by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
It's been a few years since my last article on getting your site noticed on Google, Tips on Improving Your Google Search Engine Ranking (Revisited). The situation hasn't changed much, and the article is still relevant today. However, over these years I have learned a couple more things about what to do and what not to do on your website with regards to your site's placement on the search engine results.
Hidden Text
Everyone knows that search engines (not just Google, but probably every one of them) frown on hidden text. Some people use hidden text to stuff keywords on their pages so that when people type those words on the search engine, your site will show, even though your page does not have any visible sign of those words.
I have never believed in hiding my keywords in hidden text or any of those cloak and dagger stuff, and hence I don't practise such things. Imagine my surprise, when one day, a few years back, I suddenly found my pages on thefreecountry.com receiving a Page Rank of 0 because of hidden text on the page. (See my other article on Google Page Rank if you don't know what Page Rank is.)
No, I did not compromise on my principles or anything like that. I did not try any underhand tactics to stuff keywords, etc. The reason is more prosaic.
At that time, I had partially converted thefreecountry.com to use CSS for its site design instead of the traditional and tags. In those years, there were still a few people using the old Netscape 4 which did not support CSS correctly. To accomodate those people, I tried to make my site degrade gracefully when it detected an old browser being used. I also put a message that contained the following text:
This page uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control its appearance. Since CSS is poorly supported on old browsers like Netscape 4.X, you may notice numerous oddities in the appearance of the page. However, you should still be able to read the information and navigate using the links.
This text was enclosed in a box that was hidden from view if you were using a modern browser, but visible if you used Netscape 4. I used the usual methods of getting different browsers to load different stylesheets as mentioned in my article How to Use Different CSS Style Sheets For Different Browsers (and How to Hide CSS Code from Older Browsers).
Unfortunately, Google's spider detected that some text was hidden, and not realizing that it was also visible in other cases, automatically assumed I was employing some sort of skulduggery to get those keywords into its index. It then penalized my site accordingly.
When I realized that my attempt to help my visitors was going to cost my site's position in the search engine results, I immediately pulled the message, and its accompanying CSS, from the site. Visitors using old browsers would still be able to use the site, but they would not receive any friendly explanation.
Although the days of Netscape 4 is long gone, the lessons learnt from that incident is useful today. Undoubtedly many of you will not even dream of using keyword stuffing in hidden text and the like. However, as I found out from the above incident, Google's search engine robot is far from intelligent, and its hidden text detection algorithm can bite legitimate webmasters too. If it even senses hidden text, even for an innocuous purpose like mine, your site is history.
Some ways in which you might inadvertently use hidden text (possibly without knowing if you use third-party scripts) include the use of drop-down menus for site navigation and browser-specific tips for users (like in my case above). I'm fairly certain that the Google programmers keep refining their engine so that the more common use of CSS to hide text for harmless purposes like navigation menus (and so on) are recognized as benign, but if you are about to use hidden text for some fancy design gimmick on your page, you might want to test it out on some obscure page on your site to see if the Google robot chokes on it. After all, always remember your site's life depends on a robot, not a human. It may be obvious to you and other humans that the code is harmless, designed for some acceptable purpose, but a computer program can only follow a set of preprogrammed rules.
Getting Your Link to Appear on the First Page of the Search Engine Results
I get many queries everyday from new webmasters reading thesitewizard.com, asking me how they can get the link to their site to be shown on the first page of the Google search engine results. In fact, for some of them, getting their site to appear anywhere in the first few pages of Google's results would already be a victory.
If you are in a hurry to get your site noticed, and have a budget allocated for your site's search engine promotion, one instant way to get to the first page of Google's results page is to buy advertisements (called Google Adwords) on your keywords. Before you summarily dismiss this, read everything I have to say first.
Google's Adwords actually operates according to your budget - that is, you can spend according to what you can afford. It also allows you to place the adverts on precisely the keywords you would have wanted for your site in the search engine results. Unlike the normal search engine indexing procedure however, here you control the exact keyword which will trigger your site's advertisement and its prominence. Of course it comes with a price. But if you're doing a business, this is often the surefire way to get people to see your site in relation to something that they are searching for.
Many new webmasters I deal with don't consider this as a viable option, because it involves cash-outlay. I agree that if you are merely running a personal site or a hobby site that does not receive an income, advertising this way is probably out of the question. You should then work on applying the usual search engine promotion tips to your website and hope for the best in the long run. However, if your site is a business site that yields an income, you might want to calculate the costs and benefits to see if you might actually earn more this way. Treat your expenditure on the advertisements like all other business expenditure and calculate your return on investment (ROI). If you spend (say) 50 cents per click on your advertisement, and every 100 clicks gets you one person who spends $100 on your site, you would have made a profit of $50 every hundred clicks. This is income that you would not otherwise have made had you not advertised. Of course, as in all things, it's possible to go overboard and spend more than you earn. You might want to consider setting aside an budget for a month or two as an experiment, and adjust as you go along to see if this approach increases your profits. ( Bring targeted traffic to your site with Google AdWords )
Conclusion
Google is now, arguably, the most important search engine around. Knowing what you should not do and still survive Google, as well as learning shortcuts to getting an instantaneous good placement on Google's search engine results page, is now a very important part of website promotion.
Copyright 2006 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design, promotion, revenue and scripting, from http://www.thesitewizard.com/.
This article can be found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/sitepromotion/moregoogletips.shtml
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
More Tips on Google Search Engine Results Placement
How to Register Your Own Domain Name
by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
If you have a web site, you should seriously consider registering your own domain name. A domain name is a name like "thesitewizard.com" or "thefreecountry.com", which you can use to refer to your website. Note that you do not have to be a company or organisation to register a domain name. Any individual can do it too.
Importance of a Domain Name
There are a number of good reasons for having a domain name:
* If you ever change your web host, your domain name goes with you. Your regular visitors or customers who knew your site name as www.thesitewizard.com (for example) would not have to be informed about a change of URL. They would simply type your domain name and they'd be brought to your new site.
* If you are a business, a domain name gives you credibility. Few people would be willing to do business with a company with a dubious URL like http://www.geocities.com/whatever/12345.
* If you get a domain name that describes your company's business or name, people can remember the name easily and can return to your site without having to consult their documents. In fact, if you get a good name that describe your product or service, you might even get people who were trying their luck by typing "www.yourproductname.com" in their browser.
* If you want good sponsors (advertisers) for your website, a domain name is usually helpful. It tends to give your website an aura of respectibility.
Registration Overview
Getting a domain name involves registering the name you want with an organisation called InterNIC through a domain name registrar. For example, if you choose a name like "mycompanyname.com", you will have to go to a registrar, pay a registration fee that ranges between US$15 to US$35 for that name. That will give you the right to the name for a year, and you will have to renew it annually for (usually) the same amount per annum.
