Archive for August, 2008
Using Google’s Webmaster Tools
Posted on 30. Aug, 2008 by Dave.
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Google offers free webmaster tools to help you check for technical issues that may be barring your website from high natural rankings. Here’s the skinny on what’s available in Google’s Webmaster Tools, and what you can do with them.
Note: To use all the webmaster tools available, you must have FTP/back-end access to your website. This is so you can verify your site on Google and utilize automatic diagnostic features that help you improve the indexing of your site by search robots.
1. Log into Google’s Webmaster Tools with your Google Account info.
2. Type in the URL of the site you want to optimize in the Dashboard.
3. You will now see an Overview page, where you can follow instructions to verify your site by uploading a file to your server via FTP, or adding a meta-tag to the site’s HTML. Verification will unlock diagnostics tools, statistics on your site, link information, and various other tools.
4. Now it’s time to upload a sitemap in xml format to Google. It’s easy to create your own site map online, or learn how to make one yourself using Sitemap Protocol. Once your sitemap.xml file has been created, upload it via FTP to the highest directory on your site’s server. Now go to the Sitemaps section of WM Tools and click on the link to “Add a Sitemap.”
5. After submitting your sitemap, go to Diagnostics > Web Crawl. This is where information is listed about errors or issues impeding Google’s searchbot from crawling any page on your site. This includes any broken links, pages that time out before loading, and any restricted URLs. Using this tool to identify erroneous pages on your site will allow to pinpoint the problem to go in and repair site content.
6. I will skip Mobile Crawl as that is for websites designed for mobile devices – and since this is a fairly new invention, I’m sure this is not applicable to most of you.
7. Now go to Diagnostics > Content Analysis. This page deals with issues to do with the actual content on your site, including meta-tags and title tags. You can drill down and identify pages on your site with duplicate, long, or short meta-descriptions, or missing title tags, and any non-indexable content.
8. I’m honestly not so convinced of the value offered by the Webmaster Tools’ “Statistics” section, but go ahead and poke around if you are interested in general Page Ranking on your site, what search queries are leading to your site on Google, and general info about subscribers (if you have any – though I would recommend FeedBurner for gathering those stats if you’re serious about subscribers), or a list of indexed pages.
9. Ever wonder what pages on your site are being linked to externally? Check out the Links section of Webmaster Tools. You can also find out what Sitelinks appear for your site on Google’s search results pages. For more information on how to get sitelinks up for your site, or what the heck sitelinks are, you can read some theories on how to get sitelinks to appear.
10. Upload a robots.txt file to your site’s server if you want to prohibit Googlebots from crawling specific pages of your site. For example, block the bots from certain secure pages. Remember also to include a reference to the location of your sitemap in the robots.txt file.
11. You can generate and analyze your robots.txt file in the WM Tools “Tools” section.
And that about wraps up Webmaster Tools.
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Digital Age Dump is a collection of articles and insights on web 2.0, SEO, copywriting, and more to do with the evolving way we connect and communicate on the web.
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Become a Sponsor
Posted on 28. Aug, 2008 by Dave.
If you have a product or service that is a good fit for our community of internet entrepreneurs, we have opportunities for you to advertise. Introducing Tini Ad spots.
Tini Ad 125X125 Icon: (Displayed at all sections+blog )
Zone: Top Right
*6 ads displayed at the same time
*Est. Impressions 47,000/ad
*Price: $99/Month.
All ads are sold as monthly subscriptions. This means that each month you will pay a fixed price for your banner ad(s). At any time, you may cancel your subscription; however, you ad will still appear on the website until the end of the subscription period that has already been paid.
Get your Tini Ad spot
Placing an ad is easy with BuySellAds.com they accept all major credit cards and PayPal. Your banner must have the EXACT dimensions for this ad (accept JPG’s, GIF’s, & PNG’s under 50K).
You may also choose a larger banners from anywhere you see the “Advertise here” option. The sponsorship payments will be used to help offset the costs associated with running a site like this. If you are interested, or know someone who might-be, click here.
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Display Your Email Newsletter Perfectly With HTML
Posted on 22. Aug, 2008 by Dave.
With the advent of HTML email marketing has taken to a whole new level, where’s once text-based emails where consider the norm there’s now a wealth of rich media, technology and functionality to consider.
HTML formatted email can look just like a web page. We’re talking everything from layout, graphics, active links, colorful fonts, interactive form, charts you name it. Combined, this allows the customer to interact with the brand and its identity in a way that no other medium can offer. Needless to say Outlook Express, Netscape Communicator, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo and most popular email clients support HTML also.
