Computer Safety:   

The most important consideration regarding your computer is safety. 

Web Browsers:   

If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer as you web browser, stop using it and replace it with Mozilla's  Firefox

Email:   

If you are using Microsoft's Outlook Express as your email program, stop using it and replace it with Mozilla's  Thunderbird

You can download both of these program free form the Internet at:
 http://www.mozilla.com/en-US°    

The reason for dumping the  Microsoft programs is because they are the number one target for hackers and virus producers.    Firefox and Thunderbird are much safer options.

.

Safety Programs:   

If you are new to the Internet, you need all three of the following programs in your computer before you start surfing the internet.  Anything less is inviting disaster.

Anti-Virus Programs:   

Several anti-virus programs are available free from the internet.  This computer uses a program from German company titled "AntiVir."   It's available free for personal use.   You can contact them at:    
http://www.free-av.com 

Fire Wall:   

A firewall is a program that prevent outsiders from accessing your computer.   Several firewall programs are available free from the internet.  A firewall program from is Agnitum  called  "Outpost firewall."    You can contact them at:     http://www.agnitum.com 

Spy ware Programs:   

To keep hackers from stealing information out of your computer, a spy-stopper program is recommended.  One program is called  "Spybot."    You can contact them at:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html 

Setting Up Your Website:   

Here are a few things to consider regarding setting up an effective website.   

Domain name:   

Make It Easy for Your Customer:    If you intend for potential customers to type your website address from your business card or other literature,  make it easy for the customer.   Several words together, especially personal names, are often difficult for many people to type accurately.    Customer simply will not take much effort to get to your site.  Unless it's easy, they simply won't bother.

If you have two or more words run together, capitalize the words.  (Main domain names are not case sensitive.)    Here's what not to do:  www.alexuschmidtuniquejewelry.com.   

Instead use a domain name such as,   www.UniqueJewelry.info or   www.Unique-Jewelry.info.  Nobody is going on the web searching for "alexuschmidtuniquejewelry," but thousands will look for "unique jewelry."   

What word to use:    With regard to the product or service you are marketing, examine the words that buyers/clients type into the search engines when seeking the product/service you offer.   Use one of these words in your domain name.  

There are several other sites for finding keywords.   To find them,  type "keywords" into any search engine.  

If your preferred domain name is not available, add a number to it, hyphenate two words, repeat the chosen word twice.  Here are some domain name  examples:    

http://www.ThetaHealing101.info°     

http://www.Devil-Devil.info°     

http://www.Does-God-Exist.net     

Pick a small piece of a big market:  Choose a word that is commonly used, but not the main word.   For example:  "Wedding" is a main word with way too many competitors to reasonably expect one's website to appear on the first page of a search engine list.  "Los Angeles Wedding"  is a sub heading, but still too big to be found in the search engines.  

But, under a still smaller heading "Los Angeles Wedding Officiant," (14 Jun 07)   our website is number 10 of 1,890,000 listings,   and under the heading "Los Angeles Wedding Ceremony"  our website is number 10 of 1,890,000 listings.   (This is not a perfect example, because the website was set up prior to my understanding the significance of a domain name.   However,  The site title, description, keywords and page-content were done correctly and as a result we still made the first page in the Google search engine.    

Site Title:   

Ideally, the title should be twelve words or less.   Your domain name should be repeated in the title three times.   For example, our Theta healing site home page has this title:   Theta Healing is fast. Theta healing works wonders. Theta Healing is effective.   

As of 1 Jun 07, Hahoo has reduced the "site description" on their search engine to 70 characters.   This appears to be referring to the title and not the description.  They don't specify if the space between the words is considered a character, but online testing indicates that it does include spaces as characters.  Here's an example.  On our http://www.ThetaHealing101.info°   website the original title has been  cut to:  

  Theta Healing is fast. Theta healing works wonders. Theta Healing is . . .  

  I don't yet know what other search engines are doing.  

Site Description:   

Ideally, the description should be thirty words or less.   Your domain name should be included once in the description.   For example, our Theta healing site home page has the following description:   

Theta Healing is the fastest, most effective, and simplest method of personal transformation I have found in 25 years of coaching work.

Site Keywords:   

Ideally, the title should have twenty, relevant keywords or keyword phrases.   ("Wedding" is a keyword.   "Los Angeles Wedding Ceremony" is a keyword phrase.)    I've heard different stories about what is the ideal  number of keywords so the above number may not be accurate.

Related Links Page:   

A key to wise website marketing is to have a separate page containing mutual links to and from websites featuring other, non-competing products or services that your customers may be interested in.    If this page is not part of your website, you are missing a major Internet tool.   

Reciprocal links not only bring additional potential customers to your website, they also play a major role in determining you placement in the search engines.  For a detailed analysis of this topic see the following TLC-Life-Center web pages: 

What and Why of Exchanging Links°   

Formats for Link Exchanges° 

How to be Listed on Our Websites° 

Pictures and Graphics:   

Because pictures are powerful tools in attracting viewer's attention, whenever possible, use pictures on your website.  Before you add a picture or a graphic, ask yourself, "What message will this picture/graphic convey to my viewers?"   Be sure the pictures and graphics are relevant to you site's purpose and intention.  

Unless your intent is to convey mystery, be sure your picture/graphic does not bring up the questions,   "What is this and why is it here?"

Picture size is also a factor.   Until almost all web surfers have high-speed internet connections, you'd best reach a compromise between  a picture size that is large enough to be pleasantly viewable an one that is so big that it takes a long time to download.   If you have a large picture that you want on your site, you can have a small version of the picture (called a ------ )  that links to the large, full-size picture on another page of your website.   This gives the viewer to option to take the time required  to download the full-size picture or not.   

Tables:   

Use "Tables" to assist your viewers in easy downloading.  (Each of the yellow boxes on this page is a separate  table.)   Each table downloads independently starting at the top of the page.   If you break your page into tables,  the tables at the top of the page will download first and hold  the viewers attention long enough for the rest of the page to download.

Website Hosting:   

You can obtain a free website from  http://www.godaddy.com   for the price of registering a domain name with them and having  their advertising banner at the top of your page.   If the banner is a problem for you, you can purchase the same hosting service from them without any advertising for about $43 per year.

To see how other website use meta tags  (domain name, title,  description,  keywords, etc.)   go onto any search engine such as Google,  and form the content of  the "View Menu (at the top of the page)  select  "Page Source."   A new view of the current page will  appear.   This page will give you a "behind the scenes" view of the web page you are currently on.