sicksens, Author at Naper Design | Naperville Web Design and SEO

11JunJune 11, 2010

5 Simple Steps to Viral Video Results

Let’s start off funny. The following are NOT the 5 steps to viral video results:

Sit around drinking and talking about funny video ideas.
List a bunch of successful viral videos and come up with knock-off ideas to copy them.
Call every funny video idea “viral” before it’s even created and before someone has ever seen it and before anyone has ever passed it to anyone.
Let your clients disapprove all your good ideas and then run with the lame ones.
Create videos without thinking about distribution because OF COURSE it’s going to go viral after just the first person views it.

You get the point.

I recently interviewed a couple of people for my Social Media Expert Interview series – Scott Stratten of UnMarketing fame and Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive – who gave me a new perspective on viral video creation.

Why You Shouldn’t Try To Be Funny

The upshot is: funny videos are the hardest to get to go viral. Sense of humor is very personal. And it doesn’t matter if 100,000 people see your skateboarding dog catch fire and faceplant if you don’t get anything out of all those video views. Unless you’re just trying to have fun. But if you care about results, keep reading.

There’s a simpler way. And you can tie it to a conversion event you want to get.

A More Effective Viral Video Style

Just create what I call the “Emotional Slideshow” (because there was no name for it and that’s all I could think of on the spot) type of viral video.

These are nothing new, but they work like gangbusters.

The Time Movie has received 1.4MM views despite being very simply and cheezier than Fabio movie backed by a Yanni soundtrack. Scott admits to being sick of it. But his goal was to get motivational speaking gigs and launch his speaking career without years of painful free gigs- and it worked.

The Boss Movie helped Carrie Wilkerson build a list of 24,000 work-at-home women to market to in just 9 months.

The Crappy Day Movie just debuted and is my first attempt at one of these Emotional Slideshow movies. But it has its own Facebook page and I hear those are really hard to start and very, very expensive.

The Five Steps to Creating An “Emotional Slideshow” Viral Video

Know your audience
List their three biggest problems and three biggest obstacles (you’ll have 6 points)
List their three biggest dreams (not goals), then three examples each of life with those dreams fulfilled (you’ll have 9 points)
Create a line of negative and positive affirmations for each of those 15 points above
Find an emotionally evocative image for each point, and music for the entire slideshow, and create the movie

You can have more points, but you want each image and sentence to last about 7 seconds, and the full movie to be 3-4 minutes.

Then, of course, watch it on several occasions and have other people proof it, especially if they’re your target audience.

Getting Results

If you watched The Boss Movie, you’ll notice Carrie brings up an opt-in page after the movie for a pdf about the 7 Things Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Know. This is a bribe that goes straight to the audience’s core problem- the limitations of employment. When conceiving your bribe, make sure you start with titles and think like a copywriter before you create the content you’re going to give away.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

5 Simple Steps to Viral Video Results

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

11JunJune 11, 2010

Using Authority Labs for “Local Pack” Rank Checking; My Review

AuthorityLabs is simple yet extensive seo software that’s been around for about a year now. The software provides daily ranking data, as well as link data for any page or domain from multiple sources. Lately they’ve been integrating new data sources so that you can get exact match search volume numbers for every keywords in your account, for example:

Recently, they just launched the ability to track and report on domains or pages ranking within local packs. If a keyword your tracking throws a local pack, and your domain isn’t found in it, you’ll get one icon in the ‘Type’ column.

Here we can see when you search for ‘hotel in dc’ you’ll get a local pack, but the domain ‘monaco-dc.com‘ isn’t ranking in it.

Local Pack

If you’re tracking a domain that is found within the local pack you’ll get a similar icon, but one which indicates where that domain ranked inside the local pack. Here you’ll see that if you search for ‘tampa lawyer’ you’ll get a local pack also, but in this case the domain ‘tgalaw.com‘ was found within it it at position E.

Local Pack Ranking

From my testing, it seems accurate for keywords which are locally targeted (ie: real estate seattle vs real estate). What’s interesting though, is being able to understand which keywords are throwing a local pack that aren’t locally targeted.

As with anything, you’ll want to take this data and look at it in aggregate. So, if you have a lot of keywords which are throwing the local pack, you know local optimization should be a priority, and for the keywords which are locally targeted you can track your progress. If you don’t have a lot of terms throwing the local pack, local optimization may not need to be a priority for you.

Along with local data, they’re also reporting on which universal results are found on a page. Currently, it looks like they’re finding image, video, shopping, real-time, news and blog results. In this case, we can see that a search on Google for ‘tiger woods’ throws image, news, video and blog results.

