Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Hi Glenn, Your question about how to improve your website standing in Google searches does not have a simple answer. Its what is called search-engine optimization (SEO) and depends on the algorithms Google uses to rank sites. There is an entire SEO industry that *claims* they can increase ranking by adding keywords and manipulating the web by loading references to your site on forums and such around the web. Google is wise to these tricks, however, so paying for SEO is mostly a waste of money. I certainly don't know everything about the Google algorithms, but I can tell you a few things I do know. First and foremost, the rankings are based on how many *other* websites have links to your website. This makes sense, since a link to your site implies you have something worth sharing ...which hints at the second most important thing: Good Content. To be ranked highly, your website must have useful content. This does *not* mean a good list of links to other sites, but only content that appears in your own pages. Obviously then, having original and compelling content is the best thing you can do. Your list of keywords (the meta info on your index/home page head section) should reflect that content also; Google's algorithms will work against you if you've baited your keyword list with a bunch of terms that might (or might not) be related to your site, but don't appear on your site. Another thing that can help (a little) is if your domain name is similar to your content focus. And lastly, Google likes sites that are updated regularly (with new content) ...though as the owner of a site that I haven't updated in over 10 years (http://sockets.com) that still ranks high on some searches (e.g., winsock), that isn't a major priority. As to whether a new site can get any notice, the fact it won't have links from other sites (yet) probably means, no it cannot. On the other hand, if you've got virile viral content --like, say, Craig's List Killer-suspect Phillip Markoff's homepage-- then it can rocket to the top of the search list almost instantly. In an attempt to give a leg up (or a wheel up) to new -or newly updated- sites, Google encourages webmasters to submit a sitemap. Actually, that is just one of the things you can do with Google's suite of Webmaster Tools (see http://google.com/webmasters/start ), including analytics that report visitor statistics (one of many such free website reporting tools available on the web). As to tools to use, you're not going to like my answer. :-) Frontpage and Dreamweaver can both write code for you in their wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) development environment, but it isn't great code. Sure, you can get by with it, but you REALLY should just use a plain-old-text editor, or maybe one that hilites words according to XHTML and CSS syntax, and write/edit the code by hand. In other words, there's really no substitute to facing the uphill learning curve so XHTML and CSS are native to you. To get started, Frontpage and Dreamweaver generated code can be a great help, but you should be able to read it and make changes to it in a text editor. You can call me a purist snob for saying that and I won't try to defend it, but I can guarantee its true. As for learning, I'm like you: Even when I was young (i'm 54 now) I have always learned much faster first-hand from someone that knows it, than on my own using the web resources and books. Hence, the best you could do is take a class ...and if you're like me, going in with enough prior knowledge to make me dangerous (or at least, obnoxious with questions) helps me get the most out of the classes. Some of these courses are even available online from continued learning (i.e. nightschool) at colleges and universities and I can attest that they can be very worthwhile, with teaching assistants to answer questions. Next best are video tutorials, some of which are free, and some of which cost (like from http://lynda.com or http://vtc.com). Short of that, having specific goals to attain and questions to answer can be great to help motivate and guide your learning process. Another thing I always do is look at the source code for a website that has some features you like (e.g., from Microisoft Internet Explorer's menu, View...Source). Deciphering that will go a long way towards your learning how to code. There are great, free web development plugins for the Firefox browser that can help you to learn too (and help to develop/debug websites). Hope that helps, bob quinn From: gah17...@aol.com gah17...@aol.com To: r...@sockets.com Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 9:44:17 AM Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] web site design Hello, Some time ago I posted on the quad site concerning web site design. You responded but at the time I did not answer your e-mail. Too much to do and so little time! Sounds like the commitment to go professional
RE: [QUAD-L] web site design