Used properly graphics and visual imagery in ads can also be more effective. How? One way is through the use of related technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets that can better assist you in structuring such concepts as grouping.
Containment is the technique of tying related elements together with in a box. The box can either be visible (with a border or background color of some sort,) or it can be invisible which involves putting your material in close proximity and keeping a moat of while space around the group. Content is then laid out in a way that’s more visually appealing, and much easier to scan and navigate, than plain text email.
Such practices are invaluable when trying to get your most important points across, which isn’t always an easy task especially in terms of email. Grouping is also one of the main tools used by the brain to simplify a complex situation.
Creating an HTML email is simple, there are many advanced mailing list management script such as add2it mailman phplist that make it easier to write send and manage your HTML messages to your list of subscribers. Phplist in particular (which is what I use and recommend all my clients to use) is great for newsletters, publicity lists, notifications, and many other uses.
Phplist also has a built in WYSIWYG HTML editor that allows you to create and view your HTML message even before you send it out, though I prefer using an actual HTML editor like Dreamweaver to create my emails; kind of defeating the purpose you might say yet, I just think phplist is best suited to manage the actual message delivery system itself.
The Multiple List Management feature, for example, is great for if you need to have more than one list (as it lets you assign lists to List Managers, who can manage their users and lists,) likewise the Message Queue ensures that every subscriber gets the email message, and that no subscribers receive two copies of the same message, even if they’re subscribed to more than one list!
Similarly Dreamweaver is better suited to handle HTML as it provides a number of easy ways to display your images and control your text with style sheets in HTML.
Regardless of what HTML editor you choose here’s are few things to remember.
1 – Always use absolute URLS for your graphics (ie http://foamers.net/newsletter/pics/issue2.gif )
2 – Do not save your images as attachments (nobody in their right mind will ever open some strange attachment,) but store them on your web server so that they may display properly in the email.
3 – Send it to yourself before sending it to your subscriber list. And if possible send it to a buddy who has a different email program than you, to be sure most of your subscribers can read it on their computers.
4 – Once your satisfied with your newsletter, save it as a template. Then you can just open the template whenever you want to send html mail and most of the work will be done for you.
5 – If you still feel uncomfortable around HTML I highly recommend that you go on a multimedia or web design course just to get a feel for the fundamentals – and to pick the brains of other Internet entrepreneurs, which is always useful. One way to learn from us right here is simply to subscribe to this feed. And should you wish to have me customize your HTML email template newsletter (at just $180 a pop,) jump over to the contact form and tell me what you think.
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How To Edit An XML Flash Template
Posted on 13. Aug, 2008 by Dave.
I had this idea where I wanted to share a little know how with you guys. So I’m opening up the floor, I’ll be selecting one template every now and again, and letting you guys ask me how to customize anything on that template or a similar template that you might be doing. With that I’m hoping to lure you out of the closet, so to speak, and get away from all the email back and forth about the same subject, I thought this might be a better way to address those questions having a nice open line of communications right here where anyone can comment. That way every question is open, not only to me but also to you too.
Anyhow, the template I had in mind is this new XML Flash Site, I thought this might be good to begin with as this is a fairly new product and seeing as some of you might not already be too familiar with Flash and XML.
I choose this one in particular because I thought it really practical in that it already came with a photo gallery and with it you can add a new picture or change the old ones all without ever needing to go into Flash itself. You only work with the XML file by opening it in something like wordpad or any other text editor and many times you wont even have to do that.
For example if you just wanted to edit one of the images on the template all you’d have to do is open the “site_flash” folder find the image you want to replace and simply substitute that picture with one of your own.
Here are some steps to follow. Number one you always need to name the new picture the same as the old (e.g. old file name was tfile_pic1.jpg new file must still be tfile_pic1.jp the same as it once was ) and make the new picture the same width and height as the original that way things wont get all out of porportune.
Secondly you’ll need to upload all the files from the template “site_flash” folder to your “public_html” or “www” folder on the server and keep everything in that folder.
See how easy that was, I didn’t even need to edit the XML file. So, if you really want to see how Flash and XML work together, specially if you are already working on a similar project, or maybe having difficulties or you just want to know more about editing your XML file this will be the perfect opportunity for you to get your hands dirty, ask for help, share your comments etcetera.