Universal Results Reporting

Again, this information is really useful in aggregate. So, if you’re tracking 100 terms and 90 of them are throwing image results, there’s an opportunity there for easier page one exposure. Or at least, you now know your images should be properly optimized, and you’ll probably see results from that work.

They took it one step further, and are also capturing whether or not rich snippets were found on a search result. So, if you have a lot of keywords where rich snippets exist, getting some micro-format or RDF markup on your pages will probably help bump you up a few spots, or at least, get you a few more clicks with a fancier serp snippet.

Rich Snippits

I appreciate Chase (one of the founders of Authority Labs) taking the time to walk me through, and demo a lot of these new features. I would encourage you to keep an eye on them, they are doing some pretty cool stuff, and I personally know of some cool new tools they have in the pipeline that, IMO are going to be a game changer in the industry.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Using Authority Labs for “Local Pack” Rank Checking; My Review

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

11JunJune 11, 2010

BlueGlass LA : Last Day for Early Bird Tickets

Today is the last day to register for BlueGlass LA at our special Early Bird rate of $495.00. Ticket sales for the early bird special stop tonight at 11:55 EST, so as of right now you have 14 hours and 30 minutes left to register for this discounted price.

Want an even better deal? Sign up with the discount code sejreader for an additional 10% off the Early Bird price!

What’s BlueGlass LA?

BlueGlass LA

The anticipated follow-up conference to the Search & Social Spring Summit, BlueGlass LA is a special collaboration between us & 10e20 to bring the best speakers on Search Marketing & Social Media together into one spot for two days of sharing, discussion, education and networking. But the collaboration does not stop there because we needed a man on the scene in LA to make things happen! And who better to make the magic happen in LA than Tony Adam, the Sr. Online Marketing Manager at MySpace!

Just like Search & Social and 10e20, Tony Adam knows how to crank and get things done. And this special collaboration has put together an incredible conference agenda over the course of the last two weeks. Another month, another conference and another conference, another name; BlueGlass LA!

Why BlueGlass? Well, it’s short, brandable and gives an instant visual representation of transparency and vastness. There’s much more to the branding and BlueGlass name, but that explanation will have to wait until the conference.

What’s the Format of BlueGlass LA?

Just like our previous conferences, we’re going to keep the registration numbers low, and the sharing of information and collaboration high. Our format is this; get the best speakers and content available, and provide an exclusive atmosphere where attendees can interact with industry experts, fully participate in Q&A sessions, LIVE search & social marketing for 48 to 72 hours, and leave with the event with an expanded knowledge base, skill set and business connections that will last a lifetime.

Because of the intimate setting and round the clock events, from breakfast until the nighttime parties & networking events stop, all attendees will leave knowing much more than they did walking in, and usually with solid leads and business on the table.

Don’t just take it from me… here are some testimonials from past attendees :

“It’s small, close-knit setting, gives you a chance to sit down and talk shop with everyone, not just folks from your social clique. The topics were interesting, and I found myself taking a lot of notes…something that I haven’t done in years. It’s definitely on my must-do conferences for next year.” Kathryn Katz, Consolidated Credit Counseling Services

“Search and Social Summit was one of the best conferences I’ve attended in years. The sessions were extremely informative, and I’m looking forward to attending the next one.” Avi Wilensky, ProMediaCorp

“The casual feel of the event mixed with the intimacy and small size truly made your event top notch. Not only was I able to reconnect with my ‘Twitter family,’ again, but was also lucky enough to speak with many industry experts who were such a wealth of knowledge and were no means bothered by any sort of questions asked, whether basic or advanced.” Victoria Edwards, LinkShare

“This is by far my favorite SEO event not only because of the content but also because it takes the attendees and speakers from strangers to friends in 2 days. The willingness of the speakers to engage attendees, answer questions and really dig deep into their project issues, not only in sessions but in the pool as well is something special.!” Kristina Durakis, Timeshares Only

Where & When is BlueGlass LA?

BlueGlass LA will be held at the Marina del Rey Marriott, an oceanside resort in Marina del Rey, CA on July 19-20, 2010. The Marina is 15 minutes from LAX and within walking distance to Venice Beach & Venice Pier. It is also the location of the club Glow, which is one of West LA’s most happening hot spots!

Who Will Be at BlueGlass LA?

