Podcasting – The Easy Way To Get Started

By: Philip Nicosia

Imagine this: you’re in your room facing your computer. Over the microphone you say, “Good day, listeners. Today’s podcast is on… “ And as you continue to say your piece, the recording continues. This record is what people in your neighborhood, in your city, across the country, and even in other parts of the globe can hear as they tune in from their computers or digital audio players.

What are you doing? You are podcasting! As science turns imaginations into realities, you can become a DJ or to be specific, a podcaster, and have your own radio show, and be heard. Anywhere. Anytime. Anyhow you want it. You think this is cool? This is sub-zero cool!

Just as we’re getting accustomed to terminologies like e-mail, voice-chat, blogs, and so on, we now have PODCASTING. New Oxford Dictionary defines podcasting as “the digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player”. But really, what is it?

Podcasting is a conjuncture of the words “iPod”, the most popular audio digital player created by Apple Computers, and “broadcast”, which means to put on air; hence, the association of podcasting to iPod or Apple computers. However, any brand of digital audio player is okay and any computer with a built-in or add-on microphone and soundcard will do.

The recording is uploaded into a website and becomes a web feed, aptly termed a podcast. Podcasts can be any music, advertisement, or information in audio or video format that is downloadable. They range from talk radio, comedy shows, news, political views, evangelization messages, language tutorials, business reports, and so on. Any subscriber can podcatch – meaning, download - and listen to podcasts.

But you say you’re not even trained or experienced to be a podcaster? There is no need at all. The charm of podcasting is that you can be your natural YOU!

So gear up! Catch the finest podcasting software offer in the market. Get the Podcast Blaster Package and unlock a whole new world of podcasting made easy and more!

In its exclusive offer, the Podcast Blaster Package is bundled with Podcast Manual, Podcast Software, Podcast Safe Music and Podcast Sound Files. The Podcast Manual will teach you how to record your podcast step-by-step, guide you on what equipment you need or add if you want to expand, and direct you on how to get the audience you want. The Podcast Software is the recording application -- intuitive, easy to navigate, and Macintosh or Windows-compatible. It comes with built-in special effects, user-friendly editing features, and proper export modules that will transform recording into podcast, no sweat! Finally, the Podcast Safe Music has over 100 sound files, or over 40MB, such as professionally produced voice-overs, loops, background effects, stingers and Podcast-safe music. The package also includes a guide to the best websites with free music downloads. If you get stuck with a technical problem, turn to the Podcast Blaster Team who will also assist your sales, refund, and other requests or inquiries. Podcast Blaster is confident you will be satisfied with the package that it offers 100% money-back guarantee! Plus, you get a special bonus software!

Eager to get started? Go to http://www.podcastblaster.com and learn more about this new milestone and on how to be a podcaster. Try podcasting and be among those who will dramatically transform the ever-changing landscape of this digital world.

Article Source: http://articles.webblogerz.com

How To Create A Sitemap?

By: Jeremiah Patton

A sitemap of a website is similar to the table of contents of a book. Sitemaps are important because it guides web surfers to the particular part of the website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links and get right to the point instead.

Sitemaps are also where search engines look at if somebody is looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a site map, you can most likely be searched.

Creating a sitemap, now with software technology surging in, is relatively easier than before. You need not be a programming guru to be one. All need is a notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you do it:

Create the listing on a notepad.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word processing program will do. First off, make sure to type in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all links you have. Create it as if you listing the contents of your book. Make a draft first. You’re sure no to miss something out this way.

Create a new page for your sitemap.
You can insert the sitemap on your website on one of its pages or you can create an entirely different page for it. Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it to make another webpage. Open up your website creator program and tag your sitemap using it. If you have created your website on your own, this will be easy for you.

Create a link for the sitemap.
You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you won’t put a link for it, of course. Create the link on the front page of your website so that visitors can view it right away and be directed appropriately.

Check your work.
It is important to validate the functionality of the links you created on the sitemap. Test each and every one in there and if you get an error, be sure to fix it accurately. Run through every single page to make sure that all are accounted for.

Upload your work.
Place the sitemap now on your live browser and double check it. It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Error should be minimal at this stage since you already have verified it locally.

The steps provided herewith is the manual way of creating a sitemap. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you will find online programs that will do all these work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap with click of a button.

Of course that method is generic. All of you who have created their sitemap that way will have an end product that is all the same, plus there’s that possibility that something else will be inserted in there too. Then again, the process is less taxing and way, way simpler.

But if you want a more personalized output, and you are pretty good with computers and programming yourself, better make one of your own. And since you made your website anyway, creating sitemap is just like creating any other page on the website. Other than you’ll know for sure the links are accurate, you can organize the links the way you prefer it to be. Major parts of the site are emphasized compared to less significant. This is important especially if you are selling products or offering services online.

Sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for something. If your website has what that particular person is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have a new customer looking at your items. Not only that, they will see some other things up for sale that they might be interested in as well.

Sitemaps, be it generated by a program automatically or you made it yourself, presents the same purpose. That is to lead your visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders. So with these, make sure your website has a sitemap of its own, lest make one.

The Complete Guide to Building Your Own Website

A Fully Interactive Training Workshop for any one who wants to build a web site. It is not just a book to read. We have used the great qualities of the Internet to allow you to partake in practical exercises. This means that you will be learning many of the skills and terminology necessary to get your site built and loaded ready.

Download Now

Valid Code and Code Validation

by Steve Dougan

Summary : Creating your pages on the Net can be exiting and fun. Webmasters spend much of there time in the design aspects of the website and seem to ignore the most fundamental component of a good website; the code itself. It is widely estimated that 99% of web pages on the Net have some coding errors. This suggests that most webmasters really don't understand the importance of valid code.

So what is all the fuss, you say? You view your website in your browser and it looks fine therefore the code must be fine. In reality that is not always the case. There are a wide variety of versions and brands of web browsers accessing the Net. Some are more forgiving of errors than others.

What you see in your browser may look completely different in another browser. In some cases, entire tables and all its content can be missing over a simple error such as a HTML element that wasn't closed.

Creating your pages on the Net can be exiting and fun. Webmasters spend much of there time in the design aspects of the website and seem to ignore the most fundamental component of a good website; the code itself. It is widely estimated that 99% of web pages on the Net have some coding errors. This suggests that most webmasters really don't understand the importance of valid code.

Code that is used in the creating of a web page and then checked against accepted formal standards and passes is considered valid code. The most commonly accepted recommended standards are those suggested and provided by the W3C (World Wide Web consortium).

It is really not that difficult to write code that is valid to the recommended standards. Below are some of the key points to look out for:

1. Start with the right doctype (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/global.html)
2. All HTML elements that you open, you must close
3. Make full use of alt tags on images
4. Make use of character sets (http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_13.html)
5. Use HTML validators regularly
6. If you find errors, fix them immediately

Here are validators that are free to use and provided by the W3C. It is always advisable to run your webpage through these validators to ensure your code will be compliant with the universally accepted recommended standards.

w3c code validator- http://validator.w3.org/

w3c css validator - http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Problems that occur as a result of bad code include difficulty for assistive technologies. Browsers such as readers for the visually impaired, have considerable difficulty reading bad code. Search engines hate bad code. A great amount of your website's content can be hidden from the engines and therefore not spidered if you have bad or missing code attributes.

