Your Website Design
When creating a website you
need to think about more
things than a nice design.
In fact that should be the
least of your worries.
Webmasters deal with a
myriad of complex design
challenges every day. This
article will discuss the top
ten challenges and provide
solutions and tips for
solving each problem.1.
Browser Compatibility You
must design your Web site so
that it is viewable on both
browsers: Netscape Navigator
and Microsoft Internet
Explorer (IE). Netscape
Navigator is very strict
when it comes to HTML tag
completion, but IE isn’t.
You need to view your site
first using Macromedia
Dreamweaver before
publishing to the Web. Make
sure you’ve run the command
convert to ensure your site
is version 3.0 browser
compatible. If you’re using
Netobjects Fusion to create
the layout of your site,
make sure that all layer
objects are converted into
tables.
This is highly recommended
if you want to reach a
broader and wider
audience.Online resources:
A) Dr. HTML, located at
www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/
B) Web Site Garage to check
your links, located at
websitegarage.com2. Graphics
OptimizationWeb graphics
play an essential part in
your Web design, because it
conveys the emotion and
impact of your site. Always
make sure that all of your
graphics are in .gif and
.jpg format. Unless your
site deals with photography,
minimize the use of the .jpg
format. You can use
Macromedia Fireworks to
minimize the file size,
especially the slicer
feature if you need to place
a large photo on your site.
Another option is the export
preview of Macromedia
Fireworks. This allows you
to remove unwanted colors in
your graphics, thus
decreasing file size.You can
also do this online by using
one of these online
utilities:A) GIF Optimizer
by Media Builder,
www.gifoptimizer.comB) JPEG
Cruncher and GIF Cruncher,
www.spinwave.com/crunchers.htmlC)
Windows-based graphics
optimizer, CyberView Image
Lite (JPEG Compressor),
www.cyberviewcd.com/cvimage/index.htmlD)
Advanced GIF Optimizer,
www.gold-software.com/ago.htmlE)
Photo Crunch (JPEG
Compressor),
www.imroncorp.com/photo.htmF)
JPEG image compression FAQ,
www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/3.
Keeping the Site FreshI
think this is the bulk of a
webmaster’s work, if you
want your site frequently
visited. You can keep your
site fresh by really working
on new content on a daily or
regular basis and by making
it interactive. As with
content, you can make use of
www.moreover.com,
www.subportal.com,
www.newshub.com, and other
content syndication sites to
provide the content for your
site automatically. Let them
do the hard work for you! If
you place a tag, they will
email you with new content.
As for the interactivity,
offer your visitors
web-based email accounts, a
message board with a chat
room, a search engine
crawler, and banner ad
rotation. This is easy, and
provided by Everyone.net.
Searching your site is
another way to easily
provide information to your
visitors. You can get a site
search engine from
www.picosearch.com and
www.atomz.com.4. Pushing
Information to Your
VisitorsA Web site is a
“pull” promotion, but as a
webmaster, you also need to
be thinking about how you
can “push” information to
your visitors, users, or
subscribers. You can publish
an ezine on a weekly or
monthly basis just to let
your users be informed about
the latest technology you’ve
added to your site. As for
the mailing list, you can
get a free mailing list from
www.egroups.com,
www.topica.com, or you can
choose a paid service such
as www.aweber.com or
www.getresponse.com.
As for the content, you can
get lots of articles from
bbs.weblord2000.com, or try
one or more of my articles
that can be found on the
same Web site.5. Driving
TrafficWebmasters shouldn’t
forget to announce your Web
site. Accomplishing this is
easy for Web sites that
already have a lot of
traffic, but even sites that
are starting out with 5 or
10 members can benefit from
the viral marketing of
online recommendation
software. Services include
www.Nabaza.com/refer.htm,
www.evite.com, and
www.ewomp.com.6. Dealing
with Spammers Unfortunately,
the reality of the Internet
is that people will spam and
flame on a daily basis.
Web-based email addresses
like the ones set up by
www.everyone.net are
spam-proof. You can set up
your account so that any
emails sent without your
address in the “to” box can
be directed automatically to
the trash or spam folder.
However, flames and hate
emails are a different
field. You shouldn’t try to
get even or retaliate. These
people are not a joke. It
might cost you your ISP or
your e-life. Instead, check
out www.spamcop.net. It does
the nitty-gritty work of
automatically reporting
misbehaving people to their
postmasters. Usually, it’s
helpful to get the ISP, or
at least the IP address of
the suspected person.7.
Stickiness!Webmasters are
also faced with the
challenge of keeping their
site sticky.
CBSMarketwatch.com is a good
example of a sticky site.
This stock/investment
related site contains timely
news and excellent company
data. The vast amount of
information results in a
good number of page views
per visitor. Plus, visitors
return on a daily basis to
get the latest-and-greatest
market news and stock data.
Lots of page views per
visitor AND repeat visits.
now that's what you could
call really sticky.Here are
some additional
suggestions:A) Make your
site a portal of
information. It encourages
your visitors to return and
stay. Hotsheet.com is one
example of a one-page
portal.B) Add games to your
site. You can get some here:
www.uproar.co.uk or at
www.pogo.com/affiliates.C)
Make your site interactive
with a guest book, forum,
tell-a-friend link, webring,
customizable news, contests,
polls, e-card, and free for
all links. Bizland.com
allows you to sign up for an
account and place the code
on your site.D) Provide
links to freebies,
get-paid-to-surf sites,
contests, incentives, jokes,
quotes, mp3, and gnutella.
Just don’t forget to opt in
for at least their email
address before they can
actually download stuff from
your site.8. Find Your Web
HostIt's critical to find
the right Web host. Although
you may need to get your own
server when your site gets
one million page views per
month, most sites that are
starting out do not require
the complex and expensive
task of managing your own
servers. There are many Web
hosting providers that are
willing to provide starting
at 40gb of Web space. You
can also look and compare
different Web hosting
providers on these sites:
www.webhostdir.com,
www.hostfinders.com,
www.hostindex.com,
www.hostsearch.com, and
www.findahost.com. I always
recommend the advanced
search, which allows you to
specify your budget and the
specific features you will
need.9. Think GloballyKeep
the site international in
its appeal.
Babelfish.altavista.com
allows you to place snippets
of code into your site that
will automatically translate
your English site to a
different language, such as
Spanish, Italian, German, or
Polish. As webmasters, we
must remember that we cannot
filter countries on our
site. We must be able to
communicate with them.10.
Search Engine
SubmissionsWebmasters love
to promote their sites on
message boards, newsgroups,
link exchanges, and even
email, but they often forgot
the best source of traffic.
Submission sites like
www.Nabaza.com/traffic.htm,
www.Nabaza.com/submit.htm,
and www.beseen.com can be
used to submit your site for
free. You don’t need to
submit to all of them, only
to the major ones, like
Yahoo, AltaVista, Google,
Hotbot, Infoseek/Go.com,
Lycos, and Northern Light.I
hope that you have found
these tips helpful.
For
more information, please
visit my site
www.MoreFreebies.info.
Nabaza.com provides
solutions to everyday
webmastery task like search
engine submissions, internet
promotion, and sticking your
visitors to your site.
Become a member now for as
low as U.S. $100.00 a
year.Nabaza.com specializes
in building, designing,
implementing, managing and
maintaining corporate
website to boost sales of
your company.
Email william@nabaza.com for
information on functional,
dynamic webpage designing
with affordable packages.
Subscribe for free!http://www.nabaza.com/sites.htm
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