LA is a business town, and we’re looking to go a little beyond the usual basic online marketing tactics, and more into the nitty gritty of success stories and case studies. The speaker lineup for BlueGlass LA reads like a list of top quality Keynotes, and includes leading technologists and entrepreneurs like :

Ben Huh from ICanHasCheezburger
Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz
Neil Patel from KISSMetrics
Tony Adam from MySpace
Marshall Simmonds from The New York Times
Greg Boser of 3Dog Media
Dave McClure from FF Angel
Vanessa Fox from NinebyBlue

… and many more!

Please visit our agenda for the lineup of speakers and discussion topics.

And like Search & Social Spring Summit; Dave Snyder, Chris Winfield, Jordan Kasteler, Brent Csutoras and myself will be moderating, chiming in when needed, and running the show. It’s just going to be AMAZING!

How Much will BlueGlass LA Run?

The cost of attending BlueGlass LA is surprisingly affordbale. The Early Bird price until June 10 is $495. I highly recommend taking advantage of this deal now by registering.

This includes admission to both days of the conference, all speaker sessions, hyper-networking opportunities with speakers and attendees, three meals/day (breakfast, lunch & dinner), cash bar and two nights of evening entertainment.

Here’s more information on the location, hotel, pricing and accommodations from BlueGlass LA.

BlueGlass LA is an Internet marketing conference and networking event that is a follow-up to Search & Social Summit. It is produced by a collaboration between 10e20, an established leader in social media and search marketing, and Search & Social, a full service Internet marketing company that specializes in SEO, ORM and social media.

For additional information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://www.blueglass.com/conferences/la

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

BlueGlass LA : Last Day for Early Bird Tickets

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

11JunJune 11, 2010

Local Business Listing: A Marketing Opportunity and a Security Challenge

local_business_listing_perspective Local business listings began with a basic business directory more than a decade ago. Chances are, your business has a local listing wherever you have a physical address location. Check it out — go to Google, type in your company name. You’ll probably see a map locating your business and an address. Of course all you may find other information too. Local business listings are treated passively by many businesses. But that could be a mistake. You’ve probably read that prospects have something specific in mind when they are shopping. So try this test. Go back to Google, type in the name of a product or service your business provides plus your hometown. Did your business show up? If it did: congratulations. If it did not: you’re missing a major marketing opportunity.

Times have changed.

From a marketing standpoint, the use of local business listings has exploded with the increase of social media and mobile devices. Consumers not only use these interactive yellow pages to locate a business, product or service in their area; they are also posting reviews of those products and services. Today, there are over 60 local business listing websites on the Internet in five different categories. They include the search engines, social communities, 411 websites (aka yellow page type websites), GPS websites and that age-old business directory.

You can no longer be passive.

To make your interactive yellow pages listing a stronger marketing tool, you must first “claim” the listing with all the search engines, social communities, websites and organizations that lead people to it. Once you prove the listing is really yours you can update it with your business marketing material. Businesses are realizing the importance of this claiming process. Once you have claimed your local listing you can update information with text, keywords, business descriptions, products, services, photos, videos, coupons, and more. Some websites, such as Google, allow you to use all these options while others charge a fee for enhanced listings making this information present for local consumers through web or mobile searches

So what’s the “security challenge”?

The claiming process is crucial to security because if the wrong person gets access to your business local listing they can direct customers to a different location by phone or website address. Additional damage can include incorrect information on photos, videos, coupons, and more. Because consumers are using local business listings to locate a business, product or service in their immediate area, the security around local business listings must have a high priority for any local listing website.

Remember phishing?

Phishing was described in 1987 before the Internet was a commercial boom. The first recorded use of phishing was in1996. The question is whether the business industry is going to wait for something similar to occur using Local Business Listings. The security holes are quite evident with Local Business Listings and I don’t think it takes a genius see what could happen if businesses do not “claim” their listings – the first step in closing those “holes.”

When hackers capture a Local Listing it’s called “high-jacking.”

It is absolutely important that businesses not passively wait for local listing websites to put the appropriate security in place before you claim your listing. Installing security starts with the obvious claiming process, but many sites allow data to be inserted from other databases on the Internet and I am not sure there’s good security around this later process. If someone wanted to hijack a local business listing, they could easily insert the wrong information through a low level business directory that sells its data upstream or inserts its data directly into a higher level local listing website.

