Notebook

What you see is not what you get!

An HTML file can be displayed by both a web email client and a desktop email client such as Microsoft Outlook. There are many email clients, each with their own defaults for displaying content, not to mention the different browsers available. For that reason it can be difficult to predict what a design will look like. So a very important rule of thumb is to TEST TEST and TEST on all browsers and email clients.

Going back in time when tables were used for design.

Unfortunately most email clients are not in par with the newest CSS styling standards. So it is extremely unpredictable how a floating div will look like in Outlook Express vs Yahoo Mail. Of coarse you can test this out, but as mentioned earlier, there are various email clients you probably haven’t even heard of so the safest bet is sadly, to design using tables. This really means going back to HTML 1.0 and table design using table attributes and the long lost <font> tag. Yes, this is extremely painful, as you will have to wrap these attributes to almost every line in your content!

Keep it simple stupid! KISS … a designers all time favorite rule!

Since you cannot simply use embedded CSS, even if it is inline, the nice image you originally used as a CSS background, will have to be replaced with an actual image within your HTML code.  So when a design is created, it must be kept as simple as possible.

Be clear about limitations to your client so that expectations are met.

With the latest Flash techniques, Ajax and Web Gadgets, the perception that anything can be done on the web is seeping its way around the non-programmer community. So when a client wants an email that has collapsing content, dynamic images or animated pop-ups, you have to let them know that this is simply not possible. Telling them their limitations before they start dreaming up a flashy email marketing campaign can save a lot of hassle and miscommunication. Remember, if they don’t see what they want, it is YOUR fault.

Get a sense for who will be managing the email content to avoid your work from being damaged.

With so many HTML builders or do it yourself website makers, many individuals who use these off the shelf products truly believe they are familiar with HTML coding. HTML has become such a buzz word that it seems as long as you know how to change the content through a wizard, you know what is going on in the back-end. So beware of others editing your work.

A while back I wrote a section on the status of META tags and I was not surprised to learn the greedy history behind it’s use and how today it is out of the picture when it comes to rankings.

What was more infuriating was the vast number of websites still claiming that the key to rankings is the keyword META tag. Just below these statements there are usually a few ads conveniently placed to promote their so called  “SEO Services”, which remain hidden partly because they don’t know what is going on themselves.  A month of research on SEO for the sake of learning what others are saying or doing about it, enlightened me to the sad reality that most of these services are quick profit making schemes that care nothing for long-term success of their clients.

So here is a video from Google themselves explaining quite shortly the use of keywords. Let’s just hope the showcases of lectures and information coming from Google is true.

With the advent of digital photography, the amount of stock images online has become limitless and for a few years now, there have been specialized sites catering to specific industries.  The problem with stock images is not that they are scarce, but that effective images are hard to find.  And by this I mean pictures that don’t fit into the Sears Catalog category.

The fact that optical technologies and photography equipment saw a steep curve in improvement only means that the average Joe can now afford a professional SLR at higher resolutions.  A high resolution image does not necessarily mean it is a good picture. In fact, higher megapixel camera’s are not always better.  And that is the problem with stock images.  True photography brings out certain moods or feelings using various aspects of colour, lighting and positioning techniques.

It’s a shame it takes a long time to simply search for images that don’t look fake or out of date.  Even buying a high end camera to take your own shots may be worth a try if it is more customized to your content and if you are willing to put some time aside to learn at minimum the technical aspects of photography.  As the old cliché states  “A pictures is worth a thousand words”.  So if a user lands on your page and the limbic system of their brain has been stimulated because of beautiful imagery, it was worth the effort.

After months of preparation and customization, Royal LePage has finally integrated their agent websites into our Client Click tool, an integral part of JumpTools.  This is great news as the JumpTools team celebrates this major milestone and looks forward to a new JumpTools release set to lauch this year.  Special thanks to Joanne Geridis and Patrick Rioux from Royal LePage for their valuable input and patience.