Introduction to RSS

Want more traffic? An easy way to distribute your news? Then you
need an RSS news feed. To start all you need is content you want broadcast,
and one RSS text file.

What is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing
headlines and other Web content. Think of it as a distributable "What's New"
for your site. Originated by UserLand in 1997 and subsequently used by Netscape
to fill channels for Netcenter, RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing
content between sites (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley
Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more). RSS solves myriad
problems webmasters commonly face, such as increasing traffic, and gathering
and distributing news. RSS can also be the basis for additional content distribution
services.

RSS Syntax

RSS defines an XML grammar (a set of HTML-like tags) for sharing
news. Each RSS text file contains both static information about
your site, plus dynamic information about your new stories, all surrounded
by matching start and end tags.

Each story is defined by an <item> tag, which contains a headline
TITLE, URL, and DESCRIPTION. Here's an example:

...
<item>
  <title>RSS Resources</title>
  <link>http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/</link>

  <description>Defined in XML, the Rich Site Summary (RSS) format has
  quietly become a dominant format for distributing headlines on the Web.
  Our list of links gives you the tools, tips and tutorials you need to get
  started using RSS. 0323</description>
</item>
...

Each RSS channel can contain up to 15 items and is easily parsed using Perl
or other open source software. If you want more details on creating RSS files see Jonathan Eisenzopf's excellent article in the February issue of Web Techniques. But you don't have to worry about the details, we've made it easy to create your own RSS channel with free open source scripts, all Web based. More on these later.

Once you've created and validated your RSS text file, register it at the various aggregators, and watch the hits roll in. Any site can now grab
and display your feed regularly, driving traffic your way. Update your RSS file, and all the external sites that subscribe to your feed will be automatically updated. What can be easier? But wait, there's more.

Contents

• Introduction
  
• Syndication and Aggregation
  
• WebRef and the Future of RSS
  

Next: Syndication and Aggregation

10 reasons for web standards

Here are ten reasons to develop with web standards:

1. The learning curve of old school methods is steeper than it is when standards are embraced.



2. It takes less time to do more work when using standards.


3. It is easier to re-use standards-compliant code, allowing developers to build portable libraries of tools.


4. Standards-friendly documents can be repurposed with ease.


5. Site maintenance is made easier with streamlined code, reducing costs and increasing time available for content.


6. The bandwith needed for a standards-based page is significantly less. More like a toeprint than a footprint.



7. Using web standards enhances accessibility, leading to more consumers.


8. Developing with standards creates site longevity, due to greater compatibility with future user agents.


9. It is much easier to create cross-browser solutions by embracing web standards.


10. Standards-based sites are more optimized for search engines, leading to increased traffic.

Basically, web standards save time and money. They make the job of the developer easier, with increased productivity and efficiency. Best of all, using web standards can make a developer look good for a client. "It's only going to take 2 minutes to change the font of all my pages? That's really cool!"

Source: http://jessey.net

An Introduction to XHTML

An Introduction to XHTML
(Page 1 of 5 )

XHTML reformulates the existing HTML technology to be an application of XML. It is already used for mobile phone and PDA Internet sites, and expected to gain widespread use as XML becomes more popular. Dan Wellman explains the differences between XHTML and HTML 4, and shows how easy it is to make the switch.

XHTML was invented to try to clean up the mess left by trying to make HTML a full-fledged presentation tool, and to reduce the fragmentation of HTML caused by the introduction of non-standard elements, mainly by Microsoft and Netscape. Additionally, XML is viewed by many as the future of the Internet, so reformulating existing markup technology to be an application of XML is a step towards embracing that future and letting go of the long standing legacy of the past. XHTML is now the specification of choice for mobile phone and PDA Internet sites, so its cross platform functionality is already being taken advantage of in excellent ways.

XHTML and its predecessor HTML 4 are extremely similar languages to use. Anyone that has worked with HTML 4 (or XML even) will find switching to XHTML extremely easy; it is more often then not simply learning to break those bad coding habits that many of us have found so easy to slip into. Remembering the few rules that come with XHTML, and trying to avoid any deprecated tags where possible, is all it really takes.

In HTML, the mark-up surrounding your content is traditionally referred to as a tag, the <a> tag for example.  In XML and subsequently, XHTML, these tags and the text enclosed within them are known as elements. For example:

<p>This sentence, including the opening and closing tags is known as a paragraph element</p>
<p>This is a separate paragraph element</p>

Next: No lazy programming allowed >>

Web Design Standards!!

Jakob Nielsen's
Alertbox, August 22, 1999:

Do Interface Standards Stifle Design Creativity?