Some web hosts will register it and pay for the name for free (usually only the commercial web hosts), while others will do it for you but you'll have to foot the InterNIC fees.
My personal preference is to register the name myself, so that I can be sure that I am registered as the owner, the administrative and technical contacts. Being the owner is vital - if someone else places himself as the owner (such as your web host), he can always decide to charge you for the use of the name later, and there is little you can do. The various contacts are less vital, but still play important roles. For example, the administrative contact's approval is required before a domain name is transferred out of a web host. If he/she cannot be contacted, the technical contact is used.
Although many web hosts suggest that you put them as the technical contact, you may prefer to keep yourself as one, so that when you want to transfer your name to a new web host, you don't have to wait for your old host to approve the transfer (apparently some have been known to take some time to do this, while unscrupulous ones have actually refused to do it).
Domain names disappear extremely fast. Many people claim that all the good domain names are gone. I doubt that - but it is probably true that most good domain names that are descriptive of products and services have been taken. If you want a domain name for your site, I suggest you act now, or face the anguish of having lost that name later. After all, US$35 (the price charged by the most expensive registrars) for a year's ownership of the name is pretty cheap when you realise that you're cornering a good name for your website.
Step By Step Instructions
If you want to register a domain name, here's what you need to do. Please read it all before acting.
*
Think of a few good domain names that you'd like to use. It won't do to think of only one - it might already be taken (it probably is!). You can find some tips on choosing a good domain name from my article, Tips on Choosing a Domain Name, at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/domainname.shtml
There's more to it than meets the eye.
*
Obtain from your web host the DNS IP addresses and names of their primary and secondary nameservers. Don't worry if you don't understand what these things mean. Just save the information somewhere. The information can usually be obtained from their FAQs or other documentation on their site, usually under a category like "domain name" or "DNS" or "domain name transfer" and the like. If you can't find it, email their webmaster. If you don't have a web host yet, all is not lost. Read on.
*
Get your credit card ready. This is a requirement of most if not all registrars. It will allow you to claim and get the domain name immediately on application. This is not an option (unfortunately).
*
If you already have a web host, you can just go to one of the registrars listed below and apply for the domain name. Be sure you have the information mentioned earlier.
*
If you do not have a web host, you can always use one of the registrars listed below that allow you to park your domain name at a temporary website specially set up for you. This way you can quickly secure your domain name before it's too late and still take your time to set up the other aspects of your site. Some of those registrars also provide you with a free email address at your own domain name, like sales@yourdomain.com.
List of Domain Name Registrars
There are numerous domain name registrars. Listed below are just a few, along with my comments, if I know anything about them.
* Domain names from Yahoo! only $1.99/first year - This well-known company also offers domain names at $9.95 per year. They currently (at the time this was written) have an offer for new customers of $1.99 for the first year for one domain only. The price includes the ability to manage your own DNS MX, A, CNAME records (useful for those who want to control every aspect of their web site and not leave it to their web host), email forwarding, domain forwarding (useful for people who have existing websites that they want their new domain to redirect to), and a starter page (good for those who just want to quickly get the domain name before someone else snaps it up, but don't have a website yet).
* 1&1 Internet Inc - This giant web host offers .com, .net, .org, .us, and .info domains at $5.99 per year (as well as other domains like .biz, .ws, .mobi, .cc, .tv at different prices). Included in the price are a free email account with up to 200 email aliases and a starter website builder. You also get free private registrations and the ability to set your own MX records (for your email).
* World's Largest Registrar - GoDaddy.com - This extremely popular registrar offers domain names for $8.95 (plus 25 cents) per year ($7.95 plus 25 cents if you transfer from another registrar). They have a web interface to manage your domains, free web redirection (where people who visit your domain will get transferred to another URL of your choice), free starter web page, free parked page or free "for sale" page, and an optional private domain registration where your domain is registered in the name of a proxy company. They offer .com, .us, .biz, .info, .net, .org, .ws, .name, .tv, .co.uk, .me.uk and .org.uk. Note that (as with all registrars) the exact price varies depending on which domain you are registering (for example some domain extensions are more expensive than others).
* Dotster.com - This fairly popular registrar provides fairly cheap domain prices (US$14.95 per domain), a convenient web interface to manage your domains, an optional privacy facility where your domain name is registered in the name of a proxy company, etc. They offer .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .ca, .tv, .name, .cc, .de, .sr, .md, .co.uk, .us.com domains, etc. If you're transferring a domain here from other registrars, the price is even cheaper ($8.95).
* Register.com - This domain name registrar has been in business for a very long time: they were one of the biggest around when I started my early websites. They charge $35 per year for .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info domains. Country-specific domains are also available at varying prices, depending on the country.
Conclusion
Once you've decided, you should not procrastinate. I've lost more than one domain name by procrastinating (I lost the latest one by only one day). After all, at the price you're paying, it works out to be about US$3 a month if you're choosing the most expensive registrar. It is even cheaper, of course, if you use the other registrars (slightly more than $1 per month).
Copyright 2000-2005 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design, promotion, revenue and scripting, from http://www.thesitewizard.com/
This article can be found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/registerdomain.shtml
HTML and CSS Validation: Should You Validate Your Web Page?
by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
If you don't hang around webmaster circles, you may not realise that HTML validation and CSS validation are controversial issues with some people. This article discusses some of the positions taken in these discussions to provide some perspectives on issues that have come increasingly to the fore in web development. Hopefully, the article will also provide a practical method that overworked webmasters can use to improve their website.
Some Background Information: What does Validating HTML or CSS Mean?
For those who are unfamiliar with what validating a web page (ie validating your HTML or CSS code) means, it basically refers to using a program or an online service to check that the web page that you created is free of errors.
In particular, an HTML validator checks to make sure the HTML code on your web page complies with the standards set by the W3 Consortium (the organisation that issues the HTML standards). There are various types of validators - some check only for errors, others also make suggestions about your code, telling you when a certain way of writing things might lead to (say) unexpected results.
The W3 Consortium has its own online validator which you can use for free. It may be found at: http://validator.w3.org/
A CSS validator checks your Cascading Style Sheets in the same manner; basically, most will check them to make sure that they comply with the CSS standards set by the W3 Consortium. There are a few which will also tell you which CSS features are supported by which browsers (since not all browsers are equal in their CSS implementation).
