Freelance Writers Five Reasons Why You Need A Website

Writen by Sharon Hurley Hall

These days, if you're starting a career as a freelance writer, it's no longer enough to ring up a few editors and distribute a few business cards. Most of the people who want to hire you will ask if you have a website. If the answer is 'no', you could lose out on some valuable sources of income. Here are five reasons why you should have a web presence.

1. Developing the brand of you
As a writer, your name is your brand. People will like or hate your stuff, trust or distrust your opinions. Either way, they'll have positive or negative feelings every time they see an article with your name on it. So your job is to build editors' and readers' trust in that brand.

2. Writing is your business - you need to treat it like one
Every reputable business has a website that showcases its products and services. You should too. How else are people going to know what you have to offer? A website allows your potential clients the luxury of accessing your information in their own time. You should include a resume, references, services (types of writing), samples of work, links to where you're published on the net.

3. Efficiency
A website is a time saving way of showcasing your past and current work (an online portfolio or selection of clips). You can point editors to it as well - a time saver for you and them. No longer do you have to spend time selecting and printing your best work. Instead, upload examples to your site and link to other places where your work has been published.

4. Make your passion work for you
Some of the writing you do will be for love rather than money, but that's no reason why you can't make it work for you. Upload your short stories, poetry, novel chapters and so on to show how creative you are.

5. Skills development
If you do the web development yourself, you'll also be gaining another valuable skill. The discipline of editing your material for a website will be invaluable when you're trying to get a commission to write 40 web articles for a pittance (we all have to start somewhere).

So what are you waiting for? Get your stuff on the net and start building the brand of you.

Sharon Hurley Hall is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor. Sharon worked in publishing for 18 years, writing articles and editing and designing books and magazines. She has also lectured on journalism. For more information or to contact Sharon, visit doublehdesign.com. Sharon also publishes freelance writing advice

Website Benefits Why A Website Could Be Beneficial To Your Organisation

Writen by Sharon Kirby

Do you need a web site? Are you considering getting one but are unsure? Here we take a look at the main reasons why a web site could be beneficial to your organisation.

1) It will give you the competitive edge

If you do not have a web site people cannot visit it – an obvious point you might say. But if your competitors have web sites people will be visiting them! These people are your potential customers! Remember also that many businesses have yet to get online, therefore a web site will give you the competitive edge.

2) It will be an effective method of advertising

A web site is not a substitute for other advertising media but works very successfully alongside it to enhance your image. You can add your domain name to other printed media - flyers, business cards, signs etc; these are places where many people expect to find your web site details nowadays. They will then expect to go to your web site for further information.

3) It will enhance your credibility

People these days will expect you to have a web site. If they hear about your organisation the first thing many of them will do will be to look on the Internet to see if they can find your web site. If you do not have one they may perceive you to be less credible and may not believe you are a 'real' business. Even worse they may stumble across your competitors and forget all about you.

4) It will enhance your communication efforts

Communication with potential customers and clients is of huge importance. A web site can provide all of your contact details, including email addresses. Many people prefer to make contact via email, as it is quick, easy, cheap and convenient. You can even include interactive features, such as feedback forms and customer query forms. People can sign up for a mailing list to receive information on your latest products and services.

5) It will be available around the clock

Your web site works for you day and night to give you constant coverage. Internet users can access your information regardless of whether or not it is business hours. You can reach current and potential customers 24 hours a day. It is almost like having an extra office that is always open!

6) You will have a global audience

You can reach out to a worldwide audience. Your services will be available for viewing locally, nationally and internationally, creating a much broader awareness of your organisation and potentially a larger customer base. Other more traditional forms of advertising reach a very small geographic area in comparison so a web site is potentially a very powerful marketing tool.

7) It can be easily updated

The information on your web site can be quickly and easily updated to include changes to your products, services, special offers or contact details. These details cannot be changed on brochures, flyers, business cards or any other existing print based advertising medium – they will all have to be reprinted.

8) You can trade online

Your web site can act as an online brochure, putting your products and services where people can see them. People can find your products and contact you by email to make enquiries, and you can provide online order forms. You can even have an online shopping cart where the customer proceeds to a virtual checkout and pays by credit or debit card.

9) You don't have to carry lots of stock

You can have pictures and descriptions of your products and services on your web site. When you receive a request for a product you can order it in specifically for the customer. You don't have to buy lots of stock upfront; money is not tied up. Some suppliers will supply the customer direct so you don't even have to see the stock.

10) It will make the most of impulse buying

People can look at your online information straight away when it suits them. People are impatient and impulsive and may not be prepared to wait for your other advertising efforts to reach them. For example, if they have to wait 3-4 days for your brochure to reach them through the post, by that time they could have found another product from somewhere else.

Armed with these facts, you should now be in a position to tell if a web site is the solution for you.

About The Author

Copyright, Sharon Kirby

Sharon Kirby, MSc, BSc provides affordable web site design services to small businesses. She believes everyone should have the opportunity to raise his or her online profile. To learn more please visit http://www.featuredesigns.com

In Business 10 Reasons Why You Need A Website Now

Writen by Malcolm Cooper

1) Word of Mouth
The single most powerful form of new business creation is word of mouth. Your past customers, friends, acquaintances and staff aren't likely to carry your brochure or even your business card everywhere they go. The can however carry your domain name, in their heads! Every time they have a conversation that leads to your kind of business they just quote your simple domain name. You've chosen a simple domain name of course, easily remembered, easily spelt and requiring no explanation. For that reason avoid hyphenated names.

2) Cost Effective
Have you ever produced a colour printed brochure or other printed promotional material? expensive isn't it? When you have a web site created you may consider that expensive too. Hang on, make the comparison. A web site is a full colour brochure for your business. Unlike a printed brochure it never gets lost or put in the bin and you never have to go to your printer and pay for more. If things change or you are able to offer new products or services alterations to your web site can be made instantly and relatively cheaply too. You wed site is available in pristine condition, 24 hours a day to anyone in the world. You can even replace your printed brochure with a CD of your web site.

3) Lower Advertising Costs
Any honest advertising expert will tell you that small and often is better than big and seldom. Would you spend your advertising budget on one big ad published once? Of course not because that approach just doesn't work. So how do you communicate all of your key benefits "small and often". When you have a web site it's a lot easier. Reduce column inches and air time by using just one effective message and promoting your wed site address for more details.

4) Interactivity
You web site is alive! It can do so many things that printed materials simply can't. Above all your customers and potential customers can communicate at their convenience, even while you are asleep or your business premises are closed. You return to hot enquiries. Your site can also be set for you to see who's online in real time. You can even offer live help online to visitors who are in your site.

5) Customer Retention
You can maintain customer relationships efficiently as your site acquires subscribers and customers who opt in to be informed of developments, new products and services available, special offers and industry news. You grow a database of customers and potential customers and communicate with them quickly and directly. You database becomes an integral part of your business helping you to build strong, loyal customer relationships and repeat business.

6) Catchment Reach
Without the internet you find you business constrained to your locality either by it's physical location or the prohibitive costs of reaching a wider audience or both. These constraints are broken by the internet. You may be based in London and there may well be potential customers in Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham or even Milan, New York and Shanghai. How else can your messages reach them cost effectively? With your web site you call the tune. You can target locally, regionally, nationally or globally regardless of your physical location. The chains are finally broken.

7) Easy Customer Entry
Potential customers aren't always too confident about stepping over the threshold of a shop let alone knocking on your office door. Your web site removes any anxiety that potential customers may feel. They aren't going to face their perceived demons on your web site, no possibility of over bearing sales staff, no risk of embarrassment and no feelings of guilt if you don't have what they want and they have to leave. Your web site helps you to focus on genuinely interested customers that you are able to help.

8) Reduced Stock Holding
If you have a shop or any business supplying physical product you know that in general you can't sell what you don't have. The internet offers a big difference. If you are in the kind of business where your suppliers can deliver goods to you quickly you can leave the stock holding to them. Equally you may be in a business where a delivery period is the expected norm, say fitted kitchens or sofas. Again your site can show your wares virtually and you needn't have these costly items actually in stock, just available in a reasonable time.

9) Level Paying Field
You have a credible business with great products and services and a passion for customer service but you're small. Nothing wrong with that but customer perception is important. You know you can do as good a job or better than the big boys but your shop is on a back street or your office is on the 7th floor is a small provincial town. None of this is an issue on the internet. Your web site can be as sophisticated as any competitor and can project your true business image rather than the image that your surroundings may suggest. Your web site can communicate who you really are or who you truly aspire to be.

10) Passive Income
You're only human. You can't be ready to do business 24/7. You have to eat, sleep, relax and do other things too. Your web site doesn't. Your web site is actively selling and growing your business every minute of every day. If you sell goods directly from your site your balance is growing whilst you're asleep. You wake up to orders in the book and cash in the bank.

