Web template tips, External CSS (cascading style sheets), "effective" web design for your targeted market, worthwhile resources and other relative topics of interest to webmasters will be discussed by the Web Template Designers at BasicTemplates.com. You can also meet our designers on a personal level, discover their personal and professional trials and tribulations and join in on the office chatter regarding many popular (and sometimes) controversial topics.
Basically Bright Idea! ... This HTML CSS Template design would also be appropriate for any of the following websites themes and businesses:
homeowners insurance, property listings, property appaisals, FSBO, contractors, construction, landscaping, rental property, home improvements, and refinancing
If your business website has anything to do with a home, this template design or any of the others we have developed would be a versatile selection for you.
Because it's an effectively developed basic design, you are not boxed into one specific theme or niche!
Basically Bright Idea! ... This HTML CSS Template design would also be appropriate for any of the following websites themes, organizations and businesses:
credit card offers, getting out of debt, merchant accounts, credit risk or reports, identity theft precautions, business credit card applications, fraud prevention articles, ecommerce and payment gateways
If your business website has anything to do with credit cards, debt or personal security or credit risk, this template design or any of the others we have developed would be a versatile selection for you.
Unlike our competitors, we develop effective basic designs without a pinpointed theme or multiple pages linked together, that you are stuck with using or deleting. Therefore, you are not boxed into one specific theme, niche or number of pages. We put you in control of your website - as it should be!
Basically Bright Idea! ... This HTML CSS Template design would also be appropriate for any of the following websites themes, organizations or businesses:
newborn care, proud parents, parenting skills, baby supplies and equipment, infant related articles, counseling for new parents, child development, baby nutritional requirments, and resource directories for new parents
If your business website has anything to do with babies, this template design or any of the others we have developed would be a versatile selection for you.
Since we put ourselves in the shoes of the end user when we develop our website templates, you are not boxed into one specific theme or niche!
// posted by BasicRic on 2/27/2006 07:19:00 AM / Permanent Link
Creation of Adam Web Template
One fine art and religious web template was added today using the masterpiece of Michelangelo's famous painting, the Creation of Adam. View this new Template Design (#1246).
Basically Bright Idea! ... This HTML CSS Template design would also be appropriate for any of the following websites themes, organizations or businesses:
Christian, churches, bible study or stories, religious fund raisers, fine art, masterpiece, art collectors, art replicas, fine art framing, and painting reprints
If your business website has anything to do with fine art or Christianity, this template design or any of the other similar designs we have developed would be a versatile selection for you.
Because it's an effectively developed basic design, you are not boxed into one specific theme or niche!
Basically Bright Idea! ... This HTML CSS Template design would also be appropriate for any of the following websites themes, organizations or businesses:
If your business website has anything to do with candles or lighting candles while praying, this template design or any of the other similar designs we have developed would be a versatile selection for you.
Because it's an effectively developed basic design, you are not boxed into one specific theme or niche!
> Browse our entire collection of Candle Web Site Templates.
// posted by BasicRic on 2/27/2006 07:11:00 AM / Permanent Link
Will this be just another free web hosting service with a WYSIWYG interface or is this the beginning of a paradigm shift in web development and hosting?
Post a comment. We want to know what you think and so does the rest of the world!
// posted by BasicRic on 2/23/2006 02:09:00 PM / Permanent Link
How to Get More Traffic to Your Website
If you have an online business you may be wondering how to get more traffic to your web sites. Your marketing campaign should already include a budget and a marketing plan.
There are some popular search engines that you’ll want to submit your website to, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Your goal is to increase the amount of page hits that you get on the Internet since each visitor can be a potential customer.
There are 10 effective methods that you’ll want to use for the optimization and promotion of your website:
- Use tracking techniques so that you can do a statistics analysis of visitors to your site.
- Optimize the content of your web pages with keywords so that people can find you fast.
- Use meta tags in your html code.
- Use available resources and services on the Internet to produce top quality web content.
- Keep a close eye on your website stats and be prepared to make changes to the content and data on your website to increase your hits.
- Start to use online marketing techniques the minute you create your website; you want to make the most of your marketing plan as soon as possible.
