Tumblr is set to become the blogging tool of 2010 with its massive growth, yet still many people don’t fully understand what Tumblr does, or how it works. If you’ve ever tried to start a blog, but found yourself struggling to find the time, Tumblr is something you’re definitely going to want to take a look at.

What is tumblr?

Put simply, Tumblr is a service that does exactly what Wordpress does for blogging, but for microblogging, or tumbleblog’s instead. To fully understand what Tumblr does, you first need to understand what these so-called tumbleblog’s actually are.

A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumbleblogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author’s creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary. – Wikipedia

What does this mean? Well basically, Tumblr fills the gap between Twitter, where people tweet resources, images, and thoughts, and traditional blogging platforms, like Wordpress where each post is a proper article. Instead, Tumblr works with seven types of post; text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video, and it handles them all very well.

Why is Tumblr becoming increasingly popular?

According to Tumblr statistic’s, in the last six months, Tumblr has grown from around 300M monthly page views, to over 1 Billion in February 2010; a massive growth for any product, and it speaks for itself really. A product doesn’t grow at such a rapid rate, if people aren’t enjoying using it.

Easy to update

The biggest reason behind Tumblr’s growing support, is it’s vast number of social features, and it’s ease of use. For a start, Tumblr make it extremely offer for you to post to your blog, even if you can’t access your homepage yourself. Here are some of the clever ways Tumblr makes it possible for you to update your tumbleblog:

• Text your blog updates from any mobile phone
• Email your updates via one of the most sophisticated email publishing platform available.
• A Bookmarklet allows you to post anything and everything you come across while browsing the web.
• Post via AIM by messaging TumblrBot.
• Phone your TumblrBlog, and leave voice posts.
• Automatically post from any other site or profile.
• Use the official Tumblr iPhone app to easily update your blog.
• Third Party App’s expand your options even further.

3rd Party Applications

As well as the fantastic free iPhone app that is available officially from Tumblr, you also have access to a multitude of applications for the iPhone, Web, Desktop’s, Mobile’s, Widget’s and Browser’s. They are all filed away tidily in an official Tumblr app directory.

Social Network Integration

Definitely high up on the list of reasons for Tumblr’s acceptance has been its solid two-way integration with other social media, and networking services. Part of its automatic posting from other sites come from major names such as Digg, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, but it doesn’t stop there. As well as having the ability to automatically pull in your content live from these sites, you can also send information back. Facebook is a prime example with its ability to show your activity on Tumblr on your Facebook wall, keeping all your friends up to date with what your blogging and activity.

Other notable features

Other than those already mentioned, Tumblr also focus’ on those important, but small things that you need.

• Easily add any analytics tracking code you want to your tumbleblog
• Tubmlr is optimised for Google in everything from the site slugs, to the sitemap
• Built in privacy allows you to restrict specific posts, or your whole blog to certain people
• The ability to use your own custom domains on your tumbleblog
• FeedBurner support allows you to see important RSS feed stats
• It’s free, and you don’t need to pay for hosting, or storage!
• You have the ability to create your own custom theme.

What is the backend of Tumblr like?

First off, Tumblr wouldn’t be where it was if it wasn’t for its easy to use backend user interface. The interface is split into two sections; the dashboard, where your’s and other peoples content meet you, and customisation, where you control all sorts of aspects of your tumbleblog.

Dashboard

Posting any of the seven different type’s of content from your dashboard is a breeze, with visual buttons, and a clean design. The backend goes on to keep you up-to-date with all the Tumbleblogs you are following, in a very Twitter like manner, keeping it clean and easy to read. For a look at how the dashboard looks, click on the image below.

Customisation

Customisation though, is a whole different kettle of fish. It is basically a dummy page of your current theme, with one default entry in each of the seven post categories. A menu bar at the top of the page allows you to make many important, and useful changes and decisions that affect your tumbleblog.

The menu provides a multitude of options;

• Info - This allows you to specify the basic information of your blog; things like your blog title, description, and avatar picture. The notable option here though, is the ability to change your tumbleblog url instantly, or even use your own personal domain allowing you to use a domain without the tumblr.com suffix.
• Theme – This menu item is fairly self-explanatory; it allows you to select a theme from Tumblr’s “theme garden” to use for your blog. There are over 300 of them, all for free, some of which are of an impressive quality. As well as using a premade theme though, you are given the option to use “custom html”, another way of saying your own custom-made theme, something we will go through in great detail at a later date.
• Appearance – This allows you to make quick changes to your current theme. Not every theme has appearance options, but the default Tumblr theme certainly does, and allows you to change things such as font’s, colour’s, and background images without touching any code; anther thing that makes Tumblr so popular for those that are not so comfortable delving into code.
• Pages – This allows you to create static pages, much like other blogging platforms such as wordpress. Pages come in three categories; Standard Layout, Custom Layout, and Redirect.
• Services – Already I have mentioned the great amount of social networking integration that Tumblr has, as well as its integration with other web services such as YouTube and Feedburner. Services allows you to pick and choose which of these services you want to use, and lets you connect all your accounts up.
• Community – This allows you to add, as the title dictates, a community element to your blog. There are to ways to do this. One is the creation of a page that allows your readers to ask you questions, and the other allows your users to contribute their own posts to your submission queue for approval by you.
• Advanced – The final menu item features further options for your blog that don’t really fit into the other categories. These are things like your timezone, url slug structure, privacy options, post’s per page, and so on.

As you change these options, especially your theme options, the dummy page below changes to mirror the choices you have made, allowing you to check how your blog will look, as you work.

Conclusion

Tumblr is a fantastic piece of kit, filling in that gap in the market between products such as wordpress that provide full blogs, social networking such as facebook, and status updating from Twitter, and it does it extremely well.  Tumblr is honestly a pleasure to work with. Simplicity makes the user interface effect and easy to use, and you never feel like there isn’t anything important missing, or out of your control. It makes blogging and sharing things you find on the internet a breeze, and most importantly, unlike Twitter, it does so visually. If you find yourself failing to keep a full blog up-to-date, and enjoy sharing the things you find, the there’s no easier way to do so than Tumblr, so give it a go.

Keep an eye here at 1stwebdesigner for more on Tumblr!

For those that do choose to start using Tumblr, or already do, then keep an eye here, because coming up are several articles that will increase your happiness with Tumblr, such as a roundup of fantastic themes, and more importantly learning how to create your own custom theme! For now, check out these 5 impressive tumbleblogs for inspiration to see what Tumblr is truly capable of.

Metalab

It’s the interwebs

Mark Jardine

Tmblg

Name that film

Hope you enjoyed this post – keep coming back for more!

Looking for a place to create a free website?  There are plenty of resources that allow you to create you own website, blog, wiki, or social community without having to know any programming language.  These free website creation sites allow you to easily create a site, customize the design, add content, and use a custom URL.

