The Apple II, Apple Macintosh, NeXT, Pixar, iMac, iBook, iPod, iTunes, MacBook, iPhone, and of course the iPad are just some of the many extraordinary products created and marketed by Apple’s cofounder, CEO, and later chairman of the board.  On October 5th, the world was told the lamentable news that Steve Jobs had passed away.

While all the above mentioned products were incredible, some of his most valuable work was with the internet.  That’s right, the web as we know it today would not exist without Steve. 

As soon as Jobs returned to Apple as CEO in 1997, he got to work creating the beginnings of many products we know and love today. Most notably, Jobs created the iMac. “The number one use that consumers tell us they want a computer for is to get on the internet simply and fast, and that’s what [the iMac] is targeted for,” said the newly-appointed CEO. While this seems a bit obvious today, back then it was a big deal. Computers were not built for the internet; the internet was built for computers. Apple changed that philosophy by saying it was the responsibility of the software engineers to make the internet work.

Steve’s initiative was later realized when Apple created the WebKit rendering engine in 2002. The wide adoption of WebKit by Google for both Android and Chrome, and the implementation of it in Apple’s Safari browser on Mac OS, Windows, and iOS has lead to the most incredible web technologies available today. These technologies include, HTML5, CSS3, and advanced JavaScript.

Steve Jobs made what some claimed a crazy decision to not include Adobe Flash in the iPhone that was released in 2007. Instead, Apple invested in furthering the advancement of HTML5 and CSS3. Thanks to them, the web is finally being rid of the sluggish and unreliable Flash. Now, developers like myself can design multimedia rich sites that are plugin free. This not only saves developers time and money, but it also keeps websites and even computers running faster.

The internet has a bright future ahead, and this is exciting.  However, some of the incredible things we’ve seen on the web in the last ten years are because of the visionary Steve Jobs.

Web Constructions has changed its name to Prorarity™! It’s been a big switch, but the whole site, logo, and name is officially changed. ‘Prorarity’ actually comes from the word ‘rarity’, which means something that is rare, special, or unique. ‘Pro’ originally comes from the latin root which means forward and forth. The common understanding of the term ‘pro’, however, is merely something which is professional. I combined the two words to make ‘prorarity’, which in a sense means professionally rare, special and unique.

The most popular browser today is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (according to most sources). It’s been this way for just about as long as anyone can remember. Why, then, do so many developers and users strongly dislike it? Well, there are many reasons for this, and hopefully we can explore a few of them.

Developers don’t like Internet Explorer mostly because of its lack of innovation. Even its latest version (version 9) is well behind in modern HTML standards and support. All other major browsers have fully adopted HTML5 and CSS3. This means they support the very latest. Internet Explorer, however, lacks many key features of modern HTML and CSS. Things like imageless shadows, gradients, 3D effects, and transitions are void in even the latest Internet Explorer version.

What does all that mean for the normal, everyday web surfer? It means you experience a slower and uglier web. In order to have the effects mentioned above in Internet Explorer, developers must use images and/or flash. This can compromise quality, but also significantly slow down the load time of each web page.

As if this isn’t enough, Internet Explorer has a host of other problems. Computer experts say there are many security issues with Internet Explorer that are just not present in other browsers. Compatibility is another problem with Internet Explorer. The last supported Internet Explorer version on Windows XP and below is version 8, and that version is even farther behind competing browsers. Many of the major browsers today are truly cross-platform, which means they run on any computer.

If all of this has finally convinced you to get rid of Microsoft’s default browser, then one question must be asked. What browser should I use? The most innovative browsers today are Google Chrome and Apple Safari. Since Safari won’t run as well on a Windows system, Chrome is an excellent choice. If you do use a Mac, Safari or Chrome will work equally well. Both Mozilla Firefox and Opera are also good choices for a modern web browser.

CMS allows web designers to set up their clients with a template to which content can be added via an administrative interface. It is used commonly for blogs or shopping carts that contain content which is constantly being updated. With CMS, every page of content (whether that be text, images, video, etc) contains variables which can be changed by the website owner.  This means the site owner doesn’t have to call up his developer just to adjust some text, replace an image, or add a menu item.  The owner can do it himself.

If you’ve ever set up a blog with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, or the like, you’ve used a content management system. The administration area, where you login to type a new post, is known as the backend to CMS.  The backend is where a user can administer his/her blog.  However, as you may have guessed, CMS doesn’t stop with blogs.  CMS is used for e-commerce, social media, podcasting, and even normal websites!

Most of the best CMS out there are free and open source.  They include WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, SilverStripe, and many more.  As a web designer, I encourage all my clients to go the route of CMS, because it can help give them the independence to update their site without having to use me as a crutch. Allow me to set you up with a CMS website today!

Both of these networks offer tools for businesses, and businesses worldwide are taking advantage of them.  In fact, a company’s profile on Twitter and Facebook is possibly becoming more important than the company’s actual website!  Whether that statement is true or not, we do know that social media is only going to get more important as time progresses.

Although Facebook has many more users, one might argue that there are more mature users on Twitter.  This is possibly true considering Twitter has targeted an older audience.  Since the majority of businesses are also targeted towards this older group, Twitter can’t be ignored!  Facebook, however, does have more users, and should be taken quite seriously.  In the end, your business can’t go wrong by joining both sites.

Getting on Facebook and Twitter is not nearly as important as keeping your Facebook and Twitter updated.  Yes, you heard me.  Signing up for both networks and them ignoring them will not help your business in the slightest!  Keep your fans/followers informed by constantly posting links, pictures, videos, etc.

On the ever-changing world wide web, it can be tough to stay with the latest trends.  It’s easy for any business to fall behind in the maelstrom of amendments to the internet.  For now and the near future, social media is hot on the market, so get your business on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have not seen this change in action, just hang tight.  Although Google says that its new feature is available to all major browsers in the US, one of my computers still isn’t seeing the new change in Google (while my other one does).  The reason for this is currently foreign to me, but I’m sure Google will have their new program up and running on all computers soon.  By the end of the year, it actually plans on having Google Instant available on every device, browser, and country.

If you have been able to experience this new change, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that it is pretty sweet!  However, with this new change comes our wonderful friends telling us that “SEO is dead!!” I’m sure, if you’ve done any research into this update, that you’ve heard someone claiming that because of Google Instant, it will be impossible to optimize your site for a higher ranking.

Let me help you by quickly saying, this just isn’t true.  As long as there is search engines, there will be SEO.  I can guarantee you that.

However, the way we do SEO is (and always will be) evolving.  I like what Googler Matt Cutts stated, “The search results will remain the same for a query, but it’s possible that people will learn to search differently over time.  For example, I was recently researching a congressperson. With Google Instant, it was more visible to me that this congressperson had proposed an energy plan, so I refined my search to learn more, and quickly found myself reading a post on the congressperson’s blog that had been on page 2 of the search results.”

Since Google gives instant suggestions (and results for those suggestions) as you type, people may end up searching different queries than they originally intended to.  For instance, if someone decides they want to search for “pet pups”, but when they start typing “pet”, Google suggests “pet dogs”.  In this case, the person may just decide to stick with Google’s suggestion and look for listings under that search query.  Now, if your website had a high ranking under the keyword “pet pups”, but not “pet dogs”, that person would probably never come across your website.

On the other hand, if you had a high ranking for the keyword “pet dogs” and not “pet pups”, then you’re site’s traffic would benefit. Either way, the method Google uses to rank your site has not changed, it’s merely the way that people search that changes.

So, please don’t freak out and believe the lie that SEO is dying and that your site will never rank on Google.  Just do some more experimenting with Google Instant.  See how your site ranks on other keywords that people may end up seeing results for.  Try to broaden your ranking to more keywords.  When push comes to shove, the way to get ranking is still the same: links, social media, and blogging.  Keep up the good work!

