Code Clarity's Web & Tech Shared Articles

Essential Sublime Text 2 Plugins and Extensions

2012-02-25T20:49:04Z

Sublime Text 2 is a relatively new code editor that I’ve been trying out for a while now. While it’s still in public beta, it already offers a great mix of features and performance that has convinced me to switch from my trusted Komodo.

While I really do love the features available out of the box, as with most things in life, there is always room for more. With Sublime Text 2 being as extensible as it is, a big ecosystem has sprouted around it, catering to most of your web development needs, be they actually useful or catering to your whimsy. To that effect, today I’d like to share some of the plugins and extensions that I’ve found quite useful. While not all of them may appeal to you, I’m sure you’ll a find a gem or two that will absolutely ease your workflow!

Zen Coding

Zen Coding is an editor plugin for high-speed HTML coding and editing. The core of this plugin is a powerful abbreviation engine which allows you to expand expressions—similar to CSS selectors—into HTML code.

jQuery Package for Sublime Text

And where will all us be without jQuery? This is a Sublime Text bundle to help with jQuery functions.

Sublime Prefixr

A plugin that runs CSS through the Prefixr API, written by our very own Jeffrey Way, for Sublime Text 2.

JS Format

JsFormat is a javascipt formatting plugin for Sublime Text 2. It uses the commandline/python-module javascript formatter from JS Beautifier to format the selected text, or the entire file if there is no selection.

SublimeLinter

SublimeLinter is a plugin that supports “lint” programs (known as “linters”). SublimeLinter highlights lines of code the linter deems to contain (potential) errors. It also supports highlighting special annotations so that they can be quickly located.

Placeholders

I always find inserting placeholder, or filler, content to be a quite tedious affair. With this plugin, you can insert placeholder content and HTML in a cinch!

Sublime Alignment

I’m quite a stickler for properly formatted code. One thing to get right is lining up all those darn variable assignment so they look all organized and neat. With this plugin, all it takes is the press of key. A simple key-binding allows you align multi-line and multiple selections.

Clipboard History

Tired of having to swap out your clipboard’s contents during a marathon hackathon? Keep a history of your clipboard items with this plugin and paste away as needed.

SublimeREPL

SublimeREPL lets you run your favorite interpreter inside a Sublime buffer. Languages supported include Python and Ruby.

DetectSyntax

DetectSyntax is a plugin for Sublime Text 2 that allows you to detect the syntax of files that might not otherwise be detected properly. This is specially helpful when you run into custom file formats — files used in templating is an excellent example.

Nettuts Fetch

This plugin automatically pulls in the latest copy of a file, simply by typing a keyboard shortcut. It’ll perform a curl request to your specified URL and allow you to rest assured that, for all new projects, you’re using the latest copy of a particular asset.

JsMinifier

It’s a good practice to always minify your files during deploying to a production server. And this plugin will swiftly automate the process by minifying your JavaScript using the Google Closure compiler.

Sublime CodeIntel

SublimeCodeIntel is a code intelligence plugin ported from Open Komodo Editor to Sublime Text 2. It shows autocomplete information with the available modules in real time as well as display information about the current function in the status bar. Nifty!

Tag

This is a great plugin when you’re working with a lot of markup. Tag is a collection of packages about, predictably, tags, mixed together in an effort to provide a single package with utilities to work with tags. Close a tag on a slash and tag indenting? Sign me up!

Bracket Highlighter

This plugin collection includes plugins to fold your code according to brackts, cycle through selecting tags and many more.

Case Conversion

Have a messy co-worker who completely ignores naming conventions? This plugin should save you a good chunk of time. Case conversions converts the current word between three of the most commonly used conventions.

Stackoverflow Search

StackOverflow is an absolute life saver — I can’t count the sheer number of times it has saved my skin. This plugin lets you do a search on SO directly from your editor.

Sublime Guard

Remember Jeffrey using a gem called Guard in his super useful Rails tutorial? Well, this plugin provides a seamless interface for controlling Guard and viewing Guard output within Sublime Text 2.

Git

A nifty little plugin that integrates Git and Sublime Text and implements most of the commands that you’d use in real life. Diff viewing inside ST2 is a great time saver!

Sublime Change Quotes

This is one for the OCD among us. This plugin converts single to double or double to single quotes whilst attempting to preserve correct escaping.

Hex to HSL

Tired of constantly having to manually convert your colors’ hexcodes to HSL? This plugin will automatically do it for you with the press of a button. Well, ok, three buttons. [Shift+Ctrl+U]

That’s a Wrap!

Well, that’s about all the plugins and extensions that I use on a daily basis. Considering the teeming ecosystem that Sublime Text 2 boasts, I’m sure I’m missing a ton here. Let us know in the comments and thank you so much for reading!

Entypo – 100+ carefully crafted pictograms

2012-02-26T08:42:02Z

Entypo is a set of 100+ carefully crafted pictograms available as an OpenType font, vector EPS and web font. All released for free under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA.

Homepage: http://www.entypo.com

Weekly Web Design Inspiration #64

2012-02-26T10:00:09Z

There is no limit for inspiration and when it comes to webdesign this is much more unlimited. As usual we continue to showcase beautiful and interesting webdesigns that we came across during the week.Hope you like this week’s collection too.

