Vincent IT Inc

Preparing For A New Era Of B2B SEO

2011-12-22T00:39:00.000-08:00

The end of the year is always a time for reflection on all of the work and effort of the previous 12 months. There has been a lot of talk in 2011 about the end of SEO as we know it. But the reality is that there will always be a need for strategy when it comes to search engine positioning and capturing audience demand.

B2B SEO Services - VincentIT

Why B2B SEO Strategy Matters
It is true that what represents exceptional SEO work has definitely changed in form and function from even just a few years ago. Many of us can recall the days of sculpting webpages to gain ranking through on-page techniques.

But as we move into 2012 and beyond, quality SEO is about having your marketing assets findable when customers are searching across the dimensions of the pre, present, and future stages of the purchase cycle.

To achieve this, B2B marketers need to have a solid SEO strategy. And while it will vary from company to company based on goals and objectives, in general, it should be grounded in relevance, and be designed to persevere through the ever changing SERP landscape in 2012 and beyond.

Establishing A B2B SEO Relevance Strategy
The manner and approach of being relevant to your customer will vary based on your business goals.

For example, in some cases it’s based on a thorough comparison of possible service vendors and in others, it’s about being top of mind through thought leadership. No matter the ultimate customer path, SEO remains the practice of being found and selected in algorithmic results when a search is underway.

In the era of universal search, the search engines have expanded the galaxy of assets that can be rendered in the SERPs to include videos, images and PDF among others. Add to this the fulcrum of recency and geo location and what you get is a dynamic marketplace where only the most advanced approaches will succeed.

With this in mind, your B2B SEO campaign will need to focus on consideration during the customer journey and the approaches that will generate results in the current SEO environment.

The art and science of getting these assets found remains important, but increasingly the strategy will need to also focus on the information, the iteration, and the inspiration to win in the evolving channel called SEO.

The Information: Your Current & Future Content Strategy
At the core of what we as B2B marketers promise in organic results is relevant content to answer the intent of a query.

When we do this well, we are rewarded with greater rankings and increased traffic by the search engines. But it is important to remember that what customers are all looking for when a search is performed is information. In some form or fashion, we type keywords and find the information/content to answer our query.

In order to be found and rendered in the SERPs moving forward the value, relevance, and timeliness of your content is of paramount importance. This is becoming even more critical as Google rolls out important updates to its algorithm to ensure that fresh content is being served.

As a B2B marketer, thinking about how to position the right information to the right audience is mission critical in order to succeed in SEO moving forward.

The Iteration: The Device That Renders The Information
We are living in an era where the device is just as critical as search query fulfillment.

How so? People are constantly connected to the Web via their desktops, laptops, smartphones, e-Readers, or tablets.

In order to reach them, marketers need to factor-in these different computing formats as they pertain to SEO. An effective B2B SEO strategy will ensure that information is properly served on each of these types of devices.

In 2012, it will be particularly important to adjust SEO efforts to accommodate tablet devices as they become more and more ubiquitous. I have seen them springing-up more and more at every business meeting; it will only be a matter of time until tablet optimization is a best practice.

Until then, there is a market opportunity to gain share through optimizing and serving relevant content based on the device experience and user demographics.

The Inspiration: The Ability Of The Message To Create Social Input
Once we have created the right content, rendered it successfully across channels and devices, we need to ensure that our information is worthy of being shared.

Developing quality content is the most certain way to achieve this; however in a competitive arena, the advantage goes to those whose message inspires and compels people to share.

But I’m not talking about “wonder of the moment” spectacles that exist to provide short term boosts. Rather, I’m talking about the share-ability of a message and the ability of that message to foster future interaction.

As SEO evolves, share-ability and other social signals will be a major factor in how the search engines calculate relevance. Not only can it be scored methodologically in an algorithm, but more importantly, it also represents market demand.

B2B marketers should strive to develop information that is findable and able to inspire a like, a +1, a comment, or some other tip of the hat that says, yes, this is the type of information that I am interested in consuming.

As we approach another year in our ever changing search realm, think of how your campaign can provide information to your customers, be iterated to them when and where they in market, and inspire them to action and social sharing. Read More

The Importance of a Sitemap in website

2011-08-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one. By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.

1) Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2) Conveying your site's theme

When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors' time.

3) Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links to every single page on your site. Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page -- they will follow the links on the sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by search engines! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website.

4) Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird's eye view of your site structure, and whenever you need to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you will have a perfectly organized site with everything sorted according to their relevance.

From the above reasons, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects with a considerable size. Through this way, you will be able to keep your website easily accessible and neatly organized for everyone.

Website Title Tag Search Engine Optimization Tips

2011-08-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Looking for a quick fix that will improve your rankings? Take a look at your title tags. A title tag is the line of text that is normally displayed at the top of the browser window. Title tags are arguably the most important SEO tags for any site.

For most search engines, the maximum length of a title tag to be displayed is between 60-70 characters. If your title tag is over 70 characters, your title will be cut off around 70 characters on the search results page.

Search engine spiders use these title tags as the main source for determining the page topic. Spiders or crawlers examine the title and then translate the topic of the page. This is one reason why it is always best to use your keywords in the page title, and to place them as close to the beginning of the title as possible. Remember, the text included in the title tag is also the text that will appear in the SERPs (search engine results pages) as the linked title on which users will click to access your page. In fact, just fixing the title tags of your pages can often generate quick and significant improvements in your rankings.

For example, let’s say you have an educational site that provides information and guidelines on teacher certification requirements. You’ve decided that the most important keywords for your site are “teaching certification” and “teaching requirements.” In this case, a page title along the lines of “Teaching Requirements for Teacher Certification” is highly relevant to the topic of the site. Spiders will crawl your site, and because the title is the first factor it sees, the spider will “read” it and then examine the rest of the page finding the keywords used in other places on the page to determine how relevant the title is to the rest of the content. If the content, H tags, and title tag all relate—you’re in business! This is why it’s so important to target the most critical keywords in the title tag.

Follow this same process for all of your pages, and remember to create unique titles that are relevant to each page and do not keyword stuff. This greatly improves the effectiveness of those tags and will increase the search engine rankings for your keywords. Although your home page might show up for 20 or 30 different keyword combinations, only your top two or three keyword phrases should be included in the tittle.

Next boom in IT Market is Mobile Application Development

2011-06-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

Mobile Application Developmemt - VincentIT

Next boom in IT Market is Mobile Application Development, which is not going to see any downturn. As customer if you have online business then it is right time to hop on mobile world.

In today’s life people is so dynamic and traveling for business or personal reason & every time She/he carrying phone they need seat reservation in movie, hotel, train, flight, or buy flower and gifts for friends etc. And if you are offering all options over phone, your chance of increasing online sale is 100% more than selling through website.

VincentIT is only solution Provider Company which can provides application development for mobile platforms for IPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Android, Symbian etc in very low & affordable cost with effective manner. Our solutions are having vision if your users mind, how they would have to use your application and services. We put lots of time in designing analysis of application and flow as we have being handheld device how difficult is to keep speed and efficiency for customer and services.

Our team consists of experienced professional with years of experience in consulting and mobile application development which makes us more effective giving your successful solution.

Please Contact us to do Pre analysis of your mobile application need, there is no obligation. Contact by calling at 713-510-8033 or mail at info@vincentit.com

Give Your Business a New Look with a New Logo

2011-04-14T05:53:00.000-07:00

What do you think looks more professional: a letterhead with a neat, relevant log at the top or a letterhead produced in a word processor saying something like ‘Smith and Sons Ltd Builders’? In truth, both say the same thing, but when it arrives the letter could be from anyone, whereas the logo stands out and immediately tells your mind where this letter came from.

If you really want to create an impression with your business you need to get a unique logo, preferably with a shape most people do not use, but which is original. This not lonely makes it easy for people to recognise letters from you, but they will also notice your adverts and flyers as being from you. So long as your company has a good image, this will give them a good impression to start with. The fact is that a good logo stands out and creates an everlasting impression in the minds of your customers. A good logo will help you build your business more quickly, and that is what all of us businessmen and businesswomen want.

With the help of a logo design people relate a particular product or service to your business. The logo is the identity of your company and it also enhances your image among the public. You need to find a firm with a good record of branding design. Then, your logo will become your brand identity. This will give your company an extra dimension.

There are certain things that you should keep in mind when you are going in for the creation of the logo for your company. Obviously, you want a skilled agency, and in fact you can find a good design agency in Leeds, Harrogate or London, and also in some other cities.

How do you choose a design agency? By their work. Study their portfolio, and see if you find original, eye-catching logos that are easy to remember. Also, you need to speak to them to make sure they are compatible with you and your firm.

Of course, you will brief them on what you want, on which part of the business you want at the forefront and so on. The message that is conveyed to the public should be strong and crisp. The design should be distinct and not complicated. This gives the logo a greater chance of being remembered.

W3C Validation is important for SEO?

2011-04-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

Does W3C compliance impact a site’s search rankings? The question has been mulled on Search Engine in the past and the basic conclusion is that although W3C is incredibly important for browser compatibility and overall site usability, it does not have a direct impact on Google rankings, especially since Google’s pages themselves do not validate.

However, it is still a common practice to make sure one’s pages do validate W3C standards, and in the future, in an effort to judge site authority and quality, Google may just include W3C validity in their algorithm; you never know.

Besides, believe it or not, there is much more to the web than only Google. And Yahoo, Ask.com & MSN’s Live Search are also major traffic generators in the Global search market.

Additionally, if you’re going to be running a social media campaign, planning on running a story on Digg, and the majority of Digg users use a browser such as Safari or Firefox which your site may not load correctly in or results in botched CSS formatting, your story is going to get no attention and you’ll be missing out on the potential of hundreds of organic editorial links.

So, when looking at the whole picture; presentation is reality is reputation… and having a smooth and valid site is critical to your company’s reputation.

the importance of valid source code and SEO and here are some of his tips in assuring the search engines can properly read your site’s coding and browser compatibility. Enjoy.

Testing your web pages in browsers is an absolutely necessary process for building any web page. It allows you to see what others can see, and often you will notice mistakes in your HTML code because of the symptoms they cause in browsers. But what about when your testing browser(s) display the pages exactly as you intended. Are your pages error-free? Not necessarily.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets the standards for coding HTML and CSS for web pages. They also provide tools to validate your code for free. So do some third-parties. The question you might be asking is, “if my page looks fine in Internet Exporer, Safari, Firefox, etc. why do I need to worry about validation?” If all you’re looking is for proper display, you might not have to. However, if you’re concerned at all with search engine optimization (SEO), and you probably should be, validating your source code is a necessity.

One reason for this is the difference between search engine spiders and browsers. Spiders “crawl” the web indexing web pages and their content. They are basically toned-down web browsers that aren’t concerned with displaying for a user but with recognizing content. In other words, search engine spiders are looking at the same code your web browser is and parsing it in a very similar way. This difference in functionality, however, is vast.

There is a very real pressure on web browser developers to ensure that their browsers display pages correctly to the user. This often includes forgiving errors in the source code. Improperly nested elements, unclosed tags, unrecognized parameters – these are all errors in HTML code that might not affect your web page’s display in your favorite browser. When it comes to search engine spiders, however, it can be an entirely different story.

That is not to say that small errors in your HTML code will spell death for your search engine rankings. Certainly they won’t normally make your page invisible to spiders.

They can, however, disrupt the vastly important process of a spider parsing your page for all relevant content or make some of that content invisible. And since so much of SEO is paying close attention to every little detail of your site and its content, why leave the possibility open of causing problems for search engines when they try to index your pages?

Validation might mean some big headaches when you set out to fix every last error on your pages, but the benefits of valid code are clear – and running your pages through a validation service like that of the W3C can do a lot in the way of educating you about the mistakes you may be making.

So, in a nutshell, here are some basic tips:

Use W3C to make sure your site is viewable in major browsers, especially Firefox & Safari
Test your site on mobile browsers
Check for all errors in HTML coding and fix them when possible
Pay attention to your programming errors and be aware of them when programming your next site
If you pay for a designer, put something in the contract that the site must pass W3C validation.

Why Good Website Navigation Is Important ?

2011-04-13T06:41:00.000-07:00

Web surfers are basically an impatient bunch and if a website is hard to figure out because the links are not obvious, they will click away never to return. Website navigation is one of the most crucial elements in determining the effectiveness of a website. This article discuses the basic principle of designing website navigation.

To be effective website navigation must first and foremost make sense to the average person. While there is always room for creativity, well-designed websites tend to have similar navigation layouts.

As a web designer you must always keep in mind the basic purpose of the website and the intended audience when designing navigational elements. Most websites exist to either inform the visitor about a product or service or to actually sell the product or service. Therefore there are some basic guidelines to follow:

Make sure all navigational elements are clearly links by using standard conventions for links such as buttons, menus, underlining the text or changing color on mouse. Resist the temptation to use clever or ambiguous names for links.

When using non-conventional links, explicitly tell the visitor that this is a link. For example, suppose you design a web page where you want to use a map showing several different cities and want to let the user click on the city name to pull up information about that city. Just make sure you tell the user to click on the city name to get more information about that city.

Remember the “Three Click Rule” that most professional web designers use. Studies have shown that most users will not click more than three links to get to the information they want. So every page on your website should be reachable within three clicks.

