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The following links [from an Australian perspective] deal mostly with web-related info but a lot of the design and marketing sites are relevant for print as well.

Last updated February 22, 2008

Jump to links for:
[ GENERAL INTERNET INFO ]
[ DESIGN & MARKETING ]
[ BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE ]

 

[ GENERAL INTERNET INFO ]


[ SOFTWARE ]


[ NEWS & INFO ]


[ AUSTRALIAN DIRECTORIES & SEARCH ENGINES ]

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[ DESIGN & MARKETING ]

Graphical Interface > a great article by Ian Wynne dealing with “difficult clients, beer budgets and impossible deadlines”


[ NEWS & INFO ]


[ MARKETING YOUR WEBSITE ]

    • Search Engine Watch info about search engines and submission tips
    • dialdesign.com.au/searchengines search engine optimisation info
    • searchengineworld.com how to get up on google
    • search engine tips how to optimise your website
    • ineedhits.com search engine submission
    • Contact your ISP to find out whether they have any search engine optimisation services/advice
    • Rate your keywords wordtracker.com (try the free trial)
    • Use key phrases not just keywords - this might help you
    • VERY IMPORTANT: Manually submit your site to the main directories/search engines (see above) also about.com and the open directory project
    • Yahoo! Search Marketing web marketing service
    • Google Adwords is a great way to be found on the web – sponsored ads where you pay per click – and you can limit what you spend
    • Send an email to email@sensis.com.au with the subject "yellow pages, sensis, citysearch, white pages online" requesting a free listing on these sites and include your yellow pages category
    • Buy domain names that include your main generic keywords and point to your site, see what's available here
    • Consider marketing via mail, fax or email using lists from brokers such as Direct Media, The Prospect Shop or create your own from industry directories/yellow pages
    • If you've already put together a mailing list of customers try companies such as returnity.com.au to manage your mailing list and campaigns
    • Announce your new website to any industry-related publications so they can tell their readers (a press release might be nice in Word or PDF format)
    • Approach industry-related websites for the possibility of links from their site to yours and yours to theirs (this helps you get up on search engines too)
    • Check out webstrategy.com.au for tips
    • A great article from the Webmonkey website
    • Or employ a company such as panalysis.com.au to analyse and market your website
    • Or do-it-yourself website promotion selfpromotion.com

     

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[ BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE ]


[ DOMAINS & ISPS ]

When choosing your domain name think about where you’re planning on having your website hosted before you register your domain name. If you plan on using your ISP they may have a package deal – making it cheaper and easier. (Note: You need to have a registered Australian business name to get the .au country code on the end of your domain name).

    • Find out who owns a domain name try whois
    • To check if your preferred domain is available try your ISP who should have a search area under the domain or business sections of their website or try here
    • IANA who’s who of country codes (eg which country belongs to .by?)
    • The List Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Buyer’s Guide
    • Cynosure the Australian ISP list
    • I recommend digitalpacific.com.au (Australian, great value) redrook.com (Australian, good value) canaca.com (Canadian, great value especially for big sites, but remember, their support via phone could be costly and available in the middle of the night!)
    • mydomain.com register a .com domain name for US$8.50 per year and get free domain forwarding, that is, they'll point your domain name to any web address (e.g. to the free website space most people get from their ISP with messy addresses such as members.iinet.com.au/~plumbob) and forward email to your existing email account e.g. plumbob@iinet.net.au or try the Australian site tppinternet.com which offers a similar service which costs a little more but bills in Aussie dollars and offers stats as well


[ WEB DEVELOPER INFO ]

    • www.w3.org the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
    • Webmonkey a great resource for building your website including a glossary, info about e-business, multimedia, databases and a chart that shows what works with what browsers (quick reference > browser chart)
    • useit.com it info from web guru Jakob Nielsen
    • Sitepoint articles, books and info for web developers
    • webalizer.com free website analysis
    • statcounter.com free website statistics
    • Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG HTML generator used by Plumbob Creative to create websites and an industry standard
    • Other software used by Plumbob: Fireworks, Flash (penetration of Flash Player), Photoshop and Illustrator
    • To create one of those icons you see in web addresses (16x16 pixels saved as favicon.ico and placed in the top level of your website directory) use Graphic Convertor
    • NetMechanic finds website errors – try a sample of their HTML Toolbox on five pages of your website to see how it rates
    • Art and the Zen of Web Sites amusing web tips
    • Website analysis – speak to your isp or try a specialist such as hitwise.com as webtrendslive.com, or free services such as WebSTAT.com
    • Maps showing the location of your business – whereis.com.au (many products) and ausway.com.au (copyright free with a credit)


[ ADD CONTENT TO YOUR SITE ]

    • Sites with well written, relevant and regularly updated content tend to rank well on Google. Try short paragraphs with short sentences, lists where applicable, keywords within your body copy and please spellcheck before going live!!!
    • SubPortal.com content for your website (US based)
    • 7am news services for your website (US based)
    • easyarticles.com free articles and content for your website
    • Egovernment Australian governments resource centre


[ QUICK GLOSSARY ]

    • DHTML (Dynamic HTML) HTML that changes, it covers a number of different technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, CSS and DOM. For more info go to WebMonkey (> authoring > DHTML)
    • META tags The META tag is used by some search engines to list your site in their indexes. For more info go to Search Engine Watch or WebDeveloper.com
    • PDF (Portable Document Format) Converts documents into cross-platform files (Mac, PC etc compatible) that can be viewed and printed with Acrobat Reader, a free application that can be downloaded from the Adobe Acrobat website. PDFs are pretty standard these days and I find them ideal for emailing artwork to clients for approval or converting a client's print media into a format that can be linked to their website and easily downloaded. More info on PDFs from Adobe
    • SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) text-based language for web graphics. More info on SVG from Adobe
    • WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Mobile technology which allows users of a WAP-compatible handset to browse information on the Internet, if that information has been converted into Wireless Mark-up language (WML). For more info go to webopedia.com
    • WBMP (Wireless Bitmap) Made for viewing on wireless handheld devices
    • XML (eXtensible Markup Language) A new type of markup language something like html but potentially readable by a variety of applications. For more info go to WebMonkey (> authoring > XML) or www.w3.org (> XML)

For an explanation of web-related terms go to WebMonkey (> quick reference > glossary), CNet help.com or whatis.com

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