AN up-and-coming web designer has won first prize in a national competition.

Peter Bell won the £2,000 cash prize in the competition run by home study provider SkillsTrain to find the student whose life has most improved this Christmas.

The 35-year-old, from Alnwick Road, in Durham City, has been studying

web design

with the distance learning company for the last year, and is now starting to attract commercial interest.

He is already running his own evening classes in computing and

web design

and is now working on two commercial projects,

designing web sites

for a neighbour’s business and the local Indian takeaway.

Mr Bell said: “This has come at exactly the right time.

“My

web design

business is taking off and now with this win I’ll be able to treat the family this Christmas.”

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By Rajesh V. Tavakari

When promoting your e-commerce site you want to make sure visitors will want to return again. By ‘visitors’ we mean both humans, who are your potential customers, as well as search engines and directories.

Check Your Links
Web site promotion starts with a search engine spider indexing or cataloging your site by following the links from one page to another. Just as human visitors dislike a broken link, so do the spiders. If a link doesn’t work they’ll simply move onto the next page. No matter how sophisticated the search engine software is, it can’t index what it can’t find. Also remember that a spider won’t be able to follow a link that requires a form submission or JavaScript.

While considering the subject of links, if you’re using HTML and CSS on your site, make sure that both work properly. A certain minimum level of requirements must be met so that your pages will display correctly. It’s only if these are met that a spider can do its work. There are free facilities online that can check both of these for you.

Keep Your Pages Small
Most of us have heard the expression that size isn’t everything. This is also true when it comes to Web pages. People don’t like having to wait for a Web page to load. Search engine spiders may not fully index a page bigger than 150k in size. Remember that the size of a page doesn’t simply depend on the actual HTML file itself, but includes everything on the page such as images, banners etc.

If you have a lot of images on your pages, then either reduce the number of them, or use a program such as Macromedia Fireworks to optimize them for the Web. If the page has a big file size due to a massive amount of text, you should consider splitting the text into smaller, more manageable pieces and putting them on several pages. SEO Chat has a tool called “Page Size Lookup” which can tell you the size of your Web page.

What’s the Difference Between a Search Engine and a Directory?
People frequently use the term ‘search engine’ as a catch-all expression for anything they use to search the Web. They are different things though, and an understanding of the differences will help you promote your site successfully.

How Does a Search Engine Work?
Search engines use highly sophisticated software to search the web for new pages. It then automatically creates and updates their indexes. Whenever they find an active hyperlink, they will follow it and add that to the index and so on. These programs are generally referred to as ’spiders.’

Normally, all this is totally automatic, but sometimes human intervention is involved. The spider will return periodically to the pages and check for updated content. Often there will be a delay between you uploading your page, and the spider finding it, unless you submit your URL directly to the search engine itself. You can submit a web URL to Google free of charge.

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24-7 Press Release Marketing efforts on the Internet are becoming increasingly difficult over time. There is a solution which may help boost online visibility almost instantly. This would be a press release. Press release service companies, such as www.24-7pressrelease.com can help you become more visible online instantaneously due to how quickly a press release is disseminated to search engines, RSS feeds and news subscribers.

This is faster than ever before. The viral benefits of your press release let your news story to be syndicated and published over and over on the web. Information has never traveled so quickly. After submitting your press release, on its release date it may be picked up by hundreds or thousands of locations nearly instantly.

After considering the cost of directory listings, banner ads and pay per click services, a press release such as the $49 package at 24-7pressrelease.com acts as the marketer’s bargain secret. “We see some of our $49 and $89 press release packages receive upwards of over 50,000 – 75,000 headline impressions with hundreds and thousands of views,” said Michael Iwasaki of 24-7pressrelease.com.

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“Today, there are countless number of social networking websites that bring the world closer together. This opportunity has been used by businessmen around the globe to connect to more people and increase there sales. However due to the crowded social networking space, online marketers are struggling to get noticed in the social media crowd”, says Mr. Jonathan Mac of socialnetworkingwebsitedesign.ning.com.

“We have heard many people say that social networking is over crowded to such an extent that it is not good for business promotion anymore. Lemme point out that ‘a crowded place is the one to look for effective business promotion. This crowded social networking should be considered as an opportunity to promote their business more effectively than ever before. All they have to do is to make their social networking website design unique to get highlighted in the crowd” says Mr. Jonathan Mac

When asked about effective social networking web design, Mr. Jonathan Mac said, “There are many social networking website templates that are ready to be used. Though using these templates are free and are easy to use, they will not be unique. These social networking websites created using the templates will eventually disappear in the Social networking crowd. It is always better to hire a professional social networking website designer. It will be worth every single penny that you spend.”

