Things a web site Newbie should know to save money.

Things a web site Newbie should know to save money.




Word Count:


952




Summary:


Some recommendations that will save money for newcomers to the world of web design.






Keywords:


xsitepro,web page design,newbie,website design software,web page creator,article sumission, article directories, article submission software






Article Body:


Don’t subscribe to get rich quick schemes.

There are thousands of sites out there trying to get you to part with your money, and inferring that you will immediately start reaping the rewards. Don’t be fooled by compelling one page sales letters, often with copies of bank statements, and invariably concluding with free gifts worth hundreds of dollars. Often the letters are sprinkled with testimonials and attempt to close the sale by offering only a limited number left remaining for sale, or you are warned of an imminent price increase. Check some of them out. Make a note of the price and the suggested uplift date. Does it really happen. Check out some of the reference sites. Are they really sites of substance, in which you would place the utmost faith in their recommendations. Yes, you can make money, but is usually after the passage of time, and not without a good deal of effort.


Don’t pay for information on How-to.

There are thousands of publications offering, at a cost, to teach you how to bring about search engine optimization, rank highly with search engines or become an affiliate guru.

Keep your money in your pocket and seek similar advice for free. Let me start you off by pointing you at some free publications which will get you on your way, and all of which are available to download from our web site. Brad Callen’s “Search Engine Optimization Made Easy” is a useful read. To emphasise my point about rogue web traders, I did a Google Advanced Search for exact matches to the title. At the top of the first page, ranking No1 out of 26,400 was a site offering to sell you this free book for $29.95.

Ken Evoy’s Affiliate Masters Course is an excellent free read. Whilst one of its aims is to educate the reader about affiliate schemes, much of the content relates to pretty much any web site.

You might also want to download another good free read, “The Netwriting Masters Course.”


Don’t pay over the odds for domain registration.

There are thousands of sites offering to register domain names. Do find a site that not only provides search facilities to see if your chosen domain name is already registered, but also provides alternative suggestions if it is. Don’t pay more than $10.00 as an annual registration fee. Let me stress that we are not affiliates of the company we use. We last paid $8.95 for a dot com at Godaddy.com. We liked the access to nameservers so that we could activate the transfer of the domain name to a host of our choice. Do not subscribe to hosting at this site.


Do get yourself a suitable domain host.

There are some very important points here. To ensure minimum of downtime from your host do not join any of the free hosting sites. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Choose a site that offers to host an unlimited number of web sites for you. The fist host we selected still has a maximum of two sites before they start to increase the annual fee. You should possibly consider one that offers an unlimited number of autoresponders, if you feel that you may need this facility in the future. Although not the site we have recommended on our web site, you might find that Hostgator.com compares favourably with anything else. Make sure that you are comparing like with like when it comes to number of domains, web space, band width etc.


Don’t buy links or email addresses.

Don’t buy links and more importantly do not purchase from web sites offering you tens of thousands of email addresses. Whilst it can be a pain, you must build up your own links, and your own opt-in list of email addresses. To assist with link building, particularly with keeping track of where you are in a link relationship we use a truly excellent piece of software, outlined on our web site. Not only does it generate the link pages but it handles the sending of emails from templates.


Do carry out search engine optimization.

Your site will go nowhere unless you have carried out the basics. By this I mean searching for and using keywords, developing a link strategy, writing and submitting articles, and promoting your site in other ways. For keywords use the “Tour” at wordtracker .com and then try it for free. For SEO read Brad Cullen’s free e-book available on our web site. For tuition on how to write articles, go to Joe Robson's site at adcopywriting.com. Joe has had many years of copywriting experience, and his advice is free.


Do get good article submission software.

For our experiences do a Google Advanced Search for the exact phrase “Articles to Directories in the Newbie World” and select a site to read about our experiences. We found disappointing submission companies, mediocre software and again came across the heavy sell, one pagers with free gifts. This prompted us to design our own. We have now made the decision to share it with others, and we are currently preparing it for commercial use.


Get easy-to-use web design software.

