SEO Tips for Blogs

Originally conceived to be something like an online journal for individuals has become yet another tool businesses can use to market themselves online. Web logs or blogs are now being used not just for the sheer purpose of writing, but also as means SEO (search engine optimization) experts use to increase a website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).

An interesting thing about keeping and maintaining a blog (also known as blogging) is that anyone can blog. What will make a blog more successful than most is simply a keen sense of its target readership. Of course, it will not harm the blogger (a person maintaining a blog) to possess a few basic skills navigating the Internet and creating links to other websites and blogs.

Bloggers today are finding that they can not only write and publish their thoughts for free, but also can find themselves getting compensated for writing. This is because one of the techniques in SEO is to create content that is rich in keywords, which is basically what search engines look for in ranking web pages in its SERPs.

That said, here are some tips to make your next blog an effective SEO tool.

1, Choose a Theme (and Stick to It)
Most blogs never gain a real readership because it simply is a mishmash of a writer’s thoughts, with very little coherent theme to bind the entire blog together. If the blogger does it for the sheer purpose of a journal, there’s really nothing wrong with that.

However, as an SEO, a blog has to have a theme that will tie all the posts (individual articles) together. This is because instead of just looking for keywords, a search engine will also assess whether the page just happens to have a lot of keywords mentioned in the post or whether the entire blog is about the topic it is searching for. The former will rank less than the former in the SERPs. Given this point, it will do you well to pick a theme that you are interest and won’t tire of writing about.

2. A Place You Can Call Home
Working alongside the idea of a theme, When creating your blog (whether with your own domain name or an a free blog site), give it a URL that has words related to the theme. For example, if you are going to blog about bonsai making, try to use words that are related to that in your blog’s URL (such as www.bonsaienthusiast.com). Name your blog using words that are relevant to your theme as well. Search engines look at these things as well to determine how high your blog could possibly rank.

If you are blogging on a hosting site, it is possible to have your blog delegated into a proper category. This will help make a search engine easier to find your blog given that the category is strongly related to themes and search keywords.

On a related note, your individual posts should also be titled with words that are closely related to your theme. Again, working on a blog with a bonsai theme, one post could be titled “Miniature Trees: How to Get Started” while another one could be “Selecting the Right Pot for a Bonsai”. This will give your posts a URL that is rich in keywords, which helps in a page’s ranking on SERPS (but you already know that, right?).

3. Link And it Shall Be Linked Unto You
Another thing about blogs that SEO experts are finding to become a great advantage is the fact that blogs make it easy to link to other blogs, which in turn makes it easy for other blogs to link to you.

This is yet another criterion a search engine uses to rank a particular page in the results pages. The more incoming links it possess about the keyword in search will increase ranking status because the page shows that a lot of people think what you’ve written is a good source of information.

So when writing on your blog, be sure to take the time to read other people’s blogs and other online articles related to your theme. Create links to them so that you point your readers to more information. This will increase the chances of other people creating links that will point to your blog.

4. Keep it Coming
Since blog content is so easy to create, search engines scour blog sites very regularly. That means if you keep on creating new content on a regular basis, search engines will have to keep up with what’s new on your blog.

By regularly creating fresh content on your blog, search engines will tend to look to your blog first before others that are not maintained and renewed as regularly as you do. It helps in the rankings as well, which is the whole point of this article, right?

These tips are just to get started on using a blog for SEO. As you go along, you’ll find more tricks of the trade that will help you push you up the ranks on SERPs. Of course realistically, don’t expect to rank on the top 3 pages on your first try. But give it a few weeks. And for as long as you keep to the tried and true principles, it may not be that far until you’ve captured a good ranking for your blog.

Viral Marketing – Why is it so Powerful?

Viral marketing is the new marketing and advertising trend right now, especially in the online scene. It takes advantage of the internet’s network effect to be able to reach a great number of people in such a short time.

Benefits of Viral Marketing

Viral marketing strategies offer several advantages to businesses.

- Easy to execute. There are several methods of sending viral contents or messages and all of them are easy to do. Among those methods are sending email, instant messaging, and using web sites. Sending viral messages through these media will not take much effort and time.

