We kept the aesthetics similar to those found on their main parent Wyndham site. The overall color scheme, clean line styles, and some modern elements, were used to maintain continuity between the two websites. We added flourishes and vintage touches however, along with a soft touch, to invoke a “colonial” sort of feeling given their historic location.

This website includes an interactive map with animated rollovers, a secure client login, an edited and embedded video, a weather widget, and more.

Take their website for a test drive at www.patriotsplaceresort.com

Click here to enlarge.

Take their website for a test drive at www.ampmbilling.com.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/AB-INTERFACEScom/312327072101

If you are ever in the Yorktown area and want to see our countryside in a non-traditional way… give them a call… or check them out online at www.patriottoursva.com.

We look forward to posting their new look soon.

We look forward to posting their new look soon.

We built a website for them which contains a complete Content Management System, an MP3 Player with interactive controls that they can manage themselves, an interactive Twitter and Scheduling Scroller, and more…

Organized during the peak of the electronic scene in 2001, Elemental formed with a concept of uniting solid, established artists with younger, talented ones. Based on the core belief that success is achieved by working together as a team, artists collectively established roots in promotion, event planning, and music production, in addition to traditional solo and collaborative performances. A great success from 2002 to 2004, Elemental artists grew from the playing grounds of established events throughout the metro DC area, with some members signing major EDM record deals on the nationwide arena. Maintaining the iconic Elemental tag team tradition, such monumental success only furthered the young talent with more exposure, as the experience and development was shared collectively.

We look forward to posting their new look soon.

AB INTERFACES.com – Web Design Williamsburg VA.

Simply put… Walk-On Videos increase your revenue stream.

We look forward to posting their new look soon.

AB INTERFACES.com – Website Design Williamsburg Virginia.

The primary focus was to keep the aesthetics similar to those found on their main parent Wyndham site. We wanted to carry over the overall color scheme, clean line styles, and modern elements, so that there would be continuity between the two websites. On the other hand, we also wanted to invoke a ‘colonial’ feeling since the timeshare was said to be a one of a kind, in that it is strongly marketed for and located near, downtown Colonial Williamsburg. To achieve this we also incorporated vintage touches and subtle flourishes into the design. We hoped this would be a good marriage between the two concepts of ‘modern meets colonial’.

www.patriotsplaceresort.com/index.htm

As Google is constantly releasing more information about their internal workings… there has been a lot of talk recently in the search engine optimization world pertaining to ‘split search engine rankings’ and ‘duplicate content penalties’. When someone types ‘abc.com’ (without the www’s) and ‘www.abc.com’ (with the www’s), both take them to the same website. However, it has come to our attention that search engines actually view this as two separate websites, and split the rankings accordingly based upon which one was typed. They sometimes also even penalize the website for having duplicated content that is mirrored on each domain. This issue is simply caused due to how search engines happen to interpret server architecture.

To prevent this we have added a ’301 Redirect’ file to many of our client’s servers. Now, if someone types in your website no www’s, it then immediately redirects them to your website with the www’s. This has quickly become and industry standardized method to split search engine rankings and duplicate content penalties.

Since your success is our success, and we want for you to prosper in every way possible, we have added this redirect for you free of charge. If for some reason this is something that you do not want please let us know and we will gladly remove it.

Thank you for your continued business as we greatly appreciate it.

How does a webmaster go about getting high quality backlinks to his or her website? There are many ways this can be done. Some people advocate writing and submitting articles, posting on forums, making comments on blogs. Others talk about submitting their website to various Internet directories. One directory that has an excellent reputation is called DMOZ, or the “Open Directory”. This directory is probably the most respected directory online today. The websites it contains have all been placed there by human editors; there is no “automation” to this directory. The only drawback that’s been discussed about this directory is that it takes so long to have a website included.

Another way that many people build backlinks for their website is to use Social Bookmarking websites. A “Social Bookmark” is a website that usually has a very popular ‘community’ aspect to it. Users sign up and create profiles on the sites that contain photos and information about themselves. They then can save “bookmarks” of favorite websites which can be itemized by ‘tags’, which are one or two word descriptions of what the sites contain, and these bookmarks can be saved to a list that’s private or can be listed publicly, so that everybody can see it.

With the advent of what is known as Web 2.0, gaining backlinks is easier now than in any time in the history of the internet. Most sites now have an “interactive” quality to them nowadays. Readers can often sign in and create profiles. They then are often allowed to post comments on the stories or articles on the website or blog. In many cases, the website or blog owner responds to these comments; thus making this section of the website or blog a conversation.

Backlinking strategies can be easy and fun and the website owner who is working on getting more backlinks for his website can learn new things, meet new people, and have a tremendous amount of fun doing something that was once a chore: building backlinks.

About the Author http://angelasdiscountmarket.com/backlink_builder.html

When creating a new website or redesigning an existing site, there are four critical rules which should be followed to make the site effective, functional, loved by search engines – and successful.

1. Easy to Read

When building a website, the first thing you need to be sure of is that your website is easy to read. When you write content, remember that most web site visitors don’t read every word of a page – in fact, they only scan pages to find what they want.

Break up Your Content

Break up your pages and use headers between major ideas so people scanning your site can find what they want quickly. Use meaningful headers between each paragraph or major idea – this helps with SEO. Headers should be created with the H1 through H4 tags for SEO. Always use good writing structure. Additionally, avoid long paragraphs that run on. You should break up any long paragraphs.

Color and Fonts

To help readability, use high contrast colors between font and background. Black text against a white background may seem stark, but it is very readable. To make a website easy on the eyes, try an off-white background and a dark gray (almost black) text color.

Things to avoid with content color:

• Avoid vibrant background colors like purple or yellow. Such back colors make text difficult to read.
• Avoid using an image behind your text.
• Avoid using bright text colors on bright backgrounds.

Fonts Matter

One simple statement covers the font issue:

Simple fonts are the best; the more fancy the font, the harder it is to read.

Since many browsers only have the standard font set, use standard fonts. In reality, there is no “standard”, but there are certain fonts that are installed on most browsers. These include Arial, Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman. Your readers will see something different than you see if you use other fonts.

Standard Compliant Browser for Development

When developing and testing your site, use a Standards compliant browser like FireFox. If you develop your site to be standards compliant, it will work in most browsers, including MS Internet Explorer (IE). It is recommended that you test your site using the latest and last browser versions of IE (IE6 and IE7). To run multiple versions of IE on the same machine, TredoSoft.com has a free installer that will install multiple versions of IE. It works great!

Keywords in Content

Of course, when writing content, not only should it be formatted to be readable, but it must also be consumable by not only people, but by search engines. One way to make the subject of the content known to search engines is to use the keywords that people use to search for your site in your content. Be sure to use keywords in your header tags, your first paragraph and throughout your text. The keyword density should be between 4% and 7% – but any more than that could 1) be hard to read and still make sense and 2) be considered spam by search engines and banned. Keywords should also be used in your TITLE tags and your Meta description.

2. Simplify Navigation

The menus and links make up the navigation that the visitor uses to get from page to page in a site. Always plan a site around how people will get from page to page. A visitor to your site should be able to get to what they want within three clicks of their mouse.

Multiple navigation points makes it easy to find things. Repeat the top menu and at the bottom. Also create a left or right menu.

Using links within your text to other areas on your site. You can create links so that they are good for search engine optimization (SEO). There are generally two ways to create links within your text:

• The wrong way: “For search engine optimization techniques, click here.”
• The right way: “Good techniques for search engine optimization are important to use.”

Using link text (anchor text) that describes what the link is about is the best way. Search engine web crawlers (programs that automatically index the contents of websites) visit your site, they “read” links. Spiders can index descriptive links into a subject or keyword category. Spiders have nothing to work with when reading a “click here” until it reaches the linked page.

This is Cross Linking – use it as much as possible when it makes sense to do so when writing your content.

3. Consistent Design

At most, one or two layouts should be used in your site design. As a reader browses your site, they should be able to get used to looking in the same place for your navigation, for your sub-navigation and for your content. That’s all there is to say about that.

