1. Hire an editor- I recommend YOU for the job. Before you post anything to the blog, ask whether what you’re doing adds value to your community, and whether it’s useful information. (Looking over my last seven posts, I can see a few questionable ones, myself).
2. Be the About- Make that ABOUT page rock. If you’re not shy, add a picture. Add a name. Tell people who makes this thing, what you’re into, and hint at how one might do business with you, should business be your goal.
3. Use FeedBurner – Take your RSS feed and run it through FeedBurner. There are TONS of things that service does to improve and extend your RSS. Take advantage of them.
4. Pay attention to the FORMAT of your writing- Break things up, so that eyeballs don’t feel buried in text. Use the occasional (or frequent) picture or graphic. Use bullet and number lists occasionally. Try visually laying out your posts, is what I’m saying.
5. Make it easy to comment- If you require people to login to comment, consider changing that. If you’re using horrible captcha (I’d argue that it’s all horrible), consider another scheme (if you can).
6. Tell us something new- Review your last 10 posts. If 5 or more are pointing out what other people are saying, you’re phoning it in. Get creative.
7. Start storing up posts for rainy days- You don’t have to blog daily, but everyone hits a wall. When it’s your turn, have something ready to post. I have about 7 things at all times.

You’ve got a goal of reaching out to a community. It might be a church. It might be a business community. It might be the users of your product or service. But that doesn’t mean we have to love your blog. That comes with you upping your game and striving to improve.

Well, you may be one of a growing number of businesses, both large and small, who believed all the hype about the latest in new technology. Many business owners want their website to have that cutting-edge look, and so will ask for things such as animation, music, flash, and other “bells and whistles” that would be detrimental to their site. These extras are probably driving potential customers away because they increase download time and are not search engine optimized.

In the rush to join everyone else on the Internet, businesses have ignored vital steps in the process of getting their business on-line. They assumed that because everyone else had gimmicks such as a splash/intro page, this was the right way to go. The result: businesses chose design companies who readily took their money and who designed exactly what the client wanted without clearly focusing on marketing goals. To be fair, oftentimes the graphic design company has no idea that a site designed with all the latest technology doesn’t necessary translate into a site that has the functionality that an on-line business needs. This is because the graphic design firms specialize in graphic design, not in marketing. Many graphic design sites are full of splash pages, scrolling text, animation, etc. They use these tools because it allows the graphic designers to display their creativity and their knowledge of these “bells and whistles.” Creativity is good but all the latest cutting-edge technology translates into a lack of functionality to effectively market any on-line business including their on-line presence.

When having your site designed, remember that first and foremost, you are building your site to increase prospects and sales. Don’t look for a graphic design firm that believes all you need to do is get in the search engines and place banners to be successful. Don’t hire a designer that is new to the Internet–meaning they have years of print design experience but have just decided to expand their horizons to the Internet. Don’t hire a graphic designer that doesn’t have a professional copywriter or marketing person on staff and don’t hire a graphic designer just because they are the cheapest. Remember, cheap can cost you money–you get what you pay for. Hire a marketing/design firm that understands the difference between form and function and can apply it in a marketing perspective. Remember, many of these latest bells and whistles are very expensive and your site may not need them to be effective.

Every single design element affects your web sites functionality and marketability–from the decision about how the navigation will work to choosing the right colors, fonts, graphics, content, HTML code, and more. These will not only influence potential customers but search engine indexing as well.

If and when you’re ready to begin your on-line presence, start with a business plan and strategy. It is essential if you really want your business to succeed. Don’t be afraid to research marketing trends and investigate a marketing/design firm that will fit your needs.

If you are currently on-line but your business is not progressing as you think it should, don’t be afraid to request a web site analysis. There are firms that will analyze and help pinpoint areas of your on-line presence that need improvement for a successful Internet presence.

Last, but not least, keep an open mind to what the firm offers as suggestions for making your Internet experience a profitable one. Remember, this is their livelihood, this is what they do and they have the experience to back it up.