- Low-cost. As compared to sending direct mails, viral marketing proves to be cheaper and a more cost-effective method. With just a little investment on viral advertising, its power can reach even hundreds of thousands of people as compared to spending the same amount of money to traditional advertising methods. That is because the only money to spend is for sending the initial set of viral contents, then forwarding or replicating the message will not require additional costs anymore.

- Good targeting. With viral marketing, there is a huge probability that the message will reach people that are interested in it. Since the concept of viral marketing is essentially passing on a message from a user to another person, most likely, the user will pass it to a person whom he knows will be interested in it. Thus, the percentage of wasted advertising, which is sending the message to the wrong market, will be reduced.

- High and rapid response rate. Since viral marketing reaches a good number of the business’ target market, there is also a big possibility to have a high turnover ratio. Even if the responses will not immediately convert into profits, there will still be huge traffic that the business will receive which is what most web owners want.

These are indeed great benefits a business can get by adopting this marketing technique. But what really makes it more powerful than other marketing or advertising strategies?

Let us take the example of Hotmail, where this viral marketing term really started. Hotmail was able to spread over the internet at an amazing rate. It is like an epidemic that quickly spreads out to others once there is a single person infected by the virus. That is why this technique was named as such.

According to Hotmail’s statistics, its number of subscribers grew from zero to twelve million users in just 18 months. Imagine that! What’s more amazing is that the company spent just $50,000 on advertising to achieve that number of subscribers. Compare that to Juno which spent $20 million on traditional advertising during the same time period as Hotmail but got much less output.

With those facts about Hotmail, viral marketing’s main strength is indeed reaching a huge number of the target market at a considerably low cost. Hotmail did not even have marketing or advertising presence in most countries outside the United States but it got to be the major email service provider in these places like India and Sweden.

What adds more power to viral marketing is the fact that the viral message passed on is like an endorsement from a friend or somebody who can be trusted. People have this way of thinking that “if my friend uses this product and is happy about it, what stops me from using it as well?”

In Hotmail’s case, when those people who received an email from their friends, relatives, or colleagues using Hotmail learned that it works and their friend is a user, they quickly signed up and became members as well. These people wanted to belong in this group where their friends are also in. This technique is also a matter of association or affiliation.

Hotmail’s case is not an isolated one, though. During the same time that Hotmail is gaining its popularity, so does ICQ. ICQ is like a buddy list and instant messenger, much like MSN and Yahoo Messenger now. ICQ also used the same technique and marketing campaign and it gained almost the same number of subscribers as Hotmail within the same time frame.

Viral marketing is indeed one powerful tool to increase popularity of a product or service. However, just like any other things, proper use of the technique is necessary. A single mistake of misuse of it may mean permanent damage to the product or service being promoted.

Run an Affiliate Marketing Business Successfully

Businesses, what do they have in common?

Advertising

Almost all businesses, big or small, no matter what product or services they sell, they need this to be successful in selling whatever products or services they are selling. We see them everywhere in our everyday lives; we see them in flyers, TV commercials, billboards, walls, theaters, sides of buses, and even on the sides of milk boxes, and we even hear advertising on radios and telephones.

Advertising is a tool businesses reach out to more people to buy their products or services. It is a fact that a business will only grow just a little or not at all without advertising.

Thriving businesses hire advertising companies to advertise for them, it is probably better than getting your employees out on the street advertising your products and services for you.

Advertising itself is a business, and you might think that this kind of business is great for making money and you are right, it does make a lot of money. Businesses pay big money to advertise their product.

The same goes for the internet. Online businesses have many ways to advertise their products and services; one of the most common ways is to advertise through affiliate programs.

Affiliate marketing has been around for quite a while now, and it still flourishing. If you are planning to get into the affiliate marketing business, you be successful in it.

Firstly, you have to know what affiliate marketing is all about, how it works, and what to expect.

Affiliate marketing works by signing up a website as an affiliate of an online business to advertise for them. Keep in mind that you will not be actually selling the product or services but you just have to pre-sell the product or services.

