Freelance Graphic Website Design - AlfredFox.com

Now You Don't Have To Cheat On Google

Maybe it's just me but I've always felt a little guilty for trying out different home pages that may better suit my needs, aesthetic wants, or what have you. Google has been like a father to most of us. Providing us timely search results, simplicity, reliability, and all for free. So how do you get an awesome home page that gives you the much needed Google Search as well as the freedom to customize it to match your personal tastes (without cheating on our favorite search engine)? G...(read more)

Free XHTML and CSS Valid Templates to Knock Your Socks Off

I haven't had the opportunity to devote time to making more templates for a while. I have had some ideas for new templates and have been excited to see them in action. Here are the results of one of them! I wanted to try something I've not really explored much and am fairly pleased with the results. Feel free to use the templates in whatever setting you would like. They are completely free in every sense. You can add / remove to them as you wish. I only ask that as long as it resem...(read more)

10 Things You Need To Know About Your Website Designer

I've found that many of my clients aren't really sure what to expect from a website designer. It can be difficult to say for sure as many designers offer their services to varying degrees. A quote from one designer may or may not include the same services as a quote from another designer. I've made it a policy to, from the outset, explain in detail the services I offer and do not offer so there is no confusion. Here's a list of things you should know about your designer to avoid an...(read more)

Listomi.com - Cataloging the Universe

I wanted to take a moment and review a new website that has HUGE potential. Listomi.com. Listomi is a start-up that has taken user generated content to a new level. The ambitious title: "Cataloging the Universe", is exactly what this website is about. Think of a Wikipedia for lists. Lists of EVERYTHING! It's amazing how beneficial this website has and will become. I didn't realize how valuable having a central repository for lists of everything could be. There are very few website...(read more)

Get Free Inbound Links Using Your Blog Feed

The Estetica Graphic Design and Web Design Forum which opened at the start of 2008 is offering Graphic Design and Web Design blogs to add their live RSS feeds to the Graphic Design Blog section. This means when you post on your blog it automatically posts it as a forum post with a link back to your blog meaning if the post is interesting enough, traffic will be driven towards your blog. To add your Feed, sign up at the forum and use the contact form to tell the admin team why you ...(read more)

How I Am Achieving Google Search Engine Rankings Absolutely Free Part II

** If you have not read Part I of this story, please do so, It'll make much more sense. On 9/20/2007 I posted about an experiment I'd been conducting to boost my search engine ranking for the key words I was aiming for. Freelance Website Design and Website Design... At the time of this post, I am currently #4 on Google for 'Freelance Website Design' and #36 on Google for 'Website Design'. A very unexpected bi product of my experiment was an increase in page rank. This may not be co...(read more)

How To Create A Great Website

I usually don't do this, but in my un-thwarted conquest for "blogdom" without Wordpress, I've lost the ability to do trackbacks. I was never big on them anyway, but I came across some great advice today I wanted to share. This is not my own advice, but the advice of Seth Godin Here are principles I think you can't avoid: 1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker. 2. Change the interaction. What...(read more)

MyTinCup.com Student Loan Relief Fund

I've recently had the privilege to work with an organization which I think will make a huge impact on many young adults. I love the work that I do and I really enjoy the different websites I get to work with. But once in a while something comes a long that is more than just business. A website which serves a higher purpose than simply making money and generating more business. MyTinCup.com is a website with a very altruistic mission : ...During my work with students, I have found t...(read more)

How I Am Achieving Google Search Engine Rankings Absolutely Free

WARNING: This is a fairly long article. I would suggest going to get a snack. But come right back, you definitely need to read this. I've read a great deal of articles on how to rank high on search engines (namely Google), get more visitors, and get noticed for those key words your really looking for. I've been working for the past 4 months on putting my own theories into practice and here is my 4 month report. (Note: I'm only monitoring on Google, I've not put any time into checki...(read more)

Four CSS and XHTML Acknowledgments

I've had the privilege to be recently featured on four CSS / XHTML Galleries. These galleries are put in place to allow others to rate valid CSS / XHTML websites. I count it a privilege to be included on these lists as they are normally reserved for the cleanest and most professional of websites. So it is a great honor to be among them. If you would like to, you can follow the links below to visit the galleries. Feel free to leave a rating or comment on these websites. :) Thanks fo...(read more)

ZScreen - A Great New Open Source Screen Shot Utility

I've recently come across a great utility for taking screen shots of either your entire desktop or an application window. This program,ZScreen , is packed with features! I find I always need to take screen shots but I find it's always been a pain because not only do I have to take the screen shot, I have to open it in a graphic editor to grab what I need from it, then upload it somewhere. All in all a good screen shot takes me about 2 minutes. I was really excited when i came acros...(read more)

AlfredFox.com Featured on CSS Web Design Yorkshire

Great news! Alfredfox.com has been featured in a CSS Showcase / Design Gallery. I noticed a considerable jump in traffic and was curious as to where it came from. Upon closer inspection I see that it has been coming from CSS Design Yorkshire. This is a Design Showcase displaying websites they find worth merit. Here is a quote from their website. "CSS Web Design Yorkshire is a gallery of web sites created by css web designers in the Yorkshire region who build tableless websites usin...(read more)

Battle of the OS - Quit Bickering And Grow Up!

First off, I'm a Linux user. Proud to be one. Before that, I was a Windows user, I was proud to be one. Before that I was a Mac user, and you know what, I was proud of that too. (None of this new age mac stuff, like straight up Macintosh user. Yeah, that's what they used to call it, Macintosh. Google it.) I think there is a ridiculous amount of hype concerning what operating system people are using. Every day on Social networking websites, blogs, forums, etc. people are flaming eac...(read more)

How To Prevent Bandwidth Hijacking And Image Or File Hot Linking

A common problem people often run into is file hot linking. This is caused when someone links directly to an image or file on your site, using it, without actually hosting it themselves, and in essence, robbing you of your bandwidth. This can be very irritating as bandwidth can be expensive. Here's a couple ways to prevent this. In order to make this work, you will need access to your .htaccess file. If one does not exist, simply place one in the directory to prevent hot linking....(read more)

Cheap Hosting Solutions Now Has A New Blog!

Cheap Hosting Solutions has just launched a new blog. View it here. I had the pleasure of installing it for them as they requested to use the same blog software that I scripted up for use with this blog here. It was really neat to see how one of my projects adapted to another website. Usually the coding projects I do are tailored specifically for a certain application or website. The blog however fit in very nicely. It was great to see someone else benefit from the work I put into ...(read more)