Robust and Effecient Development Framework From Microsoft.

Over the last few years, web developers have migrated away from building simple web sites with an FAQ and a site map to constructing sophisticated web-based applications that have more in common with software programs like Outlook and Excel than they do with the less interactive brochure-style sites of 2001 and 2002. Remember the old days of calling up the Mountain Dew-swilling “webmaster” (usually between the hours of 3 pm and 11 pm) to add a few text lines to the “Front Page”? Just as the face of web development has grown into the modern Web 2.0 style, so have the tools and technologies evolved for the better.

“.NET” (pronounced “dot net”) is Microsoft’s all-encompassing term to describe both the development and runtime environments for this new breed of applications. The .NET moniker even extends to cover Microsoft’s associated server and database technologies.

Applications are programmed in Visual Studio .NET using one of the following languages, listed in (debatable) order of popularity; C# (pronounced “C sharp”), VB.NET, and J#.These applications are deployed within the .NET Framework which runs on servers and even on desktop computers. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, then you are likely viewing this document within the .NET 2.0 Framework. This Framework is invisible to the average user. And that is a very good thing.

Visual Studio .NET has become the de facto standard for unified web development, with one-stop construction, testing, and deployment of web apps. At it’s core, Visual Studio .NET automates much of the process of database architecture and backend coding and thereby greatly accelerates the time to launch industrial strength applications. Processes that used to take months now take weeks or even days due to an infinite number of shortcuts that break up the development process into modular building blocks of code.

Over a 2-year period, topLingo’s senior developers built a massively complicated project entirely in .NET for a financial institution.

Five years ago, this same project would have required two to three times as many developers and a dedicated testing team. Or to put it another way, without .NET, this same project would have taken two to three times as long to build with the same resources.

Microsoft’s .NET environment represents the sort of mature and efficient technology that dominates the backbone of web.

90% of all Fortune 100 companies use .NET

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“TopLingo’s developers, artists and project managers provided an outstanding solution on our schedule. They brought our vision to life with incredible style and creativity, greatly exceeding our expectations. I really appreciate topLingo’s ongoing commitment to ANZ’s needs.”

Lu Shi, Sales Operation Executive
Air New Zealand-Americas

J.D. Power & Associates did a study for automotive manufacturer websites.  They found that users were more likely to buy a car IF the manufacturer’s website put the data — especially pricing — about models in the forefront and kept the fancy flash interface elements (virtual test drives, 360 degree rotations) to a minimum.  Also of note, speed of the website contributed greatly to user satisfaction.  Hmmmm, does this really surprise anybody?  At least this is great validation for the usability mantra we’ve been chanting for the last 3 or 4 years.   Link to study here.

Incidentally, they came up with a median rating for the industry.  I’m proud to say we worked on part of Kia’s online dealer training and they are above the median score.  The Big 3 were below the median … yikes, and they wonder why they need bailout money.  I bet they spend millions on their websites with litte regard for usability.  “Chairman, we need more rotating Ram Pickups!”  Resounding yesses from around the big cherrywood conference table.  Stocks plummet.

It’s no longer cool to have a brown box on your Twitter profile.

Way back in March just HAVING a Twitter account said “savvy”.  Now the marketing  mavens  are branding the holy lights out of all things “Tweet” and Twitter’s gone main stream.

Here’s some examples of what I’m talking about:

Executives, and the publications that target them, are talking non-stop about how Twitter should be leveraged in the enterprise - as in  this video of CIO’s from Home Depot, Baxter, and Yahoo, and this  CIO Magazine article “Twitter’s Potential for Business Users“, and in newly coined vernacular like  “Real Time Monitoring” used by Lenny Mendonca in this Think Big video.

For a great example of how one brand is leveraging Twitter to extend its brand reach, increase goodwill, and improve customer service, check out Whole Foods. (Thanks Denise, @denisess for tweeting this).

How to leverage Twitter for your enterprise is a fundamental strategy question that should be carefully studied by your organization’s executive team.

The take away message is this: Ignoring Twitter is a way to get noticed - only not the way you want.

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P.S.  Your mid to large size organization may qualify for a free 60 minute executive workshop customized to your brand.  Contact topLingo

“Just a brief note to express my satisfaction with TopLingo. ZyXEL interviewed many firms when planning a complete overhaul of its large and outdated website. We’ve got a great many products that formerly had not been properly categorized, making visitors’ searches nearly impossible. We also had a virtual umbilical cord to our headquarters in Taiwan that enabled updates but overwrote entire sections of our site in the process, requiring further edits on our part. The site was a mess.

