2 Free icon set

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Free web development icon set #1a
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What’s in a name?

Posted by rimel - 19/07/07 at 01:07:44 pm

A good site title… Having a good title for your is one of the most important features that it should have before you think of putting on other things in there.

Having a good title for your web site is one of the most important features that it should have before you think of putting on other things in there. As with all things, it should have a name that will become its identity. What’s in a name? They are the identity that the readers will connect it to, what the site is all about and from there; base the conclusion of what kind of person you are.

Choosing a name that is boring makes the people decide that your site will be boring and probably would not attempt visiting them. A mysterious or interesting name is likely to arouse their curiosity. Whether they want it or not, they will be forced to visit that site and see more to satisfy their aroused interest. Giving your site a name that leaves a lot to the imagination what the readers what it is about and will try to visit them to find out for sure.

Do not give your site names that seem to plain, like “My Site�, if you do not want to be on the next hall of shame. Some of the styles that web site owners use names that are not even related to what they are trying to say. But a once person have read through, a bit of a connection is seen and makes them finally realize that they get it or that they have given in to the catchy title and been forcibly visited that site.

Another strategy is to use words that are descriptive. For those who do not have any ounce of descriptive talent in their bones, meet thesaurus. If you already have a name that sounds more or less too plain and boring for your site, look up unusual or not-so-used words that basically means the same, then try making a play on them to make them quite unique. The thing is to make the readers notice you by your title alone. Then make up for it later in the contents.

Naming your web site anything is the choice you alone can make. After, that is your site. If you have chosen the title that makes you fell quite good about and thinks that it suits you just fine, and then go for it. There is no need to consult experts regarding this thing. Do not be intimidated when people tell you it is wrong. It is not their site, anyway.

For Automated Sites - PHP and MySQL are A Perfect Match

Posted by rimel - 19/07/07 at 01:07:33 pm

You’ve decided to automate your web site. Now what? Here are some ideas to help you choose how to automate your site.

A bit of programming is going to be necessary if you want to automate a site. There are many types of programs that can be used to automate a web JavaScript, PHP, Perl, ASP, Java and more. So, which do you use? For many, it is a personal choice.

I prefer PHP for programming. PHP is a particularly useful programming language because it allows for advanced programming and is easy to integrate with web pages. Another plus of PHP is that the language interfaces very well with MySQL, a popular type of online database.

Yet another plus of PHP is that it is Open Source Code. The actual code that is PHP is available to the public for free, while the source code for products such as ASP are not. Because PHP is open source, there is a large community of PHP programmers that help each other with code. This means PHP programmers can rely on each other by using reusable pieces of code called functions and classes rather than constantly reinventing the wheel. This can dramatically cut down on production time.

Overall, PHP is flexible, cheaper than many alternatives, and built around a community. PHP and MySQL are excellent choice for webmasters looking to automate their web sites.

What Can PHP and MySQL do for me? Just about anything you can think of. That is the beauty of custom programming. A few ideas of what you can do with a PHP and MySQL driven site include:

1. E-commerce
2. User Polls
3. Keyword Tracking
4. Set User Preferences
5. Manage Password Protected Member’s Areas
6. Lead Follow Up
7. Customer Relations
8. Content Management
9. Email Newsletters
10. Accounting
11. Invoicing
12. Scheduled Updates

The list is limited only by your imagination. Once you have decided to go with a PHP and MySQL site, you can either get a custom program created, use a prepackaged version or a combination of both. Many PHP and MySQL programs that come prepackaged are easy to customize and can save you a lot of time and money over starting from the ground up.

Benefits of Web Site Templates

Posted by rimel - 19/07/07 at 01:07:47 pm

Okay, you are ready to join the masses and put up a web site. You’ve put a lot of thought into the design and are ready to go. Perhaps you should give more thought to using a web site template.

Web Site Templates

For many people, it makes more sense to use a pre-designed web template instead of creating a site from scratch. Using a pre-designed site template allows you to get a professional design at a fraction of the price a custom design would cost. A good template is automated or has HTML tags to show you exactly where to put your text. This saves you precious time. Also, a web page designed by someone just learning HTML is more likely to have mistakes than one designed and tested by professionals. Mistakes in web site code can prevent some users from being able to see a web page or can even cause lower search engine rankings.

