Anyone Can Build a Web Site!

by Robin Sopko

There are many levels of computer "savvy".

I'd like to think I am quite experienced, but actually, considering the vast knowledge that I have never been trained in, I'd have to�consider myself to be just above the beginner level. I know how to navigate, but I am untrained on the�technical�science of the World Wide Web.�Although I have spent thousands of hours in front of my keyboard and monitor, searching, absorbing and creating, I still have no scholarly knowledge of HTML (hyper text markup language), or things like CGI, Perl, Java script, or other computer programming languages. All I know is that I love to build and design websites, and I love the idea of all of this�vast knowledge, available at my fingertips.

My father is curious about computing, but feels utterly overcome by the thought of owning a� personal computer. Being one who only types with three fingers, he is convinced that he would become frustrated by the availability of virtually "everything" and his inability to obtain it fast enough. He thinks he is too old to learn "shorthand" for the keyboard.

One friend of mine can turn on the computer, get online, get to her email, read and delete it, then becomes instantly lost. If she types anything into her browser window, she has no idea how she got to where she ended up or how to get out of it.

Another example is�my daughter, thirty years younger than I am, experienced enough to know technical computer terminology,�and so fast with the mouse that the computer freezes up within minutes of her signing on. Just when I think I know something that she doesn't, she snickers with delight, and lets out a "Gees Mom, Duh!" that embarrasses me the rest of the day.

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Anti-Spam Two Step for Webmasters

If your email address is on a website that's been online for a while you're being blasted with unsolicited email (SPAM). You can delete it or you can eliminate much of it in two simple steps.

Step 1: Scramble Your Email Address

It isn't human visitors to your site that are causing the problem. It's website spidering SPAMBOTS. These spambots go out on the web and harvest any email address they can find. These harvested email addresses are then sold by unscrupulous *spam pushers*.

Your goal is to hide your email address from the spambots, but still display it for your website visitors to see. If the spambot doesn't recogize your scrambled code as an email address it won't harvest it.

Search the web for scripts that will scramble your email address. You will find many free scripts and some that you can purchase. Some are simple and easy to install. Others can be a little more complicated.

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Analyzing Website Traffic for Commerce

http://www.americanfreetraffic.com

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

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