The Map Magazine

To the starting internet entrepreneur, there is nothing more discouraging then the erroneous realization that your dream for a self sufficient business cannot be realized without a heavy investment. This may be why so many people shy away from the internet; seeing all the flashy sites, many of which are $50 templates, people are afraid to enter the world of internet sales and marketing.

One obvious, but perhaps frightening option is to build your own. You may do this in a variety of ways from purchasing a hosting package that comes with templates, to designing your own. Many templates are of excellent quality and can serve as a great starting point for your ancient website. A great site for getting templates is Templatemonster, here you will find many templates that cater to your general business interest. You may easily integrate them into your site and start promoting your site in this manner.

Another solution is outsourcing. If you do not have a corporate venture backed budget you may want to consider getting a freelance firm from India, Pakistan, or Russia or any other country where the dollar still carries weight to do your design. Russian companies tend to be more on the technical database development side, while Indian companies are all around excellent designers. One of the best sites for this freelance recruitment is Freelancer.com. They provide a forum where the companies bid on your project, any budget, any website you will get dozens of eager freelancers ready to make you your dream site. Freelancer.com is an excellent way to get your site up and running or even update your existing site within a reasonable budget.

The choice between making your own site and outsourcing it is hinged on a very simple concept known as CMS: content management system. In other words, how much freedom do you have to manipulate your site? How much will every update cost? The same company that quoted $400 per page also quoted $20 per 15 min of upgrade time, the reasoning that it is faster for the company to do an upgrade, meaning that a 30 second link exchange would cost you $20. For this reason EnkiTel looks home grown, however I can manage its content instantly, design and redesign at a click as inspiration strikes and I am not dependent on anyone.

Hence, freedom becomes a central issue; if your site is a static site and you do not plan to actively ad links or change content day in and day out, then you do not need the flexibility, otherwise be very careful when choosing your web design company. There are many options, make sure you do your research. Then again you can put your heart into it and do it all yourself, it’s the content, SEO, and link exchange approach that will get your site ranked and showing in the top organic results in the end, the site appearance becomes more important once you start getting the heavy traffic, then eye appeal becomes more important.

Gene Leshinsky
http://www.enkitel.com
EnkiTel Communications provides a cheap alternative to traditional long distance and international calling plans. EnkiTel strives to identify the best deals on the market and present them to our customers. EnkiTel also runs a blog for starting business, sharing ideas, resources, and commentary.

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Registry Cleaner Reviews:
Where Does This Junk Come From? These broken links come from programs and viruses that are removed by the uninstall programs and anti virus software. This process of removal leaves traces of the program in the registry and has to be expertly removed with registry cleaners. It is not necessary to scan the registry every second day, however, the registry must be cleaned at least every six months or so. If the registry cleaners are absolutely safe then why will they have a registry backup program built in? There is always a risk involved. Perhaps that is the reason even the best programs have a backup function - Such as any Windows Operating system.. Usually the only indication of Spyware on the computer is through free Spyware removal programs.

Free Windows Registry Cleaner Pro:
Getting the right registry cleaner is very critical to your online privacy. You must make it a point to read all the registry cleaner reviews before attempting to buy your own registry cleaner. What might seem simple too you, in our age of technological “speech, could be a real challenge for your machine. So, do not leave it alone in its fight against weakness. What is weakness for a computer? Well, the essence of its activity is totally based on the operating system and, as we all know, the most popular operating system of all the times is Windows. Windows operating system, though, is not popular for its weak parts and that for you should get informed.. More reviews at: Registry Sweep Review

Registry Cleaners: Registry Cleaner Free Download:
So How Does The Registry Slow The System? As the programs refer to the registry for information such as the location of a particular file or folder it has to start rummaging through the file from the beginning until it comes to the file entry it is looking for. All the entries are entered in hierarchical order so every time the programs refer to the registry they have to start from the beginning. They will also have to go through the broken links and useless entries, which number many thousands. This is why the registry slows the system. A registry cleaner like Win XP registry Cleaner scans the registry and identifies all the broken links and redundant entries that are entries not associated with any application, and removes them. This speeds the system up greatly.. If you own a computer, you must have your very own registry cleaners installed. But then a scan of the system with anti virus software etc.

