Unless you own your web server and have coded the scripts of your website you’ll have little trouble finding the cause of errors your site may encounter. But for the rest of those who rely on external services, dealing with errors may be a major headache.

Many bloggers are ill prepared when it comes to the malfunctioning of their weblogs. Some become so defeated that they abandon their site; others get so overwhelmed they don’t seek help; still others do their own unscrupulous tinkering causing much further damage.

In the advent of any errors experienced by our site, it is imperative that we take the appropriate approach in addressing the problem.

Keep Track of Your Settings

First and foremost, it is wise to have a journal of your website. By this I mean records of everything within your site. You must have a detailed account of the general settings, the plugins or ad-ons installed, the contents, and any major activities you have performed on your site. You will need this information should an error occur and it will be very helpful should you seek the assistance of support services.

So if you haven’t developed any journal yet, start one now, this will save you a great deal. Also, make sure you regularly backup your sites most important files. In this way you will always have something to go back to. Believe me, this is a life saver.

If You Face A Major Error, Contact Your Hosting Company

Should an unexpected activity suddenly manifest on your site—i.e., site does not load, display is jumbled, http error codes, site hacked (God forbid!)—you must always remember not to panic. The immediate thing you need to do is to ask for assistance. Your server provider’s support services will play a vital role in troubleshooting your sites problem. The fastest assistance can be gained thru chat with the server’s technicians and trouble-shooters.

Keep in mind though that assistance personnel may vary in their technical knowledge. If the personnel whom you’ve addressed your problem cannot solve your concern try another one, believe me you will find one who is more knowledgeable that can help you. Oftentimes, this method is more than enough to relinquish your problem.

Still, support personnel have limitations in that they their assistance can only cover server configuration related problems. More often than not, they cannot help if the problem lies within your web platform. If certain errors are outside of your web servers configuration, then you have to check any alterations you have made on your web publishing application. If you are using WordPress it is imperative to familiarize your self with its codex.

Most of the errors we experience from our website spawn from the alterations we introduce by means of messing with the source code or the introduction of applications like plugins or add-ons. Every time you make changes to the code, be sure to journal where you’ve made the changes and save a copy of the original source code; in case an error when you alter the source code, you can restore it back by restoring the original.

Plugins also cause some errors on our site. Since we are not familiar with it’s coding and behavior, it may pose a conflict with other add-ons or the publishing application itself. In this case, having a backup of your system is extremely important. But before deciding to restore your back-up, consider tinkering first with the plugins. Assuming that you have a journal of the activities you made with your site, you will be able to pinpoint, where the problem has started. It could be a plugin you have installed recently that caused your web error. Of course, the viable solution is to disable it. In the past I have had problems with upgrading my WordPress automatically; even the support personnel of my server provider can’t give any solution. What I did was I disabled all my plugins before I upgraded, and this methods works without any hustle. Have I not tinkered a bit, I would have not find a solution. Remember to consider some calculated tinkering; this may give you some hint about the problem.

Having errors popped out of our website is indeed depressing, but instead of wallowing in frustration we should focus our energies in finding solutions. The above-stated methods I have tried and tested during those periods when errors continuously bugged my website. I’m so happy to have learned from this experience. And now I share it with you.

With more and more people using the internet for a wide variety of reasons, many businesses these days are carried solely using the online mode. But recent research has shown that over 90% of these online businesses do not make any profit. Even after spending a lot of money on advertisements, promotions etc, these companies seem to falter. The reason is ineffective copywriting. Copywriters are generally employed by companies to provide textual depth to an offering and more importantly, help the company in selling that particular product or service. However, ineffective copywriting can mar your prospects of impressing a potential customer, which in turn won’t result in the lead being converted into sales. Remember – almost all successful online businesses thrive on effective copywriting, which is why you need to know about some skills that are required to become a successful copywriter.

The first thing is to write in a crisp and concise manner, where you go into elaborating facts only to a certain extent. Going into too much of details might result in confusing readers and might even bore them. Jargon should be avoided as much as possible and sentences should be short and simple to understand. Long sentences with a lot of jargon words tend to test the readers’ patience. You should also put in adequate research to create an article or web copy that’s both unique and precise.

Though many copywriters often use a lot of keywords into their copy – all in their enthusiasm to match the SEO standards, you should learn to focus more on your human readers. Focusing on the search engine spiders alone or keyword stuffing in your write up will not help. The key is to use a balance blend of targeted keywords without tampering with the natural flow of your copy.

