₦airaland Forum

In addition to all that has been said above:

You can also make money by marketing yourself and having the sites to back it up. It is a rareity for you to come up with a unique idea (NL, youtube, etc) and hope that pple will like it enough to make money off of google ads or some big fish buying you out. However, in my opinion, I believe that if you put out website samples, market yourself, use your connections to build more websites (what you charge increases with your popularity and demand ), write blogs/articles online to indirectly advertise yourself and your skills, etc, eventually, you will make it.

To summarize it all, generally speaking, don't seek to make N100billion overnight. Money isn't all it seems. If you make enough to pay your bills, feed/clothe yourself and have a little left over to save for the rainy day, you are good to go in my books. I have learnt enough from my life experiences so far to confidently say this.

Good luck!!

carenetri looks like a template whereas teenpreg looks like it was done from scratch and by hand.

Generally, using yahoo (and I spk from experience) site builder will result in bulky sites, sites that aren't SEO-friendly and sites that look like boiler plates. Sure, you could choose to not use the site builder and create pages from scratch. However, sitebuilder still adds fluffy, unwanted, proprietary code in the background.

As for counters and guestbooks, no big deal here - there are tons of free utilities online. Just google for "free counter" or "free guestbooks".

As for contacting me, you may feel free to YIM me at udotot25

'hope this helps.

I have and would say if you intend doing any dynamic stuff (databasing, PHPing, etc), you shouldn't use them. Also, their price, though not high, is higher (and with less services) than what I pay using Hostmonster.com (not to advertise for them ) presently.

If all you wanna do is html stuff, then you can use them. Otherwise, I would recommend that you don't.

I hope this helps.

Well,

I think the decision not to kill them all was based on what happened in India some years ago. Basically, DDT was used to eradicate them but shortly thereafter, it was discovered that the population of rats increased big time - it turns out the mosquitos were actually doing them a favor by keeping the number of rats down. In other words, there was an imbalance of nature. The result? Mosquitos had to be imported into India from Africa

At least that was the story as told to me in my "Inter" science class back in the day. It could be wrong, but it makes sense to me

Let’s all take a moment to honor the memory of John W. Backus who put together the team at IBM that developed FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level language, back in the 1950’s. We’ve come a long way since then.

He is perhaps the single reason why there is even a "webmaster" section on Nairaland.

May his soul RIP - Amen!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/obituaries/20cnd-backus.html?ex=1332043200&en=adde3ee5a1875330&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Let’s all take a moment to honor the memory of John W. Backus who put together the team at IBM that developed FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level language, back in the 1950’s. We’ve come a long way since then.

He is perhaps the single reason why there is even a "programmer" section on NL.

May his soul RIP - Amen!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/obituaries/20cnd-backus.html?ex=1332043200&en=adde3ee5a1875330&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

<a href="http://www.cnn.com" title="click here">Click here to go to page B</a>

I hope this helps

The End Of Malaria As We Know It?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070319/ap_on_sc/malaria_resistant_mosquito_1

"Researchers have developed a malaria-resistant mosquito, a step that might one day help block the spread of an illness that has claimed millions of lives around the world."

Read on at the address above to find out.

Abi, in true naija fashion, makers of Fansidar et al go gree?

whobethis,

Unfortunately, I don't develop websites for free. That notwithstanding, my prices are very competitive. So why not give me a call so we can do business?

Looking forward to hearing from you via email at itoro@bellsouth.net

Sincerely,

my2cents

Zahy Zahy, to what do we owe this August visit? It's been at least a year since your last post here. Does it take a site review to bring you out? If so, I will definitely post more

Back to business, I take all comments here seriously, both +ve and -ve, especially if it has to do with stuff I didn't agree to myself but have to bite my lip and do it all the same. Focusing on fonts, those who know me know I use nothing but a combo of arial, verdana, sans-serif but this guy na wa o!