Again, you can get free validation for your style sheets from the W3 Consortium: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
There are numerous other validators around, both free and commercial, focusing on various aspects of ensuring that your code will run trouble-free across browsers and platforms. You can find a list of free ones (including specialised validators like those that check your code for accessibility) from Free HTML Validators, CSS Validators, Accessibility Validators at http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/htmlvalidators.shtml
Note that validating your web page does not ensure that it will appear as you want in various browsers. It merely ensures that your code is without HTML or CSS syntax errors. Ensuring that your code appears correctly in different browsers require cross browser testing. You can read more information about how to do this even if you only have one computer from the article How to Check Your Website with Multiple Browsers on a Single Computer at http://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/multiplebrowsers.shtml
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Appearance, Usability and Search Engine Visibility in Web Design
by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
I was recently asked by a visitor to thesitewizard.com to take a look at her company's website, designed by a university student. I will not give the URL for that site, partly to protect the innocent, and partly because by the time you read this, it'll probably have been modified.
The site was heavy in its use of graphics with images adorning most parts of the page layout, to provide curved borders (to replace the sharp corners in enclosing boxes), different background images for different parts of the page, etc. It had a top navigation bar, driven entirely using JavaScript. The navigation bar mimicked the sort of menu bar you find in computer programs - there is a horizontal menu bar with different items listed. When you move your mouse over one of those items, the menu will automatically expand vertically. As you move the mouse cursor down the pop-up menu, the item beneath the pointer is highlighted. Click it, and you will be delivered to another page on the site.
In general, that site is typical of the kind of sites produced by newcomers to web design. It scores well in terms of prettiness and gadgetry (although only under one browser, it doesn't work well under other browsers), but fares dismally in terms of usability and search engine readiness. In fact, the reason my visitor wrote to me was because the website suffered a significant drop in the number of visitors after it was redesigned in its current form.
This article uses that site as a starting point for discussing some of the issues that a web designer needs to consider when creating a website that must exist and compete in the real world (as opposed to a site that is created merely to fulfill the course requirements of a school or university).
1. Appearance is Not the Most Important Issue
Over the years that I have dealt with newcomers to web design, it is my observation that they tend to focus excessively (and sometimes almost exclusively) on the appearance of a website. The site I mentioned earlier is a case in point: the designer tried hard to make the site look beautiful (and, if I may add, succeeded too - the site does indeed look pretty). However, as hard as it may be to believe (if you are a newcomer), appearance isn't the most important thing to look at when you are planning and creating your site.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that appearance is of no importance. Far from it. However, in this article, my intention is to address the excessive importance newcomers place on beauty. In fact, if you belong to the other extreme, discounting the value of the appearance of a website altogether, you might want to read my discussion of Two Common Web Design Myths at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/myths.shtml
Having said that, your site can still survive (or even thrive) if it is a plain-looking site like Google. This is not necessarily the case if you overlook the other important issues in web design.
2. Usability is Important for You to Achieve Your Purpose
All sites are created for a particular purpose. Some were created so that their owners can sell something. Others are information resources (like thesitewizard.com). Still others are designed to showcase their owner's talents (such as sites displaying the owner's resumes and portfolios).
The usability of your site is important to help you achieve that purpose. The basic question that you need to address when dealing with usability is: can your visitors easily access the information they need so that they can do the stuff that you want them to do? There are quite a number of things involved in this question.
1.
Information Availability
Is the information that your visitors need to make informed decisions available on your site? For example, before they can buy a product, they will want to know more about that product. A brief one-line summary about your product's features may work for your main page, but you will probably find that you get more buyers if you can provide a link to a page that gives a detailed list of features of each of your products.
2.
Information Accessibility
Not only must your information be available to your visitors, it must be easily accessible. A page that gives a detailed description of your products is not going to help your visitors if they have to work hard at finding it. In fact, my experience is that if visitors have to work at finding something on your site, they are not going to find it. Either put the information right under their noses, or put a link to it in that place.
3.
Navigation
A good navigational system for your website is crucial. A navigational system is one by which visitors can move from one page to another. For example, on thesitewizard.com, one way in you can access the main pages on the site is to use the navigation buttons on the left column of the page.
There are a few features to a good navigational system:
1.
If you are using a navigation bar or panel, standardize its location on all the pages of your website. Don't make your visitors feel as though they are embarking on a treasure hunt every time they reach a new page.
2.
In addition to your navigation bar or panel, provide short-cuts to places where visitors are likely to want to go. Don't force your visitors to have to go through your main page (or your site map) every time they need to visit another page on your site. In fact, put direct links in logical places - for example, on your "Products" page, you should have a links to your "Buy / Order" page as well as links to the pages with detailed information about individual products. Think like a visitor and ask yourself what are the things a visitor might want to know or do when he/she is at a particular page.
3.
A good navigation system must be usable by all your visitors. As a result, try to avoid things that are dependent on certain facilities or features being available. For example, don't make your menu dependent on a specific browser. If your menu is JavaScript-driven, make sure that you have an alternative facility available for people who do not have JavaScript enabled.
4.
If your site has a large number of pages, a site search engine will improve your site's usability. Not everyone mentally organises information the way you do. Hence a logical arrangement to you may not be logical to another person. Giving your visitors a way to search your web site will help them locate what they want. I discuss the use of a search engine for your site in my article How to Put a Search Engine On Your Site at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/searchengine.shtml
5.
It's always good to have a Site Map, unless your site has only a few pages. This allows people to have another route to the other pages on your site. It also helps search engines locate all the pages on your site, particularly if you use dynamically-generated links to your pages (like JavaScript-created links).
3. Search Engine Visibility is Your Site's Lifeline
As I mentioned earlier, the problem that my visitor faced when her site was redesigned was that it no longer appeared in search engine results even when relevant terms were used for searches.
The problem in her case was that her site relied exclusively on a JavaScript navigation menu. Apart from the links generated by the JavaScript menu, there were absolutely no other links on her site pointing to other pages within the site. Since search engines bots can't interpret JavaScript (at least not at this time, to my knowledge), they could not follow any links and could thus only index her main page. As a result, her pages were not listed in searches for her keywords (since only the main page was indexed), leading to a drastic drop in visitors.
This is a problem fairly easily fixed (for example, one way is to create a site map and add a normal link to it from the main page), but it illustrates one of the most important issues a real-world website faces: search engine visibility. If your site is not listed in the search engines, you're not going to be able to get many visitors, if at all. Without visitors, you're obviously not going to be able to achieve your purpose for the site.
Designing a site that is search engine ready is a lengthy topic, so I am not even going to try to address it here. If you are interested to know more, you can find some general principles for making your site search engine ready by perusing the articles listed on: http://www.thesitewizard.com/sitepromotion/index.shtml
Conclusion
This article is about the importance of factoring usability and search engine readiness into your web design. Usability is important because it improves the chances that your site will help you accomplish your purpose. Search engine visibility is crucial because without it, you will get few visitors. Plan with these two aspects in mind, even as you look into the appearance of your site, and your design will go far in helping you achieve the goals for your site.
Copyright 2004 by Christopher Heng. All rights reserved.
Get more free tips and articles like this, on web design, promotion, revenue and scripting, from http://www.thesitewizard.com/.
