SEO Articles & Newsletters

Kejujuran Berbuah Bidadari | Artikel Islam, Berita Islam, Tanya Jawab Islam, Dakwah & Konsultasi Keluarga Islam

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Kejujuran Berbuah Bidadari | Artikel Islam, Berita Islam, Tanya Jawab Islam, Dakwah & Konsultasi Keluarga Islam

How Social Search is Changing SEO

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:20:00 +0000

Facebook and Bing jointly announced an agreement that would allow Microsoft’s search engine to return results based on the Facebook “Likes” of the searcher’s friends. Additionally, Google recently began including Twitter updates in search results. It’s a natural innovation that fits into the business models of both companies and takes the trend of individualized search results to the next logical level: results tailored to the searcher’s existing social footprint.
SEO insiders have wondered whether this new search innovation would affect placement strategies, and the simple answer is yes. Yes, there will be changes to the way SEO professionals run their clients’ campaigns. Yes, this will affect the industry as a whole. And yes, we believe SEO professionals will have to adapt to meet ever-evolving needs.

Changing the Method, Not the Mission
To think that this development is rocking the SEO world however is to misunderstand the realities of the industry. In roughly 15 years of existence, SEO has grown from being a small wildcat operation run by webmasters and content services to being one of the most dynamic, fast-growing sectors of the tech market. The reason for this rapid growth is because — not in spite –- of the constantly evolving nature of search engines.

While the Bing-Facebook agreement and the recent updates to Google will change elements of how we do our business, the fundamentals will remain the same. As much as innovation shapes the day-to-day processes of optimization, the core foundations of the industry remain unchanged. The goal still is placing clients at the top of results pages, whether this is through organic search, paid search or social media.
Social media is nothing new in the world of online marketing. Facebook alone has 500 million users and Twitter feeds are already making their way into search results. Before long, results may integrate other social networking sites that don’t even exist yet. What the Bing-Facebook agreement is indicative of is the many changes that have taken SEO from a small-time game to a major, innovative industry. SEO is not about counter-punching, and it’s not about simply reacting to the changing search-engine landscape. Instead, it is about growing and evolving alongside search engines.

How Twitter Can Help B2C Companies
Most people think social media marketing just means Facebook marketing. As the 800 pound gorilla of the social networking space, it’s understandable that so many companies have turned Facebook into the hub of their social media marketing campaign. Both B2C and B2B companies have found great success with Facebook, seeing an increase in brand recognition, consumer engagement and more. But Facebook isn’t the only social player on the block that B2C companies would be wise to invest their time in. Twitter helps you connect with your audience in a whole new way and add another level to any social media marketing campaign.

Research indicates that Twitter is a favorite social networking platform among early adopters and influencers. It’s no secret that a small percentage of Twitter users are the authors behind a vast majority of the Tweets. But these are the kinds of consumers a B2C company should want to connect with, as they are more likely to become brand loyal.

Here are some practice ways a B2C company can utilize Twitter:

1. Get more connected with your customers
Recent research has shown that Twitter is the preferred social network among consumers for learning about new product updates. The constant, real time stream of information that fuels Twitter makes it the perfect place to share information about things like software updates and product launches. Most consumers look to a company’s Facebook page as a way to learn about discounts and sign up for promotions. Twitter, on the other hand, is often viewed as a direct line of communication with the company, making it the perfect platform for staying connected with favorite B2C brands.

2. Twitter is mobile
As the amount of smart phones in the market grows, mobile marketing becomes an increasingly important component of any marketing strategy. Twitter may be one of the more simple social networks (it doesn’t get much more basic than a 140 character cap), but that is exactly why it is so mobile friendly. Whether someone is looking at Twitter on a computer or on their phone, the format is very similar—a scrolling list of Tweets. B2C companies don’t have to develop a mobile version of their Twitter account to make sure it is easily accessible/readable by mobile devices. Read more at SearchTerms.com...

Google Points to Guidelines, Improved Communication

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:29:00 +0000

Since Google launched the controversial Panda update in February, anxious webmasters and publishers have been waiting for the day when it would go from just a U.S. change to a global change. That day came this week, as Google announced it had expanded the "search quality" algorithm worldwide for English language users.

Many sites were reported to have lost major traffic and search rankings as a result of the U.S. roll-out. We've expected these sites to be further devastated as Panda made its way to more countries.

Side note: just in case there is any confusion (there has been in the past) since Google didn't use the word "panda" in the latest announcement, Matt Cutts did call it that:

Believe it or not, not everyone's quick to comment on how their traffic has been impacted. EzineArticles was one of the sites that was hit hard, and quickly began making changes to its content approach following the U.S. update. They talked about this on the company blog. No new blog post yet.

The last time I reached out to CEO Chris Knight for comment on the site's traffic post-Panda, he didn't want to offer any - although he did provide another update on the blog in March.

Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis, who had to resort to layoffs because of the Panda update did comment on the situation. "We were impacted starting on February 24th and haven't seen a significant change up or down since then," he tells us. "We support Google's effort to make better search results and continue to build only expert-driven content. This means any videos and text we make has a credentialed expert with seven years or 10,000 hours of experience (a la Malcolm Gladwell)."

He pointed to the following examples:

http://www.mahalo.com/learn-to-play-guitar-beginner-course/

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-profiteroles/

"Everything we're doing is now expert driven. Period," Calacanis says. "Google's Panda update has ended the age of casual, non-expert-driven content. We're hopeful that as Google continues to tweak their algorithm our experts and their content will be rewarded."

Morris Rosenthal of Foner Books (a Panda victim whose story we looked at here and here) tells us, "As far as the algo goes, I think my initial take was 100% on. It's just brand names and social sites now. I'm even seeing Google Answers ranking for many queries, despite the fact they shut Answers down in 2002! But it was 'social.'"

Last week, we looked at a report from marketing firm iCrossing, which seemed to indicate benefits for big brands as well.

We've reached out to Suite101, and Demand Media for comment on the update, and have nothing so far.

Google's Amit Singhal told webmasters, "Based on our testing, we've found the algorithm is very accurate at detecting site quality. If you believe your site is high-quality and has been impacted by this change, we encourage you to evaluate the different aspects of your site extensively. Google's quality guidelines provide helpful information about how to improve your site. As sites change, our algorithmic rankings will update to reflect that. In addition, you're welcome to post in our Webmaster Help Forums. While we aren't making any manual exceptions, we will consider this feedback as we continue to refine our algorithms."

Following the initial launch of the Panda update, we looked at some things that are known and some things that are possible, with regards to what publishers and webmasters should take into account. Given Google's specific reference to their quality guidelines in the latest announcement, this seems like the best place to start. Here's Google's list of "specific guidelines":

About the Author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

Surgery Squad lifts CTR and enhances revenue with a simple optimization procedure

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:22:00 +0000

Surgery Squad adds a third ad unit to its pages to boost performance and AdSense earnings by 200%.

SurgerySquad.com educates patients about what takes place during surgical procedures through interactive, virtual surgery modules. Creator Eric Bort recently spoke with us to describe how he’s optimized Surgery Squad’s AdSense performance and revenue by simply adding a third ad unit to his pages.

Inside AdSense: Can you tell us a little about how Surgery Squad got started?
Eric Bort: I launched Surgery Squad in August 2010 after having spent more than a decade developing corporate training and e-learning programs. As part of these programs, I’d created some virtual surgeries which were well-received, so I decided to make a website devoted to this topic. People have lots of questions about surgeries. They want to know, “What happens to my body while I’m asleep on the operating table?” It’s a very intriguing topic from a human perspective.

IA: What role does AdSense play in your business?
EB: We’ve used AdSense on Surgery Squad since its launch, because we’ve previously seen a lot of success with AdSense on some of our other sites. AdSense is currently responsible for all of Surgery Squad’s revenue. It was really quick to set up – once our account was approved, we were up and running within 10 minutes. And with the breadth of advertisers in the network, I know that AdSense will always have high quality ads to display.

IA: Why did you decide to add another ad unit to your pages?
EB: I received an optimization tip from the AdSense team suggesting I maximize revenue by adding an additional ad unit to my pages. Initially, I was wary of overwhelming visitors with ads, because it’s very important to me to create a good user experience. But I decided to give it a try because I know how important it is to test new strategies and see what works best. So, I added a third ad unit to all my pages, toward the bottom of each page.

IA: What were the results? Would you recommend this strategy to other publishers?
EB: I was surprised to see the new ad unit performing just as well, if not better, than the other two ad units. I think it’s due to visitors who scroll down to the bottom of the page to add comments, and then find ads they want in addition to our content. Our clickthrough rate has increased substantially. It’s amazing. Our eCPM has also increased 168 percent and our overall revenue earnings have grown by more than 200 percent. With this additional revenue from AdSense, we’re able to cover our costs and sustain our business. To know these costs are covered is hugely important when you’re running a small business.

I’d recommend that other publishers consider optimizing revenue by adding new ad units. If presented in the right way, ads can enhance the user experience. But it’s really important to test and see what works best with your content, format, and user behavior. Have the patience to wait and see what works and what doesn’t.

If you want to add an additional ad unit like Surgery Squad, sign in to your account today.

Posted by Meredith Blackwell - Inside AdSense team

[Inside Adsense] Great speeches, great people, great atmosphere: AdSense in Zurich

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:28:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, we had the pleasure of welcoming 120 of our publishers from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and France at an AdSense publisher event in our Google office in Zurich.

The agenda of the day included seminars and presentations about:

Trends in the online advertising market and how to use them for your site
Our best tips to optimize your AdSense earnings
Using DFP Small Business to get more out of AdSense
Website usability
The truth about common SEO myths

We also offered attendees 1-on-1 site consultations with a Google AdSense optimization specialist and ended the day by kicking back with pizza and beer to get to know one another a little better!

It was great to meet you in person to learn more about your businesses and experience with AdSense. We were thrilled to hear positive feedback from the attendees on the event and hope to offer a similar opportunity in a city near you soon!

Interested in attending future Google AdSense events? Check your Account settings and make sure you’re opted in to our mailings so we can inform you about our upcoming events!

Posted by Marcel Puppik and Sophie Emmerich - AdSense Optimisation Specialists

Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 4/11/2011 08:26:00 AM

[Inside AdSense] Western Union now in Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:13:00 +0000

We constantly strive to provide more payment options to our publishers around the world so you can receive your earnings as safely and quickly as possible. As part of this effort, we're very excited to announce the arrival of Western Union Quick Cash® payments for Mexico!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this form of payment, Western Union Quick Cash payments are free and will reach you faster than checks. Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and are available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

We know that many of you are still waiting for new forms of payment and new delivery options for your country, and we’re working hard to make this possible. Stay tuned to the blog as we work to improve the payments experience for publishers around the world!

To read this article in Spanish, click here.

Posted by Julia Peppiatt - AdSense Payments team

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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 4/08/2011 08:30:00 AM

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Reviews Can Help You Rank

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:58:00 +0000

By Aliza Earnshaw (c) 2011
If you're running a business that depends on local traffic, you probably know that good reviews can bring more customers through the door.

But did you know that getting reviews - and not necessarily just good ones - can help your business rank better in search results?

If you're running a business that depends on local traffic, you
probably know that good reviews can bring more customers through
the door.

But did you know that getting reviews - and not necessarily just
good ones - can help your business rank better in search results?

It's true. Getting customers to review your company on your
Google
Places listing, in Yahoo! Local, Bing, CitySearch, Yelp
and other review sites helps you in a couple of ways:

- Ninety percent of consumers consult the Web before they head out
of the house to make a local purchase. Yes, you read that right -
90 percent, according to digital marketing analysis firm eMarketer
Inc. If your business has plenty of reviews for people to
read - and most are enthusiastic, or at least positive - you're
likely to get some new customers. That's because 70 percent of
people believe in the validity of reviews written by strangers,
according to The Nielsen Co.

- Having reviews of your business in several places - including
your website - can improve your search engine optimization
(SEO)
and help you rank higher in search results. That's because
search engines now look at reviews as an indication that a
business matters. And if you've got plenty of reviews, you may be
able to occupy more than one place on a page of search results.

Take a look at how much "real estate" Voodoo Doughnuts takes up on this search engine
results page, called a SERP in SEO-speak. The company has hit gold
with the top three spots. Voodoo also has the top spot in local
results - the list headed "Places for donuts near Portland, OR" -
and yet another spot lower down in local results.

