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Posted on February 22, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

Trevellyan.biz is a partnership. Suzanne + Robert Trevellyan. Style + logic. Creativity + reasoning. Right side + left side. She’s the designer. He’s the programmer. And together Trevellyan.biz offers everything advertising and I.T.

A full service agency handling all aspects of advertising and marketing, with a special emphasis on website design and development, Trevellyan.biz also offer IT services including computer repair, technical support and advice, backup solutions, and computer training.

Need tips on advertising your business or organization? Are you about ready to move online? Maybe you need some advice on backing up your computers. You’ve come to the right place. This blog is where Robert and Suzanne share their thoughts about what’s happening in business, with technology and online.

Browse our library of articles and if you can’t find the information you need, call 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.

What Is Google Web Fonts?

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Suzanne Trevellyan

For the longest time designers were limited to less than a dozen fonts that could be used safely on the web. If the person visiting the site didn’t have that particular font installed on their computer, another font would be displayed in its place, often negatively altering the appearance. If the developer wanted to use script or a decorative font, the main alternative was to use an image.

Google Web Fonts to the rescue!
Thanks to Google we can now create sites with fonts that people don’t need to have installed on their computers. By linking to a font in Google’s library, we can now choose from hundreds of different options.

Here, for Aviator Event Rentals, we used Google Web Fonts. The three lines of script under the headings “Rentals for All Occasions,” “Event Planning Tools,” and “Picture Gallery” are pulled from Google’s library.

Five Questions to Ask Your Prospective Web Developer

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Suzanne Trevellyan

Finding the right developer to build a site that looks good, works intuitively and drives traffic can be key to growing your business. A visitor’s first impression can inspire them or deter them from moving forward and contacting you. But how does one go about choosing the right web developer?

Start by asking around. Find other business people you know and trust and ask them for recommendations. Go online, look at other websites. If you find one you like,write down the contact information of the company that built it. Once you have a list of potential developers, call them. The information you collect through this process will help narrow down your options.

Here are five important questions to ask your prospective web developer:

1. Can you provide me with a list of references, including a list of sites you have recently completed?

You can tell a lot about a developer based on client feedback. Was the working relationship was comfortable? Did the developer respond promptly? Was the final product satisfactory? If you had to build the site again, would you use the same developer? Look carefully at the sites in the portfolio. Are they appealing? Easy to navigate? Do the pages load quickly? Does the structure make sense?

2. Upon completion, who owns the site?

This is a consideration that too few people know to ask. There are tools available that allow just about anyone to call themselves a web developer. This software can be proprietary, which means that if the developer you are working with goes out of business, your site goes with them, and you would need to start over from scratch. Even if they don’t go out of business, if you don’t own the site, you’ll be stuck if you decide you want to switch to a different web developer.

3. Will I be able to make changes to the website myself?

Not that long ago making changes to your own website was not a simple task. In most cases you had to go through your web developer every time. Now most good web developers include the capability to update content on your website yourself, reducing ongoing costs. Also, updating your own content regularly can improve search engine ranking, because search engines value sites that have frequent updates.

4. Will the website be mobile friendly?

This year mobile access is expected to surpass PCs, and mobile phones, in particular, play a huge role in local searches. While most smart phones will be able to display any website, users frequently have to zoom and scroll a lot to view the information on their small screen, and there may be problems with navigation menus. Studies show that when users have trouble navigating a site from their smartphone they often leave it in search of another whose content displays correctly. Just because your website can be viewed on mobile devices does not mean that it is mobile friendly. Before you have a site built, confirm that it will be.

5. What are the ongoing costs?

Monthly hosting fees for a typical 10-20 page website with no ecommerce should be about $10-$15 a month. If you’re using a content management system such as WordPress, periodic software updates will need to be performed. If you are not able to handle this task yourself, you should expect to spend about $300-400 a year on maintenance.

