With the holiday season looming, I'm trying to make these blog posts beneficial to this time of year. Last week we had "It's a Very Nerdy Christmas!" and this week I"m bringing you tips to help you improve your website just in time for the holiday season. 

While these may be very useful for the holiday season, these tips can help any drab, out-of-date website become more sleek and efficient.

1. De-clutter - Clean up your sidebars, remove the excess tools you put on your website, commonly referred to as widgets. Unless you have a very large site with the need for it, do not have more than 1 sidebar, it distracts and clutters. De-cluttering also means trimming down your actual content. When you look at a website for the first time, you can feel overwhelmed with what is presented to you. Take what information you have, go through it, and see what is necessary for the front page. Take what isn't necessary and put it in other places other than the home page.

2. Make Buttons Bigger - With some designs it may be hard to work with this tip, but if you can pull it off, studies show that larger, more prominent, buttons have a higher conversion rate. This means that more people will click on a button that is larger, over one that is small.

3. Add Testimonials with Photos - People constantly compare themselves with others, if you can get a person to relate to a person in your testimonial, they will say to themselves "That person is like me! If they were successful with it, maybe I can be too!" This motivates the people on your site to buy a product, to feel the same satisfaction, or happiness, the person they related to felt.

4. Update - Update everything! Nobody like visiting a site that hasn't been updated in months, or sometimes even years. A static site makes it appear that you don't care about how your business is represented online, and while it not be true, people thing you then don't care about your business/products.

5. Un-boring-ify your About Page - "About" is one of the most frequently visit pages on a website. People want to know what you're really about, the motivation you have to make a good business. Make it tell a story, no entrepreneurs story is boring. We all have quirks that make us who we are, let your customer know.

6. Refresh Your Design - Look at your site...now back to mine...now back at your site...do you see the royal blue I chose? I chose it because it's easy on the eyes, modern, and bold. Pastels are out...they were out in like '98, but you get my point. Make your site look bold and modern and make sure people see you as this up to date entity.

7. Improve your Search Engine Optimization - Okay listen...This is James talking now, I'm not restating what they said at the blog source. SEO is really a big joke. You can have nice tag lines and heading ect... but the #1 way to "SEO" is writing good, relevant, and interesting posts on your site.

src:http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220705

Wondering what your little nerd wants for Christmas? Can't afford to buy them a new computer? Do you think that the only presents your nerd will like cost an arm and a leg? We're here to show you a few gifts under $50 that will make your nerds Christmas that much better!

Lets go ahead and start this off with something for the older nerds in your life. This is a do it yourself alcohol kit. This little item allows you to convert a 64oz drink into an alcoholic delight! Sometimes even reaching an alcohol content of 14%! How does it work? This kit provides you with a little packet of yeast, simply pour it in your drink, give it a little time, and watch the yeast turn your favorite drink into your new favorite alcoholic beverage! Buy Here

Next on our list we have Cyber Clean Electronics Cleaning Putty. This stuff is only of the most ingenious items on our list, sometimes I wonder why I never thought of it. Basically it does to electronics, what silly putty does to newspapers. You push it into the crevasses of your electronics and it captures everything there, be it dust, dirt or grime. And we all know, nobody likes nacho cheese Doritos to stay in our keyboards for to long! Buy Here

This is by far my favorite item on our list, what is it? It's play dough...metal play dough...and it's conductive. Need I say more? Soldering sucks, especially on small temporary projects, this putty allows you to stick two pieces of wire together without the heat or mess of solder. It even dries over night for a strong seal. This is only for low voltage projects, it's not going to repair the downed power-line in front of your house, but for LED's and speakers, it's wonderful. Buy Here

A universal network cable? I bet you have no idea what this is, does, or anything at all really. Just know that it's awesome. It allows you to turn a standard network cable into 5 different cables, all with the flick of a switch. The function I am most excited about is the crossover. There is nothing, nothing, like the frustration you get when you go to a clients house...have to transfer a large file and have their modem support only one computer...and have no crossover cable on site...it's terrible. Buy Here

As much as I hate Apple (Android FTW!) I'm going to make an app joke here...so bear with me. "Did you ever need to open a beer but had no bottle opener nearby? Well, now there's an app for that too!!" Oh kay, now that that's over with, this is a rather ingenious device, every body has their phone with them all the time, now you can always have your bottle opener as well. Maybe one day your phone can save the party! Buy Here

I had a hard time finding a suitable item for this last part, I saw this on tv and also had the opportunity to try it in store, it of course, is the kobalt double-drive and it is absolutly incredible. Normal ratcheting screwdrivers (well anything) ratchet when you turn one way and drive when you turn the other, this takes it to a whole new level, driving on both turns drastically decreasing the time needed to screw or unscrew things. Buy Here