TopLingo provided a clear and workable solution to our problems. They assigned their top programmers to our project, who worked closely with our design team. They communicated frequently and effectively, and constructed a website that we can now be very proud of. Our products have been properly categorized and alphabetized. Corporate information is easy to find, and marketing materials can now be downloaded by media and channel partners with ease.

I strongly recommend TopLingo without reservation.”

Lewis Lustman, Director of Marketing
ZyXEL Communications, Inc.

It’s April 2009 and most websites don’t support phone browsing very well. So you ask, “should mine”?

For now the answer is still “depends”. The first question you need to ask is who’s your audience?

To clarify what I’m talking about, here are two versions of the Facebook landing page. The one designed for the phone (left) lets you log in with no scrolling and is sans heavy images. The one on the right is being shown on a phone but was designed to display on a PC monitor which is why the user is forced to scroll around just to log in.

If you’re Facebook, where the age demographic skews well below the national average and the balance sheet bling screems louder than three schoolgirls on a roller coaster, designing for the phone is an obvious choice.

But maybe you’re an ecommerce site selling Jitterbug cell phones to the AARP crowd. Then the correct anyswer would be - - - that’s right, “no”. The jitterbug doesn’t support a browser and even if it did, the over 55 crowd isn’t hanging out at the mall updating their LinkedIn profiles on their cells.

But things aren’t always so obvious. Another tech savvy daddy chose not to create an iPhone version of their site. They’re that iconic company in Cupertino, California who owns apple.com. One thing’s for sure - it’s not due to lack of bling or any technical niavity that they skipped a customized phone version.

There’s a lot to consider when weighing the options. Do you need a phony website? Ask us.  We’ll help you determine what’s right for your situation.

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You Tube, I Tube … We All Tube!

Primarily fueled by social sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu and Veoh, video on the Internet has seen explosive growth in late 2006 and into 2007. Currently online video comes in several different formats and has several different delivery mechanisms

Formats and Delivery
The most popular formats for Internet video today are Flash video (Adobe), Quicktime (Apple) and Windows Media Player (Microsoft). Internet video can be streamed, downloaded or put into an RSS feed, which makes it a video podcast.

Other Considerations
Quality, frame rate and encoding are all technical considerations that need to be taken into account when creating video for the Internet. In addition, do you want your video playable on a video iPod? Would you like your video to go “viral”? For all the considerations, topLingo can help you think through the options.  HD is also beoming highly popular and Vimeo is a leading the way.

topLingo Knows Online Video
Online video is a hot topic among leading companies pushing the boundaries of web design and social media marketing. topLingo has the experience in video production and online media to make your Internet video experience a success.

topLingo’s Design, Programming and Online Marketing Expertise Propels Air New Zealand

Irvine, CA, April 2, 2009 – topLingo Development, Inc. (www.toplingo.com), a Web-based design and application programming services company specializing in the technology, finance, entertainment/media and other industries aannounces the creation of a new web site for Air New Zealand www.airnztravelagent.com/.

Air New Zealand contracted with topLingo Development, Inc. to build their primary web site for their network of U.S. and Canadian travel agents. This web site is professional and engaging providing an experience that captures the exciting and dynamic Air New Zealand brand. Travel agents can login and access special offers and targeted content which is administrated by Air New Zealand. The web site also employs RSS Feeds and an email marketing system to keep those agents updated. The site ranks high on Google due to the extensive SEO experience that topLingo provides. The site was built using Flash, Microsoft’s .NET 2.0 framework, AJAX, and a SQL database backend.

Lu Shi, Sales Operation Executive, Air New Zealand-Americas states, “TopLingo’s developers, artists and project managers provided an outstanding solution on our schedule. They brought our vision to life with incredible style and creativity, greatly exceeding our expectations. I really appreciate topLingo’s ongoing commitment to ANZ’s needs.”

Jason Berry, topLingo Development principal states, “The Air New Zealand project was a great fit utilizing our graphic design, development, programming and e-marketing services. We have created both efficiencies and cost savings, while increasing bookings for Air New Zealand’s flights.”

Michael Glezos, topLingo Development principal states, “We specialize in custom web application for the technology industry. Our web application expertise enables us to pinpoint and deliver on the needs of our clients. As a result, our clients save time, better service their customers and cut costs tremendously. topLingo provides cutting edge web applications to a critical part of ZyXEL’s business.”

