Archive for the 'Great Web Tips' Category

T1 Line Prices

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

T1 lines are paid for on a monthly basis and the rates vary according to the services used and the complexity of the data transfers and the traffic. It will also depend on the number of lines you use for your needs. The lesser lines you need, the lower the rates. Many businesses will not need all 24 channels of a T1 line, and pay lower monthly rents than large business concerns that use all 24 channels.

You can get T1 line connections for a monthly rent of $350 to $ 1200 dollars per month depending on the kind of services you will be utilizing. This will include Internet services like email, web browsing, mail servers and data transfers and phone services like long distance and local calls and PBX.

There are many websites from where you can get T1 line price quotes by providing certain basic data about yourself. You will get a comprehensive list of comparative prices from various T1 line providers and you can choose one for your particular need sets.

DSL.net provides T1 lines for as low as $299 dollars per month for a two year contract and for a speed of 384 kbps. The features for this connection include 10 email accounts, unlimited IP addresses and optional web hosting, firewall, VPN and dial-up services. DSL also has one year contract for $329 dollars monthly for the same features. They also have high speed access of 768 kbps and 1.5 Mbps for one and two year contracts and higher monthly rent rates. These connections have special features like static IP types, domain name management and a 30 day no risk free trial. The monthly rent for a 1.5 Mbps connection is $379.95 dollars and $349.95 dollars for one year and two year contracts respectively. The rates for one and two year contracts for a 768 kbps connection, on the other hand, will work out to $359.95 dollars and $329.95 dollars respectively.

T1 Lines provides detailed information on T1 Lines, T1 Line Prices, How To Test T1 Lines, Cheap T1 Lines and more. T1 Lines is affiliated with T3 Bandwidth.

Keep Your Navigation Consistent!

Monday, December 29th, 2008

One of the single most important aspects of effective navigation is consistency. Why? There’s a simple reason.

Visitors want familiarity.

They are more comfortable and more trusting if they know things are going to remain the same from page to page. They have a certain sense of confidence from knowing what to expect.

If a visitor can quickly become familiar with your navigation, it’s much simpler to actually navigate. And of course, that’s the whole purpose of navigation, right?

Besides familiarity, there’s a second reason to be consistent. It helps your credibility.

Consistency in your navigation helps you present a unified, cohesive image to your visitors. In other words, you look polished, well-thought-out, and on top of things. Your visitors get the impression that you “have it together”.

On the other hand, if your navigation is inconsistent, it reflects badly on you and your company. You’ll look disorganized and unprofessional.

Here are 3 ways to maintain consistency in your navigation:

1. Use global navigation (which is a set of your main links that appears on every page of your site in the same place).

Global navigation is an absolute necessity. It ensures that visitors can always get to the main sections of your website quickly and easily.

Global navigation options must be the same on every page. Many sites resoundingly fail in this area. Often, the order of the links varies from page to page, or some links are missing on certain pages. This confuses even experienced web users.

2. Keep the appearance and placement of buttons and secondary links the same throughout the site.

I recently ran across a site that used three completely different styles of buttons in as many pages. This variation blew any unified appearance they hoped to have. It also made it hard to recognize which graphics were links and which were not, since there was no consistently-used symbol for “clickability”.

On another site, secondary navigation options were on the left on some pages and on the right on other pages. That’s a no-no. Visitors will never be sure where to look for additional options, particularly since this site was visually busy. Don’t move links around from page to page.

Link colors, button styles, fonts, and placement should be the same throughout the site. The goal should be for visitors to instantly recognize a link when they see it.

3. Stick with conventional design standards.

In addition to being consistent within your site, you also need to be consistent with other sites. Don’t get too far out on the fringe in trying new things.

If you use a navigation scheme that’s completely different from what you see on most other sites, visitors will likely be confused. Make your navigation look and function like something visitors will be familiar with from other sites.

About The Author

There are 605.6 million people online. Can they find your business? Jamie Kiley creates powerful and engaging websites that make sure YOUR company gets noticed. Visit http://www.kianta.com for a free quote. Get a quick, free web design tip every two weeks–sign up for Jamie’s newsletter: http://www.kianta.com/newsletter.php

jamiekiley@kianta.com

Why Do I Love All the Hype Online?

