[email protected]
If you spend most of your time working in and moving among Office suite applications and a browser, create the ultimate Desktop by integrating the two. Click on IE 4.0's Favorites button to open the Explorer Bar, then open each Word, Excel or other document you often work with one at a time by typing its path and filename in IE 4.0's Address bar. You'll notice that OLE-compliant applications launch "in place" in the browser window, and that the Word and IE 4.0 menus and button bars merge. Each time you open a document, drag and drop it into the Favorites bar. Do the same for your commonly accessed folders (just type the path to the folder in the Address bar). After you've built up your Favorites bar, you can move from your Desktop work to the Internet without switching application
Maintain your hard drive by performing these steps at least monthly, in this order:
1.) Delete all files and folders with dates older than
one week from C:\WINDOWS\TEMP.
2.) Purge your browser's history and Internet cache files.
3.) Run ScanDisk. Select the Standard radio button and enable
Automatically Fix Errors. Click on Advanced and, under Log File,
pick Replace Log; for Cross-Linked Files, select Delete; click>br> Free under Lost File Fragments; under Check Files For, check
"Invalid dates and times;" and disable "Check host drive first,"
unless you've compressed your hard drive.4.) Empty the Recycle Bin.
5.) Run Defrag.
If your keyboard includes a WinKey (it's got the Win95 logo on it and is
usually located near the Alt key), you probably already know that pressing
it once opens the Start menu. But did you know it also offers shortcuts to
several system functions when used in combination with other keys? Here are
a few:TASK SHORTCUTOpen an Explorer window: WinKey+E
Open the Run dialog: WinKey+ROpen the System Properties: WinKey+Pause
Find: All Files: WinKey+FFind: Computer: WinKey+Ctrl+F
Minimize all open windows: WinKey+M
Undo minimize all open windows: WinKey+Shift+M
Cycle through taskbar program buttons: WinKey+TabOpen Windows Help: WinKey+F1
If you've turned off images in order to speed up downloads, you can grab a
single picture file if necessary by right-clicking on the image and
selecting either Show Picture (in IE4) or Show Image (in Netscape 4)
A quick way to paste into the MS-DOS Prompt is to click on the Paste
button, which is the third button from the left on the toolbar. If the
toolbar doesn't appear in the MS-DOS Prompt window, right-click on the
title bar and select Toolbar from the Context menu.
The Address toolbar in Win98
or IE 4.0's Active Desktop performs a Web search
if you enter a phrase. (This doesn't work for a single word, because IE 4.0
assumes it's a domain name and attempts to create a URL in its place.) Type in a few words and IE 4.0 will run your phrase through a search engine on Microsoft's Web site.
Is there a Web page you check several times a day? Put it in a Win98 toolbar to make it easy to access. Right-click on the taskbar and choose Toolbars/New Toolbar, then enter the full URL in the dialog box that opens and click on OK. The new toolbar will appear on the taskbar. Drag it off the taskbar and hold the mouse pointer at the right edge of the screen until the toolbar automatically mounts itself there. Now drag the left edge of the toolbar to the width of the Web page. Finally, right-click on the toolbar's gray title bar and choose Auto Hide. (You can also choose Always On Top.) Whenever you move your mouse pointer to the extreme right side of your screen, the Web page will open; move the pointer off the toolbar, and it will automatically close. (NOTE: With IE4's Desktop Update, Win95 users can perform this tip as well.)
It's easy to assign a different letter to your CD-ROM drive. Under Windows 95, go to the Control Panel, double-click on the System icon, then click on the Device Manager tab. Locate your drive in the list, bring up its properties, and click on the Settings tab. In the section at the bottom of the dialog box, enter the desired drive letter in the boxes labeled Start Drive Letter and End Drive Letter (for a single CD-ROM drive, these letters will be identical).
You can also limit the disk space used by IE for cached files to a specific amount by hacking the Registry. Launch RegEdit from the Run command line and drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Internet\Settings\Cache\Content. Double-click on CacheLimit and change the Value Data to the amount you want (for example, enter the hexadecimal value 2800 for an even 10MB). (NOTE: Editing the registry can be dangerous. Always back up your system before editing the registry.) Netscape Communicator users can set the limit on their disk cache more easily. In Communicator, go to Edit/Preferences. In the Category section, double-click on Advanced, then click on Cache. Change the Disk Cache value to reflect the amount of disk space the cache should use.