While the top search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo have “some” front-end security; their API’s (Application Programming Interface) makes them vulnerable through the back door. Data is provided to their local listings from 3rd party sources including “get listed” services. Additionally, if someone cannot claim a listing easily, the process within these local listing websites allows for additional listings with the same address to be submitted by anyone.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Local Business Listing: A Marketing Opportunity and a Security Challenge

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

11JunJune 11, 2010

Quickly Embed Tweets to a Web Page with Blackbird Pie

Do you often use the screenshots of your (or maybe someone else’s) Tweet? I see the Twitter screenshots throughout the web. People use the screenshots of Tweets as quotes or to visualize the idea or just for fun.

This is why the new non-official tool by Twitter employee Robin Sloan got my attention.

Blackbird Pie is a Twitter-based tool that allows to embed a Tweet to your web page to save time immensely:

No time spent on making the screenshot;
No time spent on editing the image;
No time spent on uploading the image.

Besides saving your time, the tool has one more advantage: clickable links to:

The Tweet;
The Twitter user who said that.

- which will potentially encourage more people to go to your profile and follow you:

Blackbird pie

So let’s see this time-saver in action:

How It Works

1. Step one: get the direct link of the Tweet you want to embed.

Find it here:

Direct link of the Tweet

2. Provide the link in the form and press “Bake it”:

Blackbird Pie

3. Get the code to embed the Tweet to your page:

Blackbird Pie

Enjoy the Time-Saving Tools

While Blackbird Pie is a time-saver in itself, it has a couple of tools that make it even faster:

1. Wordpress Plugin for Blackbird Pie

That makes it easier to embed the Tweets to your Wordpress blog.

2. Blackbird Pie Browser Bookmarklet

Just drop the bookmarklet to your browser, navigate to a separate Tweet page, click it and grab the code instantly.

Blackbird Pie bookmarklet

Note: there’s also a Chrome extension that works the same way in Google Chrome.

Do you feel like using this tool?

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Quickly Embed Tweets to a Web Page with Blackbird Pie

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

11JunJune 11, 2010

Google Caffeine Goes Live

Google has just announced the completion of it’s Caffeine Project which according to Google offers the freshest search results than what its current search index can offer. Google Caffeine is also the largest collection of web content that Google can offer.

Google Caffeine is all about delivering fresh content, be it a blog or forum post or even news story. The idea is to highlight this real-time search results. Caffeine is different from Google’s current search index for the simple reason that these results are not really the live web content but rather Google’s index of the web.

According to Google , Caffeine was created to keep up with the evolution of the web as well as to meet rising user expectations. Google has analyzed the web in small portions and updated it’s search index continuously. Caffeine allows Google to index web pages on a huge scale and processes hundreds of pages in parallel.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Caffeine Goes Live

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

11JunJune 11, 2010

Search the Web Faster with Cleeki for FireFox

We have already seen some addons that make searching Google easier and more fun as well as looked at the ways to by-pass the actual SERPs while searching.

Today’s addon is another option to add to your searching arsenal. Cleeki is a nice little addon that makes searching the web much faster. I’ve been using it for about three weeks before actually reviewing it here. I decided to share it for the two main reasons:

It’s a great time-saver;
It aggregates multiple search engines in one handy pop-up.

Let’s take a quick look at the tool features…

Search Features

Just have the tool installed and forget about it. Now, while reading any web text, you may come across a phrase you’d like to look up in Google, Twitter, etc. So just select the phrase and notice a tiny icon nearby:

Cleeki icon

Click the icon and choose a search engine to perform the search:

Cleeki

If you need more engines, click a blue arrow sign:

Cleeki: more search engines

After you choose a search engine you need and click it, the search results appear right on the same page in a handy pop-up:

Cleeki search results

From there you can:

Switch to another Google service (blog search, image search, etc);
Switch to any other search engine (to open them in the same pop-up);
Go to any search result (will open in a new tab);
Perform another search;
Go to actual SERPs;
Access the tool options.

Preview Features

The addon has another, quite useful feature. It allows to preview the link target page: just hover over the link and hold CTRL. You will see a tiny icon:

Cleeki preview

Click it and the page preview will load in the little pop-up:

Cleeki preview

The Addon Options

Speaking of options, here’s what you can customize:

Set the number of “active” search engines (those you see before clicking “More” icon);
Disable the Cleeki icon once you select any text;
Set the time limit before the icon fades away (unless you click it to search);
Set the window dimensions;
Set the actions on various mouse clicks:

Cleeki options

All in all, I found the addon useful enough and absolutely clutter-free. So if you search a lot, you may want to give it a try!

