What is Web 2.0?

The term “Web 2.0” is already being used to describe any site that has big XP-style icons and lots of white space, but the term really defines how a website functions much more than how it looks. Here are the most important characteristics of Web 2.0 sites:

- Social aspects – Web 2.0 websites harness the collective intelligence of the users by enabling user contribution and interaction with the idea that the collective knowledge of the users is far above and beyond any one person or company. In addition, by engaging customers, your site naturally causes a viral networking effect causing word to spread faster and faster. No traditional corporate marketing plan can compete with the effects of this kind of viral networking.

- Web applications instead of web sites – As the dot com crash so painfully pointed out, hype will only last for so long. Eventually you are going to need to provide a valuable service to internet users or they will simply click the Back button, never to return. It’s so easy to do so. Likewise, many smart folks, such as those at Google realized that you don’t need to waste your time making a flashy website with lots of mediocre content – the visitors will come if you provide a valuable service that is easy to use.

- Simple and efficient user experience – Gone are the days of waiting for pages to download every time you click a link or button. Leaving your website takes just one twitch of a finger – users won’t stand for it. Technologies such as JavaScript and AJAX enable portions of pages to update without having to reload, making for an efficient and enjoyable user experience.

You’ll notice from the list above that Web 2.0 is not so much about giant icons and text, or white space and pastel colors, but actual functionality that engages users to build something greater than any one person can.

This all has a few important implications for you, the web designer. First, designing Web 2.0 pages from a creative viewpoint is going to be much more enjoyable. No longer will you be encouraged to cram every little open space on the page with images or content. In the Web 2.0 world, less is more. The purpose of the simple design is to eliminate the noise and clearly explain how to use the website.

Secondly, you’ll need to design with the knowledge that there is going to be a whole lot more functionality placed behind the pages you create than before. For example, instead of cramming six different div tags on a single page, they may be combined into tabs and switched via JavaScript. As another example, you may find that your old friend the Submit button is going the way of the Dodo as JavaScript events on linked images are much more attractive and don’t trigger a page load.

Depending on your level of technical knowledge, you may or may not actually implement the functionality on the pages you create, but you should be aware of how to design for the new Web 2.0 style. Some people call Web 2.0 a meaningless marketing buzzword, but when you get past the obvious visual differences, which are there merely to provide a simple and enjoyable experience, you’ll see that the true concepts of Web 2.0 are what users want in a website, and so they truly are here to stay.

As a beginner and an online entrepreneur who knows nothing about servers and domain names and everything else, you are surely going to need a helping hand. You can permanently hire a person to do that or, if this is not an option, you need to look for help among the hosting company’s personnel.

Finding a good hosting company is not so difficult anymore. Although those companies were few and far between not more than a decade ago, with the advent of the internet and with so many new websites entering the world wide web each day, it is easy to see why this is such a thriving business.

And it will not cost you that much either. Depending on the nature of your website and of the hosting option you want to choose, it can go from a few bucks a month to several hundred bucks a month for a dedicated server.

Furthermore, when searching for the perfect hosting company you are not restricted to those in your area by any means. As a matter of fact you can expand your search nationwide and, why not, worldwide. You’d be amazed by the great number of websites that are hosted anywhere else but in the country of the webmaster’s origin.

Also, remember that price should not be your only criteria when looking for a hosting company. Sure, you can find the cheapest of the cheapest, but don’t be surprised if support, for example, is terrible. Don’t be surprised to see your site offline for unknown reasons.

So, make sure that you do a background check of all the more appealing options that you find. Read reviews, research, I mean you have a whole world at your disposal, right? Just do a search on your favorite search engine and bingo! You find the information you are looking for.

And for a beginner who wants to focus on the internet marketing part more than the technical issues involving the maintenance of a website, make sure that the company’s support is top notch. After all, there are some operations which need to be performed in order for your website to have smooth running.

In the end, make sure you make an educated choice and don’t leave that to fate. You might regret it later, cases exist and they are more than a few. Don’t get too cheap, but don’t get in the high price area either. Attaining this balance is what will help you find affordable web aid.

Websites

Websites are going to be the basis of your company, especially if most of your customers find you online. This means that you have to take charge and you have to make sure you have a good website. This probably means that you want to at least think about hiring someone to build your website. Hiring someone is going to take money and it is going to take time. However, if you want to have the best website possible and if you want to attract the most customers to your website, you have to have one that is spectacular. There are a lot of neat things that can be done with websites today and so you have to be sure that you are having a good one. If you do not have any website knowledge, you have to hire someone.

Things To Think About

As you hire someone to do your website, there are several things that you have to think about so that you know your website is going to meet your needs. First of all, you have to remember that while these people do this for a living, it is still your business. This means that you have to hire someone who is willing to take your ideas into consideration when designing your website and who is willing to help you create a website that is going to get you the most business.

