The technical stuffWritten by Rob Rawson
(including how to build a fantastic website, all elements you need to consider and how to make it work with little or notechnical abilities). It can be done. I’m almost certain that many people reading this Ecourse have no technical skills at all? I’m not embarrassed to let you know that I don’t have great technical skills… I’ve learned how to build really basic websites, but nothing fancy (I don’t think Profit Puppy site is going to win any design awards in near future!). The fact is you don’t need to have great technical skills to make a good website. In some ways having limited web design abilities gives you an advantage because you won’t get caught up in, what can sometimes be, confusing details. As a novice you’ll be able to focus on what counts … That is; making money, marketing your site and getting visitors. If you have no money, then you will need to learn how to do all of these things yourself which will slow you down considerably. If you can afford to pay someone else to design your site, then you can get a great site designed at a tiny fraction of cost (compared with what it would cost to start a “real” bricks and mortar business in offline world). Web design can be a be a bit overwhelming when you are starting out, especially if you haven’t done it before - it’s hard to know what you should do and where to start. However, once you’ve been through initial process it gets easier and easier. To start with, let’s look at all “technical” elements that you need to include for consideration on your new site. We will be covering several of these aspects in more depth in later issues, but for now, I’ll provide an overview of things you will need to get started: Domain name – you need a domain name for your site (E.g. www.yoursite.com) Web hosting – you need to get your site hosted somewhere so other people can see it. An auto-responder email service – you probably want to have some kind of email auto-responder set up. This is can help communicate effectively with your audience by send them a series of emails from you automatically. Copy (i.e. words). Design – you need to get a template designed for your site. Audio - audio has proven to generate more sales and interest to visitors. A shopping cart service – if you are planning an ecommerce site and want to be able to accept online payments, you will need a shopping cart service where you can accept credit cards via a secure server. A merchant account – to accept credit cards you need to have your own, or a third party merchant account. An affiliate program - you may want to have your own affiliate program. We’ll talk about this in future issues of Ecourse. If you can combine above elements and put them together effectively, you’ll have essence of a great website. Keep in mind that you may not need shopping cart service, merchant account, or affiliate program if you are not actually selling your own product.Below, I’ve provided valuable information about how to build 9 most important elements of a successful website: The Domain name and Web hosting I will be examining domain names in more detail in a later issue of Ecourse, but for now, I’ll assume that you need a new domain name for your site. A goodplace to start is somewhere like http://www.mydomainfriend.com/ - this is a great keyword combination tool that I built for researching and finding new domain names. My Domain Friend helps to simplify, what can be, a quite often lengthy and tiresome process. When you find a suitable domain, there are number of cheap services where you can register it for under $10. For more info on domain names and web hosting check out http://www.profitpuppy.com/hosting.htm An Auto-responder service If you want to build a profitable site you should definitely consider an auto-responder service. If you get someone to your website, there’s a good chance they may never come back. By using an auto-responder you can build a valuable relationship with you your visitors and increase likelihood that that they will visit your site again (unless they unsubscribe!). There are many different ways you can use auto-responders. For example, you might start an Ecourse, or remind your visitors of upcoming events or product developments in a newsletter. Auto-responders are crucial if you want to maximize profits from website. In a later issue of Ecourse, I’ll be showing you how to put together great sounding newsletters to help you get more bang for your buck. So, how do you set up an auto-responder? The best (and easiest) option is to go with one of many third party services that are available on web. For more information and a list of best auto-responder services visit: http://www.profitpuppy.com/compare-autoresponder.htm
| | Making Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST.Written by John Catalfamo
AG GraphicsMaking Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST. Volume 1, Issue 1 October 1, 2004 You are subscribed to - Making Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST. If you wish to be removed, you can find simple instructions at end of this email. CONTENTS: Feature Article: Making Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST. Is it possible to create quality web graphics that grab attention and load fast at same time? Take a look at illustration samples at our site and see what I talking about Understanding basics of GIF and JPEG compression will not only help you choose best format for your Web graphics but will also enable you to create graphics that look better and load faster. Many graphics programs and compression utilities allow you to compare an image in different formats with various palette and compression settings before you actually save file. While this takes much of guess work out of choosing best format for an image, it's still a good idea to have a basic understanding of how each type of compression works. With that knowledge, you can make changes to graphic before compression takes place, creating an image that compresses to a smaller file size and looks better, too. Optimize for Best Images Q. I was asked a question by one of my customer's earlier this year. How do I put together a quality website with great pictures that don't take a long time to load on older equipment or just in general? As a general rule, following guideline will give you best quality images with smallest file sizes: GIF: images with large areas of solid color, such as vector clip art. JPEG: images with many shaded or gradient colors, such as photos. GIF Compression & Optimization GIF compression is lossless. This means that there is no loss of information when file is compressed. When decompressed image will be same as before compression. Use this file format to save line drawings, text, or even small photos. The compression scheme for GIF format works by identifying repetitions or runs of color within image and identifying these repetitions with an algorithm. The more repetition and longer color runs are, smaller image will be after compression. To better understand how this works: JPEG Compression & Optimization The JPEG format is most often used for photographs. When decompressed, image will not be same as before compression. It will have lost some of information contained in original file. Each time you save a JPEG image it will lose more information. For this reason, it is best to save an original of your image in a lossless format (such as TIF, PSD, etc.), and work from that file when making changes. JPEG compression does not work with runs of color, like GIF compression. Instead it breaks image into zones and throws away subtle color differences. When saving an image in JPEG format, you can select how much compression to use and, therefore, how much information will be lost. The more image is compressed, more quality is reduced but smaller file size becomes. This format has overhead, so it is not necessarily a good format for small photos. Generally images that are smaller than 100 x 100 pixels should be saved in GIF format. Sometimes experimenting is only way to determine which format will give you smallest file size with best quality.
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