Getting started in Web Design

What you need to know about web design

There are many different things you need to take into consideration when you go into the web design industry. You will, first of all, need to know web design code, for which you will need to do some sort of course. Here, however, we will cover the basics of what you need to remember when you look into designing your first web site. Firstly, you will need the graphics, you will then need the layout and then you will have to think of the fonts you will use.

Graphics
When it comes to the web design graphics for you website, it always helps if you think small. We are not talking about small web design graphics, we are talking about small sized images or videos. Everyone hates pages that load too slowly, so you have to keep your potential client in mind at all times. The best sizes for images will be around 10 kb to about 12 kb. And remember that you want appealing images, or images that go with the rest of your content. So if you have an article about boxing you will want to use an image that fits into that category, like a boxing bag, or even boxing gloves. As for the web design flash images, which look great on some websites, there has been a study that shows that they are very annoying to many people. It is advised to not use these, and if you really have to keep them to a minimum. These too take long to load and therefore will force people to not want to load your page a second time.

Layout
When it comes to layouts you will want to stick to easy layouts, you should remember that the more complicated layouts also, like the larger images, slow down the loading process for your customers. So you will be better off sticking with standard normal layouts. There are some web design layouts that will just annoy your readers and will make them not want to be on your website. Like the one website that I came across that you had to scroll sideways, which mean that you do not scroll down. This makes it very difficult, because some mice do not allow you to scroll sideways with the wheel, so you will have to use the scroll bar, and not many people like using those. And I also came across a website that has 8 different boxes on one page, which mean that you will have to activate each box if you want to click on something inside of that box, which is very annoying. The simple layouts work, you will even be better off using readymade layouts that you could purchase, these are built using the simple structure and they look good, you are also able to find very good looking hi-tech pre built site that you could choose from.

Fonts
When it comes to fonts for web design you do not want to use too many on one page. When you look at a newspaper you do not see too many fonts on a page, the same goes for colors for web design, the editor will use the same font for all headlines and the same font for all other text, and with color, you will need to use the same color throughout your page, you could change the font and color on other pages, but doing it differently on the same page will be very distracting.

Flash Animations And Your Website

Making changes to a position or shape of an object in flash animations is called "tweening." The result should be a smooth transitioning of objects, from the first appearance to the final object. This streaming animation can be used on an entire web page or you may choose to use it as only part of an html page. The internet is full of Flash sites, Flash buttons and Flash menus that were made using the Macromedia/Adobe Flash software.
What goes hand in hand with Flash animation? It would have to be Flash text. Flash text is exactly what it sounds like.

On your website you can turn plain text into text that moves and is full of colors and life. Many individuals have recently added Flash text to the rest of their "cool animations" on their pages and they claim the return traffic on their websites has risen. Flash is the industry standard software to create 2D animations.

What do Flash animations have to do with a website? Hopefully, it will catch customer's eyes and bring them back to your site time and again. In this age of information technology everyone from your Great Aunt Sue to your first grade teacher has a website. Making your site stand out in the crowd is a tall order and that is where computer animations and art animations have a chance to shine.

At one time, networking was basically limited to who we could call or meet face to face. Beyond that was of course word of mouth, paid print and media advertising. Even then it was likely restricted to the local market, as the expense of getting a message to the next town, state or country was high.

What could you do? With the internet anything is possible, so you want your site to stand out with graphics computer animations, gif animations, Flash 2D animations and even 3D animations. Fortunately, the internet makes your business globally accessible, so you can reach out and touch millions of online viewers. These days, you can rake in dollars, yens, euros, pounds, rubles, pesos etc. because the world is the playing field.

Now that you are a little more aware of the power of the internet, check out a few computer animation programs and learn how to spice up your site with 3D animations, 2D Flash animations, animations video or gif animations. A well designed website will make a portfolio, with its limited space and time, pretty much obsolete. So, as you look outside your window in sunny California, just imagine your website being seen by potential customers in Iceland, Timbuktu or Nunavut.

Ever Thought About Creating Your Own Money Making Website?

Building a website is very easy as there are countless website hosts, software programs, and website builders to choose from. Today building a website is as easy as point and click. No longer do you have to know all the laborious HTML code that you needed to know only a few short years ago. You don't even have to know FTP protocols or how to design a site.