4. Lower Page Weight is Better

Page weight is the total size of a page on your site in bytes – code, text and images. Your site’s page weight makes a big difference to your viewers. Lighter page weight is better for your readers because the page will download faster. The faster a page downloads, the faster they will get to the content.

What is Means to be Light

• No large images.
• Fewer images are better.
• Optimize images for the web at no more than 72 dpi
• Use as small an image dimension as possible for the given design.
• Use a table td bgcolor attribute or a background-color style attribute for solid color backgrounds.
• Make gradients horizontal or vertical (not diagonal) so that you can use a small image “strip” and repeat it.

How “Heavy” Should a Web Page be?

Certain studies show that 64K is a good maximum webpage size. 64K is a maximum, however it is still, in my opinion, really big! The smaller the page, the better. 25K is good, 15K is even better. There is a balance between design and function. It is a good idea to focus more on function.

Try putting pages on your web host server as you build your site so you can test it as you go. For pages online, you can test the page weight at www.quasarcr.com/pageweight/ to be sure you are on track.

Ways to make pages lighter:

• Use linked style sheets
• Use DIVs instead of TABLEs where possible
• Use simple repeating backgrounds for effect

Summary

Visitors to your website should be able to find what they are looking for within about three clicks. Search engines should be able to navigate easily through your site. Making a site easy to read with consistent page design, and easy to navigate will make it easy to find information. When people can find information, they are more likely to refer your site or link to it – which is exactly what you want to encourage. You will be on the way to building a readable and hopefully successful website that is loved by search engines if you follow these principals.

Author Bio
Nicholas LaPolla has been a web applications developer for 11 years. He created AcmeWebResources.com to help others build or improve, market, and monetize their websites with a focus on web design, website seo / internet marketing, and working to make money online. Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com

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Below are a few videos that we have compiled showing some of its new interface and features.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-buQI6h2o4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAF-xsNNSwc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0go2hTXpzY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdR63vcK7L0

http://is.gd/3Mysa

Minimum Requirements:

• A processor rated at 1 Gigahertz or faster
• 1GB of RAM (2GB for 64-bit Windows 7)
• At least 16GB of storage space (20GB for 64-bit Windows 7)
• A DX9-compatible graphics card, with the WDDM 1.0 driver

This is truly an exciting development!

Sign the petition today to help preserve Internet freedom.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_5Ic5Ic0u4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgyUQ0b4LzM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY7V_2tPL2c

The following article may provide a bit of insight for those currently in the market for something new.

View the full story here

Why are so many people blogging?

Blogging has gained immense popularity in the last couple of years, and thousands of new blogs are created each month. But why? Well, as technology evolves, so do we. The beauty of the Internet is not only the wealth of information it provides, but also the connectivity the access to the thoughts, feelings, opinions, pictures and videos of other people across the globe. Maybe it’s because we’re naturally voyeuristic, or maybe it’s the innate human need to have a sense of community (we are social creatures, after all), but whatever the reason, blogging is wildly popular, and probably not going anywhere. In fact, as the news media declines in these tough economic times, bloggers are gaining more and more power in terms of taking on the role of opinion makers.

Why should you blog?

Blogging has a great number of benefits in fact, there are probably as many reasons to blog as there are types of blogs. Many people use blogs as an extension of their careers their blogs are forums by which their employees and/or clients can contact them and keep up with what’s happening day to day. For others, a blog is an outlet for creativity. Writers, cooks, musicians, and designers are just a few of the types of people who can use a blog to share their passion with the world by posting poems, recipes, songs, general observations, event dates, photos and new projects. Some people use blogs simply to increase their web site ranking in the search engines, as regular updates help keep web sites relevant. And some people just want someone to talk to, so they talk to everyone via a personal-journal-type blog.

Where can you get a blog?

There a lots of free blogging sites to help you set up a blog and get started. WordPress is a very simple one to use, and you can get set up and going in just a few minutes. But don’t be fooled, just because everyone and their dog seems to have a blog these days doesn’t mean blogging is easy. Successful blogs are relevant, topical, and regularly updated.

How do you get started?

If you want to start a blog, the most important thing to do is to choose a theme: what is your blog going to be about? Writing, painting, cooking, fashion, politics, sports? Try to narrow your focus to make creating content easier, a blog that’s not narrowly-enough defined can cause problems when it’s time to come up with something specific to write about. The most effective blogs tend to be those that are very specific in their subject matter, so don’t just pick a topic, pick a niche within a topic. For example, if you’re a trend-watcher, pick a specific area to focus on: new trends as seen where you live, for example. Or instead of starting a blog about sports, focus on one sport, or one state’s various sport teams, or even just one team. The more narrowly you focus your topic, the easier it is to overcome writers block down the road, and to ultimately make your blog successful (that is, getting people, besides your mom, your co-workers and your spouse, to read it).

About the Author
Inside Dallas is a realty firm helping customers in Fort Worth and Dallas. Their site provides information on Dallas Texas Real Estate. It also has a search of the Dallas MLS along with a Dallas real estate blog with updated market statistics.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ-VjUKAsao

I tend to think of Twitter as a virtual water cooler at the office where people gather to chat. Some of the information is useless, some entertaining, some valuable, and some truly inspiring. You never really know what you are going to get, but more often than not, there will be something that will catch your attention and make your day somehow better. 

Twitter connects you with other people, businesses, and resources that are of similar interest. You can literally spend days browsing information relevant to whatever it is that you do. You can find information, that overlaps around all sides of what you do, therefore providing you with a more well rounded foundation. And you can even find resources (often free) that provide you with wonderful tools to further enhance how you do whatever it is that you do.

Twitter is also free instant marketing for your business. Because everyone has similar interests, you are actually receiving targeted traffic to your Twitter profile, website, and blog from others that are following you, and many that happen to stumble across you while browsing others in your industry. When you post a tweet you can see the results spike instantly in your analytics and statistics reports. If people like what they see they begin flocking to you seemingly from out of nowhere. Most of the time when you begin following someone, they in turn start following you back, and thus things take on a life of their own. Although cliche, any smart business person knows that it isn’t always what you know that helps most, but often times it is who you know. Twitter really helps to bring people, that you would never meet otherwise, together in a “networking” kind of way. When people are able to find you, get comfortable with how you present yourself, and feel that you are an authority on something… they will then more often than not use your services and buy your products.

I often find myself hooked into casually scanning through the endless sea of tweets via my Blackberry while relaxing and watching television at night. I always find tweets from my piers that get me excited about something that I had never anticipated. Once you find a topic of interest, you can spiderweb into it by digging into more links, and then go deeper and deeper. The key to using Twitter is not just to take a quick peek, post useless information that no one really cares about, or shamelessly promote your products and services. It is most utilized when you take part in the community from a social standpoint, be productive, and give something back by participating in conversations.

While using Twitter may not be for everyone, the only way to find out is to give it a try, see if you actually enjoy using it… and see if how things evolve for you.

The concept of the 5 Ws, followed by an H, is regarded as much a basic information-gathering technique in homepage building, as it is in journalism. People want to see credibility. They are curious about you, and as obvious as it may seem to provide the answer to Who, Where, What, Why When, and How on a homepage, you would not be the first to forget.

Who:

Taglines and logos often explain plenty about the type of business that is being conducted, but most likely do not give complete details about who you really are. Are you a local businessman, or do you live halfway around the world?

Mentioning an address on your homepage is vital. It will increase your chances on being pulled up by local search engines and it will tell your audience about your background. They want to know what language you might speak, how much you know about your products, and if they are manufactured by yourself or in your area. You also may want to mention sales representatives and other staff.

Where:

Your website visitors see your business location as more than just a building. Believe it or not, there still are patriots out there who would rather order from a local entrepreneur than going across the border. They know your language, trust your products and services and can easily verify your credentials. It also means that product shipping time will be less and they have access to local sales and discounts.

