Archives
June 21, 2013
Hi,
Before I get into the article, I would like to mention two things:
- We’ve updated and simplified the killervideostore.com website. In the article below, I talk about some lessons learned from website updates like this.
- We just released a new video training package, the Web Developer from Scratch
… If you’ve been thinking about learning professional level PHP and JavaScript … here you go!
Quick Lessons in e-commerce
Here are a few things to learn from my recent update to the Killervideostore.com website:
- If adding something to a page/site DOES NOT have any measurable impact, remove it.
- Remember that people tend to skim pages, so keep that in mind when structuring your UI.
- Seemingly small things can have a big impact on user behaviour and sales.
Remove the unnecessary:
I am always experimenting with different variations to the layouts of our pages – adding/removing buttons, adding a video, replacing link text to image buttons etc … The thing you should always strive for is simplicity – remove what is not needed. Buttons, videos and images that don’t do anything are actually distracting the user.
We recently added a video in our header, introducing the video store to anyone who cared to clicked on the video … very few did. In fact, only about 6% of bothered. Conclusion: waste of space. And so we removed the video.
Check out the old killervideostore header- with video in place:
.. Just click on the above thumbnail to see what it was like.
Now compare it to the new killervideostore header.
People Skim Pages:
When people come to a website, they skim the pages quickly … unless you catch their attention with something. So you need to remove clutter from the page to increase the chances that people will find what they are looking for.
Little Things can be Big Distractions!
I can’t overstate how important it is, that you make changes to your websites very cautiously … especially when you have something that is working.
Over and over again, I’ve been amazed at how even seemingly simple things, can have a huge impact on user behaviour. For example, we once turned our store pages from a light green to a dark green … and watched sales immediately drop 50%! We then reversed back to our old lighter green and sales jumped right back up.
I hope you found this useful.
Stefan Mischook
killerSites.com
read more
June 12, 2013
Hi,
Ok, maybe it’s not amazing, but it’s pretty good nonetheless!!
I want to announce that we just combined our two popular packages (Complete Web Designer and Complete Web Programmer) into one mega training package: Web Developer from Scratch.
read more
June 10, 2013
I’ll start with the conclusion: there will be plenty of web design and web programming jobs in the future. In fact, if you know the right stuff, there will be more work than you can handle!
You may have heard that big tech companies like Microsoft have been lobbying the US Congress on letting high tech trained foreign students stay in the US to work. The reason they want these people to stay, is not take jobs away from Americans, no …. it’s because there aren’t nearly enough Americans to take those jobs!
read more
May 22, 2013
Hi,
Let’s start with the conclusion: don’t ever consider renting a domain name from someone! This has got to be one of the stupidest (and nearly criminal) business ideas ever hatched on the Web.
What’s this about renting domain names?
I was almost floored recently when I got an email with the offer to rent a domain name from someone … like renting a commercial location in a mall, I suppose is the idea. The problem is, that despite what these scummy domain speculators would have you believe, the value of a domain is practically 100% in the work you do to BUILD up the value of a domain – there is very little value in the domain name itself.
What exactly are scummy domain name speculators?
read more
May 20, 2013
I get email all the time from people wanting to know how to this or how to do that … or even just where to begin in the web design or web programming world. For example:
I am new. Know nada. I can navigate on the web etc. I need to learn how to run a simple HTML web page . I also live word press sites!!!!
I would love to learn more, am I stuck using Dreamweaver ? I am waiting for someone to give me lessons , in the meantime I am trying to learn what I can. Suggestions ? Thanks!
Nancy
My answer:
New and nada …. that’s my specialty!
I can suggest a few options … first, my Complete Web Designer package that teaches you everything you need to know to be a professional web designer – from scratch:
http://www.killervideostore.com/video-courses/complete-web-designer.php
Or, if you don’t mind streaming video, my premium video library subscription (which has all our courses) is probably our best deal:
http://library.killersites.com/
Finally, if you need hosting any time soon, then this would be our MORE best deal for you:
http://www.killervideostore.com/killer-offers/complete-web-designer.php
🙂
Let me know if you have any questions.
Stefan
killerSites.com
read more
May 13, 2013
Hi,
We’ve been working hard and we’ve just released a new training video system designed to help teachers teach web design and web programming.
I think our press release summarizes it well:
KillerSites is proud to announce the release of the Web Tutor.
Developed by experienced web educators, the Web Tutor is an interactive video training system that teaches HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. The Web Tutor includes quizzing (multiple choice and coding challenges), classrooms, student scoring/tracking and verifiable certification.