Malcolm Cooper is a UK web designer based in Gloucestershire. Malcolm also owns and operates one of the largest online jewellry stores in the UK and applies that knowledge and experience in providing web services to other small and medium sized businesses.

malcolmcooper.com
ampalian.com

The Power Of Cpanel

Writen by Matt Bacak

cPanel is a control panel for your website and allows you to set up and manage your web account through a graphical interface instead of having to use command line. This means that you can make changes to your website without having to learn to use a command line environment. There are a variety of control panels out there, most offering a graphical interface and granting access to email management, FTP, subdomain administration, website statistics, etc. With a control panel, you can add/remove email accounts or view disk usage and statistics for your site by clicking on a shortcut and entering the appropriate information.

cPanel is the leading control panel on the market today. The two other big players in the control panel arena are Plesk and Ensim.

Ensim offers a variety of features and four levels of administration: appliance owner, reseller, site owner and user account owner. Ensim is the second most used control panel and compares well with cPanel, but its interface can sometimes be difficult to navigate and can be confusing to the users.

Plesk is reputed to be very stable, which is a desirable feature if you have important information which requires extreme stability. Plesk also provides more support for automation and has a large variety of plug-ins to increase its available features. On the down side, like Ensim, Plesk's user interface is harder to use than that of cPanel. It also does not contain as many features as cPanel.

With its stylish design, user-friendly interface and rich features, cPanel remains one of the most popular control panels on the market. It's easy to navigate with the icon-based menu and it provides all the tools necessary to manage your website.

Below is a selection of the features available in cPanel:

Mail

· Add and remove email accounts

· Set up email forwarding, mailing lists and auto-responders

· Web mail allows you to read and compose emails anywhere in the world

FTP Manager

· Set up FTP accounts

· Set up anonymous FTP access

· FTP session control

File Manager

The File Manager basically replaces an FTP program and allows you to upload files to and download files from your website. It is a stand-alone file management program with a graphical interface.

Backup

You can backup and restore your website at a click.

Sub-domains

cPanel allows you to create and manage sub-domains. Sub-domains can be used for many different purposes, including hosting friends or clients.

Raw Log Manager

You can choose how raw logs are stored on your account.

Raw Access Log

You can download the raw access logs for any domain in your account. This information is useful for tracking user movements.

Error Log

The error log displays all the "404 File does not exist" errors so you can find out what files are missing from your website.

MySQL Databases

If you use MySQL databases for your website, you will have the ability to manage all your databases with this option.

Agora Shopping Cart

You can install Agora Shopping Cart on your website. This is a powerful shopping cart system which will allow you to start your own ecommerce website.

There are many more useful features available in cPanel. With such a rich variety of features, it's no wonder that cPanel is the most used control panel. So make sure that your hosting company offers cPanel before signing up. For more information about cPanel, visit www.frontierpowerhosting.com

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine's e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak's Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or http://promotingtips.com

Build A Web Site Quickly With A Web Site Builder

Writen by Joe Duchesne

Building web sites by hand takes time. More than that it takes knowledge. Many people don't have the time it takes to learn HTML so that they can build their own web sites. While a person can use something like Frontpage to build their web site, it still leaves some to be desired in its professional results and ease of use. What other option does a web design beginner have?

Web site builders are designed to make your life easier. Instead of having to start from scratch, you usually have the option of choosing from multiple ready made templates. Most web site builders allow you to build a web site using an easy to follow web site wizard. This wizard will walk you through the steps to getting started with your web site.

It is easy to create your web site pages and equally easy to make changes when needed. A good web site builder will allow you to make changes as easily as using a word processor. Making changes on a web site is something that will happen often. Nothing will turn off your visitors faster than a web site that is never properly updated. Look for a web site builder that makes the editing process simple.

Look for a company that offers you a free trial before you buy. The free trial should give you the opportunity to play around with the web site builder, evaluate whether it meets your needs or not and then sign up without having to lose the work you've already put into your website. A number of companies now offer free trials or at least demos. A free trial usually allows you to start working on your site right away while a demo will usually lose any work you do on it when you exit the browser window.

Consider purchasing access to a web site builder when you are ready to build a web site and make your life a whole lot easier in the process.

Joe Duchesne is webmaster for Yowling.com which offers a 30 day free trial of their web site builder that allows you to build a web site quickly and easily. Reprint freely as long as you keep the live keyword rich link in this resource box with this article.

Common Sections For Your Website

Writen by Tim Priebe

I've focused in the past on some individual sections of your website that you should consider implementing. What I'm going to do now is give a brief overview of a number of pages and sections that are common in websites.

• Home Page This page should have a short descriptive paragraph or two, along with some sort of bulleted list that a website visitor can look at and very quickly get an idea of what the site is about. This could also be called Main or Welcome, among other things.
• About Us This page gives an overview about the company. If the staff is fairly small, staff information can be included on this page as well. In the case of one staff member, this page may be called About Me. It may also be known as About the Company, Company History or simply History.
• Projects This is a page to list past work you and your company has done. It can be anything from a simple list to detailed descriptions of each project. This can also be called Portfolio.
• Staff If you have a decent sized staff, you can split off the information on them from the About Us page and give them their own section. This can be anything from a simple list to a separate page on each staff member. This is also often used if an organization has a Board of Directors.
• Links A links page is pretty common. However, you should be careful about this page. In most cases, it should be very different from a personal links page. This may also be a called Partners.
• Contact This is where your email (or a form) will be, along with your phone numbers, mailing address, etc.
• Location If you want a separate place to give actual directions, along with a map, this is a great place to put it. You can also put links to online map websites, often directly to directions to your location. This can also simply be called Map or Directions.
• News This is just a page for the latest info on either your business, your website, or possibly both. This can also be archived copies of a newsletter that you mail out. More and more often, blogs are taking the place of a more formal news section.
• FAQ Just like it says, this is Frequently Asked Questions about your business and website. At the beginning, this should be populated with what you think the most frequently asked questions are. But as time goes on, you can update it with questions you really do get often.
• Gallery This can be anything from images of your physical location to pictures of your product. Also commonly known as Photos or Pictures.
• Virtual Tour If a simple gallery isn't enough, a virtual tour can give your website visitors the feeling of actually walking around in your physical location. This can be as simple as pictures, or make use of more complicated Virtual Tour technology, where you can actually stand in one location and look around.
• Calendar Although not all businesses warrant a calendar, many do. This can be anything from an actual grid-like calendar to a simple listing of events. It's also called Upcoming Events.
• Press If you or your business have been featured in any publications or on other websites, your own website is a good place to show that off. Have clippings of articles and links to online articles here. This section can also be known as Media.

These are just some of the more common website sections for you to consider. Each website will likely have other sections that are specific to that company, or at least to that industry. Remember, the sky's the limit.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com

10 Simple Steps Its Magic If You Can Email You Can Update Your Web Page Dynamically

Writen by Mike Makler

Dynamically Update Your Web Pages Via E-Mail

If you can Send an E-Mail you can Dynamically update Your Web Pages. Following a few simple Steps and the Power of Blogs you can Mail in your Web Page Updates anytime you want too.

Step 1 - Get a Blog account.

Go to http://blogger.com and sign-up for a free Account. When you have your account set-up they will allow you to run Multiple Blogs from the same account. If you have 10 Web Pages that you want to be able to Update via E-Mail, create 10 Blogs from your Blogger account (See Step 2 Create a Blog.

Step 2 Create a Blog

Log in to your Blogger Account at http://blogger.com. Now click on the Button that says create a Blog. Follow the Prompts and your Blog is now created

Step 3 Enable Your Blog to accept E-mail

Click on the Settings Tab, then Click on the E_mail Sub tag. Fill in the blank next to Mail-to-Blogger Address. If your Login Id is bigblogger and you filled in myblog in the box then your E-mail address would be bigblogger.myblog@blogger.com. Be sure and check the publish button so your Blog will automatically Publish when you receive an E-Mail.

Step 4 Send in those Posts.

Go to your E-mail Client and Send in a Post. The Subject will be the Title of the Blog and the Message will be the Body of the Blog. Make sure you are sending in HTML mode so your links will be live.

If you want to use your Blog as your Web Page you are done Your Web Page has now been dynamically updated. Wow That was so easy wasn't it. If you actual want to create a Web-page that is updated every time your blog is you need to go to step 5

(You only need to do steps 5-10 once for each web page you set up)

Step 5 Set-up a Web Page to change every time your Blog Does.

Go to http://Feedburner.com and type in your Feed URL. If your blog is called myblog then your feed URL would be http://myblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If your blog is called weeklytipsandtricks then your feed URL would be http://weeklytipsandtricks.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Step 6 Burn Your Feed

Now Follow the Feedburner Prompts and either set-up a new account or login to an old Account. Keep following the Feedburner Prompts Keep Clicking next until you get to a screen that says. Activate my feed, Click the Activate my feed my Feed Button.

Step 7 Houston We have Lift-Off or BuzzBoost

Now Click Launch your Publicity Tools. A Pop up box will appear Scroll to Buzzboost and click Set Up/Update BuzzBoost

Step 8 Set Up BuzzBoost

• Number of Items to Display Pick a Number from 1 - 5.

• Check Display Feed Title. If you don't like the Title,In the text box change it.

