₦airaland Forum

@medini:
The graphics guys were done with their work a long time ago. Current open roles include: SEO, testers, security, document specialists.

If any of the above suit you, go to the closed group facebook page to register and send me an email so I can add you to the sheet.

Thanks

IMHO, wrong attitude. You should aim at increasing and solidifying your visitor base before thinking ads.

Going after money first, doesn't always pan out.

That site has definitely changed from "wonderful" in 2007/8 to "sighs" in 2011.

God help us!

Nna man, that site will never go out of business. Why? Because it will be "2 LEGIT TO QUIT" LMAO!!

Time will tell 

By the way, there are people in my locale making 5 figures (USD) writing "common" html.

Something to think about, as we bring this thread to a close

You might want to look at a captcha script. Sure, not foolproof but I can say from experience that it has cut spam that I get by at least 95%

Good luck!

Prior to August of this year, I always looked down upon Web developers as inferior

Never judge a book by its cover buddy.  Also, until you have seen them all and they all act alike, don't make stereotypical, judgmental statements. Some people choose to do certain things not because they don't know any better but because they have a phD degree: Passion, Hunger and Drive and believe that though it may not be a noble path, but it is a good one, nonetheless

Happy coding!

Based on the code snippet I pasted here, it is obfuscated. Based on wat omo pajavascript:void(0);sted, it is compressed.

I hereby declare the game 1-1. As always, naija no dey ever carry last. Highest na draw

Weekly update:
Front end developers submitted their code. Their code has been vetted and handed over to the back end team, for "hooking up" to the database.

Project is still on target to be introduced to the world on November 15, 2011

Hopefully my last post on this thread

It IS code obfuscation:

Code compression means lines are stripped, etc but the underlying code is still readable. When I view the source and see something like this:
c.push(d(f))}}E(c.join("")}}

That smacks of obfuscation to me buddy - as in, you couldn't decipher what the code is doing, based on what you see.

Okay, I will give you 50% since the code has not only been obfuscated but compressed as well.

The end

Looks more like code obfuscation to me.

Google is a search engine and so it makes sense that it be as simple as possible, so as to reduce the overhead on their servers. That doesn't mean, unless I am misreading you, that every site out there should be as simple-looking.

afam4eva:
In business terms, as I eluded to in my first post, it boils down to Return On Investment (ROI).

If you have a good marketing team, you can come up with 1 solid add and claim massive share. With SEO, whether you do it yourself or not, you have to keep on tweaking with hopes (and I am referring to white hat, as eventually, search engines will catch up with black hatters), that you not only rank high, but rank high consistently. Research shows that most people don't look beyond the first 5 sites in the SERPs.

A good SEO strategy could take up to 6 months to get positive results. Besides, it may guarantee you traffic but it sure doesn't guarantee you conversions. An ad on the other hand, with one's website cleverly positioned in it, is bound to yield you immediate conversions.

Pictures speak a thousand words (and by extension, videos speak a million words). IMHO, if you visit a site via googling, there is still some skepticism, especially with Nigerian sites, as to whether or not the business is legit. On the other hand, if I watch/hear an ad and that is complemented by looking at their website, I am less likely to think that way (emphasis on "less likely".

Having said all that, with a projected 6 billion mobile devices estimated to be in use by 2014, it is hard for any company, who wants to be taken seriously, not to want to think of marketing online. Granted, I would personally go with PPC and slowly wean off that and stick with SEO, as I get to know my customers better.

In conclusion:
Again, it depends.

Depends.

If I make N1m a month and spend, say, N100K on advertisement to get it, I will definitely stick with ads. On the other hand, if I am spending N900K, then there's a problem. Having said that, (organic) SEO sure comes in handy for the online viral and free advertising online. Of course, to rank high, you have to continuously tweak your code and study your competition to ensure top ranking.

At the end of the day, a blend of both is probably best. Then again, you have to periodically look at the stats to see what is serving you best so that you can adjust your plans accordingly.

2helpu:
Thanks for the kind gesture but I am afraid this won't be necessary - we aren't out to compete with the current FG website but to prove to the powers that be that, despite some people criticizing about stuff, there are those who can offer a (proven) solution. . .assuming we can't manage to convince same that they would be better off replacing what they have now with our own solution. This explains why, despite many calls for an immediate call creation of a url, I wasn't on that train.

Besides, we don't want our effort to be branded as 419 on account of duplicate url/content. We intend to put our effort on blast in the media after we are done. The hope is that if the FG doesn't see the need to go with our (better) solution, those in the private sector will hopefully see our efforts for what it is and utilize our services. In the end, I am hoping for a win-win situation. Eventually, a robots.txt file will be created with the sole instruction of not including the site for indexing. I hope you understand where I am coming from.