The human visitors of your website, bad code can result in very slow loading of your pages. Slow loading pages have been attributed as one of the main reasons people that arrive at a web site, but don't stay very long.

The bottom line is that the more time you spend designing your website and then testing it for valid code, the better your overall long term presentation will be. You will give yourself a better chance of being spidered properly by the search engines, and the more accessible your site for everyone that visits.

An Introduction To XML

By Leena Vijayakumar

Extensible Markup Language (XML ) is a mark up language that provides a format for describing structured data. This facilitates more precise declarations of content and more meaningful search results across multiple platforms. XML thus enables a new generation of web based data viewing and manipulation applications.

Outwardly, XML looks like HTML. XML is a subset of SGML (Standard Generalised Markup Language) that is optimised for delivery over the web. XML standards are defined by the World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ) and they ensure that structured data will be uniform and independent of application or vendors. HTML specifies how to display data in a browser while XML defines the content. XML documents are extensible, structured and self- validating. In XML, you can define an unlimited set of tags. XML provides a framework for tagging structured data. An XML element can declare its data to be a retail price, book title or any other desired data element.

XML provides a means of including metadata in web documents. Metadata is information about information. The display of XML documents is typically accomplished with style sheets such as Extensible Style Language( XSL ) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

XML is only a specification. A document is entitled to be called an XML document only if it adheres to the rules laid down in the XML specification. XML documents are designed for use by XML processors.XML processor has a component called the XML parser that analyses XML markup and determines the structure of the document data.

A Masters student in computer applications interested in writing articles,editing and proof reading Contact at: leenavijayakumar@gmail.com

Is ASP.NET Too Hard?

By: Scott

On a listserv I'm on some folks were discussing the adoption rate of ASP.NET compared to other server-side Web programming technologies. Someone mentioned that they had read that there were more new projects being started with classic ASP than with ASP.NET. Even though ASP.NET has been out for several years, more developers are still using classic ASP, and not just for maintaining old projects, but for starting new ones too! Why is this? I can only think of two reasons:

- Said employee's company has not yet adopted .NET.
- Said employee finds ASP.NET over his or her head.

Hardly a week goes by where I don't receive at least one email from a 4Guys reader or from a reader of one of my books that goes something like: “I am having trouble doing X in ASP.NET. This was so easy in classic ASP!!” This begs the question: is ASP.NET too hard?

Part of classic ASP's appeal was that non-programmers could quickly pick it up and start using it. The concepts behind ASP were simple enough - procedural programming in an English-like syntax (VBScript). Where things got more tricky - like needing to connect to a database, read a text file, use a regular expression, etc. - there was always a plethora of code samples available online, and since ASP pages were simple text files, one could just cut and paste the script into their page and give it a whirl.

ASP.NET is a different beast altogether. It's object-oriented. It's compiled. While it is possible to develop using Notepad, it's not easy. Trying out new source code is not as easy as cut and paste. Sure, Visual Studio .NET makes many facets of Web application development a breeze. Need to display data on a page? Simply drag a DataGrid onto the Designer, and then a connection object; set some properties through VS.NET's GUI, and you're done. Trouble is, if you want to deviate from the path the GUI tools provide, you have to write code. And ASP.NET code, to the non-programmer, may seem backwards and confusing. For example, consider the following: you are displaying monthly sales data in a Web page and want to make the background color of the month's data red if the sales goal for that month was not met. In classic ASP, you can see where your HTML table is built up, and non-programmers can intuitively reason the precise location where such a check must go. In ASP.NET, you need to know that the DataGrid has an ItemDataBound event that fires for each item added to the DataGrid. For someone whose background is not in computer science, the notion of creating an event handler may be foreign.

Now I'm not decrying ASP.NET in favor of classic ASP. The last classic ASP page I created was back in 2000, and I don't plan on ever doing classic ASP again. I love ASP.NET, but I have a computer science background. I've talked to folks who lack the background, or who work with people who lack the background, and they notice just how much trouble these people have transitioning from ASP to ASP.NET. Part of the power of ASP (and Visual Basic) was that it empowered non-programmers to create computer solutions, but .NET has raised the entry-level, for better or for worse.

So what does the future bode for these non-programmers? Do they migrate from programming to some other task? Keep doing classic ASP / Visual Basic? Start using .NET once the tools become so advanced that virtually no code has to be written by the so-called “developer?”

To start an online business you need to know where to begin.

By Jim Daniels

This tutorial is for folks who do not yet have a web site of their own. It will explain how to put your own custom web site on the web without paying big bucks.

Have you been contemplating having your own web site but keep putting it off for one reason or another? Maybe you’re marketing a few affiliate programs and promoting those affiliate URLs. Well, as you learned from the article in the last issue of my BizWeb E-Gazette, your own custom web site is the first step in promoting ANY business online, even those affiliate programs.

Okay, so what are you waiting for?

If you think that setting up a custom web site is expensive, think again. The total cost can be less than a few hundred bucks and some of your time. Once your site is up, the only ongoing costs are monthly web hosting charges, which can be as low as $20 - $40 per month plus yearly domain fees of just $35. Now that’s cheap!

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on getting your own custom site up...

1. Lay out your basic design.

Do this step on paper first. Draw out what you want your main entry page, or home page to look like. Keep it simple and uncluttered. Be sure it includes a short description of how your site will help your web site visitors. (These are the folks who you’ll be targeting the site to -- take some time and figure out who they are before you start!)

Then, draw out a few more pages to link that home page to. A few examples would be a page that describes your company or yourself, a page that offers free information about your area of expertise, and a page with your best product/ service/opportunity that you plan to promote.


2. Once you have a basic layout of what your site will look like, you need to design it on your computer.

There are many ways to do this. You can go out and buy one of those 800 page books on html, the code used to design web pages, or you can go the easy route. The easy route is to purchase a WYSIWYG (stands for What You See Is What You Get) web design program. There are many programs to choose from in today’s market. These programs are the easiest way to design a web site, especially for the first time. Most of these programs cost $100 or less.

Here are a few examples of such programs...

- Microsoft FrontPage: www.microsoft.com/frontpage/

I used this program to design my www.bizweb2000.com site and it is a solid choice for new webmasters.

- Homesite: http://www2.allaire.com/Products/HomeSite/

This popular design program is now the choice of many webmasters, as it produces clean html despite its WYSIWYG interface.

Tip: Read the article below before proceeding with your design: http://www.bizweb2000.com/imc/articles/frontpage.shtml


3. Once your site is laid out on your computer, you’ll need to decide on a domain name for your site.

Registering your own domain name means that web surfers will be able to connect to your web site by entering www.yourname.com. Here are a few tips to help you select your domain name.

a. Avoid using any character that is not a letter or number. Many newbies do not know where to find the '-' or '_' characters, for instance. You want the name to be easy to type.

b. Avoid using the numeral '1' or '0' in your domain name. Many people will confuse these with the small letters 'l' and 'o'. The last thing you want is someone getting frustrated when they are trying to connect to your site.

c. Use a domain name that is easy to remember and has something to do with your business. Once you settle on a name, it’s also a good idea to do a trademark search to make sure the name is not already under trademark by another company. The last thing you want is to be forced to switch domain names once you get going full swing.

You can perform a free domain and trademark search at: http://www.e-gineer.com/e-gineer/domainator/

Once you have the domain name picked out, your web host should register it for you at no charge. See the next step.


