Archive for April, 2011
Blog Post Formatting: Make Reading For Visitors Better Experience
Saturday, April 30th, 2011Finally we’re at the stage where we can use some of our design skills! In the next few articles we will look at how to make our content easy to read and scan; in the next post we’ll work on grabbing attention with good headlines! Your content won’t be read if you don’t add kick ass headlines! And your content won’t be read if it isn’t formatted to be easy, pleasant and quick to read! Many bloggers do not consider just how important these points are in the beginning, I didn’t either, but after being online so long, I really appreciate good formatting and yes, catchy headlines work on me as well as they work on anyone else!
So what exactly is good formatting and how do you give you visitors a better reading experience?
Text Formatting
Choose The Right Font
Pick the right font for headlines and content ( paragraphs) – what’s right depends on personal taste and the site topic you’re writing about of course, but take a look at this article – How to Safely Match Web Design and Typography for a more in depth explanation. Never underestimate the power of proper typography, it can be the difference between whether or not people read your articles.
Some of our readers have already noticed we use a serif typeface for headlines, which according to some theories, isn’t the best style of font to use for headlines. Well, I am writing this guide to remind myself how important it is to have really good and thought through typography and will change the CSS styling to 1WD shortly after publishing this article. How about that – case study in action!
Tip: Just to be clear, don’t use more than 2 fonts on your site! It’s ok to use different fonts for headlines and content, but if you use too many fonts your site will probably look very unprofessional. There are some exceptions for quotes, logo, just don’t get crazy, play with different CSS styles not fonts!
Importance of Typography
Still not convinced typography is important? Ok, then I suggest you read this article – What’s Left? The author removes all the content from blogs to show what happens when you a blog is stripped of everything but the design. While the article is about needless website redesigns, I enjoyed this simple test to see why “content is king” – for blogs content actually is everything!
If you would like to see what happens when you strip a site of it’s design, check MIN. MIN is a bookmarklet that will strip any decoration from a site. All color, borders and backgrounds are removed instantly, helping you identify the successful and unsuccessful uses of typography and layout.
Related reading for better typography tools – Ultimate List of 32 Font And Typography Tools.
Paragraphs
Text Size
This is a tricky point too, because you can increase text size in a browser with a few clicks, but still wouldn’t it be better if we could read content right away when we visit a site? I think different formatting and distractions are the main reasons why feed readers, Zite, FlipBoard and Readability are so popular! Many blogs have strange text formatting, too many ads and social media which distract from the content itself! If you can’t remove ads or social buttons, take the time and care to create a great reading experience! How big should your text size be? Again it depends on your audience, but I think 14px is a good starting point – not too small, not too big.
Use Sans-Serif Typeface For Content
Use sans-serif font for content, it’s easier to read letters without serifs (I know, I know Times New Roman is serif and it’s a common typeface that people use when using Word, but online, sans-serif fonts seem to work much better, they also make big chunks of text much easier and faster to scan).
Separate big chunks of information
Paragraphs should not be more than 3-4 sentences. Imagine how hard it would be for you to read text without any formatting? Just one huge pile of words and sentences with no visual difference or hierarchy between the different topics, paragraphs and headings! Imagine yourself sitting at a desk full of different papers, notes, tools – how do you feel? Overwhelmed? There’s a good reason minimalism is so popular in web design! Put clear separation in your content as well!
Headings
Headings are both for clear content separation and search engines! You should use a lot of headings for the same reason you need to separate paragraphs clearly. With these headings you can grab reader’s attention or lose it! If there are no headings at all – you’ve already lost!
While H1 always will be your blog content headline, make use of H2 and H3 stylings as well. I don’t recommend using H5,H6 – it will just create confusion.
- H2: use it to describe the main article topics, usually you’ll have 3-5 major points in an average article
- H3: goes to explain some lesser points, Notice how I formatted this article? There was a paragraph section (H2) and since I was explaining a lot of different sub-topics (H3) there, I dropped it down for much easier reading!
Just go with H2 and H3 and you’ll do great! If you need to separate your content even more I would suggest using bullet points or numbered lists, but more about them later.
Here are some fonts for you to pick from which will help your headlines get noticed – 40 Awesome Free Fonts for Big Headlines
Bullet points, numbered lists
Use bullet points or numbered lists whenever you’re listing something. See how I did it with headings description? Readers will easily recognize that I have created a list and explained similar points and list points are easy to scan and read. No wonder list posts have been so popular, for most readers, the only way they read a post is by quickly scanning it, bookmarking it and then they go on to the next site.
