eBay just does not get it. And several designers are furious. A seller (el-picaflor-azul) has made PowerSeller status by stealing other designers template ideas. Sure, the graphics are changed a little - and I might add for the most part a very poor attempt doing so - but all the designs are from others. This lady does not have a creative bone in her little thieving brain. VERO complaints have been made, but yet eBay can not see through the $$$$ and continues to allow her to sell. Here are the links to a couple of her victims so you can see for yourself:

Chicmodadesigns
Ideas Woman
Pink Parasol Design

And you might want to take a look at this site: E-D-G-E.org

I guess I am not as good as a designers as the others, only 2 templates of mine have been copied:

  

  

I will not lie. Firefox is my number one choice for browsers. And with the numerous extensions you can download, it is MORE than just a browser!

Mozile: Being called the poor mans Dreamweaver, this is a great WYSIWYG HTML/CSS editor that works right in FireFox. It sticks to the rules of XHTML, the new revision of HTML and you can edit all or only parts of a page, using any valid XHTML and CSS styles.

FireFTP: FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Firefox which provides easy access to FTP servers. Along with transferring your files quickly and efficiently, FireFTP also includes more advanced features such as: directory comparison, syncing directories while navigating, and much more!

IE Tab: Ever visit a page in Firefox that just does not look right or work? With a click of a buttom switch to IE's engine without having to boot Internet Explorer!

ColorZilla: With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. Great for Web designers!

Relaxed: This is a HTML validator which validates HTML documents. Necessary for coding correctly!

You must at least have Firefox 2.0 installed on your computer. Downloads can be found here.

A photo is really worth a thousand words. And good photos in your auction listings is essential when listing on eBay or any other auction venue. This even can hold true for Web sites.

Some items only require one photo such as DVDs, CDs, games or new books. Cover shots are all that are needed. But if you sell antiques, clothing, custom craft work or other items you may need several photos to show the details. A potential buyer is not going to be able to pick up the item and look it over, they are going to rely on the photos that you provide. This is what is going to help sell your item.

Many auction venues offer to host photos for you. We strongly advise our clients to use their own hosting services. Most venues give you one photo for free, and then can charge up to .25 per photo after that. If you have more than 3 photos, you may want to include a thumbnail photo gallery to optimize loading time or you may want your photos to be larger than what is offered. Again, most times you pay for these services. There is no need to pay for something you can do for free! And finally, most venues also put a pretty hefty compression on your photos when you upload the photos to their server and the quality of your photos can be greatly compromised.

Learn how here!

Mobile Web sites are specifically designed for viewing on mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. Most Web sites are meant to be seen in on a PC that has a large screen for viewing with more power and fast Internet speed. Mobile phones in general have small screens and are less powerful than a computer. Also their Internet connection speed is much slower and can be costly to the consumer. So Web sites in their current form do not work well on mobile phones. Hence the need for Web sites to be specially created for mobile phones.

Last fall a new TLD (top level domain) was introduced just for Mobile Web sites. Just as .com and .net, now you can register your domain as .mobi. More information on this to come.

More people worldwide have access to a mobile phone than a PC and the mobile Internet is clearly going to play a big role in the future of the Web. Depending on your audience and Web site's purpose, creating a separate Web site for mobile devices might be worth considering.

Generally, mobile users view only a couple of pages per site, just enough to get the information they need and move on. It's time consuming and tedious to surf with a small screen, so they limit their use.

When designing for the Mobile Web it is important to understand the mobile user: why, where and when would he need to access mobile web pages? Does he just need to find information or does he want to access news, feeds or blogs to read on his cell phone when traveling? Or does he need a click-to-call information when navigating a tourist guide to find a restaurant? Maybe he wants to consult a map to find the location? Or maybe he wants to forward the information to a friend by SMS or email? There are a lot of different options to consider.

Navigation and content for the Mobile Web is important. Information should never be more than one click away. The home page should show the main navigation structure including a simple logo. And pages for about the company, products, services and contact information is about all that is needed.

