Web Dev Notes

Ah, it doesn’t seem like it, but not too long ago we we’re somehow living in a world that survived running what we now call old operating systems…!

Click here to see Windows Evolution From 1.0 to Vista

It’s funny looking back at these pictures, especially when just today I was complaining about how slow my computer was running! It hasn’t even been 10 years since I was using Windows 95 which would takes 5 minutes to just turn on and would then need to be restarted after 10 minutes of operation when it would crash for no apparent reason…!

I’ll never be satisfied though. You can never have enough RAM.

Running a website or a blog can be a lot of work, especially if you run more than one! Staying organized is extremely important because in order to become successful you will need to consistently add new content to your website! While that sounds easy enough, it’s harder than you think! Some days the ideas just won’t come or you will have other planned activities (like a job or schoolwork) that will take priority! If you don’t organize yourself, it won’t be long before your website turns into one giant mess!

The above picture is a metaphor for your life! If you don’t want your life to look like scrambled eggs, read these 27 Great Tips to Keep Your Life Organized. Be sure to apply the same advice to your blog or website!

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!

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.

The best thing you can do for your blog is listen to your readers! Always reply to comments and emails from readers and consider discussing issues they bring up in future posts to show them you are paying attention!

If you don’t pay attention to your readers, they’ll be sad or indifferent. Sad or indifferent readers should not even be called readers, because they won’t be reading much of your website again! Do not underestimate how happy you can make your readers simply by noticing them and taking seriously any comments or opinions they share with you.

Happy readers are return visitors. Feed your visitors a happy meal.

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!

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!

The most important thing to remember when conducting interviews is to remain polite and courteous at all times! Most people dislike interviews, so make sure your client is as comfortable as possible! Why are you conducting interviews if you are interested in Web Development? Interviews are one method to help Collect the Information you Need in order to Start that Big Development Project.

Where do you begin? Well if you are at this point, that means the client has already made a request for a job that is needed or a project that must be developed. Go back to this initial request and come up with questions which will help you better understand exactly what the client is asking for.

What types of questions should you ask? If you are still in the earlier stages of development, the best questions to ask are open-ended questions because they can help you get very rich information from your client. Open-ended questions are those which require more than a yes/no response. These types of questions require the user to think for a moment in order to then provide a detailed response. For example, “Can you describe the main service you would like your website to offer your customers?”

If you are in the later stages of development, you already have assembled a clear idea of what the application should do and what it should be like. Interviews done at this stage should therefore use closed-ended questions in order to answer very specific questions. Closed-ended questions are those which can be answered with a simple yes/no, true/false or multiple choice selection which give a definite response to a question. For example, “Should the page layout expand to fit the screen or be limited to a size of 800×600?”

When interviewing people prior to developing a project, make sure you let them know the purpose of the interview. If you Understand the Work Domain, then you will realize that different stakeholders may have different feelings towards you as a developer than others. For example, some people that you need to interview may feel that the application you are creating will replace them and put them out of work. These users may therefore be hostile towards you and might be unwilling to be helpful. It is therefore important to make sure you are honest with everyone and let them know exactly what is going on, what you are developing, and why you need to interview them.

At the end of the interview, don’t just send the people out the door and on their way. Wrap-up by sharing your own thoughts about how you think the interview went. Tell those you interview what you think you discovered based on what they told you and ask them if your understanding is correct. Also let them know what you were unable to discover and see if they know who might be able to provide this information giving you a hint as to whom you should interview next!

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!

Leo Babauta recently wrote an excellent article titled “8 Essential Strategies to Saying No” over at FreeLanceSwitch.com. The reason this post will rock your socks right off your feet is because most of us are unable to say no the right way! Saying no can sometimes be an uncomfortable thing, so mastering the art of managing yourself can be more difficult than we expect.

If you are trying to make a living doing freelance work, it is even more important to be able to say no than for someone who is delegated work within a company. If you take on too much work, you will not be able to do a good job and will find yourself left with unhappy customers. If you take on too little, you won’t earn the big bucks you want!

Still… saying no doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Saying no does not necessarily offend those requesting your services. In fact, it may do quite the opposite. Leo suggests that saying no can send the message that you value your time, have priorities and will not commit to a job unless you have the time to do it properly.

Here are the 8 strategies Leo suggests you keep in mind:

1 - Try saying “yes” first
2 - Know your commitments
3 - Value your time
4 - Defer
5 - Be polite, but firm
6 - Pre-empy
7 - I’d love to, but
8 - Never say you’re sorry

You can read the full descriptions for each of the above over at Freelance Switch!

The one which really stood out to me was, “Never say you’re sorry”! While it will often be a reflex to apologize for being unable to help someone with their development project, you should never do so. You have a right to say no and should definitely train yourself into believing this! Be firm, but polite. Do not lead someone into thinking there is a chance you will be able to help them when there is not. Be honest with your clients and yourself!

Success will rarely come by chance. In fact, sometimes success will even evade those who have put in all the time and effort…! Still, if you want to be successful, the odds are definitely in the favor of those who have worked extremely hard for it and who have carefully executed plans they created for themselves in order to reach their goals and dreams. If you have a cat, then you’ve probably experienced the sensation of urinating your own pants when he/she sneaks up on you to jump on your leg. You would not have urinated your own pants if the cat had not carefully planned the attack and patiently waited for you to pass in the target zone.

If this little kitty can plot revenge, surely someone hoping to be a professional blogger, web developer or web entrepreneur can take a few minutes to write down some goals and then some plans to reach those goals. Don’t just head out onto the internet like a chicken with it’s head cut off or you might end up finding yourself on the wrong end of jokes like some presidents…

What kind of goals should you set for yourself? That depends of course on the individual situation. However, the best thing you can do for yourself is to set realistic goals. Don’t make them too easy, but make them attainable. You should not create one set of goals that you then follow for the rest of your life. You should work towards reaching your goals, then re-evaluate your situation and set new goals every few months.

If you have failed to reach your goals, don’t go into depression as that will not help. Analyze the circumstances and find out which chihuahua is holding you back. Nobody said becoming successful would be easy…! However, as with the kitty’s carefully planned attack, you will notice that another key to success is patience.

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!