The World Articles

Even though more and more Internet users switch to broadband every year, a large portion of the web's population is still running on good old dialup connections. It is therefore unwise to count them out of the equation when you're designing your website, and a very major consideration we have to make for dialup users is the loading time of your website. Generally, all the text on your website will be loaded in a very short time even on a dialup connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is mainly large images on your website, and it is very important to strike a delicate balance between using just enough images to attract your users and not to bog down the overall loading time of your site. You should also go to a greater length and optimize every image on your site to make sure it loads in the least time possible. What I really mean is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary information on your images, and thereby effectively reducing the file size of your i...

Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macromedia compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here's a simple breakdown. The good: Interactivity Flash's Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more. A standardized site With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player inst...

Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes. The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neigh hours. To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you're done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognisation. While that may be good in the sense that you're creating a unique graphic, you're defying t...

Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, but have you ever thought that you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced but don't know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome. First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site. Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a cheque. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired paym...

A mailing list is the lifeblood of your online business. The old adage "the money is in the list" cannot be true enough -- if you had a targeted list of prospects to contact each time you have a new product, you will be able to save a lot of effort by marketing it to your existing list of targeted prospects. You can actually build up a targeted list of prospects that are interested in your products by offering a relevant download on your website. For example, let's take a look at a very good example -- apple.com. When you download the free iTunes and Quicktime software from their site, they will ask you to fill in an optional name and email form so that they can send you offers on songs that you can purchase via -- guess where -- iTunes! In reality, you do not need to offer such a "heavyweight" download such as a full-feature software like iTunes.  You can attract prospects equally well with some quality freebies such as a simple report, a free wallpaper, an...

No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally. The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text. Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle...

A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one. By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs. 1) Navigation purposes A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease. 2) Conveying your site's theme When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors' time. 3) Site optimization purposes When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links ...

Normally, if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars. All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here's a rough guide: First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design websites for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages, advertising costs and so on. Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it...

Your website is where your business resides -- it's like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practise good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible. Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion. Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size. Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors...

For anything to work well, care must be taken to make firm, workable plans to execute it and the same goes for website designs. With a well thought out website design, you will be able to create a site that generates multiple streams of revenue for you. In fact, may websites turn into online wasteland because they are not well planned and do not get a single visitor. Gradually, the webmaster will not be motivated to update it anymore and it turns into wasted cyberspace. The crucial point of planning your site is optimizing it for revenue if you want to gain any income from the site. Divide your site into major blocks, ordered by themes, and start building new pages and subsections in those blocks. For example, you might have a "food" section, an "accomodation" section and an "entertainment" section for a tourism site. You can then write and publish relevant articles in the respective sections to attract a stream of traffic that comes looking for furthe...

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods: 1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day. 2) Start a web log (blog) Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequ...

Antigua and Barbuda is an country found in the Caribbean Sea and located in the middle of the Leeward Islands. These islands are perfect for vacationing in a warm, tropical paradise and are near to other great island chains, such as Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Anguilla. Because of Antiqua and Barbuda’s proximity to the equator, the weather here is warm all year round, and tourists love the seasonal sun. The country of Antiqua and Barbuda is made up of a number of small islands close to one another with the island of Antique being the largest and most populated. The island of Barbuda is slightly north of Antiqua and is also relatively large compared to the other islands in the chain. Redonda, a small island with large phosphate reserves, is also part of Antiqua and Barbuda. Most of the islands here are either privately owned or uninhabited government property. Large towns in this country include St. Johns on Antiqua and Codrington on Barbuda. Antiqua and Barbuda us...

Like any other vacation, Caribbean travel can be fun or stressful depending on how well you pack. When you are going overseas, it is a good idea to learn about all of the things you’ll need and to plan you clothing and personal belonging carefully. Packing well can make your trip extra special and less hassled. First, pack all of the important things you need in a place that is secure, yet accessible. If you are traveling with your family, have all of these things in the same place to prevent confusions. Important documents to keep on hand include airplane tickets, passports, IDs, boarding passes, copies of prescriptions, and other things you could need quickly to help your time in the airport go smoothly. You should carefully plan out what to pack in your carry on. All airports have special rules as to what can and cannot be take. These rules change frequently, so your best bet is to call the airline about a week before your flight to be sure you are up to date on the rules. You c...