There are many things to consider before building your website, but you now have a list of questions that will help you select a competent web designer.

Why Website Footer Links Are Important

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

We have recently been asked by a number of new customers to remove the footer links from the initial web design. Reasonings have included, “It’s ugly.” “Nobody will use it.” “It has no value.”

Removing the navigation at the bottom is not recommended for several reasons.

The bottom of the page is not the end of the site.
A compelling footer can lead users to delve deeper into the site. Instead of leaving them to decide where to go when they’re done with a page (scroll back up, leave the site, go elsewhere or just close the tab) give them some clues to where they might like to go next.

Footer links can help search engine rankings.
While links in body copy count for more than links all by themselves, such as in a navigation bar, sidebar, or footer, they do have value because your links tell the search engines which pages are most important.

Footer links are especially important on long pages.
While the main navigation is easy to access on pages that are short, longer pages may require the user to scroll down so far that the main navigation is hidden. Instead of forcing the user to scroll all the way back to the top, footers provide immediate access to the main links.

Footer links help mobile users.
Mobile users search differently. Because they typically have to scroll up and down more often than the typical desktop user, they find footer links especially useful.

Considering the needs of mobile users becomes more important every day as more and more people use their phone to search the web. In a July 2012 mobile marketing study by The Pew Research Center, 90% of American adults had cell phones. Of those, half were using smart phones, and two-thirds of new mobile phone purchases were for smart phones. So what does this mean? Because broadband coverage is still often very patchy, while mobile coverage is almost ubiquitous, smart phones are becoming a substitute for laptops. If your potential customers are likely to be traveling or if they’ll likely access your site on the go, your footer links will be even more important.

How To Set Up A Gmail Account

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

There are as many reasons for wanting a new email address as there are email providers. Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Gmail are a few that you may have heard of. With so many options, how does one decide?

The option that we use and recommend is Gmail. Gmail is free, has plenty of storage, does a good job of spam filtering, and you can access your email anywhere there’s an internet connection. Best of all, Gmail comes with powerful business tools that are also free.

Setting up a Gmail account is easy and only takes a few minutes.

1. Type gmail.com in the address bar of your browser and press Enter.
Google Gmail Address bar On this page, near the middle of your screen, click on “Create an account.”

Create a Google Gmail account

2. Complete The Form

First Name, Last Name
Choose Your Username  (This has to be something not already in use. Try combinations of your first and last names, initials, try putting a period (.) between your names. Keep checking availability until you find a login name that is accepted.)
Create A Password – come up with something at least 12 characters long, that isn’t a real word, that you can remember. Include punctuation and numbers to make it more difficult for someone to guess.
Confirm Your Password – retype the password you chose in #3
Birthday – use your real birthday. If you use a fake birth date and then forget it, recovering control of a hacked account will be harder, if not impossible.
Gender
Mobile Phone – this field is not required. If provided, it will be easier to recover control of a hacked account.
Your Current Email Address – this field is not required
Prove You’re not a Robot – Google just wants to make sure you’re a real person.
Location – should have been set automatically.
Read the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you agree, check the box.
Google may use my account information to personalize +1’s on content and ads on non-Google websites. Google uses this information to determine the advertising you’d be most interested in and they do not share your information with outside websites. Not required.

Congratulations, you now have a Gmail account!

What Does It Mean To Be Mobile-Friendly And What Is The Best Way To Achieve It With Your Site?

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

Website visitors are using an increasing variety of devices, from smart phones, net books, and tablets to desktop PCs and home theatre displays. This trend is not going away and it poses a question for web developers, “How can we make the user experience equally good on as many different devices as possible?”

When we ask, “Is a site mobile-friendly?” we don’t mean, “Is the site visible on mobile phones?” What we want to know is, “Does the site offer a good user experience on a small screen?” Many (if not most) websites still require the user to repeatedly zoom in and out in order to navigate on a mobile phone. This does not equate to a good user experience.

