ISDCONNECT - High Quality Websites

Web Multimedia Strategies

2011-10-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Using the Web

The online Web systems Newsletter for Independent Professionals and Web Masters from ISDCONNECT and Inigh Okpo

In This Week's Issue: Web Multimedia Strategies

Simply because we can digitise hours worth of video and stream it out over the Web doesn’t mean that we should. We need to consider how best to use the computer and not simply translate digital video and audio content to the computer screen. The key to successful Web multimedia delivery is to tailor your content for Web delivery.

Audio Only
Audio is an extremely efficient way to deliver information. Audio can be captured and optimised fairly easily, and it compresses well.

When recording original audio, take time to do it right. Low frequency background noises, such as the hum of a ventilation system, will be inseparable from your audio track; no amount of tweaking will eliminate it all together.

Slide Shows
Slide shows are another way for delivering multimedia on the Web. In a slideshow, you synchronise audio with still images. Through this approach you provide information via audio and add visual emphasis with still images.

Still images compress much more efficiently than video, and because slideshows do not require smooth motion, the movie frame rate can be low. This in turn means you can devote more data to image quality and size.

Video
Video is the most challenging multimedia content via the Web. One second of uncompressed video, the international standard for television and video, requires approximately 27 megabytes of disk storage space.

The amount of scaling and compression required to turn this quantity of data into something that can be used on a network is significant, sometimes so much so as to render the material useless. If at all possible, tailor your video content for the Web.

Animation
Most Web animation requires special plug-ins for viewing. The exception is the animated GIF format, which is by the far the most prevalent animation format on the Web.

Using animated GIFs has several drawbacks. One concerns the user interface. GIF animations do not provide interface controls, so users have no easy way to control a looping animation.

Second, animations generally are nothing more than a distraction. An animation that appears alongside primary content will simply disrupt your readers concentration and keep them from the objective of your site.

There is a place for animations on the Web, however. A simple animation on a Web site’s homepage, or “splash” screen, can provide just the right amount of mystery to invite users to explore your materials.

The Using the Web Bottom Line: To accomplish your website goals you must rise above procrastination and continue to do those things that will attract, convert, and ultimately sustain your targeted website audience as well as meet their needs.

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Our Web site packages are ready to help you attract clients.
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Why would you want to own a website that costs you a bundle, does not generate interest, attract business, or does not make you sustainable revenue? We have put together a product range that can get you online fast and direct you toward achieving the kind of success that you desire.

Our websites have been carefully packaged to meet your requirements: http://isdconnect.biz/websites/index.html

Do you have a unique website project? You can tell us about it and we will help without any obligation to you. http://bit.ly/rrT8Vx

Until next time, all the best,

Inigh Okpo - ISDCONNECT
Email: inigh@isdconnect.biz

Helping Independent Professionals and Web Masters Use the Web

http://www.isdconnect.biz

Market Through Your Website

2011-09-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

Using the Web

The online Web systems Newsletter for Independent Professionals and Web Masters from ISDCONNECT and Inigh Okpo

In This Week's Issue: Market Through Your Website

Marketing Systems
The business function of marketing your web site should be concerned with the planning, promotion, and sale of your products in an existing market, and the development of new products and new markets to better serve present and potential customers. Thus, marketing your site performs a vital function in the operation of your business enterprise in the face of the rapid changes of today's environment.

Interactive Marketing
The term interactive marketing has been coined to describe a customer focused marketing process that is based on using the Internet to establish two-way transaction between a business and its customers or potential customers. The goal of interactive marketing is to enable a company to profitably use this network to attract and keep customers who will become partners with the business in creating, purchasing, and improving products and services.

In interactive marketing, customers are not just passive participants who receive media advertising prior to purchase, but are actively engaged in a network-enabled proactive and interactive process. Interactive marketing encourages customers to become involved in product development, delivery, and service issues.

This is enabled by various Internet technologies, including chat and discussion groups, web forms and questionnaires, and e-mail correspondence. Finally, the expected outcomes of interactive marketing are a rich mixture of vital marketing data, new product ideas, volume sales, and strong customer relationships.

