Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Building High-Quality Google Adsense Websites At The Spee...

With the latest trend of building websites specifically to gain revenue from Google’s Adsense program, there has been a number of software applications released that allow you to build such websites at extreme speed.The only problem is, the websites such software produce are useless to most visitors. They simply show scraped search engine results that offer no real value.These websites only exi. . .

Website Design Considerations

Q: Should I build and maintain my business Web site myself or pay someone else to do the work for me? -- Wesley L.A: When you say, pay someone else to do the work for you, Wesley, I am going to assume that you are talking about hiring a professional Web site designer to do the work and not your next-door neighbor's teenage son. If my assumption is correct, then read on. If not, go ahead and sur. . .

What Exactly Is Virtual Web Hosting?

So you have decided that you want to start a website, or even an e-commerce site. You have managed the site design, and have even purchased a domain name, but now what? You will never get any visitors to your site if it isn’t accessible via the web. The only way to do that is by using a server. The server will maintain a permanent connection with the web and on the server will be stored all t. . .

If You Build It, Will They Come?

QUESTION:Should I build and maintain my business Web site myself or pay someone else to do the work for me? -- Wesley L.ANSWER:When you say, pay someone else to do the work for you, Wesley, I am going to assume that you are talking about hiring a professional Web site designer to do the work and not your next-door neighbor’s teenage son. If my assumption is correct, then read on. If not, go ahe. . .

Has Your Website Outgrown Shared Hosting?

Just when your website becomes successful and at last you are getting the sort of traffic you have been dreaming of, you get the dreaded email. Your web host informs you that the high number of visitors is monopolizing the server and unless reduced immediately your account may be terminated (often without a refund) for breaking its terms of service. If this story sounds familiar, then you are o. . .

Three Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Website

When I call on businesses offering my web design and hosting services, the first question I ask, naturally, is “Does your business have a web site?” If not, then I ask for the person in charge of these things (for my niche, usually the owner) and give my pitch. It's 2006, so you would think that they would jump, but it's not that easy. The small independent businesses that don't have web sit. . .

Finding a Search Engine Friendly Content Management System

What is a Content Management System?A Content Management System (CMS) is a third party software application which allows web site administrators to add, update or delete content, photos, and documents to their web site in "real time". Many web sites are modified using these web-based tools as they require little to no knowledge of HTML or web scripting languages. CMS programs make it easy for a. . .

Do They Speak English?

Double your customer base… by repeating the same things!Are you unknowingly restricting your market to more than half of your potential customer base? Are you alienating an important number of your visitors? If, your site is only in English and not translated in other key languages, you’re undoubtedly are! Did you know that as of 2005, around 300M users accessed the Internet in English, while a. . .

How To Choose Which Web Development Package Is Right For You

There are plenty of options when it comes to web site creation software and a wannabe web designer might have a hard time deciding which to choose. We will have a look at the most popular web creation programs: Front Page, Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive. All three offer a user-friendly interface and plenty of beginner and advanced options that will allow you to create the website of your dreams. . . .

Tips on Creating a Site Map

A quick search on Google for advice on creating a site mapinitially threw up many links to software you could buy ordownload for free to create a site map. But why do you need a site map?Basically as websites get larger and more complex both thehuman browser and the search engine spiders need an easy tofollow map to find all the pages within your site. A sitemap gives them a simple navigational. . .

Have a Customer Catching Site with Great Ecommerce Web Si...

E-commerce web site development is all the rage in these days of the Internet boom, even after the big days of dot.com busts. The dream of making it huge in a short time may be over but the reliability the ecommerce provides is still quite remarkable.For an online economy that is constantly rising, using the latest technologies from leading providers will give you access to a lot of business tr. . .

Improve Your Visitors Experience - Add Scripts to Your We...

For new webmasters, adding third-party software and scripting to a website can be a really scary proposition. I remember when I put my first scripts on my own website. Even with my basic dos programming experience in high school, I was still intimidated by the whole process. I was so sure that I was going to screw something up.The very first script I ever installed on my website was a Graphical. . .