Another important aspect of online copywriting is focusing on the readers. The readers play a pivotal role in making an article a hit or a flop, indirectly affecting the fortunes of the company. Thus, articles must always be written in accordance with what the readers want to read. Before writing, you should identify the target audience so that you get a better idea of what words to use, etc. Humility and sincerity must always be maintained in writing an article, because these are the two qualities that appeal to a reader the most. You should put some effort into your written words to turn them into something believable. Copywriters, through their articles, should actually try to ‘talk’ to the readers. The web copy should also have a “call to action” for the readers where they are encouraged to take the desired action, be it clicking on a special offer or signing for the newsletter etc.

To write an effective web copy or article, you should have a good knowledge on a wide range of subjects. So, wannabe copywriters should read a lot. Exposure to various forms and styles of writing can help a writer create a new approach to writing, which results in an unmatched freshness that is showcased in every web copy. Even when you have gathered some experience as a copywriter, you shouldn’t neglect to invest time for reading and knowing more about the various tools and developments that are happening in your sphere of work. Having an updated knowledge of the latest developments, styles of writing and tools that can make your copy better and more effective will always serve as an ace up your sleeves.

Last but not the least, always proof-read your copy before submitting it so that typos, grammatical and spelling errors are done away with. Remember that if your readers find your copy to fall short of their desired standards where lots of mistakes – grammatical or otherwise are there, they are likely to leave it mid-way. So, show some respect for your readers by turning a good and interesting web copy.

Web design is the art of creating an aesthetically appealing design to represent your content on the World Wide Web. It is the integral part of a website and involves imbibing text and stimulating images, and presenting them in HTML or XML. The inclusion of graphics adds greater dimension to the look and helps support the message.

A properly planned and drafted checklist has got benefits which are manifolds, the primary one being the ability to attract web traffic and make the most of every dollar spent on creating your website. A checklist works like a ready reckoned, which the team members involved in creating the web design can always refer to, in case of any doubt. Be it the content, standards, or the more important aspect of accessibility, it pays to have a clear idea of what you want and how to go about it. When you are at the final stages of giving the shape to your project, there is no room for errors. Remember – web designing is not child’s play. Rather, it calls for people with expertise in the same field. Engaging novices could make things more complicated and time consuming. So, before you begin work on designing your website, take a look at the checklist that would serve you well:

Make it Cost-Effective: People involved with the designing process generally charge on the number of hours that were put into the work. This increases each time you ask the professionals to make amendments to their previous work. Thus, the escalation in costs can be kept at bay if you have a clear idea of what your requirements are. In case you are going to design the site yourself, you can save precious time by having clarity about your objectives.

Highlights of Your Wish-list: It will be prudent to have a clear idea about the sections of your website where the users are likely to spend most of their time. This will help you or the professional web designers hired by you to make the design eye-catching in these specific areas, and help steer clear of any experimental mood.

Well Defined Objectives: Having a good know-how at the outset about the objectives that the web design is expected to achieve gives a clear idea of what kind of web design the site should have. So, have a blue-print of your desired objectives before beginning work on the site’s web design.

Know About CUAV: Basically, any good web design covers four crucial angles namely content, usability, appearance and visibility. By taking proper care of these factors, you will easily win half the battle for your website.

Browser Compatibility: The compatibility with commonly used browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari should be adhered to with due diligence while creating the web design.

So, use the checklist as mentioned above to get that dream web design for your site and reap the benefits of it.

For a long time, Mozilla Firefox has been the go-to browser for web developers.  With the Web Developer Toolbar and the Firebug extension, Firefox was an essential part of the web developer’s toolbox.  But if you look in the rear-view mirror, you’ll see Google Chrome racing fast and in some areas blowing past Firefox.  Why do I think web developers should use Chrome as their go-to browser?  Let me explain.

Developers who use Firefox have found that Firebug was their shining light, it brought a solid debugging console, HTML and CSS manipulation, and JavaScript profiling to name a few things.  The team behind the WebKit foundation (upon which Chrome is built), have been working on a set of tools called the Web Inspector.  And with the release of Chrome 4, the Web Inspector has been labeled “Developer Tools”.

To get to the Developer Tools in Chrome:

Windows & Linux users: Select the Page Icon -> Developer -> Developer Tools
Mac users: Select View -> Developer -> Developer Tools

JavaScript Console

If you have never worked with Firebug or a Web Inspector console before, then you are missing a great way to debug JavaScript.  The console serves several functions:

1. to capture errors and display them in a useful format
2. allows the testing of short bits of JavaScript
3. easy to log useful information like variable values

But the best part about using a JavaScript console like this one in Chrome is that it allows you to constantly evaluate the performance of a program and to make sure that variables are being calculated correctly.

