|
Web
Marketing Ezine
June
5th., 2002
Issue #193
ISSN 1444-2027
Contents
1. Sponsor's Message
2. First Word
3. Tips, Tools, News and Views
- Your Own Ezine-
Quick And Dirty!
- Win A Free eBook Cover
- Protect Your
Images
- Good Webpage
Design? Don't Bank on It
- Free Training Course of The Week: Dreamweaver 4
- E-Commerce Term Of The Week: Proxy
Server
4. A Touch of Humor: Assicons
5.
Classified Ads
6. Free Training Courses
7. Feature Article: Designing Your Website
8. Our Companion Ezine
9. Administrivia
Visit our companion website at http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com
Want to read this online? For your convenience, the Current Issue
of WME is posted each week at the WME website. Just visit
http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com/currentissue.shtml
1. Sponsor's Message
Master
the Big 3 of Product, Site-selling, and
traffic-building, and there's simply no way to fail.
Ninety-nine
out of a hundred sites still don't get the order.
Here's how to join the profitable 1%
Get
your Free
Trial Download today!
2.
First Word
Hi
All!
This
week web design is a focus. We have an interesting item on how many of the 'big
boys' just don't 'get it', and an instructive Feature Article by Shelley Lowery,
'Designing Your Website'. Shelley is the author of 'Web Design Mastery', and
webmistress of Web-Source.net Shelley knows her stuff, and makes real sense.
Thought
For the Week: "Twenty years from now you will look back
more regretfully upon the things you didn't do than those you
did. So set free the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor. Dream.
Explore. Discover." - Mark Twain.
Till next week, have a good one!
John
3. Tips, Tools, News and
View
Your
Own Ezine- Quick And Dirty!
If
you think that it's too much hassle to publish your own ezine or newsletter,
think again.
Judy
Vorfeld has created a really simple template to take you through the process
step-by-step. Just choose the 'modules' you want and fill in the boxes with your
information, and at the push of a button, you'll be emailed a finished ezine,
ready for checking and emailing. The service is free, and you can take it for a
test drive at Judy's site at
http://www.ossweb.com/ez-ezine-template.html
Win
A Free eBook Cover
It's
true. People DO judge a book by its cover. eBooks, too. And a
good cover can make a BIG difference to your sales rate- one study said by as
much as 327%!
Ovi
Dogmar, Webmaster at 123seduction.com IS in the seduction business, but not in
the way you may think. Ovi provides a service producing top-quality 3D eBook
covers. Take a look at their Portfolio
and you'll get the idea.
If
you have an eBook or InfoProduct in mind, then you'll be interested in this!
Visit their site before June 16, and you could be the lucky WME reader who wins
a FREE Custom Made eBook Cover. To visit their site, and enter, just visit http://www.123seduction.com/display.pl?ezine172
We'll announce the winner on June 19th.
If
you'd like some help with creating your own InfoProduct, why not take the Free
5-Day Infoproduct Masters Course? It's one of over 20 free training courses at http://www.webmarketingezine.com/freetrainingcourses.shtml
See
the following Sponsor Ad for what is arguably the best information available to
help you produce that electronic masterpiece- Make
Your Knowledge Sell. by Ken Evoy and Monique Harris.
WME
Supported By...
There's a book in everyone, including you.
You know something that other people would pay to know. It can be right under
your nose without seeing it. MYKS!
is a proven system that shows you how to find "the infoproduct
within," how to create and publish it, and how to market and sell it.
Selling your very own, proprietary product is the small business person's best
chance to succeed on the Net. And MYKS!
is the best way to do it.
Bravenet
Tip: Protect Your Images
Imagine
if someone were to right click on an image on your site and save it to their
computer for their own use at a later time. Now imagine if they go to open their
newly acquired image and there is nothing there. Frustration is a good
deterrent...
Once again the power of cascading style sheets (CSS) comes to our rescue. In a
previous Tips and Tricks issue we showed you how to use CSS
to place background images. Let's take that concept further for image
protection.
What we would like to do is place an image as a background inside a Span Tag,
then place a transparent image over top of it. The effect is that when someone
views the page through their browser, they will see the image just fine. But if
they right click and save the image, all they will save is the transparent
image, which rests on top of the real image. Pretty slick, huh?
We�ll make a couple of assumptions at this point. We will say that the image
is stored in the images directory on your server, that its name is camera.gif,
and that it is 32 x 32 pixels. The next thing we will need is a transparent
image. The size of this image doesn�t matter, but the smaller the better. We
can make it any size we want in the code. But for the illustration, let's say
that we made it 10 x 10 pixels.
The next thing we want to do is place the two images on our page:
<spanstyle="background-image:url
('http://images.bravenet.com/newsletters/tempimages/camera.gif')"><img
src="http://images.bravenet.com/brpics/spacer.gif" width="32" height="32" border="0" alt="description"></span>
Make sure your
"transparent" image is the same size as the original!
Good
Webpage Design? Don't Bank on It
If
you think only the small guys have problems with web design, take heart. The
following item from Nua Internet Surveys confirms that the size of the
organization, and the amount of money it throws at a problem, does not equal
smarts...
