Website Promotion With Little Or No Money

How-To: Remove the top navigation panel

2008-04-25T15:26:00.006-04:00

Maybe some of you felt the same way as I did and were annoyed by this blue top navigation panel that kind of destroys the complete page layout. Well, I'm happy to say that there is a solution for this problem. As you can see, there is no top navigation panel on my blog any more, and you can get rid of it, too!

Here are the necessary steps to remove the top navigation panel:

Customize CSS Style Sheet
On your navigation panel click on "customize" or just log in normally. Go to "Layout" > "Edit HTML". You now see the complete source code for your blog. Now, insert the following code to the <head> section of the document (between <head> and </head>).
/* Remove top navbar */
#navbar-iframe {height:0px; display:none;}
For example, I added these lines at the end of the <head> section. So in my document it looks this way:
/* Remove top navbar */
#navbar-iframe { height:0px; display:none; }
]]>
</head>
Click on "Preview" to make sure that it works then save your changes.
That's it, the top navigation panel should be gone now!
Optional: Add Admin Options to Sidebar
Now, with the top navigation panel gone your blog looks much nicer but there is one disadvantage: the handy quick links of the panel, such as "Create Post" or "Customize" are gone. To compensate for this, one easy solution is to add those quick links to your sidebar. To do so, log in on www.blogger.com, then go "Layout" and follow the steps described below:
- Click on "Add a page element" in the sidebar menu to the right.
- Search for "Link List" and add it to your blog.
- Now click on "edit" for this newly added link list.
- Give it a title, e.g. "Admin Options".
- Enter a new site name, e..g. "Customization" and set the URL to http://www.blogger.com.
- Add the link.
- Enter another new site name, e.g. "Create Post" and set the URL to your create post page. To determine the correct link, log in, go to "Posting" > "Create" and copy the link from the address line.
- Click the "Save changes" button.
You are done now and have access to your blog's admin options via your sidebar!

References for my website

2008-04-23T12:11:00.003-04:00

I did some research about different kinds of topics related to website promotion and found some interesting sites. Some of the sites just contain links to other sites, others have short or detailed instructions. My plan is to use these sites as references, find the best ways for website promotion, and to describe those ways in some detail on my website.

In the following you can see the references I intend to use so far.

StartupNation.com - Web Site Promotion
http://www.startupnation.com/topics/7/61/Web-Site-Promotion.htm

StartupNation is a free service founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. The website provides easy-to-follow, practical information about a variety of topics relevant for people that want to start and grow their own successful business. Since one of the objectives of a new business is to promote its website, there are also useful tips covering this topic. All the content is provided at no charge, which makes this site an excellent resource.

Blizme.com - Top Secrets SEO Masters Don't Want You To Know
http://blizme.com/top-secrets-seo-masters-dont-want-you-to-know/

This blog post on blizme.com provides various tips about search engine optimization (SEO). Since SEO is an important topic for website promotion today, it is important to know about possible ways to increase a website's ranking in search listings.

InsideCRM.com - 50 Ways To Get Free Advertising For Your Startup
http://www.insidecrm.com/archive2/2007/04/50_ways_to_get_.html

This blog post on insidecrm.com introduces 50 ways to get free advertising for a startup business. Many of these tips can be applied on the process of promoting a new website, which makes this blog post a valuable

ConversationMarketing.com - The Internet Marketing List
http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2008/03/the_internet_marketing_list_59.htm

This article on ConversationMarketing.com describes little things one can do to improve a websites marketing plan. 59 tips are listed and described in an entertaining way.

APromotionGuide.com - Free Website Promotion Tutorial
http://www.apromotionguide.com/

This tutorial on apromotionguide.com describes important steps one should consider to do when serious about website promotion. The tutorial gives detailed instructions on how to complete different promotion phases and also explains key concepts in a detailed way.

That is what I have so far. I will see if I can get enough information out of these references or if I need to find additional ones. I also have some ideas on my own that I will add to the final website. Let me know if you know any other resources that could be interesting for me.

Website tested for color blindness and anomalous forms

2008-04-23T00:03:00.008-04:00

After katherine posted a comment about possible difficulties people with color blindness could have with my website's black/red color combination, I started to do some research about color blindness. Luckily, I found a website (http://colorfilter.wickline.org/) that allows you to check a website against several color blindnesses and anomalous forms. After entering an URL the website's color filter presents you the website as it would appear to a color blind person. In the following you can see the results for my website.

Color Blindness

Protan (click on image to enlarge it):

Deutan (click on image to enlarge it):

Tritan (click on image to enlarge it):

Anomalous Forms

Mono (click on image to enlarge it):

Protan (click on image to enlarge it):

Deutan (click on image to enlarge it):

Tritan (click on image to enlarge it):

As you can see, the website is well readable and easy to navigate in all cases. Therefore, color blindness shouldn't be an issue with my current color theme. I'm very happy about this since I like the colors as the are at the moment. Obviously, someone with color blindness wouldn't have the nice site impression as others, but the most important thing is that they can still use everything the website has to offer without any further restrictions.

Blog appearance customized

2008-04-18T13:16:00.002-04:00

As you can see I customized the blog's appearance a little bit to better match my final website. I didn't put too much work in it because after all it is "only" the blog to the website. However, I think in general it is a good thing if website and blog match each other (at least a little bit, e.g. in terms of colors). That makes it easier for visitors to remember the site's style and they feel more comfortable in switching back and forth from website to blog.

