Learning Basic HTML

by: Robin M Powers


Ok, no getting around it, you've got to learn some HTML! You don’t have to be great at it, but you really do need the basics. Even if you choose to write and format everything in Word and use PDFs for your ebooks, white papers, articles and the like. You will still need to be able to change headlines on your website, create or change ‘thank you’ and ‘sales’ pages, and add things quickly to your website.

There is a wonderful membership website that I once enjoyed. The site is filled with Internet Entrepreneurs who are successfully running an internet business. There are a series of detailed interviews discussing how each of them got to be successful. Without exception, every single business owner said ‘you have got to do your own website’. The number one regret by those who hired others was the money they spent on web designers. They all learned HTML in the end.

Now I am not saying that you will be stuck building your own websites forever and ever… in fact, I encourage everyone to have "propellerheads" on their team. Its just that even when others are building the sites for you, you will still want to be able to gain access and do some minor changing of copy, colors, font sizes and the like.

HTML is the language of websites. You use HTML to make your fonts large, change colors...

Start a new paragraph, insert a picture…

I am not the best source to teach you. However, Annabella is! She has a wonderful website where I learned HTML. It’s located at:

http://www.annabella.net/html.html

Once you get through Annabella’s site here is a handy HTML reference guide:

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/developer/reference/tag-table.html

Here is one more great learning site:

http://www.utoronto.ca/webdocs/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex.html

There are other languages that have been created after HTML. Java, php, and others. However, you will find that for most needs, a bit of HTML is all you need. Anything more complex is best handled by your propellerhead, unless you have plans to really master this area of web design.

At some point you will need an HTML editor. This is a handy tool that lets you see what it is you have created. Let’s take a quick look at the most popular ones.

Microsoft FrontPage® is very popular. It has a lot of great functionality allowing you to build a site from scratch. It’s a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that lets you graphically design your web pages. It’s one of the easier ones to learn. Though you will still spend a week or two banging your head trying to figure it all out (assuming you are a beginner). One of the things I like about it is the ability to “split” the screen and see the HTML code along with what the web page looks like.

Dreamweaver is supposed to be the best. It’s the high end program that does everything but the dishes with regards to website design. The learning curve is high. And frankly, if you aren’t going to be building sites right along, it’s expensive.

There are website builders out there that take all the pain out of building websites. You provide the copy and the graphics, and they manage the rest. The one we like at the moment is XSitePro. It is relatively easy, quick and inexpensive as these things go. They also don’t appear to leave a “footprint”… something that the search engines look for to see if your sites are mass-produced.

Check out our resource page at http://www.BizRecipes.com for this resource along with our many, many favorite things.

I have used a little free HTML editor that is quite delightful.

You can download it at: http://www.evrsoft.com

It’s called 1st Page 2000 and we used it for several years before moving to FrontPage®. I always like to include a free tool wherever possible for those who must be extra careful with their dollars.

What can I say? You just have to sit down in front of your computer and do it. This is one of those skills that you will have forever. And you will be very glad you learned it.


About The Author
Robin M Powers makes it easy to get started making money on the Internet. For more information and to claim your free 7 day eCourse, "Learn the 7 Critical Steps to Your Internet Marketing Success", go to: http://www.BizRecipes.com/.

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How To Find The Best Domain Names

by: Tom Takihi


Registering a domain name is a pretty straightforward matter. You find a web hosting site, register with them, look for a desired domain name, select one that suits your business or personal fancy, choose what’s available and then you will be on your merry way to building the website’s innards. Easy, right? Not exactly because there is more to it than just getting a name that is appropriate for the business or a personal preference. The steps mentioned earlier would result in an ill constructed site that is going to be nameless in the world wide web and will be doomed to failure on the get go. This crude way of doing things will get you nowhere fast. Now why would anyone want that?

There is a better approach in making a name for your business or yourself on the net. It will be a presence that will be felt and sensed by your target audience whether they are your customers, prospective clients or a particular group of people. It’s easy enough to do this. You just have to know the right place to go on the web for help. Searching for the right domain for personal use or for a business is job best suited for professionals who understand the significance of internet jargons like keyword density, key phrases, search engine optimization, ranking and tags. What all these means is basically to have your site primed for search engines to find when people put in a search that concerns the subject, business identity or personal matter of your particular website.

Websites that exist for the sole purpose of locating or creating a new domain name for you are very reliable in terms of achieving their goal of increasing the likelihood that your site will come up on top of the list of sites when search engines spews out seek results. These so called domains finders are essential in any enterprise that is bent on achieving an online presence immediately. It is an established fact that search engines churn out sites that have been around for years. In other words, the age of a site does count when it comes to search results. How does this concern your site?

The domain finders are in the know as to which existing domains would not be reregistered or renewed by the current owners. Just imagine if your business coincides with a domain name that has been around for years. You’ll have first dibs with that domain name through a domain finder, in effect, they’ll claim it for you resulting in a well positioned new website with old rankings that will put you on top as quickly as when your site is ready. Another advantage of having a domain finder in your corner is that you can consolidate your entire site building needs from creating or finding a domain to the theme and content of your site. This would mean lesser legwork and lesser expenses since their comprehensive service would cover everything so you won’t end up paying more.


About The Author
Tom Takihi is the owner of the Domains Finders website. To gain more information, please visit http://www.domainsfinders.com

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Site Development: Extreme Online Marketing

by: Scott Lindsay


The key component to the web's best sites is ‘content’. These netrepreneurs understand the need to provide a professional site that is well developed, informational and error-free. For top websites quality content is essential.

If you have a pit in your stomach as you try to come to terms with how you might develop content for your site there may be a solution.

In the world of online marketing you have to consider the end goal. Once the goal is established, you can either learn the skills to help you reach the goal or bring others alongside to assist you in reaching the goal.

There are certainly plenty of webmasters that can assist in building your website to provide proper function and design. These professionals can provide instruction on how to integrate software applications that may be useful in attaining your goal.

A secondary area of consideration is the development of content. This is increasingly outsourced to the freelance writing community.

What a freelance writer can do for you . . .

1) Listen to you to help gain a clear understanding of what you want your website to achieve.
2) Provide ideas that may help you reach those goals.
3) Integrate content to compliment the overall site.
4) Provide informational articles that are optimized for search engines while still allowing the articles to connect with your visitors.
5) Work with you to develop meaningful product descriptions for your site.
6) Work to provide a comprehensive site tutorial for clients if needed.
7) Work to develop an e-course or e-book that helps inspire a level of trust and interest in your products or services.
8) Develop a series of articles for an ezine or autoresponder.
9) Can provide press releases for developing additional interest in your site.
10) Can provide visitors with the vision for your website through either a 'history' section or an 'about us' section.

A website is a terrible thing to waste. The time and attention you might expend on a business plan is no more important than the execution of your online business.

If you are in need of content for your site and you lack the budget for original material, the use of a free-to-use article service is another means of gaining quality content from experts in your field of interest. There are stipulations for use and more than one person can use the article, but this can be an additional means of providing relevant information to your visitors on a subject of mutual interest.


About The Author
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com.

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Website Building Mistakes You Should Avoid

by: Chris Walker


If you happen to have a website (or plan to build one shortly) this is a must-read. A website should offer customers with useful information that can actually help find solutions to their problems. When I used to search for home businesses, I got sick and tired of poorly designed websites shoving awful products and countless links down my throat; there was no explaining on their behalf and no advice given… all I saw was an “order now” button. A website should offer customers value and convenience because that is what they are looking for.

So you must keep in mind that you are designing a website to help people; not to deprive them of their time and hard earned cash. Many people make the mistake of not having high quality content on their site—and instead they litter their site with links and clunky banners.

Bottom line… quality information comes before all.

Questionable Navigation

Too many sites have dismal navigation setups. This is a huge mistake. Never make the error of having poor navigation on your site that would even make Sherlock Holmes scratch his head. It makes it confusing and hard to surf through (most likely forcing the visitor to leave). Just take a look at my website; it may not have fancy graphics or a slew of irrelevant pictures, but it gives you what you need: valuable information presented with a simple setup. Simplicity ultimately allows visitors to easily find what they are looking for.

I was once (and still am) a customer, so I know what it feels like arriving on a website flooded with link after link… you just don’t know where to click next. You feel paralyzed and never find what you’re searching for.

Unnecessary graphics

You should also try to avoid using graphics unless they are absolutely necessary. Fewer graphics soak up less bandwidth, allowing for faster load times. So unless you absolutely need it, don’t place too much graphics on your page. While heavy pages may not be a problem for those who have broadband, you can’t assume everyone has broadband services--some still have high-speed dial up, and for them it is a pain.

Make them come back for more

Give the customer a reason to come back to your site. You must make every reader of your website remember your site’s uniqueness. Show your personality and make it a great experience for them. Avoid the mistake of coming across as being “too formal” and “boring.”

