Tuesday Travels: Just for Web Designers

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

Web design (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

HTML 5 Facts and Myths -there’s a lot of talk about HTML 5 and how it kills Flash, won’t be ready for years, etc. How much of that is true?

HTML 5 Tutorials – links to 40 tutorials, including how to use Canvas, building apps, creating forms, and how to make it play nicely with IE6 (shudder).

20 Tools for Creating Responsive Web Designs – sketching and wireframing tools, grid calculators, and tools for responsive images, videos, and tables.

Responsive Web Testing Tools – now that you’ve got all that beautiful design, you’ll need to test it to make sure it works properly.

Responsive web design missing the point – there’s a lot of hoopla in web design circles about this — but does it really matter?

Tuesday Travels: 9 Mac Desktop Productivity Widgets

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

widget icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today’s Tuesday Travels features 10 widgets; nine that will improve your productivity, and one that will wreck it.

Color Schemer Galleria – browse color schemes without leaving your desktop. Mouse over to see the HTML code for each color.

Page Capture – Takes a picture of an entire web page (even if it’s a long one)

Screenshot Plus – Full or partial screenshots, with a countdown timer

Ical Events – Displays two weeks of appointments (from multiple calendars), all in one place. Events are color coded by calendar; mouse over to see which one, plus starting and ending times.

Analyltics Widget – Check your Google Analytics stats right from your desktop.

Keyboard shortcuts – Can’t remember a shortcut? Use this widget to find it.

Lorem ipsum generator – Placeholder text for your web sites or brochures; the slider tool lets you select how much text you want.

Package tracker – Can’t wait for a package to arrive (maybe your new iPad?); use this widget to track its every move.

NASA image of the day – just for fun, NASA posts beautiful images every day. Just don’t get, er lost in space (sorry).

Tuesday Travels: Just for Bloggers

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

WordPress plugins are a great way to spruce up your blog, get more contacts, and encourage sharing. Slogging through the directory can be a bit of a drag though (why, oh why is there no listing by category or function).

With a bit of searching, and some help from my friends, I’ve put together a short list of resources and plugins just for bloggers.

WordPress Beginner page on Google Plus– Circle this page for helpful tips on getting started using WordPress

Widgets on Pages – Turns any part of your site into a widget (not just the side columns). It generates a short piece of code (cleverly called a shortcode), which you can drop in to your site for ads, sharing buttons, contact forms,etc. (thanks to Lynda Royal of Clarity Themes for pointing this out.

Image Slider– A slide gallery plugin that lets you add captions, links, and thumbnail images (of upcoming slides). This would be great for photographers, artists, web designers, or graphic designers to help show off your portfolio, and add links to hire you or buy prints.

Show Recent Posts – Shows your recent posts – with titles, thumbnails, and a short description. Making your older posts more visible, and appealing, should encourage visitors to spend more time on your site.

Digg Digg – This plugin adds a floating social sharing button bar to the side of your blog. It also displays the number of times your post has been shared on each network.

Tuesday Travels: Just for Writers

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

Writing has become more than words. With the arrival of ebooks, ipads, smart phones, and tablets, books can now have words, photos, illustrations, videos, and interaction (like quizzes, comments, or sharing features).

To take advantage of this, you’ll need some extra help. These tools can turn your plain book into an interactive multimedia experience.

Red Staple – still in beta, but this tool will help you upload your .doc text, format it for e-publication, add video, images, and links (thanks to Becky Blanton for passing this on).

Of course, unless you’ve been in a writing cave, you’ve probably heard of Apple’s new ibook author app. It’s free, runs on Lion, and includes drag and drop images, interactive photo galleries, and free templates. The books are gorgeous.

There is a catch – if your book is free, you can do as you like; if you sell it, you have to sell the full version (with the formatting and the interactive features), on the ibook store. If you sell it elsewhere, you’ll have to reformat everything.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Charles Dickens. You can download Dickens’ books for free (sorry, no videos included).

Tuesday Travels: Secrets of Email Marketing Lists

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

“The money is in the list.”

You’ve probably read that a lot. I know I’ve said it a lot. It means that the list you rent (or build) is the most important part of your marketing. A bad list means bad results (you’ll never make money trying to sell parrot food to cat owners).

So, take care of your list, nourish it, and clean it regularly.

Here are some tips on email list building and marketing.

Start Your Email Newsletter Without an Opt-In List– what if you don’t have a list? or you’re just starting out? then what?

How Big Should Your Mailing List Be? – how many people do you need? is bigger always better?

The $100 Marketing Campaign That Packed the Room – you don’t need a big budget (or a big list) to get great results