LittleFish Web Design Blog

free link building tool comment kahuna

2008-02-25T20:50:00.003Z

Today I found and tested a new free link building tool - an alternative to Comment Kahuna. I found that Real Link Finder is as fast, and at least as accurate. It asks you to set a minimum number of blog comments on each blog, which means that it's more likely to find blogs that haven't implemented 'nofollow' - and less likely to find false positives. An initial negative point is that you can't filter by pagerank, but to keep to a natural looking link campaign, you will need to get backlinks from pages of all PR values, so it's not as important as some webmasters will have you believe.

What's happened to LittleFish Web Design

2008-02-25T20:45:00.003Z

Although I'm still a computer coding geek at heart, other commitments have taken over and I'm reducing the amount of time I am spending on web design projects.

I'm going to spend more time updating the blog than I have done in the past few months but am not taking on any new design projects.

Apologies if you've heard of the fantastic reputation and pricing of LittleFish Web Design, but you're going to have to find someone else.

There are plenty of tips in this blog about what to look for in a web designer, or for websites in general, so you shouldn't be caught unawares.

How linkable is your blog?

2008-02-11T12:35:00.000Z

Philipp Lenssen, who is well known for his 'Google Blogoscoped' site, has developed a nifty little tool at howlinkable.com. Developed as a result of many hours reading blogs and working out what turned him on or off, this 30-second quiz can definitely help you decide how to improve your blog. Once you have answered the questions, you'll receive hints and tips on how to improve the linkability, and therefore likely traffic to your blog.

Stop Yahoo! tracking your every move

2007-11-14T17:07:00.001Z

If you have a Yahoo! account, whether to be a member of a Yahoo! group or to use their webmail, you may be surprised to hear that you are now being tracked via 'web beacons'.

If you go to the Yahoo! privacy page and scroll down to the 'cookies' section, you'll see 'web beacons' mentioned.

Now, when you are logged in to Google accounts, you know that Google is tracking your search history, and you can safely assume the same with Yahoo! However outside of Yahoo! services;

"Yahoo! uses web beacons to conduct research on behalf of certain partners on their web sites and also for auditing purposes."

Hmmm...sounds like they're logging more than search history...

"Information recorded through these web beacons is used to report anonymous individual and/or aggregate information about Yahoo! users to our partners."

Ahh...so patterns of our web use can be sold to enable advertisers to use ever increasing ways to get our attention...They do say no personally identifiable information isn't used. What's to stop them saying 'a female aged 23* living in Leeds is most likely to use these sites at this time of day'? It's anonymised data, but still quite frightening when you think about it.

There is an opt-out available - just click the opt-out option on the web beacons page and it's done. Don't press the big 'cancel opt-out' button that appears on the next page - it's not a confirmation button!

* it's just an example!

Grab your free copy of Lucid SEO

2007-11-01T12:33:00.000Z

I got an e-mail this morning from David Congreave (he's not a friend, I'm on his mailing list) and in it he talked about a new product launch - Lucid SEO. Now, if you subscribe to a lot of Internet Marketing e-mails, you'll be able to recognise the hype from far far away. I've never had this from David's e-mails - he sends a couple out a month, and comes across as very genuine - you know he's actually tried and tested products he recommends.

LucidSEO doesn't launch until 20th November, but there is a free report that you can grab. I did, and it isn't full of fluff or affiliate links - just a few pages of common sense that puts SEO (search engine optimisation) in a whole new light for the average webmaster.

Grab it while it's still available.

Wordtracker coupon code - 15% discount

2007-11-01T11:22:00.000Z

WordTracker currently have an offer running for a whopping 15% discount off their annual subscription price.

Follow this link here, then enter codeus-annual-15.

If you don't know what WordTracker is and you want to build a successful money making website, I suggest you have a look. By using keywords and keyphrases that people are searching for, you are guaranteeing that your website is more likely to be found - WordTracker does all the hard work for you when you tell it what you want to research.

You can optimise your website content, utilise the keywords for your PPC (pay per click) campaign or research new niche ideas and know before you start whether you'll be successful or not.

Free Wordpress theme generator

2007-10-25T14:11:00.000Z

As a web designer, I know how to code in XHTML, CSS and dabble from time to time in PHP and MySQL. That's great for standalone sites, but when it comes to blog and CMS platforms, I haven't got a clue.

Wordpress is currently my platform of choice for a personal project (more on that to come later) but I was struggling with how to learn 'the loop' and coding bits in the timeframe I've got. Roll on the Wordpress Theme Generator...