Note that Voodoo Doughnuts' place page shows 3,015 reviews. That's a
lot of reviews, and they're clearly helping this already-popular shop
get noticed by anyone searching for donuts in Portland, Oregon.

I'm Not a Doughnut Rockstar. How Do I Get Reviews?

The good news is, it's not that hard to get more of your customers
to review you. Adopting just a few practices recommended by
local-search guru Mike Blumenthal can
help your company's website, Google Places page and other
listings appear higher in searches - and win you more business.

A quick summary of how to get more reviews:

   1) Get your company listed everywhere on the Web it makes
sense for your business.

   2) Ask for reviews - see suggestions below.

   3) Deliver great customer service so people will want to
review you, and so the reviews will be mostly good.

First, Stake Your Claim

There have always been directories and listing sites on the Web,
though the ones most in favor with searchers tend to change over
time.

Some good places to get listed:

GetListed.org offers free
help for getting your business listed at top sites on the Web,
including Google Places,
Yahoo Local,
InsiderPages.com and others.
GetListed tells you which listing sites are free,
which cost money, and advises you which paid sites might make
sense for your business. The site also offers a tool called Local
Dashboard that helps you track your online listings.

Yelp.com - Yelp is famous for
its reviews of restaurants and other retail and service businesses.
Local search expert David Mimh, who runs GetListed.org,
says the site is essential for any bar or restaurant to list on Yelp.

CitySearch.com - It's not
as popular as it was a few years ago, but CitySearch is still
where many people go to choose a restaurant or other local business.

Use any site where you know your customers are. Mike
Blumenthal suggests choosing the sites that your customers favor.
How would you know that? Well, you could Google your direct
competitors to see where they've been reviewed, and make sure you
have listings on those sites. If you own a pet supply business,
and you know of sites where pet owners exchange news and tips -
and you can list your business there - do it.

AboutUs.org has a page
about virtually every site on the Web. Each website profile has
editable fields where you can add your contact information, a
short summary about your site and your logo. There's also a
wiki section where you can write as much as you like about
your site and your business, and include links back to your
site on keywords that matter for your business. Under the

AboutUs DoFollow policy,
those links can become follow links, and add some SEO
value for your site.

How To Get Reviews: Make it Easy

Mike Blumenthal says you must make it very easy for people to
review your business. One great strategy is to create a special
page for reviews on your website - for example,
'''http://www.MyLocalBusiness.com/reviews''' - so people can leave
their comments easily on your site. You can put the URL for that
page on your business card, and hand it out to everybody. You could
even print up a special thank you card with the reviews page
printed on it, and slip it in with your customers' purchases when
you bag them.

Mike also suggests creating a QR code for your reviews page, and
having it printed up fairly large, to display in your storefront
window. A customer can then scan the QR code with her phone, and
maybe even write a review of your business right then and there.
Or have the QR code link to your Google Places profile.

Once you've listed your business at the sites mentioned in the
section above, you can also print the URLs for those listings on
a card, or use QR codes, to make it easy for people to get to your
review sites. One caution: You can't directly ask people to review
you on Yelp - that can get you banned from the site. Nonetheless,
lots of people know and use Yelp, so it's still a good idea to be
listed there.

How To Get Good Reviews

It may sound simple, but the best way to get reviews is to deliver
a good experience. Treat customers with courtesy and respect, provide
a good product or professional-level service, and most of your
reviews will be good.

Another easy way: Ask for reviews. When someone tells you how
pleased they are with your company, ask them if they'd be willing
to put it in writing. Guide them to the location where you'd most
like the review to appear. Making it easy for them makes it more
likely they'll do it.

Anticipate that things will sometimes go wrong, and give people
a way to let you know what's gone wrong, so you can put it right
immediately. Display your phone number prominently on every page
of your website, so people can call you. If the phone isn't the
best option, or you want to give more options, put a big "Contact
Us" button on every page, and provide full contact options on the
page it links to. It goes without saying that when people contact
you with a problem, you must help them quickly and graciously.

Providing quick and easy ways to contact you engenders trust in
people who come to your website. If you're willing to be contacted
that easily, you must be trustworthy - the exact opposite of those
shady sites that provide no contact information at all.

Another big benefit: Helping a dissatisfied or perplexed customer
can earn you an enthusiastic fan who's more than willing to give
you a good review. And that review is one more building block for
growing your online presence.

About The Author
Check out how your home page looks to search engines and people
with the free Home Page Analysis. Want a deeper look at all your
site's pages? Try an AboutUs Site Report.

This article was contributed by Aliza Earnshaw
of AboutUs.org.

Aliza is the editor-in-chief at AboutUs. She works with the content
on our website, and the people who create it. @AlizaEarnshaw

Marketing Firm Shows Data of Big Brands Winning

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 14:52:00 +0000

iCrossing does online marketing for numerous big brands, and says it has noticed some trends in which some of these brands have either risen in rankings or remained flat since the Google's Panda Update, for keywords where other sites dropped off the grid.

Do you think Google got it right with Panda? Tell us what you think.

iCrossing counts plenty of big brands among their clients. Among them are: AAA, Auto Trader, BMW, Chevron, Coca-Cola, EA Games, eBay, FedEx, Hyundai, Kia, Marie Claire, Mary Kay, MasterCard, Mazda, Nokia, Porsche, LEGO, and Toyota, to name a few.

Collin Cornwell, VP of natural search at iCrossing, has shared some data looking at a couple examples of big brands that have followed the trend. He would not get into names, but calls them a "premier travel and hospitality client," and a "big-time banker."

It's worth noting that these companies also saw no changes in Bing or Yahoo, and tha we don't know what the content for the pages in question actually looks like - a key piece of the puzzle, obviously.

Here's some data from the travel site:

According to iCrossing, Page 1 ranking increased 18% from the big brand from the beginning of the year, and 6.3% from when Panda was released, while brands like Suite101 and CheaperThanHotels.com saw 96% and 95% drops for the same keywords.

And some from the Bank:

The bank saw an increase of 45% for all non-branded keywords from the beginning of the year, and 10% increase in Page 1 placements since Panda. Smaller brands saw 94% - 84% drops.

"Google has been favoring big brands for years – starting with its 'Vince Update' back in 2009 and then again in 2010 when Google decided to include BRANDS in related searches," said Cornwell.

"While the Panda update wasn't meant to affect large brands directly, the change(s) seem to have had an indirect impact as the 'lower quality' sites continue to slip down in the search engine results pages," he added.

By nature, big brands tend to get more links, more sharing, and more engagement. They also generally have more resources to apply to marketing tactics, web development, and design - all of which can play directly into how their content is viewed in Google.

The question is whether or not this approach works. Is content quality synonymous with brand recognition? No, but it is related. Brand recognition is directly related to trust, but not all big brands are well-liked or trusted by everybody. This is why Google's domain-blocking features and the +1 button are perhaps two of the most important updates to Google's search quality practices we've seen in a long time.

Quality is in the eye of the beholder, and these features give more say to the people. That said, there is a great potential for both of these to be abused by users. Google recently said, "as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality over time," regarding the +1 button.

Here's what Google's Matt Cutts had to say about big brands ranking in Google a couple years ago:

He said he disagrees that big brands always do well, and that Google often hears complaints from big brands who don't think they're doing as well as they should.

About the Author:

Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

[Adsense] +1’s: the right recommendations right when you want them—in your search results

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:43:00 +0000

Our goal at Google is to get you the most relevant results as quickly as possible. But relevance is about relationships as well as words on webpages. That’s why we recently started to include more information from people you know—stuff they’ve shared on Twitter, Flickr and other sites—in Google search results.

3/30/2011 11:07:00 AM

Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something, all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.

The +1 button will appear next to each search result

After pressing the +1 button, you have the option to undo the action immediately

Say, for example, you’re planning a winter trip to Tahoe, Calif. When you do a search, you may now see a +1 from your slalom-skiing aunt next to the result for a lodge in the area. Or if you’re looking for a new pasta recipe, we’ll show you +1’s from your culinary genius college roommate. And even if none of your friends are baristas or caffeine addicts, we may still show you how many people across the web have +1’d your local coffee shop.

The beauty of +1’s is their relevance—you get the right recommendations (because they come from people who matter to you), at the right time (when you are actually looking for information about that topic) and in the right format (your search results). For more information about +1, watch this video:

So how do we know which +1’s to show you? Like social search, we use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google (your chat buddies and contacts, for example). Soon we may also incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible. If you want to know who you're connected to, and how, visit the “Social Circle and Content” section of the Google Dashboard.

To get started +1’ing the stuff you like, you’ll need to create a Google profile—or if you already have one, upgrade it. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend. To see +1’s in your Google search results you’ll need to be logged into your Google Account.

We’ll be slowly rolling out +1’s, starting in English on Google.com. If you can’t wait to start seeing +1’s, we’ll soon let you opt-in to the launch by visiting our experimental search site. Initially, +1’s will appear alongside search results and ads, but in the weeks ahead they’ll appear in many more places (including other Google products and sites across the web). If you’re an advertiser and want to learn more about how the +1 button works on search ads and websites, visit our AdWords blog.

We’re confident that +1, combined with all of the social content we’re now including in search, will mean even better, more relevant results than you get today.

Posted by Rob Spiro, Product Manager

2010 SEO Predictions That Came True

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:36:00 +0000

A SPN Exclusive Article By Warner Carter (c) 2011
Each time a year ends, we encounter countless bloggers and writers who share their thoughts about the incoming year. Some predictions are theoretically supported and some are just plain wild guesses. Predicting what's in store for the next year is almost a tradition for writers, even those not involved in SEO and Internet marketing. Sports writers, business analysts, music critics, and amateur writers - they all follow this unsung tradition. Many think that this tradition is worth following because nailing a wild guess or a well-researched fact means only one thing: respect from your readers.

It's only the third month of the year but some predictions from last year have become realities. People didn't ever expect that the realization would be this quick, but, unbelievably, many predictions are coming true right now.

The Power of Content Length

This was a common prediction that was heavily criticized. I read on some blogs last year that Google would be considering a site's content length as a determining factor for site ranking. Experts and SEO veterans commented that this was an amateur's prediction, but they all ended up wrong. As a result of this latest algorithm update, many guest blogging sites have increased their minimum article length to 450 words, and some are requiring even lengthier articles. Perhaps this recent update caused content-related terrors to some SEO geeks. They'll just have to remember that quality is still better than quantity.

Mobile Search Growth

Both local and global search benefited from the rise of high-tech phones which provide consumers mobile Web browsing. The growing rate of free Wi-Fi zones over the country also made browsing even more accessible to mobile phone users. Mobile browsing changed the way people use the Internet. Browsing the Web has become a daily part of people's lives - not only Americans and Europeans but also people from highly developed Middle Eastern and Asian countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Qatar and Dubai.

Social Media Expansion

2010 was the year of Facebook and Twitter. Countless companies vied for the most numbers of "likes" and "followers", not only for branding and popularity purposes but for online presence strength as well. These two social media giants have become major advertising tools. No SEO campaign would be complete without social media and no advertising method would be fruitful without Facebook and Twitter accounts. Social media expansion is an advertising basic for many businesses.

Although confirmed as a hoax, the rumor of Facebook closure struck many businesses. It isn't easy to find a social networking site as powerful and effective as Facebook. The shocked Tweets from many businesses owners that day prove that advertising and SEO without social media is impossible. A business' online presence is major determining factor of success.

Website Speed

It took a year for all SEO practitioners to understand the value of site speed in SEO. Google first announced that site speed would be part of their algorithm in 2009, but it wasn't until late 2010 that a majority of website owners seriously incorporated it in their SEO strategies. It's not a surprise that many site owners are now aware of site speed's importance. There are reports that many businesses suffered a major decline in rankings because they took site speed for granted.

Site speed can be a determining factor for website traffic. With the millions of websites available today, a slow-loading website can force a viewer to transfer to a faster site that can provide them the information they need.

