How do you design a top money making website. It's very simple really. There are a few basic rules of these websites which you have to understand in order to generate revenue through your own top money making website.
The site owner earns because of the traffic generated on the site and the clicks done on the site. These business models maybe based on earning through clicks, ads etc.
There are a few websites on the internet. Not all of these can qualify to be top money making websites. Different sites run different promotion packages.
As a part of such packages, these websites often lay out a certain form of electronic currency which can be used on the site only. Often this currency is also known as web money.
There are other forms of web money too. There are reward programs being run by these websites. This is just another form of web money. These sites have a decent earning model which has helped them stay in business.
These maybe in the form of sound or only graphics. Whatever be the type of the ad on this site, the basic earning model of the site remains the same ads on the sites are often pay per click ads. . Whenever a person clicks on a particular ad, he or she is led to a different page wherein he gets to see the ad in fullest.
There are also others ads which are present on the website. A person who wants to earn through top money making websites has to consider the following things before he actually gets on to the work.
Web sites are good money making tools. These sites are often the best money making tools available to the users. Sites help you not only to create your site but also to get the work done and the money earning on your site. These are called design web sites also.
You can make money through the help of these sites. You can take the help of these sites for the purpose of setting up your own site or you can make a web design site yourself ad give your services to the people.
There are sites which also help you get your articles posted therein. You can always look forward to such sites for the purpose of turning you site into a top money making site. So when you start your own top money making site, take care of these things mentioned above.
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
How to Put Video on your Website: Processing and Uploading
It's time to start using video files on your webpages. It will help you rank well in search engines and will enhance the quality of your website's usability. By far the most time consuming and difficult factor, when you want to put video on your website, is the process of digitizing the video. Let's talk about some key concepts for processing video files before uploading them to your server.
First you need to find a high quality video to process. The higher the quality the better. Consider the size of the movie. Don't go for a full screen with best resolution. You don't want your website's visitors wait for ages before the video is ready to be viewed. Look for small, clear images that will still look good with compression.
Processing the video requires specific software and some editing skills but anyone can learn some basic editing procedures. There are expensive sophisticated software packages for video editing like Adobe Premiere or AfterEffects. Ok, Premiere is by far the most professional editing tool out there but it's among the most expensive tools too. (Look at my bio for a much cheaper quality software).
The above software packages will let you do whatever you want with the video files. Add several clips, slice them, insert static images, use filters and transitions, sync up audio files are some of the features that these packages offer.
Now let's talk about an element that is neglected by many people who use video on their websites. This element is sound. It's better to edit the sound of your video separately using an audio editing software. This way you can have a better idea of what people will actually hear when they watch your video file. Poor sound quality will definitely affect the quality of your video.
After processing your video file and paying special attention to your video's sound quality you need to take a final step before putting the video file on your website. And that final step is compression. Again, what you need is a video compression software that will let you balance the image and sound quality along with some other quality and size parameters.
And now the easiest part. Uploading your video on your web server. Make sure you have enough disk space on your server. Also make sure you are allowed to use enough bandwidth because video files are real bandwidth consumers. For example let's say you have a 1 mb video file. You will only need 200 visitors to exceed a 200 mb bandwidth limit!
First you need to find a high quality video to process. The higher the quality the better. Consider the size of the movie. Don't go for a full screen with best resolution. You don't want your website's visitors wait for ages before the video is ready to be viewed. Look for small, clear images that will still look good with compression.
Processing the video requires specific software and some editing skills but anyone can learn some basic editing procedures. There are expensive sophisticated software packages for video editing like Adobe Premiere or AfterEffects. Ok, Premiere is by far the most professional editing tool out there but it's among the most expensive tools too. (Look at my bio for a much cheaper quality software).
The above software packages will let you do whatever you want with the video files. Add several clips, slice them, insert static images, use filters and transitions, sync up audio files are some of the features that these packages offer.