Developing mobile sites do have a little different set of guidelines to adhere to:

* Validate to XHTML Basic 1.0.
* Minimize the use of images and supply meaningful ALT text.
* Make images smaller than 100 pixels. Specify the image height and width in the source code.
* Don't use background images on your mobile pages.
* Use external style sheets to control presentation.
* Ensure that contents are readable without style sheets.
* Use the link element to link to an external style sheet.
* Keep the CSS simple, and remove extraneous styling information.
* Avoid client side scripting.
* Limit the use of forms. It is difficult for mobile users to input many characters.
* Design your mobile site for maximum readability.
* Use one column layouts.
* Design with document order in mind.
* Be consistent.
* Align content to the left.
* Set margins and padding to 0.
* Take advantage of accesskeys.

Things to avoid

* Frames
* Image maps
* Tables
* Pop-ups
* Dynamic effects

Ready for you own Mobile Web site?

Despite my best judgement, I have opened an eBay store. You will be able to purchase all services thru the store. I also have all the items listed on the Web site. If you check out Order, you will see everything available. Simply click on the item and you will be directed to eBay. If you enter eBay thru my Web site, I will receive a referral credit, keeping my eBay charges to a minimum.

Be sure to check out all the new premade templates - new designs including Ginghams, Retro, Denim, Shabby, and even a special template for listing your DVDs!

Search engine optimization is the process of achieving top rankings in the search engines for a Web site's most relevant search terms. The most relevant search terms are the phrases that people are most likely to type into a search engine when looking for what the Web site has to offer.

Most people think of search engine optimization (SEO) as too confusing and simply beyond their ability. Improving search engine rankings does necessitate some basic knowledge and a search engine optimization specialist may be needed, but, many Web sites can achieve top rankings by applying just the SEO basics which can be learned in less than a few hours. It is advised to try basic SEO before paying an expensive expert as, oftentimes; the basics are all that's needed.

Consider the information below to be advice, and advice only, which we have assembled based on both experience and research. Please note that all search engines are constantly changing. The only way to keep your Web site at a proper place of search results is to provide content that people are both interested in and are looking for.

Here is a list of techniques you can implement:

• Use keywords in your domain name.
• Make sure your HTML/CSS validates.
• Use a different page title on each page using primary keywords. Do not include your domain name in your title tag.
• Properly use the description, keywords, robots, revisit-after, expires, no-cache, http-equiv and the MSSmartTagsPreventParsing meta tags.
• Build your pages properly using heading tags which are keyword dense.
• Use text links on your site whenever possible, utilize the title tag with your links.
• Make sure you include a "footer" with links on every page.
• Use alt tags on images with keywords.
• Include the keywords in the page copy.
• Add a site map to help structure the site for spiders.
• Link to related resources if it adds value to your site.
• Add content which gives people a reason to come back to your site and gives them a reason to want to link to you ... keep it fresh.
• Write for the viewer first. The text should read well to the human eye.
• Add a Site map to Google Sitemaps.
• Submit your site to directories and search engines.

For more detailed information on SEO, please visit Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) works with traditional HTML. With plain HTML you define the colors and sizes of text throughout your Web page. If you want to change the fonts or colors of your document you will have to work your way through the document and change it. With CSS you define the colors and sizes in "styles". Then as you write your documents you refer to the styles. Therefore: if you change a certain style it will change the look of your entire site. Another big advantage is that CSS offers much more detailed attributes than plain HTML for defining the look and feel of your document. Finally, CSS can be written so the user will only need to download it once - in the external style sheet document. When visitors view your site the CSS will be cached on the users computer, and therefore speed up the loading time.

If you create your own auction templates, have a "Me Page" on eBay or even create custom pages for your eBay store, learning CSS would be of great benefit. eBay has its own style sheets, which defines what they want the default text to look like - especially if you are using their WYSIWYG editor. Using CSS will insure that your work will look the way YOU want it to - no matter what eBay does to their styles.

The only reason not to use CSS in your design is not knowing how!

As you can see, KD Web Page has undergone a total facelift and I hope everyone likes the new look!. Feel free to leave feedback - I would love to know what everyone thinks.

My intensions for this Blog is to give software reviews, discuss changes on the Web, give helpful HTML and CSS tips and other information related to Web design.

Feel free to comment and add to the topics and discussions. Together we can learn from each other.

Stay tuned to find out what you will find here.