Web Design

In our last article “Overcoming Economic Trends” we began the process of identifying some of the new obstacles facing Graphic Designers as a result of today’s unstable markets. We focused primarily on the seemingly endless influx of “Self Proclaimed Graphic Designers” (aka. the unemployed plumber who once used Microsoft Frontpage to publish a picture of the family dog wearing a Santa hat). However, perhaps even more dangerous to the consumer than even these individuals, are the ones that are somewhat capable with Adobe Photoshop. Because of their ability to produce somewhat attractive/creative designs, this is often enough to mislead consumers into believing that a great design spells success on the internet. When in fact an attractive website alone does not make for a successful website. The reality is design is only a portion of the process.

A website is comprised of a variety of components ranging from design to server/platform choice. It is a tool that when deployed properly will exponentially increase the publishers exposure and in turn grow their potential market. When developing a clients web real estate far more than aesthetics need to be considered. CMS, SEO, CRM and GeoTargeting are just a few of the hundreds of factors to be considered when planning the development of a clients web real estate. Let’s discuss that term for just a moment. What exactly do we mean when we refer to “Web Real Estate”. Web real estate is a term used to describe the virtual property / primary domain or URL used to access the website, ie. http://www.Example.com. Much like physical real estate, these virtual properties can increase in monetary value. For example some appraisers have estimated google.com to be worth as much as $2.41 Billion US dollars for the domain alone without the search engine or database associated with it. The value is defined by the amount of traffic, as well as the potential return in terms of daily ad revenue . Which in the case of Google.com accounts for roughly 45 percent of all internet users globally on a daily basis. Now obviously these numbers are well beyond what most publishers could ever aspire to see. However, for the purpose of demonstrating the monetary potential of web real estate, Google.com serves as a perfect example. While 2.41Billion dollars may be a stretch for most, it is not uncommon for virtual property owners to sell their web real estate for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. This goes back to what we were discussing in our previous article and that is the need to educate the consumer. Web real estate is an investment not just a purchase. A purchase costs money, while an investment has the potential to earn money. The fact remains though, in order to educate the consumer, you must first garner their attention.

There are several methods to increasing traffic to a website. However, these methods typically fall under one of two categories, either Inbound or Outbound Marketing. Inbound marketing focuses on being found by potential customers. Sometimes referred to as Relationship marketing, it is a process where marketers use less than traditional or unconventional means to “publish their message”, ie. via blogs, facebook, youtube, wiki and other social / viral networking methods. This process draws perspective customers into your business as opposed to pushing an outbound message to them. Traditional marketing (outbound marketing) is where marketers deliver their messages via more traditional “paid for” advertising channels. While there is much debate as to which method offers the publisher the greatest value in terms of potential return from either or. It has been our experience that a blend of the two methods when deployed in a strategic manner and supported by SEO hosting solutions provides an extremely effective means of increasing traffic.

The bottom line is successfully launching a website requires a great deal of know how, experience and resources. This reinforces the importance of working with a “Professional Design Firm” vs. a “Self Proclaimed Graphic Designer”. Not to many out of work plumbers own data farms with huge blocks of Class C IPs. In the end, educating the consumer is the only means of establishing these huge differences.