Favorite icons have never been easy to set up because most image editors don’t support the format needed for a favorite icon (.ICO).  favicon.cc has changed this!  When you visit favicon.cc you will see a free image editor right on their homepage.  Without having to download anything, you can create, edit, or just convert an .ICO file so it can be easily uploaded to your server.

After you customize your favorite icon so it looks just the way you want, simply download the file from favicon.cc and upload it to the root directory on your server.  If the icon was uploaded correctly, and you didn’t change the file name, you should be good to go.  Visit your website and see the cool icon you created!

The thing is, most likely you are not going to get that kind of offer.  I mean, lets be real, its not like someone can just ‘give’ your website a great ranking!  Sure, maybe they could give your site a better look, but not a better ranking!

Let me explain, there are ways you (or someone else) can improve your ranking on Google.  These things consist of signing up for Google Webmaster Tools, running a blog, getting on social media, and doing a little link exchange.  However, none of these things will get you a great ranking.  They will improve your ranking, but not by a whole lot.  Don’t get me wrong, doing these things are extremely important ways to market, but they won’t give you the highest possible ranking on Google.

The most effective way to rank on Google (like I’ve said a thousand times before) is to get more links pointing to your site.  This can be done with link exchange, but Google doesn’t pay near as much attention to link exchange links as it does to links given to you by someone without your link in exchange.  These kinds of links can only be received by running a trustworthy business and acquiring trustworthy clients who will recommend you on their blogs and web pages.

To get to this point, you will probably need to advertise by other means.  This doesn’t necessarily mean through TV, radio, or billboards.  No no, some of the most effective advertising is still the age-old word of mouth method!  Just tell others about your business, as they find how good you/your products are, they will start recommending you to others, and posting links to your site.

That is how SEO really works.  However, there is still one thing missing here, your site design.  Yes, no one could rightly say that looks are more important than ranking, but it can be really hard to get ranking (or even customers, for that matter) without looks!  A good looking website will make people more interested in your business, which will make them more ready to both buy your product(s) and link to you on their blogs/websites.

So, ranking is more important, but looks have their place on the web.  A very important place!!

GoDaddy is by far the most used hosting company (and domain registrar) out there.  It supports virtually anything and everything you need to get your website up and running.  They offer very good phone and email support.  Domains from GoDaddy generally cost around $10 a year.  GoDaddy offers three plans: Economy, Deluxe, and Ultimate. The Economy plan offers 10gb of space and is available for a mere $5 a month.  The Deluxe plan is by far GoDaddy’s best offer with 150gb for only $7 a month.  The Ultimate plan offers unlimited hosting for $15 a month.

DreamHost is not as popular as GoDaddy, but it is definitely growing!  It also supports pretty much everything you need for your website.  DreamHost does not offer phone support, only email.  DreamHost offers a free domain as long as you use their hosting.  Each additional domain (you can have as many as you want on one account) is available for $10 a year.  DreamHost only offers one plan.  This plan offers unlimited space for your website +50gb extra for backups or whatever else you want to use it for!  This plan is only $9 a month.

Both companies have very low rates.  However, DreamHost’s $9 unlimited plan totally beats GoDaddy’s $15 unlimited plan.  So, if you are planning on using more than 150gb of space or will be having lots of website traffic, DreamHost is probably the best choice for you.  If, on the other hand, you will only be needing a little bit of website space and won’t have too much traffic, GoDaddy’s Economy or Deluxe would be a better value.  One other thing you might want to consider is DreamHost’s lack of phone support.  Although they still offer email support, sometimes that just won’t cut it for people.  If you’re new to the web, you may consider choosing GoDaddy just for the 24/7 phone support.

I hope that helps!  Like always, this article only reflects my opinion.  If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine!  I’d love to see what you think about this subject.

At the time of writing the before mentioned article, I was pretty confident that Flash was dying fast. Now, I’m not so sure! In the last few months, several things have changed. Number one is the release of the Apple iPhone 4. Number two is the release of the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint. Number three is the plan to release Android 2.2. Number four is the simple fact that Internet Explorer still doesn’t support most aspects of HTML5. Number five is the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 series.

First is the release of the iPhone 4. Out of all five of these major changes, this is the only one that supports HTML5 in its war against Flash. Let me just start by saying that people really love Apple products (especially the iPhone). Even though there are phones out there that can do a lot more than the iPhone can, people still love the iPhone simply because it has the name “Apple” on the back! Rightly so, I mean Apple does make good products, but lets face it – they’re not the best! Anyway, the new iPhone 4 gives a lot of people a good reason to buy. The reason this is so good for HTML5 is because the iPhone doesn’t, and probably never will support Flash. HTML5 is a big push for Apple (heck, they practically invented the thing), and the fact that people love the iPhone so much will really help that push.

The second change is the release of the HTC Evo from Sprint. This is really huge for Flash because the HTC Evo is the first popular smartphone to support it! A lot of people like the HTC Evo even better than the iPhone. I mean, the camera is better, the display is bigger, the monthly price is better, the internet speed is better, and it supports Flash!! HTML5 is also supported, but that is not something Sprint is trying to advertise.

When Google announced the release of Android 2.2, web developers all over the world stood in awe because Flash is available (and not just Flash lite). Although it may take some time for all of the Android phones out there to get the update (some may never get it), once it is fully implemented, Android 2.2 may very well kill HTML5.

Microsoft Internet Explorer has never fully supported HTML5 and although it promises to, I doubt they ever will (at least not without a fight)! After all, supporting HTML5 will pretty much ensure that it will win and will eventually cause millions (that were previously skeptical of the lack of Flash support) to flock to the iPhone! Might I remind you that Apple and Microsoft have never been on happy terms and the last thing Microsoft wants, is to help Apple out. They also want to get all phone users to buy the new Windows Phone 7 (which brings me to my last change).

The fifth (and last) major change in this painful battle is the announcement of the Windows Phone 7 series. This phone may very well be the first success of Microsoft as it regards the mobile industry. Apple knows (and has known for many years) that in the next decade or so, browsing the web on a computer will be unheard of. No no, people will have tablets and phones, but the average person won’t even own or care to own a computer! Apple knows this, but Microsoft is no fool and knows this also. In fact, they have tried and failed more than once to create a smartphone that everyone will love. Up to now, people have given up on Microsoft as a mobile producer. However, they may just win out with the release of the new Windows Phone 7 series. We still don’t know much about this phone (or series of phones) coming later in the year. But what we do know is simple. It will support Flash and it won’t support HTML5. I think the reason for this is obvious and the same as the reason Microsoft won’t support HTML5 in the Internet Explorer browser.

Personally, I think that HTML5 is a better option in the end. I realize that it won’t be too easy for us developers in the beginning. But seriously – was anything?! We must understand, however, that this is not a war of which web component is better. This is a war of what the people want. And, right now it looks like the people may still want Flash.

During the testing stage, up to %25 of organic search results (the ones that aren’t ads) displayed in Yahoo will be powered by Bing.  About %3.5 of paid search results (the ones that are ads) will also be powered by Bing.

“The primary change for these tests is that the listings are coming from Microsoft,” said Kartik Ramakrishnan, the vice president of Search Product Operations.  ”However, the overall page should look the same as the Yahoo Search you’re used to – with rich content and unique tools and features from Yahoo.  If you happen to fall into our tests, you might also notice some differences in how we’re displaying select search results due to a variety of product configurations we are testing.”

Right now, you must understand that Yahoo and Bing are still in the testing stage.  However, they expect to be done as early as September.  When their testing has completed, all search results from Yahoo will be powered by Bing.

This is really big for Bing.  Even though this search engine is barely a year old, it is on the road to possibly one day overtaking Google!  Please understand, Bing still has a long way to go before they conquer Google.  However, this new partnership with Yahoo will really increase traffic to Bing.

What does all this mean for the website owner?  Well, it basically means that you need to start thinking more about Bing when optimizing your website for search engines.  One way to do this is to sign up for Bing’s newly updated Webmaster Tools.  There, you can submit sitemaps and URLs.  This is a good way to get started.  Other than that, keep doing what you always should.  Blog often, build backlinks, get on social media, etc.