This article can be found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/usabilitysearchengine.shtml
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Link Sharing Does not Work
That might sound a bit dramatic but no, it does not. I've been doing some research (during the early hours of the morning) and I'm amazed at the number of websites out there adopting the most insane techniques in order to climb SERPs.
I must admit, I was intrigued by the methods at first. I mean, who wouldn't like to get a week's work done in a few minutes? :) But you know what they say, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".
The biggest monster of all is the promise of instantaneous link share with thousands of quality websites. This basically involves joining a poorly code shabby directory which is copied many times over thousands of different domains. There's several things wrong with that:
1. These pages offer no quality content what-so-ever, so they'll never be highly regarded by SEs.
2. The number of outgoing links on each page means your site will get a minuscule tiny small fraction of absolute nothing - it really isn't much...
3. The same pages are duplicated over and over again around the web and are promptly ignored and penalized by SEs.
Now, if you're a SEO expert you will know that apart from being a gross waste of time, it's extremely unlikely that any of the above will harm your site's reputation. A webmaster has no control over external links to his website(s), and for that reason his website(s) will not be penalized by the SEs, contrary to popular belief. In fact, these techniques may well fool small search engines* and quickly push a website up the ladder on SERPs.
Having said that, here's the big whopper....
4. The most common requirement for these link-share wonders is that, of course, you place yet another copy of the directory and its thousands of badly coded content-less pages under your website.
This is a huge problem and is where many people go wrong. And here's why:
* Adding thousands of pages to your website overnight will dramatically affect your content's keyword density. SEs like Google don't only examine an individual page, they also analyse the website as a whole in order to determine its 'theme'.
* Whereas incoming links cannot harm your websites(s) reputation, outgoing links can destroy it - very quickly. A link to a page is seen seen as a 'vote of confidence' to that page and its content from the website linking into it. Linking into bad neighbourhoods and low quality websites will damage your reputation - (ie.: SERPs rankings).
This all sounds very depressing... so what can you do?
The most effect form of link sharing is and will always be one-way incoming links.
And the best way to get that is by having quality content.
And the best quality content should be found on your website.
Although traditional methods can be time consuming, you simply cannot go wrong. One week of quality content publishing is worth a million times more than every automatic FFA link directory that has ever existed ever.
* Small search engines - Anything other than Google, Yahoo, MSN and the likes...
What Unites People? How to Use That at a Dating Site?
Today I thought about bonds that unite people. That's what I did- inserted this request in Search engines and got interesting results. Actually most of the articles were devoted to music that unites nationalities, then goes technology and work interests, food and mind.
The last is the most weird one at a first glance but it becomes more reasonable if you read the following explanations at one of the forums. Here it is: " The fact of the human mind and human consciousness, and the mind's greatest tool: reason, which allows us to understand the world around us unlike any animal that's ever existed before. Until we recognize and respect the mind as the highest form in nature, and embrace a life of reason, we will continue to abase each other on a downward spiral towards death.
This idea could be useful for you if you own a Dating or Networking site as if you understand why people are still on your site or what unites them you'll get more members registering as you'll be able to provide them with exactly what they need to interact.music and it does give us an opportunity to find friends and sweethearts about the globe. It's now highly used in the Net in postcards, advertising, downloads and networking sites. You could make a use of it too by providing your members an opportunity to upload their favorite songs and videos, by providing them a search by music preferences. Besides, when you know what music people prefer you can say much about them. It's good to know the personality.
The second item was Technology and work. It's certainly a common thing that unites us. Your users might be also interested to discuss some technology things. Besides, many of the Internet users consider that the technology should work. So you should check your site on blank pages and errors that may appear while using a site. Make sure you have a good support team to help you in a short time if you experience difficulties. Technology also means that you should be aware of the fact that people can access your Dating Site and they can also use it to get the info about your business. So be ready to be open to a business world and your members. You'll get trust and respect.
The last thing for today is food. There are a lot of Dating Sites devoted to the culture of eating and to my mind I think that meal is a thing we can discuss and enjoy forever. So if you're going to run Meal Dating Site you can add a special section for sharing recipes. This will create networking and as a result a good community at your site. The events are also easy to organize at such sites as there are thousands of cultures with their national cuisines and you can make regular tasting for your users.
For Dating Site Software owner it's definitely important to get their site popular and to face the community they are targeting at. Using some of the advice listed above you can get understanding on what and how your users want to get service. Don't miss a chance to get more users. Good luck!
How Online Site Can Help you to Increase your Mortgage or Real Estate Business
Making business in the internet is a bit more difficult than in a real life. Internet business uses even more tools and marketing laws then offline does now. The last few years making a Mortgage Business online has become very popular. Many brokers found it more useful and much better because it gives more opportunities to both the sides. So why should you loose this great opportunity?
According to The National Association of Realtors research, in 2005 15% of brokers found their Loan Officer in the Internet. Guess how many friends they tell about the web site and how many new customers that lucky offices got?
Now you see, having a professional – done web Mortgage Web Site is a very good and profitable idea.
Let us help you to make the idea come true. Pilot Group offers you a ready site for loan originating.
We have collected the working ideas on site optimization and marketing and used them for mortgage industry so that Mortgage companies and brokers could have a successful site and good reputation in the Internet.
We have analyzed professional realtors and brokers’ forums and found that the most asked questions are: “Where I can get more realtors” and “How I can get more customers?”
69% of buyers received a recommendation from their real estate agent about where to get their mortgage. The majority of first time buyers asked the agent for help in finding a broker.
As you see the question is very simple – organize a realty community where you’ll provide your consumers with both realty and loans.
Realtors are interested in getting more customers, too. Offer them to increase their business and place realty ads at the real estate site and you’ll see how easily your profits will increase up to 69%. And keep in mind, that most realtors are not trained properly in how to send business to the lender.
Pilot Group ltd provides a number of useful tools for real estate and mortgage professionals to make site unique and attractive for borrowers and clients from the interface, and we can help you to make it user-friendly for the search engines. You are welcome to test the demo versions for both Mortgage and Real Estate solutions. Our friendly and quick support staff would be glad to assist you and help you to manage your site.
The main marketing law says “Differ or die”. This means that you need to stand out from the crowd. If customers see you as much better then all brokers and loan officers, thy will come to you on their own and will pay you more. Pilot Group Ltd can’t make you different. We just provide real estate and mortgage professionals with all tools and options they need to become different, famous and THE ONE at your special niche.
How Can We Advertise our Dating Site Offline?
Offline Advertising is rarely used by Dating Sites Owners to promote their communities. Though Free Dating Sites need that more then others.
