Should an External Link Open in the Same Window Or in a New Window?

There has long been a controversy between those who think that all links leading offsite should open in a new window, and those who think they should open in the same window. I maintain that this is not a real controversy.

The "controversy":

Usually, but by no means always, those wanting to open a link in a new window are the owners of the website, and those in favor of using the same window are standards-supporting web designers.

The usual reason for favoring a new window opening is that the owner of the website is afraid of losing viewers. If the link opens in the same window, then the viewer has left his website. Of course, this does not mean that the viewer is gone forever. To my knowledge, there is no evidence for or against this.

The reason for favoring the same window is that strict adherence to web standards requires not using the target attribute of the link to open a new window, as this attribute has been deprecated.

In addition to this argument, the web designer usually points out that the viewer has two ways of dealing with an off-site link. He can choose to just click it, with the idea of using his BACK button to return to the original website. Or he can right-click the link and choose "Open in a New Window".

Why there should NOT be a "controversy":

To the best of my understanding, the reason for the W3C ban on the target attribute is that HTML - the language they are being "strict" about - is supposed to contain only information about WHAT is to be shown in the window of the browser. It is not supposed to concern itself with HOW or WHERE it is shown.

HOW the information is shown is dictated by CSS. Interactions between the viewer and the browser are governed by the DOM. So consequently, opening a new window should be done by scripting.

This is why there should be no controversy. If the site owner wants offsite links to open in a new window, then the web designer can do so by using scripting. This will not violate the "strictness" of the W3C, and the webpage will validate. See the paragraph below for an easy way of accomplishing this.

Visit the author's website, Professor's Coding Corner for useful code snippets and tutorials on various aspects of web programming. In particular, there is some easy-to-use open new window code that will satisfy strict web standards.

Designing a Website

If you are ready to start an online business and you've determined that you need a website, and you've properly planned the site, you're ready to get it built.

Just as a reminder, these are the types of things you should consider (in no particular order) when you are planning for the design of your work at home business website:

* Select a color scheme for throughout the site.

* Prepare Logo or other ID for your business.

* Plan Navigation throughout the site.

* Select a home page look; your home page must put the user at ease.

* Determine your inner page look.

* Will you store a database of visitors?

* Do you need an Affiliation with an Autoresponder?

* Do you need a Newsletter?

* Do you need a Blog?

* Do you need a Shopping cart? Do you need a Merchant Account or PayPal affiliation?

* Do you need a Business affiliation links? Select site advertising.

* Do you need a site information search?

* Do you need keywords and meta tags?

Do you build the site yourself, or should you have someone else build it? Or will the business you're going into build the site for you? Having the option that the business you're working with will build your site for you is a huge benefit. This can get you into business very quickly, in some instances overnight.

If you are going to build your own website and you have properly planned it, you are probably ready to get started at this point. Building your own website will save you a lot of money. But it requires that you can program in the various languages that websites must be programmed in, or that you have access to, and know how to use, website creation software. But not everyone can build their own website, and not everyone wants to. If you can't build your own website, or you don't want to build your website, and you aren't associating your business with one that will build your site for you, then you are facing having someone else build your site.

Since you have already carefully planned your website, it's important that you convey your ideas about your site design to those who will be building your site. They won't know what you expect your site to look like, and the functionality you envision for your site, unless you describe it to them in detail. So in working with your website designer, be thorough in detailing to them about what you expect in your site.

Two additional items that you must resolve before your site is built are

* the URL that visitors will use to browse your site, and

* the host where your site will be stored.

The URL should make it easy for a browser to find your site, so select it carefully. You may not be able to get your first choice in URLs; if not, try variations of the word(s) you want to use.

The host for your site is important because you are relying on this host to be up and running around the clock, 24/7. If the host is down, your site is off the air. Reliability is a must. It's also helpful if your host can provide you with statistics about your site: who is visiting? how long do they hang around? what pages are they viewing? what page is the last page that they view (i.e., what page is causing them to leave your site)?

