Web Development Articles

Pick Up Your Own Domain Name
 by: Oleg Lazarenko

Think up a name and check if yourname.com is available. Personally, I like to use http://www.whois.com to check if a domain name is available. You may also check the registrant contact information using “whois” service if you want to negotiate about purchasing the domain you like from people who registered it first.

To register domain name for our customers we use:

http://www.godaddy.com

We are not affiliates with Godaddy in any way, but I think this is the best online company which provides this service. Their rates are low and you will have 24 hours access to your control panel to change the domain name information in case your office moves or phone number changes. This is very convenient.

If you can’t get that exact name as a dot-com, choose another name. Your site title MUST be the same as your domain name. People won’t remember your domain name, but they will remember your site title if they choose to add your website to their favorites. It will also help to provide better place in Google listings. There are several rules to follow when you choose the domain name:

ClickBank is the Internet’s most popular payment processor for online payments but with many rivals appearing on the scene is ClickBank’s popularity drawing to an end?

ClickBank allows website owners to accept credit and debit card payments online and then deliver the products to their customers instantly. Since August 2005, ClickBank has integrated with PayPal so that people who either do not have a credit or debit card or choose not to use their cards online, can now pay using funds from their PayPal account instead.

This has lead to an increase in sales for merchants who use ClickBank as their payment processor. This is obviously a welcome feature by web site owners, including myself and affiliates.

Website owners who want to use ClickBank as a payment processor are required to pay a one off joining fee of $49.

With an instant affiliate program built in to ClickBank it makes the $49 fee very acceptable but the affiliate program has always lacked features that one would expect to come as standard. The main problem is that web site owners have no way of knowing when someone becomes an affiliate of their product. This is a real shame because a strong relationship between affiliate and web site owners is very important. Being able to communicate with affiliates can help both the affiliate and web site owner. Because of the short comings of ClickBank’s built in affiliate program it has lead to many new software programs and scripts to the market to address this issue.

What Are My Chances To Get The First Place In Search Engine Listings?
 by: Oleg Lazarenko

You must have heard the stories how people became rich and famous with their websites. How could they achieve this? Their websites took a first position in search engine listings targeting popular keywords. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! To be honest, chances for a regular small business website to get to the top of the search engine listings are close to zero and each day they become smaller and smaller as a number of new and old websites grows.

Let’s examine the situation from the beginning. Search engines just need your content to deliver it to searchers. If a searcher is happy with the search result from the particular search engine, he will come back and use this search engine again. Do not think that search engines serve to send customers to your website. They DO NOT CARE about your website or your business. All they need is content.

Linux web hosting is so named, based on the operating system on which the web server software, database, and coding conventions reside. The functionality and robust nature of Linux has definitely made it a very viable alternative to Microsoft and Unix-based operating systems. Linux is now recognized worldwide as an enduring network, file/print, and web server operating system. Endearingly called a LAMP server, the Linux web hosting model is based on the server having a LINUX operating system, an APACHE web server application, a MYSQL database, and a PHP server markup coding application. As time has proven, the Linux/LAMP server continues to be a strong option to reliably serving web pages and running web-based applications. Per netcraft.com, “?Apache continued to take market share from Microsoft servers?” during a March 2005 web server survey of 60 million web sites.

==| Advantages: |==

The advantages of Linux-based web hosting surround the premises of reliability, security, functionality, and price.

In the case of reliability, there have been documented cases of Linux servers running for one year without technical difficulty or downtime! This is amazing, considering the fact that web hosting servers with Microsoft operating systems are notorious for needing scheduled reboots to refresh system resources.

The importance of choosing your website keywords carefully is very high. The reason for this is many search engines rely on keywords, at least partially, to help determine the rank of your web page when certain keywords are searched for. As a result, you want to make sure you know how to utilize keywords properly so that you get the most benefit from this wonderful tool. However, if you do not know what you are doing keywords can work against you, so make sure you know exactly what you are looking for and what you need to optimize the text on your website in order to increase traffic because due to keyword inclusion.

