Build your own website today

Adding Youtube videos to your website

noreply@blogger.com (Kayla Roberts) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:13:00 +0000

Adding a you tube video to your website can be a helpful addition to any small business. With spidersitebuilder.com it is made to be quick and easy by just "adding a video player" to your page and grabbing the youtube.com address where you video or slideshow is at.

The real question is ...what does a small business do to create a video or slideshow? What software should you use? What if you dont have video?

Well stay tuned as we have some very helpful hints for you.....

1. If you dont have video footage you can use its perfectly fine to do a "slideshow" of pictures you have. Similiar to what we did here:
Our Youtube Video

All this is is a slideshow created in Windows Movie Maker (free software for Windows users) We just uploaded some shots...added some text..saved the "montage" and uploaded to our youtube account.

2. The four most important parts of a youtube video are:

A. In your account settings at youtube make sure you are NOT set to "private" , make sure the video is set to "public".

B. In the account settings for the video it is absolutely crucial to make sure you add "tags" and "descriptions".

Example: if you are a local business targeting a local geographical area such as:

"Fort Lauderdale Florida, Florist Shop"

or

"Newport Beach Calfornia Smog Shop" :

You must use this info within the tags and description. Why? Because Google may very likely find this video and rank it...for the keywords you are aiming for. Mix it up and add different variations of your keywords (also include your location) Try to think what your customers are typing in Google search to find a business such as yours.

C. Make sure to include in your description a link back to your website, such as :
http://www.spidersitebuilder.com/

It seems obvious but alot of folks forget to add it in there.

D. Last but not least, whenever doing other advertising, such as print, Google maps, Local Directory Links, Classifieds,Facebook, Twitter, emails to customers, etc....always include a link to this URL (or if you have the option "embed" the video.

Video speaks volumes and if you follow the steps above...can do wonders for any SEO campaign for your business!

Build your own website with a online builder

noreply@blogger.com (Kayla Roberts) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:31:00 +0000

Welcome to our blog, we hope you are enjoying spidersitebuilder.com for all your online website building needs. We decided to put a blog together compiling some website builder tutorials, links to useful software, SEO help and just general hints and tips for using Spider. Keep in mind the tutorials on this blog relate to using spidersitebuilder.com
Spidersitebuilder is the ultimate builder available for do-it-yourself websites and it can be used for any type of business. Building and managing your website has never been this easy. We are constantly surprised by the kinds of sites that our customers have created with our online website builder which vary hugely in their purpose, style, structure and language.

Included are:
Photos galleries/Slideshows
Super easy to use text editor - total control with your template
Built in SEO
Forums
Image effects
Custom Forms
Tons more.....

There is a free no-obligation trial for our online website builder program, so why not have a go.

Online Website Builder Free Trial

Website Backgrounds

noreply@blogger.com (Kayla Roberts) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:52:00 +0000

One fun aspect of working within Spider site builder is you can upload any type of background you like. You dont have to choose from the available options that are already preloaded into the editor...so get creative!

Great place to find unique backgrounds for your website

Examples of websites that use large colorful backgrounds

One of my favorites is Black carbon (this is free, just right click and save)

Make sure to use one of the image editors listed on this page to resize your background (if needed) to the size of your website. (Pay close attention to the "size" of your website page, the background size will need to reflect this size)

If your not yet comfortable using the image to create on of your own backgrounds and your not finding exactly what you want from above, I recommend trying graphicriver.net. Usually to purchase a background is just a few bucks, and they have some amazing stuff.

*Make sure to check the License options before purchasing
*Make sure the background you buy has a ".jpeg" file in it and not just a ".psd" file. PSD files are photoshop files and you have to have that program to open them.

Free Image Editing Software to use with your website builder

noreply@blogger.com (Kayla Roberts) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:17:00 +0000

Working with different site builders it is essential to use some type of image editing software. Photoshop is the ideal, with its full range of abilites, it can open up endless possibilites for creating banners, logos, buttons, images effects, cropping & resizing and special effects fonts/text. My idea of a fun afternoon is going to the bookstore and getting one of Scott Kelbys "Down and Dirty - Tips and tricks" Photoshop books, and sitting down in front of the computer for hours trying to nail some of the lessons they provide. Ive created some amazing headers/banners and the best part, one of the reasons I love Spider...you can upload your new website header right into your control panel as a .png image file. Once its uploaded you can resize it, move it around..do anything you wish with it, giving you the ultimate control of your website design.

Now with all that being said about working with Photoshop and Spidersitebuilder, Photoshop does come with quite a hefty price tag. So the question is.. are they other more affordable image editors out there, or perhaps even free ones? The answer is yes!

Below are some Free Photoshop Alternatives for you to try out, plus some related tutorials to boot:

Photofiltre

Photofiltre Tutorial
Photofiltre Tutorial 2
Photofiltre Tutorial 3

Paint

Paint Tutorial 1
Paint Tutorial 2
Paint Tutorial 3
Paint Tutorial 4

Gimp

Gimp Tutorial 1
Gimp Tutorial 2
Gimp Tutorial 3
Gimp Tutorial 4

Irfanview

Irfanview Tutorial 1
Irfanview Tutorial 2

Now for those of you who prefer visual live tutorials, then dont forget about Youtube.com. Type in "photofiltre tutorials" (or any of the above programs) in youtube, and you will find there are thousands of different topics out there with live demonstrations.

Online Website Builder

Icons for your website

noreply@blogger.com (Kayla Roberts) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:29:00 +0000

Have you been looking around for some nice Web 2.0 icons for your website? Below is a very cool collection of icons that you can use on your site.

~Remember, once you have downloaded the images, you can upload them directly into the control panel of your site. Then its just a matter of "inserting" them on the page and moving and resizing them as you like!

Icons Resource Page

Website Builder Stock Photos | Images for your website

noreply@blogger.com (Kayla Roberts) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:58:00 +0000

When building your website most likely you will need to incorpoate images. Its great if you can take your own pictures and upload them, however in some instances you will need to get professional ones to reflect the image you want to your audience. There are several resources I use to search for and get the images I want for my sites:

Free images
These have limited selection, but dont rule them out ...you may just find what your looking for.

http://www.sxc.hu/
http://freestockphotos.com/
http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

Paid Images
These are high quality mass selection images searchable by keyword. Pay close attention to sizing. Sometimes its better to go with a medium or large for clearer resolution purposes.

istockphoto.com
photolibrary.com
dreamstime.com