Recently, we decided to make some upgrades to our current theme.  As the process progress, I have found lots of wonderful online resources to aid in theme creation.  One particular help was:

Blank Theme

This next theme, is very helpful, it actually comes configured with several different column styles and configurations.  It allows a user to adjust the css file: @import url(’sandbox-layouts/3c-b.css’); By modifying this line with other css files found in the sandbox-layouts, folder a designer can easily manipulate its layout.

Second Blank Theme, which allows easy switching column styles and numbers

As I have created more websites, I have come to love includes.  They are useful when you need to use one file repeatadly.  For instance, you may want the same navigation scheme across a site.  It would be troublesome, or bothersome to insert you navigation code on each page.

What happens when you add or subtract a page? You would have to change every single page.  9 times out of 10, you always miss at least one page.  There are other situations where using an include would come in handy, but those are more programming oriented.

You will need:

1. PHP (in this case), or ASP based server
2. Main Page
3. Navigation Page

This code requires the use of PHP, on the main page you need  to write, and so this page must end in .php, for example, index.php.  The ending php tells your server it needs to do more work with that page before displaying it.

Whenever you are using a PHP tag, you must enclose it in

<?php **Place Code Here** ?>

On the every page you want this content to appear insert the code:

<?php include(”file directory here/link.html”);  ?>

This tells the server to include “file.html” in that place on the page. Now, you create “link.html”.

<ul>
<li><a href=”index.php” title=”Home”>Home</a></li>
<li><a href=”contact.php” title=”Contact Us”>Contact Us</a></li>
<li><a href=”location.php” title=”Location”>Location</a></li>
</ul>

Now upload these pages to your webserver and only update “link.html” as needed.

Recently, web hosts have been touting unlimited, un-metered hosting. At first, this sounds like an ideal situation but it’s neither sustainable or a good business move.

Machines have limits, a factory can only produce some many items in a day, barbers or stylists can only complete a few clients’ daily requests. Would it be wise for a stylist to claim it can complete 100 clients in a day? No, everything has a limit, and all good things must come to an end.

The same remains true for the computers which host websites. They have restraints including bandwidth, processing power and hard drive space. Hard drive companies recently introduced 1 terabyte hard drives, which offer unprecedented amounts of space. Yet, through all the technology innovations the “unlimited” hard drive has yet to be created.

The companies that offer these services generally offer them at “to good to be true” prices. These companies hope that bargain buy customers will bite at the wonderful deal, only to find out later the servers can not handle all the requests. Once, the computers are pushed to and beyond their limits they begin to break down.

How would you feel if every time you visited your favorite store, you found it closed? Or your stylist was booked solid everyday? You would be forced to book your services weeks in advance or change to another business. When your web host becomes to busy site reliability falls, information starts getting lost and your visitors stop visiting.

When can I use unlimited/un-metered hosting?

The perfect situation to use unlimited hosting is for a small website which uses a small amount of resources. The best websites include sites that do not include videos, music, (most unlimited hosts limit media files) although this defeats the purpose of having unlimited hosting. You want to make sure your website will remain live even when others are eating up the host resources.

Many people who design websites put copyright dates on every page of their website.  By inserting this snippet of code your site will bringing in the new year with an up to date copyright date.

Today this snippet will output Copyright 2008 Resnodesigns and next year, it will greet the New Year with Copyright 2009 Resnodesigns.

Copyright <? echo date("Y"); ?> Resnodesigns

I was looking around at everyones favorite instructional video site, youtube, when I came across some songs about webdesign, this guy really knows his stuff. He calls himself The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper).

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Design Coding

Conversion Closing

Paid Search -PPV

First Youtube Video

Today, I thought would try something a little different. Introducing my video in a series introducing websites to help with internet marketing. The first one is Hubspot, a company that created a system that rates a website’s rank, and marketing effectiveness.

There are several ways to drive traffic to your site. The newest and most popular technique is using a blog.

A blog implemented blog can drive visitors to your website. For instance, my blog brought you here, hopefully you joined the RSS feed avaliable. The RSS feed informs you of the next post I make. RSS feeds are a relatviely new concept in internet marketing.

RSS Feeds

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, which allows people to create dynamic links to a blog or other news source. For instance, when I submit this post your RSS reader would updated to include information about this post. Its like a news bulletin and that can be useful in bringing visitors to your website.

Blogging Software

Currently there are hundreds of different blogging applications avaliable on the market, most are free.

This blog uses WordPress, which is one of the most popular blogging softwares to date. Google, is full of different blogging softwares, each one has its pros and cons. Select the one the that fits your needs.

Post on related forums

The last method for generating a traffic for your site is posting on related forums. Find a few forums that are related to your topic and talk about your knowledge. People who see your posts, will follow them to your sites.

Word of mouth has always been a very effective way to drive traffic. When people talk about your business or website, you can reap the benefit of continued visitors.

Up and coming artist Teyana Taylor has broken on to the scene with a new single entitled “Google Me”. Teyana Taylor has recieved more interest simply because her song is about the search engine giant.

Everyone now-a-days has or is getting a website. Websites are quickly becoming the standard for businesses of any size.

You decided you want a website, should you make it yourself or hire a professional?

Amateur sites- sample

Amateurs also rely heavily on WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs. They generally use Frontpage and allow the program to create all the stuff that site runs from. Frontpage uses outdated features. Such as
Hi There!
Today, most websites stay away from using them. They instead use flash or other things that look more appealing. Next to the heading is a link to the world’s worst website.

Professional Sites

Professional like this one, are hand coded which ensures they are easy to update and met current webdesign standards.

A professional can create a logo and color scheme that matches your target audience. Using the wrong colors on a website can hurt you company image and reduce the amount of potential customers.

Have you seen any amateur sites? Put them in the comments!

Many of you maybe wondering what those icons below each post are. Well, they are using “social bookmarking”. I found this video created by commoncraft show, which clearly explains how they work, using an example from one of the popular bookmarking websites. These techniques can help to increase the visibility of your website and gain your returns and thats the purpose of your website, right?