As a kid I used to love to smash Silly Putty down on the color Sunday Comics and stretch and warp and redo Snoopy or Marmaduke. I like dogs, what can I say. So this great looking print piece … you see where I’m going with this? Print and the Web can complement each other. The Web is not print though. Things that work in print can look a little odd online.

Thin lines. Some colors. Some fonts. Some typography. Of course, not everything looks different. A lot of things look just fine, heck, even great. And it’s not just aesthetics. Some copy doesn’t work. Some spacing and layouts—not so good for the Web. Web design is not repurposing print material—at least it shouldn’t be. Good Web design uses your print and collateral pieces and recreates them for another medium. Influences, hints and suggestions all make it to the Web, but your brochure is probably not going to become a very good Web site. Web pages are not book pages or brochure pages: they are fully functional, interactive choose-your-own-adventure pages, that link and interconnect and can go “forward” or “backward” or in whatever order the visitor wants to go.

Web design, and video and multimedia design, require people who have experience designing for those media. They require people who have experience writing for that media. Planning a Web site or an interactive disc involves a process flow, a design architecture, and a user interface that lets the correct information be found, easily. Web sites require knowledge of search engine optimization and strategy, pay per click, analytics, custom applications, possibly ecommerce and other specialized functionality.

When looking for an agency, don’t look for a great design studio or someone with amazing print work. Look for an agency that has a strong portfolio of work in the area you need.

Silly Putty is great for capturing pictures. But don’t let your Web site be just a distortion of your print work.

Sales Tax Holiday
An end of an eCommerce era is upon us - at least in New York - and the dominoes are soon to fall in other states desperate to make up for budget deficits. Online companies need to collect tax for online sales if they have affiliate programs in the state of New York. So they can either discontinue their affiliate programs. Or they can collect taxes.

We, the consumer, are SUPPOSED to claim all of our purchases on our income tax statements and pay the sales tax then. And I am sure, being upright citizens we all do that. So the only change is in who is collecting the tax. The states seem to think some of us, not you, gentle reader, are not claiming our purchases and paying our taxes, and that the states could make a lot of money enforcing the collection of sales taxes.

But if you’re not Amazon or Newegg or Overstock, then you don’t have to worry, right? No. If you do eCommerce, any eCommerce, you need to worry. Suppose you don’t have an affiliate program or any physical presence in the state(s) wanting to collect the tax? This is a first attempt by one state to work around a federal moratorium. It will become more blatant. Economic times are tough. The states see easy money they are owed. Your business will be collecting online sales tax.

So what can you do? Every state has different sales tax. So your shopping cart program will need to calculate total price on the fly dependent upon the buyer’s billing address. Shipping address may be different, after all. You will need to collect for and send to every state in which you do business. Now you lose out on some price advantages, unfair or not, that you had over brick and mortar companies. Increased costs in overhead, perceived lack of sales tax, more complicated bookkeeping processes.

Remember though, part of eCommerce is about convenience. Ease-of-use. The ultimate synergy between sales and marketing. So whatever you decide, make sure you find a company that understands your electronic shopping cart is more than a (formerly) cost saving feature for you. Now, more than ever, make eCommerce about the customer.

For more information about web sales tax, read this article.