You may already be familiar with the suite of diamonds websites (check out our designs for the Champagne Diamonds, Silvermist Diamonds, Rio Tinto Diamonds and Argyle Diamonds sites) we’ve designed for Rio Tinto; the latest addition to this gallery of websites for Rio Tinto’s Diamonds business arm is the Australian Diamonds website.

Designed to present and promote natural colour Australian diamonds to the US and international markets, the Australian Diamonds website foregrounds the warm, rich and exotic colours and landscapes of Australia – particularly the beautifully rugged Kimberley region of Western Australia. The site features information about Australian Diamonds and of their provenance in the Argyle Diamond Mine, and also showcases alluring jewelry made from stunning Australian Diamonds.

Have a look – but be warned: what you see on the site might make you want to head to your nearest retailer of fine Australian diamond jewelry. After all:

“Square-cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don’t lose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

Visit: Australian Diamonds

The new Intertec card features a minimal front that is focused on the brand and what we do. My favourite part of the cards is the spot gloss finish that is on the logo, giving it a satiny texture that makes you want to touch it.

Hannah’s House is a children’s respite centre, providing a “home away from home” for kids with life-limiting conditions and their families. It’s a safe, fun place where kids feel comfortable and are cared for, and where parents have the opportunity to take a break as primary carers for their kids.

Intertec is proud to support Hannah’s House by providing web-site maintenance services. We’ll be looking after the Hannah’s House website, updating it with new visuals, stories and news. If you’d like to find out more about this very worthwhile organisation.

Visit the Hannah’s House website.

Intertec built the website to be the key resource for MagNet and its members. The site design features corporate clean lines with aqua blue highlights and showcases some great photography from the Kimberley mining region.

A key consideration was that the client could do site updates themselves so a fully integrated WordPress CMS was used, which features a News section and takes advantage of a suite of SEO plugins to greatly improve the website rankings in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Visit: Magnetite Network

The website includes everything from product information to technical support as well as provide a entry point for our customers to access the hosted service. There is also an shopping cart to enable customers to subscribe and pay for the service online.

Intertec will be bringing this look and feel to the Australian & New Zealand versions of the timesheet portal sites very soon.

Visit: i-Timesheets – Web Timesheet Solution

M68 Bioceramic Race Gear is a French company specialising in race gear and sports clothing.

Bioceramics are extremely durable metal oxides that are biocompatible, non-toxic and chemically stable within the biological environment. They are used in a range of scientific applications including joint replacements and dentistry. M68 applies a Bioceramic coating to its racegear that generates significant effects within the body, which enhances the performance of the athlete wearing them.

Intertec worked with the client remotely to developed a WordPress CMS website and integrated an Ecwid ecart to sell the exclusive garments.

Visit the website: M68 Bioceramic Race Gear

M68 Bioceramic recommendation:

It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of recommendation for the team at Intertec. I originally contacted Steve to discuss a website project for the company I was working for in 2010, Focus Mineral. During our initial meeting, I felt 100% confident that this was the company to put my trust into to bring the Focus Minerals website to life.

The professionalism, knowledge and enthusiasm that Steve, Petar and Seng portrayed was beyond what I hoped for. They understood my vision and requirements for the website and shared in my enthusiasm for the project. You can tell that the team at Intertec enjoy what they do and that each project- no matter how big it small- is just as important as the next one. I really appreciated how motivated they were.

During the process of creating the website, I spoke to Petar probably once a day and if ever I had a question or needed help they were always available to talk to. This was also another thing that really stood out for me- they really kept me updated and involved in the process every step of the way.

I cannot stress how easy the entire process was- the only thing that delayed the project was how fast I could work to give them the content and photos they needed to put onto the site!

It goes without saying that the Focus minerals website was completed successfully and to the exact specifications of which we envisioned from the beginning, if not better than expected.

Since this project, I have worked with Intertec again to create another website- this time for my own business called M68 Bioceramic Race Gear. Again, Intertec worked their magic and produced an amazing result.

It is without a doubt that I will continue to use Intertec for future projects that may come up and would highly recommend them to anybody who wants a great looking website made by true professionals.

You can imagine our excitement when GaragePro approached us to design their eCart website. Featuring a site developed using the Joomla content management system and an eCart enabled by world-class eCart solution, eCwid, the GaragePro website is a sleek combination of style, ease-of-use and powerful functionality.

At the heart of the GaragePro site is the eCart, powered by eCwid, where visitors can view, order and pay for a range of car care products and garage accessories. The Joomla CMS makes it easy for updates to be made to site content, and also allowed us to pack in a photo gallery and news blog into the site.