Take a look at 45 best web builders to create a free website.

Google Sites

Hey its Google and they are letting you create a free site….so do it.  As usual, Google makes it extremely easy to build a free website with cool integration features like Google Docs, Google Calendar, and RSS.

Windows Live Spaces

Webs

Google Knol

Google Knol came out about 2 years ago and even though it has not gotten the same praise as Wikipedia, it is still a valuable resource that you should take advantage of.  Free easy to create your own free knol and help position yourself as an industry leader.

Jimdo

Jimdo is a new free website builder that is very clean and easy to use.  As you can see in the screen-shot you can create your own url and add text, photos, and custom design.

AngelFire

Edicy

Squidoo

One of my favorite places to create a free webpage is Squidoo.  Not only do these pages tend to rank well in the search engines, but you can monetize them by adding amazon affiliate products and links, share easily through Facebook and Tweetmeme buttons and much more.

Yola

Tripod

Wetpaint

Wetpaint is the place to go to create your own free wiki in a matter of minutes.  Similar to the other website builders out there, however like a wiki anyone can add, edit, and remove content from the page.

WikiSpaces

Blogsome

Weebly

Wix

I personally don’t have a lot of experience with Wix, but it seems like a very neat way to create free flash websites.  They have separated themselves from the rest, since most of the free site builders only let you create html pages.  Would love to hear from anyone that has used Wix.

Hubpages

Hubpages is very similar to Squidoo, in the fact that you can build free pages and they tend to rank very well in search engines.  You can also make money by adding affiliate products, links and adsense in your hub.  It has all of the cool features that you would need including adding images, videos, ratings and reviews, and the ability to comment.

Piczo

Webnode

Moonfruit

Let’s Eat

For anyone in the restaurant industry, Let’s Eat is for you. Let’s Eat lets you create your own restaurant website where you can add information about your restaurant, menu, hours, location, and more.

Sauropol

GoGoFrog

Launch Splash

Nexo

Roxer

Viviti

Ever

DevHub

SnapPages

SnapPages is the easy drag and drop website creation service.  No need to know css to position your site!

350

WebStarts

BlinkWeb

Thoughts

ClutterMe

DoTemplate

ComfyPages

Moogo

GetShopped

Groupie Guide

Hyper Web Enable

Notanent

Blogetery

Blogster

Flooha

FreeWeb

We have tired our best to include all the great services which allows you to build free websites. Don’t forget to give your thoughts about the article via comments section or tweet us at @1stwebdesigner . We always love our readers feedback.

Twitter is growing and growing – if you’ve been living in ice age, then maybe you don’t know about this popular trend. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social networks and that’s why we will do series here to help you get better there. We are starting with huge post where we selected the most interesting and active bloggers and designers you should enjoy following.

We are sorry about ones we didn’t include, but hey, here is a quick thought –  add your twitter names in comments with description why people should follow you! Just hope you enjoy this article and we all can leverage from great new friends to talk with!

1. @1stwebdesigner (Dainis Graveris)

Website: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/

Of course, shameless self promotion!

Web-designer, who decided to dedicate his life to design few years ago. Now living happily ever after! Add him if you are web design fan!

2. @smalonedesign (Stephanie Malone)

Website: http://www.smalonedesign.com/

Graphic Artist. Creative Director. Skilled Copywriter. Design Diva.

3. @ronicadesign (Veronica Domeier)

Website: http://www.ronicasdesign.com/

Freelance designer of print & web. Photographer, adventurer, Apple fan.

4. @r27 (Rajesh Pancholi)

Website: http://www.r27.co.uk/

R27.CREATIVELAB. Design & Visual Communications.

5. @nicholaspatten (Nicholas Patten)

Website: http://www.nicholaspatten.com/

Video Editor, Graphic/Web Designer.

6. @mlane (Mike Lane)

Website: http://mlane.net/

Senior UX Designer near Minneapolis, MN with 15 years experience in creative Web and Graphic Design.

7. @Minervity (Richard Darell)

Website: http://www.minervity.com/

Web/Graphic Designer/Developer.

8. @mayhemstudios (Calvin Lee)

Website: http://mayhemstudios.com/

Self-Proclaimed Media Ho, Designer Guy and Twitter Addict.

9. @logocritiques (Erik Peterson)

Website: http://www.logocritiques.com/

Logo Critiques blogger, Graphic designer, Web designer.

10. @justcreative (Jacob Cass)

Website: http://justcreativedesign.com/

Graphic Designer, Logo Designer, Web Designer, Blogger, Creative Thinker, Social Media Nut, Freelancer, Link Sharer.

11. @jasonsantamaria (Jason Santa Maria)

Website: http://jasonsantamaria.com/

Designer by day, designer by night.

12. @gracesmith (Grace Smith)

Website: http://postscript5.co.uk/twitter.htm

A 26 year old Freelance Web and Graphic Designer in love with web standards and social media. An unashamed Apple Fangirl.

13. @chrisspooner (Chris Spooner)

Website: http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/

A creative Designer, avid Blogger.

14. @bongobrian (Brian Paulowicz)

Website: http://pauloworks.carbonmade.com/

Web Designer, Graphic Artist.

15. @bartelme (Wolfgang Bartelme)

Website: http://bartelme.at/

User interface graphic designer from Austria.

16. @artistech (Artistech Newmedia)

Website: http://www.artistechnewmedia.com/

Dynamic Design & Production for the Web, Print and Video based in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

17. @anthonywoods (Silver-Solutions)

Website: http://www.silver-solutions.co.uk/

Web and Software Application Developer / Web Designer.

18. @AndrewKelsall (Andrew Kelsall)

Website: http://andrewkelsall.com/

Graphic Designer, Creative, Logo, Print and Web Design, Wordpresser, Tech-head, Blogger and Mac user.

19. @abduzeedo (Fabio Sasso)

Website: http://www.abduzeedo.com/

Graphic/web designer and blogger.

20. @bittbox (Jay Hilgert)

Website: http://www.bittbox.com/

Business Owner, Designer, Blogger, Web-enthusiast.

21. @bluewavemedia (Kimberly Beaven)

Website: http://www.bluewavemedia.ca/

Web, development, marketing and media firm.

22. @boagworld (Paul Boag)

Website: http://boagworld.com/

Founder of web design agency Headscape, host of the boagworld web design podcast and author of the website owners manual.

23. @bokardo (Joshua Porter)

Website: http://bokardo.com/

Founder of Bokardo Design, a design consultancy focusing exclusively on social web applications.

24. @cameronolivier (Cam Olivier)

Website: http://www.cameronolivier.com/

A designer/developer at theClassifieds.co.za

25. @ChadEngle (Chad Engle)

Website: http://fuelyourcreativity.com/

Graphic Designer, Editor at FuelYourCreativity.

