Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category

The developers of DupeFree Pro software for checking duplicate content and testing article keyword density, just to name two great features, are asking existing users to reply to an online survey of possible new features. If YOU have taken my advice for downloading their free program and receive their survey request email, please take the time to comply. Here are some of the comments I included in my submission.

For me DupeFree Pro is used mostly for keyword density and article word count. It might be nice to have the option to set a target density for a keyword, ie 4 percent, then test and if the density is low, have a value displayed in DupeFree Pro for the number of times to add that word to achieve my target percentage.

That’s easy to achieve by trial and error yet with a number it would be easy to copy/paste that key word X number of times in appropriate places within the article while maintaining human readability. Otherwise, with trial/error and copy/paste I compromise the target and stop while thinking “good enough”.

In addition, I made the following comments

You have a great product which I am happy to promote and suggest people use. Many have. A 50 page PDF tutorial I wrote on custom cms web design and do-it-yourself seo makes reference to free resources for research and testing of website content.

The free ebook has been downloaded 1000′s of times, and includes DupeFree Pro as recommended for testing keyword density. The 4 percent target keyword density mentioned earlier in the survey is what I suggest within the 1.5-6.5 percent in your documentation. It has worked very well for me.

My core business is custom cms web design. I truly believe holding my position on Google page one at #1 and #2 for custom cms web design for the last 2 years is due in part to your fine software. Thanks!

Finally for my readers, given the opportunity please take the DupeFree Pro survey to help them in deciding on future developments and enhancements of their software.

The challenge of the day was learning new php and mysql related terms involving a web design upgrade, and then finding a timestamp date and time code converter. The research began without knowing the right words to describe what was needed! It’s time to share the solution for novice designers facing the same mystery.

Searching the date and time code 1190073600 plus php or mysql, and then words like translate or convert, did not explain how that timestamp code translates to midnight on September 18, 2007. Knowing how to create similar dates and specific times in a proper 10 digit code was a variable necessary for importing updates to a searchable database being considered in a web design project.

Don’t even try to find a date or time in that code. 1190073600 is more cryptic than the 07 meaning 2007. The code 0000000000 translates to midnight on Thursday, January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (GMT). That timestamp is the unix epoch, or reference date for unix based servers, and time is calculated in seconds from that “zero” time and date. Therefore, the mystery time code definition of 1190073600 is that moment in time 1,190,073,600 seconds after the unix epoch.

Noontime today when converted to a unix timestamp would be human readable as Thursday, November 5th 2009, 12:00:00 (GMT) and translates to 1257422400 as the unix timestamp. Without an understanding of how that 10 digit date and time code was created, it took persistent and stubborn research before finding this online timestamp (date and time) code converter.

With the solution and clearer terminology in hand, Google “standard time to unix online tool” and the first tool in search results today was this standard time and unix timestamp converter which converts the code or datetime either way. The linked 4webhelp.net version interface and display was nice, yet others in the top 10 results were adequate online tools, also.

Will I be disappointed if I can integrate and update the database without needing that date and time code converter? No. The solution was fun to research and will hopefully help others as curious or stubborn as me.

An email received today was from a customer who watched one of my graphics tutorial videos recently where I use Xara Xtreme, and then asked for a comparison of Xara Xtreme and Photoshop for creating website graphics. Here’s my reply.

I chose Xara based on price and functions after downloading trial copies of each. Both are vector graphics software. Photoshop is the “standard” for high end professional design, yet for what I do designing web graphics and artwork for print, the cost and functions of Xara were more than sufficient and made it a clear choice.

It’s easy to understand why the advanced print artwork capabilities of Photoshop are needed for full time graphic design. Based on need, Photoshop had more than I needed or would ever use, while Xara was sufficient without more technical functions or a steeper learning curve.

View examples of my artwork for a feel for what can be done in Xara. 9 out of 10 logo designs on my site including these 50 custom business cards and another 50 card designs were drawn freehand in Xara to ensure crisp clean lines in the final artwork.

The video flash animation in the intro and outro of new videos done for my puppy’s Life with Corky website used Xara. Here’s an example 23 second puppy video on YouTube to demo flash creation and export. Special effects for the moving text and puppies popping up was created with Xara.

