Here are a few of the most common scams that clients ask me about:

1. Is my domain up for renewal? Well, maybe. But if you get an official-looking envelope delivered to your door that says “Domain Registry of America”, tear it up and throw it away. They are not your domain registrar and are just trying to get you to switch to their service. If you have a question about your domain, feel free to ask me or do a WHOIS search.
2. Can this company really get me at the top of the search engines? Virtually every day I receive an unsolicited message from someone claiming they can get my site to come up first in Google, Bing, etc. It’s simply a scam. While there really are SEO (search engine optimization) experts who are legitimate, no one can guarantee you a #1 result. Treat those unsolicited e-mails as what they are – spam.
3. PayPal, eBay, etc. says I have a complaint against me, but I don’t even use them. How is this happening? Ah yes, they call this one “phishing”. It’s a great way to scam people because the email you receive looks just like it came from PayPal or eBay. The graphics are the same. Except, there might be a misspelling and the reply-to address doesn’t look legit. If you do sell using one of these services, open up your web browser and log in to your account. But NEVER click on a link inside one of those emails. They’re looking to take your account info and your money.
4. I was just browsing a few websites and a message popped up that said I have 1000s of viruses and spyware. Is that possible? Most likely not. Those popup windows on various websites have scammed more than a few people. The trouble is, once your buy their “security software”, it often discovers a whole bunch of viruses that don’t exist. Or, even worse, it proceeds to infect your system. When in doubt, stick with the big brands like Norton, McAfee and ESET.

That’s just a few of the more common scams going around. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

1. Your current website is cluttered and it’s becoming more difficult to add new content.

A lot of times, a website can start out as a small brochure-like resource for your company. But as the years go by, the site expands and the new content starts to cramp your original layout. Suddenly, your home page is a jumble of information and your navigation bar is scrolling off the screen.

When that happens, it’s a good time for a redesign. Your new site should be flexible, and be built to accommodate future additions.

2. Your website looks dated.

Just because you have a website that has been around for awhile doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to redesign. A well-built site can be an asset for years. But sometimes a site just plain looks old.

As with just about everything else in our culture, the trends in web design change over the years. Your new website doesn’t have to be “trendy”, per se. But it should at least have a clean and professional look.  Remember, a lot of people will judge your company based on how your website looks.

3. You want your website to do more.

Perhaps you’re ready to start selling online. Maybe you have already been in the e-commerce game for awhile, but are looking to expand. Or, maybe you aren’t selling online but want to add more bells and whistles to your site.

It can take a few years for a website’s look to become dated. But it takes very little time at all for the technology behind your website to age. If you’re currently stuck using outdated content management systems, etc., it may be time to look at something new.

4. You’re being out-classed by your competition.

While it’s not always advisable to get into a game of tit-for-tat with your competition, there’s something to be said about having the better website.  If your website isn’t up to snuff, that can hurt your business.

Even if your competitors don’t have ultra-fancy websites, why not go out and take the lead?

5. You’re looking to build a community.

Often you’ll find that a website is just a one-way street. You’re telling potential customers what you want them to know. But, in the age of social media, opening up a line of communication can greatly benefit your business.

Allowing users to review products, comment on news and just generally interact with your business is easier than ever before.  There are many tools available that encourage dialogue and they can often be implemented at a very reasonable cost.

So, there you have it.  A redesign does require an investment.  But, if done properly, it can be a very smart investment!

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or leave a comment below.

Recently, one of my favorite publications, The Baltimore Sun, started charging for content.  Their parent company, Tribune, is apparently doing this with most (if not all) of their papers.  They are following the lead of some fairly successful efforts by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, a lot of companies tried to get consumers to pay for online content and failed miserably.  From then on it was all about generating revenue from the sale of banner ads, etc.

Advertising-supported websites, at least in the struggling newspaper industry, seem like they’re becoming a thing of the past.  Now, the major players in the industry are giving pay subscriptions for online content another shot.

Where it gets a little strange is that, even if you subscribe to the print edition of The Baltimore Sun, you still have to pay for use of the website.  I’d be very interested to know how many people are willing to pay subscription fees for both print and online editions.

Not a subscriber of The Sun?  Then you get a whopping 15 pages per month.  If you spend a half hour reading various articles on the site, you’ll use your 15 pages up very quickly.

Why do I like The Sun?  Mainly because I’m a long-suffering Baltimore Orioles fan.  They’re coverage of the team is great.  But at this point I haven’t found myself willing to pay for it.  I’m gathering my O’s updates from other services who aren’t charging for content.

It’s not that I’m cheap.  Well, maybe I am.  But it’s definitely not that I don’t sympathize with a struggling industry trying to turn things around.  I just think that I’m running into the same dilemma as a lot of folks.  Why pay for something when there is a similar product out there for free?

In the case of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, those publications are world-renowned and their content is often considered “must-have”.  So it’s understandable why their pay-for-content models are working.

No disrespect to The Sun, or any of the other publications going to subscription plans, but I truly wonder whether users will value their content in the same fashion.

Ok, maybe that’s simplifying things a little bit. Still, as with all technology, web design has changed so much in the past 15 years.

Part of that comes from the tools that are now available. I can tell you from personal experience that the software used today is galaxies away from where it all started back in the 1990s. Software like Dreamweaver has allowed for much greater efficiency than that old copy of Notepad that was included in Windows 95.

Another factor is that web designers are no longer “boxed in” to a single design template. It used to be that you would have to design a website that worked on a variety of screen resolutions using just one template and layout. It often meant designing for the lowest common denominator. In other words, you had to create a site that would work on the slowest computers with the slowest internet connections.

Now, thanks to cascading style sheets (CSS) and programming languages like PHP, it’s possible to design multiple templates for use on various screen resolutions, web browser versions (ahem, I’m pointing at you, old versions of Internet Explorer) and mobile devices. This means that you can build your website with all the bells and whistles you want, and then adjust your design according to what you’re visitors are using to view the site.

Of course, I shouldn’t forget the advances in computer hardware and the wide availability of broadband internet connections. They have also had a huge impact in what designers are able to create. It’s not as much of a sin to use a large photos – today’s computers and mobile devices with a decent internet connection can handle them.

When I think back to how much things have changed, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have worked in a field that I’m passionate about for so long.

What will the next 15 years bring?

Other CMS software from the past often boxed you in to a general layout. So, no matter how hard you tried, the site still looked like it came from that particular CMS.  Not so with WordPress.

From time to time, I’m going to post links to some other sites that showcase just how creative WordPress allows you to be when designing a website. In most cases, the only limit to how a site can look is your own imagination!

This particular link showcases 35 WordPress sites that use the color blue. Not every one is a winner in my opinion, but this can give you sense of what can be accomplished.  Enjoy!

Swissvale police Chief Greg Geppert says he learned a lesson about the double-edged sword of social networking when he posted an off-color joke on his Facebook page that drew ire from some in the community.

The chief said he posted the joke — which denigrates Muslims, Catholics and women — on his personal page on Saturday morning at the urging of a friend, and “it was never meant to offend.”