You can choose the number of columns, menu layout, colour schemes, choose from a wide range of backgrounds or go for a plain colour, insert a tag cloud, choose how to display archives etc...you're spoilt for choice really.

If you're looking at Wordpress and don't have the time/energy/budget, this is certainly worth a look.

Comprehensive list of CSS techniques

2007-10-14T16:05:00.000Z

To complement my post the other day about Web 2.0 techniques, I thought I'd throw in this post from Smashing Magazine - "53 CSS-Techniques You Couldn?t Live Without".

Throw in MakeUseOf with their really useful resource lists (tip: subscribe to their feed by e-mail so you never miss a post!) and you've got your standards-compliant fantastic-looking web design stitched up.

Web 2.0 online generators

2007-10-13T11:20:00.000Z

'Web 2.0' is a bit of a cliched term now. The general idea is that the new generation of community orientated sites are called web 2.0 sites. You know, the ones where you can vote, comment, interact, customise etc...New websites coming out that are 'web 2.0' tend to have rounded corners, glassy buttons, vivid colours and tend to be recognisable from a long way away!

However, as with all web design trends, it has pushed design further along, and I found a great list of web 2.0 generators on ifxplus.com. What's the use I hear some people ask? Well, if you want rounded corners or stripy background images - make then in a jiffy! Need colourschemes - grab them! Want to see how things are coded to practise your own design skill - there you go!

See 'More than 100 Web 2.0 Online Generators' for the list.

Tracking your e-mail marketing campaigns

2007-10-11T14:00:00.000Z

If you have an e-mail newsletter, it's important that you know how many people on your list have actually received it, who's opened it and who has taken further action. Without that information, you might be wasting your efforts.

iContact seem to have a slightly new spin on the whole 'online communication' concept - it's similar to services such as aweber but is more than just an autoresponder. From $9.95 per month (prices increase according to your list size - their Enterprise level starts at $660 per month!), you can utilise their newsletter, autoresponder, blogging and survey tools.

Their interface is easy to use and you have a choice of over 300 email templates to choose from or you could use your own. E-mail opening and clickthrough rates, bounce and unsubscribe management, and sign-up form code (so you can easily add newsletter signup forms to your website using cut-and-paste) come as standard and there are some nice other features such as list segmentation tools.

An overview video is at http://icontact.com/www/video/introduction_video.html.

The Internet Marketing Myth - A Review

2007-10-05T10:52:00.001Z

Yes, I got a few e-mails about Russell Brunson's new report that he's giving away. With catchphrases such as "The IM-Myth, Showing Why Internet Marketing is Like Having a Lamborghini on a Dead End Road and what you HAVE to do today if you want to still be around tomorro..." and "What If Everything You Were Ever Taught About Internet Marketing Was A Myth...?" I was naturally skeptical.

However, curiosity got the better of me, especially as I was sent the e-mail from a respected name, and he promised there was no big one time offer upsell, just a $1 offer. The fact there was no big OTO finally made me visit the site - ALL internet marketers offer a free report to try and then sell you a $97 offer - why was Russell Brunson different?

I signed up, downloaded the report and started reading...It's 44 pages long, of which only three aren't useful content - header, copyright and contents pages. There is a prelaunch offered, but only as a hyperlink in the footer - it's not in your face at every opportunity.

So what about the content? It really does blow the Internet marketing theory of "the money is in the list" out of the water and gives you some incredibly good ideas for leveraging more sales without irritating your customers / people on the list. Most Internet Marketers seem to think the more they bombard you with offers, the more likely you are to buy. In actual fact, with me, I'm more likely to unsubscribe from the list.

And the ideas he gives aren't just for Internet Marketers - you can apply them for all sorts of businesses, both online and offline. To be honest, this report was a complete shock - I was expecting fluff and got something that I can actually use. And in fact, when you read the report you'll see just how good his ideas are - you'll have already seen something in action without realising what it was.

Go and have a read now - it is free after all, and you'd be daft not to!

And just for your information, here is the 'hype' e-mail:

Hey (Firstname),

I've taken a lot of internet marketing courses and read a lot of ebooks. Most of them talk about the same :

--Sign up for an autoresponder
--Create a squeeze page
--Create a series of emails
--Rinse and repeat

You can make a LOT of money doing this...don't get me wrong.

But you can make a lot more if you start harnessing offline marketing in your business.

You see, online marketing is preached as the "holy grail" of marketing.

But ask the big information marketing powerhouses like Agora, Boardroom, and Weiss
where the REAL money is made. They absolutely clean house offline...humiliating any online marketer who comes in their path.