Images
I work hard to find the right images, because I believe visual memory is the strongest one! If you read a post and want to go back again you may not remember site names or web addresses, but you will definitely remember a well designed, visually appealing site! How about using screenshots from a website or product you’re featuring?
However if your article isn’t about websites or online tools, it’s still a good idea to find the RIGHT images which visually convey your opinion or stand. Many bloggers don’t take this point serious though they should! Visual presentation is so powerful! I bet most of you reading this article right now always start with wire-framing or sketching your design to get an idea of how it will look! We make notes on paper because it’s a way for our thoughts to become real, isn’t it smart to get visual in blog posts too? If you’re writing about fear – show a desperate man in a picture, if you talk about power – show skyscrapers, freedom – sky, clouds! Help your readers get their imagination working!
Quotes
Do you remember writing essays and quoting very well known authors to lend a certain auhtority to your work? Great, relevant quotes will make you look more professional – good, relevant quotes show you know what you’re talking about and who the pioneers or leaders in your industry are. This is a great way to add some smart content to your article. You can use quotes to support your opinion, and then explain how they relate to the article topic.
To be honest I don’t do this often yet, just because I forget the sources to those great quotes and end up writing them in my own words, but when I am reading books, a great quote can be a powerful thing.!
Some people just can say something in a few words which we cannot!
Quote the most attention grabbing content in article! I’ve seen this a lot in newspapers, it’s a great way to get scanners to read your article just because they want to find where that quote has been used in context!
Using bold, italic
Bolding is used to emphasize just a few words or a sentence in the article. The previous sentence is an example of how I emphasized just those words which are crucial to explain how to use bold.
Italic is used differently, I usually use it for tips, comments I might have which seem little bit out of context. Basically italic is similar to bold, but draws less attention.
Interlinking
Oh, this is not directly related with blog post formatting, but I wanted to include it, because it will help you in the writing process! Once you feel you’re writing an article which has some points that you’ve already coveredt, link to that article! If you have any related resources to the post, let people know about them!
And yes, if you’ve found some great thought provoking article which could help your readers understand some points better – link to it! Yes, you’re linking outside, but because of valuable content people come back to you! With Twitter you don’t just link to your own articles all the time, you retweet (RT), it’s a great way to share some exceptional articles or tools you’ve discovered! You provide value – do it with your own articles too and your readers will appreciate you by doing so!
Typography Tools And CSS Frameworks With Typography In Mind
Here I found several tools to help you get started to improve your typography in web designs.
Awesome FontStacks
Easily create bundles of beautifully matching, free web fonts, with failsafe font stacks to back them up. Including ready-to-go CSS code! This website will help you to remove the pain from guessing what kind of fonts you should use together! It will do the hardest part for you, you just have to choose which font stacks you want to use – sans-serif, serif, monospaced fonts. Fontstacks will automatically match fonts based on typographical metrics, optimize the font bundles for their intended purpose, and deliver rock solid CSS for those fonts and their fallbacks to copy & paste.
Type-A-File
A really awesome way to get your site up to typographic snuff. It uses traditional semantic HTML tags along with some additional semantic classes named after commonly occurring elements in print design to create a solid typographic toolkit for your website, whoever you are.
Pick from several different stylings and sizes..and then download your css file immediately!
FontSquirel : FontFace
Download hundreds of prepackaged @font-face kits which include multiple font formats, CSS and HTML code. This site is similar to FontStacks but it offers a much better variety of fonts.
Better Web Readability Project – CSS Library
The main purpose of this project is to contribute to better reading experience on the screen by using CSS typography library. View typography demo
The Golden Grid
The Golden Grid is a web grid system. It ‘s a product of the search for the perfect modern grid system. It ‘s meant to be a CSS tool for grid based web sites. While this framework’s main intention is for grids, it has Typographic style too. View Typography demo
PX To Em
With a very simple function – convert, get CSS, learn, it’s all what this site does, but does its job well! Use Em’s because in that way when you zoom your browser, all other font elements will scale accordingly.
BluePrintCSS
Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your development time. It gives you a solid foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, useful plugins, and even a stylesheet for printing. View typography demo
BaseLine
Built with typographic standards in mind, Baseline makes it easy to develop a website with a pleasing grid and good typography. Baseline starts with several files to reset the browser’s default behavior, build a basic typographic layout — including style for HTML forms and new HTML 5 elements — and build a simple grid system. Baseline was born to be a quick way to prototype a website and grew up to become a full typographic framework for the web using “real” baseline grid as its foundation.View Typography demo
Atatonic CSS Framework
The Atatonic CSS Framework is a basic set-up of typography and grid tools. Atatonic is meant to make your web—life easier and is created to provide a stable grid and solid typography. View demo
InuitCSS
This framework does a lot of things, but we are looking at typography. inuit.css has some little typographical niceties built into it from the start. It also has a typographical scale and a (loose) baseline to get you well on your way.