Nearly all web design software writes the HTML code for you. Some packages are very cheap with, reflecting functionality. Others are very expensive, but with considerably longer learning curves. Nearly all require the purchase of some extra software for search engine optimization. We have recently carried out an in-depth review of a web design package which led us gently by the hand through SEO, and optimized each page for us. Feel free to visit the review at the web site shown below.

Things to Consider Before Redesigning or Redeveloping a Website

Its 2014 and you have made a few resolutions. You need your website to perform so that you reap the rewards. This article will be more useful to companies who have a web based business or a portal.

Does this sound familiar:
1. We have a website and have spent a lot of money but it’s too clunky.
2. It served us well when we had a tight budget and needed to have a website but its not performing.
3. The development company that built the website for us told us they could do all these wonderful things but left the site incomplete.
4. Our competitors have mastered the web business even though we can out beat them with our marketing and reputation.
5. When ever we ask the developers to add new features or functionality they turn around and claim it cannot be achieved or that was not the scope of the project.

The list can go on and on but if the above are statements that you have said or heard and you need to break free then read this article and let me know if it was useful.

When a business on the web is built. It is built to serve a target audience. It is built to serve a need in the marketplace. If the website was formed out of an idea and you were not sure if the idea would be worthwhile then the reason you are reading this is because your website and idea were worth the effort. You built the website for your visitors and not for yourself.

The decision to do something with your website or web portal needs to be after a full in depth analysis from someone other than yourself. The reason for this is because it allows you to get an unbiased opinion. The first steps before approaching someone to analyze your website is to list the objectives of this exercise. To help you with this process I have tried to list the questions I would ask myself

1. What’s the purpose of this website?
2. Is this website an information site or a transactional site?
3. The visitors who would like visiting this website would be IT savvy or not?
4. Has the website in its current state received a lot of visitors?
5. Have I received feedback from my clients or visitors about the site?
6. Have I analyzed the behavior pattern of my web visitors?
7. Am I IT savvy?
8. What websites do I find usefull and user-friendly?
9. Are any of these websites close to being my competitors?
10. What features and aspects of my competitor’s site do I like?
11. What I want the website to achieve?
12. How much am I willing to spend?
13. Do I have time deadlines and if not make it a point to have a time deadline.

Deciding if the site needs to be redeveloped or tweaked

After having listed the answers to the above questions you should either request or appoint an expert to give you an unbiased opinion of your website or decide that you do not need to do much about your website. If you do go ahead to get an in-depth report check to see if their report points out any of the following:

1. The site has usability problems
2. Information or content on your site is hard to find
3. Actions that need to be performed on your site are not performed by visitors as they do not understand these actions or find it too difficult.
4. The design is too cluttered
5. Users are not following a certain navigation path that you wish them to take
6. Pages take too long to load
7. Search engine optimization has not been catered for
8. Navigation flow on the site is not planned out well. This is crucial not only for a human to navigate through your site but also from a search engine point of view.

It is important to realize that your present website may not need a complete rework if the business goals are to simply make the site design to look good. If however you want all aspects of your website to function and in it’s current state they do not function then you probably have answered your own question. Yes its time to have a budget and plan in place to move forward.

Once you have got your report you need to take time out to analyze the situation before making the final decision

Goals from a Visitor point of View:

You goal should be to have your visitors
1. Find what they want easily
2. Get what they want easily
3. Easily perform the appropriate actions that you want the visitors to perform.

To accomplish this, the website needs to have:
1. An excellent navigation system.
2. The website should be user friendly. For example, does the website have a natural flow while placing an order or does it make it difficult for a visitor to handle this process.
3. The most important actions should be accessible within one or two clicks.


Goals from a Search engine point of View: Please note the below points are a rough guidelines as this topic is vast.

Flash : If your website presently uses a lot of flash consider the following before making a decision to redesign or redevelop. Most search engines cannot read text inside a flash animation. If core elements of your site such as your navigation menus are in flash you need to rethink about this. Consider a site whose navigation menus are all in flash. A search engine would not effectively index the pages on the site as it cannot read the flash links to each page. That is unless you also provide a duplicate navigation system without flash.

