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The Concept About A Nice Web Redesign

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

If you’re planning on redesigning your web site, it pays to take some time to consider how to go about it before just plowing ahead. Following are a few suggestions that will help you decide which aspects could benefit from some changes and what can stay the same.

When you are doing a redesign it can be best to think small. You may be surprised to learn the even the most minor of changes can have a big impact on the design. Start with making a few changes and see what difference they make. Sometimes people have a hard time accepting change, so they may find it confusing or disconcerting if you give your web site a major overhaul all at once.

You may even lose a few visitors if you change your web site radically. People who have used it regularly may have gotten used to the way it is set up and find it not worth the trouble to learn new navigation.

A web site redesign shouldn’t be rushed if you can help it. It’s more useful to make meaningful changes slowly to give your visitors time to adjust.

When redesigning your web site you may also want to think about its speed. Any changes to your design could impact the speed in which it loads.

As you plan your redesign, think about how the changes may impact the rate in which your web site loads. Elaborate graphics may make it slow to load, which is discouraging to visitors. No one wants to wait minutes for a page to load.

Any type of web site redesign should also take into consideration the functionality of the navigation and the value of the related links. The navigation should be easy to understand and logical to follow. You don’t want to risk losing visitors that are frustrated by not being able to find what they are looking for on your web site.

No matter how you decide to change your web site, it should always be as user friendly as possible. This will ensure visitors return and tell others about your web site. Take these tips into consideration when planning your redesign and it will help make your web site a popular one.

In addition to website redesign, the author also frequently blogs about beds headboards and metal bed headboards.

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Tags: advice, attraction, blogging, creativity, Domain, domains, internet, internet business, online business, site promotion, traffic generation, web design, Web Development, webmasters, website
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39 Must Know Terms For Understanding Your Web Designer

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

If you sometimes feel as if your Web designer is speaking to you in a foreign, even alien, language, you need a way of cutting through the Web design jargon. You can find some great dictionaries online, but for starters, here are over 40 of the most common terms you are likely to encounter.

ACROBAT: Acrobat is used as a synonym for PDF file, but actually it is the program family you need to create and read PDF files. Adobe sells Acrobat Standard and Pro, which are creation tools, and freely distributes Acrobat Reader, which is a viewer (with some annotation tools in the latest versions).

APPLET: A program written in the Java programming language that can be included in an HTML page, and can contain flashy effects or useful programming.

ASP: Active Server Pages. A specification that enables Web pages to be dynamically created, or to access information from databases. The default language for writing ASP pages is VBScript, but other languages are also used.

BANDWIDTH: The amount of data sent over a connection in a specified amount of time is measured in bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps).

BTL/ATL /TTL: BTL (Below The Line) advertising means print media like brochures. ATL (Above The Line) advertising refers to such expensive media as TV and radio. TTL (Through The Line) is a combination of the two.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. This server-side program allows data to be passed between Web applications.

COLD FUSION: This specification enables Web pages to be dynamically created, or to access information from a database. The default language for writing Cold Fusion pages is CFML (Cold Fusion Markup Language), and the page extension is .cfm.

CONTENT: The graphics and copy (text) that make up your Web site.

CSS: Acronym for Cascading Style Sheets, an external document that controls variables like color and fonts on your Web site.

DHTML: Dynamic HTML. A combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript is used to create small effects, animations and dynamic menus on Web sites.

DNS: Domain Name Service translates domain names back and forth with IP numbers using a DNS server.

DOMAIN NAME: The address of your Web site (e.g. coza-web.co.za or google.com).

DPI/PPI: Dots Per Inch and Pixels Per Inch determine whether an image has high, medium or low resolution. Images for Web publication should have 72 ppi, those to be printed on deskjet printers should have 150 ppi and pictures to be professionally printed should have 300 ppi.

FLASH: 2D animation created in Flash can have an .swf extension for Web sites or an .exe extension for digital presentations. You need Flash Player installed on your computer to see SWF files.

FRAMES: Two or more HTML pages combined within a single browser screen lets you have scrolling regions on different sections of the Web page.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol for downloading or uploading files from or to computers with an appropriate FTP program or Internet browser.

HOST: The physical computer where files that make up your Web site are located, and whose contents can be accessed via TCP/IP.

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. The language for creating Web pages.

IP ADDRESS: Internet Protocol Address. Every device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address.

JAVA: A programming language by Sun Microsystems for writing Java applets.

JAVASCRIPT: This scripting language can be embedded in HTML pages or accessed by them as an external document (file type =.js) to create effects, validate forms, etc.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. A compressed image file.

KERNING: Horizontal spacing between letter pairs.

LEADING: Vertical spacing between the baselines under text in a paragraph or list.

META DATA/TAG: Part of the backend, thus not visible to the viewer, of an HTML page providing descriptions and keywords for optimizing search engines.

MYSQL: An open source relational database management system that uses SQL (Structured Query Language).

ORGANIC SEO: The optimizing of search engines by obtaining one-way links from other Web sites without actively submitting your site.

PERL: Practical Extracting and Reporting Language.

PIXEL: The smallest component, or single grid point, of a raster image.

