Friday, October 24, 2008

5 Steps to Building a Successful & Income Bringing Website

Almost anyone can build a website these days, but just building it will not guarantee your success online. There are 5 important steps you can follow that will make sure you build a website that can both create a free flow of highly targeted traffic and be able to capitalize on it.

As planning is always an important key to success it's no surprise that the first two steps are in the planning stage:

1. Create your Content Blueprint

The internet provides information, and that is also what your web side will provide. If you provide the right content, you can attract the right people. That's why step one is to make sure you will have In Demand Content. You do that by researching the web for the most profitable search terms and key words related to the theme or topic of the website you are going to build. That will enable you to find your niche and build your site around it. In other words, by knowing what key words people are searching for in relation to your topic, you also know exactly what to write about in your theme based web site. Once you know that, you have your all important Content Blueprint.

2. Plan your Monetization

The next step is to make a diversified monetizing plan. You have to plan how you are going to capitalize on your web site, how it will generate revenue so it can bring you the income you wish for. There are basically 3 different ways to do that. You can easily combine all three if you wish. In the end it all depends on what fits you best.

Ecommerce is the first. You can sell products or services through your website. For instance, if your site is about golf you can sell products like equipment, books or golf clothes, or you can sell consultations, e-books and e-courses. Some people make and sell their own products, like artwork, pictures, designer bags and dresses etc. If you are a professional you can offer your services or simply refer people to your offline business. You can also write and sell your own e-books and e-courses that are relevant to your visitors' interests. If your site is a pure info site and you don't have anything to sell, don't worry; the next two are ways that can create revenue for you too.

Number two is to refer your visitors to non-competing businesses, either online or offline, to earn commission on sales. A very popular and easy way to do that is to simply use affiliate programs. If you choose the right affiliate programs that really compliment your visitors' needs, this is a great way to capitalize on your website. By displaying affiliate links on your site you simply refer people to other people's websites and then earn commissions on all sales generated by these referrals. The most efficient way to promote your affiliate links is usually to integrate them with your content.

The third and obvious way, of course, is to let people advertise on your site. This is the most important income producer for most content sites. The easiest way to do that is by having Google ads on you site through AdSense. That way you earn money every time someone clicks on an ad showing on your site.

Now that your planning stage is over and it's time to start building your site:

3. Build a Site for Both Humans and Search Engines

If you don't already have a domain name, it's now time to get one. Pick a catching name you like, preferably one that is short and easy to remember. It doesn't have to reflect your topic, but if it does it will most likely be easier to remember. For the hosting there are many good companies offering high quality hosting. Look at what additional services they offer that you may need, and then choose the one you prefer.

Once you are all set it's time to start working on your site. If you have the skills and know how to build it then just get going. If you don't, you can either have someone build it for you or you can use a site builder. Many hosting companies offer site builders and web designer services. You can find site builders these days that are so easy to use, anyone can do it.

An important thing to consider at this point is that you are building a site for both for humans and search engines, and it should be easy to use for both. Build a site that is easy to navigate for your visitors and write your content based on your Content Blueprint. Quality content leads to quality visitors. That is what will create your free targeted traffic and ensure your revenue!

When writing your content you want to focus on building trust, credibility and relationships by providing the information your audience seeks: Give them a solution to their problem or a fulfillment of their wishes. That builds a warm and confident feeling and that is what pre-sells! If you don't already have a brand or name recognition this is vital. You are building a brand of one!

There you have the first 3 steps.

If you wish to learn about steps 4 and 5 you can read about them on my blog, where I also recommends an "All in One" tool that will not only provide you with all you need to build your successful website, it will do most of the work for you! Just open the post with the same title as this article: AnnetteLowen.blogspot.com - Tips and Tools for Succeeding Online

The Not So Simple Multiple Facets of Web Development Companies - A Quick Insight

The introduction of web development in recent years has given more opportunities for companies to specialise in web application technologies than otherwise. A company develops application based web sites using non-design coding.

Great Expectations:
So what does a client expect from a web development company? The most essential features of a company are innovative thinking and upgraded technology.Company needs to be technologically superior not only in non-design coding but also in web designing, website creation, developing e-commerce solutions and software development. Web development, at a certain point, should include graphics design, content development, designing interactive multimedia and server configuration.