Here are the reasons:
1) you need to widen a database
2) online advertising can be expensive and not very resultative. And the budgets are usually tight when you start a Free Dating Site
3) free dating sites need to attract people from a certain offline community
So as the goals are clear we can think about possible ways of offline marketing. Of course, Mass media is a great source and you can place your ads in newspapers, on radio, on TV. If you plan to cover a larger audience area I think radio will be the best source because:
1) it's easy to listen to for everyone
2) it can be on in the offices, cafes, bars, shops, markets, cars, buses as a background
3) you can choose a radio channel according to your target audience and age differences.
Your radio ad should be:
1) attractive: special music (probably from your site), name (sounds as the site url and its name), fast and comprehensive (site url, aim, main idea)
2) broadcasted at a special time (rush hour if you target to attract business poeple)and probably in special places (if you choose a specific radio channel- find out what places have it on)
3) stable: recognizable and memorable, catchy (song, words, site url)
After you do all that you can go on with TV and newspapers. The strategy is the same but it may be more expensive. If you have a tight budget and need to use Offline Marketing, you can use other accessory ways of advertising like badges, banners in the streets, business and cards and postcards, local events sponsorship or participation, T-shirts with your site's logo. Let me describe each used in advertising for a Dating Site:
* Badges. There can be many ways to distribute them: in flower and gift shops, in supermarkets with sweets and presents people buy. You can easily discuss that with a shop manager and have your badges available for all the clients. The badge itself, should have your special color and the site logo. It's very advisable to answer one question: "Why should a person wear this badge?" If you try to answer now you'll probably get stuck as you won't like the badge with logo only. So you should add some aphorisms, love quotes, small jokes to make the badges attractive. Make sure your logo is still there as a sign up.
* Banners. You can place them in shops, in the streets, on your car and house. Every place can be appropriate for that if that will work. To find out what will influence people make a survey of your target audience on what they like and what could make them sign up for a Dating Site and date there. Then you can use your brand-colors and logo on your banners. Add photos of people you're targeting to. Personalize the banner by putting your signature or your name at the bottom. Don't forget about contact info and phone number.
* Business Cards and postcards. You should make your special business cards for people who you meet every day. They can register at your site or show the card to their friend. That's a kind of Word of mouth marketing. Postcards are not very popular nowadays but we still like them when it comes to holidays and you can take advantage of that. Publish special congratulation cards and distribute them in public places. Make sure you have your site url and contact info at the back at the bottom. You can also ad some love quote or thematic congrats. Using postcards you'll be able to promote your site to people who're far away, but probably of the same age and interests as your target audience.
* Local events sponsorship or participation. Make a list of events that can be associated with your Dating Site, review the most popular events for people who can become your clients. Contact the organizators and make a deal. There can be special prizes or free membership for winners, banners and ads at the event itself.
* T-shirts with your site's logo. So you just have to use your brand-color, logo, probably an image and make t-shirts, caps, socks whatever... Please note that the quality should be nice and the style too as those things will reflect your site image. Besides, they should be attractive and make people stand out in the crowd.
These are one few approaches you can use when promoting your Dating Site offline. Online advertising combined with a creative offline marketing can give good results and boost registrations and user loyalty and interest. As you can see all you need is imagination, creativity, some knowledge and business skills to organize all that you have imagined. Good luck!
Pilot Group Supports Chronopay's Payment SolutionsAMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS - The USA and Russia based Pilot Group has chosen ChronoPay's payment sol
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS - The USA and Russia based Pilot Group has chosen ChronoPay's payment solutions to be integrated into their e-business solutions -Dating Pro Software , eLMs Pro Software, and Roommate Software. It is planned to add it into other solutions in the future. Pilot Group customers are now able to easily connect to ChronoPay's online payment platform, though which they are able to offer all popular payment methods to their customers.
Pilot Group is a rapidly growing international company with over 7 years software development experience, worldwide clientele, and the team of IT professionals. Clients from the USA, Holland, Germany, and Russia have acknowledged their competence and expertise. PilotGroup is experienced in web development, game development, software development and graphic design.
"Pilot Group provides entire development cycle services, including design, creation, implementation, and support of corporate Internet and Intranet solutions," says Marina Zhilenkova, Senior Sales Manager at Pilot Group. "Our clients are looking for not only a secure, but also cost-effective payment solution. ChronoPay is able to deliver this.
"Pilot Group offers e-business solutions suited for various kinds of business sectors, such as for e-learning", said Ido Schiferli, ChronoPay's Marketing Manager Europe. "ChronoPay is specialised in delivering sector specific payment solutions and because of that we are able to offer Pilot Group' clients payment solutions that fits their specific needs."
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The Beginners Guide to HTML Color Codes PART 1
Part 1 By Candice Pardue
HTML color codes are numbers, letters or a combination of the two that determine which colors appear on your web pages. As a beginning webmaster, web page color codes can be confusing. So, in this HTML Color Code guide, you're going to learn why it's so important that you choose proper HTML colors for your web pages, what HTML color codes are, and how to insert them into your web pages.
Choosing the Right HTML Color Codes
Every website is unique. Some websites offer products for sale while others offer services. Some websites simply offer information. With every website being different, naturally the HTML color choices will vary from one website to the other.
"All Business" HTML Color Codes
For instance, the colors on an insurance agency's website will likely be very different from those of a gift basket website. Why? Colors create moods. On the insurance website, dark colors such as black, blue, green, burgundy or brown are great for primary colors. To enhance these colors, dashes of lighter colors can be sprinkled throughout the web page such as beige, pink, red, yellow, light green, ash, light grey, lavendar, etc.
These HTML colors together create a contrast to give the site a fresh look while also keeping it "business-like." And, it's perfectly fine to have a "business" look with websites that promote businesses such as insurance, healthcare, accounting, financial investments, banking, mortgage lending, etc. Visitors expect these types of websites to be simple and to the point.
"Cheerful" HTML Color Codes
On the other hand, an online gift basket shop might use pastels or bright colors as its primary HTML colors, including hot pink, bright red, pastel blue, pink and lavendar, mint green, yellow, etc. Then these might be enhanced with darker colors such as dark purple, navy blue or electric blue, emerald green, burgundy, etc. Each web page can be color coded according to its theme. For instance, a Christmas gift page would use different colors than a St. Patrick's Day page.
Tip! A web host provides space for your website. There are two musts in getting your site online - a web host and registering your domain name.
Other types of websites that may use these HTML color codes include wedding gift or wedding supply retailers, bath and body, home decor, women's tips and health, children's products, jewelry, baked goods, etc. Visitors expect these websites to be designed in a cheerful manner.
Determine the Mood you want to Create at Your Website
Before you begin designing your website, determine the type of mood you would like to create for visitors. Do you want them to be distracted by colorful objects or product images, or do you want them to concentrate on reading your text? Also, ask yourself what type of product or service do I offer? Do customers need to be serious-minded as I make my presentation? Or, do they need to be highly emotional or cheerful?