Does Your BIOS Have a Bias? You may encounter problems if you're attempting to upgrade an older system with a new hard drive. Many old PCs have a system BIOS that won't recognize hard disks larger than 2.1GB. Luckily, many PCs can overcome this problem through flash BIOS upgrades. It may be just a matter of downloading an upgrade file and running an installation. Call your system manufacturer or check its Web site for more information.
If a new application is accompanied by an information file (filename.INF), that file may contain Registry-revision instructions. If so, search it for lines beginning AddReg= and DelReg=. These lines point to the sections of the INF file that contain those instructions. Review the sections to get an idea of what changes are about to be made to the Registry.
Ever wish you could get Dial-Up Networking to redial when it encounters a busy signal? Microsoft, unfortunately, doesn't make this the default state. To turn it on, open Dial-Up Networking (in My Computer) and select Settings from the Connections menu. The Redial selections let you choose the number of times to retry a failed connection, and the amount of time betweentries.
If you have some kind of mysterious executable file (EXE, DLL, OCX) on your system, right-click on it in Explorer, select Properties and click on the Version tab. This displays the version resource inside the file (if it has one), which normally includes the name of the company that created the file, the product the file is associated with, and the file's versionnumber.
It seems that the default Win95 desktop icons are hardwired, but they're not. You can change them by editing the Registry. Note that editing the Registry is for power users with complete system backups only. Here's how you do it. In the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT section of the Registry, find CLSID, right-click on it and select Find. Now search for the specific series of numbers (listed below) for each desktop item. Note that the easiest way to do this is to copy-and-paste the secret code listed below to the Registry Find dialog box. Click Find to search. Once you've found it, double click on it and select DefaultIcon. In the right pane, double-click on the word Default. In the "Value Data" box, type the path to the file containing the icon you want to use. For the Recycle Bin, you can set different icons for empty and full.Here are the secret codes:My Computer 20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309DNetworking Neighborhood Icon 208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309DInbox Icon 00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046Recycle Bin 645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E
To use a mouse cursor file as an icon, right-click on the document or shortcut and select Properties from the Context menu. Click on the Shortcut tab, then the Change Icon button. Use the Browse button item to navigate to the C:\Windows\Cursors folder. Select All Files from the Files of Type drop-down menu. Select the cursor file of your choice and click OK.
You can download Alta Vista Personal 97 at: http://www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au/av/content/searchpx.htm
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There Isn't a Web Site We Can't Improve!Tune Up Your Web Site Free! http://www.WebSiteGarage.com/?news
TOP SEVEN MISTAKES IN WEB SITE DESIGN Maintaining your site is an on-going process, not only should you continually update your listing with search engines but you should also make the appropriate revisions to your site which include design updates. The following tips should help you create a site to be enjoyed by all your visitors. 1. Try Not to Use Frames- Many people (especially large corporations) seem to think that frames are the answer to all their Web site navigation issues. Unfortunately, they cause more problems than they solve. Your visitors can't bookmark a page which uses frames, nor can you track where they are going. 2. Don't Use Your Site to Showcase the Newest Web Technology- Once again this can be problematic to your visitors, if their browser or computer does not support this new technology you will only lose them forever. 3. Avoid Complex URLs- Studies have shown that people try to determine the structure of a Web site by the URL. Users often have to type the URL in so try to make it as intuitive as possible by using short names in lower case characters. 4. Provide a Site Map- Often sites are created on the Web without a clear sense of how all the components of the site work together. A lack of clear organization of a Web site will only lead to frustrated visitors to your site. 5. Avoid Non Standard Link Colors- One of the only constants among all Web browsers is that links to pages users have not yet seen are blue, and links to previously viewed pages are purple or red. By changing this color you risk confusing your visitors. 6. Remove Outdated Information-The most appealing aspect of the Web is that the information on it can change rapidly and sometimes dynamically. One of the most frustrating things I find when surfing the Web is when a site has not been updated. Updating your site is well worth the time spent. 7. Avoid Long Load Times-You are probably reading this, thinking, "I already knew that." Well, until all sites load in an acceptable time (which, by our standards, is less than 30 seconds, and that's being generous) this will continue to be the largest problem facing the Web. People simply aren't willing to wait more than 30 seconds for a site to load before they move on to the next one.To reduce your load time check out GIF LUBE: http://www.WebSiteGarage.com/turbocharge/gif_lube/?news This free utility will let you significantly reduce the size of your graphics without an appreciable difference in its appearance by reducing the number of colors in the graphic. To get more information about these tips and others check out: http://www.useit.com/?websitegaragenews
Servicing your Web site has never been easier!