Incorrect or poorly structured HTML: If you are not very IT savvy and do not understand HTML. It is wise to have the HTML code reviewed roughly to check if there is any incorrect HTML code or overlaps as this has a negative affect on your search engine ranking. This can also confuse search engines.

Java Script: Again while most search engine can read java script, they cannot cause the javascript functions to activate. This can have a negative impact if your site navigation system is javascript based with no alternative. It is safer to have text links then have buttons which depend on Java script as otherwise your navigation links may be hidden to a search engine.

There are many other important factors such as: The use of frames or IFrames; Cross browser compatibility, Huge blocks of encrypted viewstate text at the beginning of each page; etc…

Making a decision to have the complete website redone is a tough decision as you need to have the right developers who understand your needs and not theirs. I have noticed many companies after realizing that the first development cycle was not the best they go about redeveloping the website by what I consider patch work.

Patch work can be affordable if the site does not have major errors or shortcomings, but if it does it is advisable to have the application redone or implemented using other off the shelf packages. The rationale to this is that you have a website already which needs to be improved so a development company or a developer can have a better understanding of what you require and the dos and don’t for your business. It is important to remember that especially in the case of website re-development it is the quality of the work that matters and not the size of the development team. A development company with a good project manager and true geeks in the development team is one that will get you places.

I hope the information here was useful is some way. If you make up your mind to do something about your website spend your budget wisely by first listing the objectives the site needs to perform for the next 2 years and what functionality is the bare necessity and what functionality is a nice to have. Speak to your existing clients and do not waste too much time in planning that the cost of planning exceeds the actual cost of implementation.

Building Your First Website - Things You Need To Know

Do you have a small business or idea that you would like to get on the web? This article will explain the basic steps to get your business or idea on the web.

There are many free ways to get an online presence but the best way is by having your own, unique, web site. There are a few thinks you will need to get this web site online but they are not very complicated or expensive.

The first thing you need is a domain name. A domain name is the address that you put in the address bar of your web browser. It usually looks something like www.somename.com. This is a unique name you will use to identify your business from the rest of the world. A domain name can be purchased from any number of registrars for under $10 a year.

The next thing you will need is web hosting. This is a service that lets you have a place to upload files and display them to the world when someone goes to your web site. Web hosting is another service that can usually be bought on the web for between $5 and $15 a month.

Once you have your domain name and web hosting set up, the real work begins. You will need to design a web site. There are any number of tools you can use to create a web site, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage, Notepad, or another similar program. Designing a web site requires, at least, some knowledge of HTML (or XHTML). HTML and XHTML are static scripting languages that you use to tell your web browser how to show your information. There are other languages you can use to create web sites such as PHP, ASP, and ColdFusion. These languages are more complicated and are used to create dynamic sites and interface with databases.

Designing a web site can be a daunting task. There is always the option of having a design company create you web site for you but that can cost quite a pretty penny. Another option is to install a pre-made web site script that you can administer from a simple administration. Some of these script include Mambo, phpWebsite, e107, and many more. A script like this, usually, still requires some knowledge of HTML and/or web design because they are highly configurable and require a bit of tweaking to make it look the way you want.

It may sound complicated to start a web site but it really isn’t. All you need to do is take a bit of time to read some tutorials and examples, that are freely available on the web. You can learn the basics in no time completely free of charge.

Tips You Must Know To Build A Great Website

Build A Great Website

Last week we talked about how a bad website can do your business more harm than good. That column brought several emails asking what is the key to building an effective business website. I replied with the same answer I always give: building an effective business website is a simple matter of definition.

Before the first graphic is drawn or the first line of code is written, you must define the website’s budget, purpose, target audience, design, navigation, and content. And when that’s all said and done you must define the marketing that will bring visitors to your site.

It sounds easy, but you’d be amazed at how many really bad business websites there are out there. Yours might even be one of them. If so, listen up. For nearly ten years now my company has been building and rebuilding websites for every kind of business you can imagine: from mom-and-pops to multinationals. We’ve designed (or redesigned) a couple hundred websites and along the way I have come to the conclusion that most business websites do a pitiful job of working for their owners.

