Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Web Conferencing to Beat the Recession!

While air travel may be at its lowest rates in more than a decade, finding a conference centre for your company's next convention may still require you take advantage of these price cuts, unless you can come up with another affordable way to get everyone together.

As the person in charge of gathering the company's staff from different corners of the country, you've got to be asking yourself how you will to get them to a single conference centre and keep company expenses at a minimum. The logical answer is that you need everyone in the same place so that identical information can be disseminated at the same time. However, the additional cost of accommodating people in hotels, providing food and entertainment and other incidentals that go along with coordinating a big meeting might leave your accounting department reeling.

There has been a significant decrease in business air fares of late, and there is a reason for that which could wind up playing a big role in how your information is delivered to your satellite offices. It's called web conferencing, and it has rapidly become a viable alternative to travelling physically to a geographic location. With the expansion of this technology, more and more companies are looking to connect with their remote staff via the web conferencing medium.

The technology has come so far that it now allows real-time and streaming communication, which is is almost on the same level as face to face interaction. What this is done is bring the corporate community much closer. As well, the pricing of this technology has proven to be much more affordable for small to midsize businesses looking to cut costs on conventions, meetings and everything associated with long distance travel.

With the expanding scope of web conferencing technology, audio and video can now be delivered via a broadband or high-speed connection to anyone, anywhere in the world just by having a web browser. As a result, meetings can be held and recorded so that remote staff in different time zones, who might not be able to attend the conference, can replay it at a more convenient time. Those that can attend are now able to watch it and real time, where ideas can be put forth, and brainstorming can take place through shared applications like polling and virtual whiteboards; as well, presentations can also be made through PowerPoint slides and other documentation which can be transferred to all participants with a minimum of hassle.

The cost of web conferencing greatly reduces the need to travel, and during these difficult and stressed economic times, companies are focusing more on their bottom lines, and will gladly use the money saved to develop new business ventures. Additionally, with the reduction in travel costs, companies that are looking to go green, can use web conferencing as a way to decrease the carbon footprint that air flight causes. As well, in terms of keeping remote staff out of harms way, when it comes to medical issues including swine flu, SARS and other communicable diseases, web conferencing keeps unnecessary close contact to a minimum.

In Australia one of the major suppliers of the web conferencing software and interface is WebEx, which has reported that more than 11,000 Australians have used the software for company meetings on a weekly basis; which is not altogether unexpected in a country where companies can expect to have offices and staff separated by thousands of miles. Some of the more common users of WebEx software are in the finance and IT sections, and they use it for marketing and training purposes.

Before you book your next company flights, check out which conference centre near you can offer the space for web conferencing facilities.

Mary Hubbard represents the events centre @ maroochy, a Sunshine Coast conference centre and corporate events venue. Find out more about hosting your next conference on the beautiful Sunshine Coast here http://www.eventscentremaroochy.com.au.

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Website Keywords - The Mystic of Application in Web Development

Though it is widely accepted that keywords are an important element for a website to be found in search results, keywords possess a more artful role. In this character, faultless site structure is the basis of a greater dimension.

Title and summary basics

It is imperative that you explore the keyword, and phrases relevant to the theme of your website. Apply widely used key words, but avoid being too general, as your theme will be overrun by a million other sites in too broad a focus. Every page should have a keyword rich title consisting of 5 to 9 words, descriptive of your subject matter. Your summary is a hook, an extremely engaging,concise summation of your web page content. Be unique, compelling, and deliver what you imply.

Body of content

Though your summary and the subheadings of your page may be the object of a visitor scanning, the body of your information is the core. Follow through with timely reference, events, personal opinion, and most readily relevance, and value. When using key phrases and words, refrain from overusing the same descriptive. Too much of a good thing, can be considered as keyword stuffing, and is frowned on by the search engines. Zealous usage, even inadvertently can appear self-promoting.

Built in site branding

Implementing a point of key reference, and advocating this presence through out your site is building a brand into your web presence. If your theme is the moon walk, every site detail, reference, and intent is about the relevance to your key theme. Whether moon revelations, treating a redwood deck, or any outreach of your expertise, that may be of value, do not stray from your branding structure. This endeavor will be carried through in your links, forums, and every outlet that points back to your website, your theme and the original mission of your site presence.

Keywords are lofty and virtuous in their application and function. Apply them for the magnitude of their reach, and for the shining stars they are.