Targeted Marketing

Targeted marketing has become an important tool in developing advertising and promotion strategies for a company's electronic commerce websites. Targeted marketing is an advertising and promotion management concept that includes five targeting components.

Community. Companies can customise their web advertising messages and promotion methods to appeal to people in specific communities. These can be communities of interest, such as virtual communities of online sporting enthusiasts, or arts and crafts hobbyists, or geographic communities formed by the web sites of a city or local newspaper.

Content. Advertising such as electronic billboards or banners can be placed on various website pages, in addition to a company's home page. These messages reach the targeted audiences. An ad for a movie on the opening page of an internet search engine is a typical example.

Context. Advertising appears only in the web pages that are relevant to the content of a product or service. So advertising is targeted only at people who are already looking for information about a subject matter (vacation travel, for example) that is related to a company's products (car rental service, for example).

Demographic/Psychographic. Marketing efforts can be aimed at only specific types or classes of people: unmarried, twenty-something, middle income, male college graduates, for example.

Online Behaviour. Advertising and promotion efforts can be tailored to each visit by an individual. This enables a company to track a person's online behaviour at a website so marketing efforts can be instantly developed and targeted to that individual at each visit to their website.

The Using the Web Bottom Line: To accomplish your website goals you must rise above procrastination and continue to do those things that will attract, convert, and ultimately sustain your targeted website audience as well as meet their needs.

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Our Web site packages are ready to help you attract clients.
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'Get Started' website package - Isn't it about time that you have a business website that will serve as your online brochure, generate valuable leads, and convert more customers. That said, you may ask "how do I get started, will it be expensive, and how do I know I will be getting what I really want"? http://bit.ly/nY3cJ5

'Start Selling' website package - Online consumer spending today is valued at billions of dollars and growing steadily, so why not get a piece of the action for yourself with your unique range of products. We make it simple for you to translate your products and services into an easy to manage online store and then start selling. http://bit.ly/jrED5h

Do you have a unique website project? You can tell us about it and we will help without any obligation to you. http://bit.ly/rrT8Vx

Until next time, all the best,

Inigh Okpo - ISDCONNECT
Email: inigh@isdconnect.biz

Helping Independent Professionals and Web Masters Use the Web

http://www.isdconnect.biz

Develop Your Own Online Store using E-commerce Applications

2011-08-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Using the Web

The online Web systems Newsletter for Independent Professionals and Web Masters from ISDCONNECT and Inigh Okpo

In This Week's Issue: Develop Your Own Online Store using E-commerce Applications

The Scope of E-commerce
Few concepts have revolutionized business more profoundly than E-commerce. Your E-commerce online store is your virtual storefront available to countless visitors around the world and just one click away. Despite the dotcom boom and bust of the 90s, many businesses still apply the use of E-commerce applications successfully today to interact with and engage their customers, distributors and partners.

E-commerce has changed the shape of competition, the speed of action, and the nature of leadership. Simply put, the streamlining of interactions, products and payments from customers to companies and from companies to suppliers is causing an earthquake in many boardrooms.

Businesses involved in E-commerce as either buyers or sellers rely on Internet-based technologies, and E-commerce applications and services to accomplish marketing, discovery, transaction processing, and product and customer service processes.

Many companies today are participating in or sponsoring three basic categories of electronic commerce applications: business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and consumer-to-consumer E-commerce.

Developing your Web Store
Before you launch your own retail store on the Internet, you must build an E-commerce website. That includes building your Web storefront and product catalog Web pages, as well as shopping cart features, process orders, handle card payments, and so forth.

Once you build your website, it must be developed as a retail Web business by marketing it in a variety of ways that attracts visitors to your site and transforms them into loyal Web customers. So your website should include Web page and email advertising and promotions for Web visitors and customers, and Web advertising exchange programs with other Web vendors.

Also, you can register your Web business with its own domain name (for example, yourstore.com), as well as registering your website with the major Web search engines and directories to help surfers find your site more easily.

The Using the Web Bottom Line: Your online web store represents your electronic store front that is readily available to meet the needs of even more visitors than your store on the high street. Start selling online today by developing your own online store.