What’s that, you didn’t know your business website should work for you? You think it should just sit on a server somewhere taking up digital space and collecting digital dust?

Wrong. Every website, business or otherwise, must serve a purpose, and that’s usually where most websites falls short. They serve no purpose because the website owner never gave much thought to it. It’s not the website’s fault. A website is inanimate. It is only what you make it. The only life a website has is the one given to it by its designer and owner. If the human element doesn’t do a good job of defining the building blocks, the website will serve no purpose and eventually die a digital death.

Building an effective business website isn’t brain surgery, thank goodness, since that’s how I make a nice percentage of my living. Building an effective, well-designed website that works for its owner, that actually serves a purpose, is all about definition.

Define the Budget

Every website, no matter how large or small, must have a realistic budget, with “realistic” being the key word. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with a potential client as they listed off the eight million cool things they wanted their website to do, only to find out that their budget was just a few hundred dollars. I always feel like saying, “Well you just wasted three hundred dollars of my time, so here’s your bill…”

Define the Purpose

Every website must have a purpose. Purpose drives everything: the audience, the design, the navigation, the content, and the marketing. I could do an entire column on purpose, but suffice it to say that there are five categories of purpose under which most websites fall: the purpose to inform, to educate, to entertain, to generate leads, to sell, or a combination thereof. If you fail to define the purpose of the website, all else is just wasted effort.

Define the Target Audience

Your target audience refers to that segment of the public that you hope to attract to the site. For example if you sell shoes, your target audience would be anyone with feet. Taking it a step further, if you only sold women’s shoes, your target audience would be women (with feet) Why is defining your target audience so important? If you have no idea who your audience is, how can you expect to design a website that will appeal to them? Your target audience could be customers, investors, job seekers, info seekers, etc. Define your target audience, then figure out how to serve them.

Define the Design

Website design theory has changed over the last couple of years, primarily because the search engines now ignore graphic heavy websites and give preference to those that take a minimalistic approach to design. If you look at some of the big boy websites like GE, Oracle, Raytheon, HP, and others you will see that in many cases the only graphic on the homepage is the company’s logo. Search engines now give higher preference to websites that offer keyword-rich text over flashy graphics. Don’t fight the design trend. You will lose.

Define the Navigation

Bad navigation is the number one reason website visitors abandon a website. Navigation refers to the chain of links the visitor uses to get around your site. If your site has an illogical navigational hierarchy or too few or too many links or is simply impossible to get around, you’ve got problems. We live in a microwave society. We stand in front of the microwave tapping our foot and glaring at our watch wondering why it takes so damn long for a bag of popcorn to pop. Why can’t a three-minute egg be done in thirty seconds? If it takes a visitor more than 3 clicks to get to any page on your site, your navigation needs improvement.

Define the Content

Content refers to the information on your website, be it graphics, text, downloadable items, etc. Since the top search engines no longer use HTML Meta tag data to index websites, it is vital that your website content be text heavy, succinct and well-written to appeal to the search engine spiders.

Define the Build Method

Next, who will build the website for you? Will you do it yourself using one of the point and click website builders or will you hire the kid next door? Will you hire a freelance designer or a professional firm? Budget usually dictates the build method, but be warned, when it comes to website development, you get what you pay for. Sure, the kid next door will throw up a site for you if you buy them a pizza or make your daughter go to the prom with them, but you will end up a with a website that looks like and performs like it was designed by the kid next door.

Define the Marketing

If you build it, will they come? Not on your life, at least not without a good marketing campaign. Your website should become a part of all your marketing efforts, online and off.

Put the website address on your business cards, brochures, letterhead, and all collaterals. Include the address in your ads; print, TV and radio. If you prefer to do online marketing, figure out where your target audience surfs and advertise there.

If marketing is foreign to you, do yourself a favor and call in an expert. Many businesses fail because they simply do not know how to market their products and services effectively. This is also the downfall of most business websites.

Here's to your success!