During my blog hopping a couple of weeks back, I came across this website, Website Grader that offers to analyze your website in terms of its marketing effectiveness. Their service is free and easy to use- just type your site's URL in the given form field hit the generate report button and that's it. Website Grader will then generate its report right off the bat.

Here's what QED IT Solutions results summary: "A website grade of 72/100  for www.qeditsolutions.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 72% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others."

If you are a serious website owner, it is imperative that you find ways to know more about your site's visitors. And at this time and age, installing counters is no longer the singular tool at your disposal. In fact, there a lot of free website analytic package available which can give you as much information as their paid counterparts. Almost a month ago, June 26,  I upgraded QED IT Solutions from static web site into a CMS powered site using Joomla 1.5. The day during its launch I signed for a free account at SiteMeter and Google Analytics. 

Google via it's Webmaster Central Blog recently announced its improved ability to index Flash. With this new capability, Google will now be able to index text content from Flash files in SWF format embedded in websites.

However this text content does not include dynamic content wherein Flash loads its content from XML or other sources. Also, images still cannot be indexed by Google, thus, FLV files commonly found in videos from popular sites such as YouTube cannot be indexed. Here's a link to the original post from Google' Blog for more detailed information. 

My experience in web design and development have taught me that the most important step in developing and/or designing a  successful web site  does not involve codes or computers. In fact, it does not even involve computer technology. However, it does require good listening and communication skills.

The most important step in designing a successful website is the process where the designer or developer sits down with the prospective client (web owner) to understand his or her exact needs and wants. This is what some my call the “Discovery Stage.”

During my college days, my Computer Science professor often says an old adage in computer programming GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT.  In a short explanation, this means that if you started with a bad input then expect bad output as well.

With the availability of faster internet connection through numerous service providers offering broadband connections, monitoring your business is becoming as easy as ever. One option that a particular shop owner have is installing an IP Camera and monitoring the events of their shop from their pc wherever they are. Let me talk about that in detail.

Web Camera versus Internet Camera

First, let's distinguish what a web cam is and how it is different from an Internet Camera.  The main difference between a web cam and an Internet camera is that a web cam needs a computer to operate and send images or videos to anyone. While an internet camera do not necessarily needs a computer to function (although you definitely need one to configure it first). Also, an Internet Camera directly connects to the internet via your network's switch. It is treated as part of your network and acquires its own IP Address. As long as your network switch/hub is powered, you can access your camera via the internet. This is not the case with the web cam as it rely solely on your PC. If your PC is off, your web cam is off.

One common attitude among traditional brick and mortar business owners who have joined the internet bandwagon is recruiting a web developer to create their website, make sure it’s aesthetically pleasing to them, publish it, and then wait for great upsurge in their sales. When the money fails to arrive, they blame the developer for creating a poor website.

What these businessmen fail to realize is the vast difference between traditional marketing and internet marketing. First, having a website is not synonymous to an increase in sales figures. Sure there are a lot of advantages that a website can give your business, however, careful planning still needs to done to have these advantages translate to actual dollars pouring in your cash register. Just like any traditional business, you need to have a marketing plan to have your website succeed in helping your business to increase its profits.

Apple is coming out with its new phone this July 11-- the new iPhone 3G.

There are a lot of blogs out there that have made it's own review about this phone so I'll go straight to the point where it will have an affect to us web developers and site owners out there.

Apple's new iPhone brag of a fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips-- and with its $199 price tag, I guess there will be a lot of fingertips out there owning this phone in the coming months.