Once the site is built, test . . . test . . . test! Testing is important because you don't want your site visitors to be the ones to find your errors. That's a quick way to lose customers. Once the site is thoroughly tested, you're ready to go online.

Mary Stansifer and http://www.WorkAtHome-Online1.com review popular home business ideas and opportunities. Click on the link to find out about where you can get your own money-making website set up in 24 hours, complete with 30 days of detailed instructions, prepared by those who have already become successful using this program, for making the site a successful business. Believe it! Your own site, your own business, up and running tomorrow.

What You Have to Do Before Choosing Right Web Designing Firm?

Manchester is one of the most famous cities in England. It is the capital of Lancashire County. Manchester houses many famous companies, industries and is home to some of the famous football clubs in the world. If someone lives in this city or aspires to do web designing about the city of Manchester or for any business firms in and around Manchester then city of Manchester has lots of provisions and opportunities for web designing.

Before going in depth one has to first think about the budget they have. They must be sure about their economic status, because Manchester website design depends on the budget. Then she/he must make sure whether they are in need of a domain name or just web hosting etc. Then they must decide whether the website is just a pool of advertisements of shops or business centers in and around Manchester.

After analyzing all the above quoted things the next step in a Manchester web design is to contact any web designing Manchester Company. Before contacting the company, go through the portfolio of the company. Make sure that the company is not a bogus one. Analyze the website design Manchester Company's competency by analyzing the websites of its precious customers.

For a website to be more successful the ecommerce parameter is necessary. Look after for this parameter in the websites created by the company. Make sure that those websites are very attractive for the viewers. Then next important thing is its loading speeds. Any website which takes more than 5 seconds is annoying.

There are web designing companies in Manchester which provides provisions for all the web design related activities like hosting, domain name, email etc. So it is better to approach these types of companies because the whole process will be much easier.

For more information please visit our Manchester website design studio.

Planning Your Website Layout - Top Tips

Planning your website layout before you start to populate can save you considerable time.

There are many aspects of the layout and content that can help you convert your website traffic into goals.

Define your goals

Evaluate the purpose of your website and establish at least one goal. For example, a goal could be:

• Purchase a product
• Sign up to a newsletter
• Request a quote
• Request a call back etc.

Goal Paths

Once you have established a goal you'll need to define a goal path. A goal path is the route which a visitor takes before reaching a goal. To achieve a successful goal path consider the following:

• Keep the path as short or a direct as can be
• Don't distract the visitor away from the path through links or adverts
• Supply enough information for the visitor to be able to make an informed decision, but not so much that the visitor loses interest
• Make the path intuitive by using "next" buttons or links
• Try to establish the visitor's needs by looking at the path from your visitor's point of view.

Preparing your website content.

Once you have defined your goals and the logical goal paths, you'll need to write the content.

• Prepare all images, videos, forms etc. in advance
• If the text is being copied and pasted from another source use a program like Adobe Dreamweaver or even MS Notepad to strip out the unwanted font styles before you paste it into your website
• Make the text keyword rich

Quick links

Once you have defined the number of web pages and the content that needs writing you can decide which content pages should be made available as quick links.

Quick links should be links that you feel will either be of most benefit to your visitor's or of most benefit to you (but still of interest to the visitor).

If you are unsure about which links to use, the following quick link suggestions might help.

• Home
• Testimonials
• About us
• Contact us
• Services

Meta tags

Meta tags are read by search engines to help identify the content of your web pages. By having all this information decided before you start populating each web page, you'll find the process much easier.

http://mistore.co.uk/content/top_tips_for_laying_out_a_website
Planning your website layout before you start to populate it can save you considerable time. There are many aspects of the layout and content that can help you convert your website traffic into goals. to read more about website planning visit our website: http://www.mistore.co.uk

Want Massive Leverage in Time and Profits For Your Website Design Business?

Imagine a life where you can get up and plan what you want to do today without even thinking about work. Safe in the knowledge that someone else is doing it for you.

Imagine a world where you wake up and know that other people have been doing your work and making you money even while you are asleep.