If you’ve only seen the first photo edit tutorial, an improved video of photo masking techniques shows more detail of how to use Xara for photo edits including cropping backgrounds, so that may be of interest, too.

I’ve been using Xara Xtreme for more than 5 years with professional results online and in print. Photoshop is excellent, yet more than I need for web and print graphics.

Frustrated or overwhelmed managing large numbers of followers and people you follow on Twitter? The Twitin Twitter online tool from Buzzom.com may be the solution you need to get back in control.

A novice Twitter user may look at the stream of tweets flying by 24/7 when they have 1000+ friends and think it’s like a freight train passing at 100 mph and you’re expected to read the grafitti on each train car. Strategies for following, unfollowing, reciprocating, and then communicating with Twitter friends in your new social circle will be easier using an online tool like Twitin.

There are many tools you could review and choose, and after trying several I am most impressed with the Twitin Twitter online tool. As shown in the graphic above, you have choices that are automated to figure out people you follow who do not follow back, who follows you that you may have overlooked following back, and a bunch of other tools for very advanced Twitter account management.

Besides automating the routine functions just mentioned that allow you to match up people to follow or unfollow, another option suggests a list of Twitter people that are very likely to follow you back. After using their tool for about an hour, I permanently blocked a handful of people following me who tweet content that I found too offensive. I reciprocated with 200+ followers who I didn’t realize were following me unnoticed because that freight train is moving so fast. In addition, I unfollowed about 100 people who I chose to follow who did not reciprocate after several months.

Next, a real cool online tool at Twitin that I recommend is their “Cross Follow” option. Input the ID of a person on Twitter who you know and respect with similar interests for your niche, and Twitin allows you to review the unique people in their followers and following lists for consideration. The list leaves out known matching contacts to those you already follow.

Review 50 names at a time that include data on followers/following and other detials, and then select check boxes for ones you want to follow. When done, press the follow button to automatically follow persons on the list. When that task is complete you get instant feedback on the success rate.

Finally, Twitin has a locking tool that allows you to selectively lock people on your lists. You can set IDs that you never want to follow as well as those you will never unfollow to prevent deleting them by mistake later. Twitin is great. Don’t get too carried away because Twitter does have API call limits, yet if you do get an error message in Twitin you can likely return an hour later and continue.

This web design related review is for the online video display features at Flickr.com. After uploading personal still photos to my Flickr account, I decided to test the video option. I wanted to see the Flickr video display features including size, quality, and video player layout. The quality and layout were excellent. The size options were a surprise.

The video may be embedded on a blog like here with a choice of sizes including Flickr’s suggested 400 x 300 as shown below, or even your original actual size if larger. The 8 second test video below is our puppy sneezing and the original was 640 x 480.

You may see examples of the different video size, quality, and player features of this same short video on Flickr as follows:

See the small thumbnail 100 x 75 view of the sneezing puppy test video on the tags page at Flickr. Look for the triangle play button to id videos. Yes, the tiny 100 x 75 video does actually play right on the tags page!

The medium gallery displays a 240 x 180 medium size sneezing puppy (Look by date for content dated 4 Sep 2009). This video plays on the gallery page with sufficient detail without going to the permalinked larger version.

Finally, the large 480 x 360 view and permalink page shows the same puppy sneezing clip in HD, and the player and view quality are excellent.

Here’s a summary of my review of the Flickr video display features. The video player display, quality, and size options provide a positive viewing experience. Video duration is limited to 90 seconds maximum and 150mb file size if you have a free account, or 500mb video size for a Flickr Pro account. If you have a longer story to tell, try YouTube. You may learn more about uploading and sharing videos with Flickr on the Flickr video help page of FAQs.

You may want to compare my sample video by viewing longer YouTube videos of my puppy Corky with opening graphics, soundtrack, and narration, also. I was pleased and impressed with the Flickr video display features for short personal video clips including audio.

Hispanic small business owners represent nearly half my clients for custom web design. I’m pleased to announce a valuable resource by Juan Silvera including his Hispanic Small Business Blog at HispanicSMB.com. El Blog de Juan has been online since 2006 providing valuable insight for Latino small businesses.

