MOMETEK's Guide: Web Design

Showing posts with label Web Design. Show all posts

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Making a Website for Profit! Part Two

A stack of Money/Picture of money (The following is the description taken from image metadata on the FBI Buffalo Website) Orientation of image: 1 File change date and time: 2010:06:02 12:07:25 Software used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

In my last post, I opened an account on strikingly and started a website. However, it's far from finished. I added two links to two stores. One for my Astore and one for my Cafepress Store.

It's the two ways you can make money off you blog or website. I have to say, though, the market is so saturated logo mugs, it's difficult to sell any... Unless, you get a lot of visitors and a really awesome logo that everyone will want.

Can you make money on Cafepress? Well, I haven't, but to be fair, I may post to this blog maybe a few times a month. Even the most popular bloggers seem to think this is a bad idea. There may be a few who can get away with it as they may be popular by other means, like an author or celebrity.

It looks pretty grim if you do a search online. It's true that Cafepress's base price is a bit high, which is why you don't see T-Shirts in my store. That said, I may put some on in the future. Some sites I came across said that they do make money off the product.

We will see.

That said, I'm going to actually put some effort into it, one last time. Then I will post my efforts and results in another post. Yeah, this is definitely another post for later.

Then there's the AStore. This one has a little more potential. Again, I hadn't made the effort on this blog, so I haven't made much. I'm not even sure if anyone buys something in these stores or they later check it out on the Amazon store itself.

That said, I had put stores on the site. Both are easy to set up and if there is a way to make money off these two stores, I will find out. The stores I will be promoting will be on this site.

As for the website I've been working on, it's just a demo site to show what available resources there are to start a business at home, possibly to even make a passive income.

As for the Website, I will still be tweaking it and posting my efforts. More posts to come.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Making a Website for Profit? Part One.

Linkware Freebie Image use it however you like all I ask is a credit link to : thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ or www.lumaxart.com/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Found another freebie. It's another free web hosting site, but this one is quite simple. So I decided to create a mock website that might make money, and post it step by step here.

First things first: How to make your own website in minutes.

This link goes to Strikingly, a very simple website editor. I did sign up to their affiliate program but only after I messed with it.

If you don't see the link above, then you probably have adblock on. You can use the site link below, then click on "Create Your own Site With Strikingly" at the bottom. This would be a bummer, because ads like this do support this blog.

This site is quite simple. You sign up free (or you can pay for a better choice in templates and tools), then you pick a template, then you add or remove sections, modify them, then publish. It's so easy, you don't even need any knowledge of web design as the templates pretty much do that for you too.

Since this was a mock site, I went onto a random name generator. "Redonex" sounded cool, so I went with it. I'm not sure what it means, hopefully nothing offensive because that's now the name of the site:

http://redonex.strikingly.com/

The bulk of the video that's on the page was created in Flixpress (no affiliation there) , then I mashed it together in Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Then added a few of the built in (and cheesy) titles.

I don't really like the newer WMM. Perhaps it's because I like the ability to edit each track separately. The older XP version allowed me to edit the video without touching the audio. I ended up buy Magix as the open source software was too complicated for what I needed. I'll have to make another video editing software blog soon.

The sunset photo is a picture I took outside my house when I lived in Brandon. It's in one of the free download links below "Images".

The team photos of me, myself, and I were taken by my built in laptop camera. Not the best lighting, but I am surprised that they did come out okay. Use a white sheet and some lamps, and the photos will come out better.

Then of course you have to have comments. Facebook is already available in the "apps" section. So I used that.

Then I added a donate button so you can beg for money. That said, in my next blog, I'll replace it with something a little more tangible, like links to a few books I find interesting or even a book that I made myself...

Oh, did I just type that? Well, that's all you know at the moment.

Last but not least, I bought a domain name from www.GoDaddy.com, since I already have an account with them. I bought it at the time of this post, so it's not quite ready yet.

Strikingly also has a domain service that is included in the premium account.

On to Part Two

Friday, March 7, 2014

Xara Web Designer 9

web browsers (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

After ranting about copyrights and the evils on websites, I figured I would post on something more useful, this time on another WYSIWYG editor. Unlike the ones I've reviewed in the past, this one happens to not be free. The good news, it's affordable for most people and it's great for those who have very little time to learn any coding as coding is not required.