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

The Power of Technology has brought so many conveniences to peoples lives. This includes all the benefits people get from the Internet. Everything was quite impossible before the invention of the Internet. But now all the impossible became possible and doable.

Before, nobody ever thought of the possibility of communicating anywhere in the world in seconds. No one has foreseen that one can earn a living while at the comforts of ones home. Until finally, the Internet has done it.

Zeroing in on the income earned from the Internet and how money making has become possible and easy, people have embraced totally technology and have been taking advantage of all the benefits. That is where all these hype about the Internet has been coming from and I too have loved it.

With the Internet, it is impossible for businesses to continue without a website. Customers expect them to have one for more information on their products and services. It is a way of presenting your business to customers. Advantages include:

A sign of being professional Very little financial investment and start-up time Presence in the worldwide web 24/7 Efficient, effective and prompt communication medium Cost-effective; savings from transportation, gasoline, food and suits that you should wear everyday in the office Flexibility and freedom to work on your own schedule since you save a lot of time commuting to work than being stuck to traffic everyday Free to experiment on marketing and sales strategies. Work your way to efficient sales strategies Cost-effective way of finding and interacting with possible prospects Easy way to automate your business with unlimited possibilities. Establish your order/payment system effectively, customer/technical support and inventory management system.

The Internet too has fulfilled the dreams of mothers, working students and those who want to earn extra bucks. But there are issues too that they have to consider before making a decision to join the ranks of professionals working at home.

FAMILY TIME. Since you are easily seen at home and available especially if you are a major decision maker, your family can readily barge into your home office for decision, chores and drained up sink. This means interruption to your work. There are no secretaries or voice mail to take your calls and messages. NO TRAFFIC AND COMMUTING. Obviously, this is a tempting and attractive setup for those working at home. Imagine your bed just in the corner or in another room, a few steps away and the television set. This can be quite tempting too. Just be careful and finish your work first.

WORK YOUR OWN SCHEDULE. A flexible schedule is one of the benefits of working at home. But it may also be a drawback especially if you have poor time management skills. Be sure to make this setup work for you than become your Achilles heel.

These are issues that you need to be guarded from. Though, they are easy to combat with three tactics:

1. Work on an office-home set-up to manage family interruptions. Close door would mean not available for any type of interruption not unless a matter of life and death scenario, half-closed door would mean available for interruption but with a very good reason and a wide open door meaning available for any interruption even the mundane ones.

2. Do your work first then play second. One benefit of work at home jobs is a flexible schedule but be sure to have a strict work plan and follow it. You may compensate for day offs with your family and friends by starting your work early regularly or staying up late at nights.

3. Provide a to-do-list, work plan or schedule of workday. Set an office hour like you are working in an office. Working at home too is a test of character. You have the chance to prove your worth, develop your self-esteem and confidence. In case you have not notice, changing your career path and choosing to earn a living at home affects four different areas of your life.

PERSONALITY if you are naturally independent, this kind of job is best for you though you have to work on balancing the fact that it is only yourself you have to depend on. FAMILY LIFE as it is said, your family will have more quality time with you but balance need to be achieved between family and job. MONEY IN THE POCKET working anytime and anywhere and an inexpensive way to setup can give you good savings but it may take awhile before you earn something to save and there is an absence too of an effective IT support when it goes wrong. WORK PRACTICALITIES greatest challenge that you have to face while working home is the balance between family interruptions and job.

All these are posted challenges to you as a home-based work professional but this should not stop you from enjoying all the benefits and the hype online.

Make a Habit of Analyzing Other Sites for Form, Function, and Design

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

The need of the hour is to analyze successful websites so as to obtain clues on designing and marketing your own site. Since this is a business that is growing in leaps and bounds, it is necessary to learn the good aspects to ensure you adapt all good aspects of the craft. While this industry is still in its infancy, the prospects are very good and this appears to be a business that is here to stay.

