Archive for 2008

Min-width is a useful CSS property that, as it’s name suggests, sets the minimum width of an element to a specific pixel width (or em or whatever). It’s very useful.

The problem? Microsoft. Internet Exploder doesn’t support the property. Instead of ranting about Microsoft’s pathetic browser, I’ll skip to the solution…

First, make sure you have an IE-specific stylesheet to put all you IE hacks in. It makes it easier to manage things, and it makes sure hacks like this don’t stop your CSS from validating. (Believe me, this one will.) Include it in your page head like so:

<!--[if IE]><link rel=”stylesheet” href=”ieislame.css” type=”text/css” media=”all” /><![endif]–>

Next, add something along the lines of this to the file:

#mydiv { width:expression(document.body.clientWidth < 850? "850px": "auto" ); }

Just replace both instances of “850″ with the minimum width you prefer.

Not too hard, but it shouldn’t be necessary.

Michael Martin has just redesigned his blog Pro Blog Design. Along with the new design comes a few new opportunities for you. Opportunities to promote your site, and make some money.

First off, Michael has 125×125 ad space now. They’re available for $45/month, and the first four buyers get them for $30 instead. (Two out of four have already sold, so the offer won’t last long, sadly.)

Now is Michael selling out all of a sudden and filling PBD with ads? No. Before you start complaining, listen to what Michael has to say for himself: “The money from the adverts is not for me. It will be used to help pay for other writers to write articles for Pro Blog Design.” What was that? Paying other writers?

The second opportunity is guest posting. Michael will be paying guest writers $50 per post. He’s looking for posts on WordPress, design advice, usability, and resources. Authors get s short bio and a link to their site at the bottom of the post. Not bad, eh?

And if you haven’t subscribed to Pro Blog Design yet, I highly recommend that you do.

• 101 Awesome Portfolio Sites
• WordPress 2.7 heavily based on existing plugins - I’m okay with that so long as they don’t introduce 125×125 ad management or URL shortening features.
• 20 Creative Business Cards You Probably Didn’t See Before - Yes, another business card roundup. Don’t worry, this one’s mainly ones you probably haven’t seen before.
• 10 Excellent CSS Tips and Tutorials
• Daniel Scocco interviewed me the other day about my experiences with the 9rules network. Worth a look if you’re considering applying in the next window (November 2008).
• Your blog readers may not realise they are reading a blog - Do you know you’re reading a blog? Good, I guess that doesn’t apply to Webmaster-Source. This is a real problem though, and one that irritates the heck out of me sometimes. Blog = “a sort of content management system” not “an online journal.”
• Making Money Online is About Getting Big (and Not About Jamming Ads on Your Website)
• Eden changes its name to Envato

I think it’s safe to say you’ve heard of Akismet. Good old Akismet, by the makers of WordPress, is the de facto standard for blocking comment spam. It normally does an excellent job, though it misses a few spam comments here and there.

I think it’s safe to say that 98% of WordPress users (I made that number up, just so you know) use Akismet.

But what about the web newbies, just installing WordPress for the first time? You know, the people who don’t have a whole lot of experience with the web, but heard about blogging and WordPress, and decided to set it up with Fantastico on a cheap shared webhost. Those people are in for an unpleasant surprise…

Akismet, by default is deactivated, therefore unprotected. The equivalent of running a Windows-based PC on the internet without a firewall and antivirus, the blog will be slammed with spam pretty quick. It may not be a lot at first, but it will happen.

And not only is Akismet not activated by default, it’s buried on the Plugins page, where non-techies aren’t necesarily going to look. Then you need an API key to use the plugin, which requires registering for a blog at WordPress.com (a most confusingly named site) and then hunting down the page with the API key and pasting it into the plugin settings on your blog.

Here’s how it should work: When you first install WordPress, it should gently nudge you to activate Akismet, and like to the Plugins tab. When you activate the plugin, it should request that you enter your API key, and instead of telling you to get one from WordPress.com, link to Akismet.com, and let them applu for one there.

