Small Business Resource Center Blog

Flickr Public Domain Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:31:00 +0000

Struggling to add illustrations or graphics to your website design or blog posts? Consider Flickr public domain photographs.

The photos are mostly collections from public archives and as explained on the Flickr usage page http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/ the photos became public domain for one of these reasons:

1. The copyright is in the public domain because it has expired;
2. The copyright was injected into the public domain for other reasons, such as failure to adhere to required formalities or conditions;
3. The institution owns the copyright but is not interested in exercising control; or
4. The institution has legal rights sufficient to authorize others to use the work without restrictions.

Free to use does not mean free to package and resell as a collection. Please respect copyright when using content for your projects online or in print other than material you own. The Flickr commons is a great resource for photographs to use in your website design or blog posts, but be warned to watch the clock. It is easy to become engrossed in thousands of options and you could end up spending long hours away from your design.

TAGS: advice copyright design graphics illustrations web design

Firefox v3.5.7 and v3.6rc1 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:13:00 +0000

Here's a review of the latest Firefox release candidate browser. I took the leap and chose to test out and review the latest BETA version of the Firefox browser earlier today. See the download and release links below if you decide you want to help out and be a BETA tester, too.

I stumbled across the option when rebooting Firefox resulted in a message Want a sneak peek of the newest, fastest version of Firefox? which included a link to download and test Firefox v3.6rc1 BETA. The RC1 release candidate versions are language specific with over 70 choices and you may select from Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

Download link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html
Release notes: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/releasenotes/

A disclaimer on the splash page states: This is pre-release software: you may encounter compatibility problems with some websites and add-ons. If you find a problem please let us know or file a bug. For more details, read the release notes and known issues.

The installation was remarkably fast, and first tests of typical load problem files like videos in full screen and large audio mp3 files was very impressive. I did notice the overall look was different, so checked themes and discovered 1 out of the 3 themes which included the default was not compatible from v3.5 to v3.6, so that was a minor disappointment.

My second choice and even the default theme were fine, yet I decided to search an alternative and tried the recommended theme found here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7517 and entitled Sivermel. It's simple yet not cramped, and an excellent choice considering my work in web design keeps me at the computer 12 plus hours a day.

Taking a closer look at add-ons, I discovered that ColorZilla, CoolPreviews, FoxTab, and ScreenGrab are not compatible in v3.6rc1, so ceased to function. The add-ons I use the most are web design related and all were compatible, so other than missing ColorZilla I'm very pleased.

As far as an indepth review, I don't use many add-ons, so readers are cautioned that the warning about compatiblity of add-ons should be considered before becoming a BETA tester.

In conclusion, my recent experience with Firefox upgrades had been disappointing because browsing speed seemed to drop to a crawl. That explains why I was anxious for what they called "the fastest version" and decided to see if the difference was noticeable. From my initial experience which was subjective and not scientific, I am very pleased with the performance of the Firefox v3.6rc1 browser and glad I took the plunge.

TAGS: advice browser firefox review web design

Problem Web Design Clients

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:09:00 +0000

Eric Miller, a writer for About.com Guide published a great piece for freelance designers in graphic art or custom web design like me. The article is entitled "10 Early Warning Signs of a Bad Client" and Eric writes on each of these points in detail.

1. Everything is "Easy" or "Quick"
2. Promise of Future Work
3. Unrealistic Deadlines
4. Questioning Your Rates
5. They Fired their Last Designer
6. You Don't "Get It"
7. The Disappearing Client
8. Spec Work
9. Disorganized from the Start
10. Trust Your Gut

Follow this link and read the entire Eric Miller article for advice evaluating potential problem clients to save headaches on both sides of the bargaining table. No order is better than a bad order if a difficult situation becomes impossible and hurts your reputation.

As mentioned to a client over the weekend, when all is said and done Any contract is worthless if either party resents the deal. It has to be win-win to retain mutual respect and the value of your reputation as a designer, so know when to say "no" to a client.