It was much easier to learn than I thought. It looks a bit more complex than it really is. I was able to get a page started with only opening the help file once.

The only problem is that I use a content management system for my websites called "Modx". After converting the webpage, I still have to hand-code the navigation bar if I want to use the built in Menu system of the cms. So I gave up on using it for one site and instead made a demo page, which can be viewed here. I only did this in about 15 minutes, but if I were to include the learning curve that I had with the previous page, I'd say my first page took about 45 minutes.

In the end, if you don't want to use the freebies I suggested, which does require some HTML knowledge, then you might want to consider spending some money. Xara does have a 30-day trial, so you can always download it, then try first before you buy.

Xara Webdesigner Demo Page

Friday, February 28, 2014

The Most EVIL hing you can do on Your Website

Artistic representation of the Devil. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I didn't want to rant about it, but after the "umpteenth" time trying to use right click (this time to check my spelling errors), and could not, I had to say something.

Disabling right-click is EVIL!

First, it does NOT prevent copying, I can easy bypass that by using the toolbar and getting the info via the "view source" there. I can STILL download images, and copy text that way. It's not that hard. Then there are some browsers that now disable the ability to disable right click anyway.

And then there are add-ons like Evernote. To test this point, I use my Evernote and copied the ENTIRE page of someone who disabled right click. Photos, text, everything. All I have to do is copy the photo and paste it into a photo editor and Viola! I now have the photo you thought you have blocked people from copying.

Second, it makes potential readers very, very angry. And you won't like it when your readers get angry. Why? Because there's actually legitimate reasons why people use right click... Like checking for spelling errors.

To be quite honest, I'm not as good of a speller as I used to be. I got lazy thanks to spell-check. Although, usually it's the weird spellings like conscience and subconscious. I usually mistakenly spell subconscious like conscience with a "sub" (subconscience), which is wrong. That's where spell-check is supposed to come in, until someone disables right-click.

Then there's the search features. If you talk about string theory, which I'm not exactly familiar with, I will highlight "string theory", use right-click, then click on "search in Google" or "Wikipedia" depending on what my search box is set to in Firefox. In a disabled right-click blog, I will first click on the "close tab" button, and still do a Google search because now I'm curios, but it's not likely I'll be participating in your blog anytime soon.

Another complaint of something I haven't used, but I guess some browsers use "gestures" and I suspect this has a lot to do with the IPad. I've heard of people complaining in other blogs about how they can't use gestures on pages that disabled right click. Essentially making your site useless.

And finally, it won't kill you if people copy sections of your text. I mean people who use it for future reference, like putting into Evernote, or to entice THEIR readers to click on a link to YOUR site. Isn't that what you would want?

FYI, click on brainyquote.com, highlight a favorite quote, copy, then paste it into a text editor and see what happens. When you paste it into a text editor, it also pastes a reference link. I happen to LOVE this. It saves me time on trying to remember where I got that information and I have considered using it on my own site.

Another link on this subject:
http://www.sitepoint.com/dont-disable-right-click/

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Refresher Courses

Before I start any serious course in web development, I thought I would first take some refresher courses in HTML and CSS via Code Academy.

It’s quite repetitive, but easy to follow. The repetitiveness does help to make sure what you learn sticks. This is something anyone can learn, and I definitely recommend it, even for homeschooling.

You can see what other links I recommend on my Resources page.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Learning Web Development

My husband thought it would be a good idea to sign up to some website to see if I could win a $10,000 scholarship to go back to school. So he signed me up (after asking me) which included filling out survey after survey from colleges that I probably might be interested in going to and finally get a Bachelor's degree in Web Development.

Of course we were inundated with phone calls from these colleges and I let them make their sales pitch. I finally settled on one college that seemed to have the flexibility that I needed to be able to get my degree online. It was accredited, so my degree would have been “legit”, unlike the home course in computer programming I took years ago. I did it mostly to get my own computer without having to pay the entire price up front as NRI allowed me to make arrangements for payments.

I narrowed my choices down to one and ask for the price. Considering My home course was only $3000 with everything, including a PC with all the latest bells and whistles and Mike when to ITT Tech for $13,000 in ‘82, but he had to go onto campus, I figure that an online course that included materials (didn’t ask if it included a new laptop, but had minimum administrative costs as I would be online instead of on campus, would probably go for about $20,000

Wrong!

