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Special Features - Nepali Web in the year 2005 - Speaking our Mind!

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Hello. Hello. Hello!

It's that time of the year again, we sit back and relax as we review new Nepali websites of the year to select the best sites. Also we will be speaking our mind about the Nepali web!

We have the Nepali website of the Year, and Top New Nepali Websites of the year. Enjoy your stay and have a happy Year 2006 !

Tips on picking a Web Designer

A lot of users have mailed us asking for tips on signing up with a Nepali web design company. We thought we pass it on to you before we move on to our real chapter! Here we go...

Tip 1 : Look at their work portfolio in design and hosting services. Go to their website and learn about them. Get to know the volume and quality of their business.
Tip 2 : Start comparing services before comparing the prices.
Tip 3 : If you can, get the most expensive design package that's available out there in Nepal, also combine it with a good hosting package. There is no such thing as free lunch. Often, cheaper prices have cheaper services which you will regret later. Also add these services in your package:
(a) Site promotion
(b) Site Update Monthly or More Often
(c) Domain Name Registration and Renewal
(d) Advertisements on their portals or other Nepali websites
(e) Free or Paid Email Address (e.g. admin@yourcompany.com)
(f) Site Visitor Statistics
(g) and Some basic training on using Internet, FTP, HTML or Email, that is if you needed
Tip 4 : Don't concentrate too much on the look of your website rather concentrate on how visitors will find your website. Forget about adding contents about Nepal the Himalays etc, there are tons of sites about Nepal already on the Internet, people won't be coming to your business site to learn about Nepal, really, but to know you and your business. Do all you can to present that information well. Study your competitors websites, see what kind of information they are lacking. Add them on yours. Imagine what visitors will look for when they are on your website ? Can you also imagine why have come to visit your website? What are you going to offer them on your site?
Tip 5 : Update your site as often as you can. If you can't do it, have the design company take care of this task. Ask for them to design such sites where you can log in and manage contents yourself. There are many open source content management sysetms such as Joomla (joomla.org). If you can not install yourself, ask your web design company to design sites using such open source software, which are free and tons of support is available on the Internet in case you need help. Using CMS helps you easily manage and update your site without having to ask your web designer's support! For sites not using CMS, ask them, how much it will cost to update your site and take that extra service.
Tip 6 : What are you going to achieve from your website? Write it down all the goals. Some of your goals might be to sale products online, or to advertise your company's products and services.
Tip 8 : Let the web hosting company manage your domain names or if you are managing it, remember to renew it in time
Tip 8: Static or Dynamic. You might have come across many web designers telling you that you need a site that dances! It's called Dynamic! Some will tell you, oh, I saw your website abc.html, it sucks! it should be abc.php! dynamic! Most professional web designers won't talk to you that way. Know the difference. They know, based on your requirements what kind of a site you need. So don't just jump from abc company to xyz company just to make your website dance! - may be you don't need your site that way. Talk to your web design company, based on your requirements, they will tell you what you need.
Tip 9 : If you already have a website, and its running good, perhaps there is only one reason you need to switch to another company, may be because of lack of services you are getting from your hosting or the design company. Most web design or hosting costs are affordable in Nepal. Webmasters in Nepal don't make that much of money nor do the web hosting companies make a whole lot of profit. If someone tells you to switch to his company because of a few hundred or thousand Rupees, check to see how good that offer is. Go visit his or her web site and find out about the Tip 1 (see above). Also don't accept offer by some tricky designers, who constantly offer people with new domain names, probably free and ask people if they can design another site for your business. Remember, you will be having multiple sites running on the internet , and people think you fake identity and perhaps it will have downward performance on your existing websites. A single good website can achieve your goal if you put your whole mind to it!
Tip 10: Nomatter how good your site is, if you haven't promoted it, search engines won't rank it. A link from other sites to your site is a recommendation that is counted by search engines such as a google, yahoo. Inform other similar sites about your new site and ask them to provide a link back to you. Do not engage in link-farms, etc. Do not create a page called `Link exchange' with hundreds of irrevalent links. It is best to provide a few quality links. Thesedays search engines value Quality more than Quantity! Talk to your web design company and ask them how they will be promoting your site on the Interent. Also use the Internet itself to Learn more about this!

