The Bitch Ditch

Baboon Webforms is a FREE web form creator. We created this service because we want to provide webmasters, blog creators, content writers, etc., with an easy way to create webforms to get feedback from their visitors.

Making your visitors click on a mailto link and then putting them to work in writing you an email, still doesn’t give them an easy way to send you the exact information you need. Thus, writing them back the replies requesting the exact information you needed in the first place, it’s just a waste of time and effort both for you and your visitors as well.

That is where Baboon Webforms works its magic! By creating your free account, you get access to an easy to use webform creator. You don’t need any programming skills.. if you know how to click some buttons, you can use it.

We have created a very simple and easy to use web application that takes you step by step through the creation and customization of your webform. This allows you to create very simple contact forms and even more advanced surveys, which makes it simpler for your visitors to contact you and makes it easier to you by getting the information you need from the very first email.

And the sweetest thing of all, is that you can use your webform ANYWHERE. All the webforms are hosted by us, so all you have to do is add a link to your webform wherever you would like your visitors to contact you.

We have members using webforms to get feedback from their visitors in YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Blogspot and more… imagine your possibilities!

Don’t wait up! Create your FREE web forms today:

Have you been looking for a local company that can provide you with managed business web hosting solutions in Virginia Beach? Look no further, I came across this great company yesterday that offers true bandwith, great packaged options, business solutions, SLL certificated, a special SiteMover, and more! Whether you are a smaller business looking for a reliable shared server, or a big business looking to move your eCommerce site to a more reliable dedicated server, this company ABC hosting has got it all.

Their servers come with amazing options, such as the ever so useful cPanel application, email accounts, every MB of bandwith you are promised in your package, and come standard with all the great installations of PHP and mySQL for great dynamic websites and database management. They also provide unparalleled 24/7 support from a staff located entirely in the US, which is rare of many hosting companies these days.

They have great priced $40, $60, and $80 a month packages based on your server storage and bandwith demands. The bottom line is, if you are looking for a great business web hosting solution in the Virginia Beach, Hampton Roads, or Tidewater area; turn to ABC Hosting as your provider of top notch web hosting.

Do you operate a website, send out electronic newsletters or e-mail campaigns? Have you ever experimented with the different fonts (typefaces) available? If you have, you probably discovered there are numerous fonts available on your computer - in some cases 100-200 or more. How then do you decide which font to use?

This article will give you a brief overview of choosing fonts for the internet, so that the next electronic piece of information you send achieves the desired effect.

Where the Font Do We Start?
First, even though there are thousands of fonts available to us, each computer usually only has a hundred or so installed for use. Different operating systems, and various other files or programs you obtain can install various fonts on your computer and add to that number. Those fonts are usually compatible across programs, meaning you will be able to use all of your system fonts in any program. Let’s say your computer came pre-installed with 150 fonts. Then you bought a common software program that added 50 more fonts to your computer. You now have 200 fonts you will be able to use in any program that is designed to allow font selection.

Isn’t that great? You instantly have more fonts to choose from. If you’re working in print materials or graphics, then you actually do have the freedom to choose whatever fonts you want. However, if you are not printing the final version but instead delivering your material via the internet, whether it be on a website, by email, or any other type of electronic media, you don’t actually have as much freedom as you may think. There are several factors to take into consideration that could influence your choice, including perception, usability and availability.

Perception.
The typeface that you select needs to accurately reflect the mood of your message. Do you want the tone conveyed to your reader to be formal or informal, friendly or serious, professional or playful? If the message is of a professional and formal nature, then your font should accurately portray that. But if the message is to a group of friends inviting them to a party, you can have a little fun and take a more informal approach with your fonts. Always consider the audience for which the piece is intended, and then choose a font that achieves the perception you desire.

