We Are Now an Authorize.net Certified Developer!

September 28th, 2009

Authorize.Net Certified DeveloperIn our ongoing effort to improve the website design services offered by Shycon Design, we are proud to announce that we are now an Authorize.net Certified Developer!

Authorize.net is one of the top Gateways in the world, handling transactions for almost 250,000 customers. In simple terms, you need a Gateway if your goal is to accept credit cards, e-checks, gift cards, debit cards, and more online, or offline.

We are now one of the few companies that can call themselves a Certified Developer for Authorize.net! What does this mean for you? It means that you can trust Shycon Design to handle your E-commerce or Subscription-based website needs. Whether it is a simple subscription service, or a website to sell thousands of products, Shycon Design can build it all for you using Authorize.net.

If you want to start selling products online right now, or are looking to revamp your existing website, contact us for a Free Quote today!

Authorize.net focuses on Fraud Prevention and Ease-of-use, which is why we recommend them to all of our clients. Here are some of the benefits of using Authorize.net over other payment gateways.

  • Accept a Variety of Payments – All major credit cards, eCheck.Net (electronic checks from bank accounts), gift cards, signature debits, and Internet auctions.
  • Manage Your Transactions – Use our full-featured Merchant Interface to monitor and control payments through your Web site.
  • Prevent Fraud – Identify suspicious transactions with our value-adding products and built-in fraud tools.
  • Risk Management – Sensitive data is stored in the Authorize.Net PCI-compliant data center, never on your computer.
  • Receive Payments Quickly – Your funds are automatically deposited into your merchant bank account within days.
  • Free Help – Authorize.Net provides live technical and account support to merchants, as well as access to online documentation and user guides.

Shycon Design Now 6 Years In Business

February 25th, 2009

In March of 2003, Shycon Design was incorporated. We’ve been growing steadily ever since. This March, it will be 6 years since we’ve been in business, providing quality services like website design and CAD drafting and design.

Our first few years were spent doing freelance CAD design and drafting projects for various companies in the Colorado area. After our first 2 years, we’ve added website design, online marketing, and 3D Visualization to expand our service offerings. Our client list has grown steadily, which now includes clients from all over the United States. We try to work with local businesses in Colorado, but if you are out-of-state don’t let that stop you from filling out a free quote request! Being local allows us to offer the best level of customer service, but with today’s technology it’s easy for us to keep communication fast and open with companies anywhere in the United States.

As businesses like yours spend more resources and time online to find companies to work with, it can be hard to find a trustworthy company for your design needs. Where are they located? Why can’t I find contact information on their site? How long have they been in business? These are all standard questions you may ask yourself when looking for companies to work with.

For instance, there have been many online marketing companies that have sprouted up with the recent popularity of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). But how do you know which to choose? There is no industry qualification to be an SEO company, so all you really need to do is call yourself one. But would you trust your website in the hands of a company that has only been around for a few months? Or how do you know that company will not use “shady” techniques to bring “instant” traffic at the same time harming the long-term success of your website?

We know how hard it is to find great companies to work with. That’s why we are promoting our experience and talent as a design company that has been in business for 6 years. It may not seem like a long time, but in a digital age it’s an eternity!

So take a moment to fill out our easy quote request to see if we can help you with your design needs today!

Online Data Backup from Diamondback Data

January 27th, 2009

online data backup softwareLooking for a solution to backup all of your important files and folders without the trouble of messing around with hard drives and discs? Now you can with Diamondback Data!

We’ve recently launched a new website for Diamondback Data, an online data backup software provider. Whether you’re a home user or small business user, anyone and everyone can benefit from the time and money saved by using Diamondback Data. Diamondback Data offers an off-site and secure solution to backing up your digital life. Start the program, select your files, and let it run! It’s as simple as that. Future backups of your files happen automatically. See more on how it works.

Home Users can benefit by backing up their tax forms, important documents, purchased MP3’s and everything else that matters to them. How much money have you spent on MP3’s from itunes? How much money would you lose if you were a home-based accountant or graphic designer that loses all of your clients’ files?