Other Search Engines

Google is still the leading and most reliable search engine today and the main reason we obsess about search algorithms and rankings. Some business owners pay large sums of money just to get their sites to the top of Google's search results. Google has set the yardstick in Web search and brought balance and fairness to the competition for rankings, so that anyone can now get first page search result placement. But, there are still other search engines we can focus on. Not all Web users rely on Google to find what they need. There is still a significant percentage of users who prefer other search engines that you too should consider when doing your SEO. Yahoo! was once the leader of the search game, and it's realistic to think that there are remaining Yahoo! loyalists out there who put less importance on Google results. Then there is Bing, the Microsoft search engine that draws yóung Web users because of its homepage and features.

Bing and Yahoo! are continually improving their search algorithms because they know they have a large following and an increasing number of users. It's fairly certain that these two search giants are making plans to erode Google's current standing as the Web's dominant search engine.

The Reincarnation of Blogs

Blogs didn't ever really go out of style. Business owners use blogs to reach a wider sector of their target market and audience. Many have invested time in establishing domain authority and positive online reputation management, temporarily putting link building aside. Some articles previously stated that "link building is dead", making SEO practitioners abandon the method and focus on other SEO strategies. However, many experts have reinstated and proved link building's ability to provide traffic and rankings. Link building is becoming popular again, and we all know that the best way to practice effective link building is through blogging.

In addition, local search's popularity has made blogging more appealing to a local audience. There are blogs today that specifically cater to a locality. Blogs, treated as micro websites, have proved their worth to local businesses, making blogging the most effective way of building links and networks.

Local Search Dominance

Global search has become popular over the past few years, but many people choose to concentrate on local search to get more specific results. As local search continues to escalate its way to dominance, the strength of the American local market today can be attributed to the growing number of local search users and the improvement of local SEO methods. The strength of site authority, anchor texts, and traditional link building is evident this year. Behind this strength are the ever-growing Local Listing (e.g. Google Maps Optimization) and SEO Resellers that focus solely on providing and introducing SEO to the local business scene.

About The Author
Warner writes about SEO, Blogging, and Web Development and works with Endless Rise. Endless Rise provides SEO services to SEO Resellers Only. You can become an become an seo reseller today with no cóst or obligation.

Google Has To Bring Together Its Many Assets in New, Meaningful Way

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Even before all of this Google "social layer" talk started, we talked about how Google already had many of the components of a powerful social network - just spread out across different products. Basically, there just hasn't been an effective way of bringing it all together for users.

How would you like to see Google bring it all together? Share your thoughts.

Putting The Pieces Together

It looks like Google is trying to correct that, as various hints have been revealed over the last few months - the navigation bar, the updated profile, and the Google accounts for YouTube users are a few that come quickly to mind.

It appears that Google is more adamantly promoting (or inserting, rather) the Google Profile in more of its services.

MG Siegler points to a note left on the Google Groups message board, saying, "Google Groups-specific profiles will no longer be supported. Instead, you will be able to use the new Google Groups to (optionally) link your new and improved Google profile with your groups. Starting July 1st 2011, you will not be able to make changes to your Groups profile. Your profile information will be available for export from your profile page until November 1st 2011. This change will not affect the nicknames you might have chosen for yourself to participate in groups. It will only affect the custom profile fields, such as your photo, location, and occupation.

One more example of things being more tied together.

Going Public

He also points to the following message in the Google Profiles Help Center, as previously pointed out by The Next Web:

The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don't allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public.

Improving Search?

That's a very significant factor of all of this as well. We have to wonder if this won't backfire in some Google Buzz-like privacy backlash, but it will certainly ensure that content there will be discoverable - by users, and perhaps more importantly to Google - by its search index.

You know how Google won't do much in the way of connecting with your Facebook account? That hurts it in search (one area where Bing has an edge and Facebook itself could become a dangerous threat). Remember when Google CEO Eric Schmidt said they'd find other ways to get that data? This may have been at least part of what he was referring to. Of course that involves people using the profiles, but we'll see how that goes.

Google's Profile Message continues:

Keep in mind that your full name is the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you'll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don't want to share.

If you currently have a private profile but you do not wish to make your profile public, you can delete your profile. Or, you can simply do nothing. All private profiles will be deleted after July 31, 2011.

The Components of a Good Social Network

So let's look at some of the components that when brought together would give Google more of a social network-like experience:

1. Google Buzz - The Newsfeed
2. Google Profiles - The Wall
3. Picasa Web Albums - Photos
4. YouTube - Videos
5. Google Music (pending) - Music
6. Android/The Android Maket - The platform and means to obtain apps usage (including games)
7. Chrome/Chrome OS/Chrome Extensions Gallery/Chrome Web Store - Same as Above
8. Google Latitude - Location-based service/Check-Ins
9. Blogger - Blogs (More open version of Facebook Notes)
10. Gmail - Email, Chat, Video Chat
11. Google Calendar - Event organization
12. Search - important to any social network
13. Google Docs and Google Wave (tech still could appear in other services) - Group collaboration
14. Google Apps - Getting it used internally at businesses and schools
15. Aardvark - Q&A
16. Google Reader - Easily Follow news sources and share links
17. Knol - Wiki-like content to provide information pages about subjects (note: not wiki-exactly, but certainly a competitor to the information pages on Facebook)

The list goes on...

All of this can be expanded upon and promoted in Google's most powerful product - search. Google also continues to rapidly acquire new companies, which will no doubt fuel the strategy even more.

The bringing together of all of these assets in a thoughtful and useful way will be critical, which is probably why it's taking so long. Google's not rushing this, because it could have a huge impact on the company's whole future going forward. Much of it is about staying on the cutting edge of web technology - the biggest area where Google has to compete with Facebook. Facebook is taking away a great deal of engineering talent that might have once gone to Google instead (or in many cases actually came from Google) - much how Google was doing to Microsoft a decade ago.

Google has been criticized for its social efforts a lot over the years. With Larry Page taking the helm again, and reportedly looking to get back to the more startup-like atmosphere that Google had in its early days, there is another fascinating element of which we just don't know the pending impact.

About the Author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Follow WebProNews on Facebook or Twitter. Twitter: @CCrum237

[AdSense] The ads you’ve been searching for: Introducing AdSense Custom Search Ads

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Here at Google we’ve put a lot of work into displaying the best ads on search results pages, and we want your results pages to benefit too. If your site is search-focused -- for example, if your users are looking for jobs, travel, products, or local businesses -- the ads you display can now be targeted to the same search query you use to return results. This means more relevant ads for users, more revenue for publishers, and better value to advertisers. Today we’re excited to share our latest AdSense for search product: Custom Search Ads.

In addition to great targeting, Custom Search Ads are designed to fit your existing search results’ look and feel. Instead of pre-defined sizes, you can specify the precise width of each ad unit along with the number of individual ads to display, the ad layout, font size, font face, and much more. You can take a look at how some of our first publishers are using these today on LemonFree.com or eCrater.com.

With Custom Search Ads, we can rapidly develop and launch new search ad formats and extensions without requiring you to update your search code. For example, on Google’s results pages we’ve been busy testing new search ad extensions to provide users with information like locations, product images, page links, and merchant information. Two of these new formats are available today in Custom Search Ads: Ad Sitelinks and Seller Ratings. Ad Sitelinks extend the value of ads by showcasing up to 4 additional links to specific, relevant content within an advertiser’s site. Seller ratings add star ratings below a merchant’s ad aggregated from review sites across the web. These help highlight ads for merchants highly recommended by online shoppers. As new formats are developed in the future, we’ll continue to bring them to Custom Search Ads so you benefit automatically.

To get started with Custom Search Ads, sign up today! We’re currently only able to accept and support a limited number of publishers, but we’re excited to review your application and expand this program in the future.

Posted by Ben Lisbakken, Software Engineer and Michael Brandell, Product Specialist
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/28/2011 08:30:00 AM

[dremi.INFO] Interactive Ajax Data Management with Codeigniter

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:25:00 +0000

Hi there! this is super fast tutorial, when I was take a rest at the room. Oh god, where is my cofee and PUNK music. Aha!

This tutorial will show to you, how to create Interactive and very fast data management on one page together, without refreshing any page. One thing make this better “You are in codeigniter class of dr.emi” So, enjoy this tutorial.

[Google Adsense] New Interface Wednesdays: Bulk edit

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:16:00 +0000

You might have read in a previous AdSense blog post that opting in to both text and image ads increases the pool of advertisers bidding for your site inventory -- which can in turn increase the amount of revenue you make from AdSense. In the past, changing all your ad units to accept both text and image ads might have taken a lot of time. But now, the new interface allows you to easily find and edit all or some of your ad units with just a few clicks.

Simply go to the 'My ads' tab in the new interface and under 'Content,' choose the 'Ad units' page. Using the checkboxes, select the ad units you’d like to edit, or simply select the checkbox at the top of the list to select all of your ad units. Using the 'Actions' dropdown, select 'Edit ad type.' Choose 'Text & image/rich media ads' and then click 'apply ad type.' Now any ad units that can be opted into both text and image will have this set as their ad type.

We recommend opting your ad units into both text and image to increase auction pressure, ensuring you will get the highest RPM possible. Keep in mind that some units such as link units and certain ad sizes cannot contain image ads, so you will not be able to modify these ad types.

Try it now! Navigate to the new interface and click on the My ads tab, and then 'Content,' followed by 'Ad units.'

Posted by Alex Benton - AdSense Engineer

Top 10 Tips for Using Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 19 May 2010 06:05:00 +0000

When it comes to social media, no one "gets it" as well as Twitter. According to Econsultancy, as of Jan 2010, Twitter has 75 million user accounts, with about 15 million of that total being active users. See "20+ Mind-Blowing Social Media Statistics Revisited". That's a lot of people sending a lot of Tweets. This micro-blogging service makes it easy for small businesses and entrepreneurs to stay in touch with those who choose to follow them, and stay updated on new products, services, specíal offers, industry news and more. It's a win-win for both the Tweeter, and their followers.

When it comes to using Twitter, there's a right way and a wrong way to use it. Your messages must be kept short, under 140 characters, and they need to be helpful or informative. Don't carry on about what you ate for breakfast, or the fact that you just brushed your teeth. People will unfollow you faster than they can hit the button, even if you do have good oral habits.

I've been using Twitter for a long time now and here's what I've found works best when participating in this close knit community of few words.

1) Regular Postings: Now I'm not saying you need to post every day, although that would be nice. You do need to make an appearance on a regular basis. It's like school - you need to show up to pass. Be a contributor that your followers get to really know and look forward to your Tweets. If you're the type of person who needs to plan ahead, you can always use a service that allows you to schedule tweets in advance, such as Socialoomph.com

2) Retweet: If you see Tweets posted by other users that you think your followers would like, then retweet them. It only takes one click, and you'll also be creating goodwill with other Twitter users at the same time. If you'd like, you can add a personal thought or comment before sending it. Also, make it easy for others to retweet your posts by adding RT buttons to your website or blog. It's easy with the TweetMeme Retweet Button.

3) Be Helpful: Keep in mind Twitter is a form of social Media, so social interaction is key. It's not all about you. Whenever a chance arises to answer a question, participate in a survey, or help solve a problem, do so. In this way you're participating in the community. This also will help your brand and image when others know they can count on you for support or feedback.

4) Don't Be A Follow CopyCat: Don't follow everybody who follows you. This is probably my biggest pet peeve when it comes to Twitter. So many people turn this feature on to auto follow those who follow them. Why would you want to do this? I'd prefer that those I follow are people and topics I've hand-selected that interest me, and not a mish-mash of followers who may be ranting about things I have no interest in. Be selective in who you follow or your Twitter stream could quickly fill up with junk or spam. For quality people to follow, see - FollowOnTwitterLists.com.

5) What to Tweet: Make sure that the tweets you post are helpful and/or informative. Late breaking news pertaining to your industry, as well as any specials or sales you may have going on are always good topics. If you find something you think your followers would like, especially if it's free or a bargain, share the love. Plus, if your tweets are good, it will encourage others to retweet them. For ideas see - ArtBizBlog.com

6) Comment: Particpate in the community by commenting on other people's tweets. If you can answer a question, do so. It doesn't hurt and people really will appreciate it when you take the time to comment on what they have to say. It lets them know that others are actually listening to what they have to say in the "Twitterverse".

7) Say Thank You: When someone takes the time to retweet one of your tweets, make sure to reply to them with a "thank you". Manners rule online as well as off, and they'll like the fact that you noticed the retweet and took the time to show some gratitude. It may even inspire them to retweet more of your tweets in the future.

