If you’re in business, you’re in sales; that’s just the way it is. We are all salesmen; we all have something to sell, a product, a service, an idea, a cause, or maybe just an opinion. And if you’re in business you have a website intended to communicate the value of that which you sell.

So if you’re in the business of selling something, and your website is the vehicle you choose to communicate your sales pitch, then shouldn’t your main concern be how effectively you are communicating that message?

Communication or Analytics

Instead of concentrating on effective communication, many businesses put the emphasis on search engine statistics: how high they rank on Google, MSN, and Yahoo, with the assumption that the higher they rank, the more traffic they’ll generate, and the more traffic they generate, the more sales they’ll get. At least, that’s what we are led to believe.

Here’s the problem: almost all the rank-generating strategies are aimed at search engine spiders, not people, so you have to ask yourself, who exactly is my website communicating to, robots or human beings?

The Secret Formula Doesn’t Exist

Why are today’s business owners and executives so mesmerized by this whole search engine thing? It reminds me of the story of an infamous Hollywood movie mogul and studio head who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Instead of firing the guy immediately, he was retained for some time for the simple reason his movies made money; and the dirty little secret in Hollywood is that nobody really knows why some movies are hits and others are bombs. So you keep paying the guy you think is making you money, no matter what he does, because maybe he knows something you don’t.

What we have today is a new generation of business leaders who came of age with the Internet. These Internet technology geeks and boffins are the new Web-wizards and wunderkinds: the guys with the secret formula. But like the movie industry, nobody really has a foolproof search engine recipe for success, but since most of the technical stuff is ever-changing, and over most entrepreneurs and business executives heads, they buy into it; that is until somebody tells them the emperor has no clothes.

What’s A Web Entrepreneur To do?

You heard the old expression, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” well it has never been so true as it applies to website marketing. The simple truth about websites is that success is based on a site’s ability to communicate a marketing message that makes sense, and is understood in an easy to digest format.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

Tags: Advertising, branding, communication, Marketing, sales, search engine optimization, seo, website design

The chances are that if you have a standard, mass-market style website, most visitors will glance at it and quickly move on.

Statistics tell us many things about internet users, but amongst the most useful to us as site-owners are the following:

1. They’re looking for information about something.
2. They’re mostly put off by hard-sell advertising.
3. They’re easily discouraged if it’s difficult to find what they’re looking for.
4. If they don’t find the site visually appealing they will move on quickly.
5. They are more likely to look more closely if the site has a personal feel to it.

Given the above, the odds are stacked against us in hoping to attract and retain the interest of the first time visitor. Let us examine some tips to overcome these obstacles, so as to move the odds somewhat in our favour.

The first impression is undoubtedly the visual one. A site that is poorly constructed, muddled or unattractive to look at doesn’t even get out of the starting blocks! The logic is very simple: if the site owner doesn’t have the interest and initiative to make his site look good to the visitor, it’s likely that he pays as little attention to its content.

Make your site look really appealing, by the careful use of colour, and make the layout such that it is easy to find the information the visitor is seeking. Although it’s an idea to use technology to include some clever features, don’t make it too gimmicky or those benefits will be lost. You will need something eye-catching, positioned at the top of your home-page to capture the visitor’s attention.

Remember to focus on the benefits to the visitor - what’s in it for him or her?

Remember your visitor is not looking to buy anything - she wants information. Make that information easily available, in an appealing way. It’s a good idea to offer a useful gift such as a free training programme or newsletter.

Position yourself as an expert in your field. It’s not necessary to claim that massive earnings are likely, but rather to show that you’ve been there got the T-shirt and that you’re prepared to share the information required to make a success of this opportunity. Your visitor can then make her own selection from the top home businesses available to her.

In other words, “This is the information you need and these are the benefits to you.”

If you don’t have web-design skills or even a flair for this, pay someone to help you, or to do it for you. A professional-looking website would be more likely to offer something worthwhile, than something carelessly designed that looks as though it’s been thrown together.

Sometimes the technical gurus become so involved with technology, that they overlook the simple issues. Keep it simple to navigate around the site, particularly so that the information your visitor is looking for can be easily accessed.

If you provide a number of options from which to select, keep the instructions clear and simple. You’d be surprised how difficult it is sometimes to find the “Yes-I want it” option in some sites!

Personalize your site so that it doesn’t look just like another of the mass produced sites. If you are able to tell a little about yourself and how your life has changed for the better, you have an increased chance of persuading your visitor to take a closer look at your offer.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. I sincerely hope that you have found the information useful or thought provoking.

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Mike Muir writes informative articles aimed at assisting new home business owners. For more useful information please visit his Blog at: http://www.mikeshomebiz.com/blog Want more information about online business opportunities? Please go to http://www.mikeshomebiz.com

Tags: vistors, Web Design

Completing the following steps prior to starting a new website development or enhancement project can ensure that your project stays on budget and on schedule.

