With the 4th of July around the corner, I thought I’d share another useful resource I received in a newsletter that I subscribe to. Get more valuable tips and tricks for shooting fireworks with your DSLR or point-and-shoot camera. GO HERE: http://shar.es/uInN

I recently learned about an open-source office software package that is absolutely FREE to download and use for life. It is perfectly compatible with the most popular office applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It is released under the LGPL license and can be downloaded and used entirely free for life. This means you may use it for any purpose at home, at work, in schools, etc. You may install it on as many computers as you like. You may make copies and give them away to family, friends, students, employees, and anyone you like! It is suitable for complete beginners, but if you have used any other office software, you’ll really enjoy the many familiar features you are already used to. You can now create, open, and edit documents that you used to only be able to work with if you owned expensive office software. For more info and to download, go here: http://www.openoffice.org/

This is an article I wrote in October of 2002, but I believe still contains lots of valuable information relevant to today’s website design. - Pam

Using fonts correctly on your page will help to ensure that all of your visitors view your page exactly as you intended. Visitors typically can only view the font you used *IF* they have that font already installed on their computer. However, there are ways to work around this and things you can do to better ensure that your page displays the way you want it to:
 
1. Specify more than one font in your font face tag:
Example: <font face=”Verdana,Arial,Helvetica”> 

Browsers will try each font in the order listed until it finds one on the user’s computer, so list your preferred font first, followed by two optional ones. This also gives you some flexibility to get creative with different fancy fonts!
 
2. If you’d like to expand your selection of fonts, visit any of the “free font” sites on the web and download some new fonts! Here’s how to install a new font on your computer: Click START/CONTROL PANEL/FONTS. Click “File” on the top toolbar and select “Install New Font.” Scroll to find the new font you just downloaded and select it to be installed. The path may vary depending on your operating system. You may have to close and reopen any applications you were using before being able to see the new font in your fonts list. Another option is to open Windows Explorer (right click on “start” and select “Explore”.) Find your new font file. Right click on it and select “Copy.” Then right click on the “Fonts” folder located under C:/WINDOWS and select “Paste.”
 
3. There is also a free tool available for download from Microsoft that will enable you to manually embed fonts into your page by creating “font objects” that are linked to your page. When a visitor views your page, they’ll see it displayed in the font style contained within the font object. Here’s the link: Microsoft WEFT3

4.  Finally, have you ever been curious as to which fonts are the most SAFE to use? In other words, which fonts can be found on MOST internet users’ computers? Following is a list of the fonts automatically installed on users’ computers by both Windows & IE3+:

Arial
Arial Bold
Arial Italic
Arial Bold Italic
Arial Black
Comic Sans MS Bold
Courier New
Courier New Bold
Courier New Italic
Impact
Monotype
Times New Roman
Times New Roman Bold
Times New Roman Bold Italic
Times New Roman Italic
Trebuchet MS
Trebuchet MS Bold
Trebuchet MS Italic
Trebuchet MS Bold Italic
Verdana
Verdana Bold
Verdana Italic
Verdana Bold Italic
Webdings Comic Sans MS

Pretty limited, isn’t it?  You can see now why using the three tips above will help to broaden your ability to get more creative with the fonts on your page!

This is an article that I wrote in September of 2002, but I feel the content is timeless and still very relevant today. - Pam

When designing an ecommerce site, there are several things you can do to help earn your visitors’ trust, a key factor in making sales and encouraging repeat visits:

1. Provide complete and accurate information about yourself, your company, and your service or product. One of the reasons often cited by consumers hesitant to shop online is the uncertainty of knowing exactly what they will be getting. Erase that uncertainty by providing product photos and detailed descriptions. Convey your expertise in the field to which your site is related. List your credentials. Let your visitors know why they should have confidence in you and your service or product.
 
2. Ease of navigation is extremely important. Don’t attempt to dazzle your visitors with design at the expense of site usability.
 
