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Latest from the latteperday.com blog

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-07-19T09:24:46+09:00

We've been busy posting blog posts to our new latteperday business blog - "building a business online, not just a website"

With that product to launch soon, it's a good idea to build momentum and a bit of buzz using a blog pre-launch. This way you can create a bit of an audience and interest so that when you do launch your product, there are people waiting and ready to hear more (or even signup and start using it!)

There's plenty more to come from there soon so be sure to keep checking back or subscribe to our latte blog RSS feed and follow us on twitter

Keep roasting them websites!

Sold At Auction

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-05-28T11:33:27+09:00

Sold at Auction is the latest site for us to put online. It includes two editable pages (upcoming auctions & links) so that the client can edit and add new items at anytime they want. These edits can be done within the web browser without needing any extra software and are as easy to change as writing an email.

The upcoming auctions page displays all the latest auctions in sequential order. When a new auction is added by the client it also automatically appears on the site's left hand sidebar which is on the frontpage and most pages across the site. Users of the site can easily see and read more information from this sidebar and this info is automatically rendered as an RSS feed.

RSS Feeds

An RSS feed is what we are using here on our blog. RSS feeds are great because they help a site from an SEO standpoint but also automatically update users and other web sites of updates to a site, or latest auctions in this case.

Users of the site can subscribe to these RSS updates through their email client, an RSS reader or even their Google homepage so that they get sent updates to the site (the latest auction information in this case) whenever it is posted online, for as long as they subscribe to this information.

Using a free Google service like feedburner will give you even further reach by pinging web sites such as Digg or del.icio.us and show you how many users are subscribing to your feed. It will also allow you to automatically send updates via email to subscribers and even automatically add each post to your twitter feed.

Users no longer need to go looking for information; it automatically comes to them.

This is great for internet surfers and also site owners.

Go and view the site

Features of a coming soon page

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-05-17T10:29:41+09:00

After recently updating the pre-launch page of our latteperday service (otherwise known as a "coming soon" page), we thought it would be a good opportunity to share some of the best features often found in coming soon pages based on our own research and thoughts:

Big, bold, clean graphics to keep the site clear and attractive
Logo to drop hints on what's to come
Bullet points to keep the text brief and clear
List the benefits of using the product / service and some of the key features
An email sign up box to collect the emails of visitors interested to hear about the launch - make it a clear and big one, as well as simple so that it only takes seconds to complete

Usually a good time to put up this kind of teaser / coming soon page is a few months before you are planning on launching. It gives a good chance to build some followers and momentum and get pre-signups to your service.

Screenshots, concrete features and other "real" stuff can come later.

Here's how we implemented those coming soon features into our pre-launch page:

Feel free to share your thoughts with us and any other common features found in coming soon pages!

Get in touch with us to help you with your designs. Here's a design questionnaire to get you started.

Latteperday.com

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-05-17T08:51:32+09:00

You need an online business, not just a website

Things have changed a lot on the web in recent years. Technology has become more accessible and freely available, designs have improved a lot and web sites are no longer static. Rather, they are in need of constant love and attention to keep them fresh and up to date. This has great benefit for search engines like Google, but also builds a brand, customer relationships and also an online business. Big businesses have teams of people to make this a reality, but what about the small business and individual?

And, how is it possible to marry all this together for the small business?

How can small businesses get a great, cool looking website designed with their brand that they can easily update themselves on their own PCs using just an internet browser like IE or Firefox, just as easy as writing an email? This also means adding new pages and making content edits without needing to contact their web designer.
How can they also get rock solid hosting so that their site doesn't keep going offline and costing money?
How can they also get intelligent web stats to help them make decisions?
How can they build up relationships with customers and prospects who just visit their website? A lot of sites aren't working properly to their full potential because they aren't capturing user information and helping small businesses to build up a list of real prospects interested to find out more about their products and services. Business is all about relationships and a website needs to build on that.
How can they create decent and powerful contact forms by themselves that capture leads and information from prospects and send the results to them in an email?
How can they easily create a web store within their site in minutes and collect money from sales of their products and services using a payment gateway like paypal that also eliminates the hassles of credit card transactions?
How can they get fast, easy and full support to creating this online business with a reference site of resources such as text tutorials and video as well as email support to help them along the way?
How can this be affordable and not cost the earth?
How can a small business get loads of pro-level features and capabilities in a small business system?
How can small businesses create an online business and not just a website?

We wanted to make sure that these small business customers get these same cool pro-level features at a small business price:

Easy to edit and make changes to your website content in your browser without needing a designer
Capture leads and information from prospects and make your website work for you
Send out newsletters, keep customers coming back and build relationships with potential clients
Full web stats and feedback on your site so that you know what is working and what needs changing
Rock solid hosting so that your site doesn't go down and lose you money
Create a store in minutes and collect through paypal. This makes selling easy.