Have a look at the GaragePro site to see what we’ve done. We bet you’ll get excited too!

Visit the: GaragePro website

Facebook has changed all of our lives. Whether you’ve ever had an account or even visited the website, it’s difficult to ignore the hundreds of Facebook’s “Like” and “Share” badges seen all around the modern web. The blogosphere is constantly buzzing with comments and shares over Facebook.

Knowing the popularity of Facebook, it’s commonplace to create a fan page for any community or website launch. This provides an outlet for your fans to get together in one place to share ideas, photos, questions, and reviews. This type of marketing works in any corporate or personal situation, thus it’s perfect for businesses and events.

In this particular post, I’ll be going into a few useful tips to put together an amazing fan page. This will help your website, community, or product sales garner a lot of attention! After all, Facebook is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on the Internet. Why wouldn’t you want your brand spread all over there?

Benefits Of A Fan Page

Before we go into creating a Facebook fan page, first we should explain what exactly a fan page comprises. Unknown to many is the fact that each fan page will be presented in public. While user profiles are generally hidden from search engine crawlers, fan page can be created and open to everybody. This is by default their natural state.

Users are able to see your photos, updates, and latest notes published even without a Facebook account. With some newer features you can even import a RSS feed from your blog or Twitter account. Once you’ve created a fan page, you can set up discussion forums too. This is a great place for people to meet and share opinions about whatever your topic may be.

And the most obvious benefit? It’s 100% free of charge! Doesn’t cost a dime. This type of marketing only costs a little time to setup and configure, thus making it possible for you to invest more time and cost on marketing.

With fan page, you’re also able to upload photos and video content and store these contents remotely on Facebook’s server while sharing out directly to your fans. The promotional value is huge from any standpoint.

Creating A Fan Page

For the sake of this article we’re assuming you’ve already signed up Facebook and have an account yourself. If not, feel free to create one, or sign up under your company name with a fake personality.

If you are logged into the site, scroll towards the very bottom of the page. On the right-hand side of the footer you’ll find a series of small links, one of which is titled Create a Page. Click and you’re brought right here to choose the type of page you’re looking to create. Facebook styles the pages differently based on your focus. Some examples include an event or charity, entertainment media, celebrities or bands, and local businesses.

You’ll have to fill in a bit of information and agree to Facebook Pages’ terms and conditions. It’s all fairly straightforward information, so you shouldn’t get lost anywhere in the process. However if you run into an obstacle, you can try to go back to the front page and start again.

If you’ve confirmed your details and everything looks good, congratulations! You’ve completed the creation process and your new fan page is up online. You can now edit settings, upload photos, and invite your friends to join.

Continue Reading: Better Facebook Fan Page: Essential Tips, Apps And Examples.

WordPress has stepped into its 9th years of being the content management system that most website owners love, and its design has since been evolved from really simple piece into extremely impressive work with all kinds of unique styles implemented.

Sensing that most designers nowadays prefer more to use corporate and minimalistic design, we decided to turn to the road not taken, showcasing you the unusual WordPress theme design which either defied the law of grid, or implemented essential levels of graphics into the design.

These designs are not your average Joe. Some of them may maintain the balance between beauty and user-friendliness, but most of them have sacrificed user-friendliness and design theory for beauty. Can they be called successful design? I’m not sure, but these designs have one similarity – beauty, the element that does a great first impression for visitor. And now, they are showcased here for you to enjoy.

Vector Stories

An elegant and inspiring design that’s perfect to express the craftsmanship.

Pin Up Girl Lip Balm

A retro but very interesting design, suits perfectly for the particular product.

Transformology

An original theme with warm color scheme that makes the visitor feels friendly when browsing it.

6 Wunderkinder

A minimalistic theme that outlines important content with the design that doesn’t look awkward at all.

Cat Rabbit

A cute and very interesting theme that increases the viewer’s curiosity to discover more about the site.

Eyebridge

A great mix of raw art and personal style to create this unique theme.

Round Robin Studios

Simple but pleasant. This design has a vibrant color scheme that motivates the visitor to check out the site.

Michelle Macedo Music

Wild mix of fonts and colors to create an absolutely artistic atmosphere, looks good an artist’s site.

Racket

This theme looks strange at first, but it is skillfully done and has a unique style that’s different to others.

Red Bull BC One All Stars

A powerful and impressive theme that suits the event very much.

Barszcz

A simple yet expressive design, short but nice presentation of the designer himself.

2fresh’ Studio

It’s a dark theme yet it looks so energetic! Loved the vibrant color scheme used on the header.