No design standard can ever specify a complete user interface. Thus, by
definition, much design work remains, even if the designer is committed
to complying with the appropriate standards.
Often, the most important design elements are
those that cannot be specified by a standard, since the standard cannot
know the specifics of the individual domain addressed by the design.

For example, I was recently involved in the design of an e-commerce
site. The draft home page had three ways of getting to the products: search
and two navigation schemes, both of which were presented as simple lists
of choices. One navigation scheme was structured according to the way most users
think about the domain; the other scheme was structured
according to the way many of the manufacturer's own staff thought about their product
lines. Results from usability testing:

• success rate of 80% when people used
  the navigation scheme structured according to most users'
  mental model
  
• success rate of 9% when people used
  the navigation scheme structured according to the
  company's internal thinking
  

Conclusion: the second navigation scheme was dropped from the design, even
though this pained some of the project members. The second scheme had its
advantages for those people who used it correctly,
but it led most users into trouble, so it did more harm than
good.

I mention this result for two reasons: First, even though both navigation designs
looked identical and
followed the same interface standard in terms of appearance, layout, and
interaction techniques, their usability was drastically different. The first
design was almost nine times better than the second. This difference sums
to big dollars for an e-commerce site that will sell nothing unless
users can find the products. The difference in usability was not due to
differences in surface design but to differences in deep
design: finding
out how to best match a Web design to the users' needs and how to best
structure the information architecture. Thus, even when sticking to a
design standard, there was plenty to do for the site designers. A bad
designer would have used the bad navigation scheme on the home page
and never tested it.

Second, the result also shows that great usability is not guaranteed even
when following a detailed design standard to the letter. A standard
ensures that your users can understand the individual interface
elements in your
design and that they know where to look for what features. It does not
ensure that users will know how to combine the interface features or that the
system will have the features users needs.

Eric Davis, an
Information Architect with Resource Marketing, recently reported on
a usability test of shopping cart terminology.
The draft design featured the term "Shopping Sled" since
the site (selling winter sports products) had a desire to stand out
and avoid standard terminology. Result: "50% of users did not understand
The Sled concept. The other 50% said that
they figured out what it meant because it was in the same location as a cart
would be. They knew that you had to add to something, and the only
something that made any kind of sense was the Sled." Lesson: Do not try to be
smart and use new terms when we have good words available that users already
know.

Of course, there is no guarantee that a site that uses the term "shopping
cart" will have a shopping interface that is easy to use. All that is
ensured is that users will understand the term when they see it
used as a link around the site.
But that's a usability benefit well worth taking.

Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience: Users spend most
of their time on other sites. Thus, anything that is a
convention and used on the majority of other sites will be burned into
the users' brains and you can only deviate from it on pain of major
usability problems.

Since the dawn of time (1984), we have known that consistency is one of the
strongest contributors to usability. The Macintosh was based on a detailed
book of Apple Human Interface Guidelines that were followed by almost all
applications. One of the main benefits of the Mac (and later Windows) over
earlier systems was the resulting consistency that made it possible for users
to use software right out of the box. For example, people knew that you
could move stuff around by a sequence of (1) select-object, (2) Cut-command,
(3) scroll-to-new-location, (4) click-on-insertion-spot, (5) Paste-command. Always the
same sequence. And the Cut and Paste commands were always in the Edit menu
and were always abbreviated Command-X and Command-V. No real reason people
should associate the letter V with insertion or pasting, but since it was
always the same, it worked.

Despite the strong consistency in all Mac software do you think Excel
looks like MacWrite? Or that there was no design creativity involved in
making MORE (a popular outliner)?
It's clearly not the case that all GUI software is the same even though
most software has pretty strong compliance with the platform
design standards these days.

Similarly for the Web: following design standards simply ensures that users
know what you are talking about. It's like using standard English words rather than
your own vocabulary when writing. You are still the one who decides what
story to tell and how to put the design elements together.

Rules for Design Standards

To be successful, an interface design standard must:

• be well-illustrated with examples since designers go
  by the examples much more than body text
  
• make sure that the examples fully comply with the standard in
  
  all aspects and not just the one they are intended to illustrate
  (designers may pick up more than one hint from a given example)
  
• have extensive and comprehensive checklists as much
  as possible (designers prefer to scan down a list instead of having to
  read text) - for example, a list of all elements that must be on every page
  or a list of preferred terminology
  
• have a standards expert available both to review new designs in a formal
  standards inspections and for more informal consultations
  whenever designers are in doubt about the correct interpretation of the
  standard (if there is no easy place to turn with questions, then each
  designer will make up his or her own answer - guaranteed to be different
  in each case)
  
• be supported by an active evangelism program. It is
  not enough to wait to be consulted: you must actively seek out projects
  and visit them to tell them about the standard and to (gently) comment on
  their designs and how to correct the inevitable deviations
  