"Europe�s
leading banks have all failed a website usability test conducted by Forrester
Research.
The
research firm graded the sites of the 20 largest European retail banks to
evaluate how well sites help users achieve their goals.
According
to the results, British and German banking sites were the most user-friendly.
However,
even the best websites didn�t pass the overall usability test because of poor
navigation and services which spoil the user experience.
Forrester
suggests that banks should continuously work on design improvements and use
accepted Web design standards in order to improve the online experience."
See this
week's Feature Article by Shelley Lowery, Designing Your Website,
for valuable, common-sense information on web design.
WME
Supported By...
Professional Web Design Secrets
the Pros Don't Want You to Know...
 "Finally,
a Web design course that makes total and complete sense! Web
Design Mastery will quickly become the "Bible" for
anyone who wants to build a website. Totally top shelf!"- Rick Beneteau
Nothing
is left to the imagination...Web
Design Mastery takes you step by step through the entire process.
Don't miss out on the special, introductory price, or the bonuses, click
here!
Free Training
Course of the Week: Dreamweaver
4
Dreamweaver
4 is a Macromedia product which is regarded by many as the best way to produce
professional websites.
To
take this, and other free training courses, visit
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/freetrainingcourses.shtml
E-Commerce
Term of the Week: Proxy
or Proxy Server
A
technique used to cache information on a Web server. It acts as an intermediary
between a Web client and a Web server.
Basically,
a proxy server holds the most commonly accessed and recently used content from
the World Wide Web in order to provide quicker downloads for users and to
increase server security. It is common for an ISP to use a proxy server,
especially if it has a slow link to the Internet. Proxy servers are also
constructs that allow direct Internet access from behind a firewall. They open a
socket on the server and allow communication via that socket to the Internet.
For
example, if your computer is inside a protected network and you want to browse
the Web using Netscape, you will need to set up a proxy server on a firewall.
The proxy server would be configured to allow requests from your computer,
trying for port 80, to connect to port 1080 on the server; then all of your
requests would be redirected to the proper place.
Slang
usage of this term implies a catalyst. For example, "In our company, the
Internet is a proxy for change, and people are looking to me to act as the
change agent."
-Source:
NetLingo- The Internet Dictionary http://www.netlingo.com
4. A Touch of
Humor
We've
all seen emoticons, those cute faces made out of keyboard characters ;-)
Well,
emoticons move over, 'cos here come the assicons! They aren't faces,
they're...well...asses! Meet Dumb Ass, Smart Ass, and 13 of their friends at http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=assicons
I guarantee that you'll use them in your next email. Cheeky!
5. Classified Ads
Ezine Advertising WORKS! Showcase your ad. in "The Human Face of
Web Marketing", at just $20 for four insertions. Just go to
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/advertise.shtml
How
Much Is One Good Sales Letter Worth To Your Business?
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/isl.htm
Make
Your Site Sell- The Most Important Free Download You'll Make
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/myss.htm
FREE
five lesson class shows you how to improve the your results
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/lct.htm
WOMEN!
THIS LIST IS FOR YOU! THE BALANCED WOMAN! Send a blank email to; [email protected]
Read
about your business's future at:
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/ezm.htm
Improve
Your Search Positions-Get your FREE WebPosition Software
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/wpg.htm
Earn
Advertising Income From Your Website Or Mailing List!
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/onres.htm
Article
Announce - The Free Writer & Publisher Connection
Subscribe: mailto:[email protected]
Your
own infoproduct? Take the FREE InfoProduct Masters course!
Just send a blank e-mail to [email protected]
Serious
about writing that book? Look at this site!
http://www.writeabooknow.com
Become
a high-earning Affiliate-take The Affiliate Masters course
Send a blank e-mail to: [email protected]
6. Free Training Courses
Increase your knowledge; hone your skills; improve your results! Take advantage
of some of the finest FREE training courses on the Web by visiting our Free
Training Course listing at;
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/freetrainingcourses.shtml
With 20 courses to choose from, you're sure to find something!
7. Feature Article
Designing Your Website
by
Shelley Lowery
When preparing to design your website, you must first decide
on your website's focus.
If you're designing a mini-site, your website should focus on one particular product. However, content sites are a bit
different. If you're developing a content site, your site should focus on a subject on which
you have a great deal of knowledge. And, should relate to your products or services.
In addition, your images, ezine and content should alsorelate.
Designing Your Site
When you begin designing your site, your top priority must be your products. If your potential customers can't find
your products, you're not going to make any sales. It's that simple. Every part of your website should have one specific
purpose -- to lead your potential customers to your products.
For example, if you will be providing your visitors with tutorials, these tutorials should relate to your products or
services. They should identify a problem, provide instruction to assist your visitors, and promote your
products as the solution.
Your Storefront
The main page of your website is your storefront. It should load quickly and provide your visitors with a complete
overview of everything your website offers.
Instead of trying to cram all of your information into your main page, consider creating sections. These sections can
contain highlights of your information with a link to further information. You can divide your page into sections
by using tables. These tables can contain colored heading sections for information such as news, articles, products or
whatever you'd like.
