Hightide Web Resources Articles, News, and Reviews

by Ivy Hastings

The Denver web design company I work for, Fusionbox, almost always has clients who call with rush jobs. Sometimes we miss out on jobs because we insist that the project cannot be done correctly within a certain timeline. What we have found is you can do it quickly, or you can do it right.

Seventy-five percent of a successful project is planning. That means beginning with measurable goals and objectives. Your goals and objectives should always tie back into your company’s mission. So, if your company’s mission is to be the market leader in widgets, your site’s purpose should be to do that. It’s also important to set measurable goals. This will prove that investing in your web site, pays off. Plus, it’ll make you look good to your boss.

Once the goals are set, your planning is still far from done. You’ll want to examine your target audience or audiences and get in their heads. This means finding out who they are and why they are on your site. Then, you’ll need to make sure you are fulfilling their needs. Identify what actions each target audience will take on the site. If it’s someone purchasing a widget, make widgets easily available from the homepage. Research show that people who buy on the web want to see products right away and they want to see images and prices. Put your widgets on your homepage with a small image, title, description, price (users hate to drill down to get pricing), and a “Buy Now” link.

The next step is to determine the specifications of your functionality. It sounds scary, but it’s not. Most developers can work with a list of statements like, “I want a user to be able to rate products on a scale of one through five.” Write down everything you want the site to do and even include what you might want it to do. For example, “An administrator should be able to log into a content management area and add a press release.” You get the idea. Along with your specs, you’ll need to include a database discovery. This means determining all the possible fields for everything that might be stored and served in a database. For example, a product might have an image, a title, a description, a price, a product number, etc

After you have determined your information architecture, it’s time to create wireframes. Wireframes are like a blueprint of your web site. You’ll want to identify all of the content that will be represented on each page including navigation, logos, images, and content. This is a very important step because it takes all the guess work out for the designer, and you can do a usability gut check on your key user paths and the flow of the site itself. You can even build a test site based on the wireframes and run a usability test.

The next step is to get your content together. Start with a content strategy. What are you trying to accomplish with your content? Don’t forget to include a search engine strategy that defines what your key words are and how you will leverage them in your content. Is all of your content working toward your goals and objectives? Too often I see meaningless stock images like the ubiquitous handshake. Web users are jaded and images like these just distract the user from their mission. Do yourself and your users a favor and leave it out. Instead, use images that are meaningful and I’m not talking about the butterfly that signifies growth.

Only once all of the above steps are taken should you even start to think about design. So many web design companies lead with design. Then the client ends up with a site that may be gorgeous, but doesn’t support goals and objectives. It is also of the utmost importance to design around content rather than creating a design and then stuffing the content into it. Your design should support your brand and serve as the wrapping paper to the gift. And again, make sure the design supports those key user paths; the first question your web designer should ask you is, “What’s the first thing you want users to do when they come to your site. Don’t forget to integrate the look and feel of your site with your offline materials– if you don’t, you’ll just end up diluting your brand and your marketing efforts.

Your planning is still not done. The last bit is to plan the actual work–who is going to do what when. Who needs to give approval for what when. Throw in some milestones, stakeholders, and deliverables and you’re done. In other words create a project plan. And by all means, plan the launch of the site. Make it deliberate, not an incomplete, rushed event because someone has it in their head that this just must be done before the end of the year, or else Create some buzz and PR for the launch of your new gorgeous and effective web site. Remember, you only have one chance to gain or lose users; if a new user comes to the site and does not see what their looking for, they’re gone, forever, and you’ve just lost a possible new lifetime customer.

By planning, and doing it right instead of quickly, you’ll have an end result that is not only effective but also matches everyone’s expectations– your boss, your sales team, your marketing people, and most importantly your users and your bottom line.

About the Author:
Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager for the Denver web design company, Fusionbox.

by Jim Gaceta

Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.

There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.

A great resource for all aspiring affiliate marketers is: My Affiliate Secret Weapon. You can get more info here: http://tinyurl.com/2cnw4v

Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do. Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

About the Author:
Married 34 year old, providing for his wife and 3 kids through the amazing power of affiliate marketing.

by Mark Warren

Millionaire Mark Warren reveals his secrets on how he makes millions on the Internet working only a few hours per week. http://tinyurl.com/2lcwjz For the first time ever Mark Warren is revealing his never before told secrets.

http://tinyurl.com/2lcwjz Marks Ultimate Wealth Package has been rated the number one opportunity by numerous online reviews and has been seen in Entrepreneur Magazine.

http://tinyurl.com/2lcwjz You can start making $100, $500, even $1,000+ every day working at home from your computer.

