FireStarter Blog
Web 2.0 and Usability
Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.Categories: Persuasive copy and design | Usability in web design | web v2 business |
read full article>Top 7 ways Outlook 2007 will break html email
We mostly design html-email to allow a fair amount of backwards compatability, so we avoid many of the latest css rendering issues. Tables continue to be the best way to maintain consistency across different email systems. However, having read the MS specifications, in detail at MSDN the issues are worse that I thought, even for conservative email designers.Categories: CSS Web Design | Email marketing |
read full article>AJAX vs Flash for Rich Interfaces
Macromedia argue that Flash upgrades hit 80% penetration in 12 months; IE 6 took 6 years to get to 80% desktop penetration. But there are good reasons why AJAX is still the compelling choiceCategories: CMS integration | Javascript and AJAX | Code bits | Flash stuff |
read full article>Changing the look and feel of a DNN module
How to change the look and feel of a DotNetNuke DNN module.Categories: DNN web development | Code bits |
read full article>How important are links to your Google ranking?
Links are very important but have to be done right. Mass linking will get you penalized. And it's not just the quality of the sites that link to you, but also your pattern of link growth (link history) and whether the sites that link to you are about the same topics as the particular keywords.Categories: Search engine marketing | Online marketing |
read full article>4 Design rules
Rules are rules. Learn them to forget them. As Malcolm Gladwell explains in "Blink" the accumulation of hard knowledge creates the space for the unconscious to operate. If you consciously focus on the rules your design will be bad. But the "gut feeling" or "designer's eye" comes from actually having that knowledge and using it unconsciously.Categories: CSS Web Design | Design and inspiration |
read full article>Why CMS is better than custom code
Programmers are programmers because they like to code -- given a choice between learning someone else's code and just sitting down and writing their own, they will always do the latter. And the programmer who says, it will be faster for me to write it, rather than to learn it, is usually correct. Except that what he will write, most likely, is something that will work but will not have its rough edges worked out, will not have the benefits of a piece of software that has actually been used for a few years, where the bugs have been found and the users have given feedback and have helped you figure out where the problems are. So what they will often be handing you at the end of that I-can-do-it-faster-myself thing is something that works, but that is kind of a mess in certain ways. Whereas the thing that you were going to pull off the shelf, maybe it will take the programmers a while to learn it, but once they learn it enough to hook it up to this project you are creating, what they are hooking up will probably have a lot fewer problems." (my italics)Categories: CMS integration | Code bits |
read full article>Google bombs defused by algorithm change
Google has made some alterations to its algorithm in order to reduce the effect of 'Google bombing'. This means that a search for 'miserable failure' will no longer lead to President Bush's homepage at The White House.Categories: Search engine marketing | Fun stuff |
read full article>Harvard's list of ideas 2007
Harvard's list of ideas that are breaking through in 2007. Not necessarily web-ideas.Categories: Online marketing | Fun stuff |
read full article>Intentional blindness and gorillas
Read more about intential blindness and some bizarre video experiements that deomonstrate, that on the balance of probabilities, you won't see the gorilla either.Categories: Web Development |
read full article>Email marketing open rates for industries
Heres are some interesting statistics on open rates and bounce rates for email marketing campaigns across various industries...Categories: Email marketing |
read full article>Current trends in web design
What's current in web designCategories: CSS Web Design | Design and inspiration |
read full article>Keys to online success
Great Writing/Multimedia/Tools + Interesting Subject Matter = Link-Worthy Content Link-Worthy Content + Solid User Experience = Great Website Great Website + Proper Optimization Techniques = High Rankings High Rankings + Proper Keyword Targeting = Tons of Traffic Tons of Traffic + Effective Monetization Strategy = Successful Business Model Succesful Business Model + Physical & Emotional Health = (Most) Everything You Ever WantedCategories: eCommerce | CSS Web Design | Design and inspiration | Persuasive copy and design | Usability in web design | Search engine marketing | Online marketing |
read full article>5 Reasons for Bad Usability
Here's 5 reasons why companies deliberately use bad usability in their web sites. Some are effective part of their business model. Others are based on myths!Categories: Persuasive copy and design | Usability in web design |
