Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

I recenty ran my site through the W3 Validator and wa horrified to find out how many errors had turned up. I had put my site through validation after talking with Charity on Twitter.

After some of the work I have done, especially with enjoying the site, here are a few things that did not pass validation:

Twittercounter : If you choose a certain counter code from the site to monitor your followers, the URL actually breaks the validation. I used the black counter and was I sorely disappointed. For a service uses by many, I would think this site owners would consider giving a code that would not break.

Twitip ID: This plugin is designed for WordPress so that anyone who comments on your site who is also a Twitter user can put their username. The code breaks in the form attribute label that is suppose to be manually inserted. The creator of this plugin is also the creator of Commentluv, so I am not sure how this ended up not validating as the Commentluv passed. Andy, please fix it or I will very soon myself.

I would love to use these tools, but being a bit of a code stickler, I cannot use them. It is disappointing as these are both very popular tools.

For anyone who does not know, I have been a participant in Breast Cancer Awareness for the past few years. I have known a few friends and extended family that have suffered from it. Some died and some survived. It is very hard to lose someone you care about. I also have family and friends that have diabetes. It really can be an eye opener when something like that hits close to home, especially with cancer or diabetes as sometimes it is genetic.

When I was little, there were not as much technology open towards diabetes and breast cancer. There were studies, but not much as even diabetes was slowly becoming a topic mentioned in the news. Of course, through this I learned that there was stem cell research as a way hopefully have a treatment for this disease. My aunt had diabetes and died at the age of 29. I was only six years old when she had passed. She also was pregnant with twins. It was heartbreaking as she was a wonderful lady and I would have loved to know her more.

However, if there had been more studies then, would she have lived? I would like to think so. One way of stem cell research that is going on is through menstrual blood. One company, C’elle, helps make this miracle happen. I know, kind of an icky thought for some, but hey, if it works, then maybe those who have breast cancer or diabetes could be cured. Stem cells are naturally found in menstrual blood and could help in the treatment of things like: Heart Disease, Breast Cancer, Diabetes, and Strokes. There are also further studies being held for therapeutic treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’sand Alzheimer’s.

This type of news is great to hear, especially since I know a lot of people who have family who could use this type of news to hope for a better future. C’elle offers that by storing stem cells that can easily be obtained through menstrual blood and it costs $499 to store. This is great so it can be used for either family or for yourself in the future. It is a good deal considering it could possibly save a life, even your own. I encourage you to check out the C’Elle Testimonials to see how it works and what others have experienced with this breakthrough method. If you would like to partipicate you can Order C’elle Now and be a part of the movement to hopefully treat these diseases.

I always love nifty things, especially when it comes to more opportunities to check out other search engines. I came across LeapFish, which I thought was pretty cool. When I typed in ‘blondish’ a drop down appeared with possible results and immediately the search engine pulled information from Google. I also noticed that users can select to have their information pulled from other blogs, Yahoo!, Ebay, YouTube, and MSN as a single query. Not only did my own site appear near the top by the time I completed typing, but also other searchs like Yahoo! Answers and possible images and videos. I did all of this without even having to click a button!

LeapFish is boasted to be one of the fastest search engines and has been blogged about by places like MSNBC. With my search being conducted as I type it in, I am convinced it is a great resource, especially when you can also get results from other search engines there too. For anyone else interested in search engines, you can follow LeapFish‘s official blog. Is this the next step in search engines? And for those who like it, I wanted to mention that they have a toolbar you can install as well. If you need more information, take a look at their LeapFish about page.

As a web designer, I sometimes have a rough time with a few clients on getting the project done. Whether it is a lost email or playing cat and mouse on instant messenger, it can be frustrating. Since I have been looking for tools, giveaways and more to feature here at Blondish.net, I came across Nandinih (Twitter User -@nandinih) who sent me to Deskaway. Deskaway is an online task management software site. It allows a group of people who are collaborating on any project to track progress and communicate. This is especially a great tool for web designers and their clients as they can store files and get projects done more efficiently. For those that are freelancers, this might ease the pain of having to sift through spam or check the junk email or worry if you might have lost email.