Companies in search for a professional and qualified web development company should consider the cost factor before choosing one. The cost for developing a website can be higher if a company chooses a highly qualified web developer. So if an organization chooses a good company it should be familiar with the rates. The best solution is to analyse and compare the market to look out for web developers charging a reasonable amount. It is also advised to evaluate the portfolio of the company specialising in web development and gather information about their past projects.

Services preferred:
Along with a dynamic website and innovative thinking, corporate clients also prefer search engine marketing, flash website designing, application installation, e-commerce website development, B2B and B2C web development, portal development and regular maintenance of websites from their web developers. The number of companies providing these services has raised manifolds. So it cannot be difficult for websites who are on a look out for technologically advanced web development services.

Tools:
Web development companies are compelled to use development tools to ensure their services are up to date. Today, most web developers use Microsoft .NET and LAMP technologies to develop desktop applications and application based web services. The most popular tool among web developers id LAMP as it comes free. Companies preferring real time digital modifications and updating take the services of WYSIWYG, a user-friendly editor. Frequently used programming languages range from HTML to PHP and also include ASP.net, CSS, JAVA, Flash, and many more. Web developers ensure that ASP. Net programming is carried through SQL server and PHP programming is carried through MySQL.

Australia is the hub of web development companies which specialise in building and customising corporate website applications.Companies in Australia specialise in many projects including multimedia sharing, document management, and web system optimisation and offer a wide range of services ranging from web hosting, software development and domain names.

Smit Mathur is an expert for writing Articles and currently working for Broadwayinfotech. For more information related to Web development company, Web development Australia please visit:http://www.broadwayinfotech.com.au/

The Oh-So Predictable Future of the Web Development Companies Around the Globe

The year 2000 enabled companies to have their presence on the World Wide Web just for the sake of providing information. Back then, designing and creating static websites was far easier and an organization could find a web development company with ease and comfort. But recently, the rapid transition of the internet has brought thousands of innovative and exciting ways in creating and choosing websites. Companies prefer integrating Ecommerce with online marketing, attracting RSS feeds to their websites, receiving e-marketing services and SEO (Search engine Optimisation) and providing online networking communities for clients and members.

Today's corporate bodies require web development companies who cater more to interactivity, content management and e-marketing services. These qualities can be found in a professionally looking web developer today. A professional web developer should also have the expertise of developing custom applications such as online payment solutions, newsletter, blogs etc. The unimaginable future of the internet does not mean we cannot assume any services provided by future web development companies. These companies must have the calibre of designing, developing and customising complete web solutions.

Given the need for a static website diminishing day-by-day, the rapid transition of internet and latest industry developments, web development companies and complete web solutions providers have to ensure the availability of advanced technology to create an accurate and technologically superior website. One such revolutionary part of web development technology has been open source application solutions such as Joomla.

Since Joomla is a content management system, it keeps track of every piece of content on the website, its can keep track on music, videos, books, text and documents. The best part of Joomla is its simplicity, stylishness and professionalism in developing websites. It has an endless number of templates and open source codes for web developers who use such tools that can be easily be customised.

Used by modern day web developers extensively to develop a website, Jhoomla is an award-winning CMS or content management system. Joomla allows web developers to build websites with the most up to date online applications. In addition, a variety of code samples, documentation and overview of technical aspects render Joomla is the most popular open source application software that is available for free.

There are hordes of other Content-based and otherwise, like Joomla, have the power to shape the corporate fortunes of their faithful patrons. Like Joomla, many other open source software solutions are available online free of cost, to offer future generation of self-sustained dynamic websites.

Smit Mathur is an expert for writing Articles and is currently working for Broadway Infotech. For more information related to web development, complete web solutions, web development company, web application development Please visit http://www.broadwayinfotech.com/

Use These 7 Headline Formulas to Make Your Website More Profitable

Research shows that readers respond more to headlines than any other element of a web page.

A headline creates attention or apathy. People will often make the decision either to continue reading or hit the back button, based on the headline. You have only seconds to make a favourable first impression.

Top 7 Headline Formulas That Work

If you need to put your puny headline on steroids try one of these tried and tested formulas:

1. Agitate the Problem

EG: Are You Struggling to Find Good Accounting Personnel?
If a reader has the problem they will be compelled to keep reading to find out the solution.

