I think I am an experienced Internet user when it comes to search issues. But recently I seldom use advanced search engine features to find the information I need. I have an algo of my own that works in my case, but probably is not the best. To find something online I use a combination of:

- search engine (just Google)

- social bookmarking websites

- popular industry forums

- popular industry blogs

That’s it. But now and then I come across other sort of search algorithm that I like (but I do not switch to that one and stick to my good and old way). I think you will find this approach to information search original

Search Strategies

[tags]search, how to search, search strategies, type your search, free search, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

In my case Jakob Nielsen is always authority number one when it comes to web design usability. Certainly, there are other web design sites that publish great stuff on web design.

But when I come across a nice link bait in web design or any other web related area, it is hard to resist the temptation not to share this resource with other Internet users.

Think of the title – it suggests that you will need nothing else but this handy list when you need to apply web design usability guidelines to your web projects or to web sites of your customers.

Technical

· Did you validate your (X)HTML using W3C Markup Validation Service?

· Did you validate your CSS using W3C CSS Validation Service?

· Did you check your website in at least IE, FF, Opera and Safari?

Images

· Did you add the ALT and TITLE attributes to all your important images?

· Did you add the LONGDESC attributes to all your image that need a description?

· Did you write effective ALT text?

· Did you make the size of your pages less then 50KB?

· Did you choose the appropriate filetype for your images?

· Did you add a description to images that support your content?

· Did you use plain text instead of images for important content?

Content

· Did you use a sans-serif typeface with a decent font size for your body text?

· Did you adjusted the leading and tracking, if necessary, to increase readability?

· Did you align your body text to the left? (depends on language)

· Did you use EM or percentages instead of PX?

· Did you make sure that there are no whole sentences in uppercase?

· Did you use less then 78 characters, including spaces, per line?

· Did you make brief and precise paragraphs with explanatory titles?

· Did you use lists to sum things up?

· Did you write your conclusion first and then your explanation?

· Did you create enough contrast between the text and the background?

· Did you make your website also accessible for text-only browsers?

· Did you make sure that there are no ‘under construction’ pages?

· Did you include a print function on pages with a large amount of text?

· Did you include a print stylesheet?

· Did you replace all special characters with the ISO Latin-1 codes?

· Did you spell check your content and did you proofread for grammar errors??

Navigation

· Did you make sure that all your links work? W3C Link checker does the job.

· Did you include a link to all your main pages on your homepage?

· Did you include your main navigation on every page?

· Did you use no more then 8 items in your main navigation?

· Did you distinguish the active and nonactive page in the menu?

· Did you use self explanatory link text instead of ‘click here’?

· Did you use self explanatory link text instead of business terms?

· Did you make a distinction between visited and non-visited links?

· Did you make a distinction between links and plain text?

· Did you add the TITLE attribute to all your links?

· Did you use breadcrumbs if you have a large amount of pages?

· Did you include a search option if you have a large amount of pages?

· Did you make your logo link to your homepage?

· Did you make a skip to content link at the top of your pages?

· Did you make a skip to menu link at the top of your pages?

· Did you make it possible to browse your website using SHIFT-TAB and RETURN?

· Did you make sure you didn’t use any javascript links?

Structure

· Did you make a consistent page structure?

· Did you place your logo at the top left?

· Did you place an explanatory tag line next to your logo?

· Did you place your search box at the top right?

· Did you place important content above the fold/scroll?

· Did you make your design on a grid system?

· Did you make your design fluid using percentages?

· Did you make your website also viewable on low resolutions?

· Did you make custom titles (as in TITLE tag) for all your pages?

Forms

· Did you make sure that users don’t return to an altered form after an error?

· Did you make a friendly and informative error page?

· Did you make a friendly ‘thank you’ page with a confirmation email?

· Did you add only a ’submit’ button and no ‘reset’ button?

· Did you tell the user what to expect after clicking the submit button?

· Did you split long forms up into multiply pages?

· Did you gave the user room to type?

· Did you place an asterisk when a field is compulsatory?

· Did you keep the standard look of input fields that is generated by the browser?

· Did you create a logical order of asking information?

· Did you use double input fields for passwords only?

· Did you let the computer, not the user, handle information formatting?

· Did you make sure that users can fill in the entire form using the TAB key?

· Did you explain to the user why you ask certain information?

· Did you explain to the user what you are going to do with that information?

· Did you use realtime validation using AJAX?

· Did you use the LABEL tag?

· Did you place the LABEL above the input field, instead of next to it?

· Did you choose the correct input type for different data?

· Did you make the top input field automatically active using setfocus?

· Did you destinguish the active field from non-active fields using input:focus?

· Did you use the FIELDSET and LEGEND entities when appropriate?

· Did you check if your forms also work with Javascript turned off?

Multimedia

· Did you make sure that essential information/navigation is not made in Flash?

· Did you make sure that music and videoclips don’t start playing automatically?

· Did you make sure that music and videoclips can be turned off at any time?

· Did you inform the user about the size and length of your music and videoclips?

Extra features

· Did you make a custom 404 page?

· Did you make a site map?

· Did you make a rss feed? (if you add content regularly)

· Did you make a high contrast version of your website?

· Did you make good looking URL’s (like this one)?

· Did you make sure that there are no frames on your website?

· Did you make sure that there are no pop ups on your website?

· Did you make a contact form instead of just an email link?

Summary: I am sure the list is helpful. I have tested it with one of my web sites and think it is really practical. And ultimate.

[tags]web design, web usability, usability, designs, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

Short and memorable domains are not available for years. They were picked up back in the 90’s. Yes, you can buy a nice domain name at a secondary market. But the starting bid is about 1 million dollars. If you have the funds and are ready to spend this amount of money then there are nice domain names available for you.

Stil there are much more cheaper services in this field .You will be able to register domain name without problems.
Successful domain name businessmen are not numerous. Those names that you can find mentioned in the Internet also started their domain empires back in the 90’s.

It was my opinion that an average online entrepreneur has only two opportunities to enter the domain name market:

- buy brand new domains. Choose whatever you like… from those names that are not taken yet.
- buy expired domains. Probably, not with nice and memorable names, but with some links, expired traffic, and a high probability not to be sandboxed. I have discussed the issue of expired domain names before.

But a recent discussion of a domain name market made me change my opinion. I am not sure if it works – it is on my list of techniques to test, but the webmasters who joined the thread state that there is still some room on the domain name market and it makes sense to search for domains that will provide you with type-in traffic (type-in traffic is a term describing visitors landing at a web site by entering a word or phrase in the web browser’s address bar rather than following a hyperlink from another web page, using a browser bookmark, or a search-box search.).

Your task is:

- to carry out a proper keyword research. You should target two keyword expressions
- to register those domains in your name if they are available
- to park them with any of the leaders of the market (Sedo, DomainSponsor, Fabulous)
- or: develop simple websites with the links to products coming from the companies you are affiliated with
- to get your share of advertising revenue
- to start from the beginning and get more domain names with type-in traffic.

When you are ready to buy a few domain names check for the best deals where to buy domain names.

Summary: I am sure you will not make a fortune if you by 10, 20 or even 100 domain names. I do not expect a domain name of two keywords will generate hundred of dollars in revenue monthly. But if these domain names pay for themselves within a month then the idea is definitely worth your time and effort – it is a fact that there is no easy money online.

You need to repeat you keyword research once you find a working recipe and use some atumatic service to manage your multiple domains in bulk.
[tags]domain names, expired domains, hell.com, domains, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]