Thinking of re-designing your website to add new functionality? Here are tips to help you initiate your web project planning. Your web developer will likely ask you a few questions to get a feel for what you are seeking to accomplish. Typical questions include:

Rapid assessment:
. What is your current website address?
. Are you currently tracking your site’s performance and if so, how is the site working for you?
. What are strong website attributes that you would like to improve/maintain?
. What are website attributes that no longer serve you well?

Inspirational thinking:
. Have you seen websites (or apps) that you like?
. What are the URLs of the sites/apps that you like and what specifically do you like about those sites (for eg: layout, font, special feature, …)
. What are you trying to achieve (eg: generate more traffic, monetize content, improve your corporate image, …)
. What information would you like to capture from users and for what purpose?
. What content would you like to provide to users in exchage for the information they provide?
. Do you have a vision for what your site could look like? (eg: colour scheme, modern, artsy, …)

Features sought:
. What new features do you want implemented? (eg: blog, application database, eCommerce, …)
. Have you seen this feature well implemented in another site (url)?
. Have you done research regarding this new feature?
. . What are your expectations for this feature (eg: ROI, performance enhancement, …)
. Why do you believe this feature needed?
. How do you envision this feature being integrated in your website or app?
. Do you have an in-house IT department that should be involved in development? Do you have a strategy for ongoing maintenance?

Content Creation:
. Do you have in-house resources for content creation, writing/editing, marketing, testing, documentation, graphic design?
. What new content will need to be created, migrated? Do you have a Content Strategy?

Application Documentation:
. Do you have any documentation (eg: code, notes, white papers, …) for features that you would like to maintain?
. Where is your website currently hosted?
. Can you provide your hosting account login details (ftp access) so that developers can have a look “under the hood”

Targeted Audience:
. What audience (eg: gender, age, occupation, interests, …) are you trying to reach?

Who’s on Your Radar?
. List a few competitors. What are key offerings in their website or app?
. What makes (or would make) you better than the competition?

Budget and Deliverables:
. What is the range of your project budget?
. What is your project timeline?
. Are there priorities in the project development?

Key success factors:
. What does website/app success mean to you (user friendliness, site/app traffic, monetization, …)?

Plan you web project wisely for best results! Together, we will make it happen! :)

Did you know that if you are right-clicking and saving images to your hard-drive, you are probably violating copyright rules?

If you want to insert an image belonging to someone else in your content, you need to link to their image source on the internet, not to the version on your hard-drive (or your server). You are also likely violation copyright rules if you edit someone else’s image by adding your logo on it, a link to your website, or anything else that could give the false impression that you created the image. Facebook is flooded with improperly inserted images. If you stand for integrity, don’t do this. Let the authors and creators retain the credit for the works that they produce.

In some cases, sharing other people’s work is ok. Creative Commons (aka CC) provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.” Have a look at this video for an explanation of what Creative Commons is and how to properly use it.

Uploaded by JustinG4000