I thought it would be a fun idea to break down the logo creation process of my latest design. I’m working on a new pet food coupons and review web site that I needed a dog and cat related logo for. I filled out their design information form with a bunch of ideas, and here are the first set of logos I received from LogoNerds.

Step 1: Logo Design Draft Concepts

After you’ve filled out your initial design information for LogoNerds, you will have to wait a couple of days for their first set of concepts. I always go with their $47 “Professional Business Logo” package since it comes with 6 different draft designs (and print ready images). The most exciting part of the logo design process is when you get those first drafts and have an idea where your logo is headed.

Step 2: Critique and Logo Revisions

Depending on the web site or job, sometimes I will just select one of their first drafts and go with that logo. This time around I knew I wanted something really great for the site, so I worked with LogoNerds to create the perfect logo. After looking at all of the logos for a couple days, and asking friends and family which logo they liked best, and why, I decided to go with CONCEPT 1 (top left). I thought it was simple enough to get the point across, but also fun and brandable at the same time.

I told LogoNerds that I would like to see if they could play around with the bone structure in the background and if they could create a new variation of the dog and cat faces. You can see their revision update below.

The new bone looked much better, and I liked the new cat and dog face even more. From there I gave the LogoNerds team a few ideas on how what colors to add into the logo. Their color update is shown below.

Step 3: Text Logo Revisions

The logo is looking pretty good now, and could be considered finished, but I still wasn’t loving the “PetFoodia.com” text beneath the logo. I then requested the team try and create something nice that would go along with the logo.

The next set of finished logos with a new font design can be seen below.

While some of the font designs looks nice, none of them blew me away. I like the concept on the bottom left logo, but it just didn’t look right. Once again, I went back to the LogoNerds team to request another text revision set, this time with “more simple” text concepts. Within a couple days I had another set, which you can see below.

I was much happier with this set of designs. They were much less advanced and colorful as the previous set, but I wanted something simple and to the point. I decided on the bottom left logo with, and to remove the tagline from the logo.

Step 4: Completed Logo / Files Recieved

After the thorough design and revision process, I was extremely happy with the end result. You can see the final logo below.

LogoNerds would complete the order and send over a final design zip with a variation of different sizes, colors and file types.

After looking over the whole process, and how many times I asked LogoNerds for a revision, it’s quite amazing the service they can offer for only $47.

*Exclusive LogoNerds Coupon*

I’ve already purchased four different logos from LogoNerds over the past couple of months, it’s just way to cost effective and easy to end up with a quality logo. I’ve used other services and design contest sites in the past, but most of them will cost you in the $99 to $199 range, and may drag on for weeks. Through a partnership with BloggingTips and LogoNerds, we are able to offer you an extra $10 off on the $47 “Professional Logo Package”, which brings the total to only $37. Use coupon code B10OFF to save $10 off your $47 purchase, that’s over 20% off!

- Order your custom logo from LogoNerds

I then stumbled across a design site called LogoNerds, and their portfolio and prices were pretty decent. I needed a logo designed for my new blog at FlippaTips.com, and already tried out a bunch of other services, so I figured why not try these guys out and see what they can do.

They don’t have the most advanced and fancy looking web site around, but don’t let that fool you. Click on portfolio and you can look through some of the designs they’ve created, or click on Order and you can view the different packages they have available. I went with the $47 “Professional Business Logo” package. After completing their questionnaire about how I would like to have the logo designed (concept, colors etc..). Within a few days I heard back from LogoNerds and had a few design concepts to look over.

I was quite happy with the first set of logos sent over, and went ahead to pick concept #4 (top right). If I had any ideas or changes for the logos, I would let LogoNerds know and they would make any necessary changes and get back to me with the updates. Since the design for FlippaTips.com is clean and simple, I was looking for the same in the logo design.

You can see the full FlippaTips.com blog design below, with the perfect matching logo as well. Be sure to visit the web site and read my articles on buying and selling web sites.

If you have a web site that you would like to have a logo created for, I definitely recommend trying out LogoNerds. Not only are they well priced, but they have a great customer support team. After going through many other design companies, I will definitely be using LogoNerds again. Use coupon code B10OFF to save $10 off your $47 purchase, that’s over 20% off!

One of the biggest problems with using images in your blog posts is the legal issues involved. Just because you can go to Google Images and search through a billion images that match your blog content, it doesn’t mean you can post them to your site. Should someone want to take legal action against you, it’s almost an immediate win if there is copyright issues involved.

So what can you do to keep yourself safe? Use royalty free images!

I’ve been using Depositphotos’s royalty free images for over a year now and it makes grabbing images for my blog posts a breeze. What’s even more important is that I don’t have to worry about someone else having ownership over the images, and they have a ton of images to choose from.

I just logged into my account and did a quick search for “blogging”. You can see all of the search results below. Once you select the image you would like to use, you can save the file directly to your computer and use it as many times as you like for future posts, ad creative or even word/powerpoint presentations.

The cost for downloading and using any of the images on Depositphotos will vary depending on the size of image you would like to download. I always use the smallest image size, which works fine for the blog, and ends up being around .50 cents per image. As you can see in the screen shot below, the smallest size on this image is 400×300, which is more than large enough for a blog post, and only costs half of a credit).