This means that if you sign up as an affiliate of an online business your website becomes pretty much like a billboard or an advertising space. Unlike billboards, online businesses will not pay you to post their links on a website but they will only pay you a commission if a visitor from your website clicks the link and buys the product or services the online business is offering.

To start being an affiliate you first need a website. Your website should have a specific theme or topic you are interested in. Remember that the key to this business is targeted internet traffic. Having a theme in your website can make it easier for you to get targeted traffic.

Planning your website
Firstly, create a website based a specific content based on what you know. Like your hobby or your previous work.

Secondly, think of the most profitable topics based on your website’s theme.

Lastly, choose an affiliate program related on what is being discussed on your website’s topic.
 
It is important that you should not include sales pitch on your website. Including one will make it look like you’re selling the product or services, remember that you’re not selling the product but just referring on where to you can buy the product.

Your topics should be more on the information side, include things on what it is all about, why buy the product and you can include the pros and cons of the product if you want. You might think it will discourage potential buyers. Nevertheless, giving your opinion about the product will make it look like you tried the product and knowledgeable about it. This would result in people wanting to try for themselves.

It is also wise that your advertising should not be in your article page. Create a different page that has the affiliate.

What is targeted internet traffic?
Targeted internet traffic is the visitors you want in your website. These visitors are people who are interested in the product you will be discussing in your website not just someone who accidentally entered your site.

High amounts of untargeted internet traffic are useless in your affiliate website. All they do is look at your website for a couple of seconds and leaves.

To generate increased targeted internet traffic you have to:
Create articles regarding the product or services the online business you signed up as an affiliate and put in your website URL at the end of each article then post it on article publishing websites.

Another great thing about this is that not only it generates high amounts of targeted internet traffic but also it is also free.

Rank well on search engines, internet users seldom go to the third results of their search. It is important that your website be instantly shown on the first or second search results.

These are some of the basic structures in building your affiliate business. Just remember that targeted traffic is the lifeline of affiliate marketing. Websites with little or no targeted traffic are websites that do not generate suitable income.

Fix Scrolling Render Bug in IE

This fixes a very annoying bug in IE by where when you scroll the page becomes corrupted. It relates to the way IE renders pages. This code places a null background image behind, making IE render the page differently.

This can also be place on the body tag unless it already has a background.

1. html {
2. background: url(null) fixed no-repeat;
3. }

Why Choose Affiliate Marketing as your Online Business

There are many online businesses coming out today. You might have seen a website selling ebooks or different kinds of services. With so many online businesses coming out with selling the same products, these businesses cannot succeed with proper advertising.

This is where you come in. You can offer to advertise for them or sign up as an affiliate.

An affiliate program works by giving you a commission for every product they sold to every referral you directed to their website. Some affiliate programs will offer pay per click.

This means that if a visitor from your website clicks the link or banner of the company you posted in your site, they will pay you, if different people or users of your website make the clicks.

Since there are so many online businesses wanting to sign up websites as an affiliate, you will never run out of clients. There will always be new online businesses that will open up. If you do affiliate marketing right, you will never lose.

Affiliate marketing can be such a great business, especially for people who are considering starting an online business at home. With good internet traffic, your earnings in affiliate programs can be enough to make ends meet.

Affiliate marketing is a great business for every type of people. Whether you are an average person with a regular job or a student who wants to make extra cash or whether if you are a stay at home parent who wants to help with the household expenses, affiliate marketing is perfect for everyone.

Affiliate marketing allows you to start your home business right away.

All you need is a website and an investment of a little time, a little effort and a little money to get good internet traffic in your website. Sometimes if you are good in promoting your website, you need to invest no money at all.

Here are some of the reasons why affiliate marketing can be a great business:

To start with, you need no actual products or services to sell. Most people start their online business selling products or services; this can lead to spending more money, depending on what type of product or service they sell.

In affiliate marketing, all you have to do is create a website with specific topic and post a link of your affiliate that sells products or services that is relevant to your website topic. For example, you can create a website that discusses scuba diving equipments. You then put up a link in your website of other websites that sells different kinds of scuba equipments.

Depending on what kind of website you set up, you need no actual customer service. This means you have no need to employ people, therefore, saving money for salary and of course, office space.