The Caribbean islands are beautiful treasures for you to visit, with this region in the world being one of the most popular tourist sports. Trinidad and Tobago and just two islands you can visit while your Caribbean vacation. Its’ own nation, Trinidad and Tobago has between one and two million year-round inhabitants and welcomes people from all nations. Both of the islands are great to visit. Trinidad is located very close to the coast of Venezuela. It is the large of the two islands, and most agree that it is also the more exciting of the two islands. The exciting nightlife you find on Trinidad rivals nightlife found anywhere else in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico’s San Juan. Tobago, on the other hand, is the serene and secluded tropical getaway. You can reach Trinidad in only 15 minutes by air or two hours by sea, and the pink sand beaches are perfect for rest and relaxation. Like many of the other islands in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago celebrate Carnival, which is...

The fastest way to ruin a beautiful paradise vacation is to find out that the weather forecast is calling for rain in the Caribbean during your entire stay. There’s not much you can do to change the weather, but there are a few things you can take into consideration when planning a Caribbean vacation. Hopefully these tips will help you enjoy beautiful sunny weather during most of your stay. Obviously, the Caribbean is often hit hard by hurricanes. Therefore, your first and foremost plan is to not book a Caribbean vacation during hurricane season. Hurricanes and tropical storms can occur during various times in the year, but most fall during the official hurricane season, which runs from June to November. Most of the storms happen specifically between August and October, with September being an especially volatile time. Try heading to the Caribbean during a different time of the year. However, if you must plan your trip during hurricane season, try visiting islands that usually do...

If you are thinking about traveling to the Caribbean, St. Lucia might be the perfect place for you to visit. This sunny island nation is located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, between Saint Vincent and Martinique. It is known as the “Helen of the West Indies,” making reference to Helen of Troy because this treasured paradise switched hands between the United Kingdom and France many times. However, in 1979, Saint Lucia gained her independence and remains independent today. Saint Lucia was formed by a volcano, so it is more mountainous than most other islands in the Caribbean. There are eleven districts which you get visit while there: Anse la Raye, Castries (where the capital city of the same name is found), Gros Islet, Dennery, Micoud, Vieux Fort, Laborie, Choiseul, Soufriere, Canaries, and Forest. Just looking at these names, you can see the strong French and English influences in this country. While traveling around St. Lucia, you will experience a tropical climate, with plenty of ...

If there is one equipment you should not miss in your training, it is the stability ball. The market comes up with new training tools every now and then. Yet you are not sure if they do work and if they are safe. So for one that is guaranteed to work, use the stability ball. What Is a Stability Ball? This is a large and inflatable ball used as an exercise equipment. Despite being air-filled, it is generally heavy-duty and capable to hold 600 to 700 pounds of weight. It is comfortable and gives good support. It perfectly suits the trainee as it easily goes with the structure of the body. This exercise tool is also sometimes called as the physioball or the Swiss Ball. The good thing about using the stability ball is it reduces the perception of ‘working’ in training, especially for beginners. It gives some element of ‘play’ as you get rough with the training. It adds some fun and excitement as you advance in the movements and techniques. Another good point with the ball is that it can...

Soy protein is emerging as one of the great alternative protein sources for human consumption. Health experts are all excited about how soy protein can change the face of nutrition. What’s all the rage? Here are some great reasons to get with soy protein. Soy Protein is Plant Protein Soy beans contain complete protein and have one of the best protein digestibilities among all protein sources. Soy beans also contain little or no fat and have virtually no cholesterol. Lactose intolerant ones will be pleased to know that soy beans contain no lactose. Being a plant protein, soy is free from steroids and antibiotics animal protein contains. It is also free from the parasites that contaminate some of these products. They also contain none of the diseases one can contract from mean sources such as Mad Cow Disease, and Foot and Mouth Disease. Vegetarians love this bean as it provides a comparable – if not better – source of protein as compared to its animal counterpart. It provides a protei...