• Check Display item content then Select Full HTML

• The Publication Date is up to You, If selected it will display the date and time of update

Step 9 The Magic Code

Click Generate the Code. You will see your feed in a Mini Viewer and you Jave Code in a text Box. If You like what you see Proceed to step 10, if not Go back to step 8 and pick new settings

Step 10 Place Your Feed your on Web Page

Cut and Paste the Generated Java Script code and place it on your web page.

Now anytime you want to update your web page just send an e-mail to your blog, Ping Feedburner (using pingomatic) and Your Web Page will automatically be updated.

If you have more Web Pages that you want to update Dynamically Just Follow Steps 1-10 for each Web Page. (Steps 5 onward only need to be done once for each Blog)

Power User Super Tip

Put Multiple Blogs on one Page. By placing 3 or 4 Blog feeds per page you can create Hundrends of Dynamically updating web pages with Just 5 or 10 blogs.

About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built an Organization of over 100,000 Members

Get Mike's Newsletter:
http://ewguru.com/newsletter

More Articles by Mike:
http://ewguru.com/tips

Permission Based E_Mail Marketing Methods
http://ewguru.com/hbiz/amazingoffer.html

Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler the Coolest Guy in the Universe

Website Development Become Your Own Expert

Writen by Theresa V. Wilson

Starting and maintaining a business is challenging enough without the additional financial burden of hiring a web site expert to put your vision on paper. If you are starting your business on a "shoe string budget," hiring someone to take your written materials to type in a basic format, add a few pictures and edit what you tell them periodically may not be sound money management.

It is not necessary to be a computer "wiz" to develop your web site. You do have to know your product or service and be able to follow directions. Even if you have a web site consultant, "hands on" content and presentation development will be your responsibility—the buck still stops with you. Before you hire that web site expert, consider the following information. It may save you money and unnecessary waste of time.

One strategy is to utilize web site packages that provide software to enable you to select the number of pages needed, choose background color schemes, and will include "download" features that will identify various products and services you offer. These packages offer you control over content 24 hours, 7 days per week, as opposed to contracting someone at $450-$600 for initial development then $50-$75 per hour to generate the inevitable changes in content as you grow your business. In addition, most web site consultants include "fine print" detailed costs for adding pictures or changing landscape.

Although you do not have to speak an unfamiliar computer language to master the development of your business web site, you do have to know your product or service and a commitment to marketing and developing your business. Let's take a look at the basics of web site development for a five (5) page site:

1. What do you want your visitor to see when they visit your site? Begin with "colors" for background and the printed words. Depending on the service or product, it will either be a soft gray background with black or maroon print or black or dark blue background with white print. Others may have pastel colors with soft print. Color selections are based on the product or message.

2. What information should the visitor see first? The Welcome page should be viewed as the same as the welcome mat at your door. Its content will convey the purpose of your business or service. Your welcome message can be developed using the executive summary section of your business plan. You are introducing the product or service and giving your visitor a brief overview of what they can find on the other pages of your site. You are letting potential customers know they are in the right place.

You have 15 seconds to capture your audience. Not unlike other personal presentations, don't waste time on unnecessary words. Get to the point. Entice them to want to know more. Information on this page, therefore, must be prepared by someone who knows the company and its products or services. Even with a web site consultant, no one can better describe your company than you. The basic facts will come from you. NO passing the buck here.

3. Who are you? The "About Us" page is your "brag bag" opportunity. This is where you talk about business accomplishments and expertise, awards and recognition. You can also provide a brief overview of yourself (especially if you are promoting consulting services) or background and expertise of any partners or key staff.

4. What are you selling? The product or Service page. Here is your sales pitch opportunity page. Describe how your product or service will be useful to your target market. Why is it unique? Who will it help? Why should they purchase it? This page, more than any other, will be fine tuned on a regular basis in the beginning. Wording, pictures, headings, etc. may need to be adjusted and revised as you develop and grow your business. For this reason alone, control over your web site should be a paramount consideration. Pictures are worth thousands of dollars.

Investing in an inexpensive digital camera is worth the effort and cost. Your ability to take pictures of your product and download to your site provides immeasurable savings of time, money, and aggravation in the long haul. Even when you turn the web site maintenance over to marketing staff, as your business grows, there is something to be said for a business owner who can not only manage but has basic mastery of its operations.

5. How can they buy the product or use the service? The Contact and Order Page provides easy access to you or a company representative—essential to business growth. In this fast paced society, people still want to know they can communicate and receive immediate responses to inquiries they may have and gain clarity about the services or products they are purchasing. This page can include an auto responder (auto responder means providing a section for automated responses to questions. Individuals complete the form on this page, including name and e-mail information. In the comment section, they provide and specific concerns or questions. The message is automatically sent to your e-mail. You can automatically respond).

The Auto Responder is a great way to build your customer base and attract new customers while exchanging information and ideas. Including Auto Responders also suggests you care about customer opinions and concerns.

As an order page, you can investigate several e-commerce companies that provide merchant accounts so that people can buy immediately. Pay Pal is one free merchant on line account services. Your customers identify the product to purchase, can pay through a secured system and you follow up by shipping the orders. There is a charge for the sales transaction. The important consideration is knowledge that you do not have to expend hundreds of dollars in the start up phase to enter the competitive market professionally, ready to serve your market.

Be Mindful of Traps

After reading this article, you may feel challenged by the process of web site development. My caution is that you take each step a bite at a time. If you decided to contract with an independent web site consultant, make sure you have direct contact with this individual via phone or visit. Prepare a list of questions including clarity about the level of control you will have over your site.

What is the rate for additional and ongoing costs? Have the consultant detail, in writing, exactly what is included in the basic development package, how they charge for maintenance of the web site, and when does it begin (for some charges do not occur until the site is up and running; for others charges begin as soon as they have completed the design).

Be sure the final contract for service is in writing, providing a clause for both to terminate the agreement, with proper notice, without penalties for you. Ask questions! Ask questions! Ask Questions! The only stupid question is the one you don't ask. The key is that you establish a comfort level before moving forward.

All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to electronically reprint the following article as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright information, and resource box.

About The Author

Theresa V. Wilson, M.Ed. is a freelance writer and owner of a home based business dedicated to providing products and resources for grieving families and caregivers facing health recovery and crisis related issues. In addition to her grief support site: and nutrition site www.renewingyourhealth

VMA@meetingtheneeds.org

Websites Why Your Company Needs One And How To Get Started

Writen by Angela Daley

"Why do I need a website? My company does just fine without one."

That statement is similar to saying your business doesn't need or want any more customers. There are many ways your company can benefit from a professionally designed website....even if you don't want any new customers. Here are just a few:

• A website can act as a sales force for your company working 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
• A website can save you money on updating your printed marketing materials.
• A website can be a cost-effective reference and support tool for your existing customers.
• Its likely that your competitors are either already enjoying the benefits of a web presence or are in the process of developing a site.
• More people are researching products and services on the web prior to making a purchase. Can those people find your company online?

If any of those benefits interest you, you are probably wondering how to get started building your online presence. A qualified web design company can walk you through what you need to know. For example:

• Choosing a domain name: There are many things you can consider prior to choosing a domain name. In general, the shorter the domain name the better - its easier to remember and people are less likely to spell or type the name incorrectly. Consider your products - sites with their product keywords in the name tend to rank higher in the search engines. Finally, (but definitely not last) a .com is almost always better than an alternative extension. If the .com you are looking for is already taken, you should consider a different domain name rather than a .net or .biz.
• Hosting costs and setup: There are many hosting companies and plans to chose from on the internet. Costs range anywhere from free to thousands of dollars per month. The fees will be based on several variables such as how much space your site needs, how much bandwidth is included, how many email accounts are provided and the availability of live support.

Ultimately, the web design company you choose should be able to work with you to create a professional, custom-designed website at a reasonable price.

Subscribe to the free Ask Angela Newsletter offering home computer support, tips and tricks. Topics include email, internet, spyware, website design, Microsoft Office, new technologies, Windows help, software, general PC support, and more!

For more information visit http://www.adaleydesign.com or email askangela@adaleydesign.com

A Daley Design, LLC - Southern New Jersey based firm providing web design, site maintenance and updates, domain name registration and hosting assistance, email and newsletter design, search engine submission and other marketing services.

Keywords Shape The Success Of A Web Site

Writen by Angela Oliver

Choosing the keywords for your site is one of the most important steps in developing a website. The keywords you choose will be branded to the site for its lifetime. There are many important factors to keep in mind when researching keywords as well as when placing the keywords within the site. The keywords should be chosen with ranking and search engine marketing in mind.

Researching keywords is imperative to making the right choice for your product and your industry. The process is said to be the most challenging task for website developers. It will shape and develop the success of the site for years to come. There are a variety of tools available that provide listings of keyword popularity.

Monitoring keyword trends is an important step in keyword research. Keyword trends fluctuate, so you should not choose the first set you find that coincides with your market. Watch the trends for several months to get a better grasp on how users search for your terms.