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Your designers have given you a promising website. Now your next job is to get it hosted. First timers usually fall into the trap of bad web hosting companies. You come across scores of them in every nook and corner who sound capable and promise to do their job well but the resultant is a website that does not have much of bandwidth resulting in a slow and unprofessional website, and to make it worse the customer service is poor as well. So, finding a dependable web host is really tricky. You can find them through search engines and forums but before you zero down on one, you need to check a few things about the web hosting company. Get to know about the company that are you are hiring.

Credibility of the Company

Make sure that hard-core network engineers run the company and they are on the block for at least 2 years. Avoid the companies that are run by amateurs even if they give you a cheap bargain because your ultimate aim is to put your best step forward and that is your website. You need to check their credentials thoroughly, Read the ‘About us’ page ‘Terms of service’. Also read the web host forum and reviews. Please check for the credibility of the posters as well. Check the technology used by the company and go in for the one, which has at least 95% of the uptime for most of its servers. You need to know if the company publishes its address because after all you need to be sure if the company is legitimate since you are putting your company’s future in the hands of another.

Bandwidth

There is nothing called unlimited bandwidth. If you buy the unlimited service, your host might shut you down claiming that your website has been using unfair amount of system resources. And beware bandwidth usage and system resources are two different aspects when dealing your host. Always go in for the bandwidth one or two sizes bigger because finally your aim is to grow. Initially you might need less as the traffic is poor but eventually when the traffic builds up and your site is popular you would have to grab for the entire available amount.

Space

The web host gives you a certain amount of space on its servers. The need and the usage really depend on you. If you buy 5 MB of space it is plenty for the web pages and images of most of the business websites. But you need to confirm if this includes the mail, log files etc as well. A web host that includes everything usually gives at least 15 MB space minimum. And make sure that you don’t get sold into buying space than you really need.

Dedicated vs. shared servers

The web space you rent might be shared by a number of other clients of the company you choose. This is a very common trend. This should be your proffered choice if the number of hits is less and the website you own does not have a huge traffic but if you are moderately popular and the graphics and images take time to download, then dedicated servers are the best bet. If you go in for shared hosting then check if the same server does not host any adult or red flag site because some search engines weed all the websites hosted on this kind of server and you don’t want to be weeded out.

Support

A simple and quick tool to determine the online and offline support that you may require once your site is hosted is to mail your pre sales questions to the company. The response time will tell you a lot about the dependency of the company. So before signing the contract be sure that you will get response even at 3.00 am in the morning if needed.

Lastly always think ahead of time so your intention might be to grow bigger as compared to what you predicted. So to save time and money always have enough bandwidth and space so that you can grow into it without a second thought.

For more details, kindly visit our website http://www.bluent.co.in

BluEnt eSolutions - your one stop destination for all your professional web related requirements catering to website design, web development, SEO, corporate training, web hosting, VoIP services, flash presentation, and other web related applications.

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A good website will act like a good radio station. Radio stations want you to listen, know who you listen to (for ratings, which are based on listener RECALL of who they listened to), come back for more, and buy sponsor’s products or services.

A good website, properly optimized, will be visited, bookmarked or remembered, and will prompt you to buy their own or advertiser’s product or services.

Both try to move you to a desired action.

A harsh radio rating fact of life is that many stations are statistically equal, mired in the midpack of ratings, no matter what they do or try to entice listeners.

A harsh website fact is that most sites don’t make it into the search engine-delivered rankings, or if they do, are so far down the list, people don’t dig that deep. (Have you ever dug into the 165th Google ‘find’ for example?)

Radio stations try to get you to come back with features like the 8 or 9 o’clock all music/commercial free hour, and another as you drive home, or contests, countdowns, specials, etc.

Good websites utilize optimization to boost their audience, and then have good viewer-friendly website construction to motivate and move a browsing potential customer into a return visit (fresh content, expert status, newsletter, rss feed, etc.) and action (special offer, discount, bundle, etc.)

High performing (music) radio stations know that their own ‘promos’ are really heard as interruptions from the music that is the magnet that draws most listeners, that they are commercials for the radio station, and are heard as commercials. They make them short and to the point.

High performing websites know that flash intros or heavy graphic content can eat bandwidth, slow loading, and lose impatient viewers who, after all, are there to have a need met - to find information, usually.

High performance radio stations on a crowded dial specialize in a clearly communicated benefit.

High performance websites know theirs is an even more crowded world, and they NICHE, specializing in a clearly (enticingly title tagged) communicated benefit.