Go Pull someone's Leg Now!

In Nepal laws are broken more than eggs in the morning!

Once blog.com.np reported on its website that people were stealing their news photos, and similarly some websites stole photos of kantipuronline.com. Someone had no writers on the ground so they went stealing news stories from nepalnews.com. Some one has a news website but doesn't have photographers - so go still someone's photos. Someone doesn't have time to review websites so go still someone's web links and descriptions. Someone is lazy in web design - so go steal someone's design. Someone has a class assignment in web design, so go copy and paste contents from all sorts of sites and make a site. As the number of Nepali websites are growing, their uniqueness is declining and nobody seems to care. And our Government is snoring as always!

A Nepali Web should always be a place where creativity, innovation and uniqueness thrives and It's not so impossible to achieve that.

A message to you if are thinking about making a site by stealing : There are billions of users on the internet, and most know where the original contents come from. So if they happen to visit your site and find out that you have used someone's copy righted texts or pictures, the chances are they will never visit your site again! You are just like a cheater, and people often don't trust cheaters, do they?. Since they can not trust you, they will not trust your site, so they will never visit your site again. Also, most web editors working in web directories like yahoo, google, open directory project etc already know where the original contents are! And while reviewing your site, if they find that you have used copy righted materials on your site, your site will be kicked out, perhaps never listed in their directory! So, your site will not live long.

There is an old saying in Nepali, "nepali haru auta ko khutta arko lay tahnchan" (Nepalese pull one another's leg) and both fall down.

You, the users can make a difference. If you find a site stealing stuff (we call it a cheater site), tell them you will never visit that site again unless they remove the stolen stuff, also please go post such news on message forums and tell everyone about it!

illegal Down loading of Nepali Music

Before the internet, you had to buy CD albums to listen to songs. In Nepal, people who have Internet access are not buying any albums at all. Music shops have recorded sharp declines in sales of music CDs. A shop owner who wishes not to be identified, says, "Kids here in the city are down loading and sharing all kinds of music", they do not have the need to buy music, and why would they then buy. Government is doing nothing. The only sale I make in my store are the domestic tourists coming from far far villages who buy a few folk songs on tapes." Where would Nepalese music industry be if it weren't for overseas purchases ?

Average Nepalese in cities now have a computer and internet access, and Nepali songs are just a click away. As the country's cyberlaw sleeps, things are turning bad for many musical artists in the country. There is an urgency to enforce the law such as law against illegal down loading. It is possible that there may be no singers in Nepal, and the days are not too far away.

Have you been to a Nepali music site. You must have! There are so many. Do you ever wonder where they got all those music from ? Makes you think, doesn't it? Who gave them the right to distribute Nepali songs ? Perhaps there are lots of fans who want Nepali music, but do you ever wonder if they wanted it free how would the industry be? Sites allow you to download music, isn't that interesting ? Do they own those songs so they allow others to freely get it? How long can you keep music on your computer? Do you have to delete that file and buy the original music? How about sites that allow you to listen to songs on their websites using a player such as Winamp. Did they get those songs for free too? We know that to use even a small piece of a music, you have to pay to the music owner. For example, even a short commercial ad with a musical background pays a big amount to the music owner, and every time a song is played on the radio, a royalty fee goes to the music owner. Now, are our Nepali websites doing that? Wouldn't it be be wonderful if they did ?

Tips for Users :We should be able to download some songs, but not a whole lot - not so many as to sink the entire music industry of the country. Download a song, listen to it, erase it from your hard disk, if you like the song, then buy the original album from the artist. This way, you help that artist earn his bread, his family, music producers, and the entire music industry grows. If you just download, and never buy Nepali music, you will be killing Nepal's music industry. While there might be no law in Nepal against illegal down loading, there are tough laws in other countries and it applies to all kinds of music including Nepali! In some countries, illegal down loading can have you behind the bars for five years or more and pay a fine up to US$ 25,0000 or more. So think about it before you download songs.