With news reports of diluted drugs, harmful toys and toxic drywall, customers want to know if your products are safe. Registering with independent, non-profit, consumer research companies such as the Better Business Bureau will not only give you peace of mind, but will also tell your customers you have nothing to hide and are committed to provide the best service possible.

If you do not want your privacy invaded because your company is small or home-based, you can always rent a postal box in your area.

What:

Manage your client’s expectations and tell them exactly what you are offering. This means more than just listing your merchandise and services on the homepage. The more information you offer, the bigger your advantage over your competition will be.

Go over your entire website and ask yourself numerous questions starting with ‘what…’ What are my payment options? What are my sales items? What will attract visitors to my site? What kind of products do my customers like? What are my long-term goals for the company? What is the quickest way to go from product viewing to sale completion? Indeed, customers do not like to click around to find their way around a website. Like in real-life stores, they like to pick an item, pay and go.

A poorly designed website is like a badly managed store with poor signage and no clerk in sight to assist you. As you would walk out of such a store, customers would be equally quick to click away and log off.

Why:

‘What’ and ‘Why’ are often related: what are you selling and why? Explaining the reasons why you started the business, launched a website, picked that particular name for it, chose these kinds of products to sell, can all help your customers to understand what makes you and your company so unique.

Of course, you do not have to tell your entire life story on your homepage, but can weave the information into other pages. If you have many pictures on the site, add text and let your customers know why this digital camera is the best, why a specific diet works best for diabetics, or why the gemstones in that turquoise necklace are so precious and valuable. Answering these questions and being rich in descriptions is not about showing off, but about bonding with the customer.

When:

Even though frequently underestimated, the ‘when’ factor is as important as any other website related aspect when it comes to usability. Time is relevant in so many ways and not just when it comes to shipping information.

Customers like to know your business hours and when you can be reached. They want to know when they can expect a reply to an inquiry, when your next sale will be, and when they can expect the next lot of new bestsellers. As you can see, these questions relate to your entire e-commerce site and not just the homepage.

How:

Focusing on ‘how’ you can make your website perfect is an absolute necessity. Research not only your homepage, but the entire site and find the questions you have missed so far. Keyword repetition is an important SEO factor. How many more keywords do you need to climb the search engine listings faster? How many times should you update the site’s content and blogs? How many clicks does it take to get from the homepage to the merchandise and shopping cart? How long do you leave feedback on the site? How long does a shipment take to get from you to the customer? How safe and appealing are your payment methods? How long will this list of questions be? It will all depend on the information you have already provided, how much more you want to reveal, and how much time and work you are willing to invest.

In conclusion: websites are like bridges. They are the links connecting you and your customers. Like with any structure, bridges need a good foundation, sturdy materials, and a well-designed construction plan. If any of these elements are missing the bridge will collapse. Building a successful website is no different than erecting a bridge. Just think about it! If your building blocks don’t fit, or pieces are missing, do you think your e-commerce website will bring you fame and fortune? I didn’t think so!

About the Author
Bliss Media is a cutting edge web design agency. We have conducted web design projects from small start ups to some of Australia’s leading sites.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuTQD08hYFs

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Readers of Internet sites, articles, and blogs usually scan first before reading the entire piece. This means their attention has to be grabbed right from the start. Seasoned journalists who are familiar with capturing their reader’s attention in the first paragraph already have the first basic rule of web content writing under their belt. On the Web, maintaining that style will be even more vital as we cannot count on readers scrolling all the way down the page to read the conclusion.

Breaking up web content into short paragraphs will capture the website visitor’s eye more than elongated passages which are more difficult to scan. Also make sure that you use keyword saturation to help with your SEO. Here are some examples of simple Internet writing techniques that will get you noticed:

Break up content into shorter segments:

• Capture the essence of what you have to say first and then explain briefly.
• Layer information and present only one idea per paragraph.
• Use descriptive headings and sub-headings frequently. Keep them meaningful rather than clever.
• Create links to more detailed information if segments are getting too long.

Make text more readable:

• Using hypertext links, typeface variations, and color, to highlight keywords.
• Take advantage of bulleted or numbered lists.
• Use appropriate readable fonts as not everyone has perfect vision.
• Verify the contrast between text and background colors. Light gray colored words for instance may disappear on a white page.
• Unless using fair-sized font sizes and avoid using bold shadows or italics. Not everyone likes them.
• Insert illustrations to break up the text and make it look more inviting.

Goal Oriented Writing

Excited about their new venture, some website owners and e-merchants dive in with both feet. Unfortunately, that may not always be a good idea because like with all commerce, you will need some kind of business and organizational plan in place. You need to define the purpose of your website, your goals and objectives, and you need to know your audience.

Understanding the people that will visit your site will not only help you decide what content to write, but it will also guide you in the way that you should present it. This is vital, because if you do not properly navigate your visitors through the site, they will never take action and buy your goods and services. So organize your information in the order your audience will most likely need it and label the choices that you offer clearly.

Be consistent and uniform

If you are busy conducting business it will be tough to constantly refresh your website content. If this is the case you may have to hire multiple writers. It is convenient solution and you get lots of different viewpoints to share. However, do not lose track of the uniformity and clarity of your website. Different writers may also mean different styles, and vocabulary, and these variations in consistency may end up confusing your readers.

Establish writing standards for your projects and create a style guide for your writers. This guide should stress issues in regards to the tone and voice of the content, file, and structure format, as well as text layout. Also, streamline corporate slogans, terminology, and make sure that all writers are consistent in their spelling (e.g. web site/website)

Keep it clear

Keeping your content and buttons clear and understandable prevents confusion. When you introduce a link to a certain product line make sure that it goes there and not somewhere else. The same thing applies to “call to order” features. If you offer your guests a “contact us now” option, make sure that it leads to an address, email, or contact form, and not your “check out” page. To prevent these damaging incidents from happening check your links and pages frequently. If you don’t visitors will quickly doubt your credibility, and professionalism, and with one mouse click they will be gone!

Conclusion

The extra time you invest in creating great web content will help ensure your online audience will complete their tasks properly and in a timely manner. They will enjoy their stay, tell their friends, and best of all, they will keep coming back to your site for more.

About the Author
Bliss Media is a cutting edge web design agency. We have conducted web design projects from small start ups to some of Australia’s leading sites.

1. Desktop Targeting
If you are a website owner, you should consider, whether or not, a desktop application is right for you. Desktop features, like those used by E-Bay, Google and other mega sites, can provide advantages to your user. These can include offline access, and better integration with their operating system. Certain platforms and applications that can run outside a browser on multiple operating systems can also put Web-based content and functionality onto your customer’s desktop.

2. Include Mobile
Many Internet users are stepping away from traditional PCs. Mobile devices are handy and easy to carry. You can deliver content on the mobile Web by:

• Creating a mobile website means taking small screens and different input devices into account.
• Provide text messages with updates and notifications.
• Build mobile applications that run directly on mobile devices. This will make your content accessible at all times, even if the users are away from their PC, or not connected to the Internet.

3. Use Twitter
Take advantage of social networking and micro-blogging services such as Twitter. Be careful not to just use it as broadcasting tool to update your latest services and hot seller list, but exploit all its possibilities. Let’s see if you can engage not only your co-workers and staff to participate, but your entire audience!

4. Expand Your Writing
Do not limit your expertise and writing skills to your own website. Instead, share your wisdom and abilities with others. There are many website and ezine companies that will gladly post quality articles and blogs. In addition, you can also contact related businesses and offer them some of your appealing editorials. In that case, make sure your work includes not only your type of industry, but theirs as well.

5. Think Facebook
Demographics have shown that Facebook is growing at record speed and has almost become a standard household word. As unlikely as it may have seemed a few years ago, today, not only teens will constantly update their pages and profiles, but in all likelihood, their parents will too. It is a great way to network and spread the word, even for an e-commerce business owner.

Here are three good starting points for e-merchants to consider:

• Build dialogue by creating a group.
• Fan pages are ideal for building relationships with people, both inside and outside of Facebook.
• Build applications that can be added to user profiles.

