This document provides an overview of topics for webmasters, including domain registration, web design, web programming, web hosting, e-commerce, search engines, pay-per-click advertising, Alexa analytics, and affiliate networks. It discusses choosing a domain name and registrar, options for web design like templates and content management systems, client-side and server-side programming, shared vs dedicated hosting, setting up an online storefront, search engine optimization, Google AdWords, using Alexa for site analytics, and popular affiliate networks.

1. Webmasters 101 By Yuval Tochner

2. Table Of Contents Introduction Domain Registration Web Design Web Programming Web Hosting E-Commerce Search Engines PPC Search Engines Alexa Affiliate Networks Link / Traffic Exchange Bibliography

3. Introduction

4. Introduction The purpose of this lecture Internet Snapshot – Webmasters Eyes Going online Getting Traffic Webmasters Tools Generating Revenue Joining the Webmasters community

5. Internet Statistics – Sites Basic Internet Statistics: 35 Million hostnames (www.yourdomain.something) 16 Million active sites 4 Million IP addresses Lots of template sites, empty sites, redirections. Survey done by HTTP querying of known hostnames. (Netcraft)

6. Template Site Examples

7. Template Site Example (cont)

8. Parked Domain Example

9. Internet Statistics - People About 150 million people are active Internet users. About 700 million have Internet access. Users Languages: 1/3 English, 1/18 Japanese, 1/18 Chinese, 1/25 Germen… (NetCraft)

10. Domain Registration

11. Domain Registration What is a domain ? www.DomainName.X Where X is a TLD (Top Level Domain) such as: Generic: .com, .net, .org, .biz, .pro, .name, .info, .. Country Code: .il, .uk, .jp, .de, … New: In the future many others Who’s in charge of TLD’s ?? Currently: ICANN - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Past: Network Solutions (US Government Contractor)

12. Domain Registration (Cont) Why do I need a domain ? IP alone – not a good idea ! Free sub-domain / user options. www.sub.domain.com www.domain.com/~user Site branding (.com hype story) What is a good / great domain ? Easy to brand – Meaningful for site content Easy to remember – avoid special characters, short. Search engines friendly – long with keywords Cyber Squatting / free traffic

13. Finding a domain Are any good domain names left ? Yes and No So how do I find a good domain ? The WHOIS service – all Verisign (past Network Solutions) registrars. Problem: Registrars using their own databases The BetterWhois service– all ICANN registrars and Verisign. Intelligent registration services

14. Finding a good domain See www.Register.com

15. BillClinton.com WHOIS

16. Finding a great domain (cont) The “best” domains are usually taken and are offered for sale !!! What makes a domain worth anything ?? See www.GreatDomains.com for such. The truly great domains are very expensive.

17. GreatDomains.com Sales

18. Registering a domain You can register a domain for a yearly fee of between $6.95 to $30 depending on the registrar and TLD. Services offered: Domain name parking Free website e-mail services Auto renew Use well known domain registrars: Cheap and good: www.GoDaddy.com Expensive and good: www.Register.com

19. Web Design

20. Web Design Available options: Build it yourself Code it (Notepad, EditPlus, XEmacs…) Use Tools (Adobe GoLive, FrontPage, Dreamweaver) Build using pre-made components Use site templates Use pre-made content management systems Have it made professionally (Not going to talk about this in a webmasters 101 lecture).

21. Web Design – Build it yourself Writing your own HTML’s manually Fine for tiny – small sites. Costly Don’t unless you have very good reasons too Using site building tools: Build a web site quickly and professionally Many optional pre built features, see FrontPage Extensions. Most webmasters use these tools. Unlike writing your own C++ code, writing your own HTML files does not give you better results.

22. Web Design – Build it yourself Example

23. Use pre-made components Site Templates Building a professional looking site requires talent and experience. Graphic design and interface of site has huge importance: Loading Speed Look and feel effects visitors stickiness Most visitors only visit the homepage and then leave

24. Use pre-made components (cont) Consider giving your site a professional look using 50-100$ templates. See http://www.templatemonster.com/

25. Use pre-made components (cont 2) Use pre-made content management systems. Just customize the look and feel, and have a professional content management site ready to go. Available features: Content handling, FAQ, Surveys, Clubs, Stories, Site Statistics, Bulletin boards, Ads management, Search options, and much more.

