case

by: Trenton Moss

The Disability Discrimination Act states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore comes under this law.
Some organisations are changing to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the adjustments. Disabled people don’t access their website, they say, so why should they care?
There are, however, two very good reasons as to why businesses should start taking these issues seriously:

An accessible website will make you more money
An accessible website will save you money

There are seven reasons for this being applicable:
1. Your website will be easier to manage
An accessible website separates the content (the words and images that we see on the screen) and presentation (the way that these words and images are laid out) of each page. Each web page has an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document, which contains the words and images for that page (the content), and calls up a CSS (Cascading StyleSheets) document that includes the presentation information – this CSS document is shared by all the pages on the website. To adjust the layout of your website, you only have to make changes in one file, saving considerable time (and therefore money).
2. Your website will be compatible with new browsing technologies
In the near future, the use of PDAs, mobile phones and incar browsers will all regularly be used to access the Internet. The people making use of these new technologies are generally highincome individuals. In order to reach this lucrative target, you will need a website that can work on these machines. To test your website, try accessing it on the Wapalizer, a free program available at http://www.gelon.net, which shows how your site will look on a mobile phone.
3. Your website will appear higher in the search engines
By making your website more accessible to web users, you are also making it more accessible to search engines. Search engines cannot usually understand images, JavaScript, Flash, audio and video content. By providing alternative content to each of these programs, search engines will have a better understanding of the purpose of your website. The more confident a search engine is of what your website is about, all other things being equal, the higher it will place your website in the search rankings.
4. You will not have to incur legal fees
The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission) have been exerting pressure on companies and the government to make their websites accessible. Indeed, the DRC is currently investigating 1,000 websites for accessibility (http://www.drcgb.org/annualreview/foreword/index.asp#internet). If your organisation’s website is on this list then you can expect to be hearing from them soon.
5. The download time of your website will be significantly improved
Just 25% of UK web users are connected to the Internet via broadband (www.liquidzope.com/abc/2/4currentusage/currentstatebbd/view). You can be sure that if your website takes much longer than ten seconds to download then many of your site visitors will be clicking away and you will lose their custom.
6. The usability of your website will be enhanced
There is a certain amount of overlap between web accessibility and web usability. It has been shown that a usability redesign increases the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html).
7. You will gain good publicity
Make your website accessible to everyone and you can tell the world about it.

About The Author

This article was written by Trenton Moss. Heกs crazy about web usability and accessibility so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy (Webcredible http://www.webcredible.co.uk) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.

This article was posted on June 29, 2004

by Trenton Moss

How To Create A Brand That Sticks

How To Create A Brand That Sticks

by: Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek

Most people, when they hear the word branding, think logos but in fact, branding is really much more than that. A brand involves blending the image, purpose, and focus of your business, with your core marketing message, and coming up with something which will stick in the minds of people who encounter it. As a business or an independent professional, it is who you are and what you do, packaged neatly, clearly, and memorably. A logo is only a tangible representation that works to reinforce a brand.

So what kind of personality does your business have? Is it conservative and solid? Outgoing and fun? Or robust and strong? And, what is your business focused on doing? Whom do you want to work with? How does your business differ from the competition? And what makes it so special, after all? Do not try to name every special quality or unique selling point you can actually build a brand on just one unique quality! Once you can answer these questions, you can begin to create your brand. The question is what you want YOUR brand to leave behind in peopleกs heads.

Practically any business or professional can benefit from a strong brand. But branding is even more important for micro businesses and independent professionals because they face tighter competition. A well executed brand and identity can help them compete on a larger playing field, appear more professional, and stand out from the hordes of competitors.

Once you determine how you want to be remembered, your image and your message will need to communicate that. The image can simply be a consistent look used in all your correspondence, a logo that marks everything that comes from your business, and the identity you use on your web site and brochure. The message can be a tag line, your 30 second กelevator speech,ก and woven through the content on your web site.

A logo is only one manifestation of brand identity, used to create a memorable impression, but it is useless if you have not clearly defined your audience and the focus of your business. There are plenty of clearly branded businesses using only consistent fonts or colors in their marketing collateral. But whatever you decide chose one image to stick with through all your business communication, and make sure that image is professional. In other words, if you do not have the resources or finances right now to have a professional image developed for you, work with less, rather than using badly formatted clipart or a layout that makes you look amateurish or cheap. That approach can only hurt your business and your brand, so find the level that Works for you without a negative effect.

Once you determine what brand you want to create, and have developed an identity to accompany it, the work has just begun. You will need to vigilantly reinforce your brand every moment you are in business. Your brand needs to affect everything your business does, everything you and your employees say, and every bit of information that comes out of your office. Letterhead, invoices, proposals… these should all consistently promote your brand. In your voice mail, in your email sig, and every time someone says, กWhat do you do?ก your brand should come out to shine. Domain names and web site content should, again, reinforce your brand. Everywhere you use your brand with consistency, you are communicating with the voice of your company.

Be aware, though, that this does not happen overnight your brand will need to build over time. Develop a strong brand, and use it consistently, and more and more often, your brand will pop into peopleกs minds when they have a need that you can provide.

Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek (c) 2003 All Rights Reserved

About The Author

Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek is a veteran web designer and an online marketing & communications consultant who has been working from home and virtually since 1995. You can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter called Increase Your Reach: Infuse Your Marketing with Technology at http://www.sohoitgoes.com

NOTE: You’re welcome to ขreprintข this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the ขabout the authorข info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to [email protected]

This article was posted on September 05, 2003

by Eileen ‘turtleก Parzek

How to Chose Stock Photography for your Web Site

How to Chose Stock Photography for your Web Site

by: Kelly Paal

So youve decided to take the plunge. You know that stock photography is an effective tool for your web business, but where do you start and how do you choose the stock photo thats right for you. Here are some tips to get you started so that you are happy with your choice.

1. Decide where you want to purchase your stock photography. There are large agencies and small independent photographers. While the agencies will have more to chose from and sometimes lower prices an independent photographer will offer more personalized service and opportunities for you to have custom work done, if that is what you need.

2. Dont go in expecting to find an exact image that is in your head, a large agency or an independent photographer will not have the man in a blue suit, holding a cell phone, next to the white blinds nor will they have the beach landscape with the green and white striped chair. You need to have a clear idea in your head of the message that you want to convey and search for an image that creates the message that you want. (If you want something specific youll have to pay for a photography to shoot to your specifications.)

3. Make use of a free comp image to try out the image and make sure that it fits with your project or web design. Most stock agencies offer some sort of free comp image for position only so that you can make sure that you like what youre going to buy. Please use this option, if available, and make sure that the image is going to convey the message that you want it to.

4. Pay for what you need. Dont pay for a 300 dpi image for a web design, and dont buy a 72 dpi image for something you intend to print. Make sure that the agency or independent photographer offers at least a printable and a web version of every photo. Buy only the size image that you need for your job.

5. How much do you want to pay and for how long to you want to use the image? This comes down to royalty free or rights managed. If you dont want the chance of your competitor using the same image or you plan to use the image on or for a product you may want to look at rights managed. This will cost you more but it will lessen the chance of your competitor using the same image. Keep in mind that if youre using the image for an extended period of time you will have to pay for the use of the image every year or so. If you dont feel that your competitor using the same image is a threat or you dont have the money for rights managed photos look into royalty free photography. This product is also great if youre planning to use the images for an extended period of time.

I hope these tips help to get you started in choosing stock photography for your web site, business, or product. Remember to shop around and look for what you need. Also if an agency or photographer doesnt have what you need ask, you may be surprised how helpful they can be even for specific requests. If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/vweb/bulletin/bb/index.php and post your question there.

About The Author

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

This article was posted on November 03, 2004

by Kelly Paal

Snapshot Image Cleaning

Snapshot Image Cleaning

by: MAricon Williams

Time is precious and we don’t want it to slip away that easy without taking advantage of its significance. To circumvent waste of time, Snapshot can be a great help to us.

Snapshot is a valuable technique to save our precious time when working with images in Photoshop – be it an original copy image, something from a digital camera or from a scanned slide or negative. This is usually used to clean up images such as images for publication use.

The technique is so easy, it only involves a fourstep method and is easy to recall. You can make use of this in many situations like adjusting levels, color, saturation, sharpness and other corrections without wasting time with layer masks, lasso tools, layers, rubber stamping or magic wand. To ensure that your eyes are fixed to your subject, you can use this method.

Softeyes are scanning problems inherent of the natural film curvature while scanning. To avoid softeyes problems, use snapshots technique which allows fixation in few seconds. To do this, first open your file. Then go to filter > sharpen > unsharp mask. After that, a dialog box will appear with unsharp mask defaults. Set the default amount to 75 percent, radius to 1 pixel and threshold levels to zero or one. Finally, click OK. You may notice that the entire image has the unsharp mask applied to it beforehand. As a result, it sharpens the overall image.

The texture is no longer as soft as it first appeared. This is the time when the snapshots will save your artwork.

To correct the flaws, you must go to the history palette. If it you did not find it in your desktop, you can find it normally on the right in Photoshop by default. Go to window > Show history. Once you have located your history palette, select the bold arrowbutton on its right side. Click and hold it until a menu appears then go to New Snapshot. When you release your mouse, another dialog box will appear. You must enter in it the name ขunsharp eyesข, then click OK.

If you have more than one snapshot in a working file, do not forget to label your snapshots to be able to have a better workflow management when it comes to organization of your images. It is nice to do it that way for easy and fast selection and for an efficient scheme.

About The Author

Maricon Williams

I love reading. Give me a book and Iกll finish it in one sitting. Reading is the chance to be transported to a different world and so is writing. Iกm more enthusiastic about writing however, since you can relay your ideas to someone else. I can only imagine that feeling when I hear a complete stranger talking about my ideas which read on an article somewhere. To relay my message to as many people is the same as touching people with music. Only mineกs less harmonic. I try to make up for it with the color I bring with words. And most of the time, it’s more than enough.

Additional Information about the article can be found at http://www.fullcolorprintingcompany.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 10

by MAricon Williams