Here's the deal: Millionaire internet marketer Russell Brunson has just released a special offline report: "The IM Myth" where he shatters the myth that internet marketing is the "be all-end all" of marketing.

You can check it out here.

Believe me, this stuff is the real deal. The marketers who absolutely annihilate their competition are the ones that incorporate offline marketing into the mix.

So check out Russell's report today before you're competition discovers it.

Thanks,

Emma

P.S. One of Russell's tips he reveals is how he moved his offline list online. This absolutely blew me away, and is something I'm going to implement in my own business immediately. So get it today, right now, while it's still on your mind.

Review: MyBlogLog and its marketing potential

2007-10-02T08:56:00.000Z

I've finally joined MyBlogLog after reading a few reviews and ideas on how it can your blog.

I went to the signup page and as MyBlogLog is now a Yahoo! service, you do need a Yahoo! account. Unfortunately, the one I used to have had expired so I set up a new one which did take an extra few minutes.

Then, the screen takes you back to MyBlogLog and you fill in some brief details there including choosing your username. Once logged on, my first stop was to change my image from the default grey square to something slightly more user friendly.

Then, I decided to put the code on this blog. Great...so where was the link to do this? Well, as it turns out, after a bit of confused head scratching, you have to go to a random page in the menu (see, I can't remember what it is, it was that little help!) to add your blog. A link from the initial screen saying "add your blog here" would have been far more helpful.

Inserting the tracking code into your blog is very simple and the interface for filtering different I.P. addresses etc...is a great idea. However, it does say that everyone has the 'pro' version for the first 3 days after which, unless you pay to continue, your account is downgraded to the free version, so I'll have to update the blog should this feature change.

There's widgets that I can add to my blog - top links and recent readers. These are customisable and again, straightforward to add should I wish - just a line of JavaScript, rather than chunky wedge of code.

So what can you do with the code? The most obvious thing for me is to tailor the content of my blog to what readers want. Each google search that ends in a visit to your blog shows what search term was used - great for seeing what draws people in. Obviously if I see a demand for something, I'll add more posts on that topic.

I will update this post as more becomes apparent, but first impressions are that MyBlogLog could be a useful tool for any blogger wanting to dig a little deeper into their reader community.

Spotting sites with fake pagerank

2007-10-01T22:37:00.000Z

Oh, once again, I'm resorting to looking at spam e-mails. This one caught my eye because it was sent to an address I rarely use. On the surface of things, it looks genuine...

Interested buying a PR4 text link? I have a PR4 blog [site name removed] and would like to offer you a sitewide Text Link for:
$90 for 1 year
$50 for 6 months
$30 for 3 months
A PR4 site normally cost you around $30 per month.
How does it work? When you buy this offer your link will be placed on the homepage as well as every pages of [site name removed].

I don't know the going rates of buying a text link on a PR4 site, but it sounds like not too bad an offer.

Firstly, I whizzed over to the site and noticed that there were very few blog posts, most of which were over a year old and only one in the last month. Hmmm...So I went to google and typed in the site name with the 'www' removed. It came up with about 62 links for the site which isn't a lot for a PR4 site, and the descriptions of the site didn't match the content. Google only cached this page on 27th September, so it's been changed in the last few days.

Next, I went to the Wayback Machine and saw what was indexed there - the last listing for the site was August 2006 and the site was very different from what it is now...hang on a second, some of the current blog posts go back to before August 2006...perhaps it being a WordPress site, the database was imported to give the impression of the site being older than it is.

Finally, I went to the whois record for the domain, but this gave me no useful information.

So what does this tell me? The site has been changed very recently, which means that the PR that Google has assigned to the site does not apply to the new changes. In fact, in the next pagerank update, chances are the site will lose out. If you paid any money to have your textlink on the site, you'd be a bit miffed if you realised that you'd paid for a fake wouldn't you?

Lesson to learn? If you do want to buy a text link from a site, spend a few minutes checking before you part with your cash, and if something doesn't add up, don't do it.

How to change your web design

2007-10-01T17:19:00.001Z

If you have an existing website and want to change the design, or perhaps hire a different web designer, it's not quite as straightforward a process as you might think.

If you are just changing the content of each page, then it is a simple job and you don't need to take this post as seriously as someone who is having a complete site overhaul.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but just a few ideas that spring to mind:

1) Your new site should comply with both W3C and Disability guidelines (Disability Discrimination Act in the UK).

