Archive for October, 2007

• China’s “Great Firewall” has just blocked pretty much every RSS feed on the planet. So they’re too lazy to devise means to “filter” RSS feeds, so they go and block them?
• “It’s another thing entirely to write 1,000 [posts] - which is most likely the point at which you’ll begin to see any return on your time investment.”
• First steps to graphic design pricing. By the way, 63 hours of work divided by $200 equals $3.17 an hour.
• Here’s something that all Wordpress users should know about: There are several unnecessary tags in most Wordpress themes (even ones you make yourself) that you can replace with static HTML to save your server some work.
• Want a $5 PDA? Make one yourself in three easy steps! Personally, I just use a pocket-sized notepad.
• While HTML meta tags aren’t given as much weight as they used to, they still affect your search ranking significantly. Here’s a great plugin that automatically generates meta tags from the tagging system built-in to Wordpress 2.3.
• When Google acquisitions go wrong: the disappointing story of Urchin
• 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of
• Head over to Apple.com and type “virus” into their search box.
• Michael of Pro Blog Design recommends putting your post images on the left. Of course, there’s more to it. If you put AdSense blocks inline with your text, for example, then it would be better to put those on the left. There is plenty of debating going-on over in Pro Blog Design’s comments.
• Prepare to be smashed with information! Smashing Magazine has released their Best of September 2007 post.
• Some genius thought that everyone likes Google Blog Search better than Technorati for Wordpress’s incoming links. GBS stinks, and it’s been driving me insane (incoming links from this blog shouldn’t be displayed!). Finally someone’s released a plugin that puts the Technorati links back.
• Firefox: Coming to a phone near you.
• If you think this comic is funny, then you’ve passed the Web Elite test (and you’ve also spent too long working with MySQL…).
• Apple and AT&T are being hit with an $800 million lawsuit because of their “monopolistic practices” involving the iPhone (stopping unlocking, forcing you to use AT&T service, etc). First of all, Apple’s phone, AT&T’s network, their choice…not yours. Second, the iPhone is no where near cornering the cellphone market. Third, it’s common for carriers to have exclusive rights to certain phones. Fourth, read this Digg comment.
• How to Profit from Google’s War on Paid Links.
• Simple JavaScript Accordions.
• GMail’s giving us more storage! The counter is going up faster, and we may have 4.2GB by October 23.
• 30+ Sites to Help Inspire Your Designs
• Looking for a good Flash image gallery? Smashing Magazine has rounded-up a few good ones.

Do you have a bunch of useless stuff cluttering your post pages? Are there things there that should not be? Are there things that could be implemented better?

Don’t put it off any longer, it’s time to clean-up your post pages (the single.php template in Wordpress).

Social Bookmarking

First of all, get rid of that “DiggIt” widget. If someone’s going to digg your post, then they’ll find a plain text link sufficient. Also, you save yourself the embarrassment of having “0 Diggs” stamped on all of your posts. Get rid of it, and save yourself an HTTP request to Digg’s servers.

While you’re removing the DiggIt widget, kill some of those social bookmarking icons. Keep them down to five or less. You can use the wonderful Share This plugin to sweep them under a virtual rug, gaining you a cool “Share By Email” form as well. If you want, you can keep some of the more commonly used bookmarking links if you want, but Share This can replace the rest. (more…)

Don’t you just hate it when you have a great idea for a blog post, but by the next day you’ve forgotten it? Don’t deny it, it happens. Just yesterday I had not one, but two great ideas for posts. Do I remember either of them today? Nope.

Usually, I don’t have to worry about not having anything to blog. I keep a notebook with everything I think-up that’s in anyway connected to my blog. I keep track of every post idea I think of, so I have plenty of choices should I find a lack of inspiration when I go to write my next post. When I think of something that would make a good post, I make a note of it.

Every day when I write something new, I don’t normally have to think much. If I don’t find fresh inspiration from my morning RSS reader check, I grab my blog notebook and look for something.

So why didn’t I write-down my ideas from the other day? I was at the bowling alley. My large multi-subject notebook was a home, and I didn’t have my pocket-sized one with me like I usually do.

Ideas always arrive at the worst possible times, be prepared. Get a pocket-sized notepad for when you’re away from your “blogging headquarters,” and get a multi-subject notebook to keep track of everything.

Combat blogger’s block, get a blog notebook.

There has been talk for the past few months that Google seems to be penalizing sites, rank-wise, that use Text-Link-Ads to sell paid links on their site. TLA is a great service, offering reasonable rates for paid links on your website, though Google doesn’t like the idea of paid links because plain links (as opposed to JavaScript widgets like AdSense) affect the rankings of the sites buying the links.

The site Text-Link-Ads.com pretty much doesn’t appear in search results at all (except in a paid ad at the top of the results). So, it’s okay for TLA to be shown in search results only if they pay Google? Other sites, like JohnChow.com, have met similar fates, though Chow’s site may have been demoted for other reasons. (more…)

After soliciting submissions, haunting design galleries, and looking through my bookmarks, I have put together this collection of cool web designs. I may not have all of the coolest web designs on the plane Earth, but I’ve collected all the coolest ones on my planet.

Without further ado, here are The Coolest Web Designs On The Planet. (more…)

It’s coming.