- Make sure that you understand how SEO works.
- Recognize that every computer user needs a nudge towards your website; this means unique advertising techniques such as banner ads.
- Read all the reports that you obtain from your SEO or advertising tools; make changes when you have to.
- Become part of a simple affiliate program. The more traffic that you see on your website the more potential you have to achieving ecommerce success.
// posted by BasicMichelle on 2/22/2006 10:18:00 AM / Permanent Link
Affiliate Summit 2006 Orlando
If you are even "thinking" about attending the next Affiliate Summit which is in fun-filled Orlando, Florida this year, you must act fast. The Vegas event sold out with more than 400 people on the waiting list. Yes, it's that good!
As many of you know, I attended the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas earlier this year. It was time well spent and worth every penny. I was fortunate to meet several of our customers, network with business owners in ways never possible before, and even though I've been a successful website owner for many years, I learned a great deal listening to other people talk about how they operate their business through design concepts, marketing, SEO, blogging, joint ventures, podcasting, product development, etc.
The fact is you can buy ebooks, browse forums, and exchange emails with people to learn about these critical business concepts, but none of those tools compare to the value of actually meeting people face to face, establishing lasting relationships and listening to their business module concepts. You can learn something from every single person you meet if you allow yourself to do so. Even folks you initially felt didn't have a thing in common with you will greatly add to your arsenal of knowledge whether you are an affiliate, merchant, vendor or network. The key is to meet as many people as you can and find that commonality quickly. At this type conference everyone is there to basically learn one thing ... "How to Make More Money Online and Offline".
The links below are direct links to my blog entries which I posted last month detailing some of the many people I met and my experiences. Unfortunately, I didn't get to write as much about the Affiliate Summit as I anticipated, but these entries should give you an idea of what takes place at these conferences especially if you have never attended one.
> Affiliate Summit 2006 Review, Part 3 - My answer to a question I was asked a few times during the conference: "Does BasicTemplates develop SEO Ready Templates?"
> Affiliate Summit 2006 Review, Part 5 - My experience meeting Joel Comm, the Adsense Doctor himself and what I learned to add to my knowledge of Google Adsense.
As I mentioned earlier, this conference sells out fast, so be sure to register quickly. I'd love to meet you in Orlando this coming July to see how your company meshes with BasicTemplates or any of the other 11 websites in our network. This event is NOT just for affiliates - no way. Whether you are an affiliate, merchant, network, vendor or a mix of several, I'm sure we can learn a great deal from each other and all of us will go home with more than enough new ideas to keep us busy for the next few years.
// posted by BasicRic on 2/20/2006 07:23:00 AM / Permanent Link
How to Submit a Website to the Search Engines
Do you have an online business and are wondering how to submit a website to the search engines? Registration to search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN, are important if you want to attract customers and potential customers to your website.
Before you decide what engines to submit to, you should do a careful analysis of what each engines offer you in regards to advertisers, how they promote websites, and what other resources they offer you.
You can find an analyzer on the Internet that automatically lets you compare the details of each search engine. Webmasters of websites should make sure that they budget money and time carefully so that they can take advantage of this simple solution to marketing: high ranking in search engines.
Don’t forget to include meta tags in your HTML code so that you increase and optimize your search engine ranking. Whether or not you advertise on your website, you want to increase the hits to your site so that you can increase your sales and your exposure to your customers.
There are several things that you should focus on when it comes to submitting to SEO friendly search engines including:
- Make sure that the registration process allows you to express the purpose of your website when you’re filling out the registration application.
- Make sure that the search engine generator gives you automatic updates.
Your goal is to submit to as many successful search engines as you can so that you can achieve high rankings in the search when customers look for your business online.
// posted by BasicMichelle on 2/16/2006 03:03:00 PM / Permanent Link
Winter Snow Website Header Graphics
10 Header Graphics with Winter, Snow and Ice themes [Product ID: H0020P] were recently added. These headers are 750 x 150 px and are provided in .JPG format. They are Interchangeable with literally 100s of our HTML CSS Templates. Get all 10 for only $10.00 USD.
