PSPINC Official Company Blog

PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 49 " Using Web Sites to Handle Business"

Feb

Vol. 49

Many people may think that websites are just for sending information. However, websites are not just a one-way medium like paper or television. Not only are websites a tool for sending out information, but also for collecting it as well. That collected information can be processed by a program and sent back out again.

Think about online shopping, for example. Without the Internet, you would have to select products from a catalog and mail or fax an order form to place your order. Even with television shopping, orders are placed by phone. However, in the Internet age, you can see a product on your screen and order it directly.

Using this method, the Internet allows server programs to perform tasks that were previously impossible. We at Pacific Software Publishing, Inc., are a software development company that can do all of the consulting, design, development and operation of such business systems.

If you are interested in learning more about the systems we have developed, please contact us at https://pspinc.com.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Create a contact-less digital restaurant menu for your customers with ImaMenu

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#dreamersi #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #webdesign #webdevelopment #webdexpress #websitebuilder

What your company should do BEFORE building a website

Jan

Oftentimes when a company needs a new website, they just want to get it built as soon as possible. In reality, that doesn’t provide you with the best finished product. Here are a few very important steps your company should do before building a website:

Take the time to understand your users.

Who are you trying to reach? If you take a moment to understand who your target audience is, then you can start to formulate the best strategy for getting through to them. Who are they? What is it they want? What type of language and/or imagery is most likely to appeal to them? Remember, you aren’t trying to sell your services to yourself, so if your website is acting as a sales tool then you shouldn’t be building the website for yourself either. Build it for your users.

Determine your end goal.

What’s the ideal outcome from a visitor to your website? Do you want visitors to schedule an appointment? Maybe there’s a particular product or service you want to showcase? Perhaps you just want them to follow you on social media? Once you have an end goal in mind you’re ready to move onto the next step.

Create and organize your content.

This is the definitely the most difficult and also the most important step in this process. Your content is what will attract and retain users to your website. It’s also what will help you rank well in Google searches. It’s critical that you take the time to create meaningful content and organize it appropriately if you want your website to work for you. Using what you know from the last two steps, create content that is appealing to your target users, and organize it in a way that steers them towards your end goal. Use color, space, verbiage, and imagery to point them in the direction of your featured product or service.

Once you’ve taken these steps, you’re just about ready to start designing your new website. If you need some help with that, or just want to make sure you have a beautiful finished product to show for all of your hard work, don’t hesitate to reach out and let our professional designers do the heavy lifting for you. We’re here to help.
Check Out PSPinc Design Solutions

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#PSPinc #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #WebsiteBuilder

How to create a strong password in 2021 (Part 2)

Jan

Thank you for joining us again! In part 1 we talked about when you should change your password as well as tips on reusing password and why you shouldn’t do it. Today we are going to get to commonly used passwords and best practices. So without further adieu lets get to it!

Commonly used passwords

According to SafetyDetectives, they analyzed over 18 million passwords to compile a list of most commonly used passwords in the world. These are passwords you should avoid.

123456

password

123456789

12345

12345678

qwerty

1234567

111111

1234567890

123123

abc123

1234

password1

iloveyou

1q2w3e4r

Best password practices

When it comes to passwords, length matters. You should aim to use at least 12 characters in your password. 12 should be your minimal length, the longer the better. Consider using passphrases by mixing various words together, add a number or two in between, and a special character.

For example, the word “December” is an 8-character dictionary word. It would take hackers just hours to crack this password. But if you mix a few memorable words together, such as “December2BearSlide^^”, then it becomes a 20-character strong password. Perhaps in December you saw on TV 2 bears sliding on ice, and it made you smile.

Do not use names of popular pop culture figures or your family members. The words or passphrases should be memorable but not things directly related to you. Here’s another example, “Rocket!Night4Station#”. Perhaps you saw the recent launch of SpaceX/NASA rocket carrying 4 astronauts through the night sky towards the international space station. This is a 21-character strong password that will be very difficult to crack.

In conclusion

Having a secure password is extremely important in the year 2021. We encourage you to follow some of these guidelines to best secure your online information. If we can be of any help or if you have any follow-up questions about password security, we would love to speak with you. Please call us at 1-800-232-3989 or contact us online.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#Dreamersi #EmailHosting #PSPinc #Passwords #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #WebHosting

How to create a strong password in 2021 (Part 1)

Jan

If you have not updated your passwords in over a year, now (at the start of 2021) would be a good time to consider changing them. Cybersecurity experts recommend passwords to be changed every 60-90 days. Cracking your password is how hackers can obtain your personal data. Securing your account starts with a strong password.

We are here to help you create a strong password in 2021 with a 2-part blog series.

When should you change your password

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) suggests forcing frequent password changes is counterproductive. It often leads to less secure passwords because users will take shortcuts and use common words they can remember. You should aim to update your password at least once a year, or anytime you suspect your account is compromised.