If you don’t want to spend any money on images, you can select from a few of the free stock photos they have on their site. If you are a graphics designer, there is also a massive selection of nearly 300,000 different vector images to choose from.

Depositphotos is currently holding a promotion for both bloggers and photographers, which offers a free trial subscription for site owners and special deals for high volume photographers.

- Depositphotos Royalty Free Images

If your website has a store presence with a shopping cart, I suggest offering a coupon code for a discount.  Host Gator is a great example of this implementation:

Host Gator offers web hosting for only a penny when visitors use the conveniently named coupon code: 404PAGE for easy tracking. What I found interesting though was that they not only offer this deal to their site specific 404 visitors, but also on the 404 pages of their paying web-host customers that don’t have a custom 404 page of their own set up. I’m surprised they haven’t differentiated the two by either the code itself or their analytics tracking within the url.

So what if your website doesn’t have a shopping cart? You can still convert visitors by offering a “freebie” of some sort.  Offer a free e-book for subscribing to your newsletter or a chance to win a great prize by liking you on Facebook.  Visitors love getting something for nothing.  And you’ll love getting new subscribers and fans for free!

If the above are not options for you, you could at least add some humor to your 404 page to make your visitors smile.  Tell them the page they are trying to view got abducted by space invaders.  They are more likely to remember a site with a funny 404 page than a boring one.

BONUS: Setup a web hosting account with HostGator and use coupon code “BLOGGINGTIPS25” to save 25% on your web hosting package!

What’s on your 404 page?

For example, shortly after Christmas, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt found that his blog had been hacked, hosting unauthorized ads, including those for mail order brides.

Though what caused the hack in that case is unknown, what is known is that the site was pulled offline for some time, cleaned up and restored, but only after much embarrassment and headache.

However, that is probably the least damaging kind of hack possible. Hackers, upon taking over a blog, have been known to do a variety of things from using a blog to install malware on visitor’s machines (which may also get you blocked in Google), turn your site into a spam blog by hiding unwanted content or, in many cases, just delete all of your hard work.

So how do these hacks happen? Most, sadly, are caused by careless bloggers who leave open security holes on their sites. With that in mind, here are some of the quicker ways to get your site hacked and virtually ensure that you have, at the very least, a long night ahead of you.

1. Use Poor Usernames and Passwords

Your username and password is your first line of defense as no security measure is going to protect you against a hacker who either knows or guesses your login information.

If you’re a WordPress user, your username should never be “admin” or any variation thereof. The original “admin” account WordPress installations used to install should be deleted for security reason.

Also, one’s password should never be based directly on a word and should contain a combination of character, capitals, numbers and symbols. The goal is to create a semi-random password that bears no resemblance to a word that can be found in a dictionary, common list of names or list that might be used in a dictionary attack.

If you need help creating a password, there are a variety of password generators available, including one within WordPress itself.

Bear in mind that it isn’t just enough to have a secure password for your blog’s login, you also need to make sure that your hosting account, FTP and other passwords related to your site are secure as well. One weak link is all that it takes.

Finally, don’t share your passwords or reuse them on other sites. The Gawker Media hack should show the danger of doing that.

2. Run Outdated or Insecure Code

WordPress, as well as other blogging platforms, are essentially software applications that run on your server. As with any software, it has bugs and security problems that the developers try to fix quickly. This prompts them to release patches regularly to address any issues that they find.

However, many bloggers don’t update their blogs in a timely fashion and, once hackers learn how to use the patched exploits, they find these blogs very easy targets. This is often the cause of the viral hacks that can impact thousands of blogs

But as Mike Witty, the Director of Security at the host Servint, pointed out in an interview I did with him for another site, bad software is also often to blame. You can get into just as much trouble by installing plugins and even themes that are out of date or insecure, making it important to only install up-to-date add ons from trusted sources.

All in all, you need to make sure that the software you put on your server is secure and stays that way, otherwise it could be an invitation for a hacker to their worst.

3. Be a Security Slacker

Having the right software and a good password is crucial, but none of it matters if you don’t take your responsibilities seriously as well.

Some of the most important security steps we take are the little things we do every day to make ourselves more or less safe. Consider the following:

1. Logging Out: When you leave a public computer or even if you’re just using your machine in a public space and need to step away.
2. Watching Your Belongings: The information on your laptop and/or phone can be used to do far more than hack into your blog. Remember that they aren’t just valuable because of the price you paid, but for what is inside.
3. Trusting Sparingly: Finally, don’t give out your password or other relevant information over email, phone or other means unless you are 100% sure of the identity of the person you are talking to. Human engineering is an easy way for hackers to get a variety of valuable information, so it is best to be aware of who is around you and who you are talking with.

In short, doing the “big stuff” like patching your blog and picking a long password won’t mean anything if you fall for a scam email or leave yourself logged in while others can use your machine.

Don’t lock the doors tight and then give away the keys to the kingdom, it’s just foolish.

Bottom Line

Will taking these steps make you hack-proof? Absolutely not. Blogs that do everything right sometimes get hacked too, just like athletes have heart attacks sometimes the same as the rest of us. However, you are reducing your risk of something bad happening to you and avoiding making yourself an easy target, that, for most, is more than enough.

