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Web 2.0 is as yet something of a nebulous term, with as many different definitions out there as people defining it. This naturally can lead to some confusion. O’Reilly Media, an American company who have been one of the leaders in web development book publishing since the internet was in its infancy, came up with the term in a 2003 meeting. Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty, the founders of the company coined the term.

You can find a technical definition of Web 2.0 on Tim O’Reilly’s blog, but most will be left more confused than before upon reading it. O’Reilly has taken this five page definition and put it into (somewhat) simpler language:

“Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantage of that platform; delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an “architecture of participation,” and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.”

The advancements that have been made in computing over the last 25 years are astounding. From DOS to today’s portable devices, Web 2.0 is just another step along the same path; one which promises to make the web a more interactive place and more fun to visit. The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 can be likened to this - with the web the way it is now, we are like spectators at a football game. In Web 2.0, we will be active participants; as if we were on one of the teams playing the game.

What are the differences between the two? For one, Web 2.0 will look different, with bright colors against white backgrounds, rounded fonts and an all over easy to read format are predicted to become the norm. Arial Rounded and Tahoma will replace Times New Roman and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) will be more heavily used to keep websites more streamlined.

The functionality of Web 2.0 will also be different. MySpace, Twitter and the like are a glimpse at the future, with interaction between user and site being possible. The Web will continue bringing people together to interact and communicate.

Social bookmarking as well as networking will be a big part of Web 2.0. Yahoo Answers is a good example, with people having to ask questions about anything, with users earning points for their answers.

Blogging is something which is often thought of in connection with Web 2.0. Just like a diary, blogging lets people write about anything they like; with the difference being that anyone can now read it. A blog can of course be kept private, but most bloggers prefer to share their thoughts.

The exchange of information between web users overall is a big part of what Web 2.0 is about. Article writing has become a popular activity, with people using them to promote websites or provide information to the public as a whole.

Flickr and YouTube have ushered in an age of picture and video sharing, with interaction possible between poster and viewer.

All this of course is only a hint of things to come. As we see an increasing number of websites moving towards the Web 2.0 standard, there will be uses for the internet which we haven’t even thought of yet. And who knows what Web 3.0 will bring….

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

Despite the importance of the Robots.txt file in getting your website indexed with the major search engines, many webmasters don’t offer one on their site. What is the robots.txt file you ask? If you don’t know, you are far from alone. The robots.txt file is a simple text file (no html) that is placed in your website’s root directory in order to tell the search engines which pages to index and which to skip.

When a search engine sends its webcrawler to your site, one of the first things the webcrawler will do is search the root directory for the robots.txt file. A correctly formated robots.txt file will consist of several records, each providing instructions for a particular search-bot. A record will generally consist of two components, the first is called the user-agent and is where the name of the search-bot is listed. The second line consits of one or more “disallow” lines. These lines tell the webcrawler which files or folders should not be indexed (ie a cgi-bin folder).

If you currently have a website and do not have a robots.txt file, you can create one easily. As mentioned earlier, the files are plain text, so just open up notepad and save the file at robots.txt. Most webmasters can use one record that will apply to all of the search engine crawlers. Once you have opened notepad enter the following:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

The “*” applies this rule to all bots. In this example, there is nothing listed in the disallow line. This tells the robot to index the entire site. You can also enter a folder path here such as “/private” if there is a folder that shouldn’t be indexed. This can be very useful if you are still testing a portion of your website or is a section is still under construction.

Now that you know what should go into your robots.txt file, there are several common mistakes people make when creating these files. Never enter notes or comments into the file as these items can cause confusion for the webcrawler. Also, the format should always be the user-agent on the first line, followed by the disallow(s). Do not reverse the order. Another common mistake made involves using the incorrect case. If the disallowed folder is /private, make sure your robots.txt file does not list the folder as /Private. It seems like a very minor issue, but it will cause problems if done incorrectly. Finally, there is no Allow command. You cannot tell the webcrawler what to look at, only what not to look at.