For instance, when setting up text links on the top or side of a website that say “HOME”, “ABOUT”, “CONTACT”, etc., some web designers consider placing a simple icon next to the links.  Another major use for icons is for social media.  A lot of sites have links to their pages on different social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, etc.  However, instead of simply placing the text names of these sites, many web designers will use icons to represent them.

For a lot of people, making great looking icons for their website is simply out of the question.  That is why I have compiled this short list of free online icon galleries for you to browse:

1.  IconsPedia is probably the largest icon gallery that I’ve ever seen!  IconsPedia is full of user submitted icons that are constantly being updated.

2.  Web Icon Gallery isn’t quite as large as IconsPedia but has amazing icons just the same!  This icon gallery is also user submitted and updated regularly.

3.  IcoPedia has some pretty neat looking icons available!  Everything appears to be user submitted.  However, unlike the others mentioned, IcoPedia doesn’t have a place one may submit an icon they’ve created.  You would possibly have to email the admin if you wanted to submit one.

4.  Free Icons Web is full of more icons than you probably could ever imagine!  You’ll love this free user submitted icon gallery.

It is not uncommon for people to mistake SEO (search engine optimization) for advertising on Google.  Just to make things clear for you, Google AdWords is not SEO!  Please don’t misunderstand me.  Google AdWords isn’t bad; it just isn’t SEO.  I guess I should start by explaining to you what Google AdWords really is!

Google AdWords is how Google makes its money.  Have you ever been searching for something and seen ads on the side and top of Google’s search results?  That’s Google AdWords.  Website owners can pay for this advertising per click.  Technically, it’s free to set up an ad with Google; you just pay once your ad is clicked by someone.  The amount you pay depends on many different factors.

A lot of people like Google AdWords simply because it gives you instant ranking without you having to do any work.  That is true.  However, studies show that only a small percentage of people actually pay attention to ads on Google.  Of course, getting a high ranking with little attention from Googlers is much better than getting a very low ranking with no attention!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with advertising on Google AdWords.  But, please get the idea out of your head that AdWords is the same as SEO!

SEO is where someone actually works to get a higher ranking on Google.  That ‘work’ consists of getting on social media, blogging, link building, etc.  Obviously, if you have the time and energy to work for your ranking through SEO, that would be the better way to go.  On the other hand, don’t let some SEO freak try to convince you that AdWords is bad and you never should invest in that sort of advertising!

One thing that makes SEO much better than AdWords is simply that SEO is free.  Yes, I know that you can pay for someone else to do SEO or you can buy SEO tools.  But, in the end, it is possible to get a high ranking with SEO without paying a dime.  Whichever way you decide, getting a high ranking on Google will really help market your website.

This revolution is literally changing the way future (and even current) generations will handle the web.  In another ten years, browsing the web on a computer will be old hat.  People will quit using computers for browsing the web.  Why?  With the release of amazing smartphones such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and more, people don’t need to use a computer or even a laptop to browse the web.  Nope, they can get it all in the palm of their hands!

However, millions of mobile internet viewers are faced with one problem.  Only a tiny fraction of websites are optimized for phones!  This problem is slowly being fixed thanks to the many websites that have created two versions of their website – one for the home computer, and the other for mobile devices.

Creating a mobile version of your website can be very easy.  The idea behind it is simply to create a website with the same color scheme and content, but with a different layout so that mobile browsers can display the entire page without making the viewer pan and zoom.  If you would like to get your site optimized, but you aren’t a coder, there are two options.

The first option is definitely the best, and that is to hire a web developer like myself.  However, if you are short on cash there is another option.  That option is to use an internet tool that automatically creates a mobile version of your current site for you.  The problem with this is that your site may not look exactly the way you want it to.  There are many of these kinds of tools out there; some are free and some aren’t.  Here are a few you might want to look into:

• MoFuse
• Wirenode
• Google

On the other hand, if you would like to hire a web developer to optimize your website, I would be glad to help   I can affordably optimize any website to look great on mobile devices.  Email me at: tim@prorarity.com if you are interested.

A few months ago

Ironically, the platform I am now using is WordPress!  This seams like a contradiction; however, there are actually two different WordPress’!  One is WordPress.com and the other is WordPress.org.  While still owned by the same company, the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is simple.  One is a self hosted blog platform, the other is a remotely hosted blog platform.  WordPress.org came first and is an open source project for those want to create their own self hosted blog.  WordPress.com uses the same software, but is meant for the light user who simply wants a blog hosted on WordPress’ servers.

For those of you who are eager to get a blog up quickly and easily, a remotely hosted blog is definitely what you want.  However, if your goal is to make your blog look and act exactly the way you want, a self hosted blog is a must have!  There are other self hosted blog platforms out there, but I think WordPress beats them all, hands down.

If, on the other hand, you simply want a blog up fast and do not want to worry about spending much time on it, a remotely hosted blog is the perfect choice.  In my post entitled Blogger vs WordPress, I explain why Blogger is a much better remotely hosted blog platform than WordPress.com.  If you would like to know why, I suggest you read that article.

Blogging is a great way to promote any business.  Although remotely hosted blogs work fine, you will get a much more professional look when you host your own blog.  Hosting your own blog means you must pay monthly for a server (if you don’t already), and you will have to spend more time to get it up and running.  Which ever you decide, blogging will definitely help market your company!

A couple weeks ago I posted that I would write an article on some of the amazing photoshop alternatives I have found over the past few years.  I, like many of you, started designing websites long before I could afford Adobe Photoshop.  Since images are an extremely important part of any webpage, without a tool that can create them you are in big trouble!  Anyway, here are five Photoshop alternatives that I have found over the past few years.  All of these are completely free.

   1.  Paint.net I think this is a really awesome graphic editor.  It does require a download but is free and definitely worth it!

   2.  Splashup Similar to Paint.net, Splashup is a great alternative to Photoshop.  It handles layers in much the same way as Photoshop does.  Splashup is also online and requires no download.

   3.  Photoshop.com Online Editor From the makers of Photoshop itself (Adobe) comes this special online editor.  While it can’t do near as much as the real Photoshop, it’s still pretty cool and worth a try.

   4.  GRSites.com While more template driven, GRSites isn’t bad when compared to Photoshop.  It is not really an “editor”.  GRSites is based more on you picking from their many templates of banners, buttons, or logos and editing them to fit your needs.  Most of GRSites is free, however you can pay for more advanced features.

   5.  Cool Text Similar to GRSites, Cool Text specializes in templates for text, fonts, or buttons.  It is free and definitely worth a try.

Sound like Greek to you? Well, I must admit that it did to me!! I’ll break it down a bit for you. The term “algorithm” is simply the formula used by search engines to determine how to rank your site. So, this is simply an update by Google that will change the way your site is ranked. The update, as you might guess, is called “Mayday”.

Googler Matt Cutts stated that “this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.” It seems as though Google is trying to make more relevant search results for longer queries. For instance, someone searching “rubber ducks” in Google would probably get more relevant results than someone searching “where to find good rubber ducks that will last a long time and are fun to play with”. Google is trying to change this through the Mayday update.

Google is also going to give less attention to pages that are several clicks away from their site’s homepage, don’t have many links pointing to them, and don’t have unique, value-added content on them. For those of you who have a website with pages such as these, I would experiment with ways to get more links and add some unique content to them.

Some believe that Google changes indexing or ranking algorithm as often as once a day! This is just another one of these sorts of updates – maybe a more important one, but still just an update. The worst thing you, as a website owner, could do, is panic! If you feel like your ranking has been impacted by this update, I would recommend trying to get more links and unique content on your sub pages. Make sure you don’t do anything ‘shady’ as you try to acquire more links. Avoid automated link exchange and pages specifically dedicated to links. Other than this, the best thing to do is to simply continue with your SEO efforts like you always have. Get on social media like Facebook and Twitter and keep acquiring links!

