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To burn a bin file, you will need an appropriate cue file.
You do exactly the same as for iso files, but when you click on “burn image,” you don’t browse to the bin itself, but instead to the cue file, and you open that one.
When the writer starts to burn, it will automatically search for the bin file and start burning it. In fact, the cue file tells the burning program where it can find the bin file that is attached to it. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you use the right cue file when you burn a bin. i.e both cue and bin files that are attached to each other must be located in the same folder, and every bin file has it’s own cue file.
Normally, when you download a bin file, you can download the appropriate cue file as well. If you do not have the cue file (or feel bold) you can make the cue file yourself, which is really easy to do:
a. Open notepad
b. Copy the following text into notepad:
FILE“nameofimage“BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
Where nameofimage.bin is the name of the bin file you want to burn.
c. The rest is easy: just save the notepad text with the name of the bin, but with the cue extension.
d. The file should be saved in the same folder as its appropriate bin file and should be something like myfile.cue
Or you can use Alcohol 120% to burn directly from the bin file
03 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 3, 2008 – 1:55 pm - 364 views
Ndisuio.sys, a very mysterious system file is present in Windows XP and Vista and is a driver for wireless things such as wi-fi and bluetooth. However, there have been many issues with this file downloading immense amounts of data and perhaps causing activity that is “big brother”ish.
The fact that hardly any information on this file downloading data is available by Microsoft makes things quite suspicious about it. It has even been noted that it looked as if it was transferring data to major companies like Comcast, Road Runner, Time Warner, BTC and Verizon.
The good news is, it turns out this file duplicates data that is sent/received, so wherever you go, it will also transfer the data to that file but it does not leave the computer/network so it’s not spyware. So it’s not as much of a big brother situation then it looks like. It simply performs internal communication tasks and stands for NDIS user I/O, hence, NDISUIO. NDISUIO is also used as a driver by many developers as it makes certain wireless network tasks easier such as implementing it for 802.11x connections. Some firewalls also use it as it can get the data in order to filter it.
But duplicating this data can hog resources for no reason, so disabling it is the best thing to do. The data rate of this file’s received data is huge, so that indicates that the data transfer is not over the Internet, but locally. So it’s just a duplicate of network activity but because it’s local everything transfers faster but uses more resources then casual internet usage as there’s more data involved at a given time span of 1 second, for example.
To disable this file, go to the control panel, administration tools, services, Wireless Zero Configuration, double click and disable it. This file is probably required to run if you use any linksys wireless devices.
03 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 3, 2008 – 12:14 pm - 595 views
A web standards checklist
The term web standards can mean different things to different people. For some, it is ‘table-free sites’, for others it is ‘using valid code’. However, web standards are much broader than that. A site built to web standards should adhere to standards (HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, XSLT, DOM, MathML, SVG etc) and pursue best practices (valid code, accessible code, semantically correct code, user-friendly URLs etc).
In other words, a site built to web standards should ideally be lean, clean, CSS-based, accessible, usable and search engine friendly.
About the checklist
This is not an uber-checklist. There are probably many items that could be added. More importantly, it should not be seen as a list of items that must be addressed on every site that you develop. It is simply a guide that can be used:
- to show the breadth of web standards
- as a handy tool for developers during the production phase of websites
- as an aid for developers who are interested in moving towards web standards
The checklist
1.Quality of code
a. Does the site use a correct Doctype?
b. Does the site use a Character set?
c. Does the site use Valid (X)HTML?
d. Does the site use Valid CSS?
e. Does the site use any CSS hacks?
f. Does the site use unnecessary classes or ids?
g. Is the code well structured?
h. Does the site have any broken links?
i. How does the site perform in terms of speed/page size?
j. Does the site have JavaScript errors?
2. Degree of separation between content and presentation
a. Does the site use CSS for all presentation aspects (fonts, colour, padding, borders etc)?
b. Are all decorative images in the CSS, or do they appear in the (X)HTML?
3. Accessibility for users
a. Are “alt” attributes used for all descriptive images?
b. Does the site use relative units rather than absolute units for text size?
c. Do any aspects of the layout break if font size is increased?
d. Does the site use visible skip menus?
e. Does the site use accessible forms?
f. Does the site use accessible tables?
g. Is there sufficient colour brightness/contrasts?
h. Is colour alone used for critical information?
i. Is there delayed responsiveness for dropdown menus (for users with reduced motor skills)?
j. Are all links descriptive (for blind users)?
