Conceptstore Brand & Design » Web Design

Be wary of sneaky web companies

July 27, 201011:47 am

Every so often we get a new client who wants a new site because their current one isn’t doing them much justice.

It turns out that they’re paying a monthly or yearly fee but don’t actually know what there paying for. It’s not their fault because they don’t know the ins and outs of setting up a website but after some investigations by myself we find that the client doesn’t actually own there domain name, their web company does.

The sneaky web company they previously used offered them a package which included the domain name (named after the customers business), hosting and web design but in actual fact they did not register the domain name under the client, they registered it under themselves instead.

What’s wrong with that? (you may say).

In some cases the actual business owner may not want ownership of the domain because they don’t actually want it for long, maybe its just apart of a marketing plan but in most cases, small businesses buy a domain name pretty much for security.

Domain names are never actually owned by anyone, they’re only registered for a period of time (like a lease) but its the registrar who has the power to use, sell or renew that domain which essentially makes it theirs.

If the web company registers your domain in their name then they own your domain name, not you.

In doing so you don’t have any control over your domain name, so:

- If you want to part ways with the web company
- sell your domain name
- move host
- sell your online business

You can’t!

It may not actually be a problem for you until one of these scenarios pop up. In order to gain control of your domain you can ask the registrar(the web company) to release it in which case they may not be willing to sell or they can dictate any price they want.

What to be wary of :

Friends & Family!
From my own professional experience these cases usually happen when a friend of a friend exclusively sorts out your website for you (possibly as a favour). To put it simply its usually someone you know (but not very well) and don’t see very often (a friend of a friend). Big web based companies are not ruled out though (they’ll contact you by phone instead smile) .

The type of company.
It could be a web design company, hosting company, a SEO or marketing company and even an I.T. Company.
In most cases but not exclusively they won’t have a lot of info on their site about domain names and hosting (particularly pricing).

Their prey!
Again not exclusively but they find much more success from businesses who are not particularly web based or web savy such as a shop owner or tradesmen.

How clever are they?
They are extremely clever in that they market their offerings as a simple package and that’s why it works better for non web based businesses. It seems like an easy all inclusive way to get online but be wary, they can use some intricate shenanigans to get the most out of your online presence whilst also damaging it in the process. (gets a little techy below)

A scenario I found last year.
The web company set-up a site for their client. (they were friends of friends)
The web company used a flash, home splash page for the site and flash for the rest of the site.
The web company then set-up meta tags, descriptions, titles and hidden text to advertise their own web design company using unique keywords.
In doing so they increase their web design businesses SEO and the clients own business gets no SEO on his very own site (which also has nothing to do with web services.)
Normally this can get you blacklisted but Designers/developers and many in general know that…

flash is not spidered by search engines.

Every so often we get a new client who wants a new site because their current one isn’t doing them much justice.

It turns out that they’re paying a monthly or yearly fee but don’t actually know what there paying for. It’s not their fault because they don’t know the ins and outs of setting up a website but after some investigations by myself we find that the client doesn’t actually own there domain name, their web company does.

The sneaky web company they previously used offered them a package which included the domain name (named after the customers business), hosting and web design but in actual fact they did not register the domain name under the client, they registered it under themselves instead.

What’s wrong with that? (you may say).

In some cases the actual business owner may not want ownership of the domain because they don’t actually want it for long, maybe its just apart of a marketing plan but in most cases, small businesses buy a domain name pretty much for security.

Domain names are never actually owned by anyone, they’re only registered for a period of time (like a lease) but its the registrar who has the power to use, sell or renew that domain which essentially makes it theirs.

If the web company registers your domain in their name then they own your domain name, not you.

In doing so you don’t have any control over your domain name, so:

- If you want to part ways with the web company
- sell your domain name
- move host
- sell your online business

You can’t!

It may not actually be a problem for you until one of these scenarios pop up. In order to gain control of your domain you can ask the registrar(the web company) to release it in which case they may not be willing to sell or they can dictate any price they want.

