Web Development Articles

Get FASTER Download Times By Making BIGGER Web Pages!

2005-05-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

As a webmaster you already know how important it is that your web pages download fast. In a nutshell, if your pages are slow, then you're losing visitors. And if you're losing visitors, you're losing money.

To speed up your download times, most web design experts will suggest that you optimize your GIFs and JPGs so that they download faster. They'll suggest that you make your images smaller or remove them altogether. Or they'll simply suggest that you put less stuff on your pages.

All of these methods work. The problem, however, is that they all involve doing things that you don't want to do. You don't want to squeeze any more quality and color out of your images. The same goes for your content - you put it there because you want it there. Basically, there's only so far you can go with these approaches before you really start to ruin your page.

Fortunately, there's one way to get your pages opening faster without having to compromise your images or your content. This is a simple and effective method, but one that is rarely discussed by the web design experts.

To understand this approach, it's important to recognize the difference between "perceived" download time and "actual" download time. The perceived download time is the time it takes to have enough stuff displayed on your page for the visitor to be able to start studying your content. The actual download time is the time it takes for the entire page and all its contents to be fully downloaded.

The perceived download time is the one that really counts. Why? Because once your visitor has something before his/her eyes to read or look at, then there is much less risk that he/she will click away because your page is taking too long to load.

So how do you improve your perceived download time?

Simple, you break the content of your page down into two or more tables.

You see, web browsers will not start displaying the contents of a table until it has compiled the entire table to the end. Once a table is compiled it will display, and the browser will start compiling the next table.

That means that if you place the entire contents of your page inside one big table, the browser will have to compile the entire contents of your page before anything will be displayed. The result: your visitor spends all that time staring at a blank screen.

However, by putting some of the content towards the top of the page into a table of its own, the rest of the page can be downloading farther down, while your visitor is busy studying the stuff that's already displayed.

I've used this method to great effect on my own website. I went from an actual download time of up to 20 seconds (staring at a white screen) down to a perceived download time of rarely more than 3 seconds (often as low as 1 second)!

The ironic thing is, my page is now bigger (in terms of Kilobytes) than it was before I made the change. That's because 2 tables take more HTML than one.

But boy has that extra bit of HTML paid off!

Make a test page now and try it out. Your hit counter will thank you for it!

Choosing the Right Web Designer

2005-05-10T13:39:00.001-07:00

Introduction

Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design company for your site is extremely important. Unless you run a web-based business, you probably do not have web design experience within your company. Building your web site will take time and a little homework!

To create a web site for your business, follow these 4 simple steps:

Establish your goals
Determine your budget
Pick a web design company
Pick a web hosting company

10 Web Site Design And Writing No-No's

2005-05-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

1. Don't load your web site with a lot of high tech clutter. Your visitors may miss your whole sales message.

2. Don't use unnecessary words or phrases on your site. You only have so much time to get your visitor's attention and interest; make ever word count.

3. Don't make the mistake that everyone will totally understand your web site message. Use descriptive words and examples to get your point across.

4. Don't write your strongest point or benefit only once. You should repeat it at least 3 times because some people may miss it.

5. Don't push all your words together on your web site. People like to skim; use plenty of headings and sub headings.

6. Don't use site content your target audience isn't interested in. If people are coming to your site to find info about fishing don't include soccer content.

7. Don't use 50 different content formats all over your web site. Use the same fonts, text sizes, text colors, etc.

8. Don't use words your web site visitors might not understand. People are not going to stop and look in a dictionary, they will just go to another site.

9. Don't let selling words and phrases go unnoticed. Highlight important words and phrases with color, bolding, italics, underlining, etc.

10. Don't forget to use words that create emotion. All people have emotions, people will have more interest when they are emotionally attached.

Autoresponder Tips

2005-05-10T13:38:00.001-07:00

An autoresponder is useful for, well, responding to people who send you inquiries through email. They are actually more than just merely useful - they are an essential tool in any webmaster's toolbox. Used properly, they can enhance your visitors experience and virtually guarantee that they will come back time after time. Used improperly, they annoy people and push them away from ever coming back.

What distinguishes proper from improper use? People should receive messages when they would normally expect to receive messages. Here are some examples:

Proper: I expect to get a thank you message after signing a guestbook. I should only receive one message.
Improper: adding my email to your mailing list because I sign your guestbook.
Proper: I also expect to get a message if I use a form on a website to send a message to the webmaster. This verifies to me that it is indeed more than likely to get to the intended person.
Improper: again, adding my email address to your mailing list.
Proper: If I sign up for your newsletter I expect a thank you email and, of course, the newsletter.
Improper: Adding my email to anything other than the mailing list which I asked to be added to. Also, sending anything other than the newsletter is generally improper although an occasional status email is acceptable. Never send separate advertisements unless it is clearly spelled out on the newsletter signup page.
Proper: Following your written privacy policy to the letter in regards to how the email address (and other information) is to be used, and to summarize that information on the page where it is asked for. You should also have a link to the privacy policy on every single page of your web site.
Improper: Not having a written privacy policy and asking for information. Not explaining how the information is to be used on the page where it is asked for. Not following your written policies.
Proper: Including autoresponder links on your website to deliver articles and information to an email box.
Improper: Using these links to add email addresses to your mailing list.
Proper: If you make articles available for reprint, it is always a good idea to include autoresponder links to make it easy for publishers to get those articles in a suitable format.
Improper: Using these autoresponder links to add people to your mailing list.
Proper: Allow visitors to sign up for an email course using an autoresponder.
Improper: Adding email addresses obtained in this manner to your mailing list.
Proper: Follow up for an order or other communication. For example, a "did you receive your order okay?" message a few days after the order was taken is excellent customer service.
Improper: Sending more than an acknowledgement and follow up message. The person ordered something, he did not ask to be on your mailing, advertisement or nag list.