// posted by BasicRic on 2/16/2006 08:22:00 AM / Permanent Link
Web Hosting Recommendations
As one of the Internet's Top 5 Most Popular Website Template Resources, we are often asked for our recommendations on web hosting services.
The web hosting industry is a highly competitive market, so naturally we base our web hosting ratings and recommendations on the following important criteria:
Quality of Service: Is the web hosting company's user interface friendly and easy to use? Are their servers fast? Do their servers have a high rate of up time? (In other words, if their servers go down often or they have too many websites piled on one server causing memory errors or other unnecessary hardships on their customers, we wouldn't think of recommending them to you.)
Web Hosting Packages: Do they offer various web hosting packages and features designed to fit several types of website needs such as PHP, MySQL compatiablity, dedicated web hosting, Frontpage web hosting, ASP, Coldfusion, ? Do they offer affordable website hosting?
Technical Support: Do they offer free tech support 24/7/365 by phone and email? Are their techs able to assist you the first time with your questions and do they respond to your emails within 24 hours or less? Do they make it easy for their customers to contact them?
Extras: Do they provide return customer discounts, referrral incentives, webmaster tutorials and other important services such as domain name registrations, merchant accounts, to assist their customers build an effective website?
Below you will find a list of hosting companies we recommend and which our staff actually use for business websites, affiliate websites, and personal websites.
Thinking Outside the Box! This HTML CSS Template has a removable background. But it can also be used for any type of website relating to a home - not just the obvious real estate theme.
Webmaster Tip! These HTML CSS Templates have a removable background. Replace our background with your own or one of 100s of predesigned backgrounds we offer and change the template theme within seconds.
// posted by BasicRic on 2/13/2006 08:14:00 AM / Permanent Link
Duplicate Content Penalties
Alice Seba, owner of Internet Based Moms recently published a blog entry asking her visitors whether they think publishing reprinted articles and private label articles will get a website banned by the search engines. Alice doesn't think so. Thinking from a longer term perspective, I tend to slightly disagree that good things like the ability to republish articles will not last forever. Here's why I think so ...
IMHO, right now the determination as to whether a site should be banned for duplicate content is based on how much original content is on the site vs. reprinted content. In time though, article repubs may be frowned upon simply because spammers will always find ways to trick/trip the system.
The search engines will naturally need to tighten their policies to yet again try to deliver original content to their users. Let's spring ahead 2 or even 3 years and imagine that the search engines did not revise their policies. How many 1000s of website URLs will result in a search using the same keyword phrase most likely used in a single article's title? Possibly thousands which prevents the SE users from finding the good stuff quickly.
The SE's don't like it as it makes their service return poor results, and their users (All of us out here who depend on the search engines every day for personal and business research) don't like it either because, we don't want to see the same article in front us 1000s of times when we are researching a topic.
I think that as website owners, marketers, website designers, etc. we forget that we are far out numbered by people who do not own websites. Search engines are used far more often by standard consumers looking for quick and quality results.
That's just my opinion; we'll see if I'm right and how soon if happens. Honestly, even though it would be slightly embarrasing, I hope I'm wrong. But I've got a hunch.
I do agree that there are tons of quality articles out there written by excellent authors that would be excellent search engine bait on the short term. But once several thousand webmasters republish it or a slightly different version of it, duplicate content becomes a menace and the article is of little value to the reader.
I enjoy following search engine supported sources for my "that's OK to do" info such as Danny Sullivan's radio show from SearchEngineWatch.com or Matt Cutts' blog. Matt is an Engineer at Google.
// posted by BasicSusan on 2/12/2006 11:11:00 AM / Permanent Link
Valentine's Day Gift Certificate Templates
5 Valentine's Day Gift Certificate Templates were added today. These templates are in PSD and PDF formats. You get both formats for one low price of only $5.00 USD. If you are familiar with PSD formats you can easily edit the template in your graphics software of choice and then print it on any type paper. Or with the PDF version (Adobe Reader) you can simply print the gift certificate as is. The printed image will fit nicely into a #10 business envelope.
// posted by BasicSusan on 2/10/2006 09:41:00 AM / Permanent Link
What is a Search Engine Spider?
Search engine spiders are programs on the Internet that search through the content on the web by using a variety of strategy algorithms. Spiders are often known as a “bot” or a “wizard” since they seem to magically check through huge indexed databases.
When you are building your ecommerce website you’ll want to take advantage of these active search engines as they conduct searches for a specific url which users request of them.
There are several efficient spider systems that you’ll want to take advantage of if you want your website to carry any weight in the search engine index. The most popular spiders include:
- Architext. This spider is owned by Excite and uses tags for its indexing as well as a Boolean algorithm to bring you the most basic of topic information.
- GoogleBot. Google is constantly updated so that it contains all the important indexers.
- Scooter. This spider is owned by Altavista and uses the Boolean strategy to index information.
- Sidewinder. Infoseek uses a timestamp to ensure that relevant indexes are placed in major order.
- Northern Lights Gulliver. Northern Light is well known for its stability and precision in bringing you up to date information.
- T-Rex. This spider is owned by Lycos and is one of the major searching bots on the Internet.
- Excites Architext. This search engine is owned by Webcrawler.
- Yahoo. Yahoo continues to lead the way with searching techniques that have a relevancy to the input provided by SEO submissions. Yahoo is one of the most popular spiders.
- Teoma. This spider is frequently updated so that each topic is in precise order.
- LookSmart. This spider uses researching techniques to index all the data that it collects.
// posted by BasicMichelle on 2/08/2006 06:16:00 AM / Permanent Link
// posted by BasicRic on 2/06/2006 08:11:00 AM / Permanent Link
GUI Interfaces for Web Sites
5 GUI Web Interfaces [Product IDs: N0011T thru N0015T] were recently added to our template and graphics gallery. These graphics are in PSD format with web resolutions and vary in size.
All can be licensed individually for only $5.00 USD each or subscribing members get them FREE.
> This is a fairly new category in our growing collection of quality, affordable web graphics. More Website Interfaces will be available soon. Bookmark this Page in our Web Graphics Gallery.
// posted by BasicRic on 2/06/2006 08:04:00 AM / Permanent Link
Web Design Predictions 2006
Web design techniques and trends have changed dramatically over the years. I can remember the days of generic gray backgrounds, default system text, flashing animations, moving arrows, construction signs, and gaudy backgrounds.
In 1999 (after five years of template development experience by most of our designers) BasicTemplates.com, our template membership service was formed. It was our dream to stand out from the crowd and produce quality, clean and affordable website templates using the current version of HTML, external cascading style sheets, SSI (server side include) instructions for those who wanted improved maintenance techniques, and the concept of removable, interchangeable graphics. It was a smashing hit and still is by webmasters who understand that a web template labeled "professional or attractive" doesn't mean "guaranteed to achieve your website goals".
Even though there are tons of eye candy, colorful templates on the market mainly developed by "graphic designers" - not "web designers", it is our prediction that business savvy webmasters will begin to understand that non-traditional navigational structures, heavy page loads, unnecessary graphics, and cluttered websites is not helping their conversions at all. The design of your website should be the easiest part of all. Leaving you with tons of time to add original, rich content and promote your site.
While many of our competitors are busy publicizing that their goal is to populate the web with pretty websites using their designs, we have and will continue to educate people and provide webmasters with designs that are effective, clean, low cost, easy to use, and maintenance friendly.
I guess you might say we are busy doing the same things - aggressively providing webmasters of the Internet with effective tools that will help them. If you are serious about your online business, you will spend less time worrying about the graphics and more time growing your content and promoting your website. After all, the search engines don't care about your graphics, and you can add them at any time when you purchase the right template from the right company. ;)
My second prediction is the continual growth in popularity of blogs in conjuction with RSS. Most people don't realize that blogs have been around for years. If memory serves me well, I had a personal blog online as early as 1998 (maybe 1996?). At that time Blogger was the only blog service available and it was pretty new. If you will notice, the most successful blogs you see are basic, simple design layouts. Why? Because as human beings we intuitive know that keeping things basic and simple are the quickest ways to achieve our goals. Hence ... the name of our website template company: BasicTemplates.com
My third prediction is that podcasts will soar in popularity and in less than five years it will be as popular of a marketing media as blogs are today. It's pretty silly to think otherwise. Our podcasts Effective-Website-Secrets.com have been popular over at iTunes since September 2005. It's been featured on iTunes homepage and in the Top 25 Most Popular Podcasts in all of iTunes many, many times. Why? Because webmasters are ready to hear the truth about what it takes to make a website effective, and our podcast listeners are supporting us 100%.