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Today we launched a new ASP.NET MVC Design Gallery on the www.asp.net site. The design gallery hosts free HTML design templates that you can download and easily use with your ASP.NET MVC applications. Included with each design template is a Site.master file, a CSS stylesheet, and optionally a set of images, partials, and helper methods that support them.

The gallery allows you to preview each of the designs online, as well as download a .zip version of them that you can extract and integrate into your site. The gallery allows anyone to create and submit new designs under the creative commons license. Visitors to the gallery can vote to provide feedback on them (thumbs up/thumbs down). The most popular designs show up at the top of the gallery.

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By Kristin D’Agostino
GateHouse News Service

Cameron Brown, president of the design and marketing firm King Fish Media, is ticking off examples of how the printed page is evolving.

“The two Chicago papers stopped home delivery,” he says. “… Newsweek subscriptions have gone down. …”

Brown speaks in the matter-of-fact tone of someone who has crossed over to the other side safely. The advertising guru left the world of print eight years ago to start his own integrated marketing firm in Salem. King Fish Media has thrived, in part, because of the variety of choices it offers clients — everything from printed media to monthly e-mail newsletters, Web site design and interactive videos.

The greatest advantage of digital marketing, Brown says, is it yields results that are often more easily measured than print. While print publications can’t guarantee that people are seeing its ads, digital media can be often tracked and tallied.

“[Traditional] print media can’t guarantee [the ad] is going to an audience you want it to,” he says.

E-mail blasts, digital ads sent out to a targeted audience, are effective because the firm can track whether someone has opened them and signed up to receive more information about a product or service.

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Show off all that hard work you put into your Christmas tree on my new site: My Christmas Tree. Get Christmas tree ideas and rate people’s trees from around the world! Get Ideas about Christmas ornaments, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, Christmas gift ideas and more!! Check it out!

MY CHRISTMAS TREE

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In the same manner as color bears great significance in our daily lives, so too does color play an essential role when designing a website. Design for color-blind browsers and think of the color combinations that you use. Similarly, think about the navigation and how the site will work, why users will come to your site etc. This will give you greater insight to what you need to achieve when designing a new website.

This is a way lower as compared to what a web designer would ask you for designing your website, not to mention the time factor. For help visit www.instant-video-streamer.com. How to minimize issues during check-out? Design your website for instant product reviews and actual delivery time and scheduling fast delivery of orders and pick-up of returns. When designing your site, put into mind a website that is homey. Navigation is one of the most important aspects of designing your website. Use website templates if you don’t have any designing flair. The website designing company which you choose to use will be able to do this for you, as this is something which they are very familiar with.

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December 22, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM)

Web host Host Color (http://www.hostcolor.com) is offering SEO tips on the WordPress blogging solution, it was announced recently. The company, which bills itself as a “provider of quality web hosting services” is adding the tips to its corporate blog. Host Color provides “fully featured” WordPress hosting plans as part of its suite of offerings.

“Create Sitemap, use Permalinks, build quality internal and external links, write good titles and meta tags, make good navigation, use unique design, and finally create quality content,” explained Host Color’s Online Marketing and PR Manager, Dani Stoychev. “Even out of the box and with just a few posts some blogs get high ranking and appear in search results”.

The move comes after Host Color’s September launch of WordPress hosting, which only caters for the WordPress blogging CMS and no other applications. According to the company, the limitation offers quality assurance. Plans offer 1,000 MB disk space and 5 GB data transfer per month but quotas can be increased on a needs basis, although the company strictly adheres to a “no overselling” policy.

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Businesses with an online presence should ensure their web design engages customers and gets them excited about their brand, it has been claimed.

According to web hosting and e-commerce solutions provider Hostway, the main aim of graphic design is to keep consumers interacting with the site.

Thomas Herbert, product manager at the company, said: “You’ve got to provide the content that will allow customers to see your product as close as you can and also to try and introduce them to other products and get them excited about your brand.”

He went on to cite the example of clothing firms, which are starting to provide close up shots of their products so that would-be buyers can get a clear idea of the product they are about to purchase.

The Deloitte Christmas Survey 2008 revealed 57 per cent of people have no intention of changing their Christmas buying patterns this year despite the current uncertain economic climate.

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This position is ideal for an enthusiastic junior Web Designer wanting to break into the industry. This very busy design agency that is currently expanding and will offer you the opportunity to gain valuable experience working on a variety of projects for an impressive list of clients. If you’re a diligent worker, work well under pressure and are wanting to learn the ins and outs of the design world, this could be the perfect opportunity for you!