Well this can become a reality thanks to the power of the internet. You can now have people in other countries doing your work for you while you are enjoying your life doing what you want to do with your day.

It is called outsourcing and it is the best way to make large sums of money online without putting in endless hours of work. People are their personal fortunes online by letting other people to what they either cannot do, or do now want to do.

A lot of business owners think that they are the best at what they do and so they end up doing all the work themselves. This means that they are replacing a 9 to 5 job with a 9 to 9 home based business. This is not how it should be, people need to realize if you just let other people do a lot of the work for you, you will have a lot more time and a lot more money.

Website Development for commercial profit can be learned in two ways, the easy way or the hard way. The hard way will cost you money and a lot of time. The easy way will have you up and running and making money with your outsourced work in no time.

The easy way is to learn from people who have done it before. People who have made the mistakes, lost the money and done all the hard work for already. These are the people you want to learn from.

Mike Larter is an Affiliate Marketer & Twitterer. Find out more at: http://www.MikeDJLarter.com.

Enchant Your Audiences With a Mesmerizing Web Banner Advertisement

A Web Banner advertisement refers to a form of advertising on the Internet. It is a link displayed in a box containing a promotional message. A viewer reaches to an advertiser's website on clicking this link. The main purpose of such an advertisement is to allure traffic to the marketer's website. An entrepreneur deploys this form of advertisement to promote brand awareness of a company among the potential customers as well as the public. It also aims at generating more sales of a product or a service.

Banners have the potential to capture the attention of prospective customers with animated images. An advertiser can use animations or sound to allure the viewer to a website. Animations create a visual impact in the mind of a viewer. It is an interactive feature in the banner advertisements. This feature engages a viewer's mind and allures him to an advertisement. A marketer should deploy attractive color combinations. One should use the colors that are more agreeable to potential customers. Every culture prefers different types of shades.

A banner designer should study the geographic and psychographics of the prospective clients. This helps in better understanding of the culture and preferences of a client. It helps you in selecting the colors that appear vibrant and attractive to a potential customer according to his culture. One can also use the logo of a company in the advertisement. A logo delivers an identity to an organization. It also distinguishes the company from its competitors in the minds of the potential clients. The size of a banner also matters in its presentation on a web page. Many times banners are very large that they curb a reader from reading the information on the web page. This can distract a viewer's attention from viewing the advertisement. Other banners are very small in appearance that their visuals are not able to allure a viewer. One should keep a standard size of the banner so that one can easily entice a viewer towards an advertisement. The banner size should also not hinder the viewer from viewing the information on the web page.

Banner advertisements on the Internet are measurable form of promotion. An advertiser can maintain a track by tracing the number of clicks or sales conversion rates. The results can be considered to improve future campaigns.

Myself webmaster of http://www.bannerdesignerpro.com - offers flash banner software, banner creator.

Design an Exquisite Website to Boost Your Business

Business environment involves constant changes because of which marketers continuously look for creative ideas to establish themselves in the market. They constantly strive to maximize profits so that their organizations have sufficient funds during adverse times. In order to maximize the profits an entrepreneur should use various promotional methods effectively and innovatively to have an edge over the competitors. A marketer wants to make his presence felt through all forms of media. Having an online presence is one of the ways to stay connected with the potential customers. Due to the growing popularity of Internet, many marketers tap this medium to increase their customer base and enhance the profits.

In the modern world, many people perceive Internet as a source of resourceful and authentic information as well as knowledge. Many entrepreneurs build attractive websites to attract the potential customers. A good website offers flexibility to an entrepreneur to provide with the company's profile, products and services. You can mention about the management team, credentials, certification, policies, plans and schemes. One can provide information about the company's nature and future goals. A good website should have fresh and crisp content that can provide desired and essential information to a visitor. You should have original content on the website. It is beneficial to update the content regularly so that the viewer can have fresh information in your website whenever he visits the next time. The content that you display on a website should address the needs and wants of a targeted customer. Through a website, an entrepreneur should offer an opportunity to a client to satisfy his need by using the entrepreneur's products. A person can use graphics or animation to convey the intended message with a pictorial description. With a graphical description, a viewer can grasp the message easily and can retain for a longer time. Hence, one should present the animation, audio or video in clear and attractive manner. These interactive features also create a visual impact in the mind of a viewer.