6. Create an API or Widget
A Widget or Application Programming Interface (API) is a tool that allows Web developers access to your content, authorizing them to build applications and websites around it. It is a way for them to work on your site, and make improvement such as embedding your content on their sites, or building new desktop applications with advanced functionality. The use of APIs is quite technical and mainly used by web developers. More easily to implement are widgets, or chunks of code that can be pasted into a website to add features. There are thousands of them available, all allowing website owners to use the content and functionality of other websites. Some simple ones include clocks, hit counters and daily weather info boxes.

7. Upgrade Your Feeds
As easier way for users to access website content, news, articles or blog posts is by using “Really Simple Syndication” or RSS feeds. Website owners have to be careful and only provide compelling posts which will draw readers back to their sites – not just teasing introductions to articles. Then RSS can become counter-productive, because some busy users simply refuse to leave their news reader to go read the entire write-up unless cleverly drawn in.

Another thing to remember when preparing RSS feed messages is that some readers may not be familiar with your store, services, or website. For that reason, article content can be taken out of context and lose its value, missing the objective all together.

8. Embrace Multimedia
It is almost unimaginable to find a successful website today that has not taken advantage of multimedia to supplement the written content. Creating audio and video applications seems exciting, which it can be, but for them to be really effective some rules have to be taken into account. Multimedia will become increasingly more important in web design.

The Internet has been flooded with camera demonstrations and sound bites, and to really stand out from the crowd, and grab the attention of your audience, you will have to be unique and spectacular. Find a passionate, talented host, offer great, concise content, insert a dash of humor, or add untraditional shock values. Of course, keep it all in good taste, age appropriate, and remember who your audience is.

9. Go Live, Start Streaming
Live TV has been rubbing off on the World Wide Web and pre-recorded, non-interactive material is slowly sharing seats with more engaging, real time presentations and chats.

The benefits of real time hosting are plentiful. They can include the following:

• Presenting your products and services while taking questions from the audience.
• Community sessions give participants a chance to become more engaged.
• Company owners, CEOs and politicians can relay important news and immediately answer questions related to the topic.
• Online schooling and training can help students and teacher to work more closely together.

10. Email
Email is one of the oldest marketing tools and has been around way longer than Facebook, Twitter, video feeds and many other innovative promotional techniques. For starters, it is a great way to syndicate content and it also allows your audience to subscribe to website updates, contests, surveys, and what not. When using that feature, make sure to stress to your subscribers that their information is safe and that you will not share it with associated companies or spammers. If you do, you may not only lose your clients, but could also face legal action.

Conclusion
Times have changed and the Internet, which once was limited to a privileged few, is now bursting out of its seams. Everybody has access and everyone wants a piece. To stand out and make your mark, hosting a simple website is no longer enough. If you don’t attract attention in other ways, users will pass you buy. So, use the innovative tools we just discussed and see how much difference they can make!

About the Author
Bliss Media is one of Australia’s leading web design agencies. We create highly engaging web design for large to medium size enterprises. Our cutting edge web design will boost your competitive advantage.

Choosing your web hosting plan can make or break your online business. It requires some level of technical knowledge and for most people, is too important a decision to be made on their own. To be truly successful online, you should begin your search with a web designer and establish a relationship with that person. They will then guide you in finding the best web hosting service to fit your needs.

How well your website performs is strongly dependant upon your web hosting plan. The hosting plan you choose directly effects the experience your prospective customers will have on your site. When shopping for business web hosting, people often make the mistake of looking for the cheapest plan they can find. The problem with this approach is that you are not just paying for hosting, you are paying for bandwidth, which directly effects how fast your web page will load. If your page loads too slowly your prospective customer will never see your site, but bandwidth is not the only factor that effects page load time. Other factors include:

The number of people connecting to your site at the same time.
The type of content you have on your site (the number of images, flash, video, audio, CMS).
How well your website is coded.
Back up and restore capabilities
Pre-loaded open source software
Security features

Of the six factors listed above, #3 is the primary offender for page load delays. Poorly coded websites are most often the result of machine-generated code, from do-it-yourself website builder applications.

Choosing a Web Designer first – Knowledge and Relationship

There are many choices for web hosting companies and many different types of web hosting services. Knowing what web hosting you will need for your website before it even exists is difficult, if not impossible. That is why you will need to begin with an experienced web designer. That person will be able to build a custom website for you and will know what type of hosting will be necessary to accommodate your site. When you hire a web designer, he or she will begin with gathering requirements from you in which you will discuss all the features and content you would like to have on your site. Your designer will then choose a web hosting service that can handle all the requirements of the site that they are going to build for you.

Another reason to begin with choosing a website designer or developer first, is that they will design your site based on the idea that they will provide the hosting and that there will be an ongoing relationship. Business web hosting often includes the hosting as well as some type of website support contract so that you will have someone you can go back to on a consistent basis. You will get personal one-on-one attention and ongoing support from someone you have a history with, and who thoroughly knows your website and your business model.

Choosing Web Hosting First – A Space in Need of a Site

If you begin with choosing your hosting plan first, then look for a designer, you set yourself up for several problems. First of all most web designers will not take a job building a website that could potentially be more than the hosting plan can handle. Secondly, many hosting services have different shareware applications that come with the hosting. You could have trouble finding a developer who is familiar with the shareware that comes with your hosting plan.

Another problem with choosing the hosting plan first is that a hosting company is concerned only with selling the hosting and nothing more. If you encounter any problems outside of hosting, the hosting company will not be able to help you. You will be essentially orphaning yourself before the project has even begun. Most web designers and developers offer their clients web hosting as well as maintenance contracts, but if you choose the hosting company first, then the person who builds the site for you does not have an ongoing relationship with you. Since there is no contract tying you to them, they have no vested interest is making your website successful.

Choosing a web hosting service for your website can be a complicated but very important decision. You will have the greatest chance for success with your website, if you begin by choosing a web designer or developer first and then have a hosting and maintenance contract with that person. That will ensure that your hosting plan will be appropriate for your website and that you will always have a website professional available when you need them.

About the Author
Kevin Kielty writes for Internet Marketing Advantage in Raleigh, NC. Web hosting and web development are his areas of expertise. Internet Marketing Advantage specializes in bringing together web development and web hosting Raleigh, NC.

Why Visitors Come
It is a fact that many web users don’t actually come to your site to appreciate the attractiveness of its design. That is not to say that an attractive web design is not important. However, the majority of your site’s visitors are there because the consumer was motivated to look at your site, and to find the specific information that they are looking for.

Glitz and Glamour
You may not need a website filled with all of the “bells and whistles” like Java Script and Flash. These certainly add spice to your website, but can often detract, and sometimes even annoy visitors who are simply looking for the information that they expect to find on your site. Effective bullet points, keywords, phrases accented in bold type, and an easy to navigate page, may have a greater impact on your website than anything else.

Manage Your Own Website
If you know what will help make your site better, you can self-direct the development of the site through a content management system, to provide you with total control over your own website. Some web design experts may prefer to perform the updates for you, but you probably have a stronger interest in the success of your own website, than most hired web developers will.

Writing for the Web
Writing content for web pages is different than writing for any other type of medium. Thoughts must always be compact and content must always be easily scannable. When you write for the web you should always help your reader to quickly find the subject matter that they are most interested in finding as quickly and as easily as possible. Even if your website does not contain the exact information that your visitor actually wants, they may be pleased to know that it didn’t require lengthy reading to make that determination. In turn the visitor may even venture to other pages of your site to see if you have any other information that may be of use to them. A clean and tidy website is always a good thing.

Most professional web design companies use multiple programs throughout their creation process and start all projects completely from scratch. They use graphics applications to create a look and feel. Flash and 3D applications to create animations and interactive movement. Web development applications to slice their designs into tiny pieces that are then assembled using HTML coding. The addition of 3rd party applications like shopping carts and content management systems to further enhance their site’s functionality. And then test every mechanical aspect of the entire website before placing it on a web server for the public to use. This describes the website design process in its most basic of forms.