Other common mistakes Web designers make that should be avoided…

It’s important for you not to spam—this can get you banned from the search engines. You should also keep good records and remain well organized. Always make sure your income (i.e. affiliate commissions, reseller sales, Google Adsense) exceeds expenses (Internet bills, pay-per-clicks, the cost of the computer you own, products you buy to grow your business, web hosting, domain name, etc.).

Never lie to your readers: honesty is the only option.


About The Author
Chris Walker is the owner of: http://www.ultimate-home-business-advice.com. Get all the best advice on great home businesses that really work. Gain access to essential tips and resources. He is the owner of all said material in this article. You can distribute his material on a non-exclusive, royalty-free basis, while he retains full rights to his work. You can use his article as long as you do not change any of the content without his permission.

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Ecommerce Site Design: Tell Me What You Really Think

by: Scott Lindsay


Site design is a primary determinant in online shopping. If your site looks dated or relies on inferior site design methodology it may be the reason your sales have not grown. Perhaps existing customers are used to the site, but what about new prospects? What impression do they have of your site? What would compel them to come back?

Take some time to research your competitor's websites. What seems to work on their site? What have they done really well? How does this information stack up with your site? What have you learned?

Many ecommerce sites will phase in new site designs every two years or so. There are always new techniques and software applications to assist in the development of something that catches attention and is highly functional.

There is one area you should resist and that's moving forward with a new site design that has been hastily put together simply to give your site a new look. Test the links and the functionality of the site design. Have friends and associates try a beta version of the site to bring to light any flaws in the design. There is nothing worse than pushing a new site design that is riddled with flaws and broken links.

Many sites have enjoyed using Flash design in site development only to discover search engines don't access the information in Flash. While the functionality of Flash is a positive for visitors it may be best to develop a Flash and Non-Flash version of your site so search engines can read your site content.

The use of flashing text or multicolored text should be avoided. The text may get noticed, but generally for very negative reasons. Simple, compact text will provide the best means for visitors to understand what your site is designed to provide. Another reason content is so important is to keep all of your customers in mind. You may have both visually challenged and portable device customers that may use technologies that have space constraints. Many new site designs keep these limitations in mind.

Anytime you are developing an ecommerce site enlist the help of several trusted individuals who are willing to tell you exactly what they think of the site. Honest feedback is important when considering something with as much potential as an ecommerce site. A traditional businessman wouldn't construct a building without consulting an architect so why should online business not strive to enlist the help of others in site development techniques, design and site appearance?


About The Author
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com

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What Makes a Bad Website?

by: Corazon Padol


When you're surfing the Web, you probably only think about one thing when you look at a Web site: whether or not it's fun. Some of the website authors are wondering why there is a few visitors visit their site.

Here are some tips to avoid you from creating a bad website:

Before developing the website you have to planned first. Make a story board that will be your guide in developing the site. You must arrange the hierarchy of the most important links in the main page.

Most importantly, you must create a home page that presents a professional image to the world. Your home page would be the gateway to your site. It must look like a road map, the index and the table of contents that tells the visitors where to find the information they need to make them stay at your site. It would be the mirror of your company or organization. So, if the design is not good, that will be the the first impression to your company.

You have to figured out what are the important elements should be included on the page. It must have a unique and interesting content. You have to know who are your target audience and what are the things that will get the attention of your visitors. You have to think of something new and unique on your content to convince your visitors to stay.

Put significant informations in your site to give them a useful information that is appropriate in your site. You should be able to tell why a website exists, and what information it's trying to provide. If the purpose of the website is confusing or unclear, that's a good sign that you should look for a different site. The word must be spell correctly.

The design must be clean and stunning look that will impress your visitors. The design must depend on the kind of services that your site are offering. Avoid using of blinking text that will irritate the eyes of your visitors. Avoid also many graphics or images that will take long to load your page because some visitors maybe bored in waiting for your page to load. Use the text color that will be visible to your readers.

Your site must be easy to navigate. The buttons must be consistent on its size and design. Using buttons with different colors and sizes looks unprofessional. Make sure that when you put the buttons on top of the home page, they're on the top of every other page.

The site must be indexed by the search engines so you have to consider the successful page optimization so that your site will be given the chance to rank on the search engine. In order for your site to be sited by many client or visitors your site must get a rank from search engine. Read some information about Search Engine Optimization(SEO) to have an idea on what will you going to do on your site.

You must have a quick response to your client or customer and give them the service that they needed. Apply good relation with your customer. Give them a word of Thanks for giving you the opportunity to work together with their company.

Always update your home page so that the visitors will always see new stuff or different from your site when they visiting your site. This will cause them to visit your site frequently.


About The Author
Corazon Padol, SEO for Webworksfirst, the best choice for your professional web design and other web development needs. For more information visit http://www.webworksfirst.com/.

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Is Your Website Design Professional?

by: Isaac Chu


In business world, you need a professional image, a professional sales team. Similarily, as one of your company member, is company website performs in professional fashion? Company website is your online sales team, do you know how professional it is?

#1 You have a beautiful website background?

In personal website, we can always find some beautiful background image or eye-catching background color. In some company websites, they also use some company photo, factory photo or product photo as the website background. Actually, it is not the right way to do. The right way is "Make it simple".

You will never find a background image in Yahoo, Google. People visit your website is looking for information not the beautiful background. Moreover, the background image have disadvantages: loading time will be longer and distract the visitor attention. Think again what information the background image can bring to your customer? If no, take it off.

#2 Full of image

Dont make your webpage in full of image. Use image only if image can present more clear than text. For example, you can use image to present the order process. Size of those images should be small enough, you can take a look on the article about "Image Optimization".

Remember, company website is not a comic.

#3 Page Frame

Many websites use frame to make the navigation easier. However, more and more website designers dont use frame in the design. It is because frame will distort the whole design and also make the visitor confused and difficult to find the information. Also, using CSS or Javascript can provides similar effect but can keep the design consistency.

#4 Visitor Counter

Put a visitor counter on the web site. This can let visitor know how many people visit the website before, get their attention and build up their confidence. This look true, but we suggest you to take it off.

Actually, these counters are not accurate and can be trigger manually, no one will believe these counters. Why don't put a testimonial with a real customer name instead of this counter?

#5 Under construction

Have you see those "Road Construction" image? Or those "Under construction, please come back later"? Dont waste your visitor time. If your webpage has not finish, take it away. I can't remember have I try "come back later".

If you really need to put this "Under Construction", we can give you some suggestion. You can package it to become a re-visit event, for example:

- On which day the web page open, the first 100 visitors complete the registration can get a free gift or discount.

- Raise the visitor curiosity, tell them what surprise they may get once the webpage open.

- Make it like a fiction. Everyday you put some additional information on it, make the visitor re-visit. This can greatly encourage the visitor to visit again.

Remember, no one like those boring "Under Construction". Turn it into a marketing event.


About The Author
Isaac Chu is Project Director of Evinco Solutions Limited. Evinco provides innovative business software, include emarketing web solutions, email marketing software, e-catalog publishing software, invoicing software, and electronic cheque writer. Visit: http://www.evinco.com.hk.

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Locating The Right E-commerce Provider

by: Akhil Shahani


E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods and services on the internet. The term is interchangeably used with e-business and refers to all forms of business activities such as e-tailing, B2B commerce, intranets and extranets, online advertising or an online presence in any form that is used for some type of communication such as customer service.

As a business owner, you need an e-commerce provider to enable you to do business online. There are a zillion companies out there which provide e-commerce solutions such as web designing and hosting services. Quite likely, all of them will claim to be the best at their jobs!

This piece is intended to help entrepreneurs like you who have a problem choosing the right e-commerce provider. Using the following guidelines will help you make a better decision.

Seek professional services: Don’t depend on Do-IT-Yourself tools, as you risk wasting time and money, and the results are not guaranteed. At present, there are so many professional service providers that you are sure to find one to suit your needs and budget.

Choose a 2 in 1 provider: You might get stuck in a situation where your website requirements need hosting services support. Hence, the company you choose should be able to design your site and host it as well. Selecting such a firm will save you time and frustration and might possibly work out cheaper. You can even benefit from some design firms that offer discounts on hosting packages.

Look for models: Have a look at some of the previous sites designed and hosted by the company you are talking to. If the company has worked on websites for your type of business or industry, chances are that they will be able to work on your project with relative ease.

Assess capabilities: Sometimes your e-commerce provider may not be able to provide support for everything you want to accomplish through your website. For example, they may be unable to provide a payment gateway or a merchant account to your shopping cart. Or they may not have equipped your online store to accept credit cards. In such cases you might be forced to take help from another company, which is not an optimal situation.

Ask key questions: If you’re satisfied with the technical capabilities of several vendors, consider the following questions before deciding on the e-commerce provider:

 Is the company reliable?
 Do I get satisfactory answers to my business questions?
 Do they actually pay attention to what I’m trying to do online?
 Can they add real value by providing guidance and suggestions for improvement?
 Can we sustain a relationship over the long term?