Imagen y Codigo

Visit Website

W.Brett Wilson

Visit Website

Face of NYFW

Visit Website

Soleil Noir

Visit Website

Harry Vorsteher

Visit Website

Animad

Visit Website

Born With Design

Visit Website

ZeeBee

Visit Website

25 Free and Premium Barebone WordPress Themes for Easy Customizing

2012-02-26T10:00:13Z

If you design and develop themes for WordPress, chances are you probably already know the importance of theme frameworks or skeleton themes. To put it simply, these are minimal versions of themes, stripped of all additional functionality, giving you just the bare minimum level of code that you can work with and base your projects on. Needless to say, such frameworks and skeleton themes can save a lot of time and effort by giving developers a ready-made starting ground (consider this: you’re building a house, but you need not lay the foundation, as it’s already there. You simple shoot off with the main building).

Such themes are known by various names – bare-bones, stripped themes, blank themes, etc. Whatever it be, at the end of the day, all of them serve one purpose – help developers create awesome themes!

We shall now take a look at some of the major WordPress theme frameworks and skeleton themes. Before we proceed, it should be worth noting that certain themes mentioned below, such as TwentyTen Five, are not skeletons as such, but they make an awesome starting point for your project anyway!

*Pricing for paid/premium themes is mentioned adjacent to their respective names. Themes/frameworks with no pricing are free.

1. Elemental (Basic license $59.99)

Major Features:

Custom control panel that lets you edit typography, navigation and other sections
Four widgetized areas
12 custom page templates for sitemaps, contact forms, etc.
Custom widgets for social networking sites
Custom admin bar
Localization and translation support

Elemental

Demo | Download

2. Toolbox

Major Features:

Supports HTML5
Ultra minimal
Custom page templates
One of the most well-known blank themes

Toolbox

Demo | Download

3. Bones

Major Features:

Built around the HTML5 Boilerplate
Organized CSS Files
Custom page templates
Available in two formats for WP: Classic, Responsive
Also available in HTML version for projects

Bones

Demo | Download

4. HTML5 WP Shell

Major Features:

Custom page templates
Dynamic sidebars
404 and 503 error pages
iPhone detection

HTML5 WP Shell

Demo | Download

5. Genesis (Standard License: $59.95)

Major Features:

Support for multiple columns and sidebars
Both full- and flexible-width templates
Excellent SEO
Unlimited support from the developers

Genesis

Demo | Download

6. WordPress Theme Framework (Pricing: $6)

Major Features:

Built-in social media integration
related posts
breadcrumbs

WordPress Theme Framework

Demo | Download

7. Thematic

Major Features:

13 widget-ready areas
Grid-based layout samples
Modular CSS with pre-packaged resets and basic typography
Support for most WP plugins
Wiki-editable guide for customization

Thematic

Demo | Download

8. Roots

Major Features:

Clean URLs
Based on HTML5 boilerplate
Additional styling for Gravity Forms plugin
Multilingual (roughly 10 languages)

Roots

Demo | Download

9. Whiteboard

Major Features:

Totally free and open source
More dynamic classes and IDs than any other WP framework
CSS3 animations
Flexible div structure
Fallback mechanism for older versions of WP

Whiteboard

Demo | Download

10. Starkers

Major Features:

No non-semantic markups
Totally blank, ideal for developing your theme based on it

Starkers

Demo | Download

11. Standard Theme (Standard License: $49)

Major Features:

Customizable layout
Floating Sharing buttons
Affiliate program

Standard Theme

Demo | Download

12. HTML5 Reset

Major Features:

Semantic HTML5 Markup
Widget-ready sidebar
Built-in support for jQuery, Modernizr and Analytics

HTML5 Reset

Demo | Download

13. The Buffet Framework

Major Features:

SEO options such as breadcrumbs, headings and canonical URLs
Action and Filter hooks
Compatible with microformats
Ready for translation

The Buffet Framework

Demo | Download

14. Ashford (Professional License: $49; Free version also available)

Major Features:

Can create over 250 page variations
Fully customizable web fonts and color styles
Mobile friendly

Ashford

Demo | Download

15. Catalyst (Basic License: $77)

Major Features:

800+ design options
Unlimited layout options
SEO-friendly

Catalyst

Demo | Download

16. Simon WP Framework

Major Features:

Flexible and free
Widget-ready

Simon WP Framework

Demo | Download

17. PageLines Platform Pro (Professional License: $197)

Major Features:

Drag and drop framework
Extensions Marketplace (version 2.0)

PageLines Platform Pro

Demo | Download

18. ATOM Framework

Major Features:

Context-aware layout selection
Custom tabbed widgets
Short codes, Ad Management, Gallery slides
Easily extendable code base

ATOM Framework

Demo | Download

19. Thesis (Personal License: $87)

Major Features:

Easy to use options’ panel
Excellent Premium Support
Flexible and SEO-friendly

Thesis

Download

20. The Constellation

Major Features:

Responsive design
Based on HTML5 Boilerplate
SEO-friendly

The Constellation

Demo | Download

21. TwentyTen Five

Major Features:

An HTML5 upgrade of the default TwentyTen theme
Responsive design

TwentyTen Five

Demo | Download

22. Sandbox

Major Features:

Semantic classes
Dynamic functions and microformats

Sandbox

Demo | Download

23. Hybrid Core

Major Features:

Modular Framework with a solid PHP code base
Breadcrumbs and custom shortcodes
Loop pagination
Translation-friendly
Post templates

Hybrid Core

Demo | Download

24. Prototype

Major Features:

Custom Page templates and backgrounds
Breadcrumbs and threaded comments
Post layout and stylesheets
Translation-ready

Prototype

Demo | Download

25. Modularity (Standard Club Membership $99 per annum)

Major Features:

Homepage apps for slideshow and video
Special layouts for magazine sites
Simple Color Picker Tool for customizable colors
Support for video on iPhone and iPad
Fully widgetized
Translation-ready

Modularity

Demo | Download

With that, we come to the end of this round-up. Do share your thoughts in the comments!

10 Things to Consider Before You Publish Your Article

2012-02-23T16:39:57Z

Publishing an article can be both daunting and rewarding. Because your article is important to you consider taking a few steps before you publish. These extra steps will allow you to avoid some common mistakes and ensure your article is successful.

Identify your audience.

One of the first things you need to ask is who your target audience is. Who will be reading your article? Your article should be written to speak to those individuals.

Is your content original?

Be sure your article is written by you and not copied from another site or source. This not only will not gain you readers, it can also get you in trouble for plagiarizing someone’s work. You will not earn credibility by copying someone else’s work.

How many topics are in your article?

Ask yourself if your article cover just one topic. Your article should cover one idea or topic. Having multiple topics in an article can make the article confusing and hard to follow. If you do have different topics in one article, try focusing on one at a time.

Does your title capture attention?

Take care to write a catchy title for your article or post. Your title should be unique and capture the reader’s attention. Remember this is the first thing your reader will see, be sure it is relevant to the post

How long is your article?

Know where you are posting and the requirements for that particular site. If you are posting to your own blog, be sure the article has some substance and conveys your message.

Linking to other information?

If you wish to link to other sites or articles try using keywords that are relevant to the site or article you are linking to. Be sure you understand the policies of the site you are posting to so you are not flagged for spamming. Some sites only allow you to link in your biography or signature section. Know the site policy before publishing your article.

Do you have any visual aids?

Add pictures or videos. When posting pictures of videos make sure they are not copyrighted. There are number of sites that offer royalty free images and some images for free. Read their policies on using their photos so you are in compliance with their policies.

What tags should I use?

Add tags to your article. This helps the search engines find your content and makes it search-able in the search engines. Tags help the search engines create an index and will help readers find your article easier.

Take time to walk away.

Before you publish your article you want to make sure it is well written. After you are finished writing your article, save it and close it. Go back to it a few minutes later. You will find errors you missed originally.

How does your article sound when read out loud?

Once you have finished writing your article try reading it out loud. This may sound silly and make you a bit uncomfortable, but doing this helps you identify things that aren’t working. If you can’t speak it out loud without it sounding strange, then you need to consider editing that section.

We hope you will find this article useful! We would love to hear your two cents, so feel free to comment below! Please don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed or follow Inspirationfeed on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook! If you enjoyed the following article we humbly ask you to comment, and help us spread the word!

Key Factors for a Successful Company Logo

2012-02-23T17:22:03Z

Sure, everyone knows the significance of a logo design for a business. A logo is an icon and personality of a business that benefit them in endorsing their products or services, and this build public reputation and showcases business objectives to its clients. Furthermore, discussing on how to customise the logo for the business helps a business owner build an idea exactly on how he want to convey his business message to the viewers.

If you want to customise your personal logo design then it gets simple when you begin developing, this may be an exciting process for you that can avoid your mind-numbing communicating process and provides you a fresh way of mastering. The basic fact is that logo should be designed in an editable form that can be edited later according to the company needs and industry’s latest trends.

All these final modifications get an optimistic attention from the people because the business appear up-to-date to its clients; therefore with this objective you’ll need to employ a logo developer for your business, but make sure that you hire someone with the design expertise and an urge to create unique ideas in his designs.

Prior to creating a logo design for your business, you’ll have to remember these factors that usually come up throughout the design process cycle.

You’ll need to locate the precise powerful resource to develop a logo design for your business;

You’ll need to create a unique idea for your customized logo design;

You’ll need to locate an ideal scheme of colours for every element of your logo;

You’ll need to consider the efficient components that you may need to use in your company logo;

You’ll need to look at the most effective attributes that can make your logo distinct from the rest;

Select the best suitable font for your company logo;

Your logo should be unique and appealing; It should not look ripped or cloned;

Your logo will have to showcase the company’s products and services clearly;

Your logo design must be up to date and modern;

Maintain your design easy and simple to grasp for customers.

These are typically the factors that have to be concentrated while you design a customized logo for your business; and for graphic designers, logo creative ideas are extremely essential but if you have any specific logo ideas then provide him with those ideas. So, they may develop the exact model of what you have in mind as the logo is one of the most important factor in giving you company a unique distinct image and identity.

Furthermore, you can also choose a company via online market. Researching thoroughly before you choose a company is one vital step to get that most effective image of reliability and trustworthiness from its viewers.