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Our Web site packages are ready to help you attract clients.
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Do you have a unique website project? You can tell us about it and we will help without any obligation to you. http://bit.ly/rrT8Vx

Until next time, all the best,

Inigh Okpo - ISDCONNECT
Email: inigh@isdconnect.biz

Helping Independent Professionals and Web Masters Use the Web

http://www.isdconnect.biz

Overcome Procrastination and Achieve Your Website Goals

2011-08-05T01:13:00.000-07:00

Using the Web

The online Web systems Newsletter for Independent Professionals and Web Masters from ISDCONNECT and Inigh Okpo

In This Week's Issue: Overcome Procrastination and Achieve Your Website Goals

Do you desire to own a website just like the ones you find on the internet that just seem to attract loads and loads of traffic to them? Do you find that though you have considered the benefits that can accrue to you from implementing your website; you seem farther and farther away from actually getting started? Perhaps you have started your website project and you’re now stuck, dissatisfied and unsure on how to proceed toward your goals? If this is you or a similar situation, then you need to take steps to overcome procrastination and really achieve your website goals.

Situations such as the ones described above are never unusual, in fact you may be surprised to learn that every potential owner of an effective business website would have considered and thought about several approaches toward accomplishing success as an online business owner or perhaps even an internet entrepreneur.

So, what is an acceptable bottom line or what should be your aim toward providing goods, services and content for that great business website? You might decide that your goal would be to make money from your website, you might decide that you want to focus on educating your site visitors on benefits of your goods and/or services, or better still you might decide you might set a goal to collect, capture and manipulate data entered in by users on your website.

Whatever the mission for online success, and as achievable it may be once you establish purpose and anticipated outcomes, you must remember that your website is designed to serve and meet the needs of users you have targeted to visit.

Today, when someone decides to visit your web page, it is more than likely that they know what they want as their outcome, but less than likely that they know how to accomplish it. It is no longer just enough to have a web page about your business on the internet, you also need to attract, convert and sustain patronage for your website.

ATTRACT
Get your website found online by the very people that are looking for what you have. This you do by driving substantial online traffic toward your website. There are millions of websites across the web today and though there are many more people around the world who might have access to the internet, how will you ensure some of this traffic is directed to your own website?

Well, you might have heard the term ‘KEYWORDS’. Keywords are those words that are more readily recognizable to a search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing and many other search engines. A search engine will respond more accurately to the person doing the search based on the kind of keywords they enter into the text box. And, there are certain and frequently used keywords that someone searching the internet for what you offer will likely use to carry out the search online. You need to know these keywords and possibly create your list of keyword that visitors to your website are likely to use.

For example, if you were building a website to sell real estate in say, Abuja, you would start with keywords like – ‘buy real estate in abuja’, ‘real estate for sale in abuja‘, ‘abuja real estate’, ‘real estate deals in abuja’, ‘real estate companies in abuja’, and as many other combination of keyword phrases that you consider someone searching the web would use to find what you offer. These keywords, when placed in lines of code within your website will enhance search engine rankings for your website.

Attract interest to your website by creating sponsored ads for the site on search engine portals such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Though they will cost you money, sponsored ads will help visitors to that use these search engines more readily locate your business website. Also, you should consider and use other traditional methods of attracting your target customers to your website such as telling them about it, highlighting the website address on your business card, brochures, company items, and in newspapers, radio and TV placements.

CONVERT
Now that visitors have found your website, you need to convert them to paying customers. This is achieved by ensuring they find what they want once there. Like I mentioned earlier, anyone that will click on your website will more than likely have an idea what they are looking for before they do, and if they have decided to visit yours, you must make sure your website answers the hidden questions of their intent.

To convert your website visitors to buying customers you must know your intended audience. You should be able to differentiate them by demography, age, income level, sex and use these statistics to ensure that on entry into your website, the homepage layout, welcome message and hyper links are specifically targeted to meet their immediate need. In general, for many people their attention span is limited because of so much information that is readily available to them, so you must be as convincing as you can that by clicking your web page they have come to the right place.

