WebDev

The DNS is a distributed, hierarchical database where authority flows from the top (or root) of the hierarchy downward.

When thinking of the structure of the DNS, imagine an inverted tree. Each branch of the tree is within a zone of authority; however, multiple branches of the tree can be within a single zone.

The software (Bind being the most common) that stores domain name information is called a domain name server. A single name server can be authoritative for multiple zones. All zones have a primary master and a secondary master name server that provides authoritative responses for their zones.

If you query a name server not authoritative for a particular zone, that name server will most likely have up-to-date information. This is because zone information propagates throughout the Internet at regular intervals, and name servers cache zone information for which they are not authoritative.

DNS Commands

There are three crucial commands that can put all the DNS information you need at your fingertips. The way to use this article is to try each of the commands listed on a domain name, so you can see what the output looks like. Learn by doing!

Keyword Optimization - How To Achieve It
 by: Elizabeth McGee

The most important thing you can do for your business and your website is develop relevant keywords that are not too competitive yet generate targeted traffic to your website.

It’s called keyword optimization. Why is it important?

Because Keywords and keyword phrases do a couple of things for you:

- With the right keywords, you will attract the viewers most interested in the items or services on your site.

- You will rank higher in the search engines for your chosen keywords, saving you thousands of dollars in advertising.

It all starts, however, with the best keywords that pertain to your product or services.

When selecting keywords you should select 1 perhaps 2 of the most relevant keywords for each page of your site. I suggest using no more than two keywords per page, preferably one.

Why?

Because search engines strive to deliver the most relevant pages for the search term entered. The more focused your page is for the search term, the more relevant the search engines will find your page. The more keywords you use, the less focused your page becomes.

Colors have long been known to have psychological affects on mood and interpretation. So, when you are designing your website, you should keep in mind the influence color might have on your visitors. Do some research to find out which colors promote your product and services best as well as which colors make visitors interested in buying your products. You should take all of this into account in order to create the best atmosphere for buying that you can.

Also, keep in mind; colors have different meanings in different cultures. If you are promoting a product in an overseas market, you should also research what colors stand for in that culture.

There are many pitfalls that people fall into on a regular basis because they are unaware of the many effects color has on their visitors and ultimately on their wallets. Read the following suggestions in order to know what to avoid when incorporating color on your website.

Pitfall #1 - Colors that do not Associate

Why I Switched to A Tableless Design
 by: Karen Blundell

Since I made the switch 6 months ago to a tableless design on my main site, I’ve noticed some interesting things:

• My search engine rankings have dramatically improved
• My bandwidth usage has dropped about 50-75%
• I can now make changes to the look and feel of my site easily by just changing the one file, the stylesheet.

Let’s look at why my search engine rankings improved. Now that I have less un-indexable code on my pages, the search engines can now spider my site quicker. Less code, more content, therefore a better ranking. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Bandwidth costs money, and unless you have a really good hosting plan with lots of bandwidth, then your larger files will take up more room on your server, and take a lot longer to load. Tableless designs use up considerably less bandwidth and are more accessible.

Every once in a while I may want to alter the look of my site. I like to change font colors, link colors, menu items, etcBefore I started using tableless designs, these changes took me hours to do. Now I just open up my stylesheet, make the changes I want, and in a few minutes I have my site updated with the new look and feel. It’s so easy!

Clutter: Too much noise, too much text, and too little white space mean that customers ignore the content. Customers often scan pages quickly, only reading titles or input prompts until they reach the content they want. Be concise, break text up with headings, not too many fonts and consider the reading level of your audience.

Confusing navigation: Buttons and menu items should be apparent, links should look like links. Text should not look like buttons or links. Customers do not typically read and digest information in linear order and should be able to move between sections easily.

Company-centricism: Customers are task-oriented. They don’t know (or care) about departmental structures, or company jargon. Look at your site as an outsider would, by function or task. Use clear, generic labeling and try to minimize the use of company or industry jargon, acronyms or abbreviations unless context is provided.

Design by committee: Though teamwork is essential to the success of a website, requiring group consensus for decision making will stop a project in its tracks.

Bells and whistles: How a site looks is not as important as the content and the organization of that content. Establish the site layout before attempting to finalize design.

