Web News Updates:

Just like any other project development, website building needs to follow a step-by-step procedure in order to succeed. Website development phases serve as your guide so that your project will not end-up a crap.

Basically, website development process follow this the following phases:

Planning and Decision Making

The planning stage is important as this is the time you set your website decision and goal, analyze the feasibility, gather the resources needed, and most of all build the framework or skeleton of your target project. You will also be deciding for your domain and register for a website hosting service.

Graphic Design

After the planning stage you can start working for graphic design based on the approved draft or project skeleton. This is the time you use resources like adobe and other graphic design applications or editor. Your graphic designer is needed in this phase.

Website Development/Coding

When graphic designing is done, it is time to start working on coding. Your web developer takes a big responsibility during this stage. This is the phase where slicing of pages is done and it includes coding not just the front-end (the user interface) but the back-end functions of the design also. It is important that the person you assign to website development or coding is knowledgeable in different programming languages and databases.

Testing

Testing is next and this is also important because it is not a wise practice to just publish your website without even trying and checking if it functions the way it is planned . Testing and tracing possible errors in all the pages is very important. You need to check if the links, input form, menu, and plug-ins are functioning well - based on the goal you have set.

Website Launching

When bugs are fixed, your website is then ready for launching. Please note, by the way, it is a useful strategy that you let website users in your niche know about the launching of your website. That can be a very good start - attracting individuals at the very start. You can do that by posting announcement, upcoming events on your social networking account like Facebook or Twitter.

Updates and Maintenance

Lastly, when you have successfully published your website, your next task- and it is an ongoing task - is to prepare your self in doing maintenance -which might be needed daily- as well as for future updates.

When you plan to establish a business on the Internet particularly an online store, one important thing that you must understand is the concept of online shopping cart system. A shopping cart system is a software used in e-commerce to help people in making online purchases. It allows online shoppers to virtually accumulate and sort a list of items or products to buy. Upon checkout, the software calculates the total cost of items as well as the charges associated with shipping and taxes.

You can have a successful online store by using an online shopping cart software without the need for web design and development expertise. This is because you can just integrate an e-commerce system ( from a 3rd party) to your website. Most, if not all, of the shopping cart software available online have features like on-the-web administration, calculation and integration of shipping charges, real-time payments, and a lot more.

It is quite easy to have a shopping cart system integrated to your web store. All you need to do is to find an e-commerce system provider - you can do it by simply googling terms like ‘online shopping cart’. You don’t need to worry about the compatibility thing as shopping cart providers have designed particular systems which work best for large and small stores. When you subscribe, you are given tutorials ( usually in a form of video presentations) to help you fully understand the system and its applications. Also, these providers have a 24/7 online support - you can ask help, anytime.

Before you care to subscribe for an e-commerce system, it is important that you compare shopping cart software from different providers. Yes, it is going to be a challenging task in your part as there are so many vendors of online shopping cart software on the web that can be puzzling. Comparing is certainly beneficial. But of course, since we are certain that none of them can give a perfect solution, we can determine the most ideal by considering the following points when evaluating shopping cart packages.

• Hosting - you need to see to it that the hosting company you and your shopping cart system provider provides reliability and security. Downtime errors should be minimal. Online stores should be available 24/7. Few minutes of downtime can lose opportunities.

• Flexibility of Design - shopping cart system must be flexible enough to match the design you have in your web store. Compatibility is essential. You need to find a package that is able to do smooth transition from the old online shopping cart software to the new software with a full uploading of your database. This will save you a lot time.

• Shipping - a good shopping cart system with the capacity to calculate shipping particularly a software that is capable of calculating item weight variations.

• Taxes - a good shopping cart system is also capable of doing calculation of taxes on purchases. Product prices are dynamic - some with fluctuating prices, others are taxable and others are not. As complex as the calculation or algorithm may be, a good shopping cart should be able to manage this task.

• Reporting - a good e-commerce system is also capable of returning comprehensive reports on subscriptions or purchases. Reports on buying trends such as returning visits, demographic details, and conversion rates are examples of data that you must be able to trace. Such data are significant to improving your selling strategies.

• Back-end Functionality - a good e-commerce system provides easy management of products. This include easy item addition when the system is out of stocks, inventory, easy image uploads, etc.

• Cross-selling - is the system capable of generating product suggestion? A customer may subscribe a new CD player but he may also want to have a new headphone. A good shopping cart is able to generate product suggestions that a customer may also buy.

• Merchant Account Flexibility - a good shopping cart must be flexible enough to accommodate various forms of payment and it must be easy for customers to do online payment transactions. It must be accurate. It must be reliable.

• Additional Features - a good shopping cart must also be able to provide various additional features, options for upgrades. After your shopping cart is established to your web store, you may want upgrades for more sales.

Establishing an online store can be complex but with the help of effective, reliable online shopping cart system, your business can run smoothly.

Building links is one of the most important things to consider when it comes generating traffic for websites. This is the reason why there are people (many) and website owners who try every technique they know - regardless of the nature of the strategy - only to wake up one morning seeing their sites are removed  from search engines like Google. In other words, some do the unethical ways of link building.

No, I am not writing about new strategy for link building. This has been with us for quite a long time but only few people who are really considering its value - I am talking about strategy for weaving links that get your websites easily indexed by search engines using ethical method.

I am sharing a quick and easy steps for link building that give your links better chances for easy index to major search engine like Google .

