WDTalk

I know we all have our favorite links - for everything from hosting to retail outlets and services. I thought I’d ask if anyone wishes to share some of their favorite website design links?

Some of my favorites are:

Website Design Tools
Color Wheel - Color choices can make or break a website. Use the online color wheel at this site to find the right color and HTML codes for your site.

WhatTheFont - Have you ever seen a font that you like, but have no clue what it is? Submit an image to WhatTheFont to find the closest matches in their database.

WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM.  Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility of that page.

Webmaster Tips Library at NetMechanic are a must read for website designers. Here you’ll find in depth articles on everything from Accessibility, Search Engine Promotion, HTML Tips to Usability.

W3Schools - My absolute favorite is W3Schools. Wow, if you only link through to this one site, it’ll be worth all the others combined – it’s that good. Hungry for website design info – you can certainly fill your plate here. They even offer online developer certification courses for HTML, JavaScript, XML, ASP and PHP.

From Wikipedia:

 The anchor text, link label or link text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines.

Websites can actually rank for keywords - that aren’t on their site, ANYWHERE. To test this, simply do a Google query for “Click Here.”  I just did and the first result was: http://get.adobe.com/reader/. The term “Click Here” is no where on that page or the page source code, but how many times have you seen the hyperlink “Click Here”  on websites, or used it yourself?

The visible, clickable text in - the following hyperlink, <a href=”http://www.wdtalk.com”>WDTalk</a> is WDTalk (the anchor text).  OK, so why is that important? It all ties into relevancy. Anchor text should contain keywords relevant to the page you’re linking to, and it’s part of Google’s algorithm for ranking pages.

Some examples:

• Free SEO Report – as a link that takes you to an SEO consultant’s website
• Chocolate Cake Recipe – as a link that takes you a Cookbook website.

I remember when I was first introduced to web design - some (wow) fifteen years ago. I had just signed on as General Manager of a local ISP, networking and web hosting firm. Our web designer gave me a quick tutorial of Front Page and I was oh so impressed. I bought a copy of Front Page and toiled through its tutorial until I was able to create and post my own website online. I especially liked its navigation view, but over the years I learned that Front Page was an html hog and I moved on to Dreamweaver, Expression Web and CSS. The common denominator – it helped if you knew code.

When Google and WordPress released their blogging platforms – suddenly millions of want to be web designers were able to post sites online, share their thoughts and compete with the big boys. It leveled the playing field, and opened the door for peer to peer networking.  And you didn’t need to know one stitch of code.

With over 25 million WordPress sites online today – and thousands upon thousands of plugins available to customize those sites, peer to peer recommendations via blogging (and other social networks) drives today’s market. Blogging platforms have transitioned from amateur status, to now compete across broad cross sections of corporate America and global markets.

“Why you should blog “ Bottom line; it’s been documented over the years that prospects buy (or are influenced) from individuals, organizations or businesses they know, like and trust.  Blogs provide a cost effective online platform that allows you to ENGAGE your prospects and clients, which in turn keeps you in their crosshairs when they’re ready to pull the trigger. Prospects don’t want to be sold to, but make no mistake, they do buy BILLIONS of dollars of merchandise, information, services or programs online, if not from you, then your competition.

The key to effective blogging – is that you make it your own. I recently read online, “By placing informative and/or opinionated content on your blog, not only are you generating increased readership from people searching online for that particular subject matter, you are introducing these people to you.”

Blogging doesn’t end there though – as plenty of bloggers will attest. Just as there’s a psychology to sales, there’s a psychology to blogging. I’ve bought thousands of dollars of sales training tapes and CD’s over the years, but have recently turned to the Internet for blogging tips and info, to sites like Men with Pens, and to fellow bloggers like Ana Hoffman, one of my favorites. In Ana’s latest post, she discusses a plugin called CommentLuv, discussing how it could make your blog come alive. And isn’t that what all bloggers should strive for – relevant comments from an active readership? And right now -

There is a great giveaway going on at the Traffic Generation Cafe Blog -your ultimate hub for all things web traffic, where you can win your own copy of the hottest plugin release of the year – CommentLuv Premium. Participating is very easy: just visit Ana’s CommentLuv Premium giveaway page for more information.

What is your Google Analytics IQ score? Google offers a Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) test to determine your score, but you might want to take their Analytics IQ lessons first. You’ll learn everything from interface navigation to event tracking and virtual pageviews.

Google offers twenty five analytics presentations – each on average lasting from five to ten minutes. While most of what is presented will be second hat to seasoned webmasters, much of Google’s analytics has been updated, for example – Campaign Tracking and AdWords Integration. Are you running AdWords? Google recently updated their Analysis Focus – AdWords.

For an in depth analysis of your sites -you may wish to view their presentations on custom reporting, advanced segmentation, motion charts, internal site search, event tracking and virtual pageviews.

Google Presentations

First Steps

• Updated: Introduction to Google Analytics:
• Interface Navigation:
• Updated: Installing the Google Analytics Tracking Code:

Interpreting Reports

• Guidelines:
• Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors:
• Time Metrics:
• Traffic Sources:
• Content Reports:

Fundamentals

• Profiles in Google Analytics:
• Updated: Campaign Tracking and AdWords Integration:
• Updated: Analysis Focus – AdWords:
• Goals in Google Analytics:
• Analysis Focus – Funnel Visualization:
• Filters in Google Analytics:
• Regex and Google Analytics:
• Cookies and Google Analytics:
• Updated: E-commerce Tracking:
• Analysis Focus – Revenue Metrics:
• Updated: Domains and Subdomains:

In-Depth Analysis

• Custom Reporting:
• Advanced Segmentation:
• Motion Charts:
• Internal Site Search:
• Updated: Event Tracking and Virtual Pageviews:
• Updated: Additional Customizations:

Image certainly impacts other’s perception - of your business. When you offer solutions, do your prospects actively listen?

Your company’s style of communication - can influence how prospects view your products and services, and can enhance or adversely lend to any long term partnership (alliance) possibilities.

Sales Diplomacy - When your sales department is challenged, overwhelmed or put on the spot, are they thoughtful and diplomatic in their interactions? Do they respond in a professional manner, even when clearly outside their comfort zone? How well they communicate directly relates to their close ratios. Closing  percentages need to be measured against your Return On Investment (ROI).

Professional image impacts sales - How prospects read your company impacts their perception of your credibility, and ability to deliver solutions. Your sales department needs to know when and how to use diplomacy, when and how to be tactful … and they need to understand the concept of credibility.

Your image as a company – to be perceived as professional, should be addressed in your business plan, measured and tweaked frequently.

Revised

Reseller web hosting – provides a relatively inexpensive solution for newcomers to the hosting industry who want to start their own web hosting company. In this scenario, it’s a type of hosting account in which the “account holder” purchases a reseller or master account on a shared web server, then sells sub-accounts to their clients. They are essentially middle-men or intermediaries reselling services (space and bandwidth) allocated to them by their host.

Reseller accounts are also used by people with multiple - websites (for their own use). The account holder can then adjust the amount of disk space and bandwidth allotted to each site and manage all of their sites via one control panel, such as cPanel, DirectAdmin, HSphere or Plesk.

Reseller web hosting accounts are generally marketed - in different package sizes, allowing the account holder to match their requirements, then upgrade or downgrade as needed.

Advantages of reseller hosting

The web host is responsible for server maintenance.

The account holder controls access to all sites (their sites and their client’s sites) via one control panel.

The account holder can earn revenue reselling web hosting services.

The account holder can assign and modify space and bandwidth to all sites on that account.

With certain plans, account holders can brand their services without the appearance of being a reseller. (No advertising by their upline)

Startup costs are lower across the board.

Disadvantages of reseller hosting

Moving from the current web host can be both inconvenient and costly, both to the account holder and their clients.

They are marginally more expensive than shared hosting plans.

Bandwidth

Data transfer includes all traffic that passes through a web hosting provider’s core routers, including FTP and email. Colocation packages normally include either 1Mbps or 5Mbps burstable connections, measured on the 95^th percentile. A 10Mbps connection relates to approximately 3.3 Terabytes of bandwidth monthly.

To determine estimated monthly bandwidth for your site, first determine the page size for each page of your website, then estimate how many daily pageviews you project for each. Simply multiply to estimate monthly bandwidth forecasted, allowing for some overhead.

Note: A two (2) minute video can easily consume 10MB of bandwidth. As little as 300 downloads per day of that one video can consume 90GB of bandwidth monthly.

 Rack Space

 1U = 1.75″ of Vertical Rack Space

 2U = 3.5″ of Vertical Rack Space

 3U = 5.25″ of Vertical Rack Space

 4U = 7.00″ of Vertical Rack Space.

IP Subnets

 /30…..4 IP’s – 2 useable

 /29…..8 IP’s – 6 useable

 /28…..16 IP’s

 /27…..32 IP’s

 /26…..64 IP’s

 /24…..256 IP’s

 /23…..512 IP’s

 /22…..1024 IP’s

 /21…..2048 IP’s

 /20…..4096 IP’s

 /19…..8192 IP’s