I do not recommend using a flash movie or other type of splash page on your website. Keep the web page design simple yet attractive. But if you do decide to use one, make certain you use the META REFRESH tag to take the visitor automatically to your home page after a few seconds and provide a clickable, clearly marked button or link so the visitor can skip the entry page and go directly to your home page otherwise a large percentage of visitors will just click away never to return. Remember most visitors are looking for information not entertainment.

Navigation Element Locations

Top Menus – a top of the page menu bar is usually located directly below the page header graphic that contains the site logo. These menu items may be single links, drop down menus, or expanding menus. Each menu item can be represented by a graphic or just text. In ether case a hyperlink is associated with each item that the visitor can click on to get to the information described.

Left Side Navigation – left side navigation is typically implemented as either a column or text area on the left top portion of the webpage. Like the top menu, each item can be a single link or an expanding menu.

Right Side Navigation – right side navigation is not used that often, but when used, it is implemented as a column or text area on the top right side of the webpage. Most designers use this area for advertisements rather than site navigation.

Bottom Menus – bottom menus can be either a menu bar or footer. Menu bars use either graphics or text links while footers almost exclusively use text links.

Important Navigation Elements

Internal Page Links – Every page on the website should be within two or three clicks from the home page. Important pages should be ONE click away. The type of website will determine which links are more prominently displayed.

Login Boxes – login boxes should be prominently displayed. Common locations are top left, top right or inside the page header.

Shopping Carts – if you use a shopping cart to sell your products, you should prominently display a view cart button on each page. The most commonly used location is the top right side just below or as part of the header.

Order Buttons – if you use individual order buttons they should be large and visible. The fewer clicks it takes to get to your order page, the more orders you will get.

Breadcrumbs – breadcrumbs are both links and a graphical representation of where you are in the site. Breadcrumbs are usually located at the top left of the page just under the header. Each word is a link back to the previous page. They are in the form

Home-> Articles-> Marketing

External Links – external links can be used anywhere but are most frequently used inside the text areas on a website. They may be references to more information located on another site, to recommended products, or to almost anything else.

Advertisements – advertisements are usually either a graphic or text with an associated hyperlink. Ads can be placed anywhere on a webpage but are usually used just under the header banner, down the right hand side of the page, under navigation elements on the left margin, across the bottom of the page or even interspersed within the test areas of the page. Studies show that ads “above the fold” are more effective.

(“Above the fold” refers to the area of a webpage that is visible without having to scroll.)

Downloadable Items – if you offer downloadable items such as audio, video or pdf files, make sure that you tell the user haw big the file is and whether they need an application to use the file. If they do an application, provide a link to the application. For example, provide a link to the free Acrobat reader if you offer pdf files.

Site Map – A site map is a good way to layout your entire site for your visitor. (Search engine spiders like them too.) It is just a hierarchical listing of every page on your site with a click-able hyper-link to that page.

If you are looking to hire affordable web designer, then contact help4website we provides top class web designer on monthly, Weekly & daily basis, call now at 713-510-8033 or Visit http://www.help4website.com

70+ Ways to Increase Your WebSite Traffic

2011-04-13T03:36:00.000-07:00

If you’re a normal blogger or website owner, you’re going to increase website traffic. You might even search all over the web for great ways to generate or increase your traffic. I have compiled a list of 75 ways to boost your site’s traffic. This list is different from others because it contains simple, original ideas and off-the-wall, unique ideas. If you’re looking for more people to see your website or your blog, then you’re at the right article! Out of all these 75 tips, I can assure you that most of them will work for your site or blog. So get to work, and increase site or blog traffic!

Write more content. If you want to increase site traffic, you’ve got to write content. People will not visit your site if you don’t write a decent amount of good quality content, and new visitors definitely won’t come back. So keep writing great posts!

Have a good design and layout. If your site or blog’s design is messy, sloppy, hard to navigate, a rainbow of colors that don’t match or are hard on the eye, or full of errors, you will instantly go down the drain.

Get your own domain. I promise that if you have your domain, you will get more traffic. You will linked to more and people will more easily remember your URL. Try to get your own domain and have it from the start.

Start using StumbleUpon. I have had a HUGE success with StumbleUpon. When the right article from your blog meets StumbleUpon, expect a lot of people to rate your post a thumbs up, and then even more people “stumbling upon” your blog.

Guest blog. Offer to write a post on someone else’s site. Even better, have the post already written up and then let the blogger know you have a post ready to guest blog on their site, if it’s okay with them. When you write your guest blog post, find a post on your own blog that’s related and link to in your guest blog post. A link for you on their blog, and more ability to increase site traffic.

Begin tagging your images. When you have an image in your post, it should always be tagged properly. Make sure the width and height are clearly defined. But most importantly, fill out the alt and title tags with the image’s keywords.

Respond to your comments and email. People love a blog whose owner is interactive and thoughtful, an owner who gets back quickly with response to their comments and emails. If you can do this, except more loyal readers who will love you. :) Then expect more increased site traffic and more linkage.

Use MyBlogLog. Make sure you have an eye-catching avatar. Then join all the MyBlogLog communitiesyou can (daily limit of 15). In no time your avatar will be all over all the MyBlogLog blog and community pages, and you’ll see more and more visitors coming to you.

Don’t waste your time. Don’t waste your time with crazy “money earners” such as those that pay you to click, pay you to read, pay you to surf, pay you to search, or anything like that. Those aren’t worth anything. Instead, spend your time writing quality content and the increase in site traffic will follow.

Pay attention to your stats. Pay attention to your stats and Google Analytics. See what keywords are getting you the most traffic and what posts your readers like and don’t like. Use this knowledge to keep writing more popular posts filled with great keywords.

Link to other posts. When you link to posts on other blogs, that creates a trackback, or pingback. When you link to another blogger’s post, if they have trackbacks turned on, you will receive a link back as well in the comments section of the post of which you linked.

In your posts, ask your readers questions. Readers like to feel important and a lot of them like to talk. The next time you write a post, ask them a question or their opinion on something. You’ll receive a lot more comments and many of the visitors will be more likely to come back.

Make a lens on Squidoo. On Squidoo, you can make your own lenses, aka, pages, on their site. Make a lens that is relative to your blog or site’s topic, and then be sure to link to your blog on the lens! Did I mention you can also make money on Squidoo?

Comment on other blogs. When you comment on other blog’s 99.9% of the time there is a box you can write in your own site’s address. Then from there, when people view your comment, they can click through to your blog or website! Comment on as many different blog’s as you can. Maybe even set aside a day of the week for commenting. The more comments you leave, the more you are noticed, and the more traffic you get.

Write list posts. Everybody loves list posts. This post is a list post. Examples are “Top 10 Blog Themes”, “25 Uses for Vinegar”, and “5 Helpful Website Tools”. List posts are usually linked to a lot more and get a lot more traffic than normal posts.

Submit your blog to search engines. Most people get the majority of their traffic from search engines. When people search for your keyword and find your site or blog, there’s more traffic! Click here to submit your blog to be indexed in Google if it hasn’t been already, and remember to keep writing fresh content for the engines to chew on!

Establish relationships with fellow bloggers. Develop relationships with all kinds of bloggers, especially those also in your niche. Comment on their blogs, have conversations, link to them, make friendships. And before you know it, they’ll be linking to you too and maybe sending some traffic your way.

Use traffic exchanges. I’m not quite sure if you can be penalized for using traffic exchanges, but they can bring you loyal readers if your blog is good enough, besides the continuous traffic.

Link to your other posts as often as you can. Link internally to posts on your own blog. This helps your rankings and also helps your site traffic increase. If people who come to your your blog have nothing else to see, they will leave. When you link to your other articles, they will most likely choose to go read those as well before leaving, and will stay on your blog longer.

Sign up on Yahoo! Answers. On Yahoo! Answers you are able to answer other people’s questions, help them, and give answers. There is a box where you can write the source of where you got your answer. Answer questions in your field and link to your blog posts as the source!

Sign your blog up on blog top lists. A blog top list is a chart of all the blogs that are in it. The list is numbered and your blog can go higher on the list when it has more traffic, more votes, more incoming visitors, etc. They’re very simple and easy to join. Plus, they can rake in the traffic!

Submit to site directories. Some directories list hundreds of sites, some list thousands. The backlinks are great, but the traffic from the directories will be less than a trickle, most likely nothing. However, submit with your site’s name using your keywords, and then you could be ranked more highly on Google for those keywords, which means more traffic!

Don’t use link trains. This does not directly related to traffic but it’s still good advice. I made the mistake of joining in on the ViraLink and ViralTags, and you should never do that! Besides, your readers will appreciate it and they’ll stick around longer. ;)

Reread, edit, and go over your posts. No one wants to link to a post that is poor quality. Even if the post is a brilliant idea, if it’s full of spelling and grammatical errors, it won’t be linked to. And no links means no traffic.

Submit your posts to blog carnivals. Go to the Blog Carnival website and submit as many of your articles to as many carnivals related to your niche as you can. When the carnival edition you submitted to is posted, not only will you have linkbacks, but you’ll have more visits to your blog.

Hold your own blog carnival. I think blog carnivals are very fun to hold. People submit their articles to your carnival. When you publish your carnival, almost all of those people go to the carnival edition to view their link there. And you carnival can also be featured on the Blog Carnival website homepage.

Link exchange with other people in your field. Whether the link exchange is on a sidebar on every page of the site, on one page of the site, or in a post on the site, it’s up to you. But link exchanging with others who have related blogs can be a big help. And when their sites grow, an even bigger help!

Use Feedburner for people to subscribe to your blog. When people subscribe to you via RSS or get your blog updates in email, they’ll see your posts whenever you make a new one. This is vital for keeping people in touch with your blog and getting them to come back.

Use Youtube. Make an account on Youtube, and then on your profile you can list your website address. List your site or blog’s link there. Then start making videos and when people view your profile, some of them might click through to your website!

Ask the bigger blogs for a link.I can’t stress enough that you’ve got to do this right or not at all. You need to be polite and not beg. Start building your conversation with the A-lister and developing the relationship before you ask for anything. Make sure you give to them, link to them in your posts. Before you do anything, read Kumiko’s post on this. I know if I got such a polite email as this instead of a begging spammer, I would have to say yes. And if you do get your link, not only will this help your page rank, but you should get a very decent amount of traffic.

Use Technorati tags. Getting into more categories in Technorati will get you a lot more exposure, which means more traffic.

Write a post about a celebrity. No matter what your niche is, you can find some way to relate your topic to a celebrity. For example, 6 Lessons Britney Spears Can Teach You About Blogging. People search for celebrities all the time and love the dirt on them. Quadruple your traffic when you right a post about a celebrity right after a big event in the celebrity’s life. For example, the shaving of their head, the birth of their child, their marriage, or their death, to name a few.

Encourage others to Digg your articles. Digg is a site that lets people vote on articles, on whether people like them or not. Your blogger friends will most likely Digg your work for you if you politely ask, or even better, add a Digg button at the bottom of all your posts. Make sure your best articles get Dugg and started in the right direction, and if the post is good enough, it can generate thousands of visitors a day.

Get a plugin for the social bookmarking sites. At the bottom of this post you will see a line of buttons that lets people submit and vote my articles to social bookmarking sites (Digg, Reddit, Netscape, and others included). I’m using the AntiSocial plugin. If you have this plugin implemented you are WAY more likely to be submitted to social bookmarking sites, which in turn means a lot more traffic.

Link to the A-listers. This ties in a little with asking the A-listers for a link, or sort of pushing them in the direction of giving you one, but this is much for subtle and much more nice. The more you link to the A-listers and probloggers in your niche, the more they will probably notice you. Then they might link to one of your posts as well, which could send huge amounts of traffic your way!

Write a pillar post. This is not only a list post, but a pillar post as well. This post is a long, authoritative, instructional post (and has also quickly grown to be this blog’s most popular article). Pillar posts should take a long time, hours, to write. You should link to your pillar posts often in your blog, and make sure they get top exposure. Pillar posts will get linked to and receive decent amounts of traffic.

When a major holiday rolls around, write about it. When Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or another big holiday comes, make a post about it a month beforehand. Give yourself time to be indexed and linked to. When the holiday comes, it will be searched for a lot and your site could be found!

Use smart URLs on Wordpress. If you’re using Wordpress and are using their messy URLs, you’d better get this plugin to switch to the URLs that include the date and post name in the link. Using that plugin will not make you lose your search engine stats or anything, it is a redirect.

Make your readers feel at home. If you are rude, never give back, don’t answer your comments or emails, don’t help other bloggers, or are always uptight and don’t make your readers feel at home, chances are they might stop visiting your blog. When you make your readers feel at home, you get more traffic.

Be a human, not a robot. If in all your posts you sound extremely business-like, never mention yourself, only talk about the same thing all the time, or are 100% perfect, it could actually send people away. I’m not telling you to be sloppy, talk about yourself all the time, stray from your topic, or make a lot of mistakes. But let your readers know you’re like them too and that you have some things in common. Don’t make your site be boring.

Take the ads off your site. To increase your traffic remove your ads. When you have no way of making money on your website, you seem a lot more serious and devoted. Most likely you will get more traffic and loyal readers. And then maybe in the future, you can ad the ads again to start making some money!

