Web Dev Notes

Contacts are extremely important if you hope to make any money doing web development. As a web developer, stay in touch with people you have done work for! Make sure these people think of you first when they need more work done! If you are developing your own website or blog, again, contacts are key to success. Make quality comments on forums and blogs with the genuine intention of helping these other sites, and you risk gaining these people as clients or visitors in the future.

Take some time every-day to help others by posting on their website and forums. Write articles about other sites from time to time. These relationships you will build will come back to benefit you in the long-run. Do not spam your link or advertise yourself. Taking the time to earn trust and respect will help you build up contacts and incoming links that will translate into more traffic and more opportunities.

What’s the best way to stay in touch? I’ve recently installed the ChatZilla IRC Client for Firefox. I love using IRC for group meetings since it is lightweight and easy for everyone to connect and join in the discussion. And best of all, the discussion can be logged so nothing important will be forgotten.

Gmail is of course the next obvious tool to stay in touch. Gmail is free and lets you access your email from anywhere which is what makes it more useful than using Outlook on your computer. Of course, there are many web-based email services available, but Gmail is by far the best for two reasons: Search and Labels. Labels are way better than folders because you can attach multiple labels to a single email that falls into multiple categories. Search is fast, so you can find that email you need very quick.

Instant Messaging is the next great way to stay in touch in real-time on a more personal level. There are many different messengers available, so it can become a hassle managing an MSN list, ICQ list, AIM list, etc…! To avoid this problem I use Trillain, which is a tool that combines all these instant messengers into one!

Lastly, use a tool like Google Reader to know when your contacts are posting on their website and what they are posting about. This way, you can visit them and comment when they cover a topic you are genuinely interested in.

I read an interesting article the other day titled “SEO or Content - Can There be Only One?” over at blognewswatch.com. I particularly enjoyed The Lazy SEO Manifesto which is both discouraging and encouraging depending on your point of view. SEO can be a great “get rich quick” tool, but without content, it’s like throwing magnets at a wall instead of a fridge, none of the traffic will stick.

The way I see it is quite simple. Quality content builds loyalty, quality SEO builds traffic. Content will allow your site to be successful in the long run, whereas SEO can bring you short term prosperity. Combining both SEO and content is the key to allowing your website to reach its full potential.

The reason we bookmark websites is because we have identified quality content. We would not need bookmarks if exactly what we wanted to see would show up every time we conducted a search. This leads to a major problem. Sometimes, what we are looking for is hidden in the depths of the internet because other sites with poor or equivalent content have used SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to gain higher rankings in search results. Millions of searches are conducted every week, so there is no doubt that higher rankings translate to higher traffic.

This website is a perfect example of SEO at work. While I hope to be offering quality content, there is no real reason why I should have a page rank of 5 and receive thousands of page views a week, after only my second week of writing this blog. Thanks to the 451press network of websites, each member benefits from the success of the other through extensive linking. In fact, I’ve noticed i’ve been getting traffic from search engines from people searching for “Alt-Tab Replacement” due to this article I wrote just last week! If I had posted the 100% exact same post on my Flogger blog, the post would remain, as previously mentioned, hidden in the depths of the internet.

While good SEO can lead to almost immediate success, you cannot expect your website to be viable for long without quality content. Building visitor loyalty is extremely important, because search engines are constantly working on ways to provide better results for searches conducted with their engine. As a result, if you rely solely on SEO, within a single day your website could potentially drop from thousands of visitors to virtually none should a search engine like Google make changes that cause your website to receive a lower page rank.

The best thing you can do is focus on content first. Next, build up good relationships with other websites similar to your own so that you can get quality incoming links. This will help build a solid foundation for your website such that it can survive regardless of whatever search engines are up to. If time remains, then try to do some SEO to increase traffic to your website. Don’t waste time on SEO until you have something to offer. In fact, you may actually harm your site if visitors are lured in and find nothing useful because in the future, once you have content, they may skip clicking your link if they still remember wasting their time the last time they visited it!