Bah! .html? .php! just messing lol Danny Espinoza 26/m/California Occupation before accident Network engineer / SR. Network security engineer What happened: Broke c2,c6,c7 with doner bone at c2 Traumatic brain injury from blood going to central cortex from spinal cord not vent dependendent anymore. :] My myspace address - http://www.myspace.com/dannylnx http://www.myspace.com/dannylnx My spinal cord injury support website - http://spinalcordinjured.net/ http://spinalcordinjured.net/ From: bob quinn [mailto:kult...@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 9:57 AM To: gah17...@aol.com Cc: quad-list@eskimo.com Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] web site design Hi Glenn, Your question about how to improve your website standing in Google searches does not have a simple answer. Its what is called search-engine optimization (SEO) and depends on the algorithms Google uses to rank sites. There is an entire SEO industry that *claims* they can increase ranking by adding keywords and manipulating the web by loading references to your site on forums and such around the web. Google is wise to these tricks, however, so paying for SEO is mostly a waste of money. I certainly don't know everything about the Google algorithms, but I can tell you a few things I do know. First and foremost, the rankings are based on how many *other* websites have links to your website. This makes sense, since a link to your site implies you have something worth sharing ...which hints at the second most important thing: Good Content. To be ranked highly, your website must have useful content. This does *not* mean a good list of links to other sites, but only content that appears in your own pages. Obviously then, having original and compelling content is the best thing you can do. Your list of keywords (the meta info on your index/home page head section) should reflect that content also; Google's algorithms will work against you if you've baited your keyword list with a bunch of terms that might (or might not) be related to your site, but don't appear on your site. Another thing that can help (a little) is if your domain name is similar to your content focus. And lastly, Google likes sites that are updated regularly (with new content) ...though as the owner of a site that I haven't updated in over 10 years (http://sockets.com) that still ranks high on some searches (e.g., winsock), that isn't a major priority. As to whether a new site can get any notice, the fact it won't have links from other sites (yet) probably means, no it cannot. On the other hand, if you've got virile viral content --like, say, Craig's List Killer-suspect Phillip Markoff's homepage-- then it can rocket to the top of the search list almost instantly. In an attempt to give a leg up (or a wheel up) to new -or newly updated- sites, Google encourages webmasters to submit a sitemap. Actually, that is just one of the things you can do with Google's suite of Webmaster Tools (see http://google.com/webmasters/start ), including analytics that report visitor statistics (one of many such free website reporting tools available on the web). As to tools to use, you're not going to like my answer. :-) Frontpage and Dreamweaver can both write code for you in their wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) development environment, but it isn't great code. Sure, you can get by with it, but you REALLY should just use a plain-old-text editor, or maybe one that hilites words according to XHTML and CSS syntax, and write/edit the code by hand. In other words, there's really no substitute to facing the uphill learning curve so XHTML and CSS are native to you. To get started, Frontpage and Dreamweaver generated code can be a great help, but you should be able to read it and make changes to it in a text editor. You can call me a purist snob for saying that and I won't try to defend it, but I can guarantee its true. As for learning, I'm like you: Even when I was young (i'm 54 now) I have always learned much faster first-hand from someone that knows it, than on my own using the web resources and books. Hence, the best you could do is take a class ...and if you're like me, going in with enough prior knowledge to make me dangerous (or at least, obnoxious with questions) helps me get the most out of the classes. Some of these courses are even available online from continued learning (i.e. nightschool) at colleges and universities and I can attest that they can be very worthwhile, with teaching assistants to answer questions. Next best are video tutorials, some of which are free, and some of which cost (like from http://lynda.com or http://vtc.com). Short of that, having specific goals to attain and questions to answer can be great to help motivate and guide your learning process. Another thing I always do is look at the source code for a website that has some features you like (e.g., from Microisoft Internet Explorer's menu, View...Source). Deciphering
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
you gotta learn to walk b4 u can run. From: Danny Espinoza static...@roadrunner.com To: bob quinn r...@sockets.com; gah17...@aol.com Cc: quad-list@eskimo.com Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 1:19:41 PM Subject: RE: [QUAD-L] web site design Bah! .html? .php! just messing lol Danny Espinoza 26/m/California Occupation before accident Network engineer / SR. Network security engineer What happened: Broke c2,c6,c7 with doner bone at c2 Traumatic brain injury from blood going to central cortex from spinal cord not vent dependendent anymore. :] My myspace address - http://www.myspace.com/dannylnx My spinal cord injury support website - http://spinalcordinjured.net/ From:bob quinn [mailto:kult...@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 9:57 AM To: gah17...