Step 1: Create Profile

Create profiles using some Web 2.0 properties. You can make use of free tools that allow you to build webpages where you can drop links back to the main site you are working to promote. You might interested of using Blogger, WordPress, Hubpages, Squidoo, etc. These are very effective in helping your webiste become more visible on the Internet.

Step 2: Work on RSS feeds

Create an RSS feed account for each on every profile you made. You can make use of feedburner. Web 2.0 properties have built-in RSS feed feature already. RSS feed main components include a list of items that are essentially chunks of information intended for the readers. Each item in the list has its own title and summary along with a link to details of the summarized information.

Step 3: Submit RSS feed

After you have worked on your RSS feeds, submit them to as many RSS aggregators as you can. Aggregators are websites that gather RSS feeds and then republish them. These sites are easily crawled by spider and indexed by search engines  and therefore more chances for online presence for the site you are trying to promote.

Step 4: Bookmark RSS feeds

Bookmark your RSS feeds using social media. These social media sites are easily crawled and indexed by search engines. Some examples of powerful social bookmarking sites are propeller, mr. wong, digg.This step consumes most of the link building process but it is worth the effort. You can make use of social marker, by the way, to semi-automate the process of bookmarking.

Step 5: Pinging

Ping your website. Using tools like ping-omatic, pingoat, ping your website or blog to let others know that you have updated your content ( do this for every content update). There are 3 basic information needed for pinging: The site title, the URL, and the URL of the RSS feeds. So it should be easy for you to this.

The above-mentioned 5-step link building strategy can help your backlinks get easily indexed to major search engines - making the site you are trying to promote more visible and therefore greater chances for more traffic.

Just a few days after Microsoft’s Windows 7 highly anticipated launching, the new operating system has been receiving positive reviews and many Windows users worldwide are excited to get their hands on the said OS.

Pcworld.com review has given Windows 7 a thumbs up saying that it gets the basics right by checking 7 important areas:

1. The Interface (the new taskmaster)
2. System tray ( aka notification area)
3. File Management ( the library system)
4. HomeGroups ( a new feature designed to simplify the notoriously tricky process of networking Windows PCs )
5. Security( UAC Gets Tolerable)
6. Applications (The Fewer the Merrier) - Microsoft eliminated three nonessential programs: Windows Mail (née Outlook Express), Windows Movie Maker (which premiered in Windows Me), and Windows Photo Gallery.
7. Device Management - offers you numerous ways to connect your PC to everything from tiny flash drives to hulking networked laser printers–USB, Wi-Fi, ethernet, slots, and more.

pcworld.com gave emphasis on the interface saying that

the Windows experience occurs mainly in its Taskbar especially in the Start menu and System Tray. Vista gave the Start menu a welcome redesign; in Windows 7, the Taskbar and the System get a thorough makeover,” and has specifically explained that ” the new Taskbar replaces the old small icons and the text labels for running apps with larger, unlabeled icon.

However, it is not all the positive reviews that Windows has been receiving as there are reports about some experiences of difficulty in upgrades. Specifically on the issue about reboot glitch where there are computers that are said to be having a problem of getting stuck to endless reboot cycle.

Now, the question is..is it worth to upgrade to Windows 7?

To answer that, I think the pcworld.com recommendation will help us realize on whether to take or leave it. They said that:

if your PC’s specs qualify it to run Vista, get Windows 7; if they aren’t, avoid it. Microsoft’s official hardware configuration requirements for Windows 7 are nearly identical to those it recommends for Windows Vista: a 1-GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of free disk space, and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics device with a WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. That’s for the 32-bit version of Windows 7; the 64-bit version of the OS requires a 64-bit CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 20GB of disk space.

Here’s more ( in videos)…

I’ve just watched a video presentation on Youtube about this newly-introduced product called Modu – a product developed by an Israeli company. It is a tiny modular cell phone that can be inserted into “jackets” - like MP3 player, a GPS device, a bigger cell phone, a car stereo, or a digital camera. Sounds intriguing, isn’t it? If it can deliver what it promises then this could be another giant step of successful innovation.

To give you an idea of what this product is all about,
let me give you a sort of product features:

This device is a small black cell phone weighing approximately 40 grams and is sized at a bit smaller than an iPod Nano. It has a tiny display, a couple of control buttons ( keypad), a mini-USB port, and a charger jack. The product also has a GPRS connectivity feature ( only for now) because the developer said that the 3G version is in the works.

So what is in it for us to be excited about?

Well, although it can be used for call, the product is really meant to be attached with another devices. It is designed to be inserted into one of the jackets, which basically are the shells of a candy bar phone. It can be easily inserted into the top of the jackets and once in place, the jacket’s screen will activate and the phone can be used.

Here’s more from http://reviews.cnet.com:

The role of the jacket, which is about the size of a standard candy bar phone, is multifold. Not only does it give users a normal-sized color screen, a keyboard, and a full set of navigation controls, but it also activates certain functions on the Modu. Of course, the jacket makes the Modu look like an actual cell phone with a bright color skin (several designs will be available).

Just slide the Modu into the jacket.
(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

Other uses..

Consuming public will be able carry it around and slip it into various device jackets. For instance, when attached to camera, this device can be used to send images over the wireless network.

And…there’s more here – watch…

The drawback…

As I have said, the device will initially support GPRS, which is slow – there’s no WiFi.

Initial distribution…

Modu phone is expected to be available this month in Italy, Russia and Israel with $280 price tag included a standard jacket.

The best thing about it is that it is a platform that allows other companies to design devices around it – which could be useful to us.