Review of SubmitEaze Software and SEO

Having purchased SubmitEaze directory submission software several years ago for seo or search engine optimization reasons, recent updates and enhanced functions make this a good time for another look at SubmitEaze. Part of website optimization strategy for search engine optimization involves backlinks which are links to your website from other sites. These are like votes when found by Google, so by acquiring more votes your site is more likely to increase its rank.

Two methods of acquiring those backlinks are "Website Directories" and "Article Directories" featured in my series of do-it-yourself seo reports released in 2007. Follow that link to download your free copies of the PDF reports (no email or registration required).

In a hurry to learn how? Visit their site to watch the SubmitEaze demo videos.

In summary, you acquire backlinks by getting listed on other websites. The Website Directory lists businesses by category with links to those sites, and the Article Directory sites accept advice articles for syndication that includes links in the resource (About the Author) box. Get listed, or write helpful articles about your business niche and submit to 100's of directories.

Prior to SubmitEaze, the submission process was VERY time consuming. Each site you visit meant doing copy and paste of content over and over, so submitting to 100 sites could take 2-3 days. SubmitEaze is a very fast and semi-automated software program with a system to submit your site or articles to directories in minutes, not days.

First released for web directories only, SubmitEaze now handles article submissions, too. My advice is to review the SubmitEaze software and watch their demo videos before you buy. I started out doing manual submission of my website, and then bought other software before discovering SubmitEaze and making it my standard.



TAGS: advice seo search engine optimization articles directories review submiteaze

DupeFree Pro Software Survey Taken

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.



TAGS: advice content DupeFreePro seo web design writing

Blog and Ping Tutorial Update

The podcast episode in August 2008 with the do-it-yourself desktop blog and ping tutorial presented a potential problem of broadcasting blog updates for owners with multiple blogs. From testing the free software it was apparent at the time that listing multiple blogs would ping all of them even if only one was updated.

Owners with multiple blogs faced the problem of announcing updates to blog tracking services when in fact only one of several blogs were updated. The solution given at the time was to have separate installations and icons on your desktop for each blog. From my experience since then, and facing this very problem, the solution was simpler than I imagined.

Rather than multiple desktop icons I only list one blog in the program and feature just one blog and ping icon on the desktop. When updating one of my 6-7 blogs I do a quick edit using copy and paste as follows. From the top tool bar select "Menu" and then "Your Blogs" from the drop down menu, and then "Edit Blog" for the single blog listed.

Next, change the title and then copy/paste your blog URL into the next 3 boxes being sure to leave the trailing RSS link in the last box. Save, exit, and then ping and you're done. Exit the program and then edit the title and URL with copy/paste the next time you update one of your multiple blogs.

This simple method takes 60 seconds to edit each time you post to one of your blogs, so it is efficient without the extra clutter of multiple software installation icons on your desktop.



TAGS: advice blog blog and ping tutorial update

Google Chrome Stats on StatCounter

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.



TAGS: advice browser Google Chrome review stats web design

Review of Google Chrome Browser BETA

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 this page of RBO Vacation Ads rental owner resources including videos when accessing this vacation rental owner tutorial link 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 for new agent signups 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.



TAGS: advice browser Google Chrome review software

Blog and Ping Tutorial Download

Today's podcast episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag was released earlier and included a free download pdf tutorial for adding a do-it-yourself desktop blog pinging service. The motivation for the podcast episode entitled DIY Desktop Blog and Ping is recent trends with online pinging services, and the need for an alternative method of announcing new blog posts.

In addition, the audio program explains the basics of using blog and ping to easily contact blog tracking services of new blog posts. You may view the DIY Blog and Ping PDF Tutorial online here, or right click to save your copy now. You may want to listen to the podcast episode, and then read along with the tutorial as I follow the step by step process of downloading free software, custom program the software to load your blog info, program a list of ping services, and finally set up an instant one click ping service on your desktop.



TAGS: advice blog blog and ping review software

Trends in Blog and Ping Services

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.



TAGS: advice blog blog and ping review tutorial

Prompt! Teleprompter Software Review

Quite often professional voice talent creating video or audio production use a teleprompter. For small business website multimedia production, there's a low cost alternative to expensive dedicated teleprompter solutions when adding video or audio to your web design or podcast.

