Top 10 Webmaster Challenges
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Top 10 Webmaster Challenges
Webmasters deal with a myriad of complex design challenges every
day. This article will discuss the top ten challenges and
provide solutions and tips for solving each problem.
Browser Compatibility You must design your Web site so that it
is viewable on both browsers: Netscape Navigator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer (IE). Netscape Navigator is very strict when
it comes to HTML tag completion, but IE isn't. You need to view
your site first using Macromedia Dreamweaver before publishing
to the Web. Make sure you've run the command convert to ensure
your site is version 3.0 browser compatible. If you're using
Netobjects Fusion to create the layout of your site, make sure
that all layer objects are converted into tables. This is highly
recommended if you want to reach a broader and wider audience.
Online resources: A) Dr. HTML, located at
www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/ B) Web Site Garage to check your
links, located at websitegarage.com
Graphics Optimization Web graphics play an essential part in
your Web design, because it conveys the emotion and impact of
your site. Always make sure that all of your graphics are in
.gif and .jpg format. Unless your site deals with photography,
minimize the use of the .jpg format. You can use Macromedia
Fireworks to minimize the file size, especially the slicer
feature if you need to place a large photo on your site. Another
option is the export preview of Macromedia Fireworks. This
allows you to remove unwanted colors in your graphics, thus
decreasing file size.
You can also do this online by using one of these online
utilities: A) GIF Optimizer by Media Builder,
www.gifoptimizer.com B) JPEG Cruncher and GIF Cruncher,
www.spinwave.com/crunchers.html C) Windows-based graphics
optimizer, CyberView Image Lite (JPEG Compressor),
www.cyberviewcd.com/cvimage/index.html D) Advanced GIF
Optimizer, www.gold-software.com/ago.html E) Photo Crunch (JPEG
Compressor), www.imroncorp.com/photo.htm F) JPEG image
compression FAQ, www.faqs.org/faqs/jpeg-faq/part1/
Keeping the Site Fresh I think this is the bulk of a webmaster's
work, if you want your site frequently visited. You can keep
your site fresh by really working on new content on a daily or
regular basis and by making it interactive. As with content, you
can make use of www.moreover.com, www.subportal.com,
www.newshub.com, and other content syndication sites to provide
the content for your site automatically. Let them do the hard
work for you! If you place a tag, they will email you with new
content. As for the interactivity, offer your visitors web-based
email accounts, a message board with a chat room, a search
engine crawler, and banner ad rotation. This is easy, and
provided by Everyone.net. Searching your site is another way to
easily provide information to your visitors. You can get a site
search engine from www.picosearch.com and www.atomz.com.
Pushing Information to Your Visitors A Web site is a "pull"
promotion, but as a webmaster, you also need to be thinking
about how you can "push" information to your visitors, users, or
subscribers. You can publish an ezine on a weekly or monthly
basis just to let your users be informed about the latest
technology you've added to your site. As for the mailing list,
you can get a free mailing list from www.egroups.com,
www.topica.com, or you can choose a paid service such as
www.aweber.com or www.getresponse.com. As for the content, you
can get lots of articles from bbs.weblord2000.com, or try one or
more of my articles that can be found on the same Web site.
Driving Traffic Webmasters shouldn't forget to announce your Web
site. Accomplishing this is easy for Web sites that already have
a lot of traffic, but even sites that are starting out with 5 or
10 members can benefit from the viral marketing of online
recommendation software. Services include www.recommend-it.com,
www.evite.com, and www.ewomp.com.
Dealing with Spammers Unfortunately, the reality of the Internet
is that people will spam and flame on a daily basis. Web-based
email addresses like the ones set up by www.everyone.net are
spam-proof. You can set up your account so that any emails sent
without your address in the "to" box can be directed
automatically to the trash or spam folder. However, flames and
hate emails are a different field. You shouldn't try to get even
or retaliate. These people are not a joke. It might cost you
your ISP or your e-life. Instead, check out www.spamcop.net. It
does the nitty-gritty work of automatically reporting
misbehaving people to their postmasters. Usually, it's helpful
to get the ISP, or at least the IP address of the suspected
person.
Stickiness! Webmasters are also faced with the challenge of
keeping their site sticky. CBSMarketwatch.com is a good example
of a sticky site. This stock/investment related site contains
timely news and excellent company data. The vast amount of
information results in a good number of page views per visitor.
Plus, visitors return on a daily basis to get the
latest-and-greatest market news and stock data. Lots of page
views per visitor AND repeat visits. now that's what you could
call really sticky.
Here are some additional suggestions: A) Make your site a portal
of information. It encourages your visitors to return and stay.
Hotsheet.com is one example of a one-page portal. B) Add games
to your site. You can get some here: www.uproar.co.uk or at
www.pogo.com/affiliates. C) Make your site interactive with a
guest book, forum, tell-a-friend link, webring, customizable
news, contests, polls, e-card, and free for all links.
Bizland.com allows you to sign up for an account and place the
code on your site. D) Provide links to freebies,
get-paid-to-surf sites, contests, incentives, jokes, quotes,
mp3, and gnutella. Just don't forget to opt in for at least
their email address before they can actually download stuff from
your site.
Find Your Web Host It's critical to find the right Web host.
Although you may need to get your own server when your site gets
one million page views per month, most sites that are starting
out do not require the complex and expensive task of managing
your own servers. There are many Web hosting providers that are
willing to provide starting at 40gb of Web space. You can also
look and compare different Web hosting providers on these sites:
www.webhostdir.com, www.hostfinders.com, www.hostindex.com,
www.hostsearch.com, and www.findahost.com. I always recommend
the advanced search, which allows you to specify your budget and
the specific features you will need.
Think Globally Keep the site international in its appeal.
Babelfish.altavista.com allows you to place snippets of code
into your site that will automatically translate your English
site to a different language, such as Spanish, Italian, German,
or Polish. As webmasters, we must remember that we cannot filter
countries on our site. We must be able to communicate with them.
Search Engine Submissions Webmasters love to promote their sites
on message boards, newsgroups, link exchanges, and even email,
but they often forgot the best source of traffic. Submission
sites like www.jimtools.com, www.weblord2000.com/submit.htm, and
www.beseen.com can be used to submit your site for free. You
don't need to submit to all of them, only to the major ones,
like Yahoo, AltaVista, Google, Hotbot, Infoseek/Go.com, Lycos,
and Northern Light. I hope that you have found these tips
helpful. For more information, please visit my site,
www.webtor.org.
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