Have you noticed black text isn’t used as much anymore on websites? Sure it is still used as a background color and is one of the strongest branding colors you can use. But black for your body copy? That’s so last decade.

Many sites are using variations of greys these days. The basic web palette provides a few grey options that provide enough contrast from each other to really make your text stand out. Try the hexidecimal numbers #333333 (really dark grey), #666666 (sort of dark grey), or #999999 (medium grey) instead of black. Also try #CCCCCC as a highlight color.

There are many more grey variations that fall between the web-safe pallete and use a number/letter combination. For example #b6b6b6 is a really nice grey that is slightly darker than #CCCCCC. #8d8d8d is slightly darker than #666666. CSS Tip* – Did you know if the hexidecimal number is made up of the same set of number you can just use the first three? So, for #333333 you can just use #333. And, if the hexidecimal is a repeated pattern you can just use the first two combination. So, if you have #8d8d8d you can just use #8d and CSS will know what to do. Try it out!

E-Commerce sites don’t have to cost as much as they used to. Seasoned web developers will tell you a shopping cart in the ol’ days would cost in the tens of thousands. One of the first e-commerce sites I worked on progressed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as the retailer kept finding a need for added features. In the end, it was a completely custom site that was fully integrated with the company’s sales, inventory, shipping and ordering system.

But today open source platforms provide the core code to develop a shopping cart. And, lots of those much needed features are already built-in. The software can give you company a head start on developing an online presence. Here is a list of just a few of the more popular free e-commerce packages.

Zen-Cart

Ubercart

osCommerce

Magneto