Have you ever considered the possibility that Google and other search engines might prefer domains which have a further expiry date? I know I hadn’t until I read an article at DailyBlogTips.com on the subject.

Here is a quote from a Google Patent which indicates that a domains expiry date is likely to contribute to the websites ranking! How much it contributes, we will likely never know…

Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith. -Google patent

Should you start renewing your domains for longer periods? I would. There are billions of websites out there so any competitive edge you can get, no matter how small, will sometimes allow your website to jump up in rank past thousands of others!

Most of my domains are currently 1-year registrations with the exception of one that is 3-years. Come renewal time, I’ll be taking a moment to consider my future plans. For websites that I know will still be kicking in a few years, I’ll renew for longer! However, my parked domains or those sitting relatively idle will still only be 1-year registrations. The idea here in not to waste money, but invest it properly in online real-estate where it counts!

Submitting articles to Digg is an incredibly powerful resource because it can potentially send you thousands of visitors if you reach the front page! However, Digg is very community focused and is more about swarming the popular content online as decided by the majority of its users, rather than promoting the authors of the content. WriterDatabase.com on the other hand is all about promoting the authors and connecting them with publishers online.

Articles submitted to WriterDatabase.com are ranked by rating, giving the top authors in different categories the chance to have their material read. The best part is, you can link to your website within your articles and on your personal profile which is good for search engine optimization and which will continually drive traffic to your website!

There is also a top authors list which is based upon the number of articles you submit. Those who submit the most articles to the site will show up at the top of this list, exposing their profile and any links it may contain to all users of the website. You can include up to 5 links in your profile to any website you desire. Your profile will also link to all the articles you have submitted, each of which will link to your websites and the source of the article!

Submitting articles to websites like WriterDatabase.com is definitely a great way of driving traffic to your website because of all the links you will generate in the process! By creating these links, your page rank will also get a boost, therefore increasing your rankings in search engines and thus lead to an even further increase in traffic! The next best part is that publishers will use website like WriterDatabase.com to find content for their websites. If a publisher uses one of your articles, they are required to keep your links and give you all credit for the material, meaning you could have very popular news sites sending your tons of traffic as well!

Is WriterDatabase.com a nice idea, but not for you?

There are some things to consider before submitting an article! First of all, because the article will be published on WriterDatabase.com, you need to make sure the content is your own and you have permission to submit it! Also, if you are a 451 Press writer like myself, you can only submit articles that are 30 days old or more because 451 Press receives exclusive rights for one month. However, could you think of a better way to start driving traffic to your older articles? Have those older articles start sending you traffic all over again by submitting them to WriterDatabase.com!

Are you excited about this opportunity and eager to start submitting your articles, but don’t have the time to do so?

The effort is worth it! In the long run, you will drive traffic to your site and boost your page rank giving you an advantage over your competitors!

And of course, at this point I must tell you who is bringing WriterDatabase.com into your life to provide you with these wondrous opportunities!

Yes, I am guilty of promoting my own website, I admit it! WriterDatabase.com is a site I have put together using Article Dashboard. In fact, you can download the Article Dashboard software to create your own article directory as well! If you do create your own directory, please send me the link because I want to submit all my articles to as many article directories as possible for all of the advantageous reasons I listed above!

Lynn Little at SeoDance.com was the one who first inspired me to look into submitting my content to article directories when she suggested some good websites to submit articles too and explained why you want to do so! Hopefully she’ll add mine to the list!

The last question on your mind might be, why submit to WriterDatabase.com now when it has just launched and is still a small directory? Well actually, thats the best time to start submitting! Remember, those who submit the most articles will have their profiles shown highest on the Top Authors page! Now is the easiest time to make the list and drive extra traffic to any of the websites you list as a link in your profile!

The first step to Search Engine Optimization is making sure all the creepy crawlers can actually find their way around your website. Lets say I plan to take a trip to China to crawl (ie: visit) a certain part of the country. When I show up I’ll need directions, but unfortunately, even if I find a kind fellow happy to assist me, if he speaks to me in Mandarin, I won’t understand anything and I’ll be lost!