Now, how are you using this type of template? What part of the customization are you having the most problems with? What solutions have you come up with? And as always should you wish to acquire more information about my own template customization services simply jump over to the contact form and let me know what you’re thinking.
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7 Tips For Better Flash Customization
Posted on 08. Aug, 2008 by Dave.
Seems like Flash is on everyone’s mind lately, I get so many emails from new designers and do-it-yourselfers whom have purchased a flash template and lo and behold their saying “Please help before I pull the rest of my hair out!” Ouch, that hurts!
Personally it’s over a decade since I first started fooling around with the stuff, still I do not consider myself by any means to be an expert, but try to share the many mistakes that I’ve made and the things that have helped me and hopefully that little bit on knowledge can help keep whatever’s left on top of your head where it belongs. I’ll admit to cutting some corners, but what you’ll get are 7 nuggets of prime Flash customization advice. With hidden features explained, myths exposed and tricks uncovered, these tips are all designed to address our most commonly asked questions with all the right remedies.
These are just my seven that I thought were the essentials, but maybe there are some you’d like to share, so if you would like to comment by all means, we love to hear from you, feel free to share your experiences leave us your comments. And as always should you wish to acquire more information about our template customization services simply jump on over to the contact form and let us know what you’re thinking.
1 – Flash is an Artful Dodger
Flash has a stubborn tendency for shutting downs always at the worst possible times, although, I must admit it does bear a knack for inspiring sympathy, you see Flash is always very cordial about it. For example it’ll say something like Flash has encountered a problem and needs to close, (cute little guy, poor thing), and that it is very truly sorry for the inconvenience, but there’s no time to waist, it must relieve itself at once. And me being the agreeable person that I am will simply click Ok and watch desperately as all my work just disappears never to be mentioned again. Of course there are lots of other good reasons for remembering to save frequently that one just so happens to be mine.
There are also several options that you can use to save a file: ‘ Save’, ‘ Save As’, and ‘ Save and Compact’. When you save a file, Flash does not analyze all the data before creating an optimized version of the document. Instead, the changes you make to the document are appended to the end of the .fla file’s data, which shortens the time it takes to save the document. When you select ‘ Save As’ and type a new name for the file, Flash writes a new and optimized version of the file, which results in a smaller file size. When you select ‘ Save and Compact’, Flash creates a new optimized file and deletes the original file.
Caution: When you select ‘ Save and Compact’, you cannot undo any changes you made before you saved the file. On the contrary if you select Save when working with a document, you can undo changes made prior to that save point. Because Save and Compact deletes the earlier version of the file and replaces it with the optimized version, you cannot undo earlier changes.
Remember to use ‘ Save As’ frequently and to type a new file name for your document after every milestone in your project if you are not using version control software to create backups of your .fla file. If you encounter major problems while working on the document, you have an earlier version to use instead of losing everything.
2 – Stop Tinkering And Listen
Before we do anything we first need to carefully install all the fonts that came with the template. Otherwise Flash is going to hit us with a “Missing Font Warning” alert message. That means that we have not installed all of the fonts included in the package, and that could result in a host of other issues. Here’s what we need to do.
1 – Choose “Start > Settings > Control Panel” (Note: In Windows XP, choose “Start > Control Panel“)
2 – double-click on the “Fonts” folder
3 – choose “File > Install New Font”
4 – in the Drives list, select the drive and the folder containing the fonts you want to install
5 – select the fonts to install. To select more than one font, hold down the “CTRL” key and click each font
6 – click “OK” to install the fonts.
Quick Tip! A simpler way to install new fonts is simply to drag and drop all the fonts you want to install onto the “Fonts” folder located within the Control Panel directory.
3 – Putting your text in there
First we should open our “.fla” file from our web design template package in Macromedia Flash. Then if not already open we’ll open the symbols library (hotkey “L”) and browse through it to find the symbol containing the text we want to modify.
Edit text
What’s nice is that all symbols that contain text have appropriate names such as “Company Name” or “About Us” and we can also see them in the preview window at the top of symbols library panel. If we’re unable to see the text for some reason we’ll probably need to change movie background to a different color other than white, as white text on white background stands invisible.
Symbols Library
To do that, we’ll need to choose Modify/Document… from the top menu and change background color in popup window.
Once we have what we’re looking for we want to double click the symbols icon to show text symbol in main workspace window. Then we’ll simply double click that text with “Selection Tool” or single click it with “Text Tool” (hotkey “T“) to edit the contents.
