Web Thoughts

2010-07-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

easisites newsletter#19 February 2010

Hello All,

The subject of this newsletter is big data.  Lots and lots of it...

We've always been under the impression that you could enter any amount
of data into any "freestyle text area" on your easisites website.

In theory there are no limits.  Indeed, the people at W3C, who set the
standards for web pages, say there are no limits.

In practice, however, there are.

We've now discovered that the Browser developers (Internet Explorer,
Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, etc.) all impose a data limit to avoid
crashes when handling too much.  Older browsers cope with less, newer
ones more, and currently they hover around the 60 kilobyte range.

That's still a lot of data (over 3000 lines of the stuff), but one of
you (at least) has managed to reach the end of the browser data
allocation.  So...

If you have a lot of data in one "freestyle text area" and you find
that you cannot add any more (ie you try to add some more when editing
your site, but it doesn't appear when you Preview or Publish), we now
know why.

In the very unlikely event that this does happen to you, simply use
another text box - either, the other text box on the same page, or a
text box on a different page.

And...

===
If you do have many lines of data on your page, you might like to add
the occasional "back to the top" link which your web visitors can
click and be taken, er, back to the top of that web page.

Here's how to do it:

<a href="#top">back to the top</a> 

And...

===
If you have a lot of data on your page(s), it is always a good idea to
keep a copy of that data.

The simplest way to do this is to keep text files for each "freestyle
text area" you want to back up.

 * Go into edit, using your password.
 * Hover your mouse over the text area you want to save.
 * Right click and Select All.
 * Right click and Copy.
 * Open your Notepad or WordPad program (All Programs > Accessories).
 * Right click and Paste.
 * Then save that text document - where you can find it (eg as
"Website_1.txt" in a file named "Website").

Then, if for any reason you lose the data on that page, you can simply
go back into edit, open the text document for that page, copy and
paste the lot into the appropriate text area.

If you update the data on that page, remember to update the text file.

NB: If you want to back up the data in two text areas (left and right)
on any page, you will need to do the above for both and save each as
separate text documents (eg as Website_2left.txt" and
"Website_2right.txt").

I even made a video, which you download from here.

easisites back up
=====

Your feedback, as always, would be welcome. Any comments or questions,
please get back to me.

Best Wishes.

easisites newsletter#18 November 2009

2009-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Two things...
=====
I promise not to twitter on - as I did in the last newsletter. But I
will share this with you (prompted by a conversation this afternoon
with John Tobutt of www.meophamfruit.co.uk)...

Be aware that if you are uploading a Microsoft Word document to your
website as an "Extra", there is a distinct possibility that (some)
other people will not be able to open it.

Not everybody has Microsoft Office (of which Word is a part) on their
computers. Even if they do, they may not have the latest version (I
don't) - and so won't be able to open documents created by later
versions.

So, if you have a document created in Word that you want to upload to
your website, you can:
1) upload it anyway and hope that people who want to look at it have a
sufficiently contemporary version of Word;
2) save it as a Rich Text Format document (rtf) (Save as... Save as
type: Rich Text Format) - and then upload it; or (my favourite)...
3) convert it to PDF - and upload that.

Converting a Word Document to PDF

This is straightforward if you have OpenOffice (NOT Microsoft Office).

If you don't have OpenOffice (there's no reason why you should; it's
free, but it's big), it's still relatively straightforward.

Just go to www.doc2pdf.net, scroll down the page to Convert this
document and click Browse...

Find the document you want to convert on your computer, double click
(or click Open) and click Convert document. It takes a couple of
seconds.

When it's ready, click to open document, then go to File.. Save a
Copy... (You'll then get a message about Adobe reader. Just click
OK.) And save it. Then upload it to your website. Simple.

The beauty of PDFs is that they are read only, which means that people
cannot edit them when downloaded, the content remains your content.
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Alt and title tags

You may have noticed that I've added a section on alt and title tags
to the easisites Help, and put a note on the Extras picture page.

In case you haven't noticed (there's no reason why you should), here's
what it says in Help:
=
Alt and title tags provide alternative text for non-text elements.
Search engines cannot read pictures, only words. So we use alt and/or
title tags to provide the words.

