Google Trying To Finally Kill Flash

It hasn't been a good idea to use Flash animation on your website for a long time, and it looks like Google is finally trying to put the final nail in the coffin.

Goggle's Chrome browser now automatically pauses any web ads that use Flash. Ads that use the newer HTML5 will continue to work as always, as that's the favored format.

It's been recommended here for quite some time that Flash wasn't something that you wanted to use. First of all, anything iOS doesn't recognize it, so all those iPhone and iPad users never were able to access it.

From a website design perspective, Flash animation died a long time ago. Opening splash pages with lots of animation used to be all the rage but now look very last century.

Worse of all, Flash is a battery hog that compromises the security of your operating system. It's just not cut out for our new mobile world.

That said, advertisers still continue to favor Flash because most of the creative people at ad agencies everywhere grew with Adobe Creative Suite, of which Flash is a part of. HTML5 is more flexible, but it's not as designer friendly.

It looks like this move by Google will now force agency designers to make the switch.

So rejoice that there's one less vestige of the online past as Flash slowly passes into the night.

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7 Website Killers To Avoid

It's great that you have a website, but you want it to be as effective as possible so that you can gain more followers, get better gigs, and sell more product. Here's an excerpt from Social Media Promotion For Musicians that outlines the 7 website killers to avoid to make sure that visitors find your site and want to come back.

"Here are a number of practices that are guaranteed to turn off your visitors. You know what they are yourself because you probably encounter them on other sites every day, but that doesn't mean you should emulate a bad practice. Not only do many of the following aggravate site visitors, but they're can mean site death when it comes to search engine optimization. If you want fans to find you, make sure these are avoided. 

1. A "splash" page. A splash page is an opening page with a movie or flash animation and no information. The whole "Enter Here" thing is so Web 1.0. There's no info for a search engine to grab and your visitors hate them. Avoid at all costs.

http://www.hail-stone.co.uk/

http://www.maninblack.org/

2. Flash animation. It looks cool, but sometimes people just want some info and not cartoons. Search engines can't read any of the info in a Flash movie so they're a waste of time and money. iPhones and iPads can’t display Flash, and most people hate it these days anyway.

http://www.atutiplen.es/

3. Frames. Again, so Web 1.0. Sites with frames went out a long time ago. Get with the times and dump these babies.

http://www.jimthatcher.com/csun2003/29.htm

http://www.jimthatcher.com/csun2003/31.htm

4. Pop-ups. It doesn't matter where they come from or if they're selling something or not, everyone hates them.

5. Pull-down boxes for navigation. Designers love them, visitors hate them, search engines can't read them. If your site isn’t that complex, stay away if you can.

6. Dead links. This is just poor website quality control. It happens to everyone at some point, but remember that both search engines and visitors hate them.

7. All graphics and not much text. Search engines love text. Visitors love text. Pictures are nice, but use them in moderation."

These rules aren't that difficult to implement, especially if you're updating your site. Chances are that if your site is still using the first 3 items, you really need an update anyway.

You can read more excerpts from Social Media Promotion For Musicians and my other books at the book excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Is Your Website Still So 2009?

Technology marches on, and as we know, the pace seems to get faster and faster all the time. The problem is, we all have to keep up in order to both stay relevant and keep our fans engaged. Now comes some research courtesy of getsharesquare.com that are an eye opener about the majority of artist websites in terms of just how up to date they really are.

• Not all that many use social networking buttons. 29% have a Facebook Like button, 12% have a Twitter Follow widget, and only 6% have a Google +1 button.

• About a third are still using Flash, which can result in missing or broken content. iPhones and iPads don't use Flash, and most people hate it these days anyway.

• 90% of sites don't recognize mobile browsers, and don't forget, the world we live in now is a mobile one.

• Some are still using Framesets, which went out around 1999 or so. Come on people, get into the real world!

• The most popular music player is Soundcloud, followed by YouTube, Vimeo, Bandcamp and jPlayer.

• 33% of the survey respondents said their most frequent complaint about an artist site was text that was so small that it required zooming.

• 31% stated their biggest complaint was video content that was broken or unavailable. 

• 28% said they hated when buttons or links were too small to click.

• 20% hated when streaming music was broken or unavailable.

• 17% complained that recent news and event info was difficult to find.

• 29% said that most missed the ability to exchange an email address for free content.

• 25% said they really missed the ability to download an artist's song.

• 21% complained that they couldn't purchase tickets or merch directly from the website.

This is a fascinating report in that it indicates that a lot more commerce could be going on if only artists would pay more attention to their websites. Many artists take their site for granted, but it should be the main point where all of your fan contact is directed since it's the one portal online that you have total control of. Now get going on redesigning your site (I am as well.).

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Top 15 Worst Website Practices - Part 1

With so many band and artist-centric sites like MySpace and ReverbNation around these days, it's easy for a band to believe that a website presence isn't required, yet it's an important piece of your online strategy. Your website is directly under your control, can be customized specifically for your message, and you never have to worry about a hosted site going out of business or changing the terms of service suddenly one day in the future.

That being said, there's a way to build it that's very friendly to your fans, visitors and search engines, but unfortunately not everyone chooses that route. So if you're about to build your own site or if you have one already, take a look at the following practices that are guaranteed to turn off your visitors. You know what they are yourself because you probably see them on other sites every day, but that doesn't mean you should emulate a bad practice.

Not only do many of the following aggravate people, but they're death to search engines. If you want fans to find you, make sure these are avoided.

1) Pull-down boxes for navigation. Designers love them, visitors hate them, search engines can't read them. Stay away.

2) Flash animation. Looks cool, but sometimes people just want some info and not cartoons. Search engines can't read any of the info in a Flash movie so they're a waste of time and money.

3) All graphics and little text. Search engines love text. Visitors love text. Pictures are nice, but use them in moderation.

4) A "splash" page. A splash page is an opening page with a movie or flash animation and no information. The whole "Enter Here" thing is so Web 1.0. There's no info for a search engine to grab and your visitors hate them. Avoid at all costs.

5) Frames. Again, so Web 1.0. Sites with frames went out a long time ago. Get with the times and dump these babies.

6) Pop-ups. It doesn't matter where they come from or if they're selling something or not, everyone hates them.

7) Dead links. This is just poor website design. It happens to everyone at some point, but remember that both search engines and visitors hate them.

Tomorrow we'll look at poor site practices 8 through 15, focusing more on search engine optimization.

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.