Virtual | Virtual | Adult | Windows ] budgetweb.com is your one stop consumer guide to web services. You can find low cost presence providers who will host your home page, and graphic designers and scanning services to help you improve it. Whether you are a business looking to create a virtual presence on www.yourbusiness.com or a charity trying to find the best deal, you should be able to find a service offering the features you want at a good price. Also check out: Books Credit Cards Digital Cameras Investing Online Life Insurances Long-Distance Rates Mortages
Putting Your Business on the Web
For those people just getting started, and perhaps unsure of the terminology, quick primers are available for putting your business on the web.
Lists of web space providers
Virtual Hosting services costing less than $50/month and offering a URL like www.yourcompany.com
Non-Virtual Hosting services costing less than $20/month and offering a URL like www.yourprovider.com/yourcompany
Adult Hosting services from the above two lists who accept content intended for a mature audience
Windows Hosting services from the top two lists who are running Microsoft Windows NT on their servers
Lists of other web service providers
Scanning Companies offering photo scanning services
Graphics Comp anies offering web site and graphic design services
The Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up a Web Site by Peter Kent, author of Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site. Millions of dollars are wasted every month by Web-site owners making very basic mistakes. The following list summarizes some of the most important and most common problems. 1. Believing the Web Hype: A Web Site is Not a Billboard on the Information Superhighway How many times have you heard that "a Web Site is a Billboard on the Information Superhighway"? It's not, and treating it as such is a sure way to waste time and lose money. There are two main reasons that Web sites are not like billboards. First, a real-world b illboard can be seen by anyone driving by. But nobody will drive by your Web site unless you invite them to do so. You Web site will be on a computer's hard disk connected to the Internet; accessible to anyone who requests to see it. But if nobody requests it, nobody sees it. The second reason Web sites are not billboards is that they can be so much more. A billboard provides one-way information flow; the person passing the billboard reads the message and views the pictures. But a Web site can -- and should -- provide a two-way flow of information. Visitors to your site can read your message, but they can also provide you with information. And one of the most important pieces of information a visitor to your site can provide is an e-mail address. No, I'm not talking about "stealing" addresses somehow (the threat of information the ft has been greatly exaggerated; there is no reliable way for a Web site to surreptitiously grab visitor's e-mail address). No, I'm talking about asking for e-mail addresses. If people are interested in what you have to say, and if you ask for an address in the right way, people will provide their addresses. A Web site has to be more than just a Web site. E-mail is essential to any worthwhile Web campaign. There are a number of ways you can work with e-mail in conjunction with your Web site: Set up autoresponders: people who send messages to you will get an automatic response, and if you have a good autoresponder you can also save the name and e-mail address of each person in a log file. Electronic newsletters can be distributed via e-mail, to people who s ign up by sending an e-mail message to you, or who sign up at your Web site. You can collect e-mail addresses at your site and use them to send out product announcements, information about changes made to your site, special offers, and so on. 2. Assuming That Your ISP is the Same as Your Web Host There's a very basic misunderstanding among most new Web-site owners. They assume that Internet access is the same as Web hosting. In other words, if you want a Web site, you ask your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to give yo u space. This is completely wrong. Providing Internet access and hosting Web sites are two very different things. You'll get Internet access from an ISP, and a Web site from a Web-hosting company. (Many people have been confused by the fact that many Internet-software companies refer to Web-hosting comp anies as ISPs ... but then, the computer business has always been one in which jargon and terminology is used in a very confusing and ambiguous way!) Yes, many, perhaps most, ISPs also provide Web space. But a company that provides affordable and reliable connections to the Internet may provide absolutely awful Web-hosting services, and vice versa. It's very rare to find a first-rate ISP that is also a first-rate Web-hosting company. Here's what you need to do. First, find good Internet access in your area, just the right combination of cost, speed, and reliability. Don't worry