Webgrrls’ Finds: Tips, tricks to work faster, smarter & with style
Sifting through the mass amounts of articles I receive each day, I occasionally find some amazing little gems that can really help you learn new skills or improve your efficiency. Here I share 5 of my most recent finds. Enjoy them now or keep them in mind for future use.
Thank You Notes 101
Thank you notes are just as important in business as they are in your personal life. But when is it appropriate to send a thank you note? Should it be handwritten? What should you say? All these questions and more are answered in this informative post from thesimpledollar.com.
Crash Course on Photoshop
Got 5 minutes? Then you have enough time to learn 101 Photoshop tips. dekePod has produced an amazing 5 minute Photoshop tutorial video that highlights some very useful skills, from shortcuts to advice on what tools to avoid.
Firefox – Enough Said
If you haven’t downloaded Firefox 3, or heaven-forbid, never even tried Firefox, what are you waiting for? This browser is a web worker’s dream – completely customizable with tons of killer add-ons. Mashable has created a list of 30 of the best extensions that will really make your life easier. And for yet another reason to convert, check out this Small Business Trends article that lists 3 SEO tools, 2 of which are Firefox add-ons.
Who doesn’t love free software?
There are tons of programs on the market that can fulfill the same needs as their pricey counterparts. But does the old adage “you get what you pay for” hold true in this case? Not according to this USA Today article that lists 10 free alternatives to some very well known programs, including Outlook, Photoshop, Dreamweaver & Quickbooks.
Website Design Help
For those of you working with website design, you may find these 4 free tools very helpful. Each of them allows you to experiment with the blog or website’s look and feel until you find one that fits the bill.
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Webgrrls’ Finds: Tips, tricks to work faster, smarter & with style
There are so many great articles that can really teach you a thing or two - but unfortunately they seem to be lost amongst numerous other “less-meaty” ones. Here are 5 recent postings that may help you do your job or run your business more effectively.
How to Kill CSS Bugs
Have you ever been frustrated because your CSS layouts are rendering differently between browsers? Or are you still trying to figure out how to achieve a certain look with CSS? This Noupe article covers more than 20 fixes for issues relating to fixing IE bug, positioning block elements, creating columns & tables, working with floats and more.
A Free Alternative to Visio
If you’re looking for a robust flow chart and diagram tool, you’ve most likely already looked at Microsoft Visio. But if you’re not ready to shell out the bucks for the program, a great alternative is the free, open source application, Dia.
SEO: What Not to Do
Life is a never-ending joust for the folks working in Search Engine Marketing. Just when you think you’ve figured the search engines out, they change their algorithms. This article from SEOmoz shares some tips on targeting multiple terms and phrases on a single page and also highlights the “tricks” to avoid.
The Best $100 You Ever Spent
If you are running a website for a small to mid-size company you should jump on this tool (if you haven’t already). Google has re-launched its Custom Search Business Edition service as Google Site Search. Starting at $100 per year (or free if you don’t mind Google ads on your site), this site search application will index your entire website and help users to find what they are looking for. New features allow you to input synonyms, boost the page ranking of newer content and determine which search terms are not returning results.
Free Project Management Tool for Startups
Running a startup is never easy but thankfully there are companies out there that want to give you a break. Fog Creek Software is one such company. It provides its FogBugz on Demand project management tool free of charge for 2 users to students and startups. And not only is it an excellent project management application, it also has tremendous bug tracking abilities. If you don’t qualify for the free version, it can be purchased for $199 or less or as a hosted solution for $25/month.
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Copywriting Tools that Work For You (& Your Business)
You’re running (or working for) a business and want to get the word out, but you don’t have the time or writing skills to get your point across.
What to do? Here are three things you may want to consider:
• SEO (search engine optimization): Writing with specific keywords in mind is a key to search engine success. Search engines pick up on the words you designate crucial to your business, to help place you at the top when a potential client is searching for you or the kinds or services or products you offer. Don’t be afraid to blog or write multiple articles centering on similar topics – this will only boost your business in the search engines.
• Ghostwriting: Having a professional writer is like having a partner in business you never knew you had. Ghostwriters will work closely with you to successfully market your product. Whether it be for a website, press kit, marketing materials or other services, a good ghostwriter will learn the ins and outs of your business and will be able to get your point across more effectively (and free you up to do what you do best).
• ePress Kits: It’s safe to say that e-mailing has become a mainstay of communication, and not just for sending pictures. Building an electronic (”e”) press kit offers a complete PR kit for your business in an easy-to-send file (usually a pdf). Press releases, press clippings, interviews, your bio and other components are compiled in one convenient file. You won’t have to struggle to get the word out about your business - a click of the mouse is all it will take!
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Webgrrls’ Finds: Tips, tricks to work faster, smarter & with style
Want to work faster, smarter & with style? Check out these 5 articles that reveal some tricks of the trade.
Email Spring Cleaning
If the IT department is constantly asking you to free up space in your Outlook account, you need this tool. Windows users can use the Outlook Attachment remover to detach documents currently attached to emails in your inbox and offload them to your hard drive. Even better, you can specify which document type and sizes.
Attention all SEM (Search Engine Marketing) workers
Want to get an idea of your competitors’ link building strategy, understand what people think of your site and get help with your keyword research? Start exploring the anchor text of backlinks using some free tools.
Must-See Sites
Whether you’re a designer looking to prime the creative pump or a developer searching for little-known functionality tips, this list of top-notch sites, compiled by Noupe, will feed anyone’s web fancy.
Awesome Ajax Apps
If you’re an Ajax developer or you’re looking so learn some cool Ajax techniques, you will definitely appreciate this article. It presents 25 Ajax projects and examples that are sure to impress.
Site Design Just Got Easier
Those of you charged with putting together site mock-ups will love the Yahoo! Design Stencil Kit. This free toolkit includes many of the generic images required to put together your user interface, including standard ad units, UI controls, tabs, buttons, placeholder text and more.
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What is SEO copywriting? (Part 2 of 2)
Last week, I defined SEO copywriting. Here are some tips to help you ensure that your SEO copy is good.
To make the Google cut, your copy needs to be:
- Relevant: To the topic, to your customers, to the search engine. Google wants to see that you are actually writing about what you say you are writing about, so if you list “travel to Mexico” as a keyword for your page, make sure that travel to Mexico is a theme or idea you discuss on that particular page.
Trust me, Google will know if you are being tricky – it won’t work and you and your site will be penalized.
- Updated: If the last time you revised your web page or site was 2004, it’s not new or up-to-date. Google likes recency. And that’s the beauty of the online medium – it can be added to or updated almost instantly and constantly.
News, information, tips, new ideas – whatever you have to say, you can say it. Just make sure you keep your search engine ranking goals in mind at all times.
- More quality than quantity: Good SEO copy is not about making sure that your page or article has XX number of words or XX% of keywords. (Though you will meet tons of people who give you all sorts of percentages and density numbers.)
It’s about using the words you know you need to have in a way that is consistent, relevant, well-written and logical. It’s about following through – focusing on what you are telling Google through your meta tags that you’re going to focus on.
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