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Awards Program Debate
Daily article: One of the most debated subject among webmasters is the whole concept of web site awards. I'm sure you've seen the little graphics on many different sites, announcing it is the "best", "coolest" or "most wonderful" or whatever. Sometimes you'll see terms like "bronze", "gold" and "silver" to describe the award. What's the debate about? To put it briefly, are web site awards worth the "paper they are printed on?" "What's the point?", some webmasters will say with a smirk (the smirk always seems to be there, oddly enough). "Where's the money in awards? These are just graphics that anyone can make up, they are given out by the boatload and they do not prove anything." Au contraire. I beg to differ. Winning an award can be one of the most fulfilling achievements that a webmaster can experience. Yeah, some of the awards are given away by autoresponder (and these, I agree, are worthless), but others are very, very difficult to earn. You see, the point is that in a true awards program you are getting a peer (another webmaster) to review your site against a set of criteria. You have to work to win some of the better ones, and the very best require an incredible effort. But who wants a peer review anyway? I mean, isn't the real payoff in dollars or number of visitors or hits or whatever? Why would anyone care about the opinion of another webmaster? That's easy. You see, web sites can always be made better. It does not matter how good of a job you've done, if you stand back and look at your accomplishment objectively, you will find something to improve. What awards programs do is speed up this process. You begin by reading the criteria of the award. One common requirement is fast load time. You check your site and find the main page loads in 5 minutes ... and thus you will not win the award. Okay, so you fix that and check the next item. Hmm. Clean navigation ... fixed that, what's next? Readable text perhaps, or good content, or simply a way to turn off the background music. You see what's happening. You want that award so you MUST improve your site to achieve it. You have to spend a little more time checking it out, so that when your site is examined you will earn the prize. What does that buy you? A better web site will translate into more visitors who come back more often, and if you are selling something, they may buy it. So before you turn up your nose at that pretty awards graphic, read the criteria. See what the webmaster had to do before he earned that picture. If the criteria says "just take it and display it" ... the award is useless. On the other hand, if it states some stringent rules, then perhaps you should be impressed ... and maybe see if you own site measures up. About The Author Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com
Dos And Donts In Web Design - Part 1 (design)
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Usability Lessons From The Hospital
Usability isn't only for Web design. It's also applicable in the real world as things aren't always well-designed. Paying attention to real world design can help you think through usability for Web design. For instance, there is an elevator in New York where the numbers are in three columns. The numbers go across, but in this elevator they go from right to left instead of left to right. It's in English not Hebrew.Elevator in NY:10 9 87 6 5Most elevators:8 9 105 6 7This concept can be applied to a Web page by assuring numbers, letters, and other meaningful groups of information are sorted in a logical order.I also saw a school speed zone sign where it said to slow down during the following times:7:30 AM - 8:15 AM2:45 AM - 3:30 PMHmm.....
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How To Design A Web Site
I'm not a professional web site designer and openly admitthere is a lot that I don't know. But if you're a beginnerI probably know more than you do, so listen up.Rather than give a lengthy dissertation on web design I havebroken it down into the following points:Keep your navigation bars either at the top or left of thepage (a recent tip I heard is: by putting the nav bar onthe right of the screen it appears below your site contentin the html code and therefore will be read by the SEspiders last). You can clearly see my navigation bar on theleft of every page at http://www.007workfromhome.comHave your navigation bars visible on every page unless its asales page, in which case you don't want them to goanywhere else.Divide y... |  |
| Banner Enchancement - Designing Your Banner
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| Adding The Right Keywords To Your Website Content
You've made your website, added a great title and keywords in the meta tags. That's it, right?Not quite. There is another simple strategy to get more bang out of the content of your page ? knowing what words people are using for their searches and then incorporating them into your website.Here's a handy tool that will be your guide to finding those words: |
| Tips On Effectively Organizing Your Navigation
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| Will You Site Be A Big Success. 7 Reasons Why It Might Not!
With so many new websites going up, it is hard sometimes to tell if your site will be a BIG SUCCESS or an unexpected flop? If you are unsure of whether or not your site will fly with visitors or crash and burn, this article is definitely for you. Now we all know the importance of great service, but if your website doesn't communicate this, then you could be headed for failure.7 Reasons Why Your Website May Be a BIG FLOP!1. Long Load Times.If your websites takes more then 30 seconds to load, especially on DSL/Cable then visitors will leave your website, it is as simple as that. You must remember that people want information and they want it yesterday (I know, I know). Since it is so easy to get information from many other sites... | |
| Website Design Basic Concepts
So, what's in a website design anyway? And, how do you get a design that is appealing to the broad and varied tastes of all those Internet surfers out there?This is critical. Your website design is the first impression you make on your customers and visitors. There are a few sites in my favorites and bookmarks that I consider poorly designed. I still have them, because they have information I want. Lucky for the site owner that their content was that good! But one day I will find another site with the same information and a better design. Then guess who will be in my favorites and who will be left out? Maybe your content is great too, but don't take chances on a poor design. Think how much more repeat traffic and referred traffic you will get if... | |
| Web Site Design Mistakes ? Database Parameters In Urls
Creating a web site takes thought, planning and execution. Unfortunately, many designs are dead in the water before they are even published as far as search engine optimization is concerned. Whatever you do, avoid these critical mistakes.Database Parameters in URLMany web site designers don't ta... | |
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