Entries Tagged 'Website' ↓

As search engines bring more and more people to my weblogs I get more and more comments. Mostly sincerely felt comments (albeit not necessarily intelligent ones).

A few kids drop by to say “asfd.”

And a few people who think weblog comments are smart places to post advertising. I haven’t had much of the latter. Most of those folks go to the guestbook.

I found my guestbook hosting spam before I ever installed MovableType on the website. For a time I had one hosted by SignMyGuestBook but that seemed to turn into a spam magnet. Possibly because so many guestbooks are centrally hosted it is easy to run through the list, offering diamonds, Viagra and cellphone sex.

Guestbook spam dropped considerably once I installed Vizbook. But the spammers do make their way there. I sometimes think about dumping the guestbook. With the weblogs there are plenty of opportunities for people to leave comments.

For now I’m assuming that the guestbook keeps some spam out of the weblog, guestbook as garbage dump. I may eventually setup a weblog as a guestbook and kill Vizbook. It’d be easier to have a weblog guestbook match my site’s look and feel. And easier to zap the spam.

Originally posted 2003-08-31 07:50:24. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Author: Granny’s Mettle

The following are ten questions for your logo design:

10 What is a logo? A logo is a trademark of a company or organization. It’s the identity that encapsulates what your company stand for and what it wants to achieve in its lifetime. Companies do spend thousands, if not millions of dollars just to have the right logo.

9 Why should you use a logo? Your company’s logo will be your visual tool to stimulate attention and leave a greater impact to your target audience that words may fall short of. Over time, logos prove to be the simplest and most direct way of promoting one’s business presence. Make your logo give you your brand name recognition. It is your visual appeal to any document or web page because of its unique graphic image.

8 How much does a logo cost? A logo design can fetch from US$200 to $600 from service companies in the web. Outfits at the upper end of this price range generally create several designs for you to choose from. If your logo design requires more research, expect to pay US$1,500 to $3,000. It all depends on how often you’re going to use your logo. If you’re inclined to put your logo to almost every media material you have, then it is better for you to opt for the much higher price where there is research to be done.

7 What’s the benefit of creating a unique logo? A unique and distinct company logo is more likely to gain trademark protection than those that are common. Because of its unique qualities, users will be able to associate your logo with your company right away, and any copies and duplicates will definitely be charged with property rights.

6 Where can I get help when creating my own logo? Assistance from a trademark lawyer is priceless when conducting a trademark search. You have to look out for logos that have the same design as yours. There is such a thing as infringement on another company logo or trademark. Also, a trademark lawyer would be beneficial for you in terms of gaining trademark protection.

5 Where can I get ideas for my logo design? One designer outfit recommends you start by looking in your refrigerator. A fridge usually contains all the well-known logos of your food and drinks. Look at your orange juice, beer, yogurt, mustard, mayo, and ketchup. What makes some logos stand out more than the others? Next, head out to your favorite supermarket and again take note of the logos that stand out and those that do not. Another place to check out is the yellow pages for companies similar to the company you wish to start.

4 Is it advisable to use Clip Art in logos? If your business is locally inclined, say you just want to operate a small corner café, a strong corporate identity may be a bit too much. You could use your start-up funds on more important things like the interior design of your place for example. For times like these, a high quality solution would be the right typeface for your company name and high quality royalty free clip art. By trying out and mixing multiple clip art images, you can create a unique logo.

3 Can I trademark my logo created from clip art? A trademark lawyer advises that even if you alter drastically a clip art image, it may still be impossible to trademark. However, he said that one may consider using the design with the drastically altered clip art up until the company gets well underway and then later replace it with something similar yet completely original. This way, the company may have trademark protection.

2 What can I use to reduce computer memory on my images? Images and illustrations tend to eat much of computer memory. In order to decrease memory usage, vector graphics may be used. Vector graphics shrink and expand without loss of detail. They require less computer memory unlike a bitmap image which can take up to 2 to 10 MB of memory and loses detail when expanded.

