All Recommendedwebtools.com blog post have been moved to this website.

Next up, moving page content.

The recommendedwebtools.com domain is soon to be up for sale. I will post when the final details are complete.

We now live in an age of the short phrase.

This occurred long before Twitter.  It occurred whenever the advertising age began.  Slogans, jingles, taglines, catchphrases are all part of the genre of writing little.

With the 21st centruty infusion of social media we are immersed in the art of writing little more than ever.

Christopher Johnson, author of Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little states “Microstyle is all about expressive economy in language: getting a lot of idea out of a little message.”  This goes way beyond advertising and tweets.  It is about your emails at work.  How do you write subject lines?  How do you frame the introductions to meetings?  It is about writing a blog headline or a newsletter title.  It is about using words creatively or as Johnson puts it, descriptively.  This is opposed to the prescriptive mode of language with its rules and such.  While language rules do need to be followed, they can be bent.  If you have any interest in being an interesting writing, you will learn to bend them in creative ways.

Here are ten take away lessons from his book:

1. Pay attention to the language around you in the spirit of appreciation and curiosity: We often use language without thinking about it nor giving it special attention. If you write, for any reason, busines or pleasure, you need to take the time to appreciate language.  I am not talking about appreciating the rules governing the use of an apostrophe.  It is more in line with appreciating the art you can create with words.  And yes, you can view your emails to your boss at work as pieces of art.  In my “real job” as a manager, my boss commends me all the time for the concise, clear emails that communicate both respect and the problem at hand.  It doesn’t come easy.  Writing a good email is sometime hard work.  I once spent a whole afternoon working on one email.  It was probably more like two days as it stirred around in my head that long.  So work at your writing, but do so from the perspective of being curious and artful. You will have more fun that way.
2. You do not pack a lot of meaning into a small message, rather a small message is a key to a door that opens meaning:  It is tough to be concise.  It takes work. But don’t try too hard.  Do not murder language. Use it.  Be concise. BUT remember, being concise OPENS the door.  You do not have to pack a sentence with the entire meaning of the book.  When Dickens wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”, he did not pack the entire meaning of A Tale of Two cities into that intro.  But
3. Clarity: This is the 3rd most important lesson I learned.  I remember having to do some reading back in college.  I checked out the prescribed articles and spent a whole evening struggling through the material.  It was not because the topic was difficult.  This particular professor could not write to save his life.  I went back to class asking “What was this author trying to say?”.  Upon receiving the answer, I asked, “Well, why didn’t he say so!”.  Our writing can often obfuscate out thoughts.  It muddles the waters.  Work hard to be clear and your readers will love you.
4. Microstyle was once for specialists (marketers and ad brokers) but now it is for everyone: If you are reading this, then you must spent some significant portion of your time online.  If you do, then you are exposed to microstyle all the time.  If you write on the web, then microstyle is something you must learn to do well.  Whether it is post titles or email subject lines, your ability to write the microstyle way can lead to your online success.
5. Deciding what to leave out – you can’t tell the whole story nor every detail:  Think of the best posts you have ever read online.  Think of the topic they were about.  Did those posts cover EVERYTHING?  No.  They did not.  They were focused. They used details to move the main message instead of using details to burden the message (we do the latter ALL the time).  Do you have a friend who you stop after ten minutes of non-stop talking and ask, “Dude, get to your point!” That person needs to decide what to leave out so they can get to the point more quickly.
6. There is a fine line between stupid and clever – master ambiguity:  I think this occurs when you have begun to master language at some level. For me, this seems far away.  Any attempt on my behalf is bent on being stupid.  It is a fine line.  Dare to be clever, but be prepared to be seen as stupid at least the first one hundred times you try.
7. Say the Wrong Thing: On purpose.  This takes some courage. But saying the wrong thing on purpose is a way to not just get attention, but can breath new life into boring topics.  In other words, break the writing/blogging rules every once in a while.  Break the social conventions every once in a while.  Try being politically incorrect at least once.
8. The Art of Rhythm:  Most easily seen in ad copy or poetry, rhythm is something that is taken for granted in prose.  But is prose microstyle?  Of course, it is but that is beyond this post.  There is a natural rhythm to language that will emerge when you strive to right well.  A blog post can be full of rhythm. While it is not often attempted, it certainly can occur.
9. Description vs Prescription:  The prescribers seek to make sure the language rules are known and followed. Do we need them? Yes.  Funny though how the attempts to govern language sometimes kill it.  the describers recognize the language rules but seek to write for the love of writing.  They want to see what language can do. How it can be stretched. How it can accomplish great things.  Lesson #9 is connected with lesson #10.
10. Language bends and it should: One of the main themes of the book: have fun with language.  This was a refreshing message to me.  For a long time I have wanted to improve my grammar (I still should) but it was daunting.  I didn’t want to take a class, so I checked out a book from the library.  Wow that was boring.  Can’t say my grammar improved.  However, if I go into such an effort with the attitude that language is fun, then maybe I WILL learn the actual difference between its and it’s.