About the Author:
Mark Warren has made million’s with this one web site.

by Kevin James Vellay

Apocalypse Now

Just because you think your data is safe does not mean your database of sensitive organization information has not already been cloned and is resident elsewhere ready to be sold to the highest bidder. To make matters worse, only recently, it has been discovered that hackers are not simply selling your; they’re also selling the fact that you have vulnerabilities to others be they hackers, industrial spies or terrorists.

It all sounds apocalyptic, doesn’t it? Well, rather than being an angel of doom, I’ll let the stats speak for themselves.

TJX Companies Inc.:

TJX Companies, owners of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Winners, HomeGoods, A.J. Wright, and Bob’s stores, on the 17th January this year, disclosed that 40 million of their customers’ credit and debit card details were stolen. In parallel, federal credit union SEFCU published a similar warning that the personal details of 10,000 of its customers were compromised in the hack attack.

Another 60 banks including Citizen Union Savings Bank and Bank of America seem to have customers whose credit and debit cards have been breached in this attack.

Ben Cammarata, Chairman and Acting Chief Executive Officer of TJX Companies, stated that the nature of the hack is not known and two computer security experts are at hand examining the problem. The warning issued by SEFCU sheds greater light and states “A fraudster may have gained access to … card information through one of those entities in the payment network, including the merchant.”

SC Magazine reports that hackers used data from the breach to purchase goods in a number of states in the US, in Hong Kong and in Sweden.

A digest of the latest developments follows:

* According to 3WCAX-TV Website, the attack is expected to cost consumers one-point-five (M) million dollars. This article was published before law suits started sprouting. * Brian Fraga, Standard-Times, reports that a class action lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court (Boston) against TJX. The amount of damages sought is undisclosed. According to SC Magazine, yesterday a West Virginia resident slapped another lawsuit and is suing TJX for $5 million. * U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, has called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the hacking, according to a eport today in the Boston Globe. * Today, the Government of Canada, stated that it is launching an investigation into TJX and the data breach. * Of note is that the hacking may have started in May 2006 and the breach was discovered only in December 2006 (and publicized in January 2007).

Universities:

University systems are usually highly decentralized which makes it hard to ensure tight security. To the extent that one department may have deployed a hardened security infrastructure while others loll in lax measures making the whole system weak.

The following are some of the recent university hacks due to web application vulnerabilities:

* Last month, a hacker infiltrated a massive database from the University of California, Los Angeles, containing personal information (including social security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and contact information) on 800,000 people in one of the worst computer breaches ever at a US university. * In January 2007, the University of Arizona reported a breach happening November and December last year that effected several services according to the Privacy Clearing House. The number of effected records is as yet undisclosed. * In December 2006, University of Colorado - Boulder experienced a hack attack that resulted in the theft of thousands of names and social security numbers - a total of 17,500 records were compromised. * University of Texas, Dallas, reported in December 2006 that the data of 35,000 individuals (current students and alumni) was compromised. Social security numbers were exposed, according to the Privacy Clearing House.

Changing Trends in What Motivates Hackers:

According to Zone-H, the top 50 attackers defaced a total of approximately 2.5 million websites all over the globe. According to the CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey 2005, one of the most dramatic findings was the exponential increase in website defacement experienced by their respondents: in 2004, 5% of the respondents experienced defacement while in 2005 that figure went up to 95%. Recent trends over the past 12 months show that there is a shift from such disruptive vandalism that gains notoriety towards theft of data that translates into profit. The report on 2006 is still to be published.

Statistics:

Since many organizations do not monitor online activity at the web application level, hackers have free reign and even with the tiniest of loop holes in a company’s web application code, any experienced hacker can break in using only a web browser and a dose of creativity and determination. It seems that most hack attacks are discovered months after the initial breach simply because attackers do not want and will not leave an audit trial. In web application attacks physical evidence (e.g., a missing database) is inexistent - hackers are interested in stealing the data and leaving it intact.

Recent research by a leading research firm shows that 75% of cyber attacks are done at web application level. As yet unpublished research at Acunetix seems to corroborate this finding. Competing web application security organizations record similar data.

The Privacy Clearing House reports more interesting findings including the fact that over 100 million records have been compromised since February 2005. However this figure excludes the TJX episode of around 40 million records. Out of a total of around 140 million approximately 80 million were due to hacking attacks. Having said this it is not known whether the TJX episode was a network or a web application breach.