Dannie writes website tips more on the basis of site format and inspiration than technology. Visit http://www.websitetoptip.com for more timely web tips, and your own easy website free trial.

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Optimize Images For the Web Development

Creating graphics and posting images for your site is one fun thing to do in web development. Nothing makes your site stand out better than some great images. Graphics and images can be used for entertainment, professionalism or a visual queue. A graphic designed properly can change your visitor's outlook and/or decision for your site. It is important to you have images ready and optimized for your website.

Optimize Your Images

One thing to remember when creating graphics and images for your site is to optimize. What do you mean optimize? Optimize is a way to compress data to make your file size smaller. One way optimize works is that it will read through all the color of the image and use other color combination to make similar colors. This will then discard some colors that will not be needed for the particular image. But there is a down side to optimizing. You will lose quality in your graphic and/or images.

Quality vs. Size

When optimizing your images watch the quality compared to size. You want the smallest size possible for your site, making your site load faster. This will make it easier for your visitors and search engine bots. If you image or graphic becomes too distorted, raise your file size. You don't want a pixelated image on your site. You want your images to look good and professional. You just need to find a balance between having a clean professional picture and having a decent small file size.

Image Optimization Tools

Adobe Photoshop has put this into consideration in some of their new application versions. You can now do a File > Save for the Web Options and Adobe Photoshop has a pre-built optimizing process that is very good. You can choose what file type to save in and how much to compression and optimization. Adobe Photoshop is an expensive commercial program, another option is using Dynamic Drive's Image Optimization.

Types of Image Files

Last thing to touch on is JPEG, GIF and PNG. There are so many file types, but these are highly recommended for web development.

JPEG

JPEG is a compressed file that has very good quality standards. Because of its compression, colors and data are squeezed out of it to create smaller file sizes. This can cause some blur with images with sharp edges, which is great for photos. If you look at a photo there are no straight lines or edges. Everything is blended together, which why JPEG is great for photos. You can get great optimization out of a JPEG file.

GIF

GIF is use more for vector based graphics. A vector based graphic is when a graphic is made of lines and shapes. Vector graphic have sharp corners, edges or text. When dealing with graphics like described, it is better to use a GIF rather than a JPEG. A JPEG could case distortion on your sharp lines. GIF can also be use for animation. Frame by frame animation saved as a .gif will animate on your page. Transparency is another feature that GIF can support. You can save your images with a transparent background.

PNG

PNG is one the newest web graphic technology. PNG is great for quality and file size. You have the best of both worlds in a PNG. PNG can also support transparent backgrounds. The only downside to a PNG file is that some old web browsers don't support PNG. This problem is becoming less and less a concern. But keep that in mind.

Quickest Time for Web

Optimizing images and graphics is almost a must in web development. Having big file sizes could cause some of your visitors to leave your site. If your site is too slow to load, you need to optimize immediately. Rumour is that you have 3 seconds to pull a surfer in. If you site doesn't load in that amount of time, then you might lose them. Time your page in your browser and see how long it takes. If you are under a couple of seconds, you're doing a great job.

Read more articles and information for Web Development and Optimize Web Images.

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How Do You Make a Website - Advice and Tips on How You Can Make Your Own Website

Building your own website can be a daunting task for those who are new to the wonderful world of website design. While it is a potentially huge subject, it can be reduced to a fairly simple process, with certain key steps you need to consider. It is important to do your research properly before you jump in, as the right advice can save you a great deal of time and money. I am writing this with the assumption that you are not in a position to pay a website designer to do everything for you, and that you would like to learn how to create and manage your own website.

Many people start by looking at whether you can get a website that doesn't cost anything. The answer is that there are ways of getting free web pages online that you can edit and control to an extent, but such free hosting sites are never going to rank highly in search engine results and you do not have control over the details which could influence such things. Free sites are sub domains of larger sites and you will have to work within a very limited template. These are fine for sharing information with family and friends, but no good at all for a remotely serious website, and certainly not for any kind of business site.

The essential things you need to get your own site online are:

- A website building tool
- A domain name
- A web host

You are spoiled for choice in all these areas, which is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to narrowing down the field and making some decisions. You can create a sophisticated website with just a simple text editor, but to do so you need a full understanding of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). If you are looking for information on how to make a website, I assume you are not an HTML expert, so we need to consider the other options.