8 TOP Ways To Promote Your RSS/XML Feed For MAXIMUM Exposure

RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is the new technology on the block and is taking the Internet by storm as Internet marketers are hurrying to incorporate this new form of communication and technology into there existing online businesses to Maximize there exposure online with NEW and/or Existing customers. I recently received a post on my Blog from a fellow that inspired me to write this article s. . .

Great Online Resources for Webmasters

As the web becomes increasingly more crowded, it is important for webmasters to take the extra step to make their web sites user friendly. There are a number of free resources available to webmasters:What is a Favorite Icon - Favicon?Favorite icons, also known as favicon, appear in the URL bar. When a user bookmarks a specific Web page, that Web page loads a customized icon into the user's brow. . .

How to Make Visitors Add You to Their Favorites

If you want your visitors to come back again and again, you've got to get them to add your website to their favorites (also known as bookmarks in some browsers). That's the menu where they can save websites that they want to use again, clicking them easily to get to them. Being added to a user's favorites is like getting an ad for your website right there in their browser's menu, for nothing. B. . .

FTP - File Transfer Protocol

FTP is a protocol that your computer uses to communicate to other computers on the network, including the Internet. FTP allows you to login into a server and upload or download files. The most common use of FTP for web hosting, is to update your web site, by uploading files to the server.Here are some terms for your reference:Uploading: Transferring files from your computer to the server.Downlo. . .

Domain Name Registrars

Have you ever heard of the companies GoDaddy, eNom, or Network Solutions? These companies are domain name registrars. Domain names are the way humans remember webpages, and websites. For example, google.com is a lot easier to remember than the IP address of the website 64.233.187.99.Visitors of your website, want a domain name, rather than an IP address to remember, so they can view your webpag. . .

Why Should I Pay for Web Hosting?

The advent of blogging and free blog space has brought about a revolution in web publishing that pushes the boundaries of terms like “webmaster” and “website.” In today’s brave new world of Internet publishing for the masses, the traditional means of building and hosting a personal website has fallen out of favor for many new webmasters.If you count yourself among the many bloggers who use a fr. . .

Small Business Websites: The Beginning of Something Big

Nowadays people check on the internet first when they want to find a product or a service. This popularity has made the Internet the biggest market wherein you can find a product or a service to cater to your needs. Many enterprising people have discovered this and have started their own business or have expanded their businesses to include an Internet division.If you have a business then you n. . .

Website Optimisation & Design: Which Screen Resolution to...

It is at times a common mistake for web designers, especially beginners, to create a website which is not optimised for various screen resolutions. With over 40 different screen resolutions, it is extremely important to optimise your web pages for the most popular screen resolutions so that your web pages can be viewed by a greater number of online visitors.Here are some basic facts to consider. . .

Knowing When is Enough

How many times hove you been to a website and could not tell where the ads stop and the content begins? You spend a few minutes trying to figure out what the site does? And then you leave.Knowing when is enough can be a tricky thing. It also depends on what you’re trying to do with your site. If your goal is only to sell stuff on your site then maybe having ads cover 95% of your site is a go. . .

Developing Websites With A Theme

I like to think of the theme of a website as something that makes the website easily identifiable. It can be a combination of colour patterns, navigation effects, layout...etc that leave a lasting impression on the user. All design elements in the site combine seamlessless to convey a strong message effectively to the user.Every website needs a theme. When designing a website, it must be build . . .

Top 5 Mistakes that Drive Your Visitors Away in Less than...

You took the leap. You set up a website to display yourimportant message. Congratulations! As in life, firstimpressions are important on the web. Web researchers found thatyou have about 2 minutes to make that first impression a goodone. Visitors will judge your site in those few seconds on itsprofessionalism and appropriateness to what they are looking for. In fact, a website can lose about on. . .

Quality Website Design At An Affordable Price

I always have people asking me if I know of anybody who can build them a website which is affordable but also professional looking. They want the website to be search engine friendly, there is no point in having a website if no one can see it, and fully optimised.I am sure there are many people looking for something similar. In my opinion you should not have to spend a lot of money for such a s. . .

