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June, 2009 - end of another financial year!
We just had the budget handed down so that tells me it's nearly the end of the financial year.
Time to take stock of the year that was, count the coffers left after all your expenses are taken out, and perhaps invest in a couple of those expenses that you've been putting off but are now a whole lot more appealing given the latest Government incentives.
And as part of the budget, the Government announced their Small Business Online program to "assist small businesses to go online and improve their e-commerce capabilities" alongside the national Broadband Network rollout.
Another government incentive that can benefit small businesses that export is Austrade Export Market Development Grant.
Essentially, if you spend over $10,000 to export your goods and services overseas, you may be entitled to a agrant of up to 50%.
If you have an online web presence that generates business from overseas, or a shopping cart where you sell your products overseas, then it may pay to contact Austrade to discuss your eligibility.
Why not have a talk to your accountant to see if you qualify for any of these grants then give us a call to see how we can make your website work harder for you!
If you don't currently have a website, what better way is there to start the new financial year than with an online presence. Contact Naomi today on 9200 4431 or admin@insilico.com.au to arrange an appointment to discuss your requirements.
Are Your Domain Registration Details Up To Date
Many people register a domain, especially small businesses and sole traders, using whatever email address they have at the time - typically, this is the email address you got from your Internet Provider e.g. johns@hotmail.com.
And this is one of the most important contact details to keep up to date unless you want your domain whipped out from under your feet, or worse!
Over the past few months we have have 2 separate occasions where obsolete contact email addresses for domain renewals caused problems.
In the first case, our client had no email for a week so his clients and suppliers had to constantly call him on his mobile as he is usually away from the office. Most inconvenient for him and them.
The second case was even worse; their email and their website disappeared without a trace. Lucky for them no one registered their domain in that short period that it was expired.
All of this could have been avoided by keeping these details up to date as domain renewal notices are automatically sent out a month or so prior to your domain expiring.
Are your details up to date. If not, or you're not sure, give Naomi a call on (08) 9200 4431 and she can check for you.
P.S. If your domain is due for renewal, we can do that for you too at a very competitive rate!!
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Content Management System vs Custom Website - What's the Difference?
Have a look at the following two websites?
Can you tell which one is a Content Management System and which one is a Custom Website?
If you are technically savvy then you could probably figure it out by having a look at the code.
If you are the average web user then I will assume that you probably couldn't tell the difference. Don't be alarmed. The aim of this exercise is to show that you shouldn't see any difference. Even a web designer may have difficulty determining the difference from just looking at them.
To the end user (i.e. you) a Content Management System looks exactly the same as a Custom Website. All the differences lie behind the scenes.
So why did we make this point to you? The answer is that a lot of people believe that the quality of a custom website is less than that of a CMS website. This is mainly due to the associated price tags.
We are just pointing out that your website will look just as good no matter which website solution you choose.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
In our March newsletter we mentioned Search Engine Optimisation, the service we offer to help improve your placement in the 3 major search engines: Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live Search.
In accessing your Page Rank, Google considers over 200 different criteria; some obvious, others less so, and it requires specialists to keep on top of this.
At insilicoTM we have people who can help with "organic" search rankings as well as paid search ranking. Why not give them a try?
And the best part is that all this Search Engine Optimisation work does not need to affect the appearance of your website.
One happy client wrote:
"I hired In Silico to optimise my web site search engine results. The work was done very thoroughly & on time."
"It has only been a few weeks and my web traffic has increased substantially!"
Shane Capelli, Ring Rentals
www.ringrentals.com.au
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So, What Have We Been Doing Since Last Time?
We've finished a couple of new sites, and have made some changes to a few others.
Amongst the list are a mining supplier, a recruitment agency, a pub, an IT support organisation and a hobby website.
These sites are a mix of our custom website designs, content managed systems, shopping carts, and sites managed under a service agreement.
And of course, every website is created specific to the client's needs; no more shoehorning the client's logo into an off-the-shelf-sold-hundreds-before template here!
Latest Portfolio
These are only our latest websites. For our full portfolio please visit our website - www.insilico.com.au/portfolio/.
If you or your clients, colleagues or even friends need some help with their websites, even just some minor changes, please refer them to insilicoTM.
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News from the Trenches
Both Lee and I attended Ideas 5 which was held in Perth on April 22 and was an introduction to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.0 standards.
For those not familiar with WCAG, this standard is designed to provide people with varying levels of disability with the same access to the world wide web as those of us without any physical impairments.
In some parts of the world, the United Kingdom for example, all websites must be compliant to the level of WCAG as per the legislation of the day.
The presenters for the evening were Roger Hudson and Andrew Downie.
Roger Hudson spoke on the changes to the way WCAG is to be implemented in Australia while Andrew Downie presented a demonstration of what is required in order to comply with the guidelines. His demonstration had extra punch as Andrew, being visually impaired, is both an advocate and a user of those items covered by WCAG (e.g. screen readers).
From a visual perspective, making your website accessibility-compliant has no effect on the visual presentation.
What is different is that the HTML markup code behind the scenes is built in such a way that devices, such as screen readers, can correctly interpret the website in a format suitable for the impaired.
For more information on WCAG 2.0, you can visit:
Web Usability (Roger Hudson)
WCAG 2.0
Closing Thoughts
Wise words for every business manager and owner from Former US President, Theodore Roosevelt:
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
Theodore Roosevelt
I think there's something in that for everyone :)
Best of business from all of us at insilicoTM
Paul O'Neill
Technical Director
www.insilico.com.au
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© 2009 insilico | admin@insilico.com.au
| (08) 9200 4431 | Suite 33, First Floor, 133 Kewdale Road Kewdale WA 6105 | ABN 250 0293 8908
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