Webmastering for Dummies

Contents

Introduction

Who You Are and What You Already Know

What This Book Covers

Part I: Who You Are and Where You Start

Part II: Building: Organize, Implement, Deploy, Launch

Part III: Winning: Promote Your Site and Assess Its Success

Part IV: Working: Get Credentials, Get Hired, Hire Others

Part V: The Part of Tens

How to Use This Book

Icons Used in This Book

Contacting the Authors

Off You Go

Part I: Who You Are and Where You Start

Chapter 1: What Webmasters Really, Really Do

Webmaster Roles and Reasons for Being

The Webmaster as visionary

The Webmaster as evangelist

The Webmaster as business strategist

The Webmaster as manager of expectations

The Webmaster as creative implementer

The Five Types of Webmasters

The tech Webmaster

The content Webmaster

The design and production Webmaster

The marketing or business Webmaster

The executive Webmaster

Chapter 2: Your Site's Goals Define Everything Else

Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize

What happens when you lose focus

What you gain by setting goals and planning

What Exactly Are You Doing Here?

The Basic Purposes of Web Sites

Defining the Opportunity

Identifying your audience

Considering international and regional audiences

Taking a look at the competition

Branding: Creating a Recognizable Identity

Defining the Business Model

Revenue models we know and love

Budgeting people and equipment

Establishing the Meaning of Success
Writing a Mission Statement

Chapter 3: Creating Content of Consequence

What the Heck Is Content?

Designing Content to Achieve Goals

Approaching Content Strategically

Content, community, commerce: The three Cs

Context: The fourth C

Consequence: A new C for a new decade

Creating a strategic foundation

Creating branding via content

Developing Content
Making Content More Usable

Keep it short, chunk it up

Assign on-screen real estate wisely

Use summaries and the inverted pyramid model

Leveraging Linking

Keeping Content Fresh

Decide which content must be evergreen

Avoid the generic and overused

When to break the rules

Planning ahead for content maintenance

Using the Right Media for the Occasion

Writing for Web Sites

Keep it plain, Jane

Use lists for scannability

Write sales copy that sells

Watch out for adjacency

Work those keywords

Attend to the microcontent

Going International

A Word on Wireless

The Big Deal about Broadband

Chapter 4: Building Community for Fun and Profit

What Community Truly Is

What Community Can Do for You

Technologies and Techniques for Community

E-mail mailing lists: Newsletters and discussions

Message boards: Web-based discussions

Can we chat?

Online conferencing, wireless, and broadband

Getting Return on Your Community Investment

Issuing the Invitation

A Warm and Hearty Welcome

Providing Value and Security

To Moderate or Not?

Managing Community Tools

Chapter 5: E-Commerce in All Its Forms

E-Commerce Is Business Conducted Online

B2C in action

B2B in action

New business models for a new century

The e-commerce winning formula

Selling Online: What Works

Know your customers inside out

Always keep one eye on the competition

Set realistic goals and benchmarks

Build trust and then keep it

What sells online

Why information is challenging

Save a Bundle: Provide Customer Care

Why online customer care matters

The best in customer care

Chapter 6: Budgeting Tips and Tactics

How Often to Budget

Tips for Approaching the Budgeting Process

What Budgets Look Like

Elements of the Spreadsheet Columns and Rows

General Types of Expenses

Infrastructure

Production

Ongoing support

Specific Activities that Inspire Budget Categories

Planning

Content development and editorial

Architecture, storyboarding, and creating navigational maps

Design

Technical development

Production

Reviewing and site testing

Deployment

Marketing the site

Maintenance

What's It Really Going to Cost

To build

To maintain

ROI Meets Management Buy-In

Chapter 7: Legal Bugaboos for the Lay Webmaster

Intellectual Property and Web Real Estate

Intellectual property laws

Who owns what on a Web site

The Large and Small of Copyright Law

What is a copyright?