I leave you with an example Johnson provides in the book of someone who uses language creatively yet concisely.  Enjoy!

This post will explore one mechanism for creating content based on the books you read: the book review.  The book review is a natural way to move the private act of reading into the realm of public discourse.

Imagine you have just finished a book.

At lunch with your BFFs, you may say, ” I just read this book and…” and you proceed to share a story, an aopinion about the author’s thesis or style, a critique or a favorite quote.  Books make you think.  They can add to the conversation.  A book review help you, as the writer, to interact with the book.  In many ways, it can be a tool for you to further digest what you have read.

The book review is a way to give that lunch time conversation a wider audience.

There are at least two ways to approach a book review.  You can write a critique or you can write about what you learned.

A critique is a stricter analysis of the content and/or style of the book.  It tests a book’s hypothesis, it judges style, and it verifies facts.  The critique is probably the most common kind of book review.  We find them in journals and magazines. Online we find them as customer reviews on Amazon.

In their proper place, they do add value.  The value of a critique is exponentially lifted if you are an expert in the same field as the author of the book you are critiquing.  If you were an expert in marketing, a review of the latest marketing book would be useful and valuable to your readers.  They want to know what you, as said marketing expert, think of other marketing experts.

However, even though there is a place for the critique book review, I want to encourage you to take a different approach. By “you”, I mean the non-expert, the blogger who is learning, the solo webpreneur and webmaster.  I want you to write about what you learned.

Turn the critique about the the latest marketing book into “10 Lessons I Learned from…”

Why does this add more value?

People want to learn too.  It is why we read, whether that is book, blog posts, etc.

Consider the possible value added when you share about what you have learned.:

• Demonstration of Humility – in order to learn we have to demonstrate a certain level of humility.  Sharing what you have learned shows your readers your own willingness to learn from others.  May be you are THE expert in marketing, but showing that you are continually learning brings you back to earth and enables you to reach more readers.  Humility is attractive.
• Sharing Knowledge – People want to know what you know.  The very reason you have a blog to begin with is to share your knowledge.  People love it when you share what you learn.  Sharing what you have learned from a book is just another way to do that.
• Enable People to Learn Alogn with You – People read to learn. A lessons learned book review adds value by giving them nuggets of knowledge they themselves can use.
• Inspire Them to Read the Book Themselves – A critique may not prove very inspirational.  Sharing what you learned may inspire others to read, even to pick up the book themselves.
• Engage Readers – You wonder why people don’t tweet, plus, or like your posts? Why does no one comment? Give them something to engage with.  A lessons learned book review is just another tool in your toolbelt.

I will be posting my first lessons based book review soon.  You will have to let me know what you think!

Every week I highlight a Lynda.com tutorial. Lynda.com offers a wide range of resources for the very low price of $25 a month.