For those of you who are trying to design a website but can’t afford Photoshop to make shiny buttons that look cool, you’re in luck! I, like many of you, started out designing websites long before I could even think about purchasing the $500+ Adobe Photoshop. During that period of time, I found some many cheap and even free Photoshop alternatives. (Eventually, I will put together an article specifically dedicated to all the Photoshop alternatives I found – so stay tuned!)

Anyway, My Cool Button is one of the neatest ways to create buttons online. It costs a mere $5 a year and is definitely worth it! With My Cool Button you can create shiny buttons, web 2.0 buttons, ribbons for your buttons, and even 3D buttons. And here’s the best part – My Cool Button is an online system and requires no download! These buttons can be easily customized with icons or text and are all downloadable in transparent PNG formats.

As a designer, I am always on the lookout for cool websites so I can steal ideas and keep up with the going trends in web design. Over the years there have been a few sites that I absolutely love and would like to share with you.

I have titled this article “Top 10 Website Designs” but I hope you realize that this is just based on what I’ve seen and what I like best. I know that, as with any “Top 10″ article, there will be lots of debate as to what really are the top ten best looking websites. Nevertheless, I will take the risk of giving you my opinion on the subject.

   10. Facebook Yes, to all you MySpace lovers, I think Facebook looks a whole lot better than it’s inferior competitor: simple, and easy to navigate. Is it perfect? No, that’s why it’s not number one!

   9.  Twitter OK, maybe Facebook looks slightly better than Twitter; however, I like the logo better than Facebook’s.

   8.  Web Design Blog I do realize that this is one of my competitors and I do think my site looks better  However, I will not post my own website on this list (despite my temptation to do so). I also think that they did a very good job of making everything simple, and maintaining the cool dark look.

   7.  IconBuffet This website puts gradients to a very good use and has a beautiful color scheme.

   6.  Adobe I personally think Adobe’s site is slightly too busy. However, they are advertising flash and other amazing web tools, so I think they can get away with being slightly crazy in their designs! Other than that, their website is super cool!!

   5.  Google OK, I do have to put everybody’s favorite website on here! (Well, almost everybody’s.)

   4.  Bing  Although I personally like Google better as a search engine, the design of Bing’s site is truly amazing!

   3.  Mozilla I love the many cool backgrounds on their site that are constantly changing!

   2.  M&Ms After all, don’t we all just love that snack??

   1.  Apple Besides making the best computer products in the world, Apple made no mistake when it designed this gorgeous website. The color scheme is simple and it is very well balanced.

Well, that’s the end of my opinions on website design. I hope, after you comment with your opinion, this list will help you out, and maybe even inspire you to start a project of your own!

Last week I went over the highlights of an article written by Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, on Flash.  This week, I would like to go over the article Adobe wrote, entitled “The truth about Flash“, in response to Apple’s “Thoughts on Flash“.

It was not hard to see that Adobe, in this article, was trying to defend the position they were loosing because of Apple’s “Thoughts on Flash“.  Pretty much everything they said was the flip side of what Apple said.

After giving several statistics on how widely used and widely demanded Flash Player is, Adobe stated that “The Adobe Flash Player runtime was actually originally created as a technology for tablets with touch interfaces, and today, it has support for working on touch-based devices.”  This is the opposite of what Steve said in his article: “Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers.”

Adobe also stated exactly what Apple stated when they said “Seventy-five percent of all video on the web is viewed via Flash Player”.  However, Adobe also said that “H.264 is a video codec (which requires a player), while Flash Player is a complete multimedia runtime that can play back H.264, among other codecs.”  Apple, last month, stated that “almost all this video (flash video) is also available in a more modern format, H.264 and viewable on iPhones.”  Apparently, Apple’s technology on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is capable of playing H.264 video without a flash player.

“(Flash) requires more processing power than static HTML documents,” Adobe admitted.  But, according to them, “Flash Player performs as well as, if not better than, comparable multimedia technologies.”  And,  “The Flash Player team is constantly working to deliver the best performance for rich interactive media on the web,” was Adobe’s plea.  This is not what Apple claims, “We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems (performance problems), but they have persisted for several years now,” is what Steve from Apple wrote.

As far as security goes, there is a down-right contradiction from what Apple said and what Adobe said.  “Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009,” is what Apple said.  Adobe, on the other hand, said this: “The Symantec Global Internet Threat Report for 2009 found that Flash Player had the second lowest number of vulnerabilities of all Internet technologies listed.”  Are they talking about two different things here?  Maybe, but it doesn’t seem so.

Adobe ended by stating that “Flash Player is part of a rich ecosystem of both open and proprietary technologies,” in response to Apple’s claim that Adobe was not open.

I honestly think that Adobe came up with a really lame come back to Apple’s stunning article against Flash.  Am I for dumping Flash?  Yes and no.  I feel that it will be better in the long run to get rid of flash and move on to HTML5, however, I am positive we will run into many problems along the way!

Earlier this month, the CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs announced for the first time where Apple stands on Flash.  In his article entitled “Thoughts on Flash” Steve stated basically what everyone originally speculated.  In this article, Apple’s CEO gave six reasons Flash is not supported on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

Steve Jobs stated that Flash is not “open” as Adobe claims.  He said that HTML5, on the other hand, is “completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.”  On the contrary, Steve stated that “Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc.”

While claiming that the “iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video”, Steve Jobs did admit to the fact that “Apple devices cannot play Flash games”.  However, Apple’s CEO said that this is not a problem because “there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store”.

Steve briefly explained how that Flash drains battery life and is very unreliable.  He stated that “Flash is the number one reason Macs crash”.  And he also said that Flash is simply not designed for touch interfaces.

After all this, Steve Jobs laid out the main reason Apple will not allow Flash on there mobile devices.  “Adobe wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices” Steve wrote.  Apple doesn’t want Adobe to get in the way of there apps by either making Flash available for the iPhone, or (as it seems) allowing users to export their Flash productions as native apps for the iPhone (which is what Adobe Flash Professional CS5 offers).  “Our motivation is simple” Steve said “we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen.”

Steve, throughout his article encouraged developers to “use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript” instead of Flash on their websites.  As of yet, I do not really think HTML5 and other coding languages are capable of efficiently creating advanced animations that Flash has up to now accomplished.  I see why Apple doesn’t want Flash, and I see how that can be a good thing.  However, like I said in my last article on HTML5, “It may be a good thing to get away from Flash in the end, but it will cause lots of problems in the beginning!”

It is a common thing for a website’s ranking to suddenly drop in a given search engine. Although this doesn’t always mean your ranking has been penalized, sometimes it does. To help avoid search engine penalties, you need to stay in Google’s “good graces”.

One thing to avoid is using lots of gateway (or automatically generated) pages. You should also stay away from putting tons of unnecessary keywords on your site. Also, make sure you don’t have duplicate web pages on your site.

Paid links or irrelevant link exchange is a big no-no. It’s ok to trade links with other sites as long as you have something in common that your visitors would find helpful. Google is quick to penalize sites that simply have lists of many different links on them.

There are many ways your site can be penalized by Google, Yahoo, or Bing. We don’t know all of the reasons why your website can be penalized, but we have some good ideas. If you think your website has been penalized on a given search engine, I would first check and make sure you are not doing one of the above things. If you aren’t, send an email to the search engine and ask why you have lost your ranking.

When browsing for articles on specific topics, people usually look at the title as it appears in Google’s search results before ever opening the page.  Many times, as you all know, if the title doesn’t seem interesting or relevant the person in question will simply skip over it without ever clicking the link!  That’s why, in my mind, the title you choose for your article is almost as important as the article itself.

When choosing the title of an article you are working on, try to keep it short.  People don’t like to stop and read through your title, they want to get the idea at a glance.

Making a funny title is also a good idea, however, always make sure it stays to the point and doesn’t appear to be something its not. 

People love articles that give a list of 10 (or 101) things.  If you choose to make an article like this (which you should from time to time), make sure you start the title with something like “Top 10″ or “101 Things”.