Take a look at www.selltograndma.com - I solicited reviews for this site a while ago but no one posted. You will notice the font is the same and worse still, there is a lot of highlighting, red fonting and capitalizations. Trust me, as Zahy will attest, I have tried my best to tell the client that what he wants me to do flies in the face of me being his "expert" in the field who shd know what to do, but he will hear none of it. I just showed him the link to this thread this morning. He still refuses to budge. So all I have to say is this: expect worse things to come (especially if he asks me to do more sites). It is either I do it or return his money, and sorry, I will not do the latter LOL.

Stuff within my control (centering, banner issue in IE7, color conflicts, etc), I will do over the course of the week. This week, I want to concentrate on the back end.

Thanks though for your comments. As I said, I take them with humility and seriousness. Expect changes that are within my control over the course of the week.

Thanks,

Ugo,

Thanks for your honest remarks.

1) I must confess I have never coded sites for the real estate sector. The person who commissioned me to do this referred me to the following: www.webuyhousesinga.com, www.atlantainvestornetwork.com and 2 others I can't remember right now. Basically, I had seen enough googling around to conclude that there were no sites offering what I offered. Even the client said I was doing too much compared to the other sites in that, as you said, anyone facing financial problems could care less about how the site looks as they are looking for someone to help them out. Oh well.

2) The head prop thing, I didn't see in FF or IE6. I just am now seeing it in IE7 and will correct it ASAP. Thanks for pointing this out

3) I generally use verdana, arial, sans-serif. The client insisted I use comic MS (not trebuchent MS ) saying to him, it would look more "friendly". I almost got a heart attack trying to convince him otherwise, but in the end, he pays the bills, so I had to budge.

4) Conflicting colors on the view properties page has been noted. Since the site is still technically under construction, I am still working on the site. That's just a placeholder but again, thanks for pointing out/confirming my suspicions

5) As for the site being "drab and dull", I take that as a synonym for "simple". All my sites will look drab and dull. It's what makes my work unique from the others. In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To borrow from my client and you (paraphrasing), if someone is in financial trouble, the last thing on their minds is what a site looks like. They are looking for info on how to salvage themselves. So in the end, the bottomline should be that they are able to find the info they need in a user-friendly manner and I believe the site has accomplished that.

6) Of course, I find your suggestions "useful" I am sure from the above, you have seen that I agreed with you a couple of times. At least, in soliciting reviews, I, unlike some others, am putting my sites where my "fingers on the keyboard" are, so to speak.

Looking for more (un)like this

does that poem page have any includes? If so, do both pages have the "@" directive? If so, do both pages really need one? In other words, you may need to get rid of the "@" directive in your included file(s).

Note though, there r cases when you will need to hv the "@" directive on more than one page. In this case, use <script runat=server> and/or session.LCID syntax instead.

I hope this helps.

In a continuous effort to "take the plank of wood out of my own eye before taking out the speck from my neighbour's eye", here is yet another site up for review

Note: All data for now is static, but you should get the picture from the site architecture with respect to what the site will eventually be capable of doing. Site launch is on March 31 and by then, for sure, all data will be dynamic and all copy will be in place.

http://www.propertieswithcash.com/

2 things (the first, major and the second, minor) I don't want to see here, if you don't mind, are:

1) "The site is so simple" or any synonyms/variations to this effect - If I had N1000 for every time I have heard that being said about any of my sites, I would have retired back to Nigeria a multi-millionaire last year

2) "The banner is large" - The client sent me the photos and asked that they be incorporated into one. I have optimized to the best of my ability (though I am open to any suggestions/help to make it smaller ) such that quality isn't compromised: I have saved for the web, cropped, interlaced and reduced quality from 100 to 60 (I use Photoshop by the way).

Thanks and enjoy!!

1) http://www.ecoy.org/flashee.swf a whopping 67K? Reduce the number of frames and add a stop() function. The continuous animation is making me (and perhaps others) dizzy.

2) Get rid of the dove. It might get you to heaven, but it sure won't get you in the download speed book of life - it's 35K. Get rid of it. It isn't necessary.

3) Header of home page reads "About us". Why? If there must be an "About us" page, put it under "About us".