It's much better to keep your main page down to the most essential elements. You can then use links to additional
pages to provide the detailed information. A good rule of thumb is "less is more." In other words, keep your main page
as small as possible, while at the same time, include your most important elements.
Load Time
According to two surveys conducted by Forrester Research and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3
billion in revenue each year due to customer click-away caused by slow loading websites.
The main page of your website should load within 8 seconds or less with a 56K modem.
There are many things that can cause a web page to load slowly including:
=> Large graphics
=> Too many graphics
=> Animated graphics
=> Too many banners
=> Special Effects
=> Large pages
Optimization
You can significantly decrease your site's load time simply by optimizing your graphics. This process will decrease your
graphic's file size without sacrificing the graphic's quality.
You can optimize your images right online. Visit GifWorks for further information.
http://www.gifworks.com/
Enhancing Your Site
There are a number of ways you can enhance your site without using a lot of graphics. For example, if you can use the
same small images such as bullets or arrows, it will give the illusion that you're using a lot of graphics. However,
your graphic will only have to load one time. This will enable you to "recycle" your images to keep your page's load
time down, while at the same time, enhancing your site's appearance.
In addition, you can enhance your site by using tables with colored backgrounds instead of images.
If an image doesn't enhance your page in some way, you'll be better off to just leave it out.
Tables
If you'd like to set up your web page using tables, try to place your Heading text above your table code. If this isn't
possible, make sure you include your most relevant keyword phrase within your top left table cell. This will assist you
in ranking higher in the Search Engines.
Screen Resolutions
When designing your site, keep in mind, your visitors will have many different screen resolutions.
The resolution of a monitor refers to the total number of pixels. The higher the resolution, the greater the number of
pixels. Higher resolutions present higher quality images.
To accommodate the majority of your visitors, use a standard screen resolution of 800x600 pixels.
Another way to ensure that your web page will look great to all of your visitors is to set it up using tables. Instead
of using a fixed width within your table code, use a percentage. This will enable your web page to span a certain
percentage of your visitors' screen size. For example, if
you set your table width at 90%, your web page will automatically resize and span 90% of your visitors' screensize, no matter what screen resolution they're using.
Colors
Although there are an unlimited number of background and text colors you could use for your web page, a white
background with black text will be your best option.
You must be very cautious when selecting your background and text colors, as reading on a computer screen is much more
difficult than paper. You must make your web page as easy to read as possible.
You can add color to your pages using tables with colored cells.
Web Browsers
Before you begin the actual design process, I highly recommend that you download and install two web browsers --Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. These are the two
most widely used browsers on the Internet. Why download and install both browsers? So you can view your pages through
both browsers, as they are not created equally. Your page might look great when viewed through Internet Explorer, but
may not display well when viewed through Navigator.
Internet Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
Netscape Navigator
http://home.netscape.com/computing/download/index.html
It is very important that you take the time to design your web pages to accommodate both browsers.
In addition, you can also visit AnyBrowser to view how your site will look through different browsers and screen
resolutions. http://www.anybrowser.com
Above all else, your product must be your main focus. Your product should be displayed above the fold of your web page.
This is the top portion of your web page that is visible when your page is first loaded, without scrolling. This is
the most important part of your entire page -- use it wisely.
Take your time and plan your website very carefully. There is much more to web design than meets the eye. Do your
homework and learn how to design a website that sells. It will be well worth your time and effort.
To Your Success!
Shelley Lowery
- Copyright � Shelley Lowery 2002.
Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress
of the excellent Webmaster site, Web-Source.net and the author of Web Design Mastery,
your complete guide to learning professional Web Design...with over 300 pages packed with the exact information you need to
succeed. Learn
more...Yes, I AM an affiliate!
8. Our Companion Ezine:
A Better Life:ItsYourFuture!
ITS YOUR
FUTURE!
Enjoy Humor, Inspiration, Romance,
Fitness, Nutrition & Personal
Finance- all aimed at helping YOU to take control of YOUR future!
Subscribe FREE by sending a blank email to:
mailto:[email protected]
BE HAPPY BE HEALTHY LIVE LONG & PROSPER
9. Administrivia
Website:
http://www.WebMarketingEzine.com
Contact Information:
to subscribe: [email protected]
to unsubscribe: [email protected]
Note: This is an Ezine. So sorry, NO postings are accepted
contact John Payne: [email protected]
NO SPAM PLEASE
Advertising Information:
Please go to: http://www.webmarketingezine.com/advertise.shtml
Disclaimer:
This publication was designed to provide accurate and authoritative
information with regard to the subject matter. Subscribers are sent this free
weekly e-zine with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in
rendering legal, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other
professional assistance is required, we advise seeking the services of a
competent professional.
John Payne does not accept any responsibility for any liabilities resulting
from any claims in articles or advertisements published in WME, or the actions
of the parties involved.
This publication is for informational purposes only.
Copyright:
� Copyright 2000-2002 John Payne All rights reserved. Web Marketing Ezine may
only be redistributed in its unedited form. You are welcome to forward it to as
many people as you like, with our thanks. Written permission must be
obtained to reprint or quote original material published in Web Marketing Ezine.
Web Marketing Ezine is published by John Payne
| 