You also have to remember that websites are not going to be permanent. As times change, you have to be able to change your website, whether it is to reflect a change in prices or items or anything else. This means that either your web site creator has to teach you how to update the site or there has to be something in the contract that says that they will update the site when you need it to be updated. Either one of these has to happen, because you have to be able to change your it as the need arises. A good working relationship is going to be very important when it comes to your web site.

If you just posted a new website, but you do not have a HTML email form uploaded and you need to quickly provide a way for your visitors to contact you, then you should simply post your email address on your Contact page. However, if you want to create a sophisticated online form to collect information from your visitors and respond to their questions, you need to know something about HTML and another programming language called PHP.

Installing the web form on your website is the easy part. If you are not familiar with how to create the code for a web form, there are many different online tutorials that can teach you how to create the code. After that, you will need to create a file that will process your form after someone fills it out and send the answers to you via email.

The code used to process a HTML form is often referred to as Formmail. Formmail is written in a programming language called PHP, which is more advanced than HTML. There are many websites where you can download the Formmail file for free. Formmail has been used to process and email the results of web forms since 1997.

When you download Formmail, make sure it has code that prevents spam from being sent through your HTML form. There are many different versions of Formmail floating around the internet, and some have built-in spam protection while others do not.

Many times, inexperienced programmers will put an online form on their website that does not include code to at least try to prevent spammers from utilizing the HTML email form to send spam to hundreds or even thousands of people. As a result, those who have been spammed complain to their internet service provider, who then directs the complaint to the hosting company that handles your website. This can be a huge problem.

If you do not have the patience to create your HTML form yourself, there are more than a few form creation services on the internet that provide a simple way for you to create a form without doing any programming. These third-party form creators usually do not provide you with the PHP code you need to process the form. Instead, they process it for you on their own servers.

If you are comfortable with programming, you might want to try to create your HTML email form yourself with the help of some online tutorials. If you do not have the patience to do the work, use an outside service that creates the web form for you. Either way, it is important to have an HTML form so that people can contact you directly through your website.

Did you know that the values associated with colors can have a significant impact on your website’s success? And did you know that you can change your visitor’s feeling, mood and reaction by using different colors on your website?

Some professional web designers do not realize the impact that a single color can have on their project when designing a website for their clients. In reality, the meaning of colors will send the first message of your website to your visitors. You don’t have to be a genius to find out why since it is obvious that the first thing they (visitors) see is the color of your site!

I have studied one hundred visitors to evaluate their patience for uploading a web page. First, I tried a plain black background page and the average waiting time was up to 2.47 seconds. Then I tried a plain white background page and the average wait time for uploading the web page increased to 4.89 Seconds.

The reason is just fear. People are afraid from black and darkness and they feel vulnerable when they see a plain black page. I won’t go in detail about this subject in this article but if you would like to know more you can always visit our site at websitedevelopmenttech.com and get more information about color psychology.

What color should you use when designing your website?

Before answering this question you should do some research about your target audiences and find out about their character, behavior, mood, emotion … etc. I’m not asking you to go and find each individual and interview them to find out their feelings and emotions. All you need to do is find the answer of these two questions:

1. What is the market segmentation that you are targeting?
a. Age

b. Gender

c. Culture

d. Geographic location

2. Why are they coming to your website?

Let’s take a closer look at these two questions.

A. Market Segmentation:

a. Age: What is the most appropriate color for the age group that your website is targeting.

b. Gender: Men and Women have different taste and they react differently to colors. For example, the color pink is more appealing to women.
c. Culture: Colors mean different things to different cultures around the world. People associate colors to special events in their culture. For example, white is the symbol of purity and virtue in some cultures while in others white is associated with mourning and grief.

d. Geographic Location: Sometimes geographic location can change people’s interpretation of certain colors. For example, people that are living in a desert area tend to be more passionate toward bright colors from yellow to orange vs. people that are living in the mountains.

B. Why are they coming to your website?

a. That is a very important question which determines the mood and feeling of your visitors. For example, people go to a lawyer’s or a doctor’s website because they have a problem and they want to be FIXED. This means they are not really excited or happy about that issue. Although, this may not be the case all the time there are some exceptions such as plastic surgeons, patent attorneys… etc.

As a designer, once you know your target markets then you can decide what color to choose to get the best possible outcome for your site. Sometimes you may end up changing some colors that you thought would be interesting to your visitors.

Remember, no matter how much you know and how hard you try, there is no guarantee that you can make it the first time. That is why it is important to monitor the results of your website and know how visitors are interacting with your site so you can change your mistakes and learn from it.