Simply put, there are no absolutes in security and blog security is no different. There is no such thing as “completely secure” just “more secure” and “less secure”. You want “more secure” in everything you do, within reason, and the more you push your site to that end of the spectrum, the less likely it is you’ll have a problem.

If you’re smart about your passwords, run good software that you keep up to date and follow good practices day-to-day, you’ll be doing more than many and you’ll be taking yourself out of the crosshairs of most hackers.

That being said, one of the more common and embarrassing mistakes involves screwing up your theme. This can be especially frustrating if you aren’t somewhat experienced with HTML and CSS, but can still be a headache no matter how experienced you are.

Though there are literally an infinite number of ways you can mess up your theme, limited only by your “imagination” in this area, some errors are definitely more common than others and you can probably fix most of the common mistakes quickly.

With that in mind, here are 5 very common theme/template problems and how to fix them.

I’m Getting An Error that Says ___________

This can be the most frustrating problem as it can mean your site is effectively offline. If your site is throwing back an error, either in addition to or instead of your other content, you need to read the error carefully.

The error will, usually tell you everything you need to know to fix it, including what file the error is in, what line number it is at. If your error says that the problem is in your header.php at line 56, you can be pretty sure that the error is in that file and on, or at least near that line.

Go into that file and look for any obvious formatting errors such as forgetting a bracket, a quote or something else. Be sure to look at the line before it to make sure that it wasn’t a formatting error on that line causing the crash to happen on the one after it.

For help with line numbers, you may want to use a source code editor like Crimson Editor that displays line numbers clearly.

All of the Content After Point X is Formatted Wrong

This can happen either within a post or within a theme, but if after a certain point in the page the rest of the content is formatted wrong, you most likely forgot to close a tag. For example, if you open up an H2 tag bug don’t close it, all of the content below it will appear in that format.

To fix it, simply go to where the error started and see if you failed to close a tag. When you find it, add the closing tag at the correct place.

My Sidebar is Below My Content

This is a common problem where the sidebar or navigation of a site appears below the content portion when it should be beside it. This can be especially annoying as it will happen in certain browsers but not others, sometimes making it a tough problem to track down.

The cause of the problem, usually, is a simple math problem. If your HTML you likely have a DIV for your entire body, including both your content and navbar as well as DIVs for those two areas. If the content area plus the sidebar area plus any padding around them is wider than the main DIV, the sidebar will appear below the content, just like text running over to the next line.

The easiest way to temporarily fix this problem is to simply add a few pixels to the main DIV in your site’s CSS file. However, you’ll likely want to keep working at this one to make sure it lines up perfectly in all browsers.

A Function Isn’t Found

This is a specific type of error that is common after disabling a plugin where your site doesn’t load and generates an error saying that a function can not be found. Though WordPress makes it easy to code around this by using the function_exists check, many plugins don’t ask for that when telling users to copy and paste code into their theme.

You can fix this by either removing the line of code that calls the plugin, which should be identified in the error, or reactivating the plugin.

Something Is Causing Loading to Hang

This one might not even be an obvious problem at first but you may notice that your site never really finishes loading or, in extreme circumstances, will hang up in mid-load for a lengthy period of time. This is an annoying problem and, usually, is not one you caused directly.

What is going on is some element, likely from a 3rd party, is loading slowly or not loading at all, holding up your site while your browser either grabs it or gives up.

The easiest way to figure this out is to load your site and watch the bottom of your browser to see what the problem is. If that fails, use Pingdom’s Load Test Tool to see what item is causing your site to come up so slowly. Remove the problem, at least temporarily and your site should fly just fine..

Bottom Line

Template and other coding errors are why it pays dividends for a blogger to know HTML and CSS. If you can’t fix small problems with your theme or make minor adjustments, you are at the mercy of your visual tools and those who are willing to help you.

Fortunately, you don’t need a lot of expertise, just enough to make these kinds of adjustments. This is not computer programming and it doesn’t require any truly special skills, virtually anyone who can use a word processor can learn HTML easily with a bit of work.

Once you have that, problems like these go from being major panics to simple problems that take only a few seconds to fix.

Overall, the article was well-received but several commenters took issue with the second item on my list: HTML/CSS Skills.

Several felt that the power of WordPress/Blogger and other blogging platforms made the need to know HTML obsolete. Others pointed out, correctly, that you can outsource much of this work if you’re willing to pay.

That being said, there’s still no substitute for having at least some basic HTML skills in your mental toolbox. You don’t have to be a virtuoso, but you need to be able to customize your blog and fix any mistakes or you will find yourself at a severe disadvantage.

If you don’t see the need, consider the problems not knowing HTML/CSS raises, especially down the road.

Theme Are Not Enough

The official WordPress Theme Directory currently lists just over 1,200 free themes and there are probably many times that on other sites not in the official repository. Without paying a dime or changing one line of code any blogger can have one of thousands of looks for their site.

In fact, with recent upgrades to WordPress, you can even change the header image, the background and a few other elements without editing the code, instead just altering theme options.

The problem is that, of the available themes, very few are actually good and only a fraction of those are relevant. Most themes available are mediocre or worse and there tends to be a group of a few dozen themes that get used over and over again. Even with the basic customizations any site using one of these themes, unmodified, will look like dozens of other blogs out there, including many that are more popular and more strongly associated with that look.