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Search the Web Faster with Cleeki for FireFox

By sicksensSEO0 Comments

01JunJune 1, 2010

45 Photoshop Actions To Enhance Your Photos And Stand Out

Actions come really handy when you have a need to enhance your photos, but you just don’t have a time for it or necessary skills. Photoshop actions contain various adjustment layers, filters, effects, who are originally recorded by author and you can play them back again. You can create actions yourself or you can just download professional ones here and get amazing results with just once click!

Explore how the action is built, choose which adjustments you want to apply and finally just enjoy great results. In this article you’re going to find 45 sets of actions that help you enhance the colors and change the main look of Your photo.

1. Powerful Colors 3.1 by Othman Fahd

2. i-Dark 3.03 by Othman Fahd

3. Exclusive Summer Heat Action by Danielle Gillain Svedin

4. Classic People Action by apartyintheUSA

5. Photoshop Action ver.3 by Gökhan Bartu Yüksel

6. StarDeviant action 1.06 by Stardeviant

7. StarDeviant action 1.08 by Stardeviant

8. Photoshop Actions – 78 by Julia Starr

9. Photoshop Actions – 75 by Julia Starr

10. Lomo Action Set by WingsOfAHero

11. Action set 03 by KissOfDeathXxX

12. Photoshop Actions – 32 by Julia Starr

13. Action Collection 1.0 by Philipp Soul

14. Photoshop Action by kahwe

15. rEDacrion by getinline

16. The Day Is Passing By by ArinThoughts

17. Actions 1 by allthebesthere

18. Photoshop Action 2 by saturn-rings

19. Red Action by sd-stock

20. Photoshop Dream Blur Action by Josh Janusch

21. Oscar Pilch Photoshop Action by Oscar Pilch

22. Black white sepia PS action by rosalindharrison

23. Retro by ShadowsInMyEyes

24. Photoshop Actions by wolf-minori

25. Retro Love by Patricia Nabong

26. Action Set 1 by ImaginaryRosse

27. One Less Lonely Girl Action by Nick Jonas

28. Photoshop Action 31 by miss-etikate

29. Landscape and Sky Action by fcpr

30. Sarah1 Action by supersarah089

31. sa-cool actions 1.05 by Othman Fahd

32. Nature Actions 2.09 by Othman Fahd

33. Action 2 by lolipopek

34. Vintage Dream PS Actions by Chitulescu Iuliana Amalia

35. Pure Luv by GSInteractive

36. Pack Actions 01 by Patricia Torres

37. Selective Sepia by Aditya Rao

38. Horizon Actions by LonelyDiary

39. Powerful Colors 3.2 by Othman Fahd

40. sa-cool actions 2.06 by Othman Fahd

41. Photoshop Action 22 by Oscar Pilch

42. Lomo-Cross Processing Action by efete-stock

43. A-Actions by LonelyDiary

44. Go Green Actions Set by LonelyDiary

45. Action 6 by Flurish

By sicksensWeb Design Feeds0 Comments

01JunJune 1, 2010

Customize your WordPress Backend for Personal Branding

With more and more people building custom WordPress themes, it only makes sense to want to create it more personal. I have found a few ways that I will share with you on making your WordPress powered site more personal. This tutorial will show you how to create a custom WordPress login, and explain how to fit it to your needs.

We will then take it a step further and create a custom admin panel footer, and also a custom admin header image for our WordPress site.

Let’s Get Started

Setting it Up

For this example we are going to modify our functions.php file. If your theme does not have this file you can create a blank file and name it functions.php – Make sure this file is placed in the theme directory of the current activated theme you are using.

Add the following to your functions.php file:

functions.php


php
function custom_login() {
echo 'wplogin/wplogin.css" />';
}
add_action('login_head', 'custom_login');
?>

Explanation of the Code

We are using the functions.php file to tell WordPress to override the default settings for the .css file used to make up the login screen. By doing this we are directing WordPress to use a specified .css file that we are going to create for our custom login screen. This .css file will be what we modify to design the login page.

Please make note that there are some very specific styles within the .css file that MUST be present, and changed accordingly for this to properly work. I have created the folder and placed the .css file in it to keep it separated from our regular theme files. If you want to the path can be altered as long as it points to the direct location of the CSS file within your theme.

The Setup

Next we will need to do two things. First, we will need to create a new folder in our theme directory. For this example we are going to use the folder name wplogin.

This folder will be placed within our WordPress theme file folder.