After considerable research of teleprompter software reviews, the Prompt! software from DataWay Multimedia Canada, Inc for $44 USD is my recommended choice. A free lite version may be downloaded, also. Here's the list of features from their website, MovieClip.biz:

• Text can be imported and exported
• Simple text editing is available
• Native files can be saved
• User customizable controls
• Macintosh or Windows playback
• Control over font size
• Mirrors text display on screen
• Mouse or keyboard control
• Lite version available
• Multiple resolutions
• Works with most remotes (not included)
• Cheap!

Prompt! version7.0 is a standalone application that allows keeping multiple windows open during recording. My advice is preparing your audio script in NotePad and then load it into Prompt! with copy and paste. The scrolling text may be adjusted by size, color and background, and scroll speed. The Lite version is limited to 2500 characters, so you may want to do a test drive with Lite before making a purchase.

Using a teleprompter for short clips or full presentations allows readers to focus on content to eliminate gasps, oohs, or aahs during recording. Speaking extemporaneously is very difficult for most small business owners, and a prepared message is more likely to enhance the multimedia production. Reading from an audio script will be faster and more professional when adding audio or video to your website, blog, or podcast. Download Prompt! here.



TAGS: advice audio small business services software review video

Keyword Advice for SEO in Web Design

The latest podcast episode of the Small Business Website Mailbag features free resources for keyword advice for seo in web design. Tools for small business owners linked in the podcast include the websites of Key Word Discovery and DupeFree Pro.

Listen to Optimize Your Website Keywords here to learn about free methods for search engine optimization of key words and phrases on your small business website, and then consider this software review of DupeFree Pro.

The features in this quick review of DupeFree Pro software were not covered in the podcast episode. Besides the value of being able to easily calculate keyword density, DupeFree Pro may be used to test for duplicate content, also. Imagine doing copy and paste to insert content from your website, and then quickly finding out if any other site owner is using your content without permission.

Perhaps you write advice articles published online, and just want to check if others are giving proper credit when they choose to republish your articles. Maybe you have several articles on one topic and want to check the percentage of duplicate content between two versions. DupeFree Pro allows you to do this easily, also.

Duplicate content is a major problem trying to achieve positive seo results, so you may want to test for duplicate content within your site, also.



TAGS: advice keywords podcast review search engine optimization small business advice web design

Article Review of IE8 Internet Explorer 8

The latest website advice article for small business owners was published earlier today, and you may read the full review Internet Explorer IE8 Doom or Joy for details.

Last year Microsoft announced an updated browser scheduled for release by the summer of 2008 with Internet Explorer 8, IE8, and the news was met by most web developers with apprehension. After following the news releases from Microsoft and an announcement earlier this week on March 3rd, it was time for an article and preliminary review of IE8.

Backward compatibility and cross browser compatibility are important to site designers and owners. One of the resources mentioned in the review and article is a website for testing page display in current and older browsers from BrowserShots.org. Visit their site to see what your website looks like in more than 50 browsers including Mac and older revisions of major and lesser known brands.

To the joy of web developers worldwide, Microsoft reversed a previous decision from December 2007 and announced that IE8 will incorporate the most standards compliant interoperability possible. This should be good news for small business website owners, as well.



TAGS: advice article browsers IE8 review small business advice website design

Browser Review of Safari by Apple

The Safari browser from Apple, Inc. is one of 5 browsers that I now use to test custom website designs for small business clients. The Safari browser received some attention in 2007 as the recommended browser for web developers to create and test website designs for the new iPhone when it was first released. I took another look at Safari after a recent inquiry to review the display of a small business owner's website. I was impressed with the rendering of Safari.

The site mentioned for review had problems because when viewed in 2 out of 5 browsers the layout fell apart with graphics out of place and text overwriting text. The site was designed for IE which looked fine, yet any site with a disclaimer "Best viewed in (insert browser name)" usually points to an amateur designer. The goal should be "Best viewed in any browser you choose" so that no disclaimer is required.

The following graphic compares the rendering of FireFox (left) to Safari (right) using a screenshot from this blog as viewed in each.



The rendering in Safari has enhanced headlines and text that may not be apparent in the reduced size graphic here, but it was impressive and immediately noticeable. The Google search box button was rendered as an oval whereas it was the old standard grey rectangle in FireFox. The layout and default options of Safari take getting used to, yet the experience for casual users should be excellent. As a web developer, my first choice is still FireFox because of third party extensions and tools used for technical reasons.

Pro: Excellent rendering with Safari as tested on a few dozen websites from a desktop pc
Con: Minor - Power users may be disappointed with lack of add-on tools and extensions

My advice to small business owners is testing your website in all browsers as posted previously with links to download all 5 major browsers. You may want to follow this link to download or read about the Safari browser here if you want to try it immediately.