Moreover, with some excellent tips and suggestions, logos can create a huge impact on the visitors; nevertheless it’s most vital for an organization to build brand name identification with a highly effective logo design. Customized logo design performs an important role in setting up a powerful brand image and builds a real identity that displays the characteristics of the company.

Need some inspiration now? Check out our awesome collections!

If you really want to build a powerful company with strong relationships with your clients, having an effective professional logo design is a must. To get a cheap custom logo design for your company, contact thelogocompany.net. Would be great to hear your feedback, so feel free to comment below. Please don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed or follow Inspirationfeed on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook! If you enjoyed the following article we humbly ask you to comment, and help us spread the word!

Skills Needed to Succeed as an SEO Copywriter

2012-02-24T09:58:32Z

So here it is, the final instalment of my ‘skills’ blogs. So far we’ve covered SEO, link building and social media marketing, and in this section I’m going to discuss the skills needed to be an SEO copywriter. The pressure’s really on with this one because technically this is a piece of SEO copywriting so Read Blog...

Google+ Circles Added to Google Voice

2012-02-24T11:39:36Z

The blurring of the lines between what is one Google product vs. another is picking up speed.

Yesterday Google announced in one of the most sparse blog posts you will find regarding the introduction of a new feature, that your Circle habit can now be moved over to Google Voice.

To help make it even easier for you to organize your contacts, today we’re adding Google+ Circles to Google Voice. Circles give you more control over how you manage your callers; for example, calls from your “Creepers” circle can be sent straight to Voicemail, only your “College Buddies” circle will hear you rap your voicemail greeting, or you can set your “Family” circle to only ring your mobile phone.

I don’t know a lot of people who throughly entrust their lives to Google products but the more one does the easier it is getting to see integration across platforms. Always at the center it seems is Google+. Sometimes it feels like Google+ is less of a social outlet and more of a rallying point for Google’s push toward product unity.

Will it ever be as seemless as Apple’s experience seems to be? Probably not but then again you can’t do many of the things in Apple’s world with pure Apple products like you can in Google (Google Docs being a prime example as well as Google Voice).

In fact, the more Google integrates across its many products and services the less I see it competing with an Apple like company and being more of a head to head battle with Facebook. Either way it is getting more and more interesting as each company grows and evolves.

Have you taken sides in this matter? Is it even necessary?

7 Winning Facebook Page Strategies Every Company Should Know

2012-02-24T11:35:10Z

By now you’re probably well aware of social media’s power to grow your business. Odds are you went ahead and tossed up a few social media profiles. Twitter, Google+, and probably a Facebook page.

Once they’re up, how do you make the most of them though? How do you draw users back to your page again and again? How do you use social media to draw in all those new leads you’ve been hearing about, or to turn new client into a faithful customer?

In this great article, we take a look at 7 strategies to point your brand’s Facebook page in the right direction. Social media can be the powerful tool for your business everyone says it can be. You just have to work for it if you’d like it to work for you.

Image Source: Homepage of Facebook.com via Shutterstock.

Facebook pages are one of the most powerful tools for attracting potential clients and involving your regular customers in constant collaboration. It gives every brand an opportunity to augment the target audience and significantly raise business reputation as well as profits. Creating a Facebook page isn’t enough for desired results though – it takes work.

Below I’ll share some tips you should stick to if you really want your brand Facebook page to work for you. These strategies help you set up an engaging Facebook page and use it effectively.

1. Design Your Page in a Unique Manner

Brand Facebook pages start with a profile picture. Deal with it.

Profile picture catches the eye from first sight and makes a potential visitor come and see what’s inside. Take into account that using your company logo makes a rather primitive profile picture. Instead, come up with something special. If you can’t create it yourself better ask professional designer to do it. Remember that it’s all about your company image.

Moreover, when visitors start browsing your page they’re likely to find something exclusive there as well. This means the Facebook page of a popular brand must not be just white-and-blue.

Fortunately, you can make use of custom design services without professional help by using one of the ready-made Facebook page templates. Use one that fits your purposes and design preferences. For example, your business Facebook page may look like this:

2. Share Relevant and Catchy Content

Every social media online presence should provide interesting content for its fans and readers. On Facebook this is even more important, especially on a brand page.

You must share the latest news, let your fans know about every event and novelty, and publish content relating to your business. Your task is to make the users return to your page because those who return are 90% paying customers, and those regular customers who return are likely to continue using your products and services.

To do this you must offer something that will captivate users. Particularly, quality and relevant content. You can make use of Google Blog Search, Google Reader or Google News in order to find some interesting piece of information to engage visitors to your brand Facebook page.

3. Use Applications to Make Your Page More Engaging

Facebook provides more than 55 thousand applications. Among them you can find the most appropriate ones to integrate in your page.

You must not underestimate the part applications can play in your brand Facebook page promotion and growth, as particularly these elements may be of a great value. For example, you might offer your visitors dynamic games, quizzes and other interactive content. This will let you win their attention at once. Applications serve as a call-to-action many users can’t help but get involved in and then they stay on your page longer, often even inviting other users to join. Thus your mission to engage users will be successful!

You might like to try these resources:
Top 10 Facebook Apps for Fan Engagement and Building Community →
30 Top Facebook Apps for Business →

4. Take Part in Conversation

Creating a Facebook page for your brand makes your company a conversation participant. A major Facebook user.

