Web Dev, Linux, WordPress & More

Archive for August, 2006

Designers: Use Images Wisely!

by eric on August 31st, 2006 in: Web Design

Pictures and images can make or break a site. Using imagery well can guide an audience, reinforce website copy, and solidify your brand.

On the web, pictures are “worth a thousand words” because they can illustrate a concept in milliseconds, provide visual interest, and break up the monotony of text.

Here are three ways NOT to use images on your site:

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Google Analytics Web Statistics

by eric on August 18th, 2006 in: WordPress

In case you haven’t seen, Google Analytics, the powerful website stats package, is now available for free without an invite.

I highly recommend checking out Google Analytics. I use it on several sites because it provides some extraordinarily powerful reports that I just can’t get with AWStats, Webalizer, or other free packages. Perfect for a stats junkie.

Trying to measure ROI? If you’re using Google Adwords for PPC marketing, you can track specific conversion information that can help you make better marketing decisions.

Finally, if you’re running a Wordpress blog, definitely check out Joe Tan’s plug-in for Google Analytics and Feedburner reports.

Flock Browser

by eric on August 15th, 2006 in: Other StuffWordPress


I’ve been messing around with the Flock web browser lately and am really impressed. Although it’s a beta, it has a bunch of great features that make some aspects of web browsing and content management easier and even fun
.

Web 2.0 Browser?Flock Browser

Flock is built on the open source Mozilla Firefox code base, which is a great start. It’s very standards-compliant and stable from the get-go. Why didn’t Microsoft think of that?

The folks at Flock have taken the browser in a little different, Web 2.0 direction.

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Generate Secure Passwords

by eric on August 9th, 2006 in: Uncategorized

Overwhelmed with the number of passwords you have?

Use the same username/password combo for every site?

Here’s a handy open source tool I use in WinXP to generate secure passwords and keep them securely stored in a database on a USB drive. I highly recommend this program.

KeePass – The Open-Source Password Safe

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Master Your Domain Name!

by eric on August 7th, 2006 in: Other Stuff

Website owners: make sure that you own, and can manage, your domain name.

This may sound silly, but you’d be surprised how many website owners have no idea where their domain is registered and who really controls it.

Who is the Master of Your Domain?

If you have a website and own a domain name make sure you:

  • Know where your domain is registered
  • Are listed as the Administrative Contact on the domain
  • Have current contact information listed with the registrar so you’re notified of billing and expiration issues
  • Get a username and password to login and manage your account

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