Summary of the session

Architecting a bulletproof site

1. Who is your target customer? and Why, your USP? (03:25)

2. What are your site goals? (04:09)
Review site, comparison site, hybrid of two models, shopping comparison, social site, etc.
Buy products through merchants, email list, blog subscriptions, downloads, bookmark, etc.

3. What is your site building budget? (06:38)
To consider cost for domain registration, web hosting, logo design, site design, CSS/xhtml coding, content, dynamic programming, etc.

4. Take a skills inventory (07:16)
Logo design, site design (outsource may more cost effective, i.e.99design), css/xhtml (xsitepro, etc.), server side programming (php, perl, etc.), database, CMS, WSO/ usability, SEO, writing content, etc.

5. Planning site content (10:34)
Take time to plan your web site! not jump into producing pages randomly of "ready shoot aim".
Required pages (homepage, about us, contact, privacy policy, disclosure policy), blog (blogger, wordpress, etc.), forum/ community (increase stickiness) (phpbb), product reviews, articles/ tutorials (minisite is dying), landig pages (different LP for products and customer personas), registration forms (email opt-in, etc.), calls to action (download links, links), support/ help, newsletters (build a list), search,sitemap, etc.
May be add podcast, video, photo, etc.

6. Sample sitemap for the BIP (16:33)
We must develop a sitemap. Check the sample sitemap (wow).

7. Organising site content (19:36)
Use whiteboard to draw the sitemap.
See the table. Using spreadsheet to write down type of content, category, URL/ filename, etc.
Do a ebook with nice looking 3D look to increase perceived value.
Make an inventory of content.

8. Creating effective navigation (23:23)
Important. Usually an underated components of website.

9. Navigation Types (23:55)
Browse, search, contextual, Next-step/ funnel

10. Browse Navigation (24:15)
Global navigation (header), category navigation, local navigation (left/ right side) (give more specific content), breadcrumn navigation (sub-head), Footer navigation, sitemap.

11. Search navigation (26:32)
Should be located above the fold, global navigation element, use google site search (adsense may divert visitors away), CMS search

12. Contextual navigation (30:18)
Typically different menu options based on content, good for impulsive content, related content and helpful content.

13. Next step/ funnel navigation (31:09)
Shopping carts (survey, path, deep link), web forms, opt-in, call to actions, wizards (force the visitor down the designed path)

14. Create a site/page wireframes (32:35)
Before outsource or start working, build a simple wireframes for individual pages. It is important. Easy to tweak design before the real works. Save time and efforts. (wow, you are so damn right.) (use same software so that your web site look similar in every pages, i.e.qydj's drupal)

15. 9 tips for readable content (37:13)
Reading habits different between hardcopy and web. Avoid jargon. Make content easy to read like elementary level.
Write to your audience, make your content "scannable", use short paragraphs (!!), use headlines & sub headlines and breaks, use lists when possible, use 550-750 column widths (fix width. gone my favourite of flexible width), bump up your line height to 125% (!), use web safe fonts and sizes (reader digest large font example, relative font sizes), use images to make it interesting (copyblogger(?).com)

16. 8 ways to make your site faster (45:19)
Separate content and presentation (CSS), use small and compressed files (web server compress those files(?)), optimize images, avoid too many redirects, use text‐based navigation, use externalCSS and JavaScript files, include a “trailing slash” on directories (!), pop multimedia content on a new page

17. 10 guidelines for usability (52:12)
Stay under 1000 pixels, use scalable fonts, use alt & title tags for images & links, no frames Ajax or flash, important content above the fold, avoid javascript menus &navigations, make all links blue, don't underline text, use consistent layout, use friendly error pages.

18. CMS (58:13)
Yes: 20+ pages of content, need advanced features, have multiple editors, update often, community sites
No: simple sites, not update frequently, not willing to learn new system/ workflow, need custom & advanced functionality, need max flexibility.

19. Q&A (01:02:36 - 01:05:27)
a. don't worry if you just join, BIP is self pace.(01:05:27)
b. use xHTML (instead of HTML). new modal site is using xHTML to ensure the web site is more crawlable.
c. use wordpress.
d. have blog? (01:08:40) yes. attract more traffic, update
e. (01:10:27) on wordpress (easy to learn & with community to support) & drupal (harder to learn but max flexibility)
f. (01:11:43) on content, how much to create or come from merchants? JP: to value added to merchant provided content.
g. subdomain
h. (01:15:28) integrating advance CMS
i. (01:17:55) google indexing problem at sites
j. (01:19:09) adsense click from google search box
k. (01:20:25) landing page strategies
l. (01:21:34) JP use resolution 1024x768
m. (01:22:29) test site with PPC first. google dislike microsite. difficult to test.
n. (01:25:17) flash site. generally no so good for seo. SE's crawling problem. avoid.
o. (01:27:06) launching before complete. personal decision. JP launched incomplete site before.
p. (01:28:30) what is css?
q. (01:29:34) font color. to have high contrast between font and background.
r. (01:31:04) header navigation.
s. (01:32:25) Is landing page different from other pages? yes. some balancing act between consistency and conversion.
t. (01:33:42) search box in the wordpress, on pages outside wordpress.
u. (01:35:04) community site
v. (01:36:10) outsource graphic work
w. (01:37:02) open source software & security
x. (01:39:57) putting up video
y. (01:40:18) CMS & static site
z. (01:41:30) time to learn vs outsourcing
aa. (01:44:30) templates