The new Internet Explorer 8 browser, IE8, is due for release in the summer of 2008, so it will be interesting to see the tradeoffs Microsoft makes in IE8 between code standards and backward compatibility which has caused grief in the past with most web developers.



TAGS: advice browsers review safari small business advice website design

Photograph Optimization Tutorial

Small business website designs that depend on uploading photographs for online stores or sites like real estate will be more effective with photograph optimization. Too often site owners upload original digital photos taken at high resolution, and then the load time is intolerable for visitors on dialup because of the file size. They won't stick around waiting for pix to load.

Fact: More than 50% of USA internet users are on dialup. This number dwindles as high speed options become more affordable. Why disappoint half your visitors with slow loading photographs and increase the chance of losing a potential sale?

For this tutorial you may want to read the IrfanView photo edit freeware review previously posted on this blog. The owner of the recently launched e-commerce website for Mainstream Memorabilia downloaded IrfanView and learned this lesson in about 15 minutes total, and was very pleased with the ease of use. The online store is easier to manage, and IrfanView will be used on the Mainstream Memorabilia advice blog, also.

You should consider downloading the free software for this photograph optimization tutorial from IrfanView if you don't already own it.

Once installed, go to any large photo in My Documents and right click on the file name and select "Open with..." and then select "IrfanView" from the menu list. Here's a sample photo and screenshot of the open window.



In the main window menu (see top arrow) select "Image" and then "Resize/Resample" or use the shortcut keys by holding the CTRL button and pressing the letter R. The next window as shown below summarizes the file information, shows the current photo width in pixels, and the resolution in dots per inch, or dpi. Enter the desired width to match what you want on your site, and then select "OK".



When you select "File" and then "Save as" a new window appears as shown below. The sliding bar controls the quality of the final photo, and may be adjusted from lowest to best with 100 being the highest quality. Experiment with the bar in this last step until you have the smallest file size which still displays well on your screen and use that on your website.



To summarize, the steps are as easy as 1-2-3 within IrfanView. Select image-resize/resample, enter the width before doing save-as jpg, and then experiment with the slide bar until the file size is reasonable. Anything less than 50Kb file size will display well on your small business website, so taking your 1 meg photos and reducing them may keep visitors on your site longer and help make more sales.



TAGS: advice small business advice software reviews photo tutorial photo edits website design

SubmitEaze Software Program Review

My recent report for do-it-yourself small business website promotion introduced SubmitEaze for submitting your website to web directories. The strategy of listing your site in public directories that sort websites by category is one way to gain backlinks to your website.

Each link TO your site is like a vote when found by search engines, so small business website owners are encouraged to take 30 minutes a week to submit to 5 sites. For more natural linking over an extended period of time, pick one day a week to submit to 5 sites, and continue the weekly project for 6 months instead of spending 2-3 days of intensive submissions.

The free seo report Web Directory Top Resources listed my top 150 sites, and some may be outdated. The SubmitEaze software is preprogrammed with current sites and their future updates are free for life. This has been a great time saver because of the auto fill feature. As of August 2007 it is available in your choice of Pro License for $64.95 or Standard License at $39.95. View SubmitEaze features or download a trial copy here.

Here is the list of features and benefits displayed on the opening window of SubmitEaze version 4.0.

• Find directories that link to your website using Directory Detective.
• Full control over the auto-fill feature, so you can add your own fields.
• Sort directories on Google PageRank, Alexa Traffic Rank, or number of Incoming Backlinks to the directory.
• Setup rotating link title text and description text for each project.
• Full range of directories: Free, Reciprocal Link Required, and Payment Required.
• Project Briefcase so you can import / export projects between different computers.
• Full web browser navigation to display the current URL, move backwards, forwards, stop and refresh.

Pros: Ease of use, updated free for life, great time saver, excellent help files with video tutorials
Cons: A few outdated sites because directories changed from free to free with reciprocal link

This is software that I have purchased and use, and I recommend SubmitEaze for small business owners.



TAGS: advice small business advice software review submiteaze

Article Post Robot Software Review

Take a moment to learn why I recommend Article Post Robot for submitting original articles to article directories. It’s no secret that backlinks from other sites to your website are like votes when found by search engines, and writing articles for syndication is an easy way to create these votes.

The next free pdf report in my series of search engine optimization techniques covers this subject with My Article Writing Top Resources. Planned for release in July 2007 this report includes my Top 50 Article Directory list which was already published on my blog last month.