1 What do I need to remember when designing my logo? A designer compares a logo to a story… “It is like a compressed story of your company…backed by a promise.” It is a trademark that supports and represents your company’s ideals and objectives. When designing your logo just keep this question in mind: What do I want my customers to expect and feel when they see my logo?

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

About the author: Granny’s Mettle is a 30-something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Originally posted 2005-03-23 13:09:58. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Doctor HTML is a Web page analysis tool which retrieves an HTML page and reports on any problems that it finds. The primary focus of this tool is to provide a clear, easy-to-use report of information that is relevant for improving your Web page. If this is your first visit, you may wish to start with a look at the test descriptions.

Doctor HTML

Originally posted 2003-09-07 18:48:50. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Dreamhost’s server speed is very good.

The control panel, after CPanel seems barely adequate, almost comical.

They don’t’ offer a very refined set of log views. The only offer one dismal stats package. Even though I disable Analog either AWStats or Webalizer easily beats the single little traffic report program that Dreamhost has available.

After the service I’ve received from JaguarPC I fear I have to say that Dreamhost’s tech support is slim to none.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2005-08-31 23:06:26. Republished by Old Post Promoter

For someone who has bitched and moaned about bandwidth theft I was mighty late in getting around to this. Long ago I read how serving up my pages with gzip compression would conserve bandwidth.

I’ve started posting image files often and my unabused bandwidth naturally climbed higher, optimizing images can only do so much.

I opened a ticket with JaguarPC my web host to ask if gzip were available. The tech support guy wasn’t sure but would check with management to see if it would be OK for apache on my server to be recompiled to support gzip. Yesterday brought an email from the main tech support guy:

We will have the techs install this for you ASAP.

I didn’t really understand what recompiling the server software would do. I thought I’d have to add a line of code to each of my pages. Wanting to get a before and after snapshot I measured Amorous Propensities index page. 13K seemed awfully small. Going to a gzip test site I discovered that the page was already compressed by 75% (down from 52.5K). Every page sent will be compressed without any work by me.

Now to find an Atom template that includes graphics and everything to swipe.

Dean Allen’s instructions for adding gzip support: bigissmall.

Gen.I designs – Web page compression / gzip test.

Originally posted 2004-02-03 06:47:27. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Postami, a small news aggregator, RSS feed finder, has added a new service:

Gpmon is an alert management tool used for monitoring website availability and errors. It visualize some informations about your website or blog directly in your GPRS or WAP Phone. Features

Gpmon

Originally posted 2004-03-23 15:06:28. Republished by Old Post Promoter

S. Housley

General web statistics give pertinent information about website visitors. Webmasters analyzing these statistics have a better understanding of who their website visitors are and how they perceive the website. A lot can be learned by evaluating navigation patterns, most-viewed pages and exit pages. Deciphering web logs could easily become a full-time job. The information that can be gleaned from close log scrutiny is extremely valuable. When a visitor comes to a website, the site has just a few seconds to grab the visitor’s interest. Slow-loading pages or broken graphics will send visitors and potential customers looking elsewhere. In order to make sense of web statistics, consider using a log analysis program. These programs tend to format the information in an easy-to-understand way, often providing graphs or visual representations that make understanding and seeing patterns that much easier. The downside to using software for web log analysis is that webmasters can easily be confused about what the actual results mean and which results matter the most. The information contained in the log file should be analyzed in conjunction with other information.

Let’s take a look at some of the critical areas. How many unique visitors visit the site each day? This statistic, by itself, is not terribly important, but when compared to a previous week’s or month’s logs, patterns will generally emerge. Sudden declines in site visitors might be indicative of downtime or dropped links, while sudden increases might be indicative of a successful ad campaign or improved search engine ranking. This assumption can only be made if sales for the corresponding time period have increased as well. Traffic alone is not the goal; qualified website traffic that converts a visitor into a buyer is generally the goal of most webmasters. Web statistics on their own do not always paint a true picture. Webmasters need to use logs to validate advertising campaigns and track where traffic is coming from. While details in a log file alone are not conclusive proof of an ad campaign’s success or failure, general assumptions can be made based on the patterns. Gen! eral statistics will help determine who your visitors are and what habits they have.

