Week 1 - Getting Started

• How The Internet Works - a brief overview of the parts and pieces that make up "the Internet". Understanding what the Internet really is makes it less mysterious.
• Domain Names - what domain names are and why you need at least one of your own.
• Services You Will Need - a list of the basic services you will need in order to do business on the 'Net. I explain each of them and why they are necessary.
• Software You Will Need - a (short) list of the software tools you will need for your web site. I tell you which tools I use and recommend and where to get them free or at the lowest possible cost.

Week 2 - Getting Your Own Web Space

• Registering a Domain Name - having your own domain name is a must. It makes your site more professional and helps build your brand. Choosing a good domain name is one of the most important steps in starting your online business.
• Finding The Right Web Host - obviously, you need somewhere to put your site so that the world can see it. That's the job of your web host. Which web host to choose depends on a number of factors that I explain in detail. This is another critical decision for your business success.

Week 3 - Setting Up Your Web Host

• CPanel - most web hosts today use CPanel as the "dashboard" through which their customers administer their own web accounts. I explain the basics of CPanel and which functions you need to get started.
• Setting Up Your Email - email is the primary means of communicating online. Your customers and prospects need a way to communicate with you and you with them. I explain how to set up your email to save you time and give your online correspondence a professional look.

Week 4 - Selling A Product Online, Part 1

• Simple Site Diagram - a picture is worth a thousand words. I show you how your sales process will flow through your site so you will better understand what needs to be set up and why.
• Your First Product - you can't have a business without a product to offer! There are a number of ways to get a product. I'll explain the simplest and quickest ways to find and obtain your first product.

Week 5 - Selling A Product Online, Part 2

• Setting Up Your Product Site - your web site will consist of at least two pages and some graphic images. These need to be organized in such a way that they all work together. I show you how to work with your product files to insure it all works properly.
• Transferring Files With FTP - once you've got your product web site files ready, you need a way to transfer them to your web host. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the way. I show you how to do it quickly and easily.

Week 6 - Selling A Product Online, Part 3

• Processing Payments - your customers have to have a way to pay you for your product. I show you how to link your pages to a payment processor so the transactions go smoothly.
• Delivering The Product - once the product is paid for, the customer needs a way to receive it. I show you how to make sure this happens seamlessly and the one critical thing you must do to make sure no one can download your product without paying for it first!

Week 7 - Getting Traffic

• Why You Need Traffic - this ain't "Field of Dreams" and just building a web site doesn't guarantee anybody will ever see it! If no one visits your site, you're not likely to make many sales, right? I discuss the various forms of traffic and how to use them to get your site seen!
• Free Traffic Sources - there are many ways to get traffic to your site that won't cost you any money. That doesn't mean you won't have to put forth some effort to make them work, but at least you won't be forking out gobs of cash in the process!
• Paid Advertising - it's been argued that paid advertising is more effective than free advertising because it's more targeted. I explain what that means and show you some ways to pay for advertising without spending a fortune!

Week 8 - Customer Service

• What To Do When Things Go Wrong - "Stuff happens" in any business and Internet-based businesses are no exception. Handling unhappy customers is a part of doing business and knowing how to make them happy again can make the difference between ultimate success and failure. I tell you the most common glitches to expect and how to handle them to keep your customers happy.

Week 1 - The Next Level

• Additional Services You Will Need - a list of the services you will need in order to take your business to the next level. I explain what each service is and why you need it.
• Software Tools You Will Need - a brief overview of the software tools you will need for your web site expansion. I tell you which tools I recommend and use and where to get them free or at the lowest possible cost.
• Updated Process Flow - you'll be adding some additional components to your web site. This diagram shows how they all fit together into a seamless process.

Week 2 - Autoresponders Explained

• What Is An Autoresponder? - an autoresponder helps you build and communicate with your lists of prospects and customers. I give you the details you need to know to use an autoresponder effectively.
• Which Autoresponder Is Best? - as with anything else, there is more than one autoresponder service out there. I compare the top ones and explain why I chose the one I use.
• How Do I Set Up My Autoresponder? - I step you through the process of setting up lists on your autoresponder and explain why you need at least two lists to start with.
• Double Opt-in vs. Single Opt-in - You typically have the option of using double opt-in or single opt-in with your lists. I explain the difference between the two and why it's important to choose correctly.
• Web Forms - web forms are the links between your web sites and your autoresponder. I show you why you will need more than one web form.

Week 3 - Building Your Lists, Part 1

• Customer Registration Page - when someone buys your product, you want to make sure you have their contact information to follow up with them. I show you how to create a customer registration page and how it fits in the process in such a way that you always get the customer's contact info.
• Your Customer List - once you have your customers' info, you need to keep in touch with them. I show you how to set up your autoresponder to follow up with your customers and keep them happy.