Start your own blog directory. This is something I tried once but failed at miserably. However, I’m sure if I tried again I could do it right, and you could too! When you make your directory at first, make all the links completely free and just have a link submit form where the submissions are emailed to you. You can do a weekly/daily roundup of all the links sent to you, or you can assign the links to their proper categories. When your site gets even bigger, you can ask for a reciprocal link. Then have a “featured site” table, and link to your main website in it. I’m not sure how this would work for everyone but it’s worth a shot.

Post about A-listers in your field. For me this would be people like Darren Rowse and John Chow. You can write about them as a person or a blogger or you can write about how they’re running and doing things. You can post your thoughts on something they’ve said or extend on one of their posts and then leave a comment saying you’ve done so.

Interview other bloggers. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but never got around to. Interviews of other bloggers usually generate a few links, including a link from the blogger you interviewed. And links mean traffic!

Write link love posts. I try to write link love posts every couple of weeks where it is just one big post linking to articles in the blogosphere or on the web that I like, mostly ones related to my niche. Not only does this get you trackbacks, but it also gives you the higher chance of getting linked to in return, which then means traffic.

Have a contest or giveaway! This is a great idea. Hold a contest or a giveaway for a very awesome prize, and people will flock to your site in hopes of winning it. If you give away something really cool, the news will spread like wildfire. Beforehand though, make sure your blog is already receiving a fairly decent amount of traffic with some loyal readers.

Pretend to sell your blog. This is something you can do to get traffic but I do NOT recommend it. This idea has sprung up lately but in my opinion it’s not a good one. You can pay forty dollars to list your blog in a marketplace, and get a huge spike of traffic from potential buyers. Then, you take down the offer and keep your blog. NONE of that traffic will ever come back. It’s not targeted and it is a waste of money. But if you want to get traffic this way, go for it.

Be a comedian. Make people laugh. For a lot of you out there, this shouldn’t be hard. When you make people laugh they will feel a connection to your site or blog and want to tell others and come back.

Help bloggers that need you. If a beginner, newbie blogger leaves you a comment or email that is at least polite, don’t brush them off because of their lack of experience. Help them! You never know, they could become big one day and remember your kindness and assistance.

Have polls on your blog. If you’re using Wordpress, get the Wordpress polls plugin. People like voting in polls and like seeing what the outcome of a poll was. Polls are popular, and popular means traffic.

Start more blogs. Think you can handle it? They can be free blogs, or they can have their own domain. Whatever you want. Work on traffic for all of your blogs, and then have all your blogs link to each other (especially the smaller blogs linking to your main one). Then whoever reads one of your blogs can also be introduced to the other ones.

Create or hack a Wordpress plugin. Okay, this one might be for the smart computer geeks out there, because I couldn’t do it. But if you can, then expect to get lots of links and traffic from all over the place from all the people that use your plugin.

Create a blog theme (Wordpress, Siliconindia, Blogspot, whatever). Same goes as for creating a plugin. I could probably do this one more easily than I could make a plugin, though. If you think you can, give it a shot! The traffic will pour in, as will the links.

Make graphics that are useful to others. If you make some free graphics people can use on their website or blog, you’ll get more traffic from this as well, and it’s not nearly as hard. If you’re a professional at making graphics, even try charging a little bit to get money on top of it!

Make graphics for social networking sites as well. People who use Myspace, Facebook, and all those types of sites love using graphics. Colorful banners. Animated, blinking images. If you can make awesome things like that, then they’ll use it. It’s worth a shot for some traffic and links.

Make a Facebook and get a lot of friends. Make a Facebook and work on getting a lot of friends. This doesn’t mean adding the bands or celebrities that automatically accept you. This means the real people. Just go around adding people. Go to “Browse” and add people. Once you have hundreds of friends, link to your site or blog in bulletins and on your profile and everywhere you can. It could draw in some traffic if you do it correctly.

Answer questions you get through comments or email in a post. If someone comments or emails you with a question, and you could give them a very long, drawn out answer, write a post instead. You won’t be wasting your time and then to answer that person, just give them a link to the post you’ve written!

Work on search engine optimization. The better you rank and do in the search engines, the more visitors they will send you. Do your research and homework on search engine optimization and get started right away!

Start an awards series. Spend some time making a little trophy or banner for an award. Make sure your award has a theme and a name, for example, “The Kind Blogger Award”. Then link to five kind bloggers. In the rules, get each of them to link and pass the award to five more bloggers that they think are kind. Many will link back to you as the creator of this award series and you will receive traffic for it.

Buy ads using Google Adwords. Something I haven’t done but might prove very helpful if you’ve got the money. Sign up for Google Adwords and buy advertising. People will click on ads and get to your site. Some could become loyal readers but many will not. A good way of getting traffic.

Order reviews through ReviewMe. If you order reviews on other blogs using ReviewMe or even PayPerPost, you can create a buzz on your site or blog. Reviews are probably the best form of advertising and the best way to get more loyal visitors.

Use ReviewBack to get reviewed for free. Most likely your free reviews will be on small blogs, and you also have to return the favor, but you could still get some nice traffic from it. Something to consider.

Write a press release. Click here to read how and what to do.

Get on the most favorited list on Technorati. The Technorati top 100 favorited list can be viewed here. It will be very hard to get on to and require a few hundred favorites (a few thousand if you want to be at the top of the list). But you will surely get a lot of traffic if you make it on this list.

Join forums and message boards. Join forums and message boards related to niche. If it is permitted, link to your site or blog when/where you can. Other people on the forum are very likely to check out your site.

Add your link to your forum signature. Another idea, but also only if this one is permitted. Add your site or blog’s link to your forum signature and get active in the community. The link will show up under all of your posts. You can get a nice little amount of traffic if the forum has a lot of members.

Write catchy post titles with keywords. First of all, posts with catchy titles receive more traffic than those with bland, unoriginal titles. Secondly, add some keywords to your catchy titles! You will get ranked better in the search engines. Also, when people link to your post with its keywords, you’ll get ranked even better, with even more traffic from Google, Yahoo, etc.

Use images in your posts. This is something I need to work on more. Use images in your posts. When a post is full of just text, it can get boring. However, (and this depends on your niche), I would recommend using only one image. You don’t want to get too cluttered.

Write a review. If you write a really good honest review of a new product or brand, it could get a lot of attention from people who are interested in purchasing the product.

On high traffic days, write more great quality posts. Let’s say you’ve just written a linkbait (on purpose or by accident) that hit the front page of Digg or did awesome StumbleUpon. That same day and the next couple of days, post more great content. Let the people who’ve came across your site know they should stick around because of your quality content. Keep the traffic going!

Post about important events in your niche. If something important is going to happen in your niche, post about it a couple months, one month, or a few weeks before it happens. Give yourself time to be linked to and indexed by the search engines for that post. When the event rolls around, you will get a lot of traffic if you played your cards right!

Share one of your secrets. Whether it be a huge secret about your success or a personal secret about your life, nobody can resist.

Do something unique. Build a brand and do something original that no one else has done. You will receive a lot of links and traffic for it and the name will stick around for a long time, if not forever. Come up with a new concept that no one else has done before.

Keep improving your blog. People will keep coming back to a blog or site that is constantly worked on and improved. Set aside daily time to plow down and tweak your blog. Also try to write that daily content.

Be yourself. The internet is a great place to be anonymous, but if you are, no one will feel a connection to you and want to keep visiting your blog. Just be yourself, don’t pretend to be someone you’re not, and people will love you for it. I promisehttp://www.vincentit.com

Android Application Development – Bring Revolution in Mobile Industry

2011-04-06T02:56:00.000-07:00

Android is a progressive and open source operating system for mobile phone. It is an operating based environment and a modified version of Linux Kernel. Android application requires best Java programming skills to extract more and more benefits. It is a bunch of software for mobile devices and Smartphone including key applications.

Components of Android Development:

* Activity
* Find receiver
* Content
* Services

Offshore custom android programming services is a powerful and spontaneity platform to mobile applications. Limited data storage and lack of graphics punch in the application are the two important limitations of application development. Custome android application development is a set of core applications.

Android apps development includes an email client, SMS program, browser, calendar, maps, contacts and others. The application’s code wants to execute and shuts down the process at that time android start the process. Its system required by other applications. Android devices are online directories which are IT advertising in native directories and print media.

Android Development Features:

* Camera, GPS, compass and accelerometer
* Optimized graphics
* Rich development environment
* Application framework
* Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G and WiFi
* SQLite
* Dalvik virtual machine
* Media support
* GSM telephony
* Integrated browser

VincentIT is mobile application Development Company. They are providing professional and experienced experts. Hire Google android developers for your broad scope of applications. They are well versed in the latest Android SDK and deliver custom made apps to the complete satisfaction of the clients. Android developer can offer android apps development on any platform.

Android Development Services @ VIT:

* Android application development
* Android SDK development
* Android mobile development
* Android software development
* Android tablet PC app development

If you want to customize your Android application then hire android application developers from us for better solution.

The Future On SEO For Bloggers!

2011-04-05T01:59:00.000-07:00

You write a blog religiously every day or so. You provide informative, interesting content for your loyal readers. You've even got a couple of affiliate links in there, too. But is this enough to get great search engine results for your efforts?

Probably not. Sure, you'll get listed with the search engines easily. But without a top twenty listing at one of the majors (Google, Yahoo! or MSN), you won't have traffic, literally, banging down your door.

In order to get better search engine results you need to make sure you are using the right keywords (and know how to use them), have links pointed your way and regularly check the results of your hard work. Here's how.

Choosing Appropriate Keywords
Do you know what search terms your visitors are using to find you? Most blogging sites give you the option of checking up to see just how people found you. If you don't have this feature available, hop over to http://www.statcounter.com/ and install their free service on your blog immediately.

Next, research those keywords. Visit Overture's free site (http://inventory.overture.com/) and type in the most generic of the terms people are using to find your blog. You'll get a list of related keywords used at a major search engine in the past month. Although it is an oversimplification of the search engine optimization process, try and stick to the more unusual but natural-sounding keywords as your top picks.

Putting Keywords in the Right Places
Once you've picked a keyword that applies directly to your blog, make sure to incorporate it into the following portions of one complete blog posting:

# The title;
# The first sentence
# Each header (if you have any);
# Once a paragraph; and
# The last sentence.

If you have any links to outside sources, use the same keyword as your link text where possible. Also, for each blog posting, try and pick a different (but related) keyword to use. Feel free to reuse keywords every 30-45 postings.

Submitting to Directories
Your third step is to take these keyword optimized blog postings and post them to the article and blog directories. Most of the search engines determine the relevancy of your blog by how many outside websites link directly to you; therefore, posting your blog entries (with a link back to your site in your resource blurb) is an easy and straightforward way of doing so.

Checking Your Progress
It may take a couple of days to see any results, so try and wait a week before you take a look at StatCounter. Have your hits increased at all? Are there any new search engine referrals?

To track your blog's ascent up the search engine rankings for any given keyword, try Digital Point's free Keyword Tracker Tool (http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/). It is an excellent way of ensuring your blog positioning efforts are paying off.

With all blog postings, content is key. Without useful, interesting information that cannot be found elsewhere, your visitors won't come back for more. Incorporate these simple search engine optimization techniques into your blogging practice however, and you'll both keep the visitors you already have and dramatically increase your readership through high ranking search engine placement in no time.

Click Here to Contact us for more information regarding our SEO Development Services, methodologies and quotation. Please feel free to give us a call at 713-510-8033 or mail us at info@VincentIT.com and we will get back to you within 24 hours.

Why many big companies still don’t optimize their websites

2011-04-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

This happens because most of those sites are either not at all optimized or are not properly optimized for search engines. And one of the biggest reasons for a poorly optimized site is that many big companies believe that their brand names are strong enough for online and search engines.

Although their brand names are strong for online and search engines (in other words, they still rank top 10 for their brand names and some top keywords in search engines), they don’t realize the real power of the long tail keywords and the higher ROI for those long tail search terms than just top (general) keywords. For example, this group of long tail keyword phrases is more specific and focused which mean more convert to sales. And this set of long-tail keywords could generate as much (or more) traffic and revenue for a business than just the top or general keyword phrases if marketers understand how customers convert on the website. Any successful SEO strategy must focus on more than just the top ten keyword phrases.

The following are three top reasons for why a site is either poorly optimized or not at all optimized for search engines.

Cause the webmaster says he knows SEO

One of the biggest reasons for a poorly optimized site is that someone in-house is functioning as the company’s online marketing expert. I have visited companies that are such well recognized organizations by people and their technology team that handles hardware, operations support, and software support also functions as their website development, graphics design, and online marketing team. Or the administrative assistant is the web master too. You can just imagine the success of their online marketing or SEO campaign. Many webmasters believe and claim that they know how to do search engine optimization. Most times they don’t. In the past, Search Engine Optimization used to be easy. Webmasters would stuff keywords in metatags and submit the site repeatedly to search engines and called this search engine optimization. repeated basis could get your site banned from search engine listings.

Search Engine algorithms are more complex nowadays. A webmaster is most cases is not qualified to do SEO as he or she is generally not experienced nor abreast of all the latest trends in search engine marketing (SEM).

A webmaster generally also has another job within the company. That means that he is she is not able to devote time to create or maintain a robust search engine optimization campaign.