Once you determine the mood you'd like to create, take a look at some HTML color code combinations below to see if any match your website's theme. Of course, there are other colors but we'll discuss the many HTML color codes and how to create them in the next lesson.
Here are some examples of HTML color combinations and the moods they can create:
After taking a look at the colors above, you can get a general idea of the HTML colors that would work well for your website. There are many variations of colors, so try and get the right ones before designing your website. Great colors along with informative content using these HTML easy color codes can help turn visitors into paying customers.
How To Build A Website Without HTML by Tony Williams
So you want to build a website but you know nothing of HTML?
Well, that is not really a problem, but first of all; have you actually considered learning some HTML? It really isn't very difficult and a little knowledge now could save you a big headache later on, so it might be a good idea to spend a couple of hours learning the basics of HTML even if you don't intend to become completely fluent in the language.
Probably the easiest way to learn anything, including HTML, is by following step-by-step examples and I would heartily recommend the free online tutorials at http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp or for alternatives you could always use your favourite search engine to find the thousands of others.
If you prefer to learn from the pages of a book then a couple of recommendations you might like to check out are: "Learn HTML in a weekend" by S. Callihan, or "HTML 4 for dummies" by Ed Tittel and Mary Burmeister. There are of course many many more.
On the other hand, if you are content to stay HTML illiterate and simply want to build a web page using a WYSIWYG editor then there are some excellent Web building applications available including the obvious choices such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage. However, it can be quite expensive to invest in high end software such as this, so if you are on a budget or you just want to dip a toe in the water, then check out NVU (pronounced N-VIEW) - it is open source software and therefore completely free to download and use. You can find it at http://www.nvu.com/index.php
Finally, for the easiest way of creating a web page with no knowledge of HTML and without any further software you may find Google's Page Creator useful. It's not a professional solution, but it may just suit your needs perfectly. You can find it at http://pages.google.com
Of course, once you have built your Website you then need to learn how to get traffic to it. But that's a whole different story.
Good luck!
Search Engine Friendly Web Design Structure
The arrangement and creation of web pages turns up into a web site. There are many aspects to this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects are continually being added. Web design is the design or designing of a Web page, Website or Web application. The term generally refers to the graphical side of Web development using images, CSS and XHTML.
Online marketers understand the importance of getting top search engine rankings in major search engines. Therefore, they spend much time in optimizing website content, seeking inbound links, and optimizing title and Meta Tags. However, many of them ignore the fact that web design structure has a role in search engine optimization(SEO).
Web Design does not necessarily have to be as complicated as it may seem. With a little ingenuity and some creative work a website with a clever web design can take form. To optimize website, you must ensure you have a search engine friendly web design structure, and do not just rely on web designers because they could be good at web design but not good at SEO.
"How can I attract thousands of visitors to my site?" many people ask me this question. Well, driving high traffic to Website is very important, but what's even more important, is designing a website in that way which makes them stays longer.
Some design guidelines and tips to help you build a SEO friendly websites are:
1. Figure out what you want to do and make a plan for it. 2. Keep your design simple, clear, consistent and user friendly. 3. A simple design layout makes it easier for you to build your website. 4. Your content should be simple, complete and direct to the point. 5. If your design look complicated - redesign and simplify it. Etc............
There are two types of website design such as; static and dynamic website design. You can opt for static as well as dynamic website design where former is based on simple HTML code and latter is developed with advanced and sophisticated technologies based on the information provided in the database.
Following important web design elements must be kept in mind during website optimization process:
* CSS Style sheet: It is good to use CSS style sheet to format your web design because it can standardize the appearance of your website.
* Content Management Software (CMS) * HTML Code Compliance: As a good web design practice, make sure your HTML coding is compliant to some well recognized HTML standards such as W3C standard.
* Use of Graphics: You must optimize the file size of your images. * Multiple-level Navigation Menu: Many websites use multiple-level navigation menu in JavaScript. This is no good in terms of SEO. Separate JavaScript from HTML coding by using external JavaScript file.
* Bad Web Design: To make your web design search engine friendly, avoid use of frame and Re-direct techniques.
* Flash: Flash makes your website more appealing and it would improve effectiveness of your website.
If you are following the above points then your website will not only attract many people, but it will also motivate them to stay for a long time.
by keyur parmar
Build a Website Easily Without Knowing HTML
From time to time at GarysNoteBook.com I like to talk about things I have learned along the way to my success at building many websites. When I first started trying to build a website, even though I had a lot of technical background I was so very confused as to where to start and how to do it.
Back then even when I found how I was going to do it I then had to learn things like HTML Coding. I played with learning FrontPage, Dreamweaver and many other html editors. It seemed like I spent more time learning all this technical stuff then actually completing what I set out to do and by the time I was sufficient at working with one of the editors my flame for what I wanted to accomplish was just exhausted.
Next, I tried outsourcing my website to various web designers and programmers.
I thought to myself well this will cost me but it will be faster and I can focus on my core business. While I did have some success with a few people that I hired to develop my website; I found that many of these resources were very undependable and would over commit and underachieve.
This led to much frustration. It seemed like the ideas I had for starting my online business just became more and more of challenge then it needed to be because of all the technical bottlenecks. I could clearly see why so many businesses fail in the first five years. You could spend a boat load of time and money and never get of the ground.
At this point I had not even touched the marketing part yet. You must have a product or service working before even thinking about tying market an online business!
Over the years I have now learned a lot as well as many website building software technologies.
Nowadays I discovered a few new and exciting ways for the newbie to build a website easily without knowing any HTML, coding stuff or anything that takes technical know how...!
Imagine being able to just point click, enter what you want to say to the world and then bam your online in minutes, not days, weeks or even months. A truly turnkey website building solution that anyone wanting to create their own website could do without spending a fortune. It was so simple and easy to use and even included all the hosting so the non technical newbie could just pick out a website domain name they like and be online within minutes.
You can learn more about this exciting easy way to build a website" by visiting my notebook.
Unlike all the hassle I had endured before it was Easy, Fast, Fun, and Affordable. I will talk about the intermediate way to build a website in the future.
Free web design templates Ready NOW !!!
Open Source Web Design is a site to download free web design templates and share yours with others. We help make the internet a prettier place.
Currently 2080 free designs!
Read More......Web Advertising: 10 Little Known Tricks To Help Convert Your Traffics To Buying Customers
You may not believe it, but people still judge things by their appearances.
How does your website look?
The appearance of your web site text can actually increase or decrease your sales.
The size, font, style and color of your text can easily affect your reader's buying decision.
Below are web advertising ten points to consider when designing your web site.
1. Easy To Read- You want to make it easy for your visitors to read your text. You don't want to use a light colored text like yellow on a white background and you don't want to use dark blue text on a black back- ground.