26. @chriscoyier (Chris Coyier)

Website: http://css-tricks.com/

Web designer.

27. @cjgraphix (Collin Robinson)

Website: http://www.cjgraphix.com/

Freelance web designer and developer.

28. @clagnut (Richard Rutter)

Website: http://clagnut.com/

A web site producer living in Brighton.

29. @corePHP (Zen Penguin)

Website: http://www.corephp.com/

Professional Web Development & Graphic Design.

30. @cssglobe (Alen Grakalic)

Website: http://cssglobe.com/

Web designer and developer.

31. @davidlano (David Lano)

Website: http://www.davidlano.com/

Web Developer, Blogger.

32. @DesignerDepot (Webdesigner Depot)

Website: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/

Webdesigner Depot is one of the most popular blogs about web design trends, tutorials and much more. It’s run by Walter Apai, a web designer from Vancouver.

33. @designshard (Max Stanworth)

Website: http://www.designshard.com/

Lover of Typography, Web Design, CSS, XHTML , Illustration.

34. @DesiznTech (Kawsar Ali)

Website: http://desizntech.info/

A web designer who also likes blogging.

35. @dustinbrewer (Dustin Brewer)

Website: http://dustinbrewer.com/

Freelance web designer.

36. @idesignstudios (Selene M. Bowlby)

Website: http://www.idesignstudios.com/blog/

Web Designer and Front-End Web Developer. Specializing in creating Custom WordPress Themes.

37. @jophillips (Jon Phillips)

Website: http://spyrestudios.com/

Designer.

38. @leonfernandes (Leon Fernandes)

Website: http://www.leonfernandes.com.au/blog/

Freelance Web Designer Specialising in Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing.

39. @Othella (Amélie Husson)

Website: http://www.vitali-software.com/blog/

26 years old French girl living in Germany, freelancer, wordpress guru, web designer, internet geek, Mac user, crazy about ITs, books.

40. @RussAdams (Russ Adams)

Website: http://webdesign.fm/

Web design blogger at WebDesign.fm.

41. @sethjenks (Seth Jenks)

Website: http://sethjenks.com/

Student of marketing, design, and SEO who is working to make an impact on the world.

42. @sh3n3rd (Mitsi McKee)

Website: http://www.rockfishinteractive.com/

Web Designer – Rockfish Interactive, Founder – Evil Tomato Media.

43. @simonashley (Simon Ashley)

Website: http://www.gotripod.com/

A web designer and developer, systems architect, new media scientist, technologist, web entrepreneur, amateur quantum enthusiast and coffee aficionado.

44. @tonychester (Tony Chester)

Website: http://onwired.com/

Owner of OnWired. A progressive web design and development firm in North Carolina. Also running YourWebJob.com and PleaseCritiqueMe.com.

45. @veen (Jeffrey Veen)

Website: http://veen.com/jeff/

Founder.

46. @Aisleone (Antonio Carusone)

Website: http://www.aisleone.net/

A graphic designer.

47. @arronlock (Arron Lock)

Website: http://www.brightasblack.com/

Dedicated graphic designer.

48. @behoff (Brian Hoff)

Website: http://www.thedesigncubicle.com/

Graphic designer.

49. @digitalmash (Rob Morris)

Website: http://digitalmash.com/

Product designer at HiiDef Inc.

50. @imjustcreative (Graham Smith)

Website: http://imjustcreative.com/

Freelance logo and brand identity designer. Iconic, typographic and minimalist tendencies. 25 years experience.

51. @jasonwalz (Jason Walz)

Website: http://mzltd.com/

Art Director, Graphic / Web Designer, Video Editor.

52. @snookca (Snook)

Website: http://snook.ca/

A creator of striking designs, impeccable markup and code, and forward-thinking ideas and applications.

53. @vpieters (Veerle Pieters)

Website: http://veerle.duoh.com/

A graphic/web designer living in Belgium.

54. @meyerweb (Eric A. Meyer)

Website: http://meyerweb.com/

CSS and HTML expert.

55. @pearsonified (pearsonified)

Website: http://www.pearsonified.com/

A Web developer who specializes in building detailed, robust WordPress themes.

56. @collis (Collis) Website: http://envato.com/

Working at Envato where he helps making awesome websites!

57. @bleikamp (Ben Bleikamp)

Website: http://www.bleikamp.com/

An interaction designer and product manager.

58. @DavidAirey (David Airey)

Website: http://www.davidairey.com/

Graphic designer.

59. @problogdesign (Michael Martin)

Website: http://www.problogdesign.com/

Web designer, specialising in blog design.

60. @michaelcastilla (Michael Castilla)

Website: http://wpcoder.com/

Owner of WPCoder.com.

61. @redwall_hp (Matt Harzewski)

Website: http://www.webmaster-source.com/

Blogger, web designer, writer.

62. @arthurbrownjr (Arthur Brown Jr.)

Website: http://www.arthurbrownjr.com/

A web designer and marketing communications professional focused on creating the best online and offline experiences possible. Building engaging websites.

63. @zeldman (Jeffrey Zeldman)

Website: http://www.zeldman.com/

Author, Designing With Web Standards 3rd Ed., zeldman.com. Founder, Happy Cog studio. Publisher, A List Apart magazine. Co-founder, An Event Apart conference.

64. @randaclay (randaclay)

Website: http://randaclay.com/

Freelance designer.

65. @cameronmoll (Cameron Moll)

Website: http://cameronmoll.com/

Designer, Speaker, Author.

66. @andybudd (Andy Budd)

Website: http://www.andybudd.com/

User Experience Designer, partner at @clearleft and curator of @dconstruct and @uxlondon.

67. @simplebits (Dan Cederholm)

Website: http://simplebits.com/

A designer, author, speaker. Founder and Principal of SimpleBits.

68. @danbenjamin (Dan Benjamin)

Website: http://hivelogic.com/

Broadcaster, writer and developer.

69. @mollydotcom (Molly E. Holzschlag)

Website: http://molly.com/

Well-known Web standards advocate, instructor, and author.

70. @adactio (Jeremy Keith)

Website: http://adactio.com/journal/

An Irish web developer living and working in Brighton, England.

71. @clearleft (Clearleft)

Website: http://clearleft.com/

User-experience design agency based in Brighton, UK.

72. @mezzoblue (Dave Shea)

Website: http://www.mezzoblue.com/

A Vancouver local and a freelance designer.

73. @orderedlist (Steve Smith)

Website: http://orderedlist.com/

Architects user interfaces and web designs.

74. @ryancarson (Ryan Carson)

Website: http://carsonified.com/

Internet entrepreneur and founder of Carsonified.com.

75. @blogdesignblog (Vinh Le)

Website: http://www.blogdesignblog.com/

Blog designer.