NB: This is also a question headline - see below.

2. Ask a Question

EG: What is the Secret to Getting Rich Today?

A question incites curiosity. It engages the mind. A question headline must be open-ended - you have to keep reading to find out the answer.

3. Promise the Reader a Benefit

EG: Enjoy Younger Looking Skin in Just 7 Days

Focus on the primary benefit of your product or service and connect it with the target audience.

4. Give Them the News

EG: Announcing the Smallest MP3 Player Ever Built
If you have genuine news, announce it. Using the word "announcing" attracts more attention.

5. State the Offer

EG: FREE Seminar Shows You How to Make $100,000 a Year on eBay

If you have an attractive offer shout it out in your headline.

6. Use the Words "How To"

EG: How To Win Friends and Influence People

"How to..." promises readers useful information and advice. If you're ever stuck for a headline, write "How to" - whatever follows will be a hardworking headline.

7. Use a Customer Testimonial

EG: "I Lost 7 Kilograms in 10 Days With Trimspeed"

Putting the testimonial in quotation marks increases readership.

Sharpen Your Axe

Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." And so it is with headlines. Many copywriting experts recommend you spend 80% of your time writing the headline.

This may sound like overkill. But producing website content is expensive and time consuming. If your headline is a dud you've wasted your money and effort.

By Charles Cuninghame

http://www.text-centric.com/

With a career spanning more than 12 years, Charles Cuninghame is one of Australia's most experienced website copywriters.

For tips, tricks and insider secrets to get more customer inquiries, sales and profits from your website visit Charles' blog: The Profitable Website Manual.

Useful MySQL Commands For PHP Development

When I'm developing PHP applications I normally have a DOS window open so I can run SQL scripts from the command line. Often, this is so I can check that MySQL database tables are being updated correctly while I am running PHP scripts.

There are not that many command line tasks I need to perform, but it is useful to be able to run them as and when I need to. In this tutorial I'll look at a few MySQL commands I find really useful during the development of PHP applications.

Logging onto the MySQL monitor

To log onto the MySQL monitor:

  1. Open a command prompt window, and navigate to the the mysql\bin folder.
  2. Run the command:

mysql

OR

mysql -u user -p

If prompted, enter the password for the database user.

Setting a root password

If you have not got a root password set, here is how you set one.

  1. Log onto the MySQL monitor as described above.
  2. Run the command:

set password for root@localhost=password('password');

Updating a table

I quite often need to add or delete new columns, or modify existing ones.

To perform the following commands you need to be logged onto the MySQL monitor, as described above.

Adding a new column

The format is:

ALTER table tablename

ADD new_column type

AFTER column;

And here are a couple of examples:

ALTER table users

ADD surname char(30)

AFTER firstname;

ALTER table users

ADD age int (2) NOT NULL default '0'

AFTER surname;

Modifying an existing column

Sometimes it is necessary to update existing columns; here is the format:

ALTER table tablename

MODIFY column type;

And here's an example:

ALTER table users

MODIFY age int (3) NOT NULL default '0';

Dropping a column

Here's the format:

ALTER table tablename

DROP column;

And here's an example:

ALTER table users

DROP age;

Dumping the contents of a database into an SQL file

For backup purposes, if nothing else, it's sometimes useful to dump all the contents of a database into an SQL file. Here's how you do it:

  1. Open a command prompt window, and navigate to the the mysql\bin folder.
  2. Run the command:

mysqldump -u database_user_name -p database_name > database_name.sql

When prompted, enter the password for the database user.

Sending the output from an SQL query to a file

Sometimes it is useful to send the output from a query to a file, for example, a text file. Here is an example of how to do it.

  1. Log onto the MySQL monitor.
  2. Run the SQL query, for example:

SELECT name,surname FROM users into outfile '/tmp/users.txt';

About the Author: John Dixon is a web developer working through his own company John Dixon Technology Limited. The company also develops and supplies a free accounting bookkeeping software tool called Earnings Tracker. The company's web site contains various articles, tutorials, news feeds, and a finance and business blog.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Backyard Hacks Tainting Professional Website Development Industry

Today I searched Google using the key phrase "Web Development" and not surprisingly Google returned 154 million results.

