Mike Morley is a Web Developer working for a software company in London, married to Rachel and lucky enough to be Welsh (and to be married to Rachel!). He spend whatever holiday time he has, on holiday.

Tell us about yourself? What do you do fulltime? What kind of projects you have been doing? When?

I am a Web Developer, I previously worked for a Design Agency called Red Snapper on both front and backend code. I now work for Ipreo as Frontend Web Software Developer, looking after HTML/CSS/JavaScript for a Java application used by investment banks in the City of London. Recent projects include a drag and drop report module and the re-factoring of application front end code in line with web standards and improving cross browser compatibility.

Is this your first time visiting Cambodia? Share with us what is most inspiring during your trip?

I am yet to go, but looking forward to going very much.

You are often accused of being over critical of websites. What makes a good website?

The first, and if nothing else, the only thing a website should do is allow you to achieve your aims when arriving on a website. I believe e-Visa goes beyond with good design. Normal users should be able to move through the process without having to think too much in order to acccomplish their task. From my profession I often think about design and process, but this is often when things go wrong and a user is left confused on what to do. Good design is more subtle, often you do not realise something is well made purely because the amount of effort reqired to complete a task is minimal and you can move through a process as if on auto-pilot. I believe that it is the ease of use achieved on e-Visa that makes it a good example of design. Information and the interfaces are provided through a clear and uncluttered visual design allowing no unneccesary distractions for the users. Information is laid out in a logical easy to navigate manner with the appropriate visual hierarchies, iconography and white-space so important information is easily found and supporting information is visible by not intrusive. Along with the strong visual cues guiding you through the process the feedback on user actions was excellent, you knew exactly when you had completed a section and where I needed to go next. Finally there was attention to detail, options to duplicate flight data for all passengers in a single click, simplified image upload and verification and well thought through visual guidance made for a positive user experience. I get the impression that your client has been flexible in allowing process change in their visa applications and you have managed to implement this process efficiently online.

In what ways has the e-Visa website been appealing to you?

It has successfully achieved exactly what I wanted with much less effort, which the internet often has the power to do. That is to simplify a particular task by allowing easy access to information, an interface to information provision and a method of delivery. All of which took a few minutes rather than several hours that other paper based processes may take.

The eVisa website is catering to travelers from more than 150 countries. We believe we are not doing enough on the localization. Do you have suggestions?

The only thing I can say is that I found the application process excellent and I never noticed that website was used across multiple languages on first look - so either you do not have a problem with localisation or your simplification of processes have been so successful the need for localisation is reduced. I believe simplicity is the greatest success of the e-Visa site, just keep it simple and doing the job it is meant for.

Listen to the ranting of a Welsh Web Developer?

“Stones make good soup, but carrots would make it so much better”

If you are thinking of setting up an online business, or extending your existing business online, you might probably want to check this out!

How to cook a stone soup?

When we enter the website, the sentences shown in the Flash banner will be in its original language, which is English. The variable and data (sentences) that shown in the Flash are stored in a php file. When want to change the contents of website to another language, the php file will call to translation part.

Process of forming the translation file are as below:
A tool, gettext is run in order to extract all the translatable strings from the sources (which stored in php) and implant them in a single .POT file.

This .POT file is actually a .PO (Portable Object) template that you distribute to your translators in order for them to translate it.

The translators will send you back a .PO file, containing both the original English version and
the translated strings.

After that, compilation of the .PO file into a .MO (Machine Object) file is done. It is stored at
the correct place in the defined directory and file naming organization.

Then, the _() function in the php file will automatically display the translated strings in the Flash banner at that website, depending on the locale set at runtime.

Flash file

We used Flash as the platform to display the data that are called from a php file. Inside Flash, a set of Action Script is written in order to get the data from php file that is stored in server. A simple script will load the php file and get the variables contain in it and output the data in text field which is located in the flash. Below are the coding part:

PHP

The php file will get call from script. Once the data are checked, it will call the translation part. The _( ) function in php file is very important as the data written within the brackets will be the gettext for file.PO.
Below are the variable and data for php file:

Translation

When php file calls for translation, the data within _( ) function will be the gettext in form of file.PO. This is the language that read by human. Once the file is saved, the PO program will auto generate the saved file as MO (Machine Object) file. This MO file is actually the language which read by machine.