8) Be Personal: Again, I don't need to know what you ate for dinner, but every now and then you should show your human side with a creative thought, quote, or other statement. Let people know you're "real" and not just a lean mean business machine. You want to tread lightly in this area. Too personal is overkill, but a little can help in establishing a connection with your followers.

9) Post Pictures/Video: Remember, Twitter is not just for text. It's easy to post short videos, and pictures too. It's nice to mix it up a little and share content in other formats as well. Here are some resources - Video Sharing Websites for Twitter.

10) Talk About More Than Yourself: It's not all about you, so please don't make all your tweets one big marketing message, such as only tweeting about your latest press release, blog posting, or article that was published. No one will want to follow you if you're one big commercial. Yes, some of this is fine in moderation, but you need to walk a fine line and mix it up with other helpful, interesting topics.

Now it's time to start putting these tips into action. Social media is all about participating and listening to what others have to say. It's all about creating and sharing information and becoming part of the community. If you approach Twitter in this fashion, you'll not only have a lot more fun, but your followers will like and respect you - and if that doesn't strengthen your brand, nothing will.

About The Author
Merle's Mission Blog - "Rants, Raves and Random Acts of Kindness". A self-proclaimed "Internet Junkie" with a passion for net marketing, affiliate marketing, and social networking. An avid Blogger and writer with several niche sites. Find out more at merlesworld.blogspot.com . Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/msmerle

Ten Top Tips for Video Marketing Your Online Business

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:35:00 +0000

Nearly all internet marketing professionals use video as one of the core methods for marketing their business. These ten tips aim to help you get started creating short, attractive, effective videos based on solid keywords that convert and that stand the test of time.

Video grabs people's attention far more quickly and effectively than text, audio or photographs. Making a short video can capture a thousand words and pictures and helps to get across your personal brand and lifestyle.

It's important to stand out in the crowd on video channels and search engines. Aim your headlines at capturing the imagination regarding your topic. So don't be dull - test out curiosity, shock or fun tactics for getting those download clícks.
First of all, get set up.

When you're starting out, it's ok to just use your webcam. It will give you the chance to practice while you're honing your presentation skills before you fork out for a camcorder. When you're ready, you can purchase an inexpensive digital video recorder, like say the Flip and a tripod.

Make sure you take your videos in well-lit conditions. Inside your office you'll need decent lighting, or you can whip out your camera when you're out and about. It makes for a much more interesting back drop.

OK. So now let's go through each of my TOP 10 TIPS for creating and using videos to market your business.

#1: Keep Your Videos Short

Whether you're loading videos on YouTube or just putting them up on your website or blog, it's really important to keep to just 5 or 6 minutes.

If needed, you can of course break longer topics up into a series of smaller videos, which you could market as a series (see tip 10).

#2: Post Videos on Your Sales PagesM

You can use video on your sales page to introduce the main benefits of your product or business opportuníty. How about placing a video on your sales page or sign up pages.

This helps to orientate visitors and to highlight the main points of your regular, written sales letter.

#3: Choose Your Keywords Carefully

This is really an important tip, because it will affect how your video gets picked up by the search engines and other internet 'bots' that seek out content.

Research your top keyword phrases. Pick keywords that will attract the right kind of traffic and leads - research like crazy to find out what your prospects are looking for - and be sure to include your keywords in headings and tags and description boxes.

Doing this research and tracking clíck thrus (CTR) and conversions will help you secure your most cost-effective keywords and keyword phrases.

#4: Have a Clear Purpose & Structure

Your keywords will help make sure you target your video on the right purpose before you start. Does your video answer the questions your visitors have in their heads when they're searching for solutions. Make things crystal clear.

Stay on topic and give added value - unique value if possible - and your videos will convert much better for you. Write down a structure - a set of headings - for what you're going to cover. Have a script if necessary.

You can mention any links that you have to another video specifically on that related topic.

#5: Look at the Camera

The aim here is to connect with your audience, both in the topic you choose and the content as well as in your communication style. Remember you are talking to people - real live people. What are their needs and wants, hopes and fears.

With regards to presentation, stick your líst of headings right next to the camera so you stay looking in the camera at all times, rather than looking away at a screen or down at your notes.

An authentic and honest video is far more valuable than a glossy TV like broadcast. So don't worry if you're not up to TV presenter standards. Just be yourself and enjoy the opportuníty to reach out to people in a different way than using text copy.

#6: Create a Clear Call to Action

You should create one very clear service and call to action. It's very important that people know exactly what to do as a result of watching your video.

What is your most wanted response (MWR)? Don't confuse visitors with lots of options and different offers. Focus on the single most wanted response.

Alternatively, you can put your video up next to a sign up box - linked to your emaíl marketing - and clearly ask them to opt ín, more than once. Provide an incentive, such as a free report or further video coaching resources.

#7: Encourage Comments on Your Video

One of the best things about video is that it's a very personal, social medium. The more people that are talking about your video and passing it on, the more buzz you'll create.

Visitors may return to your page to see who has commented since their last comment. There may accumulate a whole líst of tips that have been created by your niche community, prompted by your initial video post.

About The Author
Jay Allyson escaped the job rat race. She is Mum to two wonderful children and has run a business from home since 2004. She is an Internet marketing coach and wealth consultant, teaching people to make significant revenue in 12 months, part-time or full-time. Find out more at: http://www.JayAllyson.com and http://GetRichLifestyle.com

Social Media and Conan O'Brien

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 09:29:00 +0000

The way I see it, NBC has little chance of survival in the next ten years. They've proven themselves so caught up in the normal TV schedule way of thinking that they fail to understand their audience, what little of it is left.

Their lack of knowledge about social media, how it's formed and how it can control the conversation is part of their failure in this situation and may very well be part of their failure as an organization.

Conan O'Brien on the other hand was able to harness the internet and social media to make a stand and, in the end, become more famous than he ever was before.

I'm going to explain this slowly, for the folks at NBC, if they are reading this. Let's think of Conan O'Brien & Jay Leno as a brand, and that the internet is the next big media thing, where there will be millions and millions of Americans making decisions about their life based on what they read on the internet. When people run a search on this website called GOOGLE, they get thousands of pages of choices that they can read about the topic in which they are interested. That perhaps in the future, someday, consumers and people who watch television (aren't they the same?) will be able to type in "Conan vs Jay" and get real time results that help shape their thinking about the subject, and therefore create brand identification and/or brand alienation depending on what happens.

Now for the rest of us, who understand Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization and a bunch of other three word phrases with Affiliate, Marketing, Search and Interactive in them, here is some more high level explaining.

NBC, as a company, is still very much focused on Television being the predominant source of entertainment in the next ten years and hasn't done much thinking beyond that. Despite paying people like Jay & Conan ridiculous amounts of money, their audience base plummeted each year as more and more people turned to independent internet entertainment. So they did not consided exactly what might happen, if they started to make changes in their schedule, move Jay Leno back to his previous slot and basically kick Conan to the curb.

Jay Leno, as funny as he might have been, isn't exactly a representative of a modern, fast-paced, growing generation. He might get some people to stay up and watch the news before falling asleep during his monologue - but on the whole, no one can say he has his finger on the pulse of... well... anything.

You say, and perhaps the executives of NBC say, "we need to prop up our affiliates and their news shows, before we lose them." So what? Television as a medium is on the way out, or at least changing. I don't know anyone who actually watches the news at 11, let alone cares that Jay or Conan are right after it. The news has no relevance, since most of us have already learned about it 6 hours earlier from some blog or websites. As for humor and jokes, we've already spent most of the day on YouTube instead of doing our job, watching some kid falling down five flights of steps while eating a cheeseburger. Jay Leno isn't going to keep our attention for more than one minute, while we wonder what his chin would like in 3-D.

So, what does this have to do with marketing? First of all, Conan O'Brien has managed to come out looking cleaner than a toothbrush at a Palin family reunion. When you google results regarding his dispute with Leno, you find tons of commentary and articles supporting him, putting him out there as the champion of the people, the underdog, the teabagger of comics.

While it's more than likely he will just appear on another network, there is also a chance that he will take this momentum and create something completely unique on the internet. Anything he does on the internet will immediately be covered with millions of links, tweets and AIMs - all pointing to his new project. With the NBC money that he is walking away with, he could easily just make his own website, his own comedy channel, his own comedy network and become very wealthy on just the buzz surrounding his name.

I sincerely believe that Conan knew exactly what was going to happen, and used the internet to his advantage. Many of his writers and publicity team are very modern, having grown up on the internet. They knew that if they needed good publicity they would only have to turn to the internet in order to get the point across.

They used social media to covertly create "I'm with CoCo" groups while at the same time constantly making sure there was new "buzz" to pass around on twitter. From posts on Craigslist of Conan selling himself to the highest bidder for favors to late night tweets from the writing staff to their fan base, they knew that they could always win the war with an audience - that frankly is a lot more internet savvy than the Leno fan base.

Anyone engaged in social media marketing, needs to look closely at how Conan did this, how he made it seem to be organic and natural and then allowed it to seemingly take its own course. He knew how to create buzz, but more importantly content for internet buzz fodder. He knew that the one-liners that could be posted on Twitter were a thousand times more powerful than any ten minute monologue that could be spoken by ...urhmm... that other guy.

About The Author
In perhaps the fastest growing industry ever, one person has made a name for himself as a leader and innovator. Pace Lattin, the publisher of the top newsletters in new media and online advertising, is one of the inventors of many of the technologies and methods that have become standards in the industry. He has been called many things, including a rabble-rouser, a guru, an innovator and a watchdog -- but one thing stays the same: he is one of the most interesting leaders and commentators in the online advertising industry. Marketing Sherpa, a leading marketing research publication called him the most influential journalist in online media for a reason. IndustryPace.com

Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:03:00 +0000

By Duncan Wierman (c) 2009
Real Estate internet marketing is like any other kind of marketing, you're trying to reach a niche market and must plan accordingly. You have to start by identifying your target market in order to develop your message conveying exactly the kind of high value business proposition which your niche will respond to.

The first steps are to:

1) Identify your target market; start with geo targeting and work with the demographics from there.

2) Decide how you want to be perceived by this target market and decide how you'll foster this
perception.

3) Identify and refine your value proposition.

Does Your Site Stand Out or Stand Still!

Once you've done this, the next step is to develop and distribute your value proposition, making sure that your value proposition is perceived by your target market exactly as intended. In marketing, shaping consumer perception isn't just the most important thing: it's everything.

You have to start by positioning yourself to be perceived in a specific way; from here, you'll need to maintain, develop, grow or alter this market position as you deem necessary.

The real challenge is putting these principles into action:

Driving Traffic

There are some important principles of traffic generation you need to understand in order to be successful at bringing visitors into your website.

There are both principles and rules of traffic generation; principles have to do with your approach to the task and the rules are the practical nuts and bolts of driving traffic. You need to have an understanding of the larger picture before you can successfully put the practical techniques into action.

What you'll usually see a lot of is the techniques alone. While this is still valuable information, you probably won't get far with these techniques if you aren't versed in the underlying principles of traffic generation.

These are the most important principles of traffic generation:

• Traffic generation isn't a black art - it's something which largely relies on common sense and methods which can be replicated with consistent results.

• The reason people usually fail in their traffic generation efforts is that they don't truly commit to making traffic generation techniques a fully integrated part of their business strategy.

• You need to create a plan for driving traffic. Think of it as a road map; follow it, but remember that it's not carved in stone. Your plan can and should evolve to reflect your real life experience and results.

[Get 1,000 Visitors for $9.99!]

• Continually test and track the results of your traffic generation efforts - and adjust your plan accordingly.

• Set goals for yourself and as you meet them, raise the bar; traffic generation is a process, not a single objective.

• Don't be discouraged if you don't see results immediately.

• Remember that driving traffic begins with building your site - Why is this? Because your site should be built from the ground up with visitors in mind. Look at other sites in your industry to gain an understanding of patterns of visitor behavior.

See what these other sites are doing; don't hesitate to take a page from your competition's playbook if you see something which is working for them.

This is where things can become challenging; it's something like standing in Grand Central Station at rush hour with a megaphone, trying to be heard above the noise of the crowd. The goal here is to get the attention of your target market and get them to come to your site.

