10 of the Most Prominent Website Mistakes

Nowadays, sites are getting better. With minimal design and highly maintained archives they continue to offer comprehensive services. However, prominent mistakes on several websites are still apparent.

Here is a list of the website mistakes that scares visitors away and ruins the business reputation.

• 1. The under construction sign. Putting an “under construction” sign on your website marks you as a struggling beginner. Websites are supposed to grow in time. If your site is not yet ready to be shown in public, then don’t publish it.
• 2. Visitor counters. Visitors generally are not bothered by the fact that many other people have visited your site. However, if the visitor counter shows a low number, that can be a psychological turn-off to people, if it’s too high, people might think that it’s fictitious. The best way to do is not to include in your website. If you really want to know how many visitors you have had, check your statistics.
• 3. Lack of copyright statements. Everything you write and create on the including your website is copyright-able. Make certain that you include copyright statements on every page, and appropriately update the copyright year.
• 4. Overuse of technology. There are some really great and cool new technologies available today but they can tend to distract the visitors. In times that you have to choose between new technology and simplicity. Choose the latter for it is anchored on the website’s functionality.
• 5. Passive verbs. Use active verbs and active sentences when writing your site’s copy. Active verbs are powerful and lend energy to your site. The more conversational the website is the better.
• 6. Long sentences. Long sentences are tedious to read. Better keep it short and simple so that it can easily be retained.
• 7. Lengthy pages. Keep your pages brief and concise. People are easily bored of reading, so you have to adjust to their attention span. If you have a lot to say, you can create a series of pages with good navigation to explain your topics.
• 8. Not identifying the benefits of your products or services. There are two reasons why people make purchases. First is to get rid of pain and second is to get pleasure. They want to discern how your products and services will help them with their definite pain/pleasure situation.
• 9. Neglecting to ask the visitor to do something. In marketing, this is known as a Call To Action. There should be a space designated to tell your visitors what you want them to do next. Sign up for my newsletter. Order now.
• 10. Accepting as true the maxim build it and they will come. Once you’ve built your website you have to let people know about it. If you don’t deliver them to people, then your website is not worth the money you spent to create them!

Spike the Vote : Headache for Digg

We all know Digg and its traffic potential, All of us want our stories to hit the frontpage, but it too hard to get there. So a new community of Diggers called Spike The Vote has grown up which promises to be a bulletproof way to cheat digg.

Spike The Vote is a point based community, Diggers can gain point by digging posts by other fellow members of the community and those point can be redeemed to digg stories submitted by you

Earlier we saw Usersubmitter, but that didn’t succeed because Digg disabled account of those members who participated in that program, but Spike The Vote boasts that it will eliminate footprints and keep things anonymous.

If this community runs successfully, Digg will loose its democratic voting nature and traffic might stop flowing in. So this should really make Kevin Rose and gang worry about Digg’s survival. Lets wait and see how Digg will counter this community.

If your willing to try Spike The Vote then registration is open, but the community will start functioning only after it grows over 1000 members.

Via Tech-Buzz

Changes in WordPress 2.0.5

Here is a Brief Preview on what is coming in Wordpress 2.0.5

• is_feed() status is preserved when handling 404s
• manually entering pages greater than the number of pages for a given post now shows the highest numbered page
• improved security in wp-db-backup plugin
• user description is no longer HTML-entity converted going into the database
• fix for rel=”nofollow nofollow” repetition
• default category is no longer checked by default (Saving this one for 2.1… won’t be in 2.0.5 final)
• plugins are sorted by plugin name, instead of filename
• multi-line options in /wp-admin/options.php are preserved
• the authors dropdown is now sorted by display_name
• the_meta() properly ignores keys that start with an underscore
• post meta keys and data are escaped properly on the post screen
• users are prevented from entering strings that will be interpreted as serialized data when coming out of the database
• make_clickable() no longer adds links within links
• error suppression
• i18n fixes

This is not an exhaustive list… just the important ones, or the ones I thought people would care about.