TAGS: advice design clients web design

Ignore Those Link Exchange Requests

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:36:00 +0000

My advice is ignoring ALL link exchange request emails, or any email that does not address you by name but starts out like "Dear Webmaster" or a similar impersonal salutation.

Links to your site are like votes when found by Google, but the value is zero if the links are reciprocal. You link to me and I'll link to you negates the value because it was not a voluntary one way link to a website based on merit.

I teach natural linking and organic seo search engine optimization methods that hold value long term.

Other link schemes use 3-way linking to deceive search engines. Site A links to B and B to C then C back to A. The links are no longer 2-way "reciprocal" yet they were not earned based on merit, so 3-way links are another attempt to trick search engines. Google's supercomputers easily catch this tactic and punish those websites with poor ranking, or if too blatant your website could be blacklisted.

Some designers or site optimizers who do not keep up with the latest trends will insist you need an active campaign to acquire those backlinks. Sadly, an aggressive campaign that worked wonders 3-5 years ago may backfire today because so many website owners have exchanged links (including for payment) as a deceptive means to increase Google ranking and traffic.

I warned about this and documented evidence from an actual case study 2 years ago in a blog post I wrote in November 2007 entitled Update on Backlinks and SEO Value. The facts and points made in that blog post are still valid today.

Provide a quality visitor experience and continue to add original quality content often to attract other site owners to link to your site. Avoid those link exchange requests or any other unnatural method of improving your ranking based on a scheme. The best strategy is keeping your site content fresh and interesting.

TAGS: advice design links seo strategy

Web Design Trend Predictions

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Some things never change. In December 2008 I created a pdf report extracted from a podcast episode transcript entitled "2009 Web Design Predictions", and upon review a year later the web design trend predictions I made were spot on.

Looking ahead the advice from the 2009 web design trends report looks good for 2010, also. I estimate that 9 out of 10 websites will need a makeover in 2010 to keep up with what their site visitors really want, so it is time to take a critical look and consider an annual budget for keeping your website fresh.

The basics of providing a quality experience for your visitors begins with the web design layout, and I still recommend a standard web page width of 960 pixels wide. Besides an attractive web design, navigation for site usability continues to be key for keeping visitors on your site. It's time to consider using video, flash, and audio for an enhanced visitor experience, also.

The seo or search engine optimization advice in that report is still valid, plus I'll be reviewing new seo trends to consider for 2010 in the near future. A cms or content management system of web design is still the best way to add original quality content often, so again, some things never change.

You may view online or download the 6 page 2009 Web Design Predictions Report from this link (252kb pdf). As usual, you do not have to register or reveal an email address to get your copy.

TAGS: advice cms predictions seo search engine optimization web design

DupeFree Pro Software Survey Taken

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:24:00 +0000

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

TimeStamp Date and Time Code Converter

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:58:00 +0000

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.

TAGS: advice design database tool timestamp unix web design

Comparison of Xara Xtreme and Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:14:00 +0000

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.

TAGS: advice design review review xara web design

People Search and Premium Options

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Online research is part of the detective work involved doing web design. Here's a solution for people in the USA annoyed by people search and premium options when looking for friends, relatives, or acquaintances. Google just their name and most likely you will get results that only lead to paid options before you can discover details that allow contacting that person. Now go to the White Pages for people search for good old fashioned data without a premium price tag. Yes. Free.

I'm in favor of maintaining online identity security, yet published information from phone books or other common public records should not be sold just because you live 1000 miles away from the source. I stumbled upon the White Pages website quite by accident recently when wanting to contact a past business contact to interview as part of a new web design project.

I had all but given up on free lookups until I Googled their name and found their current residential address and phone number on the White Pages site. They do list paid sponsor ads in their result pages, yet at least the basic information was displayed at no charge which I thought was a thing of the past. The best part of the success story? All I needed was the name and state!

TAGS: advice design research web design

Twitin Twitter Online Tool Review

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:16:00 +0000

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.

