June Issue of NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery Now Available
News • By Robert K. Foster
The June issue of NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery is now available on the NEFARIOUS website. Below is a listing of this month's stories.
Vol 04 Num 06 June 07
- The Grieving Husband by BJ Bourg
- Speed Trap by Brian Haycock
- Punishment by Len Maxwell
- The Case by g emil reutter
- Dolphin by SA
- The Reunion by Sara Lynn Ryan
- The Package by gregstephens
- Familiar Face by James Mathis
Complete NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery Issue History >>
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 06/30 at 05:16 PM
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Need a Website? This article may help: Initial Steps for Designing your New Web Site
Many people start out wanting to create a web site on the Internet yet they have only a vague sense of where to begin the process. Below I list those things that you should think about and consider in the creation process, whether you plan to develop the web site yourself or plan to have a professional company develop it for you.
SITE NAME
Your web site name will become a brand name even if you do not legally register it. Visitors to your site will identify the name with the content of the site. Needless to say, a lot of thought should go into what you want to say with your web site, both literally and figuratively, and what its goals are and what name best conveys this. Create a list of possible names. You can test the names by typing them in quotes into a Google or other search engine search form and see what results come up. Narrow the list down to the best one that no one else is using.
SITE URL
Once a name has been decided upon you will need to decide on an Internet URL (http://www.thewindjammer.com) and determine if it is already registered by someone else or is available for your use. You also want to look at similar web addresses because you are in a sense moving into a neighborhood comprised of all those Internet addresses that are similar to your own. Visitors may type in your prospective URL incorrectly and end up at a similar site and assume it is yours. Your site also shouldn’t appear to be an already existing site as this may cause legal problems. You may have to think creatively about the spelling of your site address in order to avoid some of these problems.
You also want the address to be easily remembered or follow directly from your company name, for example. Try typing in variations of your possible web address and see if there are any sites already existing with that URL. Once you have decided on one or two possible addresses you can further check the names through a domain registration company or have a web design company check them for you.
SITE UNIQUENESS
When you enter the design phase you also want to look at sites that are similar to the one you are creating. In order for your site to be a success you will want to differentiate it in some way that is unique and different from those already existing web sites. You want your site to be one that people think of in the area that your site covers, preferably along with the other big name sites that already exist. In striving for web site uniqueness you may find some features that don’t exist on the other sites and need to be considered in the design phase of your new site.
SLOGAN
This is a one sentence statement about your web site. On my ezine site, NEFARIOUS - Tales of Mystery, I use “Mystery and Crime Fiction on the Web Since 1999 - Here’s To A Good Mystery™”. You want to make it possible for people to immediately figure out what your site is about. Either the slogan or statement of purpose that follows should be prominently displayed for new visitors to your site, usually on the home or index page of the site. Especially if your site has a unique visual design you don’t want visitors sitting there wondering what the site is. The slogan helps you be clear about the nature of the site and what visitors should expect from it.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
In a single paragraph explain everything about your web site. This is hard to do and will change over time but it helps you work out an idea of what you want your site to be “about”. Most sites have a link labeled “About” and you need to create the information for what your site’s “About” link will show. A good way to get ideas is to check the “About” links on the sites that you regularly go to. The first paragraph on my NEFARIOUS web site page is an example at:
http://www.nefarious-tales.com/index.php?/mystery/about/
WEBSITE LOGO
This is a visual “hook” that identifies your site and helps people remember it. A logo helps to distill the spirit of your site into a succinct image that people can remember. As I said above, this will become a brand for your site and needs to be considered carefully. You may wish to hire a freelance designer or design company to create the logo for you. If you are an established business then likely your logo already exists and should be used on the web site for consistency.
COLOR SCHEME
Decide what colors you want to use for the site. What is the main, overall color. What is the highlight or detail color. Do you want black font on a white background or white font on a colored background or what. For long articles that people may read on your site, what is the most readable for the eyes? Consider how long people will be viewing your web pages in one sitting. The website logo and color scheme and other graphics and images should complement each other. If you are comfortable with leaving this to a designer and have no preference in this area then let the designer develop your color scheme.