@aol.com Cc: quad-list@eskimo.com Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] web site design Hi Glenn, Your question about how to improve your website standing in Google searches does not have a simple answer. Its what is called search-engine optimization (SEO) and depends on the algorithms Google uses to rank sites. There is an entire SEO industry that *claims* they can increase ranking by adding keywords and manipulating the web by loading references to your site on forums and such around the web. Google is wise to these tricks, however, so paying for SEO is mostly a waste of money. I certainly don't know everything about the Google algorithms, but I can tell you a few things I do know. First and foremost, the rankings are based on how many *other* websites have links to your website. This makes sense, since a link to your site implies you have something worth sharing ...which hints at the second most important thing: Good Content. To be ranked highly, your website must have useful content. This does *not* mean a good list of links to other sites, but only content that appears in your own pages. Obviously then, having original and compelling content is the best thing you can do. Your list of keywords (the meta info on your index/home page head section) should reflect that content also; Google's algorithms will work against you if you've baited your keyword list with a bunch of terms that might (or might not) be related to your site, but don't appear on your site. Another thing that can help (a little) is if your domain name is similar to your content focus. And lastly, Google likes sites that are updated regularly (with new content) ...though as the owner of a site that I haven't updated in over 10 years (http://sockets.com) that still ranks high on some searches (e.g., winsock), that isn't a major priority. As to whether a new site can get any notice, the fact it won't have links from other sites (yet) probably means, no it cannot. On the other hand, if you've got virile viral content --like, say, Craig's List Killer-suspect Phillip Markoff's homepage-- then it can rocket to the top of the search list almost instantly. In an attempt to give a leg up (or a wheel up) to new -or newly updated- sites, Google encourages webmasters to submit a sitemap. Actually, that is just one of the things you can do with Google's suite of Webmaster Tools (see http://google.com/webmasters/start ), including analytics that report visitor statistics (one of many such free website reporting tools available on the web). As to tools to use, you're not going to like my answer. :-) Frontpage and Dreamweaver can both write code for you in their wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) development environment, but it isn't great code. Sure, you can get by with it, but you REALLY should just use a plain-old-text editor, or maybe one that hilites words according to XHTML and CSS syntax, and write/edit the code by hand. In other words, there's really no substitute to facing the uphill learning curve so XHTML and CSS are native to you. To get started, Frontpage and Dreamweaver generated code can be a great help, but you should be able to read it and make changes to it in a text editor. You can call me a purist snob for saying that and I won't try to defend it, but I can guarantee its true. As for learning, I'm like you: Even when I was young (i'm 54 now) I have always learned much faster first-hand from someone that knows it, than on my own using the web resources and books. Hence, the best you could do is take a class ...and if you're like me, going in with enough prior knowledge to make me dangerous (or at least, obnoxious with questions) helps me get the most out of the classes. Some of these courses are even available online from continued learning (i.e. nightschool) at colleges and universities and I can attest that they can be very worthwhile, with teaching assistants to answer questions. Next best are video tutorials, some of which are free, and some of which cost (like from http://lynda.com or http://vtc.com). Short of that, having specific goals to attain and questions to answer can be great to help motivate and guide your
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Bob, Thank you so much for all of your useful information. It is a lot to devour, but I will do as you say and hopefully, my mind is well enough to follow directions. Wish me luck! C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis **Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001)
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Steve, Thank you very much for the information you offered. I will give it a try to see how I make out. Sometimes my mind is pretty foggy from all the medication I take, but I will do the best I can. Wish me luck! Naomi C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis **Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001)
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Jim, I looked at all of the sites and, they look simple enough, not a lot of fanfare. Maybe it will be just simple enough for me to do it. Thanks for the help. Naomi C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis **Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001)
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Bob, Thank you so very much for clearing this up for me. It is less confusing and less scary for me now. When I have one created, I will let you know. Naomi C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis **Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001)
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Steve , Thank you very much for this information. This is very handy in creating an informational web site. I will try this and see what I can create. Wish me luck. Naomi C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis **Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001)
RE: [QUAD-L] web site design
