By popular demand, yesterday's text tutorial for masking photographs in Xara Xtreme has been recorded as a video, so now visitors can watch and listen to me present the lesson. Play time is 5 minutes and 25 seconds. In that time I mask and clip a photo of my dog to remove the background, and then pull in a sample new background. Yes! Just 5 minutes!

The technique shown in my video tutorial is a fast method for cropping part of a photograph using Xara Xtreme. The amazing part is the effect starts with a rough outline using straight lines. This simple method should be easy for all skill levels including novice graphic designers.

You may view the photo masking tutorial on YouTube, or watch and listen here.



Practical ways to use a cropped photo include business cards and other printed materials, or for website graphics. My previous lesson for techniques using error diffusion to create clean transparent gif graphics may become a video tutorial soon.



TAGS: advice video photographs tutorials photo edits xara xtreme graphic artwork video tutorial

Labels: advice, artwork, photographs, tutorials, video

                       

After an inquiry from another Xara Xtreme user who needed help cropping the background of a photo, I decided the reply would make a good tutorial. Here's a lesson for masking and deleting photo backgrounds with Xara Xtreme to use for creating custom graphics for online or in print.

Update: Hate to read? This tutorial is a featured video lesson on YouTube or watch this lesson in masking a photo with Xara Xtreme on my blog.

To summarize the technique, I begin with the Freehand Pen Tool to remove backgrounds and have become quite proficient at tracing complex shapes to create the mask. Next, I use the Shape Editor Tool to drag the straight lines into precise curves going point by point around the border of the mask area. Finally, once traced you select the mask and photo (hold shift+click on each), and then crop what you outlined with the shortcut command CTRL-3. Here are the detailed steps for this tutorial.

For a small photo enlarge it 400% to make it easier to trace. Use the Freehand Pen Tool and hold the ALT key to make a perfectly straight line from two points on a curved shape on the photo. Continue with connected straight lines for each curve to the next point before it begins to curve in another direction. You'll end up with a lot of straight lines. I usually set a contrasting line color depending on whether I have a dark or light photo.

I don't use the handles to pull the straight line into the shape of the curve except for minor adjustments. Instead, once all the straight lines are done going around the object I use another tool, the Shape Editor Tool. Here's more about drawing the straight lines.

Basically you trace the object you want to keep completely with straight lines until you return to your starting point and connect the ends. This fills the traced object with your default fill color to create the mask. The filled shape confirms you have a continuous line without any breaks. Next, and with the filled outline active (selected), find the small white square with diagonal cross lines in the lower left of the work area of the Xara screen. Right click on it and select "Clear Fill Color" so you're back to just the outline of straight lines that you just drew around the object.

Next, select the Shape Editor Tool which is the next one below the Freehand Pen Tool and use it to form curves out of the straight lines you've drawn. With the Shape Editor Tool your cursor turns into a plus symbol until you actually move it over a line, then it turns into the standard pointer cursor. If you left click on a line and release the mouse, it adds a new point. You don't want that. Instead, press the left mouse button down and hold it onto the first line you want to change to a curve without releasing the mouse button. This allows you to drag the line into a curved shape. Depending on the shape you need to outline, you learn over time the best spot for "connecting" on the line before you drag. If you make a mistake just press CTRL+Z to undo the error.

Once a curve is added to one straight line segment in the outline, continue dragging each straight line segment to fit the shape you want to keep as you move around the object. With experience you can do this quite quickly. Experiment with the point of contact on the straight line where you want to drag. Connect on the straight line close to the curve you just created, try the middle of the straight line, and connect away from the last curve to the opposite end before the next point. In time you will be familiar with the best point to drag for a given curve, and in what direction. Once the outline has been dragged to precisely trace the object, select the line and photo (hold shift+click on each) then use the CTRL-3 key combo to cut the traced object.