The Cost of Being Hacked:

The costs of hack attacks to any organization are extensive with possible financial burdens that may result in closure:

* Loss of customer confidence, trust and reputation with the consequent harm to brand equity and consequent effects on revenue and profitability; * Possible loss of the ability to accept certain payment instruments e.g. VISA, Mastercard * Negative impact on revenues and profits arising from any falsified transactions and from employee downtime; * Website downtime which is in effect the closure of one of the most important sales channels for an e-business; * The expenditure involved in repairing the damage done and building contingency plans for securing compromised websites and web applications; and, * Legal battles and related implications from Web application attacks and lax security measures including fines and damages to be paid to victims.

The figure above shows the total losses as reported by the 2005 CSI/FBI Annual Computer Crime and Security Survey.

The total losses per category of breach (valid only for the US) is reported to be over $130 m for the 639 respondents willing and able to estimate their losses. The Survey authors also state that while explicit costs (such as costs of reinstalling software and reconfiguring computer systems) is more accurately accounted for by respondents, implicit costs (such as lost future sales due to negative media coverage following a breach) is more difficult to account for and are largely not represented in the loss numbers reported here.

Now does it sound apocalyptic? I believe there is serious need for all to worry.

Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner:

Learn more about Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner (http://www.acunetix.com/vulnerability-scanner) and how the solution helps to regularly audit your website and web applications for vulnerabilities to hacking attacks.

About the Author:
Kevin James Vella is Vice President Sales and Operations of Acunetix, Website Security. a developer of web application security software. Kevin has written articles & whitepapers about website security, web application security and SQL Injection.

No, I’m not talking about Britney, Lindsay, and Paris - I’m talking about the three biggest web threats of 2007. If you aren’t sure what they are or what to do to combat them, I strongly urge you to click on the link below and let the lessons begin.

Great stuff. Thwart the Three Biggest Internet Threats of 2007.

by Andrea J. Lee

Aside from the nuts and bolts of where to register your domain name and purchasing a good economical hosting service, there are a few things to know about buying a good domain name, that only experience can teach. Here are a few tips to get you started on the right foot:

1. Buy only “.com” and don’t trouble yourself with the others. Although the domain name players have gone to some trouble to publicize and market to us about the availability of other extensions such as .org, .net, .us and others…there is still no real reason to buy anything but “.com.”

If you currently have a domain name that is not a “.com,” I strongly suggest you obtain it. Or, if that’s not possible, consider finding a new domain name.

The rationale is simple: if the point of having a website is to get people to visit it, the best rule of thumb is to make it easy to remember. If your customers have to think in order to get to your website, and maybe even have to type in a wrong domain first before they finally reach you…you want to change that so they don’t.

2. Buy your own personal name. What better way to make it easy for your customers to find you? As you become better known online, and as you build your customer database, it will become increasingly important for your customers to be able to find you based on your personal name.

Buying your personal name allows you to build credibility for your brand identity and makes it easy to “Google” you. Ever tried typing in just your first and last names at Google? Try it and see what happens. If you aren’t showing up in the results, you will want to work on this. And buying your own personal name as a domain name is a simple and very effective way to get going.

3. Buy the most common spelling mistakes for your domain. Even if you follow the advice in (2) above, it may be inevitable that some of your visitors will misspell your domain. It’s human error.

So although these may not be obvious to you at first, it’s worthwhile putting your antennae up in order to figure it out. The first hint? If you misspell your own domain name, chances are others will. Be sure to grab the most common ones.

Example: www.Google.com, www.Gogle.com and www.Gooogle.com all go to the same page. Why? Google “gets” that lots of people type in too few or too many “Os” and has set it up so everyone gets to the right place.

4. Double check your domain names for odd or unintentional meanings. This one is a bit mixed, because if your domain name turns out to be something quite funny, it might be just that much more memorable and bring you free traffic. But you may not want to be remembered in that way, and the traffic that results could be a detriment to you. (The wrong target market just clogs up your system, uses bandwidth, and creates customer service inquiries you don’t want.)

So do a double check to see if your domain says something you didn’t expect.

What do I mean?

www.newsextracts.com is actually a clipping service, but could be interpreted to be something rather more racy.

www.whorepresents.com is actually a site where you can find a given actor’s agent or manager, but can be interpreted to be something else.

Last but not least, as with everything online, ebusiness owners have the luxury of easily and quickly asking our customers most anything, including “What do you think is the best domain name for this project?”