In an environment of advanced technology, one can create good websites by hiring web design services from companies equipped with modern technology. There is also web design software available that offer you with advanced options. Some of these tools offer templates and various other designs. Others equip you with an ability to personalize these designs as per the requirement. Along with attractive designs, you should also ensure that your website is user-friendly and accessible that can contribute to boost your business.

Anee Steven is a successful author and an online market strategist. Written many articles on various topics and this time around with article on creating website, banner and slideshows easily using tools like flash web builder, flash intro templates,flash intro builder, slideshow software, flash intros, website builder, web design software,banner design, etc.

Design Templates - 3 Hurdles and Pitfalls

Avoid the pitfalls to do it yourself site design

Do it yourself website design can be fun if you have the time and patients. Here are 3 major obstacles to avoid while using a template to design your own site.

Avoid this major hurdle

The top, most asked question I receive is: Why won't my site work?

The question comes in many forms and formats but the basic problem is: the template doesn't work the way I envisioned it.

This may be contributed to wanting more than the template has to offer. The scope and purpose of the website template is to allow you, the user, to quickly put content on line. There are several ways to do this:

• Wizards: Site Builder provided by hosting account.
• Hire a designer.
• Design it yourself with free or paid template.
• Content Management System (Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Joomla, Etc.)

Each comes with its own set of challenges, so avoid wanting too much from your choose of site building tools. Know the limitations, scope and purpose.

Do not alter important elements

All templates will have components you can edit, but should you?

When I first started out some years ago, I would often change items in the template coding because of my experience and knowledge of HTML plus training in Mysql...

I would end up spending hours making 'small' changes to the code. It was fun to me but not a very effective use of my time. Remember, the purpose of using templates is to QUICKLY PUT CONTENT ON LINE.

I suggest you alter only the items that the documentation require you to edit.

Scripts within the templates or tools used in building your site are especially sensitive.

Altering images that come with your template is an expert level manipulation function. Are you expert with PhotoShop?

You can find an image to replace the one you 'don't like'. Do not attempt to change the image that came with the template. Trust me, this will save you time and avoid unnecessary frustration.

Don't forget marketing

Change and include Meta keyword and description elements, update the title tag on each page of the site.

After all, you want to be found by search engines, friends and potential clients.

Build yourself a robot file and Sitemap. Make your site visible to the World Wide Web.

Conclusion

Designing with templates have many hurdles, limitations and pitfalls, but understanding the purpose and scope of the tool you use coupled with making required changes only plus including marketing concerns, will have you a professional site up and running in as little as 24 hours to 48 hours.

Do you want to learn more about how to promote? I have a totally free, no-strings attached course.

Download it free here: Promoting Your Success

Need helpful resources at no cost? Click here: Get Prepared

Anthony Morgan is an online marketeer and direct sales affiliate.
He is passionate about supplying entrepreneurs with systems and products that are effective in building personal success.

Evolution of Web Design

As a rule, web site layouts & designs evolve. At the beginning of the Internet era, many web site owners became captivated with "bells and whistles" that, on the superficial, might appeal to their target public. Java apps, Flash movies, gigantic animations and other graphic media has become increasingly prevalent over the years.

However, in the precipitate to have the "coolest" site layout design, web site owners forget whom they are creating their site for: Their target audience. Your audience might find that Flash movie irritating after viewing it multiple times. Your audience might not be able to find your site in the search engines. "Bells and whistles" are attributes of a web site that need to be measured and tested to see if they increase or drive away sales.

Below are the largely collective steps of web's evolution typically undergo:

Step 1 - Design Over Substance
Step 2 - Designing for On line Visibility
Step 3 - Designing for Your Audience
Step 4 - Site Redesign

Step 1 - Design Over Substance The first stage is to design a site that the CEO, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of "bells and whistles" in this design. An entire site might be a Flash site. Or there might be some beautiful Java-Script mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It's always a pretty design, but the message is clear -- style over substance.

