My next book recommendation is The Principle of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird also published by Sitepoint. (http://www.principlesofbeautifulwebdesign.com/) You cant' go wrong with any of the Sitepoint books but I particularly like this one because it talks about five inportant aspects of web design: layout, color, texture, typography and imagery. It is very well written and a great help in understanding what makes a beautiful website.

Happy New Year!

A lot of people are probably glad 2009 is behind us and are looking forward to a better 2010. For this new year, people, myself included, are thinking about what they can do better this year. I recently read a blog about how to turn around a failing business: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/01/08/how-to-turn-around-a-failing-business/
and I think it offered a lot of good advice. One of the things that I need to work on this year is becoming more qualified and learning new skills. And one of the best ways to do that is to read more books. So for my next several posts, I am going to make book recommendations.
Here's my first recommendation. This book was a lot of help when I was first learning CSS.

HTML UTOPIA: DESIGNING WITHOUT TABLES USING CSS by Rachel Andrews and Dan Shafer

Happy Holidays!

I love the holiday season! I love all the family and friends get-togethers and holiday parties, Christmas music, gift-giving and of course, the food =) It's the busiest time of the year. And what I've been busy doing rather than Christmas shopping is making photo holiday cards. I've been making them for family and friends. Here's a sneek peek at some of them. Enjoy the holidays!

Latest Project

It's been a while since my last post. Been busy with new projects and trying to get more of them too. Here's the latest project we worked on. It was a photo baptism invitation. I love working on these because babies are so adorable.
Right now, we're working on a new restaurant website. We'll post updates soon!

Google Search-based Keyword Tool

For people who's trying to get their business off the ground, us included, we know that promoting your website/business plays a very important role. And one of the key factors in promoting your business is Search Engine Optimization. A high search engine ranking can mean the difference between success and failure for your business. There are numerous books and articles out there about this topic. And having read through a lot of them myself I found out that Google has a lot of useful tools. One of them is the Google Search-based Keyword Tool. The purpose of this tool is to look specifically at your site and offer new keywords ideas relevant to your site as well as provide traffic volume estimates. This can make your keyword research a whole lot easier. For example, an online electronic store might use the tool to discover which latest electronic equipment and accessories people are searching for online.



So how exactly does the Search-based Keyword Tool generate its keyword? Here's what Google had to say about that:
The Search-based Keyword Tool compares your website and current AdWords campaigns against actual, past Google search queries to identify additional keywords that might be relevant for your campaigns. The tool compiles a list of search queries relevant to your website that don't already appear in your AdWords campaigns. By changing your language or country/territory settings, you can view keywords (and corresponding data, such as the amount of competition, suggested bid, etc.) specific to those settings.
With access to the actual terms your potential customers are using when they search Google for your products in your language or region, you may have a better chance of reaching your target audience.

Unit PNG Fix

Forget about your pretty pngs on your page, they don't work in IE6. Fortunately, the folks over at Unit Interactive created a fix for this problem. Granted this is not the only png fix out there, but I found out their technique is the easiest to implement. Here's why they say it will be the last one you need to download:

• Very compact javascript: Just over 1kb!
• Fixes most interactivity problems caused by IE’s filter attribute.
• Works on img objects and background-image attributes.
• Runs automatically before page load on all, or just specific elements.
• Allows for auto width and auto height elements.
• Super simple to deploy.

Here's the link to Unit Interactive's Unit PNG Fix:
http://labs.unitinteractive.com/unitpngfix.php:

Ride the Wild Wave

If you're yet to be up to speed on Google's next big thing -- Wave -- here's what SitePoint has to say about it:
We all know about protocols like HTTP, email, and instant messaging. Google have now developed a brand new protocol called Wave -- and the applications that power it -- which aims to weave a bunch of those protocols into a new, coherent whole.
In practical terms, this puts IM inside your email, Twitter inside your IM, maps inside your Twitter, and much more. It's hard to overstate the ambition and scope of this project, but if you want to gain a clearer picture, I recommend listening to the full presentation Lars gave in late May.