Too often businesses and individuals alike are getting ripped off by quasi website developers purporting to be ultra qualified, yet fail to meet the industry benchmark and consequently giving the whole industry a bad name.

Like everything in life the buyer should "beware" However being that there is no minimum entry to become a website developer people simply assume everyone offering such services are in fact fully qualified and consequently it's sometimes not until they are onto their 3rd, 4th and sometimes 5th generation website do they begin to realize that they have been ripped off and been given unqualified advice by unscrupulous operators who have no web development qualifications and /or no accountability whatsoever.

There are many reputable and talented website developers that offer and provide professional services but with no industry regulation they are tainted by the backyard merchants. This situation is very similar to the backyard motor mechanic of the old days and can easily be avoided by simply doing a little research and asking a few testing questions of website developer prior rather than later.

* How long have you been developing websites?
* Have you built websites like the one you are proposing to build for me?
* Can you provide 5 references from companies you have built website for?
* Can you provide 5 website addresses of website you built like the one you are proposing to build for me?
* Do you have a documented, repeatable process to plan and build websites? Give me a written overview of the process?
* Who owns the Intellectual Property rights to the software in my website?
* What are your office hours? How can I get issues resolved after hours?
* Is the website portable (i.e. can I move it off of your system)? Who can host the website?
* Can you give me a line item breakdown of your setup fee / initial development estimate?
* Do you provide training? 11. Is the software customizable (i.e. can I pay for custom modifications to the software)?
* Is the website scalable? What is involved in making changes?
* How much am I paying for hosting?
* How much am I paying for software licensing, maintenance, and support? Is it a flat fee or hourly?
* How much I am paying for ongoing content changes? Is it a flat fee or hourly?
* When and if required do you take care of upgrading my website to a new version if and when required?

Up to date information on topics within the field of Website Design and Development. Suncoast Internet provides a complete range of specialised web development services to clients across Australia. The best place to find us is online at http://www.suncoastinternet.com.au

Why You Should Have a Powerful About Me Page?

Once you register most auction sites will give you a page on which you can tell people about your business profile. It is amazing to see that most of the traders don't know the exact use of this page. Some just leave it blank! And others put in their hobbies, their interests and stories of their families with a picture of their cats and dogs. Traders are not interested in knowing you personally. They want to know you as a buyer or a seller before they hand over their hard earned cash to someone they have never seen or met before. Do you know what they are looking in you? They are looking for your credentials. The better your credentials the more sales you make.

On your profile page you must sell your business and yourself. Give reasons why people should buy from you. List all the benefits they will gain when they do business with you. Impress them with the knowledge that you have about your business. Tell them your experience. Write down if you have any specialized knowledge related to your business. Ask the traders to bookmark this page. Then remind them to visit this page and your auctions. Once they add you to their favourites they can find you easily again and see what new listing you have listed. About me page works for you as a buyer as well. Say you have bid on an auction.

The seller and other bidders may be curious who you are and start checking your profile. When they see that you are also a seller and may like what you sell and at the same time you have reminded them to add your page to their favourites, guess what? If they like your profile you got them.

Harjit Irani is an author and internet entrepreneur. You can download free ebook from http://www.auctionsinaction.com

Drupal Content Management System

In order to have a successful website, it is necessary to attract huge traffic. Web design plays a vital In order to ensure it, principles used for web design plays a vital role. A layman might not be able to do everything correctly. In such circumstances we need a powerful content management system. Drupal is one of the most popular content management systems used across the web. It seems the popularity of the Drupal content management system (CMS) grows by the day, too. And while the CMS is known for its user-friendliness and Drupal ability to be used by even the non-tech set, to get the most out of Drupal you may need to seek the help of outsiders.

Drupal web developers can help in avoiding many problems and negative aspects and develop new components and add-ons for making the CMS website more functional.

The basis for the popularity of the Drupal content management system (CMS) is strong enough. Drupal is highly functional, customizable and moreover it's free. Once you've built a Drupal customized CMS, you will have created a very functional, navigable, attractive and visitor-friendly website. And with the flexibility of the modules and add-ons you can build that Drupal customized CMS to include almost any page or platform, from blogs and wikis to static content pages, forums, and ecommerce and shopping websites.