You can do all the optimization you like, but if you confuse poor Googlebot, he’ll turn around and go visit someone else! You need to welcome Googlebot and friends with open arms and feed them all the instructions they need to easily find all the destinations on your site. Sitemaps are great, but we’ll talk about those another day. Flash websites for example can be beautiful, but crawlers hit Flash like a bird into a freshly cleaned patio door. While they’ll stop at your site knocked out for a moment, they’ll quickly realize they can’t go forward, turn around a fly away!

Knocking out Googlebot is a bad idea if you want to increase traffic to your website. While crawlers can handle indexing poorly coded websites, the best thing you can do is validate your site “just in case”. Validating your website will help you find errors in your HTML or CSS that you likely don’t know are there and which are usually very easy fixes. Fix these up and make your site more inviting to the crawlers!

Also, definitely find broken links and fix them ASAP! Don’t upset those poor crawlers by sending them looking for pages that don’t exist! That’s just cruel don’t you think?

• W3C Markup Validation
• W3C CSS Validation
• W3C Feed Validation
• Find Broken Links

Do you want your blog to be a success or a failure? In order to be successful you MUST have quality content. Forget about quantity of posts and focus on quality. Plant the seeds for success early.

In order for your blog to take-off, you need some very high quality posts you can use as your foundation. Take the time to write these posts and then link to them often in the future. Help use them to propel you forward.

Of course, while those old cornerstone posts will help get your blog rolling and will be excellent at grabbing the attention of first time visitors, you won’t be able to grow unless you also hang on to your returning visitors. Even if you plant the seeds for success, your plant won’t grow unless you water it and put it somewhere where it can get sun.

Speaking about getting sun, don’t expect your blog to magically grow on its own! Your plant doesn’t have legs… If you leave it in the shade, it won’t get up and walk over to the sun. Your blog won’t get up and show itself on peoples screens either. You’ll need to get out there and market your content in order to attract some attention. Post comments on blogs with similar topics and hope that other authors and bloggers start sending you some links! If you have great content, the links will come!

For more tips about marketing and advertising your blog, check out the Web Dev Notes Marketing Section.

Looking for Web Development Software or Books? Visit my Web Development Software and Books Store!

Want to Increase your Websites Page Rank and Incoming Traffic? Submit your Articles to WriterDatabase.com. It’s Free!

Remember back in April when I became the new writer for Web Dev Notes? I started off by introducing Joomla, PHP-Nuke, phpBB and PHP. I even recommended some cool software like the ALT-Tab Replacer, Virtual Desktop Manager and the Firebug plugin for Firefox. After a slow start, I finally got my big break when my article Formatting Text in Wordpress started to bring in steady traffic!

In my early Web Dev Notes days I stuck to covering more technical topics such as how to insert CSS on your website or how to create your first PHP page. However, after testing out the use of humor in posts like the Top Ten Stupidest Joomla! Administrator Tricks and When will GoogleBot index my Brain I discovered that this unique approach was actually quite well received! I also realized website marketing and SEO was a very popular aspect of web development so I decided to venture into this area with posts like The Battle for Traffic - SEO vs Content, No Contacts, No Money and Validate Your Website for Better SEO!

Of course, even though I would later discover that marketing and SEO would be a very popular topic on my blog, at the time I had no idea yet! Looking at my stats, the posts about PHP were the most trafficked so I decided to cover this area more extensively! In May I introduced some great web development resources and then discussed the relationship between PHP and a Web Server/Browser in order to build a solid foundation before diving right into PHP for the rest of the month. I then covered how to comment PHP code, the debate over using Print or Echo, how to use variables, how to use concatenation with variables and variable naming conventions. Using this introductory material, I was then able to go even deeper and cover topics like using arrays, if/else programming logic, nested IF/ELSE conditional statements, and PHP Loops. Since the topic of loops is already an extensively covered subject, I decided to make my articles sound unique by naming them, “The magic of WHILE Loops“, “The incredible FOR Loop Multi-Tasker“, and “The FOREACH Loop Love Affair with Mr. Array“.