Article Post Robot will be featured in the new report, and after using this software for 2 months, I highly recommend this program to streamline submitting your articles for syndication. At the time this was written in 2007 they have over 450 sites preloaded in their software.

Select this graphic image to visit their sales page.



The problem with most programs used for automatically submitting articles is the potential for rejection due to being placed in the wrong category by the script running the program. Article Post Robot allows you to select up to 5 categories to help offset this approval issue. It’s not perfect, but close to it by comparison to other programs evaluated.

Note: Some article sites require prior registration and activation from a link in a confirming email to be registered as an author. Others require that you create a pen name on their website after registration. You may visit each site from within the list of over 450 article sites displayed in Article Post Robot with one click on each site name. The registration process takes time, but do that first, and expect to spend 1-2 days just setting up user names with passwords for the sites you select.

The option in Article Post Robot to manually submit articles is the ideal solution for me. Before buying this software the process of submitting new articles to over 50 websites was tedious. You visit each site, enter your username and password and then enter the submit articles area. Next, and with your article content open in NotePad, you copy and paste your article title, return to your file, copy and paste the intro, and continue back and forth for the article body, resource box, and key words. Argh! After an hour your wrist is ready to fall off and you’re cross eyed from bouncing back and forth between screens.

With Article Post Robot you complete these same steps, except you copy and paste just once because you enter these same blocks of text into fields within the program! Automatic mode will visit each directory site and post your article in an appropriate category based on what you input earlier. The software posts and submits, and then automatically goes to the next until it’s done. From experience the category selection is less than perfect, at least for my niche.

In manual mode you input your article details just once into the program to begin, and then it logs on each article directory, selects the category, inputs your article details in each appropriate box for title, intro, body, resource box, and key words, and then pauses for you to manually select the “submit” button. I prefer manual submission because I can verify fields are properly completed, and then change the category if I feel another is more suitable before I hit "submit". In automatic mode you click start and walk away.

Note: The layout and requirements to submit may vary by article directory, and some have additional manual only fields to enter, or correct. You can only see these if you use manual mode. Almost all articles are reviewed before approval by a human editor. Manual mode may result in more article editor approvals.

In manual mode you pause at each, so you must monitor progress, yet the autofill feature means you no longer have to copy and paste 5-6 blocks of text individually on each site. This time saving function allows you to post to more sites in a much shorter period of time with very few clicks for each. You can do in 30 seconds what used to take 3-5 minutes, so the process of submitting is much easier on you, and especially your wrist.

Important Note: In either mode you may notice an error or page not found if the target directory is temporarily offline. There may be a significant pause as if the software locked up. It probably didn't. Wait several minutes if necessary because as I found out it is still working and will advance to the next site.

Article Post Robot was less than $130 at the time this review was written. I feel that the cost savings in time from submitting just 2 articles more than offset the price in time savings and convenience. The documentation is written in less than perfect English grammar which is easily dismissed because the basics are there and sufficient to effectively use the software to your advantage.

Pros: Reliable, fast, cost effective, great time saver, value for money
Cons: Category selection for some niches and documentation less than ideal

Overall I highly recommend this software. You may purchase Article Post Robot here.



TAGS: advice articles software reviews article writing article post robot

Forum and Message Board Software Review

Considerable time and effort was spent evaluating freeware for creating an integrated forum and message board for a custom website design project. My choice for ease of use and feature support is Simple Machines LLC free forum software.

The setup was simple one-click installation after creating a single blank MySQL database on the server. Most hosting plans will likely include the minimum basics for proper functionality. The SMF Community Forum is extremely helpful with over 1 million posts and nearly 100,000 members as of June 2007.

For the project currently in work a secure members only environment was a requirement that is easily met with the SMF freeware. The administrator's functions allow access by admin approval only, so this closed community can avoid problems with public access. In addition, category and subcategory setup of boards from the admin panel was easily done.

While the custom project is still in development and confidential, I created a new public forum for one of my oldest personal sites. The Degerstrom International Family Page began in 1996 as an introduction to the genealogy and history of persons with the Degerstrom surname, and includes six known branches in the US and Scandinavia. This (neglected) project was due for a makeover, so the home page has been redesigned in XHTML and the balance of pages will follow.

The forum is in place with very few posts or members, however visitors may view the basic layout and color scheme now. Visit the Degerstrom International Family Forum here. While the SMF software has limited color schemes, their forum community has many add-on features developed by members. My choice was recreating graphics to match the family site, so it has been customized for a familiar look.

