If you’re someone like me, who doesn’t purchase every version, waiting years between upgrades, this is a very unpleasant development. (I just moved from CS1 to CS5 during the past year, and the impetus behind that decision was the lack of support for legacy PowerPC software on newer versions of OS X. I upgraded to a newer MacBook Pro, and had to pick up a newer version of Photoshop to go with it.)

The move shouldn’t make huge difference if you already upgrade annually, as you’re basically paying the $600 upgrade fee perpetually, but it’s not great if you prefer to skip versions or buy secondhand.

Existing users for Creative Suite 3 or higher can get a reduced rate of $30/month for their first year, but will have to pay full price thereafter.

• Amazon currently has several copies of Photoshop CS2 (the previous version) for around $300.
• Here’s a little secret: You can buy a very old copy of Photoshop on eBay (like Photoshop 7) for under $100. Once it arrives, you have a serial number…which you can use with the $250 Photoshop CS3 upgrade disc. So you buy an ancient copy of Photoshop, and upgrade. I did the same thing with Flash. I upgraded to Flash 8 after buying Flash 3. Unfortunately Adobe released Flash CS3 two months after…

Just thought I’d point this out.

1. First of all, create a new document in Photoshop. You want a resolution of 72dpi. I’d suggest 150×150 pixels for your dimensions. It’s easier to work with a larger image, and you can always reduce the size later.

2. Now, you want to get started creating the icon. That’s the part I can’t help you with. How you make it is totally up to you. Smashing Magazine has some tips (and examples), which you may find useful. Here’s a (not very good) example:

3. Now, lets try scaling the image down to 16×16 pixels. Choose Image > ImageSize. Just change the pixel dimensions from 150×150 to 16×16. The rest of the settings will update accordingly.

4. You should end up with a puny 16×16 icon. How does it look? If you don’t like it, try again. Thick, bold lines tend to work better. More often than not, you won’t be able to totally convert your logo into a favicon. In that case, you should do as Smashing Magazine suggests. Look at your logo for elements that could work in a favicon. Take Google for example. They’re favicon is a big “G,” not their whole logo.

5. Okay, you have an image. Now what? Moder browsers (like Mozilla Firefox) can use GIFs, PNGs, and JPGs for favicons. Unfortunately, some browsers (yeah, I’m talking to you, Internet Explorer!) require the “ICO” format. I suggest using Dynamic Drive’s Favicon Generator to convert your GIF or PNG into the ICO format (which works with just about every favicon-capable browser).

6. Once you have your favicon, it’s time to add it to your website. How? Upload it to your website, preferably in the root (the same folder as your index file), as IE5 expects it to be there. Then, you add the following code snippet to the HEAD section of your pages:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" />

Now load your site. Did the favicon show up? Most likely it’ll load (assuming you put the HTML in correctly). However, if you’re using Internet Explorer, it may not for a couple of days for some reason.

Well, that’s the end. I hope you found this tutorial useful.

Technorati

Techno-what? Technorati is biggest blog search engine thing. It’s more than a search engine. Anyway, if you head over to Technorati and search the name of your WordPress blog, I bet it’s there (assuming you have a unique name…like you should). Even if your blog is only a day old, Technorati has indexed it. How? WordPress automatically pings Technorati, and a few other sites, whenever you post. Cool or what? They know when you do a new post immediately.

I highly recommend that you register and get a Technorati account. Why? You can claim your blog, and edit some settings about how it’s displayed. Go ahead and register now, it won’t take long (just five minutes or so).

So, you’ve got a Technorati account? Then head over to the Claim a Blog page. Put your blog’s URL in the field and hit “Begin claim”. On the following page, choose the Quick Claim option. When prompted, supply your WordPress username and password (don’t worry, they don’t store it, the system just checks to see if they’re correct to verify it’s your blog).

On the next page, you can enter a description and some tags for your blog. The description appears beneath your blog in Technorati search results, and the tags help people find it. Scroll down and hit the “Save blog info” button. Now Technorati will list you as the owner of the blog.

Technorati is a great blog search engine and more. If you get into Technorati (play around with it for a couple weeks), they offer some cool tools. Technorati can also help you keep track of your favorite blogs (personally, I use RSS for that).

Here are a couple things more you should know about Technorati:

• It uses your blog’s categories as tags on their end, to help users find your posts.

• Blog ranking (your Technorati Authority) is based off number of links, and the number of people adding your blog to their Technorati favorites.
• If you add a profile photo to your Technorati account, you get more people noticing your posts, because the photo jumps out at them among the lack of photos next to other peoples’ posts.

Well, that’s all you really need to know about Technorati. By all means, experiment with Technorati more if you want.

Trackbacks and Pingbacks

Okay, you’ve claimed your blog in Technorati. That’s not going to seriously increase your visitor count, however. You didn’t think it was that easy did you?

Now, you must master the art of Trackback. What’s trackback? Take a look at the Wikipedia page. You can view a tutorial on trackbacks and pingbacks here. I’m not going to walk you through the process of sending a Trackback/Pingback, you aforementioned tutorial for that.