4. Accessibility for devices
a. Does the site work acceptably across modern and older browsers?
b. Is the content accessible with CSS switched off or not supported?
c. Is the content accessible with images switched off or not supported?
d. Does the site work in text browsers such as Lynx?
e. Does the site work well when printed?
f. Does the site work well in Hand Held devices?
g. Does the site include detailed metadata?
h. Does the site work well in a range of browser window sizes?
5. Basic Usability
a. Is there a clear visual hierarchy?
b. Are heading levels easy to distinguish?
c. Does the site have easy to understand navigation?
d. Does the site use consistent navigation?
e. Are links underlined?
f. Does the site use consistent and appropriate language?
g. Do you have a sitemap page and contact page? Are they easy to find?
h. For large sites, is there a search tool?
i. Is there a link to the home page on every page in the site?
j. Are visited links clearly defined with a unique colour?
6. Site management
a. Does the site have a meaningful and helpful 404 error page that works from any depth in the site?
b. Does the site use friendly URLs?
c. Do your URLs work without “www”?
d. Does the site have a favicon?
1. Quality of code
1.1 Does the site use a correct Doctype?
A doctype (short for ‘document type declaration’) informs the validator which version of (X)HTML you’re using, and must appear at the very top of every web page. Doctypes are a key component of compliant web pages: your markup and CSS won’t validate without them.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/
More:
http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/about-boxmodel.htm
http://gutfeldt.ch/matthias/articles/doctypeswitch.html
1.2 Does the site use a Character set?
If a user agent (eg. a browser) is unable to detect the character encoding used in a Web document, the user may be presented with unreadable text. This information is particularly important for those maintaining and extending a multilingual site, but declaring the character encoding of the document is important for anyone producing XHTML/HTML or CSS.
http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/tutorial-char-enc/
More:
http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset.html
1.3 Does the site use Valid (X)HTML?
Valid code will render faster than code with errors. Valid code will render better than invalid code. Browsers are becoming more standards compliant, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to write valid and standards compliant HTML.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/sit2003/06.htm
More:
http://validator.w3.org/
1.4 Does the site use Valid CSS?
You need to make sure that there aren’t any errors in either your HTML or your CSS, since mistakes in either place can result in botched document appearance.
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/articles/webrev/199904.html
More:
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
1.5 Does the site use any CSS hacks?
Basically, hacks come down to personal choice, the amount of knowledge you have of workarounds, the specific design you are trying to achieve.
http://www.mail-archive.com/wsg@webstandardsgroup.org/msg05823.html
More:
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssHack
http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=ToHackOrNotToHack
http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/
1.6 Does the site use unnecessary classes or ids?
I’ve noticed that developers learning new skills often end up with good CSS but poor XHTML. Specifically, the HTML code tends to be full of unnecessary divs and ids. This results in fairly meaningless HTML and bloated style sheets.
http://www.clagnut.com/blog/228/
1.7 Is the code well structured?
Semantically correct markup uses html elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML has semantic meaning for a wide range of user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/benefits/index04.htm
More:
http://www.w3.org/2003/12/semantic-extractor.html
1.8 Does the site have any broken links?
Broken links can frustrate users and potentially drive customers away. Broken links can also keep search engines from properly indexing your site.
More:
http://validator.w3.org/checklink
1.9 How does the site perform in terms of speed/page size?
Don’t make me wait… That’s the message users give us in survey after survey. Even broadband users can suffer the slow-loading blues.
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/
1.10 Does the site have JavaScript errors?
Internet Explore for Windows allows you to turn on a debugger that will pop up a new window and let you know there are javascript errors on your site. This is available under ‘Internet Options’ on the Advanced tab. Uncheck ‘Disable script debugging’.
2. Degree of separation between content and presentation
2.1 Does the site use CSS for all presentation aspects (fonts, colour, padding, borders etc)?
Use style sheets to control layout and presentation.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-style-sheets
2.2 Are all decorative images in the CSS, or do they appear in the (X)HTML?
The aim for web developers is to remove all presentation from the html code, leaving it clean and semantically correct.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/benefits/index07.htm
3. Accessibility for users
3.1 Are “alt” attributes used for all descriptive images?
Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-text-equivalent
3.2 Does the site use relative units rather than absolute units for text size?
Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values’.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-relative-units
More:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-relative-units
http://www.clagnut.com/blog/348/
3.3 Do any aspects of the layout break if font size is increased?
Try this simple test. Look at your website in a browser that supports easy incrementation of font size. Now increase your browser’s font size. And again. And again… Look at your site. Does the page layout still hold together? It is dangerous for developers to assume that everyone browses using default font sizes.