If you are interested in developing a website for yourself, a small business or nonprofit organization and have little or no development skills, I highly recommend using Microsoft Office Live at: http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/ All you need is an e-mail address to create your Microsoft Office Live account. Afterward, you can create a website with their easy to use (though somewhat limited) development tools which include an ample number of themes, styles, color schemes and webpage components. Once developed, Microsoft Office Live will host your website and provide you with a personalized domain name and up to 500 MB of storage space all free of charge, at least for the first year. All you pay is $14.95 per year afterward to retain your domain name, the hosting is still free. Amazingly, there is no advertising displayed with your site and while the Microsoft Office Live branding is turned on by default, it can be turned off by clicking a checkbox under site options. You are limited to one free website per account, but you can create multiple accounts using separate e-mail addresses, i.e. Yahoo mail, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. The price is definitely right (FREE) and I think your site can look pretty good with some effort. I created the two sites below in about one afternoon each: http://mayorscommittee.org/ http://secgcc.org/ I also help a local nonprofit organization maintained their website via EarthLink's Business Solution Websites. Like Microsoft Office Live, you can create and maintain websites with little or no skills. EarthLink's website development tools are a bit more robust, but you are charged monthly for hosting and storage depending on size and service options. The site I maintain is: http://cowboysandrosesrenegaderanch.com/ The options above may not be adequate for highly optimized robust business needs, but they are quick, easy, affordable solutions for anyone who needs a relatively simple website presence. Steve - C4, 20 years
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
I don't do it for a living but have done some for money or computer equipment. I learned by viewing the source code of other web sites. I don't do a lot of the fancy stuff but my clients have been happy with my work. I use Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, but don't know how to use most of it. Mainly use Adobe Dreamweaver, it makes managing multiple web sites easier. Microsoft Expression Studio is also good. You can use a text editor, which I still do sometimes, I recommend Notetab http://www.notetab.com/ and Notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm You need an ftp program to upload files, FileZilla is good and free http://filezilla-project.org/ Here are 2 sites I use for templates. Open Source Web Design http://www.oswd.org/ Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Practical CSS codes and examples http://www.dynamicdrive.com/style/ Here are some of the sites I have created for businesses or non-profit organizations for some sort of compensation. http://www.myelitis.org/ http://www.wrc.noaa.gov/wrso/ http://www.assistivetechnologysolutions.com/ http://www.kahalaaviation.com/ http://www.cjappraisal.com/ http://www.intrinsicworks.com/ http://www.blueservrepro.com/ Nothing too fancy. I always put my name in a meta tag so you can see it when the source is viewed. At 03:47 PM 3/29/2009, gah17...@aol.com wrote: Hi all, I wonder if anyone on the list designs web sites for a living? I have designed and a few but am looking to broaden my knowledge on different programs. I presently use FrontPage 2003. Jim Lubin jlu...@eskimo.com http://makoa.org/jim disAbility Resources: http://www.makoa.org
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Bob, are you a quad? I had considered learning Web Design, what does reading your post, gave me a headache and scare me off. Maybe I can find something else I can do. Naomi C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis **Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001)
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Hi Naomi, Yes, I am a quad. I had a C5/6 injury skiing December 2000. I type using the knuckle of my right pinky-finger 99% of the time (when writing something long, I use Dragon, but never have used it for coding). Don't be scared-off. I was referring to what most pros use in the industry today, but the great thing these days is that there are lots of FREE high-quality tools out there (like GIMP for graphics), FREE editors, FREE browsers, FREE debugging tools, and FREE website software (e.g., Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL). And there are countless FREE tutorials on the web, too. Also, you don't have to know everything to get started. Learn just a little XHTML and CSS and you can do some things to impress friends, family and yourself enough to encourage you to learn more. The nice thing about computer languages and tools is that when you learn one thing, that serves as a stepping-stone to the next thing. What I described is the high-end of the professional market. Its what most customers want, too ...but not all can afford. Everybody needs a website, but not everybody can pay what the high-end garners, so there's a varied market out there. There's money to be made (but don't expect it to be millions). Regardless of income potential, doing web design is a creative endeavor, a form of expression, of communicating a message, or whatever. As such, it has its own rewards. It can be intensely frustrating, tedious work, but when you finish something its a great feeling of accomplishment. I would definately recommend it to anyone and everyone ...but go into it with eyes open and the knowledge its going to take some real time and serious effort to get really good at it. Regards, bob From: ladyno...@aol.com ladyno...@aol.com To: r...@sockets.com; quad-list@eskimo.com Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 6:05:10 PM Subject: Re: [QUAD-L] web site design Bob, are you a quad? I had considered learning Web Design, what does reading your post, gave me a headache and scare me off. Maybe I can find something else I can do. Naomi C-4 Quadriplegic, since July 2, 2005 Due to Transverse Myelitis Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less.
