The following are simple tips for those checking out speedy web design and marketing:

- Be Controversial; criticise a few sacred cows. The web is used by many folks who delight in pointing out how other people are wrong. You can use this to your advantage to acquire publicity. It would help, of course, if you actually believed what you were saying.

- Pay Freelancers To Make Software For You And Give It Away Free. This can work very well indeed. Look around at the most popular freeware PHP scripts; can come up with an addon you could get developed and have your own link put in it?

- Do A Press Release, and consider beforehand how you can make it interesting to journalists. Spammers have recently taken to releasing poor-quality news items to just get backlinks. A better notion would be to investigate how to craft a proper release and then think of what would be truly newsworthy to put in it.

- Use A Popular, Inexpensive Web Host. Here are some winnowing criteria: Google PageRank of at least 5. Send them an email or two. See how long it takes to get a reply. They ought to have a discussion board (another indication of popularity and customer support). Lots of features offered (MySQL databases, Cpanel, Fantastico). Recent positive reviews in webmaster forums. Offers Linux servers (Windows costs more, and offers less). Cost per month can be as low as $10, and still have all the features above.

- Web Host Technical Support. Technical support is as important as the software features a web host supplies. Some internet hosts charge $10 per month and reply to back-up enquiries in twenty minutes. Some charge $40 per month and get back to you next day. As long as the request gets answered, this may may be acceptable. If the quality of the back-up declines, however, it isn’t. One day you will need a fast answer to a very urgent problem. You will thank the gods you took pains to find, and pay for, a responsive net host.

- Webhost Features. Most geeks favour Unix. It’s been around longer, and is more stable. Web hosts offering Unix variants like Linux have always been less expensive. They also seem to offer a wider range of toys. I need SSI (Server Side Includes), SSH (secure Telnet), 10 MySQL databases, Cpanel, PHPMyAdmin and a UK IP number. And you can get this for $15 a month. Things like MySQL databases, Cpanel and SSH access are real stumbling points for a lot of internet hosts. If they’re generous with these, you’ve discovered a rare jewel.

- Handy Software: 1. Easy Text To HTML Converter. This software can batch convert text files to HTML. See also: dirHtml. WordCleaner can convert Microsoft Word documents to HTML. 2. WinSCP. This is a very nifty piece of FTP software. 3. Putty Telnet/SSH Client. A simple-looking, but sophisticated, freeware telnet and SSH client. 4. CGI-Telnet. A cgi script that allows you to run commands on your server, even if your web host won’t give you telnet access. 5. AXS Visitor Tracking System. A very high-spec hit counter. 6. Port 2096. If you have CPanel on your webhost, yourdomain.com:2096 is the web address of your email accounts. 7. GetColor! This is a small, uncomplicated program to find out the colour code of any page or software on your desktop. 8. Arctan Bulk Replacer. This is a rare thing, a search and replace program for the Windows desktop. 9. ’1-4a Rename’. A batch file renamer. 10. Netscape Communicator 4.8. This has a very effective email client (Netscape Messenger) and a decent WYSIWYG HTML editor (Netscape Composer) in it.

- Post In Popular Forums And Blogs, if they will let you use straight hyperlinks in your signature. This is a short-term measure if you want to acquire back-links. It’s a long-term method if you want to sell to forum members.

I hope these few simple pointers will help you in getting worthwhile web design and marketing done speedily.