Week 4 - Building Your Lists, Part 2

• Tell-A-Friend Pages - one of the most important sources of leads for your business is your current customer list. If they're happy, they will tell their friends about you and your business. People referred by friends are much more likely to become customers than any other prospects.
• Using A Tell-A-Friend Page - how to create a Tell-A-Friend page and insert it into your web site process seamlessly. Where to position your Tell-A-Friend page will vary depending on the scenario. I explain these variations in detail.

Week 5 - Building Your Lists, Part 3

• Squeeze Pages - a squeeze page is simply a page that collects a prospect's name and email address, at least, in exchange for a product or service that is typically free. I show you how I build squeeze pages both by hand and using an online service and the advantages of both.
• Using Squeeze Pages - how to effectively use squeeze pages to get the best results.
• The Free Offer Process - how to set up a free offer site with a squeeze page.

Week 6 - Building Your Lists, Part 4

• Giveaways - my time-saving system for using giveaways to build a prospect list.
• The Giveaway Process - the giveaway process is different than those described in previous weeks. I show you those differences.
• My Giveaway System - I do a lot of giveaways and I can set one up in under 10 minutes. This is how.

Week 7 - Enhancing Your Site - Audio

• Why Add Audio To Your Site? - audio can be very effective in some circumstances and annoying in others. Here's how to make sure yours is the former and not the latter.
• Audio Tools - software tools and services you can use to generate audio and incorporate it into your web pages.
• Audio Tips and Tricks - recording audio is easy. Turning it into something that sounds professional takes a bit of effort, but is quick and easy if you know what you're doing.

Week 8 - Enhancing Your Site - Video

• Why Add Video To Your Site? - if audio is effective, video is even more so. This is the video generation and high-speed Internet connections have made it possible to put video on your web pages without any sacrifice in performance.
• Video Tools - software tools and services you can use to create videos and add them to your site.
• Video Tips and Tricks - video is easier than most people think. A little extra work to turn out a more professional video will pay off hugely. There's more to video than simply playing them on your web page.

Week 9 - Analyzing Your Traffic

• Why Analyze Traffic? - it's important to know where your traffic is coming from and even more important to know if that traffic is converting into sales. The more you know about your customers, the better able you are to attract more people like them to your web site.
• Google Analytics - one of Google's many free webmaster tools, Google Analytics gives you all kinds of data about the visitors to your web site. I show you how to set up Google Analytics on your web site and how to interpret the data.
• Tracking Ad Responses - advertising without a way of knowing which ads produce the most leads and buyers is flying blind. I show you a simple way of tracking which ads produce the most visitors.

Week 10 - Analyzing Your Pages

• Tracking Results - it's important to know how your pages are converting, whether it's visitors into prospects, or visitors into buyers. Sometimes, subtle changes to a page's layout and/or content can make a huge difference. You can't know what worked if you don't measure it.
• Split Testing - split testing is a way of determining the effect a change has on the performance of a page. You can do it manually, or there are services that do it for you. I cover both ways.
• Web Form Statistics - your autoresponder keeps statistics on the performance of your web forms. I explain how to use this feature to your advantage.

Week 11 - More On Domains

• Domain Names - domain names are the basis of the address system on the Internet. There's more to a well performing domain name than just being catchy.
• Domain Parking - if you think of a great domain name, check to see if it's available. If it is, buy it and park it if you're not going to use it right away. I explain domain parking and how it can benefit you.
• Subdomains - subdomains can be very useful in a number of ways. I explain some of the overlooked uses of subdomains.

Week 12 - Scripting 101

• What Are Scripts? - scripts are the way to get computers to do things a certain way every time. They are sets of instructions for the computer to follow.
• Finding Useful Scripts - there are thousands of scripts out there, many of the free or very low cost. Here's how to find scripts that do what you need without writing them yourself.
• Installing Simple Scripts - once you've found that killer script, you need to install it so the computer can read it and execute it. As you'll see in this lesson, simple scripts are easy to install and use.

Week 13 - Setting Up Your Own Blog

• WordPress Blogs - you can use a blog hosting service, but if you want the most control over your blog, install your own on your web host. WordPress is the blog software of choice for self-hosted blogs.
• Fantastico - most web hosts have Fantastico which allows you to install WordPress blogs with a few mouse clicks. I show you how to use this great tool to get up and running quickly on your WordPress blog.
• Plugins - plugins are to WordPress what accessories are to your car. It will run without most of them, but with the right set of accessories you can customize it to your exact needs.
• Themes - themes determine how your blog looks. There are hundreds, if not thousands of free themes available for WordPress blogs, and a great number that you can buy, as well. I discuss the differences and why you may want to consider one type over the other.