When the words oils and fats are mentioned, health-conscious individuals tend to run for cover. What they fail to realize is that there are good fats and bad fats. Complete avoidance of intake of oils and fats would actually be detrimental – rather than beneficial – to their health. The Truth about Fish Oil Essential fatty acids must always be part of our daily diet – without them, we take one step closer to our deaths. Essential fatty acids are divided into two families: omega-6 EFAs and omega-3 EFAS. Although there are only very slight differences to distinguish the two groups of essential fatty acids from each other, studies have revealed that too much intake of omega-6 EFAs can lead to inflammation, blood clotting and tumor growth. The good news, however, is that the opposite is true for omega-3 EFAs. Omega-6 EFAs can be found in vegetable oils while omega-3 EFAs can be found in fish oils among other foods. Omega-6 vs. Omega-3 Physicians and scientists are of the same opinion th...

In a long-term study of the health of the people of in the United States, the U.S. Public Health Service documented the chances of developing heart disease among various groups in the population. Long before the any symptoms appeared, epidemiological research could identify high-risk groups. Among the highest risk factors are male sex, age over 35, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high levels of certain blood fats, and a family history of cardiovascular disorders. Other researchers have added to this list another risk factor: the compulsive, hard-driving, highly anxious personality. The greater the number of severity, the greater the person’s overall risk. These threats to the heart can be divided into two main categories: those beyond individual control, such as age, sex, and heredity, and those that can be controlled, avoided, or even eliminated. Among those in the second category are what cardiologists call “the triple threat.” These are the high blood pressure, cigarette ...

Celebrities always look fabulous. Whether appearing in television or films or strutting down the red carpet during movie premiers and awards, they never cease to fascinate us with their larger than life presence. The truth is, it takes a lot of effort to look the way they do, and being the public figures that they are, they cannot afford to slack off when it comes to taking care of their physical appearances. Their livelihood largely depends on how they look. Aside from the clothes, the hair and the makeup, celebrities have to take good care of their bodies. So it is no surprise that these stars have their own secrets when it comes to staying fit and gorgeous. Their health agenda can range from extreme workouts to well-planned meals. Who doesn't want to know their secrets in staying absolutely sexy? Here are some of the diet secrets of seven women celebrities. 1. Jennifer Aniston The star of the phenomenal television show Friends not only mesmerized audiences with her adorable c...

Yes, you read that correctly: ten years. eBay was created in September 1995, by a man called Pierre Omidyar, who was living in San Jose. He wanted his site - then called 'AuctionWeb' - to be an online marketplace, and wrote the first code for it in one weekend. It was one of the first websites of its kind in the world. The name 'eBay' comes from the domain Omidyar used for his site. His company's name was Echo Bay, and the 'eBay AuctionWeb' was originally just one part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, which he got $14 for. The site quickly became massively popular, as sellers came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to work remarkably well, and meant that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale, and it was this money that Omidyar use...

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well. 1) Do not use splash pages Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page. 2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead ...

The major complaint of those who use the Atkins diet is the intestinal problems that are associated with reducing carbohydrates. These problems can include constipation and diarrhea. These symptoms can happen to anybody at some point, but those who follow a low-carb diet are especially prone. Most commonly dieters will experience diarrhea during the early days of induction. This is a result of the body getting rid of excess carbohydrates. It also marks the beginning of the ketosis process. So in actuality, experiencing diarrhea at the beginning of the diet is a good thing. It indicates that you are on the road to becoming a fat burning machine. Constipation is a side effect of lack of fiber in the low carb diet. Whole grains, legumes and fruit are the normal sources of dietary fiber, and they are all restricted on the Atkins diet’s initial phases. However, you shouldn’t be scared off from the low-carb way of life because of these issues. There are simple solutions that can prevent an...

One of the most common, and surprising, effects of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression. Many followers of the plan report that the between meal hunger pangs they used to experience fade away very quickly. This makes it easier to stay on the diet and continue to lose weight. While other diets have their followers starving between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific combination of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing effects. The first key component is the amount of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, more so than carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger. If you’ve ever eaten a carb heavy meal and then felt hungry afterward, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power. Protein, when combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for long periods of time. One of the most powerful appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet are eggs. Eggs ar...

  1. Update the pages on your website f requently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated. 2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product. 3. You can allow customers to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons. 4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’. 5. Add a link ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it. 6. Brand your website so that visitors alw...