If you are still curious about the robots.txt file you can find many more complex examples online. Just try one of your favorite websites and look for their robots.txt file. For example you can go to http://www.cnn.com/robots.txt. If you need help creating a robots.txt file for your site, there are plenty of places online that will create the file for you for free. One example is http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/robots-generator/. Despite its apparently simplicity, this file can make or break your site’s chances with the search engines. Make sure you have your robots.txt file in place and correctly formatted today.

Justin Scarborough founded Profit Program Reviews in order
to help others interested in affiliate marketing sort out the valuable
information from the many scams out there. He also runs a webmasters website
directory at www.thetopweblist.com.

When you have decided that you need a website you find yourself at the next logical step. How do I build a website? From the perspective of someone who has not build a website before this must seem like a daunting task. However, it’s not that hard and there are many options for someone who wants to learn how to build a website.

Since you probably want someone to host your website anyway you might as well try to find out if they have site builder software. Almost since the beginning of the internet there have been web hosts with build in site building software. Usually this kind of software will let you choose from a number of different templates. When you’ve picked your template it’s just a matter of adding content to your website. However, you should be aware that this will probably not give you a website that looks terribly unique.

Another option is to use a html editor with a build in wysiwig editor. Wysiwig is geek talk for, what you see is what you get. Dreamweaver is a really good example of this type of software. It allows you to drag and drop elements into your website. In many ways it works just like a word processing tool like Microsoft office. The main difference is that you have a far greater number of options. In the beginning this is a good way to build your website. However, in my opinion if you want to learn how to build a website you might as well do it from scratch.

That means learning HTML. Html is short for HyperText Markup Language. Every single website you look at on the internet is written in html. Sure there are often other scripting and programming languages involved, but at heart it’s all html. One way to do it would be to create your website with a wysiwig editor as mentioned above and then look at the code it generates. I recommend having a good html reference handy when you do that.

If you want to do simple tasks there are plenty of good html books on the market. I personally got started in the business because I picked up “HTML For Dummies” for a school project. A book like that with small step-by-step examples and maybe a few tasks for the reader are a great way to get started if you ask me.

The main problem with “plain” HTML files are managing them. By managing them I mean updating the content on your website. That’s where content management systems come in handy. A content management system is basically a website that can be maintained by a webmaster without the technical knowledge that is otherwise required. In other words, with a content management system you don’t need to learn how to build a website.

However if you wish to be able to customize the look and feel of your website I still highly recommend taking up html. In the end you will only benefit from it.

There is also plenty of site building software on the market today. A lot of it is highly customized for specific purposes. Currently a special kind of scraping software know as “scraping software” is very popular. The idea behind this kind of software is that it will not only help you build your website, it will also find content for you based on specific keywords decided by you. They do this by “scraping” article directories for content matching the keywords you entered. It’s an easy way to build a website and most of this software will also let you enter your own content in some way. Again, however, it’s not always easy to customize the look and feel of these sites.

The initial question, how to build a website, can be answered in numerous ways. It depends very much on what you want to do with your website. Do you want to get as many websites running as fast as possible? Do you want to be able to maintain a high quality website easily? Or is it just as much a matter of running a small family website? What you should do really depends on how you answer that question.

If you just want to build a simple website using a wysiwig editor or an editor provided by your web host is a perfectly viable option. If you need to have full control over the look and feel of your website I recommend that you learn some html.

Mike Nielsen is a web developer from Denmark dedicated to providing tools for other aspiring web developers and others aspiring to make a living online. At Web Construction he provides numerous resources to that end.

The Section 508 federal U.S. mandate requires web developers to create alternative means of viewing content on websites so that people with disabilities can also experience it. When compliant with 508, web content also becomes more available to all users including those using mobile devices, laptops, voice browsers etc. Therefore, while 508 compliance is something every company needs to be working towards by law, it also affords the same businesses certain benefits that are applicable to not only users with disabilities but to all potential users.

