Google Sites Web Design News

Google announced a new service to webmasters, an important tool to acquire new clients.  That new program is called Google Engage . Use Adwords to help you and your clients I applied for this program and was accepted, meaning I had at my disposal training on Google Adwords (online advertising) and a lot of Adword's coupons to divvy out to my clients ($2,000 worth!)  Why is this cool?  Diversity of services gives a competitive advantage.  Not only can you sell your client a website, but you can help them along with selling their product or services.  It is a sort of value-addition to my proposals ($100 coupon for Adwords seems like a nice gesture). So, I applied for the program, the application was easy enough and they (Google) says they will call you, which they did.  I received a call from a nice woman who asked a couple questions and even said my Google Sites websites looked nice. Ooooo, Google badge of honor I took four 20 minute courses.  Now I can help setup my cli

Remember quite a while ago when I posted about my small business, Kirksville Web Design?  Well, I laid low for awhile, not really searching for clients or anything.  Eventually, I received some phone calls of interested organizations.  First there was a waste management company, then someone called me on a proposal I made ages ago.  This all got me back in the mood for making websites! (Excitable, I know) I wanted to write about two important business aspects of web design: proposals and drafting.  I also want to show you my new work so you can get inspired too. Inspiration by MOblues.org Proposals In the procurement world you are providing a description of the products and services you plan to provide the client.  Make the proposal clear and concise, no need for legal contract lingo, just make it obvious. Technical assistance (service) can put the client at ease.  Also, let them know you're available to make amendments to the website (service) like add pictures, announc

Gadgets are embeddable elements that can be tools, devices, games, or portals.  Google provides the a suite of useful gadgets related to Google Apps such as Calendar, Forms, Picasa Photos, Text Boxes, etc.  However, have you ever delved into the "more gadgets" option of your "insert" tab?  There's some great stuff, let's review. Let's Explore More Gadgets...! Google Checkout and Paypal Simple Storefront These gadgets are wonderful for implementing e-commerce on your website.  Really, there are two options with Google Checkout, there's a little button for one-item purchasing and a whole store with cart option. I have not tried out Paypal's Simple Storefront, but I can only assume they went with "simple" because it's straightforward.  Paypal is like the industry standard for online shopping, ever since E-bay, Paypal has been the pioneer of safe shopping.  Google Checkout is still rather obscure, but equally effective for cred

Google has its own science fair, who knew.  And that's great but, how does this relate to Google Sites?  Well, students, budding scientists, what have you, are submitting their projects via a Google Sites website...very cool.  Cool because I like when Google Sites receives exposure, it gives me that nice feeling of affirmation that just because upgrades are slow doesn't mean that Google Sites if off the radar.  This is a quote from the post, which I'll be adding the news archive: "To enter, register online and create your project as a Google Site . Registration is open through April 4, 2011. Please note: you must get parental or guardian consent in order to compete. You can check out the complete rules here . After April 4, we’ll begin judging and will announce our semi-finalists in early May." Google Sites as a vehicle for a project, this is a trend we've seen a lot, especially in the educational sphere.  I'll search "Google Sites" on twit

So you are ready to buy a domain!  You've saved up your $10 or so, and you want to make the step from obscure subdomain to your own .com. This video will show you how to use GoDaddy.com , the most popular domain registrar, to configure your domain.  It is daunting at first, and somewhat technical, but just run through the motions and you'll commit it to memory. Enjoy the video, sorry I haven't been making them as of late, the busy time of the year is over.  Please follow my blog as it raises my hopes that people like/respect the work I'm putting in to making Google Sites a more pleasant experience. Thanks to my current followers (all 9 of them) they're awesome! 

So, I thought I'd make another mock up, since that seems to be my fancy for the month.  This one was a bit more difficult.  Take a look below or click to visit beanstalkapp.com. Notice the centered horizontal navigation - that's not doable with Google Sites, only left orientation.  There's a nice color scheme here.  A three column followed by a four column format towards the bottom with little icons.  The image hugging the bottom of the brown header is a nice effect.  Let's see how I did below. Here's what I did to make it: Background and Title are together one graphic, uploaded to background wrapper, aligned top-center.  Made with GIMP of a desaturated pattern and inverted pattern over brown and toggled for opacity.  The text is the Lobster font with light gradient from top to bottom of text and a focused drop-shadow. Navigation is a unique html color hex code set in content text color and link color. Subtitle text is yellow image of text over alpha-layer

Here was my inspiration.  A website that was at the top of Webcreme.com .  I thought to myself, "I can totally make this with Google Sites!" Here is the mock up.  I used just GIMP and Google Sites.  Visit the website and use it as a Google Sites template. The power of Google Sites and decent graphics skill.  That was fun.

If you design a website, you know about a contact page. You know to list your name, number, email, all of that right? Well, its time we start taking control over that feature, and giving our viewers and clients, and more new and creative way of relaying that informatoin. Digital Signatures A Digital Signature can contain any information you want to have, that your clients or customers will be able to scan using their phone to relay the data stored. Its the barcode that you may see on the back of a item you buy, but instead of numbers, its information! This is my personal digital signature. If scanned with a phone, it will display my name, email, phone, and website. There are many websites out there that you can create one of these items. the best thing is that you can use them on business cards, or flyers, or for information on your site. Microsoft Tag have a really nice and cool feature that you can make your digital sign. point to multiple things. The image below shows what