Wide World Of Web Design

Adwords, Adsense, Analytics … Awesome!
Google has always been one of my favorite things about the internet, because it’s just so darned helpful. Besides establishing itself early on as the Search Engine of choice, especially since Yahoo began it’s gradual slide in the rankings, Google has consistently been at the forefront of web technology with it’s seemingly endless arsenal of tools and gadgets, almost to the point where Google has become synonymous with the term “internet”, or known by many simply as the web itself. Besides the obvious examples of internet dominance outside Google’s realm, such as Facebook and YouTube, Google really has become the hub of cyber activity, or Control Central for many a webmaster, web designer, or web developer. There’s just so many freely available and indipensable tools that come packaged conveniently under one roof …….. in what I like to refer to as the House of Google!

So if you’re still one of the uninitiated, here’s what you should do …… get yourself a Gmail account (google email) which comes with 6600 MB of storage space, then set up and customize an iGoogle page which you can use as your Base of Operations or HOMEPAGE. iGoogle was one of the first and best examples of Ajax technology at work on a web page, with things like drag n’ drop modules and instant tabbing, and here is where you can also add tons of nifty Gadgets and store things like all your favorite RSS Feeds and Podcasts. Then, once that’s all set up, the real fun begins!

You can keep expanding your Google Account to include some really valuable tools, in particular Adsense, Adwords, and Analytics. With Adsense you can display relevant advertising on your web pages which in turn can generate income for you, based on how many times visitors click on those strategically placed ads. So, given that the payout is only a few cents per click, there is definitely a lot of motivation to improve your site’s SEO. Take the best case scenario of website entrepreneur Markus Frind whose Dating Site PlentyOfFish.com now attracts 1.2 Billion Page views per month, and at last count is making him somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 per day, or $10 Million annually.

With Adwords you can avertise on Google’s network, and your exposure is determined by the budget you decide on when configuring your ad campaign(s). You can compose and customize your own ads, choose the keywords that will trigger your ads, and set up custom reporting to be emailed to you at selected time intervals.

Analytics , my personal favorite, is the complete toolset for collecting all manner of site statistics as Charts, Graphs, and Reports, all in the name of tracking visitors and trends so you can better monitor your web traffic, and I mean in ways I didn’t even know were possible … like what color shirt the guy from New Jersey was wearing when he visited your site for 53 seconds using a Mac with Safari web browser … while eating an apple !

Anyway, I strongly suggest you check these out, and if you aren’t impressed than perhaps someone should check your pulse. But wait, that’s not all, because in addition to these there are some other spiffy features that also can be accessed from your Google Accounts Product list, and they include things like Picasa, so you can share your images online, and Docs, where you can compose and share documents such as spreadsheets online, and Google Talk which lets you talk PC-to-PC, Instant Message, and transfer files. Sure, these last three features are also available from Flikr, Campfire, and Skype, but it’s also the convenience of having everything accessible under one roof instead of bookmarking several websites, and for that reason I say, what could be better than The House of Google ?

It’s official.The Learning Series has begun!
WideWorldOfWebDesign’s “The Learning Series” has just launched with the release of Part One and Two of the Dreamweaver CS3 installments. The entire series of video tutorials takes a practical approach to building web pages using the tools available in Dreamweaver (which includes things like CSS, server-side behaviours in PHP, Javascript and Ajax) as well as Fireworks, Flash, and an assortment of other 3rd party Components and Programs thrown in for good measure. These tutorials can currently be seen on YouTube, and can also be found on this website by following the links at the end of this Post, or any post regarding The Learning Series within the “Tutorials” category.

Part One is an overview of what the series will cover, and includes a look at some Free Extensions available for Dreamweaver, as well as the initial task of defining a site. Part Two then sets the stage for CSS by dispensing in brief some principles behind the science and how it’s applied in Dreamweaver, all in preparation for Part Three where I start creating web pages using one of the pre-constructed layouts bundled with Dreamweaver.

So, one might ask, why bother producing another series of tutorials when there seem to be plenty of similar offerings already available, covering much of the very same territory … ? Well, for one thing … Mine are Free … and although it’s true many free video tutorials devoted to CS3 software can be found floating around YouTube, the majority of these submittals are often poor in quality or only serve to provide snippets of information in random attack. It also appears that even when finding quality vids that do hit the mark, rarely do they guide you in an orderly fashion across the spectrum from A-Z, preferring instead to hone in on advanced methods or one-off features where no one has gone before.

Now, I’m not saying that my offerings resemble anything as closely professional as those circulated by Total Training or Lynda.com, but I think you’ll find that they’re clear, concise, and attempt to uncover many of the things that used to trip me up when I was flying solo, trying to learn the ropes the hard way.

If you have little or no background in web design and development, than consider this series the “Web Design 101 Video Handbook” which should jumpstart the learning process faster than the long, drawn out task of interpreting pages of text and print screens. Not only that, but there should be something here for everyone, after all a lot of it is based on my own practical, real-world experience in dealing with what’s required, what’s available, and what works best in a variety of situations.

I don’t claim to be an expert, and these tutorials don’t pretend to cover anything too advanced or groundbreaking, rather they simply strive to be a comprehensive approach to building web pages in an easy-to-follow format … something I could have used when starting out on my own.

Dreamweaver CS3
The Learning Series

Best Of The Flavors ?
For a long time it seemed PHPBB was poised as the program of choice when it came to adding a robust, open-source, PHP driven discussion forums to your website. No question it delivers the goods, and within a few hours (or days) of customizing you’d have a sophisticated and powerful add-on, or even stand-alone website that smacks of professionalism, even if you don’t. In fact, PHPBB is also a good php/mysql package to start with in getting to know how a CMS works in terms of implementation, configuration and backend administration panel …… but wait, this isn’t about PHPBB, it’s about an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the web that I like even better.

Vanilla Forums from Lussumo looks simple, which is a big part of the appeal, but don’t let looks deceive you because this program is all about extensibility, which in this case is a feature that really packs a punch, making it perhaps the most under-rated Dynamic Content System I’ve ever used.

It doesn’t get much simpler to install and set-up, and the fun part is to then go shopping for extensions, and there are lots of ‘em. As their website states … “Vanilla is all about add-ons. We’ve spent many, many months developing a new system whereby developers can create add-ons for Vanilla that allow you to do just about anything with your forum.”

I actually enjoyed implementing this the first time out and have used it many times since, something that certainly can’t be said for a lot of open-source programs. Hmmm … Simple AND Fun ? When’s the last time a web designer found anything to be simple / fun ? I think I actually found myself whistling for the first time in years rather than punching the wall. Not only that, but there doesn’t appear to be any real security issues either, which had me a little worried initially. I bring this up because for a while I had a lot of spam problems when using PHPBB, and even though there’s usually a version upgrade, patch, or workaround for it, this can become quite a maintenance issue as well as a concern with clients, many of whom aren’t too interested in the latest porn sites or penis enlargement techniques. With Vanilla on the other hand, I have yet to upgrade or apply a patch of any kind, and the program is very well supported through it’s creators and a vibrant online community, all of which can only bolster it’s reliability and usability.

So for the time being, this is my recommendation when setting up a Forums for your website, and who doesn’t need a Forums ? I suggest you go ahead and pop this baby open, drive it around the block, and take solace in the fact that you won’t have to spackle your wall this time around.