That’s why you must not stay aside, but take part in every discussion which takes place on your page. For example, if someone leaves comment on an entry, photo or video on your page you must reply to it somehow.

Remember that it doesn’t matter whether you run a small business or a huge corporation. You must talk to your customers. You must reply to questions in a timely manner, showing the quality of your services and how helpful and user-friendly you can be.

Sometimes it is even not necessary to wait until the users ask you a question. You can initiate conversation. Don’t be afraid and shy to ask your clients about your services or products quality. Ask them what changes might improve your work in their opinion. Ask about particular products and any other thing related to your business estimation.

Talk to your clients and they may become your regular customers in return.

5. Repost Information

Image Source: Black keyboard with Blue Like via Shutterstock.

What does this mean? Nothing more or less than simple reposting of useful information. Something like a retweet for Facebook.

Why is it important to share information this way? Because this way you show clients your appreciation and after it they may pay more attention to your brand. Reposting the content that other users publish has a great value for your brand Facebook page and business development in general.

Don’t over-do it. Reposting is significantly important, but only when it’s something relevant and not too obtrusive. Repost only the content which is related to your business and can be interesting for other users which are your brand Facebook page fans. Your page will attract attention by the quality of your publications, not the quantity.

6. Stay Active Regularly

Your brand Facebook page must be updated on the regular basis.

This means both new content sharing and checking your private messages and comment section and replying quickly to your customers. For example, if someone asked you a question and you replied a whole week later it’s impolite, so don’t count on getting much attention from that visitor next time.

One of your activity aspects implies some contest organization. For example, ask your customers to invent a motto for your brand and reward a winner. Your clients will be involved and you’ll receive lots of attention.

Also don’t forget to congratulate your clients on major holidays and you can even offer some discounts and specials.

7. Don’t Let Users Post on Your Wall

Though you need to talk to your fans, you must not let them post to your brands wall.

This is because you cann’t control the publications users can make. Not allowing them to post to your wall avoids spam messages which other users would rather not see. Communicate with your customers privately or in discussions. Leave nothing without attention.

You must control your wall and provide your page fans with reliable content. That’s why it’s better not to let new visitors post to your wall, and leave content that may spoil your reputation.

There you have it. Simple but critical strategies we recommend you must stick to in order to make your company Facebook page popular and profitable. Don’t be too lazy to work on your page, if you want it to work for you in future!

7 Tips to Help Make Your Content Go Viral

2012-02-24T13:45:23Z

‘Content is King’ is a cliche in social media nowadays. Having great content doesn’t guarantee your work will appear in front of billions web users. It requires additional work to get this content in front of an audience.

With high quality content at hand, the next step is make your content recognized, shared, emailed, and talked about in various social platforms. Here are a few tips to help your content score higher virally.

Tip 1 – Think about user experience and format

Suppose your website is crammed with advertisements, chances are users won’t stay long if they cannot find what content they are looking for. So think about user experience and create a nice, clean and professional site that makes them want to come back again.

When building up a blog, most of us would take the normal format: advertisements on the top and bottom, content in the middle and a few widgets in the sidebars. If it works well, keep up the good work. What I suggest here is to give your content a separate format that has content focused on the page with minimum branding. Thus when users follow the Google search results, they can find what they are looking for straightaway.

Tip 2 – Think about visual elements

People love pictures. Especially when you have visually stunning pictures, it increases the odds that your content will be shared.

If you have a short piece of writing, but it has a compelling visual elements in it, such as an interesting pictures or charts, it will do much better than text alone.

On social platforms, when you share or post something on your wall, Facebook and Google+ automatically pick up the pictures embedded within the article. If the scaled down pictures look great on Facebook or Twitter, chances are more people will share them.

If you have a short piece of writing, but it has a compelling visual elements in it, such as an interesting pictures or charts, it will do much better than text alone. Spend some time collecting data, drawing your own charts and putting your insights into your graphs or infographics, which will make your content more engaging.

Tip 3 – Have you got the little ‘Printer Friendly’ button?

Do not overlook this small yet modern button. On social media platforms, the printer friendly content version has more chance to be emailed around and linked to on Google+, Digg, Stumble Upon and so forth.

Tip 4 – Try a URL Shortener?

URL shortening is a technique that helps to shorten URL length substantially, yet still directs the shortened URL to the same page. Here I would recommend using bitly.com to shorten and customize your URL to make them simple, easy to understand and remember. It’s easy to understand and share on Twitter and Facebook where there is limited space to compose.

Tip 5 – Influence the Influencers

Start connecting with the influencers in a community; talk with them before you publish your articles. Not during or after, it’s ‘before’. You probably already know the influencers in your niche business. You can approach them via Google+, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Do them a favor before you ask for one from them. Retweet them, share their work on Facebook or just simply leave a positive comment on their website/blog.

Do them a favor before you ask for one from them.

Then you can send them your content and ask for their feedback. It’s best to mention them, refer to their work in your content; just to get them involved in your work and you will have more chance to get feedback from them.

Then you can ask them if they mind sharing it in their community. If they do share your article, always remember to say thank you. This interactive process may involve emailing back and forth and it may take a few days for them to get back to you. But once you build up this relationship, it will be much easier to introduce your content to more people.