3.4 Does the site use visible skip menus?
A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=12
Group related links, identify the group (for user agents), and, until user agents do so, provide a way to bypass the group.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/#tech-group-links
…blind visitors are not the only ones inconvenienced by too many links in a navigation area. Recall that a mobility-impaired person with poor adaptive technology might be stuck tabbing through that morass.
http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter08.html#h4-2020
More:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/websmith/508/o.htm
3.5 Does the site use accessible forms?
Forms aren’t the easiest of things to use for people with disabilities. Navigating around a page with written content is one thing, hopping between form fields and inputting information is another.
http://www.htmldog.com/guides/htmladvanced/forms/
More:
http://www.webstandards.org/learn/tutorials/accessible-forms/01-accessible-forms.html
http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessible-form-builder.asp
http://accessify.com/tutorials/better-accessible-forms.asp
3.6 Does the site use accessible tables?
For data tables, identify row and column headers… For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-table-headers
More:
http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/webpublishing/ada/resources/tables.asp
http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessible-table-builder_step1.asp
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/tables/
3.7 Is there sufficient colour brightness/contrasts?
Ensure that foreground and background colour combinations provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-colour-contrast
More:
http://www.juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.asp
3.8 Is colour alone used for critical information?
Ensure that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour, for example from context or markup.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-colour-convey
There are basically three types of colour deficiency; Deuteranope (a form of red/green colour deficit), Protanope (another form of red/green colour deficit) and Tritanope (a blue/yellow deficit- very rare).
More:
http://colourfilter.wickline.org/
http://www.toledo-bend.com/colourblind/Ishihara.html
http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php
3.9 Is there delayed responsiveness for dropdown menus?
Users with reduced motor skills may find dropdown menus hard to use if responsiveness is set too fast.
3.10 Are all links descriptive?
Link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context - either on its own or as part of a sequence of links. Link text should also be terse.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-meaningful-links
4. Accessibility for devices.
4.1 Does the site work acceptably across modern and older browsers?
Before starting to build a CSS-based layout, you should decide which browsers to support and to what level you intend to support them.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/process/index_step01.cfm
4.2 Is the content accessible with CSS switched off or not supported?
Some people may visit your site with either a browser that does not support CSS or a browser with CSS switched off. In content is structured well, this will not be an issue.
4.3 Is the content accessible with images switched off or not supported?
Some people browse websites with images switched off - especially people on very slow connections. Content should still be accessible for these people.
4.4 Does the site work in text browsers such as Lynx?
This is like a combination of images and CSS switched off. A text-based browser will rely on well structured content to provide meaning.
More:
http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview
4.5 Does the site work well when printed?
You can take any (X)HTML document and simply style it for print, without having to touch the markup.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/goingtoprint/
More:
http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/css.html#print
4.6 Does the site work well in Hand Held devices?
This is a hard one to deal with until hand held devices consistently support their correct media type. However, some layouts work better in current hand-held devices. The importance of supporting hand held devices will depend on target audiences.
4.7 Does the site include detailed metadata?
Metadata is machine understandable information for the web
http://www.w3.org/Metadata/
Metadata is structured information that is created specifically to describe another resource. In other words, metadata is ‘data about data’.
4.8 Does the site work well in a range of browser window sizes?
It is a common assumption amongst developers that average screen sizes are increasing. Some developers assume that the average screen size is now 1024px wide. But what about users with smaller screens and users with hand held devices? Are they part of your target audience and are they being disadvantaged?
5. Basic Usability
5.1 Is there a clear visual hierarchy?
Organise and prioritise the contents of a page by using size, prominence and content relationships.
http://www.great-web-design-tips.com/web-site-design/165.html
5.2 Are heading levels easy to distinguish?
Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-logical-headings
5.3 Is the site’s navigation easy to understand?
Your navigation system should give your visitor a clue as to what page of the site they are currently on and where they can go next.
http://www.1stsitefree.com/design_nav.htm
5.4 Is the site’s navigation consistent?
If each page on your site has a consistent style of presentation, visitors will find it easier to navigate between pages and find information
http://www.juicystudio.com/tutorial/accessibility/navigation.asp
5.5 Does the site use consistent and appropriate language?
The use of clear and simple language promotes effective communication. Trying to come across as articulate can be as difficult to read as poorly written grammar, especially if the language used isn’t the visitor’s primary language.
http://www.juicystudio.com/tutorial/accessibility/clear.asp
5.6 Does the site have a sitemap page and contact page? Are they easy to find?
Most site maps fail to convey multiple levels of the site’s information architecture. In usability tests, users often overlook site maps or can’t find them. Complexity is also a problem: a map should be a map, not a navigational challenge of its own.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020106.html
5.7 For large sites, is there a search tool?
While search tools are not needed on smaller sites, and some people will not ever use them, site-specific search tools allow users a choice of navigation options.