The use of certain types of content on a website makes it difficult or impossible for people without sight or the ability to read, for example, to comprehend the given content expressed.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Guidelines and Levels of Compliance

The W3C has been tasked with establishing levels of Section 508 compliance based on the regulations set forth in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

It is not always easy to retro-engineer existing software to comply with Section 508 regulations. The W3C - an impartial group of web and Internet authorities. To help companies work towards compliance sequentially rather than all at once, the W3C has broken the law into three priority levels: A, AA and AAA.

Levels of 508 Compliance:

Priority 1, Level A: Provide content that, when presented to the user, conveys essentially the same function or purpose as auditory or visual content. This guideline emphasizes the importance of providing text equivalents of non-text content (images, pre-recorded audio, video). (text from the mandate itself)

Priority 2, Level AA: Ensure that text and graphics are understandable when viewed without color and that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup. (text from the mandate itself)

Priority 3, Level AAA: Mark up documents with the proper structural elements. Control presentation with style sheets rather than with presentation elements and attributes. Use style sheets to control layout and presentation. (text from the mandate itself)

Validation of CSS Menu Compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

There are several validation tools available to software developers to determine if their products are compliant with 508 standards. Pluginlab employed several validation methodologies to ensure the highest level of 508 regulation compliance. These include:

Cynthia Says by Highsoftware is a premium validation tool for 508 compliance. The software detects inconsistencies between site content and Section 508 standards. Pluginlab passed this validation test with zero errors at levels A, AA, and AAA - validating that Pluginlab CSS menus comply with all accessibility ratings.

WAVE by WebAim is used to assist developers and designers in the creation of software with AAA level 508 compliance. All Pluginlab modules passed without error at level AAA compliance, putting it in a singular class of software.

Site Valet by WebThing provides diagnostics for forms, scripts, HTTP, mark-up analysis and processing, HTML, XML, EARL, Link Checking and spell checking. All Pluginlab modules passed validation with zero errors at levels A, AA and AAA. Once again, a third validation that Pluginlab CSS Menu Modules simplify compliance with 508 regulations.

CSS menus in particular are becoming a primary means of navigating a website’s many pages and thus are a key component in 508 compliance. CSS menus that provide the necessary support should include such features as keyboard-only support, voice and text reader support and so on. In turn, this level of compliance will also help with search engine optimization of site pages containing CSS menus.

Ethan Kaufman a developer at PluginLab with over 7 years experience in developing standards compliant websites. His expertise are Web Site Navigation and CSS Menus scripts.

Puppy website is a company which creates and develops affordable, enriching pet websites for those who are looking to sell dogs and cats. Here, you can get various strategies in promoting your pets to loving homes located all over the world as well as enhance the success that you are already experiencing in this industry of Puppy Website.

It is important that you acquire some level of exposure in your endeavors, if you plan to sell any type of pet animals. If people do not know what you offer, it is rather very difficult for you to sell dogs and cats. Yes, there are chances to sell your dogs and cats through advertising. However, by using local newspaper to place ads and business cards to promote your products and services actually dampen your exposure. Owning a website will ensures that you’ll be able to stay at the forefront of the numerous competitions. You can advertise as long as your wish purchasing a professionally enhanced website from Puppy Websiteand move your business online is an effective way.

Another advantage of choosing the website is that you do not have to experience any complications associated with your own and focus your energies on ways of selling pet animals. Almost all the people are attracting by web graphics and “Puppy website” work on this mainly showcasing your products, your services and all of the pets that you are seeking an owner for. The individuals here are highly trained professionals who can build you a custom pet website visibly attractive that visitors find engaging and user-friendly. You will notice an enormous increase in the amount of inquiries regarding the pets that you have for sale, once you implement the website that is created for you.