Emastic
Emastic is a CSS Framework, it’s continuing mission: to explore a strange new world, to seek out new life and new web spaces, to boldly go where no CSS Framework has gone before. View typography demo & handy blog template.
BlueTrip CSS Framework
BlueTrip gives you a sensible set of styles and a common way to build a website so that you can skip past the grunt work and get right to designing. Download the package, include the images and stylesheets in your site structure, and get going!View demo
1stwebdesigner – Graphic and Web Design Blog
The Value Of Employing An SEO Firm To Help Your Company Succeed
Saturday, April 30th, 2011Nearly all entrepreneurs that have particular knowledge about the Internet and its many uses would suppose it to be the most profitable venue there is nowadays, especially with search engine optimization making it doable for virtual organizations to reach a wider scope of their respective target audience. Of course, these same businessmen also assume that [...]
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Multimedia Specialist, Bridgewater Associates, LP (Westport, CT)
Thursday, April 28th, 2011Multimedia Specialist
Bridgewater Associates, LP
We’re looking for people who can be the leaders of the company – starting on their very first day.
Bridgewater manages global investments for a wide array of institutional clients, including foreign governments and central banks, corporate and public pension funds, university endowments, and charitable foundations. Bridgewater is a highly entrepreneurial company, driven to success by its process, its people, and its culture. At Bridgewater, we have invented, and keep inventing, superior approaches to investing and technology. We have fueled this innovation by recruiting talented, creative people from all backgrounds and promoting an invigorating and collaborative work environment. We are committed to the constant pursuit of excellence, and the belief that a meritocracy of ideas, not hierarchies, drives decision-making. Bridgewater is based in Westport, Connecticut.
Core Media Department Overview:
Bridgewater believes that radical truth, one of the cornerstones of our culture of rapid personal and professional discovery and development, can only be realized through radical transparency. It’s the Core Media Department‘s job to fulfill the firm-wide goal of radical transparency by capturing, packaging, and assisting in the distribution of information to establish a rich flow of knowledge firm-wide. Beyond being responsible for facilitating company-wide transparency, the Core Media team strives to provide outstanding audio/video media experiences to all employees and contributes to a multitude of training, communications, and creative projects to enrich employee’s understanding of and commitment to the Bridgewater culture and their sense of belonging to the Bridgewater community. The Team’s primary focus is always customer service, providing the Bridgewater community with excellent solutions for the creation, distribution, and management of multimedia materials. We fulfill these responsibilities through 1) Audio and Video capture and production of meetings, training sessions, promotional events, and internal video projects, 2) envisioning, implementing, and supporting conference room audio/visual needs 3) partnering with colleagues across the firm on creative projects related to training or perpetuating the firm’s culture, and 4) working with other departments to implement and support new technologies, such as portable devices and software, to evolve the firm’s methods of learning and transparency. As Bridgewater grows, rapidly transforming from an investment boutique into a leading global institutional asset manager, the Core Media team must grow and evolve to enable the rich flow of information firm-wide that enables Bridgewater’s unique culture.
Position Summary:
The Multimedia Specialist will have direct responsibility for the recording, production, and overall quality of Bridgewater’s multimedia materials. He or she will videotape meetings, events, and live training sessions, process and edit audio and video files, and troubleshoot and maintain the company’s AV equipment. The Multimedia Specialist will join a small, customer service-oriented media team, meaning that it is essential for him or her to be committed to teamwork and collaboration and be willing to roll up his or her sleeves to do what is necessary to achieve the team’s goals.
The ideal candidate for this role will have a background in audio/visual production and editing, proficiency in tools such as Final Cut Pro and Sony Sound Forge, a passion for interacting with audio/visual technology, and the energy and creativity to put towards solving the short and long term challenges associated with providing excellent customer service to the Bridgewater community.
This position is a great opportunity for the right candidate to expand his or her knowledge of media beyond the traditional outlets limited only by Bridgewater’s creativity. Multimedia Specialists will have the opportunity to grow and expand their knowledge of the full landscape of media with a particular focus on its corporate applications.