Business Users can backup all of the important files that keep their business running. It can take days and weeks, along with a lot of money, to recover from data loss. Whether that data loss is from hard drive failure, fire, flood, theft, or whatever, it can all have a devastating effect on your business. An estimated 25% of businesses will not recover from a disaster.

For as little as $8 a month, you can have peace of mind knowing that your most important files are safe and sound, ready to be recovered instantly when data loss strikes. The benefits to keeping a primary, or even secondary backup of your important files with Diamondback Data are many. Data loss tends to happen when you least expect it, so don’t risk losing everything precious and backup today!

Weiler Productions Website Launches

September 25th, 2008

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If you’re looking for video production services in Colorado, Weiler Productions is the place to go! Mark has over 20 years experience behind the camera. He and his crew can shoot any kind of project that you can throw at him. Weiler Productions has a ton of video production gear for shooting projects indoors and outdoors.

View Mark’s Demo Reel to see his work. Big name clients include The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, The History Channel, and the Weather Channel. In addition, Weiler Productions has corporate clients that range from Coors to Qwest, and has done many Music Events.

Complete Commercial Services Website Launches

July 12th, 2008


Shycon Design is pleased to announce the launch of our latest website, Complete Commercial Services. Complete Commercial Services has a unique approach to cleaning office spaces, commercial properties, medical, industrial, and other commercial spaces that sets it apart from your traditional cleaning company. The Two Team Approach offers a complete cleaning solution. One team performs your daily duties such as emptying trash and tidying up, and a second team performs detail functions that are often overlooked by traditional cleaning companies.

If you are looking for office cleaning in Denver, Colorado or the surrounding cities, do not hesitate to get in touch with Complete Commercial Services. Visit their website to get the full scoop on their unique cleaning services.

The Art of Trust – What You Can Do On Your Website to Increase Trust

June 10th, 2008

building trust on a websiteFace it. You wouldn’t buy a “brand new stereo system” from a guy driving a white van around in a parking lot. And if for some reason you did, you would only go home to open the box and find a shiny new package of sand and bricks. Then why would you expect people to hand over their personal information on your website if they cannot trust you? (i.e, your website looks like that white van driving around the parking lot)

Establishing trust on a website applies to every webmaster and designer out there. Whether you are a blogger, web designer, retailer, or plain ol’ entrepreneur, the people who visit your website will have to trust you before they take action on your website. And what is trust exactly? On the Internet, it essentially boils down to people being comfortable enough with your website and company to hand over their personal information, such as their address, credit card, or other sensitive information.

Are you getting blown out of the water by your competitors? Even if you get more visitors, your website could be losing the battle simply because visitors to your website do not trust you. There are a few simple things you can do on your website to build more trust, and there are a few more strategies that take time, work, and money. In all cases, each technique will add another layer to your website’s “trust factor.” Before people hand over their information to your website, they have to reach a certain threshold of trust that is right for them.

Provide Easily Accessible Contact Information

website salesDo not expect your website to do all of your work for you. It’s a tool, not a salesperson. There will certainly be plenty of people that buy from your website without ever talking to you, but there is also a significant amount of people that must talk to someone before making the final purchase.

Have your phone number in plain view. Provide your address information and hours of operation. For local businesses that is especially important. For businesses that sell nationally, then address information is also vital. Another tool you can add to your arsenal is a Live Chat feature that allows people to speak with a person through your website.

Would you rather buy from a great website with no way to get in touch with a real person, or a good website that has a friendly, helpful support staff?

Be Absolutely Clear about What You Are Doing

When people buy stuff on the web, they want to know when they’re going to get it. When people hand over sensitive information, they want to know how you’re going to use it (ideally, not selling it to third parties or spamming them.)

Providing clear-cut, easy-to-understand answers to visitors’ questions can greatly increase your sales and conversions. Provide a Frequently Asked Questions page. Be very clear about who you are and what you do as users navigate throughout your website.

The best way to do this is to get a friend or relative to navigate through your site. If they can’t figure it out, then most people will not either. For bigger companies, you should have analytics software installed on your site to understand when and where people abandon your website.

Keep Your Website Current

There are plenty of websites out there that were built in the last century that are still online today. You can register domains for 10 years at a time and prepay for hosting forever. But how is someone supposed to know that you’re actually still in business? Is your website talking about technology that went obsolete 5 years ago, or promoting a product that was recalled last year?

