How many time have you tried to order business cards or flyers from a printer using artwork you designed yourself? How many of those time did the printer tell you that they couldn’t use your artwork? If you don’t have any design experience it has probably happened more often than not. The following “5 Point Checklist” will ensure that your artwork will be ready to send to your favorite printer.

1. Resolution

Make sure your artwork is designed at 300 DPI (dots per inch) resolution. Web graphics are only 72 DPI and are no good for professional printing. Designing your artwork at 300 DPI will ensure that your printed materials are crisp and clear!

2. Bleed

Bleed is when the image or background of your design is intended to run off the page. Without proper bleed, you may end up with uneven white borders. A standard bleed (with most printers) is 1/8″ (0.125) added to the final trim size of the finished product, which means if you are printing business cards your artwork should be 3 5/8″ x 2 1/8″ (3 1/2″ x 2″ trim size).

3. Safety

Safety is the amount of space between the edge of your artwork and any essential elements (stuff you don’t want to get cut off). You should always make sure that you leave a minimum of 3/16″ (0.0625) safety on all sides of your design, unless you like having the last digit in your telephone number cut in half, it’s up to you.

4. Color Mode: CMYK

In Printing, all colors are a made up of different percentage values of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). One of the most common mistakes made in “for print” design is choosing the wrong color mode. Monitors display graphics in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color mode by default. What you see on-screen is much different than what you get in print. Designing your artwork using CMYK will avoid unexpected results in color and save you money in reprints.

5. File Format

Ok, this part is a bit tricky depending on the design software you use. Many printers will accept all different types of file formats, but not all. Standard formats accepted are PDF, PSD, AI, JPG, TIFF, PNG or EPS. Microsoft file formats are not accepted by most printers any longer. Whichever design program you choose to use, make sure you save/export your file to one of the accepted formats. Note: If using Illustrator or Corel Draw, make sure to convert your fonts to outlines (or curves in Corel) before saving your file to avoid mismatched fonts being used. If using Photoshop, remember to flatten your file, for the same reason.

We’ve been told that our professional quality, full color printing is the best in our county. Remember to call us at 352-684-4976 and speak to a Project Manager before ordering elsewhere. By the way, if you haven’t already, post a comment about this article. We love feedback!

Wow, so we’ve made it to the endo of our series “New Website Development Planning Checklist”. Today’s topic is covering an aspect of web development that most businesses forget about or ignore all together with the mentallity of “Set it and Forget it”. Businesses have to understand that the Maintenance of your website is just as important as the initial development. If you don’t maintain your new website and constantly refresh/update the content your customers will slowly stop coming back to your site. Below is a list of what should be considered when it comes to maintenance.

3. Website Maintenance

• How often will your website need to be updated? (We recommend bi-monthly updates minimum)
• Will your site maintenance be done in-house (by whom?) or will you need us to put together a Maintenance Plan?
• Does your in-house IT Department the time and expertise to maintain your website?
• Will you need training in order to maintain your website?

Here is a list of possible Maintenance Tasks:

1. Checking internal & external links on a regular basis
2. Search engine positioning & resubmissions
3. Visitor statistics & reporting
4. Articles / RSS feed syndicated content updates
5. Updating images to keep website looking fresh

That’s all for now! Tune in next time for more great design and marketing tips from MultiCOLOR Media! Same Bat time, same Bat channel…

Happy Friday folks! Yes, can you believe it, another week has come and gone. Personally I feel the older I get, the quicker the time passes…? Does this happen to you? Anyway, today we are continuing our 5 part series “New Website Development Planning Checklist” (man that’s a mouth full) with “Part 4: Marketing”. Oddly enough, marketing seems to be one of the aspects of developing a new website that clients seldom remember. For some reason people think that if you build it…they will come! Sometimes that may be true with little or no effort, but for the vast majority of website it actually takes work! Here are some common things to think about regarding the marketing of your new site.

4. Marketing

How will people find out about your website? Come on people. If you want to make itin the online realm you have to self promote at any chance you get.

Will you be using “Paid” or free search engine listings? Both are required to make a good impact. Local Directories, Industry Directories, Forums, Blogs, Banners, Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Listings are all examples of these.