I am sure you see a major common thread in all of this - don't add people to your mailing list unless (a) you tell them you are doing to, (b) you give them the chance to say "no", and (c) they explicitly give their permission. NEVER assume your visitor wants to be added to your mailing list - make him explicitly ask by filling out a form, checking a box (off by default) or some other similar means.

Autoresponders have some excellent uses:

As an acknowledgement or thank you for something.
As a way to get something delivered in email form (reprint publishers love this method of obtaining articles).
As a way to deliver a series of something (like an email course) to someone.

One use of autoresponders that drives me crazy (and ensures that I will never return to that site) is common with contests. Let say I sign up to try and win a million dollars. I try and of course I don't win. Now I get these silly reminder messages for the rest of time, telling me in all manners that I've won, or almost won, or could win, or might win ... I usually hit delete a few times, then quickly unsubscribe.

All right, so now you know how to use and not to use autoresponders. So where do you get them? They are available all over the internet. If your site is hosted on a paid host (such as Addr.com), you may find that they offer unlimited autoresponders. If so, take advantage of them. These are generally single-message autoresponders.

GetResponse.com has an excellent autoresponder service. They offer a limited function free version, and one of the most functional paid versions that exist. Their prices are reasonable and the autoresponders always seem to work perfectly.

AWeber.Com has another excellent autoresponder service. Of course, any good guestbook package has the ability to send a customizable message to the signer. Good forms packages also include this ability.

Now, what do you put into an autoresponder messages? Whatever you said or implied you would, plus some ticklers to try and get your visitors to come back to your site.

Thus, if you send back a thank you message for signing a guestbook, you can also include a short list of some of the other features available on your website. Perhaps a small article or even a link to a "free gift" for signing the guestbook.

Remember, don't make the two mistakes of autoresponders. First, do not waste your opportunity. You are sending a person a message which he asked for or expects, so be sure to include more than just "thanks for signing my gustbook". At least put the URL of your site, and include a paragraph about it.

Second, do not abuse your opportunity, as that will just get the message deleted. I've found it is generally NOT a good idea to put blatant advertisements in these messages, especially for pay-to-surf, MLM or affiliates. Why not? I believe these things are best left to your website or to a newsletter or ezine specifically tailored for them. A major exception is in a newsletter itself, as, like magazines and newspapers, advertisements are expected in order to cover the costs of the publication.

In summary, autoresponders are an excellent tool which all webmasters would be wise to use to their advantage. Just be sure to use them properly.

Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site

2005-05-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good. On top of that, your guestbook is filling with great comments and you're getting a few emails now and then with praise and perhaps a question or two.

Now is a good time to sit back and examine the subject (or subjects) of your site. What is the theme? What are you trying to accomplish? Then once you've got your site visualized, start to think about it from the perspective of a new visitor. Put yourself in their shoes, and assume you know nothing. What questions would you have? Write down these questions or type them into a document as you think of them.

What you are creating is a list of frequently asked questions (commonly abbreviated as FAQ). These are questions that your visitors may have about your site, the subject or theme, or even about you. Just about any question is valid, as long as it is helpful to your visitors.

Let's create an example of, say, a web site about model railroading. Now, what questions would you have if you surfed to that site? You might want to know "what is it?", "when did it start?", "how much does it cost?", "why does this site exist?" and "who is the webmaster?".

That last question is more important than it seems at first glance, as putting a face behind a web site increases it's credibility and makes it more likely that your visitors will (a) return, (b) tell their friends, and (c) purchase something (if your site is commercial). Some web guru's will tell you never to include information the webmaster - these people simply do not understand human nature. In general, people will trust another person far more easily than they will trust a web site or a machine.

Once you've got your list of questions, go ahead and create one or more web pages (create as many as you like). Add the questions to the pages, along with the answers. If you feel like linking to articles within your site go ahead. I would avoid including external links at this point, as you want to get people interested in your site, not someone else's.

Remember to keep your answers short and to the point. You are not trying to duplicate your web site. Your goal is to give your visitors some quick answers to their questions to get them more interested in looking around further.

As you are adding your questions and answers, you will most likely come up with additional questions. By all means, add those to your frequently asked questions as well.

Some webmasters like to include a form at the bottom of their questions to allow people to submit additional one's if desired. This is a great idea, as it is an easy way to improve your web site's interactivity - which is usually very good for getting people to return later.

I would not recommend, however, doing what I've seen some webmasters do - automate this function. I guess the idea is to get your visitors involved in answering the questions. In this case, the FAQ becomes more or less a moderated message board. I prefer just to receive my visitors questions in an email, which I can then either answer directly or add to the FAQ when I get the chance.