It is also secure with SSL so your work will not be stolen easily. Deskaway offers several different types of accounts. For those who cannot afford to pay anything, it is free to sign up and there is a free account that allows you to conduct at least 3 projects with a max of 5 users. The free account gives a 15 day project history. The only downfall is that the free account does not come with the SSL Security, and no email reminders to keep you on task.

Before reading the rest of this entry, please try my poll as it relates somewhat to the blog:

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Social bookmarking is defined as:

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.

taken from Wikipedia

The idea of Social bookmarking is to share plugworthy material with the public whether is it links to pages, links to pictures, links to music and more. Social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious (aka Del.icio.us) allow internet users to receive the traffic they need by submitting their sites to the proper categories related to their post and seek out others with similar interests.

Benefits of social bookmarking:

• More traffic
• More links directing to the site/ post/ page
• Ability to find out more on same subject
• Ability to actively bookmark other websites you enjoy

In using social bookmarking, it is somewhat like a super link exchange that you can automatically add to. Think about it, the more you bookmark a link, the easier it can be found. However, do not abuse the system and submit a link one too many times. For your friends, you would be able to use it as a way to share your favorite sites. You blog, then bookmark the post, and the site allows others to be able to find your entry. You can bookmark other sites, which is great! I recommend that if you bookmark the site, then do not forget to tell the blogger that you did and why you did it. It is always nice to know a reader’s feedback on anything within their site! Try it! There are tools for blog content management systems like WordPress and even regular code (whether javascript or php) you can place on your site to allow people to bookmark your content.

A while back during a blog update, I mentioned the nifty tool create by Snap.com that allows anyone to sign up their site and install a code to allow a small screenshot to appear when you however over any hyperlink. Of course, I had installed and after a time, I stopped. I found it quite intrusive for blogs that have quite a bit of linkage spread about the page. I had many experiences where I clicked a link too close to another and it set off the preview. I had a hard time getting to the page I wanted. It was almost as frustrating with sites that have bulky pop-ups.

Now, the tool is not a total loss, as it gives a dynamic feel to sites and allows people to get a bit of a visual preview of a site before clicking through to it. The tool also shows up as valid when you put your page code through W3. However, It might be intrusive for those on dial-up who may have to wait or for those days that Snap.com is running a little bit too slow.

My suggestion is when using this tool is to consider the following questions before installing:

• Will it add or detract from your website’s value?
• Do you truly like the tool or are you just going to use it because it is trendy?
• Will your visitor’s like the addition?

Some of the blog articles I have recently started to publish have been about the social media venue, Twitter. Of course, like most systems that have gotten popular, there are people who abuse it by one of the following:

• Are people racking up numbers of followers to spam and not give valuable content
• Are bots created by people that rack a number of followers to spam
• Phish the site like they did during New Year’s Eve

Of course, for anyone who has done forums, and other types of social media places, this is normal, yet still annoying all the same. Of course, there are regular people out there who are not just politicians, celebrities, and businessmen. It is very much a diverse community. However, the name of the game people have come to get into is getting the number of followers… period. There are offered ploys by many in the Twitter community to “Get 10,000 followers in 100 days” and so forth. Although I can be optimistic, I was quite skeptical. I am sure it can be done, but some of the suggestions are quite agressive and frankly, for me, although I like to follow, I also like to try to converse with others. Come on, I spend 3 hours on Tuesdays with the GNO (Girls’ Night Out or trend topic #gno – A group of women on Twitter with a focal topic each week.) However, the formula of these ploys are done by simply joining and thinking that at least 25% of the tweeps that you follow each day will follow back. I know, I have subscribed to these out of curiosity and the fact that I knew eventually I would be blogging about things like what I am blogging in this article.

Tweepl is doing and experiment with Twitter that is a non-spamming bot to collect data on the value of collected followers and trying to prove that it is not important. Of course, with a lot of numbers, your tweets are streams on all of your followers timelines. However, they are not doing this. I am interested in what they will find out and will be following their journey from time to time.