• be a living document under the control of a standards
  manager who updates the standard as new issues emerge
  
  
• either comply with the most popular other design
  standards or contain explicit statements highlighting the
  differences to these other standards
  
• be supported by development tools and templates that make it
  easier to comply with the standard than to implement
  a non-standard design
  
• have a good index (if printed) or a good search supplemented with
  hypertext links to related rules (if online)
  

Evangelism outreach is especially important for intranet
standards since every department will have an inclination to
ignore mandates from headquarters. They usually do so with the
excuse that "we are different and the folks at HQ don't know our
situation." True, but everybody is special

so the total system will be utter chaos if people are allowed to
diverge because of special circumstances. Usually, the greater good
is indeed greater, and overall usability is increased by consistency.
There can be a few cases where circumstances are so special that
an inconsistency should be tolerated, but deviations must be limited
to cases with a very, very good reason (most good reasons are not good
enough).

Finally, realize that a standard has its own usability concerns. This is
true whether the standard is implemented as an interactive website
with hypertext links or whether it is a traditional printed document.
Therefore a
proposed design standard should be tested with designers to ensure that they
can use it.

HTML Tutorial

If you are looking for a good starting point for learning HTML I can suggest you W3School web site. It is a good refrence for HTML.
You can find there this Sections:


HTML Tutorial
In this HTML tutorial you will learn how to use HTML to create your own Web site.
HTML is very easy to learn!
You will enjoy it!
Start learning HTML now!


HTML Examples
Learn by 100 examples! With our editor, you can edit HTML, and click on a test button to view the result.
Try-It-Yourself!


HTML Quiz Test
Test your HTML skills at W3Schools!
Start HTML Quiz!


HTML References
At W3Schools you will find complete HTML references about tags, attributes, colors, entities, and more.
HTML 4.01 References


HTML Exam - Get Your Diploma!

Get Your Diploma!
W3Schools' Online Certification Program is the perfect solution for busy professionals who need to balance work, family, and career building.
The HTML Certificate is for developers who want to document their knowledge of HTML, XHTML, and CSS.
The ASP Certificate is for developers who want to document their knowledge of ASP, SQL, and ADO.

20 Great Tips to get Banned from Google Adsense

Here is the ultimative guide on how you can get banned from the Google Adsense publisher program. Most of them will get you banned within a few days or maybe hours. Read the whole post, because tip number 20 is the most important one.
1 ) When you wake up, turn your pc on, open your website in the browser and start clicking on your own ads. The more ads you click, the better.
2 ) Write posts with a really big title where you ask your visitors to click on your Ads.
3 ) Make a video where you ask your visitors to click them.
4 ) If an Adsense block does not fit in your template, just modify the code.
5 ) Send out thousands of spam emails where you are asking to visit your website and to click on the ads
6 ) Hire some University students and tell them to click on your ads
7 ) Write a big post where you tell people about your Click Through Rate, your earnings per click and your impressions.8 ) Partecipate in a click-ring (a group of people that click each others ads)
9 ) Use click-bots that will click automatically on your ads
10 ) Pay some Indian or Chinese clickers. There are really some people whose work is it to click on Adsense ads the whole day
11 ) Put a big “CLICK HERE” over your ads
12 ) Fill pages with ads and search boxes. You don’t need content, only ads.
13 ) Use pop-ups on your website
14 ) Register many different Adsense accounts and place ads from each account on the same page
15 ) Ignore emails you receive from Google Adsense
16 ) Put Adsense on pages with prohibited content (Warez, porn…)
17 ) Write Adsense support an email and tell them that you are cheating
18 ) Blend Adsense with ad relevant images
19 ) Display adsense on registration and “thank you” pages
20 ) Don’t follow any of the tips above or you will get banned for real . Immagine a “DO NOT” before each point.

Adobe DreamWeaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is a web development application originally created by Macromedia and now owned by Adobe Systems, which acquired Macromedia in 2005.
Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems. Recent versions have incorporated support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, and various server-side scripting languages and frameworks including ASP.NET, ColdFusion, JavaServer Pages, and PHP.