TAGS: advice examples online tools reviews twitin twitter

Annoying Skype Add-on in IE

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:04:00 +0000

Skype for VOIP services is a great way to stay in touch with clients, conduct conference calls, or hold project progress meetings. One customer recently contacted me because Skype links with flags and the Skype logo appeared automatically for each phone number displayed on their custom cms website that I designed.

They assumed the Skype link was part of the website design when instead it is an annoying Skype add-on in IE. The activated add-on and not the custom cms design is the reason the links appear. Their purpose is to allow instantly connecting by phone through Skype if you have their service. If not, and you prefer email or picking up the phone, here's the solution to disable that display.

For people wondering "Where or how did that add-on originate and get on my pc?", it is bundled with the browser, so you didn't have a choice or do anything wrong. This short tutorial explains how to disable the Skype add-on for your pc when enabled in Internet Explorer IE8. The tutorial steps should be similar for older versions of IE, also.

While in Internet Explorer using the menu at the top of the page select Tools and then Internet Options and then select the tab for Programs. In that view select the button near the bottom for "Manage Add-ons". The next screen may take a moment to fill and then you'll see a list of programs that are either enabled or disabled. Find any add-ons for Skype and disable them. That should do it.

You may encounter the annoying Skype add-on if you run older versions of Firefox, also. The steps are very similar to those given in the IE8 tutorial, so search Tools, Manage Add-ons, and disable the one for Skype.

TAGS: advice addon design skype tutorial

Drawing a Crowd to Your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:49:00 +0000

Forget the old time carnival barker yelling "Step right up..." when your goal is drawing a crowd to your website. There are other methods to keep visitor interest once they land on your website by providing value that is instantly recognized. A method that I use and recommend is valuable expert tips and advice written as a report or ebook in pdf format that your visitors can download.

People go online shopping for information. They bounce from site to site comparing notes before they stop shopping and decide to buy. The home page is the most frequent landing page on typical sites, so have a free download graphic and link there to share your expertise. The report or ebook topic of interest will likely be related to what brought them to your website, so quite often the pdf will be downloaded.

Unless you need to build a mailing list, my advice is allowing people to download without registering or revealing an email address. I am blessed and busy, so all the reports and ebooks on my website are grab it and go.

What makes this philosophy of sharing interesting is people will trust you and your motivation more if they can commit without worrying about being on a junk mail list forever. Provide quality, and many will forward your pdf report or ebook to business owners, peers, family, or friends.

One copy sent to two people who each send it to two more is like the snowball rolling downhill. In no time you can develop brand recognition and momentum by giving away quality information that others try to sell or at least trade for an email address. Thousands of my pdf reports, ebooks, and tutorials have been downloaded directly from my site. Email feedback from happy visitors promising to tell a friend confirms the value of paying forward.

One of the most popular is the 50 page ebook for people interested in diy seo and cms web design. You may download yours now or read it online, and then please tell a friend.

Bonus Tip: Do not ZIP your pdf report, ebook, or tutorial for download. As a raw pdf visitors may view it online including search engines. Yes, Google can index and send you traffic based on the quality of your pdf download. Win-win.

TAGS: advice design download traffic

Custom CMS and WordPress Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:11:00 +0000

The custom cms website for Corky my puppy was upgraded by adding a custom WordPress blog theme to match the main site. Recent work on the site includes the redesign as well as a series of custom video productions for the Life with Corky website and his story of a shelter dog in text, photos, and video.

Here's the YouTube version of the latest episode entitled Corky Goes to Doggy Jail, and you may watch all the Corky puppy videos on YouTube, too.

The background music used as the Corky theme song was purchased with royalty free rights from the Music Bakery. All photos and graphics were created by me as part of the custom cms website design. Stories are told in the first person as dicated by Corky, narrated by me, and suitable for all ages. Don't call the crazy house just yet.

The purpose of having a dog website is to promote adoption of shelter pets worldwide. You can follow Corky the shelter dog tweets on Twitter, also.