Some of my clients contact me for a quality custom website that is designed with bilingual content. Once the English version is launched, site owners have the option of translating all pages for visitors who prefer reading content in Spanish.

In addition to announcing the HispanicSMB site, a link has been added to the Small Business Resource Center blogroll for the benefit of my clients interested in learning more about business trends for US Hispanic businesses. Visit their main site for more content including a Latino small business forum, how-to videos, directory, and library for Latino small business owners.

A new podcast episode entitled Low Budget Podcast Production released earlier includes an interview with pro podcaster Fred Greenhalgh of FinalRune Productions and Radio Drama Revival. FinalRune produces audio theater drama recordings in live settings to recreate the feel of old time radio programs predating television. Listen online. The quality is excellent.

In the interview Fred mentions cost effective products for small business podcasts that he uses for audio field production outside the studio, plus a condenser mic with outstanding quality at an affordable price. The product brands and item numbers were not spelled out in the podcast, so I took a closer look and was very surprised at the high quality and affordable price of the C01U mic and Zoom H2 recorder.

The podcast episode explores FinalRune’s portable recording equipment and suggestions for microphones for small business podcasters. A shoutout was given to one of his favorite suppliers, SweetWater.com, and a closer look shows they carry the two products he mentions during the show. Readers who listen to the podcast, may want to visit Sweetwater.com for a closer look at the Samson C01U USB podcasting mic, and the Zoom H2 4-mic portable hand held digital recorder.

Now I have some podcast equipment “toys” to add to my Christmas wish list.

Checking stats for custom cms web design related searches for my site at StatCounter.com I noticed a link to their blog with a post about the new browser Google Chrome stats on StatCounter for the first 8 days since its release.

Comparing my visitor browser stats to the relatively low number of 1.02% tracked by StatCounter as now using Chrome as their browser of choice, my count was over 5% on one day that I checked. The global numbers on StatCounter indicate growth in that 8 day period for Chrome and “numerous browsers including Konqueror, Opera, Playstation, Blackberry, Iphone, Seamonkey etc.” and a decline in IE, FireFox, and Safari.

These are very early numbers, yet as predicted in my review of the Google Chrome browser 10 days ago, “Trust Google to consider your input and then stand back and watch them conquer another internet niche with leading edge technology that responds to what users really want.”

For average internet users the Chrome choice may be an easy one. My personal favorite is still FireFox because of the add-on plug-ins and extensions for web developers, yet that attitude may change as more programmers step up and assist in enhancements for Chrome. People employed in web design and even site owners, need to add Chrome to their list of browsers to test for cross browser compatibility. A quality custom web design will display well in all browsers.

This review of the Google Chrome browser BETA features the latest Google venture from this dominant internet giant. The intitial release is for Windows users only and runs on Vista and XP SP2, so Mac and Linux web surfers must wait for future development.

Visit the Google Chrome browser download page to download your copy, or follow their links to learn more including a series of video presentations by Google staffers. Here is a screenshot of a sample startup window showing recent history thumbnails as displayed in the Google Chrome browser.

As a web developer working full time in custom web design, my interest is more about performance than aesthetics. The Google browser development strategy was start from scratch to create a browser with forward looking concepts rather than build on architecture that evolved over 12 years from text only pages through a series of more complex stages. Thinking outside the box meant considering current leading edge advanced web design multimedia features and aps, and then projecting future needs to include now in the Google Chrome browser software in preparation as the internet becomes more sophisticated.

Unique features include a dual purpose address bar that acts as a search bar, also. As you type a url or search phrase a dropdown list of prompts appear. View a screenshot of Google Chrome browser history here. View the first graphic in this post and the multiple thumbnails display recent history of websites visited. Selecting “Show all history” brings up a list of history in text, and I really liked the layout and level of detail which helped recall more about those websites from recent visits.

The Google Chrome BETA version browser is open source, and they welcome comments and feedback from users and programmers. This attitude is a welcome change from the pretense and arrogance of at least one browser software provider criticized for broken promises.