4. Select a company to host your web site.

Okay, your web site is designed and you have a domain name picked out. So why do you have to hire a company to host your site?

Well actually, you ’could’ host the pages on your own computer. After all, a hosting company will provide just that to you, a computer. But in order to do it yourself, you would need a 24 hour connection to the web, in the form of a super-fast phone connection known as a T1 or T3. These digital connections cost over a thousand bucks a month. Therefore, hiring a web host who already has multiple T’s is a much more cost-effective solution for small businesses.

Your web host will maintain your 24hr connection to the web, making sure surfers can connect to your site at all times. Therefore, it’s important to hire the right company. My past experiences with web hosting have been quite eventful (as well as painful). To help you make an informed decision, I’ve posted a report about selecting a host at...

http://www.bizweb2000.com/virtual.htm


5. Transfer your files to your new web hosting company.

This is a step that many newbies have problems with. Basically, you’ll be transferring your newly designed web pages from your own computer to the computer at your web hosting company.

Although most WYSIWYG web design programs come with a 'web publishing' interface, I’ve found the few I’ve tried to be clumsy and slow. Rather than using the web publishing interface in your design program, I suggest downloading an 'FTP' (stands for File Transfer Protocol) program from the web. These cost in the $30 range and they make uploading your site to your host, a breeze.

Here are a few simple and effective FTP programs you can use to put your site up:

CuteFTP: http://www.cuteftp.com/

This is the program I use to upload web pages to my site. Its simple drag and drop interface simplifies uploading new pages to my web site. And when making changes to existing pages, I just use my mouse to drag and drop the new page to my web host computer and it replaces the old one.

WS_FTP: http://www.ipswitch.com/

This is one of the more popular choices among veteran webmasters. Its easy and intuitive interface makes managing your web site a breeze. No wonder it’s the world’s most popular FTP client for Windows.

Once you’ve downloaded an FTP program, spend an hour or two getting used to it. You’ll be using it a lot as a new webmaster!


That’s it! You now have each step laid out in an easy to follow checklist. And remember, your web site is never finished! Effective web sites are sites that get updated on a regular basis.

If you need more help in getting your online business set up, download my e-book at here. The book is completely free and it covers everything from business setup to web marketing strategies used by pros. You can even give the book away as your own!

Happy webmastering!

404 Error Pages - What are they and how do you create one?

by: Stephen Hames

We’ve all seen them, you’ve been browsing a website and you click a link and nothing loads apart from the words ‘404 Error’ along with the usual stuff.

So what is a 404 Error page? The 404 Error page, basically informs the user that the server cannot find the file they are looking for. However, instead of using the default 404 Error page you can create your own, this is how you do it.

First, you need your .htaccess file which should be within your web site directory. If you cannot find it you will need to create one. You will have to contact your host asking them how you would go about creating or editing this file. They may want you to use a text editor and then upload it, or they may want you to use a PICO editor and create or edit the file on the server.

How you have access to the .htaccess file lets edit it. Add this line to the .htaccess file:

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.yourdomain.com/404page.html

Make sure this line is kept on online. This is where your 404 Error page is kept.

Now you’ve change the .htaccess file you need to create the page. This is simply a normal HTML document. Once you’ve created the HTML document, save it and call it 404page.html. Now the next step is to upload the .htaccess file and the page to the server.

Now that is done your next step is to turn it on. This is done by setting the CHMOD attribute to 644. You can do this via telnet or some FTP programs. If your going to telnet into your server, use the following command:

chmod 644 .htaccess

Now test to see if it’s worked. Just go to a page that doesn’t exist on your server and you should see your new 404 Error page. If not, then make sure the CHMOD is set correctly, and if that doesn’t help, you may want to ask your hosting company for support.
About The Author

I currently own and run a small E-commerce template website located at http://www.sjh-designs.co.uk. You can find several more guides located at http://www.sjh-designs.co.uk/guides.htm.

Joomla - Why Use It?

By Suzann Kale

Why use a complex piece of software rather than just putting up a few pages?

When the Internet got started, all websites were simple pages in very simple HTML. They existed as a page or several pages on a site. The browser went to those sites, the browser presented those files to you and you just read them or looked at the contents and that was about all that happened.

In the last few years, the open source community has made several software systems available that greatly empower websites. It adds functionality, it adds security, and it does many things that formerly required a lot of experience and expertise to put together a website that could do what Joomla does.

CMS. Officially Joomla is called a Content Management System or CMS. That title means that it knows how to handle the content of your site, where the content is the words in an article that you write, or the pictures that you display on the pages, or the movies or audio clips that you play. How all that content is presented to the viewer is controlled by the software that we call Joomla.

There are other CMS systems out there. Several of them are free and there are a lot of commercial systems. But Joomla is one of the well known open source packages that is free to be used by anyone.

Joomla Versus the Old Way. The reason Joomla is valuable compared to building a website by hand, one page at a time, is that Joomla organizes everything and provides functionality that's been de-bugged, tested, and used by hundreds of other people - so that with little effort you can install a complex website.

Once it's installed, the administrative capabilities built into Joomla allow you to maintain that website easily.

What does maintenance mean? A healthy growing website needs to constantly add content to that site. Joomla provides tools to add content and functionality to the site. It also supplies functions that you need for a general purpose website. It comes with contact pages for sending email from visitors without spammers hijacking that function. It allows you to add advertisements to your web pages easily. It allows you to edit files, and change templates to modify and customize the appearance of the website.

How to Learn Joomla. Joomla is a complex tool. How do you learn to use it? First, the Joomla community is very large. That means there are many tutorials and active forums which are excellent sources of information. For example, at Website - Do It Yourself you can find step by step procedures for installing, modifying, and maintaining a Joomla website.

More helpful functions. There are other perks to a Joomla installation. There is a strong community of developers that provides modules, plug-ins, and add-ons. These are easily installed into Joomla and give you such things as forums, community-oriented services, email lists, and other tools. You can customize your site - for free - far beyond what you could do with even a limited budget. There are hundreds of add-on modules that provide added functionality. Most of them are free, although there are commercial modules as well.

So if you want an extremely easy, fast, high-performance way to build your website, you couldn't go wrong installing Joomla and giving it a whirl.

Suzann Kale is a technical writer and copy editor. She helps edit http://www.Website-DoItYourself.com and has written many articles for science-oriented sites and hard copy magazines. She also runs a site on cosmetics and animal safety.

What Is This RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom Business?

By Meryl K. Evans

It's been a long day at work and you're in no mood to cook dinner or go out. Time to count on the reliable pizza delivery guy. The order is called in and he promptly arrives with smokin' hot pizza within 30 minutes as promised. If it were only that easy with a picky family where no one can agree on the same restaurant for dinner. One wants Mexican, another wants Chinese, and another wants a burger and Mexican. Instead of running to three different places, you call a delivery service that goes to all of them and brings it to you. What could be easier in getting a meal without cooking it or fetching it?

RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom are the food delivery guy of the Internet. The content they deliver is mixed and cooked elsewhere on the Internet just like the meal isn't made on your door step and the acronym fellows bring the content to you via software or an online application. Instead of trying to remember all the places where you like to go to get the latest news, it all comes to you once you order your food.