76. @ilovetypography (I Love Typography)

Website: http://ilovetypography.com/

Founder of ILT (I Love Typography), WLT, & TypeNuts.com. Graphic designer, writer, typophile, bibliophile.

77. @keylimecreative (keylimecreative)

Website: http://www.keylimecreative.ca/

Professional Graphic Designer.

78. @andyjacobson (Andy Jacobson)

Website: http://andyjacobson.com/

A NYC based Graphic Designer/Communications Consultant who has been running his own studio since 1993.

79. @VladGeorgescu (Vlad Georgescu)

Website: http://vladgeorgescu.com/

User Experience Designer.

80. @Brandstack (Brandstack)

Website: http://brandstack.com/

The World’s Biggest Brand Marketplace. Buy and Sell high quality, original logo designs and domain names.

81. @stevensnell (Steven Snell)

Website: http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/

Web designer, blogger, and freelance writer.

82. @aaroni268 (Aaron Irizarry)

Website: http://www.thisisaaronslife.com/

Just a simple guy who likes to make pretty, usable stuff.

83. @blogdesigner (Mike Smith)

Website: http://www.madebyguerrilla.com/

Running a startup @GiantThemes and a full time web designer for @madebyguerrilla who loves MMA and blogs @gfreelancing.

84. @spencerfry (Spencer Fry)

Website: http://spencerfry.com/

Running Carbonmade with other fine folks. And Burstoid.

85. @graphicidentity (A u d e e)

Website: http://graphic-identity.blogspot.com/

Graphic Identity Blog author. Logo, graphic, web designer.

86. @creativeworld (Leon Poole)

Website:  http://www.creativeworld.com.au/

Owner of Creative World. Blogging on: Web design, Graphic Design, CSS, XHTML, Flash, Theme Design (Wordpress, activeCollab, Magento).

87. @939design (939 Design)

Website: http://www.939design.com/

Web and Graphic designer.

88. @alexdesigns (Alex Harris)

Website: http://alexdesigns.com/

Ecommerce Creative Director. Web Design & Online Marketing.

89. @mirkohumbert (mirkohumbert)

Website: http://www.designer-daily.com/

Swiss graphic and web designer.

90. @Woork (Antonio Lupetti)

Website: http://woorkup.com/

Pro Blogger, Founder of woorkup.com.

91. @seanHodge (Sean Hodge)

Website: http://aiburn.com/

Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Vector Illustrator, Blog Editor, and Writer.

92. @tkadlec (Tim Kadlec)

Website: http://www.timkadlec.com/

A web developer living and working in Wisconsin.

93. @adii (adii)

Website: http://adii.co.za/

Entrepreneur, co-founder of WooThemes and general creator of Rockstar Awesomeness!

94. @corymiller303 (Cory Miller)

Website: http://corymiller.com/

Web Design, WordPress themes & entrepreneurship – Founder of iThemes.com & WebDesign.com.

95. @bgardner (Brian Gardner)

Website: http://www.studiopress.com/

Internet consultant. Founder/CEO of StudioPress and AgentPress.

96. @wpcandy (Michael Castilla)

Website: http://wpcandy.com/

Founder & Creator of WPCandy. A front-end developer, currently living in Miami, Florida.

97. @elmofromok (Chad Henderson)

Website: http://www.elmofromok.com/

Web designer, writer and podcaster from Oklahoma.

98. @elliotjaystocks (Elliot Jay Stocks) Website: http://elliotjaystocks.com/

A designer, an illustrator, a speaker and an author.

99. @MitchellMckenna (Mitchell McKenna)

Website: http://mitchmckenna.com/

Software Developer, Web Designer.

100. @stillframe (Brad Smith)

Website: http://stillframe.com/

Co-founder of Virb.

101. @larissameek (Larissa Meek)

Website: http://www.larissameek.com/

Creative Director at AgencyNet based in Los Angeles, CA.

102. @smashingmag (Vitaly Friedman)

Website: http://www.smashingmazine.com

Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of SmashingMagazine.com and Noupe.com, online magazines dedicated to designers and developers.

CSS3 has brought some amazing new features. And the most fun is playing with the CSS animation. Here is a compilation of 50 CSS3 animation that allows you to perform many motion-based functions normally Delegated to JavaScript. In order to view this effect, you are required to have WebKit browsers like Safari and Chrome ( very sorry for the users of Internet Explorer )

1. CSS3 Clock With jQuery

Use the basic features of the CSS3 Transform: rotate. And the combination of javascript frameworks like jQuery can produce a cool CSS3 clock

2. Analogue Clock

Analogue clock created using webkit transition and transform CSS. JavaScript is only used to pull in the current time.

3. 3D Cube That Rotates Using Arrow Keys

You can Use up, down, left and right keys to navigate the 3D cube. 3D cube built using -webkit-perspective, -webkit-transform and -webkit-transition.

4. Multiple 3D Cubes (Slide In/Out)

Multiple 3D Cubes using CSS3 and proprietary ‘transform’ and ‘transition’ properties. I thought it was amazing, you can see the writing on the 3D object.

5. CSS3 Accordion

An accordion effect using only CSS. Proprietary animation in WebKit based browsers.

6. Auto-Scrolling Parallax

Auto-Scrolling Paralax is an animated parallax effect using WebKit’s CSS transition property,Auto-Scrolling Paralax no need JavaScript

7. Isocube

Isocube is like 3DCube but have litle different. Isocube can load images on one side

8. Image Gallery

9. Matrix

The Matrix is one of the best sci-fi films of all time. CSS3 capable of making such an amazing animated film made

10. 7 Javascript-effect Alternatives Using CSS3

7 examples of alternatives to javascript effect by using CSS3. Various effects such as Fade Block, Block Pulsate, Nudge, Expand Block, Block Bounce, Spin Block and Accordion

11. Image Hover Effects

Image Hover Effects is an example of using CSS to replace the javascript. The image will shrink when you put your mouse pointer on top of it.

12. Turning Coke Can (Control With Scrollbar)

13. 3D Meninas

14. Polaroid Gallery

Polaroid Gallery is animated pile of photographs utilizing a ton of new CSS3 commands. It’s interesting when your mouse cursor is above the image, the image will enlarge

15. Space

16. Mac Dock

This list of links as the basis and change into an OS X icon dock of amazing.

17. Drop-In Modals

With CSS3 effects and property Drop In Modals can help you make quick, animation, a simple change to using modals, and some subtle design cues.

18. Sliding Vinyl

Vinyl effect can be created by using CSS3 transition and a little HTML. This can make a standard album cover to have an interesting style

19. Zooming Polaroids

Polaroid is a picture that is in the box and spun like a pile of random photos that are sorting through CSS3 techniques. The text that comprises only extract the title and alt attribute

20. Animated Rocket

The principle of Animatid Roket is CSSEffect. The transformation changed the appearance of an element in the browser, moving, rotating, or other means. In determining the conversion of styles before making the application to happen so that you can not really animation.

