Assuming that my web guy died is actually giving him the benefit of the doubt; I have no idea where his is. Falling off the face of the earth is always a plausible explanation. Emails aren’t bouncing and voice mail isn’t full so it’s probably more likely that he’s made a conscious decision to hang me out to dry.

Situations like this call into question the professional ethics and reliability of the virtual web professional. Being a web designer and developer myself, I know that we shouldn’t all be painted with the same brush. Perhaps it’s my business background or the value that I place on my reputation that makes me push to please, complete, improve, excel . . . or to simply do what it is that I say I’m going to do.

The inspiration for this post came from a recent personal experience involving hiring and working with another web designer. The “incident” was painful, costly and (in retrospect) avoidable, or one where the damages could have at least been mitigated. Continue Reading »

The web technology discussion group of Myrtle Beach has been meeting every Wednesday at 6PM at the Market Common Barnes & Nobles (in the cafe). I’m writing to get your feedback on timing. Is 6PM the best time for you? Or would 7 or 8PM work better.

Some of our small business owners have found 6PM to be a bit too early. And for those businesses that are open for after business hours for walk-in traffic, 7PM seems like a better meeting time. But before we reschedule, I’d like to get your feedback. Please email us with the time that works best for you . . . as well as days, if Wednesday doesn’t work well.

Once we tally up all the feedback, we may move the time on Wednesday or perhaps launch a second meeting all together to accommodate the extra attendees.

Attending the discussion group is free and open to everyone. We meet to discussions topics such as: building and maintaining websites; search engine optimization; Internet marketing and measurement; business blogging; graphic design & do-it-yourself advertising; and more…. Bring your curiosity and any unanswered web design questions.

The Web Technology Discussion Group of Myrtle Beach is led by Dominic Taverniti, owner of Applied Web Vitals.

This week’s Web Technology Discussion revolved around search engine optimization (SEO) and the must-have components to improve your site’s search engine ranking. To that end, we have put together the following SEO Punch List and corresponding podcast.

 

 SEO Puch List [35:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (41)

While there most definitely is more to the subject and process of SEO (as evidenced by the several hundred pages in The SEO Bilble by Jerri Ledford), this a good streamlined list to compare your site against and get started optimizing. If you have any questions about search engine optimization or would like to optimize your website, please contact Applied Web Vitals anytime.

In the Myrtle Beach area? Join us for the Web Technology Discussion Group every Wednesday at 6PM. Continue Reading »

WordPress Plugin: podPress
The podPress plugin is a must-have for podcasting. It adds a flash audio (and video) player to your post when attaching a media file. In addition, it handles the RSS podcast feed options, including iTunes settings.

Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/podpress/

Audio recording
Recording audio will require an additional piece of software. We recommend the audio recording software Audacity (free). The process is pretty streamlined and shouldn’t be too cumbersome. You may even find the additional features with this software to be useful for editing and polishing your audio. Following are the links and steps:

Go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

1. Audacity application:
Under Recommended Download, click Audacity 1.2.6 installer (or whatever the lastes version is)
Install the application (remember to disable your antivirus software if possible – generally a good idea whenever install an application)

2. Mp3 encoder:
Under Optional Downloads, click LAME MP3 encoder
This will download a zip file. You will need to extract the files to a location that you won’t change in the future. If you have access to the Audacity folder in the Programs folder on your C drive, you may put them there. I’m not sure what Vista will give you access to.

3. The first time you export a recorded audio file as an MP3, Audacity will ask you location the LAME MP3 decoder file on your computer. You’ll need to navigate to wherever you saved it in step 2 above. This will only happen the first time, provided the decoder file is never moved.

Posting Podcast
On the “Write Post” page (when you’re actually writing a new post) in your blog admin

1. Scroll down to the Upload section, current just below the Podcasting section
2. Browse for a file on you local computer, enter title and description if you want, and click the Upload botton [*Alternate upload option for large files below]
3. The next view that comes up automatically will have the name of the file - i.e. test1.mp3.
4. Right click on the file name and select Copy Link Location
5. Now go to the Podcasting section and click the Add Media File button
6. Paste (Ctrl+v or right click paste) inside the Location field – the url will look something like http://yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/test1.mp3
7. That’s it, unless you want to position the flash player in the post. Insert “” where you want inside the Post body to position the player.

*Uploading large audio files
Depending on the server setting and restriction for your hosting account, you may find the WordPress file upload option to error, indicating that the file size exceeds the maximum allowed size. In this case, you will need to FTP your file to the server and manually enter the URI when adding the podcast to your post.

We recommend the FTP client FileZilla. Once downloaded and installed from the following location, you will need to establish a connection with your server. File > Site Manager > click the New Site button > enter the appropriate login and connection setting for your hosting server account.

Go to http://filezilla-project.org/