PHP: An open source programming language that enables Web pages to be created dynamically, or access information from a database. It is widely used in conjunction with MySQL.

PLUG-IN: A small application, like Adobe Flash Player, that is installed and used as an added feature by your Web browser.

ROLL OVERS: Graphics that move or change when your mouse passes over them.

SERP: Search Engine Results Page.

TAG: Often called Markup tags or HTML tags, these are used to define parts of Web pages so that they display correctly for the site visitor.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator, the address of a Web page or file.

W3C: World Wide Web Consortium is a group of companies that set international standards for HTML and the Web.

WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get.

XHTML: Once planned as a successor to HTML 4.0, it is a hybrid of HTML and XML.

XML: Extensible Markup Language allows you to create custom tags.

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Tags: CSS, FTP, host, Hosting, internet, internet business, tags, terminology, Web, web design, Web Development
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Getting To Know The Process Behind Reserving A Domain Name

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

If you are set on developing your web presence, you will need to put some effort into picking and maintaining a web identity. The first step in this process is deciding on a domain type and a name.

There are some key things to think about before picking a domain type. For example, budget considerations come immediately to mind. Also, the right address will bring traffic naturally. This is the type of name to focus on.

The basic three types of domains are .com, .net, and .org. Each comes with different types of assumptions about your site, and with different costs or reservation. But all three are pretty common and will draw traffic to your site.

There are a whole slew of country codes for domain name extensions. Almost every country in the world has its own unique Top Level Domain, such as .ca in Canada and .uk in the United Kingdom. These have varying degrees of reliability and different rules governing their use.

If you find yourself running out of options with these domains, there are others to choose from as well. For example, .name and .info have both been available for a number of years. These may not have the cache of the big domain extensions, but they’ll get the job done.

You could also mark your space with a unique sub-domain. This comes after the Top Level Domain and the domain name. It’s usually the “www” part of the address, but you can make it anything you want.

Needless to say, price can become an issue. This is largely dependent on what domain you are reserving under, but it can also be affected by the company you decide to buy from. Prices can range from $6.99 for the cheaper domains to prices in the teens or 20s for some of the country-specific codes.

Just like other businesses (and domain name registration is a business), domain costs have drifted lower and lower over the years. You can also keep an eye out for special deals and sales on domain names. There are also coupons and package deals that may be available from certain retailers.

The writer additionally frequently gives advice on topics such as lifting straps and paper boxes.

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Tags: advice, blogging, business, Domain, domains, education, internet, internet business, networking, online business, Web Development, web hosting, web site building, webmasters, websites
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Save Money By Reviewing Your Hosting Plan Regularly

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Every time there is a recession or an economic downturn, you see a flurry of articles in both the business and general press about companies and individuals learning how to manage money better. While some articles get very specific about accounting and management practices that are supposed to make you a better money manager, others are more general in their approach and concentrate on common sense ways to stop wasteful practices. Combining both approaches also works well, and can begin with a complete review of all spending and an analysis of what that money is actually buying you.

This is very important to do in regards to your company’s technology spending, whether it’s on computers, offsite storage, network management or Web site hosting. Hosting? Hosting is cheap now, so why bother? If you asked that question, you just revealed a mindset that can get you in big trouble. Every wrongly spent cent is a strike against you and your company, and small overpayments have a way of looming large when you look at them over the course of a year or more. If you consider what has happened to hosting costs over the last few years because of technological progress, you can actually see what the progress is worth. Hosting is getting less costly all the time.

Quick history

From 1996 to 2005 (ten years), the cost of hosting fell dramatically. Instead of low-end plans at $49 per month, you had so-called unlimited plans at one-tenth that cost. Looking at just the dollar amount, you would think that hosting has not gotten less expensive since 2005 but, in fact, it has. The changes have come in the definition of certain terms (unlimited, bandwidth, transfer, etc.), and the effective cost reduction has continued with the same amount of velocity as it had at the end of the last century/millennium.

Rather than gawk at the low prices, you need to find out just what it costs, in reality, for a high quality, professional, dependable host. The advertised price needs to be defined in terms of the real way you will use the site, so you need to factor in all the setup fees, overage fees, upgrade costs, extra charges for databases and media streaming, etc. You can easily end up paying more for the low-end, low-cost-but-no-extras plan than you would have for a more inclusive one. This is why you need to read everything, every single word, when you review your hosting plan (quarterly or biannually, at least).

Fine print

If you go through all the comparison charts, you will get a picture of not only how your plan compares to others, but how it treats you, as well. Do you get charged fees for going over monthly limits? Is everything clearly explained and defined? Do you see a small asterisk that leads you to a statement like “setup fee required,” without there being a dollar amount there? These are all clues that you may be paying more than you even know for your hosting service. The fact is, this is the sort of plan review you should have done when you first chose a plan, but as long as you are doing it now, before more time rolls by to the sound of falling coins, you are doing better than you were.

If the terms are not defined well, then you need to ask what they mean. Even the term ‘unlimited’ does not always mean what you think it means. Some hosting providers define the term in relation to what are called typical usage patterns, so there really is a finite limit to it after all. If your Web site takes off and becomes more popular than other sites its size, you will blow right through that typical usage pattern number and possibly end paying extra for being successful. Be sure to find out what unlimited means, as well as any other terms that are key to your purchase.

