Archive for August, 2011

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Weekly Tech Roundup – August 26, 2011

Friday, August 26th, 2011

Weekly Tech Roundup

This week’s Tech Roundup includes what’s new in Firefox 6, a must-read on CSS best practices, and a review of caching plugins for WordPress.

Firefox 6 is here – Details of what’s new in Firefox 6. Have you upgraded yet? It took me a few days because I had to wait for all of my must-have add-ons to become available for the new version. I haven’t noticed much difference yet.

An Event Apart: CSS Best Practices – A bullet-point overview of Nicole Sullivan’s talk at An Event Apart Minneapolis, called “Our Best Practices Are Killing Us.” Fascinating statistics and a must-read for any designer or developer.

Komodo Edit Is a Versatile Open Source Code Editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux – Looking for a new code/text editor? You might want to take a look at Komodo, especially if you use more than one operating system. I am a big fan of Notepad++ but I’m going to give it a shot. If you’ve used it, feel free to share your experience in the comments.

8 Excellent WordPress Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Site – If you run a WordPress site with a good amount of visitors, chances are good you’ll want to make your site faster at some point. One way to do that is to use a caching plugin. This article goes over 8 options.

Infographic about WP_Query – I love infographics. Even more when they are super useful like this one! If you’ve ever written or edited a custom WordPress theme you’ve probably come across WP_Query. Unless you’re a seasoned pro this is probably still a touch complicated but it should help you get a better understanding of how it works.

What Are Websites Made Of? (Infographic) – Yet another infographic with some very interesting stats about what makes up the web.

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Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Small Business Roundup – August 26, 2011

Friday, August 26th, 2011

Weekly Small Business Roundup

This week’s Small Business Roundup includes 6 ways to increase blog traffic, higher taxes for small businesses, and SMB social media statistics.

Six Steps to Increase Your Blog Traffic – Some really great tips you can use to get more visitors to your blog. Unlike a lot of articles, this one gives real world examples we can relate to our individual situation.

Higher Business Taxes May Follow Treasury’s Definition of Small – The Treasury Department is considering redefining what a small business is. In my opinion, they don’t go far enough. They are suggesting there be a “$10 million in annual gross income or deductions,” where there currently is none. Make sure to take in the statistics at the end of the article.

Create a Robust Landing Page Testing Strategy – This is an interesting article, worth a read if you are considering a landing page for a new product/service. It goes into pretty decent detail about how to go about developing a testing plan and what kinds of things to test for.

Why You Should Never Build Your Site on a Free Subdomain – I really couldn’t have said any of this better myself. The one thing the author doesn’t come right out and say that I would add is: using your own domain name is professional. Yes, anyone can buy a domain name and set up a website – but the fact that you’ve made the effort and branded your website (and email!) with your own domain name says a lot. I think it’s a given.

5 Time-Saving Tools to Add to Your Twitter Tool Belt – Use these tools to manage and maintain your Twitter account. If you are currently using Twitter or are considering using it for your social media strategy, definitely check these out.

47 Percent of SMBs Still Not Using Social Media. Oy. – Really great statistics from a recent survey of small business owners. Don’t miss the suggestions in the second half of the article for how to find the time in your busy day for social media. My biggest take away: if so few small businesses are using social media – then we have a huge opportunity! Can you be the first, or – better yet – the best, in your industry with your social strategy?

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Tech news is up later today. Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Tech Roundup – August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Weekly Tech Roundup

This week’s Tech Roundup includes WordPress survey results, Know Your Network lessons, and how browsers work.

So you think you can build a website? – This is a smart and funny flowchart to help you decide if you can take your website idea from concept to production. Make sure to click through to see the full size infographic.

State of the Word – WordPress year in review presentation with results of their recent user and developer survey. They have some very impressive stats and I’m excited to see more of the crunched numbers. If you are a WordPress designer, developer, or user, you should watch the video to see what has happened this year and what is up in the near future.

This week’s Night School series at Lifehacker is a good one. It’s all about getting to know your home network. Check it out if you’d like to learn more about your wifi network:

How Browsers Work: Behind the Scenes of Modern Web Browsers – Keeping with the spirit of how things work, this is a very detailed explanation of how your web browser works. It includes just about everything you’d ever want or need to know about how your browser processes information.

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Weekly Small Business Roundup – August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Weekly Small Business Roundup

This week’s Small Business Roundup includes the economic outlook for small businesses, napping on the job, and next steps for your Facebook business page.

Why The Economy Will Remain Weak And What It Means For Small Business – Very interesting article on the outlook for small businesses over the next couple of years. Surprisingly, I’ve seen a few polls of small business owners over this week and they all say that their business has not been adversely affected and in some cases it has picked up. So… we’ll see what happens.

Sleeping on the Job: How Innovative Employers Encourage Nap Time to Boost Productivity – I’m a huge proponent of napping and the studies supporting them keep rolling in. I don’t just use them to recharge when I get a little sleepy after lunch, either. I’ve solved many problems I’d been stuck on during a 15 minute mid-afternoon nap! There is something about that brain reset that seems to do the trick. Give yourself 30 minutes because you will need 5-10 minutes to settle down and another 5 to wake up. And, remember, napping in no way means you are lazy or not a hard worker. In fact, it’s usually the opposite!