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
Hi Glenn, Stuntman does with all the high end graphic and 3D. But he's been laid up in bed with a nasty pressure sore. Best Wishes In a message dated 3/29/2009 5:48:17 P.M. Central Daylight Time, gah17...@aol.com writes: Hi all, I wonder if anyone on the list designs web sites for a living? I have designed and a few but am looking to broaden my knowledge on different programs. I presently use FrontPage 2003. Thanks, Glenn Henry Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? _Make dinner for $10 or less_ (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood0001) . **A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220439616x1201372437/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62)
Re: [QUAD-L] web site design
I do web development professionally. I can give you the lay of the land. The pros use Adobe's Creative Suite, which is comprised of multiple programs. Version CS4 is their latest and greatest (as of Oct 2008). Its big, complicated and expensive, but its power is unrivaled. The Master Suite (with all programs) is about $2500 (or $500 for students). Honestly, its not something that you can learn casually on your own. To go beyond scratching the surface really takes professional training unless you are incredibly clever, insightful, patient enough to read-read-read, and have the tenacity of a pit-bull. Yes, CS4 is *that* broad and deep and versatile. Typically, designers use Illustrator and Photoshop to do graphics and photo work (respectively), then Photoshop or Fireworks to assemble and slice-up a site into its graphical and picture elements. Some use Fireworks to prototype --to make the menu buttons work, or at least look like they do. Most take their design into Dreamweaver to develope code (the XHTML and CSS and maybe even some Javascript). Some designers take the short-cut of using code generated by Dreamweaver, but the best websites are coded by hand. It behooves any designer/developer to know the eXtensible Hyper-Text Markup Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) natively. Most websites these days also have a slideshow or animation or even video/audio, which is all done in Flash. Similar to Dreamweaveer, Flash can generate a lot of the code it needs (In ActionScript 3.0, specifically), but also like DW, the pros write their own and are MUCH better off for it, because (1) you can do a whole lot more with your animations using code, and (2) its a full-blown language capable of doing networking on the backend, among many other things. Its truly amazing what can be done in Flash (if you're curious to see a master in action, visit http://mudbubble.com ). Java is another language like Flash, but different. It tends to be used more in Academia and large enterprises, as its a very-strictly typed language (and kinda painful to use as a result, in my experience). There is another side to website development too, literally. What most know (and most web designers deal with) is the client-side in the browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera, the major ones). But the server-side is where you get web-pages from, and most websites these days generate the XHTML dynamically as they integrate fresh data and other assorted dynamic content. There are a number of languages that do server-side scripting (e.g., PHP, ASP, JSP, Python, Ruby, Ruby On Rails). Most of these server-side sites also use databases that are written using and then accessed by some variant of Structured Query Language (like, MySQL, PostGre, MS-SQL or Oracle). Good database design is an art, though no end-users have any way to appreciate it by anything other than good response time from their websites and flexible reporting capabilities. Many websites use a client-side framework called a Content Management Systems (CMS) or a portal. The great advantage to these is that the databases are all already made, as are lots of modules likle Calendars, Address books, blogs, chat, you name it. These make it much easier to get a large site with rich functionality going relatively quickly and make maintenance and content updating a whole lot easier too. The price you pay for the convenience, similar to the genetrated code, is that there are some things you can't do (or can't do the way you want to) In other words, developers almost always bump into (or up against) the limitations in any framework they choose (and there are a whole slew of them out there, though Joomla is the only one I can think of off-hand). Ok, that's about all I can think of about the (serious) web dev world of today. Its probably TMI (too much information), and its not really quad-related, but anyway... Hope that helps, bob quinn From: gah17...@aol.com gah17...@aol.com To: quad-list@eskimo.com Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 6:47:43 PM Subject: [QUAD-L] web site design Hi all, I wonder if anyone on the list designs web sites for a living? I have designed and a few but am looking to broaden my knowledge on different programs. I presently use FrontPage 2003. Thanks, Glenn Henry Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or less.
