My 2¢ Worth

ack to the Web standards I talked about a couple weeks ago. Many people have said to me, "That's all fine and good, but I don't even know where to begin."

k. You don't have to do this all at once. Take baby steps and learn as you go. A good place to begin is by making sure you are using the proper DOCTYPE (or DTD) in your HTML documents.

hy a DOCTYPE? Per HTML and XHTML standards, a DOCTYPE (short for "document type declaration") informs the validator which version of (X)HTML you're using, and must appear at the very top of every web page. DOCTYPEs are a key component of compliant web pages: your markup and CSS won't validate without them. DOCTYPEs are also essential to the proper rendering and functioning of web documents in compliant browsers like Mozilla, IE5/Mac, and IE6/Win.

 recent DOCTYPE that includes a full URI (a complete web address) tells these browsers to render your page in standards-compliant mode, treating your (X)HTML, CSS, and DOM as you expect them to be treated. Using an incomplete or outdated DOCTYPE — or no DOCTYPE at all — throws these same browsers into "Quirks" mode, where the browser assumes you've written old-fashioned, invalid markup and code. In this setting, the browser will attempt to parse your page in backward-compatible fashion, rendering your CSS as it might have looked in IE4, and reverting to a proprietary, browser-specific DOM. (IE reverts to the IE DOM; Mozilla and Netscape 6 revert to who knows what.)

ow do I know which DTD to use and where might I find a list of DTDs? Check out the W3C Web site. The W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) sets the standards. Spend some time exploring the site and you will become a better Webmaster.

ne last thing; before I forget: Web Sm@rts will not be published next week as with any luck I should be on the Crow Wing River. A mini vacation, if you will. See you in two weeks.

Feature Article

Is Starting An Online Business For You?

by: Dan Farrell Build An eBusiness On A Shoestring

Working at home has been a dream of many that goes back many years. Staying at home and enjoying watching the kids grow up is a goal worth fighting for.

Let's take a look into making a living or part time living from the comfort of your home. You owe it to yourself to gain the freedom a home business can offer.

In the past, there have been multi-level marketing plans to sell everything from vitamins to soap. There have been mail order catalog opportunities. Many tried buying and selling real estate. Each of these opportunities made many people a lot of money, but each of them also cost many people more money.

More people have spent money than have made money in every business venture.

The problem is many inexperienced people get into moneymaking schemes after attending a meeting somewhere. The offer may be legitimate, but most people fail in business.

According to the US Small Business Administration, over 50% of small businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail with the first five years. That is a scary statistic.

This means that the average business is doomed to fail from the beginning. It also means that you will lose a lot of money if you start a business. WOW! No wonder you are leery about putting up your hard-earned cash for what is statically a crapshoot, a roll of the dice.

So, what is the answer for the average person who does not want to lose their savings and even their home equity in a business? Start building a "digital business" online. Create a website that generates its income without you needing to invest in inventory or even lease a building to house your business. Then create two or ten more websites generating income for you.

You may not know how to create a website today. It is an easily learned skill. There is software you can buy or download free that will help you. There are tutorials on making a website profitable. You can do this.

Once you have a website online you can put other people’s advertising on your site and be paid when someone buys one of their products. This is called affiliate marketing. If this was my baby toys webpage and I mentioned a great baby toy with a link to my advertiser’s toy page you might go there and buy the toy. If you did, I would get a commission.

You could also put ads on your pages that only require someone to click on the ad for you to be paid. Again, if you were on my baby toy page and an ad talks about a toy. You click on the ad to go see it and I am paid for you clicking on the ad.

The advertiser feels their sales page is compelling enough for them to sell enough of that toy to cover their cost of the clicks that got you there.

Some advertisers do not require you to buy the product when you click on an ad, but you will not be paid unless you fill out their application. This is usually seen on sites like insurance sites or loan application sites. You do not have to get a policy or take out a loan for me to be paid. When you fill out the form, I qualify for my commission for sending you to the advertiser.

These are typically the ways a beginning website entrepreneur starts generating income on the Internet. Once you understand that part of internet marketing, you may move on to selling your own digital products.

A digital product is one that can be downloaded from your website. You can sell your own ebook you wrote yourself or an ebook you purchased and have the rights to sell online.

If you are a programmer, you can sell you own computer program from your site.

You could also sell someone else's program that you purchased the rights to sell. Notice that not all of the above ideas require you to invest in a lot of inventory. Even the products are free if you create them yourself. Not everything you are doing so far requires a large investment of your hard earned money. It does require a large investment of your time.

All of the material you need to create a website can be found free online if you do not want to purchase some popular program. Your only expense SHOULD be a domain of your own, such as yourdomain.com. You can get free hosting from various places but for moneymaking venture, this is not advised.

For a small investment, you too can be PRESIDENT OF YOUR OWN COMPANY.

Maybe the statistics are the same for success online as they are in other businesses, but this is a chance to find out without losing the farm doing it.

The reason most online / home based businesses fail or never make any money, is because of the lack of a plan. As with a brick and mortar, offline, business you have to know where you want to go, how you will get there and when. The old saying, "those who fail to plan, plan to fail" has never been more true than building an online business.

**************

Dan Farrell is the owner of "Newbie's Guide To Online Fortunes" offering 40+ hot niche market ideas to start your own business. Plus a step by step video tutorials on exactly how to start, build and make money with your online business. www.newbie-online-fortunes.com/

Letting visitors search your page

Here is a very cool little script that will allow your visitors to search the page for specific words. If you have a lot of content on your page, this can be a useful tool to help your visitors find exactly what they are looking for. This would be especially useful for technical documents or other lengthy pieces of text that visitors would otherwise have to search through to find the term they are really looking for.

This first part of our function is the actual Javascript. It's always good practice to place your scripts within the <head> of your HTML document, but it's not necessary.

<script language="JavaScript"> var NS4 = (document.layers); var IE4 = (document.all); var win = window; var n = 0; function findInPage(str) { var txt, i, found; if (str == "") return false; if (NS4) { if (!win.find(str)) while(win.find(str, false, true)) n++; else n++; if (n == 0) alert("Not found."); } if (IE4) { txt = win.document.body.createTextRange(); // Find the nth match from the top of the page. for (i = 0; i <= n && (found = txt.findText(str)) != false; i++) { txt.moveStart("character", 1); txt.moveEnd("textedit"); } if (found) { txt.moveStart("character", -1); txt.findText(str); txt.select(); txt.scrollIntoView(); n++; } else { if (n > 0) { n = 0; findInPage(str); } else alert("Not found."); } } return false; } </script>

Now that you have your script in place, you need a way for your visitors to actually use it. We do this by adding an HTML form to the page, so people can enter terms to search.

<form name="search" onSubmit="return findInPage(this.string.value);"> <font size=3><input name="string" type="text" size=15 onChange="n = 0;"></font><input type="submit" value="Find"></form>

Note that unidentified terms return a customizable error prompt. As well, this script parses through each repeated value until it reaches the end of the text on the page. It does not matter if you have the form above or below the page contents, it seeks all text on the page. It would obviously be most handy to install the form at the top of the page.

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

Home Computers - What's right for you?

by: Helodi Armen RCU Computers

There are many types of computers you can find if you look for them. Some are large and take up a whole room, while others actually fit in the palm of your hand. The kinds of computers which are commonly seen today include mainframe computers, desktop computers, laptop computers, and handheld computers. When looking for a computer for your home, you have several choices.

For those unfamiliar with the common home computer (yes that is still common today), there are several parts; there is the CPU (central processing unit) which is the actual computer that is usually housed in a box if you have a desktop computer. This box contains the microprocessor, memory, storage, and any display or input/output devices. You will also have the more visible components such as a keyboard, mouse, monitor and sometimes speakers and a printer.

The two specific categories of computers are : PCs and Macs;
~~PCs are computers that run on standards and components that are created by IBM. As much as 90 percent of all personal computers are PCs. Some of the companies that manufacture them are IBM, HP, Gateway, Dell and many more.
~~Macs (short for Macintosh) are personal computers manufactured by the Apple Company. While there still are some die hard fans of the Mac, they are not as popular as they used to be. However, some of the newer models like the Imacs are attempting to stage a comeback and are doing well.

You can use personal computers for many tasks, like word processing, personal and business correspondence and finance, internet searching, photography, and graphic design and publishing. You can also have a lot of fun on personal computers playing games and watching movies!

When you are ready to get a personal computer for yourself, you will need to determine the type of user you will likely be. Would you be someone that is constantly on the computer and run complex programs or play high end games loaded with heavy graphics? Will you be an average user doing common tasks like word processing email, etc? Or would you be the type that occasionally uses the computer for really simple tasks . Whatever your type, it would be useful to know before you go shopping for a personal computer.

There are some basic elements of personal computers you should know when heading to the electronics store: the processor, RAM, floppy disk and CD-ROM drives, hard disk drive, sound card, speakers, monitor, modem and graphics card. When you decided what kind of user you plan to be, that will help you decide just ~how much~ of everything listed here you will need. When you find out what you need, that will determine the overall cost of your personal computer.

**************

Helodi Armen is the chairman and operator of RCU Computers - an excellent resource for information on computers. For questions or comments about this article, please visit: www.rcucomputers.com

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