Although I've been working on web sites since 1993, it's only been in the last year that I've started playing around with video on the Web on my own sites and on some of the sites I've designed. Now that standard web connections are faster than ever, video is more accessible than ever.
[2003-07-30] Source Code Cloaking...beauty or beast?
One of the more controversial strategies in search engine positioning is cloaking. But, is it a "beauty" or a "beast" in the world of search engines?
[2003-07-30] How To Choose Keywords Before they Skyrocket in Popularity
Long before the days of researching phrases with the helpful online resources of today, the art of keyword/phrase selection was often left just to guesswork.
[2003-07-30] Usability Testing Best Practices: An Interview with Rolf Molich
You may have never heard of Rolf Molich. Yet, if you've done any usability testing, design evaluations, or heuristic inspections, then you've been affected by his pioneering work.
[2003-07-30] Spice Up Your Web Site with JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language designed for use within a web page and/or on a web server. It is used to create special effects within a web page. Elements such as links, images and forms can be manipulated using this powerful technology.
[2003-07-30] Use CGI to Automate Your Web Site
Are you taking advantage of the powerful automation technology available on the Internet? Common Gateway Interface, better known as CGI, is one of the most widely used server applications on the Internet. This software resides on your server and automatically performs specified functions on your web site.
[2003-07-30] Syndicate Your Headlines Using RSS
RSS is quickly becoming the standard choice for delivering syndicated web content. Have you ever wondered how some of the large content sites deliver their headlines? Or, have you ever wanted to display news headlines, but didn't want to display the standard "Content Provided By..." info? Or, have you ever wanted to syndicate your own content? RSS may be the answer you've been looking for.
[2003-07-30] Mopping up those 404s
On a recent examination of my traffic statistics, I noticed a significant percentage of people going to the domain takanomi.com were getting a '404 Document Not Found' error. That means that they were typing in the URL for a document that did not exist, or they were clicking on an invalid link.
[2003-07-29] Know Thy Audience
A few weeks ago, I got an interesting letter in the mail. It was a cordial invitation to join the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). I'm sure a lot of people get such invitations, but there were two things in particular about this letter that caught my eye.
[2003-07-29] “Google Friendly” Solutions to Graphic - Intense Sites
We all know that the search engines can't "see" or "read" the graphics on our pages. We also know that we need to provide text on a page, so the spiders will have something to crawl and index.
[2003-07-28] Seven Deadly Sins Of Web Writing
What's the single most important thing that could improve the Web? It's not broadband. It's better writing. The general quality of writing on the Web is poor. The way you write has a major impact on what people think of you. Avoid these common mistakes and you will achieve more with your website.
[2003-07-25] Stretching Images
Most of the time stretching an image by setting incorrect image sizes within the HTML code would distort it horribly. Below is a review of the example comparisons from our related article, "Adding Text to Images: The Right Way".
[2003-07-25] Optimizing Gif Images for the Web
Images are an integral part of the "web experience". Without them a web page looks really dull; however, I have frequently come across web sites where the images take such a long time to load that I either go off to sleep or employ the most frequently used button of the browser - "Back"! Optimized images are a hallmark of a good web site and they are the first indicators of the skill of the web developer. This is a two part article in which we'll take a closer look at Gifs and how to optimize them for the web.
[2003-07-25] Double Affiliate Conversion Rates with a Datafeed
Whether you are a merchant trying to enhance your affiliate sales channel or an affiliate, interested in growing your commissions, this article can help you optimize your efforts and increase revenue.
[2003-07-24] The Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams
Every Web team has its own take on dividing up roles and responsibilities and implementing processes for design and development. Formal titles, job descriptions, and reporting structures can vary widely. But the best teams I've encountered have one important thing in common: their team structure and processes cover a full range of distinct competencies necessary for success.
[2003-07-24] Get FASTER Download Times By Making BIGGER Web Pages!
As a webmaster you already know how important it is that your web pages download fast. In a nutshell, if your pages are slow, then you're losing visitors. And if you're losing visitors, you're losing money.
[2003-07-23] "Rampant Rudeness on the Internet: What Would "Miss Manners" Say?"
Give some people a computer and an Internet connection and they think it's a license for rudeness. What is it about the Internet that causes some folks to take all they learned about basic etiquette and throw it right out the window?
[2003-07-23] Building Printer Friendly Pages
Your site looks like it's working perfectly. You've tested it with several different browsers under various resolutions. The HTML complies with the standards and your CSS is impeccable.
[2003-07-20] Web-Safe Fonts for Your Site
Choosing the right typeface for your website copy is important, since it will affect the way your readers perceive your page (serious and formal, or friendly and casual). Aside from this, there are also important usability concerns. For example, some font types are more easily readable than others, and some are more widely available.
[2003-07-18] Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success
Entrepreneurs and small businesspeople are always looking for creative ways to accomplish more of their business goals for less money. One strategy that can help you save time, money and frustration as you start and build your business is to outsource as much work as possible to skilled, but cost-effective, external service providers.
[2003-07-18] How Can I Stop Getting Spam? - A Tutorial for Webmasters
Are you getting too much spam? We all are, but if you're a webmaster the word spam takes on a whole new meaning. It's not uncommon for the luckiest of email users to receive a dozen or so spam messages each day, while those of us who aren't so fortunate receive hundreds.
[2003-07-18] Sell More with a User-Friendly Web Site
Speed up your web site, make it easy for prospective buyers to find what they are looking for, make your web pages easy to read, and make it easy to contact you.
