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	<title>Alchemy Internet</title>
	
	<link>http://www.alchemyinternet.net</link>
	<description>Experts in creative web design, ecommerce, online marketing.</description>
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		<title>MMG MagDev Ltd</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/QWvM6otVmDY/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/05/mmg-magdev-ltd/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 13:24:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Web Team</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Custom Web Applications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eCommerce]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1257</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[text Objective text Result Launch Website Information URL: http://www.magdev.co.uk Our Services: Content Management System Technologies Used: ASP.Net, XHTML, CSS]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>text</p>
<h2>Objective</h2>
<ul>
<li>text</li>
</ul>
<h2>Result</h2>
<p><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1261" title="www.magdev.co.uk Home page" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/www.magdev.co_.uk-screen-capture-2012-5-10-14-18-36-800x815.png" alt="" width="800" height="815" /></p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1262" title="www.magdev.co.uk product list" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/www.magdev.co_.uk-screen-capture-2012-5-10-14-21-39-800x1127.png" alt="" width="800" height="1127" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="button-black" title="Launch Website" href="http://www.magdev.co.uk" target="_blank"><span>Launch Website</span></a></p>
<h2>Information</h2>
<p title="View: Web Design"><strong>URL:</strong> <a title="Visit MMG MagDev Ltd Website" href="http://www.magdev.co.uk" target="_blank">http://www.magdev.co.uk</a><br /> <strong>Our Services:</strong> <a title="View: Content Management System" href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/services/content-management-systems/">Content Management System</a><br /> <strong>Technologies Used:</strong> ASP.Net, XHTML, CSS</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Why Mobile Commerce Is on the Rise</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/_uP0usWXuxQ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/04/why-mobile-commerce-is-on-the-rise/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:32:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[M-Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile Commerce]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[About 30% of mobile phone users spend an average of about 27 minutes each day text messaging, using the telephone and video chatting, according to retailer CultureLabel.com. The company put together an infographic that highlights the bright outlook for the mobile commerce industry, helped along by the massive growth of smartphone adoption. As CultureLabel looked to expand its own mobile strategy,...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>About 30% of mobile phone users spend an average of about 27 minutes each day text messaging, using the telephone and video chatting, according to retailer CultureLabel.com. The company put together an infographic that highlights the bright outlook for the mobile commerce industry, helped along by the massive growth of smartphone adoption.</p>
<p>As CultureLabel looked to expand its own mobile strategy, the company compiled stats to reinforce the need to grow its m-commerce channel. According to its findings displayed in the online art retailer’s infographic, 5.9 billion out of the 7 billion people (87%) worldwide already have mobile phones. Smartphone sales are up 63.1% from 2010, and a whopping 488.5 million devices were sold in 2011.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, one in seven searches are made with a mobile device. More people are accessing social networking sites this way too. In fact, Facebook mobile users have quadrupled in two years from 50 million in 2009 to 200 million in 2011.</p>
<p>The infographic also points out that mobile commerce is expected to experience significant growth by 2015 from the six previous years — jumping 99-fold from $1 billion in sales in 2009 to more than $100 billion</p>
<p>Do you think mobile commerce will every surpass e-commerce? Do you think these channels will ever surpass in-store shopping sales? Let us know in the comments.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Infographic.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1166" title="Why Mobile Commerce Is on the Rise" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Infographic.jpg" alt="Why Mobile Commerce Is on the Rise" width="640" height="3005" /></a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>How to Choose a Typeface?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/veYysiQaBSo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/04/how-to-choose-a-typeface/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:02:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fonts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Typeface]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Typography]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1182</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Choosing a typeface can be tricky. The beauty and complexity of type, combined with an inexhaustible supply of options to evaluate, can make your head spin. But don’t be baffled — and don’t despair. While there are no easy-to-follow rules on how best to choose a typeface, there are many tried-and-true principles you can quickly learn and apply to make an appropriate typeface choice....]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Choosing a typeface can be tricky. The beauty and complexity of type, combined with an inexhaustible supply of options to evaluate, can make your head spin. But don’t be baffled — and don’t despair. While there are no easy-to-follow rules on how <em>best</em> to choose a typeface, there are many tried-and-true principles you can quickly learn and apply to make an <em>appropriate</em> typeface choice. If you work systematically through the options below, you’ll have a winning typeface choice in no time. Let’s get started.</p>
<h2>What Is Your Goal?</h2>
<p>The first thing you have to do in order to choose a typeface is form a strong impression in your mind about how you want your audience to react to the text. This is your goal, and it will guide the process. You might provide this impression, or it might be dictated to you by your client, or it may be determined by your audience. Whatever the case, your choice of typeface needs to strike a good combination of both legibility and readability, while remaining appropriate for the audience and the message. Each of these characteristics requires some degree of independent consideration. As you may already know from experience, it’s easy to go about this the wrong way and get overwhelmed. This problem can be compounded as a design evolves.</p>
<p>Perhaps the hardest part of breaking down the typeface selection process is understanding which parts are more<em>subjective</em> and which parts are more <em>objective</em>. After reading and digesting your client’s text, it is easier to start with the objective aspects of typeface selection because they — by default — make subjective decisions for us. There are no fixed positions on the spectrum from subjective to objective. However, we know that legibility is more easily quantifiable than a mood. Let’s start with the two most objective attributes — <em>legibility</em> and <em>readability</em>.</p>
<h3>Legibility</h3>
