Confused About Where to Start Your Website-Here Are Some Easy Design Tips

Web Designing is as easy as 1-2-3; claim some of the software tools on the market that "generate" your pages for you. Unfortunately, many web designers today have fallen prey to this marketing gimmick - and the results are obvious. Every now and then, one comes across a website that looks good with a particular browser and a particular screen-resolution; but views it with a different browser, and you can't even read the plain text on the page. Worse still, given the number of operating systems that are used by citizens worldwide, these pages will never be seen properly by more than a half of the intended surfers. Web Designing is, in my opinion, a cocktail of creative skills from the heart and mind of the designer.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Picture file almost as big, Images, no doubt, enhance the look of a page, but it is not advisable to go overboard in stuffing your page with a truckload of images. Most net-surfers use low broadband connection and the average time to load a page should be no longer than 5 seconds. If it's longer, the surfer will most probably click away elsewhere. So, within this time, all the images on a page must be loaded as well. So keep the aggregate page size less than 30k... Another important point to note is that each file on the page requires a separate HTTP request to the server. So a lot of small images - even if they do not add up to a lot in terms of bytes - will slow down the loading a lot. Also do not forget to provide an Alternate Text for each image that you use for navigation. ALT text can help such users immensely

Navigability & functionality come before artistic excellence. It is no use making your site a masterpiece of art if users cannot navigate around it - even after they reach the main page; they have no clue as to how to go where they want to go. Especially common, is a kind of navigation that some people call Mystery Meat Navigation. That means that unless your mouse moves over an image, you have no idea where that link might take you. Users need to move their mouse all over the place to find out which part is a link and which is not. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep it simple, stupid!

Another very important practical suggestion: whenever whole page is within a TABLE, the page cannot render (i.e., the page does not show on the screen) unless the entire table is downloaded. You might have noticed this on several websites, when there is no activity for a long time, and suddenly the entire page is visible. Hence, to avoid such a situation Split the table up into two tables one below the other, and let the top one be a short table that displays just the page header and a few navigation links.

As a word of caution, stay away from all browser-specific functions; because if a certain feature is supported by one browser, it will most definitely not be supported by another. It should not hamper the display of the page in the other browser which does not support such functionality. Do not try to popup new windows to clutter the user's screen. All links must open in the same window by default. An exception, however, may be made for pages containing a links list. It is convenient in such cases to open links in another window, so that the user can come back to the links page easily. Even in such cases, it is advisable to give the user a prior note that links would open in a new window.

Java is yet another often-misused technology on web pages. Use Java with discretion, as utilitarian programming language, not as a graphics front-end for your photos/images. There are various things you can do with Java; that does not mean you should do all of them. Java applets are known to run slower, so users experience a certain problem in performance.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler. Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes, it's never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn't have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. The more contrast, the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like. No matter how good a writer you are, people don't want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them, or use bulleted lists to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.

Check your spelling, nothing irritates more on a web page than spelling errors, it simply makes you look like you don't care enough to get it right. Use that ubiquitous spell-check tool. Making your website's content more legible is easy. It doesn't take a lot of time, mainly common sense. The payoff will be text that's more readable, customers that stick around long enough to get your message, and improved credibility with your visitors.

Kyle Newton is a professional internet marketing specialist and can launch and manage your complete web presence from Web Design to SEO with professional results that make your projects, services, or products a success on the web.

Which Web Hosting Package Is For You?

There are many web hosting packages available in the online market today. In order for you to determine which web hosting package is perfect for you, there are a number of factors that should be considered.

FTP Access

Almost every web hosts provides their users with FTP access that will allow them to upload files as well as edit or delete content. This makes maintaining a web site much more convenient compared to web-based interfaces. Even if you are using a Linux system, you will be able to edit the settings of your file permission suing this FTP. Some web host even allows users to create FTP accounts, allowing you to restrict or allow access to the site by any person without giving out the details of your FTP accounts.

Email Accounts

Considered to be a standard feature in web hosting packages, email accounts are very important. Some web hosts give their customers free reign when it comes to mail settings but typically restrict the memory capacity of the mail boxes. There are also web hosts that will offer to set up your email accounts for you. Basically, there are four types of email accounts: forwarding, POP3, auto responders and aliases.

Disk Space

Perhaps the most important factor to consider when looking for a web host is the disk space amount. Depending on your requirements, you will have to determine how much disk space you would need. To determine this, you will have to break down the tasks that will be present in your site such as for emails, log files, web files and databases. Coming up with a rough estimate will help you correctly assess how much disk space you would require.

After determining your exact requirements, all you need to do is to look for a web host. Although there are many web hosting providers in the market today, finding reliable ones will be challenging. In some cases, a web host could charge you high fees only to be disappointed because the quality of the services did not meet your standards. If you want an affordable and reliable web host, you should check out The Magic Host (www.themagichost.com).

As one of the leading providers of web hosting solutions, The Magic Host offers a wide range of packages to choose from including Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting and Dedicated Hosting, with monthly fees ranging from $4.50 to $174. In addition to this, operating systems such as Linux, Solaris, Oracle, Windows and FreeBSD can work and perform optimally.

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