1. Identify the person(s) that will assist you in developing a detailed plan for your site. Before starting your project, ensure that you and your team are on the same page concerning the final vision for your site. This will minimize (eliminate) any mid-development confusion between your team members and ensures that once the development/design activities begin, they can proceed with a clear definition of the end product. Website projects that are less defined can incur unexpected expenses due to “scope creep”. Generally, scope creep occurs when unexpected tasks are added to a project. This leads to higher than planned project costs and an extension of the project deadline. When new tasks are added to your project, determine if these are necessary items to complete during this phase or if a second phase is needed. If you decide to increase the scope of your project, be sure to ask your website developer for a printout of the additional costs and an indication of how the new task will affect your deadline.
2. Identify the person responsible for communicating with your website developer. Also, identify how often you need to communicate with the developer during the development process. Generally, the more meetings you have with your website developer the more it will cost you. If you have a well defined project, your meetings will be shorter meetings to determine if you’re on schedule. Particularly with short web development projects or projects with budget constraints, you want to avoid ongoing requirements gathering meetings. If the project is not well defined, you risks staying in the “requirements gathering” phase for the duration of the project. This is always more costly than identifying, approving and finalizing your requirements before any work is performed. For larger (and longer) projects, you should identify a requirements gathering phase at the onset of the project to ensure that the deliverables and phases are well defined.
3. If your website project involves a site design or redesign, have a vision before you contact a website designer. Having a vision of your preferred site design reduces the number of revisions required. Design revisions can add to the cost of your site if you are unsure of what you want. Starting a design project with an “I’ll know it when I see it” approach can increase your project cost and timeline due to an excessive number of revisions or increased scope. If you absolutely do not have a vision, make a list of comparable websites that appeal to you. Be sure to note any required elements that you’d like to include on your website.
4. Finish writing your content or have someone write the content just as you would like it to appear on the site. You can not (should not) launch a website with incomplete content. If your content is not ready, consider a brochure site (one page) website instead of investing in a larger inadequately defined website project. A website is meaningless without effective content. If your content is not ready, your website is not complete.
5. Once your content is written in web-ready format, organize your content by function or section (e.g. company information, services, testimonials etc.). This will help determine the scope of your project (i.e. # of pages, navigational items etc.).
6. Identify how you would like your visitors to interact with your website. This ensures that you and your website developer have a clear understanding of the overall scope of the project. A five-page static website is much different than a five-page website with interactive or dynamic features or a five-page website integrated with a third-party shopping cart. Generally, any feature that requires advanced scripting, programming services or integration with a third-party application will add to the cost of your project. Therefore, it is important for you to be clear about your requirements prior to signing the contract.
7. Before you request or approve any new features, revisit your original scope and answer the following questions:
   1. Does this new tasks fall within the original scope of the project?
   2. How does this addition contribute to my final product? Is it important?
   3. How does this affect my deadline?
   4. What are the additional costs?
   5. Do I need to include this activity in a second phase?
   6. How does this addition affect other tasks? Does this eliminate another task or duplicate a previously completed effort (e.g. going back to drawing board on a completed and approved redesign)? If you find that the new task is a duplicate of an already completed effort, before any further work is done, take some time to rethink your project and ensure that money is not being wasted on an ill-defined product.

Performing these activities ensures that everyone at the table shares the same vision, allows your web professional to provide an adequate quote for your project and helps everyone stay on schedule.

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Kishau Rogers - For additional articles, advice and resources for your small business website, subscribe to the Websmith Group Blog, Resources for Small Business Websites: http://www.websmithgroup.com/blog/

Tags: website development

A web site template is essentially a finished generic site. It is designed with all the graphics and coding to help you put your website online with as little cost — and in as little time — as possible.

Templates run anywhere from $30 to $200 — a professional design will likely cost you 10 times that. Starting with a good template can also increase the speed of the website creation process by up to a factor of 10. All you (if you have the skills) or your designer (if you don’t) need to do is customize the template to meet your needs.

However, there are even more compelling reasons for starting with a template:

First, you probably know by now that web site planning is hard work and — more than that — it’s critical work. However, did you also know that most of your project costs are committed in the first few decisions you make? Efficiency expert Joseph Romm (in “Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution”) states:

“Although up-front building and design costs may represent only a fraction of the [project's] life-cycle cost, when just one percent of a project’s up-front costs are spent [on design], up to 70% of it’s life-cycle costs may already be committed.”

It’s just like the old saying known well to construction managers: when designing a building, you’re going to make all your worst and most costly mistakes that day. That’s just the way it is, and there’s no getting around that, so — the goal is always to work to minimize those costs, and templates can go a long way towards achieving that goal.