21. Poster Circle

Poster Circle. is an animated spin column consists of a row of colored boxes and text are wonderful. The overall effect is crazy cool and undeniably dizzying

22. Morphing Cubes

Morphing Cubes will shows some of the more interesting content using 3D transformations, animations and transitions. Note that you can still select text in the element, even if the rotation. Converting elements are fully interactive.

23. Animated Polaroid Gallery

This is the example of other Polaroid Gallery. Piles of images at random and when the cursor hovers over an image, selected images will be enlarged

24. Spotlight Cast Shadow

When the cursor moves as if like a lamp spotlight leading up to the writing and cast

25. Colorful Clock

Colorful Clock is a colorful jQuery & CSS3 which will help you keep track of those precious last seconds of the year.

26. Lightbox Gallery

Lightbox Gallery is an awesome image gallery which leverages the latest CSS3 and jQuery techniques.Lightbox Gallery using jQuery, jQuery UI (for the drag and drop) and the fancybox jQuery plugin for the lightbox display in addition to PHP and CSS for interactivity and styling.

27. Elastic Thumbnail Menu

Elastic Thumbnail Menu is an alternative method for smoothing the menu, in particular by increasing the menu items when the mouse is hovering over the menu. And then expand to the top menu

28. Coverflow

This animation Apple style that combines CSS transformation and jqueryUI. This one truly animate between two half states, making a slider like iTunes

29. jQuery DJ Hero

DJ Hero This is one of the interesting combination of CSS3 with jquery. On-screen controls you can control the pace or just take enough to record your mouse

30. Dynamic Stacking Cards

inn is a dynamic stack of index cards that simply using HTML and CSS3 features such as change and transition (for the dynamic effects) and the @ font-face, box-shadow and border-radius (for styling).

31. Another Image Gallery

This is an example of another image gallery that uses CSS3 transforms property and property transitions.

32. Snow Stack (Control With Arrow Keys)

33. Animated Pricing Column

CSS3 animation can also be used in the package list price of a product. Animated Column Pricing can be applied properly there

34. Slick jQuery Menu

Slick Jquery Menu achieved through a combination of CSS3 and JQuery menu below is very elegant and shows some great use of Jquery and CSS3. This is just one of those crazy concepts that the test can be used in CSS3 will be true of the standard Web.

35. CSS Tabs Without Javascript

36. Tab Menus Without Javascript

37. SVG Fisheye Menu

CSS animation can animate almost any property on the item and do funny things, such as rotation and tilt. As proof,will created quick and dirty CSS3 Fisheye / Dock demo. Used as an added bonus, the demo-SVG in the tag IMG.

38. Falling Leaves

Like autumn. Animated falling leaves are made using CSS3

39. Rotating Gallery

Image Gallery Rotaitng build with CSS transform transition and CSS features. To see the effects of rotation, click the small image

40. Dropdown Menu

Dropdown Menu is a very nice navigation menu by using CSS3 transition property. CSS transitions are very strong influence to renounce the use of JavaScript for many common side effects.

41. Star Wars Crawl

Star Wars opening crawl, using only HTML & CSS. It only works in Snow Leopard in Safari 4.0.4 and the WebKit nightly.

42. Sticky Notes

43. Snowflakes

44. Another Fisheye

This is another fisheye that using CSS3

45. Frame-by-Frame Animation

The first demonstration reqires you to keep clicking the image to see the next frame, and it wraps around to the start when you reach the last frame.The second demonstration just needs you to keep the mouse moving over the image in MOST browsers. But the BIG drawback to this method is that the speed of movement of the mouse governs the speed of animation

46. AT-AT Walker

AT-AT Walker is not flash but only CSS3. That amazing !

47. Another Accordion

48. Dynamic Presentation Without Flash

49. Smoothie Slider Menu

50. Spinner

This is basically like an ajax/loader spinner except its not a animated gif. It uses CSS3 to make it spin.

SEO is the most important thing you have to keep in mind when you start blogging. Optimizing your content and using the right keywords can bring you huge benefits and also it can make your job a lot easier and fun. SEO is very complex and it has lots of adapters, finding keywords for your content is without a doubt one of the most important things when we talk about SEO.

Even though keywords are very important, not many people know how to find best combination in order to get best results. The keywords research is very important for PPC campaings too and that means lots of money can easily be earned by doing a good keyword research.

Today, in this tutorial I’m going to show you how to find best SEO keywords the easy way. It is pretty obvious that we need some tools in order to succed. The next 5 tools are in the top of my keywords generators.

Whit each of the tools below, you have to start with a main keyword which is related to your website niche. In this example I will use “design” as a main keyword.

1. The Google Wonder Wheel – Find Topics to Write About

Google is not only the best search engine there is, Google can also help you to find the most relevant and successful topics and keywords in order for you to get the results you want no matter what your niche is. The Google Wonder Wheel is a tool available on the main search page on Google. It can be activated using the “Show Options” bar. The Wonder Wheel will create ramifications from your base keywords and it will display you related topics in a tree form.(As you can see in the picture above).

This Tool is used even by Darren Rowse from Problogger.net . You can also view the video created by him at problogger.

2. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – Best For PPC Campaings

Is a well known fact about how powerful the Google Adwords system is and also how many people around the world are using this service. The Google Team has also developed a powerful keyword research tool designed to help you find best keywords for your Adwords Campaings and also help PPC users to select niche keywords for their websites. The tool has many useful features, but the most important in my opinion is the CPC feature available in the “Choose columns to display” menu after you search for the keyword. This feature displays the Cost Per Click (CPC) for that keyword or phrase.

Another very important factor is the Global Monthly Search Volume which helps you to determine how much searches were made for a specific keyword and helps you to see if that keyword worth your attention or not.

3. Word Tracker

A simple yet very powerful Keyword researching tool. Is great and very relevant so you will get great results. The Wordtracker tool is free, but you can also use the Premium version which costs $59. You should keep in mind that Word Tracker tool is optimized for best results using the search engines available in US so WordTracker is based on searches made by people leaving in US.

To use word tracker for best results you should enter a keyword or phrase and click the “Hit Me” button. The results will be a list of most searched related keywords and phrases to your one. On the right you will see the number of searches generated for that keyword. Like I said, WordTracker statistics are based on information collected from search engines from US.

4. Keyword Spy

Keyword Spy is not just a great tool for obtaining the best keywords for your articles, but it has the power to bring you the information you need in order to smash your competition and get better and better. Another great thing is that Keyword Spy is free to use and you can also search for Domains, Destination URLs and Ad Copies.

Another thing special at Keyword Spy is that it allows you to see more relevant statistics about PPC competitors which is a feature I haven’t seen on other keyword research tools and it is very important for PPC users.