Elements Panel

I love the ability to quickly view the HTML and CSS styling information of any particular element on a webpage.  This Element panel gives a nicely formatted collapsible-tree-structure view of the DOM (Document Object Model), and easily allows for drilling down to the exact element you are looking for.  Plus, when you are using Chrome, you can access this type of information by simply right-clicking on an item on the page and selecting “Inspect Element”.  No need to open up the Developer Tools, it will automatically pop up the Elements panel to the exact location you selected.  You can also modify and add styles, edit html and more from within this panel.

Resources

This is a really cool feature that Chrome provides for web developers.  In a nutshell, the Resources tab provides a quick look at all the information that is being passed between your browser and the server.  It covers everything from images to JavaScript to the actual file itself.  It displays everything in an easy to read chart that highlights things like:

• a graph of how much time it takes to download each component on the page
• a graph that shows the size of each component on the page
• allows you to sort by file type (document, css, images, etc)
• provides image previews with dimensions, size, MIME type
• XML HTTP Request information
• Request and Response Headers

This can be a lifesaver when you are trying to improve the speed of the page.  It can help you identify the resource and performance hogs on your page.

Taking full advantage of the Developer Tools inside Google Chrome can bring many benefits to your development process, but the best benefit is that a streamlined and well coded site (all of which Chrome’s Developer Tools can help with) will provide a better experience for your users.

Anything that can make writing easier is a blessing, but many writers often approach it by the seat of their pants. There’s nothing wrong with that. Adding some structure to the writing process can make the work move along more smoothly though.

Many writers, who use structure, follow certain steps when planning or preparing to write:

1. Determine your audience or purpose.

2. Research: Gather facts and information.

3. Organize the information.

4. Write the first draft.

5. Revise and edit.

The first step; determining your audience and/or purpose can be difficult. The purpose for the material you want to write may be clearly defined but how you present this material or your arguments could be a bit trickier; especially if your message is intended to persuade instead of to inform.

To help define your purpose, ask yourself several questions:

Do you intend to analyze something or break it down into parts?

Do you intend to define something and give it a clearer understanding?

Do you intend to evaluate or explain something?

Do you want to focus on comparisons or contrasts?

Knowing the answers to these questions and others like them will help you when it comes time to research.

Research can lead to a bombardment of information. Knowing what you need to search for can prevent you from feeling overwhelmed and make research easier by looking for specific details and information.

Whenever possible, always verify your information with more than one source.

After you’ve gathered the information you want to present, it’s time to organize it. A simple outline will suffice.

Once you’ve created the outline it’s time to get down to the business of writing. Don’t get too caught up in the details at this point; this is merely a first draft. You can correct errors in punctuation, spelling, etc. when you revise and edit the material.

At this point, if you’re not on a tight deadline, it’s good to let the first draft sit for a day or two. When you come back to it for revisions and edits you’ll have a fresh start and catch more mistakes than if you write and revise the same day.

This is the simple version of using a writing process. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with writing by the seat of your pants, but using a process and being organized in your writing will help you accomplish more.