Web Conditioning: Get Your Site in Shape!

It’s not talked about much, but woodland animals are notoriously unresponsive to advertising. That’s why you don’t expect to see many billboards when camping. The website of a brick-and-mortar business acts much like a cyber billboard, a vitally important informational hub placed on the Internet with anticipation that visitors will come across the site to explore its content. Yet, many businesses, particularly the small-to-midsized, have their websites built with no thought of its positioning or upkeep; inevitably these websites are parked in the interactive weeds, lost in the woods of a different sort. Too many of these smaller businesses don’t realize the missed opportunities of an improperly aligned website. A representative website isn’t a box to be crossed off a to-do list for a business, but instead an integral component of today’s successful business.

Think of haphazardly positioned websites as being interactive slouches of sorts; they are out of shape web entities sure to be overlooked by search engines. In order to shape up, the sloppy website must shed its baggage and get toned. And like physical fitness there is no finish line, just positive results from proper maintenance. While no one will confuse ICMediaDirect.com with Bally’s or Equinox Gym anytime soon there are some common solutions hammered down for clients. Websites have got to become web conditioned or else stay unnoticed.

Hup, two, three, four… a web site in boot camp is treated a little differently than our GIs, perhaps more harshly even. The first thing we do is slap the website out of its isolation by building some links. This isolation, this lack of “link love” as it’s known, accounts for a great deal of why websites will sit unnoticed and too often business owners are too busy to notice that their website is being ignored. And unless the business manager wants to drop everything and learn a new skill, he or she must find someone, a professional hopefully, to do this. There isn’t any getting around this. Search engine algorithms study links (as links serve as efficient e-recommendations) and do not reward an absence of them - at all.

And like an army recruit, candidates for web conditioning are broken down before they’re built up again, better and stronger. This means that instead of merely posting the facts of the website’s business with some nice pictures, we emphasize about what prospective customers might want it. For instance, an antique dealer specializing in foreign goods might think about what the kinds of items are most popular before creating a keyword list that people might enter into search engines when looking for those kinds of things, as opposed to just announcing themselves as a top dealer in foreign antiques. People want to find what sellers have, not just to find dealers. It sounds too obvious, but just look at how much advertising is wasted in announcing greatness - web copy for a business should be designed along the lines of appealing to the visitor, in anticipation of what they want. It’s how search works.

And once the visitor finds this site, the battle begins anew. The language, the same language that includes strategically placed keywords must now double as effective copy. The visitor’s attention must be held. This is the optimizing process, this is reworking a website. There are no shortcuts, no easy way to do it, but conditioning your website is like maintaining good health - it takes a bit of thought, some balance in the means of action, and regular check ups. It’s a lot to list now, but thinking right about websites done wrong is the first step to getting a website well again. If you have a friend or relative whose website is listless and ignored - do him or her a favor and tell them to get with the program.

Thanks Site Reference

Basic Design Tips for the Beginner

When first starting out to create a website, especially if you are a beginner, there are a lot of things to think of. For instance graphics, pictures, layout, fonts and so forth. How you do it, and in what order, usually depends on who you ask.

Content and structure

It is an advantage to start off by deciding the content of the website, i.e. what it should be about. If you are a professional the subject is more or less already given. What you next is to plan the structure of the site, making a kind of scheme. The easiest way to do that is probably by using a pen and paper.

Frames or NoFrames

There are advantages and disadvantages with both. The advantages of using frames are however few, and in these cases really only for the producer of the website. A definite disadvantage of using frames is that you cannot bookmark a specific page, something most users like to be able to do. Therefor it is better not to use frames. That way you can bookmark that specific page you are interested in. Another advantage with not using frames is that the visitor can enter your website on any page and still be able to immediately see where he or she is on the website. This is not always the case when you are using frames. So my tip is therefor to avoid frames.

Navigating

This is a very important part of designing a website. In order to make it as easy and understandable as possible for the visitor the navigation needs to very clear and most of all consistant. The visitor should not have to guess what button or link to click in order to get where he or she want.

