Wallets, wallets and more wallets is what we were promoting and cross-promoting on the new e-Commerce site. We are responsible for the sites re-design and custom secure shopping cart development. In addition we provided all the studio photography for the famous Smaller & Smarter wallet.
Here are the before and after shots of the Walletbe Ecommerce website, completely designed and developed by Durrani Design. Their website can be found online at www.WalletBe.com.
Selling a traditional Romertopf clay pot was no simple task but with creative research we found out a few unique ways of inspiring folks to get back to using the clay pots in their oven. Visitors can shop securely within this e-commerce site and learn about popular accessories, special offers, and recipes.
Here are the before and after shots of the Romertopf clay pot website, completely designed and developed by Durrani Design. Their website can be found online at www.ClayPot.com.
The most famous green skate wheels on the road today. We have resurrected the brand and image by improving the online presence with design and functionality. We also conceptualized and produced shirt designs, wheel designs and full page ads for the kings of the podium. The new ABEC 11 site is part of the Sk8Trip distribution family of brands. The site is a static HTML site but is linked directly to their Sk8Trip.com MIVA Merchant storefront, also built completely by Durrani.
Here are the before and after shots of the ABEC 11 website, completely designed and developed by Durrani Design. Their website can be found online at www.abec11.com.
The latest, highly anticipated 5.5 release of MIVA Merchant is now available. The new release includes a long list of enhancements that really smooth-out some of the rough edges that has dogged MIVA for the past few years. MIVA has always been a favorite of programmers and developers but many considered it lacking the back-end usability and ease of use that most non-technical business owners desired. Checking orders and performing simple day-to-day operations of your online business wasn’t as intuitive as some other shopping carts. MIVA has taken great strides to improve this in this latest major release.
Here at Durrani, we are still working our way through the latest features and how best to use them, but so far the admin interface is a welcome improvement.
The upgrade to 5.5 is free for current users of MIVA Merchant 5.0 and is only $99 for users of previous versions until May 31st. The upgrade is automatic on 5.0 installation when you run the upgrade wizard in the admin area. Customers running versions older then 5.0 who have heavily customized their store with modules and OpenUI configurations, should think through the impact of upgrading and make sure they take into consideration everything that needs to be changed for an efficient migration. Open UI modules, design templates and all modules from versions older then 5.0 are not compatible.
For a complete list of the latest features and fixes click the link below to view the complete post.
Post 4 of our ongoing case study - Project Tee Compressed
In our last post, we discussed kicking off the design process, some logo ideas and coming up with a draft sitemap. While our design team is busy being creative, our web development team has a task list of their own to start. We’re going to illustrate how it’s important to get some forward momentum by doing a quick "under construction" page and plugging in some basic SEO can get your new domain indexed by the search engines weeks or months before your launch.
If you are doing a redesign of an existing site, then putting up an "under construction" page isn’t appropriate. You will simply develop the new site in the background and then just switch over to the new site when ready. Your visitors will continue to see the old site until the redesign is launched. But if you are building a site for the very first time where a domain name had no existing site, then it’s a good idea to put up a new public "under construction" page while you develop the site in the background.
This helps in a few areas: First - it let’s people know that there is a new business coming in case they stumble upon your website for some reason. Much like any retail business would put up a coming soon banner, you should also let passers-by know that you are opening up shop soon. People interested in your product or service may want to bookmark your site for future reference. Another option to consider is to put up a simple newsletter signup form as your homepage to begin capturing email addresses for your mailing list. This puts customers on your mailing list to be notified when the site is ready and your store is open.
The second major reason to put up an "under construction" page is to start the SEO process. It takes search engines a while to work their way around the internet and find your new domain, so the earlier you get site content up there for them the better. It can take Google as long as 6 months to index a new site for the first time. They do this on purpose to keep their search engine index from getting overwhelmed by quick build-overnight spam sites. Putting up a very basic "under construction" page with some text and images lets the search engines know about your site and gives them a headstart on ranking your site.
At a minimum, you should provide a quick text write-up of your new site, what it’s about, what products you are going to be selling and maybe some images. You should also cover the basics of search engine optimization techniques:
The other thing you can do to give your site a major jumpstart on the search engines, is to Blog about your site or business and get it cross-linked on sites such as Digg, Reddit and Sphinn. These aren’t fool-proof ways to get indexed but they help get the ball rolling on your organic rankings.
For our new site at TeeCompressed.com, we put up a static screen shot image of our new site design with an "under construction" graphic - (at the time of this post, you can see it at www.teecompressed.com). We optimized all our images using ALT and TITLE tags for our favorite keywords and put in the appropriate META tags. You can view our homepage source code if you want to see what we used. This new "under construction" page has now been up for about a month and we are already seeing some activity on the major search engines. We are also blogging about our new site (obviously, you are reading about it now).