In this folder we will make a new blank file and name it wplogin.css

Taking a look at the setup

This is now what you should have. Remember that the location can be changed using the code we placed in our functions.php file – but for this example you should now have the following:

The file structure will be: wp-content\themes\YOUR_THEME_NAME\wplogin

The new folder we named wplogin will go into your theme folder, and the new .css file we created will be held within the new folder.

Now let’s view what we will be adding to our .css file:

wplogin.css


/* Page Background */
html {
	background: #eae2d5 url(bgimage-path);
	margin: auto;
	font-weight:bold;
}
/* Wordpress Logo - MAKE SURE TO MATCH THE WIDTH AND HEIGHT */
h1 a {
	background:url(logo-path) 0 0 no-repeat;
	width:290px;
	height:150px;
	margin-left: 10px;
	margin-bottom: 0px;
	padding-bottom: 0px;
}
/* Top Bar Background Color */
body.login {
	border-top-color:#dac6ad;
}
.message {
	margin-bottom: 0px;
}
/* Login Button */
#wp-submit {
	background: #bc3d1d;
	border: #f24643;
}
/* Lost Password Link */
.login #nav a, .login #nav a:hover {
	color: #443030!important;;
}
/* Top Bar Link */
.login p#backtoblog a:link, .login p#backtoblog a:visited {
	color:#443030;
	font-weight: bold;
}
.login p#backtoblog a:hover, .login p#backtoblog a:active {
	color:#443030;
	text-decoration:underline;
}

Explanation of the .css

Now that we have both the functions.php code in place telling WordPress to use our custom .css file, and our .css file in place, we can start to modify it a bit. The comments within the .css example should explain most everything but we will break it down to further understand it.

Make a note that when changing the logo image you MUST match it with the width and height in the CSS file. That is noted up above in the comments within the CSS file but it is VERY important or it will not always work correctly.

Full Breakdown

I know the .css is commented well but I still want to cover each editable item. Let’s see below to take a look at it:

The Page Background will be the entire page background color and image. The example .css file above shoes a link to the image but there is not one set. You can modify this to create a full-page background image, or change it to a color of your choice.

The WordPress Logo: This is where you will need to be sure to change the width and height to match your image. As long as the dimensions fit your logo you are using it will work correctly.

Top Bar Background Color: This is the bar located at the very top of the page. This can be changed to any color you like.

Message: This is the bottom bar that can be changed to any color you wish as well.

Lost Password Link: This is the a:link button to retrieve your password if lost.

Top Bar Link: This is the a:link’s at the very top of the page within the Top Bar area.

Take a look at the image below for a diagram of items within the CSS file we can change:

Taking it a step further

Now to continue making our WordPress install more custom and personal, we will change the footer link on our admin screen. This can personalize our website just a little bit more.

Again using the functions.php file we can force WordPress to change something. We will be telling WordPress what we want in our footer area of our admin screen instead of the generic text that comes standard with a regular install of WordPress.

Here is the code we will be adding, but this can be modified to your needs:


function remove_footer_admin () {
echo 'Anything you want can go right here | Copyright &copy; 2010 My Website name';
}
add_filter('admin_footer_text', 'remove_footer_admin');

Changing the Admin Logo

This can also be really useful when trying to personalize your WordPress powered site. Even if you are creating the site for a client they will always enjoy seeing their logo on the admin screen. This is easy to do, and can be done by editing the functions.php file. Add the following code and be sure it points to your image that you will be using:


// Custom Admin Top Logo
add_action('admin_head', 'my_custom_logo');

function my_custom_logo() {
   echo '<style type="text/css">
         #header-logo { background-image: url('.get_bloginfo('template_directory').'/images/custom_logo.gif) !important; }';
}

What we have now

Now we have created a custom WordPress login screen, as well as a custom footer within our admin screen, and a custom image in the header of our admin screen. This should be a good start in personalizing our WordPress powered site. There are still things that can be done to take all of this even further. Using these methods is good for personal sites, multi-user sites, and even sites created for clients that want to see their WordPress site personalized. Playing with the above provided code will allow you many options to customize your WordPress site.

By sicksensWeb Design Feeds0 Comments

01JunJune 1, 2010

30+ Best Websites to Download Free E-books

I believe that reading is the best and simplest way for human to derive and construct a particular knowledge from a source. It would be good if we’re able to download free e-book and keep it with us.You might be surprised by how many good free ebook sites there are out there. Nowadays, you can find many popular and non-popular books online. People just need to know where to download.That’s why we’ve crawled deep into the Internet world to compile this list of Best Websites to download free E-books for your use.