Here are some methods to increase traffic to your blog or website. Some of these techniques will help increase sales as well as hits.
1. Have Your Own Domain – If you use WordPress or blogger, try to avoid using sub-domains or free hosting services. Pay for some web hosting and get your own unique domain name. This will make your website more memorable and encourage visitors to return.
2. Create a Professional and Unique Design with Logo – Code your own template or modify an existing theme for your site or blog. What makes your blog so special if it looks the same as 1000 others on the Internet? Make sure you have a great memorable logo so when people see it; they know it’s your websites. Your design should be clean and simple so it’s easy to navigate. Once you have made it, test it and check everything works, a site with errors will lose visitors.
3. Content is King – You need to consistently write great content on your blog or website. The posts that you make need to be worth reading and have some impact on the visitor. If I am visiting your website for the first time, I want to be impressed and bookmark your website so I return to see what else you compose.
4. Post Linking – When a link is made to your blog from another blog, if activated, it places a link in that blogs comments back to the relevant post. This will help increase back links to your blog and therefore increase traffic.
5. Personality – Do not pretend to be someone you are not as a blogger. Be yourself and do not act otherwise. This is best because your readers want someone to connect with, someone who is a real person and not just a blog with no face.
6. Always Room for Improvement – Always strive to improve your blog or site any way you can. Play around with ad placement, colours and graphics and other features to make your blog more appealing. Ask for reviews to find area’s for improvement.
7. Reply to Your Readers – This means replying to comments and any e-mails that you receive. This is part of your personality and showing that you are a real person who exists and cares about the topic you are blogging about.
8. Real Posts – Ensure that you sound human in your posts. Do not post in the third person. Use words such as “I” and talk about your personal experiences.
9. A Picture – A picture paints a thousand words so why not show your readers who is writing the blog. Upload an image of yourself onto your about page, or if you are not quite comfortable to do that then have a cartoon of yourself made.
10. Comment on Other Blogs – This is a very powerful technique, I know I find myself clicking the link to a person’s website after I have read their comment and this is what you can achieve by leaving your comment on as many other blogs as possible. Blogs that are about the same topic will help you get targeted traffic. Ensure your comment is worth reading and not just a load of rubbish.
11. Question Your Readers – Ask your readers questions in posts, this will help to provoke a response from them. You give them an important role to play and they respond by commenting their opinion. This will encourage repeat visitors to respond to your posts with their opinions.
12. Internal Linking – Linking to previous posts that you have made will create more back links and also encourage readers to re-read or look at some of your older work. Readers of a particular post will be interested in related posts so ensure you link to them.
13. Alternate Text Images – When you use images on your site, ensure that you use alternate text “alt” tags to insert keywords or the name of the image. This will help get the images listed on image search engines and result in traffic from that source.
14. Submit to Directories – Submit your site to online directories. Do this to as many as you can to improve your PageRank. This increased back links to your website and there for you receive higher rankings on search engines. Quality back links are important so try and obtain some from high Page Ranking sites that have similar content to your websites.
15. Image Use – Try to use images when posting on your blog. These make posts more fun to look at and can break up boring text.
16. Join Forums – Join many forums and message boards that are related to your websites content. Place a link back to your website in your profile and signature and frequently post useful information to other members.
17. Keyword Rich Content – When writing articles or posts on your site or blog, ensure you include relevant keywords so that people searching for the topic will have an easier time finding your article.
18. Write Intriguing Post Titles – Ensure that you write intriguing post titles that have keywords in. This is what is going to show up on search engines so ensure your spelling is right and that you would want to click it.
19. Meta Data – Get as much use out of Meta data as you can. Try to have a different page description and keywords on every page of your website.
20. Write a Press Release – Write a press release about something to do with your website and publish this on news sites or press release websites along with sites that are relevant to your niche.
21. Merchandise – Create pens, pencils, t-shirts, mouse mats etc that have your websites logo and address on. Maybe sell the t-shirts from your website however give you the free pens in your local area.
22. Advertise Locally – Place an advert in your local business newsletter or in a local shop. List what the purpose of your website is and hopefully you will receive some interest. Local traffic can really help especially if you are selling something. Visitors will be much more inclined to purchase from someone locally than from the other site of the world.
23. Share a Secret – It is likely that your website will be based on something you have an interest in, so why not share some inside knowledge that many of your readers may not know. Let them know something that has helped you and only you in the past. Curiosity is a marvellous thing.
24. Advert Experiments – Naturally most will want to make some money from their website and therefore adverts will be on there. Try and experiment with your adverts placement to see which gets better results. Do not overload your website with adverts because this will deter visitors. Maybe implement a membership system that removes 50% of adverts when logged in.
25. Social Bookmark Posts Plugin – If you have a blog then get a plugin for your posts that allows your readers to click a button and this will then bookmark your site on digg, stumbleupon, reddit etc. 
26. Ask for Diggs – There is no harm is asking your readers to Digg posts that you have written. This will help increase the number of dig users visiting your website.
27. Ask for Comments – Ask your visitors in your posts to post their comments about the post. If you are not getting as many comments as you would like then anything is worth a try. 
28. Ask for Subscriptions – While asking for comments you may was well ask for other things such as subscriptions to your RSS feed. Ensure there is a big button that can be clicked that allows subscriptions to be made simple and stress free.
29. E-mail Subscription – Allows users to sign up by e-mail so that your blog posts are delivered to their e-mail address. This will ensure visitors do not miss any of your posts.