All business is arbitrage. You're taking something which is cheap (to you, at least) and exchanging it for something of higher value - buy low, sell high.

[Video: Your Website on Google's First Result Page!]

For example, SEO and other free traffic generation strategies essentially trade your time for traffic which is of higher value to you; this value may be measured directly in monetary terms or in other means (for instance, as signups to a list). The same is true of paid methods of driving traffic like PPC advertising; you're paying what you deem to be a small amount for something else which you see as more valuable.

If you've been reading carefully so far, you may have noticed that I haven't said a word about being indexed by the search engines; that's because this falls under the heading of techniques, not the principles of traffic generation. While you do of course want to be indexed, this isn't your primary objective - and it's something which will happen naturally as you work to drive traffic using other strategies.

Don't lose sleep over the search engine crawlers; they will come sooner or later. Remember that even once your site is indexed, there's no assurance that visitors will follow. Focusing on being indexed is losing sight of the forest for the trees. This will happen anyway as a side effect of using other traffic generation methods. What you should be focused on is getting targeted traffíc to your site. For instance, if you exchange links with another site (or even a directory) relevant to your industry, the search engine crawlers will follow these links when indexing this other site and voila! Your site will be indexed.

What you need to do is to let the web know that your site is there while simultaneously driving targeted traffíc. The best way to do so is to create links to your site from other sites; not only do these result in your site being indexed, but back links are great SEO and of course, they can generate traffic directly through visitor clicks.

Read the rest of Duncan's article at SiteProNews.com
"Website Traffic Generation Planning and Methodologies"

About The Author
Duncan Wierman is an Ex Software company CEO turned Real Estate Investor and Marketer. Discover how to outsmart your competitor, ethically dominate the search engines, and legally siphon off tons of cash in hand buyers from your website! Get a customized Free report on what is wrong with your website! InternetMarketingConsultingGroup.com

40+ Absolutely Stylish & Creative Hand-picked Wallpapers

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:22:00 +0000

Wallpapers can be creative, inspiring and elegant. If you are looking to add some creativity and inspiration to your life, you probably need a desktop wallpaper that inspires you to create something creative and original. Today we present 40 stunning wallpapers created by some hard-working and dedicated designers. In this post we present creative desktop wallpapers related to art, photoshop, wallpapers-illustrations, abstract design and other great types of wallpapers including nature and amazing Video Game Remake Wallpapers. They are definitely worth a look.

- Aurora Borealis

- Bokeh

- In A Whisper

- Earth 2049 – The End

- Aurora Aquantic Wallpaper

- Growing Aurora Wallpaper Pack1

8 wallpapers on three differente resolutions: 1920×1200, 1600×1200 and 1280×1024.

- Tropical Moon

- Frozen Galaxy

- My wallpaper.

- twitter is not a chat wallpaper

- Windows Seven … 7

- April Wallpaper

- Cat fojofijo

- Antarctic Iceberg

- Loading

- Studio83® Hope Wallpaper

- White letter Mess

- Good Vibrations

- DSGN for Desktopography 3

- Fantasy Art Scenery

- Puss In Boots

- by National Geographic

- blue

- robert

- Destiny

- ace Lighthouse

- 3D Wooden Wall

- Amazing Lego Wallpaper

- Mario World

- Chip

Worth Checking Wallpaper Roundups

- A collection of High quality Wallpapers

- 35 gorgeous black wallpapers

- Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2009

Author: http://www.noupe.com/wallpaper/40-creative-wallpapers.html

40+ Extremely Beautiful Icon Sets Hand-picked from deviantART

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:20:00 +0000

The web is rich with creative and amazing icon sets, and one of the most unusual source of amazing Icons Sets are those you can find on deviantART icons gallery. Today we would like to present 40 incredible icon sets which you can use for your web designs or your desktop. Let’s take a close look at some of the most beautiful icon sets we’ve found on deviantART. Some amazing Icon Sets are missing? Let us know!

1) Realistic Icons - 3 Icons in PNG + ICO format.

2) Onibari light - Formats are Png’s,Ico’s and Icns’s…

3) Leopar’d IconPackager - An IconPackage for Apple’s new Leopard theme.

4) Adobe CS 2.0 Grande Icon Set- This is the large set of Adobe Creative Suite Icons.

5) Glossy Member Icons - Glossy Member Icons…4 PNG Files…Easy to change colors…

6) Oxygen- Are as light and airy as their name suggests. Beautiful transparency effects make these icons stylish, graceful, and especially gorgeous set against a dark background.

7) iPhone Pack- iPhone icon pack (

Phone, Text, Chat, iPod, Notes, System)

8 ) isabi - Includes icons for most Adobe applications, Microsoft Office 2008 as well as a few extras in 16, 32, 48, 128, 256 and 512 pixel sizes.

9) Helix icons

10) Prostor_icons

11) Shopping Basket Icons 3D

12) TextEdit - A replacement icon for TextEdit, Notepad.

13) Paper Clip - icon size 512×512px in png

14) Icon for Transformers

15) Aeon

16) ALL ICONS pack “limewire…”- 500*500 PIXELS – LEOPARD AND VISTA

17) Adobe CS3 full pack- 256×256 png. & ico.

18) AccBox

19) Apple Mail Icons

20) Windows Icons V1 - Custom Windows XP / Vista Icon pack.

21) HP Dock Icon Set- Light Icons Set. Simple and clean for the websites.

22) iConPack

23) Puck Icons Pack II

24) Eternal Black

25) Yeti Box 2

26) Grzanka’s Icons- Icons 128×128 – made in Photoshop – completly in Vector Masks with Layer Style Effects

27) ICON: EverGreen

28) Drop Box Icon

29) Address Book Moded Icon

30) Documents Icon

31) Ferrari Gauge

32) KIDAUBIS CHINESE WIND ICON

33) Light Icons- Light Icons Set. Simple and clean for the websites.

34) iVaizard

35) iLeopard Icon Pack SE

36) Yoritsuki icons

37) Mailbox Icon - Includes both icon and png format in 512px size.

38) iTunes Dock Icons- 512×512 px.

39) D-Squared 2008

40) Site Works

Author: http://www.noupe.com/wallpaper/40-creative-wallpapers.html

Discussing PHP Frameworks: What, When, Why and Which?

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:17:00 +0000

What is a PHP Framework?

PHP is the world’s most popular scripting language for many different reasons – flexibility, ease-of-use, among others – but often times coding in PHP, or any language for that matter, can get rather monotonous and repetitive. That’s where a PHP framework can help.

What is a PHP Framework?

PHP is the world’s most popular scripting language for many different reasons – flexibility, ease-of-use, among others – but often times coding in PHP, or any language for that matter, can get rather monotonous and repetitive. That’s where a PHP framework can help.

PHP frameworks streamline the the development of web applications written in PHP by providing a basic structure for which to build the web applications. In other words, PHP frameworks help to promote rapid application development (RAD), which saves you time, helps build more stable applications, and reduces the amount of repetitive coding for developers. Frameworks can also help beginners to build more stable apps by ensuring proper database interaction and coding on the presentation layer. This allows you to spend more time creating the actual web application, instead of spending time writing repetitive code.

The general idea behind the workings of a PHP framework is referred to as Model View Controller (MVC). MVC is an architectural pattern in programming that isolates business logic from the UI, allowing one to be modified separately from the other (also known as separation of concerns). With MVC, Model refers to data, View refers to the presentation layer, and Controller to the application or business logic. Basically, MVC breaks up the development process of an application, so you can work on individual elements while others are unaffected. Essentially, this makes coding in PHP faster and less complicated.

Why Should we use a PHP Framework?

Developers should utilize PHP frameworks for various reasons, but the number one reason is for speeding up the development process. Reusing code across similar projects will save the developer a substantial amount of time and effort. A framework offers pre-built modules for performing tedious coding tasks, so the developer can spend their time on developing the actual application rather than re-building the foundation with each and every project.

Stability is another big reason developers are utilizing frameworks. While simplicity is one of PHP’s greatest assets, and the reason many people prefer to use this scripting language, it can also be one of its biggest downfalls. It’s fairly easy, especially for beginners, to write bad code and not even realize it. With PHP the application will often times still work, but unknowingly you may have opened up a large security hole in your coding that may be susceptible to attacks. It’s important to remember that PHP is a very forgiving language, so it’s even more important to make sure to tie up any loose ends in your coding – even if the application seems to be working properly.

Finally, the availability of PHP frameworks is extensive, and there are many different frameworks to choose from. You can even create your own, although many developers elect to choose from any of the most well-known frameworks due to their popularity, large support teams, and their forums/communities that allow you to interact with other developers who utilize the same framework. As a side note, you should always examine your project to first decide if you should even use a framework or not. Some questions you should ask yourself are: Will it save you, and anyone else who may use it, time and effort? Will the app perform better? Will it improve stability? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, a PHP framework may be the right answer for that particular project.

When to use a PHP Framework?

This is a common question amongst experienced and beginner developers alike, and there’s really no direct answer to the question. For many beginners, a framework will offer greater simplicity as well stability, so it may be a good idea to use PHP frameworks whenever possible. It will help reduce or eliminate bad coding and speed up the build process.

On the other hand, many experienced PHP programmers see frameworks as tools for “weak” programmers that don’t understand how to write good, clean code. Whether this is true or not is up for debate, but the fact of the matter is that PHP frameworks are a tool that can be used to save time and tighten up one’s coding.

When working on a project with tight deadlines, utilizing a PHP framework is a huge benefit that can greatly speed up the coding process. So if you’re in a time crunch, PHP frameworks can be very beneficial to you. Another instance when PHP frameworks should be a consideration is when you’re working on projects with substantial amounts of monotonous coding, because it will help make the job much less tedious.

What to Look for in a PHP Framework?

There’s plenty of options available to anyone who may be searching for PHP frameworks, and there’s even the option of creating your own, although that’s only recommended for PHP experts. When searching for the the PHP framework best suited for your needs, it’s important to keep in mind who will be using and/or modifying your applications from top to bottom. If there are many people who will be using the application, it may be best use a popular PHP framework that many developers are familiar with. On the other hand, if you wish to build web applications for your own personal use, you are better off choosing any PHP framework that you’re comfortable with – whether it’s popular amongst the developer community or not.

Various factors to search for in a PHP framework include: easy of use, rapid development/performance, popularity amongst other developers, strong features, and support/forums. It’s recommended to try out several PHP frameworks when you’re first starting out in order to find one that suits your needs the best. All frameworks are slightly different and have varying strengths and weaknesses, for instance Zend Framework has been around since V3 and is full of features plus has an extensive support system in place since it has been around for so long. On the contrary, CakePHP is another PHP framework which is younger than Zend Framework and has slightly less of a support system in place (although support for this framework is growing rapidly), but is much more user-friendly and easy to use.

As you can see, each type of PHP framework has its own advantages, so it’s best to use a bit of trial and error to figure out which one will work the best for your needs. Another excellent way of choosing a framework is to consult your colleagues in the development community to see which ones they prefer. Those who have actually used a specific framework will be able to inform you of the ease-of-use, features, support availability, scope of the community surrounding the framework, and possible shortfalls.

Most Common Mistakes When Using a PHP Framework

Mistakes are possible in any type of programming, but PHP frameworks help to limit these mistakes greatly by providing good quality code that is tried and true from the start of the development process. Repetitive coding seems to promote mistakes now and then, and frameworks all but eliminate that problem.

That being said, there are still things to be careful of when utilizing any PHP framework. For instance, unless you are an expert in PHP programming, you should always opt for using a popular framework with plenty of support and an active user base (see below for examples of popular PHP frameworks). There are many frameworks out there that have little or no support, and/or they were created by individuals with limited knowledge of PHP. These types of frameworks can cause your applications to not function properly, and worse case scenario, could cause catastrophic security issues with your website.

Another somewhat common mistake is not ensuring your database and web server is compatible with the particular framework. For example, Seagull PHP Framework recommends the following configuration:

PHP: PHP 4.3.0 is the minimum, later versions work fine, as do versions PHP 5.1.1 and above. Avoid anything in the 5.0.x series

MySQL: MySQL 4.0.x, 4.1.x and 5.0.x are all supported. You can also use 3.23.x.

