Hightide Web Resources Articles, News, and Reviews

You’ve heard how fun (and financially rewarding) a website and/or can be. Your only problem is that, like most people, you don’t know how to build one.

…or register a domain…

…or make the graphics…

…or submit it to search engines…

…or add pictures…

…or add Google ads…

…..etc. after discouraging etc…..

To cut to the chase, you need a little help!

Your options? If you want a blog and you want one as fast as possible - Blogger.com is a pretty good place to start. It’s absolutely free and you can actually be blogging in a matter of hours. Less if you don’t do any customizing to the template. With Bloggger you don’t even have to worry about registering a domain.

Even though I run a Web Publishing business and a great deal of my income is based on creating blogs and websites for people, I wholeheartedly give Blogger.com two thumbs up. It’s a great place to start.

However, if you are serious about making money online and doing so in a professional manner - you need a domain as well as a professionally-done website and/or blog.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. Hightide-Web Pubishing specializes in the kind of service you need. If you’re new to the arena of websites or blogging, you need someone who will take the time to help you each step of the way. When our clients hire us, we rally around them to create just the sort of online presence they need and want. E-mail me today ( joisigers @ aim . com ) and tell me exactly what it is you’re thinking about. We’ll get back to you asap with your best course of action, as well as what this course would cost!

2. Another excellent place to start would be www.GoDaddy.com. Known for being the number one Domain Name Registrar, Go Daddy has a reputation that simply can’t be topped. However, they do a lot more than that - Did you know that Go Daddy also offers professional website design and hosting. You could, literally go to www.GoDaddy.com and get everything you could possibly need to create your online presence!

Whichever route you go - your worries and headaches are only a click or two away!

We’re implementing a few changes and improvements at Hightide. One will involve bloggers….(there are lots of us afoot!)…..and will, hopefully help many people improve their whold blogging experience.

We are offering hosting for bloggers for just $6.75 a month, or for $20.00 for three months. For further savings, we charge only $75.00 for a year of blog hosting.

For an extra, one time only fee of $25.00, we’ll even buy your domain name, and set your blog up for you. Customized graphics would be only $10.00 extra….UNLESS you pay for the full year of hosting - then the graphics are free!

Another change we’re making at Hightide: We’re in the process of setting up Pay Pal buttons, allowing our clients to pay with a credit card if they choose to. Don’t know why we had never gotten around to that, to be perfectly honest with you!

Finally, we’re currently adding tons (did I say tons, I meant TONS) of free wallpapers, graphic art, and forum signature pictures to the website. Our files are literally full of images we’ve created - but we’ve been flirtting with the idea of changing the layout of the website a bit, and were waiting until then to add all of them. Forgetaboutit! No more waiting - watch for them, there are lots coming….including images of the new Idols and Survivors. (Lost is also featured heavily.)

Do I love that show? I love that show.

Email us if you have any questions! joi@hightide-web.com

Joi

by Duncan Riley

1. New ads work. You will always get a higher CTR on new ads, both text and graphical (but not Adsense).

Think of it like a honeymoon for ads. New ads are good for probably 2 to 3 days in terms of decent CTR, then they drop off to lower levels. Ive tracked the ads from the BlogAds Advertising service for a period as well. My advice if you’re advertising using BlogAds over a period of time: rotate your ad graphics maybe once a week.

2. Regular readers tend to be ad blind. Regular readers will click on ad spots but the CTR is much lower than for new readers, particularly on Adsense ads. Ive had lots of different traffic in the last four weeks on a variety of different subjects and its the posts bringing in completely new traffic that have the high CTR’s, and I’m talking at times four to five times higher rates on the same ad spot as per a post that would attract a regular reader… ( Click HERE for the rest of the article. )

Jump-Starting Your Forum Community

Author: Dax Christopher

Forums are an excellent addition to a website to attract visitors to interact with the site and to return to the website freqeuently. While there are many other website additions that can retain visitors and have them coming back for more, forums are perhaps the most engaging for visitors to your website and offer the most benefits to both the website’s owner and the visitor.

Unfortunately, having a forum addition to a website does not guarantee its success and usefulness in gathering the hypothesized attention and attractiveness. A new forum with no content, no members or no active discussion is like an empty hall. Anyone who steps into such an empty room would most definitely get the creeps and run away as fast as they can. Similarly, your forum can quickly lose its purported usefulness if it is empty and bare. Continue….