Bob Wood, former major market radio programmer in the United States and Canada, has applied his multi-media expertise to the internet, which he clearly sees as the future of communication. At http://www.Internet-Marketing-Advisors.com Wood offers insight into how websites can own their niche, increase traffic, and convert it to sales.

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In an attempt to make their sites accessible to all, more and more websites are now offering text-only versions of their sites. With the huge number of inaccessible websites out there, any attempt to make a website accessible to one and all is highly commendable.

But is text-only the way forward? The W3C have this to say about alternative accessible sites:

And if all else fails… If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page.

Hmmm… so according to the W3C a separate accessible site is OK, but they do use some pretty strong language to suggest that this should be avoided wherever possible. They’re probably right too, given the disadvantages of going down the text-only route:

Text-only version may not be accessible

The most ironic thing about text-only versions, is that often they don’t even offer full accessibility. This could be for a number of reasons, two of the most common being:

- Non-descriptive link text: Visually impaired Internet users can browse web pages by tabbing from one link to the next. Link text such as ‘click here’ and ‘more’, which may feature in a text-only version, won’t make any sense to them when doing this.

- Inaccessible forms: For optimal accessibility, prompt text should be assigned to its form item, using the label for attribute. To check for this, a flashing cursor should appear in each form box when the text next to it is clicked.

Primary website may be inaccessible to site visitors

One of the myths of web accessibility is that accessibility is only about blind and disabled users. Accessibility is actually about everyone being able to access your website, both disabled and non-disabled, regardless of the browsing technology they’re using.

For example, users accessing your website through WebTV, mobile phones, and PDAs, which have limited support for large images, Flash and JavaScript, may not be able to access your site. Don’t underestimate the importance of this: in 2008 alone an estimated 58 million PDAs will be sold (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm) and one third of the world’s population will own a wireless device (source: http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/wireless/article.php/10094_950001).

Lost branding opportunity

Some users may only need to make small adjustments to your site in order to be able to effectively use it. For example, a site visitor who needs to slightly resize the text on your site may have to use the text-only version if you don’t allow this is the main version. This person then won’t be exposed to your online image and branding, which you’ve undoubtedly spent so long developing.

Large time and money investment

Creating a separate accessible version can obviously represents an extremely large time and money investment. This can be offset if the site is database-driven, although there’s still a time investment involved in setting up this alternative version - time that could have instead been spent making the primary site accessible to all.

Less information

Some text-only versions offer far less information and/or functionality than the primary version of the site. Manchester United’s accessible version is a prime example of this: the primary website features over 100 choices in the navigation menu; the accessible version just eight. For a busy webmaster, having to make updates to two versions of the same website can be a huge pain.

If the website is 100% database driven then the separate text-only version will automatically be updated with the primary version of the site. Although database-driven sites are commonplace on the web, it is very rare that every single page is drawn from the database. As such, even with a database-driven site separate versions can often be left behind.

Marginalisation of society

The final point, and perhaps the most important. One of the most famous quotes about accessibility was made by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the Internet:

The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Creating a separate version for web users with special needs can be seen as just one more way of them being marginalised from every day society. Having a separate accessible version has been famously likened to a restaurant providing a side door down a back alley for disabled customers, because the main entrance has a couple of stairs leading in to the restaurant.

The idea of the Internet is that it’s an inclusive medium, which everyone should be able to use and access. Visually impaired individuals particularly can now access a virtually unlimited source of information in a way that would never have been possible.

Text-only? No thanks!

There are therefore so many reasons as to why a separate text-only version isn’t a good idea. Additionally, there are a such huge number of benefits to having an accessible website that there’s no excuse for not trying to make your main website accessible to everyone.

Certainly many big organisations are now working towards offering accessible websites, which is highly commendable. So come on guys, let’s keep working to make sure the Internet is fully inclusive.

This article was written by Trenton Moss. He’s crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy (Webcredible - www.webcredible.co.uk) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.

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You Get What You Pay For
So you took the bait and signed up for your first hosting plan that includes a Web site. Your newly acquired hosting plan probably has a programmed plug-and-play template system. This system has been designed with the novice user in mind. Usually you are required to log in and begin by picking the style of Web template that suits your business. Then you enter some text in a few pages, and launch your new Web site. Now you can sit back and watch the money pour in the door. You might even try one of those services that submits your Web site to thousands of search engines for $19.95. Now the money is sure to pour in.

