We Specilize In The Design And Set-Up Of Microsoft Active Channels
Subject:
Size of Web Pages
Subject: American and
English Spelling ans Search Engines
Subject: To Affiliate or not
Subject: The New Window Debate
.opening a new window doesn't use it up
Subject: Re: Affiliates and the Pot
of Gold
Subject: AOL Browser-compressed gaphics
Subject: Domain Name Business -
continued
Subject: Re: Font Management Software
Subject: Attracting Advertisers
Subject: Does Low Price Equal Low
Quality?
Subject:
Size of Web Pages
I have a design question: How big should pages be to accomodate the
average user? I believe that my web pages are too big for most users
and I intend to reduce the size but I'm not sure what the best size
would be (easiest on the eyes and hands for the greatest number of
readers). The default setting on MS Frontpage seems to be about 2x too
big. Thank you in advance!
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merican and English
Spelling ans Search Engines
I run a site that offers help and advice to Christian counsellors and
their clients. I know from my log of hits that most people come to my
site having searched for 'Christian counsellors' or 'Christian
counselling'. I am reasonably satisfied with my search engine
positions, coming near the top of most of the major search engines
when one of these keywords is searched for. Although I have put the
American spelling of the key terms 'counsellor/counselor and
'counselling/counseling' in my meta tags I find that my search engine
position is considerably lowered in some engines when people search
for those terms with the American spelling.
Is it considered bad practice to prepare identical versions of my key
pages with one in English English, and one in American English, and to
submit these separate pages to search engines? If I do this, might I
risk getting banned as a spammer? It wouldn't be a problem for most
sites, but on my site, the spelling differences are important.
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Affiliate or not
I am working for a company that has a web site. In updating our web
site we looked at adding additional capabilities that complement and
add value to our clients like selling certain products using the
updated site. The products being sold are products we already sell as
part of our business. Now several competitor web sites already have
affiliate programs. My question is whether to become an affiliate or
take and fulfill the orders ourselves. What would be the pros and cons
of each approach? Why would I choose one over the other?
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Subject: The New Window Debate
Some while back I had this very debate with myself when designing the
layout of the web site that accompanies an e-mail list I run. One of
the tangible benefits of posting to my list is that you then qualify
for a free blurb for your products or services under a web site
section call "Subscriber Wares".
I wanted to give visitors to my web site the opportunity to browse the
wide range of products and services offered by my subscribers, but at
the same time ease their passage from one to another and get them to
stay on the site at the end.
Therefore, all the subscriber wares links have the _new tag added and
a new browser window is opened when they click on a link.
Subsequently I watched my server logs carefully, and was pleased to
see that this was working. You could see an entry for a visitor for
the subscriber wares page, then a gap of 10-20 minutes sometimes
before they continue to travel through the site. This says to me
they're clicking on links, finding things of interest then coming back
to the original window and carrying on. There is definately more
traffic coming out of that page to others on my site since I adopted
this approach.
Of course, the target audience of my web site may be an influencing
factor here - they're mostly shareware professionals who would have
decent kit to surf with. I doubt many would be worried about the
additional resources a new window takes up.
Just my 2p, to show that it works both ways.
As an aside, I see this discussion focusing more on 'pop-up' windows
rather than new browser sessions. I too, find these very annoying and
will quickly close any that appear.
New Browser Windows
I surf mainly for business reasons. I do so looking for specific
information on a topic. The advertising windows which open are seldom
of similar content to the page which I am trying to view so the info
they contain is irrelevant to me at the time. They slow down the
loading of the page tremendously, far more so than banner ads. I find
them intrusive, not like a banner ad which I can look at then ignore,
or act on if it interests me.
I normally click the close button on the new window before I even see
what it is advertising, allowing my target page to load faster. The
advertiser featured in the new window will probably then have me
listed as a hit on his records but I will have seen nothing of his
product.
I see the banner ad as a more acceptable medium. Maybe the click-thrus
aren't that great but I am more likely to see them so they have more
chance of me acting on them. When I do click on a banner, if it turns
out to be a worthwhile site I will bookmark it, get the info I want,
then use the back button to return to the start of the detour.
Subject: Browser Window Debate
I've often wondered how other users surf. I have yet to find any
relative information on the subject. Speaking for myself and those
around me, we almost without question open a new window when we want
to drill down into a site. This leaves our entry page in the
background so we can return to it without having to reload the page
(that may not even have fully loaded in the first place due to being
stopped). Netscape 3.0 allows for 8 pages to be open at the same time.
Since I use this browser by choice, I have not looked at what the
other options on the other browsers are. They must be similar.