Wordpress 2.4 will be released on December 12, and 2.5 in the following May. According to Blogging Pro, we will be seeing “some very visible changes to the WordPress administration panel.” What does that mean? Will the admin be redesigned? We could do with a change from that blue color, and dropdown navigation would be nice.

Personally, I’d like to see an improved admin, along with the following:

• An RSS template, so we can customize our feeds
• WYSIWYG (or WYSIWTH if you prefer) editor fixes. I’m tired of the editor “fixing” code I write (or paste) into the code tab. If I paste in a YouTube video embed, then I want it to work. I don’t want the code mangled into dysfunctional rubbish. The same goes for the way it replaces <div> tags with <p> tags.
• I want my Technorati inbound links back! Who’s bright idea was it to use Google Blog Search instead?
• 301 Redirection. If I change a post slug, the old one should automatically redirect to the new one. It would also be nice to be able to set-up redirects manually. That way, if you do some podcasting or something like that, you can say visit www.myblog.com/bg70 instead of a full permalink.

Those are the major things that I want fixed, and something tells me we won’t see many (or any) of my biggest complaints addressed in WP 2.4.

By the way, Westi on Wordpress will be posting updates on the development of Wordpress 2.4, so keep an eye on the blog to see what’s being added. The posts are tagged Wordpress 2.4, so grab this RSS feed to get the updates.

BlogRush has put up a “temporary stats” system on their dashboard, as the normal one with all of the graphs is “currently unavailable.”

It’s showing, for Webmaster-Source, the following:

Credits Earned Today: 363
Credits Earned Last 7 Days: 1,957

Your Traffic Today: 363
Your Traffic Last 7 Days 1,957

There’s something funny about those numbers. Somehow I doubt that someone clicked-through every time one of my headlines was displayed. Are these stats rigged, merely inaccurate, or do I have the best clickthrough rate ever?

Edit: Oops. Hehe, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net clarified this for me. It seems that BlogRush isn’t reporting clicks at all, but it’s basically reporting the amount of credits earned.

• ProBlogDesign.com asks “Is Ad Blocking Immoral? Does it Matter?” Everyone’s favorite controversial blog topic is back with another 43+ comments of blogger opinions.
• Wordpress 2.3 has tag support now. If you’re done jumping up and down in excitement, think about this: Do you want to use Technorati tags instead of local tags? Simple enough, just grab this plugin.
• Who Is Your Visitor? An Average Profile - Be sure to read the poll mentioned in the article. More people maximize their browser than they make it sound like. They’re giving an aggregate amount, including huge screen resolutions.
• How does Google rank your website? No idea. Well, some idea (as much as Google will let us find out).
• Hey Firefox users! Want some add-ons to aide you in your design work? Vandelay Design has put together a list of 40 Firefox extensions for web design. I’ve been using quite a few of them for awhile now.
• Freelance Switch has had a redesign. Personall, I like it better than the old design. Whether you like the new design or not, Pro Blog Design has a design review of Freelance Switch up now. Beat me to it!
• Digg Saturation, yet another way to rank your website.
• Yeah! The Best WordPress Magazine Themes Available. Gridlock, The Morning After, Grid Focus, and several others all reviewed in one place. I especially like the Revolution theme.

301 redirects are useful for numerous things. If you change a post slug is Wordpress, then you can place a 301 redirect so anyone going to the old URL will be redirected to the new one. This had the added bonus of letting search engines know (when they re-crawl your site) that they need to update the URL they have stored. Others use 301 redirects when they use affiliate links, so no PageRank is passed on, and so if the affiliate URL changes, they can update their links by just changing the redirect target.

There are plenty of ways to do 301 redirects. You can use the PHP Header() command, you can edit your .htaccess files (using the mod_rewrite feature), etc. Mod_rewrite is generally the most versatile method, but it’s a big pain in the neck.

The Urban Giraffe blog has released a neat plugin that handles all of this for you. Their 301 redirection plugin makes it insanely easy to add custom redirects. I’d thought of writing a plugin like this before, but it looks like they beat me to it. Take a look.

Do you know how to write? If you can write a few coherent paragraphs without misspelling 10%+ of the words, then yes, you can write. Have you considered starting a blog?

If you have something interesting to say, then you’ve got the basis for a blog.

Blogging is a great opportunity to get your thoughts/ideas/knowledge/experience out there for others to read. If you can answer “yes” to any of the following questions, then you should think about starting a blog.

• Do you have a hobby you’re knowledgeable about?
• Do you have a business? More and more businesses are adding blogs to their websites.
• Is there some topic that your friends and family keep telling you stop talking about so much? Talk at people online instead!
• Are you a photographer? You could showcase your recent shots with a photoblog.
• Have you wished you had your own magazine or radio talk show? Then start a blog/webzine or a podcast.

If you have something interesting to say, then you’ve got the basis for a blog. If no one else has a blog about the subject, then you have even more reason to start one. Congratulations, you’ve found a niche market, providing you an opportunity to, with work and time, become the authority in the subject.

Starting a professional blog is easy and cheap. You can get a “.com” web address (domain name) for only $6/year. Reliable web hosting (with a free domain name included) can be had for as low as $3.99/month. If you’re interested, I’ve written a guide to starting a blog.