"Why Web Sites Fail and What to Do about It" Is First Course Offered by PR-U.net

April 12, 2005 -- PR-U.net's first course, now online, is "Why Web Sites Fail and What to Do about It." The announcement was made today by PR-U.net Dean and Certified Internet Consultant Mel Harkrader Pine. "This is a course for non-techies, explaining in everyday terms what you need to know to build and manage a web site that achieves its objectives," Pine said.

The course is designed as a resource for those who want to take a hands-on role in creating their organization's web site as well as for those hiring an internet consultant or web developer. "Why Web Sites Fail..." teaches what to look for and how to manage the process so you don't get ripped off and you do get a return on your internet investment.

Pine, an Accredited Business Communicator, writes a monthly column for Search Engine Guide. Here's an outline of the course:

Lesson One – Fixing the Usual Mistakes
1) What You Need to Know about Domain Names
2) Hiring the Kid Down the Street, or Your Brother-in-Law
3) Build It and They Won’t Come
4) Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
5) Do You Speak HTML? FrontPage? Dreamweaver?

Lesson Two – Making Spiders Happy
1) Search Engines and Directories – What’s the Difference?
2) Pay per Click, Pay for Inclusion
3) Meta Tags
4) Looking at the World Through a Spider’s Eyes
5) Never Make Google Mad
6) Case Study: The Site the Spiders Saw as Spam

Lesson Three – Making People Happy
1) Duh! Need to give people what they want
2) Another way to use keywords
3) Information pages
4) Making it clear for humans and spiders
5) Case Study: The Assisted Living Home Checklist

Lesson Four – You’ve Got Traffic; Now What?
1) A mission for every page
2) Home/Splash
3) About Us
4) Products/Services
5) e-Commerce
6) FAQs/Employment/Contact Us
7) Landing Pages

Lesson Five – e-Newsletters, Keep ‘em Legal, Ethical and Useful
1) But where will I get content?
2) But where will I get subscribers?
3) How not to spam
4) Blogs and feeds

Lesson Six – It’s Made of Pixels, Not Stone
1) Make someone responsible
2) Post your news releases, articles
3) Post news from your industry
4) Post employment opportunities

Lesson Seven – Getting More Help
1) Free resources
2) Hiring me

Lesson Eight – Glossary
1) Glossary

Students can take the course at their own pace. They will have access to the course material for six months.

To register for "Why Web Sites Fail and What to Do about It," go to www.pr-u.net, click on the "bell" icon that says "Go to Class" at the top of the page and then click "Online Course Registration." Pay the $28.95 tuition by credit card and PR-U.net will send you your username and password within 24 hours.

The fee is totally refundable if you don't feel you have benefited from the course.

PR-U.net grew out of Pine's background as founder and President of MHP Communications, www.mhpcommunications.com. He is accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators, owner of a WSI internet development and web consulting franchise, and certified in advanced search engine marketing skills.

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