A big part of being a successful blogger is branding and it is almost impossible to build a good brand when your site reminds many of your visitors of another blog. This isn’t to say that you can’t use themes, I certainly do, by that you have to customize them and make them your own.

However, this is the part you can easily outsource, including getting a completely custom theme. This takes much of the edge off of not having any HTML/CSS skills but it can be very expensive, especially for a blogger not looking to make a profit, and, even worse, it only fixes part of the problem.

Maintenance

If you outsource your theme development or decide that you’re comfortable using a relatively stock theme, you’re still going to have to make small changes to it as you go. Whether it’s Twitter buttons, new sidebar elements, font changes, etc. you’re going to want tweak your site at some point.

This tweaking is crucial to respond to visitor’s wishes, fix minor problems and add new features. Virtually every site or blog is under near-constant construction, even if the changes aren’t readily visible.

However, if HTML scares you and you received outside help in building your theme, you can’t make these changes on the fly. Instead, you have to farm them out and this means spending more time and more money on making relatively simple changes. This really slows down the evolution of your site, hurts your ability to adopt new tools and puts you at the mercy of others, who may have other clients and bigger projects, to make any changes on your site.

The other effect is that this actually adds more work to your blogging workload, especially for simple changes. Rather than altering a few lines of code, you have to hammer out an email to your friend or designer, explain what you want done, go back and forth to make sure it’s done right and then, at long last, follow up on completion. A simple change in HTML only takes a few minutes but having someone else make the change can take hours to get it done right and involve waiting weeks.

Bad Things Happens

But while the waiting can be annoying and discouraging when dealing with routine maintenance and updates, it can be murder when something goes wrong with your site.

And things do go wrong. Though not editing your HTML reduces one of the major sources of trouble, human error, there are still plugins that can update and go askew, malicious hacks and other sources of headaches that you may need to jump on immediately.

What happens when your image host goes down or that company with that great new tool you loved closes up shop? What happens when a spammer attacks your site and inserts a bunch of garbage links into the template? If you don’t know HTML the answer is you’re going to be waiting for some time while you seek out someone else to clean up the mess for you or you need to learn quickly.

Things go wrong all the time with Web sites. Services die, hosts make changes on their end, hacks happen and you need to be prepared. If you can’t edit code and perform basic triage, you’ll find yourself with a lot of late nights waiting for someone else to step in or, even worse, losing data as you’re forced to restore from backups when it could have been repaired.

Bottom Line

Do you absolutely 100% need to have HTML/CSS skills to be a successful blogger? Probably not. But do you have a reasonable chance at being successful without those skills? No.

You can certainly get a lot farther without HTML/CSS than you once could but just because one can set up a site without looking at code doesn’t mean one can build a successful one without doing it.

Not knowing HTML/CSS is a huge handicap and it is almost impossible to overcome. The vast majority of bloggers definitely need at least some basic level of HTML knowledge and will eventually struggle if they don’t have it.

Your energy is best spent on running your site, not waiting on others to help you out or finding workarounds for easy-to-solve problems. The time and energy it takes to get the level of HTML knowledge you need is less than what you’d likely spend trying to work around or get help on on just one situation.

You don’t need to be a maestro of code, but you need to be able to look at your HTML without being scared and understand how to format CSS.

After all, you might be able to get by for a while without the knowledge, especially if you’re willing to pay a price, but a day will eventually come you’ll regret not knowing it and that regret will be in a very big way.

It doesn’t have to be hard, though, to set up a Flash-based website. Thanks to EasyTemplates, you really can have easy Flash templates to implement to your heart’s desire. Whether you need a rocking new site for your rock band or a funky online destination for your fashion design business, Flash might be the way to go.

Easy Flash Templates

That’s the main selling point of this site. They offer Flash website templates that are easy to implement, easy to configure, and easy to use.

It’s interesting that this site is now coming to light, considering how Apple seems to be so against Flash on its mobile devices and even video sites like YouTube are slowing shifting over to HTML5 instead. Even so, Flash sites can still be quite popular for a number of reasons.

The pre-built Flash websites offered by Easy Templates come both with admin galleries and without. Both sides offer a range of different possibilities, including photo galleries, business templates and more. The site also offers a number of HTML, Joomla, and PowerPoint templates as well.

Pricing and Samples

The pricing for each template can range considerably, but you can usually expect to find something in the $50 to $100 range.

The variety is quite impressive and it’s easy to sift through the catalog. Each template has its own name, thumbnail image, and product page. I found the layout of the site to look a little “clunky” compared to some other online marketplaces, but it is functional.

For each template, you can click on the “view details” link to get additional information about that particular Flash template. This also directs you a live demo, giving you a very real idea of how this template will look when you purchase and edit it.

The Real Estate Example

Shown below is one such sample, the real estate easy Flash template.

If you go to the product page, you’ll notice that this template includes a brief Flash animation as its introduction before you get to the “main” part of the website. You’ll also notice that you get more animations when you mouse-over certain elements, like the navigation links near the top of the page.

The preview can exist within the context of the store, including the “buy” link and links back to various sections of EasyTemplates, or you can check out the full screen preview if you prefer.