Apache: Seagull works fine with 1.3.x and 2.x series of Apache

If you don’t meet these requirements, you won’t be observing the best performance possible from your chosen framework. Even if you are an expert in PHP, you should always go over the documentation of the framework to confirm compatibility before trying it out.

Similar to the previously mentioned common mistake, not following the recommended installation process of your PHP framework can also give you some headaches. Take Seagull as an example again – the Seagull wiki has a detailed rundown of the framework’s installation process that has several key steps that are sometimes easily overlooked by careless or unsuspecting developers. The key is to take your time setting up the framework and follow the installation instructions to the “T” – The time you’ll save actually developing applications later will more than make up for the few extra minutes spent installing the framework correctly the first time.

What are the Best PHP Frameworks Available?

Within the past few years as PHP has evolved as the scripting language of choice by most developers, there have been an explosion of PHP frameworks to hit the scene. There is a great debate about what the best PHP frameworks are, because the simple fact is that not every framework is built for everyone. Here’s a quick rundown of five of the best and most popular choices right now:

The Zend Framework

The Zend Framework has a massive following amongst the development community and is focused on web 2.0 style applications. Because of their massive following, extensive support and active user base, Zend is referred to as “The PHP Company”. Zend is one of, if not, the most popular PHP frameworks available today. It has robust features that are built for corporate-level development, and it requires an extensive knowledge of PHP.

CakePHP

CakePHP is a great choice for beginners to advanced PHP developers. It’s based on the same principles that Ruby on Rails is designed around, and it’s heavily focused on rapid development – making it a great framework to be used for rapid application development. Its rapidly growing support system, simplicity, and scalability make CakePHP one of the most popular PHP frameworks available today.

Symfony

Symfony is aimed more at advanced developers who’s main objective is to create enterprise-level applications – most notably Askeet and Yahoo! Bookmarks. This open source PHP framework is full of features and can do it all, but it’s main downfall is that it is a bit slower than other frameworks.

Codelgniter

Codelgniter is well-known for its ease-of-use, performance and speed. Unlike Symfony, this PHP framework is ideal for shared hosting accounts or for when you want a framework with a small footprint. It offers simple solutions, and has an extensive library of video tutorials, forums, a user guide and wiki available for support. Beginners should consider using Codelgniter.

Seagull

Seagull is a well-established PHP framework used for building web, command line and GUI apps. It is an extremely easy to use framework that is ideal for beginners to advanced coders. For beginners, Seagull features a library of sample applications that can be customized to fit your needs, and for experts, Seagull offers a host of options – including best practices, standards, and modular codebase – for building web applications quickly and easily. Seagull has an active developer community and plenty of support documentation in place as well.

Summary

PHP frameworks are a great way for developers of all skill levels to reduce the need for repetitive coding, speed up the development process, and to ensure proper coding when creating web applications. This not only speeds up the development of rich applications, but it also tightens up PHP security by reducing the risk of security holes in your coding.

While some expert PHP coders do not feel the need to use frameworks to develop web apps, they can still be an advantage in situations where rapid development is necessary, such as under tight deadlines. And for beginner to intermediate developers, frameworks can enhance the PHP learning process while promoting good coding practices and reducing bad coding, which is common in PHP due to its “forgiving” nature.

There are many PHP frameworks available today, and thus developers are sure to find a framework that fits there needs in terms of features, support, speed, scalability and more. Some of the top PHP frameworks used by developers today include: The Zend Framework, CakePHP, Symfony, Codelgniter, and Seagull.

Author: Joel Reyes

Joel Reyes Has been designing and coding web sites for several years, this has lead him to be the creative mind behind Looney Designer a design resource and portfolio site that revolves around web and graphic design.

Write for Us! We are looking for exciting and creative articles, if you want to contribute, just send us an email.

Ten Simple Rules for Choosing the Perfect CMS + Excellent Options

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:16:00 +0000

The content management system you choose can really make a huge difference in how much time you (or your clients) spend keeping a site updated and maintained. There’s a huge variety out there—some estimates put the number at around 1700 different options. Some are great…some, not so much.

Below are ten useful guidelines to consider when choosing a CMS, followed by rundowns on ten great CMS options available and how they stack up based on the guidelines.

Ten Simple Guidelines for Choosing the Perfect CMS

1. The CMS you choose should be really good at whatever the main function of your website is.

What do you want your website to do? Is it going to be primarily a static website, like an online brochure? Or is it going to be a fully-functioning ecommerce site? Or maybe it’s going to be really media-heavy with tons of videos, photos, and audio files. Or is a blog going to be the primary focus?

Whatever your site’s primary function is going to be, you need to define it and then find a CMS that does that particular thing really, really well. If blogging is the main focus of the site, then use a blog platform. If images and video are the main focus, then you need to find a CMS that either has great support for media built-in or has great plugins for enabling those functions. If your site is going to focus on an online store, then the platform you choose needs to be able to seamlessly integrate that online store without a ton of extra work.

2. A CMS needs to work intuitively.

When you average user opens up the backend of the site, they should be able to figure out how to do basic functions without too much instruction. Different elements of the site should be clearly labeled. The basics of posting a new page, editing a page, and even changing themes or sidebar elements should all be relatively simple to figure out for the average computer user.

3. The backend needs to be standardized.

Things should all work basically the same way in the backend of the site. A good CMS should have a standardized format for each section of the backend. If one section uses a drop-down menu for selecting something, then all of the other sections should use the same type of menu for similar options—not radio buttons or some other selector.

The same goes for the way things are named or otherwise referred to. If something is called a “page” in one place and a “post” in another, that’s going to get confusing (plus, most people consider those two different things). If it’s a “sidebar” in one place and a “second column” somewhere else, that’s going to confuse your average user.

4. The backend needs to be logical and well-organized.

Things should be laid out logically in the backend. This means that all of the functions related to editing, or sidebars, or themes, or creating new content, should be grouped somehow or otherwise function the same. Alternatively, some CMSs put all of the things related to pages in one place, sidebars in another, plugins in another, etc. Either way, they’re laid out logically and once you know the basic architecture, it’s easy enough to figure out where things are supposed to be.

5. The right CMS shouldn’t have a ton of extra functionality you’ll never use.

This is a completely personal choice. Some sites will make use of tons of advanced functionality. Other sites won’t. If you’re never going to have an online store, why do you need a CMS that focuses on ecommerce? If you never plan to do anything beyond posting photos to your site, why have a CMS that does that plus a hundred other things? Instead, find a CMS that does the one thing you want to do really well and forget about the other features.

6. The right CMS should be easy for non-geeks to use.

Web designers and developers are very good at using web-based applications and pretty much anything else computer-related. A lot of their clients, on the other hand, probably aren’t. While most of the end-users of any CMS are going to have at least basic computer knowledge, they’re probably not super tech savvy. While you might love a particular CMS and think it’s the best thing since solid-state hard drives, your clients might find it confusing, hard to use, and overly complicated.

The question I always ask myself when considering this is, “Could my mother use this?” My mother is your typical business computer user. She can do spreadsheets, word processing, and email, but she’s definitely not a techy. If I’m confident that I could easily explain a CMS to her and she’d then be able to use it with a minimum of later support, then I know it’s going to be appropriate for 90% of other likely users.

7. It needs to include a WYSIWYG editor.

WYSIWYG editors make life easier for your clients. Most clients don’t know HTML and don’t care to learn. But they want to be able to use bold or italic text or use header tags to create sections within their pages. A WYSIWYG editor makes that all possible for non-tech-savvy users.

8. The pages it creates should be fast-loading and have simple code.

One of the major advantages of a CMS is that it simplifies the updating and management of a website. So the pages it produces should also be simple. There shouldn’t be a lot of extra code or provisions for unused functionality in the final page code. All that serves to do is slow the load times for the page and increase the likelihood that something will render wrong or throw an error.

9. The template engine should allow you complete creative control.

Some CMSs have very set ideas about what a website should look like. There needs to be a sidebar for navigation. You shouldn’t use navigation dropdowns. The content has to be arranged in nice, neat columns. Who’s the designer here? Whatever CMS you choose should let you design pages the way you want and should work around your needs.

10. The right CMS should have adequate support and documentation.

In all likelihood, you’re going to run into some sort of problems with any CMS you choose. Whether this is caused by add-ons or in the course of customizing some bit of code, or whether the CMs is doing something unexpected, having somewhere you can turn to to get advice on how to fix the problem is invaluable.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be some expensive tech support phone number or other paid support. Sometimes you can get quicker and better responses from a user community. Does the CMS you’re considering have support forums frequented both by other users and by those involved in the project? Are there other, off-site forums dedicated to that particular CMS? The people who visit these forums can be a wealth of information for doing just about anything with your CMS of choice.

Thorough documentation for the CMS is also valuable. It should provide information on everything from basic use of the CMS to customizations and advanced functionality. In addition to being complete, it should also be easy to understand and accurate (which can be hard to determine until you actually delve into doing some of what it suggests).

Ten Excellent CMS Options

1. WordPress

WordPress has morphed from a basic blogging platform into a fully-functioning CMS. WordPress’ primary functionality is still blogging, though with plugins it’s capable of doing everything from brochure sites to portfolio and gallery sites to fully-featured ecommerce sites. For the most part, WordPress’ backend is intuitive to use, with different functions laid out based on different sections of the site (appearance, posts, pages, etc.) The way things work in the backed, though, is very standardized and once you’re used to doing things in one section, it’s easy enough to figure them out in every other section. Likewise, it’s also well organized and finding where to perform different functions is very straight-forward in most cases. The WYSIWYG editor provides all the basic functions you could need, including inserting images, video, and other media, and makes it easy to toggle back and forth between HTML and Visual mode.

Because a lot of WP’s functionality comes from plugins, the basic platform is pretty simple, with support for pages, posts, and other standard content that will be used on the vast majority of sites. You only need to add plugins as you need their functionality, meaning there isn’t a whole lot of unused “stuff” in the core installation. WP is also simple enough to use for non-geeks (my mother has no problem with it and she’s running a complete ecommerce site with WP) and the different user permissions means it’s harder for users to break things (just limit their access to things like themes and plugins).

WP is also completely standards-compliant. The pages it creates are simple and quick-loading. Of course, some plugins create not-so-small pages, especially those that put JavaScript and CSS right into the page instead of in separate files. Just be aware of this when checking out plugins.

WP really makes it possible to design pages however you see fit. From galleries to text-heavy sites and pretty much anything in between, WP can do it through the use of custom themes and page templates.

Where WP really shines, though, is in it’s documentation. The WordPress Codex is massive, covering everything from basic instructions for use to creating your own plugins and working with advanced features. WP also has active forums where you can generally find fixes for any problems you might encounter from other users.

2. Radiant CMS

Radiant is built on Ruby on Rails. It’s really good at building basic sites with an unlimited number of pages. Blogging and gallery functionality can be added through extensions. The backend is simple and logically laid out, with pages, snippets, and layouts as the primary sections. Functions work pretty much the same no matter which section you’re in.

Currently, Radiant is rather limited in its functionality, so it’s unlikely you’ll end up with any unneeded functions. Extensions can be built in Ruby On Rails, though, opening up huge possibilities for future functionality. The WYSIWYG editor is basic but allows users to perform all of the basic functions.

Radiant has an extremely easy-to-use backend. Basic functions like updating and add pages are really no more complicated than sending an email. This makes it a great solution for clients who aren’t at all tech-savvy. The code Radiant produces is simple and clean.

Pages can be built to look pretty much however you want based on a combination of snippets you create. There also appears to be an active developer community with extensive documentation for developers. End-user documentation is a bit light, but it’s such simple to use CMS that it’s not really a big issue.

3. SilverStripe

SilverStripe is a full-featured CMS that’s capable of just about anything you want it to do. It’s built in PHP on the Sapphire framework, making it more customizable. One of SilverStripe’s most interesting features is that designers can customize the backend for each of their clients, only showing content fields the clients actually need to access. This makes it potentially one of the easiest-to-use CMSs for geeks and non-geeks alike. And of course it includes a WYSIWYG editor.

SilverStripe is probably overkill for most very basic websites, but because of its ability to be customized, it’s appropriate for most other sites. SilverStripe also provides tons of great, free support, including documentation for both developers and end-users, forums and an IRC channel. SilverStripe makes a point to stay out of the HTML/CSS portion of your site, making it possible to design pages to look however you want.