4) When you select from the menu item, make it a separate color so that the user knows they are on one page as opposed to another. Right now, the menu items look the same

On another note:
http://www.goldenimpression.net/Frameset-20.html - The sites you have developed scroll by so fast, it took me a while to figure out how to actually click on the URLs. Atimes, even when I was fast enough to click on a link, it didn't work. I use FireFox by the way.

I hope these help.

Naija4ward,

Just in case, you may want to visit www.webmastersofafrica.com/find-webmaster-of-africa/ - there are tons of registered members with profiles to boot. You just never know who you might find

It's not like u hv anything to lose

Just some nit-picking here but if you increase the font size, you will notice that the font spills over the "bubbles" at the bottom of the page. In general, I wouldnt go for a fixed height as you never know who will be looking at your site. What I wd hv done is have a top and bottom background image and hv the middle with a white background so that it expands with expanding text. Who is to say that come tomorrow, the owners of the site won't increase the number of words that goes into each "bubble"?

I hope this helps

olubiz,

No need

There's already one at www.webmastersofafrica.com and many of them have told me they are getting jobs/job leads thanks to the site

Check it out!

LOL smart,

u hv defined a new term here, "preview". Good one

Anyways, the only thing for now I would say is to have a clearer photo of the pple eating (main image on home page). The photos in the "learn more" section below are clearer that what's up top.

I hope this helps.

It's called customer no-service

no mind dem seewalkem,

You have discovered the art and science of American marketing - you entice the audience with "free" then when they come into your office, you capture them with "cheap".

And pple wonder if America has 419 LOL

Likes:

1) Overall Design: Simple layout.

2) Fade behind the "welcome, " header

Dislikes:
1) Site is in HTML: My fear is that if you or whomever is asked to update something, you may have to touch all pages.

2) Logo: seems a bit hazy

3) Left Nav Menu: I would add some interactivity (background changes color on mouseover, or arrow moves inwards)

4) Flash: Since it was always moving, I found it hard to concentrate on the content. I would probably reduce scenes to 3 and add a "stop()" function to the last keyframe.

5) Footer: Text isn't consistent with the body of the pages. Also, color is black on "contact us" page

6) Title bar says same thing on all pages.

7) Contact us page has yahoo addresses. A company should have email addresses that match their company name.

"Allanah Mails" link isn't functional

9) spacing b/w "about us" header and page content is inconsistent with say "management team" and its content

Minor things (personal preferences):
[list]
[li]"Flash says "Lets" instead of "Let's". . [/li]
[li]I would also probably also separate the products into separate pages as opposed to listing them on one long page or at least have "back to top"[/li]
[li]I would put a contact form on "contact us" page so people can contact them right away[/li]
[li]I would add photos of team members on "our team" page to add that personal touch to the site.[/li]
[li]Move CSS into its own file[/li]
[li]Granted site isn't heavy, in the future, for SEO, abstraction and readability reasons, move away from tables[/li]
[/list]

I hope these help

1) I like the creativity (I especially like the "d'koko is loading" part ). What would have been funnier, at least to me, would have been, when the "loading" part is on, he comes out and looks very impatient, like maybe putting his hand on his chin, laying down and saying "'koko is loading, You gotta problem with that" but thatz just me LOL

2) Yes, an entertainment site is all about flash

3) The site though heavy, isn't actually that bad, considering I have seen html-based sites that are heavier than this

4) I will respectfully disagree with the "those rules don't apply to entertainment industires" line and its variations: Every code in the end, can always be better, can always be more streamlined. Just cos, say, D'koko's site is heavy doesn't mean that all sites in his genre shd be heavy, especially if the aim is to one-up the competition or to showchase one's skills. With respect to flash, there are things that can be done:
[list]
[li]Optimizing images used and grouping like images together,[/li]
[li]Reducing number of frames/number of keyframes used,[/li]
[li]compressing sound,[/li]
[li]Using symbols as much as possible,[/li]
[li]Using solid fills instead of gradients/using websafe colors, etc etc[/li]
[/list]

Bottomline, very good site. Letz just not get wrapped up in finding excuses for where code could have been better. I bet if the developer of that site were to look at his code again, he could redo a thing or two, thus reducing file size and improving the user experience at the same time.

