Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion this week! Surprised? I was not...

I reveal my reasons on my personal blog - click here to read.

The New Year period is always a time for reflection and planning. It is when everybody starts dieting. When smokers quit smoking. When people get organized.

It is no different for businesses, and it is definitely no different here at KAYWEB.

Our New Year's resolution is to take our much-lauded customer service to the highest level ever in 2012.

When I survey clients to find out what they like about KAYWEB, they always respond that our customer service is very good compared to other experiences they've had in the web industry. We've accepted these compliments for over seven years, recognizing that customer service is one of our key points of difference.

This year, we want to take this point of difference to another level ... because we feel you need us to.

When starting a business 10 years ago, giving your business a web presence was not even on the priority list. Five years ago, it probably arrived somewhere towards the bottom of the top 10 things your business needs to get started. Today, it is number one or number two on that same priority list.

Every business needs a website, and a well strategized web presence. We will look to work with our clients to ensure their web presence is updated and holistic, with search engine optimization and social media marketing options taken into consideration.

We also feel that a mobile presence is becoming as important as a web presence for businesses. With nearly half of the world's visits to websites being made with mobile phones, it is our responsibility to check that our clients' websites are optimized for mobile browsing.

Our Support team has been expanded over the last year and is better equipped than ever to continue handling all our clients' technical issues.

KAYWEB will take customer service to a new level in 2012. Unlike many diets that began on January 1, our New Year's resolution will deliver results.

It is no longer a secret that mobile is starting to take over as the preferred method of internet browsing for most consumers.

As a result, we at KAYWEB are constantly trying to get clients to start thinking about a mobile-friendly version of their website.

Google has come up with a neat tool to check how your website looks on mobile devices - it is part of an initiative called GoMo. Check it out by clicking here.

If you want to go mobile with your web presence, contact our Business Development staff in Sydney on 1300-793-646 or email info@kayweb.com!

.xxx is a domain extension designed to house pornographic websites, which currently appear on the same domain extensions used by businesses and organizations (e.g. .com and .com.au).

Contrary to what some may have thought when reading this blog headline, I am not thinking of branching KAYWEB out into porn (I can feel the sighs).

All I am doing is protecting our brand 'KAYWEB'. Better I register it and do nothing with it, rather than someone else register it and do everything with it.

I encourage you to do the same.

KAYWEB does not currently sell .xxx domain names as our supplier has not yet made it available, but they are available at Go Daddy.

All modern browsers now support web fonts, in some form. Microsoft Internet Explorer has supported @font-face since 1997 in version 4, Apple Safari implemented support in 2008 in version 3.1, Mozilla Firefox added support in 2009 in version 3.5, and Google Chrome added support in 2010 in version 6.

When using @font-face you need to be aware of supported font formats and browser specific syntax.  There is currently no universally supported web font format. Failing to provide proper font formats and browser supported CSS will result in your page rendering inconsistently across browsers.  If done incorrectly, visitors will see the browser’s default font instead of the specified font.

There are some great font services that take care of cross browser support by dynamically generating the appropriate CSS for each browser.

Typekit, Webtype, WebINK, and Fonts.com are some of the services available, and all of them generally take care of hosting and licensing. Using one of these services allows the quickest path to implementation without having to know too much about the underlying technology.

Typekit provides many fonts created by Adobe, and we are working together to offer more Adobe fonts in the future.

Then there's Google fonts. The fonts will be generated by Google by accessing their servers, it will just take a couple of niffy jiffy on the doctype to use it, and its all for free.

If you find yourself needing to roll your own web fonts, there are a few basics that are required to ensure your intended fonts show up on all browsers:

Know your font formats. There are a few different versions of web fonts in use today.

Embedded OpenType (.eot) – Supported by Internet Explorer only.TrueType/OpenType (.ttf/.otf) – Supported by the widest range of browsers, but, not supported in Internet Explorer. (this may change in IE9)Web Open Font Format  (.woff) – Supported in recent versions of Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer, but not yet supported in Safari.In addition to needing to worry about licenses and multiple font formats, browsers interpret CSS code differently, so writing a rule to include your fonts is less than straightforward. “Bulletproof” syntax for @font-face has evolved over the years to work around browser inconsistencies. Much of the syntax seems repetitive and counter intuitive. For a good history of @font-face and a clear explanation of the CSS syntax read the ”The New Bulletproof @Font-Face Syntax” blog post at Fontspring. Learning how the syntax has evolved gives a clearer picture of how each browser handles @font-face.

FontSquirrel is a web service that will convert fonts for you and generate CSS code.  After uploading your fonts, FontSquirrel will convert your fonts for cross browser usage and generate CSS for you. The CSS code generated by FontSquirrel also happens to work just about everywhere, including mobile devices. If you use FontSquirrel to generate web fonts, make sure you have the proper license to do so.

Now, websites will be magazine-likes, having the best and nicest fonts out there and having the liberty to use all existing fonts for the web is truly outstanding and great news for designers as well.

Check this slideshow out if you have a spare hour or so :)

With a growing number of Facebook, Twitter and other social network users, it is clear that internet usage is booming. As a result, many business owners are at a crossroads - questioning whether they need a website or, if they already have one, is it working to deliver whatever it is set out to deliver?

The two most common types of websites are.

