1. Website builder free : Part I
Web Site Design – Focus, Focus, Focus
When creating a web site design, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to be all things to all people. In
reality, the key to a good web site design is focus, focus, focus.
We Don’t Need No Stink’n Distractions
It happens ever few weeks or so. I am sitting in front of the computer contemplating the meaning of life,
i.e., why my numbers aren’t being picked in the California lottery. A frustrated person calls and wants to
know why their site isn’t converting. Shaking myself from my revelry, I valiantly pull up their site and
here is what I find.
A mess.
The front page is a mass of blinking this and floating that. In really nasty situations, there will be
something like a banner telling me the weather conditions in some city.
As if I cared.
I don’t even look at the weather in San Diego. Okay, we don’t really have any, but that isn’t the point.
The point is a site must have focus to covert traffic into revenue. This is known as the rule of one. Every
page of a site should focus on one subject, product, thing, picture or whatever is relevant to your site.
If you have a page devoted to disco shirts with huge lapels, then everything on the page should focus on
disco shirts with huge lapels. Typically, such a page would consists of brief text describing the disco
shirts, thumbnails of the shirts and prices. The page should not include disco cds for sale. The cds should
get their own page.

2. Don’t believe me? Then let us kneel at the alter of Google. The Google Adsense program is designed to
let you put Google advertisements on your site. To put the ads up, you simply copy and paste a script
provided by Google. Once the site is republished, each page with script will show Google ads. If you look
at each page, you will note the script produces different ads for different pages. Further, the ads on
each page correspond to the subject matter on the page.
Why does Google do this? Because ads that are relevant to the focus of the page will be clicked more
than ads that are not. Put another way, the Adsense program is designed to focus on a single subject
matter. The rule of one rears its head again.
Are you seeing a trend here?
If your site isn’t converting well, analyze the pages to see if you are focusing on one topic. If you have a
weather banner on your site, there better be a very, very good reason.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Website builder free : End of Part I
Web Programming and Design: Images and Thumbnails
Let’s start with an example so you see where we’re going to with this article. Consider a listings type
site; in this case, let’s think of a real estate website which lists properties. Each property has a picture.
You have a page where you list all properties in a given neighborhood, about 20 properties per page. For
each property, you display a smaller version of its picture (this is called a thumbnail), and a brief
description of the property, so site visitors can click on the property they like to learn more about it. The
problem is: this page takes really long to display in the browser.

3. There is a high probability that this problem is related to the images. You need to analyze how your site
generates the thumbnails. In many scripts, the thumbnails are just the original pictures, but displayed in
smaller width and height. If this is the case, then each picture takes too long to load. You should change
this approach and generate real thumbnails of each picture. You also need to change your script to work
with the images thumbnails, and not just the original big images.
There are different ways to generate the thumbnails:
1) Using a graphics program. You load the original image, and resize it to the thumbnail size. Then
you save it with a different file name. For this approach to work, your script must let you upload the big
image for each property, and also the thumbnail.
2) Your script can generate the thumbnails automatically when pictures are loaded, and save them
on the server. You only need to upload the big picture. If your script is written in Php, for example, this
can be accomplished by using Php image functions, which make use of the gd graphics library. These
functions let you generate thumbnails in different image formats like gif, jpg and png.
3) Your script can generate the thumbnails on the fly and serve them directly to the browser. This
will save storage space in the server, but requires a lot of server processing time. It is not recommended
if you have many images, or if your site has many daily visits.
The important aspect to remember here is that you should not resize original images to show them as
thumbnails, especially if you’re showing several of these images on the same page. It will not only slow
the page load in the browser, but it will also use a lot of extra bandwidth you can save.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Website builder free : End of Part II

4. Web Hosting and What It Means to You
Denver hosting
Hosting Denver
Web Hosting and What It Means to You
When you first establish a presence online, you need to start with the right tools at your disposal to be
successful. Throwing up any old domain name and using a free hosting service is not a great way to
impress potential clients. Internet users are savvier today than they ever have been. If you are going to
have an effective web presence, you need to reflect an awareness of what is current in the world of
websites. Even if you are not a technology company, you still want to show your potential clients that
you have what it takes to keep up with the modern advances in your field. Keeping up with the advances
in internet technology will help you to do this.
Web hosting is simply a process by which you place your website with a company who can use their
server to maintain the site and its components. You can also host your own site, but this is for larger
companies with data centers that need to be managed on site. For smaller companies in Denver, hosting
on a paid internet site is a good option.
What will hosting do for your company? The first answer is simple. Paid hosting offers you a place to run
your website online. You pay anywhere from two dollars to two hundred dollars per month to a
company who can store your domain on its server. This type of paid service is ideal for the website
owner who is running a business but does not want to maintain the server. If you do not have
experience with computers or do not have anyone on staff who is technology trained, then a paid
hosting is for you.
Hosting in Denver is a big job, and not one to be taken lightly. There are a number of options available
online. So many, in fact, that it can be quite intimidating to the new user. So to help you find the right
hosting company for you, start by looking at your needs. First of all, how large of a site are you intending
to run? If it is a big operation with lots of inventory and graphics, then you need plenty of storage space.
Various hosting packages come with different levels of storage. If you intend to have a large number of

5. visitors to your site, you also want to pay attention to the limit that some sites place on this, as some
hosting companies offer different alternatives for smaller sites.
If you want to add on the extras, like a visitor counter or other program, you need a hosting company
that is CGI compatible. Common Gateway Interface is a way of linking programming applications, such as
your counter, with HTML pages. You can also customize your site with Active Server Pages, so check with
your web designer and Denver hosting account to see if they are capable of handling ASP.
If you run your store online and sell products or services, you will need hosting that allows you to
operate ecommerce. This will include a shopping cart that customers use to check out merchandise or
information products at your site without your constant attention. Some hosting services offer
partnerships with large ecommerce providers, so look around for one that is well known and reliable.
Another thing to look for in inventory sites is database support and extra space.
If you want your site to run at high speed and deliver what your clients want at a fast pace, you need a
hosting company that offers you extra bandwidth. Also look for SSL, or Secure Socket Layer, which is
essential for any ecommerce site to protect your customers and your database from hackers. Overall,
look for a paid site that has all the benefits you want at a price that seems fair.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Website builder free : End of Part III