The Wild, Wild West
Many customer inquiries to my company concern these so-called “Web site publishing systems.” Customers usually call me after spending their hard-earned money on a Web template system that leaves them frustrated and disappointed. But I can hardly blame them; the Internet is a new frontier. Radio and television commercials are popping up left and right to hawk Web hosting companies, just like the carpet-baggers and snake-oil salesmen emerged in the proverbial Wild West. Not to say their Web template systems are a bad thing or that they don’t work. They do. But you better have an in-depth knowledge of HTML if you want to publish a Web site that is original and dynamic. Otherwise, your Web site will be lost in the clutter of the World Wide Web.

Lost in Web Clutter
If you are extremely lucky, a prospective customer might find your bargain template site on page 575 of the Google search engine. That’s not a good thing since most Web surfers won’t look past page 2 or 3 in a Web search for a product, service or information. The problem with Web templates is they are “closed systems.” Usually navigation placement is hard coded so that custom programming or effects are not allowed. On the other hand, “open systems” allow web coders to fine tune and tweak the code within your Web pages to assist you in generating a favorable position in the major search engines.

Adding Dynamics to a Static Template Page
Beyond adding moving images or animations, what if you wanted to add simple check boxes to a customer form or add a dropdown navigation that displays the location to your interior pages? Again, unless you’re handy with HTML coding, you’ll have a hard time inserting these items into your Web form — if the flexibility of the template system allows it.

Deciding What to Do
If you are serious about launching a Web site to grow your business, you can do it without mortgaging your house. Here are some facts and figures to consider when putting together the budget for your Web site. Here are some figures I came up with while comparing Web site firm quotations across the United States.

Small business Web sites - $2800 to $3900
Small business e-commerce Web sites - $3600 to $4200

Medium business Web sites - $3800 to $5200
Medium business e-commerce Web sites - $4200 to $7200

Large business Web sites - $7200 to $10,000
Large business e-commerce Web sites - $9200 to $15,000

Database and Internal Web Site Costs
Some large business sites require design and implementation of an extranet or intranet for employee use and access. Depending on the backend or database needs of the client, this requires a separate bid for cost. The type of database required will also affect the overall cost, i.e., MSAccess, SQL, MySqL, Cold Fusion, Php or an Oracle database.

Choose Smartly
Before spending your hard earned money on a Web site, do your homework. Look at the live Web sites your potential Webmaster has created and take a peak at their client references.

If you don’t have the funds available for the creation of a “professional level Web site” you should at least purchase and secure your domain name. You can do this for a very modest fee. Visit networksolutions.com, register.com or godaddy.com online or call them toll-free to get started.

Stay away from pesky templates. Save those hard-earned dollars for a Web site that will actually do your business some good.

About the Author
Virginia Web Design Company- VISIONEFX - President Ricardo Vidallon has been in the creative business of advertising, cable broadcast, animation and the World Wide Web for more than two decades. His work has been featured on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc., Fox News and NBC Entertainment. His career track in Web consultancy includes the global companies of Reynolds and Reynolds, CMGI Solutions, and Automark, Inc.

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High Speed Internet Advantages

DSL is just one of many ways to connect to the net. There are many advantages DSL has to offer other forms of Internet connection. One of the most obvious advantages is DSL offers a fast connection. Rather than wait hours for a document to download using dial up, with DSL you can download large files in just minutes. Here are some other advantages DSL has to offer high speed Internet fans:

DSL allows you to use an open Internet connection and use your telephone line for phone calls at the same time.

DSL speed is typically a lot faster than a traditional modem and doesn’t require new wiring. In fact you can usually use the phone line you already have installed in your home to get DSL up and running.

Most companies provide you with a DSL modem during installation as part of the DSL package.

If you own your own business you’ll be able to upload and download large files much faster using a DSL connection.

Disadvantages of DSL

Of course, there are disadvantages to anything as is the case with DSL. While most users consider these disadvantages minor they are nonetheless worthy of note:

The closer you are to the central office of the DSL provider the better your connection will work. Thus if you are located far away you may have more trouble connecting using your DSL line.

Typically connection speeds are faster when receiving information and data than when sending data using a DSL connection.

Article by Frank Owen, visit his web site on high speed internet for more information on cable, dsl and other high speed internet services
http://www.highspeedinternetchoice.com

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