4 – Changing images in Flash
A: Open your source “FLA” file in Adobe Flash and press “F11” to launch symbols library. To perform search of a needed image symbol will be easier if you sort them “by kind” simply by pressing “kind” tab at the top of symbols list. You’ll see that all bitmap symbols are grouped now at the top of the whole symbols library.
Bitmap Symbols in Library
Browse these symbols to find symbol your want to substitute. You can see symbols preview at the top of symbols library. When you have found necessary bitmap symbol double click the icon on the left of it as to see the symbol properties window.
Bitmap Properties
You’ll see image preview and options there. Check the image size. It looks like 284 x 423 pixels at 32 bits per pixel. To make your image fit the original effects and animation the best way your image must be exactly the same size as in the original image.
You can resize or crop your image using Adobe Photoshop. Open your image in it using “File/Open…” from the top menu. To resize or crop choose “Image/Image Size…” or “Image/Canvas Size…” accordingly. Then save image using “File/Save As…”, for using it in flash choose one of the following image formats: “JPEG”, “GIF” or “PNG”.
Press “Import” button on the left and browse to location of your image file.
At the bitmap symbols properties window you can change the image quality. Make it lower to reduce published file size. Now you should publish your flash movie.
Quick Tip! You can actually publish your movie directly from “Publish Settings” window, see “Publish” button at the bottom. Or you can publish it from every point of Adobe Flash by pressing “SHIFT+F12″ hotkey.
5 – Making The Contact Form Work
This is a real common question but I think I already covered it in detail over on another post so I’ll just give you the link. http://foamers.net/blogger/archives/45
6 – Duplicating symbols
There are times when you need to make customizations to an instance of a symbol without editing the original so that those changes don’t reflect in any other instances of the symbol on your template or affect the symbol in your Flash Library. For example you might want to add a whole new page or you may need to add an extra button etc. Thats when duplicating a symbol comes in handy because it lets you use an existing symbol ( any item in the library) as a starting point for creating a new symbol.
Open your source “FLA” file in Adobe Flash and press “F11” to launch symbols library. From library, what we need to do is right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh) the symbol, select Duplicate Symbol and give the duplicate symbol it’s name.
Symbols library
Next, drag the symbol unto the stage and give it an instance name. Note an instance name and a symbol name are tow totally different things. Meaning, that while there may be two or more instances of the same symbol with the same name “symbol 1”, each instance must have assigned a unique identifier (e.g. instance name) for all ActionScrip reference purposes.
To edit the symbol, you simply double click the symbol to access it in the Main Area. Then double click the text area and enter your own slogan. Once you edit a symbol, Flash updates all the instances of that symbol in your document. You can customize all other Flash elements by repeating these simple steps.
7- SEO for my Flash Template
Can Flash really be made to be search engine friendly? Surprisingly the answer is yes in fact all you have to do is follow these 3 simple steps.
Step 1: When you are finished customizing and or coding your Flash template, go to File -> Publish Settings. Click on the HTML tab and check the “Detect Flash Version” option. You should set this to the lowest possible version that supports the code used in your movie (ActionScript 3.0 cannot be lower than version 9).
Step 2: Open up the HTML file in the HTML text-editor of your choice. You will notice that there is a section of JavaScript code that detects the users Flash Player version. If they have a version equal to or higher than the version you specified in your Publish Setting in step 1, the Flash .swf file will play as planned. You will also notice that there is a place in the js code that reads something to the effect of “var alternate content = “”.
If the user has an older version of Flash than specified in step 1, then this content will be displayed instead via JavaScript (remember to escape quotes in the variable using backslashes). This is where you can include the Flash movie’s content in HTML, and it is completely readable by robots and site crawlers.
Step 3: “What if the user’s browser does not support JavaScript?,” you might ask. Well, that base is covered too. Just under the JavaScript section discussed in step 2, there is an opening and closing tag. You can also put all of the alternate (HTML version) Flash content in between these tags. This serves as a second fallback for Flash.
In summary, if the user does not have Flash, or the version of Flash is too old, then the alternate JavaScript content you defined will try to display instead. If the user’s browser does not have JavaScript, then the “noscript” content will display. Moreover, you have the HTML version of your content being read and indexed by the site crawlers twice! This content can also be styled using CSS like a traditional web page. You can even go so far as to use the same CSS stylesheet to style your Flash and your HTML, but that is a lesson for another day (see Stylesheets, Flash and XML for Dummies).
This article was recently dugg so if you’d like to show your support I’d really appreciated.
Special thanks to Aaron Waldon for #7
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