About topLingo Development, Inc.

topLingo Development, Inc. ( www.toplingo.com), headquartered in Irvine, CA is a leader in Web-based software applications for the technology, financial, entertainment/media and other industries nationwide. For nearly a decade, topLingo Development has provided specialized expertise to create efficiencies, reduce costs, and generate customers and profits for its client base. Clients include Chase, Fidelity Investments, HSBC, Silver Hill Financial, ZyXEL Communications, Miles Davis, Inc. and many others.

About Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand offers more direct flights to the South Pacific than any other airline. Other popular destinations include Australia, China, Japan and Tonga. Consistently rated among the world’s best international airlines, Air New Zealand’s new Inflight Concierge Service provides all passengers with a range of services, from travel advice to assistance with onward bookings. Air New Zealand’s most recent accolades include “Best Business Class to Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific” for the third straight year by Business Traveler Magazine (USA) “Best Transpacific Airline” at the 26th Airline Industry Awards, and “Best Passenger Service” award by Air Transport World magazine. Air New Zealand is a member of the Star Alliance network. For more information contact Air New Zealand at www.airnewzealand.com/aboutus/mediacentre/default.htm.

Collective Soul fans will recognize the lyric from December. In that song, lead singer Ed Roland kinda spits this out: “Don’t scream about, Don’t think aloud, Turn your head now baby, Just spit me out”.

That’s how I feel about site searches. Don’t make me think, don’t make me scream. Just spit it out.

Want a “spit me out” search? Just check out the search functions on cool sites like Academic Earth and Apple.

For example, on Academic Earth, if you type in “Stanford” the search results look like this:

Cool how it’s organized into 3 logical categories without my having to ask. Categories are completely contextual to the search, so different search terms return different numbers of categories. Simple, understated, spit-me-out elegance.

Want to see another example?  Check out www.apple.com and type in “OS”, as in “Operating System”. You should get results grouped by 1. Products, 2. The Apple Store, and 3. Support.  If there are many links in each category, then the function can be coded to just show the top N in each category.

So the next time a web developer asks you how you want your search box, just smile, look her in the eye, and sing: Don’t Scream About, Don’t think Aloud, Baby… just Spit Me Out.

topLingo’s Site Redesign, Programming Expertise Produces Tremendous Cost and Time Savings

Irvine, CA, March 16, 2009 – topLingo Development, Inc. (www.toplingo.com), a Web-based design and application programming services company specializing in the technology, finance, entertainment/media and other industries announces the launch of the ZyXEL Communications, Inc. redeveloped web site www.us.zyxel.com/. The newly redeveloped web site includes many new applications and a fully integrated content management system.

topLingo Development worked closely with ZyXEL Communications to custom build the product catalog and seamless integration with their headquarters in Taiwan. A full range of web services was provided by topLingo Development, including Flash development, application programming and search engine optimization (SEO).

“Lewis Lustman, Director of Marketing states, “ZyXEL interviewed many firms when planning a complete overhaul of its large and outdated web site. We’ve got a great many products that formerly had not been properly categorized, making visitors’ searches nearly impossible. We also had a virtual umbilical cord to our headquarters in Taiwan that enabled updates, but overwrote entire sections of our site in the process, requiring further edits and causing many problems and delays.

topLingo provided a clear and workable solution to our problems. Our content management system is now completely synched with our corporate headquarters in Taiwan. Our products have been properly categorized, corporate information is easy to find, and marketing materials can now be downloaded by media and channel partners with ease. I strongly recommend topLingo Development.”

Michael Glezos, topLingo Development principal states, “We specialize in custom web application for the technology industry. Our web application expertise enables us to pinpoint and deliver on the needs of our clients. As a result, our clients save time, better service their customers and cut costs tremendously. topLingo provides cutting edge web applications to a critical part of ZyXEL’s business.”

About topLingo Development, Inc.

topLingo Development, Inc. ( www.toplingo.com), headquartered in Irvine, CA is a leader in Web-based software applications for the technology, financial, entertainment/media and other industries nationwide. For nearly a decade, topLingo Development has provided specialized expertise to create efficiencies, reduce costs, and generate customers and profits for its client base. Clients include Chase, Fidelity Investments, HSBC, Silver Hill Financial, ZyXEL Communications, Miles Davis, Inc. and many others.

About ZyXEL Communications

ZyXEL Communications, Inc., with U.S. headquarters in Anaheim, California, is one of the world’s foremost suppliers of broadband networking and Internet connectivity/routing products. Some of ZyXEL’s largest customers include: Sprint, Time Warner, Charter, Earthlink, Chunghwa Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telefónica Brazil, Telia, Verizon, and many others. For more information on ZyXEL Communications and its broadband solutions, visit the company’s Website at www.us.zyxel.com.