about whether the company can also host your Web pages. N ext, find a Web-hosting company. How? See the special report, "20 Questions to Ask Web Hosting Companies," following this report. You'll also find information about the sorts of services you need for your Web site. 3. Not getting a domain name! If you are serious about setting up a really useful Web site, don't scrimp. Go ah ead and get a domain name. (If you need help, and background information about domain names, see "Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site." Otherwise go to http://rs.internic.net/ to register a .com or .org domain name.) What's a domain name? It's the "core" of an Internet address. For instance, take a look at this Web address: http://www.poorrichard.com/ poorrichard.com is a domain name. It's registered with InterNIC, the organization currently administering domain names. And it allows me to create other Web addresses. For instance, http://www.poorrichard.com/index.html is the address of a Web page, as is http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/ I can also create e-mail addresses using this domain: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Now, most new Web-site owners simply set up a Web site with their Internet Service Providers, and end up with a domain name such as this: http://members.aol.com/~acmesewercover.htm. There are a few problems with this. First, it doesn't look very professional. Wouldn't http://www.acmesewercover.com/ look more established? Secondly, what happens when you finally realize that your service provider can't give your Web site all the things it needs? When you finally realize that you'll have to change to a real Web hosting company? Well, your Web address will change. That means you'll have to reprint business cards, letterhead, invoices, catalogs .... Furthermore, you'll lose all the people who used to go to http://members.aol.com/~acmesewercover.htm -- they won't know where you are now. And if you're Web site is linked to by other Web sites, including search engines, you'll have to request that all those other sites change their links! Though that may not be too much of a problem ... because you may find that you weren't able to get listed at the most important search engine (Yahoo!), because it doesn't like "subdomain" Web sites like http://members.aol.com/~acmesewercover.htm. It's not worth the risk. Pay the $100 that it takes to get a domain for the first two years (it's $50 a year after that), and do it right.
4. Using a Cybermall If you're creating a business in the real world, a shopping mall is a great place to be. The problem is, it's expensive. But on the Internet, there are lots of cybermalls, and they've all got affordable accounts. You can have your Web site hosted by a cybermall, and be alongside all those other businesses! Think of the traffic!
Cybermall accounts are usually more expensive than a good Web-hosting account, and provide very few benefits. And in some cases they provide really atrocious Web-creation skills.
5. Poor Design I've seen some terrible Web sites, and I'm sure you have too. Web sites that are difficult to find your way around. Sites that are difficult to read. Sites that are missing important information. Information that's formatted in a way that makes it really hard to work with. Oh, and Web sites that are truly ugly.) A great way to see examples of really horrible Web sites is to visit a cybermall. (Some of the worst sites -- and some of the ugliest -- are at the cybermalls!) Another is to visit the Web Pages That Suck site: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ This site is run by a design teacher, and is based on the principle that you can "Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design." It's excellent, so don't miss it. If you are worried that your design skills are not up to scratch, don't worry, use templates. Most Web authoring programs come with a set of templates you can use -- simply open a template, add your text, and save it as a new file. There are also several books that come with disks of templates. For instance, for $39.99 you can buy the Web Design Templates Sourcebook (Lisa Schmeiser, New Riders, ISBN1-56205-754-5) and get a CD with 300 templates to choose from. 6. Treating the Internet Like a Multimedia System We've all seen the hype: television ads that show Web pages with animations and video moving at warp speed, computer-magazine articles pushing multimedia Web tools, books explaining how to add every cool little toy to your Web site ... Well, the Internet is not a multimedia system. It simply moves too slowly. In fact, its data transfer rates are so slow that it doesn't even meet the multimedia-computer requirements set by Microsoft several years ago. What's the number one complaint from computer users about the World Wide Web? It's too slow! Not, "there's not enough video," but "pages load too slowly." So it simply doesn't make sense to load up your Web site with all sorts of cool little toys which will slow your site down.