Tip 6 – Dig out the popular topics

We can use Google trends to find out what the popular topics are, then you can write around the topic if it relates to your business. Usually after the spike, there will be a second wave when people discuss and review the trendy topics.

Also you can catch the popular topics before they get hot. Or we can go to social media platforms, such as Twitter or StumbleUpon, to see what are the popular posts that are most shared, then we can work around those trendy topics.

Tip 7 – Push out your content in the right time

The best time to publish B2B content is from Tuesday to Thursday. It looks like Monday and Friday are not the ideal time to advertise new content. Whereas on Facebook and Twitter, weekends, especially Sunday afternoon seems to be the perfect time to tweet or Facebook content that is amusing, interesting and something that would play well with families.

Here are just a few tips for your content to get more publicity. If you have your own strategy that works perfectly well for your content, then stick with it. If you have other amazing strategies that you would like share, please leave comments below.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by arcoss.

CAPTCHA’s Suck. Here’s Your Free Alternative to Protect WordPress Forms

2012-02-24T15:45:27Z

Are you tired of CAPTCHA's? Check out Are You a Human's new WordPress plugin for an alternative.

Friday Fresh Free Fonts #141

2012-02-24T15:49:26Z

I will be posting some fresh free fonts every Friday, yes I know it's awesome. I will look forward to bring a lot of great fonts that will sure help you improve your typography work. Check out what I selected for you on the FFFF#141 and make sure to comeback for more next week.

Click here to view all Friday Fresh Free Fonts

Prosto

by Emelyanov Pavel & Ivan Gladkikh

Download Prosto

Alexis

by Taylor Goad

Download Alexis

Signika

by Anna Giedry?

Download Signika

Intro

by Font Fabric

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Hi there! I'm Paulo Canabarro, 26 year old web designer - paulocanabarro.com I'm from Brazil currently living and working out of Providence RI, USA. I'm truly passionate about design of all kinds, finding and sharing inspiration here has become part of my life. If you like to know more about me or get in touch visit my website paulocanabarro.com Stock me at Twitter and Dribbble

7 Common Objections Freelancers Face, Now Answered

2012-02-24T15:59:32Z

Successfully handling client objections is an essential part of running a freelancing business. However, when faced with a prospect or client objection for the first time, many freelancers don’t know what to do. Even worse, they may take the objection personally.

Facing an objection from a prospective client doesn’t have to mean that you’ve lost their business. Instead, it can be the launching point for a discussion that leaves of both you feeling better about doing business with each other.

In this post, I’ll discuss seven common prospective client objections. I’ll also invite you to share client objections that you’ve faced and to explain how you’ve handled them.

Common Objections

Here are seven common objections that prospective clients often bring up and tips for handling each objection:

You Don’t Have Enough Experience. This can be a challenging objection to overcome if you are just starting out. Take this as a challenge to show them why you are qualified. If you are a student, tell them what you accomplished as a student. For example, “I was top in my design class at college.” You can also refer them to your portfolio or professional samples. (If you don’t have a portfolio or professional samples, your next task is to create them.)
You Are Too Old. While age discrimination is illegal in the United States, this objection crops up anyway. Fortunately, it’s easily dealt with if you’ve been keeping your skills up-to-date. List some recent courses or projects that you’ve completed that show that your expertise in the latest developments in your field. Refer this prospect to your latest samples. This is where your own blog and guest blogging can help strengthen your freelancing resume. Make sure that what you write highlights your knowledge.
Your Fees Are Too High. Your first task is to discover whether your fees are a little too high or a lot too high. If prospective client feels your fees are a little too high, you can work with the prospect to show them why you are worth the extra investment. If the prospect feels your fees are a lot too high, then they are probably not a true prospect for you. You can decide whether you want educate them about the value of your work, or you can just let them go elsewhere. Just don’t waste a whole lot of time on someone who is unlikely to buy.
My Last Freelancer Did X. Sadly, clients often judge us by what our predecessors did. This can be good or bad, depending on the predecessor. If you find yourself working with a client who has been burnt by a freelancer in the past, you may wind up working twice as hard to prove yourself. Just stay calm and remind yourself (and from time to time, the client) that you are not that other freelancer. Remember that the client has been hurt in the past and is now wary of freelancers.
I Can Do This Myself. Many prospective clients say this and it may indeed be true–in theory. Your prospective client very well might have the skills to do the project that they are assigning to you. In reality, however, the prospect probably doesn’t have the time to do the work. That’s why they need you. Point out that by using your services, they are freeing themselves up so that they can devote more time to what they really want to be doing.
I Need This More Quickly. This can be a great point to start negotiating from. Ask the client when they actually do need the project. Maybe they can reduce the scope to get it sooner. If you charge rush fees, this may be the time to implement them. You might also wish to bring in a subcontractor to help you meet their more aggressive deadline. If you find, however, that the deadline is totally unrealistic, it may be time to educate the client about how long the project actually takes.
You Don’t Have (Specific Experience). A very common objection that prospects make is that, while you have experience, it isn’t specific to their project. They might phrase such an objection like this, “we were really looking for someone who has experience designing websites for nonprofits.” If you feel that you can do the job, explain how your past experience ties into their project. Be as specific as you can be. Remember, you may see these commonalities, but to your client their project is totally unique.