Another favorite type of article is one that lists two items or ways of thinking and compares them.  One tried and true way to make a title for an article like this is to list the two thinks and simply insert a “vs” in between.

The last suggestion I will give is asking a question in your title.  Virtually any kind of article can have a title that lists a question.  However, I wouldn’t recommend using this kind of title every time!

One of the first search engine optimization software tools introduced to me was the popular Web CEO. Although you can buy paid versions, you can also download a free version that never expires. I would definitely recommend it for those who are just starting out in the web industry.

Web CEO has a host of features including built in FTP, search engine submission, rank checking, web analytics, and even link partner finding! It also comes with an html and xml sitemap generator.

Please understand, just downloading Web CEO will in no way help the ranking of your website however, if you use the tools it provides and implement the strategies it suggests, I guarantee your ranking will improve!

There is nothing worse than going to a web page and finding the dreaded “Error 404 – Page Not Found”. No website owner wants to put his viewers through an error like this. However, no matter how hard you try, it’s virtually impossible to escape broken links.

There is, however, a way to make it slightly easier for viewers to get on the right track after clicking a broken link. By using a custom error page, you will be able to redirect users who experience an error, to a page you have built. This means that in spite of any errors a viewer may experience, they will remain on your website.

Setting up a custom error page is not difficult. It can be accomplish by putting a simple script on your server. Contact your hosting provider for detailed instructions on how to do this.

Although there are others, Blogger (Blogspot) and WordPress are the two most popular blog platforms. Today, I will attempt to give a fair comparison between the two. (I do realize that I may not make a completely fair comparison considering, as is obvious, I use Blogger!)

As far as templates and layout, Blogger wins hands down! Although WordPress offers many templates to choose from, you have to pay to be able to edit them. As far as free editing goes, WordPress is very limited. Blogger, on the other hand, offers a lot of great tools for editing your blog to make it look just the way you like. With Blogger, you can edit both the CSS or, if you aren’t very code-savvy, Blogger provides some simple color editing tools. You can also very easily (no coding required) change the layout of your template.

Blogger and WordPress both allow you to use your own domain or sub domain. However, WordPress charges for this feature.

WordPress has done a good job with their widgets and have more than Blogger does. Although this is good, Blogger offers the “HTML/JavaScript” widget. This, in essence, allows you to make whatever code you want into a widget. You can use third-party codes, or simply make your own.

The last thing I want to point out is that WordPress allows you to import content from many different blog platforms. Blogger only allows you to import from Blogger blogs.

WordPress has a lot of cool features, but you have to pay for most of the good ones. Blogger, however, is completely free. Blogger also gives you much better customization. So, in the end, I think that Blogger wins. If you like WordPress, post a comment.  I’d like to hear what you have to say about your favorite blog hosting!

I have, countless times, seen Word documents put on a website for users to read something. There is nothing wrong with putting a document on your website, however it’s not a good idea to use a Microsoft Office Word document. There are hundreds of people out there that do not have Microsoft Office Word on their computer and they can’t afford it either.

A wonderful alternative is to use PDF documents. There may be some people out there that don’t have Adobe Reader installed on their system, but anyone can install it, free of charge. When posting a link to a PDF document, just make sure and post a link to download Adobe Reader as well.

If you do not own Adobe’s software for converting Word into PDF, don’t worry! There are many free converters out there. One of my favorites is PrimoPDF.

Most of you have probably heard of the social bookmarking website, Delicious. It is a site where people can bookmark their favorite websites online. When you bookmark a website on Delicious, your bookmark is publicly displayed along with any notes you put.

Websites with more Delicious bookmarks are viewed with a higher esteem by people and search engines. If you go to Delicious and search your domain, you can find out how many people have bookmarked your website.

Of course, a good way to start getting Delicious bookmarks is to bookmark your own website. But, you will need a lot more than just one bookmark if you want to create a good name for yourself. One way to encourage people to bookmark your site is to put a link on your homepage to Delicious. This will allow users to quickly bookmark your website.

There is also a really cool button I’ve found that you can embed on your site for free. It’s called AddThis. AddThis not only gives your viewers a link directly to Delicious, but also to several other social media websites. This gives your viewers an easy way to share your website on Delicious and many others like it.

In the past year, there has been a lot of talk of Microsoft’s search engine, Bing and whether or not it will overtake Yahoo and eventually Google. Microsoft has done a really good job with marketing Bing, and as a result, the new search engine has gained a lot of support.

Website owners should understand that this may alter the way they need to focus their SEO efforts. Up to now, most people have only paid attention to Google and Yahoo when optimizing their website for better ranking. However, if Bing continues to grow, you will need to optimize your website for it as well.

One way to start optimizing your website for a better ranking with Bing would be to sign up for Bing’s Webmaster Tools. Once you are signed up you can submit a sitemap of your site. This will help them find all the pages to your website and index them. However, just like any search engine, the only way to truly improve your ranking dramatically is to get more links pointing to your website.

I don’t really think Bing will overtake Google (at least not in the near future). It may eventually get to be more widely used then Yahoo, but we still have a long way to go before that happens. However, webmaster’s can never be too ready, so start putting your site in good favor with Bing.

Today, as I sat down to write an article, I was struck with a question which I am many times haunted with, “what do I write about?!!” This is a question I doubt any blog writer is free of! So, in today’s post, I’m going to list ten ideas for your blog. I think it will help those writers out there, not to mention it will help give me something to write

   1. Post a Link. If you’re on the go, a really good way to post something fast is to post a link to a website that your readers may find helpful.

   2. Write About Another Blog Article. Take ideas from other posts. It’s even OK to rewrite what another person wrote – just make sure and mention you weren’t the one who came up with it!

    3.  Answer Questions. Do some research, find what people are confused about in your niche and post the answer in your blog. You can even do a survey to find out exactly what your readers are confused about – this leads me to my next idea.

   4.  Take a Survey. Write a post that simply asks your readers a few questions about what they think. This will attract more comments, and give you an idea of where your readers stand.

   5.  Write About Current Events. Keep up with what’s happening in your niche. People love to hear different opinions on what’s hot in the news.

   6.  Post What’s Happening in Your Business. Although you shouldn’t bore your readers with stuff about your company all the time, it’s good to let them know how you’re doing every once in a while.

   7.  Look Into Your Blog Archives. Try digging way back into some of your past articles and see if you can improve them so they’re more relevant.

   8.  Write Something Controversial.  Usually the posts that get the most comments are the ones that are the most controversial!

   9.  Post a _____ vs ______. Compare two products or ideas in a blog article. Give the pros and cons to both so it seems like a competition!

   10.  Write Something with 10. Give an article that lists the 10 best ____ or 10 great ideas

Although we see them a lot on the web, few people actually know what SSL Certificates are. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is a way that website owners can encrypt the information that is transferred from the user to their server.

You have probably, at one time or another, been browsing the web and seen a gold padlock symbol next to the web address. Well, that is a symbol that shows you that the particular site you are viewing is encrypted with SSL. The fact that the web address starts with “https://” instead of “http://” also shows that the website has an SSL Certificate.

While that’s all pretty neat, you are still probably wondering what an SSL Certificate can practically do for your website. Well, if you require users to input information that may be classified as confidential, an SSL Certificate is a very good idea for your site. Generally, the only time you will be receiving input like this is if you run an online store.

It is not illegal to have a shopping cart without an SSL Certificate. However, users may not buy from your site if they don’t see the gold padlock symbol by the address bar in their browser.

If you do have an online store without SSL, you are basically telling hackers, “Hey! Come get my customer’s credit card information!!” I don’t think you want that kind of message to come across!

Usually, you can buy SSL from your hosting company or domain registrar. However, you can also get it from other places. Here are a few good places to get one:

VeriSign
GoDaddy
Thawte

Just like domain names, you pay for SSL Certificates yearly. Prices can range from $30 to over $1,000 a year! Some plans will give your customers more assurance that your site is protected, but they don’t usually provide better protection. So, don’t be fooled, usually the cheapest plan does the same thing as the more expensive one (practically speaking).

