I was in my favorite music store just picking around when I heard someone playing a song I had tried weeks to figure out.
Quickly, I got up to investigate.
Turns out the guy playing the song was a friend of mine so I had no problem asking him some questions about how he figured the tune out.
First of all, he told me the song was written in an odd-ball tuning and if it hadn’t been for an online resource and an online guitar tuner to boot, he would have never been able to figure the song out.
I spent the next few minutes taking notes.
For those of us guitar players who learned to play by ear and never opened a sheet of music, there’s good news.
It’s called tablature. And it’s been helping guitarists for years learn difficult guitar pieces without having to read music.
The idea is pretty simple. Instead of standard music notation, there are lines representing the six strings. And on each line are numbers representing the fingers used and on which fret.
In short, it’s a visual picture of your hands on the neck of the guitar.
The internet has made it fairly simple to find easy guitar tabs in which to learn your favorite songs.
Broadband is super speed worldwide web access, and is far faster than snail pace dial-up access over a modem. If you are reading this www guide then you are arguably thinking at purchasing worldwide web access for the first time, or looking to increase your internet speed to broadband.
The perk of fast internet access is users are able to watch TV Shows over the net, this has became very popular with ITV launching their new player which will allow you to watch the latest shows of Friends. With fast internet access surfers will probably also download music & movies at a much higher speed than slow dial-up access.
High speed broadband is uncomplicated to hook up. The very first action you yourself will need to do is sign up with an ISP, sometimes known as an Internet Service Provider, & the broadband corporation will supply surfers with a connection via your phone connection. If surfers already have a broadband provider then please make sure that you make use of a broadband comparison website for unprejudiced advice on the most inexpensive provider offers. You yourself might quickly get the most inexpensive deals with a broadband comparison website by simply putting in your town & then the site will return a list of operator packages in your location. You yourself will be under no obligation to sign up with any internet while people look through the provider offers. Use www.comparebroadbanduk.com to help save you money on your broadband bill.
Once people have signed up with your ISP the corporation will supply a date for turning on the broadband and supply customers with any required wireless routers and cd software. The wireless routers & broadband software will come with step by step instructions & the majority of businesses might well offer you IT guidance if needed.
Once you have successfully connected to the worldwide web you should start to adore the fast speeds of high speed broadband. If surfers are going to get music, telly shows such as Friends or scary movies please be wary of any download limits you may have on your broadband package. Classical music and telly downloads such as 24 could take up most of your ‘download allocation’ as the music and telly shows are massive in file size.
–Company Email Addresses–
Web hosting companies should provide company email accounts for each person in your company. Email addresses should appear like this:
yourname@domain.com
lester@definiteweb.com
myname@companyname.com
–Web Mails–
Most websites work with web mails. Web-based email enable you to access email via a web browser such as Internet Explorer. You log into your email account via the Web to send and retrieve email. You are able to access your emails from anywhere in the world and it makes checking of emails convenient and portable. Web mails for your company will most probably be accessed at www.yourcompanyname.com/webmail
There are other forms of web mail options available such as Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and Gmail.
–Email Forwarding–
Email forwarding allows you to have multiple email personalities. With email forwarding, you can setup aliases for other email accounts like
joe@mycompany.com forwarded to web-designs@definiteweb.com
joe@myothercompany.com forwarded to web-designs@definiteweb.com
joe@personalwebsite.com forwarded to web-designs@definiteweb.com
It makes tracking of emails easy; especially when you have multiple email accounts to check on.
–Mailing Lists–
It will be userful if you can send out emails to a large number of users. Start up with collecting opt-in email addresses from interested parties and send monthly promotions of your business products and services. Before long, your mailing list will be your another marketing channel of your business.
Lester Boey works in an Australian SEO and Web Design company (Australian Search Engine Optimization and Web Designs Company). His life revolves around SEO; providing full-time and freelance seo services to US and Australian businesses. Email: projects@definiteweb.com
There are quite simple & easy ways to choose the wrong web host.
How do you avoid this pitfall?
If you are new to e-commerce, you probably just started to take
the internet seriously. Where do you begin? How to find the
right web host.
Finding the right host is not easy. There may seem a lot ( and
there are!), but make sure to compare them on even footing.
There is nothing worse than half way through your web site
design, you realize that you need more space on the server or
that the bandwidth will not accommodate the high volume of
visitors you might get.
To avoid this, you need to think ahead. What will your website
be like in 6 months? Can the package you are choosing, handle
the potential explosion in sales that you project? If the answer
to these are no, then you might want to keep searching.