Below is a quick time-lapsed video of a designer creating one simple webpage.
I personally found it interesting because after doing this type of work for the past decade, I have many dreams that playout in my head exactly like this video. While many folks are able to throw together a quick website… quite a lot actually goes into creating a successful, professional, website by hand. Click here to see some of our Design Examples.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0NZ4ekNZoI

Has this ever happened to you?

You need a photo for a website, brochure, flyer, or CD/DVD cover…

You buy one of those 100,000 photo and clipart collections on 10 CD-ROMs hoping to find the “perfect” picture, but after hours of searching you find your brain tired, your mouse hand numb, and no “perfect” photo in sight. Fortunately, the photo and clipart business got a lot smarter online, and anyone who ever needs good photos at rock bottom prices stands to benefit. Buying one of those mega-photo collections to find one photo rates about the same as buying an entire aisle at the supermarket in hopes of finding a single Snicker bar!

Personally, my shelves hold over 2,000,000 photo and clipart images on over 100 CD-ROMs, most of which rate quite useless to me. To further complicate matters, photo collections on CD-ROM tend to go out of date. Many of the photo collections I bought in the mid-1990′s contain photos of people from the 1980′s, so the hair, clothes and even makeup look out-of-date. The solution to this dilemma lies in the fact that you can now buy photos online at bargain-basement prices.

Previously, in order to buy photos online, you either joined a membership site, which charges a monthly fee, or you bought by the photo from sites charging $100 or more for one photo. Do a search on google.com for “royalty free photo,” “stock photo,” or “buyout photo” and you’ll find plenty of websites offering photos at premium prices (not to mention the confusion of finding what you want).

Two excellent options for buying photos and clipart are ClipArt.com and BigStockPhoto.com.

Clipart.com charges a membership fee to browse their database and download images. Their best deal is the yearly subscription of $169.95 (equates to about $15 a month) with unlimited downloads. This represents an excellent option if you plan to use a large number of images over the year, but I found the actual photos (they also carry clipart, sounds, illustrations and more) about average.

At BigStockPhoto.com I found the photos much more compelling and dramatic than ClipArt.com. I also like the fact that BigStockPhoto.com lets you buy only the photos you want by purchasing credits instead of paying for a membership. You can buy a single photo for $2.50, but the price per picture goes down when you buy multiple credits (10 gives you the first price break).

Whenever you buy images, carefully read the fine print in the license about how you can and cannot use the images, especially for commercial purposes. It does you no good to buy an image you can’t use. Beware of “free” clipart and photo websites, they can often display images of dubious origin. Also, free clipart sites frequently carry tons of banner and pop-up advertising (along with some more sinister spyware applications that install themselves automatically on your computer).

Regardless of why you want them, buying images online now rates much better than buying a huge clipart collection and hoping to find what you need. And, by purchasing only the pictures you need, you’ll save yourself significant time and money in the long run.

About the Author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist & creator of an amazing course that shows A Quick and Easy Way To Painlessly Set Up Your OWN Money-making ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a Computer Geek, Buying Software, or Paying A Webmaster!” Click => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com

First, some non-issues. You might think these matter, but they usually don’t.

1) You don’t like to write

I would have told you in 2004 that I hated writing. Five years of blogging later, and a couple of published books, I can tell you that I was wrong. I love to write. What I didn’t like, and thousands of successful bloggers agree, is formal writing, the type that they tried to beat into me in school! I love conversational writing, informal writing which is closer to how we speak, than what was forced on me to do in the 4th grade. Good chance you’ll find the same thing.

2) You don’t know how you’ll come up with topics

Once you start blogging, coming up with topics to blog on is rarely a problem. It’s usually the opposite — you can’t write on every topic that you want to! Most days I could blog for 12 hours. Yes, occasionally I’ll get a very minor case of writers block. Big deal! It passes quickly.

3) You’re afraid you’ll look silly or foolish (a common concern!)

As long as you have thoughts or opinions, and we all do, chances are you’ll be respected in the blogosphere. Sure, many people won’t agree with everything you write, but that doesn’t mean they won’t respect you. As long as you pick a topic you’re passionate about, i.e. you care about, you’ll be just fine.

4) You can’t write well

As long as you can be understood, it’s all right. Hey, do we make fun of brilliant Nobel Laureates who speak with a heavy accent? Not usually. And often we can’t even understand them because they’re so smart! Also remember, you’ll become a better writer as you blog. Practice does not make perfect, but it’ll make you a much better writer.

So, what are some legit reasons NOT to blog?? Here are three.

1) You’re not passionate about your topic or don’t “have a beat”

Quite simply, if you don’t care, why should anyone else? And if you’re passionate, but “don’t’ have a beat” — follow closely and think about a lot, it won’t work either. For example you might love something passionately but have little interest in discussing it or writing about it. I have a friend like that. He is as passionate as possible, but if he can’t do it right now, he doesn’t care to discuss it, read about, meditate on it, or anything else. Obviously he’s not a good candidate to blog on fly fishing, despite it being the passion of his life.

2) In your organization you can’t blog freely – your blog will be tweaked, positioned, arbitrated, massaged, or whatever term might fit by perhaps marketing, PR, or some other department which will truly be in charge of your “thoughts.”

Sorry, but that type of blog simply doesn’t work — it’s not effective. No Web 2.0 touchy-feely stuff here – it just won’t work so “just say no!”

3) You’re not willing to make a commitment of blogging for at least a few months to try it out.

It may take a while to get into the swing of things, and to start seeing results. You can’t blog for a few days and then say that it doesn’t work. They say it takes 10 years to learn to play the violin poorly. Taking lessons for a month and then quitting makes little sense for the violin, or blogging, unless of course you truly decide that you despise it!

Is blogging for you? Immediately dismiss the common non-issues above. If any of the three reasons for not blogging describe your situation, then by all means don’t blog. Otherwise, it’s certainly something every professional should consider.

About the Author:
And for over 100 tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook “Secrets of Successful Blogging” at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com. By Ted Demopoulos, author of “Blogging for Business” and “What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting“.

Twitter was founded by Evan Williams, who is no rookie to bringing creative ideas to multi-million dollar reality. Evan was a blogging pioneer and has created and grown web properties that have attracted the attention of the big dogs, including Google. One of Evan’s past web projects grew to be so huge, in fact, that Google bought him out for a multi million dollar price tag. Rather than reclining on a beach chair & sipping Coronas for the remainder of his life, Evan decided to try his hand again, when he thought up the concept of “micro-blogging.”

In all our modern day Internet hustle & bustle there’s come a need for brevity… short, to the point, yet meaningful messages.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

Evan’s idea for Twitter was a service that not only allows people to post short “micro-blog” entries (by enforcing a self-created parameter that only allows users a maximum of 140 characters per post), but also helps people stay connected through the use of followers, text messages, and @replies. The Twitter faithful are even coining their own new lingo to describe some of the everyday actions that take place on the site. “Tweets,” for example, are the term used to describe each of your short, 140 character or less, posts to update your Twitter profile.

In this article the aim is to go over a simple overview of the everyday things you’ll need to know in order to get started on Twitter & set yourself up for maximum exposure using this free service.

• First off, you’ll need to go create an account by visiting the site and following the easy to follow prompts for creating a new account.
• Once you’re all setup, be sure to visit the “Settings” tab and customize your profile and also enter a short bio, along with the URL to your website.
• In order to double the chances of getting a click, I’d also recommend including a hyperlink within your bio, in addition to the hyperlink you’ll enter in the box for your web URL.
• The next thing you’ll want to do is visit the “Devices” tab and get your account setup so that you can send tweets on the go from your mobile phone.
• The steps for confirming your mobile device to work with Twitter are easy to follow and you’ll be up and rolling in no time flat.
• Once you’ve got your new account created and have configured your settings & mobile, it’s time to start tweeting.

Remember, you’ll be limited to 140 characters per message so choose your words wisely. If you’d like to include a hyperlink with your Tweet you should consider shortening it down using a free tool like Tiny URL, or Snip URL.

