This is a continuation of a previous article by Dustin Schwerman titled “The Illusion of Website Design I”.

The above snippet is the foundation of a database call, and one of the major workhorses of advanced websites.  Databases are, in my opinion, among the most powerful tools in any web designer’s arsenal, and a necessary component of each of the above sites.  For as a highly technical profession, website design entails some rather respectable rates, and there’s no way our religious jewelry site would want to pay for the hours upon hours we would have to spend hand-positioning every single product image, or the headset site would want to accept the cost of an individually-created page for every last item (with new pages having to be created for each new item sold).  Good luck keeping the shipping company’s records or the translator’s current jobs in order without a database, and I’m sure that our sports handicapper and seeker of cheap airline tickets will want to have to wade through your html to position their new all- inclusive vacation packages or update their latest sports picks.

With a database, and a robust CMS or admin system to maintain it, though, you create a glamour of site edits.  In fact, these systems aren’t there to let people edit their sites – or at least, not the coding.  Rather, they allow the addition of variables into the database, which the site is coded to retrieve and use.  Each database has a series of tables, which have what can be best visualized as rows and columns, not unlike a spreadsheet document.  Each row holds one entry, with a variable placed in each column.  The power of databases lies in their ability to reference that data in a variety of ways, grabbing based on certain values, sorting by others, and then using the information retrieved in code or even in other database queries.

So our religious jewelry site, for example, might have a pair of tables.  The first allows the creation of categories, which is called for in the site to produce links to each category’s page (itself an illusion; there’s only one page, and by passing a variable to it, it brings up the information attached to that variable in the database).  Once we have the category, a call to a second table for the jewelry products gathers the information from each, such as the piece’s name, price, and the location of its image file.  With the variables gathered, a looping code allows us to display them all in an organized format without having to go an hand-place every piece, saving time during site construction and allowing for easy upkeep where all the client has to do to add new products is post the new variables to the database.

Wireless headsets is probably using the same two tables, but rather than trying to display several products at once, the categories lead to a product list, which themselves lead to a full page that grabs all the information from the products and displays it.  A differing approach is necessary here, for where the jewelry site relied on small thumbnail images and short, probably one-line descriptions, the headset site has room to provide larger images and longer details about each product listed.  In fact, as a web designer, you might choose to advise the jewelry site to use the same sort of style the headset site wants, providing larger images of the pieces.  Naturally, the other option is to take the best of both worlds, with a set of thumbnails that click through to full detail pages (which, themselves, might even click to full-sized images).

While those two debate the relative merits of varying image sizes, we’ll move on to our travel site, which has a whole list of affiliates to place.  Now, as any SEO expert will tell you, text content is an important part of site design, so the admin system here is certainly going to need at least two tables.  The first, not unlike the products table for the headsets site, has the page built around it.  This is a table for articles, a blog, forum posts, or whatever other method of content generation the site owner favors.  While the content can be highly useful to visitors, the affiliates remain of primary importance for monetary purposes.  Of course, different companies offer different options to their affiliates; some provide animated, eye-catching banners tied to links with unique identifiers.  Others might use Javascript code to track clicks.  Still others might have a third-party handling their tracking, providing code snippets from them to their affiliates.  Regardless, varying types of code, sizes of banners, and styles of linking means that no simple formula will suffice for adding new affiliates.  Rather, by creating a table listing the affiliates, as well as some details and/or options for the nature of the links, you can have an easy way to add the proper codes and then call it based on whatever parameters you choose.  From there, you just call for the proper types of code in the proper places on the site.  One area across the top might call for 60×600 long banners, while a section on the right might use any 125×125 squares your have stored.  If Captain Dirt Cheap Airline Tickets really wants you to get into advanced coding, you might also create your own tracking system that you can use to compare data with the affiliate sites, relying on forwarders.

This article is continued in “The Illusion of Website Design III”.

Dustin Schwerman is the head web designer for Truly Unique Website Design. Truly Unique works on websites of all varieties; their clients may offer products and services ranging from religious jewelry to wireless headsets.

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

What it really comes down to is that website design is a process of creating illusions. As website designers, we have the power to control what people see, but a much more limited amount of control over how things actually are. The rules we have to work by are already decided for us, given to us in codes and browsers and operating systems, few of which can agree on what is the best way to do things. We are left with a lot of function given no real form, and it becomes our job to use these tools to shape a dynamic, engaging user experience.