TAGS: blog cms custom theme video WordPress

Older WordPress Versions Under Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:38:00 +0000

This is urgent news. The official WordPress website warns users about older WordPress versions under attack. The most recently released version v2.84 is NOT affected by this security issue and virus attack. For anyone who prefers waiting before upgrading their WordPress blog, this is a wakeup call.

For my clients, your custom WordPress blog design was not affected if I designed and manage your blog. Your blog was upgraded when v2.84 was released, and before this most recent attack began.

If you have a personal blog hosted on WordPress.com, your blog was not affected. For other WordPress blog owners who have not upgraded to v2.84, follow the link above for full details from WordPress. In the future, my advice is to heed the warning of the nag screen in your admin section if informed you're not running the latest version.

Running the latest version of WordPress is particularly important for fixing security vulnerabilities, as well as enhanced functions.

TAGS: advice blog news WordPress

Telling a Story in WordPress

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:37:00 +0000

This tutorial provides advice for sorting posts when telling a story in WordPress. The default display of posts in WordPress is chronological with the most recent being first at the top of the page. For storytelling you may want your posts to display in a more logical order for the reader. There are options for bloggers telling a story in WordPress to have posts display with episodes in a series much like a book chapter by chapter.

The first tutorial method is a simple modification of the code in your template. To display posts in reverse chronological order (oldest first) modify the index.php file in the wp-content/themes/[your theme]/ folder. Look for the line of code <?php if (have_posts()) : ?> and above that add this line of code <?php query_posts($query_string . '&order=ASC'); ?> to have posts display in reverse ascending order.

The next tutorial advice is a WordPress plugin to handle sorting. To allow multiple options for the sort order, you may want to search WordPress for sorting plugins. Some provide options from the backend admin so you can set options for a variety of query types by date, time, author, and more, and then within each of those you may sort results with a second option. For example, the main sort could be by author with those results further sorted by a second field like category or date.

Caution: After reviewing several my advice is checking plugin compatibility to your WordPress installation version before installing.

Finally, this third tutorial and option comes from a WordPress hosted blog of poetry written by my late Grandmother. My choice was to override the WordPress default maximum posts listed, which is 15, and have all 39 poem titles listed alphabetically in the sidebar. After all poem content was prepared and later published in one day in a random order, I created a custom html/text widget to replace the list of recent posts with the alphabetical list of all poems here.

The custom html WordPress widget concept works when the blog content is fixed like that one-time list of all poems, or in a story that gets posted as episodes and the last chapter is published. Just add new links to the sidebar widget as new episodes are posted until complete.

There are more WordPress sort plugins and tutorials, and certainly may be new ones by the time you view this post. The good news is there are options for controlling post chronological sorts when telling a story in WordPress.

TAGS: advice blog posts tutorial WordPress

Flickr Video Display Features

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:16:00 +0000

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.

TAGS: advice review Flickr video

Brochure Template Design Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Graphic design is a very small part of my business, yet my trifold brochure design tutorial is very popular, and a reader recently emailed me for help with ideas for brochure template design inspiration.

For do-it-yourself brochure design, there are some online resources to consider for inspiration. If you use Microsoft Word they have a fairly good selection of standard templates for brochures with a choice of 65 different brochure templates created for various versions of Microsoft software products.

In addition to brochures, you may search for other graphic artwork ideas and templates for cards, mailers, stationery, newsletters, flyers, data sheets, and much more.

TAGS: advice graphic artwork brochures templates

Avatar Photo Edit Masking Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:21:00 +0000

The illustration below shows the 6 steps used in the avatar photo edit tutorial to create a new graphic for this Life with Corky puppy website and his CorkyStory Twitter account.

The large photo left is the original photo of the dog taken while going for a ride. The large photo right is the new avatar with a more dramatic look including a blurred background and better contrast on the puppy's face.

Tutorial steps from before (left) and after (right) are included below the illustration:

Tutorial sequence for avatar photo edit in 6 steps marked A through F:

A: Original photo without any edits. Zoomed in to trace the puppy's head.
B: Photo mask filled form (in red) made by tracing in the previous step.
C: Clipped puppy's head in vector artwork with all background removed.
D: Original photo (A) cloned with blur applied to the entire photograph.
E: The cropped head from (C) is placed on top of the blurred photo (D).
F: Brightness adjustments of the cropped head creates the final version.