The Deal with Flash

It’s debatable whether or not you’d want to have a Flash website in today’s Internet, particularly when you think about the increased use of mobile browsers, but EasyTemplates seems to be a good place to get started if you do. They have a lot of Flash templates for you to consider and the pricing is reasonable, even if you don’t get completely unique and original work.

Link: Easy Templates

Rather than use any number of freely available templates that will make your site look like everyone else’s, it may be worth considering a custom design from the fine folks at Capsis Media. They offer completely unique site designs to suit just about any purpose.

Totally Original Look for a Totally Original Site

Whether you run a blog, an online store, or any number of other kinds of websites, you want to stick out from the crowd. With the website design services of Capsis Media, you can achieve just the look you need.

Capsis Media promises “to create custom websites that present a visual and interactive experience that makes a particular website a true original.” They don’t sell templates or set themes that everyone can have. Every creation is a one-off design, so you’ll know that you are getting something completely unique.

If you need more than just a new design (which can offered as a Joomla template or WordPress theme, should you so desire), you can also opt to make use of the website development and programming services offered by Capsis Media. Need a certain web app created? They can do that.

Pictures Are Worth Thousands of Words

Just as you would likely ask for writing samples before hiring a freelance writer, you would likely want to see some design samples before hiring someone to create a custom web design for you as well.

For that, you can turn to the portfolio page on the Capsis Media website. Here, you can see a range of different custom websites that they have designed for their clients. Among them are Twitter background images too, which are increasingly important in today’s branding efforts.

It might be just me, but it seems that a good number of the designs created by Capsis Media make use of the light blue color scheme. This might be a little more than a coincidence, but it could reflect some of the personal artistic style of some of the folks who work at Capsis.

How Much Does It Cost?

Instead of providing a set rate sheet for its custom web design and web programming services, Capsis Media requires you to fill out its rate quote question sheet.

This way, they can better understand your specific needs and preferences. It is notable that there is a banner at the top of the page saying that custom website designs start at $199, but the main homepage makes mention of a $129 starting price. Take that for what it’s worth.

One very good thing about Capsis is that they offer unlimited revisions on all their design work. If you are not happy with the initial draft, you can continue to request changes and tweaks until you are completely satisfied.

Link: Capsis Media

Rather than use a generic theme that is widely available to anyone else on the Internet, it is usually in your best interest to invest in a custom theme that is unique to your site. For that, you may consider turning to Dizzain.com, a New York-based web design firm.

Who is Dizzain?

Dizzain was formed in 2001 when a programmer, a designer, and a system architect decided to get together to create their own company in New York. Dizzain is full service web design company that can offer turnkey website designs, logo and theme designs, and 24/7 site maintenance, as well as web application programming and implementation.

The core focus, however, is with the creation of a custom WordPress theme for websites of all sizes. The reason why Dizzain focuses on WordPress is that it is “the best blogging solution on the web today.”

Every WordPress theme that Dizzain creates is custom designed, widget-ready, SEO-ready, ads-ready, and W3CXHTML/CSS validated. To date, Dizzain has created over 200 unique themes.

Samples of the Work

The best way to see what Dizzain can do for you is to see what they have done for other people. For that, you can check out the expansive WordPress portfolio on their site.

The portfolio is designed in such a way to display several of the themes they have created over the years in thumbnail form. Clicking on any individual thumbnail will expand it into a larger preview in a higher resolution.

The screenshot above is from the Colorado Hunting Journal. They clearly wanted to recreate the look and feel of a cabin in the middle of the forest and the wood elements really speak to that niche.

How Much Does It Cost?

Ah yes, the issue of price. This can be a sticking point for most companies, both large and small. Dizzain does not offer a standard pricing chart, instead offering price quotes on an individual basis.

You will need to fill out the contact form to get more information. If you do not like forms, you can also call them via telephone or send a message via email.

While the exact prices are not explicitly mentioned on the site, you’ll notice that the “budget” portion of the contact form starts at $1,000. In this way, it’s unlikely that they are interested in projects smaller than this size. The form also provides space for the type of project, timeline, and a personal message.

Dizzain is quite clearly a premium service, but based on the portfolio, they also offer premium performance. The old adage may indeed ring true: you get what you pay for.

Link: Dizzain.com

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.

Continuing along this similar line of thought is the Rating Plugin. In short, it allows you to create an unlimited number of micro-posts inside blog posts. These micro-posts are then voted on by readers and automatically ranked based on popularity. They can also post micro-comments within each micro post.

Letting Their Voice Be Heard

Many different applications are possible with Rating Plugin. Say, for instance, that you want people to voice their opinions on the best digital cameras. They can do that. You can easily monetize these micro posts, then, with appropriate affiliate links.

To test out the Rating Plugin, I asked people who they think is the best new Super Street Fighter IV character. They can give any of the ten characters a thumbs up or a thumbs down, sharing them across social networks and posting micro comments up to 50 characters in length.

An Imperfect WordPress Plugin

Rating Plugin does contain a few coding errors, however. The call code for the thumbs up/down icons is incorrect.

It points to:

http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/images/image.gif

Rather than:

http://www.example.com/wp-content/plugins/RACStreamVote/images/image.gif

The same issue arises with the social media buttons to the right. The quick fix is to move the internal “images” and “icon” folders to your main plugin directory, but the code itself needs to be fixed in future iterations.