Different tools always work best for different situations. Consider, then, a series of companies each with their own goals. Perhaps one sells an artistic product, jewelry perhaps. Maybe it fills a more specific niche; we can use religious jewelry for this example. Another sells items of a more technical bent; headsets, headphones, and similar audio devices. A third can provide practical products in the form of heat packs, containers, and other items for shipping. Others will be providing services, which could range from sports picks to translation to travel deals.

So we have six companies, each one looking for a website. They’ve arrived at yours through a variety of routes; maybe the religious jewelry and shipping sites found you on the search engines, the one offering sports picks was referred by a past client, the headsets company found you on a site’s classifieds, the translator cost you a buck and a half for pay per click, and the travel site is a returning customer with about a thousand domains that they’re trying to monetize one website at a time. Whatever the case, they’ve come to you looking to get a website designed.

Each one has different ideas, desires, and influences. Of paramount importance to the jewelry site, for example, is being able to display all their products – rosary beads, cross necklaces, first communion gifts, and so on – in an efficient but attractive manner. The shipping site, on the other hand, doesn’t expect a lot of new products or changes to existing ones. However, an organized, automated system for maintaining the business is a must. For the company selling cordless headsets and wireless earpieces, individual pages to provide full details on each product is the order of the day. On the services side, the travel site wants to make connections among a plethora of affiliates that offer everything ranging from dirt cheap airline tickets and all inclusive vacations to Las Vegas coupons and discounts at couples resorts. The sports picks website wants to be able to maintain and update a list of current and upcoming games and picks, in a password-protected area for members only. Finally, our translator needs clients to be able to upload the documents (written, audio, and video) that need translation, and to be able to access, reference, and return them all through the website.

And we as website designers craft a cunning illusion indeed, for while these sites are quite varied in their goals and aims, a visitor who browsed to each would have no way of knowing that all six were founded on the same basic piece of code: mysql_query(“SELECT * FROM table”).

This article is continued in “The Illusion of Website Design II”.

Dustin Schwerman is the head web designer for Truly Unique Website Design. Truly Unique works on websites of all varieties; their clients may offer products and services ranging from religious jewelry to wireless headsets.

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

Progress this week is not so easy to show because the beginning of my article marketing is mostly in limbo, but there has been some progress. The Alexa rankings started out at 7,094,643 and this time last week it was 1,437,223. Today the ranking is 1,219,519 which is a decent increase. I shall aim to get it below 1,000,000 within the next 2 weeks.

Last week I wrote an article for this Blog called Rag and Bone Internet Marketing With Free Tools And Resources and condensed it for article marketing. Then placed the altered article with slight variations on the title on my own article directory and a couple of others. Next I submitted the article to Ezine Articles and Isnare for their directory and low cost submission to ezines, directories and blogs, but I’m still waiting for approval of the article and a few others that I submitted to promote my other websites.

Once the article is approved the effects will start to kick in. The blog will have more quality backlinks and hopefully clickthroughs from the link in my author bio. There is always a wait with Ezine Articles and Isnare, but it’s worth the wait. At least I have my own directory where I can have almost instant article marketing.

One article submitted is not going to have an earth shattering effect, it’s just part of the process. Some article marketers write and submit dozens of articles a day on the same topic. I don’t have the time to do that, nor the inclination. Writing so many articles about the same thing tends to produce repetetive articles with the same information shifted around. It might get more backlinks, but I would rather write articles as I’m inspired with different ideas and go for quality above quantity and aim for the viral effect as I described in last weeks progress report.

I didn’t rest on my laurels. I wrote another article which is actually a review of Tradebit and Payloadz. Both sites offer a free service of being able to upload and sell digital products, well worth doing to make some extra profits. I’ve been using Tradebit for a while with some success, check out my Tradebit subdomain it’s a bit basic but profit is profit. Payloadz I just started to use with my business partner a few days ago so I don’t know what the results will be like yet.

Moving on. I shall be rewriting the Tradebit and Payloadz review and submitting it to the directories tomorrow. I may possibly make it two reviews and submit one of Tradebit first and Payloadz later when I have more idea of results. I shall also write several new articles over the next week and at least one to promote this blog.