5. WordStream

With a database of more than 1 billion high rated and popular keywords, WordStream is the ultimate source of free Keywords designed to help you build the content you want. WordStream also allows you to export a list, a huge list of keywords containing more than a thousand of niched words.

You can also check the list of most recommended keywords research tools available created by the SEO experts from SEO Book. They have explained keyword research and how to use it effectively in a short video here.

I also recommend using the hot searches available for most popular search engines. AOL Hot Searches, Google Trends and Zeitgeist, MSN Search Insider and of course Yahoo! Buzz Index.

TIP

Before starting using any of the tools in this article, I really recommend you to start brainstorming and write some random keywords related to your niche so that you can create an idea about what you want.

That’s it! Enjoy the tools and start improving the SEO for your website right now.

Logomyway.com connects businesses needing a logo design to over 4000 professional logo designers. If you are the lucky winner you will get to choose from 70-400+ custom logo designs! All designs are 100% original from talented logo designers all over the world.

To enter in this contest to win a $200.00 logo design simply leave a comment on this post why your company deserves a new logo design and you are entered to win. The most reasonable comment will get the main price so be sure to spend some effort and time in order to win price!

Benifits of being a logo designer at Logomyway:

• All contest are prepaid so you are guaranteed the prize amount.
• Contest prizes vary from $200 to $1000.
• Fast 48 hour payouts.
• Build your design portfolio on Logomyway and gain exposure.
• Clients gives detailed contest briefs taking the guess work out.
• A fun, friendly and professional design community.
• Absolutely free to Join.

Benifits of having your logo created at Logomyway:

• Choose from 70-400+ custom logo designs.
• All designs are 100% original from talented designers all over the world.
• Mandatory prepaid prize amounts produce much higher quality and quantity from our community of designers.
• Three simple steps and your design contest goes live.
• You will see amazing logo designs within hours. QUALITY is our niche at Logomyway.
• You can browse contests to see exactly what our professional design community can deliver.
• Hundreds of creative logo designers in over 100 countries waiting to create your company logo design.
• Receive Industry Standard Vector Logo Files that can be used in almost any application you choose. (Websites, T-Shirts, Mugs, Pens, Business Cards Etc..)
• You will get a free legal contract giving you 100% full legal ownership of your new logo design.
• MONEY BACK GUARANTEE – If your logo contest doesn’t receive at least 40 logo concepts, we’ll refund your payment back to you immediatel!

Okay, that’s short overview about company to designers and creatives who need actually logo to be designed. I think such type of websites are great because you’’ll get a lot new ideas you may never get by hiring just one designer.

Also if you are designer I would suggest to head out to LogoMyWay to get some well earned money as well, it would be exciting to join that community, test your skills between many professional designers and get competetive spirit there!

Contest will end on Sunday, February 28 so be sure to think fast and leave your best, reasonable comment!

*update - Due to low comment count contest will end on March 4! Keep leaving your comments if you want to win this price!

Good Luck to everybody! :)

Contest is closed!! We’ll contact winner and inform everybody soon!

Here are some essential tips for designers and not only. Some of them are universal and can be ascribed with many other similarities in your own life even if it’’s not really with design. All tips are connected between so you should better read them all to get perfect understanding. Those tips are from my personal experience and knowledge which I found out helps me a lot daily, weekly, monthly and more! Almost every profession requires never ending learning and self educating, but especially it’s important in design field – new software, websites, tools come out every day, it’s your task to keep up, evolve your view and find the best ways to do specific tasks!

1. Never stop learning

Learning is never too much. You can never master everything, but at least you can try. Don’t limit yourself with just one direction. It’s always more advantageous to master for example Photoshop and Illustrator than just Photoshop. Nowadays there are tutorials and articles all over the internet. Try not just to look at the tutorial’s pictures, but try it as well. Make a new folder on your computer and try out some tutorials. You’ll be surprised that the things you saw as easy aren’t so easy at all. Accomplish yourself; you’ll be agreeably surprised about the results.

2. Read about design

It doesn’t matter if it’s a blog, a book or magazine. Stay up to date and read about things you’re interested in. You’ll find a lot of tutorials, articles and inspiration in blogs. Find time to really read something, not just run over the pictures.

30 Must Have WebDesign Books In Your Christmas Wishlist

3. See something good? Bookmark it!

Probably every day you see something good on the internet. A Tutorial, article or some inspiration. Bookmark all of them. After couple of months you’ll have a great reading material for late nights. It doesn’t apply just on the internet.

Have a great idea? Write it down.

Little by little collect thing in your mind, because it will be with you everywhere. Enrich your inside world.

4. Stay organized

Organize your life and your work. Arrange your bookmarks in folders as well as your work. Create sub folders in your work folder, so you could quickly find everything you need. If you are using someone’s stock images bookmark them in separate folder. “Useful articles”, “Photoshop resources”, “Inspiration” – those are some of my bookmark folders. Follow example and create something similar. You’ll be able to find thing you need much faster. Maybe you’re interested in using Delicious.

Plan Your Daily Schedule: Useful Resources

5. Use social networks

You can find tons of useful information about your interesting direction. Use the opportunity, visit social networking sites often, so you would be able to keep up. But don’t be just a monotonous posting machine. If you use a social network, for example, twitter then really use it. Don’t just sit there and post from twitterfeed. It’s not so hard sometimes to tell what are you doing, how are you feeling or something like that. People will know you better and maybe you could even get some potential clients.

6. Don’t be afraid to differ

People always tend to follow the crowd. Maybe somewhere it’s working, but definitely not in design. You have to differ from the others, have something unique just to you.

Don’t be afraid to express yourself.

Don’t believe silly charts like this. Develop your own style and stay cool.

7. Show off yourself

If you want to be known you have to show the world who you are. Use sites like http://www.deviantart.com/ and http://www.behance.net/ to show off your work. Take part in discussions and forums. Maybe you even want to create yourself a portfolio or a personal blog. Promote your works using social networks. But, please, don’t post everything on internet. That’s a typical mistake lots of people make. Only reason they’re creating art is to put it on internet as fast as possible. Don’t hurry. Here’s a quick tip. Always try to imagine what your actions influence is in future and is it worth trying. For example you are almost done with awesome design, but you feel that something’s missing. Don’t give it up and end the work. Push it aside and do something else till you again have inspiration. Then do some final checks and only then show it off. You won’t remember hard work spent on the work, but you will feel comments and praises. The same applies on physical exercises.

You won’t remember your sweat during the training, but you will see the result.

So, sometimes it’s really worth to try harder.

8. Make some money

If you’re doing something with which you can earn, then why don’t?

This is pretty conflicting tip, because a lot of people are doing this because they just love it. I totally agree with that, I’m considering myself as this type of people too. But extra money is always good. For example you can work as a freelancer. If you don’t like it you can write tutorials, guest posts or something like that. You can easily do thing you like and earn at the same time. Great thing is so called passive earnings. That means that you create your work just once and it can be on sale for months. I suggest you check out Envato marketplaces like http://graphicriver.net/. It’s really worth trying.

