Category Archives: Effective Web Design

Website Brilliance: How to Use Worst Practice Web Design to Generate Controversy, Conversation, Traffic & MONEY

Posted on January 29, 2009 by Tom Gray

Too many websites are like Muzak; kind of safe, kind of boring, kind of forgettable. None of these terms apply to Ling Valentine’s LingsCars.com. It’s busy, crowded, eye-achingly garish but, in a train-wreck sort of a way you can’t help … Continue reading →

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Need a Website Redesign? What You Can Learn from a Model Home.

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Tom Gray

It’s not a big stretch to go From… This house is really you. A model home is designed to target a specific buyer. Someone who will say, “I can imagine living here.” To… This website is really me. They understand … Continue reading →

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What’s the Font? And Questions that Web Owners Need to Know

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Tom Gray

Do you like your site’s design but your graphic artist or web designer is no longer available? Now you want to make changes but you have images that use fonts and color schemes and you don’t which fonts or color … Continue reading →

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Redesign Your Website – 10 Good Reasons from SiteLab

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Tom Gray

Cleaning up my inbox and came across this list from the folks at SiteLab. I work with a lot of clients on redesigning their sites and this list rings true. I’ve condensed the content a bit but you can probably … Continue reading →

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Online Retailers Need to Drink Their Own Kool-aid®

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Tom Gray

Mark Sanborn is a hall of fame speaker and the best selling author of The Fred Factor and You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader. He’s also a friend and client. He has a new web site and, … Continue reading →

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Deepen the Connection between You and Your Customer

Posted on June 3, 2007 by Tom Gray

This is a long post so I’ll cut to the chase by offering you the marketing action points upfront that are derived from the story that follows… Think outside the box by offering variations on your products and services that … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer Confidence, Customer Retention, Effective Web Design, Marketing, Web Usability | View Comments

And the Winner of the Award for Irony in Web Design Awards Goes to…

Posted on May 24, 2007 by Tom Gray

Smashing Magazine for naming North x East #26 on their list of Elegant and Visually Appealing Web Designs. It’s actually a pretty good list so appreciate the irony and the great web designs!

Posted in Blogging, Effective Web Design, Humor (?), Oops | View Comments

50% x :30 Can Spell Missed Opportunity on Your Home Page

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Tom Gray

Quoted in an article on “How to Make Your Web Site Sing” in the New York Times, Jakob Nielsen described the fickle nature of web visitors. According to studies conducted … … by Mr. Nielsen’s company, the Nielsen Norman Group, … Continue reading →

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The Internet is a “…Want it Now” Medium

Posted on April 23, 2007 by Tom Gray

Gimmee, mine, wantit; the favorite words of my 2 and 3 year old children (back when I had 2 & 3 year old children). Well guess what, the web is populated with the emotional equivalent of 3 year olds. We … Continue reading →

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Use Image Alt Tags When Sending Emails

Posted on March 15, 2007 by Tom Gray

My previous post showed an example of what an email message looks like when viewed with images disabled. Here’s an ezine that I work on showing a before and after. In the first picture you’ll note that the image is … Continue reading →

Posted in Browsers, Conversion, Effective Web Design, Email Marketing, Ezines, Web Usability | View Comments