<p>It may seem at first glance that legibility and readability are the same thing, but they are not. Legibility refers to the design of the typeface, as in the width of the strokes, whether or not it has serifs, the presence of novel type design elements etc. It is easy to tell one letterform from another in a legible typeface. For instance, decorative typefaces have low legibility because they are primarily meant to be seen at a glance, rather than read at length. Conversely, typefaces designed for novels or newspapers have very high legibility. <strong>You need to design a specific, overall legibility</strong> based on the function of the text.</p>
<p>Consider this example where the left block of text is set in Tobin Tax, a decorative serif typeface. Compare it to the same text set in Sabon, a classic and highly-legible serif typeface. Where does your typeface choice fall between these two extremes?</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1188" title="Legibility" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/legibility.png" alt="Legibility" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Quick tips for great legibility:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Choose typefaces with conventional letterforms</strong>.Letterforms composed of unique shapes, artistic deformations, excessive ornamentation or other novel design elements cause the reader to have to process what they are looking at first, instead of just taking in the message. Novelty always comes at the cost of immediate comprehension.</li>
<li><strong>Choose typefaces with generous spacing</strong>.Tight tracking causes the eye to fill in visual gaps between the various shapes that make up different letterforms, thus slowing down the time it takes to both recognize letterforms and word and sentence structures. Generous spacing allows the eyes to proceed as fast as the cognitive skills of the reader will permit.</li>
<li><strong>Choose typefaces with a tall x-height</strong>.A “short” x-height decreases legibility of certain letters. The apertures, or openings, of similar lowercase letters like “c” and “e” are distinguished with greater ease if the x-height is generous.<em>Please notice</em>: The x-height shouldn’t be “high”. The font size, weight and width must just be chosen according to the x-height of the font. Sure, at first glance one typeface with a larger x-height might look more legible than another, but the the latter is just set too small (or too bold or too condended). In addition, a large x-height only helps a few letters like e, s, a (with double-storey shape). Other characters (with descenders, diacritical marks) suffer from a larger x-height. <em>(Thanks to Ralf Herrmann for clarification!)</em></li>
</ul>
<h3>Readability</h3>
<p>How your typeface is set, combined with the basic legibility of the typeface, yields a certain level of readability. Readability is the dynamic interaction of the type style, size, tracking, leading, color and other properties all combined into one overall impression. They add up to a certain typographic style which has a quantifiable degree of readability. For instance, you could use a style that has an intentionally low readability that is part of the message. Or you could focus on designing a high readability because your message is complicated, and you don’t want your type style to hinder the audiences’ understanding in any way. In most cases, <strong>communication comes before style</strong>, so resolve readability first.</p>
<p>Let’s take our previous example of Sabon and alter the readability. On the left, we have taken the text and decreased the font size, altered the tracking and leading, lightened the color, and set the block to full justification. It’s now a mess with unattractive text rivers. On the right, we’ve left the unaltered for an obvious comparison. Changing several independent factors, as you can see, can add up to quite a difference.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1187" title="Readibility" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/readibility.png" alt="Readibility" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Quick tips for great readability:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Choose typefaces that were designed for the purpose</strong> you are using them for (display fonts for headlines, body copy typefaces for body copy, etc.).Choosing a font designed for display purposes, like headlines or posters, means that it will not function very well as a body text typeface where larger quantities of text will be read. Conversely, a typeface designed for extended reading loses its impact in relation to how large it is blown up.</li>
<li><strong>Align text to “right ragged” for comfortable word spacing online to avoid “rivers”</strong>.“Force-justified” text, or hyphenless justification, always creates ugly rivers and awkward spacing which causes the reader to lose the natural flow of the text as the eye has to make various leaps and jumps to complete words and sentences. Currently, there is no proper native support for hyphenation in CSS, but you could use <a href="http://code.google.com/p/hyphenator/">Hyphenator.js</a> for a proper client-side hyphenation online.</li>
<li><strong>Make sure your line height is greater than the point size of your typeface for multi-line texts</strong>.It’s difficult for the eye to track across a line of text and stay “on track” if the lines above and below it are too close to it. Our eyes are easily confused especially when wrapping from the end of one line of text to another. How many times have you read the same line of text twice on generously-spaced lines of text? Probably once — of course if the content is easy to understand as well. Don’t make your readers work harder than they have to.</li>
</ul>
<p>With the two most subjective factors out of the way, let’s move on to <em>appropriateness</em>.</p>
<h2>Aspects of Appropriateness</h2>
<p>Some typefaces are more suitable for a design task than others. <em>Appropriateness</em> is something you can learn by both experience with a typeface, and by other attributes of the typeface, including its history and original purpose. Here are four attributes of a typeface you can consider.</p>
<h3>Design Intent</h3>
<p>It’s very helpful to consider the design intent of the typeface. Many popular typefaces have detailed write-ups and reviews, so it’s really inexcusable to not know at least <em>something</em> about your choice. If a typeface was designed for signage, like Cooper Black, it probably isn’t going to work well set as the body copy of a book. That might be an obvious example, but don’t miss the subtleties in your own choices. Again, it only takes a few seconds to look something up, or flip open a decent typography book to get some basic facts, and you’ll be wiser for it.</p>
<h3>Aesthetics</h3>
<p>Your typeface should conform to the aesthetics expected by the audience for which the design is intended. For instance, if you are designing a piece for a bank, setting their logo or the text for an ad campaign in Souvenir might be a little too light hearted and free-spirited — not qualities one would want to associate with people who manage your money. However, the stately and stable-minded Bembo might be a better choice for this situation. The more you match the gist of the typeface to the gist of your topic, the easier success will come.</p>
<p>In this example, we’ve created two combinations of typefaces. The first one, Lithos and Souvenir, create an aesthetic more suited to a children’s museum than a bank. The second combination is composed of Clarendon and Bembo, which fits the topic like a well-tailored banker’s suit.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1189" title="Aesthetics" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/aesthetics.png" alt="Aesthetics" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Quick tip for judging aesthetics:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Look at a typeface and write down several words the typeface “says” to you about itself</strong>, and then compare that to what your design objective for the typeface is. Do they correlate? Be convinced, after this analysis, that you have the right typeface choice. If you are not sure, it would be best to not proceed.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Mood</h3>