Website Colors That Turn Off Your Customers

Using too many colors or the wrong combination of colors could alienate or turn off customers completely. Out of any form of non-verbal communication, color is the quickest way to communicate a message and meaning. Many studies have been done on the psychology of color and the subconscious emotions that they create. Studies have shown that color can help improve recall, comprehension, and under. . .

Essential Of Good Web Design

If you want to design a web site, you should follow nine rules of thumb.1. General Impression Your web site is like a window display of your business. If the impression that it creates is not good enough visitors will simply leave.Your site must be: Neat Organized Attractive Professional It is better if your site shows less than too much. Over crowded websites, with too many flashy elements, cr. . .

The Problem of Maintaining Websites

When I was a young child I used to hear my parents tell me that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. When I was hungry it was easy for me to put a lot on my plate, but as I began to eat I would find that I really didn’t want as much as I thought I did. Today we see a lot of webmasters that have eyes that are bigger than their stomachs.The problem that we all face is that when we start a new p. . .

How To Design Your Site Effectively

You decide you want to have a web presence. How do you design your website in a way that is effective? How do you effectively create website in a way that makes your clients want to come back? A client or visitor to your website may not want to come back if their experience on your website is tedious and cumbersome. Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing your website:- Don't use a lo. . .

Universal Web Design Catering to All of Your Visitors

The world wide web is an extremely unique place that allows everybody to have access to the same information from all around the world. This truly is an ability never experienced before by humankind. Just as exciting is the fact that this resource is always growing, expanding, and improving, so that a web user is limited only by his or her own imagination.As the world wide web continues to gro. . .

Applied Software Project Management Book Review

It’s not often that a software project management book comes along that is practical, easy to read and stacked full of ready to use process scripts. Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene have done just that with recent book Applied Software Project Management. There are too many books about software project management or software engineering which are dry, overly complex and boring, but this book. . .

Link Building Campaign

How to get referrals and gain credibility on the Web Is your goal to get more traffic on your Website without spending a lot of money? Is it important that your Website is easy for your prospects to find on the Web? Though there are many things that contribute to a quality, well-positioned Website, increased link popularity - done properly - will establish your business as trustworthy on the In. . .

About HTML fonts

It is very tempting to use fancy looking fonts when designing a web page. After all, the fancier the font the more attractive it will be to visitors and the more likely they will be to stay at your page once they've gotten there. Actually, the reverse is often true.Most people go to a web page because they are interested in the information that is there, either an article they want to read abou. . .

Running An Effective Website

Running an effective website is a continuous process. I have compiled five (5) ways of doing it on a regular basis.1. Maintain and Optimize Your Site.Maintenance is making sure your site is technically ready for visitors. To do this, a web site owner needs to regularly run site diagnostics to unearth common problems, such as browser compatibility, load time performance, dead links, link popular. . .

Turn Your Website into a Pot of Gold

Out of 500 million web pages, is yours among the very few that visitors will remember? Businesses are catching on as far as hiring professionals to design their websites. A professional looking website does give visitors an immediate, positive impression. However, no matter how well designed, a basic website does not leave a lasting impression. Visitors won't forever recall your spiffy "Loc. . .

10 Indirect Ways To Get To The Top Of Search Engines

There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 spots of the major search engines. That amounts to an awful lot of competition and even after spending hours and hours on Search Engine Optimization techniques you may still not be able to achieve a high ranking for your competitive keywords! However, if it proves too difficult for you to get high rankings directly, there are st. . .

How to Make Money From Your Website

Are you a webmaster and don't know how to make a profit with your website? Or do you want to create a site but don't know how to get started?If you fit in the latter, here's a few suggestions:- Choose a topic for your site. Preferably, you should choose a topic that you are familiar with and that you enjoy. The worst thing you can do is choose a topic you are not comfortable with and your site . . .

The Basics of Starting Your Own Website

You will note from the title that this article is for the beginners. The very first thing to consider is what kind of software you will use. I admit, my personal favorite is Microsoft FrontPage. It is what is known as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web site editor. It enables webmasters to create websites without knowing any HTML. Those of you who write HTML code like a second languag. . .

Customer's Excellence Generates to Web Site Hosting!

