Make your own Pizza

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Manish

The topic of my blog could be misleading but I couldn’t resist the temptation to quote this scene from my favorite sitcom. Watch…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9o7DFFimKo

Now make your own website. That is what a lot of internet sites want you to do. When I started working on our latest product Website Factory, the only thought that kept haunting me at every step of the way was “Can I expect the user to do this on his own?” and unsurprisingly most of the answers were “No”.

I am amazed at how a lot of website builders expect you to be a designer, a usability expert, an internet marketer and the list goes on and on and on. In my opinion if you have these skills then you don’t need a website builder.

An ideal site builder should not expect you to make your own pizza. This blog might sound like I am here to advertise our product but I am really trying to get the right message across to my readers that we have worked hard on changing the concept of a site builder so you don’t have to make your own pizza. I am excited that a lot of our customers have liked our new way of approaching a website builder.

In short I can say that our site builder takes a design centric approach.  We feel that designing requires a combination of usability, wire framing and creative skills and thus it is best to let a professional designer handle that part. After years of experience with designing, we do realize that the customers have certain preferences in terms of design and that is why we offer free customization services built into the system. However anything to do with the design must be handled by a professional designer and that is what makes our site builder unique. It comes equipped with a real professional who is there to help you at every step of site building.

This is how our website builder is able to output high quality professional looking websites. The other area we strongly focus on is interactivity. And, just like we don’t expect you to be a designer, we don’t expect you to be a programmer either. We have added several interactive apps starting from simple photo gallery to advanced shopping cart just to make it easy for you to get the functionality you want without having to go through a series of requirement/scope gathering sessions.

I will keep it short and let you explore the rest by signing up for a free trial at http://websitefactory.comnez.com.

We however do expect you to make your own pizza when it comes to building personal websites with our upcoming product. Stay tuned to find out how. I promise you, it’ll be fun!

Posted in Web Design | Tagged , | 4 Comments

What is quality content?

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Manish

We often hear from experts that having quality content on your website is likely to improve its ranking on the search engine results page. Before I get into the definition of quality content I would like to talk about “Bounce Rate”. Imagine that you opened a new restaurant in a very busy area and there are many other restaurants around you. Within a week you realize that out of every ten customers that walk into your restaurant, only two end up ordering food. The rest just walk away after looking around. The bounce rate of your restaurant is 80%. This is going to make you wonder why 80% of people who walk into your place, leave. The answer is not very difficult. “Quality”.

Now let us apply the same analogy to websites. Having a website is very similar to having a restaurant in a high traffic area with several competitors around you. The user or the potential customer is most likely to eat in the restaurant that fits his quality expectations. There are obviously other factors that affect a customer’s decision and thus the bounce rate can never be 0%, no matter how hard you try or how good your ambience, food and service is. Better quality is just going to reduce your bounce rate and increase the chances of your restaurant’s success.

Getting back to the topic of this article, I am going to define quality content and give you a few tips to create it.

Quality content can be divided into three categories:

1) Textual content
2) Images and Diagrams
3) Interactive Tools

When you pick a topic and decide to produce some quality content related to that topic, you must make a list of things you know about that topic and categorize them into text, images and tools. It is not necessary that for every topic you choose, you will find things under all the three categories every time but it is important to remember that these categories serve different purposes to the user and your content is most likely to generate higher amount of traffic if your website offers all the three.

The quality of your content is defined by the following parameters:

1) Originality
2) Readability
3) Knowledge

Originality – Write in your own words. The reader wants to know your thoughts and would consider you as an expert if he/she likes your thoughts.

Readability – There are several tools on the internet that will tell you the readability level of your article. Readability is important to search engines too. In fact, if you go to Google.com and click on Advanced Search, one of the search options is Reading Level or Readability.

Knowledge – Demonstrate a high knowledge level by introducing specifics that add more value to the reader. The reader is reading your article because he wants to know more about the topic than he already knows.

A lot of articles on the internet talk about keyword density. In my opinion keyword density is a distraction. One must concentrate on producing high quality content for the reader and not worry about the keyword density for search engines. Quality content is bound to get attention and is highly likely to go viral by word of mouth.

In my upcoming blogs I am going to talk about building a fan base for your quality content and tips for ensuring returning visitors to your website.

Posted in Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Software Development Outsourcing to India

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Manish

Selecting the right outsourcing partner

For over a decade technology companies around the world have been outsourcing their software development needs to Indian IT companies. This practice has made a lot of fortune 500 companies extremely successful with their software products and services by getting excellent quality, huge cost savings and faster time to market by following the Sun. Due to the evolution of this huge outsourcing market in the software industry, a lot of small to medium sized businesses have also turned towards offshore to get the similar competitive advantage that has been enjoyed by large multinational organizations for several years. The most significant challenge faced by companies stepping into the outsourcing arena is to find the right outsourcing partner.

