As life, and business grow in the digital world, it is more and more important to take care of your “virtual assets”.

Using the same analogy I used before, would you let someone else, like a real-estate agent, put your house in their name? Or the car salesman to put the automobile ownership in his own name? I’m guessing the answer to both of these questions would be a resounding “NO”.

Then why do it with your online real-estate, your online vehicle?

As a rule, kitestring WILL NOT purchase your domain under our own name. It’s a very simple process to register with a domain name registration company (there are many out there), purchase the domain (I’m assuming you have a credit card – or you can steal your parents’), and then Bob’s your uncle, you are the owner of a brand spankin’ new domain name! From there, if you don’t know what to do, you can hopefully work with your friendly neighbourhood web developer to get things started! Easy as pie.

There are a few things wrong with letting someone else register for you:

1. Who says they will be around next year, at the same company, or e-mail address? The registration and reminders will go to a specified e-mail address, and if that address no longer exists, then the renewal reminders will just float around, laughing at you until your domain expires and you frantically scramble to get things back up and running.
2. Who says the company who registered it will be around next year?
3. What if things go sour between you and the person/company who registered the domain name? They not only hold the deed, but the keys to get in and do anything about it.
4. You may not be warned that your domain will expire, so you won’t know to renew, and inevitably, your website will go down. The reminder will go to whoever registered, then it’s up to them to either let you know, renew themselves, or let it expire. Too often, we see them just expire.
5. It’s cheap and easy to register a domain name, and you’re most likely paying twice that to get someone else to do it for you, which may lead to other problems (see points 1 through 4 above).

Do you actually own your domain name? If not, you really should. Send me an e-mail at brandon@kitestring.ca and we can go over how you can transfer your domain into your own name, and avoid any of the pitfalls we encounter every day.

Some people like the good old “let’s throw it all on the wall and see what sticks” approach, including their life stories, complete history, and in-depth essays on why you should choose them. That may have worked 10 years ago, but the times they are a changin’.

Here is my personal list of things that I don’t think belong on a website. Keep in mind that this is a general list, and there is sometimes a specific need for some of these things.

1. Page Hit Counter – This was huge in the 90′s. You remember, the little ticker at the bottom of the page that bragged to the world that 47 people have been to your site. Not only is this unnecessary information, but it also can show your client something you may not want them to know.

2. Scrolling information or text – If you want someone to read something, maybe making it a moving target isn’t the best idea.

3. Too many words! There is always a shorter way of saying something, no matter how complicated. Try to keep your text down to 35 words. Yes, this is sometimes a difficult feat, but that’s where a professional copywriter may come in handy. They can take a step back, analyze what you are trying to convey, and do it in a way that someone outside of your organization can understand.

4. Don’t make them guess. Keep the navigation and page elements simple, well thought-out, and logical! If it’s a chore for a user to find something on your site, you can pretty much guarantee that they will give up and go somewhere else. Go the extra mile, and get some wireframes done before building a website. This way, it can be tested, proven, and then built from a solid user interface.

5. Flash Intros/Excessive Use of Flash – I don’t think I have to explain this one. Never make people wait to get into your site. Flash, if used tastefully can add a dynamic feel to a site, and draw the eye to a specific area. However, it’s been overused though, and sometimes to sickening, seizure inducing levels.

6. Outdated information – Keep it fresh. If your last news item is from 2004, then maybe it’s time to either update that, or get rid of it all together.

That’s just a small list of things, but as I mentioned in item number 3, keep the words to a minimum!

This is where it gets tricky. It seems that most people who use a browser other than IE tend to actually update their browser more than once every 5 years. This helps keep up with the momentum and progression of web technologies and techniques. This would be kind of like renting a Blue-Ray, slapping it into your VCR, and wondering why things aren’t working properly.

I am very happy to say that more than half the visitors to the kitestring website are using something other than IE! Within the group of Firefox users, only 1.53% are using version 2, whereas for Internet Explorer, 40% are still using version 7, and a painful 12.81% are still using the extremely outdated IE6. Worldwide, IE6 still accounts for 20% of browser use.

How much of the online world has changed since 2001? A lot! And that is just from an end user’s perspective. There have been even more changes from a developer’s perspective, and an outdated (9 YEARS OLD!!!) browser, isn’t helping. The added fact that Microsoft chooses to forego standards within it’s browsers (even version 8 ) is only complicating matters further. The most frustrating thing in almost any developers day is creating a standards compliant website, then finally testing in IE, and the cursing begins.

The big question is, how far back do we go with cross-browser testing? Should a client have to pay for the extreme amount of work that goes into making a modern site work in something as archaic as Internet Explorer 6 and 7?

Web development is hardly just a copy and paste, drag and drop world, it combines the best of design and development, colours and mathematics to make a great, usable, universally accessible website.

So, please, update your browser. Please.

See http://www.bringdownie6.com/ for more information.

Check it out!

See you there!

Your business. It’s our passion.

MediaFace

Players Paradise Soccer

Training Innovation

Citizen Kid

Aecon Careers

The Home Staging Studio

kitestring will be launching a new site in the next few days. A fresh look with fresh photography by Marta Hewson Photography. Stayed tuned. I am so excited!

Black Box Fire Website

Black Box Fire is proud to present:

“Down the Road” by Lee Blessing

The story centers on a convicted serial killer, and the husband and wife writing team hired to help him write an account of his crimes. The killer, Bill Reach, has admitted to the murder of 19 women, but there may have been more. Over many weeks of interviews, the couple, Dan and Iris Henniman, grow more and more uncertain of the ethics of what they are doing. Are they simply relating terrifying events, or are they helping readers consume rape, murder, and mutilation as if they are consuming any other product of our society? Are they, in fact, helping to turn Bill Reach into a celebrity?

Starring:

AJ Haygarth as William Reach

Alexa Holbrook as Iris Henniman

Jared Lenover as Dan Henniman

Directed by Matt Moore

Stage Managed by Monica Cairney

Set Designed by Chris Farias

Tickets: $15

Show times:

Friday, May 8th, 8pm

Saturday, May 9th, 2pm

Saturday, May 9th, 8pm

Thursday, May 14th, 8pm

Friday, May 15th, 8pm

Saturday, May 16th, 2pm

Saturday May 16th, 8pm

Reserve online before May 6th for a chance to win some killer door prizes!

Video and Promotion Material by kitestring.

Chris Farias – Hamilton Ontario – www.kitestring.ca
kitestring creesign – graphic design, marketing, illustration, web design, creative thinking, strategic markeative marketing + dting, total fun!