Aspects to Assess.

While browsing the internet and coming across sites that offer subscriptions, make a habit of analyzing them for their functionality, their design and structure. Some of the components that must be assessed are:

1. What is your initial reaction to the site?

A site has a positive effect on you when it meets your specific requirements. Many internet users do not like to be distracted by banners and advertisements. These are considered as distractions and therefore, many sites are constructed in a user friendly manner. These are constructed to give information to those who seek information on ‘need to know’ basis. The links and directories are available but require proactive steps from the user to access.

2. Does the site make a statement in terms of what it is meant for?

The site must make a statement in terms of its reason for being. A simple button ‘About Us’ provides information such as Who are they? Why are they here? and What do they want from you?

3. Has the Subscription Button placed prominently?

When the site requires you to subscribe, the information for subscription as well as costing should be prominently available. When you want people to subscribe, it should be made easy for them. The pricing page and payment details should be placed in several locations. Some sites place a Subscribe button on every content page that is made available to the public.

4. Are security aspects looked after?

The most important issue to look at is whether you are entering your personal information on a secure page. There are many sites that require you to enter your credit card number and information on an insecure page. This can lead to misuse of your important information.
The best way to look or confirm if the site or subscriber page is secure is to look if the page has a SSL certificate. This can be confirmed by a small gold lock that appears at the bottom right hand corner of the browser when using Internet Explorer or a solid key in a small blue block appears that is available in Netscape Navigator. Another way to confirm this is by checking the site address; the “http” in the url changes to “https”.

5. When you subscribe do you have to wait for an email with your username and password or do you get immediate access?

A great way to attract and keep subscribers is that they should not wait when they subscribe. As soon as they subscribe, they should be able to access the information they have paid for. To attract subscribers, do not make them wait.

These are some of the aspects that must be assessed when looking at sites that require subscription. These will allow you to design your site for users who are internet savvy, and can spot weaknesses without any effort. The design of the site should be catering to a customer base that is accustomed to using the internet and does not tolerate weakness in design and execution.

A great example would be to consider the internet as an expressway where these tips are exit ramps on which you do not want your customers. The site should be so designed that the customer is propelled towards the tool gate, is able to pay tool easily and can gain access to an unrestricted road beyond.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com
Need advice and guidance with your online
business check out the resources found in this website.

Indispensable Connotation of Graphic Design

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Graphic design had been an important element in coming up with an exemplary marketing tool. It deals to provide you with a valuable design print that will make your business known in the market. And for you to attain the confidence of your customers Los Angeles graphic design can create an impressive appealing design prints.

Why go for a graphic design?
More businesses prefer to add up a graphic design for their material because it can be applied both in printed and web development. Primarily this tool can create a picture of a perfect image you want for your material. Basically with the aid of Los Angeles graphic design you can idyllically attain a completed and critical design project.

However in applying graphic design you have to consider some vital factors that can simply aid to deliver a more attractive material. First you have to accurately choose for the right color that will match with your designs. Second an image that will significantly impose a positive impression to your targeted audience. Third is trying to think of the graphic message you want to leave for your audience. The catchier the message the more customers will be able to relate.

Sequentially, to come up with the specified design for your material you have to undergo a thorough research and planning. You can choose to make up your mind in choosing for the right processes as well as technological involvement. You can opt to decide on the following:
• The design process – this simply pertains to the step by step processes and is frequently designers’ complex path solution in handling design problems.
• Grid – can essentially work on with the quicker improvement of the image and texts.
• Technological application – technology had been a great factor in every businesses endeavors. Integrating the new technology will highly benefit both the graphic designer and user.

Easy Online Access
With the innovations made in technology more businesses are able to expand their services online. Having them around does no longer oblige you to leave the comfort of your homes. For, with the easy online access provided for sure you will be able to get what is best for you.

Please visit Graphic Designs Unlimited site at www.graphicdesignsunlimited.com/ for comments and inquiries regarding this article.