5.8 Is there a link to the home page on every page in the site?
Some users like to go back to a site’s home page after navigating to content within a site. The home page becomes a base camp for these users, allowing them to regroup before exploring new content.
5.9 Are links underlined?
To maximise the perceived affordance of clickability, colour and underline the link text. Users shouldn’t have to guess or scrub the page to find out where they can click.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040510.html
5.10 Are visited links clearly defined?
Most important, knowing which pages they’ve already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040503.html
6. Site management
6.1 Does the site have a meaningful and helpful 404 error page that works from any depth in the site?
You’ve requested a page - either by typing a URL directly into the address bar or clicking on an out-of-date link and you’ve found yourself in the middle of cyberspace nowhere. A user-friendly website will give you a helping hand while many others will simply do nothing, relying on the browser’s built-in ability to explain what the problem is.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/
6.2 Does the site use friendly URLs?
Most search engines (with a few exceptions - namely Google) will not index any pages that have a question mark or other character (like an ampersand or equals sign) in the URL… what good is a site if no one can find it?
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/search-engine-friendly-urls
One of the worst elements of the web from a user interface standpoint is the URL. However, if they’re short, logical, and self-correcting, URLs can be acceptably usable
http://www.merges.net/theory/20010305.html
More:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/search-engine-friendly-urls
http://www.websitegoodies.com/article/32
http://www.merges.net/theory/20010305.html
6.3 Does the site’s URL work without “www”?
While this is not critical, and in some cases is not even possible, it is always good to give people the choice of both options. If a user types your domain name without the www and gets no site, this could disadvantage both the user and you.
6.4 Does the site have a favicon?
A Favicon is a multi-resolution image included on nearly all professionally developed sites. The Favicon allows the webmaster to further promote their site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor’s browser.
http://www.favicon.com/
Favicons are definitely not critical. However, if they are not present, they can cause 404 errors in your logs (site statistics). Browsers like IE will request them from the server when a site is bookmarked. If a favicon isn’t available, a 404 error may be generated. Therefore, having a favicon could cut down on favicon specific 404 errors. The same is true of a ‘robots.txt’ file.
If you have ever wondered how you can earn just a bit of extra cash, you might want to consider online auctions. Everyone has heard of EBay these days and hundreds of people are earning a decent living just selling items on auctions like it.
There is no reason why you can’t be earning as well through online auctions. All you need is a product or two to get started with and you are in business! Your first auctions items can come from your own attic or garage.
Look around your house and see if there is anything that you don’t use anymore that you could get a few bucks for. A digital camera is invaluable in online auctions. In order to maximize your bids, you need to have a photo of the object you are trying to sell. People like to know what they are getting. So take at least one shot of the item in its best light and put that up with your listing.
It really pays to shop around. While EBay is the biggest and best known auctions site, it is far from the only one. Big and powerful also means expensive, as many sellers have noticed in recent months. The prices to list your item have gone up drastically since the beginning of the popular auctions site, while other websites offering the same services will still let you post for free. Check out if the websites charge you for selling and how much. That will help you make your final decision. You could also try posting auctions on several different sites and see how they turn out.
When you have reached a conclusion as to which websites are best for your purposes, you will probably have run out of items to sell from your own home. Now it is time to start looking for more sources. There are several ways to go about this.
Garage sales, yard sales and the like are good places to find great items that just need a cleaning in order to sell well on auctions sites. However, it takes time to travel from one garage sale to the next and unless you really enjoy it, the hunt is not worth it. You will spend more time traveling, buying and cleaning than you will be paid. As they say, “time is money”!
Another option is to buy wholesale. There are dropshippers all over the world who will happily give you photos that you can post on your auctions site and when you get paid, you pay the dropshipper and give them the address of the buyer so they can send the item. The big disadvantage here, although you save time, is that dropshippers sometimes run out of things and you have no control over when an item goes out. If things go wrong, it is not your fault, but you’ll end up paying!