I’ve added some more to my Squiddoo lens for this blog. I was a dope and forgot to publish the alterations until just now, but at least it was saved. It’s said to be better with Squidoo if you don’t do everything at once because Google likes to see regular updates and in exchange gives you more traffic and higher rankings, we shall see. I will try to find time to build an Hubpage too next week, it’s all good juice for link backs to this blog.

I messed up with Twitter too. Last week I forgot my password and changed it, but I forgot to change it in my dashboard so my updates didn’t appear on Twitter and no new followers until I realised last night.

I got a new plug in for Google Reader, to add updates from rss feeds from my other sites but I’m darned if I can get it to work. It just isn’t accepting my Google reader details and I got fed up with wasting time trying. If I can get it to work it’s another way of adding regularly updated content.

Statistics

This week I’m going into Google Analytics for the statistics as well as my cpanel stats. They don’t agree with each other at all. According to my cpanel there have been 619 unique visitors during February. GA says 186. My cpanel says that the bounce rate is 77.1% GA says 67.32%. GA also says that 27.24% are returning visitors and that 9.73% have visited between 25 and 50 times. That’s brilliant as far as I’m concerned.

Both sets of stats agree upon the traffic sources which are mainly from a small amount of social bookmarking and organic searches. The best result is from the Squidoo lens according to GA. 33 visits, an average of 3.57 pages per visit, average time on site 7.36 minutes and a bounce rate of 24.24%. Those are the stats that I will be watching because I can use what I learn to help with my traffic building quest. I shall also be watching the keyword searches to see if some stand out more than others in bringing organic traffic to the blog.

Whether by the manufacturer who hopes to get an advertising boost, or by a potential buyer who hopes to have his questions answered before he takes the plunge, an effective product review fulfills a need, that for information.

So what does it take then to write an effective product review? Some good sense, a fair and ethical approach, a balanced and unbiased mindset, and a few essential questions. These are:

* What does the product promise?

* Does it deliver upon this promise?

* Is the product worth it? And for whom?

All these issues can be addressed with an effective product review which covers an introduction, the review body, and a conclusion.

The introduction is basically an overview of the product and what it brings to the table. Generally, to set the tone of the review, the introduction ends with a one-liner about whether the reviewer liked the product or not.

However, an effective product review goes deeper into the product’s features and functioning. Product reviews are expected to paint the portray of what it is like to use the product. Readers tend to expect the good to come before the bad, so the reviewer should know that he should feature pros before getting to the cons in the body.

The ending then is a strong conclusion which substantiates the one-liner in the introduction, based on the recounting in the review body.

Learning the art of writing an effective product review is essential to making sales, whether you’re selling your own product or you’re promoting products as an affiliate. Here are a few pointers to help you on your way:

- Know your reader

Always know who you will be addressing in your product review. It also pays to bear in mind that as a product reviewer, you are not writing a paper on your own like and dislike of the product, though this is expected to come into play. Product reviews are intended for the readers.

- Your target audience

This follows upon knowing your reader. Depending on who you will be addressing, the tone and overall information of the product review will vary.

For example, if you are addressing technical crowds, your product review will be more technical in nature, maybe with jargon and other such codes. Strive to use wording and tone appropriate for your audience, and link your product review to the appropriate context and setting while using relevant language.

- Point to whom it may be useful

Also, an effective product review always make it a point to suggest to whom the product might be useful. This will help your reader in evaluating whether the product is for him or not.

- How is it different? And why choose this one?

Add to the uniqueness of the product. An effective product review will recommend or shoot down a product. Point out how this product is different from any other on the market. Address what the product does and doesn’t do, and if you can, state whether these are useful or not.

- Know what you’re talking about

This is an essential aspect of providing an true effective product review. You need to really know what you are talking about if you plan on writing an effective product review. Make sure you actually use the product if you are going to provide personal opinions. In case the product doesn’t apply to you but you still need to provide a review, search for reviews and testimonials by people who have actually used the product.

- Know the product in and out

Make sure you have all your bases covered, especially when you will deliver a negative tidbit in your review. Be prepared to substantiate every claim/point you make with fact and information.

