Today’s hint or website suggestion contains two of our favorite things:
“free” and “improve web traffic”. I sat down this week and started what seemed like a gigantic task, to create a website for http://www.PikesPeakAtlas.com with close to 100 pages to it. While working on this I also started to consider how to get Google to see all of it in a timely fashion. Google loves sitemaps, but sitemaps are NOT written in conventional HTML usually, so I went looking for a site that could help.

XML Sitemaps - usually called Sitemaps, with a capital S - are a way for you to give Google information about your site. This is the type of Sitemap we’ll be discussing in this article.

In its simplest terms, a Sitemap is a list of the pages on your website.
Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that Google knows about all the pages on your site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google’s normal crawling process.

http://www.makeasitemap.com was just what I was looking for. It was super straight forward, gave me the simple options that I needed. Of course two of my favorite things about it is that it is FREE and WEB-BASED, no software to download.

This bookmark suggestion comes from:

Pete Van Vuren
http://www.pikespeakatlas.com

Web 2.0 is all about interacting with your visitors.

As part of that I believe it’s important to allow people to post comments in your blog section. Of course there are some caveats. You should decide up front what you will and won’t allow on your website.

Here’s a list of my personal blog rules.

1. I don’t allow people to just randomly post on my blog. Everyone must have been approved at least one time previously. Yes, it’s a pain in the tucus, but it’s something I want to do for now. You can also use ‘moderators’ to help you with this.
2. I don’t allow people to put “adult” rated links, resources, or content on my blog. It’s not the impression I want to make with my website.
3. If someone is constantly rude or obnoxious I will ban them from my site. I won’t even necessarily warn them, especially if it’s their first comment. You can state your own opinion but you don’t get to be rude about it.
4. If their blog post has nothing to do with my site I will delete it. For example the same stuff you delete as spam.

Overall my rules are keep it clean, play nice, or go someplace else.

Yes, rules like this are going to require more work on your part. But it will be worth it when you attract the type of visitors that you enjoy sharing with, and that are also good for your website.

::ToddS
DW Kickstart - Learn to build and market your own website

This morning I was reading through an invitation to a webinar and I thought… “WOW, this email is horrible!”.

Several issues that I saw:

1. It said little to nothing about the speaker. “And why should I trust what this speaker has to say?“
2. It said practically nothing about the topic of the webinar. “What it’s in it for me?“
3. The sender actually compared herself to the speaker… and won. “Well, if you are better, then why bother listening to him?“
4. You had to go to her website to get the webinar time, date and logon. “Don’t make me jump through hoops!“

Well, I probably won’t attend this webinar, but I definitely learned something from it.

::ToddS
DW Kickstart - Learn to build and market your own website

Recently I was asked my opinion about a new slogan someone had come up with for their company. While I did think it was very clever, I wasn’t sure that clever was the best approach.

Personally I believe some of the best slogans make sense even out of context. The slogan that always comes to mind for me is:

• Federal Express - “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.“

A few more to illustrate this:

• Kentucky Fried Chicken - “Finger Licken Good.“
• BMW - “The Ultimate Driving Machine.“
• British Airways - “The world’s favourite airline.“
• Burger King - “Have It Your Way.“

So if someone only saw your name and your slogan what would they be able to conclude from that alone.

::ToddS
DW Kickstart - Learn to build and market your own website

That’s a really good question. You will find that most experts aren’t even completely sure and you will most likely get a different response depending on whom you ask.

If you ask a web developer, they are probably inclined to refer to RIA which stands for Rich Internet Application. They will probably start spitting out buzz words like AJAX, Flex and Flash.

For the web developer Web 2.0 is about getting the web as close to a desktop experience as possible. Which means it would look and act more like the applications you use when you are off the web. Things like drag-and-drop and sections that expand and collapse like an accordian.

You can find a really good example of a Web 2.0 at the Backpack website.

Now if you ask an online marketer what Web 2.0 is, you will most likely get a different response completely. They tend to think of the social aspects of Web 2.0. For them it’s about getting the web to interact with the user. You will hear them talk about tagging, blogging and bookmarking. Some examples of that would be like Flickr, MySpace and YouTube.

And finally to make it even more confusing there is the merging of both perspectives in Web 2.0 sites like Facebook.

So you should be able to see why this can be a bit confusing for people.

Examples of Web 2.0:

• Backpack - Keep your notes, to-do list, and calendar online
• YouTube - Share videos
• Facebook - Interact and have fun with your friends
• Flickr - Share your photos

::ToddS
DW Kickstart - Learn to build and market your own website