You could also buy several items packaged together from one auction, separate them and resell on an individual basis. This is probably the best way to go if you want to have full control and earn well.
It really is possible to earn with online auctions, you just have to know what you are doing. So get started today and start learning!
03 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 3, 2008 – 5:21 am - 228 views
Have you used articles to promote your website yet? If not, article marketing is an extremely valuable and often overlooked area of promotion that you should look into. It is possibly one of the easiest and cheapest manners to draw attention to your business as well as create backlinks.
To get started in article marketing, all you need are some writing skills or the ability to hire someone who has them. Choose topics that relate to your business and write short, but useful articles on them. For example, if you have a website that sells diapers, you could write articles on the advantages of disposable or cloth diapers, how to prevent diaper rash, etc. The articles need to be between 400-600 words long and should offer valuable tidbits and information.
Use relevant keywords in your article marketing documents so the search engines can pick them up easily. The title and first and last paragraph should contain the most important keywords relating to the story. If you utilize valuable keywords, that is ones that are often searched for, you will also gain the interest of webmasters and ezine publishers.
Now for the promotion part, the resource box. This handy little bio at the end of your article is where you are allowed to talk about yourself and your business. Keep it short, most resource boxes can only contain 3-5 lines, but that is more than enough to add what you need to. You should have one line about yourself as the author, a line or two about your business and a link to your website. That is really all you need.
So, how does article marketing help you draw traffic to your site? Well, you can give these handy, informative little articles away for free so that webmasters and anyone else looking for free content can come and copy your article, resource box and all, for use in other places. Each and every time someone uses your article on their website or blog or in an ezine, you are getting free publicity. And that is the basis of article marketing.
For widespread article marketing you can submit your articles to free article directories like Ezine Articles or other similar websites. There, webmasters and other free content-seekers will browse through the articles and pick up the ones they like and can use. The conditions of use require them to include your name as author and your bio box in every single copy of the article. This is article marketing at its finest! A decent writer can whip off a few articles in an hour and they will continue to produce backlinks and promote your product for years!
For more specialized article marketing, you might consider offering articles exclusively to one or two websites that fit your theme. Simply write a brief email with the article included, explaining that you would like to offer use of your article, along with a link to your site for free. If you are only offering this opportunity to one website, mention that it is a unique offer and the webmaster will be more likely to take you up on it.
03 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 3, 2008 – 1:18 am - 213 views
If you are like hundreds of thousands of people around the world, you are looking for a good way to earn money online. Everyone looking into online business opportunities comes across affiliate programs at some point or another, but only a few actually rise to the level where they are earning decent money, the majority quit before getting to that point.
Affiliate programs are like any other business; they require patience and hard work in order to make it work. Far too often, it is promoted as the ideal way to earn instant cash, which is just not true. In order to earn in affiliate programs, you need to plan for at least a year of low to nothing earnings. Perhaps you will actually earn more, but don’t go into this opportunity expecting to get rich overnight. That being said, you can certainly improve your chances with a few tips.
Build yourself a trustworthy reputation. There are hundreds of other people out there promoting the same affiliate programs links for products and services. People know what an affiliate programs link looks like and will go out of their way to not give you a commission if they think you are only in it for the money. So, to stand out from everyone else, you need to build yourself a reputation.
The best way to go about doing this is to establish a presence in your niche area. This can be anything you choose. Internet marketing is generally not a good idea, since that is the first niche most people head for. Let’s say you decide to focus on herb gardening. Instead of starting up a website to sell a variety of affiliate programs products, start off by writing a blog and offering good, quality information . . . for free!
That’s right, free. You might think this is a bit counter-productive, but remember that you are not going for the fast buck; you want people to keep giving you money and recommending their friends to give you money as well. When they see that you are not only doing this for the money, but to genuinely help people, readers will begin to send more people your way.
Once you have established your reputation as a guru or high quality information provider in your chosen area, you are ready to start monetizing. This could take up to six months to really get people to trust you, so be prepared. Then you can begin to recommend tried and true products that you think would help your readers. Don’t be afraid to throw in non-affiliate programs links as well, to keep things clean. The worst thing a blogger or webmaster can do is to switch from being helpful and free to suddenly trying to make money fast, at the expense of fans.
By following these steps and taking care not to fool your clients, you can make a living at affiliate programs. It is a good way to earn money while doing something you love and providing useful information to others.
Your website is where your business resides — it’s like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practise good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible.
Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.
Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.
Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.
Make sure your website complies to web standards at www.w3.org and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors.
Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.
Use CSS to style your page content because they save alot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go.
02 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 2, 2008 – 3:50 pm - 198 views
I am always looking out for new ways for my readers to make more money online with less effort.
Recently I came across a new innovation that you need to hear about because it may affect the way you earn with your website in the very near future.
As you may know, major television networks are in trouble because their advertising revenue is dropping. They are losing market share at a dramatic pace.
For the first time in history, website owners are sharing in the ad revenue that was formerly spent with the giant TV networks.
Advertisers like Harley Davidson, HBO & Taco Bell are willing to pay you on 100% of your website traffic to make up for the loss of viewers that the big TV networks are experiencing.
Do your online business a huge favor. Stop what you are doing for just a moment and learn how you can earn revenue on 100% of your website traffic.
This is a FREE opportunity that is taking the advertising community by storm!
This is bigger than radio, television and all other forms of media combined!
02 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 2, 2008 – 1:25 am - 536 views
One of the first things I do when I begin implementing a site is to force the www (or no-www) in the domain name. Why would I want to do this? For search engine optimization of course. For example, programimi.com redirects to www.programimi.com. What this means for Google is that it gets crawled as one site. Sites that link to programimi.com will add to the pagerank of www.programimi.com. Theoretically, this could double your Pagerank score (but not necessarily your Pagerank rating).
Anyway, here is the code to add to your .htaccess file to force www, but make sure mod_rewrite apache module is turned on:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(.*)\.programimi\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.programimi.com/$1 [R=301,L]
And here is the code to force no-www (in spirit of no-www.org):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.programimi\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://programimi.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Of course, replace programimi.com above with your own domain name. To edit your .htaccess file you may need to enable view hidden files, or if the file doesn’t exist, you’ll have to create it yourself. The best way is to do it through an SSH connection to your server.
If you don’t have access to .htaccess, you could also accomplish the same thing through php with a simple script at the top of every page that will try to find www in the URL and redirect if found. Not the most elegant solution, but it does what it needs to do for those who can’t edit .htaccess for some reason.
if(!substr($_SERVER[’HTTP_HOST’], ‘www’)) //check if www exists in URL
{ header(’Location: http://www.programimi.com/’); //redirect to www.programimi.com
}
Or for those using wordpress, you could simply install a plugin that does all this for you! One example plugin is WWW-Redirect.
02 Apr
Posted by ProCOM
on April 2, 2008 – 1:18 am - 201 views
When Google first introduced Adsense, it was a virtually unknown element. The few webmasters who began using it made a lot of money in those first few months. However, now Adsense is so common, you see it repeated various times on every webpage!
Have we become immune to the lure of Adsense? Some webmaster say yes, others claim that they are still earning well using Google’s system. It all boils down to how you use this tool.
Making Adsense blend into your page is supposed to be the best way to earn with it, but now webmasters are discovering that this might not be ideal. People are accustomed to clicking on electric blue links. We all do it and now that everyone is so web-savvy, they automatically look for blue links. So if your webpage features pink or green links, you should consider keeping Adsense links blue. The rest of the ad can match your theme, just make sure that people realize the links are clickable.
Placing ads where they can’t be missed is another technique that is not always used to the best effect. For example, an Adsense banner at the top of your page might make sense since it is the first thing people see, but you also have to take into account how jaded folks are. We see these banners everywhere. We came to your site for specific information and the banner is in the way!
Instead, why not try putting a block of text ads or a vertical banner to the right hand side of the page where it draws the eye but doesn’t stop the reader from getting the information they came to get.
Another useful place to put your Adsense ads is at the bottom of your page as well as in the middle of an article. If you do place a block in the middle of an article, make sure people know that the information continues below and don’t make the block too big. A line of text ads or a small box are all you need.
Placing ads at the end of your article is a good way to get clicks from people who want to know more on the topic. If you have a decent article, seeded with relevant keywords, you should have ads that your readers will find useful at the bottom of the page.
Having well-written content that contains around 5-10% keyword frequency is often the best way to make sure you have relevant ads. Having relevant ads is the key to getting clicks!
Make sure you don’t use any techniques that Google deems inappropriate or you will lose your account and that will be the end of all earnings! This includes clicking on your own Adsense or asking others to. It is not a good idea to try and cheat, since Google has eyes everywhere. One hint that you might not be playing by the rules and “Adios, Adsense!” So stick to real techniques instead!