You should also change your password when:

You receive notices of data breach from stores you shop from, social media accounts you use, or financial institutions such as your credit card or bank.

You detect malware on your computer.

You’ve accessed your account using a public computer, as the computer could be infected with malware or keylogger.

Your email account receives tons of bounce-back emails and spam, it’s indicative your email account might be compromised.

Do not reuse passwords

You should have a different password for each account. When you change your password, do not reuse an old password because if a hacker cracks one of your old accounts, they will most definitely try the old password when attempting to crack your new accounts.

Say you had created an account with a department store many years back, you had forgotten you have that account. That particular department store had their data breached, and hackers obtained the password you used with that account. If you have reused the same password elsewhere, you are now at risk to be hacked. Even if you had changed the password slightly, often people would add a number at the end of their password when reusing a password. Since this is a common practice, hackers will try this when attempting to hack into your accounts.

Join us next time

Next time we will talk about commonly used passwords and best password practices. In the meantime, if you need help securing any of your PSPinc services please contact us. We have the best support team in the industry committed to serving our customers.

If you are not our customer, please consider us for your hosting needs, web / mobile app development projects, and cloud application services.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#Dreamersi #EmailHosting #PSPinc #Passwords #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #WebHosting

2021 Pantone Colors of the Year

Dec

At the end of every year, the Pantone Color Institute picks the "Color of the Year". The process isn't arbitrary and they take into consideration a trend analysis. It is a result of experts reviewing world influences within many genres such as art, fashion, entertainment, and travel to name a few. They also take into consideration the 'emotional history' of the color.

It's not surprising that because of the year we have had in 2020, the selection process for 2021 was anything but normal. Instead of choosing 1 Pantone color of the year, the Institute chose 2! The official colors of the year are Pantone 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and Pantone 13-0647 Illuminating (yellow).

To the average person, it may represent perhaps a gray start to the year with the "illuminating" hope of what could come.

In reality, gray represents wisdom and dependability. Illuminating is symbolic of energy and light (no surprise). The pair represents how we need optimism and positivity, but to get there we need strength and wisdom.

What do you think of the official 2021 Pantone Colors of the Year?

At PSPinc we focus on design when we develop websites every day. So we are always looking at future trends and technologies.

If you have a website that is in need of a design refresh, let us know.

We have professional designers on staff that are here to help you start 2021 off right. You could say we have the wisdom and dependability of Ultimate Gray to build your next Illuminating website!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#PSPinc #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDevelopment

What do you think of the Pantone Color Institute's choices for Colors of the Year?

Our Simplified Web Development Process

Nov

We have been working with all types of businesses for years providing web development solutions to help them accomplish their goals.

While everyone's needs are unique, we always use a consistent 8-step approach when working with our customers. Depending on the size and scope of the project, we may break this down into smaller phases.

If you have web development needs of any type, we would love to work with you.
Please contact us online or by phone at 1-800-232-3989.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PSPinc #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDevelopment

Have your website built for FREE with our all-new WebdeXpress DFY Package

Sep

Ready to have your website built for free?!

We are offering a special promotion where you can get your website built for FREE (a $375 value) with WebdeXpress, our premiere website builder tool.

All you need to do is be among the first 10 to sign up as new hosting customers with our Dreamersi hosting platform for 1 year of Domain, Web, and Email hosting at $250 (Web Only plans also available).

 That’s it. 1 year of hosting will get your website built and online with our all-new WebdeXpress “Done For You” (DFY) package for FREE.

Claim this offer before it is gone!

To take advantage of this incredible offer please email us at psp_service@pspinc.com or call us toll-free at 1-800-232-3989 and ask to speak to Sumiko Midorikawa. Let us know that you want to sign up as a new hosting customer with Dreamersi and claim your free website.

*Add-ons are not a part of our free web builder promotion and will incur additional fees.

What is WebdeXpress DFY and how does it work?

With DFY, you simply choose a professionally-designed website template, select add-ons*, and provide your contact information.

Our dedicated customer support staff will then contact you to setup your hosting and gather the necessary website information. We will swap out the sample site information with your content and imagery and have your website online in no time!

With the design already taken care of we are able to offer one of the most affordable professionally-designed website packages on the market today.

To learn more about the samples sites and options available visit us online.

The sample site used to create Asakuma.com

WebdeXpress DFY in action!

Recently we developed a website for Asakuma Beverly Hills using this fantastic new offering. They were able to choose a template designed by our in-house Designers, replace the content and images, and they were online in no time.