There are millions of web sites on the Internet and there are more being born every second. Even though there may be more than one web site using the pre-designed site template you choose, the likelihood of a visitor seeing both sites is not great. Every site is unique in the data it presents. Web templates present data quickly and professionally without the hassle of designing anything.

Being that many web templates are under $50 and many custom site designs are well over $5000, it is easy to see how web templates can save money and time. Web templates are a good way for someone to learn HTML. By becoming familiar with code that has been written professionally, a webmaster can pick up on things along the way. Instead of having an amateur web site at the start, an HTML novice can have a professional site from the beginning with a pre-designed site template.

Search Engines also play a factor in choosing web templates. Sites with HTML mistakes do not fair well in search engines. Particularly in older versions of Netscape, forgetting one

tag can mean the whole page won’t show. A good web template has been designed and tested in many environments, to W3C standards, for maximum compatibility. Instead of thrashing your way through mistakes, take advantage of competent template designs.

If you are just starting out, a web site template is almost always the way to go. There are thousands of sites offering them for sale for very low prices. Why waste your time when you can use a template to get off to a quick, professional start?

What an Automated Web Site Can Do for Your Business

Posted by rimel - 19/07/07 at 01:07:44 pm

For e-commerce, you need to make good use of your time. Automating your web site is one way to make the hours count.

As your Internet business grows, your free time will dwindle. Site changes will become time consuming and stressful. Automate your site and you can use your time for better purposes.

Automating

Automating a web site can cut out tedious tasks such as updating HTML, FTPing pages and changing site designs. Advanced automated web sites can send follow-up emails, send out newsletters, manage sales, do invoicing, track users visits and more. There is practically no function that can’t be accomplished.

There are many different types of automated web sites. Typically, the platforms break down into two categories, prepackaged or made to order. Automated web sites can range in complexity from simply using server side includes to full database driven sites. Server side includes are little snippets of code that allow content from one file to show on many pages. A database driven site, on the other hand, pulls content from an online database.

Web site information stored in an online database can be quickly and seamlessly inserted into many different types of templates. This becomes a huge time saver when you need to make a universal change to a web site. Depending on the system, the change can be made as a snippet of code or input directly into the database. Once entered, the regenerated site will carry the changes throughout the pages. In contrast, a non-automated site would require you to make changes to each individual page, a time wasting task. Let’s look at any example.

Assume you have a database driven, automated site. After testing the site, you discover the font appears very small in certain common monitor settings. Making an executive decision, you decide to change it throughout the site. With a manual system, you must pull up each page file for the site and change the html. If your site has 100 pages, you better break out the coffee! If your site is automated, however, you can simply address the font change in the database ONE TIME and generate the changes on all the pages. We are talking about saving days of your time.

If you are creating a site, make sure you use an automated platform. Don’t waste days of your life making manual changes.

Advantages of an Online Site Builder

Posted by rimel - 19/07/07 at 01:07:19 pm

When building a site, you have a lot of platform options. This article discusses the merit of online versus offline site builders.

There are numerous choices when it comes to building web sites. One of the first choices you will have to make is whether to use an online or offline site builder.

Site Builders

Site builders can be divided into two categories, online and offline. An online site builder creates a web site with web forms over the Internet. With an online site builder, there is no need to install any special software. You only need an Internet browser.

An offline site builder is a program that you install on a computer from a disc or a download. This type of site builder requires that a site is first built on the computer with the software, then uploaded, often with a separate piece of software.

Location, Location, Location

A good online site builder has several advantages over an offline site builder. For starters, and online site builder is always there regardless of where you are accessing the Internet. You can easily work with it from home, the office or on the road. With an offline builder, you need to be on the Internet, have the builder software installed and usually have a separate FTP program installed. From this perspective, an online site builder is clearly the better choice.

