Tryangled Solutions web designing tips tricks

Google Analytics is a free web-stats solution which not only reports all the regular site stats, but also integrates directly with Google AdWords giving webmasters an insight into the ROI of their pay-per-click ads. According to Google, “Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site.”

1. Google is ‘giving’ every webmaster in the world free access to quality web-stats.
2. Millions of webmasters will accept this ‘gift’, if only because it integrates directly with their Google AdWords campaigns.
3. Google will then have full access to the actual web stats of millions of commercial websites.

IE 7 boasts a new slimmed-down appearance which can take some getting used to, even for the most experienced users. In its initial state, the browser hides many of the buttons and options that a lot of us have become accustomed to seeing in earlier versions. However, once you get comfortable with where everything is located, things are not as bad as they appear and Microsoft’s self-proclaimed streamlined interface seems like just that. Feedback regarding the new design has been lukewarm so far, but over time I feel that IE users can grow to appreciate it.

Google has a number of services that can help you accomplish tasks you may never have thought to use Google for. For example, the new calculator feature (www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator) lets you do both math and a variety of conversions from the search box. For extra fun, try the query “Answer to life the universe and everything.”

Let Google help you figure out whether you’ve got the right spelling—and the right word—for your search. Enter a misspelled word or phrase into the query box (try “thre blund mise”) and Google may suggest a proper spelling. This doesn’t always succeed; it works best when the word you’re searching for can be found in a dictionary. Once you search for a properly spelled word, look at the results page, which repeats your query. (If you’re searching for “three blind mice,” underneath the search window will appear a statement such as Searched the web for “three blind mice.”) You’ll discover that you can click on each word in your search phrase and get a definition from a dictionary.

Suppose you want to contact someone and don’t have his phone number handy. Google can help you with that, too. Just enter a name, city, and state. (The city is optional, but you must enter a state.) If a phone number matches the listing, you’ll see it at the top of the search results along with a map link to the address. If you’d rather restrict your results, use rphonebook: for residential listings or bphonebook: for business listings.

Rather than use the services of a web hosting company to host your web site you could start your own web hosting company. If your business is successful this could provide secondary income and lower the hosting costs for your own site(s).

Basically, there are two ways to start selling web hosting. The first way involves leasing business space, buying equipment, setting up servers, leasing T1 or T3 lines to connect to the Internet, finding clients, and hiring staff to provide 24 hour support. Quite complicated and not recommended for anyone without the technical know-how.

The second way is to become a re-seller for an established host. For a monthly fee you can have an allotment of disk space and bandwidth which can be used to sell to other people. Re-selling is usually anonymous – there is no visible connection to the parent host and you are free to set your own prices and develop your own ‘brand’.

All that is needed to become a re-seller is the ability to pay the monthly fee. All the technical details are handled by the parent company. The re-seller package usually includes everything – even name servers under your own name. All you have to do is to sign up customers and watch the money roll in. Easy – right?

Signing up customers, though, may not be as easy as you imagine. There are literally thousands of hosting companies competing for customers, and making your web hosting business stand out from the crowd is no mean feat. Just think about the process you went through in choosing your own web host. You probably visited several hosting web sites, maybe asked for personal references from your friends or business acquaintances, and then after narrowing down your choices, perhaps did more in-depth research on each of the companies. Or perhaps you just signed up with the first host you saw.

So, in order for your own hosting company to be successful it has to build up a good reputation or be easy to find.  Advertising can make your company more visible, but advertising is expensive – especially in a competitive market like web hosting.

A re-seller account, however, may be ideal for certain situations. If you already have several websites of your own, your monthly costs may be similar to a re-selling account.  For the same amount of money you could switch all your accounts to your own hosting company. Sign up a few friends or associates and you are ahead of the game.

If this sounds attractive, make sure you are going with a reputable hosting company. You will be entirely dependent on them for technical support. This relieves you of many of the headaches of running a hosting company but you are still responsible to your clients if their sites go down.

There are many types of re-seller packages. Some require you to operate under the name of the hosting company while others allow you to set up a shop under your own business name. Pay attention to the billing aspect of the package. Some re-seller accounts have everything you need to get started immediately, while others require you to set up your own billing gateway.

I admit, I have been guilty of this. Once you get started doing CSS layouts, it’s easy to get sucked into the use of DIV tags for everything. At one point, I was even working on a site where every paragraph was surrounded by <div class=”para”>…</div>. That’s a bit excessive. But it’s completely understandable. When you’re first learning CSS layouts, it’s hard enough to understand how to get the page to look the way you want it to look without worrying about whether or not you’re using semantic markup to create your Web page. And besides, nearly every example written uses the div tag to demonstrate how to put up CSS layouts, why should you be any different?
Start Thinking Semantically

When you’re trying to set up a Web page where the styles are separated from the content, you should also be trying to markup your content so that it defines the content that is contained in it. The way you do this is by thinking about the structure of your page and what the elements you’re placing on the page are rather than just what they’re going to look like. For example, this About Web page has some standard elements in the design.

* At the top is the breadcrumb trail
* The About logo
* A search bar/box
* Navigation on the left (divided into sub-sections)
* Navigation in two columns on the right
* A title, sub-title, and author information
* Body content in the middle of the page
* Ads in various locations on the page

Now it would be easy to simply mark up these sections as divs and then give them all unique ids and be done with it. But semantically, these are not all just divisions of the content, in fact, in many cases they have very specific roles on the page.

* The breadcrumb
Arguably, this is not the most important part of the page, but it still is a header of sorts. I would mark this up as an <h5> or <h6> to state to the browser that it’s a header, but it’s not a very important one.

REMEMBER
Using CSS we can style these tags to look however we want them to look. Don’t think of <h1> as “big, bold, and ugly” - think of it as “the most important header on the page”. So an h5 header is saying “this is a fairly low-importance header on the page”, not “small and bold”.

* The About logo
You have a choice here. If you think that this logo should be given prominence on the page, then use an <h1> header on the image. If you just want it to be an image - then use an <img> tag and put an id on it that indicates it’s the logo.
* The search bar/box
Another header - probably <h4>. It’s more important than the breadcrumb, but not really high priority.
* Navigation - left or right
Navigation is 99.99% of the time a list of links. So, if you’re using a list for your navigation, then use a list for your markup. The About lists tend to have a header item at the top (”Essentials” on the left or “More About the DIV Tag” on the right). I would call these out with a header tag around the list item:

<li><h4>Essentials</h4></li>

Then you can use IDs descendant selectors to style the specific areas (like the left and right headers).
* Title, sub-title, and author information
These are clearly headers. Even the image in the author information can be styled using headers - you don’t even need an img tag if you don’t want to use one.
* Body content
Here’s our first div. But be sure to use paragraph tags for the paragraphs inside it and header tags for headers, etc.
* Advertisements
These can also be divs, but many sites are using iframes to place their ads. If you do this, you don’t need to surround it with a div, just style the iframe.

Use Divs for Divisions

I’m, by no means, advocating that we stop using divs. Let’s just start using them where we need to use them, and use the other tags we have available when they should be used. Divs are meant to be logical divisions of content on the page.

In the above example, there may be div tags that I didn’t mention to help lay out the page. But use them only once you’ve used up your semantic markup.

Editor’s Note — The easiest way to think of a business website is to think of it as a virtual salesperson. And to be considered successful, it has to convert traffic into paying customers. This article will tell you how to increase your conversion rates.

One of the biggest myths online is that it’s acceptable to have a conversion rate of 1% or 2%. Although this is the average, it IS possible to far exceed this. So if you’re sitting comfortably thinking you’re doing as well as you can. Think again!

Many sites have double-digit conversion rates. Although it takes work to initially get to that point, you’ll reap the rewards for a long time to come.

These great tips will help you get started:

- Use audio on your website to sell. If your site’s purpose is to sell a product or service, EVERYTHING on your site should be used for selling – including audio. Instead of an audio introduction from you like many sites have added recently, create a powerful 30 second commercial that tells people what you offer, the major benefits of purchasing from you and/or why you’re better than your competitors. You don’t have to use a hard sell approach. Keep it conversational and show your enthusiasm – but make sure they’re given information that takes them one step closer to buying!

- Make it a goal to create a “sales system” that works. Your ultimate goal should be to create a system that you know (with complete certainty) will make a sale to a certain percentage of people you put into it. This system should be mapped out from start to finish – that is, from the time a prospect first arrives at your site until they are a lifelong customer. Get started creating your system by planning out the steps you’d like customers take (or if you already have customers ask them what steps they took). Once your website, marketing materials and advertising plan are set up to work with your system, track every step and make improvements as necessary to make it as efficient and profitable as possible.

- Make your site navigation simple and straightforward. Studies show that when a customer cannot find what they’re looking for in less than 2 minutes, they leave and usually never come back. Make sure you don’t lose their attention by providing a consistent navigation system on every page. Also, remember that a link to your home page from every other page on the site is essential. That way, if the search engines bring a potential customer to a page other than your home page, they’ll be able to easily find their way around.

- Make it a habit to ask customers how they found your site. Although you should be tracking all of your site traffic it’s also a good idea to add a field to your order form asking people how they found your site. You may be surprised by the answers! This is another way to get a detailed picture of the best places to get targeted traffic from.

- Get their contact information so you can follow up with them again. A potential customer has to hear your message an average of 9 times before they purchase something. If you consider that only 1 in 3 messages actually gets read, you have to contact people an average of 27 times before they’ll be ready to buy! Therefore having a strong follow up system in place is key. If possible automate this with an autoresponder series using a service such as AWeber. This will allow you to set the messages and forget them!

- Make testimonials and endorsements credible. The best way to do this is to include lots of information on the person who submitted it. Some information to consider using is their full name, city and state, URL, photo, signature or an audio testimonial/endorsement. If the person is willing to take phone calls from potential customers then also include their phone number.

Website conversion rates of 1% may work for other site owners; however when you want to maximize your returns, 1% is just not enough. You must increase your conversion rate to increase earnings, and using the tips above is the perfect place to start.

The Most Useful Design Tips of the Year

The Internet is changing with the development of Web 2.0, and the changing marketplace reflects a need for increased usability, easier functionality and design that is visually appealing but that still lends to an easy to maneuver, content-rich website. The following is a list of ten top website design tips that made a difference in 2008.

1. Know the audience: The design of your website should cater specifically to your target market both in the visual sense, and in usability. It is critical that the design of your website reflect the values that your potential customers will hold.

2. Personalize: Even if your website is designed by the greatest professionals in the business, if you do not allow your customers to get to know you, or to believe in you, you will have difficulty selling your ideas.

3. No uncertain terms: Clearly identify what the purpose is for your website, and ensure that every facet of your website focuses on this goal. Are you conveying a message, selling a product or offering a service? Make this obvious from the beginning, and keep your focus until the end.

4. Keep it quick: You have between ten and thirty seconds to capture the attention of your customer, so keep graphics small in order to minimize the time it takes to load your website. Compress images when possible, so that your loading times stay low.

5. Design is important, content is more so: Good content is what sells your ideas and products. Is your copy delivering the message you intended for it to? Grammar and spelling ARE important; so proofread everything you write before it goes live.

6. Map your Site: You can make your website’s navigation much more easy and intuitive simply by creating a site map, or a directory web page. If your customer cannot navigate your website quickly or easily enough to find what they came for, they will go elsewhere for solutions.

7. Strive for consistency: Your website should be consistent in the design, the look and the feeling. Colors, themes and ideas should stay constant throughout every page on the website to make the best impression on your visitors.

8. Keep track of links: You should make sure that your site is fully functional at all times, which means checking out your website links on a fairly regular basis. If you have dead links on your site, there is no telling how much of a negative impact will transfer to your search engine page ranking, or the opinion your visitors have of your website.

9. Make a simple start: When you begin your site, take everything one page at a time, and optimize each page for the best results before moving on to the next. This means that you should make sure that every page is perfect before leaving it for the next one.

10. Optimize: The top search engines are responsible for helping more than 85-percent of all web users to find exactly what they are looking for. If you want to be one of the websites that is considered when users look for similar products or information, you must make sure that your pages are designed to maximize your search engine placement.