#1 on this years video game list for everybody, by far, is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This is a beautifully built game, the environment, the story-line, the graphics, everything is wonderful. While it is masterfully crafted, it is still a little buggy, but this should not distract from a deep engaging experience in one of, in my opinion, best games of the year. This can be bought at many locations including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and most easily, Amazon.com.
Xbox 360: Here     Play Station 3: Here     PC:Here

A customer profile tells you who you are making you product or service for. Why is this important, you might ask, well there are a few reasons. First is that it tells you who your customer is, their hobbies, their needs, their taste, everything. It allows you to build a marketing plan and a business design that suites their needs rather than their own. One of the biggest issues I find as a web designer is people who build their company a website that they like rather than what their customer will like. I have also been a victim to this train of thought, it's not an easy one to break. This is why a customer profile is important, to make you take on their personality when designing anything related to your business.

I am often asked to review the look of a companies website, as an outside, professional source. I have decided to write a guide to help you determine the effectiveness and quality of your website. This guide does not cover much about the content or code in your site, but mainly focuses on the design aspects that your everyday visitor is involved with. A guide on Content will come in the near future so look out!

Read more after the break!

Resolution
The resolution of your website is it's size. When it comes to resolution we are mainly focused on it's width, will pages distort on certain screen sizes? As of 2011, the smallest screen size used on the internet is 1024x768, witch means your website width should have a maximum width of about 1000px as to not get squished when viewed on personal computers.

Accessibility
Accessibility of people of many different languages can be a very important, if not necessary, part of your website. This can be solved by the addition of translation apps on your main page. Although not all websites need this type of accessibility, it is vital for any company selling items online.

Load Time
Recent studies have shown that website pages that take longer than 4 second to load lose their effectiveness quickley. People are impatient and want information fast. Just go through your website and if you find pages that take a while to load, look at them and see where you can trim the "fat"

Rollovers
It's not uncommon for a website to utilize rollovers, the ability to hover your mouse over an image or menu and have something happen. Be it a drop down menu or a image effect, make sure these work. Not only does it make your site look poorly made but it can also take away from much of the functionality of your site.

Ease of Navigation
How hard is it for a customer to find what they are looking for? There are two main tips for this, 1) Make no item take longer then 3 steps to find. This includes menu rollovers and any other action you must take. and 2) Use words your target audience can understand. Many meanings can be lost in the translation from person to person and cetain people don't relate certain words to certain things. E.G. When I first opened my website my menu link to any PC related was "PC Repair.' Quite a few people who needed network setup or virus removal didn't relate their problem to this and it made me lose work. I have since changed "PC Repair" to "IT Solutions"

Artwork
By artwork I don't mean just putting random pictures on your site. Any photo's you post should contain relevant information and be of a very high quality. Most businesses will try to take their own photographs, I try and talk them out of it. The photographs on your website should be of a high quality done by professionals.

Elegance
Maybe this shouldn't be called elegance, a better word may be "clutter free." Make your website clean, no flashing banners and no backgrounds that are too busy. Anything that flashes is a huge distraction for humans, and busy backgrounds make your website look cluttered. Both of these take away from your actual content.

Typography
Typography is the size and font of your text. Unless you are a newspaper, avoid Times New Roman, try and make the font size at least 12px. Use a text color that is NOT white or black, they create a lot of contrast on computer screens and can strain the eyes of your readers.

Resources
Make help available when people need it, this can include a FAQ (frequently asked questions) or a contact number. That leads me into my next part, make your contact information visible on EVERY page. Have you ever been on a website where you need help, and for the life of you can't find it? It is extremely frustrating and can lead to sales loss.

Clarity
Remember when you post things online you are essentially having a conversation, treat it as such. When you write, act like you are having a one way conversation, if it helps you can even pretend to answer for the reader. This makes your content much easier to read. Remember you are writing for PEOPLE, not search engines, people.

Visual Appearance
How does your site look from a consumer perspective? Is it engaging? Maybe it needs some color, it's crucial to find a delicate balance between a professional look and an aesthetically appealing look. This leads me to my next topic.

Professional Appearance
How does your website make you look as a business? Does it represent you well and are your proud to have your business represented by this website. It is very hard to find a look that is both professional, engaging and fun. You may go through many different variation of your site, I know I have!

Colors
Choose colors that compliment each other, don't choose anything that make it hard for someone to read. Another tip is to avoid pure BLACKS and WHITES, you may think that it's a nice contrast and stands out, it actually the opposite, we have a hard time with the pure contrast between the two colors.

Layout
How is your space used? are you making the most of what space you have available? Try and avoid white spaces and just empty content. This can be very difficult to accomplish. My website doesn't necessarily convey a lot of information and I had to fill up spaces with charts and other pertinent information.