If at least one of the vendors fares well on the above questions, then you’re on the right track; else step away and try other companies until you get what you need.

The internet is helping businesses with marketable products reach a much larger audience at lower cost, and you can’t afford to be left behind. Getting the required support from your e-commerce provider is therefore vital to your online strategy. Remember to choose yours wisely.


About The Author
Hi, I am Akhil Shahani, a serial entrepreneur who wants to help you succeed. Over the years I have run many successful businesses & made many mistakes on the way. I have created http://www.aykya.com to help you benefit from all I've learned on my journey. Please visit us & download our special 'Freebie of the Month' as a thank you for your visit.

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Why HTML Is Better For Web Design

by: Chris Lowden


Why HTML is better for web design.

Flash and heavy image websites may look good, they often do. But how effective are they? Not as effective as you may think. Most people think once a website is created it is going to found by everyone on the internet. They couldn’t be more wrong. This article will talk about why HTML is a key to a website and its success.

HTML is the only language search engines can understand, anything else is like a foreign language. Search engines cannot read flash. They cannot read JavaScript. They cannot read images. That is why you are going to want to find a web designer who is going to be able to create a strong based HTML website.

Now I am not saying that if your website is heavy in flash, JavaScript and images it’s not going to be found. You still have you Meta tags, you did remember those right? Search engines work on keywords, word that people are going to use when finding your website. If you have read my article on Better Goggle Rakings you will be familiar on this, if not, I would suggest reading that next. If your website was developed in flash, you will still have the Meta tags working for you, but those can only take you so far. Websites that are heavy or well balanced in content are better. When a website is made in flash the text is imbedded in the flash file, the swf or it is loaded externally. It is not directly in/on the page for the search engines to find. Same goes with JavaScript and images. With images you have a little lead way, the alt tag. For those of you who are unfamiliar with HTML code, the alt tag is what you code into an image. So when you hover over an image, you will see the popup with the title written in it. But if you content is on the image, forget about getting a good ranking. A general rule of thumb, websites should have about 200 words of content, rich with keywords and unique content.

HTML is great and all, but there are a few things it cannot do for you. Animations, sometimes good, but are often used wrong. Floating menus, animated menus and drop down menus. Again, these can look very good if done well, but they are invisible to search engines. Links are a big thing to them too, search engines love to see a lot of links, incoming and outgoing to websites. If you are linked with websites of a higher page rank thank you is can be better for you and help your page rank. Now with that said here are some things that HTML will give you that other languages cannot. Keyword related navigation, again, back to the links. The links on your website should relate into what they are taking you too. Sounds obvious huh? You wouldn’t believe the amount of links I have seen taking me somewhere else other than what the menu said. Real text; keyword rich, unique content that will bring your customers to your page along with good page rank from Google. Lastly, with HTML, the page is your canvas, free to do anything you want and still have it be effective enough for your customers to be able to navigate you site.

So what’s a website with out any images? Not a whole lot in my opinion. But you just said websites shouldn’t have images on them. Wrong. I said that a website with heavy imagery is not always good. Take my website for instance, images all around you, but the pages are balance with my content, content that is keyword rich. So read some tutorials on Photoshop, slice it up and put some quality content in it and you should have a pretty effective website. Just keep in mind all of the above. Websites that look stunning are not always a good thing. Your website should look good, but it should be effective and smooth for the user to navigate through.

Having your website created by me will not only guarantee you a strong design and strong functionality. It will rank well in Google, keep your customers coming back and they will not be getting them lost in the navigation.


About The Author
Chris Lowden

I have been doing web design for a number of years now. I have always loved the internet, so I decided to pursue a career in it. You can visit my website here.

http://www.chrislowden.com

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Good Search Engine Ranking

by: Chris Lowden


So you want to rank well on Google? Who doesn’t?

Search engines have become a lot smarter from when websites first hit the market. You can’t repeat the same keywords over hundreds of times like you used to. Google and other search engines will see you as a spammer and ban your website from the engine. People used to trick search engines with gimmicks and tons of computer generated incoming links. This means, your website actually has to be a use to people in order to get ranked well.

So now you are asking yourself, if I don’t need gimmicks to get me ranked, what do I need? Money, right? No! You don’t need money either. When people use search engines, they don’t just type in something random. They type something specific, something that they are looking for. So when your website has quality and unique content, that is what will get you ranked well. When your content is unique, it makes it stand out from the crowed and found easier. Let’s say you are looking for a salt water fish tank, you aren’t just going to search "Pet Supplies" or "Aquariums". You are going to search exactly what you are looking for, "Salt Water Fish Tanks." Makes sense right? Same premise for your Meta tag keywords, if your company is selling fish tanks, you keywords may include, "Fish Tanks", "Salt Water Fish Tanks", "Fish Supplies," "Home Aquariums." See how it all works now?

Your website or company depends greatly on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Yes people are going to find out about your website via word of mouth, but not everyone is looking for the same thing. For example, if I were to find baseball spikes, I wouldn’t go tell my friend who plays tennis. I am going to tell people who play baseball. My point is that while word of mouth works and is great, it is very slow. By having your website optimized correctly to be found on the internet makes it easy to be found, found very fast. So more baseball players will find the spikes they are looking for and buy them from your site.

Let me guess, you just had a website made? Looks pretty good, full of graphics, maybe some flash and just enough content for your customers see what you are all about. Am I right so far? While those websites aren’t great, they do get the job done, but they aren’t helping you at all. Websites with a lot of flash and imagery are never really good. No you scroll up and look at my website. Was I right? While my website does have a lot of images, it is well balanced by my content. Search engines cannot read images or flash. They can’t read those floating JavaScript menus or the menus that move up and down as you scroll. They may look nice, but they will not help your rank with search engines. Search engines need to be able to go through your website and follow your navigation from page to page. Search engines never forget, they store your information in their databases and index your pages so that when someone is searching they can see your information displayed. Without text there is nothing to index, images and flash cannot be indexed which means they cannot be found by your potential customers. Here’s a free tip, a general rule of thumb, every page on your website should have a minimum of 200 characters of text. It’s better if it’s content that is unique, unique means it will stick out from the crowd and found easier because it is original.

Now you’ve learned a little about how search engines work and what they look for. On to exploring the few vital things you can do for your website other than avoiding what we already talked about in the above paragraph.

# Meta Tags – Key words for finding your site, descriptions that will show on search engines.

# Title Tags – The text that shows up in the top left of your browser’s windows.

# HTML Coding – Good, clean HTML coding, none of that extra stuff FrontPage tosses in.

# HTML Navigation – Text navigation, simple for the search engine to follow, simple for your clients to read.

# Affiliation – Search engines love to see link exchanges. Links to higher ranked pages may in turn help your rank.

# Keyword Focused Content – The more words in your text that people search for, the easier your site is to find.

Let’s talk about IMDb.com, I know they aren’t selling anything, but they are huge. Their website is pretty simple, no large images throwing your eyes away from content. Clean HTML coding, HTML navigation, very focused content. As far as their website goes, it’s very easy for the developers to generate a page when a new movie comes out. All they have to do is throw in the content and update the page. IMDb has thousands of pages, which search engines also like to see. The more pages your website has the more important it looks to them. That is when you search something related to movies; IMDb is going to show up as one of the top contenders. Not to mention how long they have been around and their reputation for having so much unique content. Search engines also like to the age of the website, the older the website, the better. To them, if the page has been around for awhile then people must like it and it must offer some pretty good information.

If you or your company specializes in more then one thing, it will be a little bit harder for you get achieve good rankings in more then one field. If you are specialized in unique fields it may be a little easier on you. If you are a web designer or into computer graphics, it is going to be a lot more of a competitive market for you. Anyways, back to your company, it will probably be in your best interest to try and rank in one specific field instead of all of them. So if you sell tools, hardware, but the market is too competitive for hammers and screwdrivers try and rank for drills or wrenches. Something else in your market that is popular, but not as competitive.

I know all of this sounds good, if you can get it all to work to your advantage, great. But if you are not the type of person to do all of this for yourself and you need to hire someone, there is going to be money involved. For someone to get the whole package like we have been talking about it is going to cost a lot of money, but it doesn’t have to. You are already at a web designer’s website that specializes in all of the above. I am only a small freelance designer, but I do big projects without the cost of corporate firms. If you are interested in my services and already have a website, send me an email with your existing URL and tell me what problems you have been having or what you would like to accomplish. If you are looking for the entire package head over to the contact page fill out the form.

I hoped you learned something by reading this and if you skipped down to the end, head back up to the top. It’s a lot to remember, but if you can apply it, you may see more traffic. Keep in mind, all of this is not going to happen over night. Search engines index pages at different times, if you don’t see anything different after two weeks, try submitting your page manually.