For those of you with Web sites, you credibly love what a "host" is. It's a company that provides a location, or address, along the Internet where your Web site resides. In other words, virtuous wish a physical business needs an savoir-faire, so does a Web locate. It can't have a Web land site and just "mystify it up" on the Web. Unless you want to set up your own host, you have to give out thr. . .

The 8 'Must Do' Rules For Effective Website Design

To succeed at your online business (whether you are selling your own product/service or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate), you need a Web design must be just for that - a simple, focused site. One that is easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.Having the right tool and the right product alone doesn’t insure the s. . .

The Future of Web Design - What is DotNetNuke®?

Have you discovered that within months your website becomes out of date and becomes a headache to maintain? DotNetNuke is the answer to your problems.DotNetNuke® OverviewDotNetNuke® is a portal content management system (CMS) ideal for creating any type of website from commercial web sites, corporate intranets and extranets, online publishing portals, to a personal blog.DotNetNuke® is provided . . .

Creating a Search Engine Friendly Web Site

The object of every webmaster is to get their site listed in a search engine, but what do you do to make that happen? There is so much competition out there.Here are some ideas and things I've noticed with my websites. First of all Google likes urls that don't have question marks. Sure, we've all seen those type of urls in Google, but they are less likely to appear than short static looking url. . .

Know Your Competition: How To Transfer Business Skills In...

One of the first things to do before starting up any business is to investigate the competition. Any business owner knows this is crucial; to determine how to position a business in the market, who to target, what prices to set and who to keep an eye on. The same is true of the internet marketplace.However, this understanding is rarely transferred when a business decides to ‘go online’. Perhaps. . .

Is Your Website Breaking The Law?

So let’s get straight to the point. Is your website breaking the law? Well, in October 2004 we reached the deadline of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), 1995 in which the DDA ordered service providers to make "reasonable adjustments" to the physical features of their premises to ensure the services they provide are accessible to people with disabilities. The 175 page code of practice for. . .

How a Blackbelt Got Raped By a Bunch of NERDS!

I’ve got to tell you a funny story that happened to me recently…A few weeks ago, I was playing golf with a friend of mine who owns a chain of martial arts studios. While we were playing he began telling me about how he had just spent over $50,000 having a website designed to promote his business. He went on for over thirty minutes bragging about how beautiful the graphics and pictures were and . . .

Tips for a Successful Website for Any Organization, NGO o...

Most NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) don’t understand these important aspects of a successful website. Even many governmental organizations (GOs) could improve their sites by following these tips.1. Everything should be viewed and evaluated with the eyes of the visitor: "What’s in for me" as the main benchmark for a successful website. That is pertaining to the copy and to the content wha. . .

Is Your Website Really Working For You?

The telephone does not begin ringing as soon as a website is operational. It is quite simple to identify how many enquiries flow from a website; however, it’s impossible to calculate how many visitors have not even reached your website, because it has not been marketed effectively. 3 basic steps you must take to make your website work for you are: Step 1 Look critically at how easily and quickl. . .

Free Automatic Content - Can the Search Engines See Yours?

Ever heard any of this advice?* Content Is King - so Search Engines and Visitors will Love your Site* Make Your Site Sticky - so Visitors will Return* Add New Content Regularly - so Search Engines will Rank your Site HigherAre they true statements?Yes.Getting fresh, new content on your site on a regular basis is a must but you MUST do it right to get the results you want?Now let me ask you, did. . .

Not All People Are Into Solving Mysteries

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 . . .

Printing Away From The Desk

Let us talk about the good thing first. The best thing about digital photography is that you have the capacity to play back your images any day and anytime you want to. Now the bad thing. With digital photos, you have to wait to get back to your desk to make copies of the pictures. This was before exciting new products came into existence.Making high quality, full color prints when you are thou. . .

The Star Of The Catalog Show

Printing catalogs is not just about putting on everything designers learned in design school. Or choosing the proper layout and fonts. There are many factors that should be considered first. There are also some sure fire tips to make the factors work for the best.The merchandise should be the star of the show. Of the entire publication, for that matter. And why not? It is what you are trying to. . .