Competitiveness of keywords makes a big difference. The keyword may be popular, but if you're competing with 1 million results in the search engines, the end result will not be beneficial to your site. Choosing keywords that are somewhat less popular will not be as competitive and may only produce several thousand results in the search engines. In this scenario, the chances of someone finding your site are much greater.

Once a keyword or keyword phrase has been finalized, there is the matter of placement within the site. Your keywords should appear frequently through out the site, but not every other word. Keyword stuffing or keyword Spam is not a search engine friendly tactic. SEO specialists have developed strategic keyword placement that includes a standard set of areas within the site where the keyword should appear. Keyword placement is a very delicate issue, where placing the keyword in the wrong area or used too frequently could get your site banned from a search engine entirely.

With so many things to keep in mind when researching keywords, it may be beneficial to hire search engine positioning specialist who have expertise in keyword research and placement. It's all about the right keywords to get you to the top of the search engine rankings.

This article was written by Angela Oliver for Web Submission Services as an informational piece for website owners. Please visit Web Submission Services for more information about keyword research and search engine optimization services.

Web Journeys

Writen by Jenny French

By looking at how we interact with the world in our everyday life, we can learn some of the techniques we use and begin to understand why they work so well. We can then employ the same methods in web design to create a similarly easy experience.

Deciding how to get there

I recently moved house from South East to South West London and this meant I had to find a new way to get to work. My friend recommended I should try get the bus as I was now closer to where I worked and could save some money. I was a little dubious - I thought it might take too long and be too difficult to work out what bus to get. However, I thought I'd give it a go, just this once.

We also need reasons why we should sign-up to a new service, or download an application on the Internet. As such, you should always provide benefits to site visitors to encourage them to do this. For example, just like how I was told I would save money if I took the bus, you should tell site visitors upfront that they'll get all your latest special offers if they sign up to your newsletter.

You also shouldn't underestimate the power of word-of-mouth. When someone has had a good experience they're more likely to recommend it to others. But be warned - when we have a bad experience we also like to have a moan to someone else about it!

Preparing to take a journey

The first day I decided to take the bus I left for work early. Although I looked on the Internet and found out how long the journey would take, I wasn't all that confident. I didn't trust the times the website gave. Buses are always late aren't they?

When the bus came I let those that had been waiting before me go first and expected those who arrived after me to do the same. They didn't, so I quickly gave up on that idea! I watched what others did when they got on the bus and followed their example.

We often feel a little bit nervous or unconfident when doing something for the first time. We need to be reassured that what we're doing is correct and be given constant feedback that we're on the right track. Users who are new to your site might have negative ideas or assumptions about site processes. For example, if users need to register on your site, they might think that the form will take ages to fill in and after registering they'll be bombarded with junk mail.

You need to dispel negative expectations at the start. If you tell site visitors that it'll only take two minutes to register and their e-mail won't be passed on to third parties, then they'll be more likely to continue. I wouldn't have got on a bus if I don't know where it was going, what route it was going to take or how long it would take.

Site visitors can also learn what the site can do by seeing what others have done. We learn by watching others and are more inclined to do something if we see that others have done it too. You can provide case studies, testimonials and examples on your website to do this.

Taking the journey

I looked at buildings, road names, shops, posters, advertisements, and people on the street. I looked for clues from the environment to try and discover the route I was taking. I used tube stations as landmarks to recognise I was getting closer to my destination.

We also need these navigation clues on the web. Users may now expect to find a navigation bar along the left of the screen or across the top of the page. The logo in the top left hand corner often links back to the homepage.

To help users navigate, link text should stand out and make sense without forcing users to read around the link. Using 'click here' as a link is no more helpful than providing a road sign that says 'Go here'. You don't know where you're going unless you absorb additional information around the area.

Web users also need to know that they're on the correct route. They need feedback and reassurance. If site visitors follow a link that reads 'latest news', the main heading on the page they reach should also read 'latest news'. If it reads 'latest articles' or 'today on the web' site visitors may be unsure that they've come to the right place. Similarly when filling out a form, site visitors should be provided with feedback of their progress e.g. 'You are at step 1 of 4'.

Finishing the journey

I knew when I was approaching my stop as I could see London Bridge, but I didn't know whereabouts the stop actually was. Based on past experience, I knew I had to ring the bell to stop the bus. I hoped that someone else would get off at my stop so I would know when I would have to get up. Luckily many people started to get up to leave at the same time and I just followed their lead. I got off the bus, had a quick look around and by familiarising myself with the surroundings could confirm that I had reached my destination safe and sound.

On the web, users should also be told what they can do next and should not reach dead ends. For example after placing an order, users should be told that an e-mail is going to be sent to them and how long the order will take. They should also be given recommendations of where to go next on the site, so they have somewhere to go.

Trying it again

After my first day on the bus I thought I'd give it another go. It wasn't a bad trip after all. Each day I got on the bus I started to learn more of the route. I got on different types of buses, and they all worked in the same way. I was gaining confidence and thought about taking the bus to go to different places at the weekends.

I'm still using the bus and I now notice when billboards change or if we're spending longer on a particular road than usual. I can predict the route. I can even fall asleep and program myself to wake up at the right time. I've learnt route numbers and I can now explore London and always know how to get home.

As users' confidence increases they'll be more willing to explore your website further. This should be supported by allowing site visitors to undo any mistakes they make. If they follow a wrong link there should be a way for them to get back where they came from. Before submitting a form, site visitors should be able to review it.

It's important to remember that web users won't use your website to its full potential on their first visit. When they return, they may be prepared to look further. This should be supported by providing the same means of interaction with the site throughout and using similar techniques that can be found on other websites.

Conclusion

When you visit either a place or a website for the first time, there's a lot for you to take in. Everything is new and exciting, but it can also be daunting. There's a lot to explore and you may not know where to start.

When you become more familiar, you start to learn your way around. You soon learn the best places to go and the best routes to get you there. When you know a place well you may even learn short-cuts. You're also more likely to notice when small things change - like the poster on the billboard at the end of the street.

Something as simple as taking a new bus journey to work can provide you with valuable usability lessons. Sound strange? Read on for more...

This article was written by Jenny French. Jenny's crazy about web usability - so crazy that she's now a usability consultant with Webcredible (Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk), an industry leading web usability and accessibility consultancy. She's particularly passionate about usability testing.

Six Basic Reasons Why Visitors Stay On Your Web Site

Writen by William Nabaza

1. The first page appears quickly.

It's a good way to have your brief tagline in the starting page of your web site and your company logo. Highlight the benefits and advantages of your products on the starting page.

But don't dump all the information on it so that it will appear quickly. Limit your graphic to a file size of 20 KB or less.

2. It's purpose is immediately and clearly identified.

Say what you want to say and say it briefly and straight to the point to get across your purpose why you existed in the web.

3. It's well laid out and well-written.

Take advantage of positive space and check the spelling and grammar of your web site. Tables can be a good tool to place your graphics and text on proper position. Maximize also the use of cell padding and cell spacing.

Hire somebody to write marketing materials for you. A good way to start is to access my archive of my newsletters and do a quick research on it. Try the arhives here

4. It's links accurately suggests what the viewer will find.

Make use of tags in your graphics so that if a browser will not display graphics, the visitor will have an idea of what you're talking about. Try turning off your graphics display in your browser and then view this site:

5. It's links behave as advertised when the viewer does use them.

I usually describe my site on classified ads web site as "Everything Essential To The Web, Nothing Less!" and I can prove it. I have freebies, online shopping, e-commerce, communities, mailing lists, web directories, and so on. Every week I have something new for my visitors so they keep coming back for more.

Visit the page here. | g.Nabaza.net

6. It supplies the content the viewer expects, or a quick path to that content.

When I describe something on my site, I usually follow it with a simple instruction like this: "Please visit http://Nabaza.com and click on "Subscribe" under "Members" section.

Nabaza.com provides solutions to everyday webmastery task like search engine submissions, internet promotion, and sticking your visitors to your site. Become a member now for as low as U.S. $100.00 a year.

Nabaza.com specializes in building, designing, implementing, managing and maintaining corporate website to boost sales of your company. Email william@nabaza.com for information on functional, dynamic webpage designing with affordable packages. Subscribe for free!

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13 Ways To Destroy Your Website

Writen by Scott Patterson

With all the talk of how to make a great website and ways to keep visitors, it is important to also understand the other side of designing an Internet business.

Every day, thousands of websites are finding unique ways to turn away visitors and potential customers. Although many webmasters know about the obvious "turn-offs", there are many little details that "tick-off" visitors and make them leave.

In fact, I have found that there are 13 "small" items that can make or break a website. To avoid having your visitors "click-away" from your site make sure that you include the following things:

1) A Professional Appearance: Most websites don't need flash effects or dazzling visuals. But, your Internet business should be perceived as legitimate site, built by someone who cares about the content and appearance. In other words, the colors and graphics should blend well with one another. In addition, all web-copy should be dynamic and devoid of grammar or spelling mistakes. Finally, any images on the page should enhance the experience for your visitors without distracting them.

2) Proper Navigation: The pages on your website should be easily connected. To do this, every section should connect to the main page, with a clear and concise menu. Don't make your visitors spend a lot of time looking for different sections. Help them by ensuring that the navigation of your site remains constant throughout all pages.

