Ever wanted to add a movie to your topic to embellish your brilliance? The clever marketing wizards at YouTube have made it childishly easy for the blogger (or shameless web designer) to link to their site and therefore forward their relentless pursuit of world domination. We can assist their evil plan and promote our own selfish interests at the same time by using tools cunningly created by YouTube minions for our use.
The following is primarily for Wordpress blogs, see links following instructions for other sites.
First you need a freshly created post (or a moldy old one, it makes no difference) Get on YouTube (you need to have an account) and without getting too distracted (impossible) find the video of your choice ( I chose this MAC ad- I use a PC- I loved it). Look over to the right of the screen. There are 2 selection boxes for code; you want the one titled “embed”. This is the code you will use to create your video.
But wait! Before you select your code, you will want to avail yourself of the player formatting tools secretly hidden within. Next to the embed code window is a star button for customization, click it and a new selection window will unfurl. Here you can select the color of your player and it’s size. There are other selections there, but I don’t want to talk about them.
Go back to the embed box, highlight all of the code and copy it. If I have to tell you how to do this, I wonder how you came to have a blog in the first place.
Return to your post (sounds like your a sentry) and click on the HTML tab at the top of the edit window. Place your cursor where you would like the video and paste it right there! Don’t forget to “Update Post”. When you view your blog the video should be embedded with all the lovely bells and whistles kindly provided by your sponsors at YouTube.
I have just changed the theme on my blog. I found, as so many fellow bloggers and developers have found to their dismay, that the old one had none of the features I required. I am currently runny a fairly popular free theme. In the meas time I will contiue searching for a great theme that allows design and function flexibility.
I have run across a theme called Thesis. Like anything worth having it is not free. A single user option is $87. If you want to get a multiple use developer license, it’s $167. Looking at the gallery of sites and the variety of designs the users have developed, I have to admit I got rather inspired.
The idea of having control over columns and fonts outside of the PHP code was exciting to me. Even though I’m rather OC, and sometimes enjoy the process of trial and error that is customizing the appearance of a blog, it’s easy to get lost. Before I know it, I’ve screwed up, it’s 2 am and the blog is jumping all over the screen.
Thesis promises a relatively PHP-free environment: a happy world where birds sing, water turns to wine and your making award-winning sites with the touch of a button. It adds controls to the Dashboard for layout and text formatting, which I think is totally bitchen.
Perhaps my dream of creating a fully functioning blog that matches a website design is attainable.
The English Language- Who speaks it- really? Does it matter how well we use it?
Are these dumb questions? Not at all! If you’re designing web pages, you had better know the answers. If you don’t, proceed at your peril.
Q. Who speaks it?
A. According to Wikipedia, English is the second most widely spoken language in the world, with over 1.5 billion speakers worldwide. By comparison, Spanish has a paltry 417 million users (including those who speak it as a second language). English is the language of science, business, communications, radio, and diplomacy. You can’t sing real Rock & Roll or belt out the Blues without it.
Q. Does it matter how well we use it?
A. It’s hard to believe I know, but good English is actually written, uploaded and hopefully, read all over the web. If you’re discriminating, you can find it gracing web pages and blogs everywhere. As a result, some readers have abandoned print altogether for the much more accessible and blessedly cheap haven of the internet.
There is however, (RANT COMING…) a plague of horrible usage on the web, much of it perpetrated by commentators on YouTube. Do not read the comments on YouTube unless you want your brain to rot! (END OF RANT).
It is pointless to put hours of work into a website or blog only to have it ruined by embarrassing composition and pathetic spelling and punctuation mistakes. The truth is that no matter how amazingly clever you are, you will miss things. Don’t look retarded! Hire a copy writer: like my friend Carolyn Alcott who did such a wonderful job picking nits on my site. If you’re cheap or as is often the case nowadays, broke; bribe an educated friend to run their peepers over your work. Perhaps they’ll be flattered that you asked. If not, buy them beer.
I have spent the last week hacking my way through the Search Engine Jungle trying to sort through the overwhelming amount of advice and drivel connected with improving website rankings.
The game has changed folks. No longer can you slap a few keywords in the header and hope for the best. Nowadays, you need more than content- you need exposure! Get on the social networking bandwagon and join some groups- facebook, linkedin (my current favorite) yahoo directory, zoominfo to name a few. The more the better. These create opportunities to receive “inbound links” to your site.
There seems to be a huge industry that has sprung up almost overnight populated with fiery young hotshots jostling to sell you advice on the social networking phenom. To those of us with real lives however, so much of this Twitter sounds like Twaddle. What’s really useful is an updated view of the web. Take what’s really working and don’t exhaust yourself with fads. It’s just good old-fashioned back-scratching with a new method. More to come.
PS: The following image has absolutely nothing to do with SEO, Web 2.0 or inbound marketing. Enjoy
I had “secret coffee” (I can’t reveal the origins of this activity,I can only say it has something to do with avoiding cranky husbands) with my good friend and super-talented singer Paula Bradman. Paula is also a client. I designed the logo for her production company- Sweet Pea Productions. It was actually one of the favorite things I did this year and was inspired by Paula- who is truly sweet.
You can listen to her delightful jazz style and find where she’ll be appearing in the Bay Area at her website.
This Friday March 6th 7:30-10:30pm she’ll be at Servino in Tiburon
Featuring musicians Michael Smolens, Fred Randolph and Russ Gold…….
Hi I’m Julia Roh, creator of After9Design. This is the begining of the after9design weblog. Soon to follow: images, website developement, artwork, photos, illustrations and thoughts.
I promise, promise not to be boring!
I promise to have lot’s of pictures.
I can’t promise not to be shamelessly self promotional
My current projects are websites for Perfect Prime Music and FPCdrums. I am particularly pleased with the subtle use of Flash animation on both of them. Perfect Prime is a consortium of talented Bay Area musicians brough together for everyones listening pleasure by the lovely, charming and entrepreneurial Jeanette Isenberg. Perfect Primes site is designed to create a mood of fun, excitement and occasion.
The creative boys at Future Percussion Concepts are the brains behind the “slammin” KickPort drum insert, the innovative device that was the buzz of all the drummers, many of them stars of the industry, at the NAMM show this January.
It’s fun and inspirational to work with such talented people.
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