30. MyBlogLog – This is a great service that shows an image of your visitors on your website if they are registered. There are similar blog social networking sites that can also be used for this.
31. Post Rating – Enable a plug-in on your blog that allows visitors to rate your posts. This is a simple way that does not require registration to enable readers to report on how good a post is.
32. FeedBurner – Using a service such as Feed Burner allows you to monitor the number of subscribers you have. Many readers will be interested to see how many other users are reading your blog and are subscribed to it. Use their publicize services to show the number of readers.
33. Commenting – Try enabling and disabling the “must be registered to comment” feature to see which yields more results. You should find that without registration, more comments will come through; however this does mean that you should implement some spam protection feature.
34. Online Homepages – Many people use Google for example and have iGoogle activated. This is why you should have an RSS plug-in that allows users to click and it adds to feed to such services.
35. Write a List Post or Article – Writing a bulleted list can sometimes be easier on the reader and writer if you have lots on information to roll off in one post. This is a list post and makes for easy reading.
36. Article Marketing – Write an article and post it on sites such as article beech or ezine articles. Ensure you include a link back to your site in the article. Make sure the article is great so that people will want to read more of your work.
37. Autopinger – use sites such as autopinger.com to submit your blog to lots of websites.
38. Submit Site to Search Engines – Manually submit your site to the major search engines on the web and also use auto submitter websites for lesser known search engines. Organic search engine traffic is great and will increase your ad revenue.
39. DMOZ – Submit your website to dmoz.org. if you manage to get listed this will really help your traffic stats.
40. Site Contests – Offer a prize to the 1000th subscriber or commenter to encourage whatever activity you want. The prize could simply be a text link on your website, however the more appealing the better.
41. Banner Exchanges – You could try a banner exchange service however you may not be able to choose what type of banner is placed on your site. Try and contact other bloggers with similar content and ask for a link exchange.
42. Site Load Time – Check how long it takes your website to load and increase the speed if necessary. This is important to ensure visitors are not leaving before the site has fully loaded. Try to use smaller images or multimedia if your site is slow.
43. YouTube – Create a YouTube account and add you link in your profile so that you might get traffic from people who view any videos that you upload. Make videos relating to your website content so any traffic is targeted.
44. About Us – Get your site listed at Wiki – about Us Wiki Page, this is another way to increase back links. On the site you can put information about your website.
45. Tags – Tagging your posts or articles on your website is a great way of entering keywords to help search engines. Make the most of these where you can.
46. Categories – If you have a blog then use blog categories with meaningful names that use keywords so that these show up in the websites URL and on SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages)
47. Permalink – Check to see if this features is enabled. If its not then enable it and have the post title in the URL.
48. Holidays – These are great for marketing so ensure that you are ready. Start making posts and site content about Christmas / Easter or whatever about a month before the event. This gives search engines chance to list your posts. Then when people search for Christmas XXXXXX your site will be there. – Maybe decorate your site to suit the holiday theme.
49. Interviews – Interview other sites and post the interview on your website. Alternatively get interviewed by other sites yourself.
50. Selling your site? – Pretend to sell your website. I sold a site recently and the traffic shot up. If you can list your site free then you have nothing to lose apart from responding to offers. However the chances of any of the traffic you received returning is slim. You may benefit from padding out your MyBlogLog section.
51. Surveys – Have a survey or poll on your website, not large, just a small one in the sidebar somewhere that allows visitors to vote on a controversial question or something that will change on your website depending on a vote.
52. Blog Networks – Create a blog network where you can link all your blogs together. This will take up a lot of your time, however if you have it spare the more the better providing the content is unique and remains at a high standard.
53. Create a Site Template or Blog Theme – As the title states, create a theme and have a link back to your website in the footer. 
54. Plugins / scripts – If you have the knowhow, create a plug-in or script for a website and have a link back to your website.
55. Comedy Writing – If you can write funny content, this will attract lots of readers. I know I have returned to a blog in the past due to its humour.
56. Social Networking Site – Use social networking websites such as MySpace, gain lots of friends and then post a bulletin about your website.
57. Reviewing – If you are honest and able to post great reviews then review sites and products and post about them on your website. If this is successful then other sites will want to be reviewed by you.
58. Get Reviews – Go to other sites and ask them to review your website. No one like’s criticism so be prepared to take some. It is likely to benefit your site in the future though.
59. Post News – Try and be first to post breaking news in your niche. Get listed on news websites such as Google News which will increase your traffic.
60. Awards Program – Create an awards brand. Get webmasters to submit their site and you offer prizes or just a graphic that states they won or passed your tests for a great website. Use your imagination.
61. Resources – Write posts that link to resources that may be useful to your type of reader. A webmaster blog may link to free stock photo sites as a post and list them in order of best first.
62. Treat others as you wish to be treated – This speaks for itself. If a reader of yours needs a hand then take the time out to help them. They will appreciate you for it.
63. Edit Posts – Go back over old content on your website and update it if it needs updating. Insert relevant links into old pages that go to content that is similar.
64. Yahoo Answers – Get an account at Yahoo Answers and post your blog URL in answers where appropriate. Only do this when you have a good reputation and the content is relevant and will actually help the user.
Great! That’s it for this time. If you learned at least one thing from this post it was worth reading!