Week 14 - Customizing Your Blog

• Modifying Themes - make your blog truly your own by modifying the theme with your own graphics or layout.
• Installing and Updating Plugins - how to find, install and keep your plugins updated to the latest versions with a miniumu of hassle.
• Widgets - widgets are like plugins in many ways and are unique in some ways. I tell you where to find widgets, what widgets I use and recommend, and discuss some of the more common types of widgets.

Week 15 - Customizing Your Web Pages, Part 1

• FireFox Add-ons for Web Development - you can do many things right from within your browser with these FireFox Add-ons. I tell you which ones I use and recommend and why.
• HTML Editors - if you're new to HTML, a WYSIWYG editor is recommended. Here are some free HTML editors that will help you get the job done easily.
• Graphics Tools - web pages need graphics. You can buy graphics, or make your own, or modify the ones you bought. My recommendation for the essential graphics programs.

Week 16 - Customizing Your Web Pages, Part 2

• Basic HTML - Hypertext Markup Language (HTM) is the basic language of the Internet. Web pages are written in HTML and you need to know at least a little HTML to modify your pages for payment buttons, etc.
• Overview of Javascript - an actual scripting language right inside your browser. Javascript is simply yet very powerful as a way of making your pages more intelligent and user-friendly.
• How HTML and Javascript Work Together - Javascript can be used to manipulate HTML in various ways. The combination is known as Dynamic Hypertext Marketup language or DHTML.
• Web Technology Training - where to go to get free online training to learn to write HTML, Javascript and other web languages.

Week 1 - Make Your Site "Smart" With Scripts

• What Is A Script? - a script is simply a set of instructions to the computer to perform certain tasks. Scripts are how computers are programmed to do the same thing over and over again the same way every time.
• What Can A Script Do? - scripts can "teach" the computer to do anything the computer is capable of doing. Scripts can be very simple, very complex, or anything in between.
• Should I Write My Own Scripts? - if a script already exists that does what you want, it wouldn't make sense to reinvent the wheel! On the other hand, you may simply enjoy writing scripts, or you may find that the script doesn't do exactly what you want and you'll want to modify it. Either is a valid reason to "roll your own!"

Week 2 - Writing Your Own Scripts

• Browser Scripts - browser scripts run in the browser on your PC. They typically do not have access to the server or any data on the server.
• Server Scripts - server scripts run on the server, usually a web host. Server scripts have access to databases and other data and resources on the server and are therefore potentially much more powerful than browser scripts.
• Which One Should I Use? - browser scripts are great for making interactive web pages where your visitor can click a button and see something happen immediately without having to reload the page. Server scripts give you many more capabilities, but require that the web page be reloaded if any visible changes are made to the page.

Week 3 - Scripting In The Browser

• Javascript - pretty much the universal browser scripting language. Most, if not all, browsers understand Javascript and execute it similarly, unlike other web "standards."
• Inline Javascript - scripts that are inserted into the page's HTML and execute immediately when processed by the browser. Useful for things you want to happen once when the page loads.
• Javascript Functions - scripts that are executed in response to a specific action, e.g. clicking on a button. Useful for making the page respond to the visitor's actions.
• Project: Protect Your Email Address - a simple inline Javascript to display your email address on your page without exposing it to spammers plus a more complex Javascript function that accomplishes the same thing.

Week 4 - Scripting On The Server

• Script Languages - the list of server-side scripting languages is a litany of acronyms: PHP, ASP, JSP and on and on. A brief overview of the major players.
• Which Language Should I Use? - generally speaking you should use the language you know best, or want to know best! We will focus on PHP as it's the most widely used for Internet marketing sites.
• Your First Server Script - a simple page incorporating some PHP script to display the current date and time.

Week 5 - Collect Data With HTML Forms

• How HTML Forms Work - you've seen HTML forms on web pages for as long as you've been online. Here's what they are and how they do what they do.
• I've Got The Data, Now What? - collecting data with an HTML form isn't of much value by itself. You'll learn how to pass the data you've collected to scripts that process it.
• Project: Collect Survey Data - how to set up a simple survey on a web page and pass the data to another page to process it.

Week 6 - Collect Data From Other Pages

• How Does Data Get Into My Page? - data can be entered by the visitor or passed along from another page. You'll learn how to accept data from another page and do something useful with it.
• How Do I Use That Data? - any way you want! Seriously, once you have the data, you can display it, store it, calculate with it and pretty much anything else you can think of.
• Project: Prefill Form Fields - how to take data passed from another page and use it to pre-fill form fields to make the page a bit more user friendly. I'll show you how to use this technique to fill both visible and hidden form fields and why you'd want to do that.

