As I have discussed before, I have been looking for various resources that I can provide to clients to help them understand search engine optimization. Often for many clients the entire topic seems like black magic. I feel that often my explanation of why a client is unlikely to rank #1 for a term like “real estate” means I am incompetent. In these types of situations it is beneficial to reference outside sources from unbiased 3rd parties that support my position and explain in detail how the process works so that clients have a realistic expectation.

Non-profits are a little different than the average business website. Due to this they have some opportunities that regular businesses don’t have. This non-profit guide has a lot of generic SEO information but also includes some non-profit specific advice. In addition, it has some good advice and ideas to help get the most out of your traffic and current donors. If you work with or are on a team at a non-profit check this out: http://www.seobook.com/non-profit-guide-search-engine-marketing

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http://devsnippets.com/jquery-posts/20-jquery-plugins-for-unforgettable-user-experience.html

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I have heard requests for this feature for some time but for me I am not sure I really like it. For one, it has an impact on SEO although this is minimal today if this feature grows it could potentially be hard to get your site on the first page if a number of users have ranked their favorite results for that topic. In addition it could limit a users discovery of new content.

Here is an example from Google on the new technology.

Let me know what your thoughts are about the new SearchWiki feature. Read what Google had to say at: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html

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I have tried to explain the difference between PageRank and the actual ranking for a search term but I am not the best at providing this explanation. On Friday, Scott from SEOmoz posted a nice short video explaining the topic and I thought I would share it with you all. It would be a great resource to share with clients or others confused with the topic of PageRank and how a high PageRank can benefit you.

Enjoy!

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- Mutual respect
- A defined relationship
- A positive attitude

I have found our view at Zipline to be inline with what Paul says in his blog. Over the last 3 years we have worked very hard to improve our communication with clients about their role and our role in a project. During this time we have also developed many strategies that have helped us create the best product possible, while working effectively with the client. That being said, each client is different and some can be harder to work with than others.

Our goal as an agency, is to listen to the client from the start. We work hard to understand their goals and objects for the project, then we make sure these elements are included and addressed in our design. We suggest techniques, styles, and strategies that will help our clients effectively meet these goals. As we listen to our client and understand the problem or issue they’re trying to address, we work to steer them into a solution that effectively address their concern while not compromising the integrity of the design.

During our process, we try to establish a relationship of mutual respect, understanding that the client is the expert in their industry and we are the expert in web development. Our goal is to ensure our clients sees a positive return on their investment. We are not out to win awards, or to use the coolest new technique with no justification. We approach our projects with a positive attitude. We let our clients know we want to partner with them for the long term. As they become more successful, they will bring more projects and money back to our organization because they know we will help them succeed.

In the end, not every client relationship is going to be a positive one. Regardless of the personality of the client, as a company we strive to provide the best product we can within the constraints provided by that client. At the end of the day we need to remember we’re commercial artists and they are paying us for our time and our advice. If they choose not to accept our advice, that is their choice and they’re paying the bill. We have to remember that ultimately they are the client and this is their project, we’re just working on it.

If you want to read what Paul had to say you can check it out at: http://boagworld.com/business_strategy/a_partnership_of_cooperation/

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Check it out:

<style type="text/css">
    body {
        background-image: url(image.jpg);
        background-repeat: no-repeat;
        background-position: top left;
        background-attachment: fixed;
     }
</style>

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It does offer some handy features that make it worthwhile. The first is they ability to easily re-format CSS code from other developers. Often when editing sites created by other companies I come across very poorly formatted CSS and the automatic re-formatting offered by CSS Toolbox can easily turn this into readable CSS code.

Another useful feature offered by CSS Toolbox is the ability to validate CSS code. Usually firebug does a good job of validating my CSS code but it never hurts to have another option, especially one where I can edit and update directly from the program.

The final feature and one that could be very useful for me is the ability to automatically compress CSS. For most projects I don’t bother compressing CSS because the files are usually not terribly long and the websites don’t get enough traffic that bandwidth is a realistic concern, however, occasions arise when compression can be particularly useful and the automatic compressing and decompressing offered by CSS Toolbox could be invaluable.

Give it a try: http://www.blumentals.net/csstool/

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Another thing I really enjoy is filling this blog with new information. My blog helps me to centralize my thoughts and organize the various things I learn each day. Most bloggers will recognize my blog uses a slightly modified version of the WordPress. WordPress is very popular blogging platform, it is incredibly user friendly, and very easy to extend.

Now, thanks to a new WordPress plugin called WPTouch (Download: http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/) my blog is also available as an iPhone friendly website. How many people will use this feature? In my case the number will be very few. In reality, very few people visit my blog in a traditional browser so I am used to that. Even though I doubt it will get much use, it only took me a short bit to install and configure the plugin and now my content is easily available to me when I am out and about. I installed WPTouch 1 week ago and so far I have had 3 unique iPhone visitors. Not an impressive number, I am sure the person that wasn’t Shawn or I really enjoyed it though!

The best part about using WPTouch is that it now makes your blog eligible for the iPhone App Store. I haven’t gone through this step yet although I probably will just for the fun of it. I already have an Apple Developer account from a previous project now all I need to do now is create a custom icon and I am golden.

If you have WordPress give WPTouch a try.

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.htacces Setup
The first step I always use when creating a RSS feed with PHP is to set a value in my .htaccess file that indicates that files with the type .xml should be interpreted as PHP. Your browser or RSS reader is going to be looking for pages with a .xml extension and creating a dynamic .xml file using PHP is easier than creating a number of static XML files for each feed or updating a .xml text file using a PHP script, at least in my opinion, although this is certainly possible if you don’t have the ability to use .htaccess or don’t know how. A simple example of an .htaccess entry is included below:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .xml

Also using .htaccess you can create a custom RSS feed by variable by using a statement similar to:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?podcast/([0-9]+).xml?/?$ 	/podcast.php?id=$1

Using this statement would mean that going to http://www.yoursite.com/podcast/23.xml would execute the script located at http://www.yoursite.com/podcast.php?id=23 passing the 23 from the address to your script so that you could create an RSS feed specifically for id 23 which could be a user id, a unique page, etc.

The Code
The first function is a simple PHP header command which designates this page as an xml document. This should be the first item on the page and no whitespace or output should take place prior to this in the script.

The PHP code example below is a simple example of a very basic RSS feed using PHP. I have done this to avoid confusion that may occur with a more complicated example.

The first section is what I call the RSS feed headers. This section basically represents information about the feed. This is generic information about the feed.

The second of section which I call the body of the RSS feed. This section should be repeated for each item in the RSS feed. (Note: Everything in between item and /item would be repeated for each item in the RSS feed.) This can be done manually or it could be automated using PHP and a MySQL query or other type of loop to build a number of entries. For this example I showed this area as a static single entry to help avoid confusion.

The final section closes out the channel and RSS feed and the final function sends the complete RSS feed to the browser.

All in all this is a very basic example and I hope it works for everyone. I have tried to keep it as basic as possible. Here is the complete PHP script. Don’t forget to setup your .htaccess file or this won’t work as expected!

<?PHP
 
    //SET XML HEADER
    header('Content-type: text/xml');
 
    //CONSTRUCT RSS FEED HEADERS
    $output = '<rss version="2.0">';
    $output .= '<channel>';
    $output .= '<title>Your RSS Feed Name or Website Name</title>';
    $output .= '<description>A description of your feed or site.</description>';
    $output .= '<link>http://www.yoursite.com/</link>';
    $output .= '<copyright>Your copyright details</copyright>';
 
    //BODY OF RSS FEED
   $output .= '<item>';
        $output .= '<title>Item Title</title>';
        $output .= '<description>Item Description</description>';
        $output .= '<link>Link to Item</link>';
        $output .= '<pubDate>Date Published</pubDate>';
   $output .= '</item> ';
 
    //CLOSE RSS FEED
   $output .= '</channel>';
   $output .= '</rss>';
 
    //SEND COMPLETE RSS FEED TO BROWSER
    echo($output);
 
?>

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In the past uninstalling Adobe Flash Player worked similar to removing other software programs. However Adobe has made some significant changes to the way Flash Player installs on both Windows and Macintosh computers.  This change applies to all browsers including Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. If you wish to remove or uninstall Adobe Flash Player you will now need to download and run the appropriate uninstaller available from Adobe. 

Below we have included basic instructions to uninstall or disable Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers.

Uninstall or Remove Adobe Flash Player
The installer can be found at the following links:

1. Windows
2. Mac OS X
3. Mac OS 8.x, 9.x

We have included the instructions available on the Adobe website which describe the proper method for removing Adobe Flash Player; (Note: These instructions are available on the Adobe website at the link: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2)

1. Download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller:
2. Save the file to your system, choosing a location where you can find it (for example, your desktop). Macintosh users may need to open or unstuff the .hqx file.
3. Quit ALL running applications, including all Internet Explorer or other browser windows, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, or other Messengers. Check the Windows system tray carefully to make certain no applications which might possibly use Flash Player are still in memory.
4. Run the uninstaller. This will remove Adobe Flash Player from all browsers on the system.

Note: The uninstaller cannot remove files currently in use.

If you have any instances of the player open in your web browsers, instant messaging clients, stand-alone SWFs, or projectors, then the uninstaller will complete but some files may not be deleted. If this occurs, then close all of your applications and run the uninstaller again to ensure that all files are removed.

Note: Internet Explorer users may have to reboot to clear all uninstalled Flash Player ActiveX control files. If you’re not certain, select the “Show Details” button in the Flash Player uninstaller. If there are any log lines that begin with “Delete on Reboot…” then you’ll need to reboot BEFORE running the Flash Player installer again.

Disable Adobe Flash Player

Firefox
A quick and easy way to disable Flash in the Firefox web browser is to use the popular Firefox add-on called Flashblock which can be downloaded from the Mozilla website at the following URL: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

Internet Explorer
Adobe Flash Player can be disabled in Internet Explorer by unregistering Adobe Flash Player as and Active X component. Once disabled Adobe Flash Player will no longer function.  Internet Explorer 7 users can user IE7Pro and add-on for Internet Explorer 7 which will allow users to block or disable Flash.  This add-on can be downloaded at the following URL: http://www.ie7pro.com/

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