Are you ready to be successful?

That’s right, if you don’t catch your visitors attention right away, statistics shows us that your visitors will come and go within 15 seconds or less.

That doesn’t leave you with a lot of time to grab someone’s attention!

Some of you may be asking yourself:

Well why does this happen????

See when you think about it, 15 seconds to the “browsing eye” is like an eternity. In other words, it takes about 15 seconds for the average person to browse your main page and determine whether they will explore your site further!

So with that being said;

How do we grab your visitors attention????

Every new client of mine is asked to perform the same tasks. I ask them to explore their competitor’s web sites and look for specific triggers that would make them want to click on or buy right away. More times than none, my clients will notice specific “Headlines” or “Graphics” that really peek their interest. In doing this, you’ll have 1st hand knowledge on what you expect your visitors will see and possibly expect themselves.

Step 2, I’ll ask my clients to do one more process just like the previous one. I’ll ask them to make a list of all the “eye candy” that really caught their attention and write me a little note as to why it caught their attention. In doing this, it will give your web designer a 1st hand knowledge on what to implement within your site!!!

With these great tasks, you’ve made your job and the job of your web designer a lot easier to target your audience.

Sites that sell “Web Site Templates” :

You may have seen some sites that sell your the right for a specific “Template Style”. There are 100′s of resources out there. I need to clarify something for you, these templates are targeted at web designers only!!! Reason being, the files that you receive will no doubt require some expensive and time consuming software just to open them.

Now being a designer, I’m not about to “knock” pre-made templates but there’s a couple of things you may want to consider:

1) Although the templates you may encounter are very impressive, you will be sharing your layout template with 100′s, maybe 1000′s of other sites. The reason why they are so cheat is because those “specific templates” are sold and re-sold as much as possible!

2) I’ve noticed that many template examples out there on the web are extremely “Graphic Driven”. This will result in “slow loading times”. I’m sure we’ve all come across a site that seemed to take FOREVER to load!! How long did you actually wait for the site to load????

The best way to get a template is to have someone professional design your web site layout for you! This will ensure that your template is uniquely designed for your business. It will be easier for you to make changes in the future.

Now, we’ve talked about “Slow loading pages”. I’ve found a good “norm” to stick with when it comes to size and speed: Web sites are compiled of 2 elements:

1) Graphics & Layouts

2) Programming & Pages

Both of them require memory from your computer when downloading them. If one or the other is too large then this may result in negative results for your visitors.

Here’s a good norm to stick with, either you or your web designer should stick with these specs:

1) Graphic Design Layout: Should be no more than: 30-50K in size

2) Programming Pages: Shouldn’t be more than: 10-30k in size

Giving your entire web page no more than 40k-80k in size. Anything drastically more will result in the loss of many visitors from slow downloading pages.

Animation: Last but not least, making “some” aspects of you page stand out by adding small size animations. PLEASE NOTE: DO NOT overkill your site with graphics and animation!!! I can’t stress this enough, your visitors will most likely get a head ache from it and won’t be coming back very soon.

Instead, try targeting specific promotions or services you wish to attract your visitors to right away! Many sites exchange “animated banners” with other sites to exchange traffic. I personally NEVER take part in adding ANY banners on my site. I honestly feel that banners only take away from the design, not add to it! A typical “Banner Dimensions” is 468px x 60px. There are many other sizes!

What I will usually take part in, if any, is smaller, more unique banners that are geared to complimenting an article or text with it. This is much more effective because study shows us that “Content (text)” accompanied by a “graphic image” is more likely to be read by our visitors than just text on its own.

STOP!!!!

Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.

1. Select a color scheme and stick to it.

If your company has a logo or preferred colors on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colors and stick with them – don’t change colors on every page.

The most common color schemes include:

- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, gray and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, Grey and white.

If you’re not sure what color scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

2. Use templates.

Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as Dreamweaver) or you can check out some websites that specialize in designing templates.