While in most cases SSL Certificates are not necessary for your website, there are some times when it is essential to your business!

As more and more Apple products such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are being released without flash support, people, especially developers, are wondering, “will flash die out?” It’s just been speculation for a long time – but now, it’s turning into reality.

W3C is right now working on what they call HTML5. If Apple gets its way (which it probably will) HTML5 will eventually replace Flash.

First of all, maybe I should clarify what Flash and HTML5 actually is. Flash is a plug-in created by Adobe. It basically plays animated content on the web. Flash is also a life-saver for developers like me. It is so much easier to create than HTML5.

HTML5 is meant to create the same-type animated content, but in a different way. HTML5 is really just an “upgrade” from HTML4 (which is the core programming language used in web development). It provides options for developers that HTML4 could never do. Some of these options (including one that allows us to embed a video without using a plug-in) will help us do what up to now, only flash could do.

Although HTML5 still can’t do everything Flash can do, some say that when used in conjunction with JavaScript and CSS (other programming languages), we will no longer need Flash. Is that true? Probably, yes. Does that mean we should dump Flash? Not necessarily.

Remember I wrote that “Flash is a life-saver for developers like me”? Well, the reason, of course, is that Flash is very easy to create with the help of Adobe’s Flash Professional. However, this is not the case with HTML5. In fact, using HTML5 will take many, many more hours to create than Flash did. This means that it will cost a lot more money to get a website built. And, especially in our low economy, that isn’t too good.

Why then, does Apple want to get away from Flash? Well, it has caused a lot of frustration to people with Macs. Windows users, however, do not usually have problems with Flash. I think it could, and should run better on Macs, but Apple doesn’t think so. It’s just ready to get rid of Flash.

I don’t think all is lost for Flash, however. For one thing, Internet Explorer, the most used browser in the world, doesn’t support most of the options in HTML5 (not yet anyway). And, we all know that Flash isn’t about ready to give up! Also, we must remember that HTML5 is still in the beginning stage of development, and may end up dying out before it is completed.

There is still a very good chance, however, that HTML5 will succeed, and destroy the plug-in we have all come to know and love. It may be a good thing to get away from Flash in the end, but it will cause lots of problems in the beginning!

Digg is one of the largest social news websites in the world. It is a place where people can “digg” links to articles, videos, or pictures and comment on them. Submitting your blog articles to Digg can be a great way to publish them on the web.

If people like your article, they can ”digg” it.  The more diggs an article gets, the more popular it is.

Signing up for Digg is free and easy. Once you are signed up, you will be able to Digg articles, and submit new ones!

In today’s society, owning a website is essential to having a successful business.  Don’t believe me?  Here are 10 reasons why:

When you own a website you are…

   1. A Global Company.  When you have a website for your business, you are no longer a local company, you are international!

   2. Likely to Get More Customers.  1 billion people surf the internet. That means that there is a possibility that millions can see your site (if it’s well marketed).

    3.  Open 24/7.  Websites are always open, so people can shop at your store any time of the day and night online!!

   4.  Keeping Up With Your Competitors.  Since most businesses already do have a website, it’s most likely that your competitors do too.

   5.  Saving on Paper/Ink Costs.  If you have a website, you don’t need to send newsletters/promos via the postal service; you can send them via email or just post them on your site!

   6.  Able to Get Your Own Personalized Email.  Instead of having a boring email that is @gmail.com or @yahoo.com, you can create one that is @yourdomain.com!

   7.  Targeting a Younger Audience.  Although many people like to shop online, the younger generation loves shopping online!!

   8.  Able to See What Your Customers Think.  With blogs and product reviews on your website, people can post what they think about your products, this can help you decide on how to improve them.

   9.  Not Spending Much for Web Presence.  Websites are really cheap these days. You can get hosting for $10 a month and a domain for only $10 a year!!

   10.  A Company That Has a Better Image.  It used to be a very prestigious thing to own a website. Now, it is so normal, that your company doesn’t have a good image if you don’t own a website.

If you are interested in getting someone to create a website for your business, contact me at: tim@prorarity.com. I charge $12 an hour. Also, don’t forget to visit my web design website for more information.

With the release of the Apple iPad nearing, web designers all across the country are asking the same question: “will the iPad change the way we build websites?” Perhaps the first question that must be asked is, “will the iPad become popular among consumers, or will it simply die out?” These are some tough questions, and we will have to wait to find the answers.

For those of you that don’t know, the iPad is basically a larger version of the iPod Touch. Apple is saying that the iPad will be a device that provides the best web browsing experience. So, if consumers agree and the iPad is a revolution, websites will probably start changing to conform to this new device.

Up to now, buttons that change when your mouse hovers over them have been very popular, but since the iPad is a touch screen, users won’t be able to hover over an object without clicking it. This means web developers will have to find new ways to make a website seem interactive without using hover effects.

Buttons on the web will also probably become bigger because fingers are bigger than cursors and it will be harder to press small buttons on the iPad. Websites will also probably work with smaller resolutions because the iPad’s screen is rather small.

Another thing must be considered, the iPad doesn’t support flash!! Since flash is growing at a rapid pace, I don’t think it very likely that developers will do without flash just because of the iPad. I think that in order for the iPad to become popular as a web browsing device, Apple will have to give it flash support.

We don’t really know what the future in web development holds; we just know that it probably holds a lot!!

We generally think of email promos as annoying “junk mail” that is constantly bombarding our inboxes. However, business owners can use email marketing to their advantage. Putting a simple form on your website that allows people to sign up for email promos is a very good idea if you want to market your product.

People do read email newsletters/promos if it seems interesting enough. If you allow people to sign up for your emails when they want to and don’t buy/steal their email addresses, they will be more inclined to look at your emails.

When sending email promos, don’t just pack a bunch of ads into it, give free tips that can practically help your reader. People are constantly seeing ads, but they will pay more attention when they see something that can actually help them.

Maybe you don’t have the ability to generate nice-looking HTML emails with colors and images – that’s OK! You can make emails with plain text look good too.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A LOT OF TIMES PEOPLE WILL SURROUND BLOCKS OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION WITH A BUNCH OF +, ~, `, =, OR ^ SYMBOLS FOR EMPHASIS. MAKING LETTERS ALL CAPS ALSO HELPS DRAW ATTENTION WHEN WRITING EMAIL PROMOS.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Usually, people will only read the subject line before deciding whether to delete an email promo or not. This means you must make you subjects very catchy. Instead of putting an ad in the subject (ie, “Get Our New Cookbook for Half the Original Price”), describe the free tip you have put in the email (ie, “Learn the Trick to Keep from Burning Cookies in the Oven”).

If you are interested in getting someone to create professional HTML email templates for your business, contact me at: tim@prorarity.com. I charge $12 an hour. Also, don’t forget to visit my web design website for more information.

As a blog writer, it’s so easy for me to get caught in the trap where I just write so search engines will rank my site higher. Although writing blog articles does help your website’s ranking with Google, don’t make that your primary purpose for writing.

A lot of business owners understand that keeping up a blog helps your website’s ranking – and they are right. But, many times people write blog articles with search engines as the only reader in mind! So, they are tempted with making their blog articles rather sloppy.

Try not to get caught up in doing this. Even if you don’t feel like too many people are reading your articles, by making your articles sloppy ensures that no one will ever want to read them. If no one ever wants to read your articles, no one will comment or digg them. If Google notices that none of your articles have any diggs or comments, it may catch on to what you are doing!

Also, be encouraged, just because you don’t have a big response right away doesn’t mean that no one is reading your blog. You would probably be surprised at how many people are actually reading your articles and learning from them.

While the cookies to your left do look good, unfortunately they are not the topic of this article:( Today I would like to explain browser cookies.