<p>As you read through these factors, you’ll realize that they overlap a little. Mood, for instance is a dynamic synthesis of what you get when you consider the aesthetics of a typeface together with the readability you’ve designed into your piece, along with, of course, the perceived meaning of the text itself. For instance, with one typeface and one text you can evoke a mood of excitement or panic. The typeface itself first evokes a strong reaction, but the readability of the design and the text itself can take communication to another level.</p>
<p>On the example below, notice how the implied meaning of the phrase “kick back and relax” is dramatically changed by altering the typeface and readability. Mood is very powerful, and it’s a good idea to have a second set of eyes reviewing your work to make sure you don’t send the wrong message. This demonstrates that matching the basic personality of the typeface, and its readability, to the intended emotional response of the message is a sure-fire recipe for success.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1190" title="Mood" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mood.png" alt="Mood" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Quick tip for pinpointing mood:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Think of the exact opposite of the mood you want to create</strong> and look at your work on a given design thus far. If you can’t come up with an opposite mood, it might mean you have not created a strong impression of the right mood. Remember, the opposite of neutral is neutral.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Personal Choice</h3>
<p>Many times, a typeface just strikes you for some reason as appropriate. Your right brain knows it but your left brain can’t understand why. If you can make it work based on that alone, go for it. You would of course do well to get informed about the typefaces in your arsenal, especially if you keep using them over and over. You may discover that your use of a typeface has nothing to do with its original intent, but it can still look great.</p>
<p>For instance, you might like OCR-A on the cover an album design, though OCR-A was designed specifically for optical scanners so that computers can recognize the words through software. So what if computers are supposed to read it? If it fits the design intent of your project and you can pull it off, do it. Just <strong>do it well</strong> or choose another typeface.</p>
<p><em>Quick tip about personal choice</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Trust your gut but make sure you can quantify</strong>, in typographic terms, aspects of your choice so that you can defend your design decisions armed with intelligent answers. You may also find that a defense of  even your most subjective choice goes a long way if it’s clear you did think it out and have a reasonable rationale.</li>
<li><strong>Come up with your type selection quality scale</strong>.You might want to consider creating your personal checklist with type selection details which you can then consider and apply in your typographic choices. This would help quantify your decisions and make them comparable.</li>
</ul>
<h3>A Few Technical Considerations</h3>
<p>Don’t overlook the obvious. For instance, if your design job is going to include work using a lot of numbers, you’ll want to make sure you choose a typeface that has the kinds of numbers you want to use. Some typefaces use <em>Old Style</em>, or lowercase numbers. Other typefaces use <em>Lining</em>, or uppercase numbers.</p>
<p>You might be persuaded that large spreadsheets of numbers for technical work are easier to read with lining style numbers because they don’t use the lowercase descenders and are more even on the eye when used in large quantities. But if your design features a lot of up-and-close with over-sized numbers, the Old Style numbers might be infinitely more pleasant. Again, the mood you want to convey plays a role in this choice: Old Style numbers look… <em>old</em>. That could be good in the right context but not so good in the wrong one.</p>
<p>To add to this list, you might consider if a typeface has a full set of <strong>ligatures</strong> and if it contains <strong>true small cap characters</strong>. Missing ligatures can look unattractive at large sizes. Fake small caps usually look odd because stroke widths aren’t compensated for. In short, it’s best to choose a typeface that is as complete as possible. And if you choose a free typeface, you’ll find that it is often these critical “extras” that are missing. Make sure that the free typefaces have exactly the features you need for your design and that they are licenced for the work you are doing.</p>
<h2>Tips for Choosing a Typeface</h2>
<p>Let’s pull it all together with some pragmatic ways to get your typeface choice made. You might want to try these tips, which many designers use to their advantage in one way or another. Be the beneficiary of their wisdom and experience.</p>
<h3>1. Plan Your Hierarchy</h3>
<p>First, make sure you have a good grasp of the content and typographic hierarchy your design job will dictate. You may realize, after a thorough analysis, you need five fonts (not typefaces) to cover your various heading, sub-headings and call-outs. Can your typeface provide enough variation with bolds, italics and small caps? Or do you need two typefaces to create more distinction in the hierarchy? Three? Use a mind-mapping tool or make a traditional outline to see as much as you can before you start choosing typefaces. Consider this example of a bad and a good hierarchy using the same text. Notice the role white space plays in the hierarchy, too. Use as many levels as you need as long as there is distinction and clear purpose in your choices.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1191" title="Plan your hierarchy" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/plan-your-hierarchy.png" alt="Plan your hierarchy" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>2. Consider What Others Have Done Already</h3>
<p>You’ll find that the designers before you have already figured out ways to use the typefaces you are considering, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Look around, and carefully consider what others have done already. The site <a href="http://fontsinuse.com/">Fonts In Use</a>, for example, features typographic choices made by professional designers in various industries. And don’t dismiss familiarity when you come across it in other designers’ work. Often times “boring” and “familiar” are your best friends when it comes to choosing type. There are good reasons some typefaces get used a lot for certain purposes — they just work, and work really well.</p>
<h3>3. Experiment The Easy Way</h3>
<p>Here are some tips to help you experiment quickly and thoughtfully with your typeface choices:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Set up style sheets</strong> whether you are designing for the Web or print, which speeds up the flow of ideas because they are easy to swap out. You could also use <a href="http://webfontspecimen.com/">Web Font Specimen</a> for this purpose.</li>
<li><strong>Play with the hierarchy</strong> by changing the size of different elements to create and release tension.</li>
<li>Judge the results and change something, but only <strong>change one thing</strong> at a time.</li>
<li><strong>Get a second or third opinion</strong>. You might have missed the obvious.</li>
</ul>
<h3>4. Avoid Anachronisms</h3>