Be careful not to come off as too spammy by including links in every Tweet… get involved with the Twitter community and share some of your daily activities with your followers so you can get a real feel for what it’s all about before sucking traffic out… its got to be a give-give relationship!

Now, to really get yourself on the fast track and start adding new followers fast, the best advice is to follow people who you find interesting, and single out those who already have a large following. Tweet regularly and often using your mobile, the Twitter site, and even handy third party applications like “Twhirl.”

Anytime you see a new Tweet from someone you are following send them an @reply by including the “@” sign + their Twitter username in a message responding to their original tweet.

By sending users an @reply you’ll get their attention, strike up conversations, and best of all -- put yourself in the public spotlight so that all of their followers will take notice of you.

Before you know it, you’ll be addicted to Twitter and will have a massive following as well!

Once you’ve built a following it’s easy to get visitors to your site by using services like TwitterFeed anytime you post a new blog entry, TweetLater to automatically direct message new followers, and other little known tips & tricks for putting it all on auto-pilot.

Twitter is a new revolution in communications and may be the first glimpse at Web 3.0. I recommend getting setup on Twitter today so you can ride this new wave into the future and enjoy it for all it’s worth!

To learn how you can get more targeted free traffic from Twitter on auto-pilot, visit: http://twitterhints.com/?vip=5711

About the Author
Terry Benson is a contributing member to OnlineWealthCreation.com. Helping online entrepreneurs reach their goals through proven tools and techniques followed by the Online Wealth Creation network members. To find out more visit http://www.OnlineWealthCreation.com.

Why Are Back Links So Important To The Success Of A Website?

For starters, having relevant, reputable sites linking back to a site is one indication of the success and popularity of that site in the eyes of the general online public. And as long as these incoming links are from a quality source then the website’s page rank will improve, thus improving its location within online search results, as well.

What Defines A Quality Back Link?

There really is no true definition or standard to be used in determining whether or not a site can be considered high quality – you’ll just have to use your best judgment on this, as well as a little bit of trial and error. The more popular and well-established sites will obviously be of the highest quality, though it can sometimes be difficult getting your link posted with them.

You’ll also want to consider the relevance of the websites that are providing you with back links, too. If these sites have content that is similar to yours then they are likely to be more beneficial when compared to some random, off-topic website.

About the Author
Dejan SEO specialities – search engine optimisation techniques with strong focus on growth of small and medium-sized businesses through planned exposure of products and services on the Internet.

1) Color Clashes:

The colors of a website (general rule) should be no more than three colors. Make sure that the colors do not clash with each other. Though this is sometimes artistic and unique, this kind of design is normally not appropriate. Understanding first what the rules are, and then being able to justify why they were broken to achieve a certain result, is wise.

2) Unorganized Navigation:

Navigation is the heart of every website. By the simple rule of simplicity, navigation should be as simple as possible not only for the visitors’ sake, but also for the search engines. Navigation bars are sometimes so complicated that it makes visitors scratch their heads and leave. Keeping things as simple as possible is essential for the success of all websites.

3) Inconsistent Font Faces and Sizes:

If you are making a website for children skip this part, but if you’re thinking of building a website for business, then this is often a huge issue. Font Faces and Sizes should be consistent on every page of a website. Let us say one of your headings is a Verdana size 15, then all of the headings should also be Verdana at size 15. Consistency is a very important aspect of designing a simple website. Not only does it make a website look more organized, but it also makes it look a lot cleaner, and more professionally thought out.

4) Long Sentences:

Remember that websites are created to make it easier for visitors to find and finish their goals. Scaring them by making them read endless babble does not help this process at all. Using line breaks, headings, and subtitles is an important aspect of displaying information on the web. This not only makes it easier for visitors to scan and look for the information they want, but it also promotes a better flow of information.

5) Lost Contact Info:

Contact infos are commonly located on the lower part of a website, on the navigation bar, or on the side bar. It is a common practice to insure that that the contact information is visible on every page and to all the visitors.

Requirements Writing:

All technical projects begin with a set of requirements. Basically, web design requirements are the objectives that the project must meet. When you begin your web design project, you will most likely be speaking with some type of Project Manager. That person will ask questions about your project. They are not trying to work with you to come up with a business solution, they do not wish to explore your business problems. They expect you to lay out the requirements and tell them exactly what you want. The difficulty here is that technical requirements require a certain level of technical expertise. Most laypeople don’t have the experience to properly communicate technical requirements to a technical person.

Thoroughly think through what you want to accomplish with your web design project. An offshore company won’t act as a consultant and make suggestions. They will only provide what you specifically ask for and nothing else. So you will need to do your own research, thoroughly think through your project, and write out what you want your project to accomplish.

Language Barriers:

The second problem that can arise in offshoring a web design project is the language barrier. If you are able to come up with your own your web design requirements, the next challenge is dealing with a web design project manager for whom English is a second language. Even if your Project Manager seems to be doing a good job, there are still many layers below him or her to which your project will be passed. Those people have even less understanding of the English language than your Project Manager does. In fact, your project will probably be passed off 2 or 3 more times to various people in various departments. With all that handing off, and the communication issues, the potential for problems are abound. You could end up spending countless hours of your own time doing quality assurance and still not really know what you’re going to end up with.

When considering who to go with, think about weather or not the person you’re talking to, really understands you. If you’re having trouble communicating with the web design project manager, it’s only going to get worse at the next level.

Project collaboration:

A design/development project requires a great deal of collaboration and is best done in person. If it cannot be done in person, the next best alternative is to have a very short cycle of collaboration, where the Project Manager or web designer/developer asks questions and you respond immediately. There is momentum to the discussion, followed by immediate action. When offshoring your web design project, you introduce a time delay. That delay can break all the momentum of the project. All of the stop and go can lead to 20 different broken threads or lists going back and forth and much confusion. Quick response time is imperative to project success. If there is a 24-48 hour delay in communication, it can lead to a delay in project completion as well as an increase in the budget, and the quality of the project will suffer. Plan for your project to take extra time. Start out with the assumption that the project will not be ready on time, and that you will need extra time to communicate back and forth to get it done properly. There are definite risks when working with an offshore web designer/developer.

It will mean more work for you:

• You will need to find the best business solution – An offshore designer/developer will not act as a consultant.
• You will need to do your own research and come up with the best business solution yourself.
• You will need to write your own web design requirements – You will need to plan your web design project thoroughly and communicate your plans in great detail. An offshore designer/developer will only give you what you specifically ask for.

It will require more of your time:

You will need to plan additional time to ensure that your project is done correctly. Ongoing communication as well as project completion will be delayed due to the time differences and language barriers.

The quality of your project can suffer:

Communication and cultural differences – Your designer may not understand your product or service the way you assume that they do. For example, if they don’t have private health insurance in their country, can they build a quality website that will help you sell insurance?

You don’t have any recourse if you are not happy with the results:

American laws won’t protect you if you are unhappy with your website. If you are going to spend over $1,000.00 on your web design project, then you may not want to risk going with an offshore designer/developer.

About the Author
Kevin Kielty lives in North Carolina in Raleigh. Web Design and Search Engine Marketing are his areas of expertise. He is a consultant for Internet Marketing Advantage where he utilizes his 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and web design in Raleigh NC to provide business owners with web design and Internet marketing solutions that increase their profits. His company serves clients in North Carolina and across the US. http://www.raleighseocompany.net/

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle was first reported by Enquiro (www.enquiro.com) when they published a report analysing eye scan activity during first time scans of Google search results pages. Enquiro found that when Googling, most web users concentrate their attentions on a triangular area covering the first few search results. Then if they don’t find what they want they will usually start a new search.

How does this behaviour affect us as web owners? Badly, I am afraid. Because if our site does not appear in the first few lines, we as well not exist! That is why we as web owners need to spend so much time and effort improving our search rankings.

From Triangle to F-Shape

Subsequently Jakob Nielsen did more work on how the triangle works for the average web page. The results of this research are reported in his article F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content.

He also used eye tracking technology to investigate HOW users scan a “normal” web page. (IE not a Google search results page). What he found was that most readers use an F pattern to scan a new web page for information of interest.