These are just some of the great things that we are working on for this and hope to bring this all to the small business realm later this year. All for the cost of a daily caffe latte. If you can afford that, you can afford to get your online business in shape.

(We know people who drink 3-4 cups of coffee a day so think how much they spend a month? $2.50 for a cheap latte x 4 cups x 5 days at work x 4 weeks
= $200 per month!! Talk about the latte factor) :-!

Great for small businesses, individuals and small teams

We had a coming soon page up for a while but wanted to redesign it as latteperday is now gathering momentum and will be released soon. Take a look at the before and after screens.

Before

After

Interested to find out more?

Head over to latteperday.com and register your interest. We'll get in touch when we're good to go.

(Of course it's free and easy to register for the launch notifications and we promise not to share your email address with anyone else and you can opt out of the emails at anytime at all).

Enzen Trading

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-05-14T14:31:00+09:00

New site for Enzen Trading

A modern new site built using javascript to navigate to each different page.

What does that mean?

It means that the site is nice and tidy and sits in one window. It's great for even the smallest laptop screen but more importantly it is fully compatible in most modern browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome) and also mobile devices (iPhones included).

If it was built in Flash, the site would be doomed ;-)

Social media buttons included (Skype, Twitter etc) and a Twitter feed to help with user interaction and marketing through these channels.

Happy Punter?

“I really appreciated your attention to detail and ability to visualize the concept we were trying to create. This site has created the perfect starting platform for our business. We will definitely be back for more.”

Jason Allen, Enzen www.enzen.co.nz

Get in touch with us to help you. Here's a design questionnaire to get you started.

Bosworth version 2

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-05-12T12:11:29+09:00

After creating the original update to the Bosworth Independent College site in 2008, we felt it was time for a 2.0 update.

Bosworth's needs changed and the site needed to be modernised and rebuilt to reflect this. Here are a few of the updates:

Modern, clean design based around new logo and brand
New language sections created for 5 language versions of the site
Media and video players for the new professional videos
Interactive menus and navigation for more user interaction and interest
Lots more information organised in a cleaner and easier to read navigation
Clean "box" design to layout the content options in a clear and interesting way
4 call to action buttons at the top of every page to increase conversions of the site
Photo gallery of new professional images
Twitter feed added to connect with potential clients via twitter
Social media links and buttons for SEO / SEM marketing

We regularly maintain and update the site to keep it fresh and alive on a monthly basis.

See the difference for yourself!

Before

After

Visit the site: www.bosworthcollege.com

Happy Ever After

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-04-27T12:37:48+09:00

Nice new site added to our portfolio. Funky sliding images on the frontpage complete with a gallery and also a contact form to capture leads.

Go and view the site for a hand's on example.

This site also added to the portfolio comes with a user-controlled Content Management System (CMS) page so that the site owner can change the used-magic in their shop by themselves without any involvement from us. This is as easy to edit as writing an email and saves them time and also site management fees.

“Yuzool did a great job: Magazine Advert, Product Biz card, Website, on time and on budget. My new web site is outstanding, I look forward to building a strong relationship with them in the future.”

Peter May, New World Magic www.newworldmagic.com

Go and view the site to see this for yourself and the CMS used magic page.

Hello. How can we help you with your website? Why don't you tell us!

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-03-06T19:18:13+09:00

We know what its like. You want a web site designed and we need more information to help you get there or give you an accurate estimate on how much we can do it for : )

Well, here comes the design questionnaire.

We have two flavours: the long one and the short one.

The one for those who want to dig deep

The one for those in a rush

Both come in .pdf and .doc formats (take your pick) and either print, write by hand and then scan back to us; paste your answers in the body of an email; or edit and attach it and send back via email.

We hope it provides you with some stimulus to think about your business in relation to the web and get the most out of your web design project.

Good luck and hope to hear from you : )

Banner Adverts

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-02-13T18:20:56+09:00

It's always a good thing to raise your profile and get traffic and links from other sites. Here's ours. yuZool.com ads now displaying on sites across the internet.

Portfolio Additions

noise@yuzool.com — 2010-02-13T18:05:46+09:00

Loads of additions to our portfolio over the past week that we are excited about.

We've added some latest completed sites & some testimonials from clients.

Latest Work

A few latest sites that we helped to get up and online:

NLP Trainings Japan

Japanfo

Bosworth Independent College Japan Site

Can-o-worms Japan

Outscape Osaka

Silent.

Testimonials

A couple of happy campers here:

“We wanted to get our business message online in a simple, easy and cost-effective way. We came across yuzool.com and can say that we are really pleased with our finished site. It allows us to edit the content ourselves as we go along, it’s bilingual, it shows our youtube videos, it shows our Twitter updates and it even allows us to sell our composter product over the Internet. The site was put together quickly and we had every confidence in their abilities. We chose yuzool.com because it was an affordable way for us to get online and spread our payments - but also get the quality we needed for our website.”

