Webdesign services

Webdesign services 09/28/2009

Webdesign and SEO services for your company

Comments

Sachin

09/30/2009 00:49

Web Designers -Referral system -
Partner with us.
At the Website Designing we operate a sales referral scheme which could literally earn you hundreds of dollars in commissions every month.

40 per cent of all business owners in the world do not as yet have a website but are likely to get one in the next 5 years. That equates to millions of business owners who are potential clients for us.

With so many people in need of a website, the chances are that you might know some of them. If you do, then simply send them in our contacts, and if we get the job we will pay you a commission of 'up to 20 per cent' of what we get paid.

A typical small business website consisting of 7 or 8 pages comes to USD 800. For a job this size, we would post you a commission cheque to the value of USD 160. More specialised the website or bigger the website - higher the payouts.

If you happen to come into contact with a lot of small businesses on a daily basis - perhaps you work for a printers, or a recruitment company, or marketing consultancy, then it is possible you would be in a position to send a lot of business our way and we would be very interested to form some kind of relationship with you.

Call us +91 98211 50889.
Email - admin@hiflyingllc.com

priti

10/03/2009 01:01

How do search engines rank your web site?

There are general rules search engines follow while determining the value of your web site. Search engines look at the following information and the keyword phrases within them to determine where your web site will rank (listed in order of importance):

Title-tag: the text that appears at the very top of a web page, usually set apart in a blue heading and that is placed between the tags on a web page. You can modify and change these using under the content section of your Premier Site administration area.

Headings: these are the headings or titles that you usual put in your web pages to highlight topics throughout your site. You can create heading in your site by highlighting text and selecting the "Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3... Heading 6" options in the toolbar of your Premier Site content editing tool.

Site Content: the content throughout the pages of your site; particularly the first paragraph.

Image ALT-tag: "alternative text" is used to describe images. When you mouse over an image, this is the tag that appears. These can be easily added when using the image insert function of your Premier Site content editing tool.

Hypertext Link TITLE-tag: text in a web site that takes consumers to another web page when clicked. It's a word or set of words inside an "a href" "title" tag. You can modify the title tag of these hypertext links when creating them with your Premier Site content editing tool.

META-tags: these are pieces of text placed in the header of a web page. Text in a META-tag is used to describe the page. You can modify and change these using under the content section of your Premier Site administration area.

Relevant Inbound Links: refers to the number and quality of content-relevant web sites that link to yours. It is very helpful to contact other industry related companies and try to arrange to get links to your site from theirs, sometimes you'll need to put a link back to them in exchange. The more sites that link back to you the more popular the search engines think your site is. Remember that they must be from relevant industry related sites however. The search engine programmers have created automated algorithms that compare the keywords and information of the site containing your link with the keywords and information in your site to determine if the sites are related. Links from unrelated sites won't hurt you, but they won't help either.

shilpa

10/03/2009 01:06

Google submission.

FREE SUBMISSION OPTIONS

Web Site Hosting and Design The "Submit Your Site" option is free and will at least get your site indexed by Googles web crawler, Googlebot. Just submit the main URL "http://www.yourdomain.com" (minus the
quotes). Googlebot will follow all the links in your site to index the rest of the pages.

Before you submit your site, however, you should check to see if it already exists in Google. To do this go to http://www.google.com and type "site:yourdomain.com" (minus the quotes) where you would normally type your search phrase, and click "Search". The results will show all pages within yoursite that have been indexed already. If any results are found, then there is no need to submit your site. Re-submitting your site won't change anything. Once your site has been indexed by Google it will continue to be re-indexed every 10 days or so. Now you just need to massage the content in your site, so that it ranks better in the organic listings.

You can submit your site URL to Google by going to http://www.google.com/addurl.html

Web Site Hosting and Design The "Sitemaps" protocol is supported by Google. So you can use the Sitemap Builder tool in your Premier site admin to create a sitemap and then you'll need to create an account with Google and then submit your sitemap.

If you would like to learn the basics about sitemaps and their role in the search engine world

PAID SUBMISSION OPTIONS

Web Site Hosting and Design "Google AdWords", you set your own daily budget and maximum per click payment. There's no minimum spending requirement. You're only charged if someone clicks on your ad, not when it is displayed. Go to http://adwords.google.com for more information or to setup a free account.

vinita

10/03/2009 01:08

Why do websites fail?
what are the 5 reasons websites fail?

1. Lack of business objectives: A website needs to have specific objectives such as sell products, generate leads, provide customer support or branding your company as the authority. The website then needs to be designed and structured to accomplish these objectives.
2. Lack of a traffic strategy: Where are your website visitors going to come from? Using organic SEO, pay-per-click or even referral strategies takes planning. You will want to focus on visitors who are likely to need and want your products or services.
3. Lack of a conversion strategy: In your physical business you have a certain selling sequence that works for you. You get a prospect’s attention, get them interested and then work to close the sale. Your website should do the same. Design your best selling sequence into the website navigation and guide your prospects through this.
4. Lack of interesting content: Too many websites just put up some information about their business without regard to solving a problem for a visitor. People search the web for solutions to issues or needs they have. Provide original information that answers these needs.
5. Lack of an interaction strategy: How do you stay in front of interested prospects? Sure they found you once, but will they come back? Use social media such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. You can also add an email capture form and send out newsletters or even special reports and offers to interested people. Use auto responders to deliver these 24/7.

Vini

Sally

10/03/2009 01:10

Interesting statistics.