Unfortunately, with easisites, alt and title tags can only be used for
"Extra" pictures placed in Freestyle text areas.

The code for implanting an Extra picture into a Freestyle text area is
of the form . You'll find the code for an Extra picture with an alt tag and title tag when you upload an Extra picture - or on easi-info
=====

It's approaching that time of year again so, if I don't talk to you
before, please let us wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy,
prosperous new year.

Remember, if you have any seasonal specials on offer, let people know about it.
=====

Your feedback, as always, would be welcome. Any comments or questions,
please get back to me.

Best Wishes.

Copies of previous newsletters may be found on www.easi-info.co.uk

easisites newsletter#17 June 2009

2009-06-27T04:10:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

This is really a post script to the last newsletter (last month), because
here's more on web marketing and the latest tips on reaching and engaging
with potential customers.

Hate it though some of us may, it seems we now live in the age of Hello
magazine and the Big Brother house.  Everyone wants to know everything
about everyone else, no matter how intrusive the rest of may find it.

There's no hiding place on the web.  The Internet is open (for business).

So, naturally, the latest "best" way of meeting your (potential) customers
is through social networking sites.

I went to a seminar on this stuff last week.  One of the guys running it
said, "Put your hand up if you're on Twitter."  Ditto Facebook, EBO,
myspace, Linkedin, ecademy, guru...

Of course my hand stayed down.

If you're not on any of these, we were told, get on them.

As someone once told my old Philosophy professor when he was on an
academic visit to the States, You've got to get off the bench and into
the ball game.

And if you haven't got a blog, why not?

Share, share, share.  Put your stuff on SQUIDOO, GOArticles, weebly,
Ezine@rticles, pressbox.co.uk...  Flickr, Picasa, YouTube...

The message is, when approaching all this, think "community", don't be
too commercial and think long term.

Speaking personally, this all goes against the grain, but it's the way
things are going.

The very least you can do, as I have done on www.easisites.co.uk - and
on my own all singing all dancing Ry Cooder site www.rycooderstuff.co.uk
- is add a Share button, which you can obtain from www.addthis.com

If you are going to add a share button to your easisites website, you will
need to include the nomodify and /nomodify tags before and after the share
button code (see last newsletter).





====
In the spirit of "community", if anyone has any experiences with any of the
above (Twitter, Facebook, et al) that they would like to share, please let
me know. Perhaps if I start a blog, you could post them on there.  

(Well, what do you know...  Seems I've started one.  Well, well, well...)

Your feedback, as always, would be welcome - along with any questions.

Best Wishes.

Regards,

easisites newsletter#16 May 2009

2009-06-27T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

In previous newsletters we’ve passed on some web marketing tips.
It’s high time we passed on some more.  So, here goes…

Google Maps

Back in 2007, Google introduced Google Maps.  Google listings then
favoured businesses that were also listed on Google Maps – and still
do, to some extent.  So if you’re not listed on Google Maps, get yourself listed.
All fairly simple and takes about 20 minutes.
Here's what you need to do.

Search for whatever your business is in whatever area in Google.
Click on Local business results for...  (you will see those that are listed)
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Information for Business Owners
Then Add New Business...
And fill in the boxes.

Video

Google has now taken a fancy to sites with video content.  So if you
have an appropriate video of yourself, your business, your products or
your premises, get it on your website.  See the item on
www.easi-info.co.uk - Putting video on your website – per last
newsletter. (Copies of all previous newsletters are available on www.easi-info.co.uk

Engage your customers

There's now something called "web 2.0" (aimed at web design and
usability – Google it if you want to find out more) which recognises
that web users are more sophisticated than they used to be (simply
because the web's been with us for quite a while now).  We have all
learnt how to scroll, for one thing.  And most people have computers
with bigger (or wider) screens.

Moreover, people now like to engage and be engaged.  So, give them
something to do.

If, for example, you run a B&B - as many of you do - the easier you
make it for someone to book a night or two, the better.  There are
stacks of facilities out there for this.  They don’t all cost an arm
and a leg.