Finally, I almost installed another open source freeware brand before finding SMF, and in retrospect the other option seemed behind the times though functional. I recommend SMF for anyone considering adding a forum or message board to their website.



TAGS: advice freeware reviews forum software reviews website design

Xara Xtreme v3.2 Software Review

Small business owners interested in do-it-yourself graphic design would do well to consider a free trial download of Xara Xtreme v3.2. My choice for vector graphics software has evolved from Xara X to Xara X1 to Xara Xtreme, and the recent release of Xara Xtreme v3.2 is loaded with fantastic enhancements with many new features added based on user feedback.

The first time I downloaded a 30 day trial of Xara software, I made my purchase within 48 hours!

Unlike some larger or otherwise arrogant software companies, the team at Xara Group Ltd encourages and acts on feedback from designers. The latest upgrade to Xara Xtreme proves their commitment to enhancing the end user's experience. Much of my day is spent designing custom graphic artwork and then hand coding websites in XTHML code in a word processor. You do NOT need more expensive software to create professional results.

Xara Xtreme, starting at $79USD, is what I use for all the professional design examples displayed throughout my main site. The limousine business card design and photo tutorial was done entirely in Xara Xtreme and shows the steps used to create a stunning effect.

The ability to integrate my photo editor to launch, edit, and save changes to photos from within my Xara drawings is one of the great new options, and a real time saver. If you're like me and detest flash animations on websites because of the large file size, you should be impressed with the new flash option added by Xara.

I created a 720px by 140px banner with a beach background and a huge jet flying into the frame from the left, across the banner, and then disappearing to the right. I was completely shocked that the animation was just over 200kb when I expected the file to be 10x that size.

Pros: price, performance, ease of use, professional results, and excellent tutorials
Cons: none (the great help files and demo movies shorten the learning curve for new users)

View the full list of features for Xara Xtreme v3.2 here to help you decide. Unlike some download trial software, and because of many years using Xara products, I purchased the upgrade first before downloading and installing it. After just 2 days using the new features, I have no regrets.



TAGS: advice review software review xara xtreme

Blind Blogger Accessibility Software Review

Blind or vision impaired internet users will appreciate the Thunder freeware screen reader from ScreenReader.net In a post last week I commented "Some web developers are resisting or ignoring the concept of accessibility in website design.", and the next day I decided to go further to study screen reader options available to vision impaired and blind persons.



From my research I located 19 software programs with speech synthesizers that read website content aloud, and of these all but 2 were commercial products ranging from $795 to $1500 USD, or more. The freeware from ScreenReader.net based in the UK, and an open source program NVDA created by Michael Curran, with help from James Teh and others in Australia were the only zero cost options for blind and vision impaired people that I could find.

Here is a quote by Roger and Margaret from Great Week for Thunder at The Blind Blogger

For the past twenty years and more, talking software for visually impaired users has been a commercial matter and we feel that the high prices have excluded low income users. Like many other enthusiasts, we have learned just how hard it is to introduce an innovation, however worthwhile. So it has been refreshing to receive so much encouragement at a high level. Margaret and I are very determined people and we believe that in ten years time, our customers will be looking back and saying: "Did blind people really have to pay out an extra £800 to enjoy the use of the computer like everyone else? Surely not".

Persons on fixed incomes may not know about the 2 free resources, so if a pc costs 3x for a blind person, it must be discouraging if it's not in the budget. I am not vision impaired, so I downloaded and tested the Thunder freeware screen reader to experience as closely as possible what blind or vision impaired persons face. The learning curve during my test and review, and eventual results convinced me that freeware options need more publicity.

I encourage persons with vision who know people in need of a free screen reader to download and test Thunder, and then assist that person with installation and getting started. Website design with accessibility for all deserves more publicity.



TAGS: freeware review screenreader screen reader accessibility website design

Audacity Free Audio Editor Review

For general voice recording for personal use, or to add audio to your website, you may want to consider Audacity which is an open source freeware editor. Unlike the default Windows recording program that comes with most computers, Audacity features advanced options including export to WAV or MP3. It is Mac compatible, also. Here is the control panel shown smaller than actual size:



You may download Audacity at SourceForge.net at no cost, and then all you need is a microphone or headset with built in mic to begin recording. Additional features include recording mono or stero mix, plus advanced sound editing and special effects.



TAGS: review audacity small business resources freeware

Freeware Review to Replace Notepad

Text editor freeware from GridinSoft deserves a closer look if you have an interest in hand coding website design. Some things never change like Microsoft® NotePad. As the default word processor for viewing text files it has remained pretty much the same for more than 10 years. Fortunately more intuitive freeware options like GridinSoft Notepad Lite are available. Some things age gracefully while others are long overdue for a makeover.

