by WebKeyDesign | May 10, 2006 | News & Trends
It looks like the new idea in online advertising is to use domain names as nothing more than billboard space. Demand Media, a new company started by the original owner of MySpace.com, has just bought the third largest domain registrar: eNom Inc. The idea is to use all the expired domain names that eNom handles and use them as ad space. Demand plans to also put up some sort of content, but nothing really spectacular, which means a lot more advertising will be available on the Internet.
In line with Mr. Rosenblatt’s plans to add some cheap content to his sites to give visitors a reason to come back, Demand Media has already purchased San Francisco-based eHow Inc., which provides niche content, and will buy more content companies. But he isn’t planning to invest heavily in content — Mr. Rosenblatt says his goal is to have “immaterial”content costs. Instead he plans to rely heavily on content contributed by members of the public, which could range from reviews and blogs to photos.
Amazing, how some people view blog content as nothing more than free material for their own business ventures. This reminds me of how open source programmers complain about how some big companies give absolutely nothing back to the open source code and community. But wait, it gets better:
“These domain names are really the raw land of the Internet,” says Fred Harman, managing director of Oak Investment Partners, one of Mr. Rosenblatt’s backers. “Richard is a real-estate developer, taking the raw land and developing it … We’re trying to liberate these domains from the cybersquatters and actually put them to good use.”
In case you missed the irony in that statement it goes something like this: It’s okay because we are a company, when an individual makes money from cybersquating it is wrong, but when we do it, it is liberating cause we do it on a massive scale!
Read the entire Post Gazette article.
by WebKeyDesign | May 10, 2006 | Web Site Basics
One of the first steps to making a website is of course creating it, and not every webmaster starting out knows HTML and CSS. Yes, it may surprise you but many web sites are actually made by non-programmers. Mostly I think because, programmers do not always write good content, so a competent writer can output plenty of good content, but he or she does not know how to design the web site. This is where web authoring software comes in. This allows people who can make great content, publish it easier. Although the web site that comes out of web authoring software may not be as polished or as pixel perfect as a manually coded web site, it still is a web site and it is the content that matters in the end.
There are today a variety of web authoring packages that can give you a website in a very little time. For the most part they can be divided into either one of these categories: applications and scripts.
Dreamweaver and Nvu
Applications were once the only way to make a website for non-coders. The most popular application being Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. This expensive piece of software can help you design a website in less time and has extra features for more skilled webmasters that can help with programming languages like PHP and ASP. Of course, if you can’t afford Dreamweaver, then Nvu is probably the application for you. Nvu is based on the old Netscape Composer module and does most of the basic things that Dreamweaver can do. In between Dreamweaver and Nvu are all sorts of other applications, many are HTML editors that are for intermediate webmasters.
Web Blogs & Scripts
Scripts are programs that can create entire web sites for you, once you install them and add your content. The web blog is the most famous type of script program that webmasters use. A web blog is made up of two interfaces, a backend system that allows a webmaster to administrate and add content to the blog and a front end which is the rendered web site. Even though web blogs help organize content and make easy to publish it, you still have to install and setup the weblog software to start out with. That was until services like Blogger came around, that allowed anyone to setup their own blog without needing to install anything.
Most other scripts that are not web blogs, are multiple user based. Meaning they can handle multiple authors or administrators. These scripts are usually called Content Management Systems or CMS for short. For a while the CMS was very popular, but the rise of web blogging scripts like WordPress and MovableType have made content management systems less desired by webmasters who only want to publish personal sites.
Choosing Between The Web Blog or Static Web Site
Web blogs have the advantage of easy publishing, but many webmasters still choose to use Dreamweaver to put up sites, because Dreamweaver outputs actual files that they can backup and change. Web blogs are in fact complicated and if you make a mistake and mess up their configuration, it usually means the entire site is down until you fix it. Static files from Dreamweaver won’t have that problem. Using a web blog service too has its downsides. If you depend on a free web blog service, your site may disappear overnight without explanation. Your content may be lost or unreachable in the process. It is important to note that if you value your content, you are better off setting up a proper web host and domain for your web blog. This way you have more control over your content and down times.
More Resources
Macintosh based applications:
by WebKeyDesign | May 5, 2006 | WebKeyDesign
Last year I had this idea, that I would start a side business and help people out with web hosting, web design, and technical support. Well things did not work out as I expected but the journey was always incredibly interesting and I learned quite a lot about myself and business in general. I hope that following helps out others, or at least proves entertaining.
The Business Plan
I did not have one and perhaps I should have written one out. The problem with business plans is that they need to be done by the accounting person. The type of person who knows how to manage money and who has an eye for business managament. I am more of a rush into things and see what comes out of the chaos type of people. Essentially I thought I could make a business of helping people by selling basic design services and support at really affordable prices. However, this did not work. Most businesses need high tier clients, namely they need big accounts. Trying to survive on making $25 websites really sounds like a good idea, but in practice it does not work. Half-way through the year, I decided to change course and concentrate less on getting customers and instead on doing what I enjoyed. WebKeyDesign went from a pagerank zero site to a pagerank 5 site in less than a year. This ended up being my big success for the year and along with this I even got a few more clients along the way. My best advice is if you are going to do a business, make sure you do a business plan if this will be your only work, but if you are doing it as a hobby or side business, then concentrate on what really matters. Enjoy the work you put in to it and it will be successful.
Saying No
Incredibly, the hardest part of selling yourself and your abilities, is actually having to say no to some people. It is actually very easy to find yourself with the wrong client and end up having a bad argument which you really did not want to have. Avoiding the wrong client is crucial and the best way to avoid this relationship is to say no. It is okay to say that you do not offer certain services. In some cases you simply can’t deliver what a client wants and in others, the client really does not understand what they are asking for. You cannot please every potential client, so do not try to. At times communication works against you, you sometimes misunderstand a client or vice versa, so it is important that you establish a good relationship when speaking to clients.
Spend Less
One of the first things to pickup about business is that spending is something you need to control from the very beginning. Good businesses spend very little, great businesses spend accurately. What this means, is that you need to spend very precisely. Marketing campaigns need to be examined to see how effective they really are. You might be spending money and not actually getting anything out of it. The less you spend the more profitable you will be, but most of all you will have the funds to use in case a good opportunity presents itself. All of this requires prudence and research on your part.
With a little persistance and motivation, success is only a matter of time.