Usability.
After you have established the intended audience for your message, make sure they can actually read it! Many fonts are hard to read simply because they are so small in size (like 8 point or 10 point). Cursive and italic fonts can be hard on the eyes and are strongly discouraged for the purposes of main bodies of text. Italics should only be used for emphasis or as graphical elements. You also don’t want your font too large, as this can make it difficult for the eyes to scan across a large body of text. There are many fonts available intended specifically for headings and logo text that would be inappropriate for the main body of a message. To maximize usability, make sure to choose a font that is legible and easy on the eyes.

Availability.
This is the most easily overlooked aspect of font selection and can result in completely unexpected results. To insure the recipient sees the same message style you created, the fonts you use must be available on their computer. When you create a website for example, the HTML code will “call” the font that is supposed to be displayed. This tells your browser program what font it should display on that particular page. Even though you may have 200 fonts installed on your computer and you see your fonts fine and dandy, that doesn’t mean that the person on the other end viewing your website has the exact same fonts as you. In a case where he doesn’t, his browser will substitute a different font of its own choosing, which could completely change their perception of your intended message. At the very least, they may think you were sloppy in putting your material together. Email programs, and electronic newsletters, all work the same way. So bottom line, you need to use fonts that you are positive your entire web audience will have available on their computer. We call these “Web-Safe” fonts.

With thousands of fonts out there, you’re probably thinking, “No big deal, there are still plenty of choices”. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are only 9. Yes, you read that correctly, there are only NINE web-safe fonts that you can be assured are on every single computer out there! Those fonts are Arial, Arial Black, Courier New, Comic Sans, Georgia, Impact, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, and Verdana. Let’s take a couple of minutes to understand the differences in these fonts.

There are two basic types of fonts; serif or sans serif. Serif by definition has a fine line finishing off the main strokes of a letter, or letters may end with a rounded tip. And “sans” is a French term meaning “without”, so in the case of sans serif it would be without those fine lines. The most common serif font is Times New Roman and the most common sans serif font is Arial, both of which are web-safe fonts. Of the nine web-safe fonts there are only 3 serif fonts; Courier New, Georgia and Times New Roman. Serif fonts in very small text sizes can be hard to read, therefore caution should be used when selecting those for small print.

Arial (properly pronounced “are-ree-al”)
Arial was introduced as the default typeface for Windows 3.1 when it was released by Microsoft in the early 1990s. It is not difficult to read unless used in very small sizes, and it is the most popular sans serif font today. It is however quite plain, and people tend to get bored of Arial because they see it every where. But, since it’s so widely available, easy to read, and the default for Microsoft products, it is a great font to use for main content areas of your marketing materials, newsletters, websites, etc.

Arial Black
Arial Black is one of many versions of Arial, released with Internet Explorer 3. It is a bolder font than Arial and is great for headings and short sections of text that require emphasis.

Courier New
Courier New, a serif font, was primarily a font used in old typewriters. Not normally used as main bodies of text, it is still used to display code in documents or when the writer wants the old-fashioned typewriter look in their document.

Comic Sans
Comic Sans started shipping with Windows 95 as a preinstalled font. Designed to look like comic book lettering, the font was created for informal copy. Regarded today as unprofessional, this sans serif font is not recommended for materials of a professional nature. Comic Sans became a more popular font when it started being used as the text inside the tags on Beanie Babies!

Georgia
Georgia, a serif font, was created for Microsoft in 1993 to provide a clean font for use on the web that would display well even in small sizes. Georgia font letters are taller than most other web-safe fonts, making them easier to read when used in smaller sizes. Georgia is a great alternative when you’re tired of traditional Times New Roman, but still want a serif font.

Impact
Impact is a very bold sans serif font. By it’s name, it was designed to impact the reader, and is therefore recommended only for headings, small blocks of text, areas on the page that you want to grab the readers eye. Because of it’s thick block style, Impact looks best when there is plenty of space around it otherwise it looks cluttered.

Tahoma
Tahoma, a very close cousin of Verdana, was designed in 1999 for Microsoft. It is so similar to Verdana that many don’t see the difference in the fonts. Mainly, Tahoma keeps its lettering tighter so that text does not spread out as far as Verdana does. Tahoma is a great font option for those needing a sans serif font but who are getting bored of Arial.