How copyright law works

Posting a copyright notice

Infringement myths and realities

Public Domain and the Fair-Use Follies

A Licensing Lowdown

Work for Hire and What It Means

Trademark Tips and Tricks

What a trademark protects

The difference between ™ and ®

Registering a trademark

Trade Dress Is Look and Feel

Clip Art, Photography, Sampling, and You

What You Buy When You Buy Original Visual Art

Linking and the Law

What Is Your Business Liability?

What About Slander and Libel?

Part II: Building: Organize, Implement, Deploy, Launch

Chapter 8: Creating Your Site's Framework

Getting Organized Makes Life Easier

First, Pull Together Content
Group Content and Activities

Identifying types of content

Doing the grouping two-step

Establish Hierarchies Where Once There Were None

Building the hierarchy

Bunching pages into organized "types"

Drawing the site map

Create Storyboards for the Site

Structure the Site's Directories

Some technical backstory

Mirroring the site's structure

Special directories for special purposes

Mapping the directories

Database? I Don't Need a Stinking Database -- Do I?

Putting Together an RFP and Specs that Work

Chapter 9: HTML, Beyond HTML, and Son of HTML

The Basics of HTML (Just in Case)

What makes up a Web page?

Play by the rules

HTML Authoring and Editing Tools

Look Stylish with Cascading Style Sheets

Fast Forward to XML

A brief history of XML

Looking Good to Everyone

Who uses which Web browsers?

Making a friendly site

Designing for wireless

What's up with broadband?

Graphics, Images, and Art

Image types you will encounter

Preparing images for the Web

Why Even Include Interactive Content?

Implementing Interactive Content

Chapter 10: Jobbing Out to a Web Shop or Developer

The Pluses and Minuses of Outsourcing

Types of Shops You May Encounter

Front-end shops and back-end shops

Some specialists are very special

About ISPs and Internet presence providers

Ad agencies as front-end firms

Design firms large and small

Finding Qualified Web Shops

Judging experience

References are paramount

Judging style and substance

Plays well with others

They listen, but do they hear?

The day after: Now what?

Defining the Project

What You Are Going to Pay

What drives rates

Negotiating fees

Deciphering Contracts and NDAs

Nothing is carved in stone (until it is)

Intellectual property and copyrights

Nondisclosure agreements

Maintaining Vendor Relationships

Chapter 11: Under the Hoods of a Few Good Servers

Servers and Platforms and Software -- Oh My!

Selecting a Server Platform

Windows 2000 Server or NT Server

UNIX and Linux

The Many Types of Servers

A Thing or Three About Application Servers

What Microsoft and Sun offer

Other, more accessible options

All the Best Web-Server Software

Microsoft's Web-server software

Apache Web-server software

iPlanet's Web-server software

Running Your Server Yourself

Why bother?

The hardware you need

All about administration

Connecting to the Internet

Getting around the firewall

Keeping Your Server Running 24/7

Chapter 12: Dealing with ISPs and Hosting Companies

The Typical Services Offered

Your Level-of-Service Options

Questions to Ask an ISP or Hosting Company

How Hosting Service Costs Compare

The contingency plan

Long-distance hosting

Leasing a server

Getting quotes and haggling

Painful Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

The bandwidth follies

Counting the clock ticks

Doing the hosting company shuffle

Expanding your universe

Chapter 13: Databases for the Masses

What Exactly Is a Database?

A Good Database May Be the Backbone of Your Site

Understanding Types of Databases

About flat-file databases

About relational databases

About object databases

Light-Duty Databases and Their Uses

mSQL

Microsoft Access

The Big Bruisers and What They're Good For

Oracle

Microsoft SQL Server

PostgreSQL

Middleware: The Glue That Binds

Requirements for Database Server Machines

Talking to Database Developers

A Few Words on Database Maintenance

Chapter 14: Transaction Systems Made Easy

How Online Shopping Works

Those Not-So-Identical Twins: Security and Commerce

Why security counts

Security and commerce basics

Secure Servers and You

Advantages and disadvantages of secure servers

What you need

What security "looks" like

Security and online transactions

Clarifying Your Business Rules

The Deep Skinny on Transaction Systems

Building your own transaction system

Buying customizable prepackaged systems

Outsourcing the whole thing

The Myriad Challenges of Fulfillment

Part III: Winning: Promote Your Site and Assess Its Success

Chapter 15: Marketing and Promoting Your Web Site

The Foundation of Web Site Marketing

Know What Works

The model is permission, not interruption

Mix and match

Do What's Easy and Obvious

Send E-Mail Newsletters

Create and acquire compelling content

Use fabulous formatting

Treat subscribers well indeed

Create Backlinks and Trade Links

Check your backlinks

Get backlinks

Trade links

Form Alliances and Partnerships

Set up an affiliates program

Sponsor someone else's site

Extend your reach with cobranding

Make the Most of Banner Ads

Get optimum results

Create effective ads

Understand types of ad buys

Get Savvy to Good Media

Assemble press materials

Create media kits

Write a press release

Contact the press

Add a press room to your Web site

Chapter 16: Getting in Good with Search Engines

The Truth About Search Engines, Directories, and Portals

How search engines work

How directories work

How portals work

How You Can Get Tip-Top Ranking

Get popular -- it counts

Optimize your design

HEAD tags, TITLE tags, and META tags -- what they mean to you

Use META tags well

Preventing Selected Pages from Being Searched

Submitting with Savvy

Checking Your Ranking

Chapter 17: Measuring and Monitoring Success

What Success Looks Like

Basing measurements on goals

Choosing the right traffic measurements

Measuring media presence

Measuring sales, distribution, revenue, or savings

Measuring information gathered and reported

Where Measuring Is Going to Get You
What You Can Know
Reading Log Files
How Traffic Measurements Are Calculated

Hits

Impressions

Visitors

Unique users

Clickpaths

Choosing Tools to Make Measuring Traffic Easier
Counting on Third-Party Audits
Getting Cozy with User Input

Soliciting user input via e-mail

Getting input via online surveys

What to Do About What You Learn
Take a Look at Yourself

Part IV: Working: Get Credentials, Get Hired, Hire Others

Chapter 18: Hiring and Getting Hired
Assessing and Getting Credentials

Finding Talented, Smart People

In-house staff with transferable skills

Other fields

Universities, colleges, and training programs

Getting Experience
Who's Who on the Web Site Team
Determining Staffing Levels
Placing and Finding Job Listings
Where Webmasters Meet, Greet, and Network
Chapter 19: What to Ask Before You Take That Start-Up Job
Who's Who Here?
Where's the Cash Coming From?
What's the Plan?
Are the Goals Defined and Achievable?
What's the Competition?
Does This Company Have What It Takes?
What Are the Terms?
What Is the Company's Culture?
Will This Job Further Your Goals?

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 20: Ten Techniques for Hyper-Effective Project Management
Break It Down
Decide Who's Accountable for What
Determine Who Needs Who
Assess Task Lengths and Create Deadlines
Assign Resources
Refine Your Plan; Have Contingency Plans
Use the Right Tools
Communicate, Revise, Update
Recognize and Reward Achievement
Conduct Post-Mortems (Really)

Chapter 21: Ten Tip-Offs That It's Time to Redesign
Technology Is Marching Forward
You Have Tantalizing New Features
Audience Feedback Suggests Modification
Current Fashion Is Evolving
Your Business Model Has Changed
Whoa! Part of Your Site Is Profitable
You're Repositioning
You've Merged, Partnered, Been Acquired, or Spun Off
Redesigning Will Create Hullabaloo
You Inherited a Site with (Ahem) Problems

Chapter 22: Ten Pointers Toward Content Management Mastery
Think Strategically
Automate Processes
Select the Right Software
Make Quality a Priority
Create a Style Guide
Make Your Style Guide a Living Document
Establish a Workable Review Process
Clarify the Review Team's Roles
Put Your Style Guide through the Review Process
Track Feedback and Act on It

Index