About The Author
Chris Lowden

I have been doing web design for a number of years now. I have always loved the internet, so I decided to pursue a career in it. You can visit my website here.

http://www.chrislowden.com

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Professional Web Design

by: Bradley Glen Smith

Professional web design is becoming more important in today's ever-chaging marketplace. Whether you are trying to establish yourself as an online presence or acquire more clientele, professional web design has become crucial. What is it that distinguishes you from your competitor? How often do you find yourself wishing you had an online presence? Are you an entrepreneur? Would your business be better served by professional web design?

So, how do you think your business could be better served by professional web design? Could it be one of the following reasons:

* Flash Environment--Interactive WebPages
* PHP Environment--Dynamic WebPages
* HTML Environment--Static WebPages
* Search Engine Optimization
* E-Commerce Development
* Sales Page
* Video Tutorials
* Product Launch
* Affiliate Program
* Lead Capture--Acquiring New Clientele
* Recreating a Professional Look
* Creating A Link Directory

eYouCanDoIt, Inc. realizes the importance of professional web development and what it means to your business in terms of deadlines. That is why we strive to complete your professional website in two weeks. After gathering the necessary information to complete your website, we give ourselves a deadline of two weeks. This helps us ensure that your professionally-designed website is completed in a timely manner.

Professional web design and focus on your website is important to us. For that reason, we limit ourselves to five projects every two weeks. After your website is completed, your professional web design comes with one full year of support on operating and adjusting your website.


About The Author
Bradley G. Smith is a freelance Professional Web Designer. He designs web sites for entrepreneurs and small businesses. View his portfolio at the following link: http://www.eyoucandoit.com

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Good Copy, the key to successful sites

You can design a great site, but without the right words you'll never sell anything. Learn to write copy the right way and increase sales and revenue.

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The 4’Cs of Affiliate Marketing

by: Jason Hulott

If you currently run or are thinking about running your own affiliate program, then this article is for you.

There are 4 major things that each and every affiliate program needs to have if it is to be a success. Luckily for me they all begin with C so it is easy to remember.

Commission, Creative, Consistency, and Communication

Let's take a look at each one in turn. To the affiliate this is the correct order of importance when joining a program. However, as the affiliate program manager this needs to be slightly altered but we will get to that later!

Commission

The biggest differentiator to the affiliate is money. How much will they get paid for selling your product or service? How you structure this is really dependent on the type of product or service you are offering but really you have 3 options. Pay Per Sale, Pay per Lead or Pay Per Click. There are other options but to be honest these are the main ones.

When deciding on what commissions to pay, be realistic. If you don't really know how much you can afford to pay out then air on the side of caution. You want to pay out what you can afford to. Running a program for 2 months and then realise you have to reduce your commission payments to affiliates can be a program killer.

Creative

How many times have you joined an affiliate program only to find there are no creative to promote the program? How are they going to promote your product or service if you do not help them. You must provide the affiliates with everything they need to sell your product. If you had a real sales force, you would give them marketing materials in order to sell the customer, so the affiliate program is no different.

Banners, buttons, text links, HTML email, text email, classified ads copy, content, articles, and product reviews are all things that you can us to give the affiliate the creative they need to sell or pre-sell your product or service.

Consistency

Whenever you commit to running an affiliate program, be consistent, if you are sending out updates or updating creative on a regular basis make sure you remain consistent. If you want make it a certain day of the month. Affiliates will then get used to expecting things from you at a given time of the month. They can then almost factor that into their workloads. Remember affiliates can have two jobs, two hundred websites to manage so try to accommodate that in your thinking.

If you lose consistency, it will show the affiliate that you don't care about there efforts. They will switch off you like a shot. Remember there will always be someone else out there running an affiliate program in a similar space to you. An affiliate will show loyalty if you treat them right.

Communication

Perhaps last but no means least is Communication. You need to communicate to affiliates for two main reasons. Firstly, to update them on any new product changes, new creative, new commission structures. So in effect , to keep them informed with what's going on with you and your business that will help them drive more sales.

Secondly, you need to keep in touch will affiliates to make them feel important and to help train them. If you stay in touch on a regular basis and provide them with tools and training materials, they will learn more about driving traffic and sales to your products. They will be much more switched on to you for helping them.

Now I know some of you will be thinking that they will take your knowledge and help and use it elsewhere. Yes they will. But there will be lots of affiliates out there that will be joining an affiliate program for the first time or do not know who to do certain things and will feel loyal to you.

This is the most important C for Affiliate Program managers, building relationships and loyalty with affiliates through Communication. Think of it as an insurance policy so when a competitor comes along with the same product and offers the same commission or even in some instances a higher commission you will find you will keep your affiliates.

Running an affiliate program is a hugely rewarding project, get it right and you make a large sum of money for not just you but your affiliates too. Always remember the 4 C's when constructing a program or revisiting a program which isn't working that well.

Good Luck!


About The Author
Jason Hulott is an Author, Affiliate Program Manager, and creator of “Affiliate Communicator”, a new tool which allows the user to create Affiliate Marketing newsletters at the push of a button. Auto loaded with articles, products tips and useful Resources, Affiliate Communicator is THE tool affiliate marketing managers can’t live without! Visit http://www.affiliatecommunicator.com.

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How to Put Video on Your Website

by: Bob Dean Stanford

Maverick Marketing™ Series

Do you want to increase your website sales, web-traffic, or start your own online TV talk show? Would you like to broadcast your newsletter articles or videos over the Internet to others? Has this seemed impractical because video loads too slow, takes to much web space or just seems to hard to understand. We’ll welcome to the NEW world of instant loading, user friendly web video.

You may have noticed that a large number of websites are now featuring videos, everything from music videos, to online training. News is a popular use for presenting website video. You’ve probably heard a lot about RSS (Really Simple Syndication), a format designed for sharing web content like news headlines. RSS will be covered in a future article.

Did you know?

That there are so many new advancements in online video and audio in the last year, almost anyone can have their own online radio or TV talk show, radio or television station without high fees, advanced technical knowledge, and no FCC (Federal Communications Commission) intervention or regulation. Just build a website, install your audio and/or video files, advertise, and you’re in business. You can even broadcast your audio and video files through RSS feeds (we’ll explain in a moment) to websites worldwide and Joint Venture (JV) with other website owners to include your video on their websites.

Why would you want to put video and audio on your website?

There are many reasons. We are now in the 21st Century and 2006 is said to be the year of online video. Video is a premier sales tool. You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a video with audio worth? A LOT! More than ever, people today are in a hurry and easily distracted, and even sensitively attuned to watching television many hours a day. TV is losing some of its ground to web-surfing.

Give the people what they want, video. Entertain, inform and educate them the way they are already trained for. Now it’s easier than ever to do this. Here, we are focusing on adding video / audio to your website for various purposes such as, marketing, training, V-Blogging, video sharing and etc. New technology has made it easy to add fast loading (called Streaming) video content to your website.

Until recently, between slow dial-up Internet connections and older technology, adding video wasn't practical for general website usage. But since over 60% of individuals online now have broadband access, and the new streaming technology, audio and video files can now be viewed online with little or no buffering. Buffering means to make the video viewable to your computer (the simple explanation). Therefore, video is now a feature that can be efficiently used online. There are still size and quality limitations to consider, but the industry is making progress in this arena almost daily.

The other problem hindering website video use was its complicated installation process. It’s been very difficult for the average individual to add video files to their websites. Windows Player simplified this process but still had limitations. It played a few formats, but not the streaming .swf (Flash) files and you had to know how to install their player on your website to play the video. You needed to know html webpage code or have a program like Microsoft’s FrontPage to install the player and video on a webpage.

Now there are a few new solutions that make it easy for the average person to install video on a website without needing too much computer or webpage knowledge. If a person knows how to cut and paste a simple code into a webpage, they can ad existing video files to their site. The tutorials even teach how to do this for the absolute beginner.

The latest software is an integration of several individual modules assembled as one user friendly software package that permits anyone to convert most of the existing video formats into fast loading, high quality, and streaming website videos. This software even enables you to customize your video player, video size, and quality. There is no player or software for your website visitor to download since the player is built into your webpage and loads almost instantly.

There are many software programs available that claim it’s easy to install video on your website. Most don’t work as promised. One good suite is Camtasia, but it is complex to use and cost several hundred dollars. A good user friendly, beginners’ level, feature-rich software should cost less than $100.

Video Content

Making video for a website is very easy today. A mass amount of people now have low cost digital video cameras. Many have video still cameras. New software makes it easy for non-technical individuals to create automatic training videos and presentation from still pictures. We’ll cover this feature in the next article in this web-video series.

Digital video and still cameras easily connect to your computer to upload the pictures from your camera to your computer in a digital format. One simple conversion to the new streaming format, making a video or audio player, and pasting the new code onto your webpage and you’re in business.

Windows XP even includes “Windows Movie Maker” for editing your videos in your computer. This is beginner level software but makes high quality edits. Your video cam can give you the ability to immediately create training videos, have your own TV talk show and etc. You simply record your video on your computer, edit it if necessary, and save it in the new streaming video format. Do a series of these and you have prerecorded videos viewable by anyone with Internet access. If you would like additional information on this subject, visit my website or email me as referenced in my signature line below.