read full article>Fold out javascript menu from nested list
Javascript menus that play well with CMSCategories: Javascript and AJAX |
read full article>Some references for integrating Google Maps
Some references for integrating Google Maps into your website to build a store locator. Include reference to modX Snippet codeCategories: modX web development | CMS integration | Javascript and AJAX | Code bits |
read full article>Check if your website is up
Check if your website is up, from 10 different locations.Categories: CMS integration | Code bits |
read full article>Archives
- January 2007
- Useful ecommerce resource (17-Jan-07 16:44)
- Mashable - blog on social networking (17-Jan-07 16:18)
- Instant site map generator (15-Jan-07 16:41)
- Grey box - lightbox gallery for web design (11-Jan-07 17:09)
- MS Changes Outlook (10-Jan-07 17:09)
- web 2.0 startups finish-up (02-Jan-07 16:18)
- Yahoo starts to assess quality in ranking PPC (01-Jan-07 16:17)
- December 2006
- Firewall bypass tool (20-Dec-06 16:46)
- Get your site blogged (14-Dec-06 16:51)
- Topicality in link building for SEO (14-Dec-06 16:50)
- Firefox extension for SEO (13-Dec-06 17:10)
- Tracking external links with Google Analytics (11-Dec-06 16:53)
- Ever wonder how IP addresses are allocated? (10-Dec-06 16:59)
- Would you buy a used website from this man? (08-Dec-06 17:01)
- iPod Portfolio (07-Dec-06 17:03)
- November 2006
- How to be a prolific blogger! (30-Nov-06 12:36)
- Digg and social networks (29-Nov-06 12:44)
- Manifestos for everything (29-Nov-06 12:41)
- Marketing online - the blogs that really count (28-Nov-06 12:45)
- Cluetrain Manifesto (27-Nov-06 12:48)
- Google ROI and emarketing (24-Nov-06 12:52)
- Do your pages load in 4 seconds or less on broadband? (08-Nov-06 16:17)
- Rich web applications and Flash (01-Nov-06 16:21)
- October 2006
- Unofficial Google Analytics blog (24-Oct-06 16:25)
- Split testing with google (24-Oct-06 16:22)
- MVC frameworks - PHP (23-Oct-06 16:27)
- Checklists for websites (19-Oct-06 16:28)
- Open SEF URLs for Joomla (11-Oct-06 16:30)
- Top 10 business myths for geeks (04-Oct-06 16:32)
- Browser Shots - Test your site in multiple browsers (03-Oct-06 16:34)
- June 2006
- More web 2.0 goodness with Gliffy (28-Jun-06 16:24)
- How to pitch an idea (16-Jun-06 16:33)
- Urban Dictionary - what tha? (14-Jun-06 16:31)
- May 2006
- Qualatitive measures of website success (22-May-06 00:00)
- Bitmap fonts in Flash (22-May-06 00:00)
- Calls to action on your website (21-May-06 00:00)
- What doctype to use with IE7 (21-May-06 00:00)
- Flash CMS systems (15-May-06 00:00)
- February 2006
- Funky javascript foldouts (22-Feb-06 00:00)
- Re-discover music with Pandora (12-Feb-06 00:00)
- The importance of visual design vs usability (10-Feb-06 00:00)
- January 2006
- Strict vs transitional markup in websites (22-Jan-06 00:00)
- December 2005
- Mac Internet Explorer is dead (22-Dec-05 00:00)
- Another personal collaboration tool (22-Dec-05 00:00)
- Hot new iTunes application (20-Dec-05 00:00)
- Simple CSS/JS animations (10-Dec-05 00:00)
- November 2005
- Why we use modX (23-Nov-05 16:15)
- Dynamic font replacement using Dynatext (22-Nov-05 00:00)
- Statistics on monitors sizes (22-Nov-05 00:00)
- Options for stock photos (22-Nov-05 00:00)
- Fade for menu using javascript (20-Nov-05 00:00)
- Pure photography collections (20-Nov-05 00:00)
- Firefox 11% (and 15% in US) (20-Nov-05 00:00)
- What Firefox means to your website (20-Nov-05 00:00)
- Icon madness - great example icons (11-Nov-05 00:00)
- Fixed width design for websites (10-Nov-05 00:00)
- October 2005
- Who are the leading CSS Designers (28-Oct-05 16:25)
- Essential fonts for web designers (25-Oct-05 16:34)
- If you use fixed font sizes - here’s how (22-Oct-05 00:00)
- Setting up fonts sizes with percentages (22-Oct-05 00:00)
- CSS web design reference sites (22-Oct-05 00:00)
- Online colour schemes and palettes (22-Oct-05 00:00)
- Top 10 AJAX web applications startups (11-Oct-05 00:00)
- Web Analytics Software (01-Oct-05 17:08)
- 9 Rules logo design (01-Oct-05 00:00)
- September 2005
- Bitmapped fonts in TTF (26-Sep-05 00:00)
- Transparent images using PNG (23-Sep-05 00:00)
- Testing websites on mulitple browsers (12-Sep-05 00:00)
- Web designer's toolkit (11-Sep-05 00:00)
- August 2005
- 10 Best Resources for CSS web design (24-Aug-05 16:10)
- Setting up html email (22-Aug-05 00:00)
- Content is king - a guide (12-Aug-05 00:00)
- TinyMCE vs FCKEditor vs HTMLarea (11-Aug-05 00:00)
- IE7 and CSS - the original promises (04-Aug-05 00:00)
- Create a plan for your e-marketing newsletter (02-Aug-05 00:00)
- 10 key points for email newsletters (01-Aug-05 00:00)
- June 2005
- Cookies and web statistics (22-Jun-05 16:08)
- October 2004
- Implementing CSS in CMSimple (19-Oct-04 16:05)
- January 1970
- Correct use of Google 301 re-directs (01-Jan-70 10:00)
- When to send email newsletters (01-Jan-70 10:00)
- Firefox extension review (01-Jan-70 10:00)
- Mulitple versions of IE for testing (01-Jan-70 10:00)
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