Integration
How many pages do you have on your website? 10, 15, maybe even 20! One of the most important things you can do is tomake sure they all have a consistent look, carry your theme into every part of your website. You can go a step further and carry your look into your business cards and other advertising!

Newegg! No they don't sell egg's, new or old, they sell computer parts. Anything from hard drives to RAM, Newegg is my leading supplier of anything PC. I will tell you now that this is not paid for by Newegg or any other company. This is me of my own free will writing about a company that I know and trust with all of my computer needs.

Newegg.com has always held a special place in my heart, from the time I built my first computer at 9 to working on client computers for my business, Newegg has been my supplier of choice. I am writing this article about WHY I like Newegg, but honestly I am not a good writer so I am going to break this down into categories that have no particular order and may or may not use proper grammar so bear with me.

Prices
Newegg had the most consistent and lowest prices of any retailer I have found. Notice I said consistent, They don't always have the lowest prices on a product but they are consistently competitive with any alternative company for their everyday products. The real beauty of Newegg is their "Shell Shocker" deals. "Shell Shocker" deals work the same way as a loss-leader for your local Walmart or Walgreen's, they are designed to get you shopping. Even though the company takes a loss selling these products, they get you to buy other products in which they make a profit. What's good about Newegg is when you only need 1 product, "Shell Shocker" deals can save you a small fortune!

Selection
When it comes to computer parts Newegg cannot be beat when it comes to selection. They don't have deals with companies that prevent them from buying parts from other companies and they carry any product that you could want. 

Reviews
This is where the average consumer would love Newegg best. They have a comprehensive review system set up where anybody can write in and post their thoughts and performance results on an item. Everyday consumers don't care about benchmark test or even what they do, so these reviews that experts who own the products write are wonderful. (They also write reviews about the companies you buy from so you know about the independent companies support staff)

Customer Service
This is what hooked me into Newegg, they have the best customer service in the industry. Over the past 10 years I have ordered an excess of 400 items from Newegg, and while their have been a few DOA's (Dead on Arrival) Newegg has NEVER avoided reimbursing me product or refunding me any portion of my payment. They offer quick and concise problem resolutions so you can get your parts fast and efficiently, priceless for any consumer and especially a business who relies on them.

All the software I speak of in this article will be FREE, meaning no hidden costs and no annoying pop-up messages asking you to buy a product. All of these programs run on my own computer, so if you wondering if I give them my own endorsement then there you go!

Please Note: These programs are fairly simple to run, however please read their instructions before hand! Also for security programs to be effective you must USE them, which means regular scanning of your files and not ignoring warning messages.


1) Install programs to protect yourself!

Basic Protection

Ad-Aware Internet Security - Consistently outperforming other free internet security options, the payed version won a pcmag editors choice.

Malwarebytes - Trusted by everyone from large corporations to average consumers. Won CNet editors choice.

ZoneAlarm - ZoneAlarm is a firewall, that means it protects your computer from unwanted intrusions from other people on the internet. Currently CNet's #1 in computer firewalls & PC Mag's 9 time winner!

Advanced Protection

AVG Free - Mainly for the browser toolbar, scanning links in Google, Facebook, emails etc before you click on them.

PeerBlock - Controls who your computer "talks to" on the internet by blocking known "bad" computers.


2) Don't open E-Mail attachments!
Trojens via E-Mail are "activated" through 3 ways:

1: Don't download attachments, even if the E-Mail is from a known organisation. People can "spoof" (change where an E-Mail looks like it came from) emails to make them appear to come from atrusted source.

2: don't click links in emails, most trusted companies no longer send links in emails, instead they ask you to visit their site directly.

3: Allowing scripts in your emails, call your email provider and ask how to disable scripts. Scripts allow these programs to run as soon as you open the email. If you have a tech secure your computer and he doesn't disable this for you, fire him!


3) Update your computer!
Microsoft provides automatic updates to computers running windows. These can fix security holes that allow programs to infect your computer. Also remember to keep your security software updated as well!


4) Don't visit suspicious websites!
Google is your friend, it will warn you if a website isn't trusted...listen to it. Also, the higher up a page is on google, the more trusted it is. This is NOT a fool proof way to avoid bad websites, it is however, something to keep in mind.

Adding a +1 button to your website or blog is rather easy, but to the novice user who does not understand code it can seem tricky. There is only one piece of code you need to enter to add a +1 button to your website: Simply enter this code where you want the +1 button to appear and viola!

(Please note this is HTML code, for many services there is a section marked for adding HTML to your site. If you cannot find this please contact the appropriot support team, or if you would like contact me by E-Mail and I can help try to resolve your problem. 

+1 this site on our home page!


<!-- Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render -->
<g:plusone annotation="inline"></g:plusone>

<!-- Place this render call where appropriate -->
<script >
  (function() {
    var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;
    po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
  })();</script>