Most website hosting companies now provide templates of websites that you can customize with your own links, and content, as easily as you would adjust or edit a letter in your word processor. There are many companies who will even give you free web space on their computers, mainly referred to as servers, to put your very own website onto. In exchange, they add an advertisement onto your site. Do a search on the Internet for "free website hosting" and checkout your results.

The Internet has become a platform for anyone with an opinion, interest or idea to share with the rest of the world. Think about what you would like to share with the world. You can even take that idea and turn it into a money making business with your own website.

Do you have any hobbies you're passionate about, or interests you'd love to let others know about? Are you a Chess player who can share strategies about the game? Do you have an opinion about happenings in the world that others should know about? Are you into photography, or stamp collecting, butterflies, quilting, scrap booking, remote control models, airplanes, religion, politics, art, or a host of just about any imaginable topics? Some people even use their website to update relatives on their family activities, or new children etc. Chances are that if you're interested in something, someone else in the world is also.

Once you have your website up and running you can either choose to keep it low-key where you only give the address to certain people. Or you can post your website address on forums, bulletin boards, on every email you send out, and even do link-swaps with other people who have similar or complementary sites to yours. You do that by having a links page, where you put links that lead to other people's sites and they put your link on their website. All you need to do is contact the owner of the website you want to do a link-swap with. Having other people link to your site also increases your chances of being indexed higher in the search engine listings.

Try to be committed to your website. Keep the content and photos up-to-date. The internet is known for having a lot of "dead" information - content that is never updated for years and years; in fact, the website owner has abandoned the site but never taken it off the air. People enjoy and deserve fresh content.

If you want to be reached, add a link to your email address. Make sure it's an address that's not your main source of email. Find a free email account like Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo. This is because there is a tendency for people to sometimes abuse your address and spam you with lots of unwanted mail. If you get that, you can always just start another free email account and change the link on your site.

Even if you don't want to design and maintain your own site, an even easier way for you to get your opinion, or your recipes, or any type of information out is to start a blog, which is short for web log. There are many free blogging hosts on the Internet for you to use and using them is as simple as typing your letter or information for that day, and clicking on the publish button. Your information is instantly transferred to your blog site for anyone to read. Easy as that!

So, whatever you choose to do, go out and do it. There's a world of people eagerly awaiting and needing what you have to offer.

Just think, people may actually be surfing for YOU and your ideas!

Do You Know How To Create A Successful Web Site?

Most people do not realize that the key to making money on the Internet depends on your website. Your site does not have to be perfect to be successful. If your website is making you money, would you consider it successful? I would.

What is important is that a website should bring in money each and every day!

What makes a website successful?

A website that brings in targeted traffic and visitors who buy services or products is what actually makes a site valuable. A successful site should deliver leads, customers or sales. It sells and has value.

The success of your website will depend on one thing, your targeted keywords or keyphrases. Once your keywords or phrases rank high in the search engines then your site will get targeted traffic. If you take the time and effort to develop targeted keywords that relate to your websites content then your site will earn you money. If you do this one thing right, get high rankings for your websites keywords, then you will have a successful site, no matter how well your website is designed!

This certainly does not mean that your websites design does not play an important part in the success of your site.

Tips For Creating A Successful WebSite

1. Use professional graphics, headings and logos.

2. Your website should be easy to navigate with no dead links.

3. All links should be clearly visible and should make sense as far as where they will take your visitors.

4. Your fonts and colors should be easy to view and consistent throughout your entire site.

5. Set up your sites content in as simple a manner as possible, focusing on what your visitors are looking for, information.

6. Try to have only one topic per page with an appropriate title at the top. Include your main keyword or phrases in your title and within your pages content.

7. Make sure that your website loads quickly. Most visitors will not wait long for your site to load.

8. Once you finish developing your website make sure you check it for compatibility with different browsers such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, etc.

9. Keep your websites content informative but short. Provide valuable, useful information that will appeal to the search engines as well as your visitors.

10. Your meta tags are very important. Make sure you include your keywords or phrases in your meta tag title and description for each page of your site.

11. Provide fresh content on your website weekly, if not daily.

12. Do not user frames.

13. Optimize your website for search engines. Do this for every page you create.

If you can give your visitors what they are looking for, then your site will be successful.