FAQ's are great for answering simple questions that your visitors may have before they send you an email. It is important to remember to include a link to the FAQ in a prominent place on every single page of your website - you want people looking at them when they have questions.

In summary, FAQ's tend to pull visitors into your site and make them feel better about it, which means they are more likely to return for more again and again.

Website Design Basic Concepts

2005-05-10T13:36:00.001-07:00

So, what's in a website design anyway? And, how do you get a design that is appealing to the broad and varied tastes of all those Internet surfers out there?

This is critical. Your website design is the first impression you make on your customers and visitors. There are a few sites in my favorites and bookmarks that I consider poorly designed. I still have them, because they have information I want. Lucky for the site owner that their content was that good! But one day I will find another site with the same information and a better design. Then guess who will be in my favorites and who will be left out? Maybe your content is great too, but don't take chances on a poor design. Think how much more repeat traffic and referred traffic you will get if you have both great content and great design.

Design Taste Varies - OK, design is a matter of taste and target audience to some degree. What looks good to one visitor may not be so great to another. Here we have the old adage of "one man's trash is another man's treasure". But there are solid basics that go into good site design. Creating a distinctive visual style and applying it consistently is the best way to bind a series of subjects and web pages together.

Layouts - The layout of your site is an important design element. A webpage is a document, plain and simple. It is like formatting a letter, an outline, a report, or an advertisement. Establish a layout grid and a style for handling your text and graphics, then stick with it to build a consistent rhythm and unity across all the pages of your site. Make it easy to follow, pleasing to the eye. Learn to use tables and nested tables, lists, and even well designed frames for controlling layouts.

Color - Color has a lot to do with target audience as well. What appeals to a teenager may not work with a target audience of baby-boomers, and so forth. But anybody can appreciate color coordination. Color coordination can be learned. Yes, it's a lot easier if you have a natural "knack" for these things, but you can learn basic color coordination techniques that make the difference between "tacky, yuk!!!" and "soothing to the eye".

Safe Colors - Everyone does NOT have 16 million colors on their computer. Learn to use the websafe 216 colors. Notice that's 216 colors, not 256 colors. This is a matter of video card capability and you are at the mercy of the viewer's personal computer system. Your best bet is to stick to 6 x 6 x 6 bit color resolution (216 colors) to cover the majority of Internet users. The 216 color palette gives you plenty for design options. Sure, not as many as 256 colors or 16 million, but still plenty to accomplish what you want or need to do with color.

Page Load Time - Now I'll be the first person to admit that I have made *personal* web pages which have large graphics or music .wav files and other things that take awhile to load. The point here is, they are my personal websites, *not* my professional or commercial websites. I may use these long loading pages for demo-ing several techniques, or chatting with friends and other developers, but never never never for professional site design (unless my client insists, in which case I do not use their site as a demo to other potential clients!). This doesn't mean you have to give up everything on professional sites. It just means take it easy, use only one high-load-time element or two, learn to compress your graphics properly, and if you've got that much "stuff" then break it up into more than one page.

Don't Overdo IT - A typical mistake among developers is to overdo it when putting together a website. Try to use extras in moderation. Some common things that get overused are:

graphics
background images
bevels and other graphic tricks
excessive frames
text scrolling, animated .gif's, page fade-ins

Too much of something just comes off as being "cutsie", tacky, or unoriginal...but used properly it can add just the right touch. Learn to use things that compliment your site's content, and not to overdo it with extra techniques and tricks.

Readability - Make your pages as easy to read as possible. Black text on a white or off-white background is the easiest to read. There are plenty of hard-to-read pages that use backgrounds the same shade as the text (dark text on a dark background and light on light), or what I call the "neon" look with bright color on bright color.

Learn to use the tag and give your readers a font that's easy on the eye. I always think it's such a shame to see a site full of great content and then left in the default Times New Roman font. Use a sans-serif font - arial and verdana are good choices, then put "sans-serif" generic font in your last html tag attribute to cover anyone that may not have a specific font you listed as a first choice or second choice.

Browser and Monitor Compatibility -. Learn to make your web pages compatible with both Microsoft Internet Explorer(IE) and Netscape Navigator. After preparing a site, test it in both browsers and ondifferent screen sizes or resolutions. Typical figures are 80% of Internet users are on the IE browser, 80% using 800 x 600 resolution, and most on a 15" or 17" screen....but, can you really afford for your site to look poor to 20% of the market? The answer is NO. Make your site compatible with both browsers and take that silly "best viewed with..." graphic off the site! Furthermore, use alt tags in your graphics for people who surf with images turned off, or on smaller browsers which don't support them.

Using Java - Personally, I like Java and use it in site design. However, you have to remember many people turn it off for one reason or another. Or they may be using a browser that doesn't support it.Therefore, if you use a java driven menu (quite popular nowadays), you better have some alternate navigation.

The article is an excerpt from the "Master The Web" ebook. For a complete copy of the eBook visit
http://www.eyerstation.com/ebook2.html

Choosing A Color Scheme

2005-05-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

When you begin the design of your Web site, one of the first things you need to do is decide on a color scheme. Although choosing colors seems like a relatively easy proposition, it's not easy at all. In fact, it's hard.