Now let's talk about an element that is neglected by many people who use video on their websites. This element is sound. It's better to edit the sound of your video separately using an audio editing software. This way you can have a better idea of what people will actually hear when they watch your video file. Poor sound quality will definitely affect the quality of your video.
After processing your video file and paying special attention to your video's sound quality you need to take a final step before putting the video file on your website. And that final step is compression. Again, what you need is a video compression software that will let you balance the image and sound quality along with some other quality and size parameters.
And now the easiest part. Uploading your video on your web server. Make sure you have enough disk space on your server. Also make sure you are allowed to use enough bandwidth because video files are real bandwidth consumers. For example let's say you have a 1 mb video file. You will only need 200 visitors to exceed a 200 mb bandwidth limit!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Creating An Art Affiliate Website
There is a huge market for art. Almost all people from any age or background will buy art and posters from time to time. By purchasing this art online consumers can save a lot of money over retail stores. Knowing all of this puts you in a great position to make a profit by directing consumer to this art without having to make a significant investment or carrying any overhead.
The key to making this possible is to take advantage of art affiliate programs offered by several websites. It doesn't matter which program you decide to use the concept and steps to success are the same. In this guide I'll walk you through every step of the process and demonstrate each step using our sample website, Tropical Art.
For those of you already familiar with how affiliate websites work, you can skip ahead to step one. For the rest of you I'll briefly explain. By becoming an affiliate of an art website you agree to send customers to them, in exchange for earning a commission off the sale. There are several ways to do this, but the most common is by setting up your own website for your virtual art store. You allow visitors to browse the art selection you offer and when they wish to make a purchase you send them to the website you have affiliated with to check out. When you send the visitor to the affiliate manager's website, the url includes a tracking id so that you get credit for the sale. You can visit the tropical art website above for an example of how this works. The percentage of commission you collect for this varies based on the program and how many sales you make, but it typically ranges from 10%-25% of the amount purchased. With art purchases it's not unusual for a single visitor to purchase $100 or more in art so you can see how the sales can add up quickly.
Step 1 - Select an Affiliate Program
The first thing you need to do is select an affiliate program. The reason it is important to do this first is because it can take days or even weeks to receive approval of your acceptance back from these programs. By doing this step first it will not hold you up later on. Some of the affiliate programs require you to list your website before signing up, while with others it's optional. If it's required you can skip this step and come back to it.
There are several factors to look when choosing an affiliate program. Some questions you need to ask are: What percentage of commission will you be paid? How wide is the product selection? Will consumers feel safe providing their credit card information to this site?
I highly recommend sticking with the big three art affiliate programs, Art.com, Art International and All Posters. While there are plenty of others to choose from and many are legit, there are always a few scams out there and I simply can not personally vouch for the others. By working with the big players in the industry you also are typically able to offer your visitors a wider selection. For my sample site I will be using the art.com affiliate program
Step 2 - Selecting a Topic
It's important for you to know that setting up an art website and making money off of it is going to take some work and you're not going to profit over night. Most websites get the majority of traffic from search engines, but as with any industry you have competition. This guide will show you how to put up a good fight to get your site ranked in the search engines and get traffic to your site. It's important to begin with the end in mind so the first step is finding what topic you wish to target.
Usually beginners want to set up a massive art store that sells every product available. While this sounds good at first, it's not practical for a novice or anyone without serious financial backing to compete in this field. You have to find a niche to target and focus all of your energies on that niche. The most important step in doing this is to find the primary keyword you want to target. I recommend the keyword suggestion tool from Digital Point for doing this.
This tool is simple to use. Just enter a keyword that describes the type of site you want to set up such as "art" and click the suggest button. You'll get a list of related keywords and the number of daily searches each receives. I recommend using the Overture numbers which show the number of searches performed on Yahoo because I feel these are a more accurate example. At the time of writing this the term "art" receives over 29,000 searches a day! As I said before this is way too competetive of a term for most people to target. My suggestion is to scroll down towards the bottom of the list and look at terms for easier targets. The words in each phrase are listed in alphabetical order, not necessirly in the order searched. For example the term I targeted in this example "tropical art" is listed as "art tropical" on this site. It receives about 400 searches a day on Yahoo alone which will be more than enough to earn a decent amount on this site. Once you found one you think you'd be interested in, go to the search engine you use and perform a search for it. Look at the top few sites and ask yourself the question of if you feel you can build a site that is of this quality or higher or hire someone else to. If the answer is no I'd recommend you try other terms until you find the right one.