Times New Roman
Times New Roman is the most widely used serif font, developed in 1931 for use by The Times newspaper in London. It has remained a very popular font for setting type in books, magazines, newspapers, etc. The U.S. State Department has been using Times New Roman 14 point on all diplomatic documents since 1994, replacing their old font of choice Courier New 12 point.

Trebuchet (properly pronounced “treb-u-shet”
Trebuchet was designed in 1996 for Microsoft and is a popular sans serif font for those bored with the plain appearance of Arial. Having a definite style all it’s own, Trebuchet is easy to read for large or small type and works well for main bodies of text. Due to its unique styling though, it can be seen as a feminine font and if your audience is all men they may not relate well to that font.

Verdana
Verdana, designed for Microsoft in 1996 is probably the most easy to read web-safe sans serif font available. With its taller lettering, and more evenly spaced letters it can be easily read in larger sizes as well as small sizes. It does extend the width of text on a page, so it’s great for filling design that have a lot of space with a small amount of copy.

What Font do YOU Want?
Now that you understand the differences between the 9 web-safe fonts, which one will you choose for your internet communications? If you’re looking for a serif font, then Georgia is our recommendation. It is the clearest serif font on the web, since it was designed for just that purpose. If you are looking for a sans serif font, Verdana is the clearest on screen font for readability and is our number one recommendation, with good old Arial pulling up a close second.

Angela Nielsen is President of NIC Media Group, an award-winning web development company located in southern California. To find out more about Angela NIelsen or NIC Media Group visit www.nicmedia.com. Copyright 2006 by Angela Nielsen. Professional editing provided by www.sharpediting.com.

Salehoo: Where Can I Order Wholesale Beads To Make Jewelry
Programs that sell wholesale items are known to pull your chain now and then. I have been scammed once before with a system that promised me all of these great things, only to find that I was chasing and looking other places to find what I wanted and needed. I just was not what I had expected. What does that mean for you? Absolutely nothing I mean how do you tell by verifying someone and making them accept payments through secure methods that they are not dodgy? And if and when you do get ripped off by these suppliers there will be no help or support from the list owners because they can’t do anything if a supplier runs off with your money and you can be rest assured that they certainly will not reimburse you a penny you paid to the supplier so what’s the point of paying for a list? I bet you know many people that view Ebay as a good place to make some residual income and where do you think they will try and locate stock from? That’s right the same premium list you are using to buy yours from and the next thing you know is that half of your category on Ebay is filled with sellers offering the same stuff you are trying to shift, so learn all about Salehoo wholesalers.

It has gained worldwide recognition due to its ease of use and reliability which is the real benefit of Salehoo dropshippers. Always be up to date on what types of products are hot which products are staple products what merchandise sells in each season and the actual market wholesale and retail prices of the items you are selling and also the Salehoo Suppliers. Salehoo an Online resource boasts of a comprehensive platform of wholesale suppliers

Salehoo Wholesale Dual Axis Tilt Sensor Buy:
Buy products in large quantities and repack them in smaller package. This strategy can add convenience and efficiency of your distribution to dealers. Ebay powersellers trust Salehoo dropshippers and Salehoo prices.

You also get a step by step guide to selling on eBay, so try to join the Salehoo forums. The only difficulty the risk involved using non-secure payment methods such as Western union and Wire Transfer, which will be the Salehoo customers. See Salehoo.

Have you ever thought about the real stories behind all the websites on the Internet? There are over 10 million sites out there and a human being with some hope or dream driving the process constructed each one. Too much of our modern world is presented to us in a barrage of superficial pictures that only show a very external glimpse of the true reality beneath the surface. Wouldn’t you like to know about the people who live behind this wall of technology? Humanity is the force behind all the websites, and for that matter, all technology that we use without a second thought everyday. Behind every advance in technology is a human being who wanted to get something done, then did it.