The placing of the menu is important as well. There are two standards on where to place the menu. Either in a column to the left, or in a row at the top of the page. If your menu consists of graphical buttons it is a good idea to put the same links in the form of text links at the bottom of the page. That way you can get around on your website even if you cannot see the graphics.

Colours

Very often you have something to work from, for instance a company logotype. Then you can simply use the same colours as are in the logotype. If you are creating a personal website perhaps a favorite colour will do well. There are not really any rules when choosing colours, it is more about using your common sense.

There are however some really good recommendations. One is about the colour of text in relation to background colour. To read black text on a dark coloured or heavy patterned background is very difficult and should be avoided. White text on black background can be difficult as well. It could work for short pieces of text, but should be avoided for longer texts, as it can be straining on the eyes.

Fonts

If you want to confuse the visitor you should use as meny types of fonts as you can. However, the best to do is to use no more than one or two types of fonts, one for the headline and one for the body of the text.

So which fonts should you use? The best thing to do is to use fonts that most people have on their computers, like Verdana or Times. Of course there are other fonts that you can use. It is really up to you. However, my tip is to use a font like Verdana for the text body, because it is easier to read off the screen. With headlines, however, you can feel free to use pretty much any font you like, but keep in mind that others might not have it.

Pictures and graphics

The best tip when it comes to pictures and graphics is - do not steel! Not only is it illegal, which is clearly stated in the copyright law. It is also very boring.

Use your own pictures and graphics as much as you can. Then you do not have to worry about copyrights and you can concentrate on other things. A huge advantage by only using your own material is that your website will be unique.

However, if you cannot or do not want to produce your own pictures and graphics, you can always turn to so called free graphics. There are a number of websites and companies on the Internet offering just that, for instance Microsoft.

Key words

Consistency - this is very important. No matter which page on your website a visitor is on, it should be clear on what website he or she is.

Simplicity - a website with an extreme amount of content, and perhaps some animated graphics, could easily be considered to be messy. This could cause visitors to give up searching your website and instead leave it for another website.

Uniqueness - try to be unique, to create your own graphics and pictures. Do not steal. Having a unique website increases the chanses for returning visitors.

Thanks Site Reference

The 10 Commandments of Link Building

Links today are what keywords were several years ago — the hottest topic in SEO. Search engines, particularly Google, use link popularity to help evaluate and rank your website. Link popularity refers to the number, quality and relevance of inbound links from other websites to yours.

Some people waste a lot of time seeking links in the wrong way and from the wrong places. The “10 Commandments of Link Building” will help you avoid such time-wasters and achieve true linking success.

• 1. Thou shalt recognize the value of links.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, link building and SEO walk hand-in-hand. Linking profiles are one of Google’s top ranking factors, and the “other” engines use them as well. Once upon a time, you could simply write a lot of keyword-rich content and rank well for it. While that may still be the case with MSN / Live Search, it no longer carries you very far with Yahoo or Google. That’s where links come in.

• 2. Thou shalt begin link-building on thine own website.

“What is this heresy? Link-building starts on my website? Who ever heard of such a thing?” All too often, I see website owners throw up a new site and go out hunting for links before they have a site worth linking to. Link building always starts on your own website.

Think about it for a moment. Aside from directories and paid listings, few people will link to a bare-bones website that offers nothing unique, helpful or interesting. If you start hunting for links before your website has earned its place on the web, you’re going to have a long, hard time of it.

On the other hand, if you build the kind of website that makes others in your industry or niche say, “Wow, that’s really something! I know some folks who would like that,” then your link-building efforts will be a breeze. It all starts with what you put into your website.

• 3. Thou shalt pursue the right kinds of links.

Not all links are created equal. Sure, you want a lot of links to your website … we all do. But you should always put link quality before link quantity. Jim Boykin, SEO expert and owner of WeBuildPages.com, said it well:

“It’s not always ‘He with the most links’ who wins the game … Really, very often, he with the right 10 links can beat the guy with 1,000 of the wrong links. I see it all the time.”

