Internet Marketing

When it comes to the web site development, I don’t know a lot from a technical perspective. As a result, Ive always had to rely on others to do the work for me. This can be a challenging process as resources change and needs change as well.

A number of years ago I worked with an entrepreneur who told me that he never worries about development because there are tons of qualified people throughout the world who can help you achieve what you are looking for. Essentially, all you have to do is ask. Curious to know more, he shared with me some of his secrets for finding web developers who can get the job done.

Begin each of your projects by first clearly defining what needs to get done. A great way to do this is to create a spreadsheet that includes each numbered task with a clear definition next to each one. By going through this exercise, you take the time to precisely define what it is you want and create a document that can be used by others who will develop for you. This is one of the best ways to identify why you need and create documentation while doing so.

After you’ve gotten a clear picture of what you want to achieve and its well documented, the next step is to find the resources that can make your vision into a reality. This is very easy to do with sites like eLance.com or GetAFreelancer.com. I have used both sites to find the resources that can get the job done. Your best bet is to submit your project for competitive bids. Include your requirements documentation that you created in step one and add any additional details such as time line and expense that you are willing to dedicate to the project.

Things happen rather quickly on eLance and related sites. Once you place your bid you will receive a number of proposals to do the work. Many people wonder how to effectively chose which company to award their bid. I like to throw out the most and least expensive proposals and focus on those in between. Sites like eLance offer feedback ratings and most companies provide samples of their work. Be careful to review the samples and make sure they relate to the job you’ve posted. If the company has a good feedback rating from a large number of people, you’re sure to have a positive experience.

The good news is that after using numerous developers for your project, you will find a couple that really shine. I’ve narrowed my list down to two or three development companies and stick with them for all of my projects. You may choose to bid through eLance just to keep pricing competitive but always invite the previous companies you’ve worked with to bid on your new projects as well. This is a great way to retain those you have experience with and find new providers from time to time.

Finding resources to help with your development project are easy. You will have to work a little harder to ensure that they are delivering what you’ve asked for, especially if they are half way around the world. Build milestones and communicate with your developers every day and you are sure to have a successful experience.

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If you sometimes feel as if your Web designer is speaking to you in a foreign, even alien, language, you need a way of cutting through the Web design jargon. You can find some great dictionaries online, but for starters, here are over 40 of the most common terms you are likely to encounter.

ACROBAT: Acrobat is used as a synonym for PDF file, but actually it is the program family you need to create and read PDF files. Adobe sells Acrobat Standard and Pro, which are creation tools, and freely distributes Acrobat Reader, which is a viewer (with some annotation tools in the latest versions).

APPLET: A program written in the Java programming language that can be included in an HTML page, and can contain flashy effects or useful programming.

ASP: Active Server Pages. A specification that enables Web pages to be dynamically created, or to access information from databases. The default language for writing ASP pages is VBScript, but other languages are also used.

BANDWIDTH: The amount of data sent over a connection in a specified amount of time is measured in bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps).

BTL/ATL /TTL: BTL (Below The Line) advertising means print media like brochures. ATL (Above The Line) advertising refers to such expensive media as TV and radio. TTL (Through The Line) is a combination of the two.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. This server-side program allows data to be passed between Web applications.

COLD FUSION: This specification enables Web pages to be dynamically created, or to access information from a database. The default language for writing Cold Fusion pages is CFML (Cold Fusion Markup Language), and the page extension is .cfm.

CONTENT: The graphics and copy (text) that make up your Web site.

CSS: Acronym for Cascading Style Sheets, an external document that controls variables like color and fonts on your Web site.

DHTML: Dynamic HTML. A combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript is used to create small effects, animations and dynamic menus on Web sites.

DNS: Domain Name Service translates domain names back and forth with IP numbers using a DNS server.

DOMAIN NAME: The address of your Web site (e.g. coza-web.co.za or google.com).

