Small Business Resource Center Blog

Digital Photo Edit Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:20:00 +0000

This tutorial about digital photo edit magic explains how an ordinary palm tree being sniffed by my dog was turned into an elephant leg for a humorous effect. The photograph collage below includes 4 photos marked A, B, C, and D that are used to explain the final step D (shown here smaller than actual size) as posted on the Corky the Shelter Dog Blog.

Photo A: The original untouched digital photo of Corky the Shelter Dog sniffing a tree before any edits are done.

Photo B: An elephant leg photo is cropped and superimposed over the palm tree in a rough outline before detailed edits.

Photo C: Details marked 1, 2, and 3 on the elephant leg point out details done as follows:
1. The photo is cropped to fit the tree, lightened, and given transparency.
2. More leg is cropped around Corky's head to make it appear behind the dog.
3. Additional edits of the foot allow grass blades to show for more realism.

Photo D: The finished illustration and digital effect is ready for Corky's site, so take a look at the full-size dog photo edit on his blog.

The graphic software for the edit is by Xara. While capable of creating vector graphics artwork similar or equivalent to PhotoShop, the price is around $100 USD and suitable for creating novice to professional results. You may download Xara Xtreme trial software free for 30 days to see how versatile it is for all types of online illustration or artwork for print.

TAGS: advice design edit photo tutorial

Free Blogs on Google Page One

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:25:00 +0000

Most SEO experts will state that it is difficult or next to impossible to achieve top search results getting free blogs on Google page one. However, sites on free hosting can make page one, and I feel that based on current lower costs to get online that top level domains are practical and preferred for personal websites. The real question of the day is can free blogs achieve Google page one?

The answer is 'yes'. View the screenshot below (shown smaller than actual size) taken earlier today based on a visitor to one of my blogs. The search returned 3.7 million results for the phrase: Maine brook fishing. My personal blog of childhood stories entitled Growin' Up in Maine is shown listed at #1 on page one.

SEO or search engine optimization is about quality content that returns relevent results in Google and the other major search engines. Obviously, the free blog of Maine stories has the content, credibility, and trust to be awarded the top spot on Google page one.

Another surprise search result for that blog was being #1 for the search phrase: cement lawn ducks. Granted, that search returns paid results above my free blog, yet most SEO experts will agree that the real goal and evidence of success is about being first in natural organic results.

While free blogs can make Google page one, my advice is buying a top level www domain. The Growin' Up in Maine blog was a blog layout design experiment early in 2007 that I planned on scrapping. As it turns out nostalgia for the 1950's and 60's made the blog surprisingly popular with baby boomers and it got a reprieve. I suppose next I should take MY advice and put the Maine Stories on a paid domain, too.

TAGS: advice blog google seo search engine optimization web design

Action Plan for Blogger FTP Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:19:00 +0000

For owners who have a Blogger blog design hosted on their server instead of Blogspot or a Blogger custom domain, the Blogger FTP publishing service to post and upload content to your server via FTP will cease on May 1, 2010.

If you have a blog that uses the Blogger platform, you should have received an email from the Blogger Team within the last 30 days announcing the date and reasons. The time to implement an action plan for Blogger blogs published to your server is NOW.

Google owns Blogger and explained that the small fraction of Blogger users who do publish via FTP does not justify the cost to maintain ongoing security to allow publishing to servers outside Blogger's control. If you own a Blogger blog design hosted on your server, and you plan to continue being an active blogger, you MUST take action.

You still have two months to implement because the original deadline of March 26th in the announcement email was extended to May 1st. Act now. Plan now. Implement well before the deadline to avoid the risk of losing content.

This does NOT affect blog owners with free hosting on Blogspot who have a blog address like yourblogname.blogspot.com, or Blogger designs if you have a custom Blogger domain redirected to their servers.

If I designed your Blogger platform blog then you ARE publishing via FTP to your server and MUST take action. Here are the options to consider for affected blog owners:

1. If you choose to take no action you permanently lose the ability to add posts to your blog.
2. The most practical solution may be a technical setup moving to a Blogger custom domain.
3. An alternate solution is moving from a Blogger design to Wordpress at significant cost.

NOTE: Other options may exist. The 3 presented are based on my experience and customer base.

Option 1 may be practical for blog owners who have not posted to their blog in 12 months, or more. Your blog most likely has zero ranking and if you have truly abandoned your blog, you could remove it or let it just sit. Do nothing and existing posts will remain on your server unless you remove them.

Option 2 is the most practical and perhaps cost effective solution for blog owners who want to remain active in publishing blog posts. The technical steps to move from your server to a blogger custom domain means redirecting existing pages to point to the Blogger server, and then future posts will go there automatically.

I do not plan on offering this one-time fix as a service. Instead, the following resources may be referenced when choosing to use the custom Blogger domain option. This means you may hire someone or choose do-it-yourself.

Information: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/
FAQs: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/p/faqs.html
Tutorial: http://www.newsome.org/2010/01/how-to-move...

NOTE: I am NOT offering this Option 2 conversion as a service because of the learning curve, limited time to act, and my choice of Option 3 to convert from Blogger to Wordpress. I did not do an in-depth review of the above resources, so it may be more difficult than expected depending on your experience and circumstances.

My choice is Option 3 for the blogs I own. The "engine" that drives a blog consists of 100's of custom programmed files that make the blog work properly including publishing posts, filing posts by month, or archiving them, and more. For Blogger designs this "engine" or blog platform resides on the Blogger server outside the control of the site owner.

Wordpress platform designs begin by uploading their software "engine" to your server, so the security control does not require extreme measures because the system is allowing access by you to your server, not a third party server.

To convert a Blogger blog to Wordpress requires a new template design, export of blog content from Blogger, conversion of that content compatible to Wordpress, installation of the Wordpress "engine" software and template on your server, import of converted content into Wordpress, and finally file redirects of archives, tags and labels to Wordpress format archives, tags and categories.

The move to Wordpress is the most time consuming and costly choice. While taking control is a key advantage of Wordpress, maintaining control was really the problem at Blogger. They share enough of their software engine to publish only, so to protect the security of people interacting with their server they will no longer permit FTP access.

The Blogger decision to cease support for publishing to an owner's server via FTP was unforeseen, and certainly out of my control. A blog is still the easiest way to "add original quality content often". That phrase is the essence of how websites succeed, so I will continue to promote and encourage my customers to be active blogging.

If you have questions or need help understanding your blog or an action plan, email me soon. The deadline is approaching quickly.

TAGS: advice blog blogger design ftp web design

Review of SubmitEaze Software and SEO

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:55:00 +0000

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

Recruiting Custom CMS and Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Jim Degerstrom) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:04:00 +0000

The latest custom cms web design project just completed was a recruiting custom CMS and blog that went online earlier today for SynergyHire LLC of Atlanta, Georgia. The main site and matching blog allow the owner to add, edit, or delete content 24/7 without paying each time.

Here is a reduced size graphic screenshot of just one page:

Compare the main site to the matching Atlanta Recruiter custom Wordpress theme used on their blog. As with all my designs, the custom integrated blog is a unique one-of-a-kind design for a consistent look moving between the main site and blog.

Other features to consider are the custom logo, clean layout, and special page with 12 audio players to demo their innovative automated candidate phone screen service. Upon review of the initial custom cms web design launch the owner commented "I give you two thumbs up... you did a GREAT job on this Jim!".

TAGS: blog custom cms demo launch wordpress web design

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