You are your own boss. In addition, since that is the case, you get to choose what website you want to sign up as an affiliate. Remember that you have to choose a business that suits your website.

Affiliate marketing can give you lots of free time. What you need to do is just set up your website, advertise it and set up your affiliate program. After that, you have all the time in the world to do what ever pleases you.

However, you should also check your website and update it from time to time to keep visitors interested in your website. For example, your affiliate’s products have upgraded, you also need to update your topics regarding the new features and products.

Once you have a good amount of internet traffic and subscriber list, you become an affiliate magnet. Businesses who depend largely on affiliate marketing to promote internet traffic to their website will often offer you to sign up for them as an affiliate. Sometimes, some businesses will even offer you a bonus by just signing you up as an affiliate.

These are just some of the reasons why affiliate marketing is a great business. There are many possibilities in affiliate marketing. All you have to do is be creative in promoting your website. Try to advertise your website by writing articles and posting them in article publishing websites, this is a great way to increase targeted internet traffic in your website.

In addition, keep in mind that internet traffic means more visitors who will likely buy the products your affiliate program is promoting.

For you  to be successful in this field, make your website as attractive as possible. You not only have to get good web traffic but you also need keep visitors coming back again.

What Is Viral Marketing?

When you purchased an item or availed of a service of a certain establishment and are satisfied with what you got, don’t you recommend that to a friend? And when you give your recommendation, doesn’t your friend buy or avail of it as well?

More often than not, we express our satisfaction with some product or service by telling our friends and relatives about our experience. Some of them will actually try the same product or service that we recommended. Essentially, we have just successfully advertised the product through word-of-mouth without the establishment having to spend a penny on it.

That is the idea behind viral marketing. Viral marketing is an advertising strategy that entices people to pass on a marketing message to their relatives and friends. It is called as such because of its similarity to an epidemic that easily spreads out, with an exponential growth, once an individual gets “infected.”

How did this marketing phenomenon start?

The concept of viral marketing, which is passing along a message, has been around for a long time now, even for centuries. There was just no specific name for it until 1997 when Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist, came up with the term “viral marketing” to describe Hotmail’s marketing practice then.

Hotmail’s practice was to append an advertisement of itself on each message that is sent using their service. When a recipient gets interested and clicks on the ad, it will lead to Hotmail’s website for him to signup. This will go on and on, and the growth is similar to an exponential curve.

Types of Viral Marketing

There are different ways to apply viral marketing strategy.

- Pass-along. This is the most common type of viral marketing. Web sites that ask their users to tell-a-friend about their products and services is an example of pass-along messaging. However, there is a risk of the message being labeled as “spam” by email providers. Thus, it is important that the “from” and “subject” lines do not contain any word that may be tagged as spam.

- Incentivised viral. This is a marketing technique used by companies in which users are offered rewards when they refer somebody to the company. This becomes more effective when the referred person needs to take action for the reward to be given.

- Undercover. The most difficult viral to spot, undercover marketing sends a viral message that is disguised as just an unusual page or piece of news without obvious link citations.

- Edgy gossip or buzz marketing. This type is most common in the entertainment world. A good example is the spread of different controversies, like getting married or divorced, involving the stars of a movie that is yet to be released. This is like a word-of-mouth advertising for the movie.

Methods of Transmission

Spreading the viral message can be done in different ways.

- Email. This is the most common type, when people forwards messages such as inspirational messages, jokes, funny clips and pictures that advertises a certain product or service.

- Instant Messaging. People who receive links from friends through instant messaging servers, like Yahoo or MSN, are more likely to check it out because of the notion of urgency of the sender.

- Web sites. Most of the articles now published online have a link that says “Send to a friend.” This is one way to make the article reach a good number of people by just posting it in one site.

- Word of mouth. Of course, this is the traditional way of passing on a message to another person; and most of the time, the most reliable method too.

Though there are several ways on how to do this kind of advertising, there are also barriers to it. One was already mentioned, which is the risk of the message being labeled as “spam.” Since a lot of companies now are using this method and promoting their products through email, email providers proactively created some sort of filter in their system to separate potential spam emails from the more trusted ones.