Besides the links above to the home page and the Twitter account, the original photo of Corky the puppy before cropping may be viewed on Corky's website on page 3 of his Fleet Peeples Dog Park photo gallery at LifeWithCorky.com.

TAGS: advice avatar photo edit tutorial

2010 Business Card Calendar Download

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:51:00 +0000

Each year I release free custom business card calendar artwork in August, and the 2010 business card calendar download is now available. You do not need to register or reveal an email address, so click the image below or use this link for your free 2010 business card calendar download (zip folder, 1.1mb size). Artwork is in 300dpi JPG CMYK 4-color ready for print.

The zip folder includes 3 versions of the 2010 business card calendar artwork with your choice of backgrounds in light granite, grey marble, or plain white as illustrated above. Readers can still download the free 2009 business card calendar for this year, also.

A special thanks to the many readers who took the time to email me to express their appreciation for the free calendar downloads, the visitors who left blog comments, and the many blog and website owners who link here, also.

TAGS: artwork business card free download 2010 calendar

Custom WordPress Blog Design Price

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:29:00 +0000

A new page for Blogger custom blog design pricing has been revised to include a custom WordPress blog design price. In addition, the price page lists a new service for converting a Blogger template and moving to WordPress. Here is an excerpt from the new blog design price page linked above:

For owners of Blogger format blogs interested in converting a Blogger template and moving to a WordPress template and theme, we can provide optional services. For existing blog designs in Blogger to export from their format and import into a custom WordPress theme, our technique will capture all blog posts.

Visit this blog converted from Blogger to WordPress to see a live example custom WordPress theme and matching main website.

The custom WordPress blog design price page includes the optional service to export from Blogger to WordPress with details on the process involved to maintain all posts, labels, archives, and search engine friendly (SEF) file names.

TAGS: blog blogger wordpress custom design template theme price

Grandmother Tribute Blog in WordPress

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:52:00 +0000

A long overdue tribute blog in honor of my late grandmother, Beth Parkman (1893-1975), was created and launched in WordPress last weekend. The custom blog features original poems that Grandmother Parkman wrote that were discovered and compiled by her late daughter and my aunt, Eleanor Parkman Heath.

The topics include poems about God, nature, love, and family by Beth Parkman, and more. Her daughter, and my Mom, Blanche Parkman Degerstrom commented about the new blog stating "What a legacy for her children, grandchildren and all to follow. Thank you so much!".

The WordPress blog features a custom black and white top header showing my Grandmother enjoying the woods of Maine plus a collage of bust portraits of her as young, middle aged, and then later in life. The blog sidebar lists each of her 37 original poems by title in alphabetical order.

A special thanks goes out to my brother, Eric Degerstrom, who took the mimeographed copies of the poems and scanned them using optical character recognition (OCR) to provide digitized plain text of each poem. A lengthy biography of Beth Parkman is included on the About page, also.

TAGS: blog original poems website launch website design wordpress

CDA Family of Sites Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:07:00 +0000

Several unique related sites for Commercial Door and Access have relaunched with custom matching graphics and a custom WordPress themed blog on their headquarters website. The corporate headquarters site is at www.cda-solutions.info with a matching blog at www.cda-solutions.info/blog.

All three sites are custom cms web designs that allow the owner to add, edit, or delete content using simple plain text without a high level of technical skills in advanced xhtml or css. Some of the work was in collaboration with my son, Roger Degerstrom, of www.CodeRepair.com for design and seo assistance, yet I will handle ongoing support for this family of sites.

CDA Solutions, Inc. is in the business of commercial construction, maintenance, and security products and services for the Treasure Coast of Florida including the counties of Brevard, Indian River, St Lucie, and Martin. CDA Alliance Inc. has advice for local or national service and maintenance companies and Commercial Door and Access Inc. provides door, lock, security, and related work including construction, so customers have a dependable source with the expertise and credentials to assure quality work.