How do you know what your visitors are looking for? Well, chances are that your visitors are looking for specific information, information that they will fine useful and that will also encourage them to visit your website often. Quality is more important then quantity. Interesting content can attract more visitors to your site then by copying as much text as possible onto your website and making it available.

How would you define good content? Your websites content should encourage your visitors to think, laugh, get upset, motivated or informed. But most importantly should bring them back for more.

Before you create your website you may want to think about these three things.

1. Determine the purpose of your website. Why do you want a website? What do you expect to gain from having a presence on the internet? Once you know what the purpose of your website is then you can easily determine your target audience.

2. Identify any short and long term goals. Put together a few short-term goals for your website that will be fairly easy to achieve over the next year. Long term goals can be realized by first identifying a number of short term goals that together could help you accomplish a long-term goal.

3. Figure out the image that you would like your website to portray. A good first impression is critical to your visitors, since they probably do not know you. If your website is not informative and organized you may appear unprofessional.

Creating a successful website will take time and persistence. Your site will continually grow and change. Just remember to provide informative content that is easy to read and your visitors will come back for more, the search engines will love you.

When your site starts getting tons of targeted traffic for a specific topic then that is when you know that you have created a successful website.

Choosing the Best Web Creation Program for You

Whether you're building your first or your twenty-first website, you should consider which design program is best for you. The time it takes to compare alternatives is well worth it. When choosing which program is best for you, you need to consider (1) your level of html and programming expertise and (2) the nature of your website.

What are your options? If you want to build a website yourself (or customize some templates yourself), you can choose from free online software provided by web hosting companies; source code (html) editors; or WYSIWYG editors.

Option 1 - Free Online Design Software
SiteStudio is one of the best programs in this category. This WYSIWYG website builder is very easy to use and allows you to create a simple site in less than an hour. Since the software is online, you don't need to install anything on your computer and you can access it from any computer with an internet connection. This is a good way to get your feet wet with web design. However, these programs are very limited in what design and programming options you have. And since these programs are very widespread, many website are already using the templates provided (so your website may look the same as hundreds of others). However, it is a quick and easy way to get you a web presence.

Option 2 - Source Code (HTML) Editors
A good way to learn how to build websites is to learn how to write html (hyper text markup language). The name may sound formidable, but it is a very simple programming language. There are many good online tutorials where you can design your website line by line by writing the source code. You can do this using almost any text writing program (like Notepad). You can also invest in more advanced programs that validate (check) your code as you go. This allows you to test your site before you put it online.

Notepad comes free with the MS Windows operating system and can be used with php, perl and html, and is very simple to work with. However, it is only a text editor and does not come with any extra coding or design features. You will definitely need to become familiar with html before you start using this program.

Homesite is an advanced code editor that lets you create a website with Javascript, XML, and other scripting languages. It has tools to validate, format, and reuse your code. This is a popular source code editor by Macromedia that has been around for awhile.

1st Page is a feature-packed program that's absolutely free! It operates in four different modes: easy, normal, advanced/expert, and hardcore. You can choose your interface and preferences. There are tons of javascripts and dhtml scripts already included. As far as source code editors go, this choice is a no-brainer.

Option 3 - WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editors
These programs allow you to create flexible and advanced websites. You can drag and drop images where you want them and preview your changes in real-time. These programs cost more than source code editors, but they can greatly speed up the design process while incorporating advanced scripting and database integration. Even if you have little web development experience, you can create an impressive website with features such as message boards, dynamic web pages, forms, visitor tracking, and streaming audio and video. The most popular WYSIWYG editors are: Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe GoLive, and Macromedia Dreamweaver.

MS Frontpage is very easy to use and may be appealing to those who are experienced in using the other MS Office products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It has great site management features that allow you to upload and change pages even if you can't remember which pages you've altered. FTP is built right in so you only need one program to build and upload your site. You can easily import PowerPoint presentations and Excel graphs and spreadsheets into Frontpage. However, it is not very flexible and the design aspects are very limited. It has no method to validate code and often inserts garbage code into your page. This was the first WYSIWYG program I used. After creating a website that quickly surpassed 300 pages, I learned that I had to clean up the code in order for the pages to display nicely in different browsers with different screen settings. Furthermore, many features of the program will not work properly unless your web host has FrontPage server extensions installed.

