Site Basics 101

It’s no secret that FireFox is the most customizable browser currently available, the hundreds of quality add-ons for the open source browser make it highly flexible. While many add-ons deal with cosmetics, some are very useful for up and coming webmasters. I highly recommend anyone interested in developing websites to start using FireFox as their primary browser if they have not done so already.

1. Seo Quake - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3036

Seo Quake adds an information rich toolbar to your browser that displays all key stats of the page you’re on at a glance. The toolbar can be customized significantly but many of the default settings are good enough and include PR (Google Page Rank), Google Indexed pages, the number of links point to the current page, its 3 month Alexa ranking, the domain’s age, and others. You might not know what all these numbers mean right away but I encourage you to install Seo Quake anyway since they are all important.

Note: Seo Quake will also add a small icon to the bottom right of your browser, right click this to bring up an options menu and be sure SeoToolbar is selected.

2. ScribeFire Blog Editor - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730

ScribeFire is mana from heaven for anyone who operates multiple blogs. This add on integrates will almost all major blogging sites and provides a platform from which you can publish a single  article on multiple sites within seconds. This is a very powerful distribution tool. Before I discovered ScribeFire, I was publishing articles manually on dozens of blogs. Needless to say, ScribeFire has increased my productivity significantly. It takes a few minutes to input all your various logins and passwords but the add-on will automatically store them after that. By default, F8 will bring up the ScribeFire app on the bottom half of your browser window with the rest being fairly straight forward. I haven’t been able to get ScribeFire to work properly with MySpace Blogs or Yahoo 360 but most other services work flawlessly.

3. FlagFox - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5791
This one isn’t quite as in-depth as the previous two but I find it quite helpful. All FlagFox does is display a small flag icon next to the URL of a site like this:

4. Google Preview - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/189
Google Preview places small thumbnails next to your Google search results. I’ve used Google Preview for some time now and while it’s only a cosmetic add-on, I find it easier to find the sites I’m looking for when they’re accompanied by pictures rather than words alone.

5. Video DownloadHelper - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006
This one isn’t so much a productivity tool but is still valuable to any web pro. It allows you to download any streaming video right to your desktop. Many video sharing sites like YouTube do not allow this feature or ask you to pay for it but with Video DownloadHelper, you can do it fast and for free.

6. FireBug - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

This next one is a bit more technical and its fine if you don’t use it often. SiteBasics101 is designed to teach you how to make successful websites without having to know any coding or technical skills but for those who want to go a step further, FireBug is the add-on for you. FireBug allows you to easily view the HTML, CSS, and other aspects for the current website you’re viewing by opening up the FireBug menu by clicking the small icon added to the bottom right of your browser screen.

Routines can be boring sometimes, but they’re surprisingly effective at keeping you productive, at least when it comes to working online / creating websites. It’s not unusual to go days at a time without even putting a little bit of effort into your online business, but I find that if I let myself ’slack off’ too much I don’t get anything done, and this can happen often. From my experience, the best way to keep ‘productive’ is to setup a daily routine. It doesn’t have to be a lot of work, actually I recommend that  your daily routine only takes 20-35 minutes a day, that way you won’t overwhelmed. 20-35 minutes may not seem like a long time, but believe me; a lot can get done in that short period of time.

Let’s say you just launched your first website using the ‘How to Make a Website’ guide here on Sitebasics101, Here’s a short routine I recommend beginner webmasters to follow:

1. Submit to 5 Directories (5 Mins)

Link building is the most important aspect of ranking well on search engines, so you should spend a few minutes each day submitting your website to a handful of directories. Submitting to 5 or so directories a day shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes and if you use the Firefox plugin ‘AutoFill Forms‘ you can submit your site to directories 10x faster. I personally submit each of my websites to 5 directories or so a day. It’s a surprisingly easy way to get links. Check out the Link Building Techniques section for more information on directory submissions.

2. Write an Article (5-15 Mins)

This may be the most boring part of running a website for some people, but writing articles only gets easier and easier as you do it more often. Heck, I’ve written about so many topics that I can, for a lack of better words, ‘BS’ my way through an article on any topic in a matter of minutes. You do one of three things when it comes to writing an article, you can write one about the main topic of your website and add the article to your site, write an article strictly for link building purposes and submit it to your free blogs [With links in it pointing back to your site], or you write an article for another website you’re working on. You don’t have to limit yourself to ONE website, I actually recommend that after you get your launch your first one and start ranking well in Google, you should immediately start working on another.

3. Spend 5 Minutes posting on Forums! (5 Minutes)

Posting on forums with a link to your website in your ’signature’ can be an incredibly easy and efficient way of building quality links back to your website. In 5 minutes you can easily make 10-20 meaningful posts, which equates to 10-20 links! Check out the Link Building Techniques section for more information on building links through posting on forums.

This was just a quick list I threw together. You can try out the quick routine I set up above or you can create your own. The important thing is to make a routine and follow it. From my experience its best way to keep focused when it comes to promoting / creating websites.