Step 3 - Make Sure You Have Products to Sell
So far you haven't spent any money and have invested a minimal amount of time. Before you do either you need to make sure you have a fair number of products to sell related to the topic you have chosen. Doing this is simple. Just browse the site you have chosen to become an affiliate for and make sure they sell products related to your topic.
For the Tropical Art website I'm using as an example I can see Art.com offers a beach and ocean gallery that will be perfect. If you can't find any products for your topic or a very limited selection I would suggest finding another topic or a different affiliate program.
The key to making this possible is to take advantage of art affiliate programs offered by several websites. It doesn't matter which program you decide to use the concept and steps to success are the same. In this guide I'll walk you through every step of the process and demonstrate each step using our sample website, Tropical Art.
For those of you already familiar with how affiliate websites work, you can skip ahead to step one. For the rest of you I'll briefly explain. By becoming an affiliate of an art website you agree to send customers to them, in exchange for earning a commission off the sale. There are several ways to do this, but the most common is by setting up your own website for your virtual art store. You allow visitors to browse the art selection you offer and when they wish to make a purchase you send them to the website you have affiliated with to check out. When you send the visitor to the affiliate manager's website, the url includes a tracking id so that you get credit for the sale. You can visit the tropical art website above for an example of how this works. The percentage of commission you collect for this varies based on the program and how many sales you make, but it typically ranges from 10%-25% of the amount purchased. With art purchases it's not unusual for a single visitor to purchase $100 or more in art so you can see how the sales can add up quickly.
Step 1 - Select an Affiliate Program
The first thing you need to do is select an affiliate program. The reason it is important to do this first is because it can take days or even weeks to receive approval of your acceptance back from these programs. By doing this step first it will not hold you up later on. Some of the affiliate programs require you to list your website before signing up, while with others it's optional. If it's required you can skip this step and come back to it.
There are several factors to look when choosing an affiliate program. Some questions you need to ask are: What percentage of commission will you be paid? How wide is the product selection? Will consumers feel safe providing their credit card information to this site?
I highly recommend sticking with the big three art affiliate programs, Art.com, Art International and All Posters. While there are plenty of others to choose from and many are legit, there are always a few scams out there and I simply can not personally vouch for the others. By working with the big players in the industry you also are typically able to offer your visitors a wider selection. For my sample site I will be using the art.com affiliate program
Step 2 - Selecting a Topic
It's important for you to know that setting up an art website and making money off of it is going to take some work and you're not going to profit over night. Most websites get the majority of traffic from search engines, but as with any industry you have competition. This guide will show you how to put up a good fight to get your site ranked in the search engines and get traffic to your site. It's important to begin with the end in mind so the first step is finding what topic you wish to target.
Usually beginners want to set up a massive art store that sells every product available. While this sounds good at first, it's not practical for a novice or anyone without serious financial backing to compete in this field. You have to find a niche to target and focus all of your energies on that niche. The most important step in doing this is to find the primary keyword you want to target. I recommend the keyword suggestion tool from Digital Point for doing this.
This tool is simple to use. Just enter a keyword that describes the type of site you want to set up such as "art" and click the suggest button. You'll get a list of related keywords and the number of daily searches each receives. I recommend using the Overture numbers which show the number of searches performed on Yahoo because I feel these are a more accurate example. At the time of writing this the term "art" receives over 29,000 searches a day! As I said before this is way too competetive of a term for most people to target. My suggestion is to scroll down towards the bottom of the list and look at terms for easier targets. The words in each phrase are listed in alphabetical order, not necessirly in the order searched. For example the term I targeted in this example "tropical art" is listed as "art tropical" on this site. It receives about 400 searches a day on Yahoo alone which will be more than enough to earn a decent amount on this site. Once you found one you think you'd be interested in, go to the search engine you use and perform a search for it. Look at the top few sites and ask yourself the question of if you feel you can build a site that is of this quality or higher or hire someone else to. If the answer is no I'd recommend you try other terms until you find the right one.