Alexandre Rudalov

A design with great lighting that greatly improves the overall feeling of the site, beautiful work.

Sheena Oosten

Attractive design which embraces the beautiful and artistic font.

Who Is Leon?

A classic work of art illustrated on a website, simply nice.

Van Coke Kartel

Really awesome combination of color scheme, typography, graphics and white space, great work!

Marketing Profesional

Nice layout positioning that makes the entire site unique but not too messy.

Calobee Doodles

A charming design that creates a friendly atmosphere that makes visitors feel cosier.

Outlinez

Interesting introduction has given a great head start for this personal website.

Every Time I Die

A design which is done in the rock’n roll style, having a lot of uncontrollable power and, it’s cool!

Hugs For Monsters

Strange looking but very cool. This design has showcased the marvelous and creative imagination of the designer himself.

Wawa Coffeetopia

Great for coffee lovers, as this design and its color scheme really encourages me to have a nice coffee!

GamerPrint

Creative and fun design created to attract gamers!

Watersports Guru

Awesome combination of retro graphics, that’s how a website makes its offered event looks fun and attractive!

2am Media

Elegant design with perfectly positioned elements, it’s modern web design!

DesignWise

Good design is a good head start for good business, this design proved it.

Spout Creative

Minimalistic yet properly designed website. Simple and young, I’m feeling good.

Acosmin

Extremely unique design that really tempts visitors to check out what this great site offers.

Read the full article: Showcase Of Beautiful WordPress-Powered Websites

If you’re reading this, you probably develop websites. We don’t make websites to let them sit on our own computers: we set them free on the web. While it’s often more fun to create the website than to worry about hosting it, web hosting isn’t a decision you should make lightly. In this roundup, I’ll point out 19 things you should look for when choosing your web host.

1. Amount of Storage

When choosing your web hosting, one of your primary concerns will obviously be “How much data can I store?” For most small and medium web sites, you’ll find that several gigabytes should be plenty of storage. Some hosts may offer “unlimited storage”: caveat emptor! If you read the fine print (usually, the Terms and Services) you’ll find that it’s unlimited until you go over the “normal site usage.” If you think you might be close to or over whatever “normal” is, make sure you know what you can use before buying … or go with a host that sets clear limits.

2. Amount of Bandwidth

When looking for a web host, you’ll often see storage and bandwidth hand in hand. What is bandwidth? It’s the amount of data that your host will let you and your visitors upload and download (cumulatively) in a given month. Say your website is 1 megabyte of data and your monthly bandwidth is 10 MB. At the beginning of the month, you upload the entire site; now you’ve used up one MB of bandwidth. If a visitor to your site views every page, they will have downloaded 1MB of data. That means you can have up to 9 visitors in that month (assuming each views your whole site). After that, your web host will either not allow any more visitors, or (more likely) charge you extra per MB. Of course, your bandwidth is something you’ll want to keep an eye on, especially if you run a fairly popular site or do something media intensive (like host your own video, or high-res photos). Just like storage, some hosts offer “unlimited” bandwidth; again, if you think you’ll be in a grey area, find out the limits or choose a host that sets the bar where all can see it.

3. Number of Domains and Subdomains

Once you’re running one site, there’s a good chance it won’t be long until you’ve got a second one up … and then a third. It would be a pain to have to manage a hosting account for each site you own, so make sure your web host will let you host multiple domains. Often, there will be a limit on how many domains you can have on one account; make sure it will accomodate you! Usually, there will be a section in the admin panel for adding your domains and choosing which sub-folders each one will point to. The same is true for sub-domains.

4. Email Accounts and Features

Many web hosts also offer email account for your domains. You’ll want to know how many email accounts they’ll let you set up; also, don’t forget to check out their selections for receiving that mail. Do they have a webmail interface? Multiple ones that you can select from? How about integration with Google Apps (for the Gmail interface)? Can you get your mail in your client of choice via IMAP, or do they only offer POP?

5. Database Support

Now-a-days, even small websites seem to have a database on the back end. You’ll want to make sure you can use the type of database you’re comfortable with. Most hosts today offer MySQL; that’s probably enough for most people, but if you’d prefer PostsgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or another flavour, don’t settle for anything less. Remember, if they aren’t advertising it, they probably don’t offer it!

6. Framework Support and Easy-Install

A lot of web hosts offer support for popular frameworks, blogging systems, or CMSes. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of Nettuts’ readers are WordPress fans: it’s always nice when your web host offers a one-click install (or at least a super easy set-up) for WordPress or your CMS of choice.