A great template can give you a leg up on your initial design challenges. Specifically, the two most critical design challenges you’ll face on that first day is 1) coming up with a visual design that will compellingly draw your customers/clients “in” and 2) coming up with a specific information architecture that will expertly organize your site’s information in such a way that your customers/clients can immediately understand and use it. A good, well-chosen template will take into account good information architecture, and it will have a compelling visual design.

If you’re not sure how to evaluate the visual design and informational organization of a template, you should consult with a knowledgeable designer who has usability experience.

Finally, if you’re looking to build an eCommerce site, in addition to the above benefits, a good eCommerce template can help you solve the sales funneling problem, i.e., solve the problem of how to get customers to move from an awareness of your product to making the decision to purchase your product.

The acronym AIDA describes the four stages that you typically need to facilitate converting customers into buyers. Specifically, there is first Awareness - they realize that a number of possible actions is available to them (to meet their needs/solve their problem); Then comes Interest - they actively self-select and show a preference for a particular course of action; Then comes Desire - their enthusiasm grows as they investigate the course of action; Then finally comes Action - they are moved to act and reap the benefits of the course of action, i.e., they purchase your product or service.

The topic of AIDA is a big - and admittedly - a complicated one. For example, there are many performance-based landing page optimization and testing companies out there that specialize in website tests with non-parametric proprietary technology. The goal? “Tuning” a website by a set of models known to increase conversion rates. For a fuller treatment of this topic, check out “Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Web Sites (VOICES)” by Andrew Chak.

Be sure you talk to a qualified web developer and/or designer before purchasing any template to help you make sure it is the right one for you.

About the Author

Christopher Sky is the owner of Brooklyn Sky Design, a small boutique web design shop in Brooklyn New York that has several years experience in both application web programming (e.g., ASP.Net, Flash-Actionscript) and in web site design. Brooklyn Sky Design understands the importance of solid usability and design principles and how to apply them so that your customer’s initial perception of your site’s value is positive. This encourages them to not only purchase your products and services, it also encourages them to become repeat customers.

Tags: templates, website design

You have the layout complete. The text is done. Let’s Build! Wait. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row first before throwing up any old website. Stand out, be different, and showcase your product in a stellar setting. Check out these tips for designing a website that will quickly convert traffic to sales! Clean code with a crisp marketing message, coupled with a search engine friendly design might just knock the socks off any search engine that comes crawling your way.

Slappin’ Ya in the Face Obvious

You’d be surprised by how many people say, “…but my phone number is right there!” …But is it, really? Is your call to action on your website so pronounced that it practically hits your potential buyer-customer square between the eyes? If not, you might want to fix that. Studies show five seconds is all you’ve got to captivate your audience with a bright call to action, or a custom graphic to make it obvious. Hook, line and sinker them with a sheer cut, eye popping call to action! Whether it’s a “Call Today”, “Book It”, or “Buy Now” - make sure the Pick ME cue is apparent and obvious to your target audience.

Get Ready to Rumble…

We’re all human. Competition runs in our blood. Everyone wants to be first or “the best”…carry this attitude over your website and you are sure to beat out your competition! Your website is your virtual store, and if you don’t possess this thinking already, you need to. Invest in your website, as its seen 24 hours a day, seven days a week by potential clients all over the world. Be prepared and get educated, as a website is a terrible thing to waste. The good old days of tweaking things here and there and wham! …top ten placements, is over. Invest your time and hire a good SEO firm to help you market your business the right way.

Find out who’s the hottest in your industry and make it a goal to beat them. With over 180 million searches on the web today, it is imperative to research keyword phrases that your competition is going after. What are their marketing tactics and are they working? Do they have an email campaign located on-site? What are their credentials? Does the website offer coupons, discounts or hot deals? It’s the internet my friend, the competition is steep and all bets are off. So, roll up your sleeves, put on your gloves, and get ready to rumble! Or, research an internet marketing firm that specializes in both search engine optimization and website design that can fight the battle for you.

Simple Simon Wins

Being a “Simpleton” ain’t all that bad these days. Just because the world turns at record breaking speeds doesn’t mean your website has to. Too much going on, whether there are words upon words, or graphics up the wazoo, can do more harm than good. Be cautious before slapping up just any old image or using too much text to get your point across. We all know that “Content is King!”, but Optimized Content reigns supreme. By strategically placing the right keywords in your Title Tags, Meta Data Tags and throughout the body of your website, your business will benefit. Clean design, concise code, and fresh marketing ideas that are clear to the end user will help you get the leads and generate the desired sales you are looking for.

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!

Search engine optimization…what’s all the hype about!? Internet competition is booming -open your eyes and smell the code! If you have a beautiful website, but it’s not converting…you’ve wasted your time and money. A well built website with search engine optimization in mind is a goldmine at your finger tips. What’s the first step in optimization? Researching and determining a list of keywords that will drive traffic to the site and convert into sales. Test out various keywords, find out what your competition is and let it ride. For the keywords that don’t convert, bag ‘em. Expand your focus to reach broad based keywords as well as long tail keyword phrases. The narrower the keyword is, the more likely the user will convert on your page.