One of the problems in the current NotePad is solved in GridinSoft's version with a left gutter and line numbers. If you are coding HTML and need to refer to specific chunks of code, it's much easier to make reference by line number. Here's a screen shot of a portion of this post being composed in GridinSoft Notepad Lite:



The line numbers down the left hand side numbered 1 through 7 illustrate how much easier it is to discuss a file. This is especially true for HTML code with 100's of lines of code. It is just as practical for word processing projects if you are emailing and sharing text files and need to review or comment on specific sections.

Download GridinSoft Notepad Lite here. Scroll down their page under freeware for the free version and no time limit. For high end edits with more functions they offer a professional versus home version, also.



TAGS: freeware software review NotePad

Spybot Search and Destroy Review

This fantastic freeware scans your system looking for hidden adware or spyware placed on your computer by websites that you visit. The search may take 5-10 minutes and identifies all known problem items. Once the scan is done you have the option to "destroy" the files by safely removing all of them.

SpyBot Search and Destroy is available here at no cost.

Based on one experience with a client with over 1000 adware and spyware infections on their computer, once you run this program the first time, do it again immediately. There are some creative programmers designing spyware that tries to avoid being detected by SpyBot Search and Destroy. The second pass usually gets all the problem items.

Run Spybot Search and Destroy weekly for a better sense of security, and use the option to check for updates on spyware definitions each time, also. My choice for firewall, anti-spam, and virus protection is Norton Security. Add Spybot Search and Destroy to your arsenal to fight off spyware and adware.



TAGS: review freeware advice spyware adware

Review of Freeware for Photo Edits

Here are tips and a brief review of freeware for easy photo edits or taking screenshots for the benefit of my small business clients. Real estate agents are often faced with uploading photographs of new listings to their website. The file size of high resolution digital pictures is usually impractical for websites, yet I see many sites with 1 megabyte and higher photos of real estate property. These may look great, but visitors on dialup will not appreciate the 20 minute load time.

Here are reviews of two programs for doing photo edits or taking screenshots that have worked well for me and they are easy to use, plus they are freeware (cost nothing).

ScreenHunter 5.0 from Wisdom-Soft.com
This program is great for taking screenshots, as in clipping portions of something you view online like your website, that you may need as a JPG file to forward to someone. This works in the background and takes up very few resources, so it shouldn't slow down your pc performance. Visit www.Wisdom-Soft.com to learn more.

IrfanView from IrfanView.com
This freeware program has screenshot capability, however, advanced edit features may be perfect for clients who need to crop photos, convert to greyscale as in black and white, plus more. Personally, this is my first choice for opening graphic files in My Documents. Once installed, right click on files in your directory, choose "open with", and then select IrfanView.

Like any new program, the best way to learn is jump right in, and then open the help files for advanced tips. Please provide feedback on your experience with either of these freeware products. If you are looking for royalty free photos, please check out my 5 Star Stock Photo Directory with links to over 200,000 photographs.



TAGS: freeware review photographs photo edits small business advice

Surviving the Inevitable Hard Drive Crash

It happens, especially for small business owners. Hard drives crash, and for me the inevitable took 10 years to rear it's ugly head for the first time. Surviving a hard drive crash usually means long hours attempting to recover what you may have taken for granted. The computer gremlins hit me last year, and I lost months of custom graphic art because weekly backup of my new computer manually seemed unnecessary. What a mistake that was!

Fortunately, all the client website designs were online and recoverable through ftp. Recreating custom business card artwork and post cards was another matter. Clients looking to make changes have sent me their originals, and recreating cards simply took time. After researching backup software and external drives, the $250 that I spent was worthwhile insurance.

My system now executes automatic daily backups using Genie Backup Manager Home 7.0 software for less than $100, and a Western Digital 250Gb external hard drive WD2500B007 for less than $150 purchased from newegg.com. Each was selected after more long hours searching through product reviews. The hard drive has cool neon light effects that may be turned off, and after testing a few times for overheating, it fits snugly kept in a desk drawer.

The hard drive crash could have been worse. Don't let this happen to you. If you are at risk and do not have a backup system on your small business computer, do it today. After a few months of manual backups to DVD, I realized the effort could be easily automated. Check out the combination of software and hardware I chose by searching in Google, or visit a local retailer for advice.



TAGS: small business advice computers hard drive crash