Why do you have a website? Is it your dream to share your ideas with the world? Do you feel you have a product or service that can help society run more smoothly? Do you feel lonely and feel that the Internet is finally a place to connect with others? Do you just want to express yourself to the world and if no one checks it out its O.K, because it has helped you to know yourself better? Each and every website on the Internet is a human being attempting to move forward on their life’s path. What drove you to make the move? Has it helped you, or have unforeseen problems arisen because of your venture? It is a risk you know, and I’m sure for every success story out there, there’s also a story of how the Web affected someone’s world in a contrary fashion.

That’s life, and essentially that’s all the Internet is, another expression of life itself. Some people might think that the Internet is just another capitalistic venture to sell things and make money. They might also think it’s a super technical mumbo-jumbo of nonsense that is way over their heads. It’s much more simple than all that. The Internet is humanity in motion. It’s the next step we’ve taken on our journey as a species. Where is the journey taking us? What is the destination? What are we hoping to achieve in the long run?

The Internet is another tool like fire and the stone-axe, the wheel and the well, the airplane and the satellite. The point is that we’ve built it for a purpose. What is your personal reason for being alive? Do you know yet? Do you just want to be happy while you are here in this magical form? Well, that’s why we invent tools. We want to make things work, get the job done each day, go home happy and content each night knowing that we’ve done our share of the load. A lot of us believe that helping others is the true way to finding happiness. Whatever your goal in life is, if you’ve achieved it or not, the World Wide Web is a new aspect of our world that we can use to take the risks and logical steps to achieving what we are looking for.

Why does that person have a website about health issues? Did they have to go through a hard experience of their own that inspired them to share what they learnt with others? Why does this person have a site about spirituality? Did they once feel lost in the world, and now they want to tell others about the experience that has brought them faith? Why does this person sell doughnuts over the Web? Do they think that all people should know the power of a chocolate covered glazed extravagance at least once in their life? Maybe before they sold doughnuts they lived as a recluse in the forest. Did they come to the city and after eating the first thing they came across (a doughnut); they had an epiphany about their true purpose in life?

By taking this humanistic approach to our technology, the tech-heads can build better programs and software that’s much simpler to comprehend. The layperson can relate to, and understand the Net better, and even help the experts by sharing their viewpoints and becoming more of a part of the future technologies process. This perspective will also help people to realize that the computer isn’t something separate from them or something to be afraid of.

About The Author

Jesse S. Somer is a human just like any other. The Internet isn’t technology. The Internet is humanity: people striving for achievement. http://www.m6.net

You have decided to build yourself a website. You know what you want the site to be about, you have some potential names for the website picked out in your head, and you are hoping they are still available. You know what you want the site to look like. But, you are wondering how you actually get it on the internet. You have read some articles that explain that you need a web host to put your site on the world-wide-web. Now the real problem arises. How do you pick a web hosting company that is best suited for what you need?

There are hundreds of web hosting companies out there. Every one of them claims to have the best prices and the best service. You have looked for information on the internet that may clue you into how to go about choosing. You may have even been lucky enough to come across an article from someone commenting on a great experience with their hosting company.

Choosing a web hosting company can be intimidating. You have to choose between how much storage space you need, how many email boxes you can set up, how many FTP accounts you can have, SQL databases, control panels, sub-domains, and the list goes on. Each company usually offers different levels of all these to meet your needs and then multiply that times all the different companies out there. That is a lot of research to do. Some companies offer free website building programs as part of your package. Some even offer programs where you tell them what you want and they will build it for you. Most companies will offer your free domains names as well. The more your monthly package is then the more free names you get, usually.

I thought it was important to write this article because I was overwhelmed when I was building my site. I ended up going with aplus.net. They seemed to offer the most for the money. Well, one thing that did not come with the package was customer service. Their service is awful. I have spoken to them 4 times since signing up with them. Each of the times I did not get an answer to my question by the time I got off the phone. I finally just got so aggravated with their lack of desire to help me with my problem that I ended the call and just tried to fix it myself, which I usually ended up figuring out. I bought a package with a sizeable amount of storage space because I wanted to build a nice sized website and did not want to run out of space. Well, I have well over 100 pages to my site so far, I have pictures, video, and multiple articles. I have not even used 1% of my storage space yet. I do plan other sites in the future but I do not think I will ever use all the space. I have 15,000 MB of space and I have used 18.40 MB’s to date.