Widgets are In

What is a widget? Widgets aid in the process of interacting with your target audience. When your potential customer/buyer installs your widget on their webpage, blog or social media networking profile - you have won a valuable friend! Widgets provide a great way to strengthen the bond between your existing customers and any newbie’s who are interested in your product. Get new customers and provide a widget for them to interact with you. Personalization is “key”. Almost anything can become a widget - from games to stock tickers or audio players - put your thinking caps on and give your customers the option!

Smarty Pants Always Test.

This is true. Successful websites are successful because webmasters test their work. A great way to test your website to see if your design is working is through the A/B Split method. These tests run concurrently, at least for a couple of weeks to gain true results. A/B testing provides real world, data-driven, unbiased results based on your target market. There is now even an easy to use A/B Split testing program through the Google Website Optimizer tool! Check it out and win big. Go ahead - be a smarty pants…you know you want to!

Time to Analyze

Yes, folks - it’s time to analyze. You might think the hard work is done, but it’s now time to see if all your work has paid off successfully. You’ve created this gorgeous website perfectly equipped with clear calls to action, clean code and search engine friendly site architecture - now what? Let it ride and hope for the best? NO! Test, test and analyze your findings.

Does your hosting company offer a stats program? If so, fire that baby up and analyze what is working, what can be tossed out and what needs to be amped up. Focus on unique visitors, time on site, referrals, and what keyword phrases are driving the most targeted traffic. A stat program is your friend, NOT your enemy. Embrace your website’s analytics and learn from them to tailor your website, your search engine optimization and your business model after this information. Google also has a free analytics program that involves placing a simple code before the </body> tag on pages you’d like to track. Fast, effective and proven.

If you are a “do-it-yourselfer”, I hope these tips helped you with the marketing of your business. If you are too busy and are looking for a firm to handle both the building of your website and the marketing - research a good SEO firm. Count on a professional internet marketing company to shine through and get your hard work to pay off. Good luck!

About:

Sarah Lamansky is a Search Engine Marketing Manager at Mannix Marketing, Inc. in Glens Falls, NY. Please contact us for all of your search engine marketing, website design/development and advertising needs. With a positive approach, streamlined goals, and over Ten Years in the search engine optimization industry, We Get You Found On The Web AND increase your sales. For website tips, advertising ideas or a FREE search engine optimization quote, please contact us. Got ten minutes? Let’s talk.

Tags: website design

As a web designer what should you know in order to build a search engine friendly website, what points you need to cover and what tools you need to use.

First let’s all agree that we professional web designers do write good semantic markup and not the old fashion table based designs. This is something essential, why? Because search engines are just like people, they don’t like to read a lot of unnecessary markup and get board quickly that they might leave your website before they crawl it all. They also can’t determine which part of the markup is important and which is not such as lists, menu or titles.
That’s why you should make sure that you are inserting the right markup in the right place. I’m not saying that writing the semantic markup will boost up your traffic and put you at the top of the SERPs but it will make crawling and understanding of your website much easier.

Now how do we make the search engine spider while visiting our website knows the good pieces of that site? That’s very simple and we will come to it.

Header

Let’s start our journey; what you need to do first is to add the regular Meta data at the top of your HTML header, title tag followed by keywords tag, and finally the description tag - in this order; then you can attach JavaScript’s and CSS files. Why? Because search engines will read these pieces of information the first thing, so if they are at the top you will make their life much easier.

Please note that every page has its own unique Meta data, so don’t duplicate the Meta data and use it on every page of your website.
Footer, the power

Let’s tackle something else, let’s talk about the footer. Footer where you add the copyrights and some other links is a good place for another navigational element using your keywords listed in <UL> as you did with the navigation above.

This is not spamming and we are not stuffing the page with tones of unnecessary links, for some websites this could be very good especially if your website have long pages, so when users reach the end of the page (if they did scroll) they will find another navigational assistant.

Your body, the gold mine

Now, let’s go to the next part of your exercise, it’s the body; the base of all the good information that search engines are crawling to find.

In the body of your HTML make sure to start your markup with the menu or your navigation DIV and give it an ID call it navigation or menu or whatever you want to call it, by this the first thing search engine finds when it comes to the body is the navigation where usually your most important keywords are listed there.

Put these navigational elements in a list <UL> because that’s what they are; and each one of them are titled with a description of its function. By this; search engine can crawl your whole website (Make sure that your navigation is consistent and exist in every page of your website, this is purely usability issue).
Note: If you are using flash, images, or JavaScript’s navigation then you better stop that as they are unrecognized by search engines and not accessible or usable at the same time.
Now you have built your navigation with links of your most important keywords and told the search engine that these are important items (as they are listed at the top of your body tag and are built as links, and each has its title attribute). Isn’t that’s fun and simple?