For the business minded, our recommendations are for hosts that
give you a complete package including, shopping cart, and web
builders. Unlimited emails will surely come in handy as well as
extensive template choices and sub-domain creation. These hosts
offer full file uploads, and accommodate most extensions which
enable you to work on your website offline and upload it at your
convenience.
Full service hosts should actually offer FULL Service. It might
sound weird, but be warned the package that looks like a full
package may end up costing more as you have to pay for many
things that another host would have include in the package.
With some, disk space starts at 5Gb, which is a good amount of
space for storage, and unlimited bandwidth encourages you to
drive even more traffic to your website. Some web builders carry
100’s of templates, as well as free marketing advice and tools.
You also get free help services online and well as an entire
website dedicated to helping you develop a world class website.
Are there some web hosts out that are free or very cheap? Sure!
Why not go with a cheaper package you might ask? Well, on the
web, cheapest is not necessarily the best. The rates may look
cheaper initially, but do they offer money back guarantees, do
they offer the complete ecommerce solutions?
If all your are getting is space and a domain name, unless you
are a big business; without a shopping cart especially if you
are looking somewhere to create a drop shipping business, it is
difficult without ecommerce capabilities.
For all hosts however, make sure to Read the fine print, some
may seem a good cheap basic package, but chances are you can
only get what you need if you sign up for additional upgrades.
Don’t be fooled. Do your homework first.
User-centered design (UCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users of a site at the centre of its design and development. It does this by talking directly to the user at key points in the project to make sure the site will deliver upon their requirements.
The stages are carried out in an iterative fashion, with the cycle being repeated until the project’s usability objectives have been attained. This makes it critical that the participants in these methods accurately reflect the profile of your actual users.
Focus groups
What are they?
A focus group involves encouraging an invited group of intended/actual users of a site (i.e. participants) to share their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and ideas on a certain subject.
Organising focus groups within an organisation can also be very useful in getting buy-in to a project from within that company.
When to use
Focus groups are most often used as an input to design. They generally produce non-statistical data and are a good means of getting information about a domain (e.g. what peoples’ tasks involve).
Issues
It’s necessary to have an experienced moderator and analyst for a focus group to be effective.
Usability testing
What is it?
Usability testing sessions evaluate a site by collecting data from people as they use it. A person is invited to attend a session in which they’ll be asked to perform a series of tasks while a moderator takes note of any difficulties they encounter.
Users can be asked to follow the think-aloud protocol which asks them to verbalise what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.
You can also time users to see how long it takes them to complete tasks, which is a good measure of efficiency (although you should bear in mind that using the ‘think aloud’ protocol will slow users down considerably).
Two specialists’ time is normally required per session - one to moderate, one to note problems.
When to use
Usability testing can be used as an input to design or at the end of a project. It represents an excellent way finding out what the most likely usability problems with a site are likely to be.
Usability testing can be used generate non-statistical or statistical data.
Issues
Usability testing requires some form of design to be available to test - even if it’s only on paper. Testing works best if it focuses either on gathering non-statistical feedback on a design through ‘talk aloud’ or statistical measures.
Card sorting
What is it?
Card sorting is a method for suggesting intuitive structures/categories. A participant is presented with an unsorted pack of index cards. Each card has a statement written on it that relates to a page of the site.
The participant is asked to sort these cards into groups and then to name these groups. The results of multiple individual sorts are then combined and analysed statistically.
When to use
Card sorting is usually used as an input to design. It’s an excellent way of suggesting good categories for a site’s content and deriving its information architecture.
Card sorting can be used generate statistical data.
Issues
Providing participants with a trial run on some easy cards (e.g. sports, animals, etc.) can reassure about what they are expected to do and result in a more productive session.
Participatory design
What is it?
Participatory design does not just ask users opinions on design issues, but actively involves them in the design and decision-making processes.
When to use
Participatory design is usually used within a mini-project to generate prototypes that feed into an overall project’s design process.
An example would be a participatory design workshop in which developers, designers and users work together to design an initial prototype. This initial prototype would then feed into a more traditional design process.
Projects which only utilise participatory design are very rare.
Issues
Participatory design sessions can be very fluid and require an experienced moderator with thorough knowledge of the domain to guide them.
Questionnaires
What are they?
Questionnaires are a means of asking users for their responses to a pre-defined set of questions and are a good way of generating statistical data.