26. Use pre-made components (cont 3) – Example PHPNuke

27. Use pre-made components (cont 3) – Example PHPNuke Used in Israel www.8200.org

28. Web Programming

29. Web Programming Client-Side Scripting Server-Side Scripting / Applications

30. Web Programming – Client Side Overview: processing simple requests , maintaining state , GUI . Why: Fast (client side) Cheap (less bandwidth, CPU power, cut down server load by 80% on complex applications ). How JavaScript – Netscape VBScript - Internet Explorer (Micro$oft) DHTML (HTML + CSS + JavaScript/VBScript) Problems: Netscape Vs Micro$oft Quick jobs with little complexity

31. Web Programming – Client Side (cont) Java Applets - Extremely powerful and portable. Why : Need Client Side power, unparallel by scripting languages. Why Not: Slow loading Security restrictions by Java (Disk access / Server access). Client side support. Not very popular these days…

32. Web Programming – Server Side Many different technologies: .NET, ASP, PHP, JSP, CGI (Perl, C / C++) , Each technology has its own advantages and disadvantages – they are not all competing. ASP / PHP: Most popular server side scripting languages, great for most dynamic content websites. .NET / JSP / Servlets: Application programming CGI (Usually Perl): Forum processing

33. Web Hosting

34. Web Hosting Site complete, time to go live. You need a web host and a web package. More then 10,000 web hosts available on the web, each with many available packages. Usually good idea to pick a host in the US, as more then 50% of surfers are from the US.

35. Web Hosting Options Shared Hosting (Virtual Hosting) - Web hosting in which the service provider serves pages for multiple Web sites, each having its own Internet domain name, from a single Web server. Virtual Server - a server (computer and various server programs) at someone else's location that is shared by multiple Web site owners so that each owner can use and administer it as though they had complete control of the server Dedicated Server (Dedicated Hosting) - The rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a Web server, related software, and connection to the Internet, housed in the Web hosting company's premises.

36. Web Hosting - OS Choosing an OS (Standard options) Windows 2000 Servers Complete support for all popular Microsoft applications including .NET, MS Access, SQL 2000, Active Server Pages, MS Index Servers, FrontPage 2002 Rule of Thumb: choose Windows only if these technologies are needed. UNIX / Linux Apache Servers Suitable for meeting most Internet requirements, such as mailing, streaming, Web servers, and file serving. Cost-effective choice - it uses hardware efficiently. Huge number of free applications available on the Internet. Rule of Thumb: choose Linux unless you have a very good reason not too.

37. Web Hosting – OS (cont) Sun Solaris Proven track record and is deployed in many large Fortune 500 corporations. Mature platform and there are a large number of applications and development tools available. Sun's capacity and stability make it ideal for high-traffic functions, such as database servers, high-traffic Web servers and mission-critical servers. Free BSD FreeBSD is a very stable open source operating system, and a good alternative to Linux. Extremely well-integrated and tested system. It is inexpensive and there are a large number of free applications available. Free BSD is ideal for Web servers and virtual hosting servers.

38. Web Hosting – Features Basic Setting Price Setup Fee OS Disk Space Bandwidth Number of domains on account

39. Web Hosting – Features (cont) Email Setting Email Accounts (POP3, IMAP, Webmail) Auto Responders Vacation Messages Mail Forwarding Spam Filters

40. Web Hosting – Features (cont 2) File Managements FTP Accounts SQL Support – mySQL / SQL 2000 Password Protected Directories Technologies CGI-BIN Available Web Programming Technologies

41. Web Hosting Example

42. Web Hosting Example (cont)

43. Web Hosting Example – Same Price, Different Features

44. Web Hosting – Site Statistics

45. Web Hosting – Site Statistics (cont)

46. Web Hosting – Site Statistics (cont 2)

47. Web Hosting – Site Statistics (cont 3)

48. Web Hosting – Site Statistics (cont 4)

49. Web Hosting – Site Statistics (cont 5)

50. Web Hosting – Site Statistics (cont 6)

51. E-Commerce

52. E-Commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. E-commerce can be divided into: E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall" The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts Electronic Data Interchange ( EDI ), the business-to-business exchange of data Business-to-business buying and selling The security of business transactions (whatis.com)