The end result is a poorly optimized website that leaves everyone within the company with the perception that SEO just doesn’t work for them.

Cause SEO is too expensive

Search Engine Optimization costs vary tremendously based on the expertise, experience, and exact offering. There are many who offer low cost SEO on a $100 per month basis and there are others who will charge $20K per month to run a campaign. So how would you determine what it would make sense to spend for your SEO campaign?

That determination is made based on understanding the offering, the expertise, and the experience levels of the SEO providers. Most of the time, your website can be optimized for around $10K. It is the most cost effective marketing activity when compared to direct mail, banner ads, booths at trade booths, and advertisements in local or national magazines, radio, or television.

Cause SEO ROI is difficult to calculate

Regardless of popular belief it is possible to calculate ROI for your SEO campaign.
To calculate ROI, all you need to know is:

1. How many people are searching for your products or services
2. The number of increased visitors and the conversion rate for those visitors for the terms
that your website was optimized for
3. The average cost of each of your products or services

Once you know this, you can easily determine the ROI of what you spent.

I always say to my clients and prospects, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in general is not rocket science. BUT, neither is it something that everyone can do without having the proper knowledge and the time to focus on it.

If you don’t have the ‘marketing wavelength’, the skills, the background, and the time to spend on it, search engine marketing can seem like a worthless exercise. Search Engine Marketing (which includes SEO) is not a one-time activity nor can it be done when you find the time. Like any other marketing program, it must be focused and conducted on an ongoing basis to get the most benefit, long-term.

If you would like to learn more about our SEM / SEO services, please Contact us.

We provides Professional Search Engine Oprimzation / Marketing solutions that work!

Working With Optimizing Images for the Web

2011-04-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

Images can make or break a website, whether that be adding a humanist feel to a site, adding animation and mouse over effects or finalizing that amazing design that just can’t be achieved with CSS alone. Yet all these images could cost the biggest price of any website, loss of visiting traffic. If a website takes too long to load or is unusable due to all of the images then it’s game over as the user will quickly go back to Google and search again.

There are however many techniques that you as a web designer can use to either reduce the number of images that are loaded or reduce the size of those images.

Before we get started, I’m not going to look at SWF as it does not work on the iPhone/iPod/iPad at this time or WebP as it is currently super-limited in browser support, or Silverlight as it needs an extra plugin installed….

So without further a-due, on with the list of techniques…

#1: Choose the right image type for the job

There are currently quite a few image formats that are used within web design: PNG8, PNG24, PNG32, JPG and GIF. These are widespread and supported by every browser, all are very different and are all suited for a particular use. Lets take a closer look at each.
GIF ~ *.gif

• Where to use: IE6 clients when you need transparencies, non-complex images with less than 256 colors and it can be animated.

• Limitations: Can only hold up to 256 colors in total.

• Pros: Their transparencies work on all browsers, the smallest size completely blank image (see CSS sprites further on), very easy to reduce the color depth to make smaller a file size and offers an animated format.

• Cons: Images often loose quality when in GIF format as the image creation package has to workout the closest color match. Not very good for photo’s. Animations can be massive in size if you are not careful. Images can appear jagged, and transparencies can sometimes have bleed on the edges.
JPG ~ *.jpg or *.jpeg

• Where to use: Perfect for photos or images where no transparency is needed, such as background gradients.

• Limitations: No transparencies, not very good with text.

• Pros: Excellent for photos, 24-bit color giving 16 million colors.

• Cons: JPGs are much larger when creating files with few colors in it, they have lots of extra info included in the file (Exif) such as camera, ISO and shutter speed, which are not needed on the web. No animation support.
PNG8 ~ *.png

• Where to use: Any browser with the exception of IE6 when needing transparencies.

• Limitations: Like GIF only has a maximum of 256 colors.

• Pros: Similar file size to GIF but with a sharper output. Transparencies work great. Excellent for CSS sprites when using only up to 256 colors and reduced color depth images.

• Cons: Not so handy with IE6 as you would need a separate PNG fix to make transparencies work, but that only applies to images with transparencies. Not very good for creating photo quality output. No animation support.
PNG24 ~ *.png

• Where to use: High quality images that do not require a transparencies.

• Limitations: No transparency support.

• Pros: 24 bit colors giving 16 million colors for very high quality images.

• Cons: No transparencies and often larger than JPG when used for photos.
PNG32 ~ *.png

• Where to use: High quality images, icons and colored based opacities.

• Limitation: None really when it comes to the web.

• Pros: 24-bit color and 8-bits to handle transparencies. Excellent for icons, gradients and other images. Easy to crush.

• Cons: Over sized KB’s when creating photo images.
Rule of thumb

So to round that up into a rule of thumb, use JPG for photo’s and gradients without transparencies, use GIF for IE6 transparencies, use PNG8 for all other browsers with low color depth images and transparencies and use PNG32 for the best quality and transparencies.

Of course you can use PNG with transparencies on IE6, but it will need the addition of a .htc file and possibly a Javascript file to make it work in all situations, or just a Javascript file depending on what version of the PNG fix that you use on your site to make it work, it will however slow down loading time.

#2: Use the right tools to create a web friendly image
Many designers and design studios use Photoshop and Illustrator to create their images, whether that be logos, gradients, icons or whatever. But these tools may be a great for creation, they are at times truly woeful for outputting images for the web.

Often images that come out of Photoshop are up to 50% larger in KB’s than are actually needed for the quality, and Illustrator is often not much better when talking about Jpgs. On top of that they don’t support Gif animations that some of your clients may desire. So instead of using the save for web options that come with Photoshop, just save it as a PSD and open it in Fireworks (or maybe Illustrator depending on the output medium) and export for the web from there.

Fireworks is the superior Adobe product for creating web ready images. OK, I am a mega bias Fireworks fan, so to prove the point to myself I’ve done a bunch of tests and have the results below. For me the most consistent performer is still Fireworks, especially when you look at Jpg, Illustrator is a far superior tool over Photoshop, with Photoshop being truly dire on nearly all file formats.

	Photoshop	Illustrator	Fireworks
1x1px transparent Gif	1,101bytes	43bytes	43bytes
Sample Jpeg image(my cat Jack), orignal size 2848×2134 reduced to 800×599. Output at 80% quality	124,206bytes pre-crushing 119,393bytes post-crushing	119,599bytes pre-crushing 114,844bytes post-crushing	51,838bytes pre-crushing 51,838bytes post-crushing
PNG8 output with transparencies with facebook icon	3,456bytes pre-crushing 2,582 bytes post-crushing	1,805bytes pre-crushing 1,738 bytes post-crushing	1,762bytes pre-crushing 1,646bytes post-crushing
PNG32 output with transparencies with Facebook icon	3,654bytes pre-crushing 2,798bytes post-crushing	2,831bytes pre-crushing 2,760 bytes post-crushing	2,882bytes pre-crushing 2,802bytes post-crushing
Animated Gif	Not Possible	Not Possible	Works perfectl

Do feel free to complain that I did not use Gimp or any other software for this comparison, and if you wish do provide me with the results I will certainly add it to this table. All versions of the Adobe software were from the CS5 set, lets hope that CS6 will be even better.

#3: Learn how to output the lowest kb’s with highest quality

Firstly, it’s got to be said that there are no hard and fast rules for choosing the image that will give you the best output quality while still maintaining the lowest kb’s. It’s all about trial and error.

Ok, these are the rules of thumb mentioned before, that for example if your working with images that are above 256 colors forget about Gif and Png8, and for most photo’s Jpg’s are the best, for icons with transparencies Png32 will always kick butt, but for gradients without transparency then it will usually be Jpgs, for transparency it will be Png32, borders and lines tend to have transparent backgrounds so Gif, Png8 and Png32 are usually the best.

Lets take a closer look as some examples of where a wrong choice in the image format can cost 100′s of KB’s of size and maybe valuable seconds of loading time. Again, I am using Fireworks as the tool for creating all of these images due to it’s consistent results and then ImageOptim for crushing.

A text image with a low number of colors

This really simple (very un-artistically made) image is pretty damn ugly, but will give you a good idea of what I am trying to illustrate. It’s the kind of thing that is often used on a website to create a meaningful feel with text only.

	GIF	Jpeg	png8	png24	png32
Size in bytes after crushing	4,210 bytes	9,718 byte	2,554 bytes	2,385 bytes	2,827 bytes

As you can see, PNG24 wins out on this image (after crushing, PNG8 before crushing), with PNG8 coming a close second, at the other end of the scale JPG performs incredibly badly, not only in KB image size but also in picture quality. You can view a comparison page yourself to take a look at the output.

A photo image

Another take of that photo of Jack, this time re-sized to 400px wide and formatted into various different file types.

	GIF	Jpeg	png8	png24	png32
Size in bytes after crushing	36,415 bytes	100% = 134,915 bytes 80% = 20,368 bytes 80% Smoothing 2 = 19,479 bytes 80% Smoothing 2 Sharpening off = 14,912 bytes	29,904 bytes	178,727 bytes	179,044 bytes

This time Jpg is the clear winner and when turning off the sharpening and setting the smoothing to 2, without any perceivable change to the image I was able to knock off many of those extra kb’s. Again I have made a comparison page so that you can check the output.

Here is a screen shot of the Export Wizard of Fireworks that shows the settings I used to get the lowest size image possible.
(Click the image to see it properly).

An icon

Icons are very important in modern web design, and their quality is exceptionally important. Just one bad looking RSS icon can make a whole site look really bad. The thing that you have to think about when creating icons is what type of background it will be used with. If you don’t know what color or colors it will be then GIF, PNG8 and PNG32 are your only options, which means that you have to consider how many colors you need to have in it’s creation also. If you want to have over 256 colors then PNG32 is your only choice. Here is a Facebook icon as PNG32 on the left and PNG8 on the right. If you look carefully you will see the quality difference with the PNG8 version obviously having banding.

Some Icons in a sprite

It really depends on if you are planning to have many colors or not. If, for example, you are making a set of icons that are only white are going on a black background, then it’s perfect to use PNG8, but if you are planning to have the iPhone icon style using many colors in the same sprite set with a background transparency, then PNG32 is the only way.

This is the 32px sprite set used for the share and follow plugin, click the image to see it in it’s full size.

A gradient for a background

If there is no transparency involved then go for Jpeg every time, it’s perfect. But if you need to have a transparency then go for PNG32 which will allow for the most amount of color changes, as PNG8 only can do 256 colors. Most of the time you will also want to reduce your gradient to only 1px wide so that it does not take up load time and then use repeat-x to repeat the gradient across the whole of the body of the HTML document. See point #9 on this list for examples.

Some borders and lines

Same rules for borders and lines as the gradients above. If there is no transparency involved then go for Jpeg first every time, it’s nearly always perfect. But if you need to have a transparency then go for PNG32 (or PNG8 if you don’t need many colors). There will be more about gradients, borders and lines on point #9.

#4: Crush those images before use

Most images come with extra ‘fluff’ inside the file. Take Jpeg for example that has all of the details of what camera, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, what camera was used…etc. All within the file in Exif format. All of this is not needed and will just add extra bytes to file size. To some extent, this is the same with all file formats and because of this there have been many different apps developed for stripping the ‘fluff’ out of images.

Off-line tools

MAC: ImageOptim is probably the best tool to use on a MAC as it deals with Gif, Jpeg and PNG. What it does is that it packages 5 different tools in one handy GUI to explore your images and make them as small as possible.

PC: pngcrush is handy if you like the command line and you work with a lot of Png’s.

There are also a mountain of Jpegtran apps for image crushing, or manipulation for both Mac and PC.

On-line tools

Smush.it is a Yahoo project that allows you to either upload directly or via a URL. It offers, if possible, lighter images to replace the ones you have uploaded or have on an existing page.

Punypng will try to reduce the size of any image file that is uploaded. It works with PNG, Gif and Jpegs.

If you happen to use any offline or online tools not listed here that you find excellent, please do comment so that they can be shared.

#5: Use CSS Sprites for images

CSS sprites are one of the key tools for speeding up websites and are really simple to get your head around if you have not used them before. In simple terms a CSS sprite is an image that contains many different images on it. They could be logos, buttons, menu items…anything you like. Sprite images can be used for mouse over effects, standard link buttons, or maybe even backgrounds for input styling.

Why CSS sprites are so, so important is that they basically cut down on the number of connections made to the server. No matter how small your images are in KB’s, if there are many of them then it will take a long time to download them as the browser can only download a limited amount at once. Using CSS sprites downloads one image that will be used many times, thus 1 connection, leaving the browser free to download other content.

Here are 3 different ways to show CSS sprites on screen

I) Image replacement, using display:none to hide the text

1	`<h1` `id="logo"><a` `href="#"><span>Logo words</span></a></h1>`

#logo a {
background: transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat -111px 0;
height:60px;
width:120px;
display:block}
#logo span {display:none;}

This technique was very popular about 5 years ago. Some designers still use it as it keeps the text visible for Google to find inside the first H1 of the site.

On the downside it means that the logo will not be picked up by Facebook when sharing your site, so you have to add some head code so that Facebook will pick up your preferred image.

