| LED Digest 2285: How Long Will You Wait? Load Times |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Registration from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. November 9, 2006 Issue no. 2285 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= <Moderator Comment> ~ LED Library --== HTML Editors ==-- ~ Tom Anson "...I've found Dreamweaver to be pretty clean, for the most part." ~ Barry Mills "I think what you need is...a simple content management system..." --== Web Accelerator and Traffic Stats ==-- ~ Veronica Yuill "Yes! Yes!! YES!!! rang round the office here when I read Tom's post." ~ Waitman Gobble "There are several network operators setting up an army of transparent proxies..." ~ Nathan Holley "Apparently 4 seconds is the 'magic threshold' where enough-is-enough..." --== Click Fraud ==-- ~ Al Toman "PPC: Promoting Poor Content" ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Some Google Love ==-- ~ John Brumage ======== CONTINUING =============================== <Moderator Comment> You may have noticed a mention I made recently about working with a select group of authors to set up the LED Library (which is really more of a bookstore). This is a collection of carefully selected ebooks that we'll offer to the list on discount. Well, there was a large response and I've narrowed down the field to a handful of truly helpful, quality resources. The first of these is just about ready to announce. It's a unique ebook with material related to the Web design field and contains some valuable add-ons, such as useful contracts and proposals. I'm working with the author to get a 10% discount to LED readers. This should be set up by the middle of next week. I'll keep you posted. Hope it's a great week, Adam ------------------- From: Tom Anson Subject: HTML editors > Does anyone know a good website editor? - Mary Findley, LED Digest 2284 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1326/55/ Hi Mary -- and other LEDers, What website editor would I recommend? Dreamweaver. This is a discussion that we've had before (and which generally turns into a debate between hand-coding and using an editor), so I know there are others in this group who feel strongly pro and con about Dreamweaver; but really, I think it's a wonderful tools. I doubt that there's an WYSIWYG editor out there that doesn't do some strange things with the code once in a while, but I've found Dreamweaver to be pretty clean, for the most part. Another feature I love is the split window, so you can work in either code view or display view at the same time. (It's also a great way to learn some HTML.) Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials http://www.therapeutic-grade.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Barry Mills Subject: HTML editors Mary - from what you say, I don't think you really need an editor. I think what you need is the frequently changing areas of your site to be updatable with a simple content management system, that lets you or one of your team update the pages through a form, without any risk that you could break anything. That way, you can stop worrying about the technicalities of your web site and get on with running your business. Please don't confuse what I'm talking about with the out of a box kind of content management systems you have to set up yourself and spend lots of time and money on. All you should need do is have a quick chat with a decent web development firm and then let them set it up so you can edit the pages you need to via a secure admin system you can access from anywhere in the world. It's not rocket science and any half decent web agency should be able to do this, but drop me a line off-list if you need any help. It's never going to pay you back to learn to maintain a small site yourself imho, because it's going to take you quantum amounts longer to figure out how to do things than an experienced professional, so in the time you might spend on it you will probably be earning / saving less than you would putting the same time in doing some shifts at McDonalds. Barry S Mills, Managing Director Netstep Corporate Communications http://www.netstep.co.uk -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Web Accelerator > Do you think, just maybe, too many pages are too big...? > Do too many pages use too many graphics? ... Do too > many pages contain too many bells and whistles? - Tom Aman, LED Digest 2284 Yes! Yes!! YES!!! rang round the office here when I read Tom's post. Like him we can't have broadband because of where we live. Far too many site owners seem to assume that "everyone has broadband now" (or even "if they don't have broadband they can't afford my products anyway, so I'm not interested in them"). I'm slightly better off than Tom (we have a 64K ISDN line plus a flaky download-only satellite connection that gets up to 1Mb with a following wind). But if I have to wait a minute and a half for your home page to load (not uncommon, I can assure you), you can bet I'm not going to explore further -- I'll go elsewhere. So I find it rather galling that Google didn't even consider dialup users when developing its accelerator! There is a new "digital divide" opening up in developed countries between those who have broadband and those who don't, and it's only going to get worse as those areas that can't get broadband are simply abandoned by the telcos (France Telecom has told us that we'll never have DSL in our village, and if we want faster speeds it's up to us to find our own solution). Our clients in Paris who take 8Mb broadband and free phone calls for granted think it's a bit of a joke that we, as web developers, are struggling along on dialup. Even if you don't care about dialup users, it's also worth considering the needs of disabled visitors -- a graphics-rich or Flash-only site isn't accessible for many people, and laws such as Section 508 in the US and the DDA in the UK ought to make site owners think