About The Author
Bob Dean Stanford

Subscribe to the FREE "Maverick Entrepreneur" Newsletter to learn how to setup and operate your own Internet business, "THE RIGHT WAY."

Learn how to add FAST LOADING audio and video to your website, even if you've never done it before. Webmarketing is as much of an artform as it is a science. It should be made "User Friendly" for everyone.

The newsletter is a weekly support newsletter for the TV Show, "The Maverick Entrepreneur," Hosted by "Maverick" (aka Bob Dean Stanford), targeting home businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs.

It presents cutting edge, state of the art small business marketing tips, insider information, quality low cost solutions and resources. The newsletter is entertaining, educational, and uniquely informative presenting many "Tricks of the Trade."

http://www.webvideopros.com
http://maverickentrepreneur.com
http://maverickpros.com
http://magnumrecords.com

http://mavericktips.com

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Benefits of Having a Web Site

by: Wan Assad Aziz

Many have heard countless news of the downfall of Internet era that caused millions of loss to big companies. However, there are lots of advantages when it comes of having own web site. Think of having a business. Having a website will give a business the ability to reach thousands of potential customers through out the world, with a fraction of cost. These are but a few key benefits of owning a website:

Improve business image with online presence.

Many people today believe that businesses with websites provide superior products or services to those that don't. Think of a website as an online brochure where person can show examples or products and services. Websites provide companies with large customer bases the ability to communicate more effectively. Properly planned, designed and implemented a website should pay for itself and providing a return on investment.

Cost-saving to your business expenditure.

Buying advertising space, whether it's a newspaper ad, billboard, or radio spot, can be very expensive. Adding to the burden are the hours spent trying to figure out the perfect set of words to say everything needed within the constraints of an ad. By advertising business through a website, potential customers have the opportunity to learn more about products and services. A person can instantly publish that same information: new product announcements, employment opportunities, contact information, job openings, surveys, coupons, and investor’s information, almost anything, without material or delivery costs. The customers are able to learn about it instantly just by visiting the related web site.

Unless a company has a very large advertising budget, there's a limit to how much a person can say in the print ads. By including a website address in these ads, potential customers can easily look into the business up on the net. Think of a business card as a print ad.

Unlimited geographic market.

With a web site, a person can easily attract new customers not only locally, but nationally and internationally. By implementing online presence, the person can reach to a market that may have been difficult or expensive to reach through traditional advertising. A website provides these opportunities by allowing him/her to publish who and what is the business all about in a powerful and attractive manner.

24/7/365 Business Hours.

There is no other medium for being available 24/7/365 that even compares to a website. With the modest cost of developing a website and making it available on the Internet, there is nothing even close to being as cost effective. In addition, printed materials are easily misplaced. Television and radio commercials air at preset times. A website can be visited at a time that is convenient for the visitor, and they will have more interest because they want to be there on that particular website.

About The Author
Wan Assad Aziz - Administrator and editor for online presence. More articles related web site creation can be found at http://www.directpins.com

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How Colors Affect Your Website

by: Amber M. Miller

Since people associate particular colors with different emotions, the colors used on your website can have a psychological effect on visitors to your site. By using specific colors geared towards the emotion you want to invoke, you can actually increase product sales.

Here are some colors along with the emotions and symbols they stimulate:

1) WHITE- purity, innocence, peace, perfection, chastity, sterility, cleanliness. In general, white creates a cool and refreshing feeling.

2) BLACK- night, space, authority, sturdiness, reliability, power, constancy, prudence, wisdom, classy, elegance, submission, mourning, demons, witches. Black is a controversial color as it can symbolize both good and evil.

3) RED- love, excitement, warmth, heat, fire, blood, passion, power, aggression, action. Use red as an attention grabber. It works better as an accent color rather than a background one.

4) PINK- romantic, affection, sensuality, tenderness, calm, soft hearted, softness, femininity. Pink tends to reduce aggression.

5) BLUE- sky, ocean, water, temperature, ice, coolness, mist, shadow, travel, freedom, truth, solitude, wisdom, trust, loyalty, peaceful, calmness, intelligence, dedication, masculinity. Different shades of blue convey opposite meanings. Light blue is peaceful while dark blue is depressing.

6) PURPLE- royalty, dignity, luxury, wealth, sophistication, feminine, passion, romance, sensitivity, coolness, mist, shadows, mysterious, mystic.

7) GREEN- money, calm, envy, greed, nature, life, youth, renewal, hope, vigor, fertility, rebirth, freedom, guilt. Different shades of green have different meanings. Dark green-cool. masculine, conservative, wealth. Emerald green- immortality. Olive green- peace. Green is the easiest color on the eye.

8) Yellow- light, purity, understanding, brightness, warmth, playfulness, creativity. Lemon yellow is the most eye fatiguing color. Yellow can increase irritability so yellow should not be used as a main color, only as an accent. Yellow enhances concentration.

9) ORANGE- autumn, youthful, fire, warmth, contentment, fruitfulness, wholesomeness, strong, generous, endurance, strength, ambition. Orange is the color most associated with appetite so it would be a good color choice for a website selling food products. Orange also makes a product seem more suitable for everyone and more affordable.

10) BROWN- wood, comfort, strength, earth, solid, reliable, credible, maturity, humility, conservancy. Light brown conveys genuineness.

11) GRAY- exclusivity. Enhances the psychological response of other colors.

In general, red, orange, and yellow are exciting colors while purple, blue and green are calming ones.

Use the color that symbolizes the emotion you want to convey as the primary color on your website. Add 1-2 other colors to reinforce this emotion. The colors used for your background, header, graphics, text, highlighting, headlines, etc. will all contribute to your website's influence on your visitors.

About The Author
Amber Miller is a Virtual Assistant and President of Smart To Finish Office Solutions. She partners with small business owners who realize the importance of working on their business – not in their business. She can be reached online at http://www.smarttofinish.com.

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Web 2.0 Programming

 
by: Kirk Jensen

In this article the term Web 2.0 programming is defined as well as the difference between Web 2.0 programming and Web 1.0 programming. The advantages and disadvantages of Web 2.0 programming are explained. Finally an opinion on Web 2.0 programmingis given.

The term Web 2.0 was coined by O’Reilly Media back in 2004 to mean a network to span across all network devices. It delivers software on a continually updating basis, where unique users can go in and post information on the fly and it is updated automatically to the web.

The following list is a general comparison of between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 this will be broken down into specific comparisons.Web 2.0 and Web 1.0

The first comparison will be with Double Click and Google Adsense.

Double Click was the pioneer of the Internet ad service, where the users profile was created by their activity on the web. Consequently banner ads where generated this way as well. A major disadvantage was that Double click required the use to have a former sales contact with the company which limited this technology to larger companies. Overture and Google saw a need and improved upon an existing product thus Overture and Adsense was born. It was a format in which virtually any site could be catered to in terms of having a banner ad on it, which in turn offered consumer friendly text advertising. The lesson here is to create a customer self-service management system that reaches out to the entire web and not just the core. Other companies that have used this technology are eBay and Napster.

The second comparison is between Akamai and BitTorrent.

Akamai provided global Internet caching meaning a client browser requesting a specific file when is then sent to another website which gives you the index page of the source site of the file. From the source code you can parse it into your site as an image, video or audio file. The disadvantage here was the hoops one had to go through in order to get a file, plus the fact that they could only use the servers provided to them. Now take BitTorrent, every client is also a server, hence the more popular a file is the faster it can be downloaded because more clients or servers in this case that host the give file. Again the lesson here is to give the power to the people.

The next comparison is between personal website and blogs.

Now one should know what a personal website and what a blog is, but what classifies a blog as a Web 2.0 technology? One is the use of RSS feeds, what RSS stands for is “Real Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary” depending on whom you ask. Basically you can put a remote blog or syndication on your site using an RSS feed for example the following RSS Feed, which is referencing another website’s syndication. Another factor that separates a blog from a personal website is the use of permalinks. A permalink is the specific URL for a given blog and/or syndication. Thus referencing this URL to another blog and/or syndication will automatically create a link to that blog or syndication, which in turn built reputation between bloging communities.

The difference between static and dynamic generated web sites.

With Web 1.0 technology the term WYSIWYG or What You See Is What You Get becomes very apparent. Then JavaScript came along and became the breaking scripting code to bridge the gap between Static and dynamic pages. Web 2.0 uses Ajax programming or (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) meaning JavaScript and XML coding work in unison with each other to create rich, dynamic web pages, CSS is also thrown into the mix.

The 7 Core Competencies of Web 2.0

The 7 core competencies according to O’Reilly Media are:

* Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability

* Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them

* Trusting users as co-developers

* Harnessing collective intelligence

* Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service

* Software above the level of a single device

* Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

Companies that are considered to be Web 2.0 are shown in the following list.