It is also too bad that Rating Plugin doesn’t allow for much in terms of customization. You cannot adjust the width of the inserted tables nor can you eliminate the need for an image associated with each micro post. Without a picture, you get a broken image.

Installation, Setup, and Implementation

After unzipping and uploading Rating Plugin to your WordPress blog via FTP, you will need to activate it as usual. After that, you can go to the main plugin interface on the settings page.

Before writing the blog post that will contain the micro-posts, you need to write the micro posts. You give the group an internal name, set the options, and enter the info for each micro post. It defaults to three micro posts, but you can add and remove more at will.

When you get to the main area to write a blog post, you’ll notice that a new box has appeared underneath the main content area. Here, you choose the “voting option” that you defined in the previous step and enable its insertion.

The series of micro posts are then embedded below the main content automatically. I would have liked the ability to hide the micro posts from the main index page, only having them appear within the single post itself, but this option is not available.

Rating the Rating Plugin

I think the concept behind this premium WordPress plugin is a good one. It gives your audience a new way to interact with your blog and it is much more robust than typical “poll” plugins. However, Rating Plugin is flawed.

You can’t adjust its width, the call codes for the icons are incorrect, and there aren’t enough options for customization. The concept of a micro post is interesting and versatile, however, since it can add a new dimension to your blog.

Rating Plugin is available for download with three different licenses. Choose from the $34.95 single site license, $84.95 multi-site license, or $184.95 developer license.

However, putting your email address on a Web site unprotected is practically an invitation to get spammed. Also, many users don’t have their browsers configured to handle such addresses clearly and, as a result, struggle to send mail that way. This is one of the reasons why contact forms have become so popular.

To that end, there are already a lot of great ways to get contact forms into your site. The most popular, for WordPress users, is CFormsII, or a similar WordPress plugin that makes adding forms to a post or page easy.

But while these plugins are great fro basic contact forms and even some simple registration forms, what if your needs are more complex? For example, what if you need to calculate a price, hide or show elements based upon selections or integrate a payment system? It might be time for something more advanced and, in those cases, FormStack may be a great alternative.

Formstack provides a slew of powerful features with a simplicity that makes it approachable even by novices. It’s a great tool for building forms and the only thing that might scare you away is the price.

What Formstack Does

Overall, the idea of Formstack is pretty simple, you design the form using their service and, when you’re done, you embed it into your site using either their embed code, which works via JavaScript, the raw HTML code or by simply linking them to the form page on Formstack’s site.

To that end, the features of Formstack are pretty straightforward but are definitely impessive when put together:

1. Form Builder: A visual form builder lets you add elements via drag and drop while making manipulating them intuitive. There is no need to look at HTML code while creating a Formstack form.
2. Conditional Logic: Forms can have elements appear or disappear as your user selects different variables. For example, if a user ticks they are a current customer, you can have the the contact information disappear while adding in a slot for their username or customer number.
3. Calculating Fields: Allows you to tally up elements from within the form itself. For example, if you have a registration form for a conference, you can add or subtract to the price if they choose they want a printed ticket or a t-shirt. You can also use it to tabulate answers on a quiz.
4. Payment & Other Integrations: Formstack can integrate with various payment services, including Paypal, and other third-party providers such as Salesforce, Freshbooks and Mailchimp.
5. Templates: Formstack provides a slew of templates and themes for your form and gives you the chance, with a paid account, to add your own custom style.

All in all, what Formstack does it does well. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. The more advance features do take a moment to learn but can be picked up quickly with the aid of their video tutorials. In short, even a very complicated form should not take longer than an hour or two to set up, even if you are a relative novice at form building.

You’ll be hard pressed to find an easier way to set up and maintain a complex form, especially one that goes beyond what you need for a basic contact form.

Limitations and Drawbacks

The biggest drawback to Formstack is the price. Though Formstack offers a free account, it is limited to just ten fields per form, which is eaten up very quickly on even the most basic forms, and doesn’t have any of the integrations, including payment processing, or any of the features that make Formstack worthwhile.

In short, anything you can do with a free account you can like do with CFormsII or another form plugin.

However, to step up to the more useful accounts you need to pay at least $14 per month. While not a huge amount to anyone who is going to be making money from their form, it is more than many small bloggers pay in hosting.

This is especially worrisome since most forms are a “set and forget” deal meaning that this $14 per month pays solely for hosting the form (if you embed it rather than using the HTML) and processing it. There seems to be little reason why this should cost $14 per month, especially over the long haul.

Beyond that, there are strange quirks that I’ve noticed as I’ve used Formstack. For example, when you create a new section and have some text to describe it, there is always a large gap between the text and the form elements, even if there is only a line or two of text. Likewise, if you change field names or options, the conditional logic or the field calcuations don’t keep up, forcing you to reset them every time you make a change.

These are minor hiccups that could almost be better described as quirks, but they do make the process less than smooth and, considering the price, I would say a smooth process is critical.

Bottom Line

Most bloggers aren’t going to have much need for Formstack. A simple contact form can be easily handled by CFormsII or a similar system. Those with only slightly more comlex needs can use Gravity Forms, a $39 WordPress plugin with many advanced form creation features and a visual interface.