So when in doubt, ask your customers what they think. Give them a choice of a few domains you’ve narrowed it down to, and offer a prize of some sort to encourage participation. It works, and you’ll end up avoiding potholes along the way.

for more tips go to Domain Name Information

About the Author:
Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J.Leonard’s General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com

by Rajesh V. Tavakari

Your Complete Guide to Website Redesign There is no doubt that website redesign can be necessary for anyone. Here, we will take a much closer look at some of the things which you should be sure to take into consideration when you decide to have your website redesigned. Read on to learn more about this, as well as why website redesigning may be of importance to your website.

Who is it the Most Suitable For?

There is no doubt that a website redesign can be suitable for just about anybody. It is probably the most suitable for a company or business that is looking to improve their success. It is also suitable for a company that is looking to get the best results out of website promotion or website optimization. Of course, if you just have a website which can use some readjustments, considering a new website design can be a very good choice for you.

Why is the Best Website Designing Important?

There are a number of different reasons why making sure your website experiences the best website designing can be very important to its overall success. The reasons are as follows:

It can improve your websites overall appeal to anyone, through some of the best website graphics and styles. Website promotion can be a whole lot more effective, due to the new appeal of your website. It can help you pick out some of the best wording for your website, in order to make sure that your website optimization is top notch. Why Can Website Redesigning Be Important For a Company?

Although you may have heard that it is true before, chances are that you may not know why a new website design can be very important for a company website. Well, for a number of different reasons.

When people can easily understand how to use a website, they will be a whole lot more likely to use a service. The overall appeal, as well as how professional your company’s website looks can be a huge determining factor as to how successful your company may be. Know What You Want to Improve About Your Website

One of the main keys to getting the best website redesigning is knowing what it is that you want to improve about your current website. For example, do you want to get rid of those lousy graphics and have a graphic design company replace them with their professional graphic services? Or do you want to make sure that everything that it is on your website sounds professional enough? No matter what the case, it is important to have a good idea of what you would like to improve beforehand.

Know What You Want to Keep About Your Website

One of the main keys to getting the most through website designing is knowing what your website’s strengths are. For example, do you like the way that everything is worded, but you simply do not like the way that it is laid out? If this is the case, all you will need is a new layout. Or perhaps you just want to make your website easier to understand. No matter what it is, you should have a good idea of what it is that you like about your website as it is right now.

Have Ideas in Mind

Having the right ideas in mind can be very important for you. It can make the entire process of redesigning your website go a whole lot smoother. Chances are that you will also probably have a much better chance of getting what you are looking for if you have some ideas of what you want beforehand. Otherwise, it will be completely left up to your website designer. It is safe to say that; overall, brainstorming can be very helpful to anyone.

Know How Well it Grabs Attention

One of the main keys to having the ultimate website promotion, as well as the ultimate website optimization, is making sure that your website grabs attention. Chances are that if the design of your website is boring, people will not become overly interested. However, if you make your website interesting and very stylish, chances are that you will begin to see much better results.

If you do not know whether or not your website grabs attention right now, you should make sure that you ask several people what they think about your website’s appearance. If they like it, chances you will not need to change much but if they do not like it, you could end up needing a complete website redesign.

Understand The Purpose of Your Website

The most important thing about having the most effective and well designed website may be understand what the purpose of the website is. For example, if it is intended to advertise a company, you should know that. If it is used to sell your company’s products, you should be able to freely identify that.

Whether these are the purpose of your website or if it is just used to teach others about your personal interests, you should have a good idea of what your website is supposed to do. This can make the website redesign process go a whole lot easier.

Improve the Content on Your Website

There is no doubt that the content of your website is probably the most important thing. It can completely determine how effective your website promotion or website optimization will be. Not only do you want to make sure that the content on your website flows, but you also want to make sure that the content on your website also sounds credible. This is especially important if you have a company website, in order to ensure the sale of your products or services.

Hire The Best Website Redesigners

Although anyone can redesign your website for you if you pay them to, not everybody will be able to do the same job. It is important to make sure that you hire the best people to transform your website through website redesigning. In order to find the right company, it is important to find people who are experienced in website designing, and who will also cater to your needs.

Although you may find a website redesign company who will offer you cheap services, the most important thing is quality. Quality will determine the complete success of your company, or overall effectiveness of your website.

About the Author:
Rajesh V. Tavakari, Senior SEO of Website Promotion & Ranking Services. Offering affordable website promotion and natural optimization services since 1998. Website: http://www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/design.htm. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice, author name and URL remain intact.