Download the sample for flash here

As a leading build and operate online business service provider, 1.com.my ensures that clients conduct their businesses well. We communicate with clients to enhance corporate competitiveness and also think from the customer side to strengthen their loyalty and ultimately towards their potential prospects.

Recently, one of an interesting online businesses, a4trip.com, was launched. Some of the Web Developer Alliance (WDA) members were involved in this project as well.

Honestly, don’t you agree that traveling is fun but it ain’t easy? There are much to plan and think for a holiday and it’s normal that one will get frustrated with decisions (basic ones!) such as on the types of flights to take, types of accommodation as well as different types of nice food to be hunted for. And most importantly, not to miss out on those ‘hot-spots’!

Don’t let this ruin your beautiful holiday. This is where A4trip.com comes in, as a one-stop online travel guide.

Despite the fact that there are many travel guidebooks in the market, A4trip.com stands out with its specialties. The information in the guidebook comes from feedback and suggestions right from the travelers themselves. Since it is online, travelers can download and print it out, You could carry all your need on the pieces of papers right in your pocket!

For further information, please visit http://www.a4trip.com

‘Feeding a fish with a carrot.’ Doesn’t really makes sense does it? Feeding a rabbit with a carrot would seem to be a sentence more grounded in reality. Anyway, let’s leave that aside for the moment (it’ll make sense later) and get to what we’re trying to say here. Now, ask any online business today whether they would like to get their hands on the international market and they’ll probably say, “What an unnecessary question that is!”

Ask them if they would want to reach 180 countries, they will very likely say, “Who doesn’t?”

Few online businesses limit themselves to the local market yet in venturing into the international market, all are faced with challenging issues. Below are some points that will help you see some of those issues.

What’s the world’s most widely spoken language?

If you say it’s English without any second thoughts and therefore believe that’s the language that will solve all your problems, well, you’re half-right. You may however, want to give the Long tail model a chance to explain to you that you will need other languages to capture untapped markets. See, estimates of English speakers around the world vary from 275 million to 450 million, while Spanish number from 150 to over 300 million, Hindi speakers are projected to be around 150 to 350 million, and Russian from 150 to 180 million.

So yeah, English is maybe the language that most people around the globe speak, but there are substantial numbers of other languages that online businesses must consider in their endeavors to reach the international market.

What is Google?

To an American, Google is a household name for search engines. While in Korea, Google’s Korean-language search service makes up only less than 2% of search page views and search-related ad revenues. Makes you wonder if it’s the same Google!

Americans consider flash and graphic objects in a website as being superfluous and ostentatious. Its pictures and rich interfaces serve only as distractions rather than aids to them, and most times they would be better suited just to use the old fashioned and simple-looking alphabets to form words for communication. Strength in simplicity would seem to be their preferred modus operandi.

However, it has been noted that in the Asian culture there is a predilection in using ‘characters’ or graphic representation of words to communicate. As such, a powerful search engine like Google would not seem as promising to some simply because of its primitive and unsophisticated look. Talk about being worlds apart!

Not everyone is savvy

Language is not the only barrier that you have to cross. You may think that you’re reaching your target audience with the media that you’ve chosen. But don’t overlook the fact that there can be things that can be overlooked.

Like under-developed nations who are not as IT-savvy as others are or young people who may be using your system but have no clue whatsoever as to how to upload a system. Or maybe for some, English isn’t a mother tongue and certain systems may have to be simpler in its use of the language for them to understand. They may not also be familiar with jargons and terminologies associated with the system.

We believe the key is in various elements. One is coming up with a good keyword; a simple yet effective step that can help a lot. Another is the development of a simpler system that is able to be enhanced gradually with time.

