Atlanta Web Design – DoubleDome Web Technologies

This is great news for web designers, flash designers, and anyone else in the interactive space!

The longstanding complaint in online advertising circles is that the Web has yet to receive its fair of ad spending, considering the amount of time most Americans spend online these days.

Conventional wisdom has been that online advertising still pulls in less than 10 percent of all media dollars, while more and more users spend as much as 20 and 30 percent of their media time surfing the Internet.

Yet according to a new report issued by eMarketer, online industry executives may soon have less to complain about. The researcher predicts that the Web?s share of ad dollars will approach 10 percent this year and will exceed 15 percent by 2013. Those projections are based on recent trending, as the Internet?s share of total spending has been gradually increasing by a rate of one percent each year, found eMarketer.

Ironically, that rate of growth should accelerate because of the ongoing recession, which is causing many brands to reevaluate all of their ad and marketing budgets, according to the report. That optimistic assessment comes just after eMarketer revised its 2009 online ad spending forecast, dropping an earlier prediction of 8.9 percent growth to 4.5 percent.

Despite that slowdown, the Web is benefiting from an overall share shift, claims eMarketer. ?Marketers are spending more on Internet ads, while spending less on advertising in other media, such as newspapers, radio and magazines,? reads the report. That shift is being driven primarily by most brands? intensifying need to track and justify every ad dollar in the current climate?which the Web?s inherent trackability offers.

?Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies,? said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst . ?Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media.

This produces more efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.?

Web design usability guidelines have been the same for years. There will always be something new in the media or technology. The latest and greatest Facebook or Twitter is great, but how do you relate those to your primary business focus? The fact is that unless you have basic web design usability down, these new technologies merely mask your sites fatal flaws.

The most significant design flaws effecting business value generally ignore the following:

1. Communicate clearly so that users understand you. Users allocate minimal time to initial website visits, so you must quickly convince them that the site’s worthwhile.
2. Provide information users want. Users must be able to easily determine whether your services meet their needs and why they should do business with you.
3. Offering simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts things where users expect to find them.

Get these three right, and you will enhance your site’s credibility, ease a user’s way through the site, and do far more for the site’s business value.

DoubleDome Web Technologies is an Atlanta web design company that provides a full range of Internet Marketing services including Custom Web Design, E-commerce Design, Mobile Web Design, Flash Design, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing Service, Website Support, and Web Hosting. DoubleDome is a single point-of-contact for all Internet marketing services for corporate websites, Ad Agency Outsourcing, Business web design and retail e-commerce across the country. For more information about DoubleDome, please visit their website: www.doubledome.com.

Web design has a huge impact on your business. Some people lose sight of this simple fact, but it is something that should not be forgotten. A website serves as the face of a company. Quality design with sleek features and solid content will make for a successful online venture. On the other hand, a confusing website with sloppy graphics and generic features will bore users and turn people off almost immediately. Believe it or not, most web visitors form an opinion about a website based on the initial impression that they get when opening the page. That means you have only a few seconds to impress new visitors. An impressive design will get you more traffic and create a positive image, whereas a poor design will greatly damage your credibility and ability to attract traffic.

Poor creative design is one of the main pitfalls for web design. You need a solid foundation on which to build. Without this, you will struggle with the implementation of many prominent features. Poor navigation is often a result. Few things are as frustrating to a user as a confusing navigation setup. If there is no usability, then visitors will leave the site immediately. Another common mistake is when designers forget to make a site cross browser compatible. If a website only works for one type of browser, then you are cutting yourself off from tons of other potential visitors who cannot open your site with their browsers. It is a rookie mistake, so keep an eye out for it.

Poorly written content is also a big mistake. Internet browsers are generally intelligent, and they want to read good content. Garbage writing is an insult to their intelligence. People won’t return to your website if they find poor content. A professional web design firm can provide consultation so that this does not happen. They can also help to correct unfocused marketing messages. Speaking of marketing, it is important to make your site search engine friendly. Many amateurs forget to do this, and that is a major mistake that will affect the levels of traffic to your site.

Another web design mistake is using the wrong technology. Sometimes people will use Flash when HTML should be used. Remember to use an enterprise class data center. A slow hosting environment is never good for business. Finally, look for a firm that performs a post launch evaluation. If you spend a lot of time developing a site, a post launch evaluation should definitely be carried out to make sure everything works how it should.

Ad Age recently posted an interesting article on advertising budgets. Interesting read while hearing that many traditional advertising dollars are shifting to on-line marketing initiatives.

Marketers that cut ad spending during downturns between 1985 and 2005 tended to lose more business to private-label brands in the short and long term, according to research from an academic at the University of North Carolina. But companies that kept ad spending level or boosted it, especially in the TV segment, didn’t lose much ground to private-label rivals during those previous recessions, the research found.

Here’s a link to the full article. adage.com/article?article_id=135790

There is no denying the impact that blogs and other forms of social media have had on advertising. With? the constant mention of Twitter an Tweeting in traditional media it was only a matter of time before regulation of the medium with regards to advertsing reared it’s ugly head.

Advertisers in the US are bracing themselves for regulatory changes that they fear will curtail their efforts to tap into the fast-growing online social media phenomenon.

Revised guidelines on endorsements and testimonials by the Federal Trade Commission, now under review and expected to be adopted, would hold companies liable for untruthful statements made by bloggers and users of social networking sites who receive samples of their products.

The guidelines would also hold bloggers liable for the statements they make about products.

If a blogger received a free sample of skin lotion and then incorrectly claimed the product cured eczema, the FTC could sue the company for making false or unsubstantiated statements. The blogger could be sued for making?false?representations.

?This impacts every industry and almost every single brand in our economy, and that trickles down into social media,? said Anthony DiResta, an attorney representing several advertising associations.

Advertisers have significantly increased spending on social media and word-of-mouth campaigns, even during the recession. Through blogs and services such as Facebook and Twitter, companies are able to communicate more directly with consumers. Spending on social media marketing reached $1.35bn in 2007 and is expected to reach $3.7bn by 2011, according to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

The advertising industry has argued that the revised regulations are too stringent and would stifle innovation in the emerging field of social media. It remains in favour of self-regulation.

Richard O?Brien, vice-president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said it was premature to regulate blogs or other forms of new media.

He wrote to the FTC that ?regulating these developing media too soon may have a chilling effect on blogs and other forms of viral marketing, as bloggers and other viral marketers will be discouraged from publishing content for fear of being held liable for any potentially misleading claim?.

The FTC is revising the guidelines for the first time since 1980, in response to the new forms of advertising spawned by the internet.

?The guides needed to be updated to address not only the changes in technology, but also the consequences of new marketing practices,? said Richard Cleland, assistant director for the FTC?s division of advertising practices. ?Word-of-mouth marketing is not exempt from the laws of truthful advertising.?

The main target of the new guidelines appears to be the widespread practice of viral marketing in which companies recruit non- employees to talk up products in exchange for samples or promotions.

Companies regularly offer free samples and concert tickets to bloggers and journalists, in the hope of generating press. However, determining which bloggers are acting as an agent of a company may prove difficult.