Click on any of those orange or blue RSS, XML, or RDF buttons and you see unreadable text. Some of it is readable, but reading between the is slow and difficult. In this case, you've got the raw ingredients of the content known as a feed. To make it easily readable, download a feed reader that can interpret (aggregate) the ingredients or sign up for an online service that can do the same.

When the software or application is ready to go, click on the orange or blue button (or "Syndicate This Page," or whatever is along these lines) and copy the resulting URL from the address box. Paste it into the application to cook the ingredients where it's delivered to you ready for your enjoyment.

Syndication is a not a new concept on the Internet, but it’s growing in popularity as more Web sites and newsletters are churning content to turn it into syndicated files, which are fed into an aggregator. Think of it as the content that's ready to travel anywhere it needs to go. Grab the feed and feed it to the aggregator, another way of bookmarking (or creating a favorite) a site because you wish to come back again another time. But how often did you go back to the site through your bookmarks / favorites?

Instead of schlepping from site to site in search of information, I have it all in front of me via the aggregator. The feeds are sorted in folders by topic for easy finding. If I'm writing about the latest virus or worm, then I open the security folder with the security-related feeds and scan them. Scanning content through aggregators is easier than on a Web site because it's in one folder with headlines and maybe a short summary. On a Web site, you're only getting the benefit of that site's news and no where else. The folder has news from over ten resources including blogs, news sites, and newsletters.

Any content can be syndicated. It's a matter of having the backend process in place, which is dependent on the application used for managing the content. If a site doesn't have such resources, then there is software for entering content to create a file with the feed for posting on the site.

Most aggregators have exporting capabilities so the feed can be shared with others interested in the same topic. If you're interested in my security feeds, I can export them into, in most cases, an OPML file and you can import it into your aggregator.

Spam filters are preventing readers from getting newsletters or they get lost in the spam pool. Offering a feed for the newsletter is a compromise. Readers can get the content, only instead of it coming to the emailbox, it comes through the aggregator. It's a way around spam. Like everything else, it has its advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

• Filters can't stop the newsletter from reaching its destination.
• The recipient will get it - if the server is down, it'll download next time and email can get lost.
• The feed can be syndicated providing more exposure for your content.

Disadvantages:

• Rely on readers to open aggregators like they open email client, but some aggregators are built-in with an email client like NewsGator and there are online aggregators like Bloglines, which can be your home page.
• Metrics won't be as complete, but it's still there through the links.
• Not as pretty as HTML-based newsletters.

If the feed is automatically created, what have you got to lose? You're providing another way for your readers to get your content just like you can get pizza in different ways: go to the restaurant, have it delivered, or make it at home. More applications are adding syndication capabilities, which make the process effortless. Some have said they won’t read something unless it has a feed.

Syndication works better than bookmarks. With bookmarks, you click on a site that might have the security information and arrive there to find it doesn't. So, back to the bookmarks to click on another site. Lather, rinse, repeat. With aggregators, there is no jumping from site to site. Scan the headlines right there until you find what you need.

There was a time when we didn't have the option to have pizza delivered to our doorstep. When we're too tired, we know we can rely on the delivery guy. In term of content, expect to see it show up at your doorstep more often than the pizza guy plus it's cheaper with the cost only coming from the software though there are many free options available. Syndication is here to stay and should be added to a company’s communication toolbox rather than as a replacement. Witness it by watching for RSS, XML, RDF, and Atom out there.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net who increases conversion rates by writing and editing content so organization can focus on their core business. She is the editor-in-chief of the eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik's The Remediator Security Digest. Visit her Web site at http://www.meryl.net/blog/.

What is RSS?

By: Nasir

RSS is a family of web feed formats specified in XML and used for Web syndication. Syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website. RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel". These RSS feeds provide a way for users to passively receive newly released content. This might be the full content itself or just a link to it, possibly with a summary or other metadata. RSS feeds are operated by many news web sites, weblogs, schools, and podcasters.
By having "RSS" plugged into your website with targeted RSS feeds you'll now have a continuous supply of fresh targeted content delivered to your website for your visitors 24/7/365 without you ever having to lift a finger. The other great thing about RSS is it'll keep the 'Search Engine Spiders' coming back more frequently since "RSS" automatically updates your selected feeds 'Daily' with fresh targeted content.
To display RSS feeds on your site, you will have to install software to your server and convert the pages where you would like to place the feeds to PHP. You can also use JavaScript or various other scripting languages to display RSS feeds on your site.

Benefits of Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary:
1. It gives you the latest updates.
2. It saves on surfing time.
3. It gives the power of subscription to the user.
4. It lessens the mess in your inbox.
5. It is spam free.
6. Unsubscribing is stress-free.
7. It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool.

Drawbacks of Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary:
1. Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.
2. Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds.
3. The identity of the source website can be confusing.
4. Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.
5. RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server.
6. Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

Advantages of PHP Development

By: Nasir

PHP Hypertext Processor is a server-side web programming language that can be embedded into HTML. PHP uses are widespread, and can include any kind of server functionality that takes user’s input and displays or manipulates the input. PHP can run on both UNIX and Windows servers, which makes it more accessible than Windows (ASP). This scripting language is growing day by day. PHP5 a fully object oriented language and its platform independence and speed on Linux server helps to build large and complex web applications.
PHP is a particularly useful programming language because it allows for advanced programming and is easy to integrate with web pages. Another plus of PHP is that the language interfaces very well with MySQL, a popular type of online database. MYSQL is a commercial grade database application that is made available free under the Open Source to anyone. Another plus of PHP is that it is Open Source Code. The actual code that is PHP is available to the public for free, while the source code for products such as ASP is not. So PHP is very cheap. Because PHP is open source, there is a large community of PHP programmers that help each other with code. This means PHP programmers can rely on each other by using reusable pieces of code called functions and classes rather than constantly reinventing the wheel. This can dramatically cut down on production time.
PHP is based on C++ language and the syntax used in PHP is quite similar to C/C++. C/C++ is still considered the best programming language by many programmers and people who love this language would surely feel more comfortable with the syntax of PHP.
PHP and MySQL are excellent choice for webmasters looking to automate their web sites. Now search spiders "see" all the content on a PHP page, the same way it is viewed in a browser. The creation of a php-shopping cart is surprisingly simple and when done with precision it could translate into a highly effective and universally accepted php-shopping cart.

ASP vs. PHP

by: Halstatt Pires

When building web sites, ASP and PHP are very popular languages. Here’s my opinion on whether ASP or PHP is best

ASP v. PHP

Both ASP and PHP are languages used to build Dynamic Web sites that can interact with Databases and exchange information. ASP (Active Server Pages) is from Microsoft and is used with IIS (Internet Information Server) that runs on Microsoft Servers. PHP (Personal Home Pages) is from Rasmus Lerdorf, who originally designed this parsing language which was later modified by different people. It runs on Unix and Linux servers and it also has an NT server version.

There are a lot of differences between ASP and PHP.

Cost

To run ASP programs one needs IIS installed on a Windows platform server, which is not free. PHP programs run on Linux, which is free. Even the connectivity of the database is expensive in the case of ASP as MS-SQL is a product of Microsoft that needs to be purchased. PHP generally uses MySQL, which is freely available.

Speed

If we compare the speed of ASP and PHP then PHP has an upper hand. PHP code runs faster than ASP. ASP is built on COM based architecture, which is an overhead for the server whereas PHP code runs in its own memory space.