Keep your homepage layout and design easy on the eyes of your website visitor by ensuring that you do not use too many conflicting colors or pop up/flash items that will distract their attention and divert them from their goal. Let your welcome message be courteous, inviting, and describe in as few words who you are what you do and how you are ready to serve. Then, you should display highlights of your products and services giving your website visitor the option to click and learn more about them. If you use flash or any graphics, keep them small so they will allow the page load faster and make sure they allow the user click to find out more.

Convert customers by making your phone number and email available on your home page so they can contact you if they decide to without having to search the website for these details. On your home page you can also encourage the visitor to send you feedback with a small form that will capture their data and allow you to follow them up later on. You can display news and feedback from your forum, blog or social network sites where comments have been made for them to connect with and further help them decide whether they will do business with you or not.

SUSTAIN & SUPPORT
Keep your customers loyal and have them recommend your services to someone else by building networks. Build a list of testimonials you have collected from satisfied customers and ask them to follow your business through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This way, you can create referrals for your business by word of sight.

Support for your website visitor is of utmost importance because though your website might just be able to provide the user with all the information that they might need regarding your products and services, it can never replace the confidence that can be built by knowing that there is that human interaction readily available to assist and guide their decision. Therefore, whenever, a customer sends you feedback on your website, you must be prepared to answer their request promptly, efficiently and effectively. This you can do by emails, phone calls and even live chat from the site. You can also consider providing your site visitors with a link for frequently asked questioned that you may have compiled to quickly answer any questions they might have in the course of interacting with the website.

The Using the Web Bottom Line: To accomplish your website goals you must rise above procrastination and continue to do those things that will attract, convert, and ultimately sustain your targeted website audience as well as meet their needs.

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Our Web site packages are ready to help you attract clients.
====================================

Do you have a unique website project? You can tell us about it and we will help without any obligation to you. http://bit.ly/rrT8Vx

Until next time, all the best,

Inigh Okpo - ISDCONNECT
Email: inigh@isdconnect.biz

Helping Independent Professionals and Web Masters Use the Web

http://www.isdconnect.biz

Looking Beyond Just the Aesthetics

2011-07-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

Using the Web

The online Web systems Newsletter for Independent Professionals and Web Masters from ISDCONNECT and Inigh Okpo

In This Week's Issue: Looking Beyond Just the Aesthetics

Owning a website that is eye catching is something anyone would be proud of. However, it is extremely easy to get caught up in and overly concerned about the aesthetics of your website design while veering far away from the real purpose, which is to generate traffic.

I have discovered that way too many website owners including some of my clients become overly anxious with the look and feel of their web projects that there arises the tendency to make many changes to the color, layout, theme and content for their website. This tendency leads to fear and ultimately delay in the launch of their website project and inaccessibility by potential clients.

Don’t get me wrong, it is important that your website is of a very high standard that can easily match or even outdo other similar sites on the web today, after all your website is available to a global audience, but it shouldn’t be to the exclusion of other important factors required for online success.

One other issue I have dealt with in my conversations with prospects is their desire for a website design that is far more robust than what they can offer and possibly manage. I will sometimes work with a small business owner that will want available on their website links for movies, fashion, horoscopes, sports and the like.

Adebayo, one of my prospects and a furniture designer said to me, “Inigh, I want a website just like Yahoo! Where I can also sell computers, hardware and everything in between”, and I replied, “wait a minute, you design furniture”. “Besides”, I continue, “have you thought this through, do you have a plan and are you certain you have the resources to manage and maintain such a website? Let me assure you, Yahoo! have thousands of people on their payroll that ensure the content for their website is kept fresh and up to date”.

So sometimes, back and forth we will go till I am able to convince them of the need to focus more intently on their own primary offerings as well as adequately meeting the needs of potential visitors to their website.

As a website owner, you need to look beyond just aesthetics, take off those rose colored shades and consider the big picture, concentrate on you objective and satisfy expectations of your website visitors.

Caroline is a client of mine and the owner of a website that sells cakes. She produces a wide variety of cake designs ranging from birthdays to children, and from weddings to novelty cakes. On her website she showcases images of her cake designs. The website is a colorful delight to visit and look at, and she is extremely proud of her website especially owing by the comments the website continues to generate.