Once the object you want to keep is cropped, I usually hold the CTRL button and drag a dark color (usually black) onto a blank place in the work area. The default white background becomes all black and any errors in the tracing jump out at you. You can easily pull and push the outline of the cropped object using the Shape Editor Tool, also. If you see a piece of background that didn't get cropped properly, you can use the cursor to "push" the offending line in towards the object you intend to keep. With the dark background you can see immediately when you've pushed the line just right to remove the unwanted segment.

This may seem complicated at first. The person who inquired about how to mask and delete photo backgrounds in Xara Xtreme initially had problems, but eventually solved it and contacted me again within 24 hours. They successfully created their custom graphic, and it didn't take weeks to learn. It was done in a day.



TAGS: advice photographs tutorials photo edits xara xtreme graphic artwork

Labels: advice, artwork, photographs, tutorials, video

                       

Another custom wesite with matching blog and forum was launched this week. The Silver Fox Society international social network is for mature men interested in leisure activities and helping others. This membership based site features a matching community forum geared towards men who are retired or nearing retirement, plus an online store with official logo merchandise.

The basic rule to join is you must be male with some gray hair or no hair. The site includes a news blog including advice for senior citizens and was designed with a custom blogger template and matching graphics. The organization's theme revolves around leisure and charity.

The matching forum has public and members only libraries of free PDF reports and ebooks of interest to men, and each contains original content written by Silver Fox Society members for members. The home page features a public copy of "How to Smoke Fish" by founder Jeff Spira, who also wrote another with complete plans for building a kayak for around $50 USD. The kayak project download includes the blueprints, too.

All PDF ebooks and reports are available to download for free, and those in the public library do not require registration or an email address. The forum boards cover a wide variety of topics of interest to men from the baby boomer generation who are ready to retire or already retired. Younger men with some gray hair or no hair are welcome, also. The main site meets W3C for XHTML and CSS.



TAGS: website launch custom website design forum online store blog blogger template

Labels: blogger, launch, websites

                       

If you internalize what you know about your small business and fail to communicate the details on your blog, you may be missing an opportunity. Here are some tips about blogging and avoiding the nouns this, that, and let's add it. This simple lesson should help your blog writing become a more effective tool for reaching out to new customers.

First, it's time to confess. I catch myself making this very mistake, and have been more conscientious about how I present information on this blog to my readers. As part of proof reading your content, look for the infamous and non-descriptive words "this", "that", and "it". As the author, you know what they mean. Your readers may not share your in depth knowledge about your topic, so help them out.

Try rewording each instance of this, that, and it with more descriptive words that are terms relative to your product or service. These very generic terms do not communicate your small business as well as words specific to what you do, and although they may relate to something already stated, your meaning may only be obvious to you.

It isn't necessary to eliminate the words this, that, and it entirely as long as you replace as many as possible with key words about your small business. Review some of your blog posts and it's likely you will find weak spots for just this reason.

You may want to review my published article Small Business Blog Writing Tips for more advice. I just checked for this, that, and it as nouns in that article for violations. The content is fairly clean of those 3 words, but you decide.



TAGS: advice blog blogging writing

Labels: advice, blogger, general

                       

Ric Raftis from Australia launched a sales and internet marketing video on YouTube that is spot on with advice about relationships, although admittedly a rough production. I've known Ric for years and made the following comment under his video.

Ric, Your insight is an often oververlooked "secret" to success. 9 out of 10 salespeople don't understand that to succeed you sell nothing. You build relationships and solve problems. That was my reply when asked how I created $4 million profit in one year after joining a company that lost $600k a year for 3 years straight. Excellent information.

Missing from the comment that I made is insider info about Ric, and an important point to consider when selling. You must deal with absolute honesty and integrity. This describes Ric Raftis to a "t" and I believe he will enjoy the same level of internet marketing success online that he has established in his website design business at Bushsong. I expect he will shave the rough edges from any future video productions after this great start, as well.