Visit:

www.templatemonster.com
www.themeforest.com

3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.

This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.

It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects

While  it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.
5. Backgrounds

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

6. External Links

It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link

7. Site Map & Search Feature

If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

8. Content is King

While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.

If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:

1. Flash intros, revolving globes, beveled line separators, animated mail boxes
2. Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.

Don’t sweat the small stuff and get yourself focused on what to include on the website and the best way to promote it.

Web-based attacks are often launched from computers other than the one the user is visiting through redirection or malicious ads. For instance, an attacker could use a computer based in the Philippines to redirect a user to a specific site or a bogus ad.

But Symantec Philippines country manager Luichi Robles said that even if the Philippines has the highest number of Web-based attacks in the region, it does necessarily mean that the attacks actually originated from the country.

“The Philippines could have just been used as a launch pad for these Web-based attacks,” Robles said in a media briefing.

The report said that attackers are employing social engineering techniques to lure unsuspecting users to malicious websites. These websites then attack the victim’s Web browser and vulnerable plug-ins normally used to view video or document files.

The report said that attackers globally are employing social engineering techniques, such as when an unsuspecting user is tricked into divulging confidential information or is led into to a malicious website. This website then attacks the victim’s Web browser and vulnerable plug-ins normally used to view video or document files.

In particular, 2009 saw dramatic growth in the number of Web-based attacks targeted at PDF viewers, accounting for 49 percent of observed Web-based attacks. This is a sizeable increase from the 11 percent reported in 2008, the report said.

The survey, dubbed “Internet Security Threat Report volume XV,” highlighted key trends in cybercrime from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009. The report showed that despite the increase in security awareness, there was a continued growth in both the volume and sophistication of cybercrime attacks.

The report also included the Philippines as among those included in the top 10 countries in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) in the areas of malicious activity, bot-infected computers, phishing URLs and originating spam.

The country ranked 10th in malicious activities in APJ, maintaining its rank in 2008. In Southeast Asia, Philippines ranked fourth, behind Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

It maintained its ranking for bot-infected computers at No. 10 in APJ and No. 4 in SEA, in both 2008 and 2009. Bots are covertly installed on a computer to allow hackers to remotely control the machine for a wide variety of malicious purposes such as data breaches and information and identity theft.

The number of new users adopting broadband in a country, Symantec said, may be a significant factor in the rate of bot infections.

For phishing URLs, the Philippines came in eighth in APJ and second in SEA behind Thailand. The most targeted sector was the financial services segment with 92 percent of phishing URLs detected in the country spoofing financial services industry (FSI) brands.

“Attackers were targeting confidential information, especially bank account credentials and credit card information. Such data are highly sourced for and sold at lucrative prices in the underground economy,” the report noted.

For spam origin, the Philippines landed on the 10th spot in APJ, and fourth in SEA. Overall, the most common type of spam detected in 2009 was related to Internet-related goods and services such as online degrees, which made up 29 percent of all detected spam. Eighty eight percent of all email traffic observed by Symantec was spam, which meant only 12 percent of email was legitimate. Botnets were responsible for approximately 85 percent of all spam, it added.

Raymond Goh, regional technical director for systems engineering and customer advisory services at Symantec, underlined the fact that there was an increase in the number of targeted threats focused on enterprises.

Goh also noted that attackers have exploited the abundance of personal information openly available on social networking sites to launch socially engineered attacks on key individuals within targeted companies.

The executive said malicious activities are taking root in emerging countries with an emerging broadband infrastructure, such as Brazil, India, Poland, Vietnam, and Russia. In 2009, these countries moved up the rankings as a source and target of malicious activity by cybercriminals. The findings from the report suggest that government crackdowns in developed countries have led cybercriminals to launch their attacks from the developing world, where they are less likely to be prosecuted.