1.20200k

A mass directory for free online books and free ebooks and have a big collections of ebooks in different categories like Art,photography,Spirituality,Science,mystery and thrillers etc…

2.Asksam

Asksam has a collection of free e-books like Shakespeare, and assorted legal & governmental text etc…

3.Google books

Search and preview millions of books from libraries and publishers worldwide using Google Book Search. Discover a new favorite or unearth an old classic.you can get details of book Title, Return books with the title, e.g. Books and Culture. Author, Return books written by, e.g. Hamilton Mabie or “Hamilton …

4.Free PDF ebooks

5.Digital library

This online books website has a Listing of over 30,000 free books on the Web.

6.Ebooks3000

It is the best free ebooks download library. It’s the open directory for free ebooks and download links, and the best place to read ebooks.

7.Ebook lobby

Free ebooks in ebook lobby are divided into different categories. Categories range from business, art, computing and education. Select the category appropriate to the e-book you’re looking for.

8.Ebooks directory

E-Books Directory is a daily growing list of freely downloadable ebooks, documents and lecture notes found all over the internet. You can submit and promote your own ebooks, add comments on already posted books or just browse through the directory below and download anything you need

9.Ebooks download free

Ebooks download free is one of the biggest books sharing websites that contains huge collection of pdf and chm books for free download you can download free books in many categories: Computer books like free php ebooks to download, ADO.NET, AJAX, java, ajax, photoshop, javascript Exchange Server, Sharepoint , ASP.NET XML free books downloads, c# and c+ books.

10.Ebooks-space

Free downloadable ebooks for computer IT, programming lauguages, software development, tutorial, database design in PDF-CHM file format.

11.Ebooks-x

EBook-x lets you to download popular free ebooks, classical free ebooks, new releases and more.

12.E-library

Plenty of free books available here to download.

13.Esnips

eSnips is the one place where you can share anything you want, about any topic: your thoughts, your photos, your music, your videos, your flash files, stuff you find on the web, and many other media types. You can search and download for free documents in eSnips as well.

14.Free book centre

Cisco certification books, Free Computer Science ebooks,Free Computer Science ebooks download, programming tutorial, online programming,

Mathematical books etc…

15.Free book spot

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16.Free computer books

You can get huge collection of free online Computer, Programming, Mathematics, Technical Books, Lecture Notes and Tutorials. It is very well categorized by topics, with 12 top level categories, and over 150 sub-categories.

17.Free e-books

Free-eBooks is an online source for free ebook downloads, ebook resources and ebook authors. Besides free ebooks, you also download free magazines or submit your own ebook.You need to become a Free-EBooks.Net member to access their library. Registration is free.

18.Free techbooks

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19.Getfreebooks

GetFreeEBooks is a free ebooks site where you can download free books totally free. All the ebooks within the site are legal downloadable free ebooks.

20.Knowfree

KnowFree is a web portal where users are able to exchange freely e-books, video training and other materials for educational purposes and self-practice.

21.Mega-PDF

22.Memoware

MemoWare has a unique collection of thousands of documents (databases, literature, maps, technical references, lists, etc.) specially formatted to be easily added to your PalmOS device, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC, Symbian or other handheld device.

23.Networkgood

24.Online computer books

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This website Provides links to various ebooks (mostly in pdf) spanning in 9 big categories which are: Automotive Ebooks, Business Ebooks, Engineering Ebooks, Gadget Ebooks, Hardware Ebooks, Health & Medical Ebooks, Hobbies Ebooks,Programming & Technology Ebooks, Sport & Martial Art Ebooks.

26.PDF geni

PDFGeni is a dedicated pdf search engine for PDF ebooks, sheets, forms and documents.

27.Pdfoo

Developed for free services to provide resources of PDF files. All files based on popular section and it short by number of the most download by people. Browse through the category section will lead you find the PDF files that you are looking for. Every time people download, or system will counting how many times it has download by people.

28.pdf search engine

Pdf Ebook Search Engine, A tons of books, free unlimited pdf download and search.

29.Scribd

Scribd, the online document sharing site which supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and other popular formats. You can download a document or embed it in your blog or web page.

30.Slideshare

SlideShare is the best way to share your presentations with the world. Let your ideas reach a broad audience. Share publicly or privately.

31.Snipfiles

SnipFiles offers you free ebooks and software legally by brought or attained PLR, resale or master rights to all the products on their page.