There are two ways to address this issue:

The First Option is to build two completely separate websites. The first site would be built specifically for small screens, and this would be the mobile site. The second site would be for larger screens, such as desktop computers. The browser may automatically detect the type of device and deliver the appropriate site, or the user may be invited to visit different addresses depending on the type of device they’re using.

Sometimes the content the user is likely to want or need differs depending on the device being used. It can be advantageous for the mobile version of a site to have fewer options and less depth. Content may be more concise, and the number and size of images may be reduced to lessen bandwidth and download time.

The Second Option is to build a website with a flexible framework that automatically adjusts to fit the user’s screen. This is called Responsive Web Design, and for many, it is the most practical option. By using a fluid layout, a single website can be easy to use regardless of the device.

This is an illustration of a fixed width layout on a smart phone (left) and desktop monitor (right).

This is an illustration of a fluid or flexible width layout on a smart phone (left) and desktop monitor (right).

Many websites are still built using a fixed width layout. This means that the width of the content is always the same, regardless of the width of the browser window. One sign of a website built this way is when reducing the width of the browser window causes a horizontal scroll bar to appear. With today’s screen size diversity, fluid layouts make more sense. A fluid layout uses relative units to specify the size of each element on a page, and the relative positions are adjusted depending on the size of the display.

If you’d like to learn more about Responsive Web Design, email suzanne@trevellyan.biz or call 518.392.0846.

How To Create An Email Address To Match Your Domain Name Using Google

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

The internet has been called the great equalizer because, with a little help, anyone can look good on the web. A well-designed website can make even the smallest entrepreneur look as professional and respectable as the biggest box store.

There are many factors to consider when building your professional image. One of the most basic is the domain name of your email address. (Domain name is the words after the @ sign in an email address, for example @yahoo.com, @aol.com, @gmail.com.)

The examples above are the domains of companies that offer free email service, but if you already have a website, such as mybusinessname.com, then you should have an email address that matches your domain, such as [email protected]

To a web savvy user, an email address using your business domain looks more professional and can positively affect their initial impression. And consider this: every time you send an email, you’re giving the recipient the domain name of your website and encouraging them to visit. That’s free advertising.

If you already own a domain name, you may not have realized it but you can create an email address using your domain name at no additional cost to you. There are plenty of ways to make this happen. The one we recommend is Gmail. Gmail is free and effective, and it comes with some additional business tools that can help you be more organized and productive.

The exact procedure for registering your new email address using your domain name depends on your domain provider and whether or not you already have a Google account.

If you don’t already have an account with Google, start by registering with Google Apps for Business.

If you already have a Google account, here is a link to the instructions that Google provides:

If you’d like to use Gmail with your own domain name but you’d prefer to have someone else handle the registration, just give us a call at 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.

Using Volunteers to Maintain Your Website

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

The best websites have one person who is responsible for gathering new content. This person knows how to format text in a compelling way and is familiar with basic marketing principles, web standards and search engine optimization practices. Nonprofits often have an ongoing challenge of finding volunteers for even the simplest task. Finding someone with the technical skills required to effectively maintain a website can be even more difficult.

One alternative we often recommend to finding a single individual to handle the entire project is to split the job into three distinct roles: Editor, Poster and Technical Advisor.

The Editor

Responsible for collecting content
Always includes the date that it needs to be removed from the site
Writes copy exactly as it is to be posted

Necessary qualifications:

Good grammar and punctuation
Good communication, written and verbal
Comfortable and familiar with email and attachments

The Poster

Responsible for posting information to the website
Keeps track of what information is on the site and when it needs to be removed
Confirms when information has been received
Provides estimated date/time when the changes will be completed
Contacts The Editor with all questions about new content

Necessary qualifications

Ideally, the candidate for this position will have experience working with your specific content management system (CMS). This will make the transition as smooth as possible.
If this is not possible, the minimum skill set required is a solid understanding of Microsoft Word. This person will need one-on-one training to understand the CMS.