But it’s not all doom and gloom with the security awareness of computer users still growing, said Goh. “It’s important that we all look at where our information are stored and used. And we have to be vigilant at all times,” he said. – Melvin G. Calimag, GMANews.TV

If you are reading this page on the internet, then you are already using domain names, even if you don’t understand the principles involved. But what is a domain name? A technical term for the ‘address’ of a particular website on the internet, the domain name tells your browser where to look to access the pages you want to see. The domain name for this website, for example, is “netregistry.com.au” and you arrived at this page from clicking through one webpage to another, moving from one domain name to another, or by typing the exact address into the address bar of your browser.

What is a URL?

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and forms the entire address used to access a particular website, including the domain name. URLs were devised as an easier form of internet navigation over IP Addresses that traditionally identify the host server for a website through a series of numbers. A URL uses easy to remember words and letters to replace the impractical IP Address method. Therefore, a URL for the Philhosting website would be ‘http://www.philhosting.net’ and will contain the Hypertext Transfer protocol” (http) allowing you to use words instead of an IP Address, and the domain name itself (www.philhosting.net) identifying the server and the particular files on that server to be accessed.

What are Top Level and Second Level Domain Names?

You may have noticed that some domain names end in fewer dots and letters than others. For example, the domain name mysite.com has fewer components than mysite.com.ph.

Dot Com domains (.com) was the first domain style to be introduced, and is considered a Top Level Domain or TLD as it features only one suffix. Top level domains also cover any other domain name form that only has one suffix – for example; .net, .info, .biz, and so on.

Second Level Domains or 2LDs are domain names that contain another level of qualification to this. For example; .com.ph is a second level domain style as it contains an additional suffix after the .com.

Second level domains are no less effective or desirable than top level domains. In some cases they can actually be MORE desirable as the additional suffix can help to say something about your business, such as where in the world you are located.

What are Subdomains?

Subdomains are additional sections to the url that further divide the existing domain name. Subdomains take the form www.subdomain.mysite.com.ph, placing the new section title before the primary domain name identifier. This is most commonly seen with blogs, as it cleanly partitions off a section of the domain for this purpose. Subdomains do not need to be registered separately from your existing domain name, and can be created as you build your website.

Summary

Although there are many more issues involved with domain names, particularly as new domain suffixes and rules are created on a regular basis, this is enough information for you to be able to start working with domain names for your website. Of course, before you can use a domain name, you will need to register it, and Philhosting has the best value domain name registration packages in Philippines.

Does the site where I am creating backlinks pay for the links?
Some places like Xomba.com and SheToldMe.com offer do follow backlinks and will actually pay you for posting your links. Some writing websites such as Suite101.com,Squidoo.com, HubPages.com, and Infobarrel.com allow you to post links in your articles. These articles will earn you money and the links from these websites are do follow.

Does the site relate to the writing I am promoting?
Placing a link in content unrelated to the writing you are promoting doesn’t work well. For example, if you find a forum that allows you to post do follow backlinks to your writing, it will do you little good if the link does not appear in content related to your writing. The text in the actual link and the information around the link all must relate to the page being linked to get the best quality do follow backlink.

Is it a Quality Site?
Before posting a backlink, look over a site and evaluate it’s quality. If the site looks unprofessional or spammy, do not post a backlink there. Backlinks from well ranked sites will help promote your writing. The Google toolbar will help you to know the Google PageRank of the website from which you are considering posting a do follow backlink. The higher the overall rank of the website, the better quality the backlink.

Consider Investing in Yourself
If you have a blog or a website, consider in investing some time in your future as a writer. Post links all your web content writing on your personal blog or website. As your blog or website grows and increases in rank, so will all the writing that you currently have linked to it. You can get do follow backlinks from WordPress and Blogger. If you are using Blogger (Blogspot) note that you must change your blog settings to allow links to be do follow.

• Link Popularity – How many resources are linking to one single site.
• Traffic – How many people visit your site.

The tool that measures link popularity is Google’s PageRank. And as most of you know, PR is Google?��Ǩ�Ѣs method for measuring site importance on a scale from 0 – 10 (10 is the highest). On the other hand, the tool that measures traffic is Alexa Rank. Just to make sure you understand what Alexa Rank is, I will provide you with its definition.