A Final Word of Caution

Clients and prospective clients often don’t voice their true objection. Sometimes, they voice everything but their true objection. Other times, they just quietly slip away.

That’s why it’s up to you to open the dialog and get them to voice what’s really bothering them so that you can deal with it. Try saying things like, “what could I do to change your mind?”

Your Turn

What are some common client/prospect objections that you’ve encountered? How have you answered them?

Share your stories in the comments.

Image by ImNotQuiteJack

Your Road Map to Social Media Success

2012-02-24T17:00:52Z

Whether you are new to social media or have been creating campaigns for years, listen up. There is always room for improvement in social strategy development, especially since we work in an industry that is ever changing. So where do you start? Simply Business created this step-by-step flow chart to take businesses through the steps [...]

Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

Add search form to specific wp_nav_menu

2012-02-24T17:30:20Z

PHP

add_filter('wp_nav_menu_items', 'add_search_form', 10, 2);
function add_search_form($items, $args) {
if( $args->theme_location == 'MENU-NAME' )
        $items .= '<li class="search"><form role="search" method="get" id="searchform" action="'.home_url( '/' ).'"><input type="text" value="search" name="s" id="s" /><input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="'. esc_attr__('Search') .'" /></form></li>';
        return $items;
}

Visit wpsnipp.com for details on how to setup this WordPress snippet.

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And The Fastest Blog Comment System Is…?

2012-02-24T20:15:21Z

Blog and website owners have a number of options when it comes to installing a comment system, and each system has its own pros and cons that will be unique to different websites. Speed should be one of the considerations that website owners use when choosing which comment system to use. But...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Streamline your coding with AdWords API examples

2012-02-24T20:19:00Z

Are you getting started with the AdWords API but short on time to read the documentation? Do you need a reference implementation of a particular API operation? Check out our client libraries code examples which have undergone extensive renovations in the last libraries release!

The code examples are one of the best resources to learn the API and understand version changes. It is also helpful to have a working code to troubleshoot issues you may have with your own implementation. You can find the list of the client libraries and the resources for each library on the AdWords API site.

There were a number of changes introduced which we hope will make the examples code base more useful and easy to follow:

The code examples are now oriented around typical use cases rather than the API-specific operations. To get Criteria report look for the getCriteriaReport example, to create text ads - for the createTextAds example.
The number of input parameters was reduced which means you can run more examples as-is now, without adding specific object IDs.
For each example the code is wrapped into a function which can be called with parameters. This makes it easier to find out what parameters are required and improves examples testability.
Some of our Best Practices are now also demonstrated in the examples and described in the comments.

We’ve also changed the example files layout. We’ve noticed developers find it easier to navigate defined sections:

BasicOperations: start here if you are new to the AdWords API. This directory contains examples of basic operations such as creation, updating and deletion of most commonly used objects. The examples demonstrate the principles used in the rest of the API: selectors, predicates, paging, grouping of operations.
Targeting, CampaignManagement: these sections contain more advanced examples on the AdWords API such as geo targeting, location extensions, experiments and ad parameters.
ErrorHandling: examples in the ErrorHandling directory demonstrate how to handle different kind of errors occurring during the API calls. The errors covered here are API-specific (e.g. not network errors) and not transient so they could not be solved by retrying the exact same request.
Reporting: this section includes examples on how to retrieve a report with the client libraries. You can find the list of reports and their fields available on our codesite page.
AccountManagement: examples in the AccountManagement section will be helpful if you manage more than one account via the API. Here you can find code which retrieves accounts’ hierarchy or finds units spent on particular account.
Optimization: If you are looking for keyword or placement ideas or traffic estimations, you can find the examples in this section.
Remarketing: conversion tracker and audience operations are shown in examples in the Remarketing section.
Misc: this section contains examples that don’t fit into any other category and also some library-specific code samples. Check out our OAuth authorization code example here.

Browse updated examples code in: DotNet, Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP. We are working to update examples for Java and JavaScript as well.

As always, please feel free to ask any questions regarding the AdWords API on our forum or during scheduled office hours.

- Danial Klimkin, AdWords API Team

Flickr Uses “Nopin” Meta Tag To Keep Some Images Off Pinterest

2012-02-25T18:50:36Z

Flickr appears to be the first of what you’d call a “major” website to employ a meta tag that keeps copyright-protected images from being pinned on Pinterest. As VentureBeat first reported, Flickr is using the “nopin” meta tag that Pinterest just introduced earlier...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Motivate Yourself to Keep Good Habits with Chains.cc

2012-02-24T14:00:34Z

Ever made a goal, and then quit even trying on it after a few days? Most of us have done exactly that. Whether we’re trying to give up a bad habit or pick up a new one, to do something more or stop doing something so often, it’s incredibly hard to change our ways. For all of us. We need a bit more encouragement to actually stick with it.

Say you want to go running every day. You could chain yourself down to your treadmill, but that wouldn’t help you very much. How about creating a mental chain to remind yourself of the number of days you’ve kept your commitment, which will make you not want to break that chain of commitment? That’s what Chains.cc is for. It’s a simple yet nicely designed web app to help you stay motivated by seeing how long you’ve kept at your commitments.

Don’t Break the Chain!