Pingbacks are especially cool. You’ll probably mention other blogs’ posts from time to time, linking to them so your readers can get there better. If the option is active on both blogs, you blog will send a pingback to the other blog. What’s so great about that? When the other blog receives the pingback, it automatically adds a link back to your post. The other blog’s readers see the link, and they may click through and read your post.

Be warned, that bloggers do not like trackback spam. Don’t trackback tons of blogs just to pull new users in. You must have a legitimate reason to send the trackback. That’s why pingbacks are theoretically better. You have to link to the other blog to send a pingback.

That said, they’re a great way to get more readership. Just don’t worry about them. Activate pingbacks on your blog, and blog away. All the pinging will happen without any intervention from you. Just don’t worry about it. Sometimes you’ll find a blog that isn’t pingback compatible, but you want to pingback them. All you do is trackback them, but still you should link to the other blog in your post.

Comments

If your a blogger, you should read other people’s blogs. If you’re blogging, you probably already read several blogs. Often, you’ll find a blog post simlar to/related to yours. If your post has something theirs doesn’t, go ahead and post a comment with a link. However, do NOT just post the link. That’s considered spamming by a lot of bloggers. Comment on the other blog’s post first. Say what you like or don’t like about it, just a few sentences, you can handle it. Then you mention that you wrote a similar post, and supply the URL for those who want to check it out. Easy. Just remember not to spam people’s blogs.

Forums

Yes, forums are a viable way to increase your blog’s traffic. All you need to do is find a forum or two that you like (on a similar topic as your blog, if possible). Add your blog’s URL in your signature, along with a cool/funny image (assuming the forum rules permit). Then become a regular user. People will wonder what you have on your blog if they see you on the forum a bit.

Another good forum-related traffic-building method is to write large forum posts about, and reference posts from your blog, so forum users click through for more info. Notice how I link to other blogs (and Wikipedia) in my blog posts? Do something sort of like that, but with old posts from your blog.

Exchange Links

This one’s harder: Exchange links with other bloggers. Add a blog to your blog’s blogroll. If you get to know the other blogger well (try talking to them through email), you could ask if they want to link back eventually. They’ll be more a lot likely to comply if you’ve been in contact with them for awhile than if your some random blogger. Personally, I say put your favorite blogs in your blogroll anyway. Some bloggers will link back if they like your blog. A blog can’t link to everyone, so don’t get your hopes up though.

That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow for the next installment in this tutorial series.

Starting a Great Blog Part 8 – Monetization

1. First, create a new document in Photoshop. It should have the settings below.

2. Now, you should have a blank canvas sitting in front of you. If you have a logo you want to use, go ahead and incorporate it. Otherwise you can whip something up now (or just use some other image relevant to the card). I’ll use a picture of an Apple Mac Pro, since I’m too lazy to make a logo. Whatever image you use, it needs to be converted to the same resolution as the card (300 dpi). To do that, open up the image and click Image > Image Size. If the resolution is not listed as 300, change it (and make sure the result looks fine). It may look a touch blurry if you zoom in a lot, but you can’t really tell until you print it out for the first time. Don’t worry about the size of the image, you can always use Free Transform (Ctrl+T) on it later.

3. Paste the logo or other image into your card document. Use Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to resize it to the proper size. Drag the logo over to the left of the canvas. It should look something like this.

4. Now get out your Text Tool. Set it for about 36pt and choose black as the color. Pick a font (I chose Diamond SF, which you may or may not have). Add the name of your company/website in nice big letters. I right-clicked the type and chose “Faux-Bold” to give the text a bit more power.

5. Now you can fill in some more information about your company/website. Use a more legible font like Garamond, Times New Roman, or Verdana. For a font size, use a smaller level (like 8-12pt). You should get something sort of like this:

6. The business card is starting to shape up nicely. You can stop adding stuff now and have a nice, clean-looking card, or you can continue to add more stuff to the card. For example, a semi-transparent Apple Logo would look nice.

7. Now the card is about finished. We need to make some final preparations, though. We need to put a small border around the edges of the image so we can cut the cards apart after they’re printed. Make a new layer (Ctrl-Shift-N) and hit Ctrl-A to select everything. Go Select > Modify > Border, and enter a value of 5 pixels. Hit enter. Now set your foreground color as black. Hit Shift-F5 and select “Foreground Color” from the dropdown. Press OK. You can now deselect with Ctrl-D. You should end up with something like this:

8. Go ahead and save your image. You have a few choices to print your cards. I think there’s an entry in the File> Automate menu that will print an image several times on one piece of paper. If not, then you can “Copy Merged” (Ctrl-Shift-C) and Paste the image several times into a new document (7.5 x 10 inches at 300 dpi). Arrange them and then print that document. I reccommend printing onto normal paper first to make sure everything is all right. If it works, load up the cardstock and print.

9. Use scissors or a paper cutter to slice the sheets into individual cards.

10 (because you can’t have a tutorial with only nine steps). Hand your nice new business cards out people, tack them up on bulletin boards, or whatever you do with business cards.

Well, that’s all folks! Business cards are a useful thing to have if you’re a website, an individual, or…well…a business. I have some cards for the websites I run, so I don’t have to find a pen and scrap of paper if someone wants to know the URL. I tack them up on bulleting boards too.

Happy Photoshopping!

Originally posted on April 18, 2007 on my old blog at redwallhp.ntugo.com.