To track keyword performance and measure other SEO analytics, we use a great tool called Web CEO. I’ve pulled the most recent report of our keyword rankings on the major search engines for TeeCompressed.com. The results aren’t spectacular, but considering we don’t even have a functioning site up yet, the fact that we are even listed in Google is a pretty amazing achievement.
The major rankings to-date are:
All The Web:
page 5 - compressed tee shirt, compressed tees
page 2 - tee compressed
Altavista:
page 5 - compressed tee shirt, compressed tees
page 2 - tee compressed
AOL:
page 3 - compressed tees
page 5 - compressed t-shirts
page 1 - tee compressed
Google:
page 4 - compressed tees
page 5 - compressed t-shirts
page 1 - tee compressed
Yahoo:
page 3 - tee compressed
There are several other search engines on the report but many get their data from the same place.
Click here or the image below for an HTML popup version of the report:
As you are beginning to see, launching a successful online e-commerce website involves more then just throwing up a couple of basic web pages with products. It requires planning, research, tracking and knowledge of your industry. Building your online business from all sides - design, programming, SEO and marketing is a keystone to your success or failure. You could say it’s like building a new house… you "could" skip hiring an architect and contractor and do it all yourself, but honestly should you? And having a team of professionals to guide you along the way is a must.
Post 3 of our ongoing case study - Project Tee Compressed
In our last Tee Compressed post, we discussed deciding what to sell and what domain names we will use for our new online e-commerce business. In this post, we will get into some design considerations and begin designing our logo and color palate.
As with any new business venture, it’s a balancing act of time and resources and this project has been no exception. We have not been as aggressive at rolling out the site as we had hoped, but in truth this is proving to probably be even more realistic then ever to the timeline of a new e-commerce business. Many people begin the planning of a new website while still working a full-time job or while still maintaining the primary source of business revenue, such as a retail store etc. So being pressed for time and keeping focused and on target is a real world dilemma to account for.
Our next task is to get our graphic designers rolling on new logo ideas. The logo needs to be stand alone but also match the theme and overall branding of our future site and marketing materials. Coming up with a logo can sometimes be the best experience or the worst. It can be fun if you do your homework, necessary research and take the right steps when thinking of ideas. First step is to think of your target audience and think of elements that inspire them. Also, think of all the ways that the new business mark can be reproduced (can it be reproduced in black and white, embroidered, or decorated with the seasons and still maintain its identity). One of the directions we anticipate going is to target the extreme sports industry since there seems to be a gap in the compressed shirt market for the urban culture. Before starting in Photoshop we first did some snooping for a font we liked, adjusted the spacing, printed it and pulled out the coloring pencils. You can see a sketched result below.
This is to get our creativity flowing. We are certain to go through many many versions of our logo before deciding on a final design.
The next step is on to the website construction! This is where our real thinking begins. Before we start with the design concepts we must first come up with the website “blue print” or “navigational” outline. You can do the design concepts first but creating a “site map” initially will give us a better idea of how creative we can become with the site flow and how deep the site will be (in regards to content). Last thing you want to do is come up with a rockin’ good design that doesn’t have any space for all the navigation you need. While we think of the perfect site map we make sure to check out the online competition. It’s very helpful to see what others are doing to get an idea of what you think works and what doesn’t. For our site map we also look at our target market to get a feel of their lifestyle and cool terms for our navigation (ex. instead or “contact us” we might use “get a hold of us” etc). Also, while digging around we keep tabs on design styles we can keep in mind when we reach the design phase of our site. We look for consistencies and the things that are popular such as: colors, patterns, photography, product description, ease of navigation, etc. We take all of this information and come up with our tee compress site map. Below is a format we like to follow when outlining site maps (click for a larger version).
In our next post we will tackle the design process in more detail and begin to flush out the actual site mockup, a non-functioning image of the site homepage.
Before we end though, let’s run the numbers to date:
We recently began filming and editing on the next demo video for the latest Bumbleride baby stroller, the Indie Twin. Filming was done at our Encinitas, CA office. The video should be completed in a few weeks.
Here are a few photos we took just for fun using our iPhone. (click the image for full slideshow)
Post 2 of our ongoing case study - Project Tee Compressed
Most startup businesses probably already have the answer to our next question but for the sake of our case study, we need to decide - What product are we going to offer in our new online e-commerce store? Surprisingly, we didn’t need to think too long or too hard about this one before we came up with our answer. Usually, however, when considering your options, you should do considerable research before making a decision. Sifting through the thousands of product options, we could have gone with more popular products but usually that translates to heavy competition and thousands of websites already selling your product. Electronics for example, is almost impossible to compete in because the market is just too saturated with high volume sellers and keeping competitive pricing means slim profit margins. Ideally, you want to consider niche products that have a wide shopping audience but not much competition. Making a list of your favorite things or hobbies can be helpful. Selling what you love doesn’t always mean it’s a good business idea, but it’s a good place to start. It’s difficult to find that one product that nobody else is selling but doing your own research and investigation usually pays off. A key ingredient is making sure you can actually source your product at a price that allows you to resell it at a profit.
