You may be a tech wanting to learn a new programming skillset, or a relative Web newbie trying to understand your resident Web geek’s mentions of HTML, CSS, and other cryptic acronyms. Either way, Codecademy.com could be a great match for you. Codecademy is a free service that makes learning to code into a game,…
Markup languages are a critical aspect of websites, the building blocks of most webpages today. They generally fall into one or more of three types: Presentational markup: Design-related commands, such as formatting text on a Web browser’s screen. HTML is a nearly-universal example. Procedural markup: Instructions for programs which process the files. This includes PostScript…
What’s the difference between a great website and an awful one? Is it too subjective to say? Can you even compare sites as divergent as Google, Facebook, and Basecamp? While there can be some room for opinion, there are definitely some nearly universal principles which separate the virtual wheat from the chaff. The worst Web…
I know that the burning question on all you Web geeks’ minds, the one that keeps you up at night, is “How can I grab the meta content from a website using PHP?” Either that, or “Does a duck’s quack echo?” For purposes of this discussion, though, I’m gonna’ go with the former. As any…
We’ve all seen them: You ask a client business or service provider to send you an email with information you need. Your mailbox gives you the “new message” notification, and it’s from JoeFromBlueWidgets@thatbigISP.com. They don’t have a website, or haven’t gotten around to buying an email plan to go with it. No big deal, right?…
If you’ve spent much time at all looking into promoting your website, you’ve probably seen terms such as “organic search engine optimization” and “keyword search marketing” come up from time to time. These are really each an entire specialty of their own, but this excerpt gives a bare-bones description and an argument why manipulating the…
Here are the elements I’d recommend to be a Web designer (as opposed to a Web programmer): -Learn the *design* aspect. There’s much more to making websites than throwing code together. Check out The Non-Designer’s Design Book or The Non-Designer’s Web Book for information on layout, typography, colors, and much more. -Get a decent grounding…
I just responded to a Twitter post asking about transferring your domain, and thought you’d benefit from the answer. Here goes: @RealtorMichelle: Halp! If I move my wordpress blog to my own domain do I still get their easy tools to write and the stats and “backstage” stuff? #wp WordPress is a bit of a…
It’s a well-known fact to those who frequent this blog (all three of you) that I’m rather fond of pounding out a bit of code — that’s computer programming, for you non-geeks — every so often. My experience goes back to when I was a wee lad… I’ve grown up with computers for as long…
What does attending a job fair have to do with Web business? Usually, not too much — but this company was an exception. Read on (and the first post) to learn about their proactive follow-up techniques. A few hours after I got the first text message from Widgetmakers, I checked my inbox and saw an…