32.Ufindbook

By sicksensWeb Design Feeds0 Comments

01JunJune 1, 2010

Web Operating Systems: The Options You should Consider

Most of us have heard of WebOS or Web Operating Systems and most of us just don’t know what it is. Well, WebOS and Web operating system are terms that describe network services for internet scale distributed computing. However, the terms WebOS and Web operating system have been employed more broadly and with far greater popularity in the context of “the web as in HTTP”, and for many meanings ranging from singular systems to collections of systems. Common to uses for collections of systems, a Web operating system is distinct from Internet operating systems in that it is independent of the traditional individual computer operating system. This conception of the system reflects an evolution of research in the field of operating systems. I compiled 16 WebOS apps to know what they are and to experience operation systems in your browser.

1. EyeOs

EyeOs is a Cloud Computing Platform that includes an office suite, group ware applications and the toolkit to develop specific web applications that you need.

2. iCloud

icloud consists of a desktop with applications and files that you run through your web browser. Because it’s running in the cloud (the internet) it can offer you impressive features such as easy sharing and rich collaboration.

3. CorneliOS

CorneliOS is a web-based OS that runs in your web browser. All applications and files are stored on the CorneliOS server and are accessible all the time and anywhere. CorneliOS is platform and browser independent and is available as free Open Source software under the GPL as well as under a commercial license. The CorneliOS Web OS includes a Content Management System (CMS) so that you can easily set up and manage your own website as well as a Database Management System that allows to rapidly build any kind of database application.

4. Glide OS

Glide OS 4.0 is a comprehensive Ad-Free cloud computing solution. Glide provides a free suite of rights-based productivity and collaboration applications with 30GBs of storage. The Glide OS provides automatic file and application compatibility across devices and operating systems. With Glide OS you also get the Glide Sync App which helps you to synchronize your home and work files.

5. myGoya

6. atoolo

atoolo is a personal communication platform or differently spoken: an individual home in the net and a useful aid with the everyday work on the PC.

7. Cloudo

With Cloudo, every computer, in school, at work, at your friends’ or even in the library becomes your own, free of charge computer. And with Cloudo Mobile your online computer is accessible from your mobile phone as well.

8. OOS

OOS (Online Operating System) is your personal online desktop that supports multiple applications and allows online collaboration and it comes with Windows XP like theme.

9. Pipio

Pipio is a social operating system that aims to give people the ability to share and communicate in real-time. You can search what other people are communicating about in real-time based on contextual, geographical, and chronological relevance. As an operating system, Pipio allow full functionality of third-party web apps within the Pipio ecosystem.

10. KIDO’Z

KIDO’Z is a web OS for kids. KIDO’Z Kid’s Web Environment is safe, easy and fun way for young kids to surf their favorite sites, watch videos, play games, send emails, create and communicate without knowing how to read and write. KIDO’Z is powered by parents and gives parents the power of control.

11. Peepel

Peepel is an online WebOs and office suite.

12. Startforce

13. Fenestela

Fenestela is an operating system for WEB space with a simple and convivial graphic interface. Code your Web pages, your programs, and save your files online. Share with your friends your photographs, family movies and office documents.

14. mybooo

15. SilveOS

16. Lucid

Lucid is a free, open source web desktop, or webOS that lets you: Access your media, office documents, and other files anywhere Stay up to date with Twitter, RSS feeds, and what’s happening on the web Create great web applications in short amounts of time.

By sicksensWeb Design Feeds0 Comments

01JunJune 1, 2010

35 Professionally Made Flash Websites for Your Inspiration

Since Flash came into our life, there have always been “two camps”: Flash-lovers and Flash-haters. All of the “lovers” and “haters” have their own reasons of loving or hating it. As for me, all the disputes on this theme have no sense, until we’ve got a really worthy substitute for Flash.

There are tons of information written on the subjects “to use or not to use…”, “advantages and disadvantages…”, etc. I think it’s not the point Flash is good or bad, – it just certainly has its place – that’s it. And the “members” of the “two camps” should understand that there is nothing to argue about. If you are a photographer or designer and you need motion, interactivity, – Flash will definitely be the right choice. If you wish to express your originality, with Flash you will achieve that. But if your website is about delivering straight up information, then CSS/(X)HTML will work good for you. In other words, HTML is great for informative websites, and Flash is perfect for creating unforgettable effects.

Since I myself am a little partial to Flash, this showcase will not be devoted to “the best HTML websites”:)

The Flash websites I have selected for this post are all professionally developed; they are not only visually attractive, but are also functionally correct, load in a few seconds and disprove most of the existing mistaken opinions as for Flash that have been spread around, i.e.: