Among the first things young photographers are told is get close to your subject and fill up the frame. Good advice for framing photos to hang on your wall, bad advice for Web/design usage. The new rules, when shooting for general Web site usage: group your main subject, but shoot wider shots with plenty...
I Want a Web Site — How Much Will It Cost?
I get a lot of initial calls and emails from people asking “what’s the price tag?” Problem is, we’re not buying paper towels here — for an effective Web site, the answer is, “it depends.” Every Web site project I’ve ever worked on is unique, and as a result, the price for each is...
Don't let your domain name expire!
In the past few months, I’ve been working with a few clients whose domain names have expired — that is, the period of time they registered the name for ran out. If your domain expires: Your Web site goes dark (or more likely, is replaced with a page full of ads). The HTML files...
HTML Editing Basics
I got an email recently from someone asking for (free) advice on how to manage their Web site that someone had built for them. Here’s my response: I’ll try to offer some basics to get you started — of course, this is an overview, and you’ll have to do some studying… An important caveat:...
Usable Checklist — Ten Ways to Fix Your Web Site
When people visit your site, they need to know where am I, what can I do here, and what’s in it for me? These tips can help. 1. Branding Your logo and tagline should be easily found on your site. Just from looking at the logo and tagline, I should have a clue what...
Web 101: Hosting
Web Servers For more about how Web servers work, see How Stuff Works. To get started with your online business, you’ll need a Web host. This is simply a company that hosts Web sites like yours. It could be a guy running an operation out of his garage or a giant server farm located...
Web 101: How does the Web Work?
What’s the Internet? For more basics on the Internet, see How Stuff Works. Sometimes when I present my E-Biz seminars, an attendee is lost about the foundation of the Internet — what is it, exactly? Here it is, for those who like to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start)…...
Web 101: Picking Domain Names
My Name is URL For the real basics on Web addresses (aka URLs), see How Stuff Works. Before you register www.myname.com, consider: Choose carefully: pick a name that’s easy to say, easy to remember and easy to spell. Shorter is good, but easy and memorable is better. Avoid traps like these: TWOWRITE.COM: over the...
Steps in the Process
One of the crucial things I cover in my Web 101 for Business seminars is an overview of the development process for building a Web site from scratch. (Those of you used to project management life cycles will recognize the basic Plan > Develop > Test > Implement > Evaluate project cycle.) In the...
SEO Basics
There’s a lot of confusion out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so this post will scratch the surface of what can be a deep and complex topic. Note: Search engine practices change as often as Google updates. So note the date of this post; if you’re reading it years from now, double-check before...