Overview of daily tasks:
Content and Graphic maintenance to existing client websites via either offline methods such as Dreamweaver, or Content management systems.
Implementation of banner ad campaigns across different sizes.
Direct Client Liaison in the form of text and minor graphic changes to electronic mailers, website layouts etc.
Deep etching, Image optimization and manipulation.

Ideal candidates should:
• Know HTML very well.
• Know CSS (no we don’t mean the indie rock group)
• Be familiar with Photoshop
• Have experience with Content Management Systems
• Be able to work well independently and as part of a team.
• Pay meticulous attention to detail
• Have good interpersonal skills
• Want to grow with a dynamic company

Nice to haves:
• Any other design related experience, as your role in the company is likely to expand and develop
• A love for coffee

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According to Microsoft, a release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 is just around the corner, and with it comes an urgent call to web designers to get their act together and tweak their sites so they’ll render properly under the new browser.

Back in August, I began using IE8 Beta 2 full time on the Windows PCs I use for everyday work. Over the last few months, I noticed a shocking number of web sites that displayed incorrectly in IE8. The only way to view those pages as the web designer intended is to click the Compatibility View button (described in great detail here).

Apparently, I wasn’t alone in having to click that button. According to IE8 Program Manager Scott Dickens, that Compatibility View button has been getting a workout this fall.

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Here are some important thing to look for when evaluating web site design companies in Vancouver BC, or in any city or country around the world:

Criteria #1:Look for experience. The Vancouver web design firm that you elect to do business with should have a proven track record. They should be able to offer you examples of web sites they designed and testimonials from other harvard university online courses site owners. Look for, awards, achievement and recognition from within their industry and a history of developing similar sites to the one you want.

Criteria #2: Ensure the company offers integrated multimedia presentations along with effective website design services. A great website is one that wows the visitor and has them coming back again and again. The website design harvard university online courses you decide upon should possess expert knowledge in cutting edge multimedia technologies that can set you apart from the crowd.

Criteria #3: Your local web design team should take a consultative approach. They should take the time to work with you to learn exactly what your web site goals and requirements are, and the budget you have. The more experience the design company has, the more they can help you with this process.

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By Kim Medaris, Purdue University News Service

ANDERSON, Ind. — Teams of high school students are invited to compete at the second annual Web design contest, offered by the Purdue College of Technology at Anderson/Muncie. The event will be held from 9:15 a.m. to noon Feb. 27 at the Purdue campus at Anderson University Flagship Center, 2705 Enterprise Drive off Interstate 69, Exit 22.  All high schools in east-central Indiana are welcome to send teams, and there is no cost for schools to compete. Applications to enter must be received by Feb. 2.

Teams can create a Web site on any subject they choose and can compete in three classes: hand-coded sites, editor-created sites or flash/shockwave sites, said Gary Randolph, organizer of the contest and an associate professor of computer and information technology.  He said the objective of the competition is to challenge high school students to apply what they are learning about Web creation in school to create sites that educate and serve their communities.

At the event, students will present their finished work to the judges and other teams. The entries will be evaluated based on Web site content, design and style, coding, documentation, and the oral presentation. Students also will have the opportunity to hear a speaker from the Web design industry discuss Web application development.

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International Business Times

The online bookmarking service, Delicious (http://del.icio.us)has been a long time staple of Web 2.0, but data released by the service’s operators on Friday indicate the service serves the technology audience more than other groups.

The site, owned by Yahoo, allows people to store, tag and share bookmarks collected across the web. According to an official blog on Thursday, the top ten types of bookmarks users were making were broken down as follows:

1. news Along with the usual faces such as BBC News and CNN, Delicious likes Slashdot, Digg, and a visualization called Newsmap.

2. blogs These results contain a variety of lists and tools for people who want to find more to read or want to write their own blogs, including The Hype Machine and Edublogs.

3. reference People find Delicious useful as a practical source of knowledge, hooray. Delicious users betray their nerdiness by providing specialized resources for programming and web design for many of these results.

4. wiki Several of these results are for wiki software (which makes sense, since deciding on a software package might be the hardest thing about starting a wiki), but one of them is Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, which looks like a handy reference.

5. restaurants Guides for New York, London, and everywhere. Sounds good to me.

hotels Most of these results are useful for cost-effective comparison, but a lot of Delicious people have also bookmarked Unusual Hotels of the World, Design Hotels, and Unique Hotels for Global Nomads.

6. css Delicious’ slight geeky bias means that searching for a technical topic gets you the best tutorials, documentation, and tips. And luckily, people searching for CSS probably aren’t looking for anything else.

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