When to use
Questionnaires are usually employed when a design team:
Can only gain remote access to users of a site
Is seeking a larger sample size than can be realistically achieved through direct contact
It is for this reason that questionnaires are usually administered through post or electronic means.
Issues
Questionnaires allow statistical analysis of results, which can increase a study’s credibility through its scientific appearance. This makes it all the more important that the questionnaire is well-designed and asks non-biased questions.
Interviews
What are they?
An interview usually involves one interviewer speaking to one participant at a time.
The advantages of an interview are that a participant’s unique point of view can be explored in detail. It is also the case that any misunderstandings between the interviewer and the participant are likely to be quickly identified and addressed.
The output of an interview is almost exclusively non-statistical - it’s critical that reports of interviews are carefully analysed by experienced practitioners.
When to use
Interviews are usually employed early in the design process in order to gain a more detailed understanding of a domain/area of activity or specific requirements.
Issues
Interviewing places a high premium on the experience and skill of the interviewer and analyst.
Conclusion
This has been an introduction to the major user-centered design methods. It’s vital to remember that although each can be extremely valuable, using them in the right way, for the right reasons and at the right time is critical.
Exactly which method to use, and when and how to use it will differ from project to project.
This article was written by Tim Fidgeon. Tim’s crazy about web usability - so crazy that he’s head of usability with Webcredible, an industry leading web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - www.webcredible.co.uk ). He runs Webcredible’s web usability training and writing for the web training.
World is growing with internet. The use of internet has been
increased up to more than 1000 times and because of this
increment in internet visitors, everybody is coming on online
business through search engine optimization and other internet
marketing activities or tool that can help increasing his/her
organization business and all this is possible with a brand new
website. A website making is not a big task but when it comes to
a website that really does business through search engines or
any other marketing activities, this all depends on number of
factors that really helps your online business. I would like to
say with the confidence if you are not hosted on a good server
you must not think about the marketing of any online business.
Let’s talk about couple of important point I choose to discuss -
Web Designing & Web hosting - Lets say you have chosen one of
the best web designing company in your area to design & develop
your website with the best of your knowledge and they have
completed the website designing in couple of days now your
website is ready to host on a server. May be you have already
chosen another hosting company or it might be possible that the
same company is hosting your website on their own servers. How
to decide or how to choose a hosting company when you are ready
to market your website over the internet. While choosing a
hosting company for your internet marketing , you must be
thinking about the prices and features and all other things you
can think as a non IT professional. Or simple you will select
the designing company server for your hosting because they can
offer you discounted prices for the hosting package. And this is
very true once you are working with a company and they recommend
something that you need along with a discount (You think), you
will simply go for this.
But
1 - Do you think that hosting package they are providing is
really good for your online marketing…? 2 - Do you think the
charges they are asking for hosting are genuine? 3 - Do you
think the features they have with in the hosting pack are worth
of the cost you paying..? 4 - Do you think this server will be
able to run your website for 24 hours everyday..? 5 - Do you
think this hosting server would be handling all of your internet
visitor queries properly?
A number of other point are there in my mind I would like to
discuss but I feel let me talk about the written point in
details here only.
Available Internet Marketing are Search engine Optimization
(SEO)- PPC, Website advertising, Online Paid marketing, adwords,
adsense, and link exchange, CPM and other marketing activities.
I hope this SEO word is not a stranger with all the internet
savvy now a days even most of the internet user says yes I can
promote your website through search engine optimization over the
Google, Yahoo, MSN and all. And I feel this is true because the
use of internet has been greater than before and almost
everybody knows about the google, yahoo and msn and all other
engines. How they rank website and how they decide a website to
rank. Anyways we were talking about the hosting. Lets say your
site is well optimized and ranking well on all engines BUT when
a user tries to open your website, It says page can not be
found. The same page most of the site displays everyday, can not
find server, or may be another message that server is down for
maintenance kindly check back later. Now the point is if you are
ranking well, your site is having quality content and everything
is very good about your website then why choose a third class
hosting package on a bad server. You worked hard in finding the
visitor from the internet to come to your website and finally
when arrive, all in vain. Simple he/she will try the website or
try another webpage. So just because of a bad server all of your
efforts go useless.
Not only SEO I am talking about but any of the marketing applied
to your website. When a request has been sent to your server,
your server must respond with in 3-5 seconds so that that can
make sure your visitor to stay because your webpage processing
bar is working but if a webpage does not open with in 10-20
seconds generally user close the windows and looks for the
another step.