Other barriers can be the size and format of the viral message. If the content is a video clip, its reach may be limited because of size limitations of most of the email providers. Media format is also one thing to consider because not all recipients of the message may have the right application to open the file.

But despite of these constraints, businesses are already getting into this style of marketing. Indeed, this technique helps in dramatically increasing revenues by reaching a huge number of the target market without having to spend a big chunk of money for advertisements. Viral marketing will definitely go a long way, especially in the World Wide Web.

What you should know about Blogging

Are you aware of the new way to keep your friends updated of the things happening in your life? This is a revolutionary way in the internet that can let you keep a personal diary that can be viewed by many people. This is called the weblog or more popularly known as the blog or blogging.

A blog is like a journal where you can write or post your daily activities on a regular basis. The term blog is the short term for web log. Blogging is the act of adding, writing and maintaining a blog.

There are several types of blogs. These are the following:

• Personal blog – this is the most famous type of blog used in some of the friendly hub in the net. This is defined as the online diary or journal, where you can post your poem and other literature piece.

• Cultural blog – it discusses all about music, arts, theater and other popular culture.

• Topic blog – it focuses on the function like some of the search engines present now. Some writers who want to write about something unknown can use it.

• Business blog – this talk about the stock market and other business related topics. It is also use to promote businesses, to talk about economics in forum type and manage information.

• Science blog – it is the mode used to disseminate information and data. However, scientists only use this mode for simple scientific data and information because they believe that it could damage the credibility of their science as many people can read it.

• Moblog – it contains all the information from a mobile phone.

• Collaborative blog – this kind of blog is written by two or more writers. Particular site is open for all the writers to write together with others.

• Eclectic blog – it focuses on niches individually or collaboratively made.

• Educational blog – this is used by students to record the things they learned from their teacher including the activities done in a day.

• Directory blog – this blog gives a regular update of all the visited links. It focuses on particular news and happenings.

• Forum blog – it functions as an internet forum. It allows two or more bloggers to post discussion on the net.

• Spam blog – this is a form of persuasive advertising. Commonly known for the name splogs. It is characterized by the use of bold letters and self-claim advertisements.

There are many web-based blog journals available online. You can post your own blog, too. Anyone can start writing a blog. In many cases, it is free. How do you start making a blog?

Here is how, follow the following steps in writing a blog.

1. There are many blog sites available online that offers free blog posting. They also offer free accounts with many features.

2. You can blog in private and in public. Many blog site offer a blog that contains a password, only a few can read your blog. You can also post a blog that can be read by anyone.

3. You will be given an option to choose the scheme of your blog site. You can edit your own color, layouts and schemes according to your taste and personality.

4. You can write your own blog and post it afterwards.

5. Many offer more schemes for you to personalize your own blog site. You can even post a picture and testimonials from friends like most of the friendly hub do today.

6. By sending the URL to your friends, you can now publish your own blog.

You should keep your writings interesting as it can be. Do not focus on topics that readers do not find interesting. Remember to post only writings that are not offensive so readers will become more interested in your writings. You should also check your spellings and other relevant mistakes that can ruin your credibility as a writer.

Use words that can be easily understood by readers. Proofread your writings before posting. Never copy others blog, you can be issued a case called plagiarism.

With this, you are able to let the people know about what you want to speak. Information will be easier to deliver this time. Visit some blog sites and start writing your emotions.

SEO 101

In an increasingly global Internet community, many techniques have surfaced in order that companies may take hold of as much market share as possible. After all, the Internet is used by a huge variety of people from all over the world, each in their own way a potential customer.

Formerly, going through the Internet and finding content relevant to one’s search was simple; only a few websites were up and running online. These days, however, the Internet is a deluge of content in all shapes and sizes, with people of various age groups, backgrounds, and geographic locations, generating their own online publications and content. Therefore, customers rely greatly on various tools made available to them to simplify their lives.

Search engines are online interfaces used to search for relevant content online based on the keywords entered in the field by the Internet users. Therefore, businesses online must find a way to be prioritized among hundreds and thousands of businesses offering similar or congruent content.

