Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The value of images
Think about your web page (think individual pages, not the web site as a whole) as a page from a magazine. Would you like to read an entire page of plain text? Probably not -- that's part of why magazines include photographs, diagrams, illustrations, etc. to break up the monotony of the page. You need to consider doing the same.
Not only does this break up the page, it can add actual value to the page - for example, on my clown-ministry.com site, something I do for everything that I review is a picture of the book, DVD, album, etc. Not only does it break up the monotony of the typed page, it helps people to see what the review is about -- and the old saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words" is doubly true on the web.
And there's some additional benefits to having images on your web site for SEO -- but we'll talk more about that next time.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
What is your site about?
What is the central theme of your web site or blog? This ties into the previous post, What are you trying to say? What is the purpose of your web site? Let me give you a personal example.
Over 10 years ago, I worked at an ISP (Internet Service Provider) in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. At the time, one of the new features what we rolled out for our customers was the idea of personal web sites at no extra cost. Something that we heard back from customers almost immediately was that the amount of space we were giving them, 1 megabyte, was too small to do anything in; bear in mind, this was back when a 28.8 bps modem was considered a high-speed connection :)
To make a point, I created my first personal web page, just to demonstrate that yes, you can create something worth reading in that amount of space. Which left me with the question, what to write?
The first rule of writing is, 'Write about what you know.' I actually knew quite a bit about computers, programming, teaching people how to use computers -- but I chose to write about my hobby instead -- clowning. At that time, and to the present day, there were hundreds of web sites promoting individual clowns -- but none talking about the history of clowning, how to be a clown, how to develop your unique clown face, etc. So that's what I decided to write about for my megabyte of space.
And ten years later, it's the most popular clown-related web site on the Internet -- Clown Ministry.
Over 10 years ago, I worked at an ISP (Internet Service Provider) in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. At the time, one of the new features what we rolled out for our customers was the idea of personal web sites at no extra cost. Something that we heard back from customers almost immediately was that the amount of space we were giving them, 1 megabyte, was too small to do anything in; bear in mind, this was back when a 28.8 bps modem was considered a high-speed connection :)
To make a point, I created my first personal web page, just to demonstrate that yes, you can create something worth reading in that amount of space. Which left me with the question, what to write?
The first rule of writing is, 'Write about what you know.' I actually knew quite a bit about computers, programming, teaching people how to use computers -- but I chose to write about my hobby instead -- clowning. At that time, and to the present day, there were hundreds of web sites promoting individual clowns -- but none talking about the history of clowning, how to be a clown, how to develop your unique clown face, etc. So that's what I decided to write about for my megabyte of space.
And ten years later, it's the most popular clown-related web site on the Internet -- Clown Ministry.
Content is still king
There's a saying on the Internet that "content is king." What that means is that it doesn't matter how well optimized your web site or blog is, how many links it has to it, or anything else. If you have no original content, then you have nothing that anyone is interested in reading.
Many years ago (more than I care to admit), I used to read a magazine called StarLog. At that time, one of my favorite regular columns was written by David Gerrold, a noted science fiction author. He wrote about writing, and how to write, and why to write. He shared the anecdote of when a young, would-be writer was sharing the outline of his first novel, only to have David Gerrold interrupt him and ask, 'What are you trying to say?'
That's the first thing that you need to ask yourself -- what are you trying to say? Do you have experience that you want to share? Are you an expert in some field? Do you have a collection of funny stories that you want to share with the world?
What are you trying to say?
Many years ago (more than I care to admit), I used to read a magazine called StarLog. At that time, one of my favorite regular columns was written by David Gerrold, a noted science fiction author. He wrote about writing, and how to write, and why to write. He shared the anecdote of when a young, would-be writer was sharing the outline of his first novel, only to have David Gerrold interrupt him and ask, 'What are you trying to say?'
That's the first thing that you need to ask yourself -- what are you trying to say? Do you have experience that you want to share? Are you an expert in some field? Do you have a collection of funny stories that you want to share with the world?
What are you trying to say?
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The ALT tag
Something that absolutely amazes me in this day and age is when I see an image on a web page that doesn't use an ALT tag. Alt stands for 'alternate' and it's used to describe an image - for people who are visually impaired, intentionally have images turned off on their browser, etc. It has several other very important reasons that you need to use it for every single image on your website.
As you will see over and over, there are things that should be done for human beings that will read your web sites, and things that should be done for search engines such as Google and Yahoo -- normally, in a well-made site, it will be the same thing. The ALT tag is a good example of this.
For human beings, using a modern web browser, when their most rests on the image, the content of your ALT tag will display. Don't forget that computers (including the ones used by Google, etc.) can't recognize your image -- they're depending on you to describe the content to them -- via the ALT tag.
Some people think that the ALT tag is a good way of cramming keywords onto a page to 'fool' the search engines -- they're wrong. Google, Yahoo, etc. are relatively advanced, and will notice this, and penalize you -- just like they should. Use the ALT tag, not as a way to 'cheat' but as a way to describe (to people and search engines) what this particular image is about.
As you will see over and over, there are things that should be done for human beings that will read your web sites, and things that should be done for search engines such as Google and Yahoo -- normally, in a well-made site, it will be the same thing. The ALT tag is a good example of this.
For human beings, using a modern web browser, when their most rests on the image, the content of your ALT tag will display. Don't forget that computers (including the ones used by Google, etc.) can't recognize your image -- they're depending on you to describe the content to them -- via the ALT tag.
Some people think that the ALT tag is a good way of cramming keywords onto a page to 'fool' the search engines -- they're wrong. Google, Yahoo, etc. are relatively advanced, and will notice this, and penalize you -- just like they should. Use the ALT tag, not as a way to 'cheat' but as a way to describe (to people and search engines) what this particular image is about.
What makes me an expert?
That's a very good question. My name is Tom, and what makes me think that I'm an authority to tell you how to create, promote and profit from a website?
There are several answers. I can tell you about my educational background (boring), my work experience (I've done web programming and design for NFLshop.com, Eastbay.com, Krause Publications and many other places), but the ultimate answer is simply that I've done it.
I have a hobby site, clown-ministry.com, that I've been running for around 10 years. I generate several hundred dollars per month from this hobby site, and I have page 1 ranking from Google on dozens of words and phrases. Not bad for a hobby :)
What I want to do is show you how you can do the same, show you pitfalls to avoid, and 'take you along' as I set up additional sites, designed not to be a hobby but to generate income.
You're welcome to come along for the ride; feel free to let me know what you think.
There are several answers. I can tell you about my educational background (boring), my work experience (I've done web programming and design for NFLshop.com, Eastbay.com, Krause Publications and many other places), but the ultimate answer is simply that I've done it.
I have a hobby site, clown-ministry.com, that I've been running for around 10 years. I generate several hundred dollars per month from this hobby site, and I have page 1 ranking from Google on dozens of words and phrases. Not bad for a hobby :)
What I want to do is show you how you can do the same, show you pitfalls to avoid, and 'take you along' as I set up additional sites, designed not to be a hobby but to generate income.
You're welcome to come along for the ride; feel free to let me know what you think.
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