Formstack is only for extreme cases where conditional logic, payment processing or some other element is required. Even then though, you may be able to save money by looking at FormSpring competitors such as Icebrrg or Formsmarts, both of which have plans that are less per month and might meet your needs.

Still, there is no doubt that what Formstack does, it does well. It is all in all a great product and one that may be well worth using if your needs rise to what it provides.

One such system is Kentico, a CMS for ASP.net. According to its developers and marketers, Kentico is a “flexible, all-in-one solution for web developers.” Over 4000 websites around the world are already using Kentico.

A Robust Content Management System

Just as you can use WordPress for a variety of different sites, Kentico comes packed with plenty of features that can accommodate different types of websites too.

Kentico can be used for everything from a corporate website to an online store, a personal blog to a community site. Among the features, you’ll find that Kentico supports blogs, forums, e-commerce, event calendars, a booking system, full text search, polls, wikis, geomapping, tags and categories, groups, private messaging, media libraries, and web analytics.

You have two options if you’d like to take Kentico out for a free test drive. There is the 30-day trial that requires your own installation on your own servers or you can try the virtual lab for a free online demo.

Checking Out the WYSIWYG Editor and Interface

Whether you choose to take the full trial or the online demo, you will need to provide Kentico with your name and email address. I opted for the online demo and the test site was set up for me in less than ten minutes.

In the confirmation email, I was directed to my test site, which is set by default to a corporate site. There is also an e-commerce site, a personal site, and a community starter site, all of which feature a completely different look and feel. All of them are accessed through the same online dashboard though.

The online user interface reminds me of Microsoft Office in some ways, but you’ll find that the features are quite different, of course. You can switch between the different sites from the pull-down menu (top right) and the “live” preview is shown in the WYSIWYG editor in the center.

The layout can be overwhelming for many novices, since there are so many options presented at any one time. With time and practice, however, the interface can be just as intuitive as WordPress or any other CMS.

Power an Online Store Too

The Kentico CMS seems to be great for static sites, but it also appears to be a good fit for other types of web content as well. For instance, one of the default configurations is for e-commerce.

This way, you can quite easily populate your own online store. The interface to alter its appearance is exactly the same as the corporate site above and you can customize the site’s layout to include a company logo, different navigation options and so on.

How Much Does It Cost?

Largely targeting the corporate and enterprise market, Kentico CMS for ASP.net looks to be very full-featured and relatively easy-to-use. It will take some practice to familiarize yourself with the user dashboard, but you do have access to everything from forums to blogs right out of the box.

The optimal experience will cost you a fairly significant amount of money however.

The free edition limits you to just 1000 documents and 100 site members, which may not be conducive to a large community site or a growing blog. The $1,999+ base license gives you much more flexibility, but you’ll need the $4,499+ ultimate license to get unlimited e-commerce products, forums, and blogs.

Link: Kentico

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.

But if you are among the bloggers that haven’t created a mobile-friendly version of your site, you are not alone. The vast majority of sites on the Web do not have mobile-friendly versions, especially small-to-midsized sites, and there doesn’t appear to be any rush to add the capability.

Though the growth in mobile browsing has grown faster than desktop Web browsing, it still only makes up a fraction of overall Web surfing. Furthermore, even those who are using mobile surfing are not generally using it as their primary or sole means to access the Web, but rather, are using it for specific tasks.

This begs the question of how important mobile optimization is for Web sites and if it is something bloggers should worry about. The answer, however, is far from cut and dry.

Mobile IS the Future

To be clear, mobile browsing is the future of the Web or at least a bit part of it. There isn’t much debate about that. Internet use on mobile phones is growing rapidly and with the introduction of new devices, such as the iPad, that are targeted for this purpose, that trend is only going to speed up. Factor in netbooks, which function as PCs but serve a more mobile-oriented function, and it seems the days of a desktop computer are numbered.

That may be the case, but more likely we are heading to a more hybrid environment where all methods of accessing the Web are used in conjunction. Desktop PCs will continue to be around in some form, but consumers will use other means to access the Web as well, making them less dependent on their non-mobile machines than they already are.

But this revolution isn’t being fueled just by a desire to cut the cord, but also by the amazing power of these tools. In just a few short years a mobile browser has gone from being able to only display text to browsers, such as those on the iPhone and Droid, that are capable of displaying text, images, video and the full layout of the page.

In short, the mobile revolution is less about making sites that work well on mobile phones and more about making mobile phones that work well with Web sites. This is great news for Web developers as it keeps standards consistent and lets users access our sites no matter where they might be.

While there are still some heavy concerns for Web developers, including the limited speed of mobile Web access (even over 3G networks), as mobile broadband becomes more common, those fears will wane, making the existing Web even better for those using mobile devices.

It’s About the Apps

However, just because mobile browsers can display content on any Web site doesn’t make it an ideal solution. The problem is that traditional Web sites are formatted for much larger screens, requiring the user to take extra steps to view it on a mobile device, usually zooming in and scrolling around the screen.

Mobile versions of a Web site can mitigate that, making it easier to browse as well as faster to load on the limited connection. Though the burden of viewing a full site on an iPhone is not that large, having a mobile-friendly version can make your site more appealing to those who do a lot of mobile browsing.