DPI/PPI: Dots Per Inch and Pixels Per Inch determine whether an image has high, medium or low resolution. Images for Web publication should have 72 ppi, those to be printed on deskjet printers should have 150 ppi and pictures to be professionally printed should have 300 ppi.

FLASH: 2D animation created in Flash can have an .swf extension for Web sites or an .exe extension for digital presentations. You need Flash Player installed on your computer to see SWF files.

FRAMES: Two or more HTML pages combined within a single browser screen lets you have scrolling regions on different sections of the Web page.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol for downloading or uploading files from or to computers with an appropriate FTP program or Internet browser.

HOST: The physical computer where files that make up your Web site are located, and whose contents can be accessed via TCP/IP.

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. The language for creating Web pages.

IP ADDRESS: Internet Protocol Address. Every device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address.

JAVA: A programming language by Sun Microsystems for writing Java applets.

JAVASCRIPT: This scripting language can be embedded in HTML pages or accessed by them as an external document (file type =.js) to create effects, validate forms, etc.

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group. A compressed image file.

KERNING: Horizontal spacing between letter pairs.

LEADING: Vertical spacing between the baselines under text in a paragraph or list.

META DATA/TAG: Part of the backend, thus not visible to the viewer, of an HTML page providing descriptions and keywords for optimizing search engines.

MYSQL: An open source relational database management system that uses SQL (Structured Query Language).

ORGANIC SEO: The optimizing of search engines by obtaining one-way links from other Web sites without actively submitting your site.

PERL: Practical Extracting and Reporting Language.

PIXEL: The smallest component, or single grid point, of a raster image.

PHP: An open source programming language that enables Web pages to be created dynamically, or access information from a database. It is widely used in conjunction with MySQL.

PLUG-IN: A small application, like Adobe Flash Player, that is installed and used as an added feature by your Web browser.

ROLL OVERS: Graphics that move or change when your mouse passes over them.

SERP: Search Engine Results Page.

TAG: Often called Markup tags or HTML tags, these are used to define parts of Web pages so that they display correctly for the site visitor.

URL: Uniform Resource Locator, the address of a Web page or file.

W3C: World Wide Web Consortium is a group of companies that set international standards for HTML and the Web.

WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get.

XHTML: Once planned as a successor to HTML 4.0, it is a hybrid of HTML and XML.

XML: Extensible Markup Language allows you to create custom tags.

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It is often that webmasters and site administrators will not be amused by the kind of results a search will wield if one is looking for their page. This is not fully a problem that you can point fingers at the search people. The site developer has a question to answer.

A search engine depends on way too many things for their to be a final ranking of how the pages should appear if given a quick search.

SEO occurs in two kinds of processes. There is that which is solely done on-site and that which is done off site. The idea is simple. Off-site optimization is outside the control of your website. They are an effect of all the happenings in other web pages that you may not even know about. Say a referral from a link in a blog site somewhere.

On the contrary, on-site optimization is to do with keywords used and various instructions given by the person who designed the webpage. He does this by use of keywords and metatags.

The main thing that some search engines including Google rely on is the keywords and the title page. These determine the exact ranking, hence the position that your page gets. The title page is the most conspicuous of the search results that come up. They are easy to insert in your pages and have great effect in how reachable you are.

You should grow beyond using the plain old ‘home page’ idea as your page title because you will not be as successful as you could have been with something different. There are plenty of tools available to help you get this done with very little sweat. Pick some nice tags for your site.

SO what exactly should you put as the name of your homepage? Let it reflect what your site is generally about. This way you will be in good books.

For example, if your website deals with photography, you should have a variety of topics under the same. However, ‘photography’ should appear in the keywords.

By the help of the keyword-tool, that you either bought or downloaded free, get cracking and fit in those titles properly. Stick to a decent phrase and ensure that it is as general enough as can be. Make it a point to include your website name because after all, you are trying to build a brand.

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