Platform Compatibility

PHP programs can run on various platforms like Linux, Unix, Windows and Solaris whereas ASP is mainly associated with Windows platforms. However, ASP can run on a Linux platform with ASP-Apache installed on the server.

Additional Costs

Many of the tools used in PHP are free of cost and since PHP is open source a lot of code can be found in open source forums. PHP has inbuilt features like ftp, email from a web page or even encryption mechanisms but in ASP such features are not built in and some additional components are required. Therefore an additional cost is incurred for such components.

Base Language

PHP is based on C++ language and the syntax used in PHP is quite similar to C/C++. C/C++ is still considered the best programming language by many programmers and people who love this language would surely feel more comfortable with the syntax of PHP. ASP on the other hand has a more Visual Basic kind of syntax that again is closely related to only Microsoft products. So, it depends on a person-to-person which language he or she is comfortable

Database Connectivity

PHP, being extremely flexible, can connect to various databases, the most popular being MySQL. ASP mainly uses MS-SQL.

Conclusion

Both languages have their advantages specific to users. Some would argue that both the languages have their own importance and depending on the user's requirements the language and the platform can be chosen. If we talk about developing a discussion board then ASP is equally capable but many feel the best discussion boards are developed in PHP. If a user is looking for some e-commerce application development then many would call ASP the ideal choice. This does not mean that PHP cannot provide e-commerce solutions, only that many people choose ASP.

From my perspective, PHP is an all around better choice than ASP.

10 Essential Tips For A Web Designer

By: Paul Wilson

One of the toughest challenges facing any designer is the web page. There are perhaps millions of pages in the World Wide Web all jostling for attention. The question that is foremost is how you as a designer can make a difference.

One of the toughest challenges facing any designer is the web page. There are perhaps millions of pages in the World Wide Web all jostling for attention. The question that is foremost is how you as a designer can make a difference.

Study the subject being featured. Visit as many sites as possible that cover the same as well as related topics. Make a list of what works and what doesn’t. Avoid using a design that is going to be uniform with others. Unless your pages are distinctive they are not going to work.

1. Try and avoid run of the mill things like page counters, java text scrolling, flashing images, GIF images, signs which say “we are not ready.” Or, too many illustrations or animations, black grounds or fade ins.

2. Create a design which coveys in a stylish way what it has to. Instead of using downloaded illustrations use original ones.

3. Avoid things like heavy files or graphics. These will slow down your pages. GIF is better than JPEG files.

4. Think of the target audience and subject being addressed when designing. The overall effect should be that of exclusivity.

5. Avoid incorporating download plugins. While Flash is innovative and fun you will loose viewers if you don’t provide an HTML alternative.

6. Design the pages so that they are not more than 50K.

7. Remember the rule of thumb; a web page should not have more than three screens. And, ensure that the viewer does not have to scroll horizontally.

8. Test your website pages with several browsers. Make sure they open quickly and completely. Do a reality check by asking a cross section of users to check the site. Usability checking will bring to the fore any mistakes made.

9. Don’t use backgrounds with tiles or patterns it makes the design fussy and decreases readability. Avoid frames they make the pages difficult to book mark.

10. Determine accurately the rules of creative design and ensure that you apply them. If you have links make sure they work. Limit page content. Pay attention to search engine optimization. Ensure that the design follows the content and is not a separate element. Maintain archives. Use innovative fonts and titles. The content should follow basic elements of style or a style sheet.

When designing the web page think about the site as a whole not each page separately. There should continuity in design. Include a site map for easy navigation. Pay attention to imparting knowledge, include information on the subject of the site, give tips, make available how to articles as well as publications on the topic. The site and pages should be interactive without being a nuisance, so links must be well thought of and of practical use.

Keep in mind at all times the 5 golden principles of design: balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance, and unity.

Web 2.0: For the User, By the User

By: Joseph Pratt

‘Web 2.0’ is a term derived from a tech conference held in 2004 of the same name. It loosely describes a second coming of the Internet, a rebirth to replace the dross shed in the dot.com bubble burst of 2000-2001. Web 2.0 is characterized by its increased utility for the user.

I still remember the thrill of my father bringing home our first VCR. The features were dizzying – would it really record television shows in the middle of the night when we were fast asleep? Finally, just what we needed! Or did we?

Sadly, we only mastered the art of renting and playing movies. Confusion from unclear directions overrode our interest level in learning the finer points of our VCR’s features. Dad rightly claimed that corporate design labs and family dens have different standards for what might pass as “user-friendly”. We used the VCR as it suited our needs while disregarding its more complex features.

Some years and many technologies later “user friendly” is back defining, in digital terms, what is loosely referred to as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the latest generation Internet. It’s the perfect market for users and advertisers alike: now it-s Adsense, not DoubleClick; live blogs, as opposed to static webpages.

That lack of user friendliness that kept us from mastering our VCR is similar to what made Web 1.0 the stuff of great, yet unrealized potential for online advertisers. Players in Web 1.0 could not help but stumble through the trial-and-error process before the onset of newer, more user-friendly technology that we see in today’s Internet.

The initial Internet bubble of five years ago is littered with Web 1.0 wreckage. It’s funny how many of us qualify as short sighted animals – some of us thought the Internet actually had limits. Okay, at least I thought the Internet actually had limits. Wall Street did, too. But stock prices don’t measure progress, they just measure the final word in investor sentiment.

‘Web 2.0’ is a term derived from a tech conference held in 2004 of the same name. It loosely describes a second coming of the Internet, a rebirth to replace the dross shed in the dot.com bubble burst of 2000-2001. Web 2.0 is characterized by its increased utility for the user. Rather than being limited to a select bunch of web gurus, everyday users participate in its development. As you read these very words, cynics, comics, and contrarians are scanning the horizon for Bubble 2.0, but as far as I can tell, it’s not here yet. Knock on wood.

This Web 2.0 business is a touchy subject for some malcontents. While some try to identify a Web 3.0 (catchphrase overkill?), others feel that a key characteristic of the Web 2.0 paradigm, the democratization of the Internet space, is what’s bound to fail us.

While being one of Web 2.0’s darlings because of its open-source success, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org also receives criticism for the very same reasons. It’s the handiest of resources and has skyrocketed in popularity. What’s more, users repeatedly return to the site once they’ve used it, an impressive quality. It’s in the top 25 most heavily trafficked sites-not bad at all for a site that doesn’t advertise. Kind of like another free website whose popularity is not reflected in visible advertising: Google.

Wikipedia’s services are free. Its content is also wholly submitted by web-users. However, in being constructed by amateurs, Wikipedia is thus susceptible to the foibles of amateur contribution. Recently Wikipedia falsely identified a Tennessean as being linked to both of the Kennedy assassinations, a joke perpetrated by a co-worker. The open-ended format leaves such shenanigans possible.

The beauty of the open-source format is not questioned, but there are more issues than potentially spotty performance, or the occasional office prank. Wikipedia, by virtue of its free nature, smothers the chances for a successful and authoritative online encyclopedia created professionally. The market just won’t be there. As it stands, many treat Wikipedia.org as a first stop before searching elsewhere for what are perhaps more credible resources.

I’m not sure how to assuage the hurt that people may feel from any oncoming rush of online democracy, but I can guarantee that a stance against the flow of Web 2.0 will be wasted effort. Still, some are stuck in the old ways and will continue to try and stamp their vision of the way things should be onto the evolving freedoms and new realities of the Internet.