Features
As a WYSIWYG Presto-based editor, Dreamweaver can hide the details of pages' HTML code from the user, making it possible for non-coders to create web pages and sites. A professional criticism of this approach is that it produces HTML pages whose file size and amount of HTML code is much larger than they should be, which can cause web browsers to perform poorly. This can be particularly true because the application makes it very easy to create table-based layouts. In addition, some web site developers have criticized Dreamweaver in the past for producing code that often does not comply with W3C standards, though this has improved considerably in recent versions. Dreamweaver 8.0 (the version prior to the recently released 9.0 within CS3) performed poorly on the Acid2 Test, developed by the Web Standards Project. However, Macromedia has increased the support for CSS and other ways to lay out a page without tables in later versions of the application, with the ability to convert tables to layers and vice versa. Dreamweaver allows users to preview websites in many browsers, provided that they are installed on their computer. It also has some site management tools, such as the ability to find and replace lines of text or code by whatever parameters specified across the entire site, and a templatization feature for creating multiple pages with similar structures. The behaviors panel also enables use of basic JavaScript without any coding knowledge.
Dreamweaver can use "Extensions" - small programs, which any web developer can write (usually in HTML and JavaScript). Extensions provide added functionality to the software for whoever wants to download and install them. Dreamweaver is supported by a large community of extension developers who make extensions available (both commercial and free) for most web development tasks from simple rollover effects to full-featured shopping carts.
Like other HTML editors, Dreamweaver edits files locally, then uploads all edited files to the remote web server using FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV.

Syntax highlighting
As of version 6, Dreamweaver supports syntax highlighting for the following languages out of the box:
ActionScript
Active Server Pages (ASP)
ASP.NET
C#
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
ColdFusion
EDML
Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)
Java
JavaScript
JavaServer Pages (JSP)
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)
Visual Basic (VB)
Visual Basic Script Edition (VBScript)
Wireless Markup Language (WML)
It is also possible to add your own language syntax highlighting to its repertoire.
In addition, code completion is available for many of these languages.

Version history
Dreamweaver 1.0 (Released December 1997)
Dreamweaver 1.2 (Followed in March 1998)
Dreamweaver 2.0 (Released December 1998)
Dreamweaver 3.0 (Released December 1999)
Dreamweaver UltraDev 1.0 (Released June 2000)
Dreamweaver 4.0 (Released December 2000)
Dreamweaver UltraDev 4.0 (Released December 2000)
Dreamweaver MX (Released May 29, 2002. Version 6.0)
Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Released September 10, 2003. Version 7.0)
Dreamweaver 8 (Released September 13, 2005)
Dreamweaver CS3 (Released April 16, 2007. Version 9.0)

Internationalization and localization

Language Availability
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 is available in the following languages: Arabic (Middle Eastern version), Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew (Middle Eastern version), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.
Adobe Dreamweaver Middle Eastern language versions available from WinSoft[1].

Specific Features for Arabic and Hebrew languages
Dreamweaver Middle Eastern versions allow typing Arabic or Hebrew text (written from right to left) within the code view. Whether the text is fully Middle Eastern (written from right to left) or includes both English and Middle Eastern text (written left to right and right to left), it will be displayed properly in the browser.The Middle Eastern versions are also available for Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy and for Adobe Creative Suite (Design Standard, Design Premium, Web Premium).

You can see some good tutorial in this web site: http://www.entheosweb.com/dreamweaver/default.asp

Dreamweaver TipsTips on tables, forms, CSS Styles, behaviors more.
Dreamweaver Behaviors Use the Dreamweaver behaviors panel to add interactivity to your site.
Jump Menus Use jump menus to create a drop-down menu with links.
LayersWhat are layers? Learn how to create them.
Dreamweaver Web Photo AlbumLearn how to create a picture gallery in Dreamweaver.
Using Templates in DreamweaverLearn how to create a template in Dreamweaver.
Making your site Live! Learn how to upload your files to a remote server and make your site live.
Flash Text RolloverHow to insert flash text rollover in Dreamweaver?
CSS Text RolloversLearn how to create CSS text rollovers.
Anchors and MailtoWhat are anchors? How to create mailto links? Click here.
Define a Site in Dreamweaver How to create a site in Dreamweaver
Pop-Up WindowsLearn how to create small pop-up windows for ads or news!
Play SoundPlay sound, music on Rollover, on Click or on Page Load.
Show Hide Layers Learn how to hide and view layers.
Dreamweaver Image MapsLearn how to link to different pages from the same image.
Server Side IncludesLearn about server side includes and how do you use them.
Dreamweaver Form TipsTips on customizing input boxes, list menus, submit buttons.
CSS Styles Tutorial Learn about CSS Styles and cool tips on tricks!
Links without the UnderlineLearn how to create links without an underline using CSS styles.

Top 10 Websites - 2007

From Planetizen: Urban Planning, Design and Development Network www.planetizen.com >>

Top 10 Websites - 2007

11 March 2007 - 2:33pm

Once again, the editors of Planetizen are pleased to present our annual list of the 10 best planning, design, and development websites. These 10 sites (along with a few honorable mentions) represent some of the top online resources for those interested in planning, design, and development.

We've listed the websites alphabetically, with host organization listed in italics if different from the website name. This list is based on nominations by Planetizen readers and staff, and judged against a common set of criteria, including standards of web accessibility.

Please post your comment on this list below, or contact us if you have nominations for next year's list.