One of the pluses we have as Web designers is that millions of colors are at our disposal. Unlike the print world, we do not have to pay for each color we use. If we want to use a specific hue of yellow, for example, all we need to know is the hexadecimal code for that particular color.

One of the pitfalls of having millions of colors to pick from is that some people go crazy and use every color imaginable on their Web site. This is a big no-no. Not only does it look unprofessional to use 20 different colors on your home page, but depending on the colors you choose, your page may not be readable.

It is extremely important to pick hues that complement each other. You will want to use a background color that contrasts well with the color of your text. People are used to reading black text on a white background. I keep this fact in mind when I design my clients' Web sites. Although I have never stuck with the black and white color scheme, I try to use a dark font on a light background. It makes for easier reading and a more pleasant experience for my visitors.

Color affects our emotions. For example, the color red makes us hungry. If you're on a diet, it wouldn't be a good idea to set your table with a red tablecloth!

Colors like blue and green are cool. Have you noticed in the summertime how sitting in a blue room automatically makes you feel refreshed?

Yellow is a wonderful brightener. It is cheerful and warm -- like the sun.

When using colors on your Web site, you need to consider the mood you want to create and the audience you are designing for.

If you are designing a Web site for children, red is an excellent color choice, because it attracts the eye and stimulates our metabolism. Red is cheerful and exuberant.

Blue is an excellent choice for a business site because it exudes professionalism, wealth and power.

If you are designing a Web site for a nature group, greens and browns are natural choices because they are colors that are commonly found in the outdoors. Another important consideration when choosing color schemes is cultural differences. For example, black is the color most commonly associated with mourning in the United States, but in Japan, white symbolizes sorrow. In Malaysia, green is associated with disease, and red symbolizes anger in Indonesia. As you can see by just these three examples, color is interpreted quite differently depending on the country. You must be careful if you don't want to insult your visitors.

Choosing an appropriate color scheme for your Web site is extremely important. Your color scheme must be carefully considered because the wrong choices could adversely affect your visitor's experience at your Web site. You only have one chance to make a good impression. Don't blow it!

For more information about choosing color schemes, visit the following resources on the Web:

The Color Schemer
http://www.godigitalstudios.com/www/color

Clear Ink's Palette Man
http://www.paletteman.com/

Project Cool Developer Zone
http://www.projectcool.com/developer/reference/color-chart.html

VisiBone Web Design Color References
http://www.visibone.com/color/

A book that illustrates excellent use of color on the Web is "Web Site Graphics: Color" by Jeff Carlson, Toby Malina and Glenn Fleishman. For more information about this book, visit http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564965163/glasspoolewebdev

Website Polls For You And Your Visitors

2005-05-10T13:35:00.001-07:00

Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor. Choose interesting topics, poll opinions on recent events related to your site, and people will participate to find out what other people on your site think. Second, if you write your surveys in a way that keeps them interesting and useful to yourself you can gather important information about your visitors in order to build a site better tailored to their interests.

STEP 1: Set Up The Software

You'll need to either sign up for a remotely hosted poll service or to install a CGI script on your own in order to manage your polls.

While a remotely hosted poll is not as customizable as one you host on your own, it's definitely easier to set up. One of the more popular of the many free remotely hosted poll services out there is PollIt. You can have your poll up and running fast after registering and filling out a couple forms: http://www.pollit.com/webpolls

The other option is to find or write a CGI script to run the poll on your site. This gives you the ability to customize the poll to look exactly as you want it and to fit in with your site. It also eliminates the links back to the poll host that many remotely hosted ones have. You can find a good one here: http://www.cgi-world.com/pollit.html

STEP 2: Write Your Question

The goal of your poll is to create a more interactive website for your visitors and to collect information for yourself. Choose topics where responses would interest both the visitor to your site and yourself. Ask a question about the topics your site covers to find out what your visitors want more information about.

You may even ask questions directly related to your website. Ask "what do you want to read more of" and list several topics your site covers or may cover in the future. Ask "how often do you read our daily gardening tips" and find out exactly how popular they are.. or aren't.

STEP 3: Post Your Poll

Placement is key! You won't get a heaping response to your poll unless it's very well written. Place the poll towards the top of the page where it will be visible when the page loads. While some of the remotely hosted services offer polls that pop up when the page loads, these will generally get less response than one integrated into your site well.

With CGI-based polls, you can usually use SSI or Server-Side-Includes to include your poll right in your webpage without doing much editing. Do a search at any major search engine for more information on this.

STEP 4: Use Your Results

Once you've acquired enough votes to get an idea of what your visitors are voting overall, use this information to improve your site. Build your site based on what your visitors really want to see. If they tell you they want to learn about topics over other topics, focus more on the ones they're interested in.

Hopefully this will lead to a more successful site for you in the long run. Your users will benefit from a more interactive site and a responsive website owner who tailors the site to their wants and needs.

Some Useful Common Site Ideas

2005-05-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

In my web surfing adventures, I've found a few site elements which make surfing easier and more enjoyable. There are no concrete, hard- and-fast rules to follow - these are just observations of some things which I virtually always look for in a site.