3. Project an image of honesty and sincerity. Include prominent links to your site’s policies, such as those regarding privacy, shipping, refunds, and customer service. Compose a brief narrative in plain conversational language to express your true, unbiased viewpoint on your site’s topic, as opposed to a page full of nifty slogans.
 
4. Be upfront with your visitors about pricing. State the price on the first page or include a link to your pricing page there. Your visitors will appreciate this, and you’ll earn points immediately with them. If your visitors have to conduct an extensive search to find pricing information, they will soon begin to feel that your service or product must surely be overpriced and will leave without wasting another minute of their valuable time.
 
5. Give your visitors something for free, even if only information or links to related resources. If they don’t make a purchase at this visit, they will at least leave with the feeling of having received something of value from having visited your site and will bookmark it for future reference.
 
6. One of the most effective ways of lending credibility to your site is for you to “get real.” Your visitors need to feel confident that you are a genuine company in the real world. This can be accomplished via “people photos”, place of business photos, bio, a real physical street address, and several contact options (i.e., phone number, email, fax number.) This goes a long way in helping your visitors to feel you are not just another fly-by-night website.
 
7. Promptly reply to all customer inquiries. Let them know their needs and concerns are important to you and deserving of your immediate attention. Reply within 24 hours, even if only to confirm receipt of their correspondence and to let them know when they may expect an answer to their question.
 
8. Don’t overdo banner advertisements. A few banners strategically and tastefully displayed are okay, but do not bombard your visitors with popups on entrance and exit and ads all over the place mixed with the site’s content. This will only serve to confuse and annoy your visitors, who will probably make a fast escape and a mental note to never return.
 
9. Project professionalism by performing a thorough site check. Solicit a few friends to double-check for you. Your site design may look professional at first glance, but tiny little errors such as typos and broken hyperlinks are glaringly obvious to visitors and ultimately spell “amateur.”
 
10. Use the exclamation mark sparingly and not at the end of every sentence. No one can be that happy!

This is an article that I wrote in June of 2004, but I feel that most of the content is still relevant today. - Pam

GOAL:  To put together an effective set of keywords for your keyword meta tag and to enter when listing your site at search engine AddURL pages. These should be words that are applicable to your site, exist in the text on your page, and words which people often search with to find information similar to that which your site offers. 

1.  You should, of course, review the actual text on your own pages to get ideas for keywords. Be sure to include every keyword you’ve used somewhere in the text on your page.  Get creative.  You can find a way to do this.  I’ve seen sites add a brief paragraph in the smallest font size at the very bottom of their page solely intended to use some of their keywords.  It was a readable paragraph with complete sentences that made sense.  That’s okay!  It’s acceptable.  Absolutely DON’T employ the use of hidden text (using a font color the same as the page background) or comment tags in your page source code filled with keywords.  Either of these tactics will get your site banned from the search engines.  SE’s are much smarter today in their ability to detect spam.
2.  You can also do a search at Google using the one most applicable keyword to your site.  Using the five sites at the top of the list in your search results, check the keywords they are using.  You can do this by visiting their site, right clicking on their home page, and selecting “View Source.”  It is a copyright violation to copy the exact keywords in their meta tags, but at least you can get some ideas for your own keywords.
3.  It’s always a good idea to browse a list of the most popular keywords being used by searchers on the internet: RankPulse.com. You can then edit your meta tags, page title, description, and page text to use any of these *proven* popular keywords that may apply to your site to help boost your ranking.
4.  Don’t include common words (i.e., the, and, from, like, a.)
5.  Don’t try to fool the search engines by including words that are not applicable to your site (spamming.) 
6.  Be careful about copyright infringement (registered trademarks, copyrighted names, company names, brand names) when choosing keywords. You could be sued.
7.  Besides single keywords, you should also include phrases that you feel others may use when searching (i.e., web design, webmaster tools.)  If your site is a match for the exact phrase a person has used when searching, this will give your site a boost in the search engine results displayed.