Web Development and E-Commerce Articles

Alpha-eBiz is a source for independent articles, information, scripts, product reviews, solutions and opinions regarding e-commerce, Web design, Web development, search engine optimization and creating a great user environment for your customers.
Our goal is to provide useful tips for anyone looking for e-commerce and Web development answers for specific problems.
We have just completely updated the site with new articles and information for site owners with e-commerce web sites.
Whether you are just starting out or are an experienced entrepreneur, we hope you will find tips and information to help you to build and improve your e-commerce site.
If you have a question about any of the articles we post, feel free to ask your question in the comment section for each post.
If we have the answer, we will publish it. :o)
October 1st, 2007
If you have a web site that displays an e-mail address or if it has a form that people can use to submit comments or questions, you undoubtedly have received requests for link exchanges. These are also called reciprocal links. What most people do not realize is that the vast majority of these requests are fraudulent and provides no benefit to your site.
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Search Engines | No Comments »
September 12th, 2007
Validation assures that your HTML or XHTML code is compliant with industry standards. This in turn means that your Web pages should render (display) without errors in a browser. It also helps assure that the code can be easily read by search engine spiders. Sometimes a coding error can make it difficult for spiders to read a web page, and although this is rare, the issue is eliminated through proper validation.
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Posted in Web Site Design | No Comments »
September 10th, 2007
Browser testing can be an annoyance but is necessary due to inherent incompatibilities between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla’s FireFox, further incompatibilities between different versions of the same browser (mostly IE issues), as well as numerous bugs that were never fixed in some versions. This situation has always existed and started way back when Netscape and Microsoft jockeyed for the top market share position. Each introduced a number of new features that were not always recognized by the other, and both companies were guilty of frequently ignoring the established W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards in favor of their own standard-setting desires.
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Posted in Web Site Design | No Comments »
September 6th, 2007
Do you want to start up an e-commerce web site? Do you understand what is involved with this type of venture before you get into it? While setting up a successful e-commerce site has never been an easy task, the challenge has grown exponentially over the past few years due to the enormous growth of the web. This post covers many–but not all–issues that you should be aware of before you invest in an e-commerce site. In today’s highly competitive global markets, only the very strong or the most innovative will survive.
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Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2007
This is the catch-all page for short and sweet Internet marketing questions and answers. If you have an Internet marketing question, just submit it as a comment. If we can answer it, we will post the answer as an additional post or we may just include the answer on this page. There are no stupid questions with Internet marketing. All of us started out asking the same questions that you are wondering about today.
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Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »
September 2nd, 2007
Page weight is the total size in bytes for all code, content, images and objects that must be downloaded from a Web server to a first-time visitor’s browser. Why is this important? Because page weight is primary factor in Web site performance, and Web site performance is a key factor in retaining users on a Web site.
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Posted in Web Site Design | No Comments »
September 1st, 2007
Google offers a few query commands, also called operators, that can be used to analyze a Web site–and about the competition for your selected keyword phrases. The following is a brief list of the most useful query operators. Just substitute your domain name for "mydomain.com" or your search keywords for "green" and "widgets". Don’t be afraid to try them. They are easy to use.
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Posted in Web Site Design | No Comments »
September 1st, 2007
If you are looking for additional ways to sell your products outside of your main web site, there are alternative marketing and sales channels to consider. While eBay is currently the 800 pound gorilla in this arena, it is not the only marketing channel available for small web site owners. Check out this list of sites offering both auctions and fixed price alternatives for Internet marketers.
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Posted in Internet Auctions, Internet Marketing | No Comments »
August 26th, 2007
E-commerce sites walk a fine line with users. If the site is friendly, easy-to-use, attuned to your audience and the products presented properly, the site should convert visitors to users. However, most e-commerce sites do not work convert visitors as well as they should because they are lacking in features that build trust and help convert visitors into customers.
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Web Site Design | No Comments »
August 17th, 2007
JavaScript is a very flexible client-side scripting language that adds interactive features to a Web page. A client-side language runs in a user’s browser. Although JavaScript can also be used as a server-side language (runs on a Web server), it’s primary use in Web development is to add interactive features, such as HTML form input validation, image swapping, mouse rollover effects, drop-down navigational menus, moving objects and other interesting effects, to the user experience.
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Posted in Web Site Design | No Comments »