web sites
one of the things i do to generate income is create web sites for small businesses. entrepreneurs are generally a treat to work with; however, if the client and web genius are not on the same page, things just don’t go as smoothly as they could. i came a cross a nice little article delineating how to work with web designers. following these 8 steps will make both sides of the table happy to work together.
1. do your homework. make sure your designer fits your style.
2. know the basics. knowing the difference between a domain name and web site make communication easier.
3. be prepared to collaborate. your designer can’t read your mind, and needs your input to make your dream a reality.
4. get comfortable. make sure this person is someone you’ll like working with.
5. know what you’re paying for. realize changes will cost you money; be prepared to make a down payment.
6. be honest, but don’t nitpick. if the mockup is way off mark, say so.
7. hold up your end. the web designer is responsible for the framework, and the client is responsible for the content.
8. be decisive. all those little changes can make your project behind schedule and add cost.
then enjoy the new site!
Tags: web sites
yay, my favorite search engine now lets you search images by color. simply add &imgcolor=desiredcolor to the end of your url. from the unofficial google blog, here’s the scoop.
Google Image Search has a new option that lets you restrict the results based on their color. For now, the option is not available in the user interface, but you can tweak the search results URL to try it.
Searching for [red bird] shows good results, but you can still find some unrelated images. What if you search for [bird] and restrict the results to red images? Here’s the URL:
http://images.google.com/images?q=bird&imgcolor=red
(you can replace “red” with “blue”, “green”, “teal”, “purple”, “yellow”, “orange”, “pink”, “white”, “gray”, “black” and “brown”)
Tags: google image color search
this is my new favorite tool. i will have limited need for it, but it is super cool. the multicolour search lab let’s you search through photos based on what colors you need. it’s quite fun to play around with, even if you have no need for an image. the images come from alamy, and are royalty-free (by default). they also have a search engine for flickr. try it out the next time you need an image to match a site’s color scheme.
Tags: color search lab
web robots (aka spiders or crawlers) are programs that scamper around the web and gather information. like all powers, they can be used for good or for evil. on the good side, search engines use them to index content. on the evil side, spammers use them to scan for e-mail addresses.*
if you have a web site, and don’t want a robot to access certain parts of your site, you can control this with the robots.txt file. all you have to do it create a robots.txt file, edit it with the proper entries, and place it in the root level of your site. check out robotstxt.org for more detailed instructions.
*this is why you should not put your e-mail address on a web page or blog post. one common trick is to write it out, like bosslady (at) kimra (dot) com. a human can read this and use it, but robot can’t.
Tags: robots.txt, spiders, web robots
i just read a quote attributed to bruce springsteen that, imho, exemplifies successful blogging: your job is to make your audience care about your obsessions.
[pause for a minute to reflect on this]
ok, so somehow you have to reel in your audience; to reel in your audience, you obviously need a hook. a hook can have many forms. it might be a visual hook, like a snappy logo. but more likely, the hook is in text form: your headline.
your headline is almost always the first thing readers see when they go to your blog. and based on what your headline tells them, they will either take a couple of minutes out of their busy day to read your entry, or not. so here are a few tips on writing a good title for your online masterpiece.
keep the title short: 50-60 characters is ideal
be funny only if it makes sense: unless your blog is only read by those in-the-know, skip the inside jokes.
give them a clear takeaway: tell the readers everything they need to know about the post’s contents.
write the title first: this will keep your article focused
happy hooking!
Tags: blog title
okay, so you’ve been blogging a while now, and are ready to take the next step toward becoming a master blogger. what can you do differently? well, this series of tips aims to get you pointed in the right direction.
perhaps the most important thing you can do to maintain and gain readership is to blog on a consistent basis. if you post three entries one week, then don’t post at all for three weeks, your readers will be put off. so try to be diligent about adding new posts as regularly as possible. it doesn’t really matter if it’s once a day or once a week, just try to be predictable. bonus: it’s a good way to exercise discipline and practice non-procrastination.
another step to better blogging is to brand yourself. perhaps the easiest thing you can do is get your own domain name. thousands of people have blogs hosted by blogger or blogspot with names like kimra.blogspot.com. that is great when you’re starting out, since it’s free and easy to learn, but it won’t make you stand out. having your own domain name is the de facto way to say, “i’ve hit the big time.”
customizing your blog’s look is another great way to stand out. experiment with things like customizing your color scheme, adding your own logo to your blog header, or making a custom favicon.
this blog is currently at the out-of-the-box stage. i plan to implement several of these suggestions, so check back for updates and judge for yourself whether or not it is an improvement.
good blogging!
Tags: blog, branding
everybody wants more web site traffic. however, there are better and not-so-better ways to do this. here are three unethical methods that some web site owners use to get their site listed on search engines (and to obtain a high search engine listing). while they may temporarily work, you should avoid these techniques since they could get your site banned.
- Keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing is the overuse of keywords in a piece of content. Generally, this is repeating the same keywords over and over. Who wants to see a site stuffed with keywords?
- Invisible text: Quite a few cheap sites use this tactic, which involves making keywords to be the same color as the background, so readers can’t see the massive amounts of keywords, but search engine spiders can. But readers who set custom browser display settings will also see it - oops.
- Doorway pages: These are pages that regular visitors cannot see, but search engine spiders can. They are used to trick the search engines so that the site gets a higher ranking. Not only do they go against the rules, but they also hurt the visitor’s experience. Nobody likes waiting for a site to redirect to a page with actual content on it.
source: webreference.com
blogger brian lee thinks that everyone should have a blog. imho, “everyone” is a bit overzealous in scope, but it sure does seem like all the cool kids are doing it.
if you are interested in starting a blog, check out this article, which covers what you need to know to start blogging (and a little more, actually). so get started, and let the world know what you have to say!
http://geniustypes.com/how_to_blog_the_manual/
Tags: blog