Web Development Articles

With so many different configurations internet users have their computers set up with, it can be difficult to decide how web sites should be configured so that it is viewable in as many configurations as possible.

So in the last 6 months i have been logging the statistics from my web design site to achieve as accurate a result as possible to answer this question.

The results are interesting reading and in my next few articles i will be analysing this data. First is browsers, and here are the

general statistics :

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and above - 49%
Firefox 1.0 and above - 34%
Apple Safari - 15%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 - 1%
Macintosh Camino - 1%

One of the things this shows is that Internet users do in the whole upgrade their internet browsers to the newest version. Only a low percent are infact below the newest version.

It also shows that the foothold Microsoft gained in the browser wars is failing. No doubt they will once again gain ground next year with the eagerly awaited new operating system codename longhorn.

Google AdSense - A Massive And Passive Income?
 by: Emma Kalson

You may have seen “sponsored by Gooooogle” on many websites that you’ve looked at. This is Google AdSense - a simple way for website owners to display Google Ads on their website and earn money for each advert clicked on. Ads are targetted to the content of the page they are displayed on, so visitors to your page are more likely to want to follow those adverts. You can also use Google Search linked into Adsense on your site, so when a visitor carries out a search, search-related ads are also shown.

Obviously the best way to make money from AdSense is to have a site with lots of content. And you’re looking at the best method right now! Free reprint article directories such as this one are a fantastic source of fresh content for your website, and simple to insert. Just a few articles a week soon builds up into a huge targetted-content website.

Advantages:

(1) Adverts are targetted to each page so you know the adverts will be related to your content.

(2) You make money per advert clicked on.

E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in the sales/distribution chain. The mark-ups that occur between manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and consumers can add the cost of goods purchased by consumers. In contrast, when consumers deal directly with manufacturers on the internet, the process whereby intermediaries between the manufacturer and the final consumer are eliminated from the supply chain is known as “disintermediation”.

E-commerce differs from mail order and telephone solicitation, the two most traditional forms of business using remote sellers, because these involve the delivery of goods by common carrier to and from a specific physical location. In short, there is still a physical delivery of property from an identifiable seller to an identifiable buyer. E-commerce presents an unprecedented challenge to federal and state tax authorities. States and local jurisdictions have wrestled with the issue of collecting taxes from out-of-state mail order sellers and telephone solicitors for decades; e-commerce enables almost any business large or small to sell to customers in different states and countries.

Gone in 10 seconds
 by: Florie Lyn Masarate

The readers, that is. This would be their reaction 10 seconds after coming into your site and having an initial look at it. It is a known for a fact that people have the tendency to switch to another site when they are required to click on their mouse more than is necessary. It is also a fact that the people who go into sites are the ones on the rush to get the quickest information they can get their hands into. They do not have all the time in the world opening flashes and even getting rid of banners. To summarize all this, readers would be gone in a matter of 10 seconds from the time they see your site.

This is the reason the main pages of your site is one of the most important thing for a site to have. The rule states that they should be straight to the point, easy to navigate and do not have bandwidth. It is necessary for web sites to get the message through quicker than 10 seconds or the readers will be off and clicking on an other site.

Unarguably, the most important part of your website is content. To draw in clients or customers, you need captivating content and search engines are blind to web design. They only see content. The images, structure and colors of your website go out the window when it comes to search engine placement, which we all know is the single best traffic generator. Your web design is really only a shell that makes your content look pretty. Don’t get me wrong, your site’s design can be very important. People are influenced by colors they see, and the quality of your design lends credibility to your brand-image.

So why are so many people spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for someone to build them a custom shell for their content? The answer is simple: because they don’t know about web site templates. Or maybe more accurately: they know about templates, but don’t know how to utilize them. Did you know that many web designers actually buy web site templates that they then customize to meet their clients needs?

Why Use Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting
 by: Chet Holcomb

Most webmasters on the net today are familiar with what the industry calls “shared” web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared among many other users.

This is a cheap way to get started online but it has many disadvantages - you will encounter email delivery problems because of spam complaints against other sites on the same server. You will find your site’s grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on your server. You might even find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against someone else hosting hacking or piracy related material on your server (these type of sites attract antisocial elements!)

How can you avoid all of this drama?

By upgrading to a virtual dedicated server. A virtual dedicated server lets you run your sites as if you had your own “dedicated” server, except it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.

There is a lot of confusion about the use of hyphens being used in domain names. While researching hyphenated domain names I found a lot of conflicting information so I will give you a distilled view of what is currently believed to be the facts regarding hyphens in domains.

When I started Name Search Domain I had a lot of trouble finding a domain that I could use to reflect the topic of my site. After quite a bit of research I decided on NameSearchDomain.com, without hyphens.

It used to be the case that using a hyphen to separate keywords in your domain name would give you a better ranking in the search engines. For a while this was the case but due to the over zealous use of keywords in domain names, search engines now consider this as a spamming technique. Using hyphens in your domain name still makes it easier for search engines to read but it generally will not benefit your ranking.

On Site Content Maintenance
 by: Florie Lyn Masarate

One of the most common problems being encountered by site owners is what they call writer’s blog. To exemplify more, this basically means the need to produce great content day after day to be put into their web sites. Not all people have the capacity to write about things everyday. Even the best of the best writers have the tendency to “blocked out” every so often. For those who are prone to these common problems, there are some techniques you need to know about that have worked quite well for some.

Pick a topic that interests you. As with all aspects of everyday life, anything that triggers your interest is a thing worth putting some time and attention into. You find that it is quite enjoyable doing them if you see it caters to your liking. But if not, the task seems heavier and takes too long to do. This is the same with writing contents for sites. Look for an interesting topic and take it from there. Try blogs. The advantage of this is the length of the writing does not matter. Writing a paragraph or two is legal as long as it is of interest, then why not.

When looking for a Web Host there are lots of factors that come into play. Usually the deciding factors are price and bandwidth. A common overlooked item is the uptime guarantee. This is the percentage of time your account will be up and running

What do these numbers really mean?

If we look at these percentages and convert them into the amount of time your site is going to be down we get some very telling information. The chart below lists the uptime gurantee percentage and how that equates to time.

99% - 5256 Min/Yr or 87.6 Hours/Yr ? 438 Min/Month or 7.3 Hours/Month

99.5% - 2628 Min/Yr or 43.8 Hours/Yr ? 219 Min/Month or 3.65 Hours/Month

99.9% - 525.6 Min/Yr or 8.76 Hours/Yr ? 43.8 Min/Month or .73 Hours/Month

99.95% - 262.8 Min/Yr or 4.38 Hours/Yr ? 21.9 Min/Month or .365 Hours/Month

99.99% - 52.56 Min/Yr or .876 Hours/Yr ? 4.38 Min/Month or .073 Hours/Month

The Psychology of Color

Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.

1) The psychological effect of colors,

2) The effect on the readability of your site, and

3) The complementary choice of colors for your background, graphics, links, and text

These are all areas that must be well satisfied to create an effective and professional web site.

Listed below are a few characteristics of color that should always be considered when designing your graphics.

* Colors have an effect on our emotions within 90 seconds of viewing.

* Color choices can motivate, impress, and persuade your prospect to buy from you.

* Colors not only intensify the item, they greatly influence our behavior.

* The effects of color differ among different cultures.

* Color choices alone are sending a specific message to your viewers.

Given the fact that people respond more to non-verbal cues than verbal cues, it’s all-important that you choose the corresponding colors for the emotional trigger you want to trip. The following colors are associated with certain emotions or qualities in North American culture.