$59,000. That’s right. $59,000 for a piece of paper that says that I can do what I’m told. Granted, businesses who are hiring will be looking for that specifically as that’s what colleges are for, but I don’t plan on working for someone else.

Bragging rights would be cool, but for that price, it doesn’t seem worth that much. Especially since the last time I checked, having a BS in anything doesn’t seem to have that much weight in the comments section, even if you use all caps.

So, I opted out, again, and for pretty much the same reason why I opted out of VT Tech 20 years ago. I didn’t want to go into (even more) debt with something that I may or may not use. “But what about learning the skills?” I can almost hear some people ask, “Don’t you need the skills?”

Yes, if you want to achieve anything, you need to learn the skills for whatever you plan on using to make money, but some skills, like web development, can be self taught. Of course, I don’t think I would go to a self taught brain surgeon to have a tumor removed. However, I’m not too concerned about accidentally killing someone with some bad code, or a zombie virus taking over because I didn’t follow proper procedure in hygiene before debugging an app.

So, I’m going to teach myself web development. Unfortunately, the shortcoming on being self taught is the curriculum, or the lack thereof. Since I’m not paying someone else to do it, I have to come up with a plan, or at least find a site that has some semblance of a plan. When I do, I’ll post it here on MOMETEK.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

An Impressive Free HTML WYSIWYG editor

English: M in blue square (similar to seen on ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Microsoft surprises me again. Since I do web design as a hobby (at the moment), I am constantly on the lookout for legitimate freebies (as in, not “pirated” software). Enter Microsoft Expression Web 4 and Microsoft Expression design 4.

Expression Design 4 is a basic vector graphics editor. I typically use SWiSHmax as it does export to PNG but ED4 does have some interesting features. Because I haven’t use it much except to make a logo for my husband’s website, I don’t have much to say about it, except that it’s free and seems easy to use. Maybe I’ll be able to get into more depth in another post.

I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s comparable to Dreamweaver, but it is the best free WYSIWYG out there so far and unlike FrontPage or Word (both from Microsoft that can do webpages) it doesn’t add useless code.
It’s also not that difficult to learn as I figured it out pretty quickly without looking anything up or checking the help files. I did have get a little confused when adding styles to objects. The odd thing is, you right click on the CSS properties box on the left-hand side, and create a style, but then, the right-click no longer works and you have to click on “New style” on the right to create a new style.

It wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your HTML and CSS as there were a few times I gave up on using the design mode and switched to code, but it does have an instant code feature. Just start typing and the list of tags, objects, or properties show up.

Overall, it’s an impressive freebie and I would recommend it for the not-so-beginner web designer. If you want to learn HTML and/or CSS, you might want to check out W3Schools.com.
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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Free! From... Microsoft?

Microsoft has changed. When I was growing up, getting anything free from Microsoft was as fictitious as Santa bringing in free gifts. Well, almost. One of them is real (explain that to your kids).

Recently, I had downloaded free "Live Essentials" and I was impressed by the quality of the programs. The old adage "you get what you paid for" is no longer true. I've already blogged about Windows Live Writer which I switch back and forth with Scribefire - depending on my mood. Live Writer is pretty decent as it supports many blog formats including Blogger and Wordpress, two of the most popular blogging sites. Unfortunately, (and this is the real reason why I switch), Live Writer does not support Tumbr or Posterous.

Recently, as I was hunting for a better free, web design software, I came across this gem from microsoft: Visual Web Developer It's a bit over the top for just making templates (as in templates for modx) but if you are interested in starting a whole new website from scratch, this would be an excellent product for you to try it. So far, I'm impressed. It has so many features that I haven't discovered yet. I don't think I will be using it much, yet, as it's a bit over the top for what I need.

As a matter of fact, I'll probably stick to Kompozer - which, by the way, was aquired by Mozilla. How much do you want a bet that we will finally start seeing some improvements? They've already improved their website.

Another little know WYSIWYG editor is Amaya. Amaya is made by w3.org which sets the standards for website design. If you are within their standards, then the majority of your audience can view your website the way you intend them to view it.

The problem with Amaya and Kompozer is that it's difficult to be "cutting edge" Both don't support HTML5 tags, but you can always put the tags in anyway. It just won't show up in the preview.
I have a page with some freebies for you to check out. These are all programs that I have used and like. It's here: http://mometek.blogspot.com/p/free-software.html.