Note: adding the navigation at the top of your body tag doesn’t mean that it will appear at the top of the page, with CSS you can control that and float it to the right or left on your page.

Now we’ve covered two of the website parts, lets’ now dive in the most important part of your page. The content part where all the good stuff could be found (assuming you are building a good website that can benefit the mankind).
Since this part of the website is totally different from website to another and from webpage and the other even in the same website, so I will give general recommendations.
First start your content area with breadcrumb, breadcrumb is something very important for every website, it tells the users where they are, and it’s a good place to add your keywords to it with descriptive title attributes.
Breadcrumbs are supposed to be at the top of the content area and, they are the first thing a search engine read when crawling this area.

Second add to your content area the most important keywords as heading for that part, use <H1><H2><H3> for that. By this search engine spider will understand that you are pointing it to an important area of your website. The idea is to use the appropriate markup to present your content.

Note: it’s not recommended to stuff your page with keywords and links, so use them wise and carefully or it will turn on you. What is good for users is good for search engine spiders as well. Search engines are tools people use them to reach their goals.

As a web designer you can control the placement for each element inside that area and according to it’s impotence you can take it upper from the markup side.
Your recommendation for the layout is very important in this stage, that’s why you should have a strong understanding of the nature of every page in the website and every section.
Connectable

Try to make your pages reachable by two to three clicks and are connected to each other where I can reach the first page from the third one and vise versus. You also want to decrease the links to external pages, so avoid elements as much as you can that are pointing to other website (this is differ from website to another depending on their nature and objective).
While we are talking about links; put into your mind to limit your page links to 100 according to Google recommendations.

Always use title tag and link attributes for your images and links, this is very good place to add extra keywords (but don’t use this to spam the spiders).

File size is considerable

While building your page always remember light is good, so try to avoid 200KB websites and try to limit your self with 30 to 40 KB with higher text to code ratio.
Rich Internet Application

Try to avoid adding your content that has your most important keywords inside flash, JavaScript’s, AJAX or images. Don’t hide that valuable content from the search engine spiders. Always remember that building a website is for professional and you are that one, your recommendations should be for the client and the user benefit.

Let’s sum it up

I think by this I’ve reached the end of the story on how should you as a professional web designer build your website, what are the good elements and how to structure your layout. You should know that there are a lot of elements that control website ranking, what we’ve discussed here was the web designer part of the equation and nothing more. Always depend on the standard instead of trying to work around the system.

My aim of this article is to highlight the web designer part for designing usable and in the same time search engine optimized pages.

About the author

I’m currently employed as Creative & Media Manager at Linkonline a wholly owned subsidiary of LINKdotNET in Cairo, Egypt. Most know me as web designer, search engine optimizer, user experience consultant or any combination of the three.

Tags: web designers, website design

Making your Web Pages Download Fast is the Most Effective way of Keeping Visitors Browsing your Website. With the Web being the all encompassing, slightly anarchic, global phenomenon that it is, there are no set standards about how to design Web pages. But there is one overriding principle that every Web designer should chant like a mantra as soon as they awake in the morning. ‘Speed is everything’.

Getting your website’s information on to the browsers of your visitors as quickly as possible is still the number one skill to learn when it comes to building web pages, but it often gets overlooked because it doesn’t seem as much fun as fooling around with Java applets or animated GIFs. But don’t be swayed by such fripperies - master the art of building sites that download super-fast and you’ll get people coming back again and again.

With the arrival of broadband, it’s tempting to think that designing web pages to download fast won’t be a concern. People will multitask on the Net as they do with their computers, pushing their internet access connections to the extreme and cursing your Web page if it doesn’t appear instantly. The need for speed is here to stay, so knowing how to optimize your HTML code and graphics will never go out of fashion.

Here are some Tips to help make your Web pages Thunder down the Information Highway

Grease your Graphics

While understanding how to make your HTML super-sleek is vital to streamlining your Web pages, graphics are the single biggest culprit for slow loading websites. The hard and fast rule has to be, if you don’t need a graphic, don’t use it. For example, using graphics for text is a no-no - HTML text looks great if you use a bit of color and judgment.

Try to rescue the graphics you do need on your site throughout your pages. That way, the image gets cached in the user’s web browser and the image isn’t downloaded again. Don’t be afraid of repetition - for example, if you have a groovy logo to use on your site then put it in the same place on every page. It reassures the visitor that they are still on your site.

You should ensure that the full size of the graphics you use are as small as possible. Imaging editing programs will deal with this for you to an extent, but you can’t beat running an image through an online graphic compression tool to get the lowest possible image size.

Keep it Simple

When it comes down to HTML code, the first thing to do is design a look and feel for your site that isn’t massively complex. Simple layout equals slimline code. Ask yourself if you really need that scrolling ticker or Java applet - chances are you don’t.