Step 3 - Make Sure You Have Products to Sell
So far you haven't spent any money and have invested a minimal amount of time. Before you do either you need to make sure you have a fair number of products to sell related to the topic you have chosen. Doing this is simple. Just browse the site you have chosen to become an affiliate for and make sure they sell products related to your topic.
For the Tropical Art website I'm using as an example I can see Art.com offers a beach and ocean gallery that will be perfect. If you can't find any products for your topic or a very limited selection I would suggest finding another topic or a different affiliate program.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The Secret Benefit Of Accessibility Part 1: Increased Usability
Web accessibility has so many benefits that I really do wonder why such a large number of websites have such diabolically bad accessibility. One of the main benefits is increased usability, which according to usability guru, Jakob Nielson, can increase the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100% and traffic by 150%.
At which point you must surely be asking, "So if I make my website accessible its usability will increase and I'll make more money out of it?". Well, not quite. An accessible website is not automatically more usable but there are many areas of overlap:
1. Descriptive link text
Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from link to link and listening to the content of the link text. As such, the link text in an accessible website must always be descriptive of its destination.
Equally, regularly sighted web users don't read web pages word-for-word, but scan them looking for the information they're after.
Link text such as 'Click here' has poor accessibility and usability as both regularly sighted and visually impaired web users scanning
the paragraph will take no meaning from this link text by itself. Link text that effectively describes its destination is far easier to scan and you can understand the destination of the link without having to read its surrounding words.
2. Prompt text assigned to form input
In order to make forms accessible we need to assign the prompt text to its form item. THis is especially useful when done with checkboxes and radioboxes, as the text becomes clickable too. Checkboxes and radioboxes are small and pernickety for even the steadiest of hands so by increasing the clickable region everyone benefits.
3. Large chunks of information divided up
There are a number of techniques that can be taken to increase the usability for visually impaired users, who have to listen to the information on each page and try to remember it. By structuring information into small, manageable groups, enhanced usability for these users can be achieved.
Methods to accomplish this can include using sub-headings to break up body content, grouping form items with the fieldset command and using lists. Breaking down groups of information is obviously highly useful for sighted web users too, as it greatly enhances our ability to scan the screen quickly.
4. Site map provided
Site maps can be a useful accessibility tool for visually impaired users as they provide a straightforward list of links to the main pages on the site, without any of the fluff in between. Site maps are of course useful for everyone as they provide us with a way of finding pages quickly and help us visualise the structure of the website.
5. Simple and easy language
>From an accessibility point of view, this one's important for people with reading and/or cognitive disabilities and site visitors who's first language isn't the one you're writing in. From a usability point of view, well, it helps everyone. Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from paper. As such, the easier the style of writing the easier it is for site visitors to absorb your words of wisdom. Wherever possible shorten your sentences. Use, ‘apply' instead of ‘make an application' or ‘use' instead of ‘make use of'.
6. Consistent navigation
Having consistent navigation across pages is also important for maximising accessibility to people with reading and/or cognitive disabilities, but again everyone benefits. Each time you visit a new website it takes you a few seconds to adjust to the unique layout and user interface of that page. Well imagine if you had to do that every time you follow a link to a new page!
By having a consistent interface across a website we can instantly locate the navigation and page content without having to look around for it. In reality, most sites do have consistent navigation across most pages. The main culprit for falling foul of this guideline is the homepage, which some websites structure quite differently to the rest of the site. By having a consistent interface across the entire website we can instantly locate the page content without having to look around for it.