Thanks once again for your kind gesture.

As you wish

So as I click the link and land on the page, I am asking myself, "Of what use is a random quote generator that doesn't feature quotes from notable people and for which there is no description of what the generator does and why it would be important to me".

Some further advice:
It was a little annoying for me to have to click the button, wait for the round trip to the server and then scroll down to actually see the quote. Consider using AJAX such that the content area is updated in place, with NO page refreshes.

dnative:
Get real. What happened there is VERY unprofessional. No matter how much perfume you pour on a pig, it's still a pig.

If the site isn't ready for prime time, either (as I suggested) put it in a subfolder and use your robots.txt file to stop the spiders from reaching it or set it up on a local server.

You NEVER put up an incomplete site on the root. Look at it this way: Supposing you are an investor with a lot of cash and heard Oyo has massive potential. You then google it and find the link and click on it, then see what is there currently. Be honest and tell us if you would have any faith in the state's government based on what's there.

Though I am not a fan of "under construction pages", that would definitely be better than what is there now.

Pelumiv,

Check your inbox. . .

IE is all the same. Whether it is IE4 or IE100. THEY SUCK BALLS!!

Are you just now realizing this? Which rock have you been hiding under?

Here are a few pointers for dealing with IE in general:

1) Take advantage of the reset.css file, in addition to your own css: This sets all elements to the same rules in all browsers

2) Take advantage of what I call, "incremental coding": Don't code your entire site in firefox, then test in IE. Code the header for example, then test in all browsers, then code the navigation and test in all browsers, etc.

Good luck!

Which project? If you are referring to the nigeria.gov.ng redesign project, it is at least 50% complete. Where have you been hiding?

Weekly Update:

clementcro is currently coding the html for the 3 needed pages. If all goes well, the code can be submitted to the back end developers by October 25, 2011.

Article submissions, for one

I second Dual's comments.

Are you asking how to dynamically generate the entire form? If so, there is no need for that.

Are you asking how to generate, for example, the dropdown options? You will need to use an array (javascript) or database (php/mysql) for that.

Let me try again:

1) Lack of Passion
2) Lack of focus
3) lack of devotion
4) lack of persistence
5) lack of overall goal
6) lack of infrastructure (light, computer, etc)
7) high ignorance ratio (how does one go about owning a blog? many might still not know)

Is this better?

1) Add them to your TITLE and META (keywords and description) tags
2) Add them to the content of each page (at least 450 words per page)
3) Submit articles to article directories. Again, articles should be keyword-rich. This helps with backlinks/link equity.
4) Add them to the ALT tags of images (beware of keyword stuffing which can get you banned by the Search Engines)

Good luck!

afam speaketh well. hear ye him. . .

Sure, they may have money at the back of their mind but the passion for it comes first. I mean, it even reflects in their post and the frequency of their posts. Take Linda Ikeji for instance. she posts on a wide variety of stuff and posts very frequently. Most importantly, a bulk of her posts are tuned to the Nigerian entertainment audience. Everyone wants to know about their favorite celebrity and she plays into that well. Her ads aren't intrusive either. Compare that to some others I have seen. The first thing you see is google ads and you can tell they are looking for what to write.

Again, listen to afam.

web_prof:
You've been added. Sorry about that. Please bear in mind that there is a -6 hour difference b/w us so my responses might seem "delayed".

Thanks,

Yep, and there are other ways of skinning the cat as well.

The "Problem"? Graphical mock up and site features were approved in advance. Anything else I do would end up being done for free. So, unless he brings it up and a change order is approved, I am compelled, as greedy as it may sound, not to do anything else to the site. I am je-je-ly awaiting final approval so I can move the files to the root and get my remaining balance

Once again, thanks for your observations and suggestions. I will use them for my future clients

Okay, I see what you mean now. A picture speaks a thousands words, as they say

The client doesn't need a search function but if he does, I will definitely take you up on your suggestion.

Thanks once again.

@all4naija: Didn't quite get you on your last post. As for the 2nd to the last one, if I understand you, I would rather it be in the header as many might not bother scrolling to the bottom.

@yamakuza: If I put it where you suggest, then it will only be on the home page. I need the icon (they only have FB for now) to be global

@all: Thanks for your input regarding the church site.  As you may know, I seldom post stuff that I do but I was compelled to, to make a point about where this tangent started off from.

@web_prof: your request has been granted