II) Using text-indent and overflow together

<ul>
<li><a href="#" class="facebook">Share on Facebook</a></li>
<li><a href="#"  class="twitter">Share on Twitter</a></li>
</ul>

.facebook {
background: transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat 0 0;
height:24px;
width:24px;
text-indent:26px;
overflow:hidden;
display:block
}
.twitter {
background: transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat -25px 0;
height:24px;
width:24px;
text-indent:26px;
overflow:hidden;
display:block
}

Again, this keeps the original text for Google to find in the HTML markup, and saves on the display:none. So, less code to make this happen. What we do this time is tell the text to appear outside the block area of the A tag, where we have set the overflow text and the stuff outside the block space, to not show up at all.

III) Using the IMG tag with a blank image

<a href="#" >
<img src='blank.gif' alt='descriptive words for google'
   height='60' width=60 class='foursquare' />
</a>

.foursquare {
background: transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat -50px 0;
}

Sprites can also be written using an inline style, here is the IMG tag version using an inline style.

<a href="#" >
<img src='blank.gif' alt='descriptive words for google'
style='background: transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat -50px 0;'
height='60' width='60' />
</a>

Thus you can save on the CSS, which is handy when your are dealing with many sprites with many images on each. For example, with my plugin Share and Follow I use this style as I have around 70 icons per set and 5 sets in different sizes, giving 350 extra CSS statements all needing some unique CSS. And that is not mentioning the 26 different icon sets that the plugin offers. This would add up to a huge total of 9100 extra CSS statements to be placed in the CSS file. That would not be good, would it?

So, on this occasion rather than adding 9100 extra CSS statements in the external CSS file, I choose to add some extra in-line styles directly into the HTML.

The important thing to notice about this method is the use of the blank.gif which stretches to meet the size of the IMG while the CSS background image comes from the sprite. So in theory there are 2 images loaded to make this happen.

Here is the sprite file used for the above examples:

It was built using Project Fondu’s Sprite Generator. A couple of things to remember when building sprites is that you should always build them horizontally, as it is often faster (according to Yahoo testing), and also always keep the space between icons as small as possible.

Here is a set of examples with our sprite file from the Fondu Sprite Generator against hand-made sprites:

	Size in bytes	Size after crushing
fondu horizontal	14,797 bytes	8738 bytes
fondu vertical	14,940 bytes	8706 bytes
horizontal hand built png8	3,227 bytes	3,012 bytes
horizontal hand built png32	9,791 bytes	8,856 bytes
vertical hand built png8	3,188 bytes	2,972 bytes
vertical hand built png32	9,818 bytes	8,705 bytes

You will notice that Project Fondu’s Sprite Generator does not do the best job possible as the 24px icons could be more efficiently packed on the horizontal version. This is because I am using different sized icons in the same set. If they were all the same height and width, it would have made a much better output.

In other words if you are a total speed nut, do consider hand building and trying both vertical and horizontal arrangements, but be aware that you will need to work out all your own CSS.

You will also notice that the Png8 version on this occasion is more than adequate. Had there been more sprites with more colors used then this would have not been the case.

#6: Get to grips with background-image, background-repeat and background-position

When making sprites it’s easy to get carried away with making very long CSS statements for every image, where each line looks something like this:

.item1 {
background:transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat 0 0;
height:24px;
width:24px;
}
.item2 {
background:transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat 0 25px;
height:24px;
width:24px;
}
.item3 {
background:transparent url(sprite.png) no-repeat 0 50px;
height:24px;
width:24px;
}

where it would be much more efficient to write:

.item1, .item2, .item3 {
background-image:url(sprite.png);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
height:24px; width:24px;
}
.item1{background-position:0 0}
.item2 {background-position:0 25px}
.item3 {background-position:0 50px}

Or, if you are lucky enough to have all of the sprites that you want to display inside the same list and are using the IMG tag:

li.sprite img {
background-image:url(sprite.png);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
}
.item1{background-position:0 0}
.item2 {background-position:0 25px}
.item3 {background-position:0 50px}

#7: Does it have to be an image, or will CSS do the job?

Ok, this does go against the nature of this entire article, but do check if you can do the same thing you are trying to achieve with images in CSS alone. For example, can you get that background color you want just with a DIV and the correct CSS? If you can, it will be less bytes and less files used.

Do remember that gradients created with CSS alone are going to slow down your total pages loading time.

#8: Using DATA URI images

It’s become a bit of a fad recently to input images directly in as data elements inside either in-line style code, src URI’s or CSS. For those that don’t know what the Data URI images are, they are BASE64 encoded images just like images that are saved in a database, but directly entered into either HTML or CSS.

They can be used to reduce the number of connections needed to dowload images and are highly recommended for people who are developing exclusively for mobile devices. But for us mere mortals that have to cross browser develop, it’s worth steering clear of them as they do not work on anything below IE7, and can only be up to 32k in IE8. They can also be a 1/3 bigger than using a single image to do the same task, brought back to maybe 2 or 3% with gzip. The advantage is that they use less connections and thus faster loading times.

However if your still interested in them check out this Wikipedia page.

By my mind, it’s only mobile developers that would want to think about this. So, maybe you want to investigate this for CSS inclusion in a mobile theme where you want to have some images.

#9: Double up, treble and more; more on the art of background positioning, size and repeats.

CSS sprites are not limited only to items that are icons and menus, they can also be applied to lines, borders, shadows and background gradients. All it takes is a bit of layering know-how and you can re-use the same image many times. The only thing that you have to consider when building your sprites this time is if they will be used to display things on either a horizontal or vertical line.

When building a vertical orienteteted sprite to display items that will be repeated on a horizontal line, the major things you will want to be putting in there will be the background gradient, any horizontal line styles and finally any drop shadow effects.

Take this html for example

<div class='gradient'></div>
<div id='wrapper'>
   <div class='box'>
    <h1>Andy Killen</h1>
    <hr class='top-line' />
    <h2>Speed demon of the internet</h2>
    <hr class='alert'/>
    <p >Available for consultancy, talks, training or performing site speedup's</p>
    <ul>
        <li>telephone: +31 653678603</li>
        <li>email: <a href="mailto:andy@phat-reaction.com">andy@phat-reaction.com</a></li>
        <li>website: <a href="http://phat-reaction.com">phat-reaction.com</a></li>
        </ul>
    </div>
<hr class='shadow'/>
</div>
<div class='reverse-gradient'></div>

…and the CSS:

h2,hr,html,body {
margin:0;
padding:0;
position:relative;
border:0
}
.gradient,hr,.reverse-gradient {
background-image:url(horizontal-repeats.png);
background-repeat:repeat-x;
}
.gradient {
background-position: 0 0;
position:fixed;
height:100px;
width:100%;
top:0;
z-index:-1
}
#wrapper {
margin:0 auto;
padding: 30px 0;
width:400px;
z-index:3
}
.top-line {
background-position: 0 -100px;
height:10px
}
.alert {
background-position:0 -110px;
height:10px
}
.box {
border:solid 1px #ccc;
margin:0;
padding:10px 20px 0;
background-color:white;
}
.shadow {
background-position:0 -120px ;
height:25px;
}
.reverse-gradient {
background-position:0 -145px;
height:100px;
position:fixed;
bottom:0;
width:100%;
z-index:-1
}
ul {list-style-type:none}
a{color:#999}
a:hover{color:#000}

(Lots of carriage returns added for readability)
Here it is all presented in an iframe:

As you can see that with a handful of code and one image of 1.2k in size (without being crushed), it is possible to have many gradients, shades and line styles all inside the single file. This will as ever speed up loading time as there is only one request per file and not five in this case.

And of course this does not have to be limited to things that are displayed on the horizontal, it can also be used to build up vertical elements also.

#10: Don’t forget about the Favicon!

The favicon is often forgotten about, but it is something that loads with every page. On most sites if it is missing but still linked then the 404 error page that will show will cause even more traffic than an efficient image, especially when you consider the trend of having very comedic 404′s with stunning imagery.

When creating the favicon try to reduce the number of colors that you use to a minimum and try not to have a final file size much above 1K.

Although it might be tempting and fun, try to resist the temptation to create animated Gif favicons if you want to keep a sites speed down. They look great and can add to your branding but they don’t work on IE and come with a cost in size.

Possibly the best tool for reducing the size of an existing favicon is ImageMagick (MAC, PC and UNIX). Using the convert function from the command line you can reduce the colors until you find the perfect balance.

Here is an example of the command line code you would have to enter to get it to work

convert -colors 4 favicon.ico new-favicon.ico

What this command does is run the convert command with the option to adjust the colors, and then reduce the number of colors to 4, it then says take the original favicon.ico and then outputs the new version with 4 colors as new-favicon.ico.

convert -colors 16 favicon.ico new-favicon.ico

This command would make it 16 colors. Try you favicon out with 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 colors, and choose the one that makes your favicon look good while having the fewest number of colors.

#11: Remember the 25K rule for mobile clients

If for any reason you are working with any mobile device in mind, remember that the iPad can only handle caching of images that are 25K (281K cache total) and lower. The iPhone 3G is 51KB (1.05MB total cache) and its 102KB (1.9MB total) for the iPhone 4. So if you are building massive sprites you might want to think again and have it split up in to 2 or three seperate sprite sets.

#12: Don’t scale down images, use the right size (or even scale up)

I am sure that every designer/developer knows this already, but here goes…. Don’t take a large image and fit it in a small space. So don’t make a 1024 x 768 image fit into a space of 800 x 600. Use an image of the right size in the first place. It’s just wasting you KB’s on the download speed.

Conversely if you want to take a smaller image and make it fit into a larger space then it will load just fine and make the page load time very quick. For example I use this technique to make a 640 x 400 image scale up to be the body background image size. Of course it gets a little blocky on larger screens but as it’s a background rather than a foreground, nobody minds.

#13: Don’t forget to set the height, width and alt

Setting the height and width helps the browser to know how big things will be before the image has been downloaded so that the page can be drawn and presented to the user quicker. Setting the Alt text makes the image accessible, validates your HTML and helps Google Image Search.

img src='image.jpg' width='30' height='40' alt='image description for a blind person'/

#14: Setup the expire date, and ETag on the server

Setting up the expiry date on images can help by telling the browser that the images are not going to change for a period of time. This can be any period that you like, but be aware that if you want to change the sprite or image you will also need to change it’s name to force pre-cached browsers to load a new file and not load the old version.

It’s worth configuring ETags also as they help with caching, what they do is help the server to reply with just a small header confirming that the image or files have not changed. Each ETag is unique per file so the server can keep control of what changes and what has not when the client browser requests it.

For more information about expire headers and etags, you’ll need to wait for the ‘Configuring Servers for Speed’ part of this Website Speed series.

#15: Use a CDN

As ever a proper CDN will do many things for you. Firstly it will reduce the load on your server allowing for more browsers to connect at once, and secondly it offers a more local version of an image because it will pull them from a server that is closer to the user. It will also not transfer cookie info. All of this making page loads quicker all round.

#16: No cash for a CDN? Invest $10 on a new domain for serving Static Content

By simply having a 2^nd domain name that also points at your web server you will be able to serve more images in a parallel download while it brings down the other content from the main address.

It’s much better as it does not transfer cookie info, and it offers twice as many connections at once to the server. The browser should be able to make only 2 connections per DNS address, so having 2 different DNS addresses doubles the amount of traffic. Most modern browsers can make 6 or more connections at once so doubling up will allow for 12 things that can be downloaded simultaneously.

Do remember to use a completely different domain name rather than a sub-domain of the one you are using for your main server as you will be wasting a lot of your effort. For example Yahoo! uses yimg.com, YouTube uses ytimg.com, Facebook uses static.ak.fbcdn.net and so on.

#17: Make faster animated GIF’s

Last on the list are animated GIF’s as its not made by most designers, so it’s more of a footnote than a main item. There are a few things to remember when creating animated GIF’s when you want them to be low in KB’s….

Use the same background in every frame of your animation.
Use the same colors in the whole of the animation.
Don’t use too many frames.

The whole idea here is to reduce the number of colors so that the GIF can be as small as possible, so if you are using animated GIF’s to represent Ajax actions, then use only 4 frames and not 16. If you are making an advert keep your creative juices to a color minimum. Of course none of this matters if your placing your advert on someone else’s site and you just don’t care ;D

Rounding up

That’s the end of part 2 of the Website Speed series, there’s much more to come but understanding these 17 points will make a massive difference to your website speed. If you take nothing else from this, the main thing you should consider is crushing your images, and to use CSS Sprites! Oh, and don’t make your web images in Photoshop.

Of course yet again, if you need more personal help with one of your websites to make it incredibly fast don’t be scared to contact me as I will gladly train your team on the best techniques or make the changes to your site to make it in the top 5% of all websites out there.

IF you want SEO friendly Web Design the Hire VincentIT Web Designer. Click Here to Contact us

How To Write Web Content That Sells

2011-04-04T05:06:00.000-07:00

There are ways to make the content on your site sell. It all starts with what you know and how you use it. In order to have an effective grasp on both, communication is key.

Why is web content writing different?
When people read books, they take their time. Online writing is different because the Internet is the information superhighway. People come to it less for entertainment and more for discovery. But with all the information available online, your content must be more than words. It must have a visual element. That's why shorter sentences and smaller paragraphs are vital to web delivery. Clear communication and cutting to the point are essentials.

