Webmasters face a host of complex design challenges every day. This article will discuss the top ten challenges and provide solutions and tips to solve each problem.
1. Browser compatibility You must design your website to be viewable in both browsers: Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). Netscape Navigator is very strict when it comes to completing HTML tags, but IE is not. You must first view your site with Macromedia Dreamweaver before publishing it to the web. Make sure you have run the convert command to make sure your site is compatible with version 3.0 of the browser. If you are using Netobjects Fusion to create your site layout, make sure all layer objects are converted to tables. This is highly recommended if you want to reach a growing audience.
Online Resources:
A) Dr. HTML, located at www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/
B) Website garage to verify your links, located at websitegarage.com
2. Graphics optimization
Web graphics play an essential role in your web design as they convey the emotion and impact of your site. Always make sure all your graphics are in .gif and .jpg format. Unless your site deals with photography, minimize the use of the .jpg format. You can use Macromedia Fireworks to minimize file size, especially the segmentation feature if you need to place a large photo on your site. Another option is the Macromedia Fireworks export preview. This allows you to remove unwanted colors in your graphics, thus decreasing the file size.
You can also do this online using one of these online utilities:
A) Media Builder GIF Optimizer, http://www.gifoptimizer.com
B) JPEG Cruncher and GIF Cruncher, [http://www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html]
C) Windows-based Graphics Optimizer, CyberView Image Lite (JPEG Compressor), [http://www.cyberviewcd.com/cvimage/index.html]
D) Advanced GIF Optimizer, http://www.gold-software.com/ago.html
E) Photo Crunch (JPEG compressor), http://www.imroncorp.com/photo.htm
F) Frequently Asked Questions about JPEG image compression, http://www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/
3. Keep the site updated
I think this is the bulk of a webmaster’s job, if you want your site to be visited frequently. You can keep your site up to date by actually working on new content on a daily or regular basis and making it interactive. As with the content, you can use http://www.moreover.com, [http://www.subportal.com], [http://www.newshub.com]and other content distribution sites to provide the content of your site automatically. Let them do the hard work for you! If you put a tag, they will send you an email with new content. As for interactivity, offer your visitors web-based email accounts, a message board with a chat room, a search engine crawler, and banner ad rotation. This is easy and is provided by Everyone.net. Searching your site is another way to easily provide information to your visitors. You can get a search engine for sites at http://www.picosearch.com and http://www.atomz.com.
4. Send information to your visitors
A website is a “jerk” promotion, but as a webmaster, you should also think about how you can “push” information to your visitors, users or subscribers. You can publish a weekly or monthly ezine just to let your users know about the latest technology that you have added to your site. Regarding the mailing list, you can get a free mailing list at http://www.egroups.com, http://www.topica.com, or you can choose a paid service like http: //www.aweber .com or http://www.getresponse.com. Content-wise, you can get lots of articles from bbs.weblord2000.com, or try one or more of my articles that can be found on the same website.
5. Driving traffic
Webmasters must not forget to advertise their website. Accomplishing this is easy for websites that already have a lot of traffic, but even sites that start with 5 or 10 members can benefit from the viral marketing of online recommendation software. Services include http://www.Nabaza.com/refer.htm, http://www.evite.com and [http://www.ewomp.com].
6. Dealing with spammers Unfortunately, the reality of the Internet is that people send spam and call on a daily basis. Web-based email addresses such as those configured by http://www.everyone.net are spam-proof. You can configure your account so that any email sent without your address in the ?? to ?? The box can be automatically directed to the trash or spam folder. However, flames and hate emails are a different field. You must not attempt revenge or retaliation. These people are not a joke. It could cost you your ISP or your e-life. Instead, see http://www.spamcop.net. It does the essential job of automatically informing postal administrators of people who misbehave. Usually it helps to get the ISP, or at least the IP address of the suspicious person.
7. Stickiness!
Webmasters also face the challenge of keeping their site fixed. CBSMarketwatch.com is a good example of a fixed site. This equity / investment site contains current news and great company data. The large amount of information results in a good number of page views per visitor. Plus, visitors come back daily for the latest and greatest market news and stock data. Many pageviews per visitor AND repeat visits. that’s what you could call really sticky.
Here are some additional suggestions:
A) Make your site an information portal. Encourage your visitors to come back and stay. Hotsheet.com is an example of a one page portal.
B) Add games to your site. You can get some here: http://www.uproar.co.uk or at [http://www.pogo.com/affiliates].
C) Make your site interactive with a guestbook, forum, tell-a-friend link, webring, customizable news, contests, surveys, e-cards, and free for all links. Bizland.com allows you to sign up for an account and place the code on your site.
D) Provide links to giveaways, pay-to-browse sites, contests, incentives, pranks, quotes, mp3s, and gnutella. Just don’t forget to opt for at least your email address before they can actually download stuff from your site.
8. Find your web host
Finding the right web server is essential. While you may need to get your own server when your site gets a million page views per month, most sites that are just getting started don’t require the complex and expensive task of managing their own servers. There are many web hosting providers who are willing to provide from 40 GB of web space. You can also search and compare different web hosting providers on these sites: http://www.webhostdir.com, [http://www.hostfinders.com], http://www.hostindex.com, http://www.hostsearch.com and http://www.findahost.com. I always recommend advanced search, which allows you to specify your budget and the specific features you will need.
9. Think globally
Keep the site international in its attractiveness. Babelfish.altavista.com allows you to place code snippets on your site that will automatically translate your English site into a different language, such as Spanish, Italian, German, or Polish. As webmasters, we must remember that we cannot filter countries on our site. We must be able to communicate with them.
10. Submissions to search engines
Webmasters love to promote their sites in message boards, newsgroups, link exchanges, and even in email, but they often forget about the best source of traffic. Shipping sites such as http://www.Nabaza.com/traffic.htm, http://www.Nabaza.com/submit.htm and [http://www.beseen.com] can be used to submit your site for free. You don’t need to send to all of them, just the main ones like Yahoo, AltaVista, Google, Hotbot, Infoseek / Go.com, Lycos, and Northern Light.
I hope you have found these helpful tips. For more information, visit my site http://www.MoreFreebies.info.
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