PHOTOS and/or ARTWORK
You’ll need some photos or artwork for the main page of the site as well as other pages. Here you need imagery that will go into the visual design of the web pages. This is different from the Logo and again you may need a professional designer to develop these for you. You want to consider the overall look of the web pages on the site. When you see an existing site on the web that you like then add it to your bookmarks or make a list. Provide this list to a designer as a way of explaining what you are hoping for visually.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
If your proposed web site is for a business then are there specific business objectives that you have in mind that the site is meant to support? Defining these from a business perspective will help with the following section on functionality. Are you able to picture a typical visitor to your web site in terms of age, income, or other criteria? From a business standpoint what do you expect them to do once they have visited your web site?
NEEDED FUNCTIONALITY
You will also need to consider what actions, services, and functionality your new website will provide. Do you need a membership system where visitors create accounts and participate in a discussion forum? Do you need to regularly send out an email newsletter? Do you want to perform polls or have a form that is used to contact you? Are you going to sell products through an online shopping cart system?
Think about your statement of purpose, your site uniqueness, your business strategy, and goals for the site and determine what the site will need to be able to do from a functional standpoint. These questions will determine what kind of a hosting account you need as well as what kind of web site technology you will need to support the required functionality.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
You’ll want to come up with a starting list of links to other similar web sites that have similar content and goals to your own. In the case of a business web site these will likely be competitors but for many other sites these will be your new compatriots on the web. One of the ways to improve the popularity of your web site is to link to other web sites and also ask them to link to your web site. After you have the web site up and running one of the main things you’ll want to do is announce it on forums or other places where the subject of your site is popular. Of course you want to do it in a polite way without using “Spam” methods.
The best way to build links to other sites is to email the owner of a web site directly and tell them about (statement of purpose) your site and ask if they are willing to include a link to your site on theirs. To return the favor you add a link on your site to their site. This is called “reciprocal linking” and helps your site in search engine ranking. Starting off you want to include links on your site that you feel are the best sites about your area or subject. Later, when your site is more established, you can ask for reciprocal links.
AHEAD OF THE GAME
All of the above areas will get you well on your way to having a popular and successful web site. Put your work in on these beginning steps first, before starting the web site building process or approaching a professional to do the work, and you’ll be well ahead of the game.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 07/13 at 10:43 AM
Web Site Design
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NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery has a new look!
This week we updated our online Mystery/Crime fiction “webzine” NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery to a new visual page design. We think the web pages will load faster with this new design and pages will be more readable for the great short story fiction on the site. We also have plans for more updates and features on the site. Please stop by and take a look at www.nefarious-tales.com.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 03/21 at 05:13 PM
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Web Site Design
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New Features for the Webzine NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery
We’ve added some new features to our webzine NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery over the last few weeks that are of interest to web designers.
Events Calendar
There is now an Events Calendar that was built using the Expression Engine software. It allows easy entry of events, using the command console, for Members who belong to a specific group. Once events have been entered there is an “Events Today” function that only shows Events happening on today’s actual date. An “Upcoming Events” function lists up to seven, the number can be easily adjusted, events that happen after today’s date. There is also a full page listing of events which allows a person to select specific months or specific days to display. This full page has a traditional Calendar view showing the month specific to the selected list.
To see the system in action go to the Events page at http://www.nefarious-tales.com/index.php?/events/ or see the Table of Contents web page at http://www.nefarious-tales.com/index.php?/mystery/toc/ to see the “Upcoming Events” list about a third of the way down the page.
The Table of Contents will also list “Events Today” at the top of the page above the Feature Stories on those days when events are occuring. We also included the code to automatically generate links to MapQuest maps based on the information entered for an Event.