Presell with your content
In the book Make Your Content PREsell, you are taken on a journey of discovery that focuses not simply on getting visitors to your site, but how to get and keep them engaged once there. Breaking content into sections that deal with crucial elements such as attention getters, sentence structure and communicating the main idea, are a few of the tools discussed.
Make Your Words Sell
Another free online tool is the book Make Your Words Sell in which you are given the two most important aspects of providing content that closes the deal: knowing your product and knowing your audience. Most content online is drab and dreary, presented by non-professionals, who may have the passion, but they just don't know how to communicate it. Mastering these two elements and truly getting to know what makes the people most likely to become your customers tick are the keys discussed.
Make Your Site Sell
In Make Your Site Sell, you find out the Big Three elements to standing out in the fierce online world. Yes, there are millions of websites on the World Wide Web, and while that can seem overwhelming-and sometimes downright discouraging-the odds get much better when you realize how few of these sites truly "get it." Master the Big Three in this book, and the results fall into place. First, have a great product or service that you can speak about passionately and clearly. Secondly, optimize your site to sell. Make sure the infrastructure is in place, and that you are ready to start taking orders. Thirdly, go after targeted traffic, or those people who would stand to best benefit from your product or service, and focus all advertising needs on them.
Make Your Knowledge Sell
Last but not least, this book helps you to pull the knowledge out of your head and onto the page. It teaches you the right ways to publish. It educates you on the ins and outs of Internet sales. Brainstorm. Write Promote your info products to success.
With just a handful of the right tools and a spirit of putting passion first and money second, you can have more financial success and personal fulfillment than you ever thought possible from the ideas living in your head.

Google Analytics 5 Unveils A New User Experience

2011-03-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

Google has just announced a new version of Google Analytics, introducing a completely new user experience. The product got a significant face lift and it now looks more enterprise-like.

The last time Google Analytics released such a major version was 1.5 years ago; we covered the release in-depth on this post, but basically the release included the intelligence engine, custom variables, expanded goals, expanded mobile reporting and others.

Below, I share a few screenshots of the new face of Google Analytics (still in closed beta) and explain how they will change product usage. The new version of Google Analytics will gradually rollout to users in phases according to Google.

Main Navigation
It is interesting to see that Google Analytics has adopted the look and feel of the new Google navigation bar released back in February. As we can see below, the new navigation bar prioritizes the following:

   1. Account Home: page where we can find all the accounts to which we have access to.
   2. Dashboards: page where we can find all dashboards from a specific account.
   3. My Site: the place where all reports live, which is now divided between reports and intelligence.
   4. Custom Reports: page where we can manage and create custom reports.
   5. Account Manager: links to all accounts we have access to.
   6. Settings: page with all the accounts in which we can change the settings (i.e., those we are granted with administrator access)

Account Home
The Account Home got a face lift in v4 (see link above), turning it into some kind of dashboard. However, it looks like Google has abandoned this idea and now we will not be able to see metrics on this page, as is currently the case.

The good news is that instead of the metrics, we now have links that can be used to jump to specific reports on a chosen profile. The icons link to the main reporting tabs: visitors, traffic sources, content, and conversions.

Multiple & Improved Dashboards
This is probably one of the biggest hits of the release: the capability to create multiple dashboards, each containing any set of graphs. This is a much wanted feature, especially for large organizations, where employees have very different needs from the tool. Now dashboards can be set by hierarchy, department, interest or any other rule.

In addition, as we can see in the screenshot below, the tool has also adopted Google’s naming convention, now all boxes are called widgets. And the widgets are significantly more customizable than in the past. Now it is possible to define which metric you want to see as well as which visualization you prefer.

The only strange change when it comes to the dashboard functionality is that they can no longer be found on the header of each report. Traditionally, there has always been a button in all reports that enabled adding the report to the dashboard; this was a good shortcut to adding interesting views directly to the dashboard, and now this process will be more difficult.

Report Nomenclature
Besides changing the UI of the product, we can also see that the names of reports have changed. For long time users, the names will sound a bit strange, but they do seem to be more accurate and intuitive. Here are a few examples:

    * Network properties & browser capabilities now sit under one tab called Technology.
    * Top Content is now Pages
    * Goals are now Conversions
    * Visit Duration and Page depth are now Engagement

User Interface Improvements
In the screenshot below we can see some of the improvements on the UI of the new Google Analytics version.

Closing Thoughts
As we have seen above, this release is very significant and I believe it is great news for users and the industry in general; once again, Google has raised the bar, especially when it comes to usability and data visualization.

However, I still believe there are some very important issues that should be addressed by Google in the near future. As I wrote on my Google Analytics Wishlist, I think the most critical improvements needed are:

    * Import API for Marketing Campaign Data: the possibility to import into Google Analytics different campaign cost data from places like Bing, Facebook, Yahoo and others.
    * Adsense Clicks as Ecommerce Transactions: the possibility to track adsense clicks as goals but using the amount received per click as ecommerce transactions
    * Website Optimizer / Webmaster Tools integrations: being able to use one platform for online marketing activity (see my thoughts on Analytics and Webmaster tools integration)

Did you like the new look and feel? What would you like to see changed on Google Analytics?

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Why is a Logo so Important to Your Business?

2011-03-09T05:43:00.000-08:00

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization.

Today there are many corporations, products, brands, services, agencies and other entities using an ideogram (sign, icon) or an emblem (symbol) or a combination of sign and emblem as a logo. As a result, only a few of the thousands of ideograms people see are recognized without a name. It is sensible to use an ideogram as a logo, even with the name, if people will not duly identify it. Currently, the usage of both images (ideograms) and the company name (logotype) to emphasize the name instead of the supporting graphic portion and making it unique, by it non-formulaic construction via the desiginal use of its letters, colors and any additional graphic elements.

Well, a logo for your business. Why is it important? Does it matter what it looks like? Is Yours Professional?
The truth is, a logo speaks volumes about your company, straight away it tells your “future clients” if you are reliable and instills trust in them. Although offering a good service or quality product is highly important, how you initially present yourself is what will win you their trust and in the end win them as a client. As I have already mentioned, how good your service or product is will decide if you are successful long term, but the initial image of your company says many things to potential clients / customers Your logo says to clients a few different things:

1. Are these guys professional?

2. Do they seem to care about their business(which in turns means do you care about your clients)?

3. Do they seem to know what they are doing?

4. Does their business seem to be one I can trust to do the job right?

A professional logo design will establish a professional image of your company and strengthen your brand. Actually, in most cases the consumer gets the first impression about your company through your logo. Your logo should build a brand that is strong enough to give your consumer a visual imagery of your company. People should be able to identify your company on sight of your logo.

A professional image can be as simple as a text logo with a different color letter in it to give it a unique twist, or a logo with a complex symbol to represent the company ideals and it’s philosophy. Making it unique and professional is what is important, a poor quality logo can be negative to the image of your company and may do more damage to your business than you might care to think!

VincentIT Logo

At VincentIT we know that choosing the right brand name is very important. That is why we assist your business in creating the best corporate branding image. Names or words have the ability to move people.

The VincentIT Brand service is a proprietary process created by the VincentIT Brand Team that, when professionally executed, delivers a clear and measurable competitive advantage to your firm. It does so by helping you establish a positive connection and value-relationship with your customer which, over time, will build brand equity and increase brand value.

VincentIT Consultancy creates professional logos design that make available instant recognition and position for your company or organization.

A VincentIT logo design is a sophisticated symbol epitomizing the philosophy of your company or organization and is part of its commercial uniqueness. Its slight suggestion of your products or services triggers the marketing progression.

A logo or brand is not only artwork. It is stand for your business, the significance of which cannot be overvalued. Your logo/brand design in London is your business asset.

The attendance of a logo design on business cards, documents, advertisements, brochures and websites not only improve the visibility of your company but provide the business a characteristic identity. At VincentIT, we offer professional logo design services at very cost effectual charge. Our team of professional logo designers enables you to get the most excellent possible logo design for your business purposes.

>> Stays in the memory of the target audience
>> Inspires customer confidence
>> Represents your business professionally

Let VincentIT help you find the right brand for your company.

Logo design service:

We will develop a Logo for you company within days. (If we are developing your website then this service is FREE)

We will create an individual LOGO to identify your Business as a corporate sign.

If you would like to discuss how good design can have a positive effect on your business, then please Contact VincentIT

Hire iPhone OS 4 Developer for Next Generation Applications

2011-03-04T23:54:00.000-08:00

iphone Application Development

If you are looking for getting the right kind of solutions for all your business needs with iPhone iOS 4 developments then you have come to the right place. iPhone application developers are a one-stop solution to unique, performance oriented and cost effective application development.

VincentIT Inc is a professional mixture of talented and passionate iPhone developers who are disposed towards quality customer service providing timely solutions to their business needs.

All the different kinds of services we provide apart from iPhone OS 4 development are iPhone 4 application developments, iPhone 4 games development, iPhone 4 web applications development.

We also offer various hiring methods that have been designed especially keeping the ease and requirement of the projects. Depending on the need of the project you can hire our developers on hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Get Benefits to you by hiring VincentIT iOS 4 Developer:

- Expert iPhone developers available any time

- 24/7 open communications

- Quality services with affordable prices

- Support and consultation services

- Maintenance services

VincentIT follow a stringent procedure of transacting with the customers and working on projects. All the needs are totally understood well before preliminary the project; inputs from the development teams are given if there is a scope of improvement and then keeping quality, timeline and performance in mind the project is started with the aim of providing complete solution to the customer on time and without any problems in the functioning of the application.

When it’s the subject of your business then you should take utmost care of whom you choose for your applications development and that is why we are the right choice for you. We understand what the importance of right solutions is and how they can make a difference.

So if you have a need to get iPhone OS 4 development then Contact VincentIT Inc at info@vincentit.com and get a FREE quotes and assistance

BlackBerry Maker RIM To Build Cheaper Phones

2011-03-04T23:06:00.000-08:00

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, a major Marvell customer, is shifting significant resources to "entry-level smartphones" according to one of its major suppliers.

Chip maker Marvell had a tough time in the quarter that ended January 29, with revenue down 6% (to $901 million) and net income down 13% (to $223 million) from the previous quarter -- that's despite the Christmas season, which is usually peak time for smartphone sales. The company's shares dropped more than 11% on the news.

According to Marketwatch, CEO Sehat Sutardja blamed the results on a switch by one of Marvell's customers toward building low-cost, low-margin smartphones -- a market that Marvell does not supply. That customer is widely understood to be RIM.

RIM is facing pressure from lower priced smartphones that run Google's Android operating system. Android basically came out of nowhere in 2010 and surpassed RIM's global market share. RIM grew in absolute numbers, but fell to number three behind Android and leader Symbian (Nokia), according to Gartner.

RIM may also be trying to capitalize on chaos at Nokia, which recently announced plans to switch its smartphone platform from Symbian to Windows Phone 7 over the next couple of years. Nokia sells a lot of inexpensive Symbian-based smartphones around the world, so perhaps RIM is looking at that market for expansion

Advantage of Website Development with PHP

2011-03-02T02:37:00.000-08:00

Website design and development have now played a vital role for every business, especially those who preserve their existence in the virtual of the internet. The business is usually boosted with a good quality website but this is not true every time. Nowadays there is war in the world of internet too. The websites via with each other for buyers. Frequently there is a reasonable amount of money involved in designing and development of a website. When it is concerning business, one has to take every step towards dropping costs and mounting sales. There are numerous coding languages for Website Development. One of the most popular coding languages is PHP.

Some of the basis for this popularity is as follows.

Compatibility is barely any issue with PHP. This coding language is friendly with different server platforms like Linux and Windows. This has a positive effect on the compatibility with the browsers like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. A PHP based website can be downloaded easily. There is a readymade framework too.

Making the website appealing:

Visual applications and graphics are needed to make the website more appealing. Studies have proved that images and visual content are more effective than the text content for converting the visitor into a buyer. Visual applications can be easily included with the help of PHP. One can use the graphical PHP library for creating stunning graphic effects.

PHP helps to make the website more attractive.

Search engine optimization:

In these times of tight competition and search engines playing a vital role in diverting the traffic, it is necessary for the website to be search engine friendly. Making the web site attractive is equally important. No one should remember that flash and high graphics are not considered for indexing the search engine list. If the website is built with the help of PHP it is going to be search engine friendly and help the website URL to feature higher on the search engine list.

PHP is an open source. It is supported by a large community of developers. This helps in resolving issues or bug fixation. The costing of the website development is drastically reduced because there are no fees for utility of this coding language. With the help of PHP, the functional needs of client can be easily incorporated into the website. When mingled with other coding languages, PHP can make the website very attractive.

PHP is very easy to study and implement. It makes the work of the developers very easy. Less coding is required. PHP has got an option to create its own option for building memory. A professional website development service offering company should not only be expert PHP user but also know to realize its true potential.