9. Do some sports

Don’t spend so much time with computer. It may come in conflict, because you’re a designer – you spend pretty much time working, learning and possibly dealing with clients. But care about your health.

You don’t want to be blind, with crooked back and with “computer” tan in your nearest future. Find yourself a hobby, do some sports, spend time with friends or just do something at home.

Believe me, people won’t be as impressed if you can create a working website from scratch, as they would be if you could, for example, sing karaoke very well. Find something you’re interested in and do it. You’ll renew your working capacity, feel better and maybe make some new friends.

10. Work less

You’re a bit shocked after reading headline right?

But working less means working more productive.

If you just don’t feel like working then don’t do it. If you aren’t able to work good just don’t do it. Instead of sitting there, trying to do something, stressing, go outside and blow the cobwebs away.

What Can You Do When You Have No Internet Connection?

11. Live not just exist

Step away from your everyday routine and enjoy life.

There’s no worse thing in life than having no friends.

Go outside, have fun, spend time with your friends, travel.

You live just once and maybe the only things you’ll have in your old age will be your memories.

Probably you will not want to remember your spent hours with computer, but something unique. Your graduation, first kiss or something wild you’ve done. Life’s much more than design. I hope you got the message told in last three tips and maybe I motivated you to change something.

Hope you’ll enjoy my tips, maybe you can add something here – you’re more than welcome to do that in comments!

Hello my dear 1stwebdesigner loyal readers, new visitors, all who enjoy whatever a hell I am trying to do here!! I’ve been promising for a long time, I will create such posts in newsletter format and I definitely will, but now 1stwebdesigner also got into big storm of changes.

So what has been changing? Maybe you noticed I haven’t posted anything for 2 weeks and there are many new and promising guest writers in our blog? To be exact now we are trying to manage like 20–30 guest authors, teach them, discuss details and finally create some kind of automated way how to submit, review and publish articles in meantime not loosing article quality.

Fresh Article Each Day – Growing Seriously!

Why we are trying so hard to deliver 1 article/day, not to stick with old good high quality post every 3–4 days? Because of you, guys! We want to stand out, we need something unique, something different from thousands of design blogs. It’s been a while since you cannot stand out just by writing good stuff or giving away freebies, tutorials – now you need to get strong attention using social network in smart way and I consider it to be my strongest side – definitely not an easy task. Only I am worried now, it will be much harder to keep high and even grow higher article quality, but we all are working very hard, it cannot hurt!

Also we want to change 1stwebdesigner site article structure – we don’t want them to be just neverending lists, everybody is capable of writing without little knowledge. We want to bring value – teach you how to do things, give away freebies, not include top 100 but just top 10 and explaind why we included each of those picks and how you could choose which to use by yourself. We have vision we are trying to make and for now it repaid us as 20% traffic and income growth in January.

Why I am not writing to 1stwebdesigner for some time – just guest authors?

Oh, you cannot imagine how much time it takes to talk with every guest author, manage articles daily in the meantime not forgeting about monetizing, marketing and social networking to keep finding new traffic sources. It has been hard time, but soon we will be able to manage and find good system how to review and schedule articles.

And also there are several huge pros with guest writers – I have been writing here alone for a long time, I am learning together with you guys, but I think it’s not enough. Each guest writer has his own unique experience, opinion, way of thinking and interesting idea what to teach you – you cannot miss this important aspect!

Official Thanks To New Guest Authors

Oh, yes – running, running, managing, asking for new articles all the time, but really nothing of this would be possible without you guys!

• Anastasia Miles
• Andy Walpole
• Ayaz Malik
• Cosmin Lupsan
• Cyrus Patten
• Daniels Mekšs
• Gustavs Jurisons
• Kannan Sanjeevan
• Mark Thompson
• Mahmoud Deiab
• Omar Corrales
• Peteris Kelle
• Poonam Agarwal
• Saad Bassi
• Srikanth AD
• Tom Walker
• Yanuar Prisantoso

…and many more smart and promising guest writers coming up! Thank to you all for spending time and your knowledge to make 1stwebdesigner better source for all designers! All I want to ask is – don’t lose trust in us, keep working, keep coming back – for me it’s a great feeling to stick in community, feel appreciated,

Our new, helpful 1stwebdesigner team

Why I am saying all the time we, not just me anymore?

For two months already we are working from office, 1stwebdesigner is not some underground blog now – it’s been growing up. I am working there with Maris Dagis, founder of Rotorblog.com and Photoble.com, he has already 3–4 years experience in this field and we are brainstorming new ideas, great solutions and ways how to create our blogs better daily.

Also we have Ligita Klūga, invisible, but very necessary and helpful face in our blog – she is working on article promotion and some automatized ways how to evolve our social networking.

And Finally I need to inform you about biggest changes we’ve got!

New Co-Editor Saad Bassi

We have new co-editor, great guy Saad Bassi from Crispytech.com, I don’t know what could I do without him by now. We are now both officially managing guest author e-mails, do article reviewing and now we are working on new Guest Writers Guide to teach how to write good posts for 1stwebdesigner.

In future I hope he will be able to manage it alone and I will focus more then to social networking, marketing where I feel the most confident. It will give you back many more giveaways, interesting contests, hopefully some weekly events as well and much much more!

Deviantart

By the way soon I will announce our Deviantart group too, we try there to build community, get friendly designer from Deviantart to get some interviews, tutorials, great – neverending inspiration and maybe even some freebies!

Now we are just started, categorizing everything, submitting, searching for group editors – if you are good designer and you have good taste, I would suggest for you to leave comment here and start to join into community by editing, accepting,declining and searching for fresh, new and unique designs all over Deviantart world!

This is just short intro, don’t worry when we will go live with it, I will inform you in details, why I think we need this group, what good it will do for our community and actually where it will lead 1stwebdesigner site.

If you have any suggestions how to improve our group, I would be glad to hear from you!

Oh well, there are several new projects coming up collaborating with Maris Dagis, but those I will keep in secret for now until release date!

Regardless of if you work at a full-service web company or as a freelance web designer, you will eventually have to work with internet marketers.  Being that I work as an internet marketer at a web agency, I have daily interaction with designers, programmers, IT/support, and other marketers.  One thing I have noticed is that there is not a good connection across departments.  No matter if you are creating a new site, doing a redesign, or simply adding a page, it is important to have good internal communication.

Specifically between the designer and the marketer, there needs to be a strong understanding.  The designer needs to focus on creating a site that is visually pleasing, while the marketer needs to give a clear understanding of the site goals.  This will make it easier for the designer to create a site that accomplishes the overall client objectives and engages visitors.