Fortunately there are website building tools out there specially designed for people without HTML knowledge. These are known as WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors. These feel very much like word processing packages to use, which makes it a comfortable and easy experience. You create the pages you want, and the editor automatically converts what you do into HTML. There are many of these on the market, including some which are free, but the free ones tend to be either extremely limited or to leave very untidy and surplus code on your pages, which is hot helpful.

You may also have heard of Dreamweaver and other website design software, which are great, but cost quite a lot of money and are perhaps more than is required by a beginner.

Finding a domain name is a relatively easy process. You must first find a free domain name and register it with a domain name registrar. There are hundreds of these companies out there and this is a quick and straightforward process. When choosing a domain name ending, try to find a .com, but if that is not available, good alternatives are .org or a geographical one such as .co.uk.

As the name suggests, web hosts are specialist companies that you pay to host your website. Every site must be stored on a server (powerful computer) and this is where any visitors to your site will be directed when they look up your website address. You basically rent server storage space and bandwidth from them. You are paying for the disk capacity to store all your web pages on their computers, and for the bandwidth that is used by people accessing those pages. Bandwidth is just a measure of the transfer of data over a period of time.

The other area that any article about website creation cannot avoid including is search engine optimization. This is known as SEO and is a huge subject in itself, concerning the need to design your site in such a way as to achieve high rankings in search engine results. The reason I mention it here is just to say that it is far better to have an understanding of it before you start building a website, or it can mean that you need to re-do your site later to make it search engine friendly. A failure to consider it could lead to a lovely looking website that gets no visitors.

There are also some packages available which will include website design, hosting, domain name and search engine optimization tools all in one, which can be very attractive for anyone setting up their first website. Such an approach saves having to deal with many different companies and source lots of different tools and software, which can be more cost effective in the long run.

Get detailed advice on how to make a website now. Keith Garrow's main website also provides recommendations on website design software, web host reviews and a free guide to search engine optimization. Keith Garrow is an artist who made his first site to showcase his abstract art, but now shares information gained from his experience of going from knowing nothing about websites to creating one which now ranks on the first page of Google for all his main search terms.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Garrow

Creating a Website For Your Small Business

Creating a website to help market your business is almost a must in today's business climate. If you are not marketing to the millions of people that are surfing the internet you are missing a lot of potential business. This is extremely important if you are in an industry where your competition is on the internet.

To create a website you will need software that will allow you to write your content and copy it into an HTML document so it can be published on the internet. Once you get the content written you will need to purchase a domain name and get a company to host your site before your information will be visible on the web. There is software available that will help you write your content and publish it but you will need to know how to use that software.

Another important step is submitting your site to the search engines so people can find your pages. There are some very important rules that you have to follow in order to get the search engines to list your site in their directory. If you create your site using the keywords that your customers will use to search for your product and write your content based around the keywords you will be able to rank high with the search engines thus allowing potential customers to find you over your competition.

There are companies that will bring all of this together for you so all you have to do is create the content and copy and paste it into the website. These companies usually help you with hosting, publishing and some of them even submit your pages to the search engines. The company I use actually has an action guide that helps you every step of the way. When I started I didn't even know what HTML was and didn't have a clue how information actually got on the internet. Now I have over 40 pages and I continue to write more and my site is ranking high with the search engines.

In this business climate it is extremely important that your business is on the web. You have to be on the web if you want to keep up with your competition and maybe get ahead of some of your less technical competitors. Your website with have to be written, a domain name acquired, hosted, and submitted to search engines. The key to getting your site seen on the internet is to make sure you have keyword rich content on all your pages. Finally you should find a company that will walk you through the steps of creating your site by providing some type of training guide and submitting your site to the search engines.

Financial Planning Lessons help you learn in a very easy to understand way how to create you own personal financial plan.

Want your own website but think you don't have enough knowledge or experience to create one? Well think again because with Site Build It you will get step by step instructions to guide you through every phase of creating your own website. Visit my your own website page.

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Website Builder 101 - What You Need

First and foremost, you first of all need to plan the entire layout of the website, and this will be determined on what the purpose of the website is for actually. You need to plan in advance how many pages you need and what sort of layout is good for the target audience that you are building this website for. Layout is one of the most important things that a lot of people actually marginalise in the whole website building experience. Layout is one that allows you to control just how you want to present yourself to your potential customer and how you want them to experience the website.