This has major implications to us as web owners! Because it means that if we don’t put interesting content in the first few lines – we are toast – and our web viewer will simply click away! So it behoves us to study the structure of the F-Shape and to apply the lessons of F-Shape wherever we can to each of our precious web pages.

The F shape is structured as:

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (first scan)
F
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (second scan)
F
F
F
F
F

The pattern forms a triangle if you trace its outer edges. The F-Shape formed by two horizontal lines across the page from left to right, with the top line being longer than the one below it. The vertical stripe connects the horizontal lines to complete the F-Shape.

Text that looks interesting to the reader can extend the time spent examining info on the down stripe of the F. (This is usually menu items. Thus if you do have a sub-menu in this position – keep links short and make sure your links are arranged with the most important items at the top.) It is possible that at this stage a reader can branch out outwards in a third horizontal pass, if the info is appealing enough.

Another important point is the readers do not follow the text linearly across each page. They flit to islands of text that interests them. This results in a blotchy, seemingly random reading pattern. Either way, know that they will seldom read your sentences from beginning to end, unless the information is really of interest.

What this means for your web content:

In general remember that people don’t read a lot. This is the most important content rule any web owner needs to know. So do spend time trying to REDUCE the text content of your pages. Less is always more when it comes to content.

Readability of your pages using the F-Pattern

Top of the F Shape is read first horizontally

1. Most important sentence and keywords need to be on the top line
2. The first paragraph of writing is key and will be read the most – so work hard at keeping it short and full of valuable keywords
3. The second paragraph will be read next but it will usually never be read completely
4. Use bullets and sub headings in bold and make the first few words count. (Don’t expect readers to carrying on reading. Say your piece in the first sentence – if more is read, that is a bonus)

This article is part of a series on the basics of competent web design called Web Design 101. Additional articles are added to the series at irregular intervals.
Click here to view more articles in the Website 101 series

References and further reading:

1. Enquiro
   a) Enquiro defines Google Golden Triangle
   b) Eyetracking2-Sample
   
2. Jakob Nielsen – F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
3. Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer: “Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use,” in the ACM Transactions on the Web, vol. 2, no. 1 (February 2008), article #5.

About the Author
Dr Howard Rybko has been involved with computer technology since 1984. After more than 15 years in medical software and IT infrastructure, he established Syncrony in 1999. Syncrony is focused on custom software development, website design and building of web systems based on the DotNetNuke Content Management System.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKUKQ7QqOHw

Well, here are a few:

Simple Experience: Sharepoint is integrated into email, desktop applications, and web browsers, so the experience is consistent. It makes the process of receiving, sending, and storing data simpler for a people and businesses.

Productivity: Document reviews, issue trackings, approvals, and a host of other things can be achieved through Sharepoint development without having to do any coding. Remember that the experience is simple and the applications consistent so that anyone will be able to use it.

Manage Information: A big problem in the business world today is keeping information safe yet easy to access. With sharepoint’s security settings, auditing policies, storage policies, and encryption, it is all very easily possible.

Connection: People need information and other people with expertise. Sharepoint software allows access to that information and those people.

Security: One of the most useful aspects of Sharepoint development is the ability to share business information without giving up personal or secure information. Information contained in up-to-date spreadsheets can be available to everyone (regarding certain business-related information) but things like financial models can be set as private. Not everyone needs to view or have access to those models, and the security aspects contain many features to help protect valuable information.

Access to Business Critical Information: Business intelligence portals can be created to store information in web parts, scorecards, dashboards, key performance indicators, and connectivity protocols.

Simple Integration: The sharepoint software has support for XML and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) as well as other application programming methods. This allows for seamless integration into the existing systems of the business.

Acceleration: The forms a person can create are without codes and thus accelerate the processes of gathering information from employees, clients, potential clients, and everyone in between. Date re-entry redundancies are eliminated thanks to coding for validation rules that you don’t have to manipulate.

What it Solves: The Sharepoint software solves many problems in the business world. For instance, a company’s amount of files can increase exponentially as the size of the company does. Sharepoint stores these files in one centalized site. This makes access and future storage simple. Work files are accessible to everyone who has the rights, circumventing the need to email files between workers. Teams can work together on projects from all over the world. Sharepoint will allow any person to create a site for access on the business’s intranet where they can store and use their files as they need to.

Overall, sharepoint software is necessary in the business world to help store and manage files. The stored files and information allows workers to communicate and collaborate around the world with ease. For any business, small to large, this software is almost a necessity.

About the Author
ACAP is a Custom Software Development and Advanced Web Development company with offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – Istanbul, Turkey & Mumbai, India. With our precise, time tested delivery model.

By adding video on your website to complement your written content, you’re catering to a wider audience. Some people respond better to a video message, and some messages are best expressed using video. Perhaps it is no longer about whether or not to use online video, but rather how best to harness this powerful technology for your website.

Using video in the right way

The right video can spark a debate to life, give a vivid extra dimension to your company’s personality, help explain complex issues or products, and generally help your business to expand its communication channels. The temptation for a lot of companies is to simply to put up a video version of their homepage. Perhaps get the CEO to say a few words, explain how the company was founded…and so on. However, people are unlikely to tune in to a half-hour episode about your latest widget or your quarterly sales figures. Keep your videos short, punchy and entertaining if you want to use the web to its best capabilities (i.e. – delivering short “jolts” of information).

Don’t be boring

According to web usability expert Jakob Nielsen, “broadcast video feels boring on the web”. Obviously, that’s not something to aspire to. Viewers of online video are easily distracted. Nielsen claims that many web videos are produced for TV broadcast or with those principles in mind. A talking head newscast on the television for example, does not perform well online. Make sure that your videos take full advantage of the dynamic and active nature of the Internet. Use video where it’s useful – not just because you can. Clearly, different types of website will require different forms of video content. Any web design agency you work with should understand this.

How to provide video content

You’re faced with many choices of how to deliver video for your users. You could offer clips for download via Windows Media Player. You could host and stream videos on your own site using QuickTime or RealPlayer. You could embed video code from YouTube or similar site. Each option has its benefits. All of these options now make it easier than ever to integrate video content into your website.

Using sites such as YouTube, MetaCafe and GoogleVideo can be a good PR strategy and release your content to a wider audience which hopefully generates a bit of buzz. This works best when you’re creating “virals” – distinctive little bits of footage that spread through the Internet by recommendation – like a cultural virus. This can be great for driving web traffic, and even sales.

Add value, create useful content, reap the rewards…

Of course, if your video content is badly produced, poorly integrated into your site or just plain uninspiring, it could do more damage to your site than not having it in the first place. It’s usually best to work with an established web and multimedia consultancy to ensure that your web videos hit the mark every time.

About the Author
Oliver Pluckrose is the Head of Development for Online Business Solutions UK Limited (OBS Group) – a web design agency based in London. Formed in 1998, OBS Group’s ethos has always been to provide simple, end user-driven e-commerce solutions and multimedia development services for a sensible, fixed price.

Loads of profitable websites rely on repeat visitors to account for a major amount of the traffic to their website. Visitors that come back are easier to convert into buying customers because the more they return to the website, the more like they are to already have trust in your website. The credibility of a site is critical for your website’s success. So it is always in your best interest to keep visitors returning to your website.

1. Start a forum, chat room or shout box. When you have created a forum, chat room or shout box, this creates a way of giving your visitors somewhere to voice their opinions and exchange views with like minds – they will all be visitors to you website. When conversations grow, a feeling of community will also result from this, and your visitors are extremely likely to start returning to your website almost instinctively.
2. Start a web log (blog) on your website and continually keep it updated including all of the latest news about yourself and products that may help your visitors. The general public is always curious looking for information and they are highly likely to keep their eyes constantly glued to the monitor of your website if you post fresh news consistently. You will also gain lots of trust because you are showing to them that you are also a real life person!
3. Carry out polls or surveys, which give a quick way for your visitors to show their opinions and to interact on your website. You should probably consider the idea of publishing polls or surveys that are very relevant to the specified customers of your website, so that they are kept interested enough to find out about the results to the polls, and or survey.
4. Hold puzzles, quizzes and games. Just think of the amount of office workers that are doing nothing at work from day to day, and you can imagine just how many people are likely to visit your website if you provide interesting and addictive methods of entertainment. It will also benefit you to hold competitions that will award the high score winners and keep them attempting time and time again to win the prize.
5. Update fresh content frequently. You should update your website on a frequent basis with new information that will ensure that every time your visitors return to your website, they have some new information to read on your website. As you have probably guessed, this is the most popular and most powerful method of getting visitors to return to your website. People won’t enjoy browsing a website that looks the same and never changes over the years, so be sure to keep your website updated with the latest information.