When speaking in terms of the internet, cookies are small text files stored on your hard drive by sites you’ve visited in the past few weeks. The actual text files contain a mere gibberish of code; however, these little pieces of gibberish can be very helpful to the web surfer!

Have you ever been filling out a long form on a website, and somehow your browser window was closed just before you were going to submit the information? Well, you were probably getting ready to type all the information out all over again, huh? Well, on a rare occasion, that website will have used cookies, and all your information would have been saved!!

Cookies are also used to save login information on a website. That way you don’t have to give your password every time you access your email.

To use cookies on your website involves the use of a script on your site. If you’re interested in using cookies for your website, contact me. I charge $12 an hour and would be glad to work with you! Just email me at: tim@prorarity.com or visit my web design website for more information.

Many people think of marketing as getting your name out there through TV/radio ads, email promotions, billboards, etc. Although this is definitely marketing, it is not necessarily the best way to market. If you advertise in this way you have merely used outbound marketing to get your name out there. These methods of marketing are not only very expensive, they are also becoming less and less effective. Why do I say this? Well, when you go the route of “throwing” ads in people’s faces, they will simply dodge them. Think about it, most people simply ignore TV/radio ads and billboards. They post email promotions as spam and block you from sending them again.

What then is the alternative? Well, I suggest inbound marketing. This is where you use search engines to get your name out there. If you work hard at getting a good ranking on search engines, people will find you when they want your product. Using SEO to market is also free! More work? Yes. But, it is free.

To get ranking on search engines requires lots of links to your site. Asking related websites to exchange links with you, starting a blog, and getting on social media are some of the many ways to improve your ranking.

FTP clients run as programs on your computer. They are used to access your remotely hosted server. Web developers use FTP clients to publish their designs to the web. I’ve made up a list of my top favorite ones:

   10. Core FTP is a very simple program with a powerful interface. It retails for $25.

   9.  FTP Rush is a decent FTP client. It provides you with all the necessary features for basic file transfer. It  also provides you with a good looking interface. FTP Rush retails for $33.

   8.  FlashFXP works well on any Windows computer. It supports multiple languages and includes a simple internal text editor. FlashFXP retails for $25.

   7.  CuteFTP works well and provides basic features for file transfer. Although the lite addition is not much to talk of, you can pay more for better versions with some really advanced features. CuteFTP Lite retails for $25.

   6.  FireFTP works as an add-on to the FireFox web browser. It does, however, still allow you to brows the web while uploading. The best part of FireFTP is simply that it’s free!!

   5.  Cyberduck is one of the fewer FTP clients exclusively for Macs. It has a very nice interface and is quite easy to use. Cyberduck is also free!!

   4.  WinSCP is a Windows-based program with an internal text editor. But, again, the biggy is that it’s free!!

   3.  FileZilla is one of the most popular FTP clients. A lot of people use it and a lot of people like it. Although it seems pretty simple at first, FileZilla has a very powerful and feature-rich platform. It also has a decent looking interface. FileZilla is also free!!

   2.  Transmit is another FTP client only for Macs. Although not free, it’s a very powerful client with tons of features! Transmit even integrates with iWeb. It retails for $30.

   1.  SmartFTP is the best FTP client that I’ve used. The interface is very good looking and feature-rich. You can even schedule uploads and downloads! SmartFTP retails at $37.

Although you probably don’t agree on the ranking I gave each client, I hope you find this list helpful. Also, feel free to post a comment and tell which FTP client you like best.

Google uses a complicated method to determine the ranking of a given website. The ranking Google gives is commonly referred to as PageRank.

Since the mathematical details of how Google determines your PageRank is very hard to understand, I won’t go over all the details. I will, however, try to give you a general overview of how PageRank works.

Your PageRank is a number between one and ten (ten being the best ranking). PageRank is not calculated for an entire site; it is calculated for individual pages. Your homepage may not have as good of a ranking as some of your other pages do. Because there are so many pages on the web, very few pages actually have a PageRank of ten.

PageRank is calculated based on the links pointing to your site. The idea behind it is, “if I click a random link anywhere on the web, what are the chances I will end up on this particular page?” So, obviously the way to increase those chances is to get more links pointing to your webpage.

However, Google also considers the PageRank of the pages that are linking to you. So, if you are being linked to from two pages, one has a PageRank of five and the other has a PageRank of seven, the one with a PageRank of seven will be treated as a more valuable link by Google.

Google also pays attention to the amount of other links on a page linking to you. If the page linking to you has twenty other links pointing to other sites, your link from that page won’t be as valuable. But, if there is only one other link on the page linking to you, Google will treat the link you get from that page with more value.

So, just the number of links pointing to your site is not the only thing involved in determining your PageRank. Google pays attention to the quality of each link. So, if you have twenty links pointing to your page, Google may rank your webpage the same as a page with only three high-quality links.

If you are interesting in finding your current PageRank, check out PR Checker.info. PR Checker.info tells you what you PageRank is for free!

In the last post I went over the details of how to get a shopping cart that’s hosted on your own site. Today, I want to show you the possibility of getting a remotely hosted shopping cart.

So what is a remotely hosted shopping cart? It is simply a shopping cart that’s hosted on someone else’s server. For those of you who are not very computer-savvy and don’t want to hire someone to set up your shopping cart, a remotely hosted shopping cart is probably better.

Generally, getting a shopping cart on a remotely hosted server is more expensive. But, if the shopping cart is not on your server, you will not have to pay for an SSL certificate or a payment gateway.

Personally, I think a shopping cart on your own server is better and more professional, plus you have full access to your cart and can customize it exactly the way you want. But, if you are just starting out, and don’t want to deal with all the work involved in hosting it yourself, remotely hosted carts may be best.

Some remotely hosted stores are free, but they usually do not have near as many features as the ones you can pay for. Here are a few options you may want to look into:

AAcart.com
eCrater (FREE)
Etsy
GoEmerchant
PayPal

Shopping carts are getting to be very popular on the web. In fact, recently one of the most asked questions I’ve gotten is “can you build me a shopping cart?” Well, to answer the question, yes I can! There are several steps that are required to get a shopping cart on your site. I would like to go over them in this article.

The first step involves setting up a shopping cart program and customizing it to fit your needs. To do this, you must find a shopping cart software program. This will be what holds your online store together and keeps your products organized. I generally use OpenCart for my clients. There are other programs I can use as well though. Here are a few free options:

OpenCart
PrestaShop
ZenCart
osCommerce

After you get a program like one of these on your site, you will need to customize it to fit your needs. When you download any one of these shopping carts, you will be given a default template that has some sample products. You will need to customize this to look just the way you like it.

On all four of these programs, there is an administrator section that only you can access. This section is where you can add products, customize shipping rates, change credit card options, etc.

Once you have all that set up the way you like it, you must get a gateway. A gateway is a service you can sign up for and put on your shopping cart software settings. The purpose of a gateway is to let you accept credit cards online. Generally, a gateway does not charge a monthly fee, only a percentage of your earnings (usually no more than 3%). Here are a couple good gateways to use:

PayPal
Charge.com
Authorize.net

After you get set up with a gateway, you must get an SSL Certificate for your site. An SSL Certificate will simply block anyone from hacking credit card information from a buyer. You can usually get an SSL certificate from the same place you get hosting, and it generally only costs about $50 a year.

If you are interested in getting a shopping cart for your online business, please contact me. I can help you get an eCommerce business for a low price. Email me if you’re interested: tim@prorarity.com or visit my web design website for more information.

Have you ever wanted to see what your website’s ranking is for a certain keyword without searching through every major search engine manually? Well, I know I have!! It turns out that knowing what your ranking is can be quite important. It’s good to know how you’re doing with ranking on search engines and for which keywords you still need to work on. Well, after a lot of digging I found a program that works inside of Firefox called Rank Checker.

Rank Checker tells you if you are in the top 100 ranking of all the major search engines and if you are, it tells you what position you’re in for each one. The program is very simple and has no bells or whistles – but it does the job!