My site has a handful of web hosting sites on it. I have tried to add ones that I have heard good things about, since signing up with aplus.net. However, since I have not spoken with their service people I really cannot say for certain if they are any better than aplus.net. Here is a comparison of a few of the companies that can be found on my site. This is just a guideline on explaining what to look for. I am not recommending any company over the other, nor am I recommending any of these sites over the others on the internet.
Comparison:

Webwizards.net- this is a perfect example of some of the differences. This particular company offers very cheap monthly rates but does not add in many of the extras I mentioned above as part of their rate. They offer them at extra charges per month. So, if you are not looking for anything fancy this may be ideal for you because if you do need the services they are available. If you don’t need them you don’t pay for them. Their cheapest plan is $6 a month. Some of the charges for services are: $4 per month for additional domains. $1/month for use of Frontpage (site building program). $.50 for each subdomain, and the list goes on. This site offers 6 plans with the prices ranging from $6 a month to $68. The more expensive package includes most of the extras as part of their monthly fees. http://www.webwizards.net/discount.code/batman

Godaddy.com - they offer a very basic hosting plan for $3.95 a month. This is one of the cheapest I have come across but I do not see that there are any of the extras available if you need them, which differs from the first site we looked at. Their most expensive plan is only $19.95 but if you compared it to the first site I believe it would be comparable to their package close to that price. There is no mention of any site building tools even being available. So, you either need to find a free site builder on-line (which are usually pretty limited) or you have to buy your own. www.GoDaddy.com

Bluehost.com - from a quick look at this site it appears they only offer one program. It may be that you can customize it during the sign-up process but I wasn’t about to sign-up to find out. The home page on their site says $6.95 per month.

The most important piece of advice I can give anyone looking into this is to not be sucked up by all the stuff they offer, if you do not need it. Secondly, some of the freebies they offer are not useful anyway because they do not really work. An example would be search engine submission tools. They claim to submit your site to hundreds or thousands of search engines. I have seen one that has offered as much as 700,000 search engines. Who even knew there were that many? They may submit the site to the search engines but that doesn’t help you. It can take up to 6 weeks for the search engine to even review it and it isn’t even a guarantee they will index your site. If they do index it, it may never be seen because it may fall on page 250 of 250 pages for a search word.

There many more effective tools out there to get yourself a high ranking in the search engines. Feel free to contact me if you’d like more information on other products, or keep an eye out for future articles. I wish you luck with your website. It is an interesting hobby (for me anyway). You will make mistakes when you start out, I made many and still continue to make them. Hopefully this article will help you avoid some of the ones I made.

Scott Bianchi operates http://www.best-internet-bargains.com If you would like to be included in his mailing list when he publishes a new article send an email to articles@bestinternetbargains.com

Searching for a web host can be a daunting task. You need to find a provider that can have 99% uptime and the support to keep your site up and running. Another thing is your web hosting companies connection to the internet. Will your website be sitting in someones closet, or will it be in a climate controlled, generator backed up data center? These are all the important questions that need to be asked when looking for web hosting. You also need to be careful with certain web hosting providers. They may offer you a lot space and bandwidth, but no control panel. Also look for a web host that offers some sort of control panel. A few offered are Plesk and Cpanel. I am an huge advocate of cpanel as it is basically a nice little web server in a box. You can control everything from there, including creating databases, cron jobs, emails, and anything else you could think of. Another great method for finding a web host is to check out web hosting review sites. There are many on the internet so you need to be careful when looking through them. A lot are biased and can be skewed by the web hosting companies themselves. We like to use www.whackahost.com as they have honest reviews and a rating system. They also help you set up your hosting and will even set up some cms or forums for you. Also research the hosting company you are thinking about using before you purchase from them.