Not yet save your dollars – Savings tips for every online entrepreneur should know when seeking prod

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

The old saying to shoppers “if you want to save shop around”, this old fashion phrase is not limited to your traditional shopping but virtually anything you are willing to pay for. As fellow entrepreneurs in online business the same applies to you.

Buying a product to resell If you stumble on a product you have been seeking, don’t rush into buying the first time, chances are:

The product is dated In this situation it a total loss of income and who wouldn’t be furious? It is wise to enquire how old the product has been on the market and when was the last time the product was upgraded. It will also pay to read reviews on the product before purchasing, this will save you a lot of headaches

Offered free somewhere else Have you ever purchased a product only to find out that it is available free somewhere else. If you find yourself in this situation you are no different from above. It is definitely a loss of income as well. Check on the internet, do a search on the “Product+Free” and see the results.

Offered as bonus if you buy another product You should always be on the look out for what I termed a “double score” in this case search for a product to see if it is being offered as a bonus some where else with other products. Because of customer perceived value 99.9% internet software and information products offer additional bonuses and you are bound to find the product you are seeking is given away as bonus or bundled with other products, wow what a win.

What strategies are available? Bargain with the seller Send a mail or phone to the vendor directly informing that you are interested in purchasing the product and you are willing to pay only a stated amount or to the nearest offer you are willing to pay. 99 out of 100 will reply with an offer. I personally was looking for a product which was advertised on the internet for $4,000. I sent a personal email to the vendor stating I wanted to become a reseller but I was willing to pay only $500, I had a reply saying $500 was below suppliers cost however they are willing to take $800. I was able to shake of $3,200 off the regular price. I was more than a happy customer I knew the potential earnings of the product was huge.

Check your business opportunity magazines It is often perceived that people reading business opportunity magazines are more likely to buy and promote products. You often find that prices offered in these magazines are much lower than what is offered online. The prices on online are inflated to ward off curious people looking for freebies and be able to receive good leads from interested buyers.

Compare similar products Don’t forget there are competing products that will equally perform the same function. Look for the products compare features and how they will benefit your business.

Abrahm Hanson, is the founder of Global Business Resources – http://www.findprod.com http://MotivtedProfits.com

Copyright © 2005 Global Business Resources. All rights reserved.

Sponsor Links Click here for all “you can eat” one stop shop for your online, e-commerce at a very one low price.

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Cookies: How to Improve Your Website and Learn From Your Visitors

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Question: How can you improve your visitor’s experience of your website AND at the same time learn how to improve your website (or learn how to increase sales)?

Answer: cookies

Cookies? Yes. Let me explain…

=> COOKIES EXPLAINED

A “cookie” is simply a small piece of text information which a web server stores temporarily with your web visitor’s browser. (Note: cookies are *not* programs.) This means your visitor’s browser remembers some specific information which the web server can later retrieve.

So cookies simply allow your site to store information on your visitor’s computer for later retrieval.

A basic example of a cookie in action can be found here – http://members.rediff.com/lc/cookies.htm

Another example is the “online shopping mall” that uses cookies to add items to a user’s “shopping cart” as they browse. And I use cookies on my own website to make sure a pop-up window loads ONCE ONLY ( http://www.shoptour.co.uk/webmaster.shtml ).

=> WHY YOUR WEBSITE SHOULD USE COOKIES

Basically, cookies allow you to improve a site visitor’s experience of your website. I’ve listed a few examples to show how this can be achieved: * Cookies can store visitor preferences. This means you can present customised information to your visitor, as per their own requirements. (This is how portal sites like MSN work.)

* Cookies can pre-fill form fields for your visitor.

* Cookies can automatically login visitors to your site

* Cookies can provide visitor statistics and therefore help you understand your visitor’s needs. Cookies can provide site metrics like unique visitors, average number of page-views, percentage of repeat visitors et cetera. And cookie-generated statistics are much more accurate than using log files.

(Do remember though, that people sometimes share computers; some browsers are set to reject cookies; and cookies can be erased.)

So not only are cookies an efficient way of keeping track of information, they also help personalise your site visitor’s experience of your site.