Content form added

2008-04-18T12:03:00.005-04:00

I added a contact form to my website to give visitors the opportunity to send me comments and feedback. I really didn't want to publish my email address since this can easily lead to lots of spam emails. Therefore, I embedded a contact form using the Zoho Creator. I think this is a good solution since I "outsourced" the contact functionality and only embedded the contact form itself in my site. I'm not sure if Drexel's dunx1 server allows server-side applications. Probably not, so there isn't really a way to send contact information without using an external service or server anyway.

If you want to add a contact form on your website as well, you should try the creator tool!

Final Website started!

2008-04-17T22:01:00.002-04:00

After some experimenting with colors and thinking about how to structure my website, I decided to use a red/black color combination. I think this is a good mix between classy and bold.

If you want to have a look at the site as it is at the moment, the address is:
http://dunx1.irt.drexel.edu/~jwk39/652/

I'm pretty sure that some of the layout, and of course the content, will change over the time. But for now I think it is a good start. I validated both, XHTML and CSS, and added the related validation buttons to the site's footer.

Let me know if you have any suggestions on how to improve the site.

Website Structure

2008-04-13T23:34:00.002-04:00

I was thinking about the structure of my website and so far I have the following pages/categories in mind:

Home

a short welcome message and trying to make the user interested in the website's content.

About

some information about myself.

Website Promotion

collection of tips and suggestions on how to promote a website with little or no money.

Website Improvement

collection of tips and suggestions on how to improve a website. For example, simple and short (!) suggestions for search engine optimization.

Links

lists of links. For example, to references, other INFO 652 websites, my own websites, etc.

Blog

link to my blog, opens in new window.

Contact

Ways to contact me. Best would be a contact form but I don't know if Drexel Pages support server-side scripting like PHP.

Thinking about colors...

2008-04-10T13:31:00.002-04:00

I'm currently thinking about what colors to use for my website. At the moment I tend to use some blue tones and white/grey for text areas.

Here are some color combinations that I'm currently considering:

The following images are considered as background gradients at the moment.

Topic approved!

2008-04-09T12:38:00.001-04:00

I got approval for my website topic from Professor Corse and can now start to search and create some concrete content for my website. Well, first I will need something like a draft for a sitemap, I guess. Hopefully, I can do that within this week and then really start with the programming.

To all the other people in my INFO 652 course: leave me a comment or send me an email so that I can add your blog to my list on the right side of the page (if you are not listed already).

Added some other blogs

2008-04-08T16:01:00.000-04:00

I added links to two other blogs of students taking the INFO 652 course. I think it would be a good idea to have a list of all blogs on each of our blogs. This way it would be very easy to see what the other people in the course are doing and writing. In my opinion, this would make the whole blogging thing even more interactive.

So, if you are currently taking the Spring INFO 652 course at Drexel University and are not listed on the right site yet, please leave me a comment or email with your blog's address. I will then add you to the list. Also, feel free to copy any existing links to your own blogs.

Finally decided - the topic of my website

2008-04-06T16:32:00.000-04:00

After spending the last week with thinking about possible topics for my website, I finally decided what I want to do! The topic of my website will be "Ways to promote websites with little or no money".

There are several reasons why I have chosen this topic:

It is a topic I'm personally interested in. After I'm done with my studies I'm planning on starting my own business and of course I will need a very good website that has to be promoted. Therefore, I'm hoping that the website I'm going to create now will help me in the future.
It is a topic in which other people might be interested in. Increasingly more people have their own websites and I am sure they would like to have a collection of possible ways to promote their websites.
It is an up-to-date topic that can be well supported by this blog without becoming totally boring for people to read.

Now that I made my decision the next step will be to outline the structure and content of the new website. Also, questions such as about design will have to be answered.

What the blog is about...

2008-04-04T12:45:00.001-04:00

In this blog I will post my thoughts and ideas for the website I'm going to create for my INFO 652 course. In following posts I will outline my ideas for this website and the content and functions I intend to implement over the next weeks.

Since I already have some experience in website design, I will try to improve the basic HTML website with some advanced technologies, such as JavaScript. If our web server supports PHP and MySQL I might also extend the website using these technologies. I will have to figure that out and to make sure that it meets the course's requirements.

I haven't come up with my final decision about the website's topic yet, but hope to do so within the next days. Based on the chosen topic I will then outline a possible structure and site-map for the website.

In order to make this blog a little bit more personal I added links to two other websites of mine to the navigation on the right hand side. One of the links brings you to my USA blog, which I started upon my arrival in the USA in 2006. The other link brings you to a small page about my trip to Australia in 2005. The language on both sites is German, but there are also many pictures that speak for themselves. Therefore, feel free to practice your German (if you ever learned it), or just have fun with the pictures, or use one of the many website translation tools if you are interested in the content :)

Getting started

2008-04-02T19:53:00.001-04:00

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I just created this new blog for my INFO 652 class. In the following weeks I will frequently post my thoughts and other crazy stuff.

First some information about my person. I'm a 24 old student currently enrolled in the MSIS program at Drexel in Philadelphia. I was born and raised in Germany and came to the U.S. the first time in August 2006 to complete an internship at Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton. After one year of working there, I finished my bachelor studies in business applications of computer science in Germany. Then I decided that I wanted to continue my studies in the U.S., which brought me to Drexel.

So currently I'm a full-time on-campus student and not working besides studying. I aim to finish my study program at Drexel around June 2009 and to start my own business afterwards.

Some of the websites I visit frequently, are:

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed reading this first post and will visit my site again.