Alexa computes traffic rankings by analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users. The information is sorted, sifted, anonymized, counted, and computed, until, finally, we get the traffic rankings shown in the Alexa service.

Although, a lot of webmasters do not trust Alexa Rank, there is nothing currently that’s better than Alexa and that’s why many have no choice rather than to use it. Furthermore, Alexa Rank and Pagerank are used to determine the right price for selling any sorts of advertising on your directory. It’s worth noticing that the lower your Alexa Rank is the more popular your site is. For example, very popular sites, such as Google or Yahoo have really low Alexa Ranks (2 and 1). Just like there are ways to increase your PageRank there are also various ways to increase your Alexa Rank. Finally, ten ways to increase your Alexa Rank are:

• Download and use the Alexa Toolbar. Remember that Alexa assigns rank to specific site according to their Toolbar. In other words, your site will have lower rankings (higher traffic) if your visitors use Alexa Toolbar. So why not to use Alexa Toolbar and increase your rankings for free?
• Tell your visitors to use Alexa Toolbar. Since users with Alexa Toolbar are more valuable to your (they help to increase your rankings) why not to increase the percentage of those users and get lower rankings in Alexa? You can do that by personally recommending users to use Alexa by emailing them, writing posts about Alexa and inform why people should use it or placing Alexa promotional banners.
• Use Alexa Rank Widget on your directory. The Alexa Widgets help Alexa track your visitors and thus it helps to assign your lower Alexa Rank. Moreover, a single click on the widget is considered as a single unique visitor. If you want to insert Alexa Widgets on your site, then you can find them here.
• Ride the Alexa Redirect Train. Alexa Redirect Train is a way of increasing your Alexa Rank by giving a link to your site as Alexa Redirect. For example, Alexa Redirect Url for Directory Kit is “http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.directorykit.com”. A single click is considered as unique visitor. If you want to join Alexa Redirect Train, then please click here.
• Get reviews on Alexa. Ask visitors/friends/family members to review your site on Alexa. By getting reviews on Alexa you are showing to Alexa that your site exists and is active and thus Alexa will index it more frequently and assign lower Alexa Rank.
• Optimize your site for the webmaster related theme. With general directories you don’t have to worry about it since most your visitors are webmasters, who have the Alexa Toolbar. However, if you are thinking of starting a niche directory and want to have low Alexa Rank, make sure it is webmaster related directory. Something like a SEO directory but not a biology related directory.
• Collect webmasters emails. Nope, you are wrong, I don’t want you to spam other webmasters nor sell their emails. However, I want you to add them as one of your contacts to one of the popular messengers that best suits you. Such as Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, or MSN Messenger. Once you have a good base of webmaster friends you can use it to improve your Alexa Rank by asking them to review your directory.
• Post in popular webmaster forums. Popular webmaster forums are great free promotion tools when you have reached decent amount of posts and good reputation. Use your avatar and signature links to promote your directory or sites.
• Announce your directory on forums/ask to review it. By announcing your directory on forums and asking to review it, you get a number of benefits. First of all, you get submissions. Secondly, you improve your Alexa Rank since the audience is webmasters. Thirdly, you don’t spend money.
• Try Using UpMyRank.com. I am not sure if this works though because I have never used it before. But I got a couple of good feedback from a number of webmasters. The quote below explains basic idea behind the site:
  

  Simply join and start viewing other members websites with our AutoSurf software. You will earn a credit for every 3 ads you see. Best of all you can leave the AutoSurf program on all night and all day and earn credits while you sleep!

In conclusion, I would like to summarize that webmasters are the key people who help to improve your Alexa Rank. Use the ways, described above, to target your directory for webmasters and thus boost your Alexa Rank. Please share your thoughts and own ways to boost Alexa Rank by leaving comments.