In spite of this, Caroline is more focused than ever on fulfilling her bottom line; selling cakes. From her Facebook website, twitter account and business website, she is able to keep site followers up to date with her new cake designs and effectively communicate with them regarding requirements that they may have thereby building trust and establishing reliability. This in turn ensures recommendations for her services as both herself and I continue to share ideas on growing her online business.

In reality, a website is never really ‘finished’, never actually ‘complete’. It is not like a newspaper that once printed, cannot be corrected, or like a news story that once broadcast is not easily retracted, but rather your website look, feel and content can be regularly improved upon and changed to include new features. In fact, through the internet your website is a low cost and extremely scalable information system for your products services and or ideas. I recommend that you change your website design and theme where possible every year to ensure freshness and newness.

Therefore, when implementing your website do not become overly concerned about the aesthetics, trying to ensure you have a ‘beautiful’ web page while other aspects of the project remain unattended to over long periods of time. People that will visit you website are less interested in the flash movie on your web page than they are with having their immediate need for visiting met, and if you have a great looking website yet are unable to respond to their requirement, they might just go somewhere else.

The Using the Web Bottom Line: If you concern yourself more with your website looking good on the surface you will delay or miss an opportunity to share your message and thus connect with a true audience looking for what you have to offer.

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Our Web site packages are ready to help you attract clients.
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Do you have a unique website project? You can tell us about it and we will help without any obligation to you. http://bit.ly/rrT8Vx

Until next time, all the best,

Inigh Okpo - ISDCONNECT

Helping Independent Professionals and Web Masters Use the Web

http://www.isdconnect.biz

Today at ISDCONNECT, everything has changed

2011-06-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

Today at ISDCONNECT, everything has changed. We have thought long and hard, spent gruelling hours deliberating, considering and researching, how best we can effectively meet the needs of our loyal clients and an increasing demand for websites, web design and web based technologies.

So, what were our findings during this time? Quite simply, there has been a revolution in the provision of web design services, a drastic turn around as we always knew and predicted that technology would become more accessible and even less expensive. Today it is a reality and getting better. So we decided to start with the introduction of two new and major website packages that now form the bedrock of our product ranges here at ISDCONNECT.

These products are leaner, faster and better well positioned for your online success. Unlike when we had six different website packages in our product range they have now been compressed into just two with a price tag that is both attractive and competitive with awesome features, and all year round technical support. Without further ado, let us introduce to you our 'Get Started' and 'Start Selling' website packages.

Our 'Get Started' package has every feature that a business, organisation or individual would need to get started on the web with as little hassle as possible. Goal setting is very important when embarking on any website project and there is always alot to take into consideration. The 'Get Started' website has taken all this into consideration with such essential features as your own custom domain name, a world class website template, email accounts, search engine optimization, photo slide show, social networking, feedback forms and unlimited support.

With our 'Start Selling' website, you can start selling to the whole world. Do you have a product, service or even an idea you want to share with the rest of the world, you can make it happen with this website package. Include your products into an online catalog where your customers can place orders, make secure payments with their credit cards or money orders, and keep track of every purchase made. Co-ordinate shipping and delivery to various destinations, receive useful statistics on visitors preferences, get translations in different languages and so much more you can do with a simple back end interface.

At just $99.95 for the 'Get Started' package (renewable every year) and $299.95 for the 'Start Selling' package, all the exciting features wil be customised to adequately fit whatever requirement that you might have for your new business or personal website.

You can order both website packages in USD from our website with your preferred credit card merchants, also, you can still have any one of these packages and pay in naira the sum of NGN15,000.00 for the 'Get Started' and NGN45,000.00 for the 'Start Selling'. Are you ready for this, just send an email to us today at info@isdconnect.biz and we will start you on the way to owning your own website today.

Save money and time, get your website online in 48hrs

2011-05-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

Do you want to own a reasonably priced, customised, high quality website?

Whether its for your business, group/organisation or personal, ISDCONNECT is a really good place to start. Visit http://www.isdconnect.biz for more.

We realise you may have a very busy schedule so our dedicated staff will take the trouble out of web design and get you online in 48hrs.

Our 'Get Started' package at just $99.95 USD per year (NGN15,000 per year) is our fully loaded website, no holds barred, targeted at your online success.