Every week I highlight a Lynda.com tutorial. Lynda.com offers a wide range of resources for the very low price of $25 a month.

When I created my Merchant Account Comparison page, I had the thought that there was a market for a tool that could do this sort of comparison automatically (as long as the database of data was kept up to date). Well I finally came across such a tool: The Maculator!

The Maculator lets you compare two merchant accounts and payment processors to find the best fee structure that serves your products and business.

Here is the problem: there is NO one size fits all merchant account for ALL kinds of businesses.

The hidden secret: most merchant account and 3rd party payment processors have very different rates for different sales volumes. Some vary not only on volume but on the actual cost of the widget being sold. So if you sell 1000 one dollar widgets, the best processor for you will be VERY different then the one for a business that sells 10 widgets @ one thousand dollars each.

Solution: Knowledge is power! As referenced above, I have done some of the homework for you. However, you can use the Maculator to do the very same thing. They keep track of 40 plus providers and their current pricing structures. If you sell ANYTHING, you owe it to your business to do a comparison of providers to ensure you are not leaving money on the table.

How to use the Maculator:

First, determine your monthly sales volume and monthly total sales. For my example, I will say that monthly sales is $10,000 and monthly sales volume is 1000. This means I am selling a product or products that averages for around $10.

Second, know your current provider. For this example, I will use ClickBank. (or choose one you are THINKING about using).

Now go to the The Maculator.

From the dropdown labeled “Maculator Pre-Loaded Providers List”, choose “All Providers”:

This will produce a long list of all the providers they have in their database. You can also choose by sub-category. For example, you can choose only those with Free Setup or those who do Digital Only. Scroll down and find ClickBank.

You can see that they provide the detail of the current fee structure.

In the lower right hand corner, click “Maculate Me”. This will take you to the comparison screen.

Below the big green box is section labeled “Your Expected Business Volume”. Fill in the numbers you figured out in steps 1 and 2.

Below this, in the section labled “Merchant Accounts and Alternatives Rates To Compare”, there are two columns. In the left column, labeled “Provider A”, you should see that ClickBank is the chosen provider.

At this point, click the Update Rates button that is found in the “Your Expected Business Volume” section. (Yes, the usability here is a little wonky, but if you do not do this step, you won’t be able to select the alternative provider.

After you click Update Rates, the column labeled Provider A will look like this:

You should now be able to select the provider in Column B for comparison. For this example, I am selecting one of the Payquake choices.

Now for the big moment. Click the Maculate button.

You will get the comparison results:

Disclaimer: I chose these providers at random. This in no way represents a recommendation of a particular provider over another. Besides cost, businesses have to estimate value and features. It could very well mean that a more expensive option is the best route to go if they provide a level of service and features that you require.

With all that said, this is an EXTREMELY important step for anyone considering a 3rd party payment processor. Get your facts on the table before you make a decision. There are a LOT of options out there. While the list available on Maculator is quite large, I noticed that there are a few options missing.

I hope your find this information helpful. If so, please consider tweeting it to your audience from the Wibiya toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Every week I highlight a Lynda.com tutorial. Lynda.com offers a wide range of resources for the very low price of $25 a month.

Ahhhh tables.

There was a time when tables ruled websites. A time where a given page was STRUCTURED by a table. (yes, I know, such websites still exist today!)

While standards make have kicked tables from their place as a structural page element, they can and should be used to organize certain kinds of table on your web page. Any data that you would have used a spreadsheet to organize, would be best displayed on a page using a table.

Creating tables can be a pain though. It is not hard, not really. If you pop open your old HTML 4.1 book there is probably a whole chapter or two devoted to tables. The biggest pain about tables is not so much their creation but their styling. Frankly, I hate it. Then again, I hate any form of CSS that requires more than a basic level of complexity.

There is a cure for your pain. Well, if you use WordPress that is. The WP-Table Reloaded Plugin!