One of these methods designed towards maximizing the potential of the Internet for businesses that rely greatly on generating Internet traffic towards their online website is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is a method used to give a particular website and its content better ranking in a search engine’s query response listings. It usually tries to give websites an edge over others, particularly in those organic or crawler search engines. Organic searches are those listings yielded without payment; crawler search engines simulate the act of crawling through the web and following links through to their respective web pages.

However, like all good things, SEO has come under attack of misuse by people who wanted to take advantage of it. This is the reason why today, SEO is categorized into “white hat SEO”, or SEO legitimately used by consulting agencies to assist clients online, and “black hat SEO”, used to manipulate search engine listings with unethical methods.

While “black hat SEO” makes use of unethical methods to manipulate listings and to deceive others, “white hat SEO” focuses on honest methods of improving a website and its contents in order to promote it in the Internet much better.

Many websites try generating traffic to their website by various methods—pay-per-click advertisings, prepaid advertisements, and organic search listings. SEO is much more interested in increasing profitability through the last method, organic search listings.

Pay-per-click advertising, which entails the advertiser to pay Google or similar agencies only for the number of clicks an online advertisement banner generates and not for ad placement, may ride up costs. This happens when the website tops listings and generates traffic from a huge client base, of which not all of them are interested in purchasing the product or service that will provide the company profit.

Organic search listings, however, display listings of websites regardless of whether or not they are paid. What SEO primarily does in order to maximize the power of organic search listings is concentrating relevant keywords.

“White hat SEO”, because it focuses on improving websites collectively in order to generate genuine rankings in listings, concentrates on better content for the website. Accurate portrayal of a business’s identity is at the core of ethical SEO.

The first way to do it is by making a clean code, which is a significantly simpler code aimed more in delivering content to the users of the website. A cleaner, simpler code, helps crawler search engines decipher the relationships and links between pages and keywords.

The second means is creating beefed up content written in order to provide information and maximum satisfaction to customers. Search engines take into account the ‘satisfaction’ of customers on the basis of relevance of content and even the frequency of visits, usually related to the quality of the content offered by the website. By concentrating on providing quality information and content to customers, the website gains grounding among online visitors.

At the end of the day, by helping the consumers understand and interpret better the content of the website even at the point of indices in search engines, one can best maximize SEO and the rankings of the page in listings. Relevance is key in trying to make sure traffic is directed towards the business’s website; only by providing relevant content can longevity be achieved amidst various trends that claim to provide the business all it needs.

Getting a steady flow of affiliate marketing checks

In affiliate marketing, you probably would want to be the kind of marketer who sees a check when you open your mailbox. All the more if they were checks.

It is ironic to know that there are a lot of people who can never make a sale and have never received any checks in their affiliate marketing. But there are also lots of those who receive monthly checks all year long.

No matter what kind of affiliate marketing you have, you will want to be one of those on the way to building a stable affiliate income.

There are actually ways on how to build a good and sound affiliate marketing income. So if you are committed to this business, read on and learn.

1. Identifying a practical market niche. Try to identify the niche market you want to focus on. While there are a lot of those out there, not all are easy to infiltrate. More often than not, you will end up losing more money than gaining some in the first place.

2. Find a stable affiliate program that offers the niche market you want. Search over the internet for this program. Make sure that you find the company that helps their affiliates through advices and tools needed for affiliate marketing. These are the types who wants your success over anything else.

3. Have your own site and create a newsletter with content-rich information that focuses on your niche market. A website is necessary in affiliate marketing. This is where people will go when they find what your offering interesting. This is also where you can tell them about other features of your business.

4. Make sure your target audience gets to your site and get them to sign up for your newsletter. You can do this by trying to differ from the way other people are advertising their affiliate marketing. Be unique. Think of creative ways to make people go to your site and check you out.

5. Get them to buy from you. The ones going to your affiliate site should be ready to buy from you. Present them with an offer they will find tempting so they will not be able to resist.

There are a lot of sites you can look into that are offering affiliate programs. Take note that some of them are good and some are not. Do your research so you can distinguish which ones will be best for you. If not, you are just wasting your time.

Below are some tips in finding a program that will give you the profit you have always dreamed of.