Specific areas to take a close look at:

How long are users staying on the website or a specific page? This question addresses a website’s “stickiness”. Stickiness gives webmasters an indication of how important their content is. If users return on a regular basis or remain on a specific page for an extended period of time, generally the content is considered valuable.

Site entry pages?

What pages in a website are visitors coming into? Is a specific page on the site drawing an unusually high amount of traffic? Do users come back to the website? Is there a reason for a visitor to come back to the website? Generally, content that is refreshed often will attract return visitors. What specific areas on the site are of interest to web visitors, and can those content sections be expanded to increase the overall value of the website?

Site exit pages?

What pages in a website are visitors leaving from? If a specific page has a large number of visitors leaving the site, perhaps the content needs updating. It is critical that you consider the source of the traffic. Are visitors coming to the website through a pay-per-click campaign with a landing page that does not relate to the initial search terms? Directing visitors to content-specific landing pages will help reduce quick site exits.

Who is making the referral?

What kind of website is sending traffic to your website? Assumptions can be made based on the quality of the referral source. Let’s face it, if a crack site is the leading referral generator to a software site, it is unlikely that the bulk of visitors will be interested in purchasing.

Bad requests?

Are visitors attempting to access pages on your website that are no longer active? Be sure to check logs for any pages or graphics that are generating errors for visitors.

Number of unique visitors?

Don’t get too hung up on the number of “hits” a website has, as this can be interpreted differently. Sometimes logs interpret graphic access as a hit. A more accurate reflection of traffic can be seen by tracking unique visitors.

There are a number of inexpensive yet quality log analysis applications available for download from: http://www.monitoring-software.net/ and http://www.monitoring-tools.net

By evaluating web logs webmasters can continuously improve their site and measure their success. Online or off, tracking results is critical to achieving success. If you don’t track, you don’t know what works. How can you improve what you don’t measure?

Originally posted 2008-08-20 03:31:21. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Active Server Watcher (ASW) – easy to use tool for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 that periodically checks given Internet resources and notifies you when they become unavailable. ASW can monitor Web pages and scripts (CGI, ASP, PHP, etc.).

Active Server Watcher

Originally posted 2003-03-16 07:23:32. Republished by Old Post Promoter

The following may sound like hooey but I don’t think it is.

SelfPromotion.com is the net’s leading resource for do-it-yourself Web Promotion. Here you will find all the information and automatic submission tools you need to do the job quickly, efficiently, and most of all, properly! If you invest a little time into reading and using this resource, you’ll not only do a much better job of promoting your site, but save yourself a lot of time and effort in the process.

Robert Woodhead has done an exceptional job of making URL submissions to search engine and directories simple. The service is free. It really is in the sense that shareware is free if you don’t register it once you’ve satisfied yourself with the program’s value. He asks that you pay him what you feel the service rendered is worth. The requirements and limitations of each individual submission are explained clearly. Nothing is better than providing distinct and individual content on a website but this is a handy way to propagate your site’s existance.

Self Promotion

Originally posted 2003-03-23 19:21:07. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Create and deploy a website from start to finish!

Author: Brock Coffee

Create and deploy a website from start to finish!

Need a website for small business, church, sports team, or community but don’t know where to start? Don’t have the time or maybe even the knowledge on how to build and or publish a website? Well let me say it’s really know big deal. I will try to give you the basics to get started.

Ok let’s get to it. Here are some steps you can follow in no particular order.

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Originally posted 2005-04-20 23:44:35. Republished by Old Post Promoter