Work Together From The Beginning

There is a myth that the marketing of a website doesn’t take place until after the site has been built.  This is absolutely untrue.  If you are working with an Internet Marketer/SEO it is important to work together from the beginning to formulate a strategy that will be inline with the clients goals.  You can save yourself time and the client money, if everyone is on the same page.

Regardless of the client goals there are a number of things to discuss:

• Site & Content Architecture
• Determine to use Static or Dynamic Title/Meta Description Tags
• Determine Static Pages or CMS
• What Content the Client Can Control
• Use a Well Thought-out Navigation
• Discuss the Target Audience, Demographics, and Geographic Location

There are also some SEO best practices that the designer should be aware of:

• Use Keyword-rich Anchor Text
• Use Keyword-rich File Naming Conventions for Images
• Using H Tags and Alt Attributes on Images
• Call To Actions are Being Used
• Consistent Content Layout
• Keyword-rich URL structure (URL re-writer may need to be integrated)
• Use Good Internal Linking Throughout the Site
• Contact Form Integration (tracked in Analytics)
• Contact Information Easy To Find
• Using External CSS and js Files for Fast Load Time
• Use Flash Elements not the Entire Site
• Design a Site for Optimal Screen Resolution

I do want to stress that Google recently has placed a lot of emphasis on your site/page load time.  Google announced a few years ago that it would use load time as a factor in quality score for PPC ads.  Now it has transferred over into how Google rank sites organically.  Keep this in mind when designing your site.  Try to minimize server calls, image sizes, css/js files, and unnecessary code to reduce load time.  Use Google Webmaster Tools, YSlow for Firebug or Pingdom to help you with speeding up your site.

Content Development Strategy

It is important that when organizing the content structure that it is built for scalability.  It may be that the client will want to add a new product or service down the road, if the site is built properly it will be easy to add the additional pages.

Also, during the initial keyword research and analysis the marketing team should be gathering insights into what people are searching.  This can help with creating the navigation and site structure because it can help identify different segments in the market.  Keep in mind that every page has a chance to rank in the search engines, not just the homepage.  With that in mind, SEO’s are always looking for relevant pages that can be added to the site, so it can be optimized for a specific theme.

This is a good example of showing different search “themes” or “segments” that warrants its own page.

For news or blogs that consistently create new content, it is essential to make as easy as possible for users to be able to share the content via social sites.  Add social media icons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.  Also make it easy for a user to sign up for their feed via RSS.

Being Able to Track Conversions

One thing to know about Internet Marketers is that we like to track everything.  This is what helps us make data driven decisions on our marketing efforts. In order to properly track visitor and conversion data we need to make sure we have a few things setup properly in the back end.

For example, in Google Analytics we will want to make sure we add the GA script to the footer of every page on the site. Once that is completed you will want to take it a step further and setup conversion goals for the site.  If you are working with an SEO, they should have determined the sites goals.  However in order to setup the goals properly you need unique urls.

This can be accomplished with a number of ways.

• Creating a unique thank you page that the user gets directed to once a contact form is submitted (ex: domain.com/thank-you.html)
• If the form submits to itself you will have to create a virtual pageview, by modifying the analytics code slightly.  Whatever you decide to name it, that is what will have to be entered (example below).

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-youraccountcode-1");
pageTracker._trackPageview(/virtualurl);
</script>

• If you would like to track javascript events, downloads, a video interaction or any other event learn more about how you can modify links to append tracking.  (watch a video created by Google that talks more about event tracking and virtual pageviews)
• If you are working with an ecommerce system be sure to turn on the ecommerce functionality in the setup of Google Analytics.  This will pull in purchase and revenue data.

Look out for Blackhat SEO & Duplicate Content Issues

Some web designers and developers will intentionally or unintentionally trick the search engines into placing a website higher in the search rankings. This can include hidden text, hidden links, sneaky redirects, keyword stuffing and link farming.  The marketing team you are working with should make you aware of any potential issues that currently exist with the site and anything that could penalize a sites rankings.

Probably the most common issues for duplicate content are on shopping sites where the same  products content can be found on a unique product page, a category page, and even the homepage.  If there are multiple options for a product (ex: color, size) there can be multiple urls for the same product.  If you site has hundreds or thousands of products, this can create tons of duplicate content.

To resolve this issue you can use a canonical tag that will allow you to tell the engines which url is the main url.

Example:

Main URL:  http://www.example.com/page.html

Duplicate URL: http://www.example.com/page.html?sid=asdf314159265

Add to the HEAD: <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://example.com/page.html”/> to specify which URL is the main url that you want the search engines to keep in their index.

You can also use what is called page sculpting, where you allow search engine spiders to only crawl certain pages on your site.  Using the NoFollow, NoIndex tag will tell the search engines not to crawl and index.

Landing Page Optimization

It’s important that if part of the marketing strategy is driving visitors to a targeted landing page via PPC, Banner Ads, or Paid Placement that there are dedicated pages designed to convert.  There are landing page elements that should be used in order to stimulate users to take action.

Here are some tips to think about when designing a landing page.

• Limit the Number of User Options
• Build Credibility (Testimonials, Reviews, Company Awards, etc…)
• Unique Content
• Test Page Elements (Buttons, Messaging, Images, Offers)
• Be Concise

I don’t believe a web designer needs to know the ins and outs of internet marketing and SEO, however these best practices will help produce a better product, gain better rankings, and convert more users.  It can also make the designers life easier and allows the marketer to focus on driving traffic.

What do you think about the relationship between a web developer and internet marketer. Share your thoughts with us.

I received a letter from Jacob Gube few days ago where he informed me about new resource and tutorials website DesignInstruct he started with his brother. Of course I immediately headed to their new site and did my own research, evaluated design and it was worth it – layout is professionally designed, starting team is already working and first two tutorials are extremely beautiful!

It’s not easy to stand out from overflowed crowd even with quality website and original idea, I am curious how blogosphere will change in future actually.

Ok, but I am sure this project will be a big success, just look what Jacob Gube alone has done with his website Sixrevisions, which is one of the most popular web design blogs over the world if you are not sure!
Best luck with it!

OK..let’s research further..a little bit more about this new project –

“Design Instruct is a web magazine that aims to teach designers and digital artists useful techniques by way of detailed and step-by-step tutorials. We also occasionally post articles covering design topics for inspiration, information, and learning. We also share free and downloadable resources (see our Freebies section).” from DesignInstruct about section.

As we all know tutorials and resources bring the most value because you create something from nothing, share knowledge. Of course you need also high level of expertise to do that, but check out the first two tutorials DesignInstruct currently has, I think they will handle it.

How to Make a Vibrant Portfolio Web Design in Photoshop

How to Make a Professional Buddy Icon in Photoshop

I am not used to creating this type or articles, but really I just wanted to give some heads up and my best wishes to this new project! Head to their Welcome article to find out more!