I hope this helps.

Thief,

As u know (and I am sure you know, you are just trying to play it hard, for which I understand ), as in all things in life, people tend to fall for the word of the day, but then glean the bad from the good for the most part. It's human nature, thatz all. I am sure, at least from what I have read about the "mother of feminism" that her intentions were honest. In fact, if I am correct (if not, full permission to slap me ), towards the end of her life, she was sad at the state feminism was in because it wasn't what she had in mind.

Finding a good husband in the diaspora too is like 'finding needle in a sea'

True dat. As I always like to say, it goes both ways. You won't get any one-sided, hypocritical arguments from me.

j-girl,

fortunately none cos like bush I believe in pre-emptive action

I have unfortunately seen and read a lot of this stuff and it ain't funny. In fact, if I were to use such events to make a generalization of marriage, I probably would not be married today. Finding a good wife, especially in the diaspora, requires fasting and prayer.

They don't. They just wait til you are trapped in a marriage before the true colors show.

Word up

As for the second point, you watch too many LifeTime movies.

I assume you meant this as an analogy/proverb/parable cos though I am aware of the station, in the 13+ yrs I have been abroad, I have probably watched that station for a total of 1 hour or less

Thiefofhearts,

we all know that your statement about women being "in love" is the ideal and not the real. Sure there is love, but the man only has to lose his job and not be able to pay the bills for you to start seeing the true nature of such a woman. I am sure you have seen such in your neck of the woods.

Thiefofhearts,

Based on your photo, you have indeed stolen my heart. Pls don't steal my words as well

Read my post above this one for my "exceptions", granted most of those "abusive (as America has so popularized)" situations are catalyzed by either the woman or the man. In other words:

[list]
[li]one person doesn't just wake up one day and decide to be abusive[/li]
[li]most women, I am sure you will admit, take advantage of the system (dial 911, say stuff like "touch me now, I will call police for you (while at the same time, she is slapping the man silly)[/li]
[/list]

j-girl,

Of course, cases where the man is abusive, etc are not included here. If it wasn't that intuitive, sorry about that. Divorce is caused by both sides. However, a lot of divorces, I dare say, are a result of the man "not stepping up to the plate" or because "my mom was without a man all her life, so y should I need a man myself?"

I hope this clarifies it all

One big problem with feminism is that not only has it turned some women into, as we say in naija, tigers, but now it is breeding an entirely evolved species of tigers which now have wings to boot. Worse still, when some of us leave Naija for "greener pastures", they take "when in Rome, do as the Romans" too literally. In other words, they copy both the bad and the good, often in an attempt to be "cool" or "hip". We take the words "independence" and "freedom" beyond even what the actual citizens of the country we are emigrating to intended for it to be.

Granted there are probably not many christians on this forum, but it is safe to say what I am about to say in any religion, "Woman obey your husband" and "Husband love your wife".

If we do the aforementioned, this world would be a better place.

Nope.

It is probably (emphasis on "probably" single-handedly responsible for the following:

1) High divorce rates

2) Single parent homes

3) Lack of proper child home training which is most likely (emphasis on "most likely" the result of one parent not being able to spend the right amount of time with their kids

Now, b4 the zealots on here issue the equivalent of a fatwa calling for my assassination, I am not saying that a woman should be relegated to the bottom of the food chain. All humans are equal. There is a difference however b/w being equal and "being equal" if you understand what I mean. My mom for instance has always been in positions of power, many of which being positions my Dad rejected and offered to my Mom instead but she sure did know her place in the home. She knew when to put on which face where. And my parents hv been married for over 30 years.

delarontus,

You know, I have been wondering if the lack of posts here is reflective of this forum as a whole. I mean, if I had digressed on the evolution issue, I bet there would be 1000 posts by now but now that I am actually asking for pplez opinions on a very important issue and this issue alone, I get only 2. Na wa o!

Back to the issue at hand, personally, Christianity is based on faith and by faith, I believe that Christ ascended into heaven. Having said that, again, based on what I know has happened in history, anythingz possible. I just have to look at it all with an open mind.