Just like all the other business models, offshore outsourcing has its own tradeoffs. In this model the relationship between the client and the vendor is more like a strategic partnership and both the parties must understand and respect each other’s challenges. A true outsourcing model can only work if there is a solid mutual understanding of the issues involved with this business model. For a company trying to outsource its IT needs to an offshore vendor for the first time, this can become a very frustrating experience very soon if the onsite company is not fully aware of the cultural and infrastructure related challenges involved in working with Indian companies. This is where starting the relationship with the right offshore vendor is the key to maximize the potential of this business model. A good offshore vendor usually has solid experience and understanding of business practices on both sides of the world and is usually an expert in setting the expectations right from the get go.

Signing off on an offshore contract should never be a hasty decision. Finding a good vendor is an evolution and it is practical to set at least 3 months of evaluation period to narrow down on the right vendor. Finding the lowest rate is not always the best criteria to decide on the right offshore vendor. Cheaper vendors may not be able to provide the level of global project management required to make this business model work for you. Even though offshore outsourcing brings a significant amount of cost savings, the saving should always be evaluated in comparison to the cost of doing the project onsite. It is a common mistake to think of outsourcing to offshore companies as a cheap replacement of onsite workers. Offshore outsourcing is definitely cost effective but only if it is done right.

A few things to consider while choosing your offshore vendor are as follows:

1)   Offshore outsourcing can be very effective if your outsourcing vendor also has an onsite presence. Outsourcing to a company with no onsite presence can be extremely challenging and the relationship is most likely to fail within a month or two. The difference in time zones makes it essential to have a local contact in your own time zone so you can discuss the day today issues and other work related stuff, at your convenience.

2)   The offshore vendor must be willing and capable of providing onsite staff deployed within your facility to assist with offshore communication and help with global project management. This will usually add to your budget but is one of the most important investments you will make in an outsourcing partnership.

3)   There must be a minimum commitment from the onsite company to make this work. It usually takes 3 – 6 months to develop a good working relationship with the offshore team. A good offshore vendor will communicate these minimums to you in advance. This model is cost effective only for those who have an ongoing need for software development. If you are just looking to outsource a small one-time project then this is not the right model for you. You would be better off working with a local company that has offshore ties so they can give you a lower price.

4)   A good offshore vendor is open to sharing the profiles and resumes of its team members. They are also willing to open the communication channel for the client to communicate directly with the offshore team if they want.

5)   There must be a timesheet reporting mechanism in place to get daily reporting of the work by the members of the offshore team. A good vendor will make this a transparent process for you and will also be willing to go for weekly approvals of these timesheets by you. This way the payments can be tied to the hours approved on the timesheets thus ensuring maximum productivity and daily accountability by the offshore staff.

6)   The global project management and delivery mechanism should be a highly streamlined process and the offshore vendor should clearly be able to demonstrate the practices and processes it uses to manage globally and deliver according to the schedule of the projects. You can be sure of your vendor’s capabilities by evaluating the systems in place. A good vendor will have robust web based tools to facilitate project management, delivery tracking, testing, bug tracking etc.

7)   Outsourcing relies heavily on documentation. It is difficult to manage projects in a global environment if the documentation on projects is poor. A good offshore vendor will demonstrate its documentation practices and standards used to maintain consistency of the quality of deliverables throughout the project.

8)   Lastly, the cost is also a huge consideration. You must make sure that you are saving at least 50 – 60% on the cost of doing the project onsite.

“Offshore outsourcing is the best way for fulfilling long term software development needs but choosing the right company to work with is the key to your success”.

Posted in Outsourcing | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Web Design Process – Straight Forward Approach

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Manish

Designing a website for your client can be a very lengthy process. You can end up making a series of revisions or producing multiple web design concepts to match up to the vision of your client. In the absence of a well defined design process, by the time your client approves your web design, you might already be over the budget for your design project.

While it is not possible to completely avoid any revisions in the design, it is certainly possible to minimize the iterations. Below are some tips for getting the design done right the first time and reduce the number of revisions, thus making your web design project a profitable venture for you and a great experience for your client:

  1. Define the building blocks for your web design by breaking it down to the smallest possible units. As a designer your web design skills will come in really handy while creating these building blocks.
  2. Show the variations of the various building blocks to your client and gather information about the style of those blocks preferred by the client.
  3. Always start with a wireframe of the web design and make sure that you share the wireframe with the client to set the expectations right at the beginning of the design phase.
  4. It is always a good idea to maintain a document with the creative notes throughout the design process with explanations about the reasons for doing things in a certain way. Be sure to write your notes with users’ perspective and explain them in clear terms so you can avoid getting into discussions where personal preferences of the client takes precedence during the approval process.
  5. Make it a rule to show the finished web design to your client in your presence and talk about the various elements of your design explaining why you did what you did. Explaining your design from users’ perspective is the best way to avoid getting personal opinion from the client and build more value for your work.
  6. Leave the creative notes with the client for them to refer to it while subsequent internal reviews with their team.

We have worked with the challenges of web design for several years and it has taken us a long time to refine the process to a level where we  can call it smooth, exciting and highly productive. As we continue to refine it further we have definitely achieved a much higher client satisfaction rate in the recent years and our web designs have produced remarkable results in terms of usability and interactivity.

Our unique concept of the Wheel of Creativity is recommended to all the web designers looking to create a balanced and effective web site for their clients.

Posted in Web Design | Tagged | 5 Comments