Technical Advisor

Answer questions
Make more complicated changes to the website such as adding or removing pages, changing navigation or adding plugins
Manage software updates

Additional Recommendations

Arrange to meet with the Editor and The Poster regularly to review upcoming and past events and to discuss the current state of the website.
Make it general practice at the end of every meeting to ask the question, “Is there anything we discussed here today that should be posted on the website? Who will be responsible to passing along this information to The Editor?”
Leading up to and following every event, assign one person to be responsible for sending information about that event to The Editor.

Your website is your public face. It is often the first contact someone will have with your organization and it is where they will expect to find the most up-to-date information. Responsibility for its upkeep and maintenance is best given to a team of smart, driven, committed individuals whose skills are suited to the task.

The #1 Single Most Important Thing To Remember About Your Website

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

You’ve spent a good deal of time, money and energy creating a website for business. It may’ve been hard work and when you were done, we bet you were ready to throw a party, take a long weekend, and shout, “I can cross that ‘to do’ item off my list now!” However, it is important to note that once the site is built, the job is not done. Good websites need frequent attention and updating. This fact can not be overstated.

The #1 single most important thing to remember is that the website is not the end product. It is simply the vehicle from which you can disseminate information. For a website to work for you requires an ongoing effort that takes planning, attention and consistency.

The best websites have one person whose sole responsibility is to gather information, format it in a compelling way, and then post it with basic marketing principles, web standards and search engine optimization in mind.

This person

attends meetings with the sole focus of gathering details to add to the website
is known within the organization as the go-to-person for website content
is familiar with what your competition is doing online
knows what information is currently on the site
keeps a log of details that need to be added, expanded, updated, and removed
knows where new information will best fit within the structure of the site
keeps a watchful eye on web statistics
knows what new WordPress plugins are available
is familiar with search engine optimization

Your website is your public face. It is often the first contact someone will have with your business or organization and it is where they expect to find the most up-to-date information. It is important that the person responsible for maintaining it be committed to it for the long term. It isn’t a job for a part-time volunteer or a great grand child.

You wouldn’t have your neighbor’s kid act as your full-time salesperson, you wouldn’t mail an outdated brochure, and you wouldn’t use crayons to create your business cards. Your website is all these things and more. It is your company brochure, your calling card and your 24/7 salesperson. Keep your website up-to-date and trust a committed responsible adult to keep it current.

Creating Slides for Advertising In Your Local Movie Theatre

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Suzanne Trevellyan

You have decided to advertise at the local movie theatre, but you don’t have a slide. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Trevellyan.biz can help you create a slide that reaches local residents in a positive, community-oriented setting.

Advertising with light in a semi-dark room can be tricky. You’ve probably noticed that at the theatre some slides are hard to read while others are crisp and clean. A good designer with experience creating powerful on-screen slides knows how to keep the design simple, limit the amount text and the number of images, and combine and avoid particular colors to increase readability. (Click each of the three images within this post to see examples of our work.)

Trevellyan.biz offers theatre slide creation for businesses of all types. To create one ad (two slides) for your business, we charge $150. For this fee you get up to two original designs concepts and up to three revisions of one concept.

We can work with your materials or we can suggest something new. If we work with your materials, we will evaluate its quality and resolution and let you know if it is adequate. If new images are required, we will show you the image we are recommending and will let you know how much it will cost to purchase.

If you have an idea of how you would like the slide to look, share it with us. Make a rough sketch or bring samples of things you like. We’re most likely to get a design that accurately reflects you and your company if we have all that information upfront.

If you will be advertising at our local theatre, The Crandell, we can deliver the slide to the theatre for you. When the slide arrives, we make an appointment to view it on-screen before it submitting it for rotation, just to make sure it looks good.

For more information about advertising your business at a local movie theatre, call us at 518.392.0846 or email suzanne@trevellyan.biz.