Layout and design very important role, especially when you are using your website as a platform to sell something or conduct a business. When doing this, the layout must be functionary and easy to navigate, yet designed in such a way that you can funnel and control the audience experience and achieve the aims of the business. Another thing you need to look for is the sort of layout that speaks to your audience as well. When you can effectively communicate your website to your audience and present your services with their language, you will create an instant connection with your customer and influence their potential purchasing decision.

So this must be something you need to pay much attention to and if necessary, look at the various sorts of ways that you can layout your website and check and scour the entire internet if necessary to see the various ways in which this can be done. Another thing you might want to consider is the slew of emerging technologies that can be brought to bear in your website to make the experience that much more interactive for them - your consumer. This includes things like java based applications and flash technology, which has evolved to almost stupendous degrees in the last few years.

These things really make your website and your services come alive and allow you to not only leave your identity in a dynamic way on the website; but inculcate the whole reach out and grab you experience for them. This way, your customer's experience of the website and your services will be that much more exciting and it will not be a monotonous scrolling down of static images and text. Now you can spice up the experience in a bid to boost sales and put your business out there. The last thing you will require is that you might want to consider a good web hosting service to put your website out there.

You need to get a good website hosting service with a fast server and a dedicated service to make sure that there are no slowdowns or disruptions to your website. These are some of the basic tools that you need to be able to get your website up, running and at optimum condition. Later on, using these as a base you can further enhance and build your website.

Vodien Internet Solutions provides all-in-one web hosting packages. Find out more details about their Singapore web hosting packages at their website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Koh

Web Site Stats

Did you know that every time someone lands on one of your web pages, the details are recorded in your web servers logs. Learning how to read and keep track of your web site stats is an important piece of your internet marketing success. And you really need to know what stats you should be keeping a close eye on, such as where your main customers are coming from. Your web log is a crucial tool to help you analyze your web traffic.

What can your web site stats tell you?

Which pages are the most visited and how long a visitor stays on your site.

Which keywords are bringing in visitors.

Which search engines are helping to drive traffic to your site.

On what pages web surfers are entering and leaving your site from.

Which pages that are linked to your site are people are clicking on to arrive there.

And there is much more.

Do you have a healthy internet business?

You need to have a good handle on your sales figures, your customer and subscriber statistics, as well as the details of the overall usage on your site.

If you don't know and understand the metrics of what is going on with your web site, not only will you not be able to see the opportunities where you can make more money, you may not see the danger signals that can undermine your internet business.

One factor all successful internet businesses have in common is that they just do not assume, they test, and constantly measure their results.

Where is your server log?

Your web host or web server keeps records which you can easily get to with a few clicks after you log in to your web panel. Don't be afraid to click around a bit a find out how it functions. Take your time and look through the reports that your web host provides. And don't be shy about picking up the phone and calling them either. Any good web host will have qualified people willing and able to answer all your questions.

Conversion Rates

These are the most important web site stats that you should be learning how to analyze. What are a few of the conversion rates that you should be keeping track of?

How many of your visitors are you converting into customers? This tells you immediately how well your offer and web copy is working. This is your 'visitor to customer' ratio.

If you get 100 visitors a month and you have 5 sales, you have a 5% conversion rate.

How many visitors are signing up for your emails or newsletters? It is very important to build your mailing list, because there is big money to be made by promoting offers to the people who have taken the time to sign up to keep up to date with what you are doing.

How many of your sign-ups are becoming customers? This lets you know how attractive your offers are. You will also want to test them with different sales letters to see which are converting the best. Your mailing list is also a good barometer for any products and web copy that you want to test market before you go public.

What is your click through rate? Are people clicking where you want them to? Is a button working better than a write in form. Is a certain color getting more clicks?

What kind of revenue are you making from your visitors? You really need to know what your costs are and how much are you earning from the people visiting your site. This is especially important if you are doing PPC - pay per click marketing. Keeping track of this information lets you evaluate how much you are spending to get each visitor to your website, how much they are spending, and what, if any, your profits are.

There are many more advanced web site stats that you can be tracking and there is even software you can purchase that will give you even more insight and information that you can use to bring your internet business to the next level.

Knowledge is power, and the more you know, the greater your opportunities will be, because you will be able to see them right in front of you.

Be Fearless

Billy Ojai

If you would like more information on how to improve your copywriting techniques, pick up your free copy of 'Copywriting for the Web' at http://billyojai.com

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