Active Living Network

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

www.activeliving.org

As the impact of urban form on public health is something that planners and health professionals are increasingly scrutinizing, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has sponsored the Active Living Network website to strengthen the links between planning and health. The network focuses on how the built environment—including neighborhoods, transportation systems, buildings, parks and open space—can promote more active lives. Users can browse news and resources by subject (development, transportation, environment), and read useful profiles of people, organizations and places working to change the built environment to encourage physical activity. The site also allows users to participate by adding their personal stories to an online "storybank", which can be explored using an interactive map.

BldgBlog

bldgblog.blogspot.com

While many have tried to characterize the astonishing range of subjects found on BldgBlog, creator and prolific blogger Geoff Manaugh probably sums it up best when he says the site features "architectural conjecture, urban speculation, and landscape futures." Once you read a few of the sites fascinating discussions on the myriad of topics, you'll likely understand how this is quite possibly one of the most read architecture/urban blogs on the planet.

Honorable Mention: Pruned -- the hottest blog on landscape architecture.

CommuterPage.com

Arlington County, Virginia

www.commuterpage.com

CommuterPage.com is designed to encourage the use of mass transit, carpooling and vanpooling, bicycling, walking, telecommuting/telework, and other alternatives to driving alone in the Greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The site offers area residents a one stop source for information on the region's transportation options -- and includes a daily email and blog. A valuable resource for transit neophytes and veteran straphangers alike, and an excellent example to follow for other regions looking to encourage use of transportation alternatives.

Louisiana Speaks

Louisiana Recovery Authority, Emergency Support Function (ESF) #14, FEMA

www.louisianaspeaks.org

Endorsed by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a state planning and coordinating body created in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Speaks is the name for one of the largest planning processes ever likely undertaken in the United States. The authority's website serves as a central repository for information regarding the effot -- which is simultaneously managing planning efforts aim at the building, neighborhood, parish, and regional levels. Residents can look at demonstration house designs, track the progress of neighborhood and regional planning activities (as well as participate via a statewide poll), and review the maps, plans, and toolkits produced by various government bodies and their consultants. Full disclousure: Planetizen's parent company, Urban Insight, was a member of the consultant team that developed the online survey for the Louisiana Speaks regional visioning poll.

Open Architecture Network

Architecture for Humanity

www.openarchitecturenetwork.org

"How do you improve the living standards of five billion people?" That's the question posed by the founders of the Open Architecture Network. Their answer? Get designers from around the world to share ideas and resources for solving the challenge of providing decent and affordable shelter to the world's population. The recently launched website (still technically in beta) invites architects to upload project materials (plans, images, etc.), contribute their knowledge, and collaborate with others, ultimately leading to solutions that can help build a more sustainable future. Since the site doubles as a project management tool, the founders believe that OAN will entice a large number of designers to participate. This site is definitely one to watch.

PlanNYC

NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

www.plannyc.org

PlanNYC is a web-based tool designed to give citizens and organizations interested in housing and development in New York City easy access to facts, news, and events related to major urban planning projects and policy developments. Originally developed by Jordan Anderson, a master's in urban planning student at New York University, the site allows users to sort information by project or neighborhood, and doesn’t play favorites regarding certain perspectives -- all points of view are offered. Maintained by NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, PlanNYC is stands as an excellent model for local community planning portals.

Honorable mention: PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia's Future -- a project of PennPraxis, the practical arm of the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, also offers news and information about major planning issues impacting the city, and tracks projects in different neighborhoods. Designed to educate and engage residents, the site is focusing on the planning process around the city's riverfront.

SmartGrowthPlanning.org

Fehr & Peers

www.smartgrowthplanning.org

Developed by transportation consulting firm Fehr & Peers, this website describes leading-edge methods for evaluating Smart Growth policies and plans. The presentation techniques, effectiveness measures and case studies that are offered (including stream video clips) are designed to provide decision-makers and community members with a clearer understanding about the transportation effects of Smart Growth, and to help planners devise Smart Growth plans that improve mobility and measurably reduce transportation impacts.

Honorable mention: Urban Transportation Showcase Program -- this site highlights innovative sustainable transportation projects in Canadian cities, including searchable case study and image database.

SustainLane Government

www.sustainlane.us

Offering resources to help local governments move towards sustainability, SustainLane's website provides a rich repository of sustainability best practices submitted by practitioners and policy makers –- including a host of model plans. The website features a ranking of the 50 largest U.S. cities according to sustainability, and also hosts a blog from sustainability expert and chief strategic officer Warren Karlenzig.