With all that, you may just be able to feed a fish with a carrot!

Thank you for contacting XYZ. We have received your e-mail and our Customer Service personnel will respond to your inquiry soon. Generally, we respond within 48 hours. If you require immediate attention, please call us and our Customer Service personnel will be happy to assist you. Our office hours are from 8:30pm to 5:30am, EST or 1:30am to 10:30am, GMT/UTC, Mondays to Fridays.

Generally speaking, responding in 2 days to your potential customer shouldn’t be something you should be proud of. By including this statement in every one of your auto-responders only makes it worse. Email support, one of the most important element in every online store, should and must allow online sales to take place even during non-office hours.

Another common issue prominent in most websites is this disclaimer “My website is best viewed with 1024 x 768 resolution.” When building the website, shouldn’t multiple resolutions be taken into account in the first place? By limiting your website to specific browsers and screen sizes, what you are also doing is limiting the number of people who is experiencing a satisfactory shopping experience on your online store.

We are not even talking about accessibility issues yet, such as how to make your website friendly to blind visitors!

Sadly, many budding website owners still emphasize on nice-to-have features like shopping cart and membership systems, without a proper understanding of their target audience.

Find your audience today and give them what they want.

Lots of people will tell you they have an Internet business but the fact is, there’s no such thing - the Internet is not a business, it’s a tool. Granted there may be businesses that use the Internet and the growing army of web apps as their primary or only way to generate, nurture, and convert leads, but a business is still a business.

The reason I want to point this out so emphatically is that too many small business owners look at the Internet as some sort of disconnected form of business - disconnected that is from the rest of their business.

No matter what your business sells you must have a customer, you must have a compelling message, you must have something that people want, before you really have a business. You can’t simply add a blog to your marketing mix and think that you’ve harnessed the Internet. If you throw yourself into the Internet without the proper context of a business, you’ll likely waste your time, money and effort - and then you’ll conclude it doesn’t work for your kind of business.

I know there are lots of folks out there that will tell you differently - that you can throw anything on the web and call it a business, but I’m telling you, it’s not so, never has been, never will be. (By the way, selling you that dream is their business.)

The Internet is an essential piece of the marketing mix - Ignore it and you’ll be obsolete. But, use it to do things you can’t offline, amplify your message, build a community, automate marketing functions, serve clients and collaborate with partners, and do it all in order to attract more of your ideal client, communicate your core message, and build trust through education.

Now that’s what I call an Internet business.

Post by John Jantsch

Launched officially by the Government of Kingdom of Cambodia since April 2006, with more than 10,000 e-Visas issued up to date, to travelers from more than 120 countries world wide.

E-Visa are usable in 5 major entry ports including Phnom Penh International Airport, Siem Reap International Airport, Cham Yeam (Koh Kong), Poi Pet (Banteay Meanchey) and Bavet (Svay Rieng).

We have gathered feedbacks from tourists and improved the applications on the New Cambodia e-Visa System. The intention of this revamp is to make the e-Visa application process more user-friendly with better instruction and clearer direction.

The new e-Visa system now supports 25 languages, thanks to the 140 voluntary translators. It adapts easy to use methods and allows applicants to check and change applications online. Furthermore, the new e-Visa certificate looks exactly like an actual Visa, and we hope it makes traveling to Cambodia much easier and hassle less.

We would also like to thank all the tourists and team for their support in making this happen. We wish to improve further and increase the usage of e-Visa in any way we can. Thank you again for the feedbacks given. It has all been taken into consideration and we will look into these matters continuously. We are glad to uplift Cambodia’s tourists and business travelers to a new era of applying Visa. We hope to meet our objective in making the applications faster and convenience.

About Cambodia e-Visa:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has launched official e-Visa, which enables you to apply for a Cambodia tourist visa online.

Instead of applying through Cambodian Embassy, all you need to do is to complete the online application form and pay with your credit card. After receiving your Visa through email, print it out and bring it along when you travel to Cambodia.