Jerry Seinfield, the well-known comedic from the TV show Seinfield, had a unique productivity system. He’d purposed to write every day, so he got a wall calendar and marked a big x on each day that he wrote. After a few days, you’d have a chain, a succession of days that you’d kept your promise to yourself. Seinfield told Brad Isaac:

“Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain. Don’t break the chain.”

Nowadays, you might look at your browser or smartphone more than your wall, and you’ve likely not bought a new wall calendar in years. Chains.cc is a free web app that takes a novel approach to this productivity trick by letting you quickly mark the days you’ve kept your commitments, and even share them with your friends online. It’s not a to-do list, it’s a done list, a way to see what you’ve done and how often you did it.

Chains.cc's homepage

Get Committed

Chains.cc is a free too and simple to use, so there’s no reason not to give it a shot. You can signup with your Facebook account or with your own chosen username and password. Moments later, you’ll see the account setting screen, where you set your personal time zone, language, real name, and email address (and can, oddly, change the password right after you created the account. Once you’re done, save the settings at the bottom of the form. You’ll then need to click the My Chains link at the top left, as, oddly again, it simply saves these settings rather than sending you on into the app. This is one small fit-and-finish area that could be streamlined in the app, so just watch out for it while you’re getting started.

Add extra info, then select "My Chains" to get started

Now you’re ready to start jotting down your goals, known as Chains. You’ll have one already created; just double-click its tab to enter the thing you want to keep up with. Then, click the circles underneath by each recent day that you’ve done (or perhaps, not done) the activity. You could create chains for things you want to do (Exercise for at least x minutes), or for things you don’t want to do (Don’t read Hacker News during the day). Click the small Add New Chain button on the top right to add more things to track, and drag and drop the tabs to get them in the order you want.

Add chains and get started tracking your activities quickly

There’s a few settings you can tweak on chains. Click a tab and click the Settings link to open the settings pane, where you can choose days you don’t want to do this activity, change the tab’s color, and choose a different skin for your chain other than the default color blobs. You could pick a running track for exercise, a piano for music practice, or any of the other 13 options to customize it like you like. Sure, it’s not important, but it will make checking off things you accomplished each day more obvious without having to read your tabs.

Customize your chains to look the way you want

And that’s it. So all you need to do, now, is to visit Chains.cc daily, and click the circles for the activities you did (or didn’t) do that day. And you’re done. You can login to their mobile site from your smartphone to check off the things you’ve done on the go, and can easily fill in things you completed other days that you didn’t login. It’s simple and obvious.

Staying Motivated

Keeping up with what you’ve done is easy, and it should be motivating to see your chains building and know how long you’ve stayed on track. The Overview page is an even better way to stay motivated. You can get a quick heads-up view of how each of your activities are going, and can see some quick fun facts on the top that are auto-generated from your chains. It’s nothing amazing, but it could definitely be motivating.

And in the back of your head, you'll know you want to keep exercising for far more than just those 6 days in a row.

You can also create or join groups to help you and your friends (or other random people online) stay motivated. It’s much easier to run a marathon if you’ve got friends running it with you, as you don’t want to quit in front of them. You can create a group about anything you want, and make it public in the Chains.cc directory, or private for you to just share with your friends.

Create new groups to share your determination with others (sorry, Rovio)

Whether a public or private group, you can join them all just as easily. Just select which of your own chains is applicable to this group, and add it on the right. Now, you’ll see your own list along with others, helping you see their progress, and hopefully your own progress will encourage your friends to keep at it. It’s a tiny bit of accountability and group work that just might make your challenges a tad more fun and committing.

See progress others are making on their commitments (hey, I'm not the only one that doesn't sleep enough!)

Conclusion

Honestly, nothing can really force you to stick with your goals. If you’re not going to do it, you’re not going to do it, and that’s just it. Chains.cc can provide a bit of motivation when you need some, the passive motivation that tells you, yes, you’ve done this before, and you can keep at it. You can. And that’s something all of us need from time to time.

If you’ve been looking for a great way to keep track of things you’ve done, or how long you’ve kept commitments, or almost anything else, Chains.cc is a nice tool to do just that. It’s nicely designed, works great for the most part, and is free.

And for me, I think I should start taking it up on the challenge to sleep earlier!

Bing & Facebook See Deeper Search Integration With “Linked Pages”

2012-02-23T15:31:53Z

Yesterday a new feature was announced by Microsoft that allows logged-in Facebook users to link related pages to themselves. The new product, ‘linked pages,’ not only allows users to link pages to themselves, but also to friends. To see all linked pages simply click on the tab...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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10 Things to Consider Before You Publish Your Article

Identify your audience.

Is your content original?

How many topics are in your article?

Does your title capture attention?

How long is your article?

Linking to other information?

Do you have any visual aids?

What tags should I use?

Take time to walk away.

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Tip 1 – Think about user experience and format

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Friday Fresh Free Fonts #141

I will be posting some fresh free fonts every Friday, yes I know it's awesome. I will look forward to bring a lot of great fonts that will sure help you improve your typography work. Check out what I selected for you on the FFFF#141 and make sure to comeback for more next week.

Prosto

Alexis

Signika

Intro

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7 Common Objections Freelancers Face, Now Answered

Common Objections