1. Look for one that is targeting your chosen niche market.

If your niche is about beauty products, you may want to give them tutorials on how to take care of their skin or body. Your products or services must be related to maintaining and preserving beauty.
It is also better if you can present testimonials from people who have used your products. This will give credibility to what is being presented.

2. Consider the commission you will be getting.

Sending an email to your list will cost you. Think of it this way. When you send an email, you send out a recommendation on some of the products offered. This is basically called an opportunity cost. So if you try to compute all that you have sent, that will be the cost you incurred.

Now, have those persons you emailed bought from you? If they did, then it was worth the advertising sent. But if not, that will be deducted from you.

Be certain that the commission offered to you justifies and makes up for the cost of advertising you went through. You would not want to be spending more on advertising than the amount of commission you are receiving. Make sure that it is fair enough.

3. Inspect the product yourself. Do not start recommending something you are not certain about. Try to least examine them to know if they are any good and worth recommending to others. 

How will you make your customers believe in your product when you yourself do not? Put yourself in their place and see if you would be interested in availing one of your product or service.

Use Familiar and Readable Fonts to Improve Website Usability

There are many factors that affect the usability of a web site. To make sites noticeable to users, site owners must make use of attractive design and functional content. The usage of fonts is one of the factors that can draw or veer away visitors to a web site. Good fonts are important because it has an effect on how fast users can read whatever content that is present on the computer screen.

Fonts are utilized to make the majority of the web page elements, such as navigation bars, buttons, links, and menus. It is the text that will express most of the web site’s content.

At present, the fonts that are commonly used in the Internet are Times New Roman, a serif font, and the Arial, a sans serif font. The primary edge of serif fonts is that it is more comfortable to read it on paper, because serifs help individualize each letter. However, this advantage can be rendered useless when the fonts are viewed on computer screens, since factors such as screen resolution can affect the clarity of texts.

So how do fonts influence the overall usability and legibility of a web site?

There are two major categories of font faces:

1, Serif
These are fonts that contain small appendages in the upper and lower part of a letter. Examples are Times New Roman, Century, Bookman and Courier. These are the choice faces to be used for large quantities of text.

2. Sans-serif
These fonts have only primary line strokes, and possess a simpler shape. Examples of these fonts are Futura, Helvetica, and Arial. They are usually utilized for short phrases.

Font style pertains to the usage of elements such as italics, underlining, and boldfaces to give better emphasis to the contents of a page. It is not advised to utilize underlining on web pages, since most of the users are used to associate underlinings with links. Boldfaces should be used in a strategic way. Too much usage of boldfaces can be distracting from the content, since they are extremely visible. Since italics are not very legible on the screen, they should be used infrequently, just enough to provide emphasis and definition to terms.

Avoid using absolute font sizes. Doing so may hinder users the ability to adjust the sizes of the text to go along with the specifics of display devices that they are using. It is recommended to let users manipulate the size of the texts, especially if one plans to keep the web pages short.

Choosing font colors should be done with care, it should maximize the legibility of the text in contrast to the background of the page while setting it apart from colors used for links. For light backgrounds, one should used fonts in black, dark green, dark brown, and dark blue. If the background is dark, fonts in white, pale green, and pale orange should be used. If possible, use only one or two font colors in a page, excluding the colors for the link pages.

There are images that look like fonts. Avoid using them. There are several reasons why one should not utilize .jpg or .gif images to acquire special effects. First, images takes a long time to download, and when it appears, the quality is not the same as the text produced by the by browsers. Second, there usually is a problem when resizing images. Third, these images cannot be recognized by voice-enabled browsers.

It is said that Sans serif fonts should be used for standard and top-of-the-line web site designs, specifically the Arial and the Verdana. It is recommended to use the same font throughout a page, but headline sizes can be added and the subheadings can be written in bold form to prevent monotony. Again, it is preferable to give users the ability to control the size of the texts, since some of the users can be visually-challenged.

Some studies show that fonts that are tinier than 10-point gets slower reaction from users. It is advisable to use fonts that are at least 12 or 14-point in size when it comes to people over the age of 65.

The quality of a well-designed web site is that it can be accessed and used by people from all walks of life. Web sites should be designed to suit everyone who will be able to visit them.

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