seriously about accessibility -- a text-only version of the site goes a long way to meeting the needs of many disabled visitors. Interesting to see that Canada Post see themselves as a public service organisation serving *all* sections of the community -- as Tom says it's a pity more sites don't take that approach. Regards Veronica Yuill Archetype IT http://www.archetype-it.com/english/ -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Waitman Gobble Subject: Web Accelerator > Google's new accelerator threatens to invalidate all traffic > data. The accelerator pre-fetches web pages to your browser > so, when you click on links, pages will appear immediately. > It means a lot of pages will be prefetched that are never viewed. - Shaun Johnston, LED Digest 2283 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1320/55/ Hi, What are you worried about? There are several network operators setting up an army of transparent proxies, right this second. They will serve your content from cache servers placed all over. You'll never know how much traffic you're getting. Forget about it. Reportedly Tim Berners-Lee has some anxiety with the way things are going. Check it out. Take care, Waitman Gobble -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Nathan Holley Subject: Load Times Load times load times load times! Say it three times fast. That's only half the time surfers will wait for your site, at least according to this article (actually press release): http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2006/press_110606.html Apparently 4 seconds is the "magic threshold" where enough-is-enough and people click away from a page. Of people that do abandon you, reportedly up to 75% will never return. All this sounds pretty dramatic. I think that even with this research (undertaken by a firm with loads of self-interest, by the way) the results can't be considered set in stone. For instance, if a network has a hiccup and eBay doesn't load up in 4 seconds, I probably won't abandon them. However, if I do a search and the result I choose doesn't come up, they may never see me again (unless I randomly happen upon them some time). Also - for me 4 seconds is nothing. Sounds like I'm not alone. 60-80 seconds is more like my pain threshold. Nathan Holley -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Al Toman Subject: Click Fraud > When I asked them where our MIVA ads were showing up that we > were being charged $300 for each month, they refused to tell me. - Mary Johnson, LED Digest 2281 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1301/55/ Dumb question: isn't this the kind of information one resolves PRIOR to spending $300 a pop times x-pops per each month? My rule of thumb that works very, very, very well for me, 132% of the time is, if it is a PPC sponsored ad, regardless if it appears on a SERP or a web page, don't click on it~!!! One knows that the advertiser paid big bucks for it and one knows that the advertiser needs to makeup that expense, therefore, is no longer competitive or will soon be out on the street. The GOOD news for this advertiser is, is that many 'normals' click it and the extreme 'normals' may actually buy from this advertiser. Personally, if I invest in searching down the organic SERPS a bit, I find some really sweet deals~! There are a TON of good organic marketers out there. If I really, really need to visit a PPC sponsored ad web site, I copy-paste its URL into the browser's address box. During the earlier days of PPC, I discovered that my domain, studio9.ws, was listed for sale on Amazing Dott Calm's PPC ad as well as Nex Tag's. Geeeze! PPC: Poor People Cruncher Promoting Poor Content Page's Profit Can Al Toman studio9.ws web design ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: John "Zeke" Brumage Subject: Love Google, and Google will Love you. Let me begin by saying i am one of google's oldest customers. Then, before i continue, i humbly beg you to google "google is the best interface" with the quotes. So what? its a 5-word phrase. Well, for starters, its a million dollar phrase. And according to Google, i created it. Why? Because i am passionate about the subject. I do not use (except accidentally) any other web search engine. My domain landing pages have included a genuine google search thingie since the beginning of time. Back in the days when google paid you 5 cents per search. When they stopped paying. (5 cents a click! don't you wish you could buy clicks that cheap?) They sent out a nice letter ending the promotion, with a unique parting gift. A lifetime branded google link. It's at the BOTTOM of my landing page zekes.com. The one on the top is the standard adsense for search. Google revolutionized search. Googlebot, the world's favorite silicon lifeform, knows more about your life than you remember, or have not experienced yet. Google knows your future, it deals these cybernetic tarot cards in the advertising. The greatest challenge for google will be the bean counters. Innovation requires human brains and the best are not cheap. The present management of google understands this, and spends a lot of money on creating a "cool workplace." Bean counters love stuff like that, extra millions in the quarterly profit with the stroke of a pen. It is the passion of the founders that keeps google on top. Ditto Steve Wynn, a personal hero of mine. So i can't speak for any other search engines. But i am convinced that Google detects and measures the passion and creativity that go into a website. Where is YOUR passion? Google some quotes from your own web pages. Sure, only one person in a billion will search the entire phrase. But google knows if its original, and awards juice for it. If you happen to find scraper sites or outright theft of your sparkling prose, it's a side benefit. John Brumage ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2006 Orange Wheel, LLC. 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