7. Not Promoting Your Web Site If you set up a Web site, then wait for visitors ... you'll have a long wait. We're back to the "a Web site is a billboard on the Information SuperHighway" myth again. Build it and they will come. Well, they won't. You have to bring people to your site, using whatever method you can. Here are just a few ideas: Register with the search engines (an obvious answer, with some not-so-obvious problems ... as I'll explain in a moment). Talk about your site in appropriate Internet discussion groups -- newsgroups and mailing lists. Talk about your site in discussion groups on the online services -- CompuServe, America Online, MSN, and so on. Write articles for electronic newsletters (there are thousands of these being distributed over the Internet). Do product giveaways at other, busy Web sites. You can collect e-mail addressees, then hold a drawing; if you're a publisher, give away books, a software manufacturer, give away software, a teddy bear retailer, give away bears. Mention your site on everything you print; business cards, invoices, catalogs, advertisements. 8. Not Providing a Real Reason for People to Visit If you're going to promote your site, you have to give people a reason to come to it. A site that's merely a "buy this product" site, may not do too well. But if you put something at the site that people can get without buying anything � something actually useful, entertaining, or interesting -- people will come, and they'll tell their friends. The easiest thing to give away is information, and many companies do so, It has to be worth visiting your site to get, but if you know your business well that shouldn't be a problem. Fishing stores can provide articles about how to catch more fish; biking stores can give information about the latest products on the market and schedules of bike races around the world; publishers can give away a few chapters from each book. Give people a reason to visit, promote your site well ... and they will visit. 9. Worrying Too Much About Search Engines Search engines -- the Web's indexes -- are important. But you can't expect to register with them and then sit back and wait for visitors. Why? For three main reasons: There are hundreds of search engines -- well over 600 -- but most get very little traffic. Your listing may sit at some of these sites for years, and never get a click. The most important search engine of all is Yahoo! Perhaps 3/4 of all searches are done through Yahoo! But also 3/4 of the people who try to get listed at Yahoo! fail to do so. Yahoo!'s important, so keep trying ... but even if you do get listed it could take months. Even when your site gets listed, you may not see traffic go through the roof. There are millions of Web sites, all competing for traffic. And you may find that your listing is just one among hundreds of others. Don't expect search engines to boost your traffic dramatically; you may be lucky, and get a good position at Yahoo! But you should still be doing other things to bring people to your site. 10. Overestimating power of the Internet and ignoring the real world The Internet is a fantastic tool, but it's a mistake to imagine that it replaces the real world. You should be promoting your Web site in the real world, or you're missing valuable opportunities. Here's an example. I recently did a radio show, Log On USA, that is syndicated to 60 cities, with 750,000 listeners. I've also had "Poor Richard's Web Site" mentioned in BYTE, a magazine with a similar number of readers. And hundreds of reviewers are looking at the book, with a potential readership of millions of people. Now, where can you find those sorts of numbers on the Internet? Very few places, if any. Some sites claim millions of "hits," but a hit is not a visit (a hit is simply the transfer of information from the Web server -- a page, image, embedded sound, an error message, and so on). Very, very few Web sites tens of thousands of readers, and few still have hundreds of thousands, but such opportunities abound in the real world. Newspapers, magazines, TV shows, radio shows ... ignore them at your peril! And the bonus ... 11. Trying to Keep Up with the CyberJoneses Don't try to be too clever when creating your Web site. Don't try to make your site the coolest thing on the Web ... don't try to keep up with the CyberJoneses, because they're often wasting time and money and getting little in return. Web technology is still young, and the more you try to get it to do, the less likely it is to succeed. Here's an example. I visited a major city's Web site recently, to find information about upcoming conferences in that city. The Web site has a special program that allows you to search for events. I selected a date range and clicked on the search button ... and was presented with a huge page showing scores of events; the only problem was, each event was actually the same event, displayed over and over again, once for each day in my date range.
I didn't need a search engine. All I needed was a list of events, which could have been created by anyone with the most basic of Web-design skills; one page per month, with a list of events for that month, would have been nice. But these people decided to be clever, and screwed up the site.
Be very careful with the advanced stuff. Look for simple ways in which your Web site can present the information your visitors are looking for; for every expensive and complicated scheme, there are a dozen cheap and easy ways to achieve the same thing -- and more reliable ways, too.