WebdeXpress "Done For You" makes web design and development fast and affordable for businesses of all sizes!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PacificSoftwarePublishing #PSPINC #WebandEmailHosting #SeattleBellevue #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDevelopment #ApplicationDevelopment #Bloguru

#PSPinc #SoftwareDevelopment #WebDesign #WebDevelopment #WebdeXpress #WebsiteBuilder

Reve21 hair growth system North American website launched

May

Reve21 is a company specializing in hair growth that was founded in Japan in 1993. We had connected with them as their goal was to bring their brand to North America, but did not have an English website.

We worked with them closely not only on the design of their website, but with taking their existing source material written in Japanese and creating content for their website that was written specifically for the North American market. It was up to us to determine what content they wanted to showcase to American audiences, and how they wanted that content laid out. Once we figured out a content strategy, we started coming up with various layout options.

Next, our Designers began working on mockups to provide a visual of how the home page would look when their customers visited it. It is important to make sure the visuals, navigation, and home page structure are intuitive and everything a customer wants is accessible in as few clicks as possible.

When visiting the home page for the first time we wanted to provide visuals that inspired a feeling of confidence. The use of red was done to strongly tie in the website with their brand color scheme.

All of the navigation links and those within the home page content are straightforward and can tell users where to go at a glance when it comes to learning about the system, the company, trial programs, and where they can go to buy Reve21 products.

Reve21 also wanted to showcase the hair restoration process that they provide, so we created a “How it Works” page where website visitors can see the step-by-step process customers go through and start to get a feel for how Reve21 combats hair loss.

Check out Reve21’s North American website for yourself!

If you need help with your website we would love to hear from you.

We can help with content preparation, website design and development. Contact us today, we would love to hear about your website goals and provide you with options on how we can help. You can call us toll-free 1-800-232-3989 or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PSPinc #Reve21 #WebDesign #WebDevelopment

Website Redesign for Seattle Executives Association Now Online!

May

Recently we released an updated design to the Seattle Executives Association’s website. It had been a number of years since their website’s design had last been updated and they were looking for a modern design. Any time we look to help customers redesign their website we put a lot of thought into the decisions we make both in design and the end user’s experience with the website.

 At the beginning of this process, we spoke with the SEA team to discuss their goals with the website beyond the visual refresh. Web browsers have become more powerful and new design trends have emerged since the last time their website’s look and feel had last been updated.

One of their goals was to make it easy for people to find the businesses they need so our Developers upgraded the search feature on the Member Directory to pick up additional keywords. We also added a new feature allowing members to add their social media icons to their member profile page. This enhancement provides website visitors with the ability to connect with businesses through social media and increases the chances of being picked up by search engines such as Google.

When it came to the visual design we added a video banner to the home page to draw the website visitor’s attention. The ability to add video has become a powerful trend as it is more visually engaging than images, can convey a lot of information, and can add a more personal touch than plain text.

Throughout the site, we selected photos from the client’s library to break up large sections of text and to showcase the professional and fun networking style that SEA brings to their weekly meetings. We also used Seattle imagery and a color palette that best represented the Seattle Executives Association to members and visitors of all types.

It was a pleasure to work with the team at Seattle Executives Association to help deliver a website that not only looked beautiful but met their goals in what they wanted out of their website!

View the new Seattle Executives Association Website.

Feeling inspired to refresh your website?

If you have a website that needs a refresh we would love to meet with you to discuss your goals and how we can make your vision come to life. You can call us toll-free 1-800-232-3989 or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

#PSPinc #SeattleExecs #WebDesign #WebDevelopment

5 Frightening Web Design Mistakes

Oct

image source: pixabay.com

Happy Halloween! To honor this frightfully fun day, we thought it would be a good idea to continue our website tips by giving a list of frightening design mistakes you should avoid. Let’s begin:

1. Confusing message. If your customers can’t tell who you are and what you do within the first few seconds visiting your site, why would they stick around? Make it clear right away what you do and what you sell.

2. Too much text. Okay too much of anything is bad. You can have too much text, too much white space, too many images, too many fonts, too many colors. This is where templates come in handy. A template can guide you in the fonts and spacing; you just need to add some high-quality content and imagery.

3. Hidden contact info. Your email, phone, address, or a contact form should be easy to find and readily available to people. If not, you may lose their trust.

4. Not mobile-friendly. A responsive design is a must-have. Your website should be easily viewable on all devices. Don’t expect that people are only searching and viewing your website from a PC.

5. No privacy policy. People may not take the time to read it, but for many of them, it’s a comfort just to know you have a plan in place for keeping their data secure. Get a GDPR approved privacy policy on your site asap.

Hopefully you’ve come away this month with some great ideas for designing or refreshing your company’s website. If you’d like to talk to the professionals, give us a call at PSPinc about customizing a site to your needs. We are here to make sure you have a great experience and come away with a BOO-tiful website!

#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology #WebDesign #WebHosting #Website

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PSPinc What’s New Newsletter Vol. 49 " Using Web Sites to Handle Business"