What can the WP-Table Reloaded Plugin do for you?

It will let you create and manage tables from your WordPress dashboard. Like many WordPress plugins, WP-Table Reloaded has its own settings page. From that page, you can create a new table and manage the ones you have already created.

To create a table, click Add New Table:

From there, it wants you to define the table.

Once defined and added, it gives you the opportunity to fill in your table. It provides a grid-like interface:

From there you can begin to fill in your data.

As an example, my registrar price comparison page uses a table created with WP-Table Reloaded. See the interface grid below:

Putting a finished table into a post or page is simple. All is needed is the shortcode. You can change the shortcode to anything you want.

This is how the above table looks on the actual web page:

Now, for the astute observer, who notice the little up and down arrows next to the column names:

This is part of the WP Table Reloaded Secret Sauce: The tables generated are interactive: i.e. they can be sorted! Awesome stuff.

The plugin includes quite a number of features, but I will not spend the time going into them here. Below are screenshots of the features within the plugins and you can easily discern all its capabilities:

If you want to add tables to your posts and pages, then this plugin is a must have. It eases the pain of creating and styling tables, making it incredibly easy to display data in a very clean and eye pleasing fashion.

Every week I highlight a Lynda.com tutorial. Lynda.com offers a wide range of resources for the very low price of $25 a month.

In an effort to make sure my services are known by a wide variety of audiences, I am continually searching for other places to “advertise”.

I recently came across Thumbtack. Thumbtack is a great little service that gives you an additional outlet to communicate your services.

You can check out my link here: Make your website soar with a website redesign!

I have the privilege of being able to hear from a number of developers and companies who email me about their new software products.

Introducing Swipeable Technology to The Web

A while back, Razdog, sent me a blurb about their CloudMotion Swipe Technology.

The goal of the technology is to turn a “regular” website into a swipeable interface that is similar to using a smartphone.

I wanted to take a moment and introduce you to the concept and then ask a few questions.

You can see the technology used on the Razdog website.

You will notice the cloud icon underneath the main menu:

The magic happens here with the swipeable logo

Left Click and Hold the icon. Now drag to the left or right and Release. Click, Drag, Release all in one motion works best. See my brief video below:

A few thoughts:

Is this similar to using a smartphone interface? yes and no. Yes, in that pages swipe to the side. I can quickly zoom through content without having to wait for pages to load and re-load. No, in that I use a mouse and the action is a little more difficult to perform than using my finger on a smartphone. It definitely takes some getting used to. It is cool that this kind of interface is available without the use of a touchscreen.

Is this the future for websites? I believe there are key challenges that need to be overcome. This technology, while similar to a smartphone interface, is a totally different user experience that most desktop or laptop users are used to. Can users overcome the learning curve? People will have to be trained on using the special icon. I think that step alone could be a killer. People pick up a smartphone and the interface is intuitive (for the most part). People seeing an icon on a website that needs explanation seems to counter basic usability. It makes people think.

What about search engine optimization? Most of the content of the site is viewable within one page of code. Great for coders, but I can’t link to a particular page, only the home page. Not necessarily a bad thing, but neither can you optimize your “page” for particular keywords. You are limited.

Lengthy content creates scroll bars on the web page. I will scroll my browser, not sure I am cool with scrolling within the page. Seems like extra work. It is also visual distracting.

What could they do differently?

I like the swipeable idea. But are we ready for the swipeable web on our desktops? Will it matter when we no longer have a desktop and all have a tablet? It seems the idea is linked to the future of desktops and laptops and tablets.

Leave you comment below and tell me what you think.

Don’t forget to tweet this out to your friends and get their opinion.

I am always on the lookout for good resource websites to pass along to my readers.

For those of you looking for additional assistance sharpening your CSS and web design skills, then CSS-Tricks is the website for you.

Let me break down all that CSS-Tricks offers.