- Standalone v/s comparative review

In a standalone review, your focus is only on the product you are reviewing. In a comparative review, you will need to focus on the product/s and pitch them against each other. In either case, an effective product review will cover both aspects.

- Substantiate your opinion

Always make sure your opinion doesn’t simply veer to good or bad. Provide a reason for your statement. An effective product review should be informative, but it should first and foremost be helpful.

- Avoid unnecessary details

To write an effective product review, assume the reader knows the background of the product/area of use. At most, provide one or two lines about background. Don’t feel the need to explain every little thing. Assume the reader knows what you’re talking about.

- About Features

Don’t be lengthy and blocky with the features list. Put in the basics/ most relevant. If you want or need to have a full list, use an ‘easier’ visual display such as a table or a chart.

- Strive for SEO optimization when possible

This will help in the placement of your review in search pages. An effective tip here is to make extensive use of the product’s name in the review document. Ensuring that the review has a catchy/unusual title, especially with the word ‘review’ in it, will help for better showing in search pages.

- Be professional

An effective product review will always keep a respectful tone and professional approach. While you need not be detached, keeping anecdotes and personal examples to a relevant minimum helps, as people are looking more for information in a review, not life stories.

Two cases where the anecdote rule may vary:

The more expensive the product, the more you should provide substantial facts and statistics. Keep personal references to a minimum here.

The less expensive the product, strive to provide a bit more personal experiences.

On the whole, it is not difficult to write an effective product review. Just approach it as you would if you were referring the product to a friend. Following the intro-body-conclusion format, you then fill in the blanks as to the pertinent information regarding the product.

Author Bio: Matt Henderson, owner of MyOnlineSuccess, is an affiliate marketing guide and coach for beginners. Let Matt teach you the same system he uses to write an effective product review and make money with affiliate programs when you visit http://www.myonlinesuccess.com

If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, you’ve probably heard the hype about how CraigsList is a fantastic place for independent folks such as contractors, songwriters, cowboys, freelance writers, and other solo-prenuers to offer their services, as well as being ready and willing to respond to advertisements placed by small businesses and individuals. This can be extremely effective, as the website now receives more than 4 billion page views each month, and there is potential for any small or one-person business to be ready and willing to reach a much larger and more potentially lucrative audience than they would using any different method of advertisement. As companies begin to outsource more of their business functions there are plenty of individuals who have suddenly realized the advantages of becoming one of the many people that these business outsource to. You can become one of these successful contractors at any time ? all you have to do is jump onto http://CraigsList.org.

When searching for a position using CraigsList, as a contractor, you can start your search by typing in a particular location. Then you can start to browse through the various different jobs that come up for that location by category. You should be ready are ready and willing to place ads for the services that they can provide, as well as responding to the ads in the “Gigs” or “ETC” section of CraigsList, where companies post the occasional odd contract jobs fit for freelancers, virtual assistants, and other short-term workers. The easiest way to find a contract job on this site is by searching with the CraigsList engine.

You can also offer your services on your own as a CraigsList user. There are subsections where you, as an independent contractor can post under the category that is most appropriate for the service that you can provide, reaching exactly those that you are intending to target. If for some reason, you can’t find a category that provides a place for your target audience, then you can use the small business advertisement section.

Many of those independent contractors who advertise their services on CraigsList have found that they have gained more business because they have responded to advertisements placed by those folks, businesses and companies who are appearing for contract based employees. There is also a lot of potential in simply becoming a CraigsList forum participant. Becoming a source of expertise in the discussion forums within CraigsList can help you generate interest and credibility for your business. But be very careful about toeing the line between promotional postings and informational postings on these forums – some folks may mistake a link to your article or your website for spam. Make sure to simply keep your signature line and a link to your blog below your name, and keep them intriguing, and let your expertise speak for itself. If they like you, they will come. If they don’t ? well, there ARE other forums outside of CraigsList. Don’t spend all your time on this side of the web.

Author Bio: Melissa Brewer is the author of the Little White Ebook of Homeshoring Jobs, the complete guide to work from home call center employment available at LittleWhiteEbook.com. She has worked as a freelance writer for the past 9 years and currently resides in Washington, DC, three miles from the Obama White House.

Article Source: http://eprofitscentre.com