There’s a lot more to it than what you see in the press release, for example, check out our
classroom features:
read more
May 7, 2013
Hi,
Adobe has now announced that there will be no Adobe CS7 product release for Photoshop, Dreamweaver and the rest of their Creative Suite.
They are moving to a cloud based system where you have to be online to use their products and Adobe has control of the upgrades and updates.
… I wonder what might happen if Adobe releases a bug filled version and you can’t roll back to a working copy?
A New Way to Pay
Beyond that, Adobe has changed the way you pay to use their products, where now you ONLY have the option to pay by a subscription fee. For some people out there, that’s fine, while others (many others) seemed to not be too amused.
From what I am hearing, it seems that the cost of using Adobe products (for many) might as much as double under this new pricing scheme!
… Ouch!
Different Country, Different Price!
What’s getting people even more pissed-off, is that the price can be dramatically different depending on where in the world you live! This is amazing since everything is delivered via Internet … why the difference in price? A quote from the article:
It’s still cheaper to fly from here in Sydney to Los Angeles, buy [Adobe’s Creative Suite Master 6 Collection] there, and come home. By doing that I’d save $601, and I’d get Virgin Australia frequent flyer points, too.
Read more
KillerSites Treats Everyone Equally
Unlike some companies we know …
🙂
… we here at KillerSites.com believe it’s only fair that everyone has the same cost when it comes to any of our training packages and products.
We also believe that some people might prefer to take home and own the video training packages, so even though we have subscription based ‘cloud’ training services (Video Library & KillerSites University), we also offer our courses for purchase via download or even mailed to you on a USB key!
… Being flexible we think is a virtue.
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
read more
May 5, 2013
Hi,
I will start with the main point:
You can now get the Complete Web Designer for only $20 (instead of the normal price of $100) through our special deal.
Read below to learn about the details …
Probably my most popular training package is the Compete Web Designer, because it takes you from knowing nothing about web design, to having commercial web designer skills. Some nerd details:
The Complete Web Designer offers you over 29 hours of training that easily guides you from total beginner to becoming a productive web designer. You will learn:
- HTML
- CSS
- Dreamweaver CS6
- Photoshop for the Web
- HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery
… And more!
Every student of web design needs to get a hosting account at some point.
Being able to properly use a hosting account is part of the process of learning web design and besides, you will probably need a website at some point too. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with a popular hosting company where you can now buy the $100 Complete Web Designer package for only $20 when you get a 1 year hosting package … this will cost you $3.15/month, or the cost of one coffee per month!
It’s is by far the best deal we’ve offered or seen anywhere. If you were ever planning on learning web design, this is your chance to do it for practically nothing.
Stefan Mischook
killerSites.com
read more
April 24, 2013
Hi,
I had a conversation recently on how to best teach web design and programming, and I thought the main points of the conversation might make a good blog post … so here we go!
Stef’ Web Design Teaching Strategy
There is a lot that goes into creating an effective web design or web programming training course, but I can reduce it to these three main principles:
- Break things up into manageable chunks.
- Avoid tech/nerd terms as much as possible.
- Filter what you teach – don’t try to show everything at once.
My teaching style is based on my ten + years of teaching web design and programming but it is also based on my training in psychology and believe it or not, about 30 yrs of martial arts training – I use teaching principles and techniques I picked up from many styles of martial arts, from my many martial art teachers, and from a couple of broken noses!
… You learn a lot when you get your nose broke, it’s true!
The good thing though, is that I can guarantee that in my web design and web programming training courses, you will not get your nose broken. But you will still learn how to be a professional web designer and web programmer if you want to.
Stefan Mischook
killersites.com
read more
April 16, 2013
Yes, now for a little shameless self promotion …
If you want to learn how to build websites, become a web designer or even a web programmer, we have many options at killersites.com.
But, our most popular has to be our Complete Training packages, since they are inexpensive and have everything you need to build websites commercially.
Our two most popular packages:
The Complete Web Designer
The Complete Web Programmer
… and you can get either package for $99 … or both for $179.98!
Just so you know, you are getting 30hrs+ of training PER PACKAGE and the sources files are also included for each of the web projects that you build. What are you building?
– Shopping carts
– CMS
– JQuery website
– HTML5 CSS3 websites
… And a lot more!
What makes our course packages different … why learn from KillerSites.com?
- Practical real-world training that will land you a job!
- Easy to understand nerd-free training, from one of the most established tech trainers in the world – over 15yrs experience!
- Support, support, support! You can actually talk to people who can help you if you run into problems!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Stefan Mischook
killerSites.com
read more