Users – Get Off My Cloud

In selecting a builder, one should keep in mind the number of people who will be working on the site. If there are more than two, chaos can ensue with an offline builder. Building a site requires some tedious work. Nothing is more frustrating than uploading changes only to discover you were updating a version of the page that subsequently has been updated by others working on the site. Many a new cussword has been created in such instances.

An online site builder almost always allows for multiple users and, by definition, always contains the updated version of pages. This simple aspect limits confusion and helps avoid duplication of work. Admittedly, it cuts down on the creation of new cusswords, but we must all sacrifice something.

Other Advantages:

1. Online site builders often use databases to store web site information rather than separate files for every page. This makes web sites much more scalable in the long run and allows for different sorting techniques.

2. Good online site builders will also be backed-up on a daily basis, so your work is always double protected. Not all online site builders provide backups, so make sure the site builder you choose does.

3. Online site builders also generally offer a selection of templates to use that make it a lot easier to build sites. Instead of having to create the entire site, many online site builders allow you to focus solely on the content of your site and do not require you to learn HTML.

Online site builders are usually easy to use, don’t require much computer experience, are portable and can save you time. Before you build a site, it is worth your time to consider your online site builder options.

No two websites are the same

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:20 am

Different kinds of web sites. No two web sites are the same. This would be a known fact by the surfers who already have experiences in browsing and going over many sites.

No two web sites are the same. This would be a known fact by the surfers who already have experiences in browsing and going over many sites. There may be many similarities, in terms of categories and designs, but that is where it ends. Web sites are also classified according to what they cater to and the kind of information and service they give. Here are some of the different kinds of site.

Company profile sites. This is the site where a certain company or business displays an extension about their profile and information that may have been stated initially in the printed materials that they have. Customers come here for the needed assistance about product and services. This kind of site is not necessarily the site where companies make promotions and marketing.

E-business web sites. These sites are enabled with e-commerce transactional abilities which allow online selling of products and services from the websites. Examples of these sites are yahoo and rediff. These sites are equipped with highly secure software programs and databases that run on backend. For those who have tight and less budgets, some sites offer pre-packaged e-commerce solutions.

Social and community-based web sites. These sites showcase topics with social relevance. Some created by people that have common interests. People come to these sites for a specific purpose that is relatively the same as the others. For those who do not share the same interests, visiting this kind of site would not at all adhere to their tastes and likes.
Vortal or portal sites. Where you can find a variety and assortment of many topics all in one site. If you put it into perspective, this is like an online encyclopedia, where people can look to find just about anything. The main purpose for this kind of sites may be to help readers look for the relevant information they need without having to go through many sites and without having to search everywhere. The topics and information put into this vortals or portals are already tailored firsthand to in accordance to the different kinds of readers that might visit them.

Knowing the different kind of sites and what they specialize in would help a lot in the process of finding what you need to know. With more and more sites being created everyday, choosing the right one perfect for your needs is not necessarily an easy task. Can be a cause of confusion and makes decision making hard. The thing to remember is knowing first before going.

Not all people are into solving mysteries

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:56 am

Getting to know MMN. The day Javascript was created, web site owners may have rejoiced at the wonders that man can think of ….

The day Javascript was created, web site owners may have rejoiced at the wonders that man can think of in adding something to make sites more enjoyable for the readers. The readers having had some sort of amusement while browsing through were quite taken by this also. After sometime, people got tired of figuring out where the links will take them. They have to mouse over them to find the exact destination they wanted to go.

Sometimes too, this design technique can be quite deceiving. Telling about a link but once readers is there, they get disappointed to note that that is not the information they expect and needed. Too much wasted effort on the side of the readers just to get something they though would only take a minute of their time.

Mystery Meat Navigation, or MMN, is what they call this technique. Popular but also horrible.

MMN can be very seductive if done perfectly. For those who have not yet encountered much of this design technique, chances are they would probably fall into its trap and be hooked even before they know it and even if they want to or not. They look pretty cool on sites too and design awards have already been won by some sites that use this style. MMN makes site look clean and polished because of the non-existence of long winding texts. Thus taking the concept of “white space� in effect.