About the Author
Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an Internet marketing advisor and co founder of Top Affiliate Programs

Javascript was invented to add more exciting features to HTML pages. HTML on it’s own is pretty boring and it cannot do much besides display a webpage. Javascript programming, on the other hand, can provide a host of exciting features like perform calculations, allow the user to interact with webpages, perform form validations, manipulate elements on a webpage, provide excellent visual effects, enable dynamic functions, and so much more.

All of this provides the user to the site with an enhanced user experience. Because javascript is a client-side language, all of these features are available in real time without the browser having to refer to the server all the time. This prevents time delays and increases user satisfaction.

Let’s take a closer look at the great things you can do with javascript programming:

Perform Calculations
Javascript can be used to perform simple to advanced mathematical calculations. This is especially useful if you want your users to interact with your site by inputting some information that requires some sort of calculation and displaying the relevant content based on that result. For example, javascript can calculate a loan repayment and display the appropriate result if a user enters a required loan amount on the site. Furthermore, javascript can also tell date and time, time a certain activity, and perform intricate date and time calculations.

User Interaction
The javascript on the webpage can take interaction from a user and perform a certain function by way of events. Some of the most popular events are:

onblur
onchange
onclick
ondblclick
onfocus
onkeydown
onkeypress
onkeyup
onload
onmousedown
onmousemove
onmouseout
onmouseover
onmouseup
onselect
onsubmit

Perform Form Validations
Javascript can validate and check user input to determine whether it conforms to a certain requirement. For example, you can check if a field is left empty, if an email address is in the proper format, if a zip code code is in the proper format, etc. In most cases, if an error is made by your site visitor, an alert can display the appropriate error message to him or her.

Manipulate Elements On A Webpage
Javascript allows a user to change content or styles of a webpage upon a user interaction by way of the aforementioned events. For example, hovering over a certain text elemant can make an image appear, text on a submit button can change on submit, etc.

Provide Visual Effects
Javascript has a host of ways to provide visual effects to a webpage that other server-side programming languages cannot. A typical example of this might be some fancy image rollover buttons.

Enables Dynamic Functions
Javascript, together with AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML), can be used to create dynamic applications. One example of this is to load dynamic content onto a webpage without refreshing the page.

About the Author
Susan Lang is a web developer who also teaches people how to use javascript on their sites. You are welcome to access free javascript training tutorials on: http://www.toknowmore.net/e/1/javascript/

In order to be successful in the marketplace it is essential that financial businesses market themselves; and to effectively achieve this proves vital to establishing strong customer relationships. With the increasing numbers of individuals using the Internet it is essential that your business have an effective web presence. Not only is it possible to reach a wide number of consumers but it takes you beyond geographical boundaries.

There are a range of effective Web 2.0 applications available which are both cost-effective and simple to use, meaning smaller businesses can improve their chances of competing in the marketplace by standing out from the crowd. Due to their social nature they are a great way for communicating with customers and helping to create strong relations.

Essentially, Web 2.0 refers to various software applications and services, such as blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites. They have helped to evolve the way consumers shop, with the end result being that the power is increasingly in the consumer’s hands. It is essential as a business that you make use of tools like reviews and ratings to harness the trust and confidence of your customers. If done effectively, you will be able to both successfully promote your business and create strong brand credibility.

A cost-effective and simple application to try is blogging. In fact, with many free to set up, they are ideal for establishing a dialogue with existing and potential customers. They should be used to encourage customer feedback and participation, rather than to actively sell, as more often than not, such a tactic will only put customers off. Using an existing online marketplace to set up a shop is an easy way to take advantage of many of the features discussed.

Before you start using Web 2.0 tactics, it is worthwhile to work out exactly what you want to achieve, as well as understand how your customers use the Internet. In this way, you will be able to ascertain which applications are relevant. Of course, small business marketing can be hard work which is inevitable for any business operating in the marketplace. But with the right knowledge and tools… it is possible to reap incredibly lucrative rewards.

About the Author
Bian Salins is the Managing Editor of BT Tradespace – an online community where businesses can advertise and sell products & services and everyone has the opportunity to shop, chat and share their opinion.

In this case, we will focus more on building links. Among the three types of link building technique, exchanging links with other related sites is the most effective and the most popular. Link exchange is also the most cost effective, the reason why it is most popular. Although one down side is that, it may affect your site’s credibility in case you have links going out to other mediocre web sites. Link exchange is most effective when it is done carefully. Your link partner web site must be related to your theme and the links coming from that web site must have a reasonable tenure online.

It will be more advantageous if the web site is popular and not banned by search engines. Furthermore, links pointing back to your site must not exceed three clicks away. When these techniques are done carefully, then be assured that your site will benefit a lot from link exchange. One way link building is the most costly of the three. However, you can enroll for a quality links manager to boost your search engine rankings through quality back links. This method is not too expensive but you get so much more in return.

This link building service assures to link to your web page from multiple web sites across a wide range of IP addresses that target the exact keywords you want to rank for. Three way link building is quite a tedious process since there will be three domain names which will participate to get one way link to each other. But if you are practical, there are link building services in the market whose services you can tap. They perform link building automatically so you won’t need to do much in link building. Aside from that, they can also create deep links to a few of your inner pages.

Search engines will find and index your web site if you provide the exact anchor text and description within your pages. Search engine rankings are said to make a good improvement using one way links. However, link building should not be too expensive. The assistance of dependable experts in link building will surely relieve you from the tasking job of link management. The process of building links can save you tons of money from pay per clicks and other marketing methods. Supported by quality guidelines and services in building links will definitely bring in great results to your online business.

Therefore, do not hesitate to invest some money. The expense will be negligible when you start reaping the seeds of your success.

About the Author
The author of this article Menno Spijkstrais an Internet Marketing specialist who has been successful with many affiliate programs for years. Menno finally decided to share his knowledge and experience through his site http://www.affiliatedistrict.com/. You can sign up for his free newsletter and join his coaching program.

What is RSS?

What are the benefits of RSS?
RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

1. It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a website, you can learn about the latest information just as soon as it comes out.

2. It saves on surfing time. Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user time by helping he/she decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.

3. It gives the power of subscription to the user. Users are given a free choice on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators, which they can change at any time they decide.

4. It lessens the clutter in your inbox. Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.

5. It is spam free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.

6. Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why he/she is unsubscribing, and then the user would be asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.

7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool. Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending spam mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the drawbacks of RSS?
The disadvantages of RSS use are brought about by its being a new technology and some user-preference concerns.

1. Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.

2. Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds. For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators.

3. The identity of the source website can be confusing. Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.

4. Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.

5. RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server. Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.

6. Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How do I start using RSS?
There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a list of RSS feeds of different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program also known as desktop aggregator and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free of charge. All you need to do is to register an account then you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize or choose which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

RSS and Internet Marketing
The original idea of RSS came from Netscape, where their intention was to provide a means for users to customize their personal homepage to contain links to websites that interest them, similar to bookmarking websites.

The application of RSS to internet marketing was an unforeseen development to RSS technology developers. Since users are given the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available in the internet can now be notified in real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.

Those who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN) for medium to big-scale companies. Small-time industries can also look into networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. a fishing supplies store can look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in information management in the worldwide web as well as online marketing. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.

By Peter Lau
Website www.simplyrichsg.com/fc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=awUvEZNDHkQ