Don't expect any formal lessons; just the lessons I learned as a webmaster. Nobody reads my pages about webpages (not even I myself), but the changes of all my other pages begin here. I still experiment with the "smart pages" content -- the dynamic content pages. Do you the inserts on this page (and now everywhere else)? With the right click you can view the source and see for yourself the new commands for "txt" files. [Yes, I maybe overdoing it as usual, when I learn any new trick.] The present traffic is a result of those smart pages.
This is the third generation of my webpages. First, the primitive stage, was for myself only; a dipository mainly. The second -- for myself and my students (to support the classes I teach); the new task forced me to learn the navigation and redirection methods (the htmlgears you see everywhere -- the trace of this era). Third -- to deal with the surfers, you, my friends. I would never arrive here, where the normal webmaster usually starts, if not for the inner need of the content; my notes no classes and writing grew from the notes to texts and even even to the books-in-making. So, I tried to organize it for web-reading. And this is where I am now.
Ah, what's the lesson? Well, rather simple. Mind your own business. Do only what you need. Don't waste your time on something which you do not need no matter how interesting and usefull it looks. Do't try to increase the traffic by submitting your URLs; stick to what you are doing, to the initial motive of having your website. Work on the content... and the rest will come by itself.
Web-Business
webmaster
"To Live is To Struggle." Webmaster
Search - see left frame!
Sister-pages: Notes at WEB Directory @ Virtual Theatre (GeoAlaska).
It has to be "your" lessons! Because it's your experience and your pages (business). My most recent: find the balance between what MUST be done and what could stay "under construction"... Look at the segments of this very page: the topics, scroller (at the top) and "2003" txt.files are not from this directory (from my instructional pages), the bottom (future.txt) is not developed -- when can I get to it? I don't know. I know that I need it as a part of the page' structure (also, the uniformity), so, I have it. And the "sleepers" -- some pages (and even the subdirectories) have to wait for "their" hour; I know that I'll need "business" corner, but not at this point, not even after four years of web-building!
Questions
You don't have to have answers, but you must have questions! Write them down, especially if do not know the answers.
Notes
2003: now, when I have 2K/day "visitors" -- I feel bad for you and myself. Since, they say, up to 90% come from the search engines, 50% of them get to your page by accident. Sure, you can rewrite your mega tags, but it won't help much....
2004: the fourth generation of my webpages (I do not remember how my sites looked like 3 years ago). All you (and I) see is the last draft. Do I still dreaming that the pages somehow will evolve into texts? Is it possible without targeting each directory and each webpage (which is a chapter in book style)?
Page Views provide you with a quick picture of your overall traffic. When you compare this information with previous weeks or months it's a good snapshot - nothing more. However, Unique Visitors are more important because they represent the actual number of different people who have viewed your site's pages, rather than repeat visitors, within the same day, same week, and with disregard to how many pages any Unique Visitor visits on your site.
* A blog, short for weblog, is often described as an online diary. The most recent entries (called posts) - appear on the homepage of the blog with links to archives of older posts. Archives are organized by date and often categorized by topic. Often, each post will have a form for readers to add their own comments and to give their opinion or reaction to the post's content.
A blog is an easy, instantly and frequently updated website, focused around a topic, industry or personality.
... 2004: consider "pages about webpages" as my archive, the trace of what I was learning, while lerning the basic HTML and web-building. If you are professional programmer, you won't much use in my notes; they are for self-educated little soldiers of the web revolution.
I hope "Webman's Diary" will organize all my webpages about Web into one narrative.
Right now -- I record. Period.
Each website I have is a case-study. So, what are the lessons I learned?
After 5 years of web-building (1-23-2004) I say persistence!
Be patient as a spider.
Slow (easy) does it.
Maybe I should compare it to nature -- you can't grow faster than you can. Think of a tree...
And the technology with the speed of light. What a combination! You can double the traffic "overnight" with right meta tags (over a few weeks, of course).
So, how to be fast and slow at the same time?
Mistakes. I made so many. The field is too new -- and not only for me, for everybody.
I still making mistakes, new ones -- and they are my mistakes, I hope. Don't make "somebody else" mistakes. Stay with the area of your expertise, as I said. You will make them, the mistakes, but you can learn on them only, when it's your mistakes.