Frames are also a bad idea for fast pages. Every frame within a frameset is effectively adding another page to load simultaneously when the user arrives at your site, rather than just one page. Coupled with the navigation, search engine and bookmarking nightmares that frames can cause, they’re best avoided.

Nested tables - that is, putting one table inside another - are the main way diligent designers achieve a good layout to their Web page, but be wary of overdoing it. As long as the tables are simple, with only three or four cells, nesting is fine. If you find yourself nesting the equivalent of a chessboard, it might be wiser to start again. Tables take a while to load in Web browsers, and the more complex the code, the longer your visitors will be staring at a blank screen.

Remember that just because your Web page might look simple doesn’t mean that it was simple to put together. Simplicity is not only good for speed but also ease of use which has to be the other design concern.

WYSIWYG Weirdness

WYSIWYG editors are great for quickly assembling Web pages without the chore of typing HTML code by hand. However, these editors often add lots of extraneous code which is not actually needed to make the page display correctly. This is why it’s important to have at least a basic grasp of HTML even if you do use a WYSIWYG editor. Knowing what’s going on under the bonnet means you can spot a multitude of sins and streamline your code so it runs faster.

Tag it and Bag it

Times New Roman is the Web’s default font, but Verdana and Arial have become extremely popular too. If you like these fonts enough to want to use them throughout your site, a nifty way on cutting down on coding every paragraph is to use the <BASEFONT> tag. This changes the default font of your pages.

For example, <basefont face=”Verdana” size=”2″> will make all the text on your page appear as size 2 Verdana, unless you specify otherwise using the usual <FONT> tags that doesn’t have a closing tag, so you don’t need to insert a </BASEFONT> tag anywhere. Best of all, you can avoid the hassle of having to format the majority of your text in one fell swoop, saving coding time and keeping your HTML streamlined.

A Space Odyssey

This is possibly the easiest way of improving an existing site’s download time. Every space in your HTML code isn’t empty spaces to a browser - it’s another bit of info it needs to interpret and process. Many WYSIWYG editors generate indented code with line breaks. Removing all those indents and line breaks will shave several K off the size of your page so it loads much quicker.

It’s here that a half decent Web page editor comes into its own. Using the search and replace function, you should be able to do a sitewide search for spaces. Type several spaces into the Find box, make sure the replace box is empty and it’ll whiz through the whole site eliminating any spaces it finds.

Sandra Prior runs her own websites at http://usacomputers.rr.nu and http://sacomputers.rr.nu.

I the first part of this article I looked at the basic necessities of getting your self started on the internet. In this second part I shall look at what you need to get your own site set up.

Hosting

If you want to develop your own site you will need to get a domain name, which is unique to you, the name you choose should ideally have a relationship with the key words that you use for the search engines to home in on, for example 2 of the key words that I use with this site are “Tips” and “Internet tips” so you can see that http ://tips4-u.com is tailored to the market that I want to attract. I have used several companies to host my sites in the past, but the best service for a paid host that I have found is Midphase they offer many different plans, and are full service hosting providers meaning you get all the facilities that you will need including cpanel,php,mysql and many others.

The best value that I have found, is doteasy, they give free 100 mb hosting for each name that is registered with them, but they are only basic accounts, for the facilities that I just listed they do charge.

Http: //doteasy.com

Editing software

The easiest type of editing software for creating your own site is often know as WYSIWYG or What you See is What you Get, with this type of editor you just type in what youwant and the sofeware converts it to the requires HTML language that browsers understand. I use one called Coffeecup they have a free version at www .coffeecup.com/free-editor

Ftp Software

Once you have your hosting account you will want to be able to upload your website, for this you will want a FTP client, the initials stand for File Transfer Protocol and while ther are 100’s to choose from one of the easiest that I have used is Filezilla, http: //filezilla-project.org a free download.

Payment Proccessors

Having reached this stage, you are going to need to organize a way to pay and receive money on line, there are many ways to do this and I will give you my recommendations and explain why I would net use some companies. Paypal http: //paypal.com This is the largest online payment proccessor and it is owned by E-bay, It is a must have account and very secure. Paypal has very strict rules, and if you are selling using paypal make sure that you follow there tems and conditions to the letter to avoid having your account put on hold.

Alertpay http: //www.alertpay.com/?6thoqN0Bnkgy8lks1hOJ%2bA%3d%3d

Alertpay has a good reputation and is growing quickly,

Safepaysolutions http: //safepaysolutions.com

Another high reputation newcomer, well worth opening an account.

E-gold http: //e-gold.com

A slightly riskier payment processor, e-gold has had some problems with being used for money laundering, because of the way the company works once a payment has been made it is not possible to recall it so when buying on the internet make sure you know what you are getting when you pay with e-gold. It is worth having an account, as many paid to click sites use e-gold for instant payments.