3) An Obvious Theme: Your index page should immediately let the visitor know what you are selling or promoting. Usually the best way to do this is by briefly describing the purpose of your website and include product photos that can help people understand your purpose.

4) A Logo: One of the best ways to "brand" your site and remain unique is to have a logo for your Internet business. By having a logo, your website is more likely to make an "impression" with your visitors and develop a following. Any logo used needs to be consistent with the theme and color scheme of your site.

5) FAQs: There will be times when your visitors have a question that is not covered by the standard descriptions or sales pages. To help them out, it is important to have a section that is devoted to answering common questions. By creating a FAQ page, your prospects can easily find the answers to their questions and will be more likely to order from your site.

6) What's New Section: With repeat visitors, there will be times when you want to update them with current news or promotions. The best way to do this is to create a "What's New" section. That way, you can inform old visitors, while making sure that they know about all current marketing campaigns.

7) Contact Information: Eventually, your website visitor will have a question for you. Because of this, it is vital that you list all possible ways that they can reach you. By creating a contact page, you will be able to answer questions and reinforce the fact that there is an actual person behind the website.

8) Feedback Forms: The best websites always change, catering to the needs of the visitor. In order to find out what your customers need, it is important to solicit feedback from them. A common way to do this is by creating a feedback form on the site, which includes questions that will help improve the overall quality of the Internet business.

9) Privacy Policy: With the problem of spam, many people are afraid to give out personal information such as their email address and credit card numbers. To help alleviate this fear, you need to include a "Privacy Policy" section. Basically this page will let them know how all information is used and if they will be contacted in the future. It is better to upfront about your practices than to be accused of mishandling information.

10) Email List: Top websites work on developing an email list of prospects that can be contacted in the future. This should go without saying, but your email list subscription area should have a prominent position on your web page. In addition, include a quick blurb about any incentive that you offer to visitors for joining the list.

11) About Us: Most website visitors appreciate knowing that a business is run by an actual human being. To help personalize your website, you need to include a little information about both you and your online business.

12) Sales Page: Even with the best product descriptions, it is important to create a dedicated page that describes how your products are superior to your competitors. This section should be a summary of all your key features written in a dynamic tone. Basically, you want your visitors to read this page and immediately buy from you.

13) Refund/Return Policy: On the other side, there will be times when a customer is not happy. To help alleviate any fears that they might have about purchasing online, there needs to be a section where potential customers can read your rules on accepting returns and refunds. Carefully list how and if you accept refunds. If you do not, then be upfront about it.

Because there are over a million websites on the Internet, it is now vital that you give your visitors what they need. Unfortunately, they will never tell you what is necessary. By including these 13 items in the design of your website, you can assured that you will have a distinct advantage over your competitor's Internet business.

Scott J. Patterson is not that smart, yet he earns over $12,000 a month from his online businesses. To find out how YOU can build a profitable Internet business, download his fr*e ebook, The Secret-Guide to Home Businesses: http://www.duncemoney.com/content.html

How To Handle Web Surfers Who Disabled Javascript

Writen by Michael Kashirin

There are hundreds of millions of Web surfers today. Each of them uses one of multiple web browsers available now. You as a Webmaster create cool web pages that are full of graphic and JavaScript and look very impressive in modern web browsers like Internet Explorer or FireFox. But ask yourself: "How my cool web page will look like, if the web surfer use Linx browser (text based) or just disabled JavaScript support?" You may think that number of Linx browser users is quite small today and you can ignore them, but search engines spiders does not support JavaScript as well. You cannot ignore search engines in the modern world.

There are some safe ways how to handle search engines spiders and web surfers, who does not support JavaScript, at your web page.

One of the approaches is provided by HTML. It is a NOSCRIPT tag. You can enclose in NOSCRIPT tags HTML code that will be displayed in browsers that do not support scripting. You can place navigation hyperlinks here, if you use JavaScript menu for this purpose. Instead of content, dynamically generated by JavaScript, you can place some static text between NOSCRIPT tags. NOSCRIPT content is invisible for web surfers, who use modern web browsers, but it will be very useful for Linx users and search engines spiders.

The second, more flexible approach, is using of JavaScript. Yes, you can use JavaScript to handle visitors, who does not support JavaScript. It is simple. You can place at the web page HTML elements with the content that should be visible for these who does not support scripting. Then place at the bottom of the page simple script code that sets ".style.display" property to "none" for such elements. Therefore, if your web page is viewed in the browser, which supports scripting, script code will be executed and all additional elements become invisible. If your web page is viewed in the browser, which does not support scripting, script code will be ignored.

So, using these simple approaches, you can handle all possible web browsers and provide search engines spiders with additional relevant content, which is very important as well.

Michael Kashirin is a webmaster of TRY-2-FIND.COM Meta Search Engine and LOOK-4IT.COM Meta Search Engine.

New Years Resolutions Is Improving Your Website One Of Them

Writen by Nardo Kuitert

With the New Year upon us yet again, it's time to prepare for the successes of 2005. Did you watch with envy last year as your competitors dominated your industry? Do you think your site is doing just fine because no one has ever called to complain? Well here's some food for thought: 96% of all prospects will click over to your competitor if they encounter a problem on your website.

While you're resolving to get fit, quit smoking and pay off some debts, we're offering up some New Year's resolutions for your business. Learn how to ethically kick your online competitors to the curb!

Resolve to...

...Make Content & Relevancy a Top Priority

It is, after all, the information highway. People search the Web for information-so give the people what they want. If you want to generate qualified leads and produce more sales, then continually updating your website with new and useful content must be at the top of your priority list.

Search engines seek out relevant, up-to-date information when they rank sites for specific keywords and phrases. If you don't have timely informative content, you won't get a good ranking; and without a good ranking, prospects can't find you. But that's just the beginning of your online demise. Even if you manage to achieve a good ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs), your content must intrigue visitors to return to your site regularly.

Studies reveal that online consumers take several passes at a website before making a purchase.

Website maintenance is time-consuming and it's easy to put unpaid man-hours on the back burner. But why would potential customers revisit your site if the last archived newsletter were dated two years ago? Or if your "Coming Events" page lists tradeshows held six months ago? They won't-they'll likely skip over to the competition in search of up-to-date information.

... Increase Your Site's Visibility & Improve its Performance

Once your website is updated (for the time being) with informative content, the next step is to implement some SEO solutions to gain higher search rankings. The purpose of these SEO techniques is twofold:

1. Create Awareness: Carefully selected keywords and phrases, worked seamlessly throughout your copy and in meta tags, will help your site gain higher placements in SERPs.

2. Increase Sales: Once prospects are on your site, savvy marketing writers will have used the power of persuasion in the copy to turn first-time visitors into loyal customers.

...Increase Your Return On Investment (ROI)

We cannot stress this enough ... in order for your website to be extremely effective, achieving an astounding ROI, you must have a detailed plan:

* Analyze your SWOT

Perform an in-depth analysis to compare the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of your competitor's online presence to your own. A qualified SEO firm can enhance your site's usability and navigation, implement ethical optimization techniques, and provide eye-catching design.

* Evaluate your website development goals

It's never too late to write or re-evaluate your website's mission statement-not necessarily for publication, but rather to create your own benchmarks. This will help you set goals and concentrate your efforts on critical issues to achieve and exceed those goals.

* Know your audience

An old adage says: "you can't be everything to everyone." Fortunately, your website can be various things to various audiences. Success comes from having a clear understanding of your target market(s). By creating diverse navigation paths and reader-specific content-for buyers, vendors, job seekers or investors-your conversion rates will increase dramatically.

* Enhance website usability

Effective website navigation must flow effortlessly. If visitors cannot quickly and easily pinpoint the information they seek, they're very likely to leave your site and click to the competition.

An IBM study reveals that every dollar invested to increase usability earns $10-$100 in benefits, winning customer satisfaction and loyalty.

* Measure success and failure

Read your log files and tracking tools! Website traffic analysis is essential to accurately measure your site's performance. In-depth analysis will show you how to increase traffic, trace your search engine referrals, monitor link campaigns, and make necessary changes to achieve your desired results.

...Apply the Power of SEO

Your website has the power to be a highly effective marketing tool-but just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. If you optimize it, however, they're much more likely to come ... and stay a while.

Anyone can learn search engine optimization and website usability. But if lack of time and interest is holding you back, enlist the help of website optimizers and SEO copywriters to complement your design team and ultimately increase revenue.

A word to the wise: ensure that the SEO firm you choose works strictly within the confines of best practices-safe and ethical search engine optimization strategies. Unethical SEO tactics may seriously harm your rankings, and even get your site banned from search engines altogether.

On behalf of Word Associates and U-C WEBS, we wish you a happy, healthy & profitable 2005!

~~
Nardo Kuitert is a Website Optimizer with U-C WEBS (http://www.u-cwebs.com/). A website is like a magnet; does your website pull visitors in, or push them away? A heuristic usability evaluation will provide you with a first step towards greater visitor conversions.