Check out how you and your business will benefit by signing up today:

1. Your Own Custom Domain Name: Confirm availability of your own custom domain name e.g. www.yourname.com.

2. Your Own Disk Space: The physical location for your website files and the size alloted is 500 megabytes.

3. Bandwidth: 200,000 bits per second data transfer to ensure that your website performs optimally.

4. Email Accounts: Personalised website email addresses for you and your entire team.

5. Website Templates: Choice world class website templates each embedded with creative graphics and beautiful icons.

6. Search Engine Optimisation: Get found fast and generate even more traffic with Google meta tags, keywords and analytics.

7. Photos and Videos: Upload your photos into a gallery and display your linked videos from YouTube on your website.

8. Add Facebook: Have site visitors 'Join' your website, create profiles, post comments, photosand more with a single click.

9. Feedback Forms: Let site visitors leave feedback and comments on your website using interactive forms that capture data.

10. Unlimited Support: You can view our knowledge base, call or email us for all year long support and upgrades.

To learn more about our 'Get Started' package, visit http://www.isdconnect.biz/features/get-started.html (or copy and paste in a browser).

Yes, at just $99.95 USD per year (NGN15,000 per year), you too can own a HIGH QUALITY website that will propel and set you apart for SUCCESS.

Talk to us about your project as we can also provide you with logo design, flash design, blog design, shopping cart integration (with online credit card

payments), content management systems, social media integration and much more all customised for your specific needs. And we are affordable too.

ISDCONNECT

ISDCONNECT launches new website: Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)

2011-04-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

ISDCONNECT: Your ideas on the web

After several months of speculations, considerations, changes, reviews, general uncertainty and even the loss of many original files, ISDCONNECT has finally uploaded our brand new website at http://www.isdconnect.biz our own domain space.

The decision to upload this new website was carefully thought out and eventually taken even though, as at the time of publishing this blog the website is only 75 percent completed. So, why did we upload considering this is not ethical even by most business standards? Sincerely, we would like feedback from you, our current clientele, friends and colleagues as we have embarked upon a journey to restructure our entire operations and remain relevant in the scheme of things and ultimately continue to contribute to our objective.

What is our objective at ISDCONNECT? Our objective is to provide high-quality and reasonably priced web based systems to businesses, organizations and individuals. We are at the cutting edge of web systems delivery and cutivate our niche by providing a full web-based services package. Are you a customer with ISDCONNECT, or have you been serviced by us in the past? Please let us know whether we have fulfilled our objective in our dealings with you, or whether we have failed in any area.

Visit our new website today and observe our current offerings. You will find that we have decided to 'keep it simple stupid' (kiss). Firstly, we have drastically simplified our product range and processes, making the website so much easier to navigate while we help our site visitors make their decisions much more easily. On the website, we have introduced two main products that are highlighted; they are our 'Get Started' and 'Start Selling' website packages.

These website packages are clearly focused on the primary desire and need of every potential website owner that requires a website, whether its for business, an organisation or individual. These needs include - quality, price and opportunity. Our 'Get Started' website package has been put together to fulfill the desire of everyone that aspires to the needs as mentioned above. With the incredible features that make up this package, you too can own a world class website at just $99.95 renewable every year. This yearly subscription includes your custom domain name, website template as well as unlimited support and much more. The 'Start Selling' website is a fully customized online store and shopping cart application that is useful for anyone that is prepared to begin making money online and to start selling their products and/or services.

You can sell anything and we will include all your products in an online catalog, where customers can make payments and even monitor delivery and shipping. This package is offered to you at just $299.95 and has a $99.95 yearly renewal that includes unlimited support.

Get any of the websites, and if you still aren't satisfied, you can try our 'Add Ons' features such as web hosting, website templates, logo design, pictures and videos, Facebook and Twitter websites, and many more features that will further enhance your current website.

Like we mentioned earlier, the website is not completely finished because we are still working to activate systems on the back-end that will enable site visitors successfully order their websites and enjoy our support services. All the same, we would appreciate your feedback on our new concept, product ranges and operations. We will respond to as many requests and suggestions as we possibly can. We appreciate your partnering with us.