What makes for a quality backlink? Generally speaking, the most valuable links for SEO purposes are those that come from older, well-established sites within your topic area.

• 4. Thou shalt alternate link text.

To gain visibility for more of your key phrases, and to make your linking profile seem more natural to search engine algorithms, it’s a good ideas to mix up your link text. For instance, instead of having a thousand backlinks to my site using the phrase “real estate marketing,” I strive to get a broad mix of link text. I shoot for “real estate marketing” and “Realtor marketing” and “real estate SEO” and … you get the picture.

• 5. Thou shalt find links everywhere.

Links are everywhere, and they’re what make the web, well … a web. So link opportunities are everywhere, as well. You can gain links by publishing articles online, syndicating press releases, submitting to directories, participating in forums, growing a blog or becoming an authority in your field. You are only limited by your imagination, and imagination is our next commandment.

• 6. Thou shalt be creative.

Quick story. I was doing some link building for a home buying website once, and I thought I had exhausted my options. I had submitted press releases online, submitted the site to directories, published articles with the big article directories, and even written a few link request letters (which I normally don’t bother with).

Then it dawned on me. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of websites out there looking for the kind of content I could provide, but not knowing where to look. So I began searching phrases like “home buying articles” and making a list of websites that provided this content.

Next, I emailed these sites one by one and invited them to use any of the 100+ articles I had written on the subject. All I asked was that they keep the author’s note with hyperlink. By being proactive with my article publishing, I earned more than 30 new and highly relevant links! When you combine quality content or a unique website with strong imagination, your link opportunities are limitless.
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10 Ways to Make the Best Use of RSS

RSS is not for everybody in the same way as all other mediums of technology are. However by far, RSS is considered the most reliable content delivery channel there is. It is also believed to be able to increase search engine rankings, enhance e-mail marketing and builds on that relationship, generates media coverage through content syndication, develop on-line conversations and a whole lot more of possibilities. As such, its users should be able to maximize its use for their greater benefit and convenience. Here’s how:

• 1. Use the RSS initially as an end-user.

The first step in any worthwhile activity is understanding the intricacies of how it works. It would be impossible to fully comprehend anything without having the benefit of actual experience in using it. One can get an RSS aggregator as there is a variety of providers to choose from. Among the most popular and highly recommended are My Yahoo!, Bloglines,
Firefox and NetNews Wire. Subscribing to other RSS feeds can immediately hasten the learning process.

• 2. Set up a plan for your RSS feeds.

Planning one’s RSS feeds is very important since it can be used for various purposes of the user. An RSS feed may be needed for e-zines, news section and articles. Other opportunities available in RSS includes follow-up RSS feeds, feeds for affiliates, feeds for employees or business partners, feeds for the media and many others. A technology that is capable of such diverse application requires organization and order.

• 3. Make a list of RSS Marketing Requirements.

There are several basic questions that need to be taken into consideration when you push to publish your feeds. Some of which includes whether RSS publishing is to be integrated with existing content management system, whether your feed requires personalization particularly the RSS content or whether you would want to provide subscribers with the ability to select the content they would prefer to receive. Other considerations are the RSS metrics desired, the host of the feeds and the budget.

• 4. Choose among available publishing tools in creating a feed.

Marketing and publishing tools come in a few general categories namely desktop feed generation tools, hosted on-line RSS publishing solutions, advanced RSS marketing solutions plus a few other options. Desktops software is relatively inexpensive and is quick and easy to use in generating RSS feeds but generally does not allow for more advanced features. A basic hosted on-line RSS publishing solution can be chosen to avoid being bothered by a desktop tool and the constant upload of your RSS feeds to your server. The more advanced RSS marketing solutions which include additional capabilities such as metrics, scheduled autoresponder messages, database building capabilities and the like. Other options would include the use of an existing content management system to publish RSS feeds or a blog publishing solution.

• 5. Be sure to promote your RSS feeds through your own channels.