It is safe to say that many sites now days use a combination of both Web 1.0 and 2.0 technologies. A perfect example is gameznstuff.com that has a combination of both static and dynamic pages that use a content management system of Joomla that is considered to be more Web 2.0 based then Web 1.0. Connected to gameznstuff.com is the blog site as well as RSS feeds and a separate forum site as well.

So Web 2.0 based technology is gradually making its way as the prefered mainstrean tools to produce rich, dynamic generated web pages and online content.

To see more articles like this one go to http://www.gameznstuff.com/blog

About The Author

Kirk Jensen - Owner of http://Gameznstuff.com, http://Gameznstuff.net 

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Domain Names and Search Engine Optimization

 
by: Halstatt Pires

There are a lot of factors involved if you are considering building out a site with search engine optimization in mind. Your domain name is just one, but an important one.

Domain Names and Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is simply an effort to get pages on your site to rank high in the natural or organic listings on various search engines with Google, Yahoo and MSN being the most important. Taking this approach to online marketing requires a lot of planning, patience and work. Unfortunately, many people get off on the wrong foot when the pick their domain name.

Selecting a domain name is often viewed as a simple process. Most businesses will simply use their offline business name or something off the top of their head. Others will try to pick something that is catchy, so visitors will hopefully remember the name and come back to buy more. If you are planning on pursuing search engine optimization, the approaches will not kill you. That being said, there is a better way to pick your domain.

One of the interesting things about most search engines is they put a significant amount of value on the words in the root of a domain name. By root, I mean the words between www and the dot com, net or whatever you are using. Simply put, even a moderate optimization effort will usually lead to the site appearing high under the phrase in the domain name. Given this fact, it is important to think long and hard about the domain you use.

One approach used by many people doing search engine optimization is to match keyword phrases and domains. The idea is to research keyword phrases being used by people in your particular field and then buy domains matching those phrases. For a simple example, consider the fact that many people search for “puppy names”. If you want to build a site about puppies, you would ideally want to buy the domain puppynamesdotcom. Such a site could be optimized and obtain fairly high rankings with a moderate amount of effort.

Obviously, keyword phrases with tons of traffic have already been taken. This should not discourage you, however. Work your way down the phrases identified by whatever research tool you are using. You will be surprised to find that many of the phrases are available. Build a site on one of the domains and you should find your optimization efforts leading to successful results.

About The Author

Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com - providing internet marketing services. 

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Now On Technorati

Web Design and Development blog is now on Technorati!

Technorati Profile 

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PHP Logic

by: Izzat Youssif

If else statements

Let's look at an example

if ($lesson = "html") {
echo "Welcome to html";
}

The above statement tells php to display Welcome to html if our Lesson variable is equal to html.
The condition is always stated next to the if in () . The results are stated after the { and } tells php that you are ending the if statement.

Next let's look at an else example

if ($lesson = "html") {
echo "Welcome to html";
}
elseif ($lesson = "php") {
echo "Welcome to php";
}
else {
echo "No lesson chosen";
}

Else statement came after an if statement. Notice else came in elseif and else formate. Elseif looks for other conditions if they existed. Else is the result as a last resort, if no other option is available. Both elseif and else follow the same structure as if statements.

Next , we'll talk about loops statments

The first type of loop statements are while statements

Let's look at an example below

$ls = 0;
while ($ls <>echo "$lesson" ;
$ls++;
}

While statement are used to loop through a collection of records or data. The above statement simply at the number of our $ls variable and from that number prints the chosen lesson. Again following the same structure as if else statements, condition next to the while and condition below { and ending with . The only differences is we incremented the variable within the statement.

Next we'll discuss for statements

For statements are used in the same essence as while statment, expect more emphasis is put on the variable as you'll in the example below.

for ($ls=0;$ls<$totalls;$ls++)
{
echo $ls['lesson'];
}

The above example, declares the ls variable again and compares it to total numbers of lessons. While ls is less than total number of lessons, we tell php to increment. Again following the same structure as if else statements, condition next to the for and condition below { and ending with } .

About The Author
Izzat Youssif is an online web designer and developer offering low cost website design and development service, as well as free website design and development. visit http://websitedevelopmentanddesign.com for more details!

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The Web's Best Kept SEO Secret

by: Richard Quick

Did you know there's a way to get 100s of inbound links to your site - and improve you Google ranking - for free?

Message board seeding is the technique nobody's talking about - because they don't want you to know about it!

In this article top web designer Richard Quick uncovers the secrets of this powerful technique.

What are message boards?

Message boards are websites, or sections of websites, where people go to chat, usually about a single subject. There are message boards about everything from pop stars to politics.

The way they work is simple, people write messages, or posts, which appear online. For example, they might post a question ("How do I add a link in HTML?") or an opinion ("The new Tom Cruise movie is awesome!"). Other people can then reply.

How does this help me?

The obvious way to try to increase traffic to you website might be to post to a message board promoting your site. Don't do this - ever. People treat these kind of unsolicited adverts as spam and get very angry with people who post them. You're likely to get angry emails, abusive posts on the board or even complaints to your ISP, asking for your site to be shut down.

So what can I do?

Well, while people don't like their message boards being spammed they always welcome new members. If there's a subject you're interested in or knowledgeable about then you can join a few popular message boards and join in with the discussions.

Most message boards allow their members to have a signature, with a link to your website.

How does this help me?

Message board seeding, as this technique is known, will help you in two ways. Firstly, people on the boards will come to know and trust you. Some will look at your site out of interest and next time they need a service similar to yours they may contact you.

Secondly, and much more importantly, every time you post on a message board you will be creating a link to your website. This will improve your page rank and help push you further up Google.

How to link to your site

When you link to your site, make sure the link text (or anchor text) you use contains your main keywords. If you own a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn your link text should be Chinese restaurant Brooklyn not The Golden Lotus.

Share the love

Posting 100 messages to 1 message board won't have the same effect on your Google position as posting 10 messages on 10 different message boards.

Where to post

Make sure you choose message boards that closely match your business. If you run a golf course near Miami, you should post on message boards about Golf or Miami - not on message boards about web design or orange juice.

About The Author
Richard Quick is the author of the forthcoming book "Web Design in easy steps". He has a background in designing websites for multinational companies and works as a freelance web designer in Cornwall (http://www.thepasty.com), England. Richard also runs a site selling Cornish Pasties (http://www.thepasty.com).

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10 Things To Think About When Considering Frontpage Web Hosting

by: Charles Waters

It’s not hard to find Frontpage Web Hosting. Just do a google search and you’re likely to find hundreds of sites that provide it. But there are some things that you’ll want to look for and consider.

1) What version of Frontpage are you using? This is important because Frontpage features are implemented through the use of Frontpage Extensions and those extensions are different between each version. So you’ll need to make sure that the Frontpage Host you select supports the Frontpage extensions for your particular version.

2) Do you really need a site that supports Frontpage extensions? This may seem strange, but you’ll find that there are two primary hosting types; Linux based and Windows based. The Linux based hosts are generally a bit cheaper than Windows based hosting. If you have no plans to take advantage of Frontpage extensions, and you’re only using Frontpage to create HTML documents, then regular Linux hosting will do fine.

3) Don’t use Frontpage Extensions if you really don’t have to. These extensions will give you the ability to do creative things (flashing text, calanders, etc) that don’t really add value to your website. Consider this risk… as Microsoft updates its software, they may change a Frontpage extension in such a way that your websites may not work. If this happens, you would have to rewrite your web page with updated references to extensions to make it work again.

4) Is the host reliable? There are literally THOUSANDS of Frontpage Web Hosting providers on the market. All you need to set up a web host business is a Windows based server and an Internet connection. You, the home users, really have no idea if the host is reliable or not. For this reason, it’s a good idea to check Frontpage hosting providers ratings before making a selection. Use a service like:

http://www.webhostingratings.com/ or http://www.hostcompare.com/showcases/frontpage.html

5) How long do they want you to sign up for? Typically, a web host will have a monthly contract with price breaks if you prepay for longer terms. You don’t have to be crazy and buy 5 years. 1 year will do. Also, along with your Frontpage hosting account, you’re going to have to purchase a domain name. Generally, I do this through the same company, but you don’t have to do it this way. For example, on occasion, a domain name registrar called RegisterFly will offer .info domains for as little as .60 per year. Normally you would expect to pay about $5.00 per year, so this is a great discount. I’ve purchased hundreds of domains through RegisterFly and am very happy with them.

6) Does your Frontpage Web Host have a simple to use web front end for administering your site? This makes things much easier. You will undoubtedly be creating a directory structure, uploading files, changing file permissions, etc, while you develop your site. Having a convenient web based portal for administering these changes makes things nice.