1. 70% of websites don’t last 3 years without optimization. This is a 2007 study of 420 websites, some with SEO and some without. In this study group, after 3 years, 70% of the non-optimized sites were no longer live on the Internet while only 31% of the optimized websites had disappeared.
2. 97% of websites still inaccessible. In 2006 the United Nations commissioned a study of 100 popular websites from 20 countries. Only 3% of the sites analyzed met Single-A accessibility for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 1.0 (WCAG 1.0). This was deemed important because it showed there is a global failure to provide the most basic level of web accessibility for people with disabilities.
3. Only 4.1% of websites have valid code. A study of 3.5 million web pages showed the vast majority have error filled code. This affects website usability and cross browser compatibility for websites.
4. 80% of websites vulnerable to hacker attacks. A Cenzic trend report checking for website security vulnerabilities is showing an increase in the percent of websites being vulnerable to hacker attacks.
5. 2%-3% of ecommerce visitors are converted from visitors into buyers. This is from a 2007 study from the e-tailing group. This means 97-98% of ecommerce visitors do not buy. Is this considered a failure?
6. “Around 80 percent of websites are terribly flawed,” says Finley… This is an opinion from someone who helps businesses plan and develop website strategies. This is probably a pretty accurate educated opinion.

Sally.

Peter

10/03/2009 01:13

Web Design

A Good business web design starts with thinking about your customer and what is it that they are looking for? Internet marketing is different than normal business marketing because the web is an impersonal place. Always focus on ways to humanize and personalize your business.

Before you can start designing the website, you need to decide what the purpose and goals of the website are. What are the company’s goals? The web design produces a marketing piece. The Internet marketing strategies need to be consistent with the marketing strategies for the organization.

Business web design requires that websites be designed with CLASS. The web design acronym CLASS highlights the elements of best in class web design. They are Content, Logical flow, Aesthetics, Simplicity and Search engine optimization. Top business website designers uses a balance of these five key elements to produce websites that meet the goals of business owners.

Eye-catching graphics and style will fail miserably if there is an unfocused message or if no visitors end up coming to the website. The right planning combined with these five elements will produce a winning website.

* Content: Remember visitors arriving are fast paced, click happy and easily bored. Your website content needs to grab your visitor’s attention in order to get results. Content is what tells what you have to offer and creates a “call to action.” If the content does not provide the information needed it will provide little value.
* Logical flow: The organization and flow should follow the natural selling process. Organizing your website’s navigation may seem simple, but it actually requires a good deal of careful thought. One of the first steps is to establish the call to action. What are your goals and what action do you want visitors to take?
* Aesthetics: Develop that right first impression through style, color and simplicity. Design draws your visitors to what is important. Blending of color, graphics and design creates an emotional response to make your website memorable. Color communicates powerfully in business web design. Aesthetics bring in the emotional response that is so important in branding.
* Simplicity: Create a simple and focused message to avoid confusion and gets results. In design you want to capture the visitor’s attention with your message. With search engines, focus and simplicity gets faster and better results. It is important to get the visitor’s attention and understand the purpose of the website in 3 seconds or less.
* SEO: The perfect website without visitors is utterly worthless. Search engine optimization should be designed into the website. Web designers should chart out their SEO plan before beginning their design. Start with keyword research, create a keyword plan and use these keywords in page names, navigation, linking and headings to dramatically improve the design’s effectiveness.

A well-designed website has many facets, but it hard to beat a website designed with CLASS.

seoman

10/03/2009 01:14

SEO Copywriting Service

Web copywriting basics is very different then writing for print. Visitors come in to a website and within 5 seconds you have to “hook” them before they are gone and onto another website. Search engines also look at your text and it is important to have web site copy optimization. You have to design your web copy so visitors understand the essence of your site without having to scroll down and search engines will see valuable content.
Seven Ways to Create Powerful and Compelling Text

1. Enticing headline focused on the benefits
2. Use bulleted text that is quick to read
3. State the problem from the client's point of view
4. Offer multiple benefits
5. Thorough list of features
6. Long copy sells better than short copy
7. Ask for action now

The key to writing effective copy that sells is simply learning how to write persuasive words specifically written for your targeted customer. You must completely understand their needs and write your copy with excitement and benefits. Answer the unasked question, exactly what's in it for them. Write copy that evokes emotion and stresses your product's benefits.

Targeting is critical: When you're looking at "everyone" as potential customers you miss your best customers. Sure, you'll get a scattering of people who don't fit your profile, but you need to aim your marketing at a carefully defined group of people. Determine who your customers are and what benefits they expect. What are their demographics, age, gender, etc. Write your copy to be interesting and in terms that your targeted customer will understand.

What your triggers them to buy? Work these triggers into your sales copy.
5 Common Reasons that will Trigger Buying Decisions:

1. People will buy to save money
2. People will also buy to make money
3. People will buy something if it saves them time
4. People will buy a product or service if it makes life easier
5. People will buy something if it improves their safety

Remember that buying is not a rational decision. “People buy based on emotion and justify with fact.” Factors affecting how customers make decisions are extremely complex. Buyer behavior is deeply rooted in psychology with dashes of sociology thrown in just to make things more interesting.

seoman

Jane

10/03/2009 05:18

Mobile Phone Development xhtml Mobile Profile 1.1
We’ve built plenty of web applications. Social networking websites, online directories, corporate brochure websites, flash viral marketing pieces and plenty of e-commerce stores.

What seems to be hot right now though are the requests we receive for PDA and other mobile computing devices. If you don’t have an i-phone, you probably carry something like it. A Blackberry, Palm, Treo to name a few. So many phones have internet access now and users are demanding access to their favorite websites.

We’re evolving our focus to specialize not only in software as service for enabling desktop applications to the web, but also for mobile devices. I imagine in the not so far future users will be able to shop more easily from their mobile devices with high speed internet in any major city. We’re currently creating an application for home health services allowing the staff to update records on the fly from their i-phones at each visit. It increases productivity, reduces paperwork and is so easy.

Vanila

10/03/2009 05:20

Add a Searchable Database to Your Website.

Adding a searchable database to your website is a great way to improve sales and advertise online. The database can be for almost anything from used farm equipment, surplus factory equipment, estate sale items, vacation rentals, your portfolio or animals that need a home.

Adding photos, categories and text descriptions allow visitors to search and find exactly what they need as part of the “pre-sale” step for your website. Marketing your inventory online is a great Internet marketing strategy and can frequently be added to a current website.

Structured correctly, these databases are regularly spidered by the search engines. So if you include specifics such as manufacturer and model number, these will come up in online searches. Databases of specialty used equipment and equipment parts do remarkably well with these online equipment databases.

Many pieces of older factory equipment are impossible to find replacement parts for. We have clients that buy used factory equipment at auctions. They then list the individual parts and then add photos and detailed descriptions to their online databases. They then receive a steady stream of inquires from inquires for the exact part they have in stock and are able to quickly complete a sale.

Searchable databases are an excellent way to market anything that you keep in inventory.

Please contact Doug Williams and Associates for a quote on your web site project.

Richard

10/03/2009 05:21

Custom PHP Database Applications.
Custom PHP MySQL databases are used to add interactive functionality to websites. By adding online tools, searchable databases of your work, pricing wizards and complex sign-up applications you can automate your business website. This can effectively lower your operating costs and improve your level of customer service.

By combining the server side technology of PHP database programming with your specific business functions, you can allow 24/7 access to applications designed to sell or service your customers.

The difference between a web designer and a web developer is that a developer usually has more back-end programming skills for building shopping carts and member databases. At Doug Williams and Associates we have both teams of high end graphic designers and high end PHP web developers.

These are some examples of our web development portfolio

1. Online DISC personality profile Free team building tool
2. Online business analysis tool Determine the strengths and weaknesses in your business management.
3. Searchable web design portfolio Ability to browse or search photos and descriptions
4. Futon furniture and beds Searchable database of products carried at their retail store
5. Plastic injection molded parts Photo gallery of products they have produced
6. Portland Oregon luxury condos Site map graphically showing available and sold units
7. Lead referral groups Online membership application
8. Commercial equipment loan application Secure online loan application
9. Custom tempered glass pricing wizard Calculates price based on size, thickness and material and then processes order.
10. Searchable stolen property database Designed for use by insurance companies and consumers to report stolen property.

Tipper

10/03/2009 05:24

30 Tips for a great SEO.

Tip No. 1

- Study and read everything possible about advanced SEO techniques right from the start of your project.

Tip No. 2

- Always keep in mind that designs are cool, but what is equally important is the code that goes behind it.

Tip No. 3

- Always keep the code optimized, check for W3C compliance right from the start.

Tip No. 4

- Follow the basics, titles, meta tags are still important if not ignored, so keep space for them.

Tip No. 5

- Keep a horizontal directory structure, don’t go too deep with them, the search engines likes easy access to any file in the quickest time.

Tip No. 6

- When you name the files and directories, keep it descriptive and simple. Keep away numbers and weird characters.

Tip No. 7

- Images better be optimized for size, and quick loading. If you can’t keep away from loading that fancy graphic, mix it with the page elements. Don’t make them look blunt.

Tip No. 8

- Make room for a lot of text. As you already know, search engines love text, lot of them.

Tip No. 9

- Flash files are cool. And Search engines have found better ways to crawl and index them unlike old times, but that doesn’t mean you can use them extensively blocking access to relevant text info. So if you are keen on using flash, keep alternate text versions ready.

Tip No. 10

- If you have dynamic content, make sure you keep it simple and split to parts. Also, make sure you have optimized static pages for your primary keywords.

Tip No. 11

- Always do a bit of competition analysis. See what your competition is, if they have a minimalistic design you don’t want to have a flash design, and leaving no room for improvement. Stalk your competition.

Tip No. 12

- Many web designers make the mistake of using a template through out the site and many a times this includes repeating the same title or similar page titles all over the site. Get over this, use descriptive page titles everywhere possible.

Tip No. 13

- Keep the page titles to 65 characters or less in count. Nothing wrong is going over it, but you could avoid a spill over.

Tip No. 14

- The meta descriptions are supposed to be mini ad-copies that should be descriptive of what the page is about. Don’t keep them the same for all pages.

Tip No. 15

- Keep the JavaScript away from navigation menu. Navigation menu is a good resource for gathering information about what your site is about, and using javascript can make it less crawlable by the engines.

Tip No. 16

- Use CSS based navigation if you want fancy effects. Pretty much all of the javasript stuff can be done on CSS, in a more search engines friendly way.

Tip No. 17

- Use the header tags effectively. Don’t limit yourself with H1 and H2. Use H3, H4 and beyond and use it wisely on the page.

Tip No. 18

- Use strong tags wisely. Don’t let them stand out like bolded text, within the content, style it down to show up as normal text within the content.

Tip No. 19

- Use the footer effectively. Of course, you can use it for all your TOS/Legal stuff, but also use it to link to the important pages on your site. It helps.

Tip No. 20

- Identify the most important pages on your site as seen by the search engines, and leverage them to promote other resource pages.

Tip No. 21

- Link well internally, and use descriptive anchor text instead of “click here” and “check this out” like phrases.

Tip No. 22

- Use al tags, Title tags on images and use descriptive filenames. They help search engines find more information about them.

Tip No. 23

- Use a SEO friendly layout, at least one that does not block or hinder the crawling of crucial areas on your site.

Tip No. 24

- Find out the important areas on your website, like the content rich area in the center and keep them above the fold. Not only helps the engines but the user as well.

Tip No. 25

- When designing dynamic pages, try to stick to pages with descriptive URLs and not the one with session ids and other parameters. Google can still get it’s head around them, but its good if you can stick to SE friendly, descriptive ones.

Tip No. 26

- When dealing with CMS’s there might be instances where you have to keep the page URL the default way with the extra parameters. Use URL rewrite mod to re write the most important pages URL’s to SE friendly form.

Tip No. 27

- When using AJAX, load the modules in parts split across pages and not in one single page. Although this defeats the purpose of using AJAX in the first place, you might be able to provide more information to the search engines using other on site SEO parameters.

Tip No. 28

- If you want to block any particular area on your site from the reach of Google spiders, use either Robots.txt commands, or else set up a login access. This is the safest way to block crawlers

Tipper

10/03/2009 05:25

Tip No. 29

- Keep the meta descriptions descriptive and precise to about 150 characters.

Tip No.30
- Use an SEO simulator to test your design through out the process. And make sure no part of the design blocks/hinders any part of information being accessible to the search engines.

So essentially, web designers got to ensure that while their designs are unique and eye-catchy, making sure that there is enough information available in the form of text is always recommended, and leveraging this information by using all the possible SEO metrics in a healthy and balanced way to cater to the search engines is the right way of designing a search engine friendly web design.

Having said that, please remember that there is no right and wrong way of doing things. You got to understand your requirements, your resources and make a tailor made strategy that works for your niche. And that’s what is really important.

oops - the balance 2
Tipper

SEO expert

10/03/2009 05:29

SEO Facts and Fiction.

1. Using Robots.txt is the safest way to keep a page/site from being crawled.

Actually not. Even if you blocked a page through the “disallow” tag on robots.txt, Google might still crawl it following an external incoming link. The safest way to block out a page from being crawled 100% is to add a password secure login to that page. Bots won’t get past it.
2. The meta description displayed on the SERPs is always the few lines of text you specify.

No. Google’s algorithm has updated lately which will pick up matching lines/phrases from the page content to the search query and display selective parts of the content on the SERPs snippets. Particularly relevant for longer search queries.
3. Changing the crawl rate settings in Webmasters tools console will change the Google crawl rate once and for all.

Apparently not. Google will also check your posting/publishing frequency and set an appropriate crawling frequency based on it, despite your manual setting.
4. Adding a plugin like the AllinOneSEO puts your blog into auto SEO mode.

I wish if it did. In fact, a plugin will take care of the most important parts, but sometimes they do harm more than good. Like the auto generate meta description feature of All in One SEO, can create more duplicate entries in certain themes, if you set it to auto generate. Its always best to do it all manually, while leaving certain parts for the plugins.
5. Following a 4% Keyword density will help in optimizing the content.

Search Engines are clever enough to detect any particular patterns in the site content. While its best not to follow any predictable pattern, using them cleverly can give you results. Keyword Density is no longer a metric SE’s count, so get over it. Rather focus o relevancy factor.
6. Linking to authority websites will help your reputation.

Well, if it did, then I guess everyone would start doing the same and it would not make any difference. While linking to authority websites is a healthy habit, they don’t give you any added advantage.
7. A higher Page Rank means better chances of ranking.

Repeated this several times already. Page Rank has no direct association with your SERPs ranks, however getting a higher Page Rank means a lot of quality work and authority.
8. Adding H1 tags to keywords directly help in SEO.

Header tags used in the content definitely supports SEO, but they are no stand alone factors that will directly give you any push.
9. Submitting to search engines is the only way to get indexed.

No. Getting a relevant link from other sites is the better way to get indexed.
10. A flash page means bad SEO.

Not at all. Using flash will definitely give you less options for SEO compared to a content rich page, but that doesn’t mean bad SEO. You can focus on other SEO factors and get equally good if not better results.
11. Adding a WordPress blog will automatically fix your site’s SEO.

WordPress is a great tool. But just adding one to your site/replacing with it will not give you any edge. You have to use it wisely to get the results.
12. The more the internal links the better.

Technically true, but its not just about the numbers. You have to use the proper anchor texts and use relevant link placement to get the maximum benefits.
13. Dynamic URLs are bad for the site.

Not any more. Trimming them to a much understandable format is better and saves a lot of time, however the most commonly used and avoidable parameters are “known” to Google and there is no extra effort required to convert them to an SEO friendly format, especially when the content is optimized and SE friendly.
14. Sitelinks appear only for websites who have high PR.

Sitelinks are auto generated for websites with high traffic. There is nothing you can do control them except to block some of the links from appearing using WebMaster tools.
15. Adding keywords to meta tags gives you a direct push on the SERPs.

Meta Keywords help you in getting more clicks from the SERPs, by serving more like and ad copy. Stuffing them with keywords won’t help you at all. They have to be relevant, descriptive and attractive.
16. Using a meta nofollow header tag on the page will “block” the search engines from crawling the page.

No. The page could still be crawled if the bots follow an external link to that page. Nofollow meta tag is not the surest way of keeping the bots away.
17. Adding Canonical URL tag to a page will stop the bots from scanning that page.

Again, bots will scan the page first as they land on them. But they will ultimately “forward” all the queries to the original URL. There are chances of Google looking into the landed page however.
18. A deep directory structure is bad for SEO.

Not always. Deep directories are fine as long as they are well linked and connected. An endless loop of deep directory is not good however.
19.

SEO expert

10/03/2009 05:30

SEO facts and fiction - something I left behind for you.

19. All external links should be nofollowed to protect your page rank.

Page Rank is determined based on who links to you and not always about whom you link to. There’s nothing to “preserve”.
20. Adding more keywords to the page title will always help you in seo.

It helps you make a spam of your site not SEO. In very less competitive spaces, it may give some immediate results, but you won’t see them sustain.
21. Bolding out keywords on the content helps.

Not always. Bolding out important phrases/words using strong tags are okay as long as they are done in a non-spammy way. It doesn’t mean that every time you add them, there is a chance of search engines picking them up.
22. SEO is a one month process. Do it and get it done !

SEO is not a quick fix. It requires regular check ups and updates. Nothing can be achieved in short term.
23. Nofollow incoming links from other sites are no good.

Technically, nofollow links are not followed. But Google has its own signals to find out whether a nofollow links from a high authority site is relevant or not. So nofollow from high authority sites are always good, at least they’ll fetch you some extra links from other sites. So I can’t say that they are useless.
24. Search Engine Positions are guaranteed.

As you might already know there is never a guarantee. But quality SEO can always assure you good results.
25. If you did all the ten things for SEO, there is no beating you and you’ll remain on the top forever.

Wish if it did. But if the nine others did extremely well as you, you’d again fall back. So its a continuous struggle and there is nothing permanent. So, what are the SEO myths that you think is popular among others. Would you like to add your own ?

Arun

10/05/2009 23:14

Why Web Designers Should Subscribe to RSS Feeds?

At the beginning of my journey as a web designer, I relied heavily on online tutorials and forums for techniques that I needed. Like most people, my degree at school was not in the field I wanted to pursue, and I was self taught learning from free online resources. I would type away on the Google search, swoop in and find what I needed, and get out. Now there is nothing wrong with this picture right? Well, sort of…

I have learned tons from people like Chris Coyer (Css-Tricks.com), hundreds of resources and down-loads from the people at Smashing Magazine, and countless news and tutorials from community sites like CssGlobe.com.

Something that I leaned later down the line was that, these leading industry designers/developers have a lot more to offer than just what you were looking for. Most designers and developers that I have run into in person, do not stay up to date with current technologies, techniques, and trends and they simply research only what they need to know at the moment. Why stop there? Why not subscribe to the feeds and be educated / informed on a day to day basis?

Web designer India.

Shaun

10/06/2009 19:27

Getting Un-Banned From Google Adsense

I was talking to SEO Idiot (a very cool chap) at the very cool Think Visibility and one of the things we discussed was getting banned by Google from it’s Adsense advertising program and getting your account reinstated.

If you do get banned for “invalid click activity”, it’s not necessarily the end.

In my case (some time ago now) I had a good case – decent content rich sites and no funny business going on whatsoever, and when I pointed this out to Google, I got back in quite easily and quickly.

Here’s the response from Google:

Hello Shaun,

As you know, Google treats instances of invalid click activity very
seriously. We have reviewed your circumstances and have reinstated your
account, effective immediately. However, there will be a delay before ads
start running on your website. It may take up to 48 hours before all of
our servers are informed of the change.

Based on the findings of our investigation, we have deducted xxxxxxxx from
your account. This amount represents the earnings previously credited to
your account from invalid clicks. The deduction should occur in your next
scheduled payment.

If, in the future, you suspect that invalid clicks may have resulted from
a visitor to your site, we suggest that you review your site’s logs for
any suspicious activity and notify us with your findings at
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/request.py?contact=invalid_ clicks_contact.
This information can help us in resolving any issues, although as outlined
in our Terms and Conditions (https://www.google.com/adsense/terms), Google
will use its sole discretion when determining instances of invalid clicks.

If you need help logging the traffic on your site, please try these Google
search terms:

Webmaster resources
Website tracking and logging
Site traffic analysis

For your reference, you can also find tips and guidelines for keeping an
AdSense account in good standing by visiting our Help Center at
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23921.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

I see a lot of people complaining about getting booted out of Adsense, and some wondering if it’s common practice. Google wants partners for a long time and if you are trying to stay within the guidelines you shouldn’t have a problem.

If you do get banned by Adsense, it is worth appealing. If you’re not screwing about, you can get your account reinstated and funds returned. Just don’t do anything stupid. :)

And be lucky, perhaps.

Shaun

10/06/2009 19:33

Website Design & Development Project Checklist.

A Bulletproof Web Design & Development Project Checklist for clients and designers.

If you’re aiming to agree a fixed price for the development of the website, as we do, ensure the project goes smoothly before you start, by communicating with your client at the outset. They’ll appreciate you for it, there will be less surprises, and you may be able to start making a profit from fixed cost website design jobs again;

1. Prices can change even for a fixed cost website
* Web Design Costs are dependent on how many hours is spent working on a design and how many times the client asks for changes to it
* Show the client your portfolio – that’s the type of sites you build, do they like it?
* Has the client supplied examples of the sort of site they are looking for?
* Estimate a cost for a job, based on early discussion.
* Ensure the client knows you can quote for a job only on the information you have available to you at the time
* Confirm a job cost on reviewed client requirements
* 50% of job before start, 50% on completion
* Ensure the client knows you are costing the job by hours and you do have other clients
* Make sure all your costs are approved before starting a job (remember VAT)
* Ask the client to send you an email notifying his acceptance of the project scope and cost
2. It’s impossible to make a site that will look the same in all browsers;
* Specify which Resolution / Screen Size the Website Should Be Designed to
* Specify a fixed width or fluid layout
* Inform the client which browser versions you support
* Ensure the client is aware of website font restrictions or recommendations and web page download considerations
* Ensure the client is aware websites look different than on paper
3. Content should be supplied by the client in a form easily used
* Who is supplying the text?
* Who is supplying the images?
* Get the client to supply all text, photographs and content in electronic format
* Make sure text supplied, if formatted, is in a web-ready format
* The client should supply an example site-plan, in a bulleted list
* The client needs to specify any specific functionality required at the outset
4. ‘Milestone’ dates for the project should be agreed
* Communicate missing any milestone date for supplying content / adding new content will have an impact on launch commitments and costs – both of you have businesses to run
* Agree content delivery date
* Agree Site Architecture Freeze Date
* Agree Site Functionality Freeze Date
* Agree Design Freeze date
* Agree Launch Date
5. Changes to the brief should be communicated and costs agreed / timings considered in electronic form
* No Favours – The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the bodies of well meaning web developers
* Everything should be charged out, agreed and accountable
6. Websites can go down every now and then
* Who hosts the current site?
* Get Contact Details
* Hosting is a recurring annual charge
7. Domain transfers sometimes go a bit Pete Tong
* You are at the mercy of third parties
* Who controls current domain(s)?
* Domains need registered every year
* Get Contact Details
8. Emails might go down for a period of perhaps 24-48 hours
* Who controls current email(s)?
* Get Contact Details
* How many email accounts to you have/need
9. Launching a website can be about pressing buttons and…. waiting
10. Websites Get Hacked
* All CMS needs kept up to date
* In most cases hackers seek to deface the site
* A hacked site can mean disaster in Google
* A site that has been hacked can be rescued
* Who’s in charge of security / CMS updates
* Agree maintenance fees
11. A Winning Website Is never ‘Finished’!
* The client should keep his site up-to-date with news if he has a CMS
* Training for the CMS should be costed if required
12. A website is subject to Laws of The Land and the client should investigate these
* The UK Companies Act
* UK Distance Selling Regulations
* Website Accessibility Recommendations
13. Agree ongoing responsibilities
* Who is responsible for the client’s email, hosting and domain management
* Do you ‘guarantee’ a website is fit for purpose for say 1 year?
* When will annual billing start and occur

I’m sure I’ve missed some things out,

Shaun

10/06/2009 19:35

13 Reasons Being A Web Designer Sucks by Shaun.

I loved being a web designer and developer. I love the thought process and the finished product, but there are so many other factors out-with a web designer’s control that make being a web designer in 2008, suck!

1. Domain Name Registrars who for some reason don’t release domains
2. Hosting companies that take your site down and don’t tell you until your client spots it
3. Other web design companies you win clients from who make it a difficult transition
4. 3rd Party IT people (who manage client internal PCs and email) who are as useful as a chocolate fire-guard
5. Clients who think a CMS comes with free lifetime CMS training or telephone support
6. Clients who don’t know how to cut and paste
7. Clients who think it’s your responsibility to get them website sales… from this point on
8. Clients that want a blog, but don’t want to write anything in it
9. Clients that think their £500 job is the only website your 7 man team is working on
10. Clients who don’t supply content in time, but still want the website launched on time
11. Clients who don’t supply content
12. Clients who think it’s your job to update their Joomla or Wordpress installation for life

Title tagger

10/06/2009 19:39

Title Tag Best Practices

For me, a perfect title tag in Google is;

1. Highly relevant to the page
2. The ‘crown’ of a keyword targeted article with keyword once
3. Probably 5-12 words, but ideally under the 70 characters limit, so the full title appears in Google SERPS (search engine results pages) but it depends on the page content – character counter.
4. A call to action which reflects exactly a searcher’s intent (ie to learn something, or buy something, or hire something. Remember this is your hook in search engines!
5. The perfect title tag is unique in relation to other pages on the site
6. I like to ensure my keywords feature as early as possible in a title tag
7. For me, the company name goes at the end of the tag, and I use a variety of dividers as no one way performs best
8. I like to think I write titles for search engines and human
9. Know that Google tweaks everything regularly – why not what the perfect title keys off?
10. Don’t obsess! Natural is better, and will only ‘get better’ as engines evolve
11. I think the more unique a title is relative to the site, the better in the long run. For instance, I’m probably going to change the title of our blog, to just ‘Hobo’ – one word. If all my titles were different and had ten words, that’s a 90% variation title to title. I like this and will be moving towards it.

Macrosoft

10/06/2009 22:34

Microsoft Launches Windows Mobile 6.5.

Microsoft Corp introduced new software for mobile phones on Tuesday, promising a range of devices to compete with Apple Inc's iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry.

The world's largest software company, in partnership with phone makers and phone companies such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, AT&T Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, said more than 30 new devices with the new Windows Mobile 6.5 software would be on the market in more than 20 countries by the end of the year.

The new phones can play music, open Word and Excel documents, and be synchronized over the Internet.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer played down recent industry talk that the company was developing its own smartphone.

"We are not here to announce today that we are making phones," he said at an event in Paris.

The market for phones is set to treble or quadruple in the next few years, Ballmer said, and Microsoft is ready to challenge other phone makers for market share. He added that Windows Mobile's share of the mobile phone market is equal to Apple's.

Macrosoft

arty

10/09/2009 11:17

Art Websites

What will it take to sell my art on the internet?

1. Artistic ability in your chosen medium

Are you a skilled artist? Is your work professional-grade? Does it connect with people when they see it?

