January 2008 - Vol 2, Issue 1
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Hello Candace Carter,

Is your business web site effective?
Well, 2008 is the year to learn how make it so!

Back2Front is planning numerous seminars, work shops, and lectures in various venues across the GTA. Some of these events will be offered by Back2Front exclusively, and some of them will be in partnership with experts in other fields that are as relevant to your business success as your web site. If you are interested in receiving notification of our upcoming events please let us know by responding to this newsletter.

If you can't attend one of our events, our educational articles will also be appearing in business magazines both in print and on line, on our web site, and of course this newsletter.

Topic Ideas Wanted! If you have a burning question about how to make your web site more successful please send it in. The more we can tailor our educational efforts to your needs, the better the results will be all around.

Happy New Year everyone!

  - Candace Carter

Size Matters - Web site width, scrolling, and why web sites are not TV shows.

This week I had a discussion with the Principals of a newly-incorporated consulting company about the width of their new web site. They were using newly purchased, high-resolution, flat-screen monitors to view the new web site. They were wondering why the site (designed at 760 pixels wide) only took up a small portion of the screen with blank space on either side of the content area...

Read on...
Branding is for Pickles.
Do I need to re-brand my company and my web site?

If you're not selling pickles, spending huge amounts of time and money developing and promoting a brand (or worse yet, going through a re-branding exercise) is only going to make the branding companies rich. Because branding is for pickles.

Are you selling pickles?

  • Have you sold the same items repeatedly to your customers for years?
  • Each time your customer buys, are all of your competitors presented in a row?
  • Is it as easy to switch providers as picking a jar off a shelf?
  • Is your 'ingredients list' exactly like the rest of your competition?
  • Is there no way for your prospective customer to determine the quality of your product before they purchase?
  • Are your prospective customers picky? Or will they always go for the lowest price?
  • Do you sell millions annually?
If you can respond to most of these questions with a "yes" - you're selling pickles, and you'd best create a brand, and a plan to get out there to promote it. But make no mistake; you're playing in the big leagues, and you better be willing to invest more than pocket change into your new advertising initiative.

But if you're not selling pickles - you do not need a brand!  Now don't get me wrong...

Read the full original article...
In this section we will show you examples of the best or the worst in web site design from around the World Wide Web.

www.canadianwindpower.ca

Legibility and browser compatibility are two very important aspects of good web design. In some cases they affect each other, as in this example.

The small image at right is of the entire home page as viewed with Internet Explorer (IE). The below left (mostly green) image is a close-up view of just the left menu in IE. Below right is a close-up view of the same area of the web site as it appears using the Firefox browser.

The background colour behind the menu items is a different colour in Firefox (yellow instead of green). Since the text turns yellow when you place the cursor over a menu item (Aeration Products) the menu item seems to disappear in Firefox.

As you can see, testing a web site for compatibility with the most common web browsers is important not just to make sure that the web site looks roughly the same to all of your visitors, but to make sure that it functions properly as well.

Good, valid HTML code, helps to avoid browser compatibility issues, but nothing beats thorough testing.

Our first event for 2008!
Learn Multiple Strategies to Significantly Grow Your Business in 2008.
  • Date: Wednesday, January 30th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm
  • Location: TBD - either in Stouffville or Aurora.
  • Cost: Free with RSVP or $10 at the door.
An evening seminar with Back2Front's Candace Carter and business coach Paul Thornhill of Action International.
  • Find out how an Action coach can help you reach your business goals.
  • Find out what are the 10 most common web site mistakes (and how to avoid them).
  • Bring your most pressing business questions and get answers from two different expert perspectives.
  • Meet and join in the discussions with your fellow attendees.
  • Light refreshments served.
Register now!
Here are a few of our most recent clients and their respective web sites:

You can check out Our Portfolio page for more examples...
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Please let me know how you like this newsletter, or if you have suggestions for future issues. I would love to hear from you!

Candace Carter
Back2Front - The Web Site People

Email: candace@back2front.ca
Phone: 905 649 6671
Web Site: http://back2front.ca

This email was sent to info@candacecarter.com, by candace@back2front.ca

Back2Front - The Web Site People | 262 Westmount Blvd. | Thornhill | Ontario | L4J 7V9 | Canada