7) How many e-mail accounts will your Frontpage Web Host provide? Normally this is a non-issue, but if you’re setting up a website for a business and they need e-mail addresses to go along with their web hosting service, then you’ll want to confirm that enough e-mail addresses are provided by the host. Lately, I’ve noticed this number going up and up and up. A few years ago, 5 e-mail addresses was normal. Now, I’ll get hundreds per domain (which I never use).

8) How much space will your Frontpage Web Host provide? Again, this number is going up and up and up. But don’t be caught off guard. Make sure they will provide enough space for your needs. Typically, you’ll see 100 MB or so for cheaper accounts. Unless you have a vast database that will be part of your site, this is generally more than enough.

9) Will your Frontpage Web Host put a cap on the amount of bandwidth you can consume? If you expect to get lots of visitors to your website, make sure your hosting provide will supply the bandwidth. I recently ran into a problem with on of my accounts because a graphics intensive page was referenced by a very popular authority site, I consumed my allotted bandwidth for the month, in 2 days. They kept my account operations, but I had to pay extra for the bandwidth consumption. Other sites have been turned off due to excessive bandwidth consumption.

10) Finally, will your Frontpage Web Host allow you to register domain names privately? This is a feature of Domain Registration where your private information remains private. When someone performs a “Whois” on your domain, they would see the contact information for the web host. This is nice if you plan to put up many, many sites and want to avoid any spam.

I would say that choosing a Frontpage Web Host is only slightly more difficult than choosing a Linux Host. If you check some of those review sites that I mentioned above, you can be confident that you’ll find a Frontpage host that will provide excellent service to you. You can find out more about Frontpage Web Hosting here -> http://www.frontpagewebhosting-site.info

About The Author

Charles Waters has been developing web sites for several years as part of his Affiliate Marketing strategy. In the beginning, he used Frontpage extensively, but over the last few years has migrated to the cheaper, more ubiquitous Linux hosting. See http://www.frontpagewebhosting-site.info for more information. 

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The 8 Golden Rules to Web Site Optimization

 
by: Harrold Swalve

There are several reasons why you should make web site optimization one of your main priorities and why you should make sure to take this serious. A web site which takes ages to load for example will make your visitors leave before they even had the change to see what you’ve got to offer.

That’s why I want you to take some of your valuable time and check out the 8 golden rules to web site optimization which I have listed here. I can assure you that it will proof valuable to those of you who want to give their visitors an experience they will remember in the positive sense.

1. Content is King

You probably have heard this before but I can assure you it is true. The main reasons why you want to offer decent content is to stand out from the rest. People who visit your website will be presently surprised with the quality of your content and will spread the word for you.

2. Load Time of Your Web Pages

Even though a lot of surfers have access to high speed internet connections you will be surprised what percentage still uses a phone connection and modem to go on line. At least for these people you should make sure your web pages load within 30 sec. using a 56k modem. Don’t forget that most people are impatient and won’t wait for your web pages to load.

3. Create Killer Titles for Every Single Web Page

Your main web page might be the most visited page of your web site and also the one which comes up in the search results most often but you certainly don’t want to forget your other pages.

Imagine you are lucky enough that several of your other web pages show up in the search results. What good does it do if nobody clicks it because of a lousy title. Make sure to include your main keyword of that particular web page into your title.

4. Create a Description Explaining the Content of the Page.

What goes for the title also goes for the description meta tag. You should make sure that every single page has a clear description through which search engine traffic will immediately understand what the web page will be about. Keep in mind that not all search engines display the description in their listings but you still want to get this right for the ones that do.

5. Make Sure Your Internal Links Work.

Nothing is more annoying when visiting a web site then internal links which don’t work. Download links which are not functioning any more, links to internal pages where you get a 404 error message, these are things you absolutely want to prevent at all times if you want to be taken serious.

6. Refresh Your Content on Regular Bases.

Once you have created a web site which invites people to pay you a return visit because of the quality of your web site, you want to make sure that you refresh (update) your content on regular bases. I don’t mean that you should rewrite your complete web site but for a decent web site optimization you might want to include automatically refreshing content like a guestbook, forum, or an RSS feed with articles.

7. Use Only Two or Three Main Keywords Per Page.

A perfectly optimized web site will have every single page optimized for only two or three main keywords. Use these keywords between h1tags, make sure that the keywords (or similar keywords) appear on every two paragraphs of your web page, and make sure your last line of the body text will have at least one of the two keywords embedded.

8. Get as many One Way Inbound Links as Possible.

Reciprocal linking still works but isn’t as valuable for your search engine ranking anymore as it used to be, If you really want to be found in the search engines you need to take your web site optimization to the next level. You’ll have to become the one way link king.

Write articles and submit them to every single article directory you can find. Make sure to place the article on your web site first and slightly change it before submitting it to the article directories.

Submit your website to every single directory your can find. I would advise only to use the ones which accept free submissions. Keep in mind that this will be an ongoing job and that it might take several weeks before your site gets included.

Be inventive and come up with ideas which will help you to get your web site link on other high traffic web sites within your market. Not everything has to be copied; you are smart enough yourself to come up with ideas.

Well, as you probably realized by now, web site optimization truly is an ongoing job and should be taken extremely serious when you want to get listed on the first pages in the search engines and receive all that free traffic.

About The Author

As one of the youngest regional managers ever in the U.K. Harrold Swalve already achieved one success story. After a couple of years in the online industry he again achieved great goals and successes. These days he is a well respected and much sought-after online business expert and has already published a online business bestseller Profit Shockdocs which is available at http://www.Profit-Shockdocs.Com. To learn more about how Harrold can help you achieve your goals with your online business, visit him at http://www.pocketmoremoney.com and start your own Moneymaking at Home Business. 

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Importance of Building Backlinks

 
by: Rob Ferrall

Getting other websites to link to yours is an important part of your website development. There are many reasons why a website will survive and flourish, and also a lot of reason why your website might die a premature death and have no visitors. Steady, strategic link building can help you maintain your website traffic and cause your visitors to increase as well.

Now, don't get me wrong: getting thousands of random websites to link to you might not always be a good thing. Search engines like it when a link to your website is contained on a page where the page content is relevant to your website. For instance, if you have a website about cat food, you might not want to pursue a link from a website about Indian tea recipes. Your link will not likely be seen as helpful (or relevant) to the visitor of the Indian tea recipe website, and search engines will also view this linking as non-relevant. Please understand I am not saying that non-relevant links will hurt you, only that they are not the types of links that you should pursue.

How can you get backlinks?

You can obtain backlinks for your website using a number of methods:

* Posting in forums with your website URL in your signature

* Writing reviews of products that allow you to post your URL

* Responding to blog postings

* Writing articles and submitting them with your website link in your resource box

* Submitting your website to classified ad sites

* Submitting your website to directories

* There are many more as well

What is the purpose of building backlinks?

There can be great benefit for your website with a proper link building strategy. Building backlinks to your website can:

* Cause your website to be indexed and crawled by search engines

* Increase your visitors from strategic placement of your website link

* Increase your overall search engine position for keywords or phrases

* Increase brand awareness for your name or business name. . .

Building backlinks, if done properly, can increase your website traffic significantly. It doesn't have to be hard, simply do a little at a time and you may be surprised with the results over a short period of time.

About The Author
Rob Ferrall has a website directory submission service that offer SEO Friendly website submissions at an affordable rate:
http://www.directorysitesubmit.com 

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5 Easy Ways To Turn Visitors on Your Site Into Customers

by: Caren Jacob
Turn visitors into customers

The sole purpose of a website is to sell. Thus no matter how much traffic your website gets and how impressive its rankings are, it all comes to a naught if your sales numbers are not as positive. In fact, this is the most serious ailment that most e-commerce sites suffer from ¨C the matter of conversions.

Conversions are about turning visitors into buyers. The process is not simple and there are numerous factors affecting the outcome.

In fact, the e-commerce scenario is fast changing and you need to be in tune with the latest developments to remain competitive.

An e-commerce website is not just an online catalog. There is more to it than efficient shopping carts and secure payment gateways.

Buying decisions, whether online or offline, are regulated by extra- rational factors. So the important question to ask is whether you¡¯re set up evokes the desire and the trust in visitors required to complete an online transaction.

If you wish to improve your site's conversion rate, here are a few tips -

1. Distinguish your offerings
If you are the only one selling what you are, you have it easy. But if you are not, then you have to create a distinct identity for your business. Give the visitors a convincing reason to choose you over your competitors. Your marketing campaigns have to emphasis this aspect too.

2. Target your traffic
When it comes to traffic, huger numbers might be impressive but not necessarily effective. While most of the sites hover around a conversion rate of 3 ¨C 4%, a conversion rate of around 8% is not very unusual. In fact, the best of e-commerce websites have a figure as high as 18%. It's up to you to decide which figures are for you.

But if you are looking for high conversion rates, then advertise accordingly. Your advertisement should be very specific to your offering. Broad keywords get you bigger traffic but result in lower conversion rates too.