Yes, it really does and the smaller your webpage the better it
is.

Size is an area where people can lose focus when they are
concentrating on the look and branding of their website.

In print and other forms of media, size and complexity of images
is not necessarily related to the viability of the advertising
itself.

But in the ether of the Internet, the time for a page to load is
incredibly important to the chances of it being viewed.

Soon, when Broadband is everywhere, the threshold of what is
considered allowable will increase, but till that time, size
will be a very important factor.

8 seconds is all you have got.

You need to grab the visitor by the horns, tell them they need
what you have got and give it to them! There is no time to stuff
around impressing them with your “wizzy this” and “wazzy that”
If your site is there to sell something, then that is what you
need to focus on.

People talk about “Content being king” and this is very true. If
your content is text, then you get a lot of bang for your buck,
if it is rich media like photos, video, and audio then you may
need to be a little clever in the way you present this so as to
not push people away purely because of the time they had to wait
to see it.

On a dialup connection, 8 seconds gets you about 30 kb, that is
usually enough for a few pictures and some text. If you are
clever enough about it, you can make it work for you.

Here are some ideas to think about when you are looking to
reduce the size of your pages.

Use an image optimizer. It is surprising to see how many
images are far larger than they need to be. This is often due to
the fact that some software provide the ability to resize
pictures, but do not actually change the file size or download
time. The time taken to create thumbnails is well worth it in
the long run.

Choose the right format for your images. JPG and GIF are the
two usual suspects for formatting images. JPG’s are great for
photos and places with gradients. While GIF’s are ideal for
cartoon style line graphics and logos.

Use text wherever possible, while a picture may say a thousand
words, if you only need ten, do it with words.

Rollovers - those cool looking menus where they change
appearance when you move your mouse over them. So, for ten menu
items, you are actually loading twenty pictures…it really adds
up.

Use CSS, Cascading Style Sheets are a great tool for reducing
the time to load a page. Instead of formatting each piece of
text explicitly, using style sheets you can use style names
instead which are much shorter and take less space.

Don’t use FrontPage…OK this might be a gross generalisation,
but the number of FrontPage sites I have had to rescue and the
time taken to do it shows there are much better things out there
that produce much better pages.

Check it out for yourself - use any of the good tools out
there to test the speed of your page (just remember, their time
are from their server to your site and not necessarily from
where you are). Do a search on “web page optimization”.

So with your current 8-second window, you have to get your
message across. These things I have mentioned will all help in
the fight against the bloated page, but you need to be vigilant
to make sure that you can achieve the look you want within the
time you have.

Your Audience

The audience is also vital to this calculation. Some audiences
will happily wait to see the frilly bits float across the screen
or the Flash intro load.

Especially in visual arts such as Museums, Art Galleries, Movies
and Games, these extras are an expectation of the audience. They
want you to wow them and that if you don’t they will go on to
the next cab off the rank.

But if your business is a little more ordinary, then time is of
the essence. Consider how many other place of business there are
out there like yours? Maybe not exactly the same, as yours is
special, but similar enough to the web surfer where if you can’t
deliver what they want in the shortest time possible, they will
move on.

The browsers “BACK” button is your enemy. The more people click
this once they land on your site, the less effective your site
is being.

One good thing to look for is the time people spend on your
site. If you use AWstats (a free webstats program) it will show
you the percentage of people leaving after different durations.
If you have a high percentage of people leaving in the 0-30
seconds column, you may need to look at that page and see what
is happening. Possibly, they just couldn’t wait long enough.

While on the subject of Webstats, Google Analytics gives
some great information about your visitors activities on your
website. While you may not be able to sign up yet (at the time
of writing, the signups had been temporarily disabled), keep an
eye on it as it will be of great use to all webmasters and
website owners to keep a good eye on their prized internet
possession.

So keep it short and sweet, it is how you use it that matters!