2) If the domain and hosting are moving, ensure that they are registered in your name (see
Importance of renewing your domain name) and their costs are still reasonable...you can get domain names for less than �5/$10 and hosting for less than �25/$50 per year. Don't be fooled into thinking that paying more will get you 100% uptime on your website - this doesn't exist unless you've got a massive IT infrastructure in your large company.

3) If you are moving from one designer to another, have you got a copy of all passwords and access details?

4) If your page is going to use Flash animation, will it still be indexable by the search engines? You don't want to lose your hard-earned rankings because the search engines can no longer see what your site is about?

5) If you create new pages, will you map the old pages to the new ones if they have different names? If you use Linux hosting, you will need to do a 301 redirect in the .htaccess file - scary sounding but not that difficult if you search for .htaccess tutorials.

My site could use higher placement?!!

2007-09-28T13:57:00.000Z

According to a SPAM e-mail I received today:

"Your web site could use higher placement on the top directories like Google or Yahoo!
We are offering to review your site for no charge in order to show you how a higher position could improve your web traffic. Email us at sashton@gmail.com today and we will create your free site report. Please include your URL(s) and the best way to contact you with results."

Well, that's amazing! Firstly, I seem to be doing okay without the higher placement - obviously I'm not going to turn down appearing on the first page of Google, but it's not essential. Secondly, a higher placement could improve my traffic, but I think providing useful content is the best method and one I will always advocate - there's no point in being on the front page if people don't like the content of your site.

Then, I do find it worrying that someone is trying to offer higher positions in the Google directory - directories don't have ranking positions, and if you want to be in the Yahoo! directory, there is the small matter of the $299 fee. Perhaps this so-called SEO expert means Google or Yahoo! search engine.

And finally, they did manage to contact me to make the offer so asking for more contact details so they can provide me with a free report...I think not. If you're going to spam someone with an e-mail like this, don't send it to web designers and SEO professionals!

Search Engine Marketing Hints

2007-09-27T19:58:00.000Z

Search Engine Marketing Hints is a blog-style website aimed at killing off some of the myths and hype in promoting a website. Currently on the frontpage is information showing what constitutes a good link to your site, and why google may only show a few backlinks. The information seems to be straightforward white-hat advice.

Just for the uninitiated, white-hat strategies are those considered safe to follow and remain within search engine guidelines whereas black-hat are very risky and could get your site banned from Google, MSN and Yahoo! etc...If something is described as 'grey-hat' it should also be avoided unless you like taking risks!

There are different sections on the site with useful advice e.g. SEO tools and PPC tools which review different programs and suggest where to get more information from. There are affiliate links but this is only fair when someone spends the time to put a site like this together.

Hacked websites taking over your computer

2007-09-08T23:04:00.000Z

For a period of half a day to a day, a major bank website was hacked and serving up exploits, and installing malware. A video on YouTube shows just how scary this can be - if your computer isn't up to date with the latest anti-virus and firewall software (and Window's updates if you are running Windows), you could easily be inviting a hacker to take full control of your system. See more at Compromised Bank Website.

Keyboard shortcuts galore

2007-09-08T19:57:00.000Z

Just found a new website called 'KeyXL' which lists the different keyboard shortcuts for all different programs. In case you don't know the terminology, keyboard shortcut refers to when you use a combination of keys on your keyboard rather than your mouse to perform a certain task eg. control-c to copy or control-v to paste.

Nicely split into categories such as 'microsoft apps', 'adobe apps' etc... or 'e-mail programs', you're bound to find the right shortcut for the right program, whether you're on a PC or mac. The search is also very easily arranged to ensure you get the right information. You can even rate each tip so you know whether it's been useful for other people or not.

Speed up, stablise and secure your PC

2007-08-28T13:04:00.000Z

It's not often that I buy reports on the Internet, especially not related to improving my PC - I do think that I'm pretty computer savvy (and so do all my friends and relatives that ring me for advice on their PC).

However, one report did catch my eye - it's by a former hacker and despite a little bit of hype in the sales letter, it did seem impressive. And at only $9.95 (less than �5), wasn't too expensive even if I only got one or two ideas from it.

NOW, I wish that I'd seen it before forking out $140 (�70) on 2GB RAM for my PC recently - it was running slowly even with all the pretty graphics scaled back...and try as I might, I could not work out how to improve its speed. I virus and spyware checked...search Internet forums...and in the end, paid for the RAM upgrade.

It's taken me approximately 30 minutes to go through the entire PDF manual (26 pages long) and I have been selective about one or two parts. However, my computer now flies!