"...But what really matters is the quality content. If you have no content, or irrelevant content, what's the use of getting hundreds of visitors daily? You need to have website content that is user-focussed; you need a web copy that talks to the visitors. The copy on your website needs to supply the information your visitors need to arrive at some decision. The content should be written in an interesting manner, in an absorbing manner. All the information that your visitor should get, should be there on your website, in a straight, non-cryptic language."
[ Websites For Search Engines Or People? ]
Entireweb Newsletter
* Web Directories and Pages are not only on web-building, but also the SUPPORT service to each website. The backstage machinary, which has to turn static content pages into smart pages with the dynamic and interactive texts. In my experience every content page (in order to be a king) needs at least one more service page (which I do not list usually). Sometimes more than one page; the more the better. Hypertext by nature is a COLLECTION of links, it has to be hyper-rich in connectivity. The trick is not just to collect the links, but be connected, to have others linked to you!
The winner is the webmaster, who invents the new technologies of organizing the content. Managing and processing information, the data, you know... Therefore the pages have to have an "open structure"; they have to be build with the mechanism of self-development. GuestBooks, for example -- your visitors following your lead contribute to the content! Do it! USE it! If you don't use your own pages, why should others?
Did you notice the new bar at the battom? Help, eMail, Home -- I plan to add "advertise".... Because, it's business! Your visitors should have "About Us" link and pages, if you wish to check who is behind the scenes. FAQ is must! Do I have FAQ for WebBusiness pages? Too bad. Get one!
Anatoly Y2K
Now, the end makes the story. I mean the good ending. In fact, the whole narrative is aim at the end. But the open ending is even better. When you imagination see another story ahead...
Here we are -- and I have more to tell. I see what is not told yet! Please, get it right! MS give you "windows" but they keep the doors for themselves. Get out, go beyond the propaganda. Think -- and live free!
Understanding is the weapon. See them through. READ what is not said!
You know that you are the first enemy you have to fight. Get it right, man. The world was, is and ever will be nothing but war. And nothing is wrong with it.
Hey, webmasters! Do you know how I got so many web directory on my sites? Because my main business with Beseen went off, when the server closed down. The lesson? Watch out!
PS
Don't be a loser! What do I mean? Just a few emails my the morning:
fit165@sina.com life is wonderful today!25013 10/29/01 3 k
vstirrcxocg@hotmail. Rates Have Fallen Again! 5.85% Fixed Ra 18:25 2 k
msswh5mxdf@hotmail.c Rates Have Fallen Again! 5.85% Fixed Ra 17:40 2 k
perf_malempro@geocit Wider, Longer, Stronger ______21k7l 13:30 1 k
tsjM13993@pop1.bb.di Work less, make more 3143 09:36 2 k
ptszone8011@hotmail. Lower Rates On Your Mortgage! 01:29 2 k
87ocng@msn.com Consolidate Your Debt! 10/27 Sat 1 k
q5vz57@msn.com Get Out of Debt NOW! 10/27 Sat 1 k
Hahaha Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL 10/27 Sat 31 k
arthurstevens@sohu.c life is wonderful today!12062
You can get the content from the heading -- do they really think that a normal person would read this trash? They buy email lists from other losers and looking for more losers... Don't be one of them!
[ I do not want to add more nonsense to the long list suggestions what webmaster should do. First, you should stick with what you do -- and not to waste your time on general recommendations. Would it be nice to have my pages friendly to non-English speakers? Perhaps. But how important is it? Should I have a newsletter, as they all say? In theory, yes. My pages could probably live with the mailing list only. think about the "nature" of your webbing -- and stay with "your" way of doing it! ]
Webmasters of the World, Unite! We have nothing to lose but the chains of the Net!
All your pages should be accessible to both people and search engines. When the search engines visit your website, they should be able to jump from link to link. It should be like an inter-connected network where one can go anywhere from anywhere. Many web developers create a sitemap that contains links to all the pages on the website so that once the search engine finds that page it can go to all the links on the page.
Anyway, irrelevant pages have no business being on your website and relevant pages should be within one or two clicks away from your visitors (unless they are password-protected)."
* Linking Attribute:
It is always preferable to have a text link rather then a Graphic/Image link, because in a text link you can use Keywords as the text on which hyperlink is given(anchor text). In effect you can make your anchor tag keyword rich. Anchor tags? text is a very important criterion in search engine ranking matrix.