James Kemp, Owner www.can-o-worms.jp

“We are really pleased with our finished site. It is very simple and shows off our portfolio very clearly. Always reachable, yuzool.com helped us to tweak things as we went until it was exactly as we wanted in very in very short time. The big plus for our site is that we can edit the content ourselves and add new products and news as our portfolio grows. Thank you yuzool.com”

Oliver Franz, Creative Director www.atelier-silent.com

We'd like to add you to this list so please get in touch with us!

How’s your website copy?

noise@yuzool.com — 2009-12-07T16:30:03+09:00

Websites are not just about latest design or js-query plugins. Content is king on the internet and so is your copy and layout. Is it compelling? Does it instruct the reader to do anything? Is the layout attractive to read ? Will it keep people coming back for more or even get them to do what you want them to do (such as call you, sign up for your newsletter etc)?

A few ideas to kick-start killer copy for your websites:

Font

Keep it web-safe or, if possible, sans-serif for the net. These are much more compatible across operating systems and browsers and sans-serif is much easier to read on the screen over big chunks of text.

Headline

Entice your reader but don’t give too much away. The headline draws them in and keeps their interest before they hit the back button. Headlines are often rushed but shouldn’t be overlooked. Try a question in the header or play on the reader’s needs or wants. For example, a header called “The best web designer software” is OK, but “Make great looking websites that get you sales” is much better and most people would certainly read on to see what the software is and if they can afford it. Regardless of the truth in this software example, it is more important to focus on the end result (something that the reader wants) rather than just what it is that you are talking about. Play on those emotions.

Bullets and sub-headers

Breaking text up on the net is common sense for most but still it is possible to see sites with endless text. Use sub-headers to divide your text. Most readers skim read the text before deciding to fully read the content so if there is nothing standing out of interest (such as 3 or 4 great sub-headers) then they’ll close that browser down. Break up the text with bullets so that it is more manageable. The internet is a medium to be quickly digested like a newspaper or magazine; not War & Peace.

Calls to action

Are you telling the reader to do anything? Sure, sometimes you are giving information for free or to build your brand but what do you want people to do after reading your webpage? Do you want them to call for quotes? Share the information? Retweet it? Sign up for your newsletter? What is the purpose of your writing? You must have one and you must tell people what you want them to do. People like being told what to do and will often comply. If there’s no phone number or enticement to email and order (or even “buy now” button), or any call to action whatsoever, then they probably can’t work that out for themselves. They then won’t interact further with your copy other than just read the text and will probably just back out if uncertain.

The Is don’t have it

Avoid “I” as much as possible. Write in the 3rd person if possible or just use “I” as sparingly as you can. 3rd person adds depth to your web business and an authority and “you” brings readers closer to your product and service. It absorbs them and personalises your copy.

Don’t be afraid to offend

Apart from playing to a reader’s wants and desires, you’ve got to not be afraid to offend. Be provocative. Remember, rocking the boat isn’t always a bad thing. We’re not talking about outright offending readers but just writing in a way that isn’t aligned with traditional thinking habits or reasoning. Stand out and write different. The best copy on websites gets attention by being provactive and interesting, being different. Don’t always say the same things everyone else does. “This is who we are, this is what we do, this is how we do it”. Is there a better way? Acting different will get you links, diggs, referrals and sales.

Spelings

Check your spelings and grammer as much as possible. If you can’t spel properly then how can you build trust with your customers or readerz? Unfortunately, it’s a pedantic world we live in and you have to just make sure you get it wright.

Block quotes

Use the blockquote tag to bring out important sections of the text that you want readers to see and break up the text and add variety to the page. Your readers will thank you for it.

Above all, make sure that you think about not only how you design a page but also want you put in it. All too often business owners just rehash their brochures or other printed materials and this often doesn’t match the web. Take your copy and spin it for the web. You’ll be creating your content different for each medium and will find the results more effective after that.

Any further ideas you know of? Please share below.

yuZool.com builds fresh funky websites and email marketing campaigns that are respectable, accessible, user-friendly, on time and on budget. Please contact us with more information on your latest design project needs.

Portfolio Stream

noise@yuzool.com — 2009-06-27T01:42:03+09:00

Following the success of our Spring Portfolio collection, we've added a "Portfolio Stream" section to yuzool.com.

This is a cool little way of displaying our most recent work in a series of different flash slideshows. We hope to grow this as much as we can and have a little fun in the process....

New Site Update

noise@yuzool.com — 2009-06-27T00:20:44+09:00

We've finally boosted yuzool.com a little :)

Everything is now on the homepage in a nice little "scrolling" menu. This keeps things tidy and all in one place (and looks cool too).

Other changes include:

More portfolio links
More info about services
Easy way to contact us

We are also happy to be soon introducing latteperday.com to the world. That should be fun.