And that’s the point with cookies – how can *you* help your site visitor? (No, it doesn’t mean how can you invade your visitor’s privacy! The use of cookies can be abused by site owners, but this ultimately leads to cookie-blocking software being installed and used; so set your cookies cautiously!)

=> USE THIS COOKIE RESOURCE

CookieCentral is an excellent resource dedicated to all things Cookie. The site’s described as providing “information of persistent cookies, HTTP cookies, cookies with JavaScript, magic cookies, [and] maintaining state with cookies and more.”

But don’t worry if that sounds too technical for you, CookieCentral really is a great place to learn about the pros and cons of using cookies. From the concept of cookies through concerns about privacy to JavaScript and CGI demo code – you’ll find it all at CookieCentral.

- http://www.cookiecentral.com/content.phtml?area=2&id=1

=> OR VISIT THESE SITES TO LEARN ABOUT COOKIES

If you want to know more about how cookies work, then visit these sites:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/cookie1.htm http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,58390,00.htm l http://www.pcworld.com/hereshow/article/0,aid,15352,pg,1,00.asp

=> OR JUST DO IT YOURSELF!

As ever, the web is filled with free programs and scripts that allow you to use cookies. Whether you want to use JavaScript, CGI/Perl, PHP or ASP – there are free resources that help you implement cookies on your site.

JavaScript cookies – http://webdeveloper.earthweb.com/pagedev/webjs/cookies

CGI/Perl cookies – http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Cookies/

Developing a User Personalization System with PHP and Cookies – http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/Cookies/

ASP and cookies – http://www.w3schools.com/asp/asp_cookies.asp

=> READ MORE…

You can find out a great deal more about using cookies on your site from the following excellent resources. Just do a search for “cookies” and off you go!

http://www.workz.com http://www.iboost.com http://www.sitepoint.com

Cookies can improve your visitor’s experience of your web site, through personalisation. Using cookies, your site may well run more efficiently too, and could provide you with accurate site statistics helping you deliver just what your visitors are looking for. Just use cookies carefully, so your visitors benefit!

Who’s REALLY Linking To Me?

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

It’s common knowledge in the webmaster world that Google is not (and has not for quite some time) accurately reporting how many “backlinks” or how many sites are linking back to your site. There are probably many reasons for that, but that rant can be saved for another article.

So how can a website owner effectively find out who is linking back to them if Google is being “tight lipped”?

Use Yahoo.

Yahoo has been proven to show a more reliable report on who is linking to your site.

Here is what you need to do on your next visit to Yahoo:

Type this into the search box: link:http://www.mysite.com (make sure you replace “mysite” with your actual domain name)

This search command will show you ALL the pages that are linking to your site, including your own pages. If you do not want your own links being reported in your search, then type this instead: link:http://www.mysite.com -site:www.mysite.com

This will tell Yahoo to search for ALL links pointing back to your website MINUS your own links.

If you are curious to see how many links are pointing to a specific page, then type in this: link:http://www.mysite.com/pagename.html (make sure you replace “pagename” with your actual page name).

Just like in the previous example, you can filter out or omit your own links from the search by add the -site:www.mysite.com command to the end of your search string.

Another search you can do is a search for all links pointing to each and every page on your entire domain by typing this: linkdomain:www.mysite.com This is a quick way to get a broad overview of your backlink structure.

Not too difficult, eh? Hope that helps. Good Luck!

What Is Dedicated Web Hosting

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

For people, companies or organizations who are looking for the most dependable web hosting solution for their mission critical operations, dedicated hosting will give them what they need. Dedicated hosting isn’t the right solution for everyone, and does have some drawbacks, but it has many more advantages than shared web hosting.

When a customer purchases shared web hosting they are on the same web server as hundreds and sometimes thousands of other websites. This can have a negative affect on performance and uptime. When you start using dedicated web hosting your website will be the only website on that server. Dependability is the number one reason people choose to go with a dedicated web hosting solution. Most dedicated hosting packages allow you to have multiple websites on one server, so if you have sister companies, separate divisions, other companies you have relationships with you can share server resources with them, usually with out making major performance sacrifices.