Week 7 - Store Your Data In Databases

• Making Your Data Permanent - collecting data isn't very useful unless you have a way to store it for later use. Learn about databases and how to use them to store your data.
• Your First Database - the basics of databases. You'll create a simple database to use with our project for this session.
• Project: Track Your Ad Results - a simple way of keeping track of the number of responses you get from several ad campaigns running at the same time. Accept data passed in from outside your page and store it in your database. Write a simple page to display the results in a readable format.

Week 8 - Dynamic Pages With DHTML

• What's A Dynamic Page? - pages can be either static or dynamic. Static pages never change. Dynamic pages can change according to any number of rules that you define.
• What's A Dynamic Page Good For? - visitors like to see something happen when they click buttons, move their mouse over images, and otherwise interact with your pages. Interested visitors stay longer and buy more!
• Project: Showing And Hiding Page Sections - a simple way to keep your pages less cluttered while still containing all the information your visitors need. See how a simple button click can display and hide entire sections of your page.

Week 9 - Data-Driven Dynamic Pages

• What Does "Data-Driven" Mean? - in a nutshell a data-driven page displays different content depending on the data fed to it. The page is scripted in such a way that new data causes the page to display differently without someone having to change it by hand.
• Why Would I Use A Data-Driven Page? - a great example of a data-driven web site is CNN.com. The news is constantly changing and being updated. There is no way human beings could keep up with the pace of that change and keep CNN's pages current. This is what computers are good for!
• Project: Band Schedule Page - slightly less extreme than CNN, this example shows how to display a list of a band's upcoming performances showing only those gigs that haven't take place yet. This avoids cluttering up the page with gigs that happened days, weeks or months ago.

Week 10 - Dynamic Content Pages

• What's Dynamic Content? - we talked about CNN.com previously. A constantly changing news feed would qualify as dynamic content. Another example would be content that changes based on search criteria entered by the visitor: think Google!
• Where Do I Get Dynamic Content? - many content sites have ways of delivering some of their content to other sites based on specific requests. YouTube is a good example.
• Project: Niche Video Page - we'll build a simple page that asks the visitor for keywords, then uses those keywords to search YouTube and return a list of all the videos that match those keywords. The page displays the results of the search and the visitor can choose the videos they wish to view.

Week 11 - Cascading Style Sheets

• What Are Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)? - the various elements of a web page have the ability to be displayed in many different ways. You can choose font styles, font sizes, bold or italic, different colors and centering, just as simple examples. Style sheets allow you to define all those properties in one place making restyling a web page much simpler.
• Why Would I Use CSS - imagine you have a web page that uses three different fonts. Each of those fonts is used in a dozen different places on the page. That's a total of 36 places you'd have to change if you decided to change the font style or color, for example. If you make the changes manually, maybe you miss one and only change 35 of them. Now your web page looks screwy because one place is still using the old font. If you use a style sheet, you change the font three times, once for each style, and you're done. It's all about making life easier!
• Browser "Gotcha's" - the bad news is that browsers aren't consistent in the way they interpret some CSS elements. Internet Explorer will display some things differently than Firefox, and vice-versa. Most of these glitches are easy to work around, but it means you have to test your pages in all the major browsers to be sure you're displaying to the visitor what you think you are!
• Project: Testimonial Box - a simple, browser-neutral testimonial box for your web page. Make it stand out with a border, different color background, width and height.

Week 12 - Scripting Time Savers

• Using External Javascript - instead of putting your Javascript in your web page directly, you can use external files and reference them in your web page. This has two advantages: it hides your Javascript code from prying eyes (in case you care), and allows you to use the same Javascript in multiple web pages without duplication. This is especially important when you have to make a change to your script. With an external script file, you make the change once and it's automatically incorporated in all the web pages that reference the external file!
• Using External CSS - the same advantages apply to external CSS. Make the change once and update all referencing pages simultaneously. This cuts way down on script errors and saves a ton of time if you have many pages that all use the same CSS files.
• Using Include Files - once you start scripting your pages, you'll find yourself doing many of the same things over and over. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time you create a new page, put the script into an external file and tell your web page to include that file as part of the page when it loads. Once you understand how to do this, you will save yourself huge blocks of time you'd otherwise spend writing and debugging scripts!

Week 13 and Beyond??

• What do you want to learn? - You'll be helping me determine what subjects to cover by your questions, feedback, and requests. The whole area of scripting and dynamic web sites is huge. It will continue to grow as new technologies emerge to make our web sites even more interactive. It's an exciting time for webmasters, our visitors and customers alike!