3. Get the content that converts
The copy on your website has to speak business, it has to tell the visitor clearly and categorically what you are selling and how it's different from other similar products in the market. Emphasis the benefits of buying from you. The visitor is in a hurry and has numerous other options. Show the carrots to him blatantly; let it not be a puzzle for him.

If you are using landing pages, then make sure that they have attractive product descriptions, pictures and very prominent 'call to action' buttons. Compare your product with those of others; there is nothing more convincing than fair comparisons.

4. Gain the prospect's faith
When you walk into a superstore, you already have a fair idea about the store's reputation, customer service and availability of goods. Successful e-commerce websites function on the same principles. You read about them in forums, shopping comparison websites; get impressed with their website's design and content, hassle free navigation, easy loading etc. They will have a toll free number to call on, probably live support, customer testimonials, and real address on the Contact Us page. If you have any news items or press releases have a separate section for them too.

5. Assure & Secure
Online business is not new for many. But most of your visitors might have compunctions about online transaction. These are the fears that your privacy policy should allay. Assure your visitors that the personal information that they share is totally secure, tell them emphatically that the privacy policy statement is important to you.

Another major concern in online transactions is security of payments. Therefore, use a payment gateway that is widely trusted and evokes faith. This is reason why Verisign is one of the most well known signs in the online world.

E-commerce is an elaborate subject and this article does not cover all aspects of it. However, these are the bedrocks without which an e-business can't prosper.

About The Author

Caren Jacob makes it easy to provide ways which would gradually increase your site conversion rate.To recieve your free part-mini course visit the http://www.firedandinspired.com

This article is written by the E-commerce specialist at Fired and Inspired UK. Fired&Inspired is renowned London web design company also offering graphic design and SEO services in UK. Reproductions of this article are encouraged, but must include a link pointing to http://www.firedandinspired.com/ 

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Part 1 Of Your Free Guide To Buidling A Website

by: Nick Leech

Summary

In this article we’ll be covering how to use the Webeden to build a website, how to add realtime chat, message boards, galleries and more from the file library

You want to build a professional looking website that’s individual without the hassle of learning HTML. Welcome to WebEden.

Introduction

What do you do if you want a good looking website, but don’t want to have to install and learn complicated new software? Previously the answer was either to pay someone else to create the site for you, which was very expensive, or to choose a wizard driven online site builder. These create generic, drab looking sites that are very restricted in terms of functionality and in terms of how much you can change them. WebEden is a new service that provides the next generation of website building.

What is excellent about WebEden is the scope of the offering. Starting at only £2.99/month, cheaper than some standard web hosting packages, you get a hosted website together with an online website creator that makes generating a site and updating it, from anywhere in the world, a walk in the park.

Best of all, WebEden grows with you, so you can start out knowing nothing about creating a website and the system is intuitive that you can have your own new website up and running in half an hour. If you just need a site that looks presentable and offers the right information that you need, then simply use the wizard to set up a site. Even in its most simple form though, it’s better than other wizard driven sites, as you can choose the type of site you are after so that the right pages are created, and then a basic template for the design and then the colour scheme you want as well.

These tick box driven decisions by themselves mean that your site will have an individual look about it, but will look better than 90% of the hand created sites you see online. As you get used to the WebEden system though, you can edit the site and change any part of it that you want, all through the online interface. And we don’t just mean changing the colours, fonts or the graphics, the whole layout of pages can be controlled easily through your browser. The system can even password protect parts of your site and add Message Boards for interactivity. If this sounds interesting, then the good news is that you can try WebEden for free as they have a 14 day free trial, so you can play with the system all you like without any risk. Go to www.webeden.co.uk and sign up for free now.

Get started with WebEden

How to sign up with WebEden and get your first website ready for visitors in half an hour

Step 1

You can try out WebEden by clicking on the 14 day trial icon on the home page and starting the wizard. The wizard takes only a few steps and you don’t need to enter any credit card or financial data to try out the site, only a valid email address which is used to validate your WebEden account. The first step of the wizard gives you a set of options for the purpose of your website. By selecting the purpose, you decide the number and titles of the pages on your site, so for example you can have a home page with a music page, links, message board and hit counter, or a site for a club you may run with club news, events and photo gallery. You can see the different pages for each purpose by clicking on the relevant button – the list of pages will appear above. If none suit your purpose, you can choose a Blank purpose and add your own pages later. The next step will allow you to combine the pages titles you’ve chosen with a design template.

Step 2

WebEden has many advanced features which we’ll look at in later tutorials, but for now let’s look at one of the key ones, which is the menu editing feature, which is the key to great website building. The menu changes you make in the site organiser are automatically site wide, so you don’t need to worry about making sure changes are replicated across pages. You may also decide that you want a part of your menu to be a category for new pages, rather than a link to an individual page. Create the new pages and then drag them up so they sit under the category link. Click on the arrow next to the page number in the Organiser and it will make the page a sub-page of the one above it.

Now the website builder knows what type of site - and therefore what pages - are needed, it will combine these with the design template. Again there are buttons which when you click on one the preview will be shown above. The difference here is that as well as choosing the basic template for your page’s design, you will see there are three colour buttons under the preview. Once you’ve selected a template, click on the colour button you prefer and you will see the colour scheme applied to the template. Note that there are two pages of templates to choose from.

Step 3

Once chosen, you can move on to final step which requires you name the site and enter an email address. You can then create your own website and you will be taken to a view of your new site.

That’s it!

What’s next?

Now you have the site, simply click on any area that you wish to change and you will be able to edit it. Start with the basics, which is entering the text you want on your website.

By single clicking on an item you will see the bounding box that surrounds any item. This is like the boxes you will find in any design package on your PC, so you will find control boxes at the corners and mid-points of the bounding box. You can use these to stretch or shrink the object. You will also see that the floating Editor dialog changes as you select different objects on a page. This dialog allows you to change the dimensions of an object or the location of it by entering the pixel data. If the object is a text object you can double click on the object and you will now be able to change the text itself. If you already have the text that you want to appear on a web page written in a Word document, then you can copy it into your pages by opening the document and selecting the text and copying it to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl-C. Then go into WebEden and double click on the text box you wish to edit, then select the text by wanding it in, and press Ctrl-V to paste over it. When you have finished entering the text for a page, you can click on the Save icon to save it, or if you click on a different page in the menu, you will move to edit that page, and WebEden will prompt you to save the page automatically. As long as you don’t simply quit the browser, there should little chance of you inadvertently losing any changes you make to pages. Clicking on the pages in your site menu may take you to the individual pages so you can edit those, but how do you edit the menu itself to rename pages or add pages to your site. Website Builder makes this easier than any other method we’ve seen. Simply go to Pages / Organise pages and the dialog there lists the pages currently in your site. To change the order of pages in the menu, click on a page in the Drag column and move it up or down the list. Type over the page’s name in this dialog to change it on all pages, and click on the “Add a new page” to add one to the menu. See below for sub-menus.

Editing objects in WebEden

The beauty of building a website with WebEden is the speed with which you can edit pages or make site wide changes. Here’s 6 Menus to Basic Editing of your webeden.co.uk website

1. Edit menu
This allows you to operate on the currently selected object. Everything you see on a page is an object and to use it, you simply click on it and drag it around the page, or click here to edit it. You can delete objects from the Edit menu, send them to the back (as you can put objects on top of each other, like using layers in DTP programs), or change some more generic settings. For example, you can change the settings for the current page here, so you can set it as a private page that only registered users can see. The Edit menu also allows you to manage who is registered on your site and send them emails if you have chosen a package that includes this feature. Many of these features are not normally available in low end hosting packages or in normal HTML, but are possible because of the unique delivery system WebEden uses.

2. Pages menu
This menu lists the pages on your site, so you can jump to one to edit it. It also allows you to organise the pages and set which is the home page, etc. a great way to create your own website.

3. Insert menu
This is a very powerful menu as it allows you to add all manner of elements to your pages. As well as text and images, you can choose File, which brings up the File Manager. We’ll look at this in detail in the next part of this series, but you will come to love it because it gives you access to the WebEden library, which includes polls, animations, frames, games and much more.

4. Design menu
You can change the fonts, background, and the “Page Master” which is the template that contains elements that are on every page, like the menus. This menu also allows you to change the overall dimensions of your pages.

5. Active object
The currently selected object on a page will show a bounding box, a real help when you make your own website.

6. Editor dialog As you select different objects or add ones, this editor changes to offer options.
When you create your own website with WebEden you can have interactive elements like polls added easily, as well as your own images, all added to the existing template.

DID YOU KNOW?

When you create your WebEden account, you simply step through the wizard as described on the next page and select a subdomain, like tutorial. webeden.co.uk, as your web address. If you want to have a “proper” URL, you can register a web address and simply get it to forward to your WebEden address automatically.

That’s all for now

Check in for part 2 to find out how to carry out advanced editing to make it even easier to build your own website with Webeden

About The Author
Nick wants to make is easy for anyone to build their first website. Have a go for free at http://Webeden.co.uk 

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