Gordon's WebLog

Yes, believe it or not, in addition to obtaining my RSS feed, you can now also receive email notification of my blog posts.

The RSS fee icon and the subscription form are contained at the right hand side of the main screen under links.

UPDATE (31st July) ON WHAT THIS EMAIL SERVICE OFFERS TO BLOGGERS

First of all my experience of the service

Excellent. Easy to set up an account (free or premium), syndicate my feed, generate the HTML code and paste it into my template. Testing it all out worked OK first time - and I can even send out a "Newsflash" on demand. Great idea.

Now some information extracted from the FeedBlitz web site

What is FeedBlitz ?

FeedBlitz is a service that monitors blogs, RSS feeds and Web URLs to provide greater reach for feed publishers. FeedBlitz takes all the headache out of converting feed and blog updates into email digests, delivered daily to subscribers' in boxes FeedBlitz manages subscriptions, circulation tracking, testing, and is compatible with all major blogging platforms and services such as Blogger, Typepad and FeedBurner. Unlike other blogmail services, FeedBlitz is reliable, scalable and fully supported. No betas, wish lists or road map items here. You're in production, and so is FeedBlitz.

FeedBlitz also enables end users to monitor any feed or blog, anonymously if they wish, regardless of whether the publisher of that feed is using FeedBlitz. FeedBlitz therefore provides a simple way for users to receive updates from their trusted sources using a familiar and ubiquitous medium - email.

FeedBlitz is privately held and managed from metro Boston, Massachusetts.

Publisher Services.

Initial studies show that adding an email option to your blog can boost your readership by over 50%. RSS, weblogs and feeds can be too much for many users - many of whom are interested in your content but aren't using an aggregator. Email, on the other hand, is easy and understood by everyone.

FeedBlitz enables you to bridge these worlds. Because FeedBlitz manages subscriptions, unlike your blog service or feed XML file, FeedBlitz gives you unparalleled information about your readers (that's direct access to *leads* for corporate bloggers). FeedBlitz is also provides circulation metrics to other services, such as FeedBurner, so for the first time you can see for the first time the full reach of your content. Premium plans will be available shortly to enable you to customize FeedBlitz emails, turning your blog into a fully featured, easy to manage and affordable newsletter engine. Read more about syndicating your blog to email with FeedBlitz.

If you use Google Adwords, are an Amazon affiliate, or take advantage of any other form of Internet monetization capability, you know that qualified, repeat visitors to your site is the best way to maximize your value. FeedBlitz personally delivers your content to your best and most qualified readers, increasing readership and your potential revenue stream.

Subscriber and Reader Services.

FeedBlitz enables you to gather blog and RSS content that you want quickly, direct to your in-box. No applications to install, no complex procedures, no annoying ads. Just your content, delivered daily, in an easy to read Email (text or HTML format - your choice). Not only do you a get a clear and concise email every day, FeedBlitz subscriptions provide a great way to keep your colleagues up to date on industry news, or to get RSS updates delivered to your mobile phone, BlackBerry or PDA. If you don't want your email address shared with the feed publisher, you can always subscribe anonymously and preserve your privacy.

Find out more about subscriber services at the FeedBlitz web site.

You may have noticed that I have started using Technorati tags with this post. Hopefully they will be indexed by Technorati, but in view of the many problems reported by fellow-bloggers (read THIS POST for just one experience) I won't hold my breath. Alse see THIS POST for a very good summarry of Technorati tagging.

AN UPDATE TO MY ORIGINAL POST I'VE JUST COME ACROSS FLOCK. IT REALLY IS A GREAT BROWSER WITH SEVERAL VERY NICE USEFUL FEATURES, ESPECIALLY THE WONDERFUL NEWS READER. WHY NOT TRY IT OUT ? VISIT THE HOME SITE HERE

Please note. I am a Windows user, so do not include Mac alternative browsers in this summary.

Whilst Internet Explorer still holds about 70% of the market share, there ARE alternatives, and here are a few you might like to read about and download. Apart from those listed here there is an extremely comprehensive list of archived browsers at Evolt.org. You will be absolutely amazed at how many different browsers are available ! Log onto the site and have a look.

My own favourite browser which I now use most of the time is Maxthon Tabbed Browser. This is a powerful multi-page web browser based on the Internet Explorer engine with a highly customizable interface and many additional efficient features including pop-up blocking, auto-scrolling, form filling, external tools, plugin support, a newsgroup-browsing mode, skins, mouse gestures and an auto-hide panel. It also provides theme support, extended Unicode support, enhanced toolbars and much more. Learn more...

Advanced Browser. Surf the Web Faster! This browser was built for speed. You should get less crashes and lockups with this browser. Great design - solid performance - includes memory enhancer that outperforms all other browsers in it's class. Best of all it is 100% Free - No Adware, No Popups, No Spyware - just one great browser for you to enjoy! Learn More...

The super fast Opera web browser has been hailed the fastest web browser on Earth by users and press world-wide, and offers advanced technology you won't find in ordinary web browsers. The Opera browser doesn't use an MS Internet Explorer engine and is available as a free or paid version. Learn more...

Firefox free web browser is fast, standards-compliant and full of useful features including tabbed multi-page browsing, popup blocking, browser extensions and themes. Firefox does not use MS's Internet Explorer engine. Learn more...

PhaseOut is a tabbed customizable web browser with features including one click searches in multiple search engines, popup killer, security and privacy functions, fast previewing of web page thumbnails, skin manager and tools to organize your collections of favorite sites. Learn more...

The Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile multi-window free web browser. It allows the user to browse multiple web sites simultaneously and block all unwanted pop-up windows and flash ads. Learn more...

The SlimBrowser is a tabbed multiple page web browser that brings a large range of convenient and powerful features. It has an integrated pop up blocker, skinned window frame, quick searching, automatic login and form filler. Learn more...

Netscape v 8, speed, flexibility and probably more security choices than any other browser. Tabbed browsing has been expanded so you can open all of your favorite web sites in one window automatically. Learn more...

And finally ... Not really a browser, but an RssReader. Grab the latest headlines from RSS compliant web sites. FANTASTIC ! Learn more...

On many web sites you will see blocks of information surrounded by rounded corners - a most pleasing effect.

Whilst this is fairly easy to implement using graphics, there are other ways. Recently I have been investigating a system called Nifty Corners

See HERE for a very full and recently updated explanation of how to achieve this effect.

BAsically, it's all done with DIVs, CSS sytles and a little bit of JavaScript magic. The interaction of the various JavaScript and CSS elements is a bit daunting at first, but is quite logical. I have posted a test web page using this system HERE.

OK. So I needed access to details about HTML, PHP, MySql and JavaScipt whilst I was designing web pages.

Lots of resources scattered around the Internet, but how to find them?

Well I have now generated a web page containing links to some of the resoureces that I have found useful, and also a page of details and links to various alternative browsers.

The web page is situated HERE

Do hope this is useful.

Black & white photography, for many years the standard way of producing photos, has, in recent years, largely gone out of fashion with the ready availability of colour film, digital cameras and computer graphic software.

Whilst a brilliant colour photograph looks superb, there is now an increasing tendency to return to producing high quality black & white photos, especially as with modern software and printer inks the results can be equally superb.

So, how do we do it ? OF course, if you have (say) Photoshop or Photoshop Elements you can simply desaturate any image, but the results are likely to be a poor reflection of the original. There are many better ways of doing it than this, and here is a great tip that will produce striking results.

For this demonstration I will use Photoshop CS on the following image.

First of all open the image in Photoshop and choose menu item Image/Adjustments/Channel Mixer.

Choose the red output channel and make the red and green source channels +100% and the blue source channel -100%, leaving the constant at 0 and unselecting Monochrome.

Repeat these same settings for the green and blue output channel.

As you do this the image will be displayed in many different colours, but after finishing with the blue output channel you will have a lovely black & white image.

OK the result and then choose menu item Filter/Distort/Diffuse Glow. Set the graininess to 9, the glow amount to 2 and the clear amount to 16 - note that these are MY opinions, you can experiment with the settings to suit your taste.

OK the result and then choose menu option Edit/Fade Diffuse Glow and move the opacity slider to suit - I use about about 80%.

Save the result which should be a great contrasty image.

Here is my result.

Good luck.

A robot (also called a spider) is an automated software program which scans web pages (as well as newsgroups and other Internet structures) looking for things. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of robots tirelessly scanning the internet day and night. The result of their toils is often beneficial (they allow massive search engines like Google to exist). Sometimes their purposes are merely interesting (as with internet mapping robots), and occasionally they are actually malicious and evil (as with email harvesters).

So, how is the file formulated ?

Here is a link to a FREE tool that allows you to create a robots.txt file for your domain, the file needs to be placed in the ROOT of your domain, that means it must be where your index page is. Practically every site needs a robots.txt file. The search engines use it to index your site, and you can specify whether the robots do or don't spider your site, or parts of it. So in general it's always good to have a file like that. To access the generator click this link. Then copy and paste the result into a text file called robots.txt and upload it to root of your web site.

How can a web master get additional traffic to his/her site ? Here are a couple of tips.

Put up a blog at www.yoursite.com/blog. It doesn't matter if you use WordPress, Blogger, Thingamablog, or any other blog platform you prefer, just make sure you host it on your site. Make a few posts about your site, what people can expect to read, and why your site will be unique. After your first post, sign up for a Feedburner account. Under 'Publicize' in your account make sure to sign up for 'Ping Shot'. This will notify blogging directories of your posts which hopefully will result in a few links to your site.

Regardless of what your site is about, there is certainly a topic relating to your site that you could write an article about. For example, if your site is going to sell sports equipment, you could write an article about how to build a home gym. Or if you are going to rate and review new computers, you could write an article about how to shop for a new computer. After you've written and your article, submit them to article directories like Ezine Articles and iSnare. Be sure to include a description of your new site and a link back to it in the resource box. Again, this should result in a few links to your site.

Of course, getting your visitors to put on their own sites a link back to your site is a wonderful way of increasing links and hence traffic - YOU ARE GOING TO LINK TO THIS SITE - AREN'T YOU ?

These steps should result in some links from indexed sites which should then ensure your site to be indexed. But it can't hurt to get a few more on your own to be certain. When I launched my last site, I linked to it from my personal blog, which I knew was indexed. If you don't have that option, you can ask someone with a blog or site related to yours to mention it.

There are also various sites where you can submit yours to some of the major search engines. Here is a link to one such site for free search engine submission. Here is a another link to another part of the site where you can find out just how popular your site is with search engines. And here (finally) is a link where you can check how visible your site is to search engines. All of these pages will send you an email report.

Here are recent results for this site's visibility check. AllTheWeb 331 AltaVista 335 Google 370 MSN 762 - clicking these links will display the results for this site which contains not only what you are reading, but also my own web site and that of my church, Anstey Methodist Church.

Best of luck - and DO let me know how you get on.