“Patent Pending” In The U.S. - Tips For Building Patience
 by: Reid Hampon

The Patent Process - Patience Pays Off In The End

Margaret Thatcher is quoted as saying, “I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.” While waiting for the patent process to run its course, you must exude much patience and perseverance to make it through patent licensing’s long process. On average, the process take upward of 3 years, which is short in comparison to the finalized patent’s lifespan of 20 years before you have to go through the same process again. In the meantime, many inventors and businesses label their items, services or ideas with “patent pending” or “patent applied for”.

Even though the word patent on an article hold legal merit, the words patent pending holds no ground except to look decorative. All these words truly mean to the customer is a patent has been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The words “patent pending” are not required on packaging. However, the word patent must be displayed on an article once that item is patented.

Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never has it been easier for individuals or small business to receive payments though the web & to be able to accept payment though debit or credit cards without having to own a merchant account. You can have a paypal account setup within minutes & accept payment straight away.

One of the most widely used examples of how paypal is used to sell goods, is with Information Products such as ebooks, special reports or software.

If your using paypal to offer information products, you can simply setup your site to accept payments & deliver the product automatically. Get it right and you could be earning money in your sleep!

The most basic setup is by using Paypals return page tag in the following format.

(Change all [] to when entering the html code)

[input type=”hidden” name=”return” value=”http://www.yourname.com/thanks.php”].

Insert this into your paypal code & when a successfull payment is made your visitor is simply diverted to the page you specify. Most of the time it will be a “Thanks For Your Order Page”, but additionally you can include the products on this page for your visitor to download straight away.

Earn On Offshore Web Design and Development
 by: Julia Ramyalg

If you have some experience in web site design and want to make good money you can try acting as IT-outsourcing partner. Learn more what you should know and how to start.

Why offshore web design and development

Offshore web site design and development help to keep prices at least 3-5 times less, for example, average hourly rate of web development services in USA is $35-75; in UK - $25-50, in Ukraine - $5-20.

How it works?

Typical plan:

• You find a client who needs a web site, ask his/her requirements for the project and send to your offshore partner company.
• The partner makes a proposal and gives you the project estimation basing on his hourly rate, for example, $10.
• You mark up the rate $10/hour as high as you wish (and can - taking into consideration competition in your region, level of demand for web design services, and other marketing factors), for example to $30/hour, and sends the proposal to the client. So if the web design project is estimated on 50 man-hours of work, you charge the customer $1500, from which $500 you pay to your offshore partner company, and $1000 is your profit.
• The partner company works on the project and delivers it to you along with copyright for the work.
• You deliver the site to the customer.

Result - you have a satisfied client and good profit from the marked up price.

Your domain name is an important part of your brand and identity. Losing it could be disastrous! Yet, month over month we see people lose their domain name, either because they ignore or forget to renew them, or do not keep their contact information - especially their email address - current and up to date.

A whole new industry has been created out of lost and neglected domain names. It is now common place for an expired domain name to be snagged the moment it is released back to the ‘available’ pool. These poachers will grab any domain name that has a decent search engine ranking and forward it to anything from a competitors web site, to a pay per click advertising site. They are hoping to have you pay a big ransom to get your domain name back or to capitalize on the residual traffic left over by your domain name’s high search engine ranking.

The market is good for new Web hosting companies. According to Forrester Research, there is now "positive - if modest - growth for Web hosting and managed IT services, at both the enterprise and SMB levels."

This is an especially good business to be in if you are a web designer or IT consultant. It fits naturally with the business model of such small consulting firms. Why refer out or miss out on selling a service that most small businesses need? Hosting is an excellent source of monthly recurring revenue.

The hosting industry is one of the few profitable sectors of the Internet. As such, large corporations such Yahoo are offering Web hosting services. You, too, can join this highly profitable business and reap the financial awards — but only if you do it right.

To build a successful Web hosting company, I offer the following two time-tested and proven rules: Focus on offering high-quality services in a two-tiered pricing schedule.

In addition, it is essential an automated infrastructure to create self-sufficient customers. For marketing, it is crucial to maximize intelligent marketing opportunities.