Go and see for youself...I give it 5 out of 5!

move blogger blog to another account

2007-08-28T12:31:00.000Z

If you want to move your Blogger blog between accounts (and it doesn't matter whether you host on blogspot or on your own domain), there is a slightly convoluted, but effective way to do it:

Let's pretend, first of all, that your accounts are called BloggerUno and BloggerDos. In the BloggerUno account you have two blogs, and you have one blog called "I Love Blogger" at BloggerDos. The following steps will show you how to move the single blog in BloggerDos to be with the others at BloggerUno.

To read the rest, see "How do I move a blog between accounts?" at Blogger Help.

UPDATE - this thread has now disappeared, but after a bit of digging I found the following blogs which explain the process:

Nikon D80 Raw Converter for CS2

2007-08-24T10:44:00.001Z

This is a slightly off-topic post, but I'm hoping will be useful for some. After purchasing the very expensive Nikon D80 digital SLR camera, my husband took hundreds of photos in RAW format. That was great until he wanted to edit them on the PC - the D80 format is very new and not many software manufacturers have brought out plug-ins or upgrades yet. After hours searching, we finally came across the Adobe Camera Raw 3.7 Update - carefully hidden away. It states the update is for the Nikon D40 and Pentax K10D, but it does work for the D80. Hurrah. The actual plug-in applies to Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 and5.

Monetize your phpBB forum...for free

2007-08-23T12:49:00.000Z

If you currently own a phpBB discussion board and monetize it with AdSense or YPN, you may be earning a little bit of money. However, there is a new tool called Forum AdManager which enables you to earn far more than you would from AdSense alone. If you've not got as far as showing ads on your site, then why not try Forum AdManager and see what you can earn?

In a nutshell, Forum AdManager creates 'ad slots' on every page which you can sell to advertisers. This obviously means you have to have some traffic to your site in order to sell the spaces, but even if you don't currently have many visitors, you can set the ad slots to display AdSense, YPN or your choice of affiliate ads when unsold...a win-win situation.

The software tool fully automates the process of payment, ad submission and showing the rights ads in the right places for the right amount of time - you just have to login to PayPal to pick up your commission.

Forum AdManager is a free download and can be installed for you for free so you could have it up and running in less than five minutes. ..you could be earning a lot more than you presently do with AdSense alone.

PayPal button to hide your e-mail address

2007-08-16T16:23:00.000Z

If you want to use PayPal 'buy now', subscription or shopping cart buttons on your website, PayPal very kindly generates the code for you to use when you fill in your details.

Most of the time, you can probably use their inbuilt encryption, but if you want to use certain options, you'll find the encryption can't be used.

This means that your e-mail address is lying unencrypted in the code of your website for any spammer or spambot to come along and find. This is a BAD thing and vastly increases the chances of you receiving offers for all kinds of products you never even knew existed.

So how do you overcome this? Very simply actually. In a post on e-junkie, I found a very quick and easy solution:

Log in to PayPal and generate your button code, pasting it into your webpage where you want the button to appear. Don't save just yet.
Scroll down to the bottom of the PayPal page and you'll see a link called "Referrals".
On this page, you'll see a link like https://www.paypal.com/row/mrb/pal=xxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Copy the xxxxxxxxxxxxx part of the code and paste it over your e-mail address in step 1.

My spammer list

2007-08-07T17:34:00.000Z

It's not a good idea to publish your e-mail address directly on the Internet - lots of spambots come and harvest it and the next thing you know, you're on a million different spammer's lists.

Here's where I get slight revenge. I'm going to publish the e-mail address of spammers on this blog post and hope they get a taste of their own medicine. It won't be complete for all the spam I receive - I don't have enough time in the day to list them all, but right now, even one name will be enough for me!

Oh and it'll only be from e-mails that I believe haven't got forged headers, so I won't be exposing the innocent!

onlinerich2008@yahoo.com
reminder@domainrenewalonline.com
david_james14@zipmail.com.br
webmaster@promote-biz.net
barrcharleswilliams47410@zipmail.com.br
dous.l12@hotmail.com
prof_charles_solu3@yahoo.com - "dear honorable contractor" ?!!?
barrister_nelson_udo_2@yahoo.it

p.s. I've just wasted too much time on 419 Baiter...have a look...it really does play the spammers at their own game!

Nifty widgets for your website

2007-08-07T17:12:00.000Z

JS-Kit is a site that I found today that easily allows you to add polls, ratings and commenting to any page on your website - no coding required.

All you need to do is select the feature you want, copy the two lines of code and paste it into your website.

Further customisation is available and all instructions are clearly explained. For example, you can change the colour of the stars in ratings, or allow multiple ratings on one page.