If you think about all the good attributes that MMN has to offer, then why do people consider them as horrible? Let us put it in a concrete example that anyone can relate with. When you drive down a road, you expect signs along the highway that leads you to a certain destination or warns you about something that is important. Put them into the MMN concept. There is no road sign that wait for people to be near them to tell them what they say or what they are about. It would be absurd having to take the effort of getting out of the car and walking towards the sign to see what they are about. This would be too frustrating too for those who are in a rush and do not have all the time in the world.

That same analogy is what makes MMN a horrible tool for web sites for some people. They may seem fun at first but the fun will slowly be converted to frustration and lack of interest. Many people enjoy mysteries and cannot wait to see what they are about. But take note of those that prefer going straight to the point with no effort done at all.

Web Site Design - Focus, Focus, Focus

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:48 am

When designing a site, you may be tempted to be all things to all people. Don’t! When creating a web site design, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to be all things to all people.

When creating a web site design, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to be all things to all people. In reality, the key to a good web site design is focus, focus, focus.

We Don’t Need No Stink’n Distractions

It happens ever few weeks or so. I am sitting in front of the computer contemplating the meaning of life, i.e., why my numbers aren’t being picked in the California lottery. A frustrated person calls and wants to know why their site isn’t converting. Shaking myself from my revelry, I valiantly pull up their site and here is what I find.

A mess.

The front page is a mass of blinking this and floating that. In really nasty situations, there will be something like a banner telling me the weather conditions in some city.

As if I cared.

I don’t even look at the weather in San Diego. Okay, we don’t really have any, but that isn’t the point.

The point is a site must have focus to covert traffic into revenue. This is known as the rule of one. Every page of a site should focus on one subject, product, thing, picture or whatever is relevant to your site.

If you have a page devoted to disco shirts with huge lapels, then everything on the page should focus on disco shirts with huge lapels. Typically, such a page would consist of brief text describing the disco shirts, thumbnails of the shirts and prices. The page should not include disco cds for sale. The cds should get their own page.

Don’t believe me? Then let us kneel at the alter of Google. The Google Adsense program is designed to let you put Google advertisements on your site. To put the ads up, you simply copy and paste a script provided by Google. Once the site is republished, each page with script will show Google ads. If you look at each page, you will note the script produces different ads for different pages. Further, the ads on each page correspond to the subject matter on the page.

Why does Google do this? Because ads that are relevant to the focus of the page will be clicked more than ads that are not. Put another way, the Adsense program is designed to focus on a single subject matter. The rule of one rears its head again.

Are you seeing a trend here?

If your site isn’t converting well, analyze the pages to see if you are focusing on one topic. If you have a weather banner on your site, there better be a very, very good reason.

10 Web Site Design And Writing No No’s

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:14 am

Dont fall into the traps of designing poor websites that visitors will leave and not come back.. 1. Don’t load your web site with a lot of high tech clutter. Your visitors may miss your whole sales message.

1. Don’t load your web site with a lot of high tech clutter. Your visitors may miss your whole sales message.

2. Don’t use unnecessary words or phrases on your site. You only have so much time to get your visitor’s attention and interest; make ever word count.

3. Don’t make the mistake that everyone will totally understand your web site message. Use descriptive words and examples to get your point across.

4. Don’t write your strongest point or benefit only once. You should repeat it at least 3 times because some people may miss it.

5. Don’t push all your words together on your web site. People like to skim; use plenty of headings and sub headings.

6. Don’t use site content your target audience isn’t interested in. If people are coming to your site to find info about fishing don’t include soccer content.

7. Don’t use 50 different content formats all over your web site. Use the same fonts, text sizes, text colors, etc.

8. Don’t use words your web site visitors might not understand. People are not going to stop and look in a dictionary, they will just go to another site.

9. Don’t let selling words and phrases go unnoticed. Highlight important words and phrases with color, bolding, italics, underlining, etc.

10. Don’t forget to use words that create emotion. All people have emotions, people will have more interest when they are emotionally attached.

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