<p>For instance, if you don’t know the particular history of typeface, you could end up using it in a way that makes you look a little silly. What if you picked Trajan to illustrate the title graphics of an article about ancient Greece? That would be an unintended anachronism since Greece pre-dates Rome, and Trajan was a Roman emperor. The typeface Trajan is taken from “Trajan’s Column”, which is a monument to a military victory around the year 100 A.D. Just having to answer “Trajan” to the question “What font did you set the cover of this book about Ancient Greece in?” will make you squirm just a little. It pays to double check. And sometimes it pays to be neutral by choosing something safe for an academic topic, like Arno.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1192" title="Avoid Anachronisms" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/avoid-trite-anachronisms.png" alt="Avoid Anachronisms" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>5. Avoid Trite Correlations</h3>
<p>If you apply this rule rigorously, you are <em>unequivocally guaranteed</em> to retire from your design career as Typographer Emeritus. Let’s just examine this principle by example and let the lessons teach themselves:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Don’t</strong> use Papyrus <em>just because</em> your topic is “ancient” in some way, especially if it’s about Ancient Egypt. (Better yet, don’t use Papyrus at all)</li>
<li><strong>Don’t</strong> use Comic Sans <em>just because</em> your topic is humorous. (Better yet, don’t use Comic Sans at all)</li>
<li><strong>Don’t</strong> use Lithos <em>just because</em> your topic is about Greek restaurants.</li>
<li><strong>Don’t</strong> use Futura <em>just because</em> your topic deals with “the future”.</li>
</ul>
<div><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1193" title="Avoid Trite Correlations" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/avoid-trite-correlations.png" alt="Avoid Trite Correlations" width="500" height="350" /></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Does this leave room for typefaces with built-in “effects”? Yes, indeed. Just <strong>don’t do something so blatantly obvious</strong> it took you less than one second to think of it. The tell tale sign you are making a trite correlation is that you have a collection of decorative fonts you <em>frequently peruse</em> in your font manager while pining away for a topic to shoehorn them into. If you have not avoided these kinds of trite correlations in the past, it’s OK. Don’t live in the past, but don’t do it again.</p>
<h3>6. Consider An Extended Type Familty</h3>
<p>If your project is ongoing and diverse, it would be wise to consider investing in a quality extended type family upfront. Why not kill all the birds you can find with one stone? When you choose an extended type family, you get the benefits of having had the type designer do more use-case scenarios than you will likely ever be faced with. Extended type families usually have serif and sans serif versions, along with multiple weights, full sets of special characters and ligatures etc., which ensure that you’ll be able to find the right solution for just about every typographic challenge you could imagine. An extended type family will also give you <strong>a very uniform, orderly mood</strong> and aesthetic, which may or may not be what you want.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1194" title="Typeface Family" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/typeface-family.png" alt="Typeface Family" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>7. Stick With The Classic Combinations</h3>
<p>When you are stuck, go with the tried and true, especially if your deadline is tight. If you choose a neutral serif and sans serif combination, you might lose a little “edge”, but at least <strong>the integrity of your design and message won’t suffer</strong>. When is the last time you called on Caslon or Univers and regretted it? Face it: you’ll never get ITC Avant Garde Gothic and Trebuchet MS to cooperate. Instead, consult well respected typography-related resources. See what professional designers agree on. It’s likely you already have some of the classics you’ll find referenced. Perhaps those same fonts are complete and are of high quality, which makes choosing them in a pinch that much easier. You will fail them before they fail you.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1195" title="Stick With Classics" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/stick-with-classics.png" alt="Stick With Classics" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h3>8. Use a Limited Palette</h3>
<p>You’ll find many opinions on this, but it’s also not a bad idea to consider a limited palette of typefaces you like best from lists of the most popular type of all time. They are the most popular for a reason. Some designers have gone a whole career using less than twenty typefaces most of the time. For instance, you could use the <a href="http://www.100besteschriften.de/">FontShop’s 100 Best Typefaces</a> as a reference. To that list, you should try to add a few newer, and not just classic, typefaces. While you are at it, consider adding one or two <strong>unique but highly-versatile modern typefaces from independent foundries</strong>, and not just the larger established ones that might be more familiar.</p>
<p>In this example, we’ve combined Bembo with various fonts from Haptic Pro, a typeface family originally designed 2008 by Henning Hartmut Skibbe. Something old and something new, and you can go a long way with a style all your own:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1196" title="Limited Palette" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/limited-palette.png" alt="Limited Palette" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Final Tip: Break The Rules</h2>
<p>Break the rules but only <em>after</em> you can name some of them. Knowing the basics described in this article will help you make intelligent choices about <em>what</em> rules to break and <em>how</em> to break them. You might have to go through ninety-nine bad ideas to get to that one great idea, but the process is fun. Remember: knowledge of type gives you the power to express yourself more creatively with it. To “push the envelope”, as the cliché goes, you first need to know what and where the edges are.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1197" title="Break The Rules" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/break-the-rules.png" alt="Break The Rules" width="500" height="350" /></p>
<p> </p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~4/veYysiQaBSo" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>How to get the Featured Image or the First Image in the WordPress post?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/xi1ggfl7hnA/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/04/how-to-get-the-featured-image-or-the-first-image-in-the-wordpress-post/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:18:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Claudio Gobetti</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[get_default_post_image]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[get_the_post_thumbnail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PHP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the_default_post_image]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1224</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Supposing you want to have an image aside of each post in your post list page. The WordPress function get_the_post_thumbnail is what you need. Make sure to set a  featured image inside the edit post (or custom post) page. If you forget to set the featured image inside a post, WordPress will consider as featured image the first uploaded image from...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Supposing you want to have an image aside of each post in your post list page. The WordPress function <a title="Function Reference/get the post thumbnail" href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_post_thumbnail" target="_blank"><code>get_the_post_thumbnail</code></a> is what you need. Make sure to set a  <em>featured image</em> inside the edit post (or custom post) page.</p>