[2003-07-18] 10 Tips for Designing an Ecommerce Web Site
Want to sell your goods directly from your site? Here are 10 tips:
[2003-07-18] Stop Thief! Protect Your Creative Work
Picture this: while surfing the web you come across one of your articles with somebody else's name on it - and you can't do a thing do about it.
[2003-07-15] Anti-Trojan Software
Hello Carey. I've often thought about installing a Anti-Trojan Software program (Like Agntium Tauscan Anti-Trojan) in My P.C. I am currently running Norton Anti Virus 2002 and ZoneAlarm Personal edition. Is this adequate, for every day home internet use, or is it going overboard installing all of these extra programs? Regards, Hall Dorrington hall@hadorr.globalnet.co.uk
[2003-07-14] How To Shop For A Search Engine Friendly Shopping Cart Solution
So you've finally realized that the shopping cart solution currently used by your website doesn't answer an important question - how do you attract the masses searching for related products on Google to your store?
[2003-07-11] Top Ten Ways to Use Audio on your Site
Audio can provide an added dimension to your site. It creates a warm atmosphere where visitors feel like they know you. And it can enhance your reputation as an expert. Here are the top ten ways you can start using audio on your site.
[2003-07-11] What Your Website REALLY Says About You And Why It Matters
Everything you say and do says something about you. This has never been more true than in a text based environment like the Internet. You only have one chance to put across what you want to say. Use it wisely.
[2003-07-11] Engage Your Ezine: Tweak, Tweak, & Re-Tweak!
It takes energy, focus, and devotion to develop and maintain an ezine. The word "tweaking" derives new meaning as an editor concentrates on the publication that will be viewed, read, and thus, benefit reading subscribers. All previous knowledge of publishing, writing, and anticipated reader-interaction is brought together in one spot -- the keyboard and monitor screen.
[2003-07-11] 3 Profitable eBook Income Streams!
1) Sell Advertisements Make money selling advertising space in your ebook. You could charge for full page color ads, classified ads or banners ads. You could also trade advertising space in your e-book for other forms of advertising. For example, you could say, "Promote Your Business In Our Free E-book For Only ($). It's been down- loaded over 5000 times!"
[2003-07-11] "Rampant Rudeness on the Internet: What Would "Miss Manners" Say?"
Give some people a computer and an Internet connection and they think it's a license for rudeness. What is it about the Internet that causes some folks to take all they learned about basic etiquette and throw it right out the window?
[2003-07-10] Is Your Site Accessible? Five Simple Tests
Accessibility is not a new issue, but there is still a great deal of confusion out there about what makes a Web site accessible and why it matters. If you don't think this topic is important, consider this:
[2003-07-10] The Great Debate: Text vs. HTML Email Messages
Some newsletter publishers swear that HTML messages are the only way to go. Others swear by the virtues of simple text. Although newsletters were "traditionally" published as text only, HTML newsletters are on the rise -- and it helps, too, that most email software these days is capable of displaying HTML messages.
[2003-07-09] The Clickbank Crash of 2003: Lessons Learned
I had a rude awakening recently. I checked the days' worth of sales from one of my sites and there were none. This had never happened before and of course I was anxious to find out what was wrong.
[2003-07-09] What to Write About When There's Nothing Left to Write About
You sit down to write the first article for your third issue. That's when it hits you. There's nothing left to write about!
[2003-07-09] Banish Boring Photos
The average newsletter generally has average photos: headshots, people shaking hands or talking on the phone. If you're looking to invigorate your photos, try these tips.
[2003-07-08] Find Your Best Search Terms With Adwords
Choosing the most targeted keywords and search terms has long been a guessing game. While considerable skill is still required to find good search terms, a great deal of the "guesswork" can now be eliminated.
[2003-07-08] Cascading Style Sheets (CSS); Formatting Lists
This article will show you how you can change the style of individual lists, all lists on your page, and all lists on your entire web site by changing just a few things on your style sheet.
[2003-07-08] How to Use Cookies, Part I
This article describes how cookies work and ways cookies can be used for your benefit, as a webmaster, without compromising your visitor's privacy.
[2003-07-07] Cascading Style Sheets (CSS); Backgrounds (part 1)
Background colors and images can be used for stylistic effects and can be an important element in the design of web sites.
[2003-07-07] Cascading Style Sheets (CSS); Backgrounds (part 2 of 2)
Part 1 focused on the many ways to specify web page backgrounds with CSS. This part 2 addresses these subjects:
- The background of divisions of the web page, within DIV tags.
- The background of tables.
- The background behind sections of text content.
- The background behind INPUT and TEXTAREA form elements.
- The background behind ordered and unordered lists.
[2003-07-07] Cascading Style Sheets (CSS); Colorful Forms
If your web page forms are boring, you can spruce them up. In this article you'll learn how to make your forms stand out from the crowd and/or to make one of your form fields stand out from the rest of your form.
[2003-07-02] Blue Links - Assumed, or Actual Norm?
Many people take it that links should either be graphics or left to the default colors. Years of debate have existed because of this theory. Essentially the theory is correct, but misunderstood. Let me explain how this theory became the rule.
[2003-07-02] SEO Corner: The Search Engine Marketing Cycle - Part 2
Reader Question: We are not opposed to paying a reasonable monthly fee, but we need a (search engine marketing) company who will actually be concerned about long-term results without us having to think about it and remind them.
