Making the web work for you
I was just trying to login to my Paypal account on my 2600 x 1600 main monitor and imagine my shock when the giant screen went into full size motion.
That a mainstream financial site would be running larger than HD videos by default is a huge change in the infrastructure and the aesthetic of the web.
What chance does television stand?
Keep reading New Chapter for Web Video: Paypal default home page 2K video background
Foliovision is in the web design business. Often enough we have to shoot a full length screenshot of a website. There are three utilities we normally use in order.
All of the above work on OS X versions at least as far back 10.6.8
Keep reading OS X Long Webpage Screenshot Shootout: Paparazzi, Screengrab, Layers, Netfixer
WordPress are finally getting around to updating the Admin theme.
This is a great idea. From the beginning WordPress has generally looked great when going out with visitors but she dresses awfully sloppily around the house.
The front end just keeps getting better as the backend stagnates.
Unfortunately, current previews of the updated WordPress 2.4 Admin interface show a getup which looks worse if anything, than what's there now.
I'm having visions of Mambo circa 2004. What's with the dreadful new brown and orange? The blue on blue colour scheme is about all the WordPress Admin Panel has going for it aesthetically.
The only good looking Admin interface for WordPress has been Steve Smith's WordPress Tiger Administration, which first saw the light of day in June 2005.
Keep reading Current WordPress 2.4 Admin Theme a Disappointment
Just discovered an amazing bookmarklet from Aussie company Western Civilization, one of the original creators of CSS editing software. StyleMaster was always a little bit buggy processor intensive, expensive and complicated for me so I learned how to code CSS from scratch. I still think that's the best way to write CSS. But the modern web is getting so complicated that we really need a better way to look at web pages to be able to figure out how they are put together. Well WestCiv has really hit the ball out of the park with this one. They have a cross browser compatible javascript bookmarklet that will let you click and see all the CSS and structure for any element on a page. The bookmarklet, appropriately enough, is called Xray.
Keep reading Xray Eyes for CSS
There are lots of ways to build incoming links.
For a small window of time (about six months until April of this year) sponsoring WordPress themes was a great way to get varied links from lots of different independent websites.
Of course these links wouldn't be going on top PR sites generally (custom themes) and you don't have control of the theme of the site.
On the other hand, you do have control over the anchor text, which is already not bad.
And previously it was quite inexpensive - you would pay about $40 or $50/link on a two sponsored link theme and around $70 to $100 for a single sponsored link theme.
Things have changed - most theme developers are pushing three sponsored links and are trying to get $100 or more per link.
With the inflation and feeding frenzy, a lot more lousy developers have thrown their hats into the ring, so there is an oversaturation of themes.
The developers all talk a good game of how they promote the theme on sites such as:
Unfortunately on all or most of these high PR authority sites, your sponsored link will be nowhere to seen. Just a link to download the theme and some jpegs of the theme.
The developers will also try to shout and scream about 450 downloads, 1037 downloads for past themes. But for link building number of downloads accomplishes nothing for you.
What you are interested in is the number of sites which use the theme and include the sponsored links. For the purposes of sponsored links, a single is much better as the end user is less likely to rip out the links. By the same token it would also be better if the links were discreetly nested and not in electric green (where they are likely to attract the attention of the site owner and his visitors and finally get ripped out). An exception could be made if your site is likely to go viral and has a very wide appeal. In that case, clicks from sponsored links might actually contribute to your business. For my regional websites, we are not looking for random clicks. It will never generate any business for my clients and the more discreet the sponsored links the better.
Keep reading How to Sponsor a WordPress Theme Successfully | How to audit a theme sponsorship