Tip for Music Sites : And for you all Nepal music sites, you need to be selling Nepali music. Someone is taking this task seriously like musicnepal.com where you can now buy songs individually or buy a whole album.

Tips Government: Just get up you scrap Nepali government! Wake up and put some action. Next you will take care of the down loading of pornography in Nepal too, ok! And if you need help, get in touch with Nepal's Computer Association, they got some good people there.

What to expect in the year 2006 ?

Are you bored of not getting ideas to design a new website or have questions on what kind of Nepali websites might be coming this year ? Lets talk and laugh, here we go...

More Blog websites from journalists, doctors and just about everybody
Sites of Nepali Lawyers, Sites offering Legal News
More Nepali Sites selling Nepali Music
A Nepali website keeping track of who is copying stuff from which website and all, including site design and contents
Online Banking - while a few Nepali banks have nothing but lousy internet profile and contact details calling them selves ahead of the rest of the banks, some, probably the new once will go online this year allowing people to check their balance at least, we hope!
You will not have to wait in line for hours to pay your utility bills like electricity. Nepal Telecommunications and Electricity Authority will allow you to pay your bills online or their folks will come to our house with hand-held devices to collect payments!
Nepal Webmasters Association - There are more associations in Nepal than the hairs in your head. But something is stopping for this association to pop up. Come on you guys, talk to each other, have a meeting, be friends to one another and put a frame-work in place so everyone benefits and helps solve some of the unhealthy competition that's killing everyone's business. More ideas >>
Sites of adventure travel companies of Nepal will no longer carry a link saying "About Nepal" but will carry a link saying "Buy This Travel Package Online"
When you click on a link saying `Buy This Product' on the sites of Exporters of Nepali Products such as Pashmina, you will no longer see the boring contact us form or enquiry form, but instead you will see a check out form!
More sites about Nepali language. Some teaching Nepali language online based on paid membership.
Internet will be so cheap in Nepal, people working in Nepal Telecommunications will start paying for their Internet Accounts. Specially the General Manager and his people!
At least a few online news site from Nepal with good multimedia and photos for every top story, breaking news and detailed news not just the brief news like Auta le Auta lai Marya, KasLay Kunni Golia Hanyo, A mora FTP program bandha garna yar, ma game kelchu kay, goli marday uploading nepalabcnews.com like yar aba ta. ho ja! Such online news sites may win to be the #1 among others who continue to bore news readers with loads of facts of news but they don't make it interesting to read! Here is one... His Royal Highness arrived here, Her Royal Highness received the Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Koirala, and Mr. Ganesh Thapa, the VDC, Elected Chairman person of Ward Number 16, with his Wife, Mrs Koirala, the wife of Mr. X Koirala, the then prime Minister of 2056, of Nepali official year.. bla bla. bla. oh,, did you already fall a sleep!! That's what we mean, got a have Nepali news site that makes you want to read nepali news!
There will be a portal for each city of Nepal. Palpa Portal, Sangjha Portal, Birtamod Portal, Humla Portal. And each portal will feature `face of the day', and models, and models. and more models untill the webmaster forgets where the portal was born!
Some online community sites for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexuals in the country. Some related sites about sex abuses in the country including trafficking of Nepalese girls
At least the first site of any Nepali actor or actress for his or her fans
Sites fully devoted to offering the `History of Nepal'. Perhaps by someone living in Nepal or a Nepali anywhere, offering his or her own version of Nepal's History!
A Nepali site keeping track of who is dead in Nepal war, with photo, names, and address. Not all dead are useless fighters but innocent kids, dads and mums of the poor Nepalese and somebody has to do the great job of making them remembered - the real heros of Nepal..
And positively, a new website fully highlighting the event `Return of the Democracy' to the people on this ___ day ___ Month Year 2006 by Nepal King, with pictures, sounds and fireworks.... Keep your fingers crossed!

Checkout these sites below, all sites open in a new window :

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