~~
Aimee Cremasco, Founder and Sr. Copywriter of Word Associates (http://www.wordassociates.ca/), produces compelling content to help websites achieve top search engine rankings & ultimately increase conversion rates. Wouldn't your site benefit from a content evaluation?

Alexa Toolbar A Good Help On The Web

Writen by Partha Bhattacharya

For many of us, life on the web is not complete without referring time and again to one or more toolbars. Near to 60% of all web-users I've visited thus far have their browsers sporting trendy toolbars, most commonly Google toolbar. As ubiquitous as they may be, we all have personal choice of toolbars like branded items, though it seems only a handful are more popular over a wide cross-section of surfers.

But, what is a toolbar?

Most often a toolbar is like a main menu-bar residing alongside in popular browsers, usually Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Like browser's menu-bar, a toolbar too provides many options to viewers, the main aim being bringing focus to surfing on the net. Various hues of toolbars are available, majority of them being free of cost, but one feature that is common in nearly all of them is the ability to easily browse for relevant information from respective search engine. A second feature found in most toolbars is blocking pop-up and pop-under ad, which of late has proved to be more of an irritant than help.

How does toolbar fit in?

For people who frequently surf the net for information, a toolbar is of great help. The world-wide-web contains wealth of information ready to be tapped for use. Yet, for many, getting precise information is more often than not a frustrating experience. If you happen to refer to this book, titled "Google Power: Unleash the Full Potential of Google" [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0072257873/] by Chris Sherman, you would know that to get right information would rather require practiced skill so as to formulate your query perfectly. That is to say, if you're not pretty skilled to do your searches, you may in all probability need to fine-tune your searches again and again. And this is where the toolbars come as great help. Toolbars do not eliminate pain of searching. It instead assists in pruning your browsing time so that you can devote more time to do what you want to with the information collected.

A subtle difference can be made out in the working of various toolbars. Thus, while search toolbars allow searching in your favorite search engines directly, meta search utilities are for searching multiple search engines simultaneously.

Alexa toolbar – how it helps?

One of my favorites is Alexa Toolbar. The variety of information that can be culled from Alexa toolbar about any webpage (and of course a website) is truly amazing. Alexa owes it to millions of users of its toolbar, for 2 of the most important toolbar information (Related Links and Traffic rankings) are basically aggregated culminations of what its toolbar users do while surfing the net.

But first, let us go through Alexa toolbar's main features and how they're helpful to web-surfers like you and me.

Traffic rank at-a-glance

The most impressive is perhaps the unique at-a-glance traffic ranking of any website. The figure displayed denotes the traffic rank of a particular website. Remember this is not the actual traffic rank. This figure is just a reflection of where a particular website is positioned in the long queue of those websites that are visited by users of Alexa toolbar. Now, if you feel this ranking is flawed, so it is. No doubt there. Yet, many people rely on this figure for the simple reason that in absence of any other similar data, Alexa toolbar users do form a good sample (even if insignificant compared to total web population) to provide some basic unbiased information.

Links to similar websites

The second very useful information that can be had from Alexa toolbar are links to some more websites that are similar to the one being presently viewed. A great help that. Why? Suppose you are looking for information on, say mosquito repellent. You start by searching the term on your favorite search engine, which then throws up a list of urls' closely matching your search term in the SERP (search engine result page). As you select a url from the list and browse the related website that deals on the subject of your search term, you will simultaneously be shown links on the toolbar of similar other websites. If you feel the current webpage or website is not up to your expectation or if you are inclined to explore more options, you may simply click on the link of a similar other website shown on the toolbar.

When you follow one of those links and visit the new site, 2 things happen. One is of course that you are able to view a similar website without much of an effort. Second is that you will get to see a new set of related links on the toolbar that may be partially or fully same or different from the earlier ones. You will thus have multiple options of websites while you roam from one site to another looking for required information without the hassle of repeatedly referring to search engines. This feature allows you to save time you would have otherwise spent for searching afresh. Isn't that a topper? You bet.

What else?

Quite a lot. For example, you will know 'reach' of your website per million toolbar users, which other sites link to yours (pretty common feature), search in various platforms (like stocks, news, dictionary and thesaurus, default search being in Google), email a webpage to your friend, be quickly taken to Amazon (Alexa is an Amazon company) for shopping and so on.

But what perhaps takes the cake is the feature provided in collaboration with WayBackMachine [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php], said to be the largest internet archive online. When you click the link (toward the right end of the toolbar, the 'page history') you will be taken to WayBackMachine's search result page that details year-wise links of your website since the time it has come online. You click a link that says say 'April 12, 1999', and pronto you get to see what your website looked then. I felt pretty nostalgic while recently checking my painting website. Like seeing my childhood pictures in half-pants, eh! To download Alexa toolbar, click here [http://download.alexa.com/index.cgi].

Not for Firefox

Well then, an Alexa toolbar does indeed make web-life easier. There is though a major drawback. Firefox does not allow Alexa toolbar, and so Firefox users will remain bereft of Alexa's advantages. However Firefox does permit using Quirk's SearchStatus [http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/], which is quite a useful tool. SearchStatus is basically a toolbar extension for Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox users.

The advantage with SearchStatus is that it shows (if chosen) both Alexa Ranking and Google PageRank for a webpage in a remarkably unobtrusive manner. Locate it at the bottom corner of browser or on menubar at top, you may not even notice it is there. Authored by Craig Raw, SearchStatus is very cool in the sense that it offers nearly all that Alexa toolbar offers, plus you get to see some features of Google toolbar as well, including the all-important PageRank.

Do you need more?

The answer is a qualified 'yes'. You may also need Google toolbar to make your web-life more complete. Let me explain. If you are an IE user, you may certainly like to install Google toolbar, for how else would you automatically know the PageRank of a webpage! On the other hand, if you make do with Firefox, you may perhaps omit Google toolbar if you have installed Quirk's SearchStatus.

But then Google toolbar is so feature-rich that without it you will miss out on many advantages. I am not going to explain Google toolbar anew. Click here [http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/static.py?page=features.html] to know all you need to. The bottomline therefore is if you are an active surfer, you will most certainly benefit from both Alexa toolbar (or its 'derivative' through SearchStatus) and Google toolbar. As they say if it is good to be informative, it is still better to know how to remain informative. To that extent, toolbars are a necessity on the web, if not must-have.

A freelance web designer and content writer, and an avid web watcher, Partha Bhattacharya owns and operates WebInfo, a free hot internet web marketing and webmaster resources. Ideal for both start-ups and regulars alike. Dealing mostly on current topics, Partha's blog is a good primer to understand tricky issues on search engine marketing.

Email Addresses In Web Pages

Writen by Christopher Smith

You want to give your site's visitors a way to contact you by email but don't want your emali address to be abused. Here are a few ways to protect your email address when building your website.

1. Use defined users and filters

Don't use the catch all email facility. Instead define users such as enquiry@ or sales@. It's better if you can avoid the most obvious ones like info@ as some people might speculatively try these. It's best to use a person's name which does not appear elsewhere on the site.

Most email providers or email software offer you filters to use on incoming email. You define a parameter in the email and then filter out any incoming mail which does not contain it. For example, you could set your email link as

mailto:info@companyname.com?body=security%20code%20123%20 (please%20leave%20intact%20in%20message%20body)

then filter out any mail which does not contain the text "security code 123". Please note that a space is replaced by "%20" ni the mailto parameter.

This will prevent email from automated systems but you could miss out on genuine mail if the sender fails to understand this measure. Be sure to explain it well on your contact page.

It is important when using filters on an address that you don't use this address to send other mail as your replies could be filtered out. Keep one address purely for email from your website.

2. Use a form

Use a form for your site's visitors to contact you. This hides the email address in the browser but it may still appear in the HTML coding. If it does yuo can get around this by defining a subject line, e.g. info@companyname.com?subject=enquiry and filtering out all incoming mail which does not have this subject line.

3. Use JavaScript for links

It is possible to write the text link in JavaScript instead of HTML. The script breaks the email address down into its elements and then puts it back together. It appears just as a normal HTML link in the browser even down to the way it appears in the browser's status bar. This method keeps everything looking as the visitor would expect but protects your address from Spam harvesters, programs designed to crawl sites and find mailto links in the code.

Copy this code replacing the 4 variables user, domain, extension and link with your own information. This example uses the made up email address info@companyname.com. It should be obvious which parts to change and to what.

[script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"][!--

var user = "info";
var domain = "companyname";
var extension = "com";
var link = "Email Us";

document.write('[a href="mailto:' + domain + '.' + extension + '"]'); document.write(link + '[/' + 'a]');
// --][/script]

Please note that the square brackets must be replaced with angled brackets for the script to work. The square brackets are merely to enable me to display the coding here.

Chris Smith is a full time web developer building websites for small businesses and individuals.

Please visit his site to see live examples of these techniques in action and for further information on web design and development.

