Vol. 2, No. 17
TODAY'S LESSON: Image Makeover

Remember the 1980's Madonna, with that huge frizzy mop, layers of cheap necklaces, and the giant cross earring; I won't even get into the stockings and leg warmers. That was some horrific image. But just look at her now. On the current tour, I hear she's got a black Japanese kimono with 50-foot detachable sleeves, denim bell bottoms, and a mechanical bull to round out the package. Now that's progress, people.

The point here is that image makeovers are part of the biz, whether you're a world famous pop star who wants to be a cowgirl, or a Web designer who wants a fresh-looking site.

If you're site is crying for a facelift, the most obvious place to start is with the fonts and graphics.

>>> Building Your Image <<<

Even if you don't want to add anything new to your site, there are several ways to make the existing content better. Some of the most basic improvements you can make to pictures on your site are resizing, color correction and cropping. Then you might look at cleaning up your fonts and optimizing your graphics for faster downloads. If you want to get fancy, youcould add some spinning GIFs or interlaced images.

"Web Pages on the Move"

Webmonkey has a brand-spanking-new article that will give you the lowdown on GIFs, JPEGs, and smart ideas for setting them in motion.

"GIF Magic"

GIFWorks is a free image editor that will help you turn ordinary images into "artistic creations." Some of the effects include rasterize, colortile, fade, and kaleidescope.

If artistic ability isn't your strong point, how about collecting? The Web is a great place to find graphics, and saving pictures from a website is as easy as right clicking on the image (ALT + click for Macs) and selecting Save, or simply SnagIt.

>>> Owning Your Image <<<

If you do go out grab some images off the Web, beware that most online content is protected by copyright. To use an image from the Web, you must either first get permission from the original owner or edit the image beyond recognition.

"Know Your Copyrights"

Online copyrights are in a gray area right now. But if you're going to contract work or use someone else's material on your site, best to be clear on your rights.

"Forget the Copyrights"

At Tripod's Animation Factory, you don't have to sweat the copyrights if you want to use one of the thousands of animated GIFs available.

>>> Content with Your Content? <<<

If all this talk of spinning GIFs and copyrights seems daunting, don't fear - there are plenty of people out there who can help with the workload. An outside graphic artists can bring a fresh perspective to your site that you may not have conceived of before. Or if you don't want to spend the dough, check in with your friends or colleagues for ideas on how to improve your work.

"Managing your Resources"

You'll need to evaluate your current resources and decide whether hiring people to create your content is feasible, but don't forget that your site's content can be a source of revenue as well as an expense.

Anytime you make changes to your site, it's always a good idea to test it using different browsers. Even if someone is using the oldest version of the most obscure browser, your site doesn't have to cause download problems. The only way to do this is through testing, which should be included in your site design process.

"Testing 1-2-3"

Graphics and content changes will have an effect on your site's download time. Don't forget that once your site is up and running, it needs regular checkups.

1. If you plan to take and use a lot of photographs for your site, you might want to consider buying a digital camera. They import images directly into your computer, bypassing the need to print and scan the photo. Plus, most digital cameras offer a preview feature, which will help you decide whether or not the picture is worth 1000 words.

2. The size of a Web page is the sum of the page's HTML code and all the scripts, text, and graphics that go on the page. Research shows that the optimum load time for a Web page is one second, but Web users will tolerate load times of 10 and even as many as 15 seconds. In order to load within 15 seconds over a typical modem connection, this means that any one page's total size HTML, text, and graphics should be less than 30K. If your pages are larger than this, you might lose some visitors.

3. If you're one of those klutzy types who is always stubbing a toe or tripping on the stairs, try attaching a pair of curb feelers to your shoes. Not only will they alert you of oncoming obstacles, but they make for a bold fashion statement.

1. Learning to Crawl

To make sure search engines can find all the pages on your site (or the pages you want to be found, at least), make a "crawler page" that contains nothing but links to the pages you'd like search engines to crawl. Don't include any text or tags, just the links. Then add a link to the crawler page from your site's home page and search engine spiders will find it as soon as they get to your site and suck down all the pages on it. For more details, and to see an example crawler page, check out: Get Crawled

2. Size Matters

TITLE tags seem to work best if they're under 40 characters in length, and META descriptions should be kept under 50 words. Keep your crawler pages small: Anything over 100 KB can choke spiders or cause them to pass on the pages altogether.

3. Chapstuck

Chapstick, while an excellent way to keep your lips moisturized and conditioned, can be less than beneficial for your favorite shirt, pants, duvet cover, and towels -- especially after your dryer melts the balm down to a hot, greasy wax.

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