When the new page is forced, such as the Geo Pops are, I click them
off before they load. The distinction here being one of choice (the
way I surf) and a forced page. I have just finished a site where we
state on the entry page that we generate a new page with every link
and that our splash page will always remain in the background and for
them to just close the page when they are finished to return to the
splash page with the site index. This is the first time I've done one
like this and don't know how it will be accepted. Prior to this, I
would have links open a new window depending on how deep the site
drilled down from a particular link.
For example, if the link connected them to an ezine that had 40 pages,
I'd create a new window for them to see it in while leaving the main
site in the background. That way they could go see and return to the
main site rather effortlessly. I never had any complaints and
personally I think the variety helped make the site more active to the
visitors. By mixing the styles of frames, single pages, new windows
and a few other tricks, it made areas of the site look and feel
different without relly detracting from the site itself.
A trick I have seen that maybe someone here can tip us off as to how
it is done was when the browser window was closed to leave a site
completely, it generated a new page that had a special message to
those leaving. It did bring up a new screen when you were trying to
exit, but I thought it to be a clever way to get the last word in.
Anybody know how that was done?
Subject: New browser window
One aspect which hasn't been covered is the use of a new window as a
"remote control" menu system, which in my opinion is a better solution
than having a menu framed within the main window. You can also include
links to "foreign" websites likely to be of interest to people who
look at your pages, without losing them entirely. I'm not sure whether
a small menu window such as I use (sized about 150 pixels wide by 400
deep, so it should be viewable on most screens) uses up many
resources. I'll check mine next time I open one, and post the results.
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frames
Our site is entirely framed and we noticed from checking our server
logs that a lot of people were getting to our site directly to some
pages without going through our base URL which leads to the framed
environment. Consequently, the viewer was not getting the full "web
experience" because they were missing our sidebar and header. We had
thought about implementing a Java solution to automatically bring up
the header and side bar, but realized that for a variety of reasons
this would not be practical:
- not all browsers support JavaScript.
- for those browsers that do support Java, the user might have it
turned off.
- someone viewing behind certain corporate firewalls will not be able
to run Java even if they have the latest browsers and Java is enabled.
- internet appliances such as WebTV or handhelds running Windows CE do
not execute JavaScript, applets or other programs.
The solution we came up with was to place an animated gif file at the
top of every html file asking the viewer if they see the header. The
question stays on for about two seconds, flashes once, and then goes
white so that it does not interfere with the text below it. If the
viewer does not see the header, he/she clicks on the image and this
takes him/her to the base URL from which they can then better navigate
the site. You can try this by going to
http://www.e-signature.com/english/emain.htm and by clicking on the
question at the top, you are then taken to the same file but in a
framed environment.
Another point worth mentioning for anyone who designs framed sites:
the options that are normally available in the header or side bar
(contact, us, products, sales, feedback, etc..) should be available on
each page as text links in case the viewer's browser does not support
frames at all or they decide to turn images off. Our server logs show
less than 5% of people using something other than IE/Netscape 3 or 4 -
this is a small amount of people not using frame-enabled browsers but
could still represent a useful clientele. Also, when checking server
logs, the number of hits to a page always exceeds the number of hits
of the images that are unique to the page. I am not sure whether this
is because people have set "view images" to off or because they leave
the page before the image has had a chance to download. Again, another
good reason for including text only links on every page.
The problem is not that you can "use up" windows but that you use up
memory, GUI resources, CPU cycles, and virtual memory for EVERY window
open on your desk top. This can cause massive problems, especially for
users that have less than top flight systems (386s and 486s),
including system crashes and lockups.
Then you have the moral problem associated with "hijacking" surfers.
There is a good article about this practice at:
<http://www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/caughtinnet980928.ht
ml> Wherein one of the innovator's of this practice even states: "I^Òm
one of the people who mainstreamed this,^Ô he says, ^Óand every day I
wish I hadn^Òt.^Ô This practice has the potential of massive misuse
and alienating the very people you want to come to your site(s).
<snip> >...can anyone suggest why the objection is made?<
We here were using this form of advertising much the same as Netcenter
does, small ads and not very often or only for VERY special promos.
But I have been getting away from this to a more "traditional" banner
style even for "internal" ads. IMO the only time this style of
advertising should be used is if the message is REALLY important, so
much so that it needs to be the first thing that a user sees (remember
it pops up _over_ the primary browser window) when he/she arrives.
Otherwise the best plan is to use a banner ad program both for
internal and external promoting (just look at zdnet.com, they have
banners everywhere, both for themselves and others) and/or dynamic
content.
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Affiliates and the Pot of Gold
>...affiliates must add some content of their own regarding their
affiliate links. Simply putting up a page consisting of affiliate
links alone does not create a very compelling reason to visit a site.<
An extension of the above suggestion is the following rule: In your
adverts you should NOT provide a link to an affiliate site. Instead
you should always link to a page on your OWN site. Here are the
reasons why:
1. On this page you can provide your own introduction to the product
or service you are promoting. This can include, for example:
- additional detail not available in your advert
- your own personal experience
- a review of the benefits
2. You can provide links to the rest of your site in case your visitor
is not interested in that promotion.
3. Your own site traffic statistics will indicate the response to your
advert in addition to any stats provided for you by the affiliate
company.
4. If the affiliate operation becomes discontinued you can inform and
divert visitors at your own web site, rather than have them visit a
non-existent page.
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Subject: Does Low Price Equal Low
Quality?
While in college, we had a gentleman named DB Reinhart who was a
self-made millionaire and owner of several multi-million dollar
operations by the time he was in his 40's. He'd started as a broker on
the back of a pickup truck. He used this illustration from his own
life:
DB had purchased apples from a local town's orchard. They were of fine
quality and marketed through the midwest. He struck an extraordinary
deal, being able to haul them on his pickup truck and distribute them
to numerous grocery stores within the tri-state area. He washed and
waxed the apples into a rosy red shine and placed them into clean
baskets with a sign: 5 cents each. He thought he'd make a handsome
profit on the 200 bushels in the marketplace, since he'd spent 1 penny
a piece.
At the end of 1 week, going through his grocery stores, to his dismay,
he'd sold less than 10 apples each stop. He rotated the apples, so
that the bottom apples wouldn't start softening and mushing. He
dropped his price to 3 cents a piece. One week later, he found NO
apples had been sold. He had to throw some away as they were
over-ripe. Some were beginning to get soft. As he was rotating the
apples, an old-timer on a bench in front of the store commented that
they must be terrible apples, as his price was so low. DB replied that
he'd gotten such a wonderful deal on them, he was merely passing the
savings to the customers. The old-timer commented that IF they were
such wonderful apples, then why didn't the price REFLECT that they
were good?
DB went back into his pickup and got his chalk and changed the price
to 35 cents a piece to prove the apples were an extraordinarily great
buy. And as he did his entire route of stores, he moved up prices at
each and every outlet. Mid-week over 100 of his stops had called to
report they wanted more of those apples as they were out of stock.
DB went on to explain to us in lecture: You must be very careful about
the psychological impact that pricing imparts on the consumer. Just
because you get a fantastic price doesn't always mean that you can
give that same great savings all the time to the consumer unless you
want to become known as a discount and seconds-dealer. Then from that
time of establishing you handle ONLY seconds and end of line
merchandise, you may never get a chance to redeem the image of your
store. Sometimes it is better to join like-market valuation and
pricing schemes and make a little less now, but create the image of
finest quality product and service in the mind of the consumer via
pricing and later, to capitalize on discount pricing AFTER you've
established your market and repeat trade. That's when you'll realize
your profits.
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omain Name Business
there are several brokers in the market
place who own names or will broker a third party purchase or sale.
(Also see http://www.domainnamebrokers.com) Many of these brokers will
either sell a name from their "inventory" or take a name for sale "on
consignment", or even act as the middleman in a domain transaction to
shield a big name corporation from an over-greedy name owner.
In the end, a name is worth what the market will bear, and the
introduction of new second level domains (e.g..: .biz ) will dilute
the value of .com's a bit, but there will still be a certain cache to
a .com that will allow those names to hold value for many years. The
introduction of additional domains will not solve the shortage
problem, since many companies will tie up the new domains that
coincide with their existing .com domain, just to keep competitors
from leveraging the goodwill built up in the .com domain.
The solution to the domain shortage is to be more creative with your
domain name selection, and choose a memorable, descriptive one that
fits your business. There are also many names owned by brokers that
are still "available" and many of the broker prices are very
reasonable if you consider the total cost of Internet promotion and
business vs. reaching the same market in conventional ways.
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Font Management Software
I hope someone out there can help me to find a good font manger.
I need to be able to print out a list of my fonts and dingbats in any
format I want. The font programs I have purchased so far will only let
me print in their set format, i.e. one line of text or a character
map. One line is not enough for me to judge my fonts by for specific
purposes and the character maps are too small to see what the dings
are.
So far I have bought 3 programs which promise all this, but none
actually do it all. know of a program which provides what
I need?
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Attracting Advertisers
I run a very niched web 'zine with not quite as much traffic as you
but, enough to warrant an advertiser's interest (we average 40-50K
page views/month). I have been asking myself this very question for a
while now. What heightens my frustration is that I receive print mags
that have far less a circulation than the reach of my online
publication filled with advertisers.
I think the difference is that these hard copy publications and sites
big enough, such as www.alphashop.com, have dedicated sales people
selling this space. I guess you just have to get out there and knock
on doors - so to speak.
One thought I had was to actually advertise my own web site where the
advertisers are placing their adds. That way, when they pick up that
magazine (or visit the web site) to check on their add, they will see
mine and might check us out as a potential advertising space.