2. Create A Mood- You want to use the color of your text to create a mood for the reader. If you want to create excitement, use some red text. If you want to create greed, use a some green text. Use colors that would put you in a mood to buy your product.
3. Grab Their Attention- You can grab your readers attention by using headlines. Make the headline more noticeable by using a different colored headline than your ad copy. This offsets the headline and pulls the reader into the rest of your ad copy.
4. Highlight Keywords- You can emphasize phrases and keywords that are important to your readers. For instance, use super, deluxe, fast, low price, free, new, etc. You could use bolding, underlining, italics, color changing, etc.
5. Sizing It Up- You don't want to use text that is too small or to large. You want to use larger text for your headlines and subheadings. You want to use smaller text for your ad copy. If your grandparents can't read it, it's too small.
6. Don't Use All CAPS!- You don't want to use all capital letters in your ad copy. It looks unprofessional and is hard to read. You may want to use all CAPS in your headlines to offset it.
7. Font Properly- You want to use a text font that relates to the product or services your selling. You don't want to use a comic type font when your selling business books.
8. Spacing Out- It's important to use spaces properly when typing your text. You should indent and bullet key benefits your product or service will give the reader. Your headlines, subheadings, sentences and paragraphs should be consistently spaced throughout your web site.
9. I Need Sunglasses- Don't use all bright text colors and backgrounds on your web site. It will make your text hard to read and actually bother your readers' eyes to the point they just decide to leave your site.
10. Check The Readability- It's important to check your spelling and grammar before you upload your web page. When writing an ad copy you're allowed to break some of those grammar rules to get your point across.
May these web advertising secrets help you to make a lot of money.
Warmly,
I-key Benney, CEO
I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of "Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System",(online investing) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.
Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free "cash".
Read More......
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin. Imagine cutting it in half with a knife. Now pick up the one lemon half and bring it up to your mouth and suck on the juices.
Do you notice how sharp the tangy lemon juice could be? Does it make you pucker? Do you notice how your mouth is watering?
...Good!
Now you realize the power of words!
See, one thing I was good at in the beginning of my online career was not getting any sales. Really, I turned it into an art form.
So with that said, I want to share with you my 5 all-time favorite ways of getting Zero sales from your website:
1. Headline and Sales Letter
I don't need to have a powerful headline and a compelling sales letter for my site. And I definitely don't need to go to http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com and learn how to write powerful sales letters for fr*e. It's too much work.
2. Contact Information
Why should I have my contact information on the main page of my website. I don't want to build trust by posting my name, address, email, fax and telephone number on my site. I want to hide behind the internet and in turn people can then hide their wallets from me.
3. Guarantee
Why should I offer a bold gurantee for the products I sell on my website. If people don't like the product then it's too bad. I really don't care that it's been proven that the longer your guarantee is, the less returns and complaints you'll have. What does that stuff have to do with me?
4. Capture Email Addresses
I don't need a web form on my site offering something for fr*e to capture email addresses so I can put them through an autoresponder and increase my sales. And I definitely don't want to capture email addresses by using popups and alert boxes. That stuff is not for me.
5. Call To Action
I don't want to tell people what to do on my website. I don't want to appear pushy. Why should I have a "Click Here To Order Now" link. It's too much of a hassle. They can figure out how to do everything for themselves.
There you have it. Follow this formula like I did in the beginning and you too can get zero sales from your website!
All five things I just mentioned are the basics. Start with the basics first and build from there and you should be well on your way to building a profitable website.
And don't forget the power of words!
Remember that lemon?... Yuck, my mouth is watering again.
Al Martinovic publishes a popular internet marketing newsletter at http://www.milleniummarketers.com and runs a successful home business at http://www.ineedsmokes.com
Read More......How Not To Get Web Design Work
I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto. So I put an ad on a freelance site. It specified the programming qualifications needed, stated that the successful candidate should have good English, and was for companies only.
The replies I got were enlightening. So much so, I made a list of things applicants did wrong. Here it is.
I should point out I was initially prepared to give everyone a fair go. After the first twenty-odd emails, my attitude changed. I was looking for reasons to delete applicants. I only needed one successful one; with 100+ replies it was getting to be a headache, so I decided a brutal approach was needed.
1. Failed to read the spec.
Many applicants couldn't write properly in the English language. Many were individuals only. Result: instant deletion.
2. Failed to address the spec's criteria.
Applicants bragged about how great they were.
Many copy-and-pasted standard marketing guff about 'solutions' and 'partnerships' into their emails.
To engage anyone's interest about a proposal you need to talk less about yourself and more about the benefits to *them* of using you. One of the first things I learnt about applying for jobs is you need to show how you meet the criteria in the job description; see if you can find the employer's wavelength.
3. Lots of jargon.
You quickly tune this out. Anyone dealing with web companies probably gets a lot of this. Applicants should talk to the client about *the client's* site and *their* needs, and avoid techno-babble.
Write an application letter. Leave it for a while, then edit it. Brutally. Short punchy sentences, no guff. Talking convincingly about how you can make the client money would be an attention-getter.
4a. 'Coming soon' client-listing pages.
You say you've done work for lots of clients, then put up a 'coming soon' sign on the web page where your client list is supposed to be. Hmmmm.
4b. 'Under construction' pages on your company web site.
This looks bad; something you'd see on an amateur's site. Another reason to bin your application.
4c. Only put up pictures of sites you've done, rather than links to the actual sites.
I'd have liked to see some working example sites. Pictures can be faked, and they don't show background programming.
4e. No mention of your main web site URL.
Let us guess where your own site is (if you have one). It's more fun! I tried guessing from the email address. After a while I didn't bother.
4f. No hyperlinks at all.
Just a short email spiel saying "I am great designer, hire me". Next!
5. Using Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com for your email address.
A pro designer shouldn't use a freebie email address service. Basic web hosting costs $5 a month these days.
I can conceive that a web designer might use a freebie account for some special purpose, but your own domain name is a basic advert that goes out in each email you send.
6. Bad spelling and grammar.
Western civilisation is doomed, if using SMS jargon becomes the standard way to write to people. It doesn't impress old frts lik me, fr strtrs :( Especially if you're looking for work where good spelling and grammar are important.
7. Front-loading Flash designs.
I admit it, I don't like Flash. I especially don't like it when it loads slowly on my broadband connection. I suppose it might impress an ignorant client, who doesn't know the economic consequences of having a Flash-heavy site.
8. Don't phone the employer up.
Unless they say 'canvassing will disqualify', 'phoning the employer is a good idea. Why? Because geeks are famously introverted and tongue-tied, supposedly. So if a web site designer can communicate clearly over the telephone, that, coupled with a good application, puts you streets ahead of the email-only applicant.
No need to jabber. A polite enquiry to establish contact will do. "Just checking you've got my CV", that sort of thing.
