Want an easy way to upload and share videos? First, sign up for free Dropbox and Vimeo accounts if you don’t have them already. Dropbox is great for sharing all types of files and Vimeo is good for uploading and sharing videos.
Create a Video folder in your Dropbox account, this is where you will save your video files.
Log into Vimeo and go to Me > My Settings
Click “Connect” next to Dropbox. Make sure to give Vimeo full access to Dropbox and tell it where your new Video folder is on Dropbox.
Save your videos to your Dropbox folder and they will automatically upload to Vimeo! If you install the Dropbox app on your phone, you should be able to save videos you take on your phone right into that folder too.
I’ve talked before about Domain Names and Web Hosting. If you have purchased either of these services in the past, don’t forget that you need to renew them either monthly or yearly! If you don’t remember to renew, you could lose your domain or your entire website. Your registrar/hosting company should email you when it’s time to renew, so keep an eye out.
Interested to see how many people visit your website and where they are coming from? You can keep track of these statistics and many more with Google’s free analytics software.
Want to learn more about how to use analytics to improve your business performance? Google offers a free fundamentals course with short videos on basics and advanced topics.
Confused or overwhelmed? Contact me and I can help you get set up with analytics on your website.
A website wireframe is a lot like a blueprint for a house. It’s a document that shows the framework of how the website might look or function. It will show things like navigational elements, form fields, and content placeholders, but usually does not show typographic style (fonts), colors, or particular graphics. The point is to show how the information will be displayed, the priority of the specific elements on the page, and particular functionality (how parts of a page will work).
If you’re interested in creating a wireframe, here are some great tools for the job:
Today, people look at the internet on all kinds of devices, from phones and tablets to desktop monitors and huge HD TVs. Each of these devices has a screen of a unique size and shape. It used to be that we only cared about the desktop experience, but a website built at that size is not always easy to use on a smaller screen.
Responsive Web Design is a way of building websites so that they respond differently to screens of different sizes. A responsive website automatically adjusts its layout to fit your screen instead of forcing you to scroll around or zoom in and out.
Look at the way my website rearranges itself depending on the screen that’s being used:
Notice that the same elements are always present, they’re just arranged differently depending on the width of the screen. The best way to see this in action is to view my website on your computer, resize your browser window, and watch the site adjust.
More and more of us are using phones as our primary internet device. Who knows what we’ll be using tomorrow? Responsive Web Design is the way of the future. If your website isn’t responsive yet, contact me today.
If you are browsing the internet on a public computer, you may not want others to see what you have searched for or what web pages you’ve looked at. Fortunately there are several browsers that let you look at the web without leaving a trail behind you.
Mac:
Safari: Go to Safari > Private Browsing
Chrome: Go to File > New Incognito Window
Firefox: Go to File > New Private Window
PC:
Chrome: Go to Settings (icon next to address bar) > New Incognito Window
Firefox: Go to the orange Firefox menu > New Private Window
Internet Explorer: Go to Settings (gear icon) Safety > InPrivate Browsing
When you’re typing a website address in Safari, there is a handy “.com” button on the keyboard. Did you know that if you tap and hold that button you will also have the choice of .edu, .us., .org and .net?
I like to preview an album before I buy it. Websites like Grooveshark and Spotify allow you to “stream” music-–to listen to it in your web browser without downloading any files. Grooveshark is completely free but doesn’t have a huge selection. Spotify has a wider selection, but requires you to either pay a monthly fee or listen to ads every few songs. Either way, make sure to support the artists you like and buy their albums!
If you haven’t heard yet, Google Reader is shutting down July 1st. But don’t fret, there are plenty of other services and apps out there for keeping up with your favorite sites.