This month’s featured, and free, WordPress theme is Night Transition by Web Kreation.

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Around mid-July, I asked you what you used for your browser’s homepage. Unlike most of my polls, I this time allowed the selection of multiple options, seeing as most modern browsers allow you to have multiple tabs open on startup.

We ended up with some interesting results, and, predictably, Google is the #1 choice.

An interesting strategy, though quite different from mine, which is to have a custom page with links to my Google Apps email page, and the like.

The numbers are as follows: 40% of the 50 votes have Google.com, 20% use Netvibes, iGoogle, or similar; 20% use “other,” 16% about:blank, 6% a custom HTML file, 2% use Yahoo or AOL, and another 2% have their blog set as their homepage.

Google is leading by a large margin, which I kind of expected. Really, it makes a good homepage. It’s quick to load and fairly empty, sort of like about:blank, but it provides some useful function as well.

Michael Martin of Pro Blog Design uses this strategy:

My blog, Todoist, Google Reader and Digg.I read Digg first, then Google Reader. Once I close each of those tabs, I try not to open them again until the next day. It usually works.

What is 9rules? It’s hard to say; it’s been many things over the years, but it’s always been a blog network. Essentially, blogs in the network have their latests posts (just the headlines) aggregated onto their homepage, and your blog is added to their directory. Every member has a small badge, in the shape of a stylized leaf, displayed prominently on their blog, advertising the fact that the blog is a 9rules member, and linking to the 9rules site.

How do you get into 9rules? It’s not easy. The founders have “signup windows” every now and then (every few months or so) where they, for a period of twenty-four hours, allow you to request that your blog be added. They process the submissions and allow the ones that meet their criteria. The next signup periods are August 6, 2008 and November 5, 2008.

Do I get any extra traffic? Some. I currently get 500+ uniques a month from 9rules. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s not too shabby either, and any extra traffic is welcome.

I’m not the only one who thinks MyBlogLog is a waste of valuable template space. It clutters an otherwise (hopefully) clean design, makes pages take longer to load, and doesn’t really provide much value to the reader. Do you pay any attention to MyBlogLog widgets when you visit a blog, or do you ignore them like I do?

Now, MyBlogLog is an interesting concept, but it has some issues, and I’m sure a lot of you avoid it for the same reasons I do.

Recently, I came up with something a bit more interesting…

Okay, obviously you like to recieve comments on your blog postings, and it’s nice to offer a small reward to people who frequently contribute to the discussions. Thus, many of us have “Top Commentators” sections on our blogs, which generally show frequent commenters’ names and link to their websites.

After reading Blog Herald’s post on MyBlogLog (see above link), I thought “Why not have a recent/top commentators section on a blog that displays Gravatars linked to the commentators’ uls instead of just names?” (From my Twitter.)

Obviously this is a plugin waiting to happen, but I’m too lazy to throw one together yet. If anyone wants to take my idea and build something, feel free to do so. (If you do build a plugin, I’d like an email so I can try it out myself…)

And here’s the plugin: Gravatar Top Commenters.

The popular social bookmarking site Del.icio.us redesigned over the past week. Overall they’ve kept a similar look, and haven’t lost any of the simplicity. It’s more polished looking, and probably more usable. Oh, and they’ve dropped the dots from the URL, becoming Delicious.com.

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Internet Explorer users (versions 5.5, 6, 7) have been unable to access a large portion of the internet since Friday. Essentially users of Internet Explorer have been unable to access sites that use the SiteMeter analytics tool, and are recieving an error message instead. The error reads something like “Internet explorer cannot open the Internet site http://example.org - Operation aborted.”

SiteMeter, thus far, has not acknowledged the problem.

Is there a solution? Just download and install the free Firefox web browser. In five minutes you’ll be able to access every inch of the internet again. Of course you’re free to switch back to IE after SiteMeter gets their act together, but trust me, you won’t want to.