In order to stay informed, I subscribed to many RSS feeds relating to my topic. In so doing I noticed that Digg and Google were two very popular topics. I decided to explore these subjects a bit with articles like, “List of Google Hoaxes“, “Who’s Digging You?“, “Google’s PageRank Explained by Phil Craven“, “Declare Warr on Digg Doondles!“, “I Hacked Google and Stole Their Robot lolol“, and “Are Your Archives Burying You Worse Than Digg“. These articles continue to bring in traffic to this day!

During the month of June I was taking a course on Interface Design so decided to cover similar topics on Web Dev Notes. I began by discussing the advantages of using personas during development and then decided to list nine causes of software error before discussing software quality and the three general principles of quality assurance. I introduced the subject of human/computer interaction and demonstrated how good design can help us better interact with computers. In fact, making the interaction between humans and computers as easy as possible is an important goal of improved user interface design. I also mentioned that building the right product is even more important than building a product right.

It was around mid-June when I also began to notice how well my SEO, blogging and marketing tips posts were doing! I therefore decided to write about the guaranteed way to generate incoming links and conquering the crowded niche! I also wrote about some issues I was having with trying to follow my own advice when I noticed my trackbacks were being kidnapped and asked if it were possible if my bullets were killing them! Not wanting to stray too far from the very roots of web development, I also introduced the Pixel Groovy website, discussed how to created animated favicons and threw in 21 CSS tutorials answering frequently asked questions.

During the month of July I continued to cover a lot of marketing topics. I created a new Top 11 Posts section and asked if people thought linking to other sites increases incoming traffic. I also started to learn a great deal about blogging and realized that my very own archives contained in itself the power to help WebDevNotes succeed. I therefore stopped considering old posts like dirty socks thrown into a laundry bin, and instead began viewing them as cornerstone content that should be linked back to frequently so that new visitors could access my best content easily.

Upon making this realization, I began offering my visitors some blogging advice with the help of Lolcats to make the posts more fun and easy to read. For example:

Don’t let Chihuahua’s hold back your website! Start working with the purrrrfect partners and plot your plan for success. Make sure you plant the seeds for success early and listen to feedback so you can feed your readers a happy meal. Make good use of article directories and other marketing techniques and never forget the secrets to writing a successful blog!

In conclusion, to those who say linking to old content is difficult, I beg to differ! Don’t let those archives go to waste

Marketing is a big part of achieving success in any domain. If you want your website to become more popular you will need to plan your strategy attack in order to take the world by storm. So… where to begin?

more funny pictures

It’s never too early to market your website, however, before undertaking a significantly large marketing campaign it would first be a good idea to make sure you have a product worth marketing. The majority of the readers of this website are individuals looking for advice in order to make their own personal blog more popular such that it can eventually return a profit. If you find yourself in this position then before launching a huge marketing campaign make sure you have quality posts ready on your website. Make sure you have a good landing page and then make sure your best content can be easily found from this page. This will greatly increase the chance of a visitor subscribing to your RSS feed or adding your website to their favorites.

If you want to take the world by storm, you’ll need to invest some money into advertising programs such as Google Adwords. These types of programs will allow you to place your advertisement on web pages throughout the internet. Clicks will also be of higher quality with a program like Google Adwords because your ad will be shown in contextually relevant places which would imply that generally the user viewing the add has interest in the subject.

If you don’t have money to invest, there are ways to get visitors to your website for free. While it’s nice to invest a chunk of change and see your website take off instantly, it’s just as rewarding to build your site from the ground-up bit by bit. You can’t always rush success in life, sometimes you’ll need to earn it

If you read any website providing marketing tips related to blogging you’ll see the same advice repeated time and time again. JOIN DISCUSSIONS. It really is that simple and even after reading it over and over again most people won’t do it. Join a forum, but don’t advertise your website with a new post. This will only result in your post being deleted and marked as spam! What you should do is simply add your link to your signature then join in the discussions. The more helpful you are to other users of the forum the more likely you are to receive clicks to your website. Also take the time to comment on blogs related to yours. Do not see these people as the enemy or as competitors, see them as friends and post meaningful comments. These people will not only then visit your site, but may possibly also post a link to your site on theirs which could send your lots of traffic and help build up the page rank of your site!