Drupal CMS developers make sure that website compilation is as per web standards. Drupal Website Developers are capable of offering help in optimizing web pages and see to it that images have appropriate programs for image editing. This is to minimize image file size for fast loading. Besides, it is necessary that websites must appear impressive in all available browsers to get increased website traffic Drupal developers also work for cross-browser compatibility. Drupal developers ensure that the navigation around the website is without confusion. They design navigation menu to facilitate easy navigation.

Drupal content management system (CMS) offers a world of solutions and opportunities in web design. With the added support of Drupal experts and Drupal web designers, any person or small large business can build their website with one of the best and most functional framework applications available to website owners.

Steve Grant is webmaster to Webnet Creatives offers online business solutions which include Web designing, development, search engine optimization, pay per click, internet marketing services. For more related services distinct articles feel free to visit http://www.webnetcreatives.net or write to webnetcreatives@gmail.com

My New Website - From Scratch to Profit

Without traffic from search engines (both large and small) you will be very limited in your chances for success of any magnitude. Pay-Per-Click can be effective after you learn the ropes. Just be sure to limit how much you can lose. To get traffic from search engines, you will need page rank (where your organic-free ad appears when someone enters one of your keywords in a search box).

In order to get your website to rank high enough that search engines give you decent position for your organic ads - you need to work on two aspects of your website. The content (words) on your home page which contain your keywords, and back links pointing back to your website. A back link is your URL in the content of another website. It could be a one-way link in a directory, or an ad with your link you have paid to place on another website, or it could be a free classified ad on a website, or it could be your URL on a discussion forum, or in an article you have written that has been published.

Keywords on your home page should be repeated maybe 3 to 5 times with the main keyword being repeated maybe 10 to 14 times. Your keywords should be included in well structured sentences and paragraphs. Try to get authority links to your website. Authority links are links to websites that offer the same type services and products that your website offers. These types of links will build your page ranking with the search engines much faster. Place your paid ads on high traffic directories that specialize in listing the same type services or products that you offer. Do a search for one-way free directory links and get a list of these directories and submit your URL to a few dozen of them. This should help your page ranking.

When I optimize my website to get a good page ranking, I figure that page content (keywords on home page) account for about 20% of page rank, and back links to authority websites account for 70% of page rank, and one way links to general directories and forums accounts for about 10 % toward a favorable page ranking. Keep in mind that it can take from 60 to 90 days for links of all types to become effective as a factor in search engine ranking.

Thanks to the internet, when we talk about making money online, we do not only talk about the big players. Fact is, there are more small businesses online than the bigger ones. The power of the internet has allowed greater competition and has allowed even smaller businesses to earn income online. One way you can make money online is by creating your own website. Building a profitable website is a four-step process.

The first thing you need is a domain. This is basically the name of your website. If you have a preferred domain name, you can check a domain name registrar and see if the name you want is still available. If it isn't, some domain registration services will give you suggested names. You will also need to have a hosting service in order for your site to be viewed on the internet.

The process of optimizing your website so that it will rank high on search engines such as Google and Yahoo is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is important because 80% of traffic going to your site is through search engines. Aside from this, traffic from search engines is free so capitalizing on SEO is one of the best tactics used by most website owners today in order to get a return on investment at a reasonable time.

Search engines rank the importance of websites through the number of websites which are linking to your site. Another method is through the keyword density (number of times keywords are repeated) of the content found on your website. Most SEO experts believe that you need to place meta tags (keywords and phrases placed in the first part of your page code) on the pages of your website in order to help search engines understand what the page is about. Also, there shouldn't be more than 25 keywords per page. It is important that keywords are repeated in the page content as many times as possible, but don't overdo it because some search engines can already detect faked content.

The last thing you need to do in order for your website to become profitable is by promoting it. You can submit your site to search engines and website directories. You can also buy links or create valuable back links through articles. There are article submission services that will submit your article to hundreds of ezines and article directories. In the internet world, just like the real world, you need to make sure that your site gets as much exposure as possible. Remember that the more visitors you have for your site, the greater chances you have of making a sale. Keywords: your home page, search engines, back link, back links, authority links, your website, free directory links, page ranking, make money online, making money online, domain name, optimizing your website, page rank

Smalley Web Solutions is a team of four people with skills in marketing, website design, and programming. Our website design fees are among the lowest in our industry. We offer free web hosting and domain name registration for one year to all of our clients. Contact Smalley Web Solutions at http://www.webwizardonline.net or jfsmalley@clearwire.net

Content Management Needs Collaboration

Nowadays more and more companies realize it needed a way to share information and work with partners and customers outside its corporate network.

