» 2008 » December- tutorial blog

Photo by Sidelong

Dozens of Web sites offer royalty- and copyright-free photographs and other images. I can’t imagine having to buy stock photos and art these days, although I have many times before. I use stock.xchng and Big Stock Photo often. The photos are generic, one-size-fits-all but they get the job done with no money up or down.

Lately, I’ve been using photos posted on Flickr Creative Commons. There’s an astounding variety of photos to choose from–many of them are quite good and hardly generic. The photos are free to use although there are a conditions. I’ll let Flickr explain them: (more…)

When clients ask me if they should write a blog, I always respond: “Heck yeah.” I’m all about quality content and the more keywords you can get into your pages the better off you’ll be, at least I think so. Blogging is just another way to feed searchbots.

After reading Josh Bernoff’s “Time to Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas,” report, I’ll be more inclined to reply “That depends,” the next time the question comes up.  Bernoff is an analyst at Forrester Research, a technology-industry market researcher. The firm recently conducted a survey to gauge the opinions of customers and consumers who read corporate blogs. I guess it’s not surprising that less than one-fifth of people who read corporate blogs trust them.

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With an ever growing number of browsers to make your code compatible with and higher demands placed on web designers and developers there is a requirement for more powerful tools to create and maintain your code. This tutorial will cover a number of methods and resources to help aid you in the escalating demands of your web projects.

Many Developers and designers have their own personal favorite browser for developing and managing their websites. This tutorial will focus on  the use of Firefox. This is not to say other browsers put you at a disadvantage, but the addons and enhancements are all supported by Firefox. (more…)

Visitors to your Web site won’t read much of your content word-for-word. They’ll scan the text, cherry picking what to read. They’re in a hurry, easily distracted and have limited attention spans. If they don’t see right away what they’re looking for, they’ll bail out.

You can look it up. Go to the Poynter Institute’s or Jakob Nielsen’s site. Those guys have done lots of studies on how people read on line.

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If you are a free lance web designer or developer you will know just how difficult it can be to earn a dime in the world of web design. I have learned a lot of lessons, most of them the hard way. Being great at web design and being great with clients, are two very different requirements. By setting yourself these basic rules, and sticking to them you will save yourself becoming victim to a number of pitfalls. That’s why I have put together this guide to help maximize your projects success. (more…)

My first writing job was for a small small publishing company that published magazines for consumer electronics and major appliance retailers. Writing for trade magazines is not as glamorous as writing for consumer magazines but the pay is a heck of a lot better.

It was one of those places where the writers did the work of two times as many people. We pounded copy like crazed monkeys including nights and Saturdays when deadlines were on top of us. I wrote my ass off and I learned a lot, thanks to my working for a particularly skillful editor. I also learned to write quickly.

I’ve been banging out copy since and not a day goes by that I’m satisfied with my work. I know I can always do better. It’s a disease.

I’m sorry to be so long winded. I’ve already violated one of rules I learned about writing and that is get to the point quickly. I’m in a reflective mood. If you want to go read someone else’s blog, I’ll understand.

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Does anyone know what notoriety means any more? Notoriety is a synonym for infamous (usually a bad thing). It does not mean famous (usually a good thing). John Wilkes Booth was notorious for assassinating President Lincoln. His notoriety was widespread. Brat Pitt is famous. His fame is widespread. He hasn’t done anything to make himself notorious, at least as far as I know.

If something pisses you off, you’re irritated, not aggravated. If you pick at the scab on your elbow, you’re aggravating it. That is, you’re making things worse. If you pick at the scab on your elbow and you bleed on your little brother, you’re going to irritate him.

If you tell me you’re nauseous, what you’re really saying is that you feel you make me sick (and you might not be far from the truth). If you’re sick to your stomach, you are nauseated. People who are nauseous cause nausea in other people.

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Remember the game where you had to spot the difference in two images? Take a look at the two images below. Can you spot the difference?

Compare Images

If you noticed a change in the number of windows on the 3rd floor to the left of the porch area, you are right! The critical factor in making such an edit to the image is…Keeping Perspective. That can sometimes become very difficult…unless we are familiar with the Vanishing Point Filter.

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