Keeping a website current has many benefits. First, it shows visitors that you still have heartbeat. Second, it builds repeat visitors. One of the easiest ways to bring repeat visitors is to build and maintain a blog. Not just a self-serving blog, but a helpful resource of information. Do that, and the third benefit of increased search engine traffic comes naturally. The better your website is at providing helpful information, the more likely people will share it with others. Sharing equals linking, and linking equals traffic.

Get your Certificates (SSL, BBB, Hacker Safe, etc)

If you’re dealing with credit cards on your website, then an SSL certificate is an absolute must. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone crazy enough to give out their credit card information on a website that is not secure.

For e-businesses, the key is to build trust: Running a successful online business requires that your customers trust that your business effectively protects their sensitive information from intrusion and tampering.

-via Godaddy’s SSL Information

But did you know you can also get an SSL certificate when you’re dealing with non-credit card information, such as an address or social security number? While it might be overkill for some websites, some people will be more inclined to work with one website over another simply because they are securing their personal information.

Example: Gieco’s Get a Quote Form which requires a Social Security number.

There are many other site certificates out there that can apply to your business. They can get expensive, but when you are dealing with sensitive information there should be no cost on your customers’ safety. Did you know 71% of people actively look for 3rd party seals?

Testimonials Can’t Say Enough

You can never have too many testimonials on your website. Often they can be the reason people buy from you or move on to the next company. If you’re a new company, wait it out until you have enough satisfied customers to collect a good number of testimonials.

If you’ve been selling products for a while, you can kill two birds with one stone by offering a customer satisfaction survey. You can get some critical feedback on your business, and at the same time have a whole slew of testimonials to put on your website.

People Are Smarter Than You Think

building trust on a websiteGood business is integrity. Bad business is deception. When you’re building your business on the web, do not take shortcuts because most people can see right through them. Don’t write fake testimonials. Don’t Photoshop your office building. Don’t steal other people’s work and take the credit for it (that’s a hit on designers that “borrow” portfolios.) Don’t lie about your number of employees. And so on and so forth.

Remember, trust doesn’t happen overnight. Have patience. You can slowly but surely increase the “trust-factor” of your website. The good thing is you do not have to be the size of Amazon.com or have the name recognition of Dell to build a successful business online.

Trust is transparency. When people trust you, you can be one person in a basement and outsell a 10-person company.

Catch Shycon Design At Parker Days Parker County Festival This Summer 2008

May 31st, 2008

Parker Days, or The Parker County Festival, is a Parker Colorado tradition that has been growing year after year. This summer the Festival will happen from June 13th through the 15th. The small city of Parker doubles in size as thousands of people (up to 100,000 people over the 3 day period) from all over Colorado come to enjoy drinks, food, music, dancing, and carnival rides. There’s also an American Idol spin-off called Parker Idol! The festival has been going on for over 30 years and is hosted by the Parker Chamber of Commerce. It is a whole lot of fun, so if you live within driving distance, we recommend attending the festival with your friends and family.

While Shycon Design won’t have a booth, we will be attending and volunteering at the festival. You will likely catch us working in the Beer Tent on Sunday Night, and the rest of the time hanging out in the VIP tent.

Announcing the Launch of the Renter Hall of Shame

April 28th, 2008


For those landlords and property owners out there, haven’t you always wanted a background check that goes beyond your traditional credit check and criminal history report? Well, now you have it! It’s called the Renter Hall of Shame, the ultimate in past-performance databases.

How many times have you been ripped off as a landlord or property owner by a bad or difficult renter? Were you burned by late or no payments, or was your property left in horrible condition? The Renter Hall of Shame is the place to go for new tenant background screenings. This network of landlords and property owners is growing by the day, so submit your bad renter experiences today!

Wouldn’t you be great if you knew that the person you are about to rent or lease to was known for bad checks, property damage, or a large array of other violations? Background and credit history checks only go so far. You need a past-performance database that tells you everything you need to know about the person you are about to rent to! With this website, you’ll be able to stop landlord tenant issues before they even happen because you’ll know if a person is worth renting to in the first place.