7. Mobile App or Website

For most people, this will probably be a nice extra; however, I’m sure there’s something who will find having a mobile app to access your site administration / statistics on the go indespensible. While I only know of two hosts (MediaTemple and SliceHost) that currently offer iPhone and Android apps (MediaTemple’s Android app is forthcoming ), I’m sure most hosts will follow their lead. Both offer mobile websites as well, and I’m sure other hosts have the same.

8. Tech Support

This one is very important: find out exactly what your prospective host offers for tech support: can you phone them? At what times? Do they have a support email address? A ticket system? What’s their promised response time? How about a live chat? Do they have a wiki or library of help articles / tutorials? Don’t choose a host until you know exactly what support they offer; you’ll be happy for it later, trust me!

9. Shell Access

If you’re a little more advanced, you might want to consider choosing a host that offers shell access: that’s logging into your server from the command line over SSH. You’ll be able to securely copy files up and down, change file permissions for whole groups of files quickly and easily, and perform a multitude of other tasks. If you want this feature, you’ll know all that you do with it!

10. .htaccess Files

Here’s another important one: you’ll want the ability to add your own .htaccess files to your directories. What’s a .htaccess file? It’s a configuration file used by Apache server. You can use them to password protect directories, re-write URLs, redirect pages, and more. Check out the many good tuts here on Nettuts+ to get familiar with them.

11. Cron Jobs

Cron jobs are another great feature to have on your web host (and there’s a good chance you’ll have them if you’ve got shell access). Cron is a “time-based job scheduler” (thanks, Wikipedia) that you can use to perform tasks on the server at given times. To learn more about how to use Cron and what you can do with it, check out the great Cron tutorial we ran back in January.

12. Language Support

This should go without saying, but make sure the host you plan to choose offers support for the server-side languages you want to use. If you plan to pick up Ruby on Rails in the next few months, you probably want to see it on the list of supported frameworks. If you want to use Django, make sure there’s Python support. Don’t lock yourself into having PHP as your only option (unless you’re sure that’s all you’ll ever want or need!).

13. Free AdWords

While not a necessarily something you need, it’s something you’ll probably want to take advantage of: many hosts offer some Google AdWords credit (usually ~$50, I’ve found) or some other form of advertising. Even if you’d rather use another advertising proxy, you can’t beat free: you might as well use it!

14. Site Backup

Don’t think that your web host is any less suseptible to data loss than your own computers; remember, servers are just big computers that everyone can read files from! What backup options, if any, does your host provide? You’ll want to back up both your site files and databases. If they don’t offer backup, figure out how you’ll be able to do it yourself: this might be one of the places that shell access and cron come in handy!

15. Choice of OS

For most people, this won’t be a big issue. Of course, if you’re developing in ASP.NET, you’ll need Windows hosting; that’s a little harder to find, and often a bit more expensive, but if you’re a Microsoft developer, the extra cost will be worth it. (If you’re interesting in learning about ASP.NET, check out our great tuts on the subject.) If you’re using an open source language, you probably won’t need to worry about which Linux/Unix distribution you’ll get; however, some hosts give you options, and some developers may have preferences, so it’s worth mentioning.

16. Extra Applications

We already talked about content management systems, but sometimes you’ll want a something more. Several hosts offer set-ups for social features like forums, bulletin boards, mailing lists. If you’ll be running an online store, some hosts offer setups for eCommerce solutions.

17. Up-to-Date-ness

If you can, find out what software versions the host you are considering offers. Some hosts aren’t quick to upgrade to the latest offering, while others will let you choose which version you want. There are few things worse than signing up for a year of hosting only to discover your host is running PHP 4.x (yes, I’ve made that mistake).

18. Up-Time

I’m sure I don’t have to convince you that it’s important to know that your visitors will be able to get to your site when they try! Find out how reliable your prospective host is; when you’re doing this, it’s important to read the fine print. Often, hosts will stretch the truth a bit (claiming 99.9% uptime, not counting almost everything that could go wrong), so make sure you understand exactly what “100% uptime” means. It would be a wise move to google around and see what other users and reviewers have said about the host.

19. Free Domain

While you may already have a domain name, there’s no such thing as too many of them. Most hosts offer this, but all else being equal, a shiny new domain name is a good enough reason to go with one host over the other.

Conclusion: What’s your tip?

I’m sure you’ve got some great tips for choosing a web hosting solution. If you do, don’t hesitate to share them in the comments! Also, let us know what hosts you’ve found reliable and which ones have come back to bite you.

For the full article go to: 19 Important Features to Look for in a Web Host