Take the time to help others and in-time you will enjoy the rewards of being a good person. Spamming can get you traffic spikes, but in the end you will not have gained much if the visitor never returns again. Don’t be afraid to take the world by storm… bit by bit!

First things first, what is a favicon you ask? A favicon is the small icon that you see in the URL field in your browser when visiting a website. Depending on the versions of your browser, when you bookmark a page, you will also see the websites favicon when looking through your bookmarks. If you look up into your URL field right now, you will see that the favicon for this particular website is the 451press logo, which consists of a red square with white flames.

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of favicons while browsing the internet as they are becoming more and more common. However, have you ever seen an animated favicon? That is to say, have you ever seen one that shows a moving image? It’s actually quite easy to do!

To add a favicon to your website, all you need to do is create an icon named favicon.ico and put it in the root directory of your website. It will then automatically show up for all users visiting your site! Pretty simple.

So how do you create this favicon.ico file? For more advanced users, you can draw it in Photoshop. If you do this, you will need to download a plugin which will allow you to save in .ico format. Of course, I have found that you can just save as favicon.gif, then rename the file to favicon.ico and it will still load in all browsers. Please note, for your favicon to work, it must be exactly 16×16 pixels.

There is however a great alternative for users who just wish to generate a favicon from an image file. HTML-kit.com offers a great tool which will let you choose an image file on your computer and have it converted into a favicon for you. All you will then need to do is save the file it generates and upload it to your server in your root directory.

Great, now you know how to create a favicon and where to put it. The next question is, how do you make it animated? Well, .gif files can actually be made into animations. Again, you can use Photoshop to create animated .gif images. You can also visit GifAnimations.com if you are looking for some free animations you can use. To use your animated .gif file as your favicon, you will need to then use the following code on your webpage:

<link href=�?images/favico.gif�? TYPE=�?image/gif�? REL=�?icon�?>

If you’d like to see an animated favicon in action, visit Pod1.

So why bother using an animated favicon? Well, since the favicon will be displayed when a user is browsing through their bookmarks, the fact that yours is animated may make it stand out a bit more and this could help remind visitors to visit your website more often!

Search Engine Optimization, often referred to as “SEO”, is basically a method for fooling search engines into ranking your website higher! The reason this sounds evil is because it is! When we search the web, we want to find relevant search results that provide high quality content! However, when we then go to work on our website, we use SEO to try and get our results ahead of others! In a perfect world, we would sit down and write higher quality content in order to rank ahead of others, but this is no perfect world! Given a reasonable level of quality and some good SEO, you could find yourself showing up in search results in no time! The trick is knowing exactly what to tweak and how to tweak it.

For more articles relating to SEO, check out the WebDevNotes SEO section. The point of this particular article is not to teach you SEO, but to make sure you are aware of it’s importance. If Darwin were around today, he’s be more than happy to explain his theory of evolution and relate the idea of survival of the fittest to websites and their ability to rank in Google.

As usual you may be asking yourself, what the heck do I mean? Nobody will eat your website, but your website does need to eat in order to survive. Unless you are writing a script for a horror movie, your website should not literally be eating people, however, it does need a constant supply of visitors to serve any useful purpose. Unless you are willing to invest in advertising, the only way you are going to get visitors to your website is by either posting actively on other web-sites or ranking higher in Google. It’s survival of the fittest because as soon as a more SEvOlved website comes a long and starts ranking better for your keywords, that website will start stealing all of your visitors, hence starving your website species into extinction!

Unless you want your website to become obsolete and extinct, you need to make sure it is SEvOlved! Keep reading our SEO section on a daily basis in order to stay up to date on the latest web-mutations that can give you a competitive advantage over other website species. Unlike human evolution, web-evolution does not take millions of years, it takes weeks.