Website Tips

The following is a list of tips and tricks for developing web sites:

• Joomla Tips
• Search-Engine Optimization.
• Ecommerce
• CSS
• Design
• Dreamweaver
• Javascript
• PHP

Joomla Tips

I have built many Joomla sites for clients. As a result, I end up answering a lot of how-to about using Joomla. To make it easy for me and my clients, I created a Free Joomla User Guide.

• Joomla How-To Help Procedures: Adding Links to the mainmenu, adding, editing, and updating Joomla articles, pasting from MS Word, adding articles to the Joomla Frontpage Manager, Checking in ALL Joomla articles, adding images to a Joomla article

Search-Engine Optimization

• 10 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips to Help You Get High Search Engine Rankings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN Use these 10 tips to raise your search engine ranking.
• Google Webmaster Guidelines If you want your pages to show up in Google search results, you might as well find out what Google looks for.
• The Web Marketing Checklist: 31 Ways to Promote Your Web site
  A great list of optimization tips.
• How to Create and Submit Web sites to Search Engines like Google
• Major Search Engines and Directories Use this as a list of search engines with which you should register your site.
• Search Engine Techniques

Ecommerce

See our Affordable Basic Ecommerce Package.

• How to find a shopping cart that works for you
• Ecommerce Assessment Questions

CSS

• Keeping Navigation Current with CSS - Use CSS to mark the current page in a navigation bar.
• Stylin' with CSS : A Designer's Guide by Charles Wyke-Smith.
  This is THE book for learning how to build CSS websites with NO TABLES. When I first tried to figure out a 3-column float, my brain just could not grasp the concept. Wyke-Smith starts with simple explanations of basic CSS and works up to complex, 3-column layouts. If floats and clears give you nightmares, this book will make you sleep like a baby. Great learn-by-example explanations of how to totally design web pages without TABLES!
• Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
  If Wyke-Smith's Stylin' with CSS : A Designer's Guide is the how, Zeldman's book is the why. Zeldman explains why it is important, useful, and time saving to design web-standards-compliant sites. Zeldman, an excellent writer, provides the history of web standards and browsers and explains why learning and adhering to web standards will make your life as a web designer easier. A must buy book for CSS designers.
• A VERY GOOD CSS automatic page-design tool and it's FREE!
  With this awesome script, you can build a 3-column CSS layout with headers and footers in about a minute. A great tool for beginners and experts.
• Position is Everything - A gold mine of CSS Tips, Troubleshooting, Tutorials and Articles.

Design

• A List Apart - A web site for people who build web sites. Great, in-depth articles on code, content, culture, design, process and user science.
• Color Scheme Generator - For those of us who are color-scheme challenged.
• Color Match Remix - Another color-scheme generator.

Dreamweaver

• Dreamweaver Online Help - Get the latest version of DW help in this online version.
• Dreamweaver Forum - Get help to your DW problems. This forum is tightly monitored so you get answers quickly.

Javascript

• Javascript Source - Free javascripts
• Javascript City - More free javascripts

PHP

• PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide by Larry Ullman- If you want to learn to use PHP and MySQL on your web sites, this book is a GREAT place to start. Great learning-by-example instruction for beginners.
• PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library)This is an awesome book. Very detailed and includes a PDF copy of the book so you can keep it on your computer for a quick reference. It is written for people with some experience with PHP and MySQL, but if you're a beginner and already read Ullman's book (above), this book is the next step for learning more.
• Keeping Navigation Current With PHP - Use PHP to mark the current page in a navigation bar.
• Excellent PHP Slide show Script. - Easy to set up. Works Flawlessly.
• PHPbb Forum - Excellent Forum script, easy install. PHP and MySQL.
• HotScripts - A very large selection of free and pay PHP scripts.
• The PHP Resource Index - Another large collection of free and pay scripts.