7. No unannounced pop-ups
For web users utilising screen readers pop-ups can be a real accessibility nuisance. Screen readers read out the content of whichever window is on top of the others. Pop-ups display over the top of the main website so will always be read out first. For visually impaired users this can be frustrating as they may not realise that what they're hearing isn't the ‘real' website.
So, pop-ups are bad for accessibility. As for usability, well I'm sure you hate pop-ups as much as I do. Many toolbars, such as the Google toolbar, now come packaged with a pop-up blocker so allow you to surf the web without the irritation of new windows popping up.
8. CSS used for layout
CSS-based sites are generally have a greater ratio of content to HTML code so are more accessible to screen readers and search engines. Websites using CSS for layout can also be made accessible to in-car browsers, WebTV and PDAs. Don't underestimate the importance of this - in 2008 alone there'll be an estimated 58 million PDAs sold worldwide (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm).
As well as improved accessibility, CSS-based websites have one large usability benefit: increased download speed. Broadband isn't as widespread as you may think. In the UK for example, just one in four web users are hooked up to broadband (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf) so improving the download speed of your web pages could provide a great usability advantage over your competitors.
9. Transcripts available for audio
One group of web users with special accessibility needs that doesn't get much press is hearing impaired users, who need written equivalents for audio content. Providing transcripts is in fact highly beneficial to all users. Many of your site visitors probably can't be bothered to wait for your 3Mb audio file to download and start playing. They may prefer just a quick outline of what's contained in the audio content.
By providing a transcript, broken up by sub-headings and with the key terms highlighted, non-disabled site visitors can skim through it and get a general idea of the content. They can then make a more informed decision about if they want to wait for the 3Mb audio file to download.
10. Screen flickering and movement avoided
Some epileptic web users must be careful to avoid screen flicker of between 2 and 55 Hz. Web users with reading and/or cognitive disabilities and those using screen magnifiers will struggle to keep up with scrolling text (if you do have scrolling text be sure to provide a mechanism to stop it).
In addition to being a bad idea for accessibility, neither flickering nor scrolling text are good for usability either. The former can be distracting when you're trying to read something and you see flashing out the corner of your eye; the latter isn't good either as you have to wait for the content to slowly appear. When you see scrolling text do you usually bother to stop what you're doing so you can read it as it gradually materialises? Or do you ignore it?
The other disadvantage of scrolling or changing text is that you might see something you want to click on, but before you know it it's gone. And now you have to wait 30 seconds for it to re-appear again!
Conclusion
With all this overlap between web usability and web accessibility there's no excuses for not implementing basic accessibility on to your website. Outside of the ethical argument there are many reasons to make your website accessible, one of the main one being that its usability will be improved. No one can argue with that.
At which point you must surely be asking, "So if I make my website accessible its usability will increase and I'll make more money out of it?". Well, not quite. An accessible website is not automatically more usable but there are many areas of overlap:
1. Descriptive link text
Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from link to link and listening to the content of the link text. As such, the link text in an accessible website must always be descriptive of its destination.
Equally, regularly sighted web users don't read web pages word-for-word, but scan them looking for the information they're after.
Link text such as 'Click here' has poor accessibility and usability as both regularly sighted and visually impaired web users scanning
the paragraph will take no meaning from this link text by itself. Link text that effectively describes its destination is far easier to scan and you can understand the destination of the link without having to read its surrounding words.
2. Prompt text assigned to form input
In order to make forms accessible we need to assign the prompt text to its form item. THis is especially useful when done with checkboxes and radioboxes, as the text becomes clickable too. Checkboxes and radioboxes are small and pernickety for even the steadiest of hands so by increasing the clickable region everyone benefits.
3. Large chunks of information divided up
There are a number of techniques that can be taken to increase the usability for visually impaired users, who have to listen to the information on each page and try to remember it. By structuring information into small, manageable groups, enhanced usability for these users can be achieved.
Methods to accomplish this can include using sub-headings to break up body content, grouping form items with the fieldset command and using lists. Breaking down groups of information is obviously highly useful for sighted web users too, as it greatly enhances our ability to scan the screen quickly.