<p>If you forget to set the <em>featured image</em> inside a post, WordPress will consider as <em>featured image</em> the first <em>uploaded image from your computer</em>. Obviously if you do not have any image in the content of a post, the <em>featured image</em> for it will not exist.</p>
<p>What happens if you write a post and add images from the &#8220;WordPress media library&#8221; (without uploading images from your computer)?<br /> Well, <a title="Function Reference/get the post thumbnail" href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_post_thumbnail" target="_blank"><code>get_the_post_thumbnail</code></a> will not return any image at all.</p>
<p>If it is your blog/website it will not be a big problem, you will notice the error and you will fix it straight away.<br /> But if you set up a WordPress website for some of your clients that are not really web oriented, the following solution will save you a lot of time (avoiding &#8220;not easy&#8221; support phone calls).</p>
<p>Copy the following code in your theme <a title="Theme Development" href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development#Functions_File" target="_blank"><code>functions.php</code></a></p>
<pre class="brush: php; gutter: true; html-script: false">// POST IMAGE
function get_default_post_image($size = &#039;thumbnail&#039;, $post_id = false){
	global $post, $id;
	$post_id = (int)$post_id;
	if (!$post_id) $post_id = $post-&gt;ID;
	$image = &#039;&#039;;
	if(has_post_thumbnail($post_id)) {
		$image = get_the_post_thumbnail($post_id, $size);
	} else {
		$args = array(
			&#039;post_parent&#039; =&gt; $post_id
			, &#039;post_type&#039; =&gt; &#039;attachment&#039;
			, &#039;post_mime_type&#039; =&gt; &#039;image&#039;
			, &#039;post_status&#039; =&gt; &#039;any&#039;
			, &#039;numberposts&#039; =&gt; 1
			, &#039;order&#039; =&gt; &#039;ASC&#039;

		);
		$attachments = get_children($args);
		foreach($attachments as $attachment) {
			//$attachment = array_shift($attachments);
			$image = wp_get_attachment_image($attachment-&gt;ID, $size);
		}
	}
	return $image;
}
function the_default_post_image($size = &#039;thumbnail&#039;, $post_id = false){
	$img = get_default_post_image($size, $post_id);
	if( empty($img) ){
		$img = &#039;&lt;img src=&quot;&#039;.get_bloginfo(&#039;stylesheet_directory&#039;).&#039;/images/default_post_image.png&quot; alt=&quot;no image&quot; /&gt;&#039;;
	}
	echo $img;
}</pre>
<p>Make sure you add a &#8221;not available&#8221; image (<code>/images/default_post_image.png</code>) in your theme folder.</p>
<p>Then you will able to use <code><strong>the_default_post_image</strong></code></p>
<pre class="brush: php; gutter: true; html-script: true">&lt;?php if (have_posts()) : ?&gt;
    &lt;?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?&gt;
    ...
    &lt;?php the_default_post_image(); ?&gt;
    ...
    &lt;?php endwhile; ?&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;</pre>
<p>inside your theme (inside your post loop).</p>
<p>An alternative could be <code><strong>get_default_post_image</strong></code></p>
<pre class="brush: php; gutter: true; html-script: true">&lt;?php if (have_posts()) : ?&gt;
    &lt;?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?&gt;
    ...
    &lt;?php echo get_default_post_image(); ?&gt;
    ...
    &lt;?php endwhile; ?&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;</pre>
<h2>Usage</h2>
<pre class="brush: php; gutter: false; first-line: 1; highlight: []; html-script: true">&lt;?php the_default_post_image( $size, $post_id ); ?&gt;</pre>
<p><code>the_default_post_image</code> will return an HTML image (<code>/images/default_post_image.png</code> when not image is set in the post)</p>
<pre class="brush: php; gutter: false; first-line: 1; highlight: []; html-script: true">&lt;?php echo get_default_post_image( $size, $post_id ); ?&gt;</pre>
<p><code>get_default_post_image</code> will return an HTML image as string and  an empty string when not image is set in the post.</p>
<h2>Parameters</h2>
<p><strong>size</strong><br /> (<em>string/array</em>) (<em>Optional</em>) Either a string keyword (thumbnail, medium, large or full) or a 2-item array representing width and height in pixels, e.g. array(32,32).<br /> Default: &#8216;thumbnail&#8217;</p>
<p><strong>post_id</strong><br /> (integer) (Optional) Post ID.<br /> Default: Post ID</p>
<p> </p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~4/xi1ggfl7hnA" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>The Power of Pinterest</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/fV51OYa1xJQ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/04/the-power-of-pinterest/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:42:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pinterest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1173</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the past few months, you’ve probably heard about the up and coming image sharing website known as Pinterest. For those unfamiliar with Pinterest, it’s quite simple. Imagine if Flickr and Twitter had a child together that combined the image sharing of Flickr with the social functionality of Twitter. Users can upload and share...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the past few months, you’ve probably heard about the up and coming image sharing website known as Pinterest. For those unfamiliar with Pinterest, it’s quite simple. Imagine if Flickr and Twitter had a child together that combined the image sharing of Flickr with the social functionality of Twitter. Users can upload and share pictures with a network of over 10 million people and follow the activity of their friends and other users.</p>
<p>Since its launch in March of 2010, Pinterest has shown explosive growth and shows no signs of slowing down. So what’s with all the interest in Pinterest?</p>
<p>Well it’s not too often a social media site experiences as much traffic and growth as Pinterest, especially amongst females. Even more so, Pinterest already accounts for more referral traffic on the web than Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.</p>
<p>Could Pinterest become one of the next social media giants and join the ranks of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? Possibly, but we’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. Behold, the Power of Pinterest:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ThePowerofPinterest.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1174" title="The Power of Pinterest" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/ThePowerofPinterest.jpg" alt="The Power of Pinterest" width="800" height="6599" /></a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Mobile Commerce Revolution: Smartphones &amp; Smarter Shoppers</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/Mv5Sx1yuKQ4/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/04/mobile-commerce-revolution-smartphones-smarter-shoppers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:46:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[M-Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1149</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smartphones are creating smarter shoppers – so how does that affect you? Check out this new infographic below to learn about the growth of mobile e-commerce, including how people are shopping on their phones, how many retailers have mobile sites (it&#8217;s astonishingly small, considering over half of smartphone users would buy something from a mobile site), and which demographic makes...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smartphones are creating smarter shoppers – so how does that affect you? Check out this new infographic below to learn about the growth of mobile e-commerce, including how people are shopping on their phones, how many retailers have mobile sites (it&#8217;s astonishingly small, considering over half of smartphone users would buy something from a mobile site), and which demographic makes purchases on their phones the most. This <em>will</em> be on the test&#8230;because by 2015, it&#8217;s predicted that mobile purchases will total £75 billion globally!</p>