TAGS: advice reviews sales advice advice video

Labels: advice, general, reviews

                       

After launching many small business integrated blogs for clients, the challenge is keeping them motivated to post and emphasizing the value. The ability to add fresh content often to your website may provide an advantage over your competition. If you have a blog and just can't find the time to post, you may enjoy the full published article Google Crawlers and Stray Cats. Here's an excerpt:

Let's compare Google crawlers and stray cats with this fun analogy to illustrate the value of providing visitors with tidbits of advice compared to seeing a stray cat near your home and tossing it a small chunk of steak. Do it again each night for 2-3 days. Skip a day and do it again and eventually that cat will come back every day even if you toss the scrap of steak once a week. Search engines are no different. Fresh content, no matter how small, attracts search engines to your site more often.

Maximize the seo or search engine optimization benefits of your small business website and blog by adding fresh quality content often. Your blog is the perfect answer with minimal effort and some discipline. The article linked above may provide pointers you haven't considered while looking at the Google crawler and stray cat analogy.



TAGS: advice blog small business advice advice articles seo search engine optimization

Labels: advice, articles, blogger, seo, websites

                       

If you are considering the latest release of the Joomla 1.5RC2 content management system (cms) for a new site, here is an installation procedure if you host on GoDaddy. Like many new open source programs, the documentation and help files are slowly being developed to help users, and a site hosted at GoDaddy is unique compared to some others.

The GoDaddy "Metropolis" installs stable versions only, and if you are a novice you may want to use an older stable version of Joomla 1.0x. Otherwise, instead of RC2 you could wait for the next RC3 revision of v1.5, or just wait for the stable release which is due in the coming months.

The advice here uses GoDaddy for reference because the Joomla instructions do not cover how to specify an external MySQL database address which is required for the installation. The only difference for other hosting services will be how you create your database and where is resides, so use their help files if you have any questions.

Short Tutorial: Download and unzip to extract Joomla 1.5RC2 files on your computer. Upload all the folders inside the main folder on your computer to your server using FTP. These files and folders begin with admin folder and all those listed under that. Go to GoDaddy to create a database in the hosting area of your GoDaddy account and then follow instructions beginning with Step 4 below.

Full Tutorial: Once downloaded and extracted, all unzipped files and folders under Joomla-1.5RC are to be uploaded to your server. To avoid the default Joomla favicon being displayed, replace it before uploading the files.

Replace the Joomla favicon in the /templates subfolders "beez" and "rhuk_milkyway" with a NEW favicon designed for your website.

Note: If you already have a favicon for your site, this should be easy. If you need one, I made a blog post about a free resource for favicons from www.chami.com.

After you complete uploading all your files, you need to create the database in preparation of activating your installation. You will need the hosting user name and password for your site. Here's how to create the database on GoDaddy.

1. Create a database on GoDaddy hosting (will need different user name and password)
2. Upload all files (perhaps 30 minutes or more)
3. Return to GoDaddy to retrieve the database hostname (needed later during install)
3.a Log on to GoDaddy hosting
3.b View listing for database (should be setup now, not pending)
3.c Next to the database name select the link "(Open Manager)"
3.d The database hostname will be listed, so highlight and do CTRL-C to copy
(For the GoDaddy database your MySQL will end with secureserver.net)

4. Follow instructions at http://help.joomla.org/content/view/39/132/ which will tell you how to access your new site for the first time and finish the installation.

NOTE: See 3.d above. When entering Step 4 (Database) of the installation the username and password are for the database, NOT your hosting, so the entries for user and password in (1.) above must be used.

5. For the FTP data, use the actual FTP user and pw for your hosting account.

6. Under configuration, enter email address (I prefer admin@) and make up a password for the super administrator.

7. Final Step: You must remove the installation folder contents from the server for security reasons. You cannot complete the installation until you do.

This is time consuming, but you must drill into each folder and delete the contents before you can return up a level and delete the empty folder. Go through every one which may take 15-20 minutes.

Once done, return to Step 7 above and select either Site or Admin to proceed. The site takes you to the dummy content and default layout by Joomla. Check the favicon. It should be your favicon in the address bar at the top.