Step 2 - Designing for On line Visibility In Step 2, the reality of an ineffective web layout begins to hit, usually around 3-6 months after the first launch. A site will typically get rejected by many of the major portals, not be indexed by the major search engines, or not get the traffic or customers that were projected based on the various types of marketing strategies used. Typically, that's when corporates decide that they will try to hire a expert on line marketer to promote the site. Entrance page companies, in some way, profile or form, rear their horrid heads.

Unfortunately, many site owners fall for a entrance page company's pitch since the beautifully designed site couldn't possibly be the glitch with low site traffic. Google might have rejected a site, or the site might have been listed in Yahoo and the company cannot understand why they have no extra information. But in no way would many advertising agencies or doorway page companies want to tell potential customers the truth -- they simply did not design and write an effective web site -- because it would mean losing tons of money in business.

Step 3 - Designing for Your Audience By Step 3, afterward expenses an ridiculous amount of money on cool web site designs and various marketing strategies, web site owners generally assume out that they did not design or write an successful Web site for their target audience.

Typically, web site owners will bring in a usability expert to examine possible issues and present various solutions. Bringing in a search engine marketing expert to help with SEF design templates early in the design time can save a company thousands of dollars in on line marketing expenses.

Step 4 - Site Redesign After tender usability and search engine visibility analyzes, web site owners ultimately have an operational web site. A site that is crafted, coded and designed for user friendliness and search engine (SEO) visibility generally gets the the majority traffic and follow-on sales since it was written, planned, and designed for end users.

Conclusions Web sites be supposed to forever be designed with your target audience in mind, not your own individual preferences. Colors have meaning. Expert designers understand the psychology of color and the use of white space to superlative project the image your audience wishes to see.

If not the advanced technology unmistakably payback end users, do not use it on your site. If your venture capitalists like the site, ask if they are going to finish the thousands or millions of dollars to keep you in business. They're not.

Your target audience who will be the only one to determine the success or failure of your site.

Good talented designers meet at http://www.ZenLayout.com

Get the Best and Most Affordable Website Design

If you are getting your website designed and want it to be done in a cheap and affordable cost, then you will have learn to identify if the website design is affordable or not. You can say that the website design that you have opted for is affordable only when you see that there is return that you are getting for your investment in the defined time period. The cost of the website though is not limited to the building of the website only. You will also need to analyse the complete life cycle expectancy of the website. There are no doubt certain ways through which you can get affordable website design at the initial stage of the purchase itself.

To get a custom website design it will cost you time and money as you will have to travel all the way to the client and thus will have to do prior preparation. To begin with visit your local website designers and get as many quotes as possible. Once you have short listed the designers you it will take you more than one meeting to come to conclusion on who to choose for the job and this is when your preparation will come in handy for you. Thus being prepared helps you to strike a deal with your designer in fewer meetings.

The website designs are generally either very affordable or very expensive. But if you are clear about your requirements then it will help you to save more. You can access the templates available online and also website which are live and then further instruct the designer accordingly. But if you want the designer to work on your website right from the scratch then the cost that will incur for it will shoot high. The designs in vogue today in the market are simpler and hence if you choose for a simple design then it will not cost you much. If you have a company logo then the design can be worked out in and around the logo. This further simplifies the website designer's work and hence the cost goes down. To get the best website design concentrate more on the content of the website and your work will be done in a very effective and efficient manner.

After the designing of the website is completed you need to find a space to host your website. There are different forms of web hosting that you can choose from. To begin with identify what you need. For instance if your website is of ten page with a single page averaging 110 KB and you have plans of further growing the website by adding more page to it then you need to get a hosting space of around 11MB. However to be on the safe side you can opt for a space of around 35 MB as apart from the content there will images as well on your website.

So it helps to have a proper preparation before you start with getting assistance for an affordable website design.

For any help on Affordable website design, check out the info available online. These will help you learn to find the Best website design an instant go!