<p>Take a look and let us know what you think in the comments below:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/the-intelligent-shopper.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1150" title="Mobile Commerce Revolution: Smartphones &amp; Smarter Shoppers" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/the-intelligent-shopper-800x1578.jpg" alt="Mobile Commerce Revolution: Smartphones &amp; Smarter Shoppers" width="800" height="1578" /></a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>10 Things You Need to Know About Revamped Facebook Pages</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/2yDT3-YfanQ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/04/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-revamped-facebook-pages/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:13:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook Pages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook Timeline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1168</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Revamped Facebook Pages have gone live on the 30th March with the new timeline-based Pages redesign. We&#8217;ve found a great infographic that contains everything you need to know into a handy-dandy 10 Things You Need to Know list. Print it out and check things off while you prepare for the change.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Revamped Facebook Pages have gone live on the 30th March with the new timeline-based Pages redesign. We&#8217;ve found a great infographic that contains everything you need to know into a handy-dandy 10 Things You Need to Know list. Print it out and check things off while you prepare for the change.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/10ThingsYouNeedtoKnowAboutRevampedFacebookPages.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1169" title="10 Things You Need to Know About Revamped Facebook Pages" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/10ThingsYouNeedtoKnowAboutRevampedFacebookPages-800x2994.jpg" alt="10 Things You Need to Know About Revamped Facebook Pages" width="800" height="2994" /></a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Small Businesses Get Serious About F-Commerce</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/COqyf4Ph60s/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/03/small-businesses-get-serious-about-f-commerce/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:03:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[F-Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1140</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ask a 1000 businesses selling on Facebook what they like about it, and the answer that comes up most often is – it’s easy for customers and businesses… Easy to promote products using social marketing (61%) Easy for customers so they don’t need to leave Facebook (60%) Easy to set up and maintain a storefront (50%) Easy to understand (already use Facebook)...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ask a 1000 businesses selling on Facebook what they like about it, and the answer that comes up most often is – it’s easy for customers and businesses…</p>
<ul>
<li>Easy to promote products using social marketing (61%)</li>
<li>Easy for customers so they don’t need to leave Facebook (60%)</li>
<li>Easy to set up and maintain a storefront (50%)</li>
<li>Easy to understand (already use Facebook) (40%)</li>
<li>Easy for shoppers to discover products on sale (33%)</li>
</ul>
<p>So says a great new infographic from Facebook e-commerce app, Payvment (below) based on a survey of it’s 1000+ users.</p>
<p>It’s a good reality check, and reminder that simplicity and ease are absolutely key to adoption.</p>
<p>But of course, just because something is easy doesn’t make it right.  But when there’s a compelling 5-point business rationale, then easiness gives the business case the wings to fly;</p>
<ol>
<li>F-commerce is<strong> what customers want</strong>; the main reason people connect with you on Facebook is for offers, f-commerce gives you a turnkey solution for giving customers what they want</li>
<li>F-commerce helps <strong>monetize your Facebook investment</strong>; you’re spending time, effort on money on Facebook – and the only way to be sure it’s paying is with hard sales</li>
<li>F-commerce <strong>improves customer economics</strong>; fan-first offers on Facebook can boost customer retention (fan loyalty) and drive customer acquisition (via fan advocacy)</li>
<li>F-commerce <strong>increases marketing effectiveness</strong>; by activating word of mouth you add credibility to marketing communications, making them more effective</li>
<li>F-commerce <strong>boosts sales on other platforms</strong>; fan-first offers on Facebook create word of mouth and PR buzz that drives traffic to other channels, and gives you an extra argument when you’re trying to you get listed elsewhere</li>
</ol>
<p><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/payvment-f-commerce-1g-FINAL.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1141" title="Small Businesses Get Serious About F-Commerce" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/payvment-f-commerce-1g-FINAL.jpg" alt="Small Businesses Get Serious About F-Commerce" width="800" height="1692" /></a></p>
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		<item>
		<title>EU Cookie Law, UK</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/y5I0tJvPXBs/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/03/eu-cookie-law-uk/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:11:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Web Team</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cookie Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EU Cookie law]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1122</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What is the new EU Cookie Law? The new EU cookie law came into effect in May 2011, if you are a UK based business (no matter where your website is hosted) you have until May 26th  2012 to comply. If your website uses cookies then visitors must be informed and given the choice to accept or not. Will this...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>What is the new EU Cookie Law?</strong></p>
<p>The new EU cookie law came into effect in May 2011, if you are a UK based business (no matter where your website is hosted) you have until May 26th  2012 to comply. If your website uses cookies then visitors must be informed and given the choice to accept or not.</p>
<p><strong>Will this affect you?</strong></p>
<p>The chances are yes. If your website has third party tracking such as the hugely popular free Google Analytics then your website is using a third party cookie and your visitors should be warned and given the choice to accept or not.</p>
<p><strong>What can you do?</strong></p>
<p>The big analytic companies have stayed mostly quiet to date. Google have said nothing of note on the subject. Adobe and Webtrends, other large suppliers of analytics have simply said seek legal advice.</p>
<p>Many in the industry are suggesting a wait and see approach &#8211; will this really be enforced.</p>
<p>Any solution to the problem is going to make web browsing a pain.</p>
<p>Quite simply we think you have the following choices right now:</p>
<p>1. Wait and See approach and do nothing for now.</p>
<p>2. Stop using cookies on May 25th, therefore no Google Analytics. To get any kind of reporting from your website, an alternative will be to rely on analysis of the web server log files.</p>