However all of this extra dependability and hardware does come at a higher price. Shared hosting packages run from $2 a month through about $50 a month, with most being less than $20 a month. The most bare bones dedicated hosting packages will start at $80 a month and range as high as several thousand a month. Most people find they fall in the $200 to $500 month range for dedicated hosting solutions. When looking at hosting packages there are two major areas you should be concerned with managed or unmanaged servers and hardware configurations. With an unmanaged server the customer is responsible for software, security and other maintenance that the server needs. Selecting an unmanaged server can often save you quite a bit of money over the year. However unless you or someone on your staff is experienced with maintaining a server this is usually not a good idea, and will cost you and money down the line. The next thing you have to consider is hardware for the machine, what size disks will you need, how fast does your processor have to be, how much bandwidth do you need and so on. When making these decisions plan for where you are today and where you plan to be in 18 to 24 months from now. You want to make sure you allow for future growth, but you don’t want to overpay for resources you are never going to use.

© Copyright Webhosting-Advisor.com, All Rights Reserved.

Eric Fazio provides comparisons and reviews of web hosting services on his website Webhosting-Advisor.com . He also provides articles and information to help you understand what you need to know before purchasing a web hosting package.

5 Web Designing Tips that Double Your Profits Even Before You Start Your Advertising Campaigns!

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

When a visitor comes to your site, he wants to look around and see
what you have that will be useful to him. Average time he spends on your
site might be different and depends on the reason why he came to your
site.

What ever your visitors intentions are you should be able to present
your web site services and products before them. If you don’t take
care of few simple things, that might affect your visitors stay
on your web site and inturn your sales and profits.

Remember… The longer your visitor stays, more chances of seeing your
products and more will be the sales.

Here are few web design tips that usually be neglected by newbie
webmasters:

1. Consistent Layout:

Take care of maitaining uniformity through out your web site.

=Font size

=Font colors

=Link colors

=Table width

=logo

=List of links in the same order

When I see ‘Verdana, Arial, Times New Roman’ on all same page what will
be my first opinion? its a Newbie Web site…

If you don’t know about Layouts, check out other web sites how they
are doing. Spend little time on your web site layout planning.

2. Navigation:

Keep good navigation on your web site. Your visitor should go to
any page of your site to other page with ease. If you have lot of
products then keep links to main pages of site from where visitor can
go to your product pages.

Talking about navigation, check all your links whether they are working
and for typos. If you keep good navigation on your pages with out links
working… No good at all.

A tip in creating navigation system: You can use SSI (Server Side Includes)
to include one footer.txt on all your pages. So if you change the links
in that footer.txt, changes apply to all of your web pages.
More about this you can read here:
http://www.webmasters-central.com/wd/ssi-content.shtml

3. Sales pages with Headings and Subheadings:

Headings and Subheadings convey most important aspects of your products
to your visitor. People most of the time or at first glance of your
product page, they just scroll down once to get the whole idea. So keeping
headings and subheadings attracts the visitors attention and tells the most
important features and benefits of your product.

4. Order page secrets:

OK… Your visitor decides to buy your product. So is there anything you
can do to encourage him to buy your product?

On the Order page –

= Keep a picture of your product on your order page.

= List out the benefits of your product

= State any free bonuses he will get with the purchase

= Display any discount or promotional code you have

= DON’T keep any external links to other web sites

5. Protect your Downloads:

Yes… This is the age of Software products and Instant Downloads. Protect
your downloads from software pirates.

There are so many scripts and methods to protect your downloads. Scripts
that were designed to go with Clickbank, Paypal or iBill or any other
creditcard processing system.
http://www.webmasters-central.com/Server_side_Coding/CGI_and_Perl/Password_Protection/index.shtml

Make sure you buy the scripts that protects your thankyou pages,
members areas, link protection which cloacks your product file urls.

Radhika Venkata (c)

Subscribe to ‘iNet Marketing Ezine’ which is completely focused on Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights! http://www.webmasters-central.com/subscribe.shtml

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