Web Development Articles

Are you looking to create the perfect website? A complete novice when it comes to HTML, CGI, FTP and all the other associated pieces that make up the website puzzle, then this article is definitely for you.

By following the 5 guidelines listed below you are guaranteed to create the perfect website.

1. Plan your website

Creating a plan of your website will help you identify the purpose of your website and will also help you to see how many pages you will require. You should then research similar sites to see how they appeal to their target audience. You should also make a list of the tools that you will require, for example do you intend to have a guestbook, a message board, a chat room, a web journal or blog. How often do you intend to update your site? Are you going to sell products from your site?

By answering all of the above questions you will have a very clear perception of what your website will be about and what you will need to get it up and running. You can then move on to step 2.

2. Finding the right hosting service

In a previous ezinearticles.com article,”I Need real visitors, Not Search Spiders” we discussed the need for content. Well written, insightful, informative content will bring your readers/customers in and keep them on your site Long enough to hear about your products or read about the event you are sponsoring. What ever the object of your desire is content holds the key.

In that article the spiders were the object of our desire. My quote “… almost any written content will give you untold opportunities to flood the spiders data bank with keywords and phrases. Not just 10 words or 30 words but hundreds of keywords and phrases.” Today I want to discuss the other reasons for fresh content. In a recent article on his How to Blog for Fun & Profit blog, T.L. Pakii Pierce lays out what he calls “The Four Pillars of Effective Blogs” T.L. wrote;

“You cannot create a success blog without compelling content. Compelling blog content is not a compelling sales message. It is much better to create compelling conversation that wins a relationship than to try to leverage your blog for an opportunity to deliver a compelling sales pitch. Looking for the sales pitch opportunity is much to short-sighted and usually ends up with you shorting yourself by not delivering valuable information that can boost your business in the mind of your audience.”

In this article we are going to look at the thought process you should go thru to choose your domain name.

First of all let’s define what a domain name is.

A unique name that represents each computer on the Internet. (Some machines do have more than one domain name.) The DNS converts the domain name requested by an Internet user into an IP address.

The Domain Name System (DNS) helps users to find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address ? just like a telephone number ? which is a rather complicated string of numbers. It is called its “IP address” (IP stands for “Internet Protocol”).

But it is hard to remember everyone’s IP address. The DNS makes it easier by allowing a familiar string of letters (the “domain name”) to be used instead of the arcane IP address. So instead of typing 64.65.51.245 , you can type www.team-schuman.com. It is a “mnemonic” device that makes addresses easier to remember.

So what makes the best internet domain name?

A while ago one of my clients approached me and mentioned that they were experiencing a serious problem with customer registrations (obtaining customer names and e-mail addresses), on their web site. They still had a lot of traffic, but were finding that the ratio between traffic and registrations had been dropping steadily.

H’mm, click-thru conversion rate I immediately thought, being the clever fellow I am. Or…, maybe product description? Or…, benefits?

Now a little step back: The product this company sells is very popular, especially within the higher middle income bracket and above, in this country. The company decided to also start selling this product on-line a year ago and the web site immediately attracted considerable traffic from inception. The subscription rate was never really a problem as everyone wanted to know when new product ranges were to be released. The Marketing Director was also always very careful to follow the basic rules of internet marketing.

So what had gone wrong ?

Back to the present: I decided to have a quick look at the web site before meeting with the Marketing Director. O, dear: Horror upon horror. The company had gone and changed the copy on the site.

Customers will form an opinion of your business as soon as they look at your website. Therefore the same basic rules apply that you use in the production of your brochure and your business card - It needs to grab attention, be easy to read, have a benefit statement, be friendly and make a statement about your business.

More and more potential customers will look at your website to find out more about your product or service or even to place an order. Here are some further points:

#1 Keep it updated - all information, prices and technical details needs to be kept right up to date

#2 Easy to understand - just like your brochure, your customers need to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily

#3 Not cluttered - some websites try to convey too much information and people just “click off” Remember the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid.