There are three main ways to set up a Web site:
Install your own Web server and connect it to the Internet (expensive and complicated!) Set up Web pages on your service provider's Web space (cheap, but you won't get the services a Web site really needs) Set up your Web site on a Web-hosting company's computer Most small businesses should pick the last of these options; they should work with a Web-hosting company. Accounts are available at such companies for as little as $10 a month, though you may want to start looking at around $30 - $40 a month (too cheap means, in many cases, unreliable). A good place to begin looking for a hosting company is Budgetweb:
http://www.budgetweb.com/
There's a problem, though; you have to know about all the services and options these companies provide. The following are a number of important questions you should ask before signing up with a company. For more details, see "Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site" (visit http://www.poorrichard.com/ for more information). Does the company have Microsoft FrontPage server extensions? This is only important if you plan to use FrontPage (a very popular Web-authoring program). If the hosting company doesn't have the server extensions installed, some of the FrontPage features won't work. How Much Does It Cost? Most services charge a setup fee, and then a monthly charge. Some don't have a setup fee, and some will waive the setup fee if you are transferring an existing Web site and domain from another location. Even if they don't advertise that they do, if you are transferring a site it might be worth asking if they will waive the fee. Minimum Contract and Guar a n tee? Some Web-hosting companies want you to pay a year's fee at once, but you should ask if you can pay for, say, three months. Some simply go month by month, others charge by the month and give the first month free -- the ideal situation. Also ask what sort of guarantees they offer; some companies offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. And get the guarantee in writing if you can. How Much Disk Space? Your Web site will be limited to a certain amount of disk space, though you can buy more. Small, low-cost accounts may have just a couple of megabytes of disk space, larger sites will get tens, even hundreds of megs. You can actually get quite a lot into a megabyte or two, and a really huge site will need only a few hundred megs. How Much are Hit and Data-Transfer Charges? Some companies charge you for the number of hits -- the number of times someone transfers one of your pages to his browser. Others charge according to the amount of data transferred out of your Web site. Either way, the busier your site, the more you'll be charged under these pricing schedules. Others have no limit. Unlimited use may not be so good if it means that all the sites handled by the server are very busy, of course. And in any case, most companies provide a certain minimum data transfer for free, which is usually plenty for most sites. How Much are Upgrades? If your Web site grows, so will your hosting needs. Check to see how much it'll cost you to add more disk space, transfer more data, create more e-mail accounts, and so on. How Much to Host Multiple Domain Names? If you have more than one domain name, you can have them all point to the same Web site. For instance, you might have one domain name for your company and other domain names that you are using to promote specific products. There are different ways to handle this. All the domains can point to the same directory, or you can have separate directories for each domain. Of course, there are different ways to charge, too. You may be allowed two domains for free, perhaps, with an additional fee for extra domains. Or maybe you'll pay an additional fee for all extra domains. Is there a Charge for E-Mail Accounts? You'll generally get an e-mail account with your Web site. Sometimes you'll get several accounts even though you may need no more than one. Some companies, however, may charge extr a for the account. With a s i n g l e e-mail account, you can retrieve e-mail that has been sent to various addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and so on. How Many Mail Forwarding Accounts? You may also want to make sure the Web-hosting company allows you to set up mail forwarding -- automatically defining certain types of incoming e-mail messages to be forwarded somewhere else. For instance, messages to [email protected] could be forwarded to [email protected]. Ask how many accounts can be forwarded. Do You Have Mail Responders? A mail responder, or autoresponder, is a program that automatically responds to incoming mail. For instance, if someone sends e-mail to [email protected], an informational message can be sent back. These c an be very useful, so I recommend that you use a company that provides these. There are several things a good autoresponder should be able to do: Quote the incoming message in the autoresponse Save the incoming message Grab the e-mail address from the incoming message and put it in a text file The last of these is particularly important, as it allows you to collect e-mail addresses from messages sent to your autoresponders. Do You Have Mailing Lists? A mailing list is a discussion group based on the e-mail system. You may want to set one up - they're very useful promotional tools. Even if you don't want to host a discussion group , you can use a mailing-list program to distribute a newsletter. Many companies have mailing-list software available for their clients to use -- if so, ask whether there's an additional cost, how many mailing lists you are allowed to have, and how many members per list. Do I Get a Shell Account? (Telnet Access) A shell account a llows you to log onto the Web site using Telnet, and modify files and directories. This can be useful, and you'll find that most companies provide a shell account. Some don't, though, and this can present problems. For instance, if you want to install your own CGI scripts (see #17, below), you may need Telnet access so you can get to the scripts and modify their permissions, rename files, and so on. Do I Get FTP Access? You'll need FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access. This allows you to transfer files to and from your Web site, so virtually all companies provide this service. Some may provide a different way to transfer files, such as using FrontPage. But even if you use FrontPage, it's nice to have FTP access too.
Can I Set Up an Anonymous FTP Site? This is not the same as FTP access to your Web site. Rather, it allows you to set up an FTP site that people can access to download files. You might want to do this if you are distributing software, for instance. While it's possible to transfer files directly from your Web site, it's sometimes handy to have an FTP site, too. People without good Web access can still use the FTP site, and some FTP sites can resume interrupted downloads; that is, if someone tries to transfer a file, gets halfway through, and his ISP or phone company drops the line, he can come back and continue the transfer where he left off -- a very handy feature for large downloads.