Visualizing Density

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

www.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/vd

An accompaniment to its forthcoming book, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has created a valuable online resource for anyone who is struggling with the issue of density in their community. Chocked full of photos and illustrations (which are searchable), the site addresses the myths and realities of housing density, and offers strategies for implementing sensible policies to encourage more sustainable land use. A density quiz and interactive game make the site particularly engaging.

World Changing

www.worldchanging.com

While not specifically urban planning focused, WorldChanging.com is an excellent resource for cutting-edge news, commentary and resources on many important planning issues -- including innovative housing design and construction technology, sustainable transportation, community development, and environmental justice. The site, which is supported by a small Seattle-based non-profit, has gathered a great deal of attention of late for its efforts to highlight the new technological trends and ideas holding extraordinary potential to create positive change in global society – and has even spawned a 600 book and 12-city tour.

Free PageRank display for your website

Now you can add a free PageRank image and display Google's PageRank of your website to your visitors - without a toolbar.


Its very easy to install - just choose one of the fancy PageRank image designs, grab the HTML code and paste it into your website, thats it. Please note that you need to copy the entire code in order to make the PageRank display to work properly.

<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=small" alt="Do it yourself SEO" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=med" alt="Webmaster Tools" border="0">






<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=large" alt="Do it yourself SEO" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=black" alt="Webmaster Tools" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=blacksmall" alt="SEO Resources" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=beige" alt="Search Engine Optimization Tools" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=apple" alt="Free SEO Tools" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=pink" alt="Free SEO Tools" border="0">







<a href="http://www.selfseo.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.selfseo.com/pagerank.php?type=gulp" alt="SEO Articles" border="0">

Webmaster resources for free starting!

You can find many good free tools and resources for starting webmastering on the internet from these websites:

http://resources.bravenet.com/









http://www.bigwebmaster.com/





http://www.123webmaster.com/

Webmaster as a profession

Webmasters are practitioners of web communication. Typically, they are generalists with HTML expertise who manage all aspects of Web operations.
On larger sites, the webmaster will act as a coordinator and overseer to the activities of other people working on the site and is usually an employee of the owner of the Web site, hence webmaster can also be listed as an occupation. If the webmaster is hired by a larger Web site, or promoted to the position, they could do things from web design, to project management, or employee supervision.
In the early days of the use of the term "webmaster" (a take-off on the term "postmaster", the administrator of an e-mail system), this role encompassed all aspects of planning, coding, production, and user interface. The webmaster may have many of the duties of an information architect, including ensuring site usability, user experience and menu taxonomy.
However, since the late 90s, this type of webmaster role was typically only found working on small Web sites that could be managed by one person, or in environments where there was not a great deal of role definition. The current model tends to be more team oriented with a website manager or online producer leading a team consisting of web developers, designers, programmers, QA lead, Adobe Flash developers and often at least one usability expert or a UI/UE team. In established web development companies, especially those existing since the 90s, the term webmaster may be used by senior officers of the company, and may include usage such as "Webmaster-in-chief."
A broader definition of webmaster is a businessperson who uses online media to sell products and/or services. This broader definition of webmaster covers not just the technical aspects of overseeing Web site construction and maintenance but also management of content, advertising, marketing and order fulfillment for the Web site.
Core responsibilities of the webmaster include the regulation and management of access rights of different users of a web site, the appearance and setting up web site navigation. Content placement can be part of a webmaster's responsibilities, while content creation is typically not.
Typically, the webmaster is the agent who reads user feedback and complaints about site functionality.
The webmaster is actually in charge of the server more so than the actual web pages. The web pages are handled by the senior designer.

What is HTML?

What is HTML?

HTML is a computer language devised to allow website creation. These websites can then be viewed by anyone else connected to the Internet. It is relatively easy to learn, with the basics being accessible to most people in one sitting; and quite powerful in what it allows you to create. It is constantly undergoing revision and evolution to meet the demands and requirements of the growing Internet audience under the direction of the » W3C, the organisation charged with designing and maintaining the language.

The definition of HTML is HyperText Markup Language.

• HyperText is the method by which you move around on the web — by clicking on special text called hyperlinks which bring you to the next page. The fact that it is hyper just means it is not linear — i.e. you can go to any place on the Internet whenever you want by clicking on links — there is no set order to do things in.


• Markup is what HTML tags do to the text inside them. They mark it as a certain type of text (italicised text, for example).


• HTML is a Language, as it has code-words and syntax like any other language.

How does it work?

HTML consists of a series of short codes typed into a text-file by the site author — these are the tags. The text is then saved as a html file, and viewed through a browser, like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. This browser reads the file and translates the text into a visible form, hopefully rendering the page as the author had intended. Writing your own HTML entails using tags correctly to create your vision. You can use anything from a rudimentary text-editor to a powerful graphical editor to create HTML pages.

What are the tags up to?