An individual trying to sell dogs and cats often finds it difficult to reach the specific audience who are not only interested in their pet animals, but who will also be well suited for those they have for sales. You can now save your precious time by allowing PuppyWebsite to create an attractive website tailored to meet your specific needs, quickly and effectively. Now you spend your full time on the pets focusing in the areas that are most essential.

Many individuals do not realize how much money they spent annually placing ads in the newspaper, business cards or any other advertising campaigning. PuppyWebsite is a cost-effective solution who creates and develops affordable pet websites with more interesting features such personalized logo, and online catalogs for customers to browse through. You will have to pay only once and enjoy the service for your life time with an excellent tool that can be used to promote and sell dogs and cats!

Exposure is fundamental when it comes to any online business. Having a professional website to sell pet animals is a one of the best way to increase your recognition by spreading the word, boosting your sales. You will find that the exposure occurs on many different levels by employing the use of the services offered by “Puppy Website”. Visit PuppyWebsite today! Maximize your profits and be successful in your pet niche.

Ranju Kumar is assistant editor of Puppy Website and its professional web designing company and they have been creating pet websites for over last 6 years offers the best service and advice on pet websites and increase your sales opportunities!!

Visitors are the lifeblood of any business. No visitors no sales; no sales no money. This rule is more than a reality for online businesses. Online businesses strive on lots of visitors because visitors on your site mean conversion and more conversion means more sales.

So the question is how much is each visitor worth to you? I’m sure you will answer that each visitor means a lot of money. Since online businesses need a solid marketing strategies to bring visitors on the website for potential sales rather than a brick and mortar business.

Each visitor is a potential buyer so you need to focus on each and every visitor that visits your site. You need to address their needs more vividly and you have to build an impressive sales letter that would help the visitor to decide. You need to help your visitors to make more sales. It is a rule of the thumb that you have to capture every visitor visiting your site because each visitor can give you a lot of sales and if you manage to satisfy every other visitor; you will get repeat sales which is very important if you want to have constant revenue.

To capture visitors on your site, you need to optimize it accordingly. A good sales letter, user-centric design and ideally an online chat service to allow people to decide easily. There are many software that help you cater to a visitor’s need. Consider the following points to convert visitors on your site because each visitor means a lot to you:

1. Write an enticing sales letter - Be clear and to the point. Visitors don’t have time to spend reading a sales letter. You should focus on informing visitors about your products and how it can benefit them

2. User-centric design - Don’t use a lot of colors on your site. In short don’t make it difficult for a visitor to search a product on your site. Make it simple and user-centric. Avoid using Flash and other animations. Make it simple and easy so that an 8th grader can easily understand what you are offering

3. Online Chat service - Ideally put an online chat service on your site. If you don’t want to spend a few dollars on it, you can use GoogleTalk badge to chat with your visitors. A good chat service allows you to see visitors on your site and it gives you an opportunity to invite the visitor to chat with you. You can sell them anything once they trust you. Online chat service increase the trust of the visitors

4. Videos - Videos are hot! By putting a few videos of your product on your website, you increase sales conversion. People love videos and it is an opportunity for you to show your product and use good graphics and impressive storyline to convert your visitors. A site with relevant videos have a higher conversion rate than the sites with no videos

5. Solve problems - Most of the online users visit a site to solve a problem. If your product is a solution to a problem, you have to emphasize on that. You should be a problem solver. Selling a product shouldn’t be important for you; solving people problem should be the main concern.

6. Email Newsletter - Another great way to increase the worth of each visitor is to offer them an incentive to sign up for your newsletter and / or to get them to sign up for your blog updates. So instead of the regular visit and leave. You’ll be in front of them month after month through your newsletters and blogs.

So if each visitor means a lot to you, you should test good strategies to make sure you capture each visitor to your site. The formula for online success is to believe that every visitor is worth a million dollar and you should do anything to capture more visitors on your site to be successful.

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