The Fall 2005 issue of Revenue Magazine, “The Performance Marketing Standard”, featured an interview with a marketing executive from OgilvyOne North America, an online advertising division of the traditional advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather. Throughout the interview the executive used industry jargon to liberally slather advertising platitudes in almost total disregard to the questions posed to her. In other words, she’s treating the Internet market the way she should a television audience. That’s so 1.0.

The reader can’t miss an unintended subtext entwined in her jibber jabber. In answering a question about why advertising agencies are slow in adapting to change brought by online advertising she asserts that agencies, Ogilvy in particular, have been, in fact, “leading the revolution” and need to push to understand their targets. I don’t blame her any more than I blame politicians whose job compels them to regularly make statements that make me wince. However her statement typifies just how the first push, or Web 1.0, did not storm the castle of Internet success.

In TV or radio you make the push and attack your target. In Web 1.0 advertising agencies tried to identify and push their ads onto their targets. They studied user behavior and plotted to meet them there with ‘effective’ advertising. What constituted ‘effective’ were non-contextual pop-ups and banners. The aggressive poppers of Web 1.0 did not translate into quality CTRs; rather they bred angry surfers. To be blunt, this method failed then and still does. A Web 2.0 mindset understands that we accommodate our “target” to the extent that our target lets us. The user finds the advertiser and the smart advertiser will be ready. It’s simple, it’s search.

ICMediaDirect.com started up as a fully online advertising agency. Like any online advertising agency, we match our efforts to the Internet user’s whim. In deference to the reality of Web 2.0, we concede that the Internet user, that voice of the public, is in fact the driver of “the revolution”. The rules are different here. Our dialogue with clients doesn’t consist of conspiring to convince the public of anything. Our job, in full accordance with a Web 2.0 flow, is to get advertisers as appealing and available to web searchers as possible.

Here, ‘going with the flow’ means understanding that the searcher, or internet user, is steering the boat. We do not seek to attack them with ads. Instead, we prepare the advertiser for the user. And, thankfully, the Web 2.0 searcher is ready for e-commerce in a way those on Web 1.0 never were. The proof: SEM and SEO works.

Free content can still be free. The Internet is, more than anything, a mass network of individuals who have an easier and easier go of it in skirting the traditional keepers of the gate. The trick is to get users to come to you when they are ready to do so, on their terms. That’s exactly what we do best. For better or worse, Web 2.0 is here to stay. The wise will find out how to participate. For the rest, there are VCRs.

What can PHP scripts online do for your website?

By: Talia

Making the most out of your website is probably one of the most important things that you need to do, but do you have any idea of where to start? Buying PHP scripts online is a great way to make your site more profitable and efficient.

Buying PHP scripts online is as easy as 1-2-3. Really, I am not exaggerating the ease with which you can transform your lackluster website into a powerhouse of profit.

A good website needs to be dynamic, it needs to attract and keep traffic, that is what conversion is all about If people come to your site and then click away in seconds you are not going to make any money, right? It is all about good common sense.

With a great niche topic and a good PHP script you can make money by selling products or services or even with Google adwords. It doesn’t matter what you are selling or promoting, a good PHP script online bought is going to do all of the work for you. You will be able to process requests from your customers, process payments and so much more and the best part is that you can get PHP scripts online cheap, much cheaper than you would imagine.

A website made with PHP scripts online is one that will never get old. It will be efficient, fast and useful to anyone who is looking to make money online. You can make millions of dollars while you are sleeping, it is that easy. Just get the PHP scripts online, install them and you are set for years.

But what are you supposed to look for in the PHP scripts online that you buy? That question is a little trickier.

There are many different sites out there that say they will give you free PHP scripts, but many of these are incomplete or lacking in the latest that the internet has to offer. Things change fast in the world of programming and scripting, that is why you need the latest products. That is why you may want to look for PHP scripts online that will offer you a guarantee regular updates. Not all offer this and it is vital that you check for these if you want to not throw your money away.

And if you are looking to purchase a package of PHP scripts online, then look for one that has a good versatility. Instead of looking for a PHP script package that has 10 different PayPal processing scripts, look for one with a PayPal PHP script, a Storm Pay script as well as a Solar Pay script for example. The more versatility you can get into the product that you buy the better off you will be.

When shopping, you will find that many of the best packages out there offer you everything you need for your entire site all in one convenient package, it is so simple it is funny! And the money you will save by buying the PHP scripts online already written is enormous and the icing on the cake is that you can install them all yourself. Good packages have great instructions that make is truly simple.

Server Side Programming Languages

By: dave

Server-side programming languages are scripts that are executed on the server, and are then translated into HyperText Markup Language (HTML) which can be viewed by all web browsers. The two most popular server-side scripting languages are PHP: Hypertext Processor and Active Server Pages (ASP). Additionally, there are numerous other languages like AJAX and Coldfusion.

PHP can run on both Unix and Windows servers, which makes it more accessible than its Windows counterpart, Active Server Pages (ASP). Most full-service web design firms will have at least one PHP guru.
PHP uses are widespread, and can include any kind of server functionality that takes user's input and displays or manipulates the input. Some pertinent examples of such work are message boards, auction sites, shopping carts, and more. There are numerous free (open-source) scripts out there for PHP newbies to use. This synopsis is meant to serve only as a gateway to other works; although the main goal is to give a reader enough information so they can make educated decisions about what their web developer should do. For those looking to get into PHP, there are many free tutorials and primers out there: http://www.4webhelp.net/tutorials/php/basics.php is a pertinent example.
PHP generally uses the mySQL database system. MySQL is a server-side system that is included on many Unix, and some Windows servers.

On the other hand, Active Server Pages runs - for the most part - solely on Windows servers. This can cause some problems. Windows hosting or private servers generally cost more than Unix servers, making it less accessible than PHP. Like PHP, ASP can do just about anything. There are considerably fewer open-source scripts written in ASP, another testament to its inaccessibility.
For those interested in ASP, here's a great free tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/asp/default.asp.

ASP can use many different database systems. Many users prefer Microsoft Access. Access, unlike MySQL, offers a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor as part of Microsoft's Office suite. In fact, you may already have a copy of Microsoft Access on your computer and not even know it. Its uses aren't limited to databasing, it's also used as a basic spreadsheet application for those who need a more programmer-friendly environment than Excel. ASP can also work well with MSSQL or MySQL.

A third programming language with burgeoning popularity is Asynchronous Javascript and XML. AJAX, as it's commonly referred to, creates interactive web programs just like its cousins ASP and PHP. AJAX uses XHTML and CSS, along with the Javascript Document-Object Model to create interactive pages designed for speed and overall usability. Although AJAX hasn't gained the acclaim of PHP and ASP, its future is certainly bright.
AJAX Basics - http://dhtmlnirvana.com/ajax/ajax_tutorial/

It's difficult to say which of the three programming languages, or the numerous others for that matter, is the best. There will always be disputes, and no standard is set. With the varying interpretations of what a programming language should be, predilections to PHP or ASP arise. PHP is certainly more widely used, but isn't necessarily the best. When a site is being created to be interactive, a professional can give an educated opinion on which technology should be used.