So without further ado, here is my list.

I often look for a way to contact the webmaster. I may want to tell him something about his site (privately), propose a link exchange or just drop him a line. I feel an email link or a link to a form is something to expect to find on every single page. If you are running a commercial site this is essential - your customers want to be able to tell or ask you things and if you want their business you had better make it easy for them.
I like guestbooks. When I run into a site that I find enjoyable, I want to tell the webmaster. Give him or her a compliment - I think it's a good exchange. The webmaster worked hard and provided something that was entertaining, informative or useful. It's nice to let him know in return. So please put a link to the guestbook on every page.
A good navigational system is very important. A menu of some kind, with a link back to the home page, needs to be on every page of the site. Sometimes this may consist of a simple "previous" and "next", but please always add a "home" link in this case. If I've surfed a ways on your site, I want to be able to get back to the index quickly without using the "back" button.
Nothing makes me leave a site faster than finding one of those silly little "right click" scripts which attempts to disable the right-click functions. Not only do these not work, but they are rude and violate some of the primary tenets of the internet - free, sharing, and community. Also, you are modifying my browser controls - which is not a nice thing to do. If you display something on your page I guarantee you that it can be taken, no matter how many scripts or functions you install.
Speaking of browser control - don't modify my screen size, buttons, menus, cursors or anything else that my browser does. You want me to leave fast - resize my browser to fit the whole screen and remove the menu. I will be out of your site in a second!\
Whether your site is personal or professional, tell me a little about yourself, your wife, your kids, and your pets. I find it much easier to like someone and be receptive to their message if I know something about them. Just a quick page with a few paragraphs is fine. If you are going to ask me to fill out a form, please let me know how you are going to use the information. You want my address? Why? Phone number? What do you need that for? More importantly, how safe is this information?
I know many people like to put banner exchanges on their sites, but please keep it to a minimum. First, banner exchanges don't work very well. Second, they make the pages load slowly. And third, if there is more than one or two banners on a page it's pretty tacky. If you are going to insist on putting background music on your site, please give me an obvious way to turn it off.
Please don't expect me to go searching through your whole page for a little dot hyperlink. I've found sites which bury the link to the next page in the strangest places - in someone's eye, for example. Normally, I am just going to leave instead of trying to find out how to navigate.

Well, that's a start. I hope these ideas are of some value and help you make a better, more friendly site.

Ten Basic Steps For Building A Web Site That Works

2005-05-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

1. Assemble a web site development plan that is integrated with your overall marketing processes; the content should be consistent with offline materials, the graphics/images don't have to be identical with traditional media, but should be consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of colors etc.

2. Hire a web site design firm that understands your market position and one that won't get "geek crazy" - meaning they are so in love with their own design capabilities, your site gets bogged down with graphics, plug ins, GIF garbage, etc. But, conversely, check your ego at the door when you work with your design firm - I've see so many good web site designs get ruined by clients who can't or won't listen to what we tell them!

3. Pay attention to "load times," how long it takes a web site to load on a 56 KBPS modem (this is an industry average), if its more than 12-18 seconds you may experience the "click of death" - the site doesn't load quickly and the surfer is gone. Of course, if your targeting broadband customers who are reaching your site via ISDN or DSL then you can build a site that incorporates multimedia-ready content that may include streaming audio or video, or Shockwave or Flash capabilities - go ahead and let those digital geeks get carried away with cutting edge content!

4. Dare I say it, "keep it simple" - make your site easy to move around in, build a menu structure that is consistent with industry standards, local menus (for a page or section) on the left and global menus (overall site navigation) at the top and/or bottom of each page, keep as much information "above the fold" (above the cutoff point at the bottom of a monitor), don't make people use horizontal scroll bars unless absolutely necessary.

5. Inculcate "digital speed" into your overall site design, your client/customers should be able to get to their desired area of your site within one or two mouse clicks; they will quickly get frustrated if they have to click-through multiple menus to find information they are seeking.

6. Develop content that is web-enabled, people don't read web site content like they do offline media, keep your paragraphs short no more than two to three sentences, build in white space with your content, include links in your pages - don't try to tell your whole marketing story on your site - get people to call you (hello the telephone still works!), e-mail or fill out a profile form (see below).

7. Make your site permission-based marketing ready - I love Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing" book, http://www.permission.com, and we recommend it to all of our clients - he champions building a long term relationship with a customer by asking their permission to continue to market to them and incorporating value/information in all marcom processes.

8. Ensure your site is optimized for Search Engines by identifying 8-12 keywords that people will use to find your site, then incorporate these keywords in your site content (to drive relevancy with s/engine spiders/bots) and then manually submit your site to the top ten search engines. We don't' recommend most of the free or $19.99 specials available; yes, all will get your registered with the s/engines, but getting listed on page 75 of 350 pages (for example) won't really drive qualified traffic to your site, you need page 1-3 listings on the top ten engines to really drive qualified traffic.

9. Delve into your log server files to uncover "digital tracks" made through your web site - your log files are raw files that show how and from where (in most cases) people accessed your web site, where they went on your web site, how long they stayed, etc. Web Trends is the defacto industry standard, http://www.webtrends.com/default.htm, but we use and recommend a market-experienced firm in Europe, Fantomaster, Ltd. to our clients http://www.fantomaster.com - they have a suite of Search Engine products that can be downloaded for free or purchased.