Adobe GoLive shares many of the same features and the same interface as other Adobe products (such as Photoshop). GoLive offers far more sophistication than Frontpage. It has a code validator and allows you to easily work with programming environments such as Php and databases such as MySQL. It excels when developing streaming audio/video websites. It requires more time to learn than Frontpage, but it offers much more flexibility and greater control over design and programming.

Macromedia Dreamweaver is simply the best WYSIWYG editor on the market. It is the most widely used by web designers, and it supports almost every web programming environment imaginable. It has an excellent built-in reference guide and also has an autocomplete function that offers suggestions for filling in tags. It can be customized to work in many different programming environments. The code validator is excellent, and even allows you to link to a MySQL database to test your queries on the fly. I may be biased since I have used this program more than any other, but it offers exceptional flexibility with relative ease of use. There is also a large selection of reference books for Dreamweaver available at many book stores.

Conclusion
When choosing the best web design program for your needs, you need to evaluate your level of experience with html and the requirements of your website. If your website requires database integration or lots of other scripting (php, perl, java) then you should consider using an advanced source code editor or a WYSIWYG editor. If you don't have the time or desire to learn how to code properly, then restrict your options only to WYSIWYG editors such as Macromedia Dreamweaver. Online site builders should only be used for basic personal or community websites.

Breaking the Myth about Page Rank (PR)

The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting traffic to your site. There are plenty of companies who promise to send traffic your way. Sadly, most of this traffic is not qualified. Yes, your hit counter will move higher, however, if it’s not qualified, you may find you have unhappy visitors to your site. Unhappy visitors will not click on your ads or purchase your products.

Once you have optimized your site, consider submitting it to every search engine. If you want to get spidered quicker in Google, have a web page with a PR of 4 or higher point to your site. Your site will be spidered within a couple of days!

One myth I would like to bust is that PR is a measure of a web site. Its not. I receive countless emails offering a reciprocal link with their PR5 or PR6 site. Unless my link is appearing on the main page, or a page that has PR6, I am not getting a share of PR6. Most likely, my link will appear on a page that has a PR2!
Page rank is Google's ranking of that specific page's relevance. Just because the main page has a PR of 4, does not make every page on the site a PR4. Beware of sites who claim that they will exchange links with you and it’s to your benefit since they have a PR5 or PR6. Where is your link appearing? If it’s on a page that has a PR of 4 or 5 or 6, great!

Reciprocal linking, if done properly, will ensure that your keywords are at the top of the search engine. If you have a popular keyword, you all need to have more back links. Pick your link partners properly, and ensure that they are linking to your keyword.

For example: if your site is www.joesdinner.com, consider sending out requests to relevant higher ranking pages to start with, followed by lower ranking pages and ask web designers to link back in a manner so that your url is a hyperlink for your keyword, not your site url or site name.

Presuming their keyword is "best dining in newyork", having links pointing to your site with an anchor tag incorporating your keywords will improve your search engine rankings dramatically.

Once you have established a collection of sites pointing to your site using your keywords, you will start receiving reciprocal link exchanges from other sites. This is where you can start to be particular.

If you want to maintain an effective PR and attract better sites for linking, follow these tips:

a) Is it indexed?
While their site may be indexed, the page where they are placing your link, is it at least indexed by Google? If you type in allinurl:www.sitename.com/links/right_here.html and there are no results, consider declining their offer. If the page your link appears on has not been indexed, there is no benefit whatsoever to you. If your pages have PR, they may consider placing your link on another page. If the page your link appears on is indexed, but does not have PR, consider accepting their offer. While the page today may not have PR, it will in time.

b) How many neighbors?
The value of the page rank is shared with each of the links on that page. If you are splitting that PR with several other sites, your share of PR will be small, which doesnt help you. Reconsider accepting any link exchanges if your site is 1 of more than 30 - 40 sites that will appear on that page, unless its a very high PR. Further, if there are too many links on that page, Google may consider the page to be part of a link farm, which may end up penalizing your site.

c) Is it relevant?
Google is big on relevancy. Ensure your links pages are relevant. If you operate a site about golf, having links from cooking sites will not help you establish your page rank. It may cost you more than you get in return.