Responsibilities would include:
• Facilitating firm-wide transparency and training by video recording training events and company meetings, processing audio and video recordings, and archiving video and audio materials for easy retrieval and distribution
• Supporting the entire media production process, including digitizing, editing, and splicing multiple sources of audio and video, as well as preparing media files for final consumption in PCS playback, streaming media, CD/DVD, and MP3 formats
• Providing excellent customer service to the Bridgewater community by troubleshooting and maintaining AV equipment; addressing employee’s inquiries, requests, and issues expertly and in a timely manner; and by soliciting and incorporating employee feedback into the team’s work
• Contributing to the evolving use of media at Bridgewater by collaborating with departments and individuals across the firm on creative projects and initiatives
• Operating within Bridgewater’s culture by giving and receiving open and direct feedback
Position Requirements:
• Previous audio/visual production and post-production experience with a proven track record of success; preferably at least one year of experience in a professional environment
• Computer savvy with the ability to learn new software and systems quickly and to integrate different computer and size formats into a single media file
• Exposure to, and interest in, video compositing and sound editing software such as Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Sony Sound Forge, and Camtasia Studio programs
• Demonstrated experience operating DV and HDV video cameras
• Exposure to, and interest in, Audio/Visual Technology
• Keen customer service mentality
• Ability to visualize how to tell a compelling story from start to finish; strong sense of aesthetic creativity
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills (both written and verbal) with the ability and desire to work collaboratively; ability to build constructive and effective relationships
• Strong attention to detail, with the ability to identify connections and relationships between data points
• Ability to perceive risks and make decisions quickly, often with incomplete information; able to devise logical and right-sized solutions to problems under tight deadlines
• Aptitude for remaining composed and confident under pressure
Preferred candidates would also meet the following criteria:
• College degree with course work in fields such as media, communications, design, advertising, film, and/or video production
• Familiarity with Final Cut Studio, After Effects, Sony Sound Forge, and Camtasia Studio programs
• Knowledge of and experience with troubleshooting and maintaining AV equipment
• Interaction with eLearning technology such as custom coding (interactive Flash), content authoring software, rapid eLearning tools and practices, and virtual training environments, as well as familiarity with industry standards
• Experience working on interactive projects, knowledge of web software (e.g., Flash, HTML 5) and/or mobile app development are all highly desirable
Additionally, to succeed within our unique culture and work environment, individuals must demonstrate humility, innate curiosity, and openness to new ideas and approaches. Candidates must be driven, confident, and goal-oriented. All Bridgewater employees are expected to be honest, exceptionally direct, and eager to provide and receive objective feedback. Our employees constantly strive for self-improvement through feedback and self-reflection and are committed to the pursuit of excellence.
Please note that we do not provide immigration sponsorship for this position.
Bridgewater Associates, LP is an Affirmative Action – Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment at Bridgewater is subject to an extensive background check.
Please apply at the below link if interested in this position:
https://sjobs.brassring.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_home.asp?partnerid=25310&siteid=5242
- Location: Westport, CT
- Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
- Please, no phone calls about this job!
- Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
Job posting from: Graphic Design Jobs
Join Me at SMX Advanced 2011!
Thursday, April 28th, 2011I’m pleased to announce that I will be speaking at SMX Advanced in Seattle this year. I have actually never been to an SMX Advanced show, so I’m looking forward to attending the event almost as much as I am speaking at it. I will be giving a presentation on Advanced Keyword Research Tools on Day 2. Here’s my description of my session from the speaker pitch:
Advanced Keyword Research Tools
I�ve long been a proponent of going beyond the traditional keyword research tools to get a better sense of a brand�s true audience. I presented a number of tools as part of my Advanced Keyword Research Tactics presentation at SMX West in 2009, and I�d love to update that presentation with a tools focus for this presentation. There�s a danger whenever there are tools sessions like this to have it turn into a session that�s driven by the tools themselves as more of a sales pitch than a session filled with information that marketers can apply to their own campaigns. As director of SEO for Omnicom�s only dedicated search agency I have seen all of the enterprise tools, and I know some great ways to use these and free tools to expand keyword lists, find more qualified keywords, and better understand changes in search behavior across different sources. Some topics I would be happy to cover: keyword categorization using Excel and/or SEO Gadget and/or Wordstream and/or the Google Keyword Tool, mobile keyword research with the Google Keyword Tool, Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics (or Omniture), video keyword research with the YouTube keyword tool and YouTube insights, Competitive keyword research with SEMRush, Brightedge, Conductor, Comscore Marketer, etc., demographic filtering with AdIntelligence, Doubleclick AdPlanner and Comscore, and expansion through topic modeling with tag cloud generators like TagCrowd and Wordle.