On the surface, CSS Tricks offers regular how-to content via their blog. Examples, include such topics as Rounding Out Borders or how to rotate headers 90 degrees.

It would be easy to glance over the blog and miss a lot of excellent content.

First, they have organzied their content according to your level. They have level based learning based on Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced CSS concepts.

Second, they offer Code Snippets, chunks of code you can implement on your own website. These snippets are not just reserved for CSS code, but cover .htaccess, HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP and WordPress. This is quite an awesome collection of handy code bits to help you accomplish a wide variety of tasks. Examples:

• Standard CSS Font Stacks
• Define canonical URL in .htaccess
• HTML5 Page Structure
• Make HMTL5 Elements work in old IE
• Use JQuery to cycle through a list
• Build a Calendar Table in PHP
• Apply Custom CSS to the WordPress Admin Area

In the Downloads section, you have access to larger chunks of code. For example, you can download the code for a fully functional Jquery Slider.

For those of you who are visual learners, there is a whole section of screencasts where a wide variety of how-to’s and tutorials are offered.

Lastly, if you can’t find what you are looking for, post your question to the Forum.

I really appreciate the effort sites like CSS-Tricks have put into building a very solid resource website. AS you can see, it is FAR more than just CSS. The site covers all the key components of web development and design. Add it to your short list of reference websites.

Photoshop Tutorials and Resources

I discovered this handy site the other day and I thought I would pass it along to all the potential PhotoShop Gurus out there. I confess that I am not a highly skilled Photoshop kinda guy nor a PSD to website kinda guy. HOWEVER, I know many people who are and I left compelled to find a good resource to recommend. I was impressed with the clean look and feel of the PSDFAN site as well as the clarity of the articles and tutorials.

PSDFAN is an Adobe Photoshop Resource and Tutorial website that offers a lot of great information for free as well as a member supported section for premium content.

Let me break down what they offer:

Tutorials

Tutorials are broken down into the following categories:

Designing
Text Effects
Drawing
Photo Effects
Web Design
Icon Design
Basics/Tools

All tutorials are very easy to read with lots of images. Here are a couple of examples:

Master a Professional Photo Retouching Workflow
Complete Guide to Photo Sharpening in Photoshop

If you are a member (see below), you can download the corresponding file(s) (if any) for each tutorial.

Articles

Just like any blog, PSDFAN offers regular content on topics such as web design and product reviews. One of the more unique features is a regular series called 30 Minute Redesigns, which according to Tom, the site owner, is “a weekly post series where I take a visitor’s website, analyze it’s design and then provide a redesign free of charge – all in just 30 minutes!”

It is pretty cool to see what he does with websites. Plus, if you get selected, you get the PSD he designs for free!

PSDFAN also offers Free Thursday Textures.Every Thursday they offer free downloads of .jpg image textures. A little something each week to spur your creativity.

Downloads

Similar to downloading the Free Texture Thursday images, PSDFAN offers a fullset of downloads for premium and free members. You can download a variety of brushes, wallpapers, vectors, icons and textures.

Member Content

If you decide to become a member, it costs $9/month. Your membership includes:

• Over 100 Source files to accompany our huge collection of Photoshop tutorials
• Weekly members-only tutorials
• Dozens of high-res textures
• Members-only brush sets
• Members-only vector packs
• Regular discounts from design-related sites/services (these alone save you more than your membership fee.)

If you work with Photoshop either as a web designer or a graphic artist, then
PSDFAN is worth a look. I recommend it for the beginner as it is very easy to navigate, all the tutorials are pretty straight forward and content is very current.

CSS3.info will provide you with the core knowledge you need to begin learning and using CSS3.

CSS3.info keeps a very handy list of all the modules that exist in the CSS3 specification.

Why check the status of a module? If you are just being introduced to CSS3, this list will help you know which modules are being recommended and thus, eventually supported by modern web browsers. For the beginner, you may not want to learn particular modules that are considered low priority and have not been updated in eight years.