Your New Website is Inside

Today’s Internet is a lot different than it used to be. With new developments such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and web standards, building websites the same old way just won’t cut it anymore. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) creates guidelines and regulations that designers strive to follow to make their sites as accessible and functional as possible. Compliance with W3C standards ensures that your site achieves its full potential across a range of systems. However, the W3C regulations continue to change everyday. Do these new rules and regulations on the Internet mean that your website has to suffer aesthetically? The answer is NO. With CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), web designers have the ability to do anything on the web, from browser compatibility to full control of all the aesthetics of any web page. CSS also gives a more solid foundation for SEO, usability, and compliance with web standards.

From a development aspect of web design, the first great advantage of CSS is cross browser compatibility. Every web designer has sat down at a foreign computer and opened one of their websites only to find that the layout is mangled. Everything is either in a different spot or not present at all. This happens because different Internet browsers, and even different versions of the same Internet browser, display websites slightly differently. Web designers are forced to test their builds on as many browsers as possible to minimize this problem. However, users constantly upgrade their computers and download new features to enhance their experience on the Internet. As a developer, you can never control all the variables, but you can eliminate the majority of the problems by using CSS – an extreme advantage when one considers that everything on the Internet is about usability. If the user is at ease and comfortable then they are more likely to return to your site, purchase your product, recommend your service to others, etc. If they get confused because the navigation moves or doesn’t function properly, they are more likely to move on to another site.

Web designers know that the power of CSS gives them many options, but a great deal of designers do not use CSS to its full capabilities. By learning about this language, you can develop it to do more. The cascading part of CSS is the most important feature and yet it is still the most over-looked. CSS makes it possible for the designer to alter one file and, in doing so; make modifications to the entire site. For example, rather than adjusting every font tag individually, this programming technique allows the designer to alter every font in the entire site by changing a single tag in the CSS file. CSS also creates code that is cleaner and less bulky than other scripting languages. Less code means that the search engine “bots” will have enhanced access to the content on your website. In turn, your website will be indexed more effectively, matching your site with appropriate inquiries from users looking for your services. Older development techniques like frames and tables limit the search engines’ ability to crawl your website, so the bot will leave without registering the content. This significantly limits the search engines’ ability to view and catalogue all of your information, and ultimately limits your presence online.

Increased ease and efficiency is another great benefit of CSS. Once you have obtained a decent knowledge of the programming technique, however, it is very easy to let the styles of the CSS control the way you design. CSS functions much like building blocks. At the bottom levels, building is very easy to accomplish, but the larger you go the more advanced and detailed the work becomes. I see many websites that boast about the designer’s ability to utilize CSS, but the site is rather plain and boring. I am a big fan of minimalism but not when it results from a lack of creativity. Which brings me to the question, has the ease of CSS made designers lazy? For some, the answer is yes, but others use the many advantages of CSS to connect creative design with utility and performance. As a full-time designer, I devote all of my energy to creating graphic-focused, visually stimulating websites with CSS as the structure everything is built on.

A website doesn’t have to be simple or boring to work properly. CSS does not limit the design graphically but instead gives the designer the power to create an aesthetically pleasing and fully functional website. If you took two identical designs and built one with tables and one table-less (CSS), the CSS site would have a higher usability across more platforms, it would rank better with the search engines, and the overall performance of the website would be better. Graphically intense CSS layouts do take more time to think through and build out, but that is why I make custom websites. In the ever-changing online world, CSS-based sites are the most up-to-date and effective way to build W3C compliant websites that push the limits of design and function.

The Definition of Spam

Spam can bring down your website faster than a speeding bullet, but what is spam? Originally, spam referred to unwanted emails. We all hate the tons of email we receive day after day trying to get us to buy that or click this. I can't go a day without someone trying to steal my personal information so they can get into my bank account. Does everyone else get the fake paypal emails? They look just like paypal emails, but usually if you look at the links they have ip numbers instead of paypal.com in the address. Obviously, letters from Nigeria, fake paypal emails, and the host of other either crooked or just plain annoying emails can clearly be defined as spam. Of course, email newsletters that have been subscribed to are wanted and would not be spam. I love getting my daily webmaster newsletters. They are great for helping me stay on top of what is going on in the website development world.

Another type of spam, that believe it or not webmasters still employ, is hidden text. This is obviously a bad idea. Google's guidelines clearly state "Avoid hidden text or hidden links". Now to be fair sometimes it's hard to keep all hidden links off of your site if you are using Microsoft FrontPage or other similar editors. The newer 2003 version of FrontPage incorporates the split screen, which makes getting rid of hidden text much easier. The older versions tend to leave hidden links behind in the HTML code after you delete the text. I have recently found tons of hidden text links everywhere on my sites. So, if you have this problem I can feel your pain.

Everything that is a bad SEO practice isn't necessarily spam. Just because Google changes it's algorithm tomorrow doesn't mean all practices banned were actually spam. Sometimes, I feel that many webmasters let search engines dictate what they call spam. For example, linking to your own site from another one of your sites. Is that spam? Some might say you are attempting to alter search engine results and thus you are a spammer. I do have the right to advertise my sites or other sites on my own website, after all. Currently, from other webmaster articles and from what I've seen personally, if your link text is the same everywhere then Google will not allow you those keywords. This has put an end to the Google bomb, but it's unfortunate side effect is the penalization of webmasters adding a link to their own sites from another site. For example, say I have a site about TV DVDs and another one featuring a entertainment blog. It's very simple to enter a link one time into a text file using an ssi include or other similar method that might say "Entertainment Blog" linking back to my blog site. This example populates all my sites at once and thus now I've given everybody interested in my DVD site a little ad to my blog site. Google might penalize the blog site, and so you lose hits from Google. Thankfully, so far Yahoo hasn't taken this step. I guess we could blame the guys who started the Google bombing, but I for one disagree with Google on their method. My only choice in linking back to myself now is to forget adding a standard link in the menu, and put a link back to the blog site one page at a time with different link text and perhaps linking to different pages within the blog site.

Now pop-ups to me go into the category of spam. Anything that is not asked for by the visitor, like a pop-up or email should definitely be classified as spam. Of course, there aren't any penalties for pop-ups from search engines.

Google apparently is targeting affiliate sites now as well. On one hand, I don't blame Google for not wanting exact duplicates in their search results, but their basic rules should still apply. Taking out a site just because it has affiliate links is really not a fair practice. Someone who takes months and perhaps even years of their time to create, maintain, and promote a site, deserves to make money just as much as the big dogs, as long as they are not using deceptive practices. Which brings me back to the main point. What is the definition of spam? Certainly, trying to earn a honest dollar on the net by offering affiliate links shouldn't be considered spam. But sites trying to promote one set of keywords and offer something else on their page should be considered spammers. It's the unwanted promotion tactics and deceptive practices that are now and will always be true spam. Is it spam to offer a rearrangement of Amazon's products? No, not if your title tag says books, and I find books on your page.

Do You Really Own Your Web Site? Maybe Not

Here are some important tips for you to remember and some questions to ask your web site design or development company. If you don't understand the 'ownership' issues when you are buying a web site design or web based application, this is must read material for you! Don't get caught paying twice.

I recently interviewed a new client who was looking to add the functionality of a database to their existing web site. Their current webmaster had completed a business logo and designed the initial interface for the site. The clients asked their webmaster for a quote to add the functionality to the site and he returned a price that far exceeded the clients’ budget.

Long story made short, we found a great application that already exists that would meet the clients’ needs for substantially less than custom development. The client advised the previous webmaster that they were moving services. Do you think they got to keep their original web site? Nope. We had to start over again, which unfortunately meant that this customer had to pay for extra design time that they had effectively already paid for.

Here are some important tips for you to remember and some questions to ask your web site design or development company.

Web Design Source Code

When you hire a web designer or a developer they are going to produce a web site or web based application that your business is going to be dependant on. In fact, a web application may be your whole business. This is absolutely the case where a business is 100% online and depends on the process built into their web site. E-commerce stores are a perfect example of a whole business online.

Web designers create web pages with a compilation of images and hyper-text markup language (HTML). The HTML is a text based standard language that most every web designer in the world knows. The HTML is what is used to hold the structure of your web site together. It keeps the pretty pictures and text all in the right places. Your web browser interprets that HTML and shows you the web site images and text.

Your web designer will start your design by “drawing” your web site in a graphics program. Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop are two tools that are very often used by professionals. Your designer will draw the site using shapes, colors, images and fonts that are all piled up in layers to create the final “look and feel” for your new web site design. The designers will then slice up the images and use the resulting smaller images to build your working website using HTML to hold it all together.

Here is the key. You need the original art file that was used to design your web site in Macromedia Fireworks or Photoshop or whatever software your designer uses. If you don’t get the source file, your next web designer will have to start your design from scratch if you want artwork changes. This is no walk in the park if the original images that were used are not available. Macromedia Fireworks source files have the extension .PNG (yourWebsite.PNG). Photoshop files have the extension .PSD (yourWebsite.PSD).

Another design issue that you may run into in the future is fonts. If your designer uses fancy fonts that are not installed by default on your computer or your future designers computer, you will have to substitute different fonts. In some cases, choosing a new font is not a big issue. However, if you could image that the font used in the logo for Coca-Cola® became unavailable because Coke® changed designers it would most likely cause them real damage. They need the font used in their logo or corporate branding and so do you!

Questions to ask your web designer

1) When you are finished designing my web site will you provide me with the source files used in the design of my new web site?

2) Will you transfer the ownership (copyright) of these source files to me or my company? Or at least give me perpetual license to continue using them and to make revisions?

3) Will you provide me with the names and files for all non-windows fonts used in the design of my new web site? At the very least, because there may be real copyright issues with transferring the fonts, you need to know the names of the fonts and where you can buy copies of them for your project archive.

Web Application Source Code

Web developers create programs that work as applications on the internet. They create code that is compiled, usually in real-time, at the web server. The code will, for example, connect to a database and extract a set of data. The data will then be compiled into an HTML table (so that it is readable) and then sent from the web server to your web browser as pure HTML. You will not be able to “view source” and read the scripting language because it never leaves the web server. If you “view source” from the web browser, you will only see the HTML.

Some of the code that your developer writes will be protected by copyright. Your developer may also buy code in the form of server components, use code blocks for functionality from other programmers or purchase complete application in order to finish your program. You need to ensure that the developer tells you that you can continue to use the software that they develop for your business for an unlimited period of time, and that if there are any licensing restrictions or reoccurring licensing costs that they are disclosed to you before you start the project. Find out if you will be bound forever to a hosting or server plan for you application.

Here are some questions you may want to ask your web developer

1) Will you transfer an unlimited a perpetual license to me or my company to use the application that you develop for me?

2) Will you disclose any licensing restrictions to me regarding the application?

3) Will you write code using common standards or languages that I will be able to move to another hosting provider or eventually to my own server?

4) Can I move my application to another server in the future if it is necessary?

Use of Encryption

So your web developer says “yes” to the last four questions and you think, “great, I’m home free, let’s get started”. Then two years later you decide it’s time to move your web application to your own servers because your e-commerce store is screaming busy and the cost of bandwidth and hosting is killing your profits.

You start the process to move your application to your new server and call up your webmaster for help, but he has gone to University in the states and “isn’t doing that anymore”. You think to yourself, “I guess I should have used a more established company…” So you find a new webmaster. Incidentally, I am often told by new clients that I am their second, third and sometimes even fourth web developer. So we go to move the web site, but wait, something is wrong… portions of the source code are encrypted. Even the government couldn’t decrypt it. We have to rewrite those blocks of code and the client has to pay… again.

If your web sites source HTML or application scripting language is encrypted then it may have to be rewritten or you will have no way to add functionality, or to fix bugs, without involving the original developer who holds the key to the encryption. They are quite clever, aren’t they?

There are some good reasons to encrypt some portions of the source code, even on in a web application. Most web applications will contain, in the source code, the database, username and password within one of the files. This is a great example of a code block that should be encrypted before it is placed into a shared hosting environment.

If your web developer is going to encrypt portions of the source code, make sure you get a copy of the unencrypted source code for your project archive. In this manner you will be able to work with a new developer.

Questions to ask your web developer regarding encryption

1) Will you be encrypting any or all of the source code in the application you are developing for me?

2) Will you provide me with a copy of the original source code prior to being encrypted?

Technologies

There are a number of technologies used in the development of web sites and web applications they include Pre-Hypertext Processor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Active Sever Pages dot Net (ASP.NET), and Cold Fusion to name a few. All of these scripting languages facilitate connecting web sites to databases and accessing functionality on the web server such as sending mail or uploading files. All of these technologies are widely used, widely available and there is a great number of developers that know these languages. There are some lesser known programming and scripting languages that may be able to do a lot of the same things as the more widely used languages. The pitfall is that you may have a more difficult time finding a programmer that knows the language.

Some web scripting or programming languages like Microsoft’s® Active Server Page or Active Server Page dot Net technologies are developed specifically for use on the Mircrosoft operating systems. These technologies are difficult, if not impossible, to run on a Linux operating system. When your programmer selects a language to develop your web application with, he may be marrying you to a long term relationship with a particular operating systems and software vendor. This is okay as long as you recognize the long term ramifications of these choices, some of which may be greater costs to you in the future.

Questions to ask your web developer regarding programming languages

1) Is the technology you use tied to one particular operating system or can I host my web site on my choice of servers with my choice of operating system? More specifically, can I host my application on a Microsoft web server and a Linux server?

Transferability

Make sure that you are able to move your web site to a server with comparable standards in the future should you wish to do so. Moving a web site to a new server is not necessarily due to a break down in the relationship with your web designer. You may be forced to move if your existing server can no longer handle your traffic bandwidth. If your costs become too high in a shared hosting environment you may find it more economical to setup your own web server and host your own application.

If you do choose to host your own application this is where the cost ramifications of your earlier choices will hit your pocket book. For example if your site was developed using PHP, an open-source scripting language for websites, then the cost of your new server will likely not include any software licensing because the operating system (Linux) is free. If on the other hand your site is developed using .ASP or .ASP.NET, you are going to have to buy expensive server licenses from the big guy.

Can You Use Your Site Into the Future?

If you commission a web designer or developer to complete a project for you make sure that you have an agreement in place that clearly specifies that you can continue to use the project and the related source files when it is completed. Check the service agreement that you have signed with your web company. Of course if there is no documentation then you will not know if you own you web site or web-based application.

In Summary

There are some good reasons for web designers and developers to protect their rights and to ensure their future earning potential. As the client or purchaser of web design services you need to understand where you stand with regard to choices that will be made on your behalf regarding your web site or web based application.