4. Joomla!

Joomla is widely considered to be the most popular open-source CMS currently available. It runs on PHP and MySQL. The backend is relatively simple and straightforward, with sections for managing articles, the front page, menus, media, and other content. There’s also a link to create a new article to save time. Drop-down menus also give more options for those and other sections (including extensions). Joomla’s WYSIWYG editor includes tons of formatting options—even emoticons.

Joomla is pretty powerful, so it’s another CMS probably not well-suited to very simple sites, where it would have a lot of excess functionality. It includes a number of provisions to make pages load faster, including caching and GZIP page compression. Joomla also has a huge list of plugins available to extend its functionality, making it appropriate for just about any kind of site requiring advanced functionality. One of the biggest drawbacks of Joomla, though, is it’s use of tables for layout. While there are workarounds to replace the tables with CSS, it might not be worth the effort considering how many other CMSs don’t use tables to begin with.

5. TYPOlight

TYPOlight uses PHP5 and Ajax and includes functionality for static pages, blogs, newsletters, and calendars, among other sections. The backend is intuitive while still offering a ton of functionality. There are shortcuts for doing everything from creating forms to including Flash content. Content is displayed within modules, which can be styled with CSS. The output is accessible XHTML Strict. It also offers mootools and GZip support.

TYPOlight may be a bit overwhelming for those who aren’t at least a little bit tech-savvy. It’s not that it’s complicated; just that there’s a lot of options and a lot of different ways to customize it. It does include a complete WYSIWYG editor and other tools to make publishing content simple. The interface is intuitive if you take a minute to look over what’s there and everything is laid out logically. Again, it’s just that there’s a lot of information in there!

TYPOlight does include some nice developer tools, including a built-in CSS generator and a form generator. There’s plenty of documentation on the site for both developers and end-users. There are screencasts, forums, and a wiki for support. There are also options for paid support through TYPOlight partners in case you (or your clients) really need advanced help.

6. Frog

Frog is basically a PHP-based version of Radiant CMS (mentioned above). Frog has a simplified UI that’s very intuitive. It allows for an unlimited hierarchy of pages and allows you to customize templates on a per-page basis. It includes the requisite WYSIWYG editor, simplified and more like WP’s than some of the more complex editors. It also features reusable snippets for regularly-used bits of content.

The backend provides a very coherent and well-organized structure that’s user-friendly while also being quite powerful. The basic functionality is aimed at a site with an unlimited number of pages, but there are plenty of plugins to extend that functionality. There are currently plugins for both admin functions and front-end improvements (including a number for image galleries). The code Frog creates is clean and semantic.

Frog has decent documentation, with plenty of how-to articles for both basic functions and development. There’s also an IRC channel to get answers to any questions you might have.

7. Textpattern

Textpattern uses a tabbed UI on the backend, which is surprisingly intuitive. It automatically brings you to the content editor to add a new page when you login, a great feature for sites that add new content regularly. The biggest drawback to Textpattern is its lack of a WYSIWYG editor. It does use Textile, though, for content editing, which is easy enough for a new user to learn.

The pages output by Textpattern are very lightweight and quick-loading, so no issues there. The thing I like most about Textpattern is that it feels like a real alternative type of CMS. The rest of the options out there are all, to some extent at least, kind of the same. The basic functionality of the CMS is very simple, without a ton of added features you’re unlikely to ever use. There’s support for images, categories, and articles, and not a whole lot else. But there are a ton of different plugins available to extend its functionality, including plugins for everything from media and gallery support to advanced navigation options and stats. There are even a couple of different ecommerce plugins available.

There’s a large community built around Textpattern, so documentation and support are surprisingly good. There’s at least one book available, plus a support forum, developers’ weblog, and TextBook (a community-powered user manual).

8. ExpressionEngine

Expression Engine is one of the more powerful CMSs out there. EE has support for just about every function you could ever need or want, either in the core package or through plugins. The backend is very simple and intuitive (the first time I used it I was able to figure out the backend within a couple of minutes). It’s probably overkill for very basic websites, but appropriate for pretty much anything else. Modules are available for everything from statistics to user forums. The built-in WYSIWYG editor is pretty standard and works well.

The pages created by EE are a bit bulkier than many of the other CMSs featured here, but still appear to be reasonably clean, with the exception of some JavaScript plugins. Some of the plugins available (or at least some of those used on sites powered by EE) either stick the JavaScript in the header of the page or, worse, right in the middle of the page’s code. But there have to be some tradeoffs when working with a CMS with this much built-in functionality.

EE’s biggest drawback is that, except in certain circumstances, it’s quite expensive. A personal license is $99.95 and a commercial license is $249.95. You can use the free Core Version, but only on personal, non-commercial or non-profit sites.

9. Drupal

Drupal is another very powerful CMS that can be used for everything from corporate sites to ecommerce sites to social networking sites. The backend of Drupal is incredibly simple, with logically organized links to create new content, manage accounts, and edit existing content. One of Drupal’s nicest features is their “Book Page” content type. These pages can be grouped into collections, referred to as books, which are automatically linked together. This is a huge advantage if working with this kind of content. Drupal doesn’t have a WYSIWYG editor in the core installation, but there is a module to add the functionality.

The amount of functionality available in the backend is astounding, especially considering how easy it is to access it all. Drupal has tons of modules available, too, to add functionality beyond basic content management. There really are plugins to be able to do just about anything you could think of. The code output by Drupal is a bit more complex than some simpler CMSs, but still relatively semantic and easy to decipher.

Drupal has a huge user community with forums both on the main development site and elsewhere. There’s also extensive documentation for end-users and developers.

10. CMS Made Simple

When they say “Made Simple,” they really mean it. CMS Made Simple was the first CMS I ever used. I literally set up my first CMS-powered website in the course of a single evening (with a customized but out-of-the-box template). It includes complete template support, an incredibly easy-to-use backend, and an unlimited content hierarchy. There’s support for “global content blocks” (called snippets in a lot of other CMSs) and plenty of options for site layout. There’s also access to help files right from the backend, including the wiki, IRC and forums. This is another CMS with no built-in WYSIWYG editor, but there is a plugin to add that functionality.

The pages output by CMS Made Simple are all XHTML and CSS compliant in addition to being clean and quick-loading. The core installation has all the basic content functionality you’d need, with plugins available to add most other functionality, with one exception: there doesn’t currently appear to be an ecommerce plugin for the platform.

There’s good documentation available for CMSMS. There’s also extensive support options, including IRC and forums.

Author: Cameron Chapman

Cameron Chapman is a writer, blogger, copyeditor, and social media addict. She’s been designing for more than six years and writing her whole life. If you’d like to connect with her, you can follow her on Twitter or at her Personal Website.

Write for Us! We are looking for exciting and creative articles, if you want to contribute, just send us an email.

57+ Free Image Gallery, Slideshow And Lightbox Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:10:00 +0000

Actually at first I wanted simple image gallery solution for web design project, but when I started to search I changed my mind and thought how great would be to create article about all the best image gallery solutions available on the Internet. So here it is – this list is separated in 3 big categories like Ajax, JavaScript and Lightbox based galleries, CSS based galleries and FLASH based galleries, so You can easy switch to category You got interest in. I think here You’ll find gallery for every needs, should be enough to choose from!

Ajax, JavaScript ( jQuery, MooTools), Lightbox based galleries

1. JonDesign’s SmoothGallery

Using MooTools v1.11, this JavaScript gallery and slideshow system allows you to have simple and smooth (cross-fading…) image galleries, slideshows, showcases and other cool stuff on your website. Together there are 7 different gallery demos, You can download and test for free.

Unlike other systems out there, JonDesign’s SmoothGallery is designed from the ground up to be standard compliant: You can feed it from any document, using custom CSS selectors. And even better, this solutions is very lightweight: The JavaScript file is only 24kb.

2. MiniShowcase Gallery

Minishowcase is a small and simple PHP/JavaScript online photo gallery, powered by AJAX that allows you to easily show your images online, without complex databases or coding, allowing to have an up-and-running gallery in a few minutes.

3. jQuery SlideViewer

SlideViewer is a lightweight (1.5Kb) jQuery plugin which allows to instantly create an image gallery by writing just few lines of HTML. SlideViewer checks for the number of images within your list, and dynamically creates a set of links to command (slide) you pictures. Also, clicking on each image will make the gallery slide to the next picture.

4. DevKick Galleria

Galleria is a JavaScript image gallery written in jQuery. It loads the images one by one from an unordered list and displays thumbnails when each image is loaded. It will create thumbnails for you if you choose so, scaled or unscaled, centered and cropped inside a fixed thumbnail box defined by CSS.

5. ZenPhoto

Zenphoto is an answer to lots of calls for an online gallery solution that just makes sense. After years of bloated software that does everything and your dishes, zenphoto just shows your photos, simply. We hope you agree with our philosophy: simpler is better. Don’t get us wrong though – zenphoto really does have everything you need for your online gallery, and you’ll even stare in awe at some of the innovative innovations we innovated upon.

Check out their feature list – it was too long to long to post here!

6. Lightbox 2

Lightbox is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It’s a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers

7. Visual Lightbox

VisualLightBox is a free wizard program that helps you easily generate web photo galleries, based on famous LightBox2 script, in a few clicks without writing a single line of code.

8. Photo Gallery with MooTools

Fully explained tutorial and also spectacular photo gallery to comfortably display many images.

9. GreyBox

GreyBox can be used to display websites, images and other content in a beautiful way. It is very easy to use full-screen website, image gallery, which doesn’t conflict with pop-up blockers and it’s only 22 kb size!

10. TripTracker

The TripTracker slideshow is a lightweight JavaScript image viewer with an animated slideshow feature.

11. qGallery

qGallery is a simple to use prototype based gallery script. All image processing is done by the script so you don’t have to worry about the images you upload on the server. All images for the skimmer graphics and the fullsize view will be created on the fly and stored in a cache directory on the server to save processing power on the server.

12. jFlow gallery

Tutorial and documentation, how to use jFlow plugin to create Your own gallery.

13. NoobSlide

8 different examples how to view Your images using MooTools, unfortunately there isn’t any documentation, but very easy to use gallery.

14. Spacegallery -jQuery plugin

Yet another way how to display Your images.

15. JQuery Cycle Plugin

The jQuery Cycle Plugin is a lightweight slideshow plugin.It supports pause-on-hover, auto-stop, auto-fit, before/after callbacks, click triggers and many transition effects. It also supports, but does not require, the Metadata Plugin and the Easing Plugin.

16. Slider Gallery

This ‘product slider’ is similar to a straight forward gallery, except that there is a slider to navigate the items, i.e. the bit the user controls to view the items. Simple stuff using jQuery plugins.

17. PrettyPhoto

jQuery Lightbox clone, pretty similar to original Lightbox with few another features and full documentation.

18. PrettyGallery

One more way how to display Your photos using jQuery.

19. FrogJS

FrogJS is a simple, unobtrusive JavaScript gallery. It’s not a replacement for other thumbnail galleries like Lightbox JS, but a different way of showcasing galleries. This type of gallery is best used when a page-by-page gallery is needed, as is the case with photo stories.

20. Galleriffic

A jQuery plugin for rendering fast-performing photo galleries. Galleriffic was inspired by Mike Alsup’s Cycle plugin, but with performance in mind for delivering a high volume of photos.

21. Pirobox jQuery Lightbox

Lightbox scripts have become a very popular way of displaying images online in recent months. There are a huge number of them available, using a variety of different frameworks and languages. DesignShack offers a new jQuery Lightbox script It has been designed and created by Diego Valobra.

22. Slideshow 2

Slideshow 2! is a JavaScript class for Mootools 1.2 to stream and animate the presentation of images on your website. This page features some examples of how Slideshow might be used to enhance the presentation of images on your website. Please view the source of this page for usage information.

23. JQuery flickrGallery

FlickrGallery is a jQuery plugin for embedding flickr photos into a webpage. Plugin considers a Gallery to be a list of Albums (similar to Flickr’s Collections). Albums are considered to be photo sets.

24. Auto Generating Gallery

Words – “Auto Generating” don’t mean that that it takes the pictures for you. This gallery won’t even create the thumbnails for you. What it DOES, is build itself dynamically from your directory of images. So when you want to add new photos, you simply drop the new photo and thumbnail in the directory and you are done! Removing photos just means removing the photos from the image directory. Gallery use PHP for this web wizardry.