In the next and final part of this article I shall look at traffic generation.

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By Graham Andrew Taylor For more Internet Tips Articles and Reviews visit tips4-u.com

Tags: Web Design

The combination of functionality and aesthetic qualities is difficult, but possible. Although achieving this balance requires a lot of effort and compromise, it will surely result in the satisfaction of Internet users.

Designing and creating websites require thorough knowledge of Web specificity as well as an ability to adapt to existing solutions of Internet reality. It is not sufficient to hand in WWW materials, which have functioned in paper form until now, to website designers. Very often, the way designers and graphics think differs from the way users think and act. It is not enough to know a lot about programming, graphic design or to have good taste. First of all, you should set objectives of a realized project and acquaint yourself with the needs and habits of addressees of the website as well as with the way they move around Internet resources. Familiarizing yourself with the research and observations concerning users’ behaviour and preferences, as well as their proper application, is a giant step towards the creation of functional web pages.

Functionality and cohesion

First of all, in order to design a web page, you should take into account not only its aesthetic qualities, but its functionality (ergonomics). Internet users insist mainly on quick access to information gathered on a website. Jakob Nielsen, a guru of functionality, describes a usable website in the following way: “Simplicity with the smallest number of supplements, a clear layout of information and adjusted navigation tools.” Sub-websites need to be coherent. Particular elements should be chosen in such a manner that a user has no doubts as to whether they are still on the same page or if they have moved to another website. In a perfectly designed website, the main part of the page occupies about 80% of the screen, the remaining part is destined for navigation elements. In practice, it is difficult to achieve “a happy medium”, especially with additional elements, e.g. advertisements. That is why, it would not be wrong if we managed to squeeze the main part into 2/3 of the screen. Except for main pages, which play a key role in enhancing navigation on the website.

Good navigation

The system of navigation should be simple and intuitive - users do not like acquainting themselves with non-standard ways of moving around a website. Tips and instructions concerning navigation will not solve problems of a website containing non-standard mechanisms. Easiness with which Internet users move around Web resources makes them exceptionally impatient, and if they do not know how to use a given website in several seconds, they type in another address or close the browser window. The aim of navigation is to provide necessary information to the user, which will let them answer the following questions: Where am I? Where was I? Where could I go? Some elements such as a company’s logo or other signs identifying the website, being at the same time a link to the main page, may help the user determine their current position. So-called information paths play a vital role as well, what place a given sub-website occupies on a website structure.

Home | NewsRoom | Software | Mass storage

Marking the option in the menu of the website, which a particular web page belongs to is a solution which helps Internet users determine their position. Furthermore, it is important to provide the subject of the page, as well as titles in the heading of HTML file. The title should be coined in such a way so as to be understood by the user, which entered a web page by means of a browser or any other reference placed outside the website. References to web pages already visited are marked with a lighter colour than those used in references to web pages not visited yet, which will ensure their unambiguous identification. Although browsers possess a return icon, it is better to place on each page a reference to the previous one. The user will focus on the part presenting the information and there they will look for the possibilities of returning. Only when they do not find it on the web page, will they look at the toolbar of the browser. It is recommended (if possible) to give the name of the target page, e.g. “return to product list.” Pages “without exit links”, or in other words, pages which we can leave only by means of a back button in the browser window. The best way to suggest the user what page they can go to is a careful design of the website structure, as well as an appropriate look of references (see also: “References”). In the case of complicated websites, it is more convenient for the user to introduce two types of navigation ‘ vertical ‘ enabling the user to jump quickly to the higher level of the website ‘ and horizontal ‘ giving the possibility of choosing a web page at the same level, e.g. the most current news about ink-jet printers. Links enabling access to subject-related pages, e.g. “see also” play a key role as well. It is a mistake to place a reference to the website displayed at the same time. Reloading the website will stir up negative emotions, especially in the case when it lasts for several seconds. Maps of websites allowing for quick access to its structure have become a standard. However, we should remember about an update of the website “scheme” or even design something which will ensure its automatic change simultaneously, together with the update of the website structure. Solutions based entirely on colour should be avoided in navigation. Not only do they make the user learn the meaning of particular colours, but they may turn out to be useless for people who are colourblind.