The tags are what separate normal text from HTML code. You might know them as the words between the <triangle-brackets>. They allow all the cool stuff like images and tables and stuff, just by telling your browser what to render on the page. Different tags will perform different functions. The tags themselves don’t appear when you view your page through a browser, but their effects do. The simplest tags do nothing more than apply formatting to some text, like this:

These words will be bold, and these will not.


In the example above, the b tags were wrapped around some text, and their effect will be that the contained text will be bolded when viewed through an ordinary web browser.

If you want to see a list of a load of tags to see what’s ahead of you, look at this tag reference. Learning the tags themselves is dealt with in the next section of this website, My First Site.

Is this going to take long?

Well, it depends on what you want from it. Knowing HTML will take only a few days of reading and learning the codes for what you want. You can have the basics down in an hour. Once you know the tags you can create HTML pages.

However, using HTML and designing good websites is a different story, which is why I try to do more than just teach you code here at HTMLSource — I like to add in as much advice as possible too. Good website design is half skill and half talent, I reckon. Learning techniques and correct use of your tag knowledge will improve your work immensely, and a good understanding of general design and the audience you’re trying to reach will improve your website’s chances of success. Luckily, these things can be researched and understood, as long as you’re willing to work at it so you can output better websites.

The range of skills you will learn as a result of running your own website is impressive. You’ll learn about aspects of graphic design, typography and computer programming. Your efficiency with computers in general increases.You’ll also learn about promotion and your writing will probably improve too, as you adapt to write for certain audiences.

Do I have to be online all the time?

Not at all. You can code your entire website offline, storing it all on your own computer, and then just transfer all the files onto the web. Then whenever you have new content, you just add that to the existing online version of your site. It’s really quite simple.

Is there anything HTML can’t do?

Of course, but since making websites became more popular and needs increased many other supporting languages have been created to allow new stuff to happen, plus HTML is modified every few years to make way for improvements.

Cascading Stylesheets are used to control how your pages are presented, and make pages more accessible. Basic special effects and interaction is provided by JavaScript, which adds a lot of power to basic HTML. Most of this advanced stuff is for later down the road, but when using all of these technologies together, you have a lot of power at your disposal.

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Why not get a quick view of times gone by with The History of HTML? If you think you’re ready to start coding, head over to the My First Site section and begin creating!

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Still using Internet Explorer? This site, and most others, look and perform much better if you’re using a modern browser like Mozilla Firefox instead. Using this browser means you’ll browse the web faster, more securely, with no popups, and you’ll be able to use sites that use the latest CSS and JavaScript. And it’s free! Get a better browser

Source: http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/

The best free CMS (Content Management Systems) for starting at the web!

I want to introduce some of the best free powerfull CMS (Content Management Systems) to you at now.

You can run this applications on your host and using several years expriences of Web Developers just for free!

If your hosting service supports Php and mySQL database you can use these two powerful and free (Open Source - under GPL license):

Joomla




PHPNuke

If your hosting service is more advanced and have ability to runing ASP.NET application and Microsoft SQL Server You can use DotNetNuke CMS:

What Is JavaScript?

JavaScript. It has all the hallmarks of "flavor of the month"—its name is appearing everywhere and there's panting and foaming at the mouth over learning to use it. So what is it? And why should you care?


First, a formal description:

JavaScript is an object-oriented scripting language that lets you build interactions between page content, the state of the browser, and the actions of the reader.

In other words, JavaScript is a language that lets you make your pages interact with your readers and respond to what they do.

It is a programming language that can make your pages feel more dynamic and give feedback to your user. This is a good argument for learning and incorporating it into your web techniques basket.

It is a programming language that also has a learning curve in order for you to use it well. But don't let this scare you away from it—if you aren't a programmer, you can start out by learning a few basic concepts and then adapt existing JavaScript scripts for your needs.

If you don't want to tackle JavaScript, that's OK too. You can still make attractive pages that your readers will like, using standard HTML. Don't let the "flavor of the month" mentality convince you that only programmers or big budget outfits can have a Web page. But take a look through this section—you might surprise yourself by knowing more about scripting than you think.

Read more...

What is ASP.NET?

ASP.NET

ASP.NET, the next version of ASP, is a programming framework used to create enterprise-class Web Applications. These applications are accessible on a global basis leading to effecient information managment. The advantages ASP.NET offers is more than just the next version of ASP.

Why ASP.NET?

Since 1995, Microsoft has been constantly working to shift it's focus from Windows-based platforms to the Internet. As a result, Microsoft introduced ASP (Active Server Pages) in November 1996. ASP offered the efficiency of ISAPI applications along with a new level of simplicity that made it easy to understand and use. However, ASP script was an interpreted script and consisted unstructured code and was difficult to debug and maintain. As the web consists of many different technologies, software integration for Web development was complicated and required to understand many different technologies. Also, as applications grew bigger in size and became more complex, the number of lines of source code in ASP applications increased dramatically and was hard to maintain. Therefore, an architecture was needed that would allow development of Web applications in a structured and consistent way.

