As a web designer one of the things I struggle with is clients wanting crazy fonts as part of their website.  Traditionally there are only a few font families available for use with CSS.  The reason for this is that all fonts render differently depending on the system they are being viewed on.  So by keeping them to a minimum the webpage will look its best on as many computer as possible.

However, ocassionaly it would be nice to use a different font (image) and not suffer the consequences of not being seen as text by a search engine.  Well recently I came across a pretty neat set of PHP code that allows exactly that.  It allows you to choose any font that you own and have pure coded text turned into an image.  The browser and therefore the search engine still sees it as text so you suffer no consequences of using an image.  I love it.

Check it out:  http://www.xanthir.com/pir/

It is helpful to go into your consultation with a list of questions that you want to ask your web designer.  I have put together a quick list of things to ask and do before hand.

$$ = Possible extra money involved.

• Do you do free quote/consultation
• Can you set up merchant accounts (used for online sales), $$
• What are your policies on usability, security, privacy
• Do you employ any methods to prevent spamming of database sites or email forms
• Do you do search engine optimization, $$
• Do you provide hosting, $$
• Do you buy the domain or do I need to, $$
• Do you write the content or do I
• Sitemaps and robots file for search engines
• Will you transfer the files to the host and set up my email or do I need to, $$
• Do you have templates that are cheaper than your custom design
• Always ask to see a portfolio
• Always google the designer/company, if they have done web work it should be easy to find on the web.

This question is undoubtedly the most asked question I get.  Where do I buy a domain?  There are several good registrars out there but my recommendation is godaddy. Godaddy is a reliable registrar that offers a lot for the money.  I also recommend looking up some coupon codes before buying.  You can usually find codes at retailmenot.

Along these lines people often ask when they need to get a domain.  I really believe that if you have a business idea and a domain name in mind that you should buy it.  It will only cost you around $10 dollars a year to hold the domain and it will ensure that when you are ready to use it you have it.  If you do buy a domain ahead of time, make sure you keep track of all your login and expiration information.  A domain that you own does you no good if you can’t login to the control panel.

Happy domain hunting.

One of the questions that I get asked constantly is where should I host my website.  My initial reaction is that you should host through your designer if they offer the service.  Why?  Simply because if your site is on their servers the moment it goes down (and it will at some-point, technology is not perfect) the design service will be trying to get it back up ASAP.  If you are hosting it on your own, you may not know your site is down right away and when you do find out it is down you will need to deal with tech support to get it back up.  Or you can pay your designer to do this for you.

If you do want the money savings of hosting your site on your own.  I think one of the best hosts for the price is 1and1.  They offer cheap small packages which are usually plenty to serve small business needs.  They also offer pretty decent tech support for the occasion that there is a problem with your website.

WYSIWYG = What you see is what you get.  For my money, which in this case in none, Tiny MCE is the best WYSIWYG editor.  It allows me to place it on a page and have a client enter text that they want, in the format that they want and submit it.  I have not used another editor for my client content management systems since I found it.  It works very well.  It is easy to use.  It has the very familiar feel of Microsoft Word that makes people comfortable.  If you are looking for an editor for content management systems, this is the one you want.

Tiny MCE Website.

In 2006 I started my web design business, E.A. Lenger Designs.  I repeatedly get questions about building and maintaining websites.  Clients are always interested in what I use and what is the most up to date languages and uses on the internet.  So I am going to put my most used website tips tricks and information on my blog to help my clients and avid internet readers sort through the information.

If you have a specific topic that you would like to see on here please let me know.  Submit your story topics via the comments or on my website.