This is best done through the creation of an RSS presentation page which should contain an explanation of what an RSS is, the benefits to be expected from it use, recommendation of a free RSS aggregator, the manner of subscribing to these feeds and the reason why people should subscribe to your RSS feeds. The same page can also include the links to all your other RSS feeds as well as direct links for subscriptions to relevant services. This page is to be promoted as much as possible in all available channels such as the e-zine subscription box, e-mail messages and e-zine issues. For more than one published RSS feed, each can be promoted next to their topics on the site. It should be remembered that nothing is more effective than a compelling copy in convincing people to subscribe.

• 6. Promote your feeds as well through external channels.

This can be done by submitting your feeds to appropriate search engines and directories where the best lists are found. The RSS aggregator sites should be pinged every time an update is done to the on-line content. Your feed content can also be
syndicated to other web media.

• 7. Allow syndication of your RSS feed.

RSS as one of the potent marketing channels needs to be used to leverage the most out of its format. Allowing others to take your RSS feed and use it to refurbish your news in their homepage will work to your advantage. In fact, it should be encouraged by providing short stories or simple explanations of how easy it is to search, filter and aggregate content from
various RSS feeds as well as create dedicated news channels.

• 8. People who adopt RSS are in it primarily for the information.

No one in particular would want to adopt RSS. The people who do are in it for the timely information they get in a controlled and organized way that helps them become better either at their work or their personal life. The tremendous volume of information and news available through RSS is very hard to ignore.

• 9. RSS, Blog, E-zines and E-mail can work together.

Most marketers still depend mostly on e-mail as their key marketing and communication tool. However, getting e-mail through is becoming increasingly difficult due to spam filters and spam itself. RSS has become the essential element to e-mail delivery at a time where many Internet users choose to ignore e-mail subscriptions and subscribe only to RSS content. Blogs
and e-zines are concerned with the content and what is published on-line. RSS and e-mail are concerned with getting the information to the reader. One is not intended to replace the other but rather to work hand in hand together,

• 10. Use RSS potential for providing value in market research.

RSS holds much potential when it comes to its capability in reaching new customers. However, the best approach is to walk carefully rather than running head-on as there is much danger in over-hyping this medium. Patience would be a required virtue especially for companies that have sophisticated reporting systems. Advertisers should refrain from the annoying practice of placing an ad after every item. They would do well to observe the best practice guidelines for RSS advertising.

The RSS promises to provide to end-users a unified one-stop-shop for consumption of on-line content. It hopes to do away with the need to visit several sites each day just to see what’s new. On-line subscriptions will no longer interfere with personal and business e-mail communications.

It likewise promises to give its users complete control over their content consumption. They even have the option to unsubscribe from content they do not wish to receive. Breaking news is received as it becomes available. There is absolutely no need to wait for worrisome recaps sent to their e-mail addresses.

RSS makes possible the certainty of receiving the content users would want without the inconvenience brought about by spam filters. It also has the ability to receive content directly to desktops including audio and video content. To sum it up, RSS provide the tool that makes the user’s lives so much easier with its important advancements that can change how Internet content is consumed.

Let Blogs play the Power Game

Companies, big and small, have joined the blogosphere. Microsoft is blogging, so are General Motors, Google, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Companies are using blogs to engage customers and employees as well. Written by employees and in some instances by CEOs, blogs adopt a conversational and engaging tone which make them easy reading. Blogging has even empowered employees in more ways than one. A glaring evidence is employee bloggers, in most cases, have shifted the power structure in their favor to establish a higher degree of credibility and influence more than their bosses.

According to a survey, people are far more likely to trust “average people like me” than to trust people in authority like the CEOs. Employees are now in newfound and enviable positions to either promote or speak against their companies’ products, services, policies and positions on important issues. What is more, people are listening to what these bloggers are saying. Blogs are a trusted communication medium. The word of a blogger holds much value to a consumer far more than traditional marketing and advertising. By far, word of mouth is the most trusted form of advertising. This highlights the significant role that an employee blogger wields either to boost or hinder sales through his blog. This just goes to show that people would rather hear from real people talking with real experiences than listen to marketing talk.