VincentIT Inc is Leading Web Development Company providing different Web services. Our Website Design Company offers Website Design and Development services in USA, UK, India and Worldwide. Consult for professional Web Application Development services.

iPhone App Development And iPad App Development Are The Two Dynamic Trends In Mobile App Development

2011-03-01T06:05:00.000-08:00

Apple has made a big presence felt in the gadgetry world with its power products, iPhone being the most prominent of them all. With millions of users worldwide, iPhone is a classic example how class, style, and sophistication in electronic devices can win the attention of people. It is a device that represents a complete new outlook towards mobile technology; it provides functions that go beyond the simplicity of a common mobile communication device. Combining the functionality of a revolutionary smartphone and a breakthrough internet device, iPhone brings tremendous benefits to its end users. The scope of innovation and development with the exemplary iPhone software development technology has opened the door to a whole new popular segment of mobile application development, which we all know as iPhone app development.

With a constant rise in the demand of iPhone apps, a niche market has been created for iPhone app developers. Due to the diversity of application categories and a loyal user group excited about the apps being made, iPhone application development has become an “in” thing. Mobile app developers have taken on to this phenomenon and consequently we find the App Store getting flooded with a host of applications added on a daily basis. With a technology that gives enough space for new and innovative applications, there are endless apps that can be created. A skilled iPhone app developer can provide users with applications enabled with a vast support from iPhone software technology, its features and attributes.

There is a growing demand for developing iPhone apps for facilities found in a personal computer. This is because a lot of people have started using iPhone to largely minimize their desktop use. Looking at the opportunities, many programming developers and experts have switched to this new era of technology. Having chosen iPhone application development, a mobile app developer can choose to work either for open iTunes apps or customized iPhone apps for businesses - both are booming. Currently being in a blooming stage, mobile app development companies are fast gaining a technical feasibility for software application development on this device.

After iPhone, the next smart widget launched by Apple Inc. is iPad. Both these devices are immensely popular, and iPad app developers have got on to the app development bandwagon to make further significant contributions. Many mobile apps development companies love to highlight their iPad app development specialization along with their iPhone specialty. A lot of businesses have already got a competitive edge utilizing these valuable services, while some are still learning how easy it becomes to develop a business using the power of these apps. Both iPhone and iPad are capable of providing affordable solutions to businesses, whether industry leaders or small companies looking for ways of cost minimization. Almost all iPhone and iPad application development companies have now included the segment of custom application development in their app development services for mobile devices, which is quite obvious from their work portfolio.

To end, the future for both these development platforms seems bright and these trends are definitely there to stay on.

If you are looking for iPad App Development or iPhone App Development or Mobile Application Development Company then contact VincentIT Inc

Mobile Application Can Change your Business Appreance

2011-03-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

Today, the market of mobile app developer is growing rapidly because of their demand is very high in mobile applications. iPhone app development is one of the rapid growing sectors for which mobile programmers are needed. That means every smart phone user who wants unique and amazing applications or wants to customize their existing apps then they need them. To create an app is not an easy task, but they are fully-loaded with every smart phone SDK and the process of developing. Many new technologies are coming, and they are keeping themselves update to walk with the advanced age, and contributing in the market.

Mobile developers help you in your business by providing complete mobile solutions that provides businessmen to create apps according to their needs and requirements as per the business. Through such, you will be able to communicate or make conversation from any place and time. Thus, by using these services, you can connect your business with your smart phone. You can expand your business globally by adopting these marvel services. You can choose the best service from the below mention platforms according to your requirements and your device.

- iPhone app
- iPad application
- Android apps
- Blackberry Solutions
- Windows mobile applications
- Symbian OS app
- BREW

They are highly skilled and experienced in following areas where they prove best for your business:

- Business applications
- MC development (MC stands for Mobile Commerce)
- WAP mobile applications
- Website development
- Marketing
- Social Networking or social media

WAP Mobile apps service provider companies are providing these services for the following mobile as well as tablet PC devices.

- iPhone
- iPad
- Android
- Android Tablet
- Blackberry
- Windows mobile
- Symbian
- J2ME

Thus, these are the devices for which the demand for developers and programmers is high.

Today, mobile sector is a very booming sector. Lots of inventions and changes make this platform very popular. Ultimately, these services are the best resources for not only businessmen but also all the persons who want to stay connected with their clients at any time. It’s a great opportunity for the smart phone users to get offshore mobile development services.

if you're still looking for a Mobile Application developer, give us a call 713-510-8033 or email at info@VincentIT.com

How to Hire an iPhone Application Developer?

2011-03-01T05:15:00.000-08:00

Iphone Application Development

Assuming that you truly have no real idea how you can develop your own iPhone apps then you need to hire an iPhone app developer. Because you are not familiar with app formation, you may forget coming up with an iPhone app on your own. The recommended and smartest way to break into the market employing a excellent app in hand is to get a professional whiz to do it. Thus, how can you handle acquiring an iPhone app developer that matches your preferences and value?

Tips to Hire an iPhone App Developer
One of the first points that you can use is check some of the apps found in the actual iPhone App Store and see who developed any of them. Under the app description ‘Company’ you will discover contact specifics of the venture or the developer who created the app. Now all you have to do is get in touch with them to work out a possible deal.

If that does not transpire for you or you would like to try a unique technique, you can search for different sources to hire an iPhone app developer. You certainly can discover online services web pages similar to O-Desk, Elance and Guru for other proper applicants. Freelance creative designers cost much less than full-time persons. It is possible to make a choice from a large amount persons in just one go. Do not forget to consult their portfolios and abilities in order that you are sure that they know their craft inside and out.

When you have already reduced your prospects to two or three desirable candidates, you can now choose which you’re a lot more comfortable working with. It could be a good strategy to get somebody who has worked on tasks like your own. Doing this will help make certain that your chosen developer already has a sense for what you desire executed. Take note of how swiftly and absolutely they reply to your questions. Assess every time they make contact with you about job milestones regularly.

Just Hire an iPhone App Developer!
Finally, a very good idea is absolutely not worth a dime if you can’t turn it into anything worthwhile and authentic for iPhone apps end users. The more time you linger to hire an iPhone app developer, the larger the chance that someone else will already have succeeded in making that app.

At this point, there are more seekers for iPhone app developers than there are qualified individuals who can actually do an excellent job for you. The vast majority of really great professionals are already booked solid for years, thus may be really tough to hire an iPhone app developer which can work with you right now.

Knowing how to hire an iPhone application developer is a small fraction of the battle in getting your dreams into the iPhone AppStore.meone else will already have succeeded in making that app.

For Custom iPhone Application Development or for hiring dedicated iPhone App Developer contact VincentIT Inc today by call at 713-510-8033 or mail at info@VincentIT.com

Virtual Event Social Networks – The Next Evolution For Online Communities

2011-02-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

Getting your target audience to repeatedly visit and engage in a niche online community running on Jive Software, Cisco Quad, Salesforce.com Chatter, Pathable, Drupal, Liferay, or other social software platform is challenging — even with great content and a terrific community manager. With some exceptions, unique visitors, repeat visits per user, and behavioral engagement metrics have a tendency to plateau or at best trend slightly upward within a band.

Now consider something disruptive — a complementary online experience that can penetrate and engage the same target audience as your social software platform but that periodically produces comparatively huge spikes of online audience for 1-2 days. I’m talking about virtual event platforms. These software platforms let organizations create large online gatherings – kind of like a Webex meeting on steroids – for internal meetings, conferences, exclusive briefings, product launches, lead generation, online learning/training, job fairs, and more. What if you could periodically drive spikes of online audience like this into your niche online community? You might wind up with site analytic reports that look kind of like the chart below, and that ramp audience penetration and engagement for your community much faster.

Additive, Synergistic Technologies
No matter which piece of the combined social-virtual solution you start from, integrating the technologies yields business benefits and improvements in audience penetration and engagement that are greater than the sum of the parts. Online communities running on social software are vivified by the energy and sense of “happening” of a virtual event. Streaming video presentations that contain unique, well-curated content, wrapped in persisting social activity streams may be the magic formula for increasing audience penetration and engagement, collaboration, learning, and loyalty to the community.

The synergy is just as strong when flipped to start from the virtual event side. Generating social activity streams that are based around the participants, presentations, documents, chats and virtual spaces of a virtual event environment would not only increase participant engagement during the live days of the virtual event, but provide a more viable platform for building 365-day virtual business communities. In general, the confluence of the technologies makes sense because communities naturally coalesce into events, and events naturally disperse into communities. Events are simply the Super Bowl culminations of communities where audience spikes.

Today’s Loosely-Coupled Social-Virtual Integration – A Starting PlaceFirst steps toward social-virtual integration already have been taken by both social software and virtual event vendors.

On the virtual side, features like real-time chat, messaging, buddy lists, vCard exchange, attendee roster, and people search arguably represent social functionality. But they lack the activity-stream-based view of Enterprise 2.0 social software — follower/following capability and real-time streams of activity by people and entities you are following.

Virtual event platforms rode the wave of social API integration, and many now incorporate Twitter hashtag widgets, the Facebook Livestream social plugin, and elements of the LinkedIn Platform API into the virtual environment. Industry leader INXPO was among the first to market with an integrated “social suite” offering these features thanks to the insight of product marketing director Dennis Shaio. Intefy and Ustream both provide similar, less feature-rich, ways to mashup live streaming presentations and Twitter hashtags. A great example of one such Intefy-powered hybrid live-virtual event was Event Camp Twin Cities. Cisco Systems’ CiscoLive is a 365-day hybrid-virtual-social community for Cisco engineers that runs on the INXPO platform. Although it lacks the Enterprise 2.0 social software UX of, say, Cisco Quad or Jive, it pulls its audience back in via regularly scheduled pulse virtual events containing freshly curated content. Q&A sessions integrated within the webcast presentations, real-time chats and Twitter hashtags provide the collaborative interaction between attendees and subject matter experts and between attendees and other attendees.

One startup deserves credit on the virtual event side for taking the convergence of virtual and social software to the next level — Bellevue, WA-based startup Social27. With Social27 it’s possible to follow attendees in the virtual environment and view social activity streams on their updates. Social27 is a startup social CRM agency that has developed and shipped a cloud-based SaaS virtual event product. The company’s founder and CEO, Ike Singh Kehal, positions Social27 in the “enterprise social computing” space. The company offers both a virtual event product and an Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform, and appears to have fused elements of the two. It looks like a harbinger of things to come.

The Social Software Side
On the social software side, first steps toward social-virtual integration have been taken by Cisco Quad, which integrates Webex online conferencing into the Enterprise 2.0 environment, and by the Brainshark app in the Jive Apps Market, which lets participants create, manage, deliver and track on-demand multimedia presentations from within the Jive social platform. Such online conferencing tools lack the feature functionality of a full virtual event platform, but they’re a step toward wrapping online meetings and gatherings in social software UX and activity streams.

Engage365.org, a niche online community running on the Pathable social platform, regularly launches live streaming webcasts with thought leaders via an embedded UStream player on its site. Participants can start a native discussion thread about the webcast by simply clicking the “start a conversation” button at the top of the page, and that threaded discussion will persist on the native Pathable platform. Alternately, participants can Tweet about the webcast using the webcast’s Twitter hashtag.

BrazenCareerist, a career social networking site for people in their 20s, has also injected a form of virtual event into its activity-feed-based social platform. To be sure, BrazenCareerist’s Network Roulette events which have been described as “an online speed-networking service that lets young professionals build their network” are a unique departure from the experience of the commercial virtual event platforms. But BrazenCareerist CEO Edward Barrientos credits these virtual events with driving new waves of audience penetration and engagement into the BrazenCareerist online community.

Where It Needs To Go
What’s the end game for engaging an online audience with a combined virtual-social experience?
The roadmap probably lies in tighter integration between the unique content of virtual events and the social activity streams of persisting online communities. To give users the maximum opportunity for engagement, they should be able to follow, share, comment on and rank any entity in the virtual environment – including other participants, webcasts, documents, chats, blogs, and user-generated content uploads like YouTube videos. Each participant, content entity and group in the virtual environment should generate its own feed which can be subscribed to by any member. Feed posts should link directly to the virtual event content asset or profile of the user that is mentioned. These features exist today in social software platforms like Saleforce.com Chatter. Extending such features to virtual event content would drive engagement during the live event days, catalyze a high volume of crowdsourced social discovery of that content, drive a wave of viral sharing, and launch true social-virtual platforms into the marketplace as a competitively differentiated 365-day collaboration solution. It would be particularly effective for driving audience penetration, loyalty and engagement in niche communities with relatively small numbers of unique visitors per day/week/month.

Virtual-Social-Mobile
Needless to say, any evolutions of a virtual-social combined solution need to go mobile. Social software platforms like Jive and Salesforce.com Chatter, as well as virtual event platforms like Social27, already have mobile versions of their apps. Online conferencing apps from Cisco Webex and other vendors also have mobile app versions. Putting emerging virtual-social communities on smartphones and tablets is another essential in expanding their audience reach, engagement, and frequency of touch.

What You Can’t Measure You Can’t Improve

Leading commercial virtual event platforms have strong integrated metrics. Social software platforms are beefing up their reporting with social media monitoring tools, as Jive did when it acquired Filtrbox. A social-virtual combined solution needs to track and report on behaviors on a per-user basis across both the virtual event and social software user experiences. The aggregate metrics would give a more complete view of each participant and be more actionable than either social metrics or virtual metrics on their own.

Have you used or considered using platforms that combine virtual event and social software? What has been your experience? How do you see the fusion of the technologies evolving?