Who will do your Search Engine Optimization? There are many aspects to SEO. At MultiCOLOR Media we make sure your Website is built with the search engines in mind and make sure it is optimized as much as possible. Another optimization service we offer is copywrighting. Good, well-written content is one of the main factors in your SEO campaign. Aside from these, a professional SEO Firm also will help by implementing and managing your search engine listings, Pay-Per-Click campaigns and social media profiles.

Do you currently have or will you be putting in place an off-line marketing program? No matter what anyone says, offline marketing is still essential to any online business. Think about it, look at big online entities such as yahoo, ebay, amazon, facebook, and many more. All this companies spend millions of dollars in offline marketing campaigns including: TV Commercials, Movie Spots, Postcards, Radio and more. You think maybe they’re on to something?

Do you have a budget set aside for an internet marketing campaign? When many businesses hire a web developer they get consumed over the costs involved in the development that they forget to budget for online marketing. It makes no sense. Most businesses have no problem spending $300 or more monthly in local coupon guide advertisements, but when it comes to spending a couple hundred monthly on an internet marketing campaign they think “it’s to expensive” or “I can’t afford it”. How can you not afford to? Thousands if not millions of online businesses would go bankrupt if not for the results gained from online marketing. Ask your SEO Specialist to go over options with you.

What keywords or phrases do you think people would use to find your business, products or services? This is simple. Keywords can be anthing from product names, services offered, brand names to city, state, zip code & counties served.

What information will bring visitors back to your site on a regular basis? Think about offering industry related articles, frequently asked questions, blogs, support forums, quizzez, polls, freebies, coupons, contests and more.

Will you need to re-design/re-print your business cards, stationary and/or  marketing & sales materials? Believe it or not, a lot of business forget about this very important aspect. If you have your website redesigned or developed for the first time, you should take a good look at all of your marketing materials and make sure that your company’s “Brand” resonates accross from your website to all of your printed pieces.

Consider all of these things when you call MultiCOLOR Media for your next web development project and you’ll be on your way to online success!

Buenos Dias people! The last couple of days we’ve been talking about the “New Website Development Planning Checklist”. We are now at the halfway point.  Today we are covering part 3 of this series entitled  “Design and Development”. Let us know your thoughts and feel free to share.

3. Design and Development

There are many things to think about when planning a new website project! The following are some things you may want to consider regarding the design and development before you begin your project:

• Do you have an exisiting Domain Name?
• Is your business name available as a Domain Name?
• How many people at your company need emails?
• Do you currently have a set of Company Colors?
• Are there any existing images (such as logo or photos) that you want to include on your site?
• Do you need/want new graphics, images, flash or banners designed for your site?
• How much content do you plan to have and who will write it?
• Do you need MultiCOLOR Media to do the Copywriting for you?
• Do you need a Members Only Area with a secure log-in?
• Will you need online forms to collect customer information?
• Do you have, want or need a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) to handle that information?
• Do you want Video or Audio on your site?
• Do you want to offer Quizzes, Surveys or Polls?

While not all of these questions are imperative to answer prior to starting your project, some are, and actually determine how your website is designed and built. Think about it!

Hello again! Yesterday I told you that over the next several days we would go over the key essential elements to consider when planning your next website development project with MultiCOLOR Media. The topic we covered yesterday was “General Purpose and Audience”. Today’s topic is “What Information To Include” on your new site!

Please feel free to leave any comments if you think i’ve left anything out .

2. Information That You May Wish to Include

Consider what information and features you want to make available on your new website. Every business and every website is different, and there are no standards (at least not anymore) when it comes to what you NEED to have on your website, it’s all up to you. With that said here are some examples of what you may choose to include on your new website:

• Your Company Information
• Contact Info (Phone, Fax, Mobile, Email, IM)
• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Products Descriptions
• Services You Offer
• Links to your Social Profiles
• RSS Feeds (For Easy Syndication)
• Industry Related Articles
• Web Blog
• Live Chat / Chat Room
• Forum / Message Board
• shopping cart (ecommerce only)

Well that sums it up! Tune in tomorrow for Part 3: Design & Development