This is a guest post by Julie-Ann Amos who is a freelance writer who covers topics such as online university ratings and reviews, elearning tools, and more.

Social bookmarking is a highly useful tool for educators since it allows specific categorization of websites for easy access and sharing. It works on the basis of the user creating tags or categories in which websites are then placed. Unlike standard search engines that are generated by computers and therefore often misclassify or categories websites, social bookmarking is done by people, usually people that are knowledgeable and informed on the particular subject.

Individuals can set up social bookmarking tools similar to how they have bookmarks grouped on their own computer. Teachers and educators can then make these sites available to students, other educators or groups to facilitate information dissemination in logical and simple fashion. Typically all social bookmarking tools will allow users to develop their own tags or categories, plus provide a short description of the website. Educators can view each other’s social bookmarking tools to enhance or more further develop their own list of reference sites. Through this shared research and categorization or tagging it is possible to cut down on search times and wading through websites that aren’t relevant to what you are looking for.

The following social bookmarking tools can definitely help out in the classroom, both in sharing information with your students as well as other educators in the field.

1. Stumble Upon – this free service allows you to click on the Stumble integrated browser and instantly receive a list of relevant topics that have been rated by other Stumble Upon subscribers. Each member can click on a thumbs up or thumbs down icon or choose not to rate the site.
2. Del.icio.us – specifically designed for teachers and teaching, this social bookmarking site allows for continuous access to all social bookmarks from users from any computer, anytime.
3. Furl – ideal for storing and archiving webpages and bookmarks, this is another free application that is great for sharing information with students, parents or other professionals.
4. uLinkx – music, video and multi-media social bookmarking site, perfect for projects and presentations.
5. Connotea – great for high school and upper types of educational settings, this social bookmarking site is free and designed for researchers, scientists and clinicians. Bibliographies and references are saved when you add any article or website to your internet library.
6. Scuttle – this is a specialized social bookmarking program that can be run right on a school’s server. Data is held in the server and not through a third party site, giving schools maximum control over content.
7. SocialbookmarkIt.com – the basic service is free and provides opportunities to automatically link to other social bookmarking services. You can also decide to opt into a premium which allows customization of your social bookmarking page plus you can track who else is using your bookmarks.
8. Newsvine – as can be expected, Newsvine focuses on current events and newsworthy articles. Members can add content to the different categories with a simple click of a button, keeping everyone abreast of happenings around the world.
9. Pixrat – this social bookmarking site is designed to allow users to collect, tag and categories pictures and create albums. The service is free and you can make notes about the pictures that will be displayed with your collection. Bookmarks can be made private if you don’t want public access.
10. Squidoo – Squidoo allows users to create their own unique web articles that are then searchable. Authors are credited for their work and readers rank articles as to their quality.

Using social bookmarking tools is just as simple as adding a favorite to your own computer. Teachers and students alike can share information easily and simply using these free and easy to download applications.

Instructions

Step 1: Help your child pick out a screen name or user name. Avoid names that include a name and/or an age, such as Johnny10.

Step 2: Surf the Web with your child, letting him or her lead your exploration together (if your child is experienced enough).

Step 3: Visit some sites for children together.

Step 4: Teach your child that other people are using the Web just as you are, and explain that it’s hard to tell whether they’re telling the truth about themselves.

Step 5: Discuss with your child the potentially harmful topics that could show up on the Web, such as violence, hate material and pornography.

Step 6: Warn your child not to give out personal information over the Internet, send pictures of himself or herself, or meet someone in person without your permission.

Step 7: Warn your child not to join any mailing lists without your permission.

Step 8: Encourage your child not to visit sites or respond to messages that seem strange or scary.

Step 9: Encourage your child to speak to you or a teacher whenever he or she encounters anything that makes him or her uncomfortable.

Tips & Warnings

You can choose an online service that has parental control features, or buy blocking software to design your own control system. Monitor your child when he or she is online. If your child receives offensive material over the Internet, save it and contact your Internet service provider and the police immediately.