For a number of reasons that we will dig into later, what we decided on as our product is the innovative promotional product called the compressed t-shirt - "compressed tee". We believe this is a great product idea that has a lot of potential if marketed in the right way.
The next step is deciding on a name. The direction we took was to keep it close to the product we are selling. We followed our own advice and went with an easy name to understand rather than acronyms, numbers, or something too long. In coming up with a short-list of names, we had to make sure the correct combination of domain names were also still available. This is an important step everyone should consider before choosing their business name. Before getting too attached to a clever name, you have to make sure the domain name, and all variations of it, are still available. You don’t want to invest in branding a company name and not have your website reflect that investment. If you get too far down the road with the wrong domain name, you will quickly regret it. Most online shoppers today will hear a name and try for that exact URL. Your domain name will also play an important part in your search engine rankings so it should be relevant to your product. Try to avoid acronyms or clever misspellings, unless you also own the correct spelling to catch traffic from both sources. It’s important to really put some thought into your domain name, it’s going to be the retail face of your business for years to come. While getting the .net or .info or .biz domain name extensions isn’t that critical, getting the singular and plural versions is important. Ask yourself what people will hear when speaking your domain name. Is it easy to say without having to spell it out and are there dashes or hyphens. For our compressed t-shirt store, we decided on TeeCompressed.com - along with tcompressed.com and TeeCompress.com. We also grabbed a few "inspirational" names in case we want to experiment down the road - teeshrink.com and compresstee.com.
Domains are inexpensive so it pays to buy several variations of your name. The last thing you want is a competitor on your heels with a name too similar to your name who is stealing away your customers.
In our next post we will roll up our sleeves and talk about designing our official store logo and begin mapping out our online store.
We recently completed production and editing of the third video in the lineup of baby strollers for Bumbleride. We shot all three videos at our Encinitas office.
The videos are posted to our Google Video account for easy viewing. Google automatically compresses the videos, which is slightly annoying, but it’s much more efficient to use their embedded video player for browser compatibility, not to mention server capacity.
You can also view the videos at the Bumbleride website (www.bumbleride.com).
Video 1 - Bumbleride Flyer Stroller
Video 2 - Bumbleride Indie Stroller
Video 3 - Bumbleride Queen B Stroller
Welcome to Durrani’s first blog entry for our latest in-house project - “Tee Compressed”. If you’re asking yourself what in the world is Tee Compressed… don’t worry, we’ll dig into that shortly. We’re excited about this project because, we hope, it will involve everyone and will benefit us all. As website designers/developers and Internet consultants, we are constantly faced with the ultimate client question, "What will it take to get my website up and running and make money?". Most of the time this lengthy discussion with the client results in a very steep learning curve for the client as they come to the realization of what they are about to embark on. If you are not prepared to dedicate money, resources, time and patience to your dream website, then you will fail. When we lay out the plan for the next 6 months to a year, most clients are skeptical. They think they can have the quick money and the next get-rich-quick million dollar idea while building a website in their spare time sitting on their living room couch. The reality is that you can build your dream site idea part-time, but you have to be committed to your business idea and be willing to see it through.
We’re tired of showing our portfolio and asking clients to take our word for it. We want to have a true-life story, a real journey of time and money and effort, to show what really goes into building a profitable website, from conception to sales. So we have embarked on an ambitious project to create our very own e-commerce store while giving, you the reader, a day-by-day view of our every move. Our Durrani team has been helping other companies develop e-commerce sites for so long that we feel it’s time to let everyone know what exactly is involved in making a successful shopping site. And, selfishly speaking, if we do it right and follow our own prescription for success, we’ll have one more stream of revenue.
Each blog post along the way will show our step-by-step process on how our brains work when a client asks us to help them build their future cash cow. We still have a business to run in the meantime but we are going to *try* and give as many updates on our progress as possible so that you can follow things from start to finish without missing a beat. Without giving away the secret recipe, we hope to demonstrate how successful an e-commerce site can become when done correctly.
We’re not trying to flex our ego, nor are we trying in anyway to say "I told you so". We believe that we will learn just as many lessons along the way as our readers. Analyzing and documenting the process will help us refine our methods and improve the work we do for our clients. We don’t claim to be experts on everything web related and I’m sure we won’t think everything so we encourage comments, feedback and participation along the way.
In the end, we think our project will illustrate how to build a successful website, but more importantly, will show how important it is to actually have professionals behind the wheel of your online venture. This isn’t a "do-it-yourself" guide for your e-commerce store, but in fact a "don’t try this at home" demonstration.
We hope you stay tuned and join in on the conversation.
