Optimizing Photos For The Web

It doesn't matter if your emailing photos of your grandson or putting
images of your latest product on your online store. Too many people
don't consider optimizing their photos for the web. We've all been on
too many web pages where it seemed that the photos would never load,
and sometimes they didn't. So here are some steps to make sure that
your photos show up on your site.

1. Always have a back up original format copy of your image. Never
alter the original. Believe me you will regret it.

2. Crop to size. Make sure that you crop out any extra information
that isn't needed. Remember the larger the photo the longer it takes
to load or send.

3. Resize to reduce pixels. There should be an option to resize
according to pixels. You're going to want the largest size to be no
more than 250 pixels or you can reduce the dpi to no more than 96.

4.Reduce the color palette. Many images have millions of colors so the
first thing that you need to do is reduce the colors to 256. You will
lose some depth with this.

5. Save the file in a standard format. JPEG is the most common for
photos and you can compress the image with a JPEG for further
reduction in file size. It's not unusual to see GIF or PNG as well.

Remember that with a 56k connection a 150k file will take 20 seconds
to load. If you're creating a web page every photo that you add will
add to the time it takes to download all of the images. If you keep
the images small in size the smaller resolution will not be as
obvious.

Cool CSS Tricks You Can Use :-)

CSS or Cascading Style Sheets allow you to implement a few neat effects on your webpages easily. You can implement these CSS effects on your site by simply copying and pasting the code.

ROLLOVER COLOR TEXT LINKS
Have your text links change color when the mouse passes over them by inserting this code into the HEAD of your document:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
A:hover {color:red}
-->
</style>

LINKS WITH NO UNDERLINE
Remove the underline from any or all of the links on your page by putting this in the HEAD of your document:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
A:link {text-decoration:none}
A:visited {text-decoration:none}
--></style>

Or, remove the underline form individual links by forming them like this:

<a href="page.html" style="text-decoration: none">link</a>

LINKS WITH A LINE ABOVE AND BELOW THEM
This is an interesting look that works especially well as a hover attribute for your links, but can also be applied to all of your links. It will show the normal underline and a line above the link:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
A:hover {text-decoration:overline underline}
-->
</style>

HIGHLIGHTED TEXT
Highlight important text on your page or words you want to stand out, easily:

<span style="background-color:yellow">highlighted text</span>

Try adding it to your link hover for a neat effect:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
A:hover {background-color: orange}
-->
</style>

BACKGROUND IMAGE THAT ISNT TILED
This will create a background image that doesn't repeat:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
BODY {background: #ffffff url(bg.gif) no-repeat}
-->
</style>

You can also center it, however it will be centered as the background of the entire document, not centered on the screenful:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
BODY {background: #ffffff url(bg.gif) no-repeat center}
-->
</style>

Getting Profits From Your '404 Page Not Found' File

"'Page Not Found' on this Server. Check the URL and try again. Or Refresh the page..."

This is the annoying error that we will come across every time we surf the web pages. Internet will be changing every minute and day. The web sites that were here are not found next day. The web pages that were here with '/page.html' are changed to '/page1.html' next day.

Webmasters update their sites and change the links and content. While they doing so most of them forget one important thing.

"What will happen if somebody bookmarked this page and try to visit next time?"

Simple...Those people will see these '404 Page Not Found Errors'.

Let me tell you some tips how to avoid all these tiny mistakes and get something from these error pages.

**Custom Error pages:**

Most of the hosting companies allow to create error pages as you like with your own Html and upload to your website. If you don't upload your error pages the server displays default server error pages.

Utilise this oppurtunity. Create a page with any of the following:

1. Put links to other parts of your site. Links to main pages is enough to navigate back in to your site. 2. Direct links to your products.

2. Promote your Affiliate links

3. Offer something free from this page like free ebooks, free email course etc.

4. Your Ezine subscription

5. Discount on your product

6. If you are conducting some polls on your site you can keep that poll on these pages too.

7. Keep an email link on error pages and you can request your visitor to inform you about the error.

All these keeps your visitor some more time on your web site. Every link above will be a benefit for you.

**Watch Your Bandwidth:**

DON'T put too much Html or graphics on these error pages. By the time they will download your visitor might hit the back button or get out of the site.

Lot of graphics also increases your bandwidth usage. The web sites are continually attacked by viruses. If you have a good web logger and check it once in a while you will see some hundreds of page requests with '404 errors'. All these 404 errors drain your bandwidth. So keep an eye on size of error pages.

How Does Your Website Measure Up?

Does your website make a good first impression? Is the navigation intuitive? Is the content appropriate for your audience? You've had your website up and running for a while now but you've always had a nagging suspicion that your website is lacking effectiveness and you just can't put your finger on it. You've dabbled with colors, added/removed images re-written the text but it still feels as if everything just isn't working together. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a way to sort things out? Well now you do!

Find out if your website has power, energy and the right stuff to help your business succeed. You'll be able to find out if the navigation; advertising, optimization, imagery and look are combining to make your home page an effective tool. Each section has a number of questions that help define, in detail, all the important areas of a well designed website. Just run through the list starting at the top. When you're finished just click the "Total Score" button at the bottom.

Just use the simple Q and A form here: http://www.learn2design.net/login/secure/interface/eval.php to see if your website meets established design standards. Using this checklist form you can rate your website (or anyone's) to make sure you've got all the essentials covered effectively.

Now the hard part; you have to answer the questions honestly and objectively! I know, it's your baby; you've spent countless hours nursing it to stardom. But now is the time to make an honest assessment. (Pretend its someone else's website if that helps.)

The form should only take 5 to 10 minutes to complete and at the end there is a brief description of what your score means and what you can do to improve your site.

Text Is King!

Are you building your website? If so, STOP! Take a look at what you have done so far. How many images do you have? How much text do you have?

If your website has more images than text then you could be in trouble. Ask yourself these two questions

What are my visitors at my website for?

Chances are, your visitors cam to your website to find information on a topic or to answer a question. They probably didn’t come to look at pictures (unless you run a photo gallery). Give your visitors what they want and they will keep on coming back.

Why did I put all these images on my website?

Now, this is not always true, but what I have found is that people put a lot of images on their website to make up for poor quality content. They think if they have a pretty looking website, people won’t pay that much attention to the text. That is another wrong assumption that should never be made.

REMEMEMBER: People come to get quality content, and will leave if you don’t provide any

If your website has more text than images, good for you, keep up the good work and good things will come to you.