Here I have couple of good point you can read while selecting a
hosting for your site.
1 - Try to check the other running website those are hosted on
the same server. 2 - If possible send a personal request to the
current running website owner to ask about the hosting and
experience with the same. 3 - If possible ask your technical
expert to involve in the selection of the hosting. 4 - Also
check what all features & permission you have been given 5 -
Check out the prices you have been charged and what is the
market cost. 6 - Don’t go for the discounted rates as this might
be the another wrong decision while selecting a package. 7 - Go
for the brand name hosting company or check out the complete
plan and then choose a package. 8 - Try to check how many
domains are hosted on the same server. This will ensure you the
server performance. 9 - Go for the best hosting; don’t go for
the discounted prices.
I hope all these point will help you in a good hosting company
selection while marketing a website. You go any marketing for
your website but if you have got the best server that can
respond to your online clients or visitors immediately.
Market a good website with good content hosted on a good server
with qualified internet marketing strategist would be the best
solutions for your internet business.
How often do you look at your own website?
Website owners are generally so busy running their companies that updating or refreshing their sites is not normally high on their list of priorities. Unfortunately, this oversight can and often does have seriously negative effects on their businesses.
Is the information contained on the site still relevant?
If your chosen daily paper was an exact replica of the previous day’s edition, week after week, month after month, it is an absolute certainty that before too long you would stop buying it - the same principle applies to website visitors! If your website content does not change often enough, people will stop looking at it.
Could the look of the site be deterring existing and would-be customers?
A website has only a few seconds to impress a visitor enough to make them want to continue browsing. Unfortunately, there are countless numbers of website owners that are under the illusion that once their sites are up-and-running there is nothing more they need to do to them. This way of thinking is losing them money!
When you neglect your website, you are literally wasting the most effective marketing tool available.
A website is an asset and an investment, so it is extremely important that it is used to its maximum potential. If you have gone to the trouble and expense of having one built it makes good business sense to look after it properly. Periodic assessments of its performance, content and looks will help you to decide how to keep it fresh and interesting.
Would a ‘makeover’ benefit the site and ultimately the company?
Websites benefit from content changes to refresh their looks and keep visitors interested. Perhaps using more up-to-date images of products or staff photos would work wonders; saying something new with a copy rewrite could also help to regenerate interest in your company’s products and services.
Your web designer is your friend.
Taking time to talk to your web designer will be time well spent. Get their opinions on how the site might perform better; ask them how the look can be improved. This is where your designer’s help will prove invaluable, contact them - two or three heads are better than one!
There is an old adage that says, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ This is totally true - until what has been put out of sight and mind comes back to bite you! - Ignore your website and it will take revenge by driving customers away, look after it, and it will look after you.
This article is the property of the author and may only be reproduced in its original form.
John Sheridan is a professional proofreader of hard copy items and website copy. He also writes web copy and occasionally accepts small copy-editing assignments. He can be contacted via: http://www.textcorrect.co.uk
The definition of the phrase “Content Management” depends on what the organization may need or a vendor may offer. There is no general purpose or standard content management system that can satisfy today’s diverse business needs across the board. And so, factors for successfully implementing a content management system vary depending on individual business needs.
Conducting a thorough assessment of an organization’s specific business application or processes prior to installation is one of the keys to implementing a successful content management system. The use of content management systems or CMS could help businesses optimize their business in a way that costumers respond positively to the site. This could ensure the proper handling of costumer’s correspondence documents, online insurance claims processing, accounts payables processing, or other business processes specific to your business.
This serves best to medium and large business with big sites that contains thousands of dynamic pages. They can properly manage the site without any hustle to the users.
I agree that if you want your website to become easier to users, managing it properly is the best way to do it. It can surely give business benefits. These benefits could be, improved business efficiency or reduced operation costs, accelerated exception handling, an expanded product or service offering and a reduced operating risk.
I also consider that letting the content management system do the job for you can provide businesses a more organized site that can give a better costumer satisfaction and profit.
Indeed this a great addition to what the services a websites gives.
This composition was provided by a trusted digital printing company to facilitate the propagation of new digital solutions information.
For questions and comments about the article you may contact Carmelo Diaz through The Digital Printing Company Moderator at 310 575 4440 or visit http://www.digitalprintingcompany.com.