However, anyone who uses Twitter can do the following if they are trying to organically build a following… that is, a meaningful one:

• 1. Follow 2-15 people in a day (this is depending on your time) and try to communicate with them honestly. You do not always have to tell them why you followed them, but try to take an honest interest and try to talk with them.
• 2. Even if you communicate with the people the day before, do not exclude them. They are worth the time and remember that. Everyone is worth a chance and worth the time.
• 3. Try not to use the Automatic -Direct Message (Auto-DM). It really may not pertain to anyone and if you do make one and could prov annoying. If you do make one, make a webpage specifically to welcome your tweep followerers by introducing yourself (not your business if you are one.)
• 4. It is okay to follow back for those who follow you first. However, if it is merely a business with no interest in communicating anything other than their specials, perhaps unfollowing is better. There are a few businesses that are honest people and have great products, so do not rule all of them out at first sight.
• 5. Engage new topics like: Question of the Moment, Fact of the Moment, Project of the Moment, Poll of the Moment, Thought of the Moment. These might bring a wonderful conversation. These are ones I actively use myself and enjoy the feedback.
• 6. Tweet your blogs, but do not overtweet them. This one is kind of an iffy, but if you believe you have content worth a look, then tweet it.
• 7. Visit some of your followers sites or ask them to DM you when they blog something new. If you have to ask daily, then do so as a reminder. It shows you are interested in at least reading their articles and they might give you a look in return.
• 8. It is okay to disagree with another, but to unfollow them based on the fact you disagree with them on an issue is not just rude, but ignorant. Arguments/Debates are ways to grow as a person and know more. Now, unless if it is totally against your morals, then perhaps it is best to bow out politely with a DM to the other tweep. They will understand.
• 9. Follow people who have filled out their profile either partially or fully. The profile might give you a clue if they are a person or a robot. Check out their stream and see if they have anything interesting to say. It might help as a great conversation starter.
• 10. If you have no idea what to talk about, try Tweetworks. It is another Twitter tool that you can use to focus on certain group discussions based on a topic.

Anyway, I am sure there are even more suggestions and sure it is okay to follow more in a day, but make sure you can handle it. Like anything, use Twitter with caution.

Here are some articles that Tweepl shares that I think are also worth both pluggage and read on the issue:

• Why numbers are not everything on Twitter by Bud Gallant – Tells how it is more important not to focus on the number of followers but the content quality of your tweets.
• Your Followers Are NOT Following You by Tweetworks – Lists reasons why people might follow or unfollow you and how to use twitter with meaningful conversations rather than bulk up in numbers.

There are far more blog articles on the issue and the majority of them read quite similar: Numbers are not always important.

So think about it. Why are you using Twitter? What do you want to talk about? What type of people do you want to connect with (if you do want interaction… at least I hope you do)? If it is for just the numbers, spamming and not for interacton, then why bother using it? What substantial topics do you have that another can take back with them or even respond?

In the end, remember: Real people will follow you if you are truly real with them. If you want the numbers and it makes you feel good in the morning, but you having absolutely nothing to talk about, by all means do use Twitter that way too. However, if you want to effectively use Twitter for what it was intended, then take this blog seriously. I did not waste 1000 plus words to come up with junk.

I have been noticing the trend in using short URLs in SMS and even Twitter, so I thought I might dabble in some more coding. I had in the past and put the project aside, but since seeing the trend, I scooted it to my priority list. Now, not only do I have a script for others to download, but I have started Re-URL.me. Re-URL.me is a site that a visitor can place a long URL address and get a shorter code. Of course, this is beneficial if the domain itself is also short. Instead of over 50 characters in a URL, a visitor can post less than 12. This is great if you can only use a limited amount of characters in a form for a profile or even SMS. Try it out and tell me what you think. Note – I removed the site early 2010.

Besides the new website, I have released PHPurl, which is the script that powers Re-URL.me. The script is very simple. It requires PHP 4 and above and MySQL. The script itself is very light in weight and you can customize it with your own layout.

Why am I allowing this for download so that others can put up their own sites? Why not? I am not hiding anything and the code is simple. There are plenty of Short URL places, but I know that like myself, I like a little variety and sometimes it is the name of the site that is catchy and helps make the short link more personal.