My fourth prediction is that website templates designers who label their designs in such manners as to try to entice non-suspecting good folks to buy their templates and/or try to justify a higher price will start to "get it". Or they will simply and permanently go out of the template development business. Having been around for more than 11 years we have seen this countless time. These type merchants are actually Black Hat Marketers.
Honesty is always the best policy when you are trying to establish trust and grow relationships. Template designers who mislead people into buying their designs often label their templates as:
Adsense Ready Templates or Adsense Compatible Web Templates
Affiliates Website Templates
Full Website Templates (meaning a fully developed website)
[insert other misleading Label or Niche here] Web Templates, etc.
Adsense Optimized Templates
Think of it this way. Would it be a Black Hat marketing technique if I took a Snicker candy bar, removed the packaging and replaced it with a wrapper that was labeled "Pet Owners Candy Bar", "Good For Your Website Conversion Chocolate", "Internet Marketers Power Snack" or "Affiliates Candy Bar" and then sold it to non-suspecting people for 10 times or more its original retail value? Of course it would be!
Why on earth would a template designer do this? Well, here's why .....
It takes six times the effort and expense to find a new customer than it does to resell to an existing customer. If a merchant is consistantly coming up with what is technically called Black Hat marketing techniques to trick someone into buying a product, they are not establishing solid relationships with their existing customers. They might trick a customer into buying an overpriced or niche-labeled misleading product once or maybe even twice. But once the customer figures out they have been scammed, and it won't take long, the designer has lost their business and respect forever. So the desperate cycle to find more new customers with other mis-labeled products continues.
Although we are sure most template designers who intentionally mislead people into buying their designs are good people, they are simply caught in a loop mindset and cannot seem to get out. Because they might have successfully tricked someone into buying a product one or twice, that momentary adrenline rush is addictive and they cannot stop long enough to see that they are harming their business and their customers' relationship with them more than they are providing a valuable service.
If you suspect a web template provider is using Black Hat marketing techniques, let us know. We have a growing list (now over 14) of them, and we can help you decide whether their niche labeled designs are a value or simply a trick.
Let's be honest ... Yes, we would love for you to buy our web templates, BUT more importantly we dislike seeing webmasters tricked into buying a product that is not effective nor affordable for their website's goals and target market. It's all about honesty, building trust, providing quality products, and fair prices. Every well established and solid business will echo these important keys to the longevity of their business.
// posted by BasicRic on 2/01/2006 01:10:00 PM / Permanent Link
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One home mortgage web template, B1249T, was added today.
One credit card consolidation web template, Product ID: B1250T, was added today. 
One newborn web template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1247). 
One fine art and religious web template was added today using the masterpiece of Michelangelo's famous painting, the Creation of Adam. View this new Template Design (#1246). 
One candle crafting web template was added today, Product ID:B1248T
One nutrition website template was added today. View this new Template Design, Product ID B1245T. 
One scrapbooking crafts web template, Product ID: B1241T, was added today.
One health care web template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1244). 
One babies and parenting web template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1243). 
One jewelry web template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1242). 
10 Header Graphics with Winter, Snow and Ice themes [Product ID: H0020P] were recently added. These headers are 750 x 150 px and are provided in .JPG format. They are Interchangeable with literally 100s of our HTML CSS Templates. Get all 10 for only $10.00 USD.
1 family website template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1239). 
1 home mortgage website template was added today. View these new Template Designs (#1240). 
1 nursing website template was added today, Product ID: B1237T 
1 abstract website template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1235). This design has a removable web header graphic.
1 RV website template was added today. View this new Template Design (#1234). This design has a removable web header graphic.