10. Think global in your overall site design - the greatest Internet growth is occurring outside North America, so it is essential to build a site that can be accessed easily by people around the world. What issues do you need to look at? Load times are very important (again), develop content that avoids colloquialisms that may not be understood by others who may not speak the same language, you may want to make your site content available in diverse languages, there are a number of emerging applications that will facilitate this process, ensure your e-commerce capabilities can be utilized by all.

Free Online Tools to Design (and Maintain) Your Website

2005-05-10T13:33:00.001-07:00

These days, it seems that everyone has a website. Unfortunately, many of these websites are either bland, or sloppily designed by people who don't understand how to use HTML effectively or are intimidated by it. And, they don't have the money to spend on a good page editor, so they limp along using the page templates that their website might provide, or they attempt to use programs like MS Word, which offers conversion to HTML. Yet, there are many free tools available that people can use to give their sites some extra polish that will put them a cut above most sites on the WWW. Here is a listing of three of my favorite online tools that will help you create and manage your site:

ColorMaker http://www.bagism.com/colormaker/
This is an essential site to use when designing web pages. It allows you to select the text, link, and background colors from a table. Then, you can preview your choices, and make changes to them to compare different color schemes and change them instantly. It even allows you to upload multiple backgrounds and combine them with your color choices. Once you have found the combination you're going to use, click the link that says, "copy the Body Tag," then copy the text that is shown, and paste it into your document.

Media Builder http://www.mediabuilder.com
If you don't have a graphics program, you can still have pictures on your site, and not be limited to their original size or color. GifWorks, part of the MediaBuilder Networks, is a free, online GIF editing program that will transform these files with a number of effects, and even make buttons for your site from any GIF that you upload.

QuickCheck http://www.elsop.com/linkscan/quickcheck.html
Nothing is more annoying on a website than dead links. But, checking links manually is quite time consuming, especially if you have many links on your pages. However, there is a free service that checks the links on your webpages, and even validates the HTML. Your pages can have up to 200 links each, and you can check 10 pages per hour and 50 per day.

I hope these tools help you to make your website even better than it is currently. Please let me know what you think of them.

Designing Professional Web Pages

2005-05-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

If your Web site doesn't project a professional and polished image to your visitors, your credibility and that of your products and services will suffer. Image is everything -- especially online where your competitor is only one mouse click away!

Before your first HTML code is written, you will need to consider your Web site's navigational structure, color scheme and page layout. Is your content developed? If not, who is going to write it?

Once you have done the necessary pre-planning, then the fun part begins -- coding your HTML pages.

Following are some steps to consider when laying out your Web pages:

I highly recommend that you try to get your home page to fit on one screen. Ideally, people shouldn't have to scroll down to see what your site has to offer. You may need to make your graphics smaller, but that's okay. Smaller graphics mean a quicker download time.
Be sure to check your pages at all the various screen resolutions. Although only a small percentage of users have their monitors set at 640x480, you will want to make sure your site looks good at that resolution. I design my Web pagesat 800x600, which is the average resolution. However, more and more users have their computer monitors set at higher resolutions, such as 1024x728. You will see that your pages will look radically different depending on the resolution. I personally have been horrified at how ugly my "beautiful" pages look on different computer screens.
Browsers are another very important consideration. Netscape and Internet Explorer both perform the same function -- display Web pages -- but the way they do so is strikingly different.
Your code needs to be very clean and pretty much flawlessto display correctly on Netscape. If you miss even one table tag (e.g., you forget to close a tag), you will be mighty surprised when you get nothing but a blank page on Netscape.
Internet Explorer is much more forgiving. It "assumes" what you meant to do. Netscape, on the other hand, is unassuming. If it doesn't understand your code, it simply will not display it.
NOTE: An excellent site to check your HTML code for browser compatibility, as well as screen size, is Anybrowser.com at http://www.anybrowser.com/
You will no doubt want to employ JavaScript and DHTML on your site because it's both functional and cool. However, those technologies work better on Internet Explorer than they do on Netscape. Many of the scripts that you can grab for free at sites like Dynamic Drive DHTML (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/) and Website Abstraction (http://www.wsabstract.com/) are written exclusively for Internet Explorer, so you will need to be very careful when deciding what to use on your Web site.
For example, on one of my sites I use a JavaScript to display the date and time. This script is supposed to work on both Internet Explorer and Netscape; however, a couple of days ago I noticed that the year on Netscape was 100 versus 2000. A 1,900 year variance is a pretty significant difference!
The titles on all of your Web pages need to be consistent -- not only in font style, size and color but also alignment. Make sure the spacing between the title and the first paragraph is consistent throughout your site. Make sure your spacing is uniform on all pages.
If your navigation is dependent on graphics (e.g., image maps, icons, buttons, Java, JavaScript), some of your visitors will have a problem getting around your site if their browser doesn't display graphics, or if they've chosen to turn graphics off on their browser settings for faster surfing. It is extremely important to provide text links in addition to graphic links. All of your users will see your text links, plus text loads faster than graphics.
It is an excellent idea to make your logo a clickable link back to your home page from all of the pages of your Web site. Many visitors expect to be able to use the logo to go back home. Don't forget to also include a text link to your home page.