Few years ago, before meeting they think on how to pull documents out and get them to the meeting, and afterwards how to move that documentation back. And there is nothing automated there. Not anymore, there are some products which could be integrated the company 's real-time collaboration capabilities into its enterprise content management system.

Many companies could ask why they need to buy a collaboration tool from one company, a website from another, content management system from another and a search engine from another? That is reasonable as it seems a waste of time and money.

Collaboration is more important part of a bigger content management that knowledge management portal companies are looking at as they try provide the changing needs of businesses searching for a more connective way to get most out of their growing amounts of data.

But content management developers started to look at collaboration capabilities, where users can manage information during creation process, using whiteboards, exchanging tasks, sharing discussions and instant messaging, for example. And some companies could provide a full spectrum of capabilities. That's why business users are seeing content management companies announce new features.

One issue for businesses is whether they already use a collaboration product. Companies with collaboration tools will scrap what they have to use features from content management vendors. What is important in that case, is that content management systems consist with proven collaboration software.

Though most of businesses users are still collaborate by use e-mail. In some respects it works fine. In other respects, it doesn't.

Anna Silventoinen,

More about Content Management Integration.

Web Development Tips For an E-Business Company

The Internet and the websites are the best way in which an organization can contact and communicate with their clients and customers. This is also one of the most essential feature that is kept into consideration when web development services are being carried out for a website. Here are some of the factors that you need to keep in mind while you are developing a contact us form for your website.

Now that you have already stepped into the world of Internet communication, it is advised that you make the most of it. The web is primarily used for communication these days, people contact businesses and their clients through the Internet. Hence, there are some essential web development factors that you need to consider before designing the contact us form for your website. The biggest mistake most web developers do is, that they make your contact us form too descriptive. This is generally not a very good thing to do on a website. It is quite unwelcoming and discourages users from filling up the form.

What you should always remember is that the contact us form is utilized in order to make it convenient for the users to communicate with you, and the same should be downloaded to the web development team as well. Hence, make sure that your web developers are leaving sufficient place for your viewers to express their thoughts to you.

Forms on the web have been threatened with the danger of SPAM. In order to prevent this, make sure that you use CAPTCHA ie. image distorting techniques that protect computer generated bulk messages from entering your contact us data.

While your web development team is creating your contact us form, make sure that they are not adding too many compulsory information in the site. This is extremely annoying to the users and they finally get distracted and move away from the page without filling in complete details.

Last but not the least, along with all the information and communication that you are doing with your clients and customers through these forms, make sure that your web development team is also creating a 'Thank You' page for your contact us form. This adds a little gratitude and also helps build a personal relation with the users.

Naman Jain is an Search engine Marketing professional, presently working with Rupiz Media, one of the leading SEM company offering expert SEO services, PPC Advertising, Article marketing services,drupal development, UK web development solutions and website designing over the globe.

Create an Efficient Cleaning Business Website

Cleaning business is among the popular endeavors nowadays, making you face a tough competition. In order to survive, you need to start a cleaning business website. In spite of the website's efficiency, a lot of businesses are not patronizing this method because it is expensive, or it will take you time to learn how to design, host and manage the site.

Even if pay someone else to build you a page for three to six hundred dollars, the site must be updated by buying and learning software. Its maintenance will also cost you for another hundred or yearly hosting fees. Plus, creating a website is not that easy to mention that you can't see it on the browser yet. A technique is needed to get traffic for your website, or spend a decent chunk of time doing it yourself. Once you start a cleaning business website, you have the power to establish credibility for your company and show customers you are serious and worth of their trusts. There are lots of existing cleaning businesses and majority of them don't own a website. This is the best way to get a serious advantage over the competition since a lot of people are using the internet to look for something to buy and other services.

Once you decided to finally design your won cleaning website, you might need to think about actual needs of your business, preference of your budget. Then, include also about the things that contain your page. The main ingredients of an efficient website are the following:

• Home
• About Us
• Services
• Service Area
• Contact Us

Learn How To Start A Cleaning Business, visit StartACleaningBusiness.org.