Do you need a web presence?

If you aren't sure, we'd better talk about it. A business without an Internet policy is operating in the dark. More ...

If you need a website, I can set it up from scratch, or elaborate on what you have already. Make it interesting with photos, navigation buttons, forms, even frames and JavaScript if you need them. I will help you choose the right "gimmicks" to present your message in an attractive way without calling attention to themselves.

Give visitors what they want and a little more. They are looking for something - help them find it. A site search can help. So can a page that intercepts File Not Found (404) errors and helps them continue. See how this works.

Less is more

The page you are looking at now is designed simply, for use with any browser. It has just a few graphics, so it loads quickly through a modem. (Very few visitors will wait 20 seconds for something useful to appear on their screens. Some will bail out after five seconds!)

Advanced features work with some browsers, but not with others. The page must be effective either with or without them. I know dozens of pitfalls that can cause a nice-looking page to appear ugly, or leave your visitors staring at a blank screen because of an unfortunate combination of hardware and software.

If you build it, will they come?

Yes, if you invite them. You should include your Web address in all your advertising, of course. But for reaching new audiences, nothing compares to the search engines. For every visitor who already knows who you are, Yahoo! and a dozen other major engines can send 20 more to meet you for the first time.

It is no longer an easy thing to describe your website to the search engines accurately and completely. Without some help, they are likely to place your pages so far down in the list of search results that no one will ever see them, or present a summary that gives no idea of what you are offering. I can monitor and improve your position in searches by the major engines.

Most databases are kept as flat files, such as spreadsheets and word processor documents. A relational database links related items together and manages your data as well as storing it.

A flat file system is vulnerable to problems such as these.

I can lay out a system that will protect you from common data entry errors and give you the answers you need to manage your business. I can put your database on the Web if that is what you need.

• A short summary of my qualifications
• Before you send that URGENT WARNING!!! to ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!!, check it out with www.snopes.com and www.vmyths.com. Hint: If it doesn't include a date and a source for further information, it is probably a hoax. Put your fears to rest with this meta-debunking of all hoax e-mails.
• Computer viruses are real, even if chain-letter warnings about them are not. You can protect your system against nearly all viruses, Trojans, and intruders with eight simple precautions.
• Surfing Safely on the World Wide Web requires that you know the danger zones. You are welcome to read the tips I have collected, though I cannot guarantee they will protect you from all present and future risks.
• Is a heliotrope some kind of flower?
• Memepool, once a very active list of places to go with many contributors