Do You Have a Secure Server? If you plan to take orders on-line or transfer sensitive information, you'll need a secure server (you'll often see it referred to as an SSL server, meaning a Secure Sockets Layer server). For instance, credit-card information typed into a form will be encrypted before being sent from the user's Web browser to the server. There may be an additional fee to use the secure server. You don't have to have a secure server to take orders on-line, but many people won't place orders unless you do.
Do You Have Shopping-Cart Software? If you plan to sell products and want to offer u
Getting Awards For Your Web Site Have you considered submitting your Web site for an award? The right award can push a lot of traffic to your Web site, and can help build credibility for your site. For example, a week or so ago Poor Richard's Web Site was listed at a USA Today Hot Site. Whereas my site's been fluctuating between about 250 and 350 visits a day, on the two days after the award I got over 2,300 visitors. What sort of sites are considered for awards? They can be "cool" sites, but they're often also very useful or unusual sites. If your site is something quite out of the ordinary, yet something that a significant number of people are likely to be interested in, you may want to apply for some awards (even if you don't feel that your site is one of the best designed on the Web!). There are a number of places to find awards -- and in fact awards range from very important and effective awards, to, well, virtually unknown and probably not a lot of use awards. I'll start with some of the important ones. I've provided a couple of URLs for each site, or a URL and an e-mail address; the first to take you to the main site, the second to submit your site for consideration.
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cyber1.htm
[email protected]
Selectsurf
http://www.selectsurf.com/
http://www.selectsurf.com/addsite/
Webby Awards
http://www.webbyawards.com/
http://www.webbyawards.com/about.shtml
#NOMINATION You have to get your site reviewed in The Web Magazine before it can be considered for this annual award. (Although this magazine is no longer publishing its print version, it is continuing with the Web version.) You can only submit sites that are less than 2 months old.
Web100
http://www.web100.com/
http://www.web100.com/other/submit.html
Best of the Web (running since 1994)
http://www.botw.org/
I can't figure out how to submit to this
Yahoo Pick of the Week
http://www.yahoo.com/picks/
[email protected]
Yahoo Internet Life Daily Double Scoop
http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/depts/
dblscoop/dsarchive.html
[email protected]
NetGuide's Internet Site of the Day
Each of NetGuide's various subject guides has a Site of the Day. Go into each guide and look for an e-mail link to submit your site. These are the various guide subjects: Computing, Entertainment, Health, Internet, Living, Money, News, Shopping, Sports, Travel, Women
http://www.netguide.com/
Project Cool
http://www.projectcool.com/
http://www.projectcool.com/sightings/
submit.html
Starting Point
http://www.stpt.com/
http://www.stpt.com/general/submit.html
I signed up for Starting Point, but this site automatically presents awards to sites that have been voted in as hot sites.
NetGuide
http://www.netguide.com/
Computing [email protected]
Entertainment [email protected]
Health [email protected]
Internet [email protected]
Living [email protected]
Money [email protected]
News [email protected]
Shopping [email protected]
Sports [email protected]
Travel [email protected]
Women [email protected]
Lycos Top 5%
http://www.lycos.com/
http://www.lycos.com/help/top5-form.html
Magellan
http://www.mckinley.com/
http://www.mckinley.com/magellan/Info/addsite.html
This site appears to be moribund. Magellan sold out to Excite a while back, and although the site is still there, for
the moment it's not functioning. (By the way, here's a bit of Web trivia for you; Magellan was founded by the daughter of Anglo-Hungarian "socialist" newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, who, as you may remember, died in suspicious circumstances a few years ago)
Now for the not so well known, and perhaps not quite so useful awards. There are hundreds of awards, maybe thousands, being given by individuals and small companies. These awards may not bring you a lot of traffic. On the other hand, they may still be useful. If you simply feel the need to spiff up your site a little bit, these awards are often very easy to get. And if you find an award that's very specific to your business, it might be worth trying to get. For instance, there are awards for gardening-related Web sites, pet and animal sites, sites "built with nerdiness and geekiness," horse sites, and so on. (My favorites: The Absolutely Meaningless Site Award, and the Bottom 95% of all Web Sites Award.)>p>
A great place to start going after these small awards is the Awards Jungle site, where you can fill in a single form, and quickly mail to scores of different award sites>p>
Awards Jungle
http://207.49.108.198/flamingo/chowch/aj/
This site lists around 130 different awards. I tried submitting to many on this list (don't bother submitting to inappropriate awards, of course), and within a few days I'd won several awards:
The Element Design, from Jerry Tong or someone or other ... Quatec's Web Site Design Award The Critical Mass Award Computer Magic's Magical Business Web Award The Website Innovation Award A+ Approved Web Design DDC Bronze Leaf Award
Here are some more places to find awards:
Award-It!