What to be wary of :

Friends & Family!
From my own professional experience these cases usually happen when a friend of a friend exclusively sorts out your website for you (possibly as a favour). To put it simply its usually someone you know (but not very well) and don’t see very often (a friend of a friend). Big web based companies are not ruled out though (they’ll contact you by phone instead :) ) .

The type of company.

It could be a web design company, hosting company, a SEO or marketing company and even an I.T. Company.
In most cases but not exclusively they won’t have a lot of info on their site about domain names and hosting (particularly pricing).

Their prey!
Again not exclusively but they find much more success from businesses who are not particularly web based or web savy such as a shop owner or tradesmen.

How clever are they?
They are extremely clever in that they market their offerings as a simple package and that’s why it works better for non web based businesses. It seems like an easy all inclusive way to get online but be wary, they can use some intricate shenanigans to get the most out of your online presence whilst also damaging it in the process. (gets a little techy below)

A scenario I found last year.

The web company set-up a site for their client. (they were friends of friends)
The web company used a flash, home splash page for the site and flash for the rest of the site.
The web company then set-up meta tags, descriptions, titles and hidden text to advertise their own web design company using unique keywords.
In doing so they increase their web design businesses SEO and the clients own business gets no SEO on his very own site (which also has nothing to do with web services.)
Normally this can get you blacklisted but Designers/developers and many in general know that…

flash is not spidered by search engines.

The search engine totally ignores all the clients content, the info which should have been spidered and reads only the web company info instead pretty much rendering the clients website useless and invisible. The chances of getting blacklisted were reduced because all the search engine could see was a web company’s website not the clients business website. In the eyes of a search engine, nothing was actually wrong.

It was simple, very clever and also sneaky.

Do you own your domain name?
If you’ve bought a package like this in the past, or going to buy a domain name, be careful. Buy the domain name and package yourself or with someone you know to ensure that your the registered name on the purchases.

To find out the owner of your domain checkout whois.

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How to Start selling online with E-commerce

July 22, 20102:41 pm

E-commerce
The options for selling online are vast so here’s a run down of the technical jargon and what you need to know to start selling online.

A shopping cart & a normal site?
A website is used to display information through static pages allowing you to create information easily.
A shopping cart requires more functionality such as grid layouts, additional functions, processes and pages to simulate a commerce environment. Shopping cart systems are large add ons or full systems for a commerce operation rather then a normal website.

Which shopping system to use
Shopping systems round up into four categories:
1.)Brochure/cart site combo (joomla/virtuemart)
2.)Pure shopping system (zencart or oscommerce)
3.)Pay monthly option (core commerce)
4.)Buy now button

The brochure/cart site combo

The functionality of a normal website with an added E-commerce operation giving flexibility to evolve your brochure site for the future.
Other website/cart combos can be limited on the shopping cart and that’s why there ideal as a combination method rather then a pure shopping system.
Virtuemart and joomla is an extensive combo system, matching up to a dedicated shopping cart system (our preferred choice.).

The pure shopping system ( zencart or oscommerce)
If the purpose of your new website is purely to sell products then a system like ZenCart or OS commerce is ideal. It’s literally an online shop, giving you every feature you’d need to handle a retail operation.
Payment gateways such as PayPal, RBS and NoChex recognise these systems as fully fledged shopping carts and make integration into their gateways a standard.

The buy now button.

Have no budget! The buy now button is your best option, integrative into any website. Opening an account with a PSP will allow you to create a buy now button and use it on your site. There’s no shopping cart just an instance to “buy now” and take a payment. Ideal if you’re selling one or very few products and don’t need any functionality apart from a sale.

The pay monthly option

If you’re willing to let go of ownership then pay monthly sites like (corecommerce) may be an option. They’re pure shopping systems built and hosted on their own servers. Professional and quick but with two drawbacks.