Choose The Right Mobile App Development Framework

2011-02-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

If your business is looking to develop its first mobile app, deciding which mobile application development framework to build it in, and what skill set you’ll need from developers, can be tricky with so many types of development frameworks emerging. Here’s a breakdown of some basic types of frameworks, with a few leading examples of each, and a look at some of their strengths and drawbacks to help you make the right choice for your business’s app:

Native platform mobile app development frameworks. The iOS (Apple) platform and Android (Google) platform are the market leaders. Developers write code using the native tools of the platform. iOS developers use the iOS SDK, Xcode IDE, Objective-C, Core Animation, Core Graphics, Accelerometer and Cocoa Touch UI framework. Android developers use the Android SDK, Eclipse IDE with ADT plugin. Android apps are written in Java, or via plug-ins, can be written in a variety of languages including C,C++, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Ruby On Rails, Scala and Scheme.

HTML5 and JQuery mobile application frameworks for multi-touch web apps that run in the mobile device browser. SproutCore, JQuery Mobile, and Sencha Touch are three of the leading tools. These frameworks create HTML5 browser-based (not-native) mobile apps that cleverly emulate the multi-touch UX of native apps on Apple and Android touchscreen devices. Since they’re HTML5 and browser-based, these mobile apps will run in the browser of Apple, Android, even Blackberry Torch devices. An HTML5 app is one of a couple of options you have to write once and run everywhere.

Cross-Platform native mobile app dev frameworks. PhoneGap and Appcelerator Titanium are two leaders. Also referred to as “wrappers” for creating hybrid web-apps, these open source frameworks essentially wrap a web application inside a native application that can be distributed via the native app stores for iPhone, iPad and Android. The hybrid web-mobile app approach is another alternative to let you target multiple platforms with a single codebase. A wrapper also makes it possible to build mobile apps for app store distribution using developers who haven’t mastered native platform languages and tools like Objective-C and Cocoa Touch. Developers use their existing web skills with JavaScript, HTML and CSS to code the application, and the framework compiles most of the code into a native iPhone, iPad or Android app.

Rapid mobile app development frameworks. AppMakr and Mobile Roadie are leading tools. AppMakr is a browser-based mobile app dev framework that makes it super-fast to create an iPhone app from existing content such as an organization’s YouTube channel, blog posts, and other social network feeds. Such apps can be created and submitted to the Apple App Store or Android Market in a matter of hours.

The Big Questions
Organizations are trying to figure out whether apps developed in write-once-run-everywhere frameworks can really hold their own next to native apps. When planning a mobile app strategy, having single codebase that reaches users on any platform is the end game – user base, cost savings, time-to-market, simplicity, and maintenance all would be optimized. No organization gets excited by the prospect of developing an app for iOS, building it again for Android, and then paying once more to code a web app. But for some app requirements doing all three can turn out to be the only viable route to market, for now. One thing is clear. When it’s launched, the app has to perform well enough to win a critical mass of user adoption.

In cases when it’s deemed necessary to write the app three times for Apple, Android and Web, organizations next turn to the question of which platform to target first, and where the web app should rank on the roadmap. No one wants to get the sequence wrong.

Strengths And Drawbacks
A friend involved in developing the beautiful PBS iPad app met me for lunch and we discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the various mobile app dev frameworks. Our talk echoed the conclusions of dozens of developers answering questions about mobile app dev frameworks on public forums like Quora.

The HTML5 and JQuery mobile app dev frameworks are on the right track, and they’re okay for building a simple browser-based multi-touch mobile app with a simple UI that doesn’t need to tap into the platform’s native features. However, for apps with more sophisticated requirements, or the need to deliver a flawless user experience to acquire users, many developers find that these platforms aren’t mature enough yet. To illustrate, my friend showed me a demo of a browser-based app developed in SproutCore for a television network rival of PBS. The emulation of native touch apps was pretty cool. Its buttons were touch activated; its menus loaded similarly to menus developed in Xcode and Cocoa Touch; it imitated iOS’s gestural page navigation; and it copied the bounce of a native iOS app when you scroll up at the top of a page.

Using two iPads, we literally set the SproutCore app on the table side-by-side with the PBS native iPad app to compare. Several UX differences became noticeable. Gestural transitions, smooth in the iOS app, were jumpy and exhibited a weird flutter in the browser app. Buttons, which changed state when touched in the iOS app, remained unchanged with no visual cue when tapped in the browser app. Menus, which loaded instantaneously in the iOS app, exhibited a performance delay before opening in the browser app. The bounce at the top of the page wasn’t quite the same. It can be frustrating, my friend said, for a UX perfectionist when the write-once-run-anywhere frameworks don’t give you access to the platform’s native UX capabilities. For an organization like PBS with a brand reputation for high-quality video content, launching with a flawless and beautiful UX was identifed as critical to maximize user acquisition. Despite the cost, hiring native iOS developers was the right strategy for getting the app onto the iPad. Now that it is released, the app has received stellar user ratings and reviews.

As for the wrappers (the cross-platform native mobile app dev frameworks like PhoneGap and Accelerator Titanium), the requirements of the PBS iPad app ruled them out as well. The app needed custom APIs (to access PBS’s streaming media content via the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud). The team wanted to utilize UI-Web-View to embed HTML in specific areas of the iOS native app to create server side views. Requirements like these aren’t easily accommodated via a wrapper, my friend said. You’re in a box with these frameworks and you’re stuck with their developer tools. Titanium boasts capabilities to access the camera and other hardware on the device, which is impressive. But again my friend’s team found it more flexible developing with Xcode to access the native hardware.

Obviously, rapid mobile application development frameworks like AppMakr didn’t make the cut for my friend’s project. Their focus on compiling mobile apps for App Store distribution quickly from existing YouTube channels, blog posts, and social media feeds disqualified them as tools for a more ambitious app. Still, you have to credit AppMakr. For something so simple, it has attracted customers including Whitehouse.gov, Newsweek, and social media guru Seth Godin. All launched AppMakr apps and got their social content “mobilized” and packaged for the App Store in a matter of hours.

Not every mobile app has the sophisticated requirements of the PBS iPad app. But looking at the different mobile app dev frameworks through the lens of its tough requirements is instructive in sorting out what kinds of apps they’re suited for.

Native Platforms And Web – Getting The Order Right In The Roadmap
Platform preference of your target users, budget, timeframe, business objectives, the coding skills of your existing developers, and special requirements for UX and API integration – all may drive the sequence of Apple, Android, and web development. But for organizations seeking mass adoption of their mobile app, the critical factors are: (i.) maximizing total addressable audience, and (ii.) launching with a UX that will engage users. The roadmap decision often results from an optimization exercise performed on these two factors.

HTML5 web apps represent the maximum total addressable audience. Even though discovery of web apps can be an issue because they lack the powerful distribution channels of the native app stores, in theory HTML5 web apps can be used by anyone with a mobile brower based on Webkit or Chrome. That means Apple, Android, even Blackberry Torch. What’s not maximized on web apps is UX. If an organization reasons that initial user satisfaction has to be optimized in order to drive user adoption, establish brand quality, or differentiate from competitors, it may choose to do its initial launch with a native platform app despite the smaller addressable audience compared to a web app. The platform they choose to make a big splash with UX more than likely will be Apple iOS. Compared to iOS native apps, my friend said, Android apps feel like Microsoft. Developer Ish Harshawat echoed this in a Quora discussion, calling out Google for doing a poor job of communicating to developers the best practices for user experience and design. The result is a lot of the apps that started with Android as the look and feel seem kind of haphazard in usability, he said. Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, introduces a completely new user interface suitable for tablet devices, but it remains to be seen how much this shifts the UX equation.

Android’s burgeoning growth, which recently surpassed that of Apple, has made big headlines in recent months, but organizations need to distinguish between growth numbers versus the current installed base of the two platforms. Nielsen figures show in the past six months Android became the top choice of consumers buying smartphones. 40.8% of smartphone buyers chose Android devices, versus 26.9% who opted for an iOS smartphone or 19.2% who preferred a Blackberry. NPD Group research put Android at a sizzling 44% of U.S. smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2010. To date, 85 competitors have lined up against iPad, and most of them will run Android. However, in installed base the iPhone still leads with 28.6% of the market compared to Android’s 25.8%..

By the time my friend’s team started with PBS, the PBS organization already had launched an iPhone app, which all agreed was the right first move. The question was what the mobile roadmap should look like going forward. Following their own optimization exercise on UX and addressable audience, the team decided to do a native iOS app for iPad first, an HTML5 web app next, and native Android smartphone and tablet apps after that.

It was the right choice for their organization. What mobile strategy works best for you?

Squeeze pages – Are they beneficial to your website?

2011-02-20T23:50:00.000-08:00

With the widespread of the trend of internet marketing, one of the best things the online entrepreneurs can do is to create a squeeze page and start building a list on it. A squeeze page may seem to be very unattractive to your eyes, but its role in the facilitation of your online business is critical.

However, the role of squeeze pages in the growth your website is often overlooked by most online entrepreneurs and many of them are also totally unaware of the various benefits of a squeeze page. If you’re keen on maximizing your SEO and online marketing profits, have a look at the benefits so that you can get intrigued in creating a squeeze page and starting off.

What are the benefits of a squeeze page?
The primary goal of an online marketer is to increase the traffic to your website by compelling the visitors to stick to your page. In order to boost the visitors to your website most entrepreneurs spend time in operations that ensure better and profitable results. However, only luring the highest number of eyeballs to your website will not always work. It is even tougher to convert the visitors into customers and make them sign up with your company. This is where squeeze pages takes an important part. They act as a marketing tool and helps convince your prospective consumers. Have a look at their benefits.

* Collects valuable information easily: The primary aim of squeeze pages is to provide the visitors with something that is irresistible. Only compelling content that impresses the visitors is not enough. Squeeze pages provides them with a part of the article and also states that the visitor has to sign up with the website if he wants to read the remaining article. The visitors provides his personal contact information, e-mail address and the website owner gets the opportunity to contact the visitor in due time.

* Greatest source of lead generation: The visitors who come to your website to read your content are perhaps the potential audiences and you can easily bank on the information provided by them to generate a huge number of leads. Those who have provided you with their personal information are the ones who can be certainly turned into your customers. This way squeeze pages play a vital role in generating leads.

* Powerful tool for advertising: The entire business of SEO not only depends on gaining the highest number of convertible visitors but also on good advertisements. As you can’t include the benefits of your products blatantly, squeeze pages helps you inform audiences in a tricky way how they’ll benefit from your products and services. If you can design a squeeze page properly, it can also play an important role in boosting the revenue circles of your website.

The value of a squeeze page is indisputable for your website. Besides implementing SEO efforts to your website to boost the page rank of your website, you can also use squeeze pages to reap the above mentioned benefits and generate more leads. Use it as a lucrative marketing tool that can enhance your profits and help you achieve success.

Looking a Company who create your squeeze page then Contact VincentIT.

Microsoft bans GPL software from Windows Phone Marketplace

2011-02-18T04:37:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has prohibited developers from using GPLv3-licensed open source software in any application distributed on the Windows Phone Marketplace. But Redmond is pushing mobile application developers to use packages based on an open source licence created by Microsoft.

The Windows Phone Marketplace Application Provider Agreement says applications "must not include software that... in whole or in part, are governed by or subject to an Excluded License," and says excluded licences "include, but are not limited to the GPLv3 Licenses."

But developers can use code approved by the Microsoft Public License, an open source licence created by Redmond. Microsoft has pushed developers to use so-called "Windows Phone recipes," which are open source projects that became available last month under the Microsoft Public License

The GPLv3 restriction in the Microsoft application provider agreement has been public since at least September, but resurfaced this week when Red Hat technology evangelist Jan Wildeboer blogged about the issue, saying he "was quite astonished."

"Note the full scope: in whole or in part," Wildeboer writes. "This means that you cannot use Libraries that are under this ominous 'Excluded License.' Or use documentation that is licensed under the ominous 'Excluded License.' You get the point. If you use whatever stuff that is under this ominous 'Excluded License' your app will not be added to the marketplace."

Microsoft defines GPLv3 licenses as including "GNU General Public License version 3, the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3, and any equivalents to the foregoing," and also appears to ban further open source licenses, including any one that allows software to be redistributed for free.

Excluded licenses include anything "disclosed or distributed in source code form, licensed for the purpose of making derivative works or redistributable at no charge," Microsoft says.

Make Calls from iPad & iPod Touch Using Skype

2011-02-18T03:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I was talking with programmers from India with my iPhone via Skype.

The clarity via Skype was impressive both with me talking (there wasn’t any echos) and on me hearing them talk (the sound came through perfectly.

Even more of a test was the fact that I was talking with two programmers who had me on a conference call (they had me on speaker) – and throughout the entire conversation there wasn’t any delays or lack of clarity while talking.

Needless to say, I’m now a big fan of the Skype iPhone app.

Which leads me to think that the Skype app can also be installed on an iPad and iPod Touch.

Since the iPad and iPod Touch are “app” capable, all you need to do is install the Skype app and start making calls – that’s my theory anyway.

I don’t have an iPad or an iPod Touch so I haven’t tested it out yet, but I known plenty of people who have both and I will be testing this out probably by the end of today.

If you have an iPad or iPod Touch, go ahead and install Skype and give me a call.

My Skype is “listