CyberMasters

It doesn’t take a genius to make a professional site that will attract customers to your product and keep them coming back for more.  No, all it takes is a good guide—and there are plenty of books that can provide that guidance.  Let these volumes be the wind in your sails, the fire in your stomach, the wind beneath your wings, or whatever metaphor you choose.  The point is they’ve been proven to work, and you can make them work for you.

1. Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM by Andy Budd, Andy Clarke, Ian Lloyd et al.  Featuring lessons from 10 different web designers, this book will show you how to work within web standards to create vivid and attractive pages.  The wide range of designers makes this book perfect for everything from entertainment sites to business homepages. Read the remainder of this entry »

Whether you launched a website for business or pleasure, it is possible to profit from your online presence. The simplest way to earn a buck is by selling a product from your site. Of course, this product should be related to the site itself and should be something worth buying. If you choose to sell a product on your site, you’ll need to be able to accept credit cards. The best way to do this is through PayPal.

Another way to make money from your website is by using advertising. This method is plausible only if your site generates a good amount of traffic and has a somewhat loyal following. Though there is small money in sites that don’t have many viewers, its best to use advertising on sites with 500-1000 visitors per day.

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If you’re looking to start your own website and haven’t done it before, it can be difficult to know how to start establishing your cyber presence. The type of site you’re planning to launch will affect later aspects of your website building, but the initial steps are more or less the same for everyone.

First things first, you’ll need a domain name. A domain name is the address of your website that users type into the address bar. For example, right now you’re on www.cybermasters.net . The part that comes after the www is the domain name, so the domain name for this site is www.cybermasters.net.  When choosing your domain name, you can chose from any combination of letters and numbers up to 63 characters. You should keep your domain name short, sweet, and simple. You also want it to be relevant to your website and the business you’re trying to conduct. Its best to go with a .com or .net extension, but most of these names are taken. However, it is possible to find a good .com if you look into expired domain names that are constantly being released into the market. The best places to get a domain name are Act Now Domains, Network Solutions, Register.com, and GoDaddy. Once you’ve picked a registrar site, search the name of the domain you want and it will tell you if it is available.

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If you’re starting your own website or looking to improve a preexisting site, Joomla can help you out. Joomla is the most popular Content Management System available today. Part of its award winning success is due to its easy to use set up and FREE availability to anyone who wishes to take advantage of it. If you want to make life easier on yourself, the use of a content management system (CMS) is a must. The CMS software manages the content on your website—text, photos, music, videos, documents, etc.—so that you don’t have to.  Examples of sites using the Joomla software range from MTV’s Quizilla, IHOP, and The Green Maven, to Harvard University, PlayShakespear.com, and Outdoor Photographer.

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What’s the point of having a website if no one goes to it? This is the problem many website owners are facing as the sheer volume of websites increases and web traffic becomes more dispersed. The simple solution for increasing web traffic lies in search engine optimization (SEO). SEO refers to the process of increasing the volume of traffic to a web site through search engines. It uses ‘natural’ or unpaid search results as opposed to the paid ads that show up when you view the search results page. Put simply, SEO increases the chance that your website will appear on a search results page when someone searches for a related topic in a search engine (such as Google or Bing) hence increasing the chances someone clicks on your website.

There are many ways to make your website search engine friendly. For starters, bold face some of the keywords on each page by inserting the <b> </b> code around the keyword. It is also important to link as many pages as possible to your content.  By linking existing sources to your website it shows search engines that the content on your website is worthwhile. Be sure to include links on all pages of your site, not just the home page. Another helpful SEO tactic is to add social bookmarks to your site. Social media website such as Facebook and Twitter provide valuable links to popularity and success.  If your site uses Java script drop down menus, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page so that the spiders search engines send out can find and follow the content of your page. Also note that these search spiders like fresh text. This means you should update your website frequently and add new content as often as you can—adding a blog is the easiest way to ensure frequent updates.

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If you’re building a website, you probably want people to visit it. While search engine optimization and marketing techniques can help you get traffic and clicks, it’s up to you to make sure people stay on your website once they visit it. The design, set up, and content are the most important aspects to consider when building your website.

If you’re a beginner at website building, it’s recommended that you use a website builder that comes free from your web host. They are simpler and easier to use than outside builder software. If you’re a more advanced website builder, it’s good to use a standalone website building program that can provide more flexibility and creativity. A popular choice is Microsoft’s Expressions Web , an updated version of the popular Front Page.

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