Banner Advertising
We have also developed and implemented using Expression Engine a full banner advertisement system on the NEFARIOUS site. This allows the administrator of the web site to easily add affiliate banners using the same interface as used for weblog entries. You simply copy and paste the necessary code for an affiliate banner into the required fields of a weblog entry for a weblog specifically designed for containing banner advertisements.
One added benefit is that text links can be automatically generated from the same data that is used for the Banner Ads. To see the text ads go to the Table of Contents web page at http://www.nefarious-tales.com/index.php?/mystery/toc/ about a third of the way down the page on the right.
The administrator of the site can also create lists that display Ads by category or by type of Ad. Currently there is no counter for number of impressions but Ads can be displayed for an exact length of time by using the entry expiration date in the weblog. This helps with affiliate banner ads that expire on a certain date and thus have no need to be displayed after that date.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 03/23 at 02:16 PM
EE Techniques
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New web site: Elect Corbett Edge O’Meara completed
Windjammer Company LLC has completed a new web site for a candidate running for office in the Detroit, Michigan area. The online campaign headquarters for the Committee to Elect Corbett Edge O’Meara for Wayne County Circuit Court Judge in 2008 is now available at http://www.corbettomeara.com
Please stop by the site and take a look.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 05/02 at 03:53 PM
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Web Site Design
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New Web Site: Windjammer Destinations
News • By Robert K. Foster
Windjammer Company LLC now has available a web links listing containing URLs for sites of general interest. We will be adding web sites over time that are unique, interesting, or set standards for web sites in various categories.
The main URL for the site, which we call “Windjammer Destinations”, is:
http://www.thewindjammer.com/index.php/links/
A link to the site can also be found on some Windjammer Company web pages labelled, oddly enough, “Web Links”. The site is a somewhat “retro” endeavour as lists of links is how most search engines started out. There are still some human edited lists that have grown quite large over the years. We hope you’ll stop by and check out our latest offerings.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 10/22 at 07:38 PM
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Our webzine NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery has been updated
News • By Robert K. Foster
We’ve updated the NEFARIOUS - Tales Of Mystery webzine with some new content this week. You’ll find a few new stories of the mystery/crime fiction variety for your reading pleasure. Please stop by and take a look.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 02/21 at 10:53 AM
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Payments We Accept
Business • By Robert K. Foster
Using Online Payments Only!
Personal Checks and Business Checks are accepted via regular USPS (snail) mail. See our Contact Page for mailing address information.
Our DUNS
#79-053-8024
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 10/24 at 05:46 PM
Business
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Ratatouille (2007, Pixar)
Film • By Robert K. Foster
I went and saw the new Pixar/Disney animated film Ratatouille on its opening day in a very nice THX enhanced sound theater. I wanted to see the film because all of the advanced footage I’d seen seemed to have a high quality of artistic vision. It seemed likely that I would be disappointed by the film itself but I wanted to see it for the aforementioned reason.
It turns out that I was not disappointed. This film can be easily compared to such classic Disney films as Lady and the Tramp, which was the first to come to mind due to its also having Paris as a major theme and backdrop. Ratatouille is very rich visually, has a lot of reflections on the value of life, and in a bizarre way makes a commentary on the nature of prejudice. There is also a lot of visual symbolism that is sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle. I don’t want to give anything away but if you see the film look for the scene in Anton Ego’s Study where the point of view is from the ceiling looking down on the room from above. Ask yourself what the shape of the room reminds you of.
One unexpected aspect of the film was that it really had something to say about “cooking”, not just “making dinner” but actually cooking in a creative way. The importance of the way in which good cooking can evoke fond memories, far off places, and even people you have not seen in some time is a major theme of the film. It actually made me want to go home and try my hand at some gourmet cooking.
If you get a chance to see the film it is much worth the cost of a ticket for both adults and children alike.
Here are a few links to online resources about the film:
Official Disney Site: Ratatouille
Pixar Theater: Ratatouille
Apple Movie Trailers: Ratatouille
Internet Movie Database: Ratatouille
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Posted by Robert K. Foster on 06/30 at 05:54 PM
Film
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