However, according to an article by Gigaom for Businessweek, mobile browsing may be giving way to apps for specific sites and services. Already there are countless apps for Facebook and Twitter, but even some individual blogs are getting in on the game, including Mashable.

These apps provide a tight, integrated and speedy experience that can’t even be matched by a mobile-friendly site. Throw in push alerts and other notifications and it easy to see why these apps may be the way of the future. Not only are they more convenient for users, but the offer new opportunities for publishers to connect with readers.

Whether this actually comes to pass or not, especially with the growing acceptance of HTML5 for building Web-based apps, but it is easy to see why it might be very tempting.

Is It Right For You?

This leaves bloggers in a pretty strange position. Should they keep going as is, create a mobile version of their site or perhaps invest the time and money to create a mobile app? There is no right or wrong answer.

The key lies in how visitors are using your site now and in knowing your audience. If you write a blog that talks about mobile gadgets, then you probably need at least a mobile-friendly site, possibly even an app. If you write about how cell phones are evil and are destroying society, you probably shouldn’t bother.

Most sites, however, lie somewhere in the middle and have readers that will come to it from multiple sources. If you look at your traffic stats, you should be able to get a feeling for how big mobile browsing is on your site and if it is worth creating something a new version to cater to them.

GIven that, for many bloggers, creating a mobile-friendly version of the site is as easy as installing a plugin, there probably is little harm in doing so. However, if you use certain caching systems, you may find that WP Touch is incompatible, as I did.

If you don’t have a large mobile audience at this time, there probably isn’t much cause to take action. However, you definitely do want to keep an eye on the mobile market and start thinking about when might be a good time, in your niche, to make a more concerted effort.

Bottom Line

Though there has always been a lot of variety in the way people view Web sites (browsers, operating systems, plugins, etc.) and those have always produced challenges for those building sites, we haven’t seen anything yet.

Soon enough, for a site to be successful, it will have to function on computers, phones, tablets and more. Where previously the biggest challenge was coding for IE6, soon it will be coding for all of the hardware platforms too.

The good news is that, unlike the previous challenges, this isn’t about sites breaking on one browser. Due to the power of these new tools, sites will function “good enough” so long as they don’t have features, such as Flash, that aren’t on all mobile platforms. Rather, this is about optimization and giving the best reader experience possible.

This makes sense. After all, it is much easier (and cheaper) to build new phones that work with the existing Web than to try and build a who new Web for the old phones. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but we may have to tweak the engine in order to ensure that we give our visitors the best experience they can have.

When you are the owner of a brick and mortar business, most people will expect that you have a business card of some kind. If you happen to make your money on the web as a professional blogger or Internet entrepreneur, you should treat your online business no differently than an offline business. This means getting a business card too, but it doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to do it.

Rather than paying for a custom designer and going to a local print shop, it may be worthwhile to consider an online service like Print24. From this one-stop shop, you can design your business card (and other stationery products), choose the format, select the paper, and have the final product shipped straight to your door.

An Overwhelming Front Page

Normally, when you go to the homepage of an online business, you are greeted with a welcome page of some kind. Such is not the case with Print24; they get straight down to business.

Right from the front page, you can get started with your online order. It defaults to selling flyers, but the product pulldown lets you choose business cards, address labels, catalogs, notepads, posters, and more. After choosing your product, you go through each of the pulldown menus to define your order, including page type, size, colors, UV coating, quantity, and so on.

This interface is very overwhelming, especially since it is the first page that prospective customers see. It would be a lot more user-friendly if there was a basic welcome page to start, giving a brief overview of what we can expect to find and buy from Print24.

Plenty of Pre-Designed Templates

After selecting the business card product and determining the other characteristics, you are given the opportunity to choose from a wide array of pre-designed templates. These are organized by category, showing eight possibilities at a time.

Hovering your mouse pointer over any single design will give you a quick (larger) preview of what it will look like. The categories are quite varied, so it doesn’t really matter which industry you desire. Some designs are more generic-looking than others, but it’s good to see the variety of business card designs offered.

On-Site Custom Card Designer

Naturally, the default templates may not be exactly what you want. That’s why there is a very robust and powerful business card designer built right into the Print24 website.

The problem is that this tool, much like the homepage, can be daunting and intimidating for many users. The toolbox isn’t quite as obvious as a more professional tool, like PhotoShop or Illustrator, but many similar utilities are contained within.

For the purposes of this review, I put together a business card for my role as a senior editor at Mobile Magazine. To customize the design, I moved, removed, and added some of those “circle” elements. Naturally, I also changed the text in the text box to reflect what I wanted to see included.

While some other websites that offer inexpensive (or free) business cards restrict you to their default designs, Print24 goes beyond the call of duty with this tool. It’s also very useful that you can import any images that you’d like, so it’s easy to implement a company logo.

And the Verdict on Quality?

After placing the order, the business cards typically arrive within about a week. It should be noted, however, that promo codes do not appear to work across all countries. An “American” coupon code did not work when I was on the “Canadian” section of the site.

The quality of the business cards is about par for the course. They’re not the most impressive of cards, but they’re far from being the poorest quality either. If you’re looking for some cheap cards, Print24 looks to be a very good option to consider.

Link: Print24

* This was a Paid Review. If you are interested in having your site reviewed on Blogging Tips, please check out our Advertising Information Page.