TOPLINGO IS HIRING NOW!

Looking for an internet based programmer with experience in .NET and SQL to build web based applications. Compensation is DOE with 100% paid medical, dental, vision and employee interest-free computer loan benefits. Work hours are flexible as topLingo asks our employees to put in a normal 40 hour work week via an 8 hour day Monday to Friday, but you can start work anytime between 8AM and 11AM.

Send your resume to us@topLingo.com

Rather then obscure, those word clouds actually clarify and speed the communication of the underlying messages.  For example, check out the topLingo About Us page as a cloud:

If you’re a visual learner who’s also into language, this is the big nirvana. In another example, below’s a word cloud from the music page of MilesDavis.com:

Want to create your own clouds? Ask us how.

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[Cont'd from Friday's post]

10. Ten tips on the actual task of ­copywriting

1. Clearly answer the visitor’s first question, “Am I in the right place?”

Visitors should get this answer in the first couple of seconds.

2.   Clearly answer the visitor’s second question, “Am I in the best place?”

This is where copy and design come together to hook the first time visitor.

3.    Create an obvious Call to Action

Make the merely obvious completely unmistakable. This was stated earlier and is intentionally redundant because, well, it bares repeating.

4.    Hook them with headings.

People only skim web pages. Make the headings concise and enticing to lure the reader deeper.

5.    Be personal.

Talk to your visitors not at them.

6.    Relentlessly proof read.

Then go away for a while. Then proof read again.

7.    Share with fresh sets of eyes.

If you’ve never been embarrassed by an obvious typo in your lifetime, you can skip this tip (and take any stuffed animal of your choice off the top shelf).

8.    Talk benefits not features

Features are about you, benefits are about them.

9.    NUAAWTIF (Never use an acronym without translating it first)

OMG. Nuff said.

10.  Follow the 3 P’s:  Preview > Proof > Post

Preview your copy as it will look on the web page, proof the preview, then - if error free - post. 

In summary, this three post series covers both strategic and tactical aspects of web copywriting. It’s meant as a primer or jumping off point for a serious analysis of your project’s copywriting needs. 

There you have it.  The final segment of “10 Tips for Writing Great Web Copy” and another topLingo blog post with web news you can use.

[Cont'd from yesterday's post]

4.   Nail the site map before you start writing

In the kitchen of web design, cookin’ and eatin’ are usually simultaneous processes. Ideally the cookin’ part - the site map, architecture, design mockups, and seo (search engine optimization) keyword lists - are completed before the copywriting starts. Of course life is messy, and rules are meant to be broken, so your process may vary. Just remember, great copy usually happens around a good plan and a logical development flow.

5.   Set a budget

Great copy requires a financial commitment.  To help you connect ROI to cost, try comparing the copy quality of top websites in your industry with less successful sites. Then get your checkbook out.

6.   Determine your style

Whether you intend to outsource or not, you’ll want to think about what style would be most effective for your site. Define your audience. Know what special needs they have - maybe they’re highly technical (law, medicine, technology) or multilingual, or youthful and edgy or all of the above. Speak in their voice.

7.    Develop your Keywords and Phrases

The copywriter should understand the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and write copy that is not only clear, interesting, concise, and persuasive, but that indexes well in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the other search tools.  One caveat here - resist the over-zealous SEO types who think listing all the zip codes in American on your landing page constitutes good copy. In other words, SEO is important but providing clear, relevant, compelling copy to your target audience is your first priority.

8.  Sanity check your copy

If you’re reading this and you’re the copywriter, note that this step should definitely get delegated to others. This could be as simple as getting a fresh set of eyeballs to proof the copy, or as complex as a branding consultant can imagine, including executive reviews, department heads, proof readers, compliance departments, and composite focus groups. If budget is an issue, find the “Mary in accounting” in your life - who was a language major in college and writes screenplays on the side- to proof your stuff.

9.  Put a call to action (CTA) on every page

Ecommerce sites want you to buy, blogs want you to comment and click on their ads, brochure sites want you to subscribe to newsletters and tell your friends. But the call to action doesn’t stop there. Make sure every page on your site moves the visitor towards the ideal CTA for that page. If a page contains a white paper, the CTA might be, subscribe for “complete access to all white papers”, or “critique this paper”. If it’s a contact us page, the CTA might be the submit button and the resulting thank you page might have a CTA to view the products page.

[Check back Monday, Feb. 16 for the 3rd and final post on this topic - "10 Tips for Writing Great Web Copy"]