25. Photo Slider

Tutorial teaching how to create photo slider gallery with play/pause slideshow settings and interesting thumbnail effect using jQuery.

26. JavaScript TinySlideshow

This dynamic JavaScript slideshow is a lightweight (5kb) and free image gallery / slideshow script.

You can easily set it to auto-display the images, set the scroll speed, thumbnail opacity or to disable thumbnail slider.

27. S3Slider jQuery plugin

JQuery Slideshow with three different features and displaying sides, fully customizable sizes, delay speed and with good documentation.

28. Ajax Photo Gallery

The AJAX version of AgileGallery is a free AJAX photo gallery that rips through the XML output from Picasa (a free download from Google) and generates DHTML for the paging and thumbnails and displays the full sized photos along with any description entered in Picasa. Since this photo gallery uses AJAX technology, it eliminates the need for any page refresh as the user pages through the photos.

29. Suckerfish HoverLightbox Redux

Handy JavaScript, CSS based image gallery with another version of Lightbox included.

30. PhatFusion Slideshow

Slideshow using JavaScript MooTools with features like:

Fade, Slide and Wipe transitions

Loops

Play, Stop, Next and Previous controls

Inits from array of image src’s, a list of images on the page or using the href of an a tag like the Lightbox.

31. HighSlide JS

Highslide JS is an open source JavaScript software, offering a Web 2.0 approach to popup windows. It streamlines the use of thumbnail images and HTML popup’s on web pages.

32. SlideFlow Ajax Image Gallery

Use slideflow to show elegantly Your images, also fullscreen mode is available.

Technical background: The photos and titles are read from an XML file, and the thumbnails are pre-generated using Photoshop actions (included)

33. Barack Slideshow 0.2

An elegant, lightweight slideshow JavaScript script.

34. jQZoom Evolution

JQZoom is a JavaScript image magnifier built at the top of the popular jQuery JavaScript framework. jQzoom is a great and a really easy to use script to magnify what you want.

35. jQuery Multimedia Portfolio

This plugin for jQuery will automatically detect the extension of each media and apply the adapted player.

36. jQuery spherical panorama viewer

A JavaScript viewer for displaying spherical panoramas. An alternative to Java and QuickTime technology.

I didn’t include screenshot here because demonstration can be seen only by clicking and dragging on the picture getting that 3D look.

37. JQuery Virtual Tour

This is an extension to the simple panorama viewer that allows you to play a little bit more with jQuery by adding interactivity to transform some panoramic views into a virtual tour !

38. MooSlideBox

The mooSlideBox v3 is a small and slim Ajax based extension or replacement of the common “Lightbox” that can be found on nearly every page. This Lightbox clone works in IE 6/7, Opera and Firefox. It is based on the MooTools framework version 1.11.

39. jqGalScroll

jQuery Gallery Scroller (jqGalScroll) takes list of images and creates a smooth scrolling photo gallery scrolling vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The plugin will also create pagination to allow you to flow through your photos

40. Featured Content Slider

Tutorial, how to create a slick auto-playing featured content slider.

41. Easy Slider jQuery Plugin

Easy Slider enables images or any content to slide horizontally or vertically on click. It is configurable with CSS alone. So, basically you link to plugin file, set the content up and style it with CSS.

42. Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow

This extremely lightweight JavaScript image gallery and slideshow script clocks in under 3kb packed and includes a number of cool features.

CSS Based Galleries

43. HoverBox Image Gallery

Basically, it’s a super light-weight (8kb) roll-over photo gallery that uses nothing but CSS, free to use for Your own projects.

44. Sliding Photograph Galleries

This gallery is my simplest yet. It is just an unordered list of images that are normally compressed vertically (reduction 8:1). When you hover over one of these compressed images it expands to full size. It is based on my sliding menu system and adapted to use images. No thumbnails are required and all the images are ‘pre-loaded’.This method can be used either vertically, as shown, or horizontally.

45. CSS Image Gallery

This is a purely CSS based image gallery that displays larger versions of thumbnail images dynamically when the mouse hovers over them. A rich HTML caption can be added to the enlarged image, and every aspect of the Image Gallery exists as plain HTML on the page. The gallery works in IE6+, Firefox, Opera 8+.

46. Cross browser CSS Slideshow

Nasty CSS Slideshow producing a slide show or photogallery using a mixture of portrait and landscape images.

47. Cross Browser Multi-Page Photograph Gallery

Based on the look of Suckerfish HoverLightbox, this one uses my multi-page layout system but includes images instead of text.Unlike the Suckerfish HoverLightbox this version does not use JavaScript but is pure CSS and still works in IE.

Tested in IE5.5, IE6, IE7, Opera, Firefox, Safari (PC).

48. CSS Decorative Gallery

Nice CSS Decorative Gallery and tutorial, how to decorate your images and photo galleries without editing the source images.

Flash Based Galleries

49. Flash Parallax Gallery

Parallax scrolling is frequently used in most 2D animation and games, where the background images and foreground images scroll at different rate of speed. This will create an illusion of depth as the background images are moving slower than the foreground images. Awesome tutorial and also great idea how to display Your portfolio or create unique web design. Must see!

50. Flash Gallery

Flash Gallery is a free application that allows you to create a slideshow on your website easy and fast. You won’t need any programming skills to install or use it. Just embed it into your website and script will automatically form a slideshow from a specified folder or from Flickr photostream.

51. SimpleViewer

SimpleViewer is a free, customizable Flash image viewing application.

52. 3D Curve Wall

Unique Flash based 3D curve wall similar to Flashloaded version, but this one is free.

53. dfGallery

As stated on many other articles on DezinerFolio site, dfGallery is one of the coolest flash galleries currently on the Web.

54. Spiral Carrousel XML

55. Polaroid Gallery

Polaroid Gallery is a free, opensource flash gallery, the script loads images and image titles dynamically from an external XML file or a flickr RSS feed. Then the script processes the data and creates an interactive flash gallery.

56. TiltViewer

TiltViewer is a free, customizable 3D Flash image viewing application.

Other

57+. DynamicDrive

And finally if You still haven’t got enough galleries or one for Your taste You can check this huge collection of many different image galleries from DynamicDrive.com

If You know some more resources I missed here, feel free to add in comments and if You enjoy this article, let others know about it! Spread the word!

Saved from: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/resources/57-free-image-gallery-slideshow-and-lightbox-solutions/

My Top 14 jQuery Photo Slideshow / Gallery Plugins

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:59:00 +0000

jQuery is becoming present in more Web 2.0 sites. jQuery slideshows or galleries take a grouping of images and turn it into an flash-like image/photo gallery. Here is a list of top options available for your website’s photo gallery.

Galleria - Galleria is javascript image gallery written as a plugin of jQuery. It uses simple html list to load the images on by one into a larger canvas. The best thing of galleria is that, it can create thumbnails for you. It is very user friendly and can be implemented easily without much knowledge of scripting. Checkout a Galleria Demo

jQuery Multimedia Portfolio - Display your portfolio items in a horizontal gallery view. A very cool jquery plugin. It is Non obstrusive and accessible portfolio supporting multiple media. It supports photos, multimedia content like flv, audio mp3 etc. It can automatically detect extension and display images/snapshots according to it. Here is a quick screen shot. Click on it for demo and download.

Space Gallery - Animate your images and display them as a gallery in space effect much like Apples time machine. These images will look like if they are in 3d space.

jQuery Slider Gallery - Rotate your images in similar effect as on Apple’s website. You can rotate images, product pictures or anything you like.

jQuery jsGallscroll Plugin - jQuery Gallery Scroller (jqGalScroll) takes list of images and creates a smooth scrolling photo gallery scrolling vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The plugin will also create pagination to allow you to flow through your photos.

jQuery Cycle Plugin - The jQuery Cycle Plugin is a lightweight slideshow plugin. Its implementation is based on the InnerFade Plugin by Torsten Baldes, the Slideshow Plugin by Matt Oakes, and the jqShuffle Plugin by Benjamin Sterling. It supports pause-on-hover, auto-stop, auto-fit, before/after callbacks, click triggers and many transition effects. It also supports, but does not require, the Metadata Plugin and the Easing Plugin.

EO Gallery - EOGallery is a web animated slideshow gallery maid with jQuery. It only uses basic jQuery functions and Cody Lindley’s Thickbox to display larger pictures. By the way, EOGallery is XHTML 1.0 strict valid and almost CSS valid, it has been tested on Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer 6 and works even with non-javascript and/or non-css browsers.

slideViewer - slideViewer checks for the number of images within your list, and dinamically creates a set of links to command (slide) you pictures.

jQuery lightbox plugin - jQuery lightBox plugin is simple, elegant, unobtrusive, no need extra markup and is used to overlay images on the current page through the power and flexibility of jQuery´s selector. LightBox is a plugin for jQuery. It was inspired in Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar.

Galleriffic - A jQuery plugin for rendering fast-performing photo galleries

pirobox -Pirobox is another JS gallery script with the difference hatwrite by Diego Valobra.Take a look at his script,you can see that he used a few tricks to get his goal to create a good looking jQuery gallery.

jQuery Popeye - Popeye generates an inline image gallery from an unordered list of images. The gallery features clever inline image enlargement, i.e. the enlarged image stretches out over the site content without adding a visual overlay of the whole site. It stays fixed with one edge to its original coordinates, so that a sense of cohesiveness is created in the user interface and interaction. Demo

zoomimage - Present you images in stylish way. The links are unobtrusively highjacked to open the images in an inpage popup with drop shadow and border. Demo

Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow - This extremely lightweight JavaScript image gallery and slideshow script clocks in under 3kb packed and includes a number of cool features. Demo

GalleryView - display a photo gallery with slideshow functionality. Clicking on a frame will jump to that photo, and the overlay caption for each photo contains links to the full image. Demo

NotesForLightBox - a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It’s a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.

The current functionalities are:

• Rounded corners light box

• Navigation with buttons

• Real slide show with progress bar

GallerificPlus – inspired by Trent Foley’s Gallerific plugin, and Leandro Vieira Pinho’s jQuery LightBox plugin. The concept from the plugin originated from a client project that required a smooth jQuery gallery with lightbox functionality.

We forgot the one on our own chicago website design page. Do you have any plugins to add? Leave your recommendations in the comments below.

Save from: http://blueprintds.com/2009/01/20/top-14-jquery-photo-slideshow-gallery-plugins/

Digg's New API Allows Digging of Stories and Comments

noreply@blogger.com (dr.emi creative design) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:44:00 +0000

By Chris Crum
Digg released a new version of the Digg API today, which lets developers write and contribute data via OAuth. This API supports the digging and burying of both stories and comments.

"In addition to the revamped API, we focused extensively on usability and have included an updated API documentation section on Digg with more detail on each API method including code and response examples," says Digg's Jeff Hodsdon. "Today’s changes, as well as our updates this summer to the API license, give developers much more freedom to create (and profit from) great new applications off the Digg platform."

"To help showcase some of the new functionality, we’ve created a reference app off the new API, a streamlined version of the Digg site called DiggLite, which can serve as a blueprint for any basic Digg-based application," Hodsdon adds. "It includes a river of the most recently popular stories, which can be Dugg and buried remotely, and the means of breaking things down by top-level topics. You can find it at digglite.com or download the source code on Github."

Developers interested in keeping updated on happenings with the Digg API can follow @diggapi on Twitter. Digg says it will communicate any API-related issues and downtime information through the Twitter account.

At first, only a limited number of beta testers will be able to create apps that can write data, using the new API. Digg is requiring developers interested in creating apps to send a brief description (along with their Digg username) to api@digg.com.

About the author:

Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003.

Twitter: @CCrum237

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Ten Simple Rules for Choosing the Perfect CMS + Excellent Options

Ten Simple Guidelines for Choosing the Perfect CMS

1. The CMS you choose should be really good at whatever the main function of your website is.

2. A CMS needs to work intuitively.

3. The backend needs to be standardized.

4. The backend needs to be logical and well-organized.

5. The right CMS shouldn’t have a ton of extra functionality you’ll never use.

6. The right CMS should be easy for non-geeks to use.

7. It needs to include a WYSIWYG editor.

8. The pages it creates should be fast-loading and have simple code.