53. E-Commerce – Virtual Store Front Build it yourself – use previously listed webmasters skills. Buy it prepared – Yahoo Shopping, Amazon zShops and MSN eshops. Free traffic Customers feel more secure  more sells (??) Easy site building

54. E-Commerce – Virtual Store Front (cont) Build it yourself: Regular market oriented site Accepting online payments: Credit Cards Digital Checks PayPal (by eBay) Accepting payments is easy to do anybody can – so watch out to whom you give your credit card number !!!

55. E-Commerce – Accepting Credit Cards / Digital Checks Most common services: Virtual Terminal Authorize, process, and manage credit card transactions manually from any computer that has an Internet connection and a Web browser. WebLink Automate credit card transactions directly from your Web site, without complex hardware or software systems.

56. E-Commerce – Accepting Credit Cards / Digital Checks (cont) Virtual Terminal Technology : Provide needed information in SSL form to Authorize.net. (CC number, personal details..) Information encrypted with 40 – 128 bit SSL 3.0 and sent to Authorize.net host server. The server sends the data through the authorization network to the appropriate card issuer's bank using a secure, proprietary connection. (3 Seconds) Merchant receives an authorization number Authorize.Net server stores the transaction Transactions are automatically settled each day and are typically funded within two to three business days. WebLink Same as with virtual terminal only filled by the client.

57. E-Commerce PayPal An ebay company 20 million members 37,000 shops accepting PayPal What is PayPal ? Pay online using your email and PayPal account Free to join Easy for merchants to accept payments Secure payment option for customers

58. PayPal Homepage

59. Search Engines

60. Search Engines Many general purpose search engines. Many specialized search engines Most of these are built on very few database providers: Google.com (Yahoo.com) Inktomi.com (MSN Search, HotBot, & iWon ) Overture.com FastSearch.com (AllTheWeb.com, Lycos, ..) Open Directory (dmoz.org)

61. Search Engines – Stats 1 Probably the best way to get free quality traffic. Popularity according to audience reach is the percentage of US home and work internet users estimated to have searched on each site at least once during the month through a web browser or some other "online" means KEY: GG=Google, YH=Yahoo, MSN=MSN, AOL=AOL, AJ=Ask Jeeves, NS=Netscape, OVR=Overture (GoTo), IS=InfoSpace, AV=AltaVista, LY=Lycos, LS=LookSmart, ELINK=EarthLink.com

62. Search Engines – Stats 2 The next chart estimates the total time spent searching by the digital media audience at each site listed . It multiplies the number of visitors to each site by the average number of minutes each visitor is estimated to have spent at the site. The result shows the total number of hours spent by searchers at each site, for October 2002:

63. Search Engines – Getting Listed Submitting your URL to search engines is easy. Submit manually Use services / programs. Submit your URL’s to all major search engines including: Google, AOL, Yahoo, Altavista, Netscape, dmoz.org (The easy way to get in),… Submit your URL’s to all smaller search engines too. Especially ones related to your type of site.

64. Search Engines – dmoz.org

65. Become a dmoz Editor

66. Search Engines – Content Many Search Engine algorithms. The single most important precondition for getting good Search Engines ranking is content. Basic keyword / phrase search in content More links from other to you (See Google’s algorithm) You need to determine what are the important keywords for your site. Sign up with Google’s AdWord for finding keyword statistics. Use the statistics to determine the important keywords for all search engines. Optimize your site according to general optimization guidelines and according to your content. (See next slide).

67. Search Engines – Optimizations Title Tag – Used in search result, so make it readable Lots of search engine ranking points for search terms in it Up to 50 – 80 characters Correlate with content Meta Tags – Description (up to 255 characters, accurate, start with keywords ) Keywords (up to 1024 characters) Correlate with content

68. Search Engines – Optimizations 2 Using frames – add <noframes> html tags with links and content in them Dynamic Links – Symbols ?, &, %, +, =, $, cgi-bin, .cgi in URL. Flash – Crawler problems. (Links) Image MAPS – Crawler problems. JavaScript Links – Crawler problems.