The CDA family of sites with the matching WordPress blog launched with the new color scheme to provide a consistent look and familiar corporate brand across their range of service, product, and advice websites.

TAGS: cms content management system website launch website design wordpress

Auto Repair Custom CMS Web Design

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:23:00 +0000

A new cms website recently launched as an auto repair custom cms web design for DitY Auto Repair near Orlando, Florida. The initial website launch is 99.9% done as text content is being reviewed by the site owner for some final tweaking, and a few customer testimonials may be added, also. The site is illustrated with around 50 full color photographs of different aspects of auto repair.

DitY Auto Repair is a unique and innovative concept in do-it-yourself auto repair. Customers can rent bays, lifts, and professional tools, plus have the advantage of an on-staff ASE Certified Mechanic for advice. Vehicle owners can avoid the dangers of diy at home or shade tree mechanical work by working indoors in a real auto repair shop, yet save the price of a mechanic with do-it-yourself.

The site features a standard top header and footer on every page, custom sidebars, and an admin backend that allows the owner to add unlimited pages to their custom cms web design. Advanced features are available for business owners interested in a similar project with a matching blog, custom product video, audio tracks, or custom flash or photo galleries. We'd love to hear from you to quote or answer questions about custom cms web design.

TAGS: auto repair cms content management system website launch website design

Custom CMS Design LLC Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:04:00 +0000

After teaming up and forming Custom CMS Design LLC with my son, Roger Degerstrom of www.CodeRepair.com, we just launched 1 of 4 websites offering custom cms web design related services as the first website in the Custom CMS Design LLC collaboration.

The other 3 each begin with custom-cms-design and are .info, .net, and .org for different aspects of custom cms web design for advice, franchises, and an online school respectively.

The .com site that just launched, www.custom-cms-design.com, is for custom cms web design services, plus it is the company headquarters site that includes a matching integrated custom cms web design blog for posting company news.

The cms web design school and advice sites will be fully developed next, and the intitial franchise website will be an introduction with a more formal offering to allow web design professionals to participate by June next year.

As each new site is launched a matching Twitter account will be activated. For now, the first one is on the Twitter public timeline, so you may follow or message @cmsPro for cms web design related tweets.

Roger and I will continue to operate our existing commercial websites for solo custom cms web design work as sole proprietors from Virginia and Florida, and actual projects in the Custom CMS Design LLC collaboration will begin in Q1 2010, or perhaps sooner if we feel the timing is right.

TAGS: cms custom cms web design launch news website

Stats by Browser and SE Referrals

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:57:00 +0000

The latest podcast episode entitled Web Design Visitors Analysis provided a review of stats by browser and Search Engine (SE) referrals. Visitor traffic to my website for custom cms web design reveals interesting data on user browser and search engine referrals. Tracking details of short term traffic may help web developers in making strategic decisions for future custom cms web design techniques. Consider the following visitor stats:

Comparison of Visitor Traffic and Web Design by Browser

55.4% IE6,7,8
30.2% FireFox
08.4% Safari
03.2% Chrome
00.4% Opera

Internet Explorer, or Microsoft IE, continues to dominate collectively while IE7 represents 33.8% in the IE total. Compared to my traffic stats in December 2008, Safari grew slightly, Chrome remained about the same, and Opera lost market share. If nothing else, this data supports cross browser compatibility testing of your website design to make sure it displays well for all visitors.

Web Design and Comparison of Search Engine Referrals

85.5% Google
10.1% Yahoo
04.4% Bing

Google sends more than 85% of the total search referral traffic to my website, so I periodically track my position for "custom cms web design" on page one. After paid ads, my site has remained at number 1 on Google page one for that phrase for more than two years. You may want to Google the phrase custom cms web design, and see if I've been bumped or listen to this podcast episode to learn more about stats by browser and SE referrals.

TAGS: advice browsers cms cms web design web design