Employee blogs have helped improve the image and reputation of their companies. One classic example is Microsoft. Its hottest and controversial blogger Robert Scoble (recently resigned) had openly criticized Microsoft concerning issues ranging from quality control to sensitive issues. His negative posts on his blogs called Scobleizer about the MSN Spaces product proved to be a blessing in disguise for Microsoft. Readers were all praises that the company’s resident blogger would express an opinion that runs counter to the company. As a result, Microsoft’s reputation as a bully and a great monolith was torn down. People now see a company that is run by actual people who has their best interests in mind. Robert Scoble in defense of his contentious actions emphasized that credibility is of utmost importance. If he will only sing praises about Microsoft it would sound like a press release and he would lose the ability to have an open conversation with his readers.

Robert Scoble’s penchant to criticize his employer was put to the test again when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the company’s decision not to back an anti-discrimination bill against gays and lesbians. Scoble disagreed and publicly chastised Ballmer in his blog. Ballmer later reversed the decision. A few months before his departure from Microsoft, Robert Scoble, again, wrote a harsh critique against his employer for shutting down the controversial blog of Chinese Journalist Zhao Jing. He accused the MSN Spaces team of Microsoft for “being used as a state-run thug”.

Microsoft is not alone. Yahoo blogger Jeremy Zawdony openly scolded his employer in his blog. He complained about the practice of changing users’ home pages during the installation process of Yahoo software. He wrote in his posting that the action was insulting and downright disrespectful. Companies have also seen their reputations damaged by highly-publicized firings of employee bloggers. Mark Jen was sacked by Google apparently because he wrote about his life at Google including remarks on the company’s financial performance and future projects in his personal blog. Ellen Simonetti, A Delta Air Lines flight attendant was terminated allegedly for posting inappropriate pictures on her blog. The photos showed her in a skirt and blouse sitting atop the airplane seats.

All these incidents bring to the fore the delicate situations corporations that maintain blogs and employees that blog are in. Corporate blogs that criticizes management or its products or services present public relations dilemmas. On the other hand, if a blog contains nothing but good public relations posts, few people will be interested and will even be doubtful of the veracity of the blog articles.

As the importance of corporate bloggers becomes more evident, so do the corresponding disadvantages. Companies need a clear-cut policy on how blogging can be integrated into their communication and marketing mix. A company needs to set up corporate blogging policies to ensure that blogging thrives in a more controlled and productive manner. In essence, these guidelines will lay down the specific rules about what an employee blogger is allowed to blog about. Employee bloggers have to strictly abide by rules about leaking confidential company information or breaking federal securities disclosure rules. All these are preventive measures to avoid organizational and legal problems such as slander, libel and harassment.

Google has no definitive guidelines but allows employees to blog on the assumption that “they are reasonable people”. One of Sun Microsystems policy states that “it is perfectly ok to talk about your work and have a conversation with the community but it is not ok to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces.” Hill and Knowlton specified that as a publicly-owned company, bloggers cannot discuss company revenues, future plans.
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bbPress goes Live!

bbPress a light weight forum software from the team at automattic(creators of wordpress) is now live.. bbPress has been in development for over two years and has finally been launched officilay today

Some of the features of bbPress are:

• Fast and Light: nothing you don’t need.
• Built in spam protection by Akismet.
• Really simple interface: we want people using our software to forget that they’re using it.
• Complete integration with WordPress.
• Both the look and the functionality are highly customizable.
• RSS feeds for everything.

Check it out. I think I will also be updating my personal theme for bbPress i.e. Crystal

WPtheme Fresh

iLemoned has released a new theme for Wordpress called “Fresh”, It has a awesome web 2.0ish looks. I can’t really say it as three columned theme because half of the sidebar is two columned. It also has three bottom blocks for blogroll and recent comment. I rate it 10/10 !! I am also planning to Fresh for the next version of 33rockers which is to be launched on this monday..

Well here is a screenshot

Demo | Download