<p>3. Implement some code, to provide the visitors with a pop up box asking them to accept the cookie. Similar to the website here: <a href="http://www.ico.gov.uk/">http://www.ico.gov.uk/</a> - this will mean many visitors will not accept your tracking cookie and your analytic reports will be potentially meaningless.</p>
<p><strong>What do we recommend</strong></p>
<p>Sit tight and see what happens &#8211; but have a plan. One way to still get meaningful statistics from your website without using cookies is to use your web server log files and run them through a graphical analyzer. We can help with this &#8211; call us on <strong>01784 223100</strong> or drop us a line on <a href="mailto:web@alchemyinternet.net">web@alchemyinternet.net</a></p>
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		<title>Who’s Using Geosocial and Location-Based Services</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/NIKj16EOgP0/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/03/whos-using-geosocial-and-location-based-services/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:56:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geographic Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geosocial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geosocial Networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Location-Based Services]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1133</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Location-based services have become a surprisingly lucrative business over the past few years. In fact, more than a quarter of American adults are using mobile devices and social location tools to broadcast exactly where they are, when they’ve arrived at said location, and discover who else is around after getting there. Geography-based social applications like Foursquare, for example, have managed to...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Location-based services have become a surprisingly lucrative business over the past few years. In fact, more than a quarter of American adults are using mobile devices and social location tools to broadcast exactly where they are, when they’ve arrived at said location, and discover who else is around after getting there.</p>
<p>Geography-based social applications like Foursquare, for example, have managed to creep their way to success by making it easier for friends to discover where their peers are located, knowledge that many of us apparently find useful or interesting.</p>
<p>Taking information from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan “fact tank” that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world, Flowtown has put together an exclusive infographic just for our readers illustrating who exactly is using geosocial and location-based services.</p>
<h3>Some Highlights:</h3>
<ul>
<li>83% of American adults aged 18 and older own a cell phone.</li>
<li>58% of smartphone owners use a geosocial or location-based service.</li>
<li>Most geosocial users are between the ages of 18 and 29.</li>
<li>Facebook is the most-used geosocial network with 800 million users.</li>
<li>Loopt is at 10th place in terms of most-used geosocial network with only 5 million users.</li>
</ul>
<p>To see the full infographic, click on the image below.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WhosUsingGeosocialandLocationBasedServices_4ebc2ae59a17f.png"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1134" title="Who's Using Geosocial and Location-Based Services" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WhosUsingGeosocialandLocationBasedServices_4ebc2ae59a17f-800x2180.png" alt="Who's Using Geosocial and Location-Based Services" width="800" height="2180" /></a></p>
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		<title>Why Your Business Must Go Social</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/pJfBjMkWkR8/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/02/why-your-business-must-go-social/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:42:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1116</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Social media has bolstered the success of businesses, helping them reach out to more customers, raise brand awareness, drive traffic to their sites and generate sales. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are gradually replacing traditional media platforms like TV and newspapapers. And with over 30 percent of the world’s population now online, businesses cannot miss out on all...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Social media has bolstered the success of businesses, helping them reach out to more customers, raise brand awareness, drive traffic to their sites and generate sales. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are gradually replacing traditional media platforms like TV and newspapapers. And with over 30 percent of the world’s population now online, businesses cannot miss out on all the advantages such as virality, cost-effectiveness and global visibility, offered by social media.</p>
<p>This infographic from website development firm Wix takes a much closer look at why your business must go social.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1117" title="Why Your Business Must Go Social - Infographic" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/why-your-business-must-go-social.jpg" alt="Why Your Business Must Go Social - Infographic" width="633" height="3958" /></p>
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		<title>Facebook vs Twitter</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/XSOcOUFLqA4/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/02/facebook-vs-twitter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:27:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1111</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Facebook appeals to people looking to reconnect with old friends and family members or find new friends online; the mashup of features like email, instant messaging, image and video sharing, etc. feels familiar, while Twitter is a bit harder to get your arms around at first. Most people can very quickly grasp how to use Facebook to connect to friends...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Facebook appeals to people looking to reconnect with old friends and family members or find new friends online; the mashup of features like email, instant messaging, image and video sharing, etc. feels familiar, while Twitter is a bit harder to get your arms around at first.</p>
<p>Most people can very quickly grasp how to use Facebook to connect to friends and family, using it to share thoughts, images, etc. Like MySpace but more geared to adults than teens, Facebook is a social networking Portal; beckoning you not to leave but rather to stick around and communicate within the network.</p>
<p>Twitter on the other hand, encourages you grab ideals in byte-size chunks and use your updates as jumping off points to other places or just let others know what you’re up to at any given moment.</p>
<h2>Why People Love Facebook</h2>
<p>Facebook appeals to social animals and can be very addicting to people who have an insatiable appetite to stay connected with friends and make new acquaintances. In fact, some people report they rarely use email or IM tools anymore in their online social communications anymore, relying almost entirely on Facebook for email, chat, image and video sharing.</p>
<p>Facebook addicts prefer the social portal model versus having to log into AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Gmail, Hotmail, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc. Instead, Facebook gives them a single alternative to all these applications, with one login and interface to manage their online social interaction needs. This largely explains the explosive growth Facebook continues to experience and why the company reportedly invested $200 million in data center upgrades last year to keep up with demand!</p>