The New Rules of Getting Press for Your Start-up – 8 suggestions for how to get your business recognized. This article talks specifically about start-ups but these tips can be used by any small business at any stage.

Your Business Is on Facebook. Now What? – Great article on next steps for your Facebook page. It includes 6 ideas for how to engage your Facebook followers. Don’t have a Facebook page for your business yet? Check out my ebook!

A New Way to Make and Deliver Presentations – I think the stats are the best part of this article! These are activities people would rather do than watch a PowerPoint presentation:

  • 24 percent would forgo sex tonight
  • 21 percent would rather do their taxes
  • 20 percent would rather go to the dentist
  • 18 percent would rather work on Saturday

The survey was commissioned by a rival slideshow product, SlideRocket, but it doesn’t make it any less true. They promise to make your slideshows awesome and less snooze-worthy. And, with a 14-day free trial and free account option, it might be worth it to try for your next presentation.

Introducing: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors – An interesting way to display SEO ranking factors, in a periodic table-type infographic. Lots of supporting info, too.

Freelancers Ask Government to Count Independent Workers – I didn’t realize the Bureau of Labor Statistics wasn’t counting contingent workers anymore – and they haven’t since 2005 when their funding was cut. Now that they are getting it back, the Freelancers Union is asking to replace “contingent worker” with “independent worker.” Unfortunately, the way they’ve described it in this article they’d end up counting part-time workers in the same category as full-time small business owners and other types of workers that don’t fit together. I know the number of freelancers has shot up since 2005 so I’m curious to see legitimate stats but if they lump them in with other types of workers there won’t be an accurate picture. I think this will be one to watch.

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Tech news is up later today. Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Tech Roundup – August 12, 2011

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Weekly Tech Roundup

This week’s Tech Roundup includes the latest browser trends, a new font for readers with dyslexia, and a custom redesign of the WordPress widgets page.

Browser Trends, July 2011: 1 in 5 People Now Use Chrome – Some very interesting stats if you’re interested in the “browser wars.” Firefox is slipping, Chrome is gaining, and IE6 lost another 3.1%. The full data is from here: StatCounter, including other stats.

New font designed for readers with dyslexia – This is a really cool idea and I’m very looking forward to see more fonts like this. If your users have dyslexia, this is one solution. Find out more from the creator: StudioStudio.

Stephanie Leary shares custom redesign of the WordPress widgets screen – This is awesome. I’m not a huge fan of the way the widgets page is laid out in WordPress now and this would be a fantastic improvement. So clean and uncomplicated!

WordPress shortcode: Display a thumbnail of any website – If you ever include screenshots or thumbnail images of other websites on your WordPress website or blog, this is for you. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this included with Jetpack in the future. Until then you can do it yourself with this super-short tutorial. Update: I was super excited about this but in all of the testing I’ve done I haven’t been able to get beyond the “Generating Preview…” screen so I’m guessing WordPress.com has turned off outside access to this feature.

The Evolution of Web Design – A very interesting infographic showing the evolution of web design from the beginning (1991) to now; text to mobile.

The Web IQ Quiz – Addicting and fun. Test your #webcred.

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Have a great weekend!

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Weekly Small Business Roundup – August 12, 2011

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Weekly Small Business Roundup

This week’s Small Business Roundup includes how the US credit rating downgrade affects small business, local investing, and a social media checkup.

Five ways the downgrade in U.S. credit rating affects you – A simple reality check in the midst of all the stock market panic. Five things to watch out for and what to expect as a result of the US credit downgrade. I will add my own piece of info/advice that you’ve heard before: Buy low, sell high. Don’t panic and sell when the market takes a nose dive. And don’t look at your 401k balance! Remember that it’s a long-term investment. (Disclaimer: I’m not a financial expert, nor am I qualified to give financial advice. This just seems like common sense stuff to me.)

The Impact Of The S&P U.S. Credit Downgrade On Small Businesses – This quick article is specifically geared toward how this credit rating downgrade affects small businesses. Bottom line: Credit is going to cost more and it’s going to be harder to get. As if it wasn’t already hard to get, right?

Setting Your Business Up On FourSquare – Does your business have a FourSquare account yet? If not, and you have the kind of business that might benefit from it (read: retail), now’s the time to get started. FourSquare recently opened up their business pages so you can create them yourself. This article walks you through setting it up. How you can take advantage of FourSquare: Foursquare – A Business Boost?

“Locavesting”: Investing In Main Street Instead Of Wall Street – This is a very interesting interview with Amy Cortese, the author of Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It. I really love the idea of keeping money local and helping out small businesses that really need it. Is this something that could work in your community?

Five Simple Ways to Generate Ideas For Your Blog – These are great suggestions for blog posts. Take a look at this article if you’re stuck or you want to generate some new ideas. It’s always a good idea to have a stockpile of topics to blog about. Don’t forget you can write up a bunch of posts at once and save (or schedule) them for later.

Social Media Marketing Checkup – It’s mid-year so it’s a good time to review your social media strategy. These 5 questions are really helpful, but I found the format of the article a little overwhelming (long paragraphs). If you find yourself getting stuck here, try pulling out each question (maybe copy & paste into a Word document) and answering them one at a time.

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Tech news is up later today. Have a great weekend!

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