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.

Pimp Up Your Tweets

For anyone who's a Twitter fan, I recently read an article on how to Pimp Up Your Tweets. Here's the article:

Speaking of Twitter, recent research has shown that the actual web site is still the most common method for people using Twitter (have they yet to hear of Tweetdeck?). So, for those tweeters among us, it's still important that you create your own Twitter background to help define who you are on Twitter.
An example of a suitable background is @sitepointdotcom. The page is well branded, with design elements that visually explain what they do and the topics they'll be tweeting about. An example of a very average background would be my own -- @milesb -- where I've just tiled a small background.
So, you're sick of the default Twitter backgrounds and want to pimp up your page? You'll find great inspiration at these places:
Twitterbackgroundsgallery.com
100 Creative Twitter Backgrounds Featuring Illustration
Twitter Background Design How-to and Best Practices
Creative Twitter Backgrounds of 50 Designers
24 Places to Find Cool Free Twitter Backgrounds
Hope these provide the encouragement you need to pimp up your Twitter page!

Importance of META keywords

When in comes to achieving top search engine rankings how large of a role do keyword tags actually play? This question does not have an easy answer. There was a time when every webmaster used them and sometimes even overused them. I've read that at one point in time the keywords tag had an impact on a web site’s position within the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Now the keywords tag has little impact on where a site will appear in the search results. I've also been told that meta tags will not affect your ranking in Google, although they WILL change your appearance on Google. And that is important because a well-written description could be the only factor that affects a user's decision to choose your website over another. The importance of this tag may have diminished over the years but it might still be worth it to add keywords because there may still be other search engines out there that still use it. It doesn't take long to write them so you really don't have anything to lose.

A YouTube video for a website?

I recently read an interesting tip from one of SitePoint Tribune's issue and thought I'd share it with everyone. Here goes:
How about your web site being a YouTube video? This might sound unusual until you check out the fresh new approach from the Boone Oakley agency with their web site. Check it out now!
How's that for being unique? What a brilliant way to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
Looking for a nice way to show images on a web site? Slideflickr is a very fast and neat solution to embedding your Flickr images into your site.
In just seconds you have a free slideshow player for your site (with various options) that looks and works great.

Welcome to My New Blog Section

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my new blog section. I hope to use this blog as a tool for sharing information and tips on creating a website, information on free web tools and resources. The first website I will recommend for those who are working on building or improving their website would be Sitepoint. Not only do they have great books on CSS and web design in general, their website also has great articles and tutorials on everything from Design and Layout to Site Marketing and not to mention, a well-informed community.