These are only a few considerations in designing your Web pages, but they are very important. Don't let your beautiful pages look ugly on your visitor's computer screen.

If you are like me, you will find these issues among the most challenging aspects of designing professional Web sites.

About The Author

Joanne Glasspoole is a Webmaster and freelance Web designer. Visit her Web site for Internet and technology news, insightful articles, and links to excellent Webmaster resources to help you grow your online business. http://www.glasspoole.com

Bad Web Design: ActiveX

2005-05-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

ActiveX uses an interesting method for enforcing security ... it doesn't. Well, that's not exactly true. What happens is when a web page requests an ActiveX control the browser determines if that control is already loaded onto your system. If it is the ActiveX control is executed. If not, the user is asked if it is okay to install the control. Additional information about where the control came from and it's security implications is also included.

The theory behind this security model is the user knows what's best for his system. In my humble opinion, this is pure hogwash (a stronger expletive came to mind but this is a family site). Is your average web surfer really knowledgeable enough to make a decision like this? Look at it this way, by installing an ActiveX control you are assuming it is secure, won't damage your system and is bug-free. You are basically trusting completely the company which created the control, the developers and the people distributing the image.

Yes there are security certificates involved, but those are relatively easy to get. Also remember how many security problems have been reported involving ActiveX controls.

I don't know about you, but when I get that little box stating a site wants to install an ActiveX control, my first impulse is to hit the NO box, quickly followed by the BACK key. This may seem a bit paranoid, but I use my computer all day long and I depend upon it for business and pleasure. Why would I want to put it at any risk for some silly little ActiveX control? The web is a huge place and there are plenty of other sites to look at.

My advice to anyone is generally don't allow ActiveX controls to be installed from anywhere except for really big sites like Microsoft. It's just too difficult to judge how safe or unsafe the control happens to be.

How is this different from Java? Well, Java has an entirely different security model which does not make the assumption that the user has been educated about the specific Java applet. Java sets specific rules to what an applet can and cannot do, and generally these rules do an excellent job of preventing damage to a system (there have been bugs but no where near as many as with ActiveX).

On top of the security concerns, ActiveX only works in Internet Explorer. Yes, I know there is a plug in for Netscape but it's slow and not very usable. Besides, most Netscape users don't have it installed. If you are designing a web site, please consider this very carefully. If you include ActiveX controls you are losing as many as 50 percent of your visitors. Perhaps more, depending upon your market. Is any functionality that you might gain worth that cost?

Of course, if you are creating an Intranet (a web local to a company) then by all means use all of the ActiveX controls that you want. In this case, you have far more control over the user environment that you have on the web.

Transforming A Site From Good To Excellent

2005-05-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges of moving a web site up from good to excellent is transforming it from just a bunch of web pages and graphics to an interactive experience. Another term for this is community - a place where people can come to communicate with others. The very best web sites have mastered this transformation, thus attracting return visitors again and again.

The whole point of a web site is to communicate ideas and concepts to other people. If you are just putting up pages and graphics, then you are performing half of a communication. You are telling people what you think, want, desire or need.

The other half of communication is listening. That's why merely adding an email form (or link) and a guestbook go a long way to improve your visitor's experience with your web site. You are giving them the opportunity to tell you what's on their mind. If you also take the time to answer their messages and perhaps even get involved in an online communication - then you may very well have a friend for life.

You can add even more value (and get a few more visitors as well) by adding a "tell-a-friend" capability to your site. This adds a third and very interesting (although seemingly trivial) element to your site: the ability to add others to the communication.

Look at it this way. Someone surfed to your site and actually found something that was interesting. That's actually not an incredibly common occurrence on the internet (consider how many stupid, boring or just plain silly sites you've visited). Okay, they've found something interesting, perhaps very interesting, and they want to tell someone. You would be very wise to give them this capability. This is not just because it gains you another visitor, but it makes people feel better. Why? Because people like to share good experiences with each other.

You want to increase the ante? Include a message board! Now you've added another form of conversation to your website. People can jump on your board and leave messages for each other, answer questions and generally have discussions about whatever subject appeals to you. Some advice about message boards: be sure and actively moderate the board. Why? Some unscrupulous people have a tendency to leave advertisements, pornography, curses and flames on message boards. Unless that's what your board is about, none of this serves your purpose: to get people to talk about your subject and come back to your website.

Another good reason to moderate the board is it puts you in control, which is where you should be. It's your board and naturally conversations should be about subjects in which you are interested. The purpose of the board is to improve your site and your visitor experience - not ruin their good time.

Another great interactive feature which is not so obvious is running an awards program. What this accomplishes is simple: you are inviting people to submit their sites to you for review. By giving them the opportunity to apply for the award you are increasing the value of your site to them, and improving your chances of getting them back for more.

Perhaps one of the very best interactive features is hosting your own custom made e-cards. These are extremely popular and greatly improve your visitors experience on your site. Better yet, they give your visitors an opportunity to communicate (by sending cards) with their friends - and their friends may visit your site also.

Other features which increase your site's desirability even more is polls and surveys, interactive stories (to see our own interactive story, visit http://www.internet-tips.net/cgi-bin/story/story.pl - and add your own chapter), ezines and even chat rooms.

By adding these and other features, you are increasing your value to people who visit your site. If there is one thing that people like to do (and must do to survive well) it's communicate. By giving people many different ways to communicate, you are making it more likely that they will visit your site, stick around, and recommend it to their friends.

About The Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net

Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm

Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com

Keep Them Coming Back - Update Your Site

2005-05-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

If you are anything like me, your website is a reflection of yourself. It contains your thoughts and communications, exposed to the entire world at all times. Look at virtually any non-commercial web site and you will get a glimpse at the person behind the monitor.

I look at web sites all day long, and I am constantly amazed by the things that people reveal about themselves without saying anything. Is the website well organized or just a jumble of images and text thrown up at a moments notice? Is the site alive with color or just dull and lifeless black and white? Is the site exploding at the seams with content or is it just a collection of ads, banners or links?

All of these and many other clues tell me more about the webmaster than any of those 50 question psychological quizzes.

One clue that tells me more than anything else is whether or not the site is kept up-to-date. Sometimes I will see a beautiful web page - a work of art that comes from the heart and soul of a human being. I fall in love with the page and want to learn more, then click on a link and bam, page not found. I shrug, as every webmaster has a bad link now and then. Click on another, and another, and more than half of the links are dead. I sigh, then move on.

Or I'm reading wonderful stories about a person's life experiences and find, well, these are all years out of date. A little looking around the site and I find that nothing has been updated since 1997. I always feel a little sad when I see this - it's as if something inside the webmaster died. I wonder, did she grow tired of it all? Get married and lose interest? Perhaps even died? Who knows, there is no clue on the site at all. It's just ... abandoned.

Another clue to a neglected site - the person created a webring and got several hundred people to join. The ring is obviously a creation of love as it's not easy to get so many sites to join up. The ring graphics are wonderful, the join page is beautifully written, and I am actually very impressed. I start to surf the ring and quickly find that over half the sites no longer exist. Another dozen have removed the ring code. How sad. It's one thing to lose interest in a webring ... but to just abandon it? I wonder what changed in a person's life caused this work of love and community to just be discarded so easily.

Or it could be that a person and simply doesn't update their site very often. There is a wonderful comic book site which is simply beautiful, yet sometimes months go by without a single update! It's so frustrating as I really am intrigued and want to come back to visit this guy's private world. I haven't checked in a long time - why bother, since the site is updated so infrequently?

My feeling is simple. Create the best website that you can with the knowledge that you have. You will never be finished, as there will always be more to say and show. You are a living, breathing human and you are learning more every day. Thus, there should always be something of value that you can add to your web site.Presumably, you've created your web site to communicate something to the rest of the world. It could be that you want to write up your life story, explain about the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, or simply compile a list of the best blonde jokes. It's possible that you even want to make a few dollars now and then by selling a nice product. Why settle for just getting someone to read what you've got to say and move on? Why not continually update your message so that your readers come back time after time to find out what new and wonderful things you've posted this week.

Think you've said everything that can be said about your subject? There are many options to this method of continual updates. You could add a message board to start virtual conversations with your visitors. Or perhaps you could add a weekly column (and associated ezine) to get people to come back. Even if you've said everything there is to say, perhaps you can add pictures, sound and videos or change the layout or presentation.

Be sure and let people know what's new by including a "What's New" section right on your front page. This serves to your visitors right to the new content immediately. It also lets them know that you are updating the site all of the time, which means they will want to come back again and again just to see what you have written or changed.

A periodic ezine is another way to stay in contact with your readers, letting them know what's going on at your special website. Another great way to get people to come back is to become active in newsgroups or email discussion lists (such as egroups and topica). By posting useful information at these places you will get people wanting to come to your site to find out what else you've got to say.

Which, of course, leads back to the original premise of this article. If you want people to come back to your site, you had better be keeping it up-to-date, accurate and adding new content all of the time. Otherwise, your readers will grow tired and move on to greener pastures.

And that's the saddest thing of all ... an abandoned creation of love and passion.

About The Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net

Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm

Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com

CSS Cascading Style Sheets tricks

2005-04-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets allow you to implement a few neat effects on your webpages easily. You can implement these CSS effects on your site by simply copying and pasting the code.

ROLLOVER COLOR TEXT LINKS

Have your text links change color when the mouse passes over them by inserting this code into the HEAD of your document:

LINKS WITH NO UNDERLINE

Remove the underline from any or all of the links on your page by putting this in the HEAD of your document:

Or, remove the underline form individual links by forming them like this:

link

LINKS WITH A LINE ABOVE AND BELOW THEM

This is an interesting look that works especially well as a hover attribute for your links, but can also be applied to all of your links. It will show the normal underline and a line above the link:

HIGHLIGHTED TEXT

Highlight important text on your page or words you want to stand out, easily:

highlighted text

Try adding it to your link hover for a neat effect:

BACKGROUND IMAGE THAT ISNT TILED

This will create a background image that doesn't repeat:

You can also center it, however it will be centered as the background of the entire document, not centered on the screenful: