Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category
How to Build a Website
January 16th, 2009 | Author: Dr Smiley
When it comes to building a website there is a lot to think about. Not just the technical stuff, but the purpose of your website and what you want from it.
Depending on what the purpose of your website is going to be will depend a lot on what you need to know how to do.
I won’t be going into a lot of detail here on domain registration or hosting, that is another topic all in itself.
What I want to discuss today is the development of a website.
There are tools you are going to have to have to do this, you will need a way to create or edit HTML code, you will need a way to upload these files to your hosting account, and you will need some way to capture a visitors information, and you might even need some way to accept payments online from your website.
None of these are hard to do once you understand their process, but it’s that learning curve most do not take the time to learn properly. They want to have a website up right now and that is possible with some of the software out there today and templates. But one thing I definitely learned, the hard way, sooner or later knowing just the basics to HTML coding and how a website works, is a life saver.
Okay you have your domain name registered and you have your hosting setup, now what?
Get yourself a way to edit or create HTML coding, an HTML editor, such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver or a free editor. There are hundreds out there, so do a search on your favorite search engine and see what is out there. Play around with some of the free ones to get a feel for them to see which one you are most comfortable with.
Now you are going to need a way to sending what you create in your editor to your host, this is called File Transfer Protocol or FTP. There are tons out there so do a search with your favorite search engine, most of these are free to use. Get to understand it and how it works before you begin. This shouldn’t take you very long, most are pretty easy to understand and have tutorials to help you get started.
The first thing you need to decide right now is whether or not you are going to put graphics on your website. This is an ongoing battle of whether graphics help or not, you will need to decide this for yourself and determine if your market is accepting with this. Testing is the best policy here. If you do decide you want graphics then, consider outsourcing this to a professional.
What is the purpose of your website? Are you going to just be collecting names and email addresses to build that list? Are you selling your own product or an affiliate product? These questions need to be answered so you know what type of website you are creating.
If you want to do both, then you will need 2 different websites. This doesn’t mean you need to register 2 different domain names, just 2 different sites. If you are collecting names and email addresses, do not put anything else on this page! If you are selling a product that is all you want there, do not attempt to get them to opt into something also!
Let’s build a website.
Since there are a variety of different types of websites, from squeeze pages, salespages, and information websites, I can’t possible walk you through each one here. But here are the main components of a basic website you should always have in place.
1. Your title of your website – use the code <Title> where you would replace the word Title with your website title. Should be keywords or keyword phrases
2. Your description – use the code <meta descriptionimg>description </meta description> again try to use keywords and keyword phrases
3. Your keywords – use the code <meta keywords>keywords separated with commas</meta> list your keywords using commas, do not stuff this with lots of keywords, keep to only 5 or so keywords.
4. The main body of your website – use the code <body>insert your copy here with any graphics you are going to use using code to define each part</body>
5. For any images you are using use the code <img src=”location of image”>
6. To define your text use the code <font> you can add words after font to define size, color, and family style. Make sure to always close your codes </>
7. To make words or a word clickable by your visitors, use the code <a href=”URL Link”>This is a clickable link</a> now the words This is a clickable link can be clicked by your visitors.
8. Want your text or image to be centered on the page use the code <center></center>
9. For headlines on a page you want to use the code <h1></h1> there are different numbers to place after the h depending on how big or small you want the text to be. The most commonly used numbers are 1 and 2.
10. To make a one line break in between lines use the code </br>
11. To make a new paragraph use the code <p>
These are just some of the basic HTML codes used in a basic website, there are hundreds more that can be used. Learning these will definitely get you started at understanding how a website is built and why it does things.
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What Makes a Web Site Stand Out
January 5th, 2009 | Author: Dr Smiley
Does your website stand out from the others in your market?
There was time when fancy animation and flash were real big and everyone went out and put that on their websites, hoping to stand out from the crowd.
Things have definitely changed since then. Even the color of your text and your background make a big impact on how people see your website.
It’s important to understand these concepts Before you set out to build your website. Plan it carefully.
Here are some basic things you should keep in mind:
1. Do Not put flash and animation on your website! This has become to annoy visitors! Most nowadays won’t even stay at a website that has flash on it. And unless you know how to do it properly flash and animation take a very long time load. People today are in a hurry and won’t wait around for it to load
2. I’ve seen websites with all kinds of backgrounds and some are nice and fit the market the owner is with. But there have been some that are just plain ugly and make me leave. Be sure to keep your background image or color to what your market will appreciate
3. The text area is another big issue with some websites. You do not want to have a black background and then red or yellow text colors. This makes it very hard on the eyes and you need to consider who is visiting your site, do they have difficulties reading, are they older? The best combination so far is to keep your text area white with black text, this is the easiest to read through for most people. For important information you want to make sure some sees, make that text a bit bigger than the rest. Also, you should always have the size of your text set to 12 this will also make things easier to read.
4. Images, I have seen some pretty badly placed images, and some images that just don’t have anything at all to do with the market. Make sure you are using images properly. Do not make them very big, remember the size of most computer screens is 1024 with 32 bit settings. So keep you images within size, like around 800pixels this makes things easier for your visitor. Be sure that your visitors don’t have to move left to right to see your pages.
5. With videos there is a right and wrong way to go about putting videos on your website. Most do not want to go to a website and get blared out by the audio or video immediately. If you must have your video or audio start as soon as someone lands on your website, make sure that you have a pause or stop button in plain site and easy to find so they can turn it off if they choose. Keep your audio and videos down to about 2 minutes, so they can also read your website without spending a lot of time there.
6. If you are planning on selling products on your website, make sure that you place the buy buttons in easy to find plain site so there is no mistake as to what you want them to do and why. Also tell them exactly what to expect and when, so there is no confusion on what will happen once they purchase something from you. Place a call to action link in several places on your website also, this will entice them to purchase.
7. If your website is just for list building, make sure that is all that is on your website. Do not put anything else on there but an opt in form. If there is more than one action, your visitor might get confused and just leave even though they might of wanted your report or ebook or whatever you were offering.
These are just a few of the things you need to keep in mind when planning your website. If you do then your visitors will have a pleasant time visiting and will remember you and possibly tell their friends about your website and come back again.
How Do You Register A Domain Name
January 1st, 2009 | Author: Dr Smiley
When it comes to running a business online you need to have a name for your website. These are known as Domain Names, such as the link www.askdrsmiley.com the part in this link askdrsmiley is the domain name.
Once you’ve decided on a name and found that it is available, you need to find a company that will let you purchase it, these are called Registrars. There are thousands online today so you can do a search using your favorite search engine, but I have used http://www.godaddy.com for many years and they are the best in my opinion.
Once you find your registrar, just type in the name you wish to purchase and see if it is available, most registrars will offer suggestions if the name you chose is not available. Just keep trying variations of the name until one is available.
One important thing you should know while registering a domain name – DO NOT get hosting at the same place you are registering your domain name!!!! Why? If your registrar goes out of business, you won’t lose your website information as it is being hosted somewhere else, and if your hosting company folds you won’t lose your domain name.
Most of the time it is easy to transfer one or the other, but not both. If your hosting and domain name are in the same place you can lose everything!!!!
Stick with extension of .com or .net they are most popular and most people remember these.
Once you have purchased your domain name, there is one more step you must do!!! Get your domain name to talk to your hosting company. This is called DNS (Domain Name Server) this is how browsers will find your website. When you get your hosting, you will get an email with all your information in it, inside they will also provide you with your DNS information.
If you have not yet set up your hosting you can read the article I wrote on How to Find a Good Hosting Company
Head over to your registrar and log in, choose your domain name and there should be an option for Domain Name Server, go there and enter your information you got from your hosting company. The DNS number should look like this – dns1.namehosting.com dns2.nameofhosting.com or ns1.nameofhosting.com ns2.nameofhosting.com
Now it can take up to 48 hours for your new domain name to be live throughout the Internet, so be patient. You can however, start building your website and uploading it to your hosting company right a way.
That is really all there is to registering a domain name and then getting your hosting to talk to your new domain name so the world can see it.
Dr Smiley