Web Development | Email Links

Help Visually Impaired Visitors To View Your Website

Writen by James Peggie

The internet offers freedom for visually impaired people and people with other types of disabilities. It offers them the opportunity to go shopping, talk with friends, run a business, and generally stay informed. This is something that not many people with good eyesight think about. For an experience that many of us view as primarily visual it is hard to grasp the importance of good content and a well designed site for people with these types of disabilities. However for web designers and SEO practitioners this should be of prime importance. Unfortunately, often it is not.

There has been great advanced in assistive technology recently for the 10+ million of Americans who are visually impaired. This includes screen readers and Braille devices which give them an alternative way to view a site. I was involved in a demonstration of this technology recently which is very impressive. Unfortunately the results from badly designed sites or poorly optimized sites greatly reduce the user experience of the visually impaired. Keyword stuffing, poorly written content, gibberish alt tags, stuffer anchor text, and graphical designs all weigh in to reduce the experience and make web sites, in some cases, almost impossible to comprehend.

Many web designers and SEO practitioners are not supportive of this group's needs. They have been slowly coming around to the fact that great content offers an enhanced experience for the human visitor and for the search engine spiders. However by taking this a step further and incorporating techniques that aid assistive technology, rather than bog it down, they will be on their way to offering a first rate experience for all groups of internet users.

Let's make a stand to help the quality of life for people with disabilities. Whether you are a site owner, web designer or SEO practitioner become informed of the needs of ALL of your user groups. Work to raise the awareness of their needs in your community and your industry. By making these efforts we will be doing our part help to improve the quality of life for disabled users. Is there any more noble cause?

Copyright © James Peggie

James Peggie is the Director of Marketing for Elixir Systems – a search engine marketing agency located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Their website is located at http://www.elixirsystems.com and their blog is http://searchblog.elixirsystems.com

Optimizing Your Aspnet Pages For Faster Loading And Better Performance

Writen by John Belthoff

If you read the internet and all of the websites dedicated to Asp.Net you will inevitably read about the wonders of the DataGrid, DataList, and Repeater controls. While each of these has its place, if you are only displaying data there is a much faster and more efficient means to do so.

Let's say you have a page that displays articles based on a query string. Take my article pages for instance. Each article is stored in a database and displayed on the page based on the unique id of the article as stored in the database.

A normal asp page execution procedure goes something like this. The code queries the database based on the Article I.D. and then brings back that information to the page where you display it in the fashion that you would like. This is a fairly straight forward approach with asp and is done all the time.

So how do we speed up our asp.net pages?

Number 1: Use Asp.Net Caching!

This is a no-brainer, and I won't go into the brilliance or details of asp.net caching here because at the time of this writing Google has 2,780,000 articles on the topic. Basically instead of querying the database each time the page is loaded you only query the database once and load that result into the system cache. Subsequent calls to load the page retrieve the data from the cache as opposed to the database which gives you an instant and considerable performance boost. You can then set the cache for how long the cache should store the information as well as many other features. If you are not using the cache, you should be whenever possible!

Number 2: If possible, do NOT use the standard Asp.Net controls.

That's right. The standard asp.net controls are designed for rapid development and not page performance. They allow you to design pages that grab and display data very quickly but their actual performance suffers because of the extra overhead which is there for ease and speed of development time and not page execution speed.

Instead, create either a User Control or even better yet a Web Custom Control which is by far the fastest performance wise and really quite easy to create and use.

Number 3: Use an SqlDataReader or even better yet use a set based command for Sql Server data retrieval and simply execute that one command against the database.

An asp.net SqlDataReader is a fast forward only datareader that closes the connection after it reads the last set of results. Now for my article pages we are only returning 1 particular result. In this case we would opt for the set based command. If you had more than 1 result returned, in your table of contents for instance, you would use the SqlDataReader because you are returning multiple sets of results.

Set based commands are stored procedures that bring back data through parameters as opposed to a result set which then in turn needs to be looped through to obtain your data. So instead of writing your stored procedure like the following which brings back 1 result set:

Select Title, Body, Author
From Articles
Where ArtID = 215

We can write it using a set based command like this.

Create Procedure mysp_GetArticle

@Title varchar(200) Output,
@Body varchar(8000) Output,
@Author varchar(500) Output

As

Select @Title = Title, @Body = Body, @Author = Author
From Articles
Where ArtID = 215

GO

The above query will return only the three parameters called for and not a result or record set so you don't have to then walk through the returned record set that has only 1 result in it anyway. This second little process of work decreases your performance so you should avoid it whenever possible. Combine this technique with the asp.net cache.

Number 4: Use Classes and ArrayLists as opposed to returning an SqlDataReader.

Create a class and then if there are more than one set of results store those results into individual instantiations of that class. Finally store each of those classes into an ArrayList. You can then store only that ArrayList into the asp.net cache. So instead of getting the results back from a SqlDataReader when loading your page you get them from the ArrayList which is stored in the cache. Nice huh?

Finally... you want to incorporate all of these techniques into your final results which would be performed in the following manner and sequence.

On the first time the page loads, query the database and return all of your data storing it into individual classes. Then store each of those classes into an ArrayList. If you only have one single result you may store only the class into the cache. Then take your ArrayList and store it into the cache.

Next create a Web Custom Control and pass the cached ArrayList to the custom control and loop out your data using the HtmlTextWriter which is very fast. Remember each subsequent call to load the page will be called from the cache which stores your ArraList of classes or your single class.

Certainly it takes a significant amount of additional coding to do it in this fashion, especially when you take proper error handling into consideration, but if you follow this approach your pages will be screeching fast, you will immediately notice the difference, and your asp.net pages will execute in the proper sequence - Data handling in the Page_Load function and the html display in the Page_Render function.

Further, you will be glad you did and so will your visitors.

Happy Programming!

John Belthoff is an avid web developer who writes about Asp.Net in his spare time. He owns a Windows Asp.Net, Asp Web Hosting Company where you can contact him about hosting your website/blog or just to learn more.

How To Quality Review Your Website

Writen by Dan Moore

Once your website is up and running, it is important to review and update the web site from time to time. This will ensure that you keep the content fresh and relevant, and of course can also make changes to improve the content in the light of feedback and experience gleamed through running the site.

A professional review will run through various aspects of your site - here is a brief outline of the areas that should be examined during a web site review:

Usability
This is simply how easy the site is to use. A formal test may involve the preparation of a script containing simple and not so simple tasks for the uninitiated and experienced customer alike to perform. The results are an excellent measure of how usable your site is. If you find that all customers just cannot find an important area of your site for instance, then you can take measures to redress the balance.

Taxonomy
Related to usability, the hierarchy and structure of your site may change in light of feedback received, learnings and different internal or marketing priorities. The key is to remember to structure your site to fit external or customer perceptions and understanding of your company. A common mistake is to structure a site along internal divisions which is likely to confuse a customer who is not going to know the internal structure and politics of a company!

Accessibility
A key requirement: can anyone view your site no matter what web browser or monitor they use? If they are using a text-to-speech browser for instance, or have images and JavaScript switched off - can they still effectively move through and understand your site? Accessibility is key and there may also be legal obligations, depending which country you are in, for your site to conform to accessibility standards.

Search engine positioning
A review to examine the search engine ranking of a site for various common searches related to your business, and to provide recommendations as to what could be done to improve your search engine presence - and hence drive more traffic to your site.

Traffic review
It is very important to measure traffic to your site, where it comes from, and whether it is traffic from the sources you would most expect. You should inspect whether strategic linkings or partnerships are working for you, and what searches people are actually performing to reach your site. Crucially - what can be done to drive even more traffic to your site?

Content review
The content should be reviewed to ensure that it is clear, to the point and of course up-to-date. As promotions finish or expire and new ones come along you should ensure that the dead wood is cut out and replaced with fresh and relevant content.

Dan Moore is Director of Clarity Media Limited, a web design company and puzzle supplier of such smash hit puzzles as sudoku, kakuro, hanjie and codewords

Market Your Storefront With A Website

Writen by Mary Rita Earle

Many people think that the Internet offers a tremendous marketplace, while others will question the extra effort and money to purchase and design a website. Some of the money-making values of having a website are summarized in the following paragraphs for your consideration.

1. If you have a local group of customers and want to expand to the neighboring areas, states or even, countries, without spending massive amounts of costly advertising money or even leasing more company space, then the Internet can work very well for you. Niche markets (small groups of customers scattered about that are interested in a very specific item or service) also work very well on the Internet.

2. As a business owner, you need to provide a map and directions to your store for your customers and enable them to look up specials, discounts, limited merchandise, or varieties and prices of each item you market. For instance, let's say you sell cheesecakes and you would like to spend less time on the phone explaining the different varieties, how many people the different varieties will serve, prices, and availability. Here's how this could work online for you. You would provide a secure, encrypted order form thereby collecting the person's credit information as well as their address, phone, and email information. They would list their preferences as to varieties and sizes of cheesecakes. This form would be sent directly to your email or to your fax so that you would have the items ready for the customer to pick up that day or the day they designate. You would have the cheesecakes shipped for those that cannot make it to your store. When a customer returns to order another product from your website, they would not have to fill out most of the form as it would already be in your database.

3. You build their confidence when you show customers that you have their best interest and shopping convenience in mind when you open a website and properly maintain that website with new and updated information. Customers will appreciate being able to read about the owners, the store's policies, the service after the sale, and any other items you think would develop a rapport to allow them to do more business with you. Having a website allows your company to develop its style and branding and develops a sense of security for the customers in doing business with your firm.

4. A small operation can look just as important as a large corporation. A website builds confidence and value into your products and services and allows you to receive orders you may have missed without being on the Internet.

5. If you do advertising on the radio or TV, newspapers or direct mail, having a website gives the customer a place to review what you tell them in the ads in much more detail. Every ad should reference your website so customers can view the details at a time and place that is convenient 24 hours a day seven days a week. You can quickly change and update information on a website without the expense of printed materials.

6. You can do any promotion online that you can do offline and much cheaper. Coupons, money-off sales, discounts, employee recognition, limited merchandise you want to move, all these can be marketed on your website. Keeping the website up-to-date can be provided by your webmaster at a very nominal fee.

I hope that you can see from some of the above points that having your own website is necessary in today's marketplace for any small or medium-sized business as well as any at-home business. Customers are out there looking for you and you need to take advantage of where they are looking and, right now, that is the INTERNET! Since your competitors have a website, they are perceived as being more up-to-date. The ease, convenience, special online savings, information about your company's mission, your services, your ability to communicate with customers are all important reasons for having a dynamic online website. Online marketing will only continue to grow...WILL YOUR CUSTOMERS FIND YOU ONLINE?

Mary Rita Earle is the owner of http://www.duchessr.biz Duchess Marketing. A complete suite of the hottest work at home ideas, opportunities, tips and tools for the home business entrepreneur. Stop by and signup for her free Home Biz Tips newsletter!

The Importance Of Monitoring Your Website

Writen by Douglas Titchmarsh

Are you monitoring your website?

You should be, especially if you are using it to make some extra cash, and definitely if it is your only source of income.

You need to monitor your website to protect it from so many nasties which could affect your bottom line. Any of the following could bring your site to a close.

A hack attack

If your website is hacked, it could be used for any number of illegal activities. A hacker could use your hosting account to send uce (Spam) from your domain or even add web pages such as user information "phishing" sites. These sites will have a page which looks like a login page for Paypal, Ebay or any bank. If someone fills in the form their details are sent to the hacker who now has access to their account. Your website will be shut down, and you lose money while you sort out the mess.

If you have any user information stored on your websites server, a hacker may also gain access to that too, and personal information is a very easy commodity to sell on.

Keep an eye on your site for any unexpected activity or unusual stats showing for pages you didn't make yourself. Most accounts have some kind of statistics built in to the control panel so it shouldn't cost too much to monitor visits and hits, and to which pages they go. Make sure any scripts you use are secure and updated with any patches to keep the hackers out too.

Hosting or server problems

Your host, or server may have a problem, and lose access to the internet, or crash taking all sites hosted there down with them.

This gives you two potential headaches, firstly loss of business while it is offline, but more importantly you may lose data. Making sure you take regular backups of all databases, and all your sites pages will help, also monitoring how often any outages occur, and how long each lasts will tell you whether it's time to change hosts.

No host can guarantee with absolute certainty 100% uptime, but some are much more prone to downtime than others. If you have all the site information backed up, moving hosts isn't as much of a task as it used to be, and can be done in quite a short time if needed. As hosting is such a cut throat business, finding a new one is also relatively simple. There are even software programs which will alert you if your site is unavailable.

Blog and Forum spamming

With the all pervasive spread of blogging it was inevitable that some people would resort to spamming them. Forums and message boards are also open to abuse from software which will autopost to thousands of sites in minutes.

If your blog is able to accept comments, it is wise to ask for some kind of registration from people who wish to make comments. If you don't ask for registration you leave your blog open to blatant advertising done by software, which will be unlikely to bear any relevance to your blogs subject. This goes for your forums too, allowing guests to post without registration is open to abuse by widely available software which autoposts inane comments with a signature which contains a url to the spammers product.

Asking for registration will help ensure that only people committed to posting something relevant get to add their comments or posts. If someone wants to post they will take the time to register.

It may take a little time, but monitoring your websites could save you from a lot more wasted time in the future. Backups of your site will help and should be taken at least weekly, and all your scripts should at least have security updates as soon as they are released.

It's your site, make sure it stays in your control.

Douglas Titchmarsh also authors two ezines avaialable at http://www.cashinonline.info/subscribe.htm and http://www.thediscountebookstore.com/blog

Building Websites With Directory Generator

Writen by Peter Cullen

Directory Generator, a product from Armand Morin and Marc Quarles, builds directory-style websites for you in a matter of minutes. It is simple to use, it's reliable, it does what it claims to do. The tool is essentially a push-button site builder - all you really have to do is upload the generated pages to your host system. There are no fancy technical skills involved.

Directory Generator gives you control over the finished product in a number of ways, one of which is that you can put a "classified"-style ad on each page. As I alluded to above, there is a form in Directory Generator that lets you paste your Adsense code into it, and out come your Adsense ads on your site. You can even control the approach to your file directory structure on your host i.e. put all your generated pages in the root, or in a sub-folder that you name.

You will literally be building very professional looking sites within minutes of getting your hands on this tool. It is, of course, still up to you to decide what the topic of the site will be! :>> Yes, we all still have to think just a little bit. Here's an overview of how it works. The program interface is neat and clean and easy to use. There's a series of tabs across the top of the screen labeled Step 1 through Step 11.

Step 1 asks you to enter the URL of the site you're building. No problem so far. You also enter a text string that describes the site and gets used as the "header" in the header graphic. Still with me? Now just click on the Step 2 tab, which shows you a form that let's you enter a classified-style ad. What a handy place to promote one of your own products. You enter an ad title, then the URL you want the reader sent to when they click, and then the body of the add itself. Still nothing complex, right?

Step 3 is where you select the HTML template that you will use for the generated web pages. There are three fields to be filled in; one names the location of the template for your index page, the second names the location of the template for you results page, and the third gives the location of the header graphic that appears on each page. The nice part of this step is that the two templates and a header graphic are included with the software, so you can just go ahead and use them and get on with the job. As you move along with site building, you'll probably customize these items, but you don't have to right away.

Step 4 asks for the location of your input keyword file. These are the keywords that describe your site. You'll want to have a pretty large set of these. Directory Generator generates one web page per keyword. A keyword file of from 100 to a few thousand keywords is recommended. Where will you get such a set of good keywords? Well, one place is a tool called Good Keywords. You can download it for free at goodkeywords.com. It is very nicely done and very easy to use.

Step 5 is the form that lets you add in your Google Adsense code. If you're already using Adsense, all you really have to do is log in to Adsense and copy the Adsense code you're already using into the Directory Generator entry form. If you're not using Adsense yet, well, sign up and also use it on your Directory Generator sites. You can leave the Adsense code forms in Step 5 empty if you choose to. You just won't be displaying Adsense ads on your generated site.

Step 6, associated with Step 5, lets you copy in your Adsense web search code, if you use it. When you sign up for Adsense, you have the option of displaying context-sensitive ads and of allowing a Google search from your pages. The code we're talking about here is the code that supports the search. Entering it in Step 6 of Directory Generator is optional.

Step 7 in the Directory Generator process lets you control how many results should be shown on your results pages. You can choose a fixed number or let the tool present a random number of results (a number between a lower and upper bound, say between 5 and 15, for example). Step 7 also lets you choose link colors, and how your generated pages will be stored in folders, that is, all in the root directory, or in a subfolder of the root.

Step 8 is the article entry form. Directory Generator lets you add articles directly into your generated pages - a good, convenient way to add useful content to your site.

Step 9, called Add Ons, gives you a place to add Audio Generator code if you're using that product to add audio to your pages. You can paste in RSS Equalizer code into the second box, again, if you're using that product, and you can paste Amazon code into the third add-in box if you choose to, to support selling Amazon items.

Step 10 lets you add an exclusion list if there are particular sites you don't want included in your results pages - like your competitors sites, for example.

Step 11 lets you specify the folder you want your generated pages to be stored in, and provides a few other parameters that determine how fast the generation process will run. It also provides a test function that let's you see what the pages will look like before you generate the entire set.

That's all there is too it! Nothing very complicated at all. By the way, here's a little helpful hint. Directory Generator goes to another site to get a thumbnail picture of each website listed on the results page. If your personal firewall is too tight, you may not see these thumbnails displayed when you look at your generated pages on your site. I thought initially that Directory Generator wasn't working properly (it is) until it dawned on me to look at my security log on my machine. Once I twiddled my settings, everything looked fine.

I haven't found a bug in the program yet - I did, however, try to use one of the input files in a Directory Generator run while I had it open for editing - and guess what? Directory Generator told me so...So, from my personal experience, it appears to be well-written code - not some slapdash thing put together overnight. So if you're interested in putting some sites out there for any reason - Adsense income is a good one - try this product. I'm pretty sure you'll like what you see.

Peter Cullen is the Webmaster at http://www.howtostartonline.com which reviews software packages and tools.