The Internet is big and getting bigger with each passing month and year. It is estimated that “in less than four years there will be over 250 million people on the web and in less than eight years they will be over one billion.” The worldwide web is expected to be found in every household across the globe by that time. Giants in the Internet, cable and television industries are anticipating mergers in the future that will make it more and more accessible as well as affordable for everyone. In less than a decade almost all businesses will have a web presence of one kind or another. A web presence first and foremost means having a webpage. Let’s take a closer look.
Internet marketing research firms have also made their own predictions about the shopping needs and habits of consumers both at the present as well as in the future. Almost any imaginable product can be sold over the web and if it is not immediately obvious how, an enterprising entrepreneur will figure it out. The expression, “if there is a will, there is a way” figures prominently here.
Approximately more than 20 million people buy goods and services over the Internet and this includes any number of items- everything from books to jewellery to clothing to computers to household supplies to cars to furniture to real estate and even such things as natural gas, boats and jet airplanes. Studies estimate that “the number of online consumers will grow at a rate of 30 to 50 percent over the next few years.” Knowing that simple fact should be enough to encourage a person to start brainstorming right away and then begin to design him or herself a glowing webpage that gets noticed!
The reasons for starting your own webpage are basically broken down into four categories. The first reason is that a webpage allows a person to both sell a product(s) and/or a service(s). Secondly, it is a way of conveying necessary information to the online masses. Thirdly, it will increase one’s presence and visibility. The more exposure you get for whatever kind of work you do, the better it is. After all you cannot drum up interest in your online business if no one has ever heard of you. The fourth reason is to allow you as much opportunity to show your prospective customers or clients that you can provide them with above average customer service. Personal attention and responding in a timely manner to your customer’s inquiries and/or concerns is a very important step in the right direction.
If selling a product and/or a service is on your agenda then bear in mind that success can be yours if you have a fantastic viable product (or service); if you can attract a market of customers interested in what you have to sell (a.k.a. target market) if you have enough business know-how to sell, and finally if you make a concentrated effort to satisfy every customer and/or client who purchases an item from you. Getting individuals to your website is important but keeping them there, and supporting their decision to buy from you is equally as important. Make it your personal mission to make other people’s needs matter to you. Never lose sight of that reality.
E-commerce is an essential aspect of building a business and plays a role in developing your own webpage. It is a process that involves six steps and all businesses that develop themselves over the Internet must go from step one to two to three. The first step is to create content online that speaks to people; step two is to host the content that you have featured on your webpage and the third step is to promote and market both your website and your content. Writing content for other websites is another excellent promotional tool for your own webpage.
As previously mentioned, the first of the three e-commerce steps must be taken advantage of by all online companies but the last three steps, four through six, must take place for any business that is involved in online sales. The last three of the six step process includes, number four, both collecting and recording orders for customers and /or clients; number five is to go about processing payments for the orders and number six is to make sure customers received what they ordered and that the orders were correctly filled.
Gunnar Berglund has been a
“internet- hardworker” for the last five years
He runs ( among others )
http://www.adomainsite.com and
http://www.domain-ace.com.
While web pages are designed and developed on a single computer, they must be transferred to a server, or host, so that they are available to the rest of the world over the Internet. A host is simply a computer that has a constant, high speed connection to the Internet. Hosting companies rent space on these machines. Depending on your needs, a hosting plan can cost anywhere between $5 and $200 per month.
There are different hosting offers depending on the type, the size and the popularity of the site.
The different types of Web hosting services are :
Free hosting
Free web hosting is a service which provides users with the ability to store web sites and media on the Internet for no cost. While there is no monetary cost for the user, some hosts requires the user to place advertisements or links on the web site which is being hosted for free.
Shared hosting
The best choice is shared server hosting for normal websites and smaller ecommerce websites. Your site is located on one of the 1Webcorp.com’s Web Servers. It is the equivalent of leasing office space. A certain portion of the building is yours, with your name on the door, and you can rely on the building manager (1Webcorp.Com) for security, maintenance, and facilities management. This is called “shared” hosting because your home page has its own domain name (www.yoursite.xxx).
Dedicated hosting
Also known as dedicated server. This type of hosting allows a webmaster to rent an entire server. This server is not shared with anybody. This is more flexible than shared hosting (see below), as webmasters have full control over the server, including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Administration, however, is still handled by the hosting company. Disk Space - Refers to an amount of space on a web server’s hard drive. …
About the author :
Ahmad Nabiel is a webmaster for online shopping and posting ads for free , including http://ad4free.info with its subdomain http://articles.ad4free.info (free articles based on rss feed) , http://infobase.ad4free.info (Online Info Mall) . Please visit websites and read more interesting articles.