In my opinion, lack of artistic ability is the number one reason why many artists aren’t successful online.

Quite bluntly, your art needs to be good. It should also make an impact on people, or just be different. After all, there’s a lot of run-of-the-mill artwork out there. What makes your art stand out?

Try this on for size. . . if you physically put your artwork in front of 100 people, would at least one person out of that hundred be interested? Would that piece sell?

If you could sell your art in person, that’s a great sign that you have the artistic ability to sell art on the internet, too.

2. Technical know-how and internet skills

If you want to sell your art on the internet, it really helps to be internet-savvy. . . because almost everything you do online will take at least a little technical ability.

For example, every artist should have a website or web presence that is both functional and effective.

When I say “functional” I mean a website where people can easily view, navigate, and buy your artwork (preferably with a credit card). By “effective” I mean a website that actually helps those actions to take place.

And no, this type of website isn’t always easy to come by.

Ultimately, you have two choices. If you have the technical know-how, or you’re willing to learn, you can build your own website. You could also set up your own art blog, if that’s what you want to do.

The other option is to pay someone to set up a website for you, or pay to join an online art gallery that has all the features you need.

Whichever solution you choose for your website, you shouldn’t stop there—learning about the web, getting involved with social networks, and trying new things online will always give you the upper hand when it comes to selling your art on the internet.

3. Persistence

You can’t just “do the internet thing” for a week and expect results. Try a year. At the very least, try six months. And be persistent!

There are many different ways to be persistent while marketing your art on the internet. You can blog persistently, twitter persistently, use social networks persistently. . . it doesn’t necessarily matter which one you do. (Maybe you’ll do several.)

But you MUST work at it.

Sometimes I worry that I—and perhaps other folks who write about selling art on the internet—don’t stress this point enough. After a year or so, things DO get easier, since you’ve built momentum. But until that time. . . be persistent.

So what happens if one of these things is missing?

Well, without enough artistic ability, an artist may attract hundreds or thousands of visitors to their website but they won’t make many sales. The art just isn’t appealing.

Without tech skills or an effective web presence, artists can easily miss out on opportunities that would help more people find (and then buy) their art in the first place.

Without persistence, an artist’s blog will look like a ghost town. Their galleries will be outdated. No one will be inspired to buy.

These three things—artistic ability, technical skill, and persistence—are the building blocks to successfully selling art on the internet. Do they seem overly simple? Maybe. But just because they’re simple doesn’t mean they aren’t true.

arty

10/09/2009 11:18

7 Tips for Selling Art Online: How to Help Buyers Find your Artwork.

1. Write better artwork descriptions.

The best websites for selling your art will allow and even encourage you to write full descriptions for each artwork you upload, as well as a bio and artist statement.

Not only should these paragraphs be easy to read and free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, but they should also be optimized for search engines like Google and Yahoo.

“Optimizing for search” just means using the same keywords in your descriptions and titles that art buyers use when searching for artwork online.

Sounds easy, right? Well it is, sort of.

If you’re interested, I’ve written several more in-depth articles about search engine optimization in EmptyEasel’s SEO for Artists section. But for now, here’s a quick example of how to optimize your artwork for search engines:

(You’ll see that I’ve made the art-related keywords bold. None of the other words really help when it comes to searches.)

“Untitled Fragments is the seventh painting in my series of geometric abstract artworks. I used bold colors and powerful brush strokes, as I do in all my paintings, in order to create a lasting visual impression. Art buyers (and art lovers) will see symbolic references to prominent 20th century abstract painters like Piet Mondrian and Georges Braque as I offer homage to their artistic vision through my own art. This artwork is still for sale, so if you’d like to purchase the painting just click on the buy artwork button below.”

With a little effort you can make your descriptions chock full of words that art buyers might be searching for. In this case, they’re not just about abstract paintings but also about buying art, similar artists, and so on.
2. Be more social.

Depending on the art website you signed up with, your use of keywords in descriptions may help a lot or not at all. One thing that’s almost sure to bring in traffic, however, is social networking. Here are some of the best ways to network and sell your art.

Flickr - What can I say? There’s a lot of people browsing Flickr every day, and it has a great search function built right in. Sign up for a free account, put up some of your best artwork (properly tagged, of course) and place links to the website where your art is actually for sale. If you use Imagekind, I’d like to know how the whole Imagekind / Flickr partnership works out for you.

Myspace - It’s not just for kids anymore. You’ll have the ability to send out public bulletins to promote your artwork, customize your page, make or join art groups, and add many, many friends who will hopefully become fans of your art (and maybe even buyers). Yes, MySpace is kind of. . . scummy. . . sometimes, but it’s still growing strong and it would be foolish to not use it.

Facebook - Since you can now join Facebook based on location, I definitely see it becoming a great social networking site for local artists. Like MySpace you can create groups and add contacts, but you can also create events (art shows, perhaps?) and issue invitations with RSVP ability built in.

Plus, if you’d like to advertise your art to a very specific group of people, Facebook now let’s you do that. Check out this article on advertising your art with Facebook for more information.

YouTube - This might be a little tech-heavy for some artists, but just like Myspace it’s too big to ignore. If you have to, find a friend who posts videos regularly and enlist their help. Make a quick art demonstration or an artwork-in-progress video, and upload it to your own “channel.” Then just find a way to link directly from that page to your artwork.

Dani over at DaniDraws.com makes good use of YouTube. Take a look at her channel and then give it a shot yourself.

Forums - Any forum is great for networking, not just art forums. And while you’re there, always put a link to your artwork in the signature line of your posts. You might even consider joining some forums that have the same interests as you. Do you paint flowers? Join a botany forum. Horses? Find an equestrian group. If you plan on spamming people though, prepare to be banned. Only join forums that you’d enjoy whether you sold any art or not.

The thing to realize with social networking sites is that you have to be willing to spend time talking, commenting, and getting involved. If you can do that, you’ll start to see some results. If you have fun in the meantime, that’s even better.
3. Start an art blog.

There are so many blogging options these days it’s almost too easy. I’d suggest Wordpress.com if you don’t want to get your hands messy with all the hosting and other stuff. It’s free, and it only takes a few seconds to get started.

Andrew Gibson is one good example of an arti

arty

10/09/2009 11:21

Where Artists Sell Art?

More artists sell art than not.

The survey shows several groups of artists who said they aren’t selling art.

Some didn’t explain why a few said they were choosing not to sell their art and many others indicated that they hadn’t sold any art yet ) or hadn’t sold enough to really make a difference .

While the number of “non-sellers” was quite significant (83 artists all told) I think it’s encouraging to note that the number of sellers was far more (188).
More artists sell art offline than online.

Of the artists who voted that do sell their art, two groups emerged—those who mostly sell art on the internet, and those who mostly sell art offline.

Offline sellers (110) beat out online sellers by a good margin, in part because of the high number of votes for traditional art galleries art festivals and word of mouth selling.

Another significant group of offline sellers indicated that they used a variety of methods including showing at galleries, festivals, open studios and juried shows.
More artists use their own website to sell art.

I was pleased to see that the biggest group of online sellers were artists who owned their own websites . I assume, but don’t know for sure, that this number includes both blogs and portfolio websites.

The second largest group of online sellers was made up of eBay users followed by Etsy users in third .

Several other community-based art websites and online galleries were mentioned as well, including BoundlessGallery.com CafePress Yessy Imagekind RedBubble and Zazzle just to name a few.
The meaning of it all. . .

If this survey has proven anything, it’s that there are MANY ways to sell art. And there’s definitely no right or wrong way.

Sure, the results show that traditional galleries and personal art websites are the most popular methods among artists, but if you find a different method that works for you, great! Use that instead!

And if at first you don’t succeed, try something else—like direct marketing or royalties from posters . Or even something as simple as striking up random conversations with strangers or networking other artists .

There’s always a way. You just have to find it.

Pat

10/22/2009 22:24

I just want to demystify another Google idiosyncrasy...

If you go to Google.com/addurl , you'll find a nice little page where Google lets you submit your URL to be reviewed -- and if all goes well, you will be listed in their database under the keywords you've optimized your website for.

So it only seems logical to go to this page and submit your site when you want to get listed in Google's database, right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately, "logic" and "Google" don't always go hand in hand. The fact is, if you optimize your website and submit it to Google, your chances of showing up in their database any time in the next century is slim to none!

However, all is not lost! There are some little-known SEO strategies that will help you get listed in Google as quickly as possible. And today I'm going to tell you what they are.

Now, for the following strategies to make sense, you need to shift the way you think about "Search Engine Submission."

In the past, all you needed to do was go to the search engine and fill out a submission form, then the search engine would send its "spiders" to your website to review your content and index it accordingly. That's how it still works for many of the smaller search engines -- but not for Google.

These days, in order to get your site listed in Google, you don't want to submit your website directly to Google. Instead, you want Google's spiders to "stumble" across your website on their travels through the Web.

But you don't have to sit back and wait helplessly for the spiders to come!

By putting links to your site on high-traffic web pages, you can make sure that Google finds your site in a matter of weeks -- instead of months.

This doesn't mean you should put your URL all over random websites on the Internet. In fact, if Google finds a link to your website on a web page that's using malicious SEO strategies, it can actually do you more harm than good.

So your goal is to find websites that have what in the SEO world is called "High Authority" and to get your site listed on their site.

What is the easiest way to identify a High Authority sites? Simple... PageRank. The higher the PageRank a site has, the more value you'll get from a link at that site.

Where do you find these elusive "High Authority" sites, so you can get yourself listed on them? Well, here are a few places to start:
Submit your site to the top Web Directories

Google is constantly scanning the top Web directories to see what new sites they have listed. If they find your website in one of these directories, there's a good chance they'll add it to their own listings.

Google's assumption is simply that if a human reviewed your website and placed it in their directory, then it must be good.

Here are just a few of the top directories to start with:

Yahoo Directory
Best of the Web
Go Guides
DMOZ
Gimpsy

All of these directories (except DMOZ), do charge a submission fee, but it is typically money well spent.

Write quality articles and then submit them to the Web's top article directories

Just make sure you include a link that leads back to your own website. A great place to do this is in an "About the Author" blurb at end of the article.

The beauty of this strategy is, not only will you get a link pointing to your site from the article directory, if anyone decides to post your article on their site as well, you'll get even more links!

If you know of any high-traffic websites that are popular with your target market, you should contact them directly and offer to write an original article full of great content they can post on their site. Chances are they'll go for it -- most webmasters understand the value of regularly posting fresh new content on their sites!

Comment in popular industry forums and blogs

This is a great free way to get more links pointing back to your site. All you have to do is include a link to your site in your signature block, and then post away!

Note: Google doesn't take links in blog comments into account when it's determining your PageRank. However, its spiders will follow such links to see where they lead -- so if your primary goal is simply to get indexed by Google, this is an excellent strategy.
If you do these three things, you will dramatically increase your chance of getting your site listed in Google in as short a time as possible. You can even use these strategies to dramatically increasing the rankings of an existing website!

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