The .NET Framework was introduced with a vision to create globally distributed software with Internet functionality and interoperability. The .NET Framework consists of many class libraries, includes multiple language support and a common execution platform. It's a very flexible foundation on which many different types of top class applications can be developed that do different things. Developing Internet applications with the .NET Framework is very easy. ASP.NET is built into this framework, we can create ASP.NET applications using any of the built-in languages.
Unlike ASP, ASP.NET uses the Common Language Runtime (CLR) provided by the .NET Framework. This CLR manages execution of the code we write. ASP.NET code is a compiled CLR code instead of interpreted code (ASP). CLR also allows objects written in different languages to interact with each other. The CLR makes developement of Web applications simple.

Advantages Using ASP.NET

• ASP.NET drastically reduces the amount of code required to build large applications
• ASP.NET makes development simpler and easier to maintain with an event-driven, server-side programming model
• ASP.NET pages are easy to write and maintain because the source code and HTML are together The source code is executed on the server. The pages have lots of power and flexibility by this approach
• The source code is compiled the first time the page is requested. Execution is fast as the Web Server compiles the page the first time it is requested. The server saves the compiled version of the page for use next time the page is requested
• The HTML produced by the ASP.NET page is sent back to the browser. The application source code you write is not sent and is not easily stolen
• ASP.NET makes for easy deployment. There is no need to register components because the configuration information is built-in
• The Web server continuously monitors the pages, components and applications running on it. If it noticies memory leaks, infinite loops, other illegal software or activities, it seamlessly kills those activities and restarts itself
• ASP.NET validates information (validation controls) entered by the user without writing a single line of code
• ASP.NET easily works with ADO .NET using data-binding and page formatting features
• ASP.NET applications run fater and counters large volumes of users without performance problems
  

Differences between ASP.NET and Client-Side Technologies

Client-side refers to the browser and the machine running the browser. Server-side on the other hand refers to a Web server.

Client-Side Scripting
Javascript and VBScript and generally used for Client-side scripting. Client-side scripting executes in the browser after the page is loaded. Using client-side scripting you can add some cool features to your page. Both, HTML and the script are together in the same file and the script is download as part of the page which anyone can view. A client-side script runs only on a browser that supports scripting and specifically the scripting language that is used. Since the script is in the same file as the HTML and as it executes on the machine you use, the page may take longer time to download.

Server-Side Scripting
ASP.NET is purely server-side technology. ASP.NET code executes on the server before it is sent to the browser. The code that is sent back to the browser is pure HTML and not ASP.NET code. Like client-side scripting, ASP.NET code is similar in a way that it allows you to write your code alongside HTML. Unlike client-side scripting, ASP.NET code is executed on the server and not in the browser. The script that you write alongside your HTML is not sent back to the browser and that prevents others from stealing the code you developed.

Source: StartVBdotNet.com

What is WebLog?

1) A weblog, sometimes written as web log or Weblog, is a Web site that consists of a series of entries arranged in reverse chronological order, often updated on frequently with new information about particular topics. The information can be written by the site owner, gleaned from other Web sites or other sources, or contributed by users.

A weblog often has the quality of being a kind of "log of our times" from a particular point-of-view. Generally, weblogs are devoted to one or several subjects or themes, usually of topical interest, and, in general, can be thought of as developing commentaries, individual or collective on their particular themes. A weblog may consist of the recorded ideas of an individual (a sort of diary) or be a complex collaboration open to anyone. Most of the latter are moderated discussions.

Since there are a number of variations on this idea and new variations can easily be invented, the meaning of this term is apt to gather additional connotations with time. A popular weblog is Slashdot.org, the product of programmer and graphic artist Rob Malden and several colleagues. Slashdot.org carries discussion threads on many subjects including: Money, Quake (the game), Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Hardware, and Linux. Slashdot.org solicits and posts interesting stories reported by contributors, includes a link to the story, and manages the threads of the ensuing discussion by other users. Another well-known weblog is Jorn Barger's Robot Wisdom Log, which is more of collection of daily highlights from other Web sites. Jessamyn West's librarian.net is a daily log of items interesting to librarians and possibly others, too.

As a format and content approach for a Web site, the weblog seems popular because the viewer knows that something changes every day, there is a personal point-of-view, and, on some sites, there is an opportunity to collaborate or respond with the Web site and its participants.

2) Weblog is the name of a software product from South Korea that analyzes a Web site's access access log and reports the number of visitors, views, hits, most frequently visited pages, and so forth.