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

Labels: advice, audio, podcast, reviews, software, video, websites

                       

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

Labels: advice, audio, podcast, reviews, seo, software, websites

                       

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

Labels: advice, articles, reviews, software, websites

                       

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

Labels: advice, reviews, software, websites

                       

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

Labels: advice, photographs, reviews, software, tutorials, websites

                       

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

Labels: advice, reviews, software, websites

                       

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

Labels: advice, articles, reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: advice, reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: advice, reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: reviews, software

                       

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

Labels: advice, hardware, reviews, software