Bottom line

Is a secure server included? Do you get a good site management tool, like cPanel, or are you stuck with some proprietary, stripped down Web page provided by the host? What exactly is in the deal? If you do not know, you are paying too much already. You should not be paying for a plan that you cannot define. This is not good business at any level, whether it costs $5 or $5,000 a month. The truth is, many firms have multiple sites, so small overpayments can add up in no time. There are plenty of great, legitimate hosting deals, and most firms are on the up and up. However, it is up to you to establish that to your own satisfaction. Not only can you save money by reviewing your hosting plan regularly, you will become far more expert at how hosting works, which is a clear benefit for you and your business, too.

Web Hosting at ReviewItOnline.net is a large team of experienced webmasters, web users, site owners and company leaders here to help you – webmasters of the future with all of your website hosting needs. We review companies such as bluehost and fatcow

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Tags: business, Hosting, internet, internet business, Web, web hosting
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What Makes Toys.com Worth $5.1 Million?

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

At the beginning of 2009, America’s number one toy retailer, ToysRUs, survived the bidding battle over the domain Toys.com and anted up $5.1 million for it. Some people were flabbergasted, wondering why on earth anyone would pay that kind of money for a domain name. Leaving off the dot-com part, that is more than a million dollars per letter. Does this sale represent some sort of new dot-com mania, or is it a rational business decision and investment? A brief background in domain names will help clear this up.

Your actual Internet address is based on the Internet Protocol (IP) standard, essentially a unique number string divided by dots, or periods, that help maintain the hierarchy. Since it would be difficult and cumbersome to refer to the Toys.com site as, say, http://67.192.43 or some such thing, there are computers called Domain Name Servers that will point browsers to the named domain. Generally speaking, your domain is typically the name of your business (online, brick-and-mortar or both) and this should be the same that you have been building an image for since you founded it. Why change now?

What is right?

Choosing the right domain name for your online presence involves both common sense and, at best, uncommon creativity. The name will work toward enhancing your image and as well as your marketing efforts. It can really help bring more traffic to your Web site. This is what makes Toys.com worth the money, or at least arguably so. It is not that so many people will type Toys.com into their browsers, although plenty will, it is that untold numbers of searches will include the words toy, toys and so on. The word is short, typing it is fast and being redirected to Toys.com will likely be the very first option on the search results page. To get it right (or as right as you can in changing environments!), here are some tips about domain names:

Simple spelling: If spelling, saying or typing your domain name is tricky, pick another one. You do not even want to know the number of visits you might lose because Zzyzzx.com is a unique but confusing name. Pick something simple.

Short and sweet: At the beginning of the Web era, the name-and-number regulators at ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) allowed just 23 characters but the limit is now 63. This made more names possible, but also helped some people create confusion. Do not be one of the confusing. Keep it short and sweet.

One of a kind: Do not host your Web site with a free or low-cost host that will make it a subdomain. If your name is not unique and clearly identifiable, you lose visitors.

Memorable: Your want you domain name to be easily remembered so that Web surfers can type in your name whenever they need to. Many net users will not bother to search for your Web site if the name is difficult and they keep forgetting it.

Related to the right category: The name should at least give some clues as to the business you are in, what you are selling or doing, etc. Some names will defy this rule (Yahoo! and Amazon come to mind) but they are usually pioneers and got people to reverse the normal route of association. This is not likely to happen for you, so do not be cryptic.

Alphabet: The fact that A still comes ahead of Z can make a big difference if a search returns a lot of results. Names starting with A will be listed at the top, while the Z names will sit at the bottom. This can really make a measurable difference on the amount of traffic you can expect to get from directories.

Generic or exclusive?: There continues to be a great deal of debate about domain names being generic or exclusive. While generic domain names should result in more traffic, generally speaking, they certainly do not make for strong, identifiable brand names. The solution? Do not give your business a generic name, but register as many generic names that relate to it and redirect them (via those DNS computers we mentioned earlier) to your main site.

Bottom line

Domain names can lose you visits and money, be revenue neutral or actually contribute to your profit margin. How well they do so is a function of many different variables, and there is not sure and certain formula for success. However, there are certainly trends to identify and going on 20 years of experience with how domain names work in the real (and virtual) world. Give some thought to it, and you may find that you can sell one of yours down the line. Perhaps not for millions, but there are plenty of domains sold every day for hundreds and thousands of dollars. In fact, there are entrepreneurs who make their fortunes creating, trading, selling and buying these names. Even if you do not do that, applying some of this new knowledge to your own Web presence might help you more than you know!

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Tags: business, Hosting, internet, internet business, toys.com, Web, web hosting
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Posts Tagged ‘internet business’

The Concept About A Nice Web Redesign

39 Must Know Terms For Understanding Your Web Designer

Getting To Know The Process Behind Reserving A Domain Name

Save Money By Reviewing Your Hosting Plan Regularly

What Makes Toys.com Worth $5.1 Million?

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