Do this successfully and you are ready to begin adding content. Below are links to more help files that you may want to view if you still have problems. With a successful installation these are in the welcome page of your admin backend, also.

Absolute Beginners Guide to Joomla
Admin Security Center
In addition, you may want to visit the Forum, FAQs, and Help Center.

Good luck installing your new Joomla content management system. If this seems daunting or you want a unique look, you may want to consider my custom website design services, also.

Update: Please don't overlook the point about the coming RC3 revision and final stable release. The current RC2 has had issues reported by users in the forum almost daily with ongoing fixes of bugs. You may want to consider using the current version for test only in preparation of actually launching your new cms site after upgrading with the stable release.



TAGS: advice small business advice custom website design content management system cms Joomla

Labels: advice, tutorials, websites

                       

You may have noticed the very small icon in your browser address bar as you visit some websites. This is called a favicon as in "favorites icon". When you bookmark a site, the tiny logo, or favicon, remains next to the listing in your favorites as a reminder of the website.

These are not complicated to create and add to your website. You can easily create a JPG in Paint if you don't have a graphics editor, and then you will need to convert it to the ico extension. Fortunately, there's a free resource for doing just that at www.chami.com.

From their browse button search your My Documents folders for the graphic and then select "Create Favicon" to have yours done instantly. Their page displays the favicon as it will appear on your page. Download the zip file, extract the new favicon, and then upload it to your server. You will need to add a line of code to your META tags on every page in order for the favicon to actually appear.

For HTML use <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
For XHTML use <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" />

Upload your revised files and check your site. You may need to do a hard refresh CTRL-F5 to see it.



TAGS: advice website design favicon

Labels: advice, general, reviews, websites

                       

Another custom website in xhtml with css launched with the preliminary release today of a site and matching blog for Masterson Construction, a licensed general contractor in Southern California. The site is bare bones at the moment with a home page and blog, and will grow quickly as additional content is provided in the next 2-3 weeks.

Here's an excerpt from the Masterson Construction blog:

New features in the next few weeks will include a more detailed list of services plus a photo gallery of projects. Our unofficial slogan is "A hands on general contractor with the experience you can trust". Our website is new... we're not.

Masterson Construction services customers for residential and commercial new construction, remodeling, and room additions in Orange County and Los Angeles County and some of the surrounding area of Southern California.



TAGS: website launch custom website design small business services blog template

Labels: blogger, launch, websites

                       

Article writing is featured in one of the free SEO pdf reports in my series for do-it-yourself small business website promotion, and I thought I would share some statistics. The evidence favors article writing as a way to promote your website as shown by the following results at just one article syndication directory.

Article titles are blog related and linked to the originals as listed in my library of small business advice full length articles.

Small Business Blog Integration Advice
Author: Jim Degerstrom
Posted on: Apr 28 2007
Status: Approved
Downloads: 1843
Word Count: 866

Small Business Blog Writing Tips
Author: Jim Degerstrom
Posted on: May 18 2007
Status: Approved
Downloads: 623
Word Count: 978

The first article was written in April 2007 and was downloaded from the article syndicate 1,843 times. The second was published in May 2007 and has been downloaded 623 times.

The benefits of becoming known for writing free expert advice will draw fans when you write quality articles from a neutral point of view. Visit the directory of small business advice articles for a list and links to these and other website design related topics.

Learn more about the value of writing articles. Download the search engine optimization reports in pdf to learn more about free methods for small business website promotion. The first is entitled "Google Page One in Just 9 Months".



TAGS: articles blog advice small business advice seo search engine optimization statistics

Labels: advice, articles, blogger, seo

                       

I released another published article about small business turnkey websites, and not just the scams. Brand name cookie cutter websites can have a downside, so you may want to read about the topic of brand name turnkey sites here. Here's an excerpt.

The ideal scenario for any small business is having an original site with fresh content added often instead of a cookie cutter clone. Integrate a blog and forum as appropriate and you create a search engine magnet, but that traffic is meaningless if your content is stale and only optimized for search engines. It is more important to design content for visitors who are more likely to stay longer and eventually buy when you provide quality information and value for money.