1.)You don’t own the installation or the host and therefore it may be a little binding.

2.)It requires a monthly fee which may turn out to be a bigger investment.

Payment service providers. (PSP’s)
Paypal, Worldpay, NoChex, Sagepay, Payflow are all payment service providers, online banks that put your transactions through.
Each has their own plans and features so pick carefully as pricing varies. You’ll have to create an account with them, verify yourself and business alongside integrating them with your bank. (speak to your bank for more details)

Payment Gateways
Payment Gateways are portals provided by Payments Service Providers, serving as a connection where your customers can make a transaction. You have the choice to make transactions live on your site in which more web development may be required or to take the customer to the PSP site which is a quicker option.
PSP’s have a list of shopping systems that they know are compatible with such as Zen Cart. This makes the setting up of a gateway connection quick and easy but the shopping system itself may not be ideal for your needs. Alternatively you can use a system which does cater for your needs but is not listed by the PSP, requiring a little more web development.

WHAT TO SELL!

After reading the above your probably thinking that its actually too much hard work. It doesn’t have to be when we’re here to take the load off your shoulders. The real thing you need to think about is what to sell.
As a service provider you your sales depend on results rather then products but you can combine the two.

Subscriptions:

Maybe its not a product that you want to sell but a subscription in which everything is kept online without the hassle of posting and packaging.

Add on products:
Alternatively from your own products you could also sell existing products in the forms of tools to help manage your clients service with you. IE manuals, equipment, software etc.

Information

Books, E-books, CD’s and downloads are all products that can be produced from your current services an sold as expert info. These products generate income but act as marketing tool to extend the income into a larger service contract.

All in all an E-commerce system with a good line up of products can generate great additional sales but essentially lead to bigger things. Get in touch to see how we can help.

Traders-edge logo design, web design, flyer design, stationery design

2:11 pm

Traders edge brandingA few months back Martin Astley from the Openblue Team wanted to pursue a new personal venture to coincide with the current Openblue offerings. Having successfully traded on the stock market for many years, they worked out a way to use their own experiences to educate others with Traders-edge.co.uk.

Traders-edge provide personalised training courses to anyone who has the want and will to learn about stock trading, backed up by mental coaching techniques to turn you into a disciplined and successful trader.

The brand and identity was to encompass the the stock market bull’s and bears but the logo itself was to be reflective of a forward thinking, successful but yet still friendly company. After hours of reasearch we found that the industry itself has very few but solid icons such as the line graph. Although it seemed like a common idea it was one which got the point across quickly and easily.
Traders edge branding
However! We weren’t ging to be typical about it, the logo had to be modern and advanced. After several ideas and revisions we developed a dynamic arrow using two gradients to symbolise both the line graph, fluctuations in teh stock market and the capable success of learning with the traders edge. Fitted with a suitable font it has slight warmth to it without being over friendly.
Traders edge branding
Traders edge branding
After establishing the logo we went onto design a great website with subscription and membership facilities as well as stationery, flyers and PDF book cover to promote the business.

Take a look for yourself at www.traders-edge.co.uk

Tom Merrifield Web Design

2:10 pm

Tom Merrifield web design
A few months back we had a very interesting job of creating a studio website for a well known artist by teh name of Tom Merrifield. The project involved a gallery website with the option of a fully operative E-commerce system. Alongside this the site was to be modern yet classic with a retro feel.

We designed, tested and populated the site to create www.tommerrifield.co.uk

Curzon Web & Brochure Design

1:43 pm

Curzon web design

At the beggining of the year Conceptstore were comissined by One Practice to handle the design of a corporate brochure for top London Porperty Investment firm Curzon.  By sourcing great images and narrowing down on the copy we create a 12page oversized A4 brochure for the company.
Curzon web design

Following on we went on to design a huge corporate site encompassing a complete media section and an online flash presentation.  Check it out at http://www.curzoninvestmentproperty.com

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