References

Text references should be formulated in such a way that an Internet user has no doubt as to where it leads to. Not only does it have to encourage to click, but it should be a keyword. It is not advisable to use general expressions like “click here”. Instead of using the expression “In order to see brand-new digital cameras, click here.”, it is better to use: “Brand-new digital cameras”. The text should not be too long (maximum four words). Underlined text is commonly used for references. Apart from coloured, it is additionally highlighted. Titles of references are a great facilitation for an Internet user. They let surfers predict what kind of information is on the website to which they refer, and simultaneously save time of loading the web page which does not meet the needs of the surfer. The title of the reference should not exceed 80 characters. In case the text in a precise manner describes resources it refers to, there is no need to add another element requiring the user’s attention. The standard colour used for references is blue (pages not visited yet) and purple for pages visited. This principle can be simplified: visited reference should be in lighter colour than not visited one. Especially on web pages with a great number of references, a few of which require additional highlighting, red is acceptable instead of blue. We can use any shade of these two colours. The application of a different colour will make navigation functionality worse and make it impossible for the users to decide what web pages they have already visited. While highlighting a simple text and headlines, we cannot use colours reserved for references and the other way round.

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This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. mLingua provides professional language translations in all major Western and Asian languages, software localization and web site translation services. Please visit http://mlingua.pl

Tags: Web Design, website

You’ve decided to build a website. Great! Your first step is to determine its structure, the pages you want to include and the information you want provide to visitors. But how to begin?

Your first instinct may be to make your site different from everyone else’s. After all, trying to differentiate your business is what you’ve been doing throughout your branding process.

Building a website is like building a custom home

When you create a custom house, you can arrange your floor plan however you want, paint the walls as you please and fill the house with furniture you love. Your goal is to create a unique space that stands out from everyone else’s.

In the same vein, there are elements of your website where standing out makes sense. For example, the overall look of your site and your copy should be different from other sites, especially those of your competitors.

Differentiating your website is good for your small business to a point. What you don’t want to do is re-engineer its basic structure.

Standing out isn’t always the stable way to build

Underneath it all, even the most unique custom home has the same foundation and spacing between studs in the wall as every other house on the block.

By following underlying principles of construction, builders help ensure that the house is structurally sound. Why not use the same approach when it comes to your website? That way, your site is far more likely to work well for you.

To use site building rules, of course, you need to know what they are.

Rule 1: Do competitive research

Before someone sets out to build a custom house, they’ll probably do quite a lot of research looking at other houses, determining the architectural styles that appeal to them, and perhaps even checking out homes in the neighborhood where they want to build.

The same goes for your website. You need find out what you’re up against. Once you’re familiar with competitors’ sites, you can make sure that your site will not only be different in the right places, such as look and feel and content, but that it will also be comparable in the right places.

Most likely, your competitors have been building their sites for some time and probably updating them to answer customer questions and market their businesses more strongly. You don’t want prospects to pass you by because your site doesn’t answer an important question that a competitor has addressed.

Visiting other sites and making notes of basic structure, business information presented, customer questions answered and even relevant tools and articles gives you a jump start on creating a site that facilitates apples-to-apples comparisons.

Rule 2: Plan your site architecture

As you may suspect, planning your site architecture is like drawing up architectural plans for a custom house, where you plan just what you’ll include and what will go in each space. For example, do you want a library? A formal dining room? And where will you put the piano?

Similarly, for your website, you must decide the pages you’ll include and the information on each page.

When planning your site architecture, think about what you’d like your website to do for your business. Do you want it to bring in clients and close sales? If so, pricing information and even a shopping cart can help do that. Do you need your site to get media attention? Then a Media Room might be the key. Make sure to include the pages and content required to get the job done.

In addition, think about how you plan to expand your website in the future. At the beginning, designing a website of more than 10 pages can overwhelm a small business both in terms of budget and time required to write the content.

But, if you create an expanded site map at the beginning a website wish list if you will then you and your website strategist can determine which pages will be most important in helping you reach your goals. You’ll also have a clear roadmap you can use to add on to your website as your budget and schedule allow.

For more about the pages to include on your website, see this article: Pages To Include On Your Website.

Rule 3: Name your pages in a way that makes sense

Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar house and been unable to find your way around? You probably asked the hostess where the kitchen was so you could drop off your pot luck dish or the way to the bathroom.

On a website, though, visitors don’t have the luxury of asking where things are. So you want to make it as easy as possible for them to find the information that they need.

Some small businesses want navigation button names to be clever or interesting. But, it’s important to think about the website visit from your customers’ or prospects’ point of view. They often come to your site looking for specific information. Even if they’re just browsing, they want an organized way to look around where clicking a link takes them to the page they expect. Remember that visitors don’t have a lot of time or the patience to bumble around your site.

You see the same navigation buttons on every site you visit for a good reason. Established usage conventions have trained visitors to look for names like “Services,” “About” and “Contact” when they’re out browsing around. Capitalize on this and your visitors will be able to find what they’re looking for quickly keeping your site and your business in their good graces.

Following these three simple rules makes it much more likely that your website is structurally sound and that your visitors will have a great experience there instead of a frustrating one.

Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big visibility for small businesses. Her ebook, “All The News About Email Newsletters” will tell you everything you need to know about desiging, writing, and sending out an email newsletter to stay in touch with your clients and prospects. http://www.elf-design.com/products-mini-newsletter.html