The Google Chrome browser is excellent, yet as expected there are likely minor defects in this preliminary BETA release. Trust Google to consider your input and then stand back and watch them conquer another internet niche with leading edge technology that responds to what users really want.

In testing some of my more advanced custom web designs a minor problem was encountered from as page featuring a wide screen flash video (6.5mb file size).

Attempting to follow the link resulted in a delay and then the following popup window with a statement that the page was unresponsive and then options to either “Kill pages” or “Wait”. Kill? There must be some dark humor on staff at Google because that option had me wondering if I should risk destroying a web page that I designed.

I tried the “Wait” option first, and that didn’t work and I somehow ended up back on the home page. Deciding to risk killing pages (why plural when I was accessing just one page?) the result was the following new window that filled the entire screen with a dark background with the message “Something went wrong while displaying this webpage. To continue, press Reload or go to another page”.

The page began loading on the second try, yet the audio track with music and narration began while the video screencast was stuck on the first slide, and it took 15-20 seconds for the audio to synchronize with the video. Once the entire video played through and was stored in cache, the third attempt worked perfectly. To my delight, and despite the ominous “kill pages” option, the page survived and was online the last time I checked. Phew!

Returning to the page of vacation rental tutorials I decided to try right clicking a different video tutorial and then selected “Open link in new tab” and the Google Chrome browser functioned flawlessly. Return visits to test those links a day later allowed left clicking with instant display of each video tutorial.

Note: After clearing cache and returning to the tutorial video listings page to try to duplicate the “unresponsive kill pages” and “something went wrong” error messages, navigation and performance of each video tutorial worked flawlessly with either left click or right click on the hyperlink.

All other video and audio tested from other custom web sites loaded and played without problems, so the anomaly may have been from external factors outside the Google Chrome browser BETA.

Pro (very positive):

• Rendering excellent with clear text and graphics
• Standards compliance met as tested in complex web designs
• Speed of accessing and displaying simple content exceptional
• Usability with basic essentials without being overly complicated
• History shown as thumbnails with superior text history listing
• Browser status bar at the bottom invisible until needed
• DOM inspector access built-in for web developer code and css

Con (very minor):

• Flash video (6.5mb) locked up on standards compliant page
• The “kill pages” popup and “went wrong” screen result on compliant page
• Favorites history drop down uniquely placed on right of screen

Overall Opinion: The Google Chrome browser BETA is excellent and provides a peek at the future of internet browsing. The initial release deserves high marks for quality, compliance, and usability, and I strongly urge users and web developers to download a copy and actively provide feedback to the Google team.

With the demise of support for the Netscape browser, Google Chrome joins Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari as the new top 5 list of browsers for web designers to utilize for testing cross browser compatibility.

Finally, check out the single sheet icon in the upper right that displays “Control the current page” on hover, and then left click to select from the drop down menu and follow “New incognito window” for further evidence the programmers at Google have a sense of humor. Google Chrome BETA can be practical and fun.

The topic for the next episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag web design podcast will cover trends in blog and ping services. From personal experience, and after feedback from a custom cms web design client for custom blogger template design, some ping services for broadcasting new blog post announcements may be in trouble.

Some have closed their websites, and others have been offline for weeks or provided sporadic service. One blog pinging service website changed their home page to a simple announcement that they closed after 4 years due to the time and effort required to track millions of blogs. A free service depends on sponsors or ad revenue to provide an incentive to stay in business. Do-it-yourself blog and ping may be the best alternative.

In addition to the review of trends in blog and ping services, I will introduce a do-it-yourself desktop solution for adding a blog and ping icon on your computer. This is an open source program that I have modified to update the list of target blog tracking services, and podcast listeners will receive links and a blog and ping tutorial that allows them to directly ping services from their desktop.

This blog and ping desktop solution for broadcasting updates to your blog eliminates the middleman, so bloggers may announce blog updates in less than 60 seconds after posting. The software download and custom modification instructions included in the tutorial should take less than 5 minutes to install. You ping 8 major services with a single click, and then a text report lists each blog service with a pingback confirmation that the ping was received successfully.

Check the title and show notes later this week to listen to the podcast episode about do-it-yourself blog and ping for DIY blog promotion.