Since there are pieces of the CSS3 spec that may not be implemented by particular browsers, it is helpful to check to see if your particular browser will work. Use the CSS3 Selectors Test to see your browser compatibility. As of this writing it runs 550+ tests, testing 41 different CSS selectors. Selectors that pass are shown in green. A moderate level of failure is shown in orange. A total failure is shown in Red.

Chrome Version 14 results:

IE 8 results:

As you can see, the CSS Selector Test will give you a heads up in dealing with any issues in a particular browser.

The CSS Preview section is where you can begin to learn and play with CSS3.

Choose the particular feature you are interested in:

Each features has a lengthy page that provides a code example and then a very verbose explanation of that feature. The beginner should be satisfied with the example. The advanced user will gain from reading the more detailed explanations.

Box-Shadow example:

CSS3.info is a good place to begin to dip your toe into the water.  If you have not been exposed to CSS3 now is the time as most major browser have been making inroads to implementing the CSS3 spec.

Visit our CSS Tutorials page for other CSS tutorials and information.

Killersites has been one of my recommended web design tutorial sites for a long time. I thought I would take the time to write a little bit more about this excellent resource.

There are two things about Killersites that I appreciate.

First, the tutorials are offered either as a monthly subscription OR as a package download (or DVD). I think it is helpful to offer customers a range of possibilities. For those on the go, a web based monthly subscription may make more sense. If you are more methodical, the DVD’s may fit your need to watch things over and over.

Second, they understand the difference between a designer and a developer and offer separate courses for each. Plus, they also teach the necessary ancillary database skills (MySQL) and JavaScript.

I am going to focus on two DVD packages as well as discuss their online subscription service.

The two packages below focus on taking someone from a very beginner level to an intermediate level.

The Complete Web Programmer focuses on learning PHP and Javascript skills. If you are interested in being more of a coder than a designer, than this series of classes are for you. Topics covered:

• PHP Basic
• PHP Misc.
• PHP and MySQL Basics
• PHP CRUD + Pagenation
• PHP Login
• PHP Tag Cloud
• PHP Shopping Cart
• PHP OOP discussion
• PHP Login Using OOP & MVC
• PHP and Javascript Form Validation
• Advanced PHP
• Advanced MYSQL
• Beginners Javascript
• JQuery

There is a total of 33 hours of video.

The Complete Web Designer takes a different approach and focuses on core skills of web design: CSS and Photoshop. These modules also introduce the user to basic javascript and PHP. The modules included:

• Web Design 1 – the basics.
• Dreamweaver CS5 – learning how to web design with dedicated software.
• CSS Layouts – going deeper into web layouts using CSS.
• CSS Lists – learn to harness the power of HTML lists with CSS.
• Photoshop for the Web – learn to transform your Photoshop based layouts into web pages.
• HTML Forms – learn to create HTML forms to collect information.
• Horizontal Lists with CSS Sprites – go deeper into creating cool menus with CSS.
• Beginners Javascript – learn the basics of this key tool in modern web design.
• Beginners PHP – learn the basics of language that powers so many web sites.
• WordPress Basics – learn how to set up and run this powerful blogging engine.

There is a total of 29 hours of video.

Lastly, at a greater value for the price our the subscription packages. Two are offered. The basic subscription is $29 for 3 months. This includes access to 700+ videos. The premium subscription is for 12 months, costs $99, and includes access to 900+ videos plus project files. The list of videos is too lengthy to include here. However, you can get a taste of the material as they offer several demo samples on their website.

I promote resources like Killersites because they offer an outstanding value to the potential pupil. I remember when I first broke into the field of IT. I took a 6 month classroom course at the cost of almost five thousand dollars ($5000). Crazy!!!

Consider Killersites the next time you are looking to improve your web development and web design skills.

See my recommended web design tutorials, html tutorials, and css tutorials page for additonal resources.

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