#4 Don’t get too clever - no fancy fonts and flashing lights. People are fed up with sites that try to be too clever. They’re designed by people who want to show how clever they are and who aren’t really thinking about the customer

One of the things that Internet excels is disseminating information and knowledge across many brains and continents. In this global economy the aspirations of the younger generation is not bounded by countries or continents. They aspire to join the best universities or train to be part of great global business entities. The demand for these has become so high that aspirations are just the start but a lot of planning and taking courses is involved. For folks whose aspirations are quenched by local universities it is relatively easy as they can easily form study groups or circles. For the rest whose aspirations don’t suit the popular trend in their current physical locality they don’t have access to study circles. For these folks Internet is the main and sometimes the only tool available. There are many great Internet companies that cater to the needs of the folks. But this market is nascent and is evolving. This article provides a snapshot of what is offered by some of the popular online websites which would be really helpful for new comers who want to help for the countless dedicated niche areas.

You’re not alone! Many people are bound to the old web host they’ve used for years because they’re afraid of the hassle of switching. Customers will pay rates three or four or even ten times greater than what they have to, just because they’re terrified that switching will be too complicated or that they’ll end up losing their site altogether.

New customers just coming online and setting up sites for the first time may automatically assume that expensive prices and brand names, such as Yahoo or MSN or MasterCard automatically mean better service.

Think again!

While you should never base your hosting choice on price alone, you should certainly make your return on investment a priority. You can easily find plenty of space for your site with all of the features you need (and many you don’t) for less than $10 per month ? with discounts for paying quarterly or yearly.

So what should you look for when choosing a hosting company?

SPACE: Most websites use less than 100 megs of space. Unless you’re planning to build a large community or upload entire albums of photos, 50 - 100 megs is probably plenty. Start there - you should be able to upgrade at no additional charge should you need more.

1. To find out what type of content visitors want to see on your web site. This should increase repeat visits to your site.

2. To find out how to improve existing products or services. This will attract new customers.

3. To find out which products or services your customers would like to see you sell in the future. This will increase your back end product sales.

4. To find out how to improve your customer service. This will cut down on customer complaints.

5. To find out how to improve your sales letters or ads. This will increase your sales, traffic or ezine subscribers.

6. To find out what kind of articles or interviews they want to see in your e-zine. This will increase your e-zine’s readership.

7. To find out how to design your web site to fit your visitors needs and wants. This will increase the time your visitors spend on your web site.

8. To find out what kind of non-related products or services your customers would buy. This will help your business easily move into a different market.

STEP 1:Do your homework

Plan and think about your content. Think big, have a vision of at least a 100 page site. The pages should have “real content”, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright… etc pages.

STEP 2:Buy Domain name:

Invest in an easily brandable domain. You may want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains will go no where, whereas branding and name recognition are the in thing. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to Search Engines. Get them

STEP 3:Site Design:

As a rule of the thumb: develop for MS Internet Explorer. As for text content, it should out weigh the html content. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring.

Use less of these heavy stuff: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for javascripts is just one of them).

Alternate medicine finds its own place in the hearts and minds worldwide and has a separate following to back its existence. There are many subcategories that could be added to the modern and alternate medicine website directories. Although the list below is not exhaustive it is a good start. After looking at multiple directories in the web that just places everything into one big category "health related websites". I thought it’s time to present some categories in this vibrant segment of the web; there are lot’s of websites in this category which need a separate home in the directories. Even in the High PR and traffic rich directories finding the right websites gets tough by browsing the whole category. For your reference a single line definition obtained from wikipedia is placed under each category.

? Acupuncture - a therapeutic technique intended to promote health and well-being, which involves the insertion of needles into “acupuncture points” on the body by trained practitioners.

? Alexander technique - a study of freeing response that is taught by studying one’s own mannerisms of posture.