All you have to do is sign up for SEO Tools. It’s free to sign up, and when you do, you get Rank Checker free! As stated, the program works within Firefox, so you will have to have that browser installed as well. I hope you find this program to be as helpful as I did.

When I first started a blog for my business, a question that came to my head was “how often should I post a new article?” I think this is a very common question among business owners. Although it doesn’t seem too important, it is extremely important!!

Usually when people start a blog they post new articles as they find the time. Although this seems reasonable, it is not a good way to handle your blog. The most important thing you must understand is that consistency is the key. Even if you don’t post articles very often, make sure you set up a schedule of when to post articles and stick to it. People and search engines hate it when you are inconsistent with your posting.

With that out of the way, let me address the real question: “how often should I post a new article?” The answer may vary depending on the size of your company and the amount of time you have. For instance, if you are a large company with many writers, updating your blog a few times a day is good. If you are a smaller, one-man business, then once or twice a week will do. The real question that you should ask yourself is “how often do I want people to visit my blog?” Of course, usually the answer is “as often as possible!” However, most people don’t have time to update their blog daily. So, it’s a good idea to set up a schedule for updating yours as often as you can. I would recommend posting a new article at least once a week. Again, make sure you are consistent with your posting – that’s the most important part.

Social media is a wonderful tool that many are using to help market their business. There are a few social media websites that are extremely important to search engines; Twitter is one.

Twitter, unlike most social media, is a micro-blogging site, which means you can’t post more than two or three sentences at a time. So, generally businesses will just post links to their blog articles. If you want to market your site, Twitter is a necessity. If you have a blog (and you should) start taking a few extra seconds to get on Twitter and post links to your articles. Go ahead, sign up and start posting!

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It has to do with the process of marketing your website on search engines. SEO is not paying for links to go on the top and side of search results in Google. Although this may help “market” your site, it doesn’t use strategies to make your site get a higher ranking.

So what are these “strategies” that give ranking to your site? Well, they can be broken up into two basic categories – on page SEO and off page SEO. Off page SEO is much more important than on page.

On page SEO has to do with the amount of keywords on your site for which you want ranking. For example, if you want your site to rank high for the keyword “web design” your site should contain that keyword throughout its text.

As stated, off page SEO is much more important than on page. Off page SEO deals with the links pointing to your site. Even if you have terrible on page SEO, if you have a lot of links pointing to your site, you can still get good ranking.

While you shouldn’t forget about on page SEO, off page is much more important to Google and most other search engines. When building your site, I try to focus primarily on giving you a good looking page. But, the second priority I make is to help maintain keyword-rich content on your site. After getting your site online, I make it a priority to help you get as many links as possible.

If you’re interested in getting me to help you design a website or just optimize it for search engines, please contact me. You can email me at: tim@prorarity.com or visit my web design website.

Ever wanted to find out who is viewing your site and when? Knowing who is visiting your site is more important than you may think. It tells you how well you’re doing with SEO. And when you make changes to your site, you can see which changes helped get more traffic and which ones didn’t.

Although you can pay to get information like this, Google offers a free service that does just that! It’s called Google Analytics and it gives all the information you need regarding analytics for your site.

With Google Analytics you can see who’s visiting your site, when they visit, from what country they visit, and to what pages they enter. You can also find information on the links people clicked to get to your site.

To get analytics on your site, you simply need to sign up and you will be given a code to embed on your website/blog pages. That’s it; now you will always know who’s visiting your site!

For those of you who do not know, flash is not the light you have on your camera! Flash is a component many people put on their websites. Think of it as an interactive video. You can set it up to play videos, slide shows, pictures, etc. But you can also add links and buttons to make it more interactive, and less like a plain old video. To see flash in action, visit my web design website and notice the moving slide on the right side of the page – that’s flash.

Many people like flash because it looks cool. In fact, there are many websites that are entirely flash! But, from an SEO perspective, flash is a bad idea. As a designer and a search engine optimizer, I’d like to show you some of the pros and cons of putting flash on your website.

First, let me give you the cons. Search engines cannot read flash. This means they don’t know what the flash on your site is really saying. Since they can’t see this, they don’t know how to rank your site, so generally, you will just get an overall low ranking. I would like to preface that statement by saying that just putting a little flash here and there on your site may not be too bad; the problem of low ranking usually comes in if the majority of your site is flash. Most mobile phones cannot read flash either. This means that people that are viewing from cell phones will not see any flash content on your site. Since the internet is getting more and more popular on mobile phones, this may cause a problem – especially if you are targeting younger audiences.

Now, let me go over the pros. Flash, as I already stated, looks cool, and people are more attracted to your site when they see it. You can play cool sound effects when people hover over images, or click buttons. Effects like these are vital if you want people to revisit your site. If you have high ranking on search engines, but your site isn’t eye-catching, you haven’t accomplished much. Flash is one of the best ways to achieve this eye-catching look and feel people want.

So, in the end, flash is vital for potential customers to be attracted to your site, but it is also bad for people using mobile phones and search engines. To be honest, although having real text on your site is important, Google is most concerned with the amount of links pointing to your site. So, if you have lots of links to your site (and you should) then you can get away with more flash content. Really, this is your decision to make; I can only state the facts. While you may not want too much, it’s probably best to at least put some flash on your site.

If you are interested in hiring me to help you get some flash for your website, send me an email at: tim@prorarity.com. You can also visit my web design website for more information.

The way to rank high on search engines has, and always will be through the links pointing to your website. The more links you have that point to your website, the better ranking you will get. Not only links to your site, but links with the anchor text reflecting the keywords you want to rank for. For instance, you can post a link to my website: http://www.prorarity.com/ but, when you post a link to my site that merely looks like the one showed above, search engines will not really know what keyword(s) to rank my site for. In order to show this to search engines, you must make a link like this: Web Design. The link still points to my site, but it doesn’t say “http://www.prorarity.com”, it says “Web Design.” This tells search engines that my website must have something to do with web design, so they will give me higher ranking for that keyword.

That’s really cool, but the real problem is actually getting more links to your site! How do you do this? Well, there are many ways that I have tried to explain in past articles, but one of the main ones is link exchange. Link exchange is when one finds another site that may be related to his/her site, and asks them to post a link to his/her site with the anchor text he/she desires. In exchange for this, he/she will post a link to the site in question with its desired anchor text.

One thing you will need to watch out for is places that offer automatic link exchange. These places, while they may have proper motives, usually attract spam. Google does not like seeing your site’s link on spam websites, and visa versa. So, I would not recommend using automatic link exchange.

The best way to do link exchange is on your own. I mean actually searching for good sites to link to, and start sending emails, asking for links. Though it’s more time consuming, it’s much better! You may not want to link to direct competitors, but you will probably want to link to companies that are related to yours in some way. Though you can link to companies unique to yours, it’s always better to provide your internet viewers with more helpful links that will apply to them.

Yes, it will take lots of time and energy, but it is absolutely necessary to get lots of links to your site – that is, if you want high ranking.

Getting your business on social media sites has always been important. And now, with Google Caffeine’s release just starting to take effect, social media is more important than ever! But, believe it or not, some social media sites are more important than others. You guessed it…Facebook is one of the important ones!

Why is putting your face on some social media site going to help your business?!! Well, personally getting on Facebook, or any social media for that matter, will not help your business. But, after getting an account with Facebook, members will have the option to create their very own fan page. What is this? A fan page is like a special page on Facebook for businesses/organizations. Members can become a fan of such pages, and when they do they will see whatever you post to your page. The more fans a given page has, the more popular and more Google friendly it will be. Creating a fan page is easy to do, and it will pay off! You may never use your personal Facebook account, but you will be able to advertise your business through a fan page.

Although you may not get any business from your fans, Google will see your page. If Google sees your page, it will also see any links you post to your website. When Google sees these links to your site, your ranking will get higher! So, please understand, although you may not get positive feedback from anybody on Facebook, your ranking on Google will grow.