-Keywords Can Work for You

Keyword phrases can work for you as long as you know how to use them properly. For example, if you do some research and determine the most important keywords for your market and then utilize them and dedicate copy to different sets of keywords, it can dramatically increase the traffic your site receives. Be sure to include the keywords in titles and the beginnings of paragraphs and you will be more successful than if you do not. Lay out a well designed plan for using the keyword phrases most important to the niche your website is about.

I would like to explain a few things related to expired domains in a definition format, which should make it easy to understand.

What are expired domains?
Expired domains are domain names that have been registered and the owner has failed to pay to keep the domain. (Many people think that they purchase a domain, but it is more like an exclusive lease. As long as you continue to pay renewal fees, you are the only person that can use this domain.)

What is a typein domain name?
A typein domain is a domain that people often would type into their internet browser. There are two types of typein domains. The first is generic domains, which are generally, generic common words or phrases, people, places, or names (first or last). The second type of typein domain are typo domains. Typo domains are domains that were accidentally typed (mispelled) into the web browser, when a surfer is looking for a website.

What is the wayback archive?
Use the Wayback archive to see how a domain looked in the past, weather it was a developed website, what it was used for, what products were sold there, or what information was provided.

The Art Of Link Exchange
 by: Oleg Lazarenko

Before you start reading this article I must warn you - everything that was written here is my own experience in link exchange. This article should not be referred to as official advice or proven techniques. I only want to share the experience of the helpful methods I used.

When you started your website you probably knew that two major factors play the biggest role in search engine placement: links and content.

1. The first recommended way to get links is to develop useful, unique and original content. Webmasters who visit your website will see that content is good and will link to your website to provide their visitors with some useful websites(info maybe?). If you searched Internet for some information, then you know how hard it can be to find a useful website.

2. Link exchange with other websites. There are two ways you can exchange links:

a) One page links - you place a link on one page and the other website places a link to your website

b) Site wide links - you place a link on all pages of your website

Building a website that is exactly what you want and has all of the components you believe will impress customers is not easy. Your website needs to make searching and buying as easy as possible for your visitors and sometimes it is best to seek help on your website design. You may want to seek out a professional web design company to help you design your web pages so you can get started online. However, web design companies are notorious for quoting one thing and billing something significantly higher. What you need to do is know how you can avoid getting ripped off before you ever do so you can avoid the situation if at all possible. Read the following suggestions to help you avoid getting ripped off.

Tip #1 - Details

A very important thing you need to do when it comes to hiring a web design company is to lay out all of the important details. Even though your website has not been designed yet, you need to have a plan of exactly what you want your site to do and make note of any important details that you want completed. Once you know exactly what you want, your web design company will better be able to give you a quote.

Make Your Own Brand!
 by: Oleg Lazarenko

There are millions and millions of websites on the Internet. You NEED to be different in some way from all of them! If you could get a visitor to your website, that means nothing. Only returning visitors must be counted. When they return the second time, “branding” starts to occur. Huge companies advertise not because they want to provide you with information about their product. They do that because they’re trying to “brand” its name and image. Actually, it is the brand you are paying the money for when you buy something from “Adidas”, “Nike” or “Coca-cola”. People will actually be willing to pay for the brand they know, so make it as bright and memorable as possible. However, it is useful to remember that too complex logo will definitely slip out of peoples’ minds.

Successful Commercial Sites
 by: Oleg Lazarenko

Do you make your website just to entertain yourself or do you want it to be a great web store? The fact is more than 80% of websites are trying to sell you something. There is nothing wrong if you want to get some money from the website you made, but remember to put some REALLY interesting information on your pages. This information must be free, unique and necessary to as many people as possible.

Remember, Internet was built as a research network among universities in early 80’s and only after the introduction of first graphic compatible browsers it exploded with the commercial websites. Search engine will definitely rank you higher for that free content and other webmasters will definitely create links to your website if it has useful and interesting information. The ratio should be 90% of free information and 10% of commercial content. You can only increase the percentage of free information.

There are also other reasons why to provide people with free information in the field you are making money: they will study, they will see that you know what you are talking about, and they will trust you! Excellent reputation is the main thing (the key to success) in doing Internet business. It must be built by years of hard work and could be destroyed in minutes.