Foundational TIPS Revisited - Back to the Basics

Volume VI, Issue 1
ISSN: 1547-7754
June 2008
printable version

Chris King, Editor
By subscription only, this monthly e-newsletter is loaded with short, "down and dirty" tips to help you with solving the everchanging and growing puzzle of the Internet. This e-zine serves as a place to ask your questions and find the answers. So, send me your burning questions.

Important Note! To access the books in the Right Hand margin along with the featured links, click on the printable version and they will all become live links.

With this issue of the Internet Tips E-zine, we are celebrating our fifth birthday. Yes, for the past five years, I have sent the Internet Tips E-Zine monthly, along with archiving the issues as articles for your information.

In this issue I am celebrating by revisiting some of the foundational and basic TIPS from the past.

TIP#1. Planning pays off. Whether you are designing your own site or working with a website developer/designer, the more thorough and well-thought-out the planning the better. It will save time and tears in the long run.

TIP#2. Organization. Whether you are designing your own site or gathering information for a designer/developer it is a good idea to set up a special folder for your website and within that folder have folders labeled "working files" (for the content and any images and graphics that you are creating), "images" (where you will place the finished graphics and images), and other special folders (for "pdf files" – "databases" – "library" and other large sections). I find that if I keep everything well organized, adding, expanding and moving the site (hopefully, never necessary) becomes much easier.

TIP#3. Gathering and Creating Content, in my opinion, is the most important activity to creating a successful website that people return to visit often, search engines list early in their lists and helps you achieve the goals that you have set for your site. There are many content concerns.

TIP#4. E-zines and E-newsletters (they are the same, just go by different names). I feel that even if they take planning, time and energy, they produce the quickest route to establishing a professional presence on the Internet – that is if they are loaded with useful content and are published at least quarterly. Just start to notice what you like and don’t like about the e-newsletters you receive. Which ones do you read and/or print out to keep? Why? Which ones do you skim, but sometimes read completely? Why? And which ones do you delete without reading. Why?

TIP#5. Size of Graphics. We have to worry about the file sizes of our graphics because large files add to the download time of a web page, and this is the most common complaint voiced by those who surf the web. If a page is taking too long, your visitor will just go somewhere else in a hurry.

TIP#6. Graphics and Content. Don’t rely upon graphics for presenting your content. Many graphic designers who have come to the Internet from print work have been disappointed by the lack of having the usual variety of fonts they have enjoyed in the past. To circumvent this scarcity, they develop graphics using fonts of their choice to broadcast their message. The problem is that search engines judge a site and pages by the words that appear. They do not read the words on a graphic (and even if they are in the ALT tags), so you will miss out on placement. My suggestion is to use the fonts available.

TIP#7. Getting the Word Out. Besides designing and developing with search engine placement in mind, use every other possible opportunity to plug your website. Every piece of printed material that you give out or send should have your website listed. This should be obvious, but I still meet business people who fail to have the address of their website on their business card, their letterhead, their envelopes, their brochure and/or their printed newsletter.

TIP#8. Your Internet Server Provider. Consider your purpose and needs when picking an ISP. What is the purpose of your website? If it is a personal site for friends and family, then the uptime, size and complexity of features are not as important. You can even use the free personal site that comes with your Internet connection. Some of these include advertisements (like Yahoo), but for a small fee, you can usually have the ads removed.

If, however, your website portrays your business, you want to make sure that the host chosen is up and running at least 99.9% of the time. When visitors to your site get the “this page cannot be displayed” message, they seldom return and also form the opinion that you and/or your company are not professional.

Have a terrific and productive month!