Another place to fill in a single form, and submit to scores of awards (over 100). This system makes it easier than Awards Jungle to check the purpose of the awards before submitting.
http://www.award-it.com/
Contest Network
These are the sites that the Award-It! form automatically submits to, plus scores more that only accept manual submission (around 70 more sites)
http://www.contest-network.com/
The Awards Connection
A huge listing -- over 1,700 awards -- with almost 1,000 of the award images.
http://www.citeweb.net/theAC/
Award Sites
Around 360 awards, rated according to the "quality" of the award, and in many cases you can see the actual award image used.
http://www.focusa.com/search/award_sites.htm
Web Search Awards List
A smallish list (it's actually a list of awards won by Web Search), but you can see the award images.
http://www.web-search.com/awards.html
Yahoo's Best of the Web listing
http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/
Internet/World_Wide_Web/Best_of_the_Web.
TOP SEVEN MISTAKES IN WEB SITE DESIGN Maintaining your site is an on-going process, not only should you continually update your listing with search engines but you should also make the appropriate revisions to your site which include design updates. The following tips should help you create a site to be enjoyed by all your visitors. 1. Try Not to Use Frames- Many people (especially large corporations) seem to think that frames are the answer to all their Web site navigation issues. Unfortunately, they cause more problems than they solve. Your visitors can't bookmark a page which uses frames, nor can you track where they are going. 2. Don't Use Your Site to Showcase the Newest Web Technology- Once again this can be problematic to your visitors, if their browser or computer does not support this new technology you will only lose them forever. 3. Avoid Complex URLs- Studies have shown that people try to determine the structure of a Web site by the URL. Users often have to type the URL in so try to make it as intuitive as possible by using short names in lower case characters. 4. Provide a Site Map- Often sites are created on the Web without a clear sense of how all the components of the site work together. A lack of clear organization of a Web site will only lead to frustrated visitors to your site. 5. Avoid Non Standard Link Colors- One of the only constants among all Web browsers is that links to pages users have not yet seen are blue, and links to previously viewed pages are purple or red. By changing this color you risk confusing your visitors. 6. Remove Outdated Information-The most appealing aspect of the Web is that the information on it can change rapidly and sometimes dynamically. One of the most frustrating things I find when surfing the Web is when a site has not been updated. Updating your site is well worth the time spent. 7. Avoid Long Load Times-You are probably reading this, thinking, "I already knew that." Well, until all sites load in an acceptable time (which, by our standards, is less than 30 seconds, and that's being generous) this will continue to be the largest problem facing the Web. People simply aren't willing to wait more than 30 seconds for a site to load before they move on to the next one.
To create a shortcut to a Web page, drag and drop a text link from the page onto your desktop. Clicking on the link will bring you directly to that page. To save a graphical link's image, right-click on the image and select Save Picture As (In IE4) or Save Image As (In Netscape). ..............................
To see the drop-down list of addresses of sites and folders you've recently visited, press the F4 key. You can click on any entry in this list and IE4 will immediately take you there...............................
To copy data from the MS-DOS Prompt, right-click on the title bar and select Edit/Mark. In the MS-DOS Prompt window, highlight the area you want to copy by pressing and holding the left mouse button and dragging across the data. Press Enter, and you're ready to paste the information. ..............................
Computing tips to maximize your productivity http://winweb.winmag.com/tips/default.htm
Don't stop at creating your own Word 97 toolbars-create your own menus, too. Right-click on any menu or toolbar and choose Customize. Click on the Commands tab and scroll through the Categories list to choose New Menu. From the Commands box, drag the New Menu command to the desired menu bar. Then select a command category and drag the desired command to the new menu and drop it in place. Right click on a menu item to change its properties (name, shortcut and so on)...............................
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This page was last updated 20 December, 1998