1. Informational Website

Informational websites are mainly used is to give out information. This could have different purposes - a non-profit organization might deliver information about issues of concern, while a business could use this form of website to market their products and services.

2. Online Stores

Ecommerce websites, or online stores, serve the purpose to offer goods and services for sale and enable online transactions to affect such sales.

As business owners at a crossroads, you must decide which of the categories your website falls into. Is it to give information or to sell? Or is it a more custom need? Then choose your web designer and web developer to get your website designed and developed in an optimized way.

When your website is finally up, the best way to tell if it is working for you is by reviewing your website analytics. The analytics will show how many visitors are coming to your website, where your visitors are coming in from, what keywords people are finding your website under, what your bounce rate is and much more.

If your website has a high bounce rate that means that a majority of visitors are coming into your website and leaving quickly. This is not good! You want visitors to look around your website, and if they are not, your website is not working for you.

Though it sounds easy, reviewing analytics is not general knowledge. It is best to ask for guidance and help of a SEO specialist.

If your website is search engine optimized and still not working, maybe online marketing is the solution for you.

Or... if your website has many issues and is not working for you it may be necessary to start from scratch and get a whole new website.
This might be a little pricey at start but will pay off later.

Recently, I began contributing articles to one of the biggest social media news websites in the world, Social Times after the editor declared his interest in having me write on my expertise of 'startups' and 'web and mobile business' once or twice a week.

The article I wrote the other day went seriously viral.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST

DC Universe Online is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Sony Online Entertainment. Sony first released the conceptual art in July 2008, and after a long time of waiting, the game was official released in January 2011.

I describe as DC Universe Online as massive because it is more interactive than standard MMORPGs. It includes a levelling system, raid instances, endgame progression and inventories. Players can choose a mentor for their character (such as Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman for heroes and Lex Luthor, The Joker, or Circe for villains).

DC Universe is unique in a way because you can play it on your Play Station 3 if you don't have powerful PC but Sony doesn't support MAC users. This game allows gamers to create their own character with their desired abilities and power, like the laser eyes of Superman. Also, this game offers users to play as the villain, which most MMORPGs don't offer.

1. IT'S NOT A RACE - If you have a business or a web idea that you want to promote online . . . DO NOT HURRY to develop it. The most effective and useful websites on the internet have taken weeks, months, even years to develop and perfect!

If you rush, you will miss things! - Take the extra week, research your competitors, see how you can beat them with your website, come up with new ideas, do something differnt!

By taking the extra time, you can ensure that you have covered all aspects of your business and how you are going to promote it on the web successfully.


2. WHERE ON EARTH DO I GO? - There is NOTHING WORSE than visiting a website and you can't find the menu. It's hidden, it's flash animated, it doesn't work properly or it's even written in another language to be arty!

If you create a website with poor navigation, you can bet that users will spend an average 2 seconds on your website - and they will be spending that time trying to locate the back button on their browser!

Make your navigation clear, crisp and precise so that users can easily navigate around and find the info they need. By doing this they will stay on your website longer which can lead to future enquires for you business.

Try it out! What you think might be a good idea for navigation could be horrible for someone else. Why? Because you know how the menu will work in your head and other people would have no clue.


3. IT IS A MESS! - So you have 6 different columns, 5 different images, moving pictures and a nice big pop up banner and it's all on the one page. . . where do you want me to look?

LOSE THE CLUTTER PEOPLE!!

Your website needs to have the MOST IMPORTANT information CLEARLY made available to maximise your potential business.

If I visit a website and there are 10 different calls to action, I leave straight away due to sheer confusion.

This is a massive flaw that people have with their websites. They think that the more information they have on the page the better - yes i'll give you credit that a lot of information can help, just not all on one page . . . spread it out.

And obviously people leaving your website is a bad thing. Not only will you have a high bounce rate, but you will more than likely find your website ranking will head down the google chain and struggle to boost itself up because no one is visiting it!

Just remember:

Put the most important and relative information on the page. Put yourself in your potential visitor's shoes. They know NOTHING about you or your services. If they were to visit your site, would they be able to pick up the services you offer nice and quick? This is imperative- Use images to illustrate a certain point and not just for decoration. Images form a large part of clutter so make sure they are only there if you need them!


4. It don't matter if it's Black or White . . . or red or yellow or green with a little purple . . .

Stop overdoing it on the colour . . . . The other day I visited a children's website and I swear it had every possible colour in the world on the one page. This is not good, not good at all.

When people think of colours, they think "I need to make it look pretty", but what you should be thinking is "how can I use colours to direct my users' attention".

By this, I mean that if you have a tagline, header, or something important you want to point out to the user, colour should be your first port of call as it's where people's attention is drawn to.

When it comes to colour also, you need to make sure your colours match and complement each other - and please MAKE SURE it matches your logo . . . I can't tell you how many times I have seen a website with a Logo that does not even match the website colours and it looks horrible. 

If you are stuck on colours, Google colour charts or colour themes make sure the colours you are using match, otherwise you will lose a visitor's attention.


There are many other small things that people do wrong on websites, what you need to do is plan it properly, use common sense and most of all make sure that the website is user friendly!

If you need some advice on optimising your website to ensure it reaches is maximum possibilities with your target market, please give KAYWEB a call on 1300 794 636 and we will be able to provide you with some advice.

Now go get planning!