How to Find Good PR sites:

a) Do a search for them by typing in your keyword and start asking for reciprocal link exchanges. Take a look at their PR and go from there. Remember, its the number of sites that backline to you that matters, not strictly the PR of the page. I would rather have 50 pages that have a PR1 pointing to my site, than to have 5 sites that have a PR5. Of course, if you can get 50 pages that have a PR5 pointing to your site, you are laughing!

b) Take a look at your existing link partners and check out their links pages. Its clear the people appearing on those links pages are interested in reciprocating.

c) Purchase software that will help finds quality link partners.

It is important to attract higher PR sites when you are on a reciprocal link campaign. However, it’s not the most important thing when it comes to search engine rankings. Its the back links that point back at you that are key. The more of those, the better off you will be for your keyword.

Remember: every page starts off as a PR0. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it won’t get a higher PR once Google gets around to assessing a score. If the page your site appears on is indexed, and its a relevant site of quality, consider exchanging links. You'll grow a large list of link partners in a short period of time, and increase your search engine rankings in the process.

Avoid These Common Web Site Mistakes

Let's look at some common web design and marketing mistakes that will reduce your web sales.

Web Design Mistakes

• Faulty links.
• Poor navigation and faulty links that make it hard for visitors to find the information they are looking for.
• Missing images.
• Low-quality images.
• Slow-loading pages. Prospective buyers won't wait for your pages to load.
• Dark, multi-colored and distracting backgrounds that make text hard to read.
• Error messages. Visitors won't come back if their system crashes or they're getting JavaScripts error messages when visiting your site.
• Underlined words/sentences that can be confused with links.
• Special characters such as curly quotes, curly apostrophes, en dashes, and em dashes. These characters are unique to different operating systems and fonts, and may convert into bogus characters on web sites.
• Pages that are wider than your visitors' computer monitors force your visitors to scroll left to right. (Create the width of your web page to fit your typical audience's monitor to avoid horizontal scrolling).
• Background music on your home page. Visitors will be tired of hearing your music when returning to your home page. Have a "Stop Music" button. If you are a musician and have music on your site, make listening to the music optional.
• Flashing banners, animation, scrolling text, irritating blinking text, distracting messages in the browser status line, and other features that can annoy visitors.
• Under construction pages. Put your pages up when they are ready.

Web Marketing Mistakes

• Lack of marketing. You need to market your web site in order for visitors to find you.
• Lack of unique content. Without valuable content, visitors and buyers don't have a reason to return to your web site.
• Me-oriented content to satisfy the ego of the company CEO, Web designer, or programmer. Instead provide content that focuses on the customer.

• Starting a page with "Welcome to my Home Page" instead of providing a benefit-oriented headline. For example, "Eight Ways to Boost Credibility and Online Sales."
• Outdated content. You need to continually add new information and update old information to keep visitors coming back.
• Lack of keywords in your web content, page titles, and description. This will result in poor search engine positioning.
• Missing META tags. Some search engines can't index you without META tags and your prospects won't be able to find your web pages.
• Missing or hard-to-find contact information. Mention your contact information on every page to build trust and make it easy to buy from you.
• Trying to be everything to everyone instead of having a unique selling advantage.
• Not providing an online order form. Make it easy to buy from you by providing several ordering options, including a secure online order form, an 800 number, and a fax number.
• Not accepting credit cards. Offer several payment methods, including major credit cards. The majority of sales will come from online orders paid with credit cards. If you are not accepting credit cards online via a secured server, you will lose sales.
Typos. You'll loose credibility if you have typos.

Think like a prospective buyer who is visiting your web site for the first time. Your web site will be successful only if you provide what your customers need.

Ask for feedback from a professional web designer, customers, and business associates. Check your web design and content with these tips in mind. Correct the problems. It will pay off in sales and profits.

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We collect information from you when you register on our site or respond to a survey.

When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name or e-mail address. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

• To personalize your experience

(your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)

• To improve our website

(we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you)

• To process transactions

Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested.

• To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature

• To send periodic emails

The email address you provide for order processing, may be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order, in addition to receiving occasional company news, updates, related product or service information, etc.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information.

We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to?keep the information confidential.

After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be stored on our servers.

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information

We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits and keep track of advertisements and .

If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders by contacting customer service.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Third party links

Occasionally, at our discretion, we may include or offer third party products or services on our website. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites.

California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

Because we value your privacy we have taken the necessary precautions to be in compliance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.

Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

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