9. Keep yourself mysterious.
Emails are impersonal. Anything that can establish you as a human being, a person, a potential ally and friend, is good. It'll make you more memorable. No need to jump out of a giant cake, 'though!
However, you have to fulfil all the other criteria as well. However great a guy you are, if you're a Unix man and they want Windows, forget it.
10. Leaving unclear phone messages.
One chap left a phone message, in which he mentioned his site, twice, but not his 'phone number. His pronunciation was bad, so I guess I'll never know how good he was.
11. Too far away.
Most replies were from India, Ukraine, Romania etc. Anyone who was closer to home (the UK) stood out. I mention it simply as a winnowing criterion.
Also, I needed someone who could land contracts from UK residents; good English, written and oral, was important.
12. Give your rates per hour.
Forget that. You're not a lawyer. Web design jobs can be clearly defined, in terms of time, work and software required. A definite price can be agreed on in advance. It's called a contract. Otherwise, you leave the client open to escalating bills, and yourself to mission-creep.
13. Delay applying.
The first few applications were more scrutinised. After that, fatigue set in. After one hundred, only an applicant who seems a real prospect would be given more than five seconds' scrutiny.
T. O' Donnell ( http://www.tigertom.com ) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on conservatories, available at http://www.ttconservatories.co.uk T. O' Donnell freeware may be downloaded at http://www.ttfreeware.co.uk
Read More......Design vs Content: Who is KING?
Well it is not Elvis, that's for sure.
I am a firm advocate of good design but most of the time people tend to interpret design as amazing graphics and astounding visuals they tend to forget that design is the culmination of every aspect of good and effective presentation into one.
We all know that design and content have equal importance in regards to websites but if you must choose which one is immediately important, which will you choose, design or content? If you?re going to prepare an entire web marketing strategy on which of these two shall you focus on more? Why? Please defend your answer?
During my early days (around 1997), when I was still studying/learning to develop webpages, websites with astonishing visuals never fails to impress me and I?d always ask myself this, ?Man, how did they do that great graphic?? I will spend countless hours surfing the net collecting every graphically and visually orgasmic websites I could fine and I?ll try to imitate and recreate them with photoshop (Photoshop 4) and if I can?t recreate them I?ll scour the web for tutorials on how to make those visuals.
Man, if I were paying for my internet connection I would be dead broke by now. It was a good thing that my internet access was free. Anyway, back to the discussion. Then it hit me, after saving a screenshot of those awesome website, saving all those wonderful wallpapers and all those banners and images, in my mind a very simple question was formed, ?When was the last time I visited these websites again?? the answer was simple, once or never. After, analyzing my thoughts I finally noticed that most of these sites offers nothing but visuals. I had spent countless hours browsing these websites and I was only looking at their visuals, why, because that was all they have. That was the only thing they can offer, visuals. I finally realized that the websites I regularly visit like Yahoo, Web Monkey, Web Developer Virtual Library, and now google doesn?t have all these WOW factor thing, they don?t have the bells and whistles of those extraordinary websites. All they have and all they offer was information, tons and tons of information. They never bothered to develop their look and their feel, what they developed was their content, their information database. Millions of people or millions of potential clients, buyers and opportunities go to these websites not to look at their remarkable visuals or presentations but to acquire what everybody need information and people pay a lot of money for information. A father will pay millions of dollars just to get some information about his long lost child but this same father would not pay anything more than 10,000 or even 50,000 USD just to look at a design, he won?t even pay at all.
Content development is in a much higher level than Design Conceptualization, Creation and Development. Yes, design will capture your visitor?s immediate attention. All the wows, oohhhsss and overwhelming appreciation of the design will follow it but after that what? I for once is very irritated of websites which will make you wait 1 minute for you to download their 3 minute intro just to find out later that the information you are looking for is not there. It does not only irritates me, it also makes me mad as hell because I?ve wasted 5 minutes of my time for nothing and I believe that almost all internet users especially those on dial-up have the same sentiments as mine.
Content makes the big bucks. Here is another analogy. It is like a commercial ad on TV, they?ll hype a product with visuals, graphics, amazing videos, cool sounds and they?ll even get your favorite star to endorse it but in reality it is just as good as the next product. If you ever seen that TV ad for a brand of powdered laundry soap where the speaker just places the cloth stained with grease on a basin of water and just poured some of their product and left it, and after an hour she?ll be back and it is already clean without any effort from you. I tried it, using the same product but it didn?t work. I even left it longer. It didn?t remove the grease from my shirt but it did remove the color and the grease is still there. I?m not saying that the product doesn?t really work, what I?m saying is, it is all hype just like a website with all the hype. If you have a website that has all these bells and whistles, have you ever wondered how many potential paying clients have pressed the back button or have typed in a different URL just because they can?t wait to load your website, just stop for a while and think of the dollars that you easily could have raked in only if your site loaded just a nanosecond sooner.
Websurfers are an impatient breed. Very few will actually wait until your elaborate design loads. Only those that are interested in your design will wait and look at it and who are they? They are not the paying public, they are not the CEO?s, they are not the business people and they are not the people who have the dough to pay for your services, skills and talents. They are not the people whom you are trying to sell your service to. Then who are they? They are designers, artist and creative people who are just there to steal, copy and plagiarize your hard work.
Content is KING. In fact, it is a GOD. A website with good and well thought out content can and will survive longer than an extravagantly designed one. A lavishly designed website will bring in immediate traffic but they are not quality traffic. They could even be just one time visitors but content, fresh and new (am iterating), will drive not just new visitors but will bring in more visitors which could become potential users of your site and once they become users and get hooked on your site then the big bucks will not be very far behind them (hopefully).
About The Author
Romelo Jimenez Itong is a Philippine-based web designer/developer with years of experience designing and developing websites for US and other international clients. Visit http://www.romelo.com for more information.
Read More......Images: How To Make Them To Load Fast On Your Web Pages?
1. Use .gifs rather than .jpgs. GIFs are smaller in size when compared to JPGs.
2. Use 'Height' and 'Width' tags for your images. So while page loading certain place is left for the images and visitor can go through the content while images are loading.
3. If you are using large images, slice them up and make them load as part after part. For this you can use img tags like HSPACE=0 and VSPACE=0.
4. Use image compression software that reduce image size. Remember, the more you reduce your image size more will be the loss of quality.
http://www.spinwave.com/index.html
http://www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/
5. If you have lot of images to display, then put them on different pages by linking the pages like 'Next Image >' or something like that instead of a long page with 10 images.
6. Use same image over and over again if you need a similar image. Like if you are keeping a big header graphic on every page of your web site. Then use same graphic to link to all pages on your web site.
7. Flash presentations, mouse overs, animations etc increase page download time. So if you can use html instead of these, go with it.
(c) Radhika Venkata
About The Author
Radhika Venkata
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