4. Site map provided
Site maps can be a useful accessibility tool for visually impaired users as they provide a straightforward list of links to the main pages on the site, without any of the fluff in between. Site maps are of course useful for everyone as they provide us with a way of finding pages quickly and help us visualise the structure of the website.
5. Simple and easy language
>From an accessibility point of view, this one's important for people with reading and/or cognitive disabilities and site visitors who's first language isn't the one you're writing in. From a usability point of view, well, it helps everyone. Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from paper. As such, the easier the style of writing the easier it is for site visitors to absorb your words of wisdom. Wherever possible shorten your sentences. Use, ‘apply' instead of ‘make an application' or ‘use' instead of ‘make use of'.
6. Consistent navigation
Having consistent navigation across pages is also important for maximising accessibility to people with reading and/or cognitive disabilities, but again everyone benefits. Each time you visit a new website it takes you a few seconds to adjust to the unique layout and user interface of that page. Well imagine if you had to do that every time you follow a link to a new page!
By having a consistent interface across a website we can instantly locate the navigation and page content without having to look around for it. In reality, most sites do have consistent navigation across most pages. The main culprit for falling foul of this guideline is the homepage, which some websites structure quite differently to the rest of the site. By having a consistent interface across the entire website we can instantly locate the page content without having to look around for it.
7. No unannounced pop-ups
For web users utilising screen readers pop-ups can be a real accessibility nuisance. Screen readers read out the content of whichever window is on top of the others. Pop-ups display over the top of the main website so will always be read out first. For visually impaired users this can be frustrating as they may not realise that what they're hearing isn't the ‘real' website.
So, pop-ups are bad for accessibility. As for usability, well I'm sure you hate pop-ups as much as I do. Many toolbars, such as the Google toolbar, now come packaged with a pop-up blocker so allow you to surf the web without the irritation of new windows popping up.
8. CSS used for layout
CSS-based sites are generally have a greater ratio of content to HTML code so are more accessible to screen readers and search engines. Websites using CSS for layout can also be made accessible to in-car browsers, WebTV and PDAs. Don't underestimate the importance of this - in 2008 alone there'll be an estimated 58 million PDAs sold worldwide (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm).
As well as improved accessibility, CSS-based websites have one large usability benefit: increased download speed. Broadband isn't as widespread as you may think. In the UK for example, just one in four web users are hooked up to broadband (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/intc0504.pdf) so improving the download speed of your web pages could provide a great usability advantage over your competitors.
9. Transcripts available for audio
One group of web users with special accessibility needs that doesn't get much press is hearing impaired users, who need written equivalents for audio content. Providing transcripts is in fact highly beneficial to all users. Many of your site visitors probably can't be bothered to wait for your 3Mb audio file to download and start playing. They may prefer just a quick outline of what's contained in the audio content.
By providing a transcript, broken up by sub-headings and with the key terms highlighted, non-disabled site visitors can skim through it and get a general idea of the content. They can then make a more informed decision about if they want to wait for the 3Mb audio file to download.
10. Screen flickering and movement avoided
Some epileptic web users must be careful to avoid screen flicker of between 2 and 55 Hz. Web users with reading and/or cognitive disabilities and those using screen magnifiers will struggle to keep up with scrolling text (if you do have scrolling text be sure to provide a mechanism to stop it).
In addition to being a bad idea for accessibility, neither flickering nor scrolling text are good for usability either. The former can be distracting when you're trying to read something and you see flashing out the corner of your eye; the latter isn't good either as you have to wait for the content to slowly appear. When you see scrolling text do you usually bother to stop what you're doing so you can read it as it gradually materialises? Or do you ignore it?
The other disadvantage of scrolling or changing text is that you might see something you want to click on, but before you know it it's gone. And now you have to wait 30 seconds for it to re-appear again!
Conclusion
With all this overlap between web usability and web accessibility there's no excuses for not implementing basic accessibility on to your website. Outside of the ethical argument there are many reasons to make your website accessible, one of the main one being that its usability will be improved. No one can argue with that.
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