<h2>Why People Love Twitter</h2>
<p>The usefulness of Twitter is not readily as obvious to some people as Facebook; although it may be more addictive once you get the hang of Tweeting; you get more immediate responses and it seems to live somewhere between the worlds of email, instant messaging and blogging. Twitter encourages constant “linking out” to anywhere and, in that respect, is more analogous to a pure search engine; another way to find people and content all over the Net.</p>
<p>Twitter has quickly built brand awareness and a loyal following, especially among the technically adept; bloggers, online marketers, evangelists, basically anyone with something to promote seem to find Twitter extremely valuable.</p>
<p>When asked why they love Twitter, users say like “I can ask a question and get an instantaneous response”. They crave the ability to “tap into the collective consciousness” of others on the network, bouncing ideas off others with whom they would otherwise have no means of connecting. Twitter addicts claim it’s like the old fashioned water cooler, where people can gather to shoot the breeze on whatever topic is on their minds. Twitter is like a communications stream you dive into for an invigorating swim.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1112" title="Facbook vs Twitter - Infographic" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/facbook-vs-twitter.jpg" alt="Facbook vs Twitter - Infographic" width="800" height="1812" /></p>
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		<title>Google Apps: Battle In The Clouds</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/4e8HTI954zc/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/02/google-apps-battle-in-the-clouds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:53:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud computing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google apps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1086</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Google Apps is one of the most popular cloud apps today. It is now used by both businesses and individuals to store critical data. Business-wise, Google Apps plays even more important role. Check this out: 20 percent of Google Docs users are having more than 350 documents stored in their Google Apps accounts. Moreover, 48 percent of Google Calendar users...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a title="Google Apps" href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html" target="_blank">Google Apps</a> is one of the most popular cloud apps today. It is now used by both businesses and individuals to store critical data.</p>
<p>Business-wise, Google Apps plays even more important role. Check this out: 20 percent of Google Docs users are having more than 350 documents stored in their Google Apps accounts. Moreover, 48 percent of Google Calendar users have more than 900 Calendar events stored.</p>
<p>But those figures are not coming out of procrastination, as Google Apps can’t afford to do so – there are other powerful alternatives (some even considered as more powerful than Google Apps, such as <a title="Microsoft Office 365" href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/office365/online-software.aspx" target="_blank">Microsoft Office 365</a>.)</p>
<p>To get you the big picture, check out this cloud computing infographic featuring some interesting stats on Google Apps.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-1087 alignnone" title="Battle in the clouds - Google App - Infographic" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/google-apps-battle-in-the-clouds-infographic.jpg" alt="Battle in the clouds - Google App - Infographic" width="620" height="2201" /></p>
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		<title>Fight for the Future</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/G873g1U06FI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/01/fight-for-the-future/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:19:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Claudio Gobetti</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom of expression]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PIPA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PROTECT IP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SOPA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1058</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Wednesday Jan. 18th thousands of sites will go dark to protest SOPA &#38; PIPA, two US bills racing through Congress that threaten prosperity, online security, and freedom of expression. PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet &#160;  Biden on Internet Freedom = Anti-SOPA &#160;]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>On <strong>Wednesday Jan. 18th</strong> <a href="http://sopastrike.com/">thousands of sites</a> will go dark to protest <a href="http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa">SOPA &amp; PIPA</a>, two US bills <a title="SOPA Countdown" href="http://sopacountdown.com/">racing through Congress</a> that threaten <a href="http://iworkfortheinternet.org/">prosperity</a>, <a href="http://trustnerds.org/" target="_blank">online security</a>, and <a href="http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/" target="_blank">freedom of expression</a>.</p>
<h2><a title="PROTECT IP Act - Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act" target="_blank">PROTECT IP</a> / <a title="Stop Online Piracy Act - Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act" target="_blank">SOPA</a> Breaks The Internet</h2>
<p><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/31100268?byline=0&amp;portrait=0" frameborder="0" width="400" height="225"></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2> Biden on Internet Freedom = Anti-SOPA</h2>
<p><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/32149733?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" frameborder="0" width="400" height="227"></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~4/G873g1U06FI" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Mobile Is Changing Social Media</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AlchemyInternet/~3/7zcZRBacESQ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.alchemyinternet.net/2012/01/mobile-is-changing-social-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:53:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kevin De Souza</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infographic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.alchemyinternet.net/?p=1025</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is another interesting infographic, this time around how mobile is shaping the way social media is consumed. It’s interesting to see that from these stats, 25% or more than 100 million facebook users access from a mobile phone, and those who do, are twice as active on social networks compared to people accessing from a computer! The 35-54 year...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is another interesting infographic, this time around how mobile is shaping the way social media is consumed. It’s interesting to see that from these stats, 25% or more than 100 million facebook users access from a mobile phone, and those who do, are twice as active on social networks compared to people accessing from a computer!</p>
<p>The 35-54 year old bracket is the most active mobile social users!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FT-MOBILE-PHONES-R32.png" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1026" title="Mobile Is Changing Social Media - Inforgraphic" src="http://www.alchemyinternet.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FT-MOBILE-PHONES-R32-800x2064.png" alt="Mobile Is Changing Social Media - Inforgraphic" width="800" height="2064" /></a></p>
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