If this or any of the other advanced search marketing sessions is of interest to you, be sure to register for SMX Advanced in Seattle. It’s a smaller conference that sells out every year, so if you’re planning on attending, don’t wait to register. Hope to see you there!
Natural Search & Mobile SEO Blog
Bankowe zobowiazania finansowe
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011Kredyt konsumencki
Kredyt gotówkowy to wszelka umowa, na podstawie której dostajemy od banku uznaną sumę pieniędzy do dyspozycji i zobowiązani jesteśmy ją po pewnym czasie oddać w oznaczonych porach wraz z odsetkami i innymi kosztami kredytu. Wielce istotnym detalem, na który należy skierować uwagę jest faktyczna roczna stopa procentowa innymi słowy wszelki koszt kredytu w skali roku wraz z innymi opłatami pobocznymi – np. ubezpieczeniem. Powinno się porównywać całkowite koszty rozmaitych kredytów aby wybrać najlepszy – najtańszy.
Nie wszystkie kredyty podlegają aplikowaniu regulacji o kredycie konsumenckim, i są to małe kredyty do 500 zł., jak i ogromne przekraczające 80 tysięcy, a także te w jakich termin spłaty nie przewyższa 3 miesięcy. Przepis o kredycie konsumenckim nie znajdzie przeznaczenia również do kredytów „mieszkaniowych”
W umowie kredytu jest oznaczony cel, na który pozostaną oddane środki.
Zobacz więcej :
Let’s talk about Backlinks: Interview with Dixon Jones
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011This is an interview with Dixon Jones. Dixon is the Marketing Director of MajesticSEO and a founding Director of Receptional, a leading UK Internet Marketing Consultancy. Dixon has been involved in running businesses since 1988 and has been involved in running and marketing online businesses since 1997. Follow Dixon on Twitter
Today we have with us [...]
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Spy Phone (17 / Offering)
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 
What is Spy Phone?
Spy phone is a software which is 99% supported by mobile phone.
Involved spy phone software.
The phones that are involved in it are master phone, target phone and other party phone.
1) Master Phone:-Master phone (the one whose number is predefined in the target phone and who monitors the target phone.
2) Target Phone:-Target phone (the phone in which spy software is installed).
3) Other Party Phone:-Other party phone (the one who calls and receives the phone and sms from the target phone.
Master and target phone will remain the same, but the other party phone can be anyone.
The Spy phone software will take only few minutes to install it in your phone.
How it works?
If someone has installed spy software in your mobile, what is the information he can get from you.
1) When target phone receives calls or makes calls to the other party, the target phone will send background sms of that predefined number to the master phone.
2) If the target phone receives or sends sms to the other party, the target phone will send background sms to the master phone in which the number and text both will be displayed.
3) Live phone conversation can be clearly heard of the target phone by the master phone.
4) Room monitoring can be done by the master phone to the target phone, where we can listen to the conversation going around where the phone is kept. The target phone will show no signal of incoming calls, with no display alert or vibration, lights are not seen, no number is displayed and there is no sign of log also.
How to trace it?
1) Target phone sends sms of the incoming and outgoing call numbers to the master phone and it is hidden.
Incoming calls and incoming messages are free, but still phone balance will get cut off from the target phone because of the background sms message, the target phone is sending to the master phone.
2) Live phone conversation of the target phone is listened by the master phone.
When target phone makes a call or receives a call to the other party phone and when the master phone has logged in the target phone, login can be felt by the target phone by a beep and the other party phone will be on hold for a few seconds.
3) Room Monitoring
Room monitoring cannot be traced because the master phone will not get any background sms from the target phone and the target phone will also not get any signal of incoming calls or light, no display is shown, vibration not heard with no login details and also number is not displayed in the mobile.
But Mobile Security.co.in is the only one in the whole world, which will modify your target phone so that it cannot be monitored by anyone.
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FOR ANY FURTHER ASSISTANCE,FEEL FREE TO GET IN TOUCH WITH US
CONTECT US AT:
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TEL#.:28768573 MOBILE:9820398464
E-MAIL:- spyinvent@gmail.com
Website : www.mysafetysolution.com
or meet personally :9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
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Developing SEO friendly websites with Responsive Web Design
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011Nowadays while technology has become a part of everyday life it is essential to consider the wide range of devices that enable users to access internet. Consequently flexibility is a key to success of online businesses.
Like responsive architecture, a practice where the building adopts its form, shape or color responding to changes occurring on the [...]
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