Have you ever wondered exactly which size banners are standard?  Are you putting together a package of banners for a site and aren't sure which sizes you should make?  This chart of standard banner sizes will help: Designers Toolbox Standard Banner Sizes Chart

The chart includes standard sizes as well as common but not standard sizes used.  Keep in mind that you can make a banner or button any size you choose.  The space allowed, as well as the rules of the website where your banner will show, determine the sizes you should use. Always check with the website you plan to advertise on for banner sizes allowed.  While you are checking, see if animation or Flash can be used or not, and get a list of rules and restrictions so you can be sure to comply with the website's rules.

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This is a difficult subject to bring up with clients, since they already have an idea in their mind about what they want on a website.  It is a necessary subject though, since it can directly effect the success of the site.  

As you go over the planning stage of a design with a client, or as you plan your own site, list what you think will be a great benefit to the surfers who would visit your site.  Then consider the following:  Does the "tool" or "feature" make my site load too slowly?  Does it make the site inaccessible by some people?  Does it distract the surfer from their meaning for being there?  Is it functional?  Does it work into my goals or is it merely a neat flashy thing that the site really doesn't need?  

All of these questions will direct you to include the most functional, appropriate features to include on your site.  Your main goal should be getting potential clients/customers to your site, giving them what they want or need quickly and concisely, and making sure you lead them through your site in such a way as to earn the most you can from that person.  And earning isn't always looked at in terms of how much they spent on one visit.  Your goal should be to have them spending a good amount on this visit and the next and the next and the next and so on.  You also want them to tell other people about your site.  If your site takes too long to load, is missing large areas due to incompatible scripts or code that won't show on their browser, or is just generally too busy for them to focus on their reason for being there, they won't spend money and they won't be back.   

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Ever wonder where all that Lorum Ipsum stuff in website templates comes from?  Well…it's been used for an extremely long time by printers and publishers to verify that a layout will look fine once the final text is put in.  It's Latin (which most of us can't read) and won't distract the person viewing the overall layout.  Having common recognizable words distracts people.  Lorum Ipsum text also has the same appearance as normal text so it gives a very good indication how your work will look with real content placed in it.

The Lorum Ipsum tool is great, it generates Lorum Ipsum type text for your website.  You simply tell it how many words or paragraphs you need and it puts it up for you to copy and paste into your site.

Check out the tool here:  http://www.lipsum.com/    

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Sometimes you know the colors you want to use for a design and sometimes you don’t. For those times you really aren’t sure you can use a nifty little tool such as Color Schemer’s Online Color Scheme Generator.

Even if you know a few colors you want to use, but not what colors would look best for accents, you can use the color scheme generator and save yourself lots of time wasted by selecting multiple colors. You can see right on the screen how it will look, how it contrasts with your existing colors, and even see other recommendations that you never would have thought went together.

This is one tool you should bookmark, it comes in handy.

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Every know it all Internet marketer will be jumping all over the recent announcement of the DMA’s (Direct Marketing Association) decision to launch the first and only recognizable SEM certification program.  The announcement will be certain to draw a larger than normal crowd to San Francisco in October of 2006 where the first set of classes will be offered.

Up until now the only way an Internet Marketer has been able to obtain employment in the industry was through a work portfolio where they displayed there knowledge of SEO, SEM and PPC.  Now with this new certification by the DMA there is a new option for employers to consider when looking at hiring someone to handle in house or even out house SEO.  This certification can quiet possible separate the SEO Duds from the SEO Studs.

Four out of ten level one modules will be offered in San Francisco this October.  The modules are orchestrated by well known SEO Industry names and are sure to pack quiet an in-depth punch of the covered topics.

Be sure to find SEOFox at DMA this year and if you happen to miss us then be sure to find our flyer within your DMA goody bag!

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