69. Pay Per Click Search Engines

70. PPC Search Engines Getting high ranks in search engines for good keywords is difficult, only top 50 search results get any significant traffic. Buying “quality” traffic is much easier. PPC Search engines provide “quality” traffic on the CPC (Cost Per Click) model. You must known all your relevant keywords to get the maximum benefits. You must also have an estimate of the percentages of “quality” traffic who chose to buy your product or service.

71. PPC Search Engines (cont) Some PPC’s embed paid advertisements in their results (goClick.com) (Classic PPC) Some provide them in a separate section (Google.com) Largest PPC’s : Overture Many small sites. Many strong affiliates for top 3 bid positions: Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Lycos, InfoSpace. Google Some small sites. AOL, Netscape, CompuServe, AT&T, EarthLink, Sympatico LookSmart MSN, About, Altavista, InfoSpace, Time Warner.

72. Google PPC Google.com AdWords– Text Ads on side of search results. Default minimum 0.05$ per click. Minimum is set automatically per keyword demand and supply. Position is set according to competing offered prices for keywords. Use different Ads / Campaigns on different keywords. Ads are selected randomly Campaigns contain a few possible ads for selection. CTR (click through rate) must be > 1 Limit on number of advertiser per keyword Some special keyword have unlimited advertisers (Such as web hosting)

73. Google’s PPC – Traffic Estimator Use Google’s AdWords technologies for research into relevant keywords

74. Google’s PPC – Traffic Estimator (cont)

75. Alexa

76. Alexa Up since 1996 providing mostly site information. Past Partners: Netscape, Microsoft, Current: Amazon Crawling the Internet, gathering site information. 250 gigabytes of information per day More then 100 Terabyte archive

77. Alexa (cont) Technologies: Site stats: Links to site Page View - Page Views measures the number of pages viewed by Alexa Toolbar users Reach - is typically expressed as the percentage of all Internet users who visit a given site Traffic rank (Mean of page view rank and reach rank) in comparison to other web sites (10 million Alexa Toolbar users) Make informed decisions about the website. Related Links: Use path of Alexa community Clustering data mining – sites that are similar and relevant to one another User suggestions

78. Alexa Example

79. Alexa Example 2

80. Affiliate Networks

81. Affiliate Networks Advertisers – want to advertise their website / product  want traffic Publishers – want to have other advertise through them  want revenue Affiliate Network Company – a good place to bring these two together

82. Affiliate Networks (cont) Advertisers usually start with a 100$ to 10000$ deposit with the network. Publishers can join for free – if approved. Publishers can approach advertisers or visa versa. (Depends on network). Publishers paid by network not advertiser.

83. Affiliate Networks – Program Types Program Types: CPC (Click) CPM (Impressions) Lead Sale (Flat rate / Percentage) Verified email Pop-ups Pop-under

84. Affiliate Network Companies Dozens of large affiliate networks DoubleClick – Since 1996 60 Billion Ad views per month Accept only high trafficked web sites LinkShare – Claim over 10 million affiliates Lead (PPL) / Sale FastClick Banners / Pop-Unders / Avenues Commission Junctions

85. Don’t Think About Generating False Impressions You are not the first to try Israel has been band from many Affiliate networks… If your advertisers are not making money, then you won’t either. Affiliate Networks are constantly upgrading technologies…

86. Affiliate Network Examples

87. Affiliate Network Examples

88. Link Exchange / Traffic Exchange Hundreds of Link / Traffic Exchange ventures on the net. Why exchange links ? More ways to get to your site Google’s algorithm Why exchange traffic ? Offering relevant services / products / content. Make money from low quality traffic Why own such a venture Offer an exchange ratio which lets you advertise your real websites. Charge for service

89. Conclusions Think of an Idea. (Do the research) Buy a domain Build a site Find a good hosting company Find an e-commerce solution provider Go live with site Use Search engines, PPC Search engines, Affiliate Networks. Have an Internet Business.

90. Bibliography Personal knowledge and experience. WhatIs.com – definitions HostIndex.com – hosting information NetCraft.com – Internet Statistics iBoost.com – Small biz portal Dozens of other web resources