This has nothing to do with people finding you via search engines.
It's what people do once they've found you.  They look at your pretty
pictures (or your video), check out your prices and...  then what?
More and more people are looking for a one stop shop when it comes to
booking accommodation, arranging holidays, etc., etc..

The same principles apply whatever your business.  If you have
anything that people can buy online, then give them a button to click
and take their money.  With the easisites shop facility, you can do
just that.  And we don’t charge an arm and a leg, either.

So, if at all appropriate and whatever business you are in, think
about how people can engage with you via your website.

Web stats

Another instance of increased sophistication, web-wise (or perhaps
it’s the economy), is that site owners are now more interested in
finding out where their site visitors come from.  If you are spending
money on directory listings, for example, you may well want to know if
you are getting value for that money.

With easisites, if (and only if) you have a domain name with us, you
can view your web stats, via our server.  Just drop Matthew an email
(matthew@ekos-consulting.co.uk) and he’ll give you the necessary
passwords.

This will help you identify whether your marketing efforts are bearing fruit.

If you don’t have your own domain name, and would like one, click on
the Options button (on the gold bar at the top of the page) the next
time you are editing or updating your easisites website.

If you have a domain name with another provider (one that does not
provide web stats) and would like to transfer that domain name to us,
then drop Matthew an email (matthew@ekos-consulting.co.uk) and he’ll
tell you what you’ll need to do.

====

Your feedback, as always, would be welcome. Any comments or questions,
please get back to me.

Best Wishes.

Regards,

share your music online

2009-06-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here's something I think worth sharing...

I've found this music sharing facility on the web. I've tested it and it works. Brilliantly.

www.4shared.com

You can listen online and/or download. You can also embed into your website - as I have done here...

www.rycooderstuff.co.uk

Like this:

Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner playing at the Great American Music Hall,
San Francisco, in a "guitar-bass-drums" trio - in support of the Richard deLone Special Housing Fund (October 2nd 2008)

easisites newsletter#15 December 2008

2009-06-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

A few things to tell you about...

First, Spam protection

Spammers are becoming increasingly irritating so we at easisites are doing our bit to stop them from
harvesting easisites website owners' emails.
All emails entered as Contact information (when building your site) are encrypted on your web pages.
While email addresses are visible to normal users (useful if they want to jot it down or write
personally), they appear as a string of code to spam engines.

This method is reckoned to defeat the majority of harvester programs. Whilst the harvester could (in
theory) decode the string, most won't because it isn't worth the hassle or the processing expense.
NB: This encryption will not touch any email address you may type anywhere else on your website (ie
in a freestyle text area), but you can encrypt these yourself very simply.

See the entry (Email encryption spam protection) on www.easi-info.co.uk - or go straight to the
source: javascript.about.com/library/blemail1

==
Second, Website translator (Stop me if you've heard this one before....)

We have developed a website translator for easisites.

This will translate your web pages into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese,
Korean and Chinese - and appears as an horizontal row of small flags which your web visitors can
click.

To add this feature to your website, simply type

translate between <>

at the top of your home page (see Help when updating your website)
Bear in mind, that translation engines are very literal beasts. That said, however, most literal
translations can be understood. Your foreign web visitors will at least get the gist.

Go to www.easisites.co.uk/elninos to see it in action.
===
Third, Videos...

If you want to put a video on your website, you can.  (Some of you may have already done so.)

See the entry on www.easi-info.co.uk
====
Other stuff...

Kent 2020 business exhibition 2009

As always, we will be exhibiting.  Next Year's event is on Thursday 2 April 2009.  If any of you would
like to "share" our stand, though space is limited, we would be more than happy to display your wares,
your cards or leaflets (within reason, of course).  Just let me (or Matthew) know.
=====
Password protected pages

I mentioned these in the last newsletter, but some of you may have found that my example was not
working.

Oops.

It's all working properly now.

To see it in action, go to www.easisites.co.uk/elninos (per last newsletter)

Alternatively, take a look at www.diy-website.co.uk (user name and password are on the second
page)
======
www.easisites.co.uk has been given another face lift - and we've added some new site designs.

=======

Your feedback, as always, would be welcome. Any comments or questions, please get back to me.

Best Wishes.