In a previous article, readers were warned about scam turnkey sites, including some featured in late night tv advertising. You may want to read how one woman lost more than $10,000 over 2 years without one cent in profit as documented in another article I wrote, Tips Before Buying a Turnkey Online Business.

Use due diligence before spending your hard earned money. Contact me for an opinion before you buy, or consider joining online marketing forums to get neutral feedback before you pay for an online turnkey site. You may find seo, search engine optimization, very difficult with a cookie cutter website.



TAGS: advice articles small business advice turnkey websites seo

Labels: advice, articles, seo, websites

                       

Many small business websites include hyperlinks that read "Click Here", and the site may have been created without realizing why that type of link is a major mistake in website design. Most website hyperlinks are obvious, so visitors will know the colored text within a paragraph is a link. Rather than "Click Here" using a more literal text description of the content at the link destination is better for several reasons:

1. The descriptive text makes the linked content more obvious
2. Persons with disabilities using screen readers have literal feedback
3. Search engines give more value to key words in links for improved SEO

Visit the Small Business Resource Center home page to view examples of multiple text links. Each meets the 3 items and advantages on the list shown above. Anything you can do to enhance your visitor's experience, including search engines, will benefit your small business website performance.

Tip: There are more methods to assist persons with disabilities, especially blind or vision impaired visitors, who depend on easy accessibility to understand your content. It is a major mistake having graphics on your site without adding a small piece of code in the html called the ALT tag. The ALT tag is best kept at 4-5 words and is used to describe the graphic that persons with vision actually see, and allows vision impaired persons to know what is displayed even though it cannot be viewed.

Ask your designer if you have a site with graphics and the ALT tags are missing. They're easy to fix.

Literal hyperlinks instead of "Click Here" and ALT tags for graphics are simple to add, and will result in a more professional website design.



TAGS: advice small business advice website design seo search engine optimization hyperlinks accessibility

Labels: advice, seo, websites

                       

A blog post at EzineArticles.com shows the mug illustration from the graphic tutorial I posted on August 17, 2007. After reading the warm comments, I decided to create a custom high resolution version of the mugshot available for download for EzineArticles platinum authors, and others.

View the tutorial and custom photo illustration used for the wallpaper from my previous post, or right click and save target as to download the free EzineArticles mug desktop wallpaper here (250kb JPG zipped folder). Unlike some free downloads, you do not have to register or reveal your email address.

Article writing is a great way to increase backlinks, and the desktop wallpaper is a friendly reminder to keep writing.



TAGS: graphic artwork desktop wallpaper free download article writing

Labels: articles, artwork, examples

                       

Here's more seo advice for your online small business. For more favorable search engine optimization results, consider the importance of theme based website content. The trend in LSI, latent semantic indexing, by search engines means your overall site content is evaluated to establish your theme.

Here's what that means. As indexing becomes more sophisticated no single page on your small business website is used to determine your business slant. Instead, the content of all pages are studied for the theme or connection between all content. Keep information on your site niche related for better results.

In addition, avoid adding links to external sites with content that has nothing to do with your business model. Otherwise, you dilute your potential search results with material that is irrelevant to the audience you are trying to reach. Stick to your purpose for being online, and add fresh content often that is specific and defines your product or service.

Resist the temptation to add links to "friends" unless their business is somehow related to what you do. You may change your strategy in the future by adding new products or services outside your current business. At that point you should certainly ramp up content to redefine your site theme.

Finally, while your target focus has a purpose, you may realize unexpected results. As an example, my core business is website design and matching graphic art for print. In addition, I provide advice for small business owners on just those subjects, yet a recent new client reported they found this blog on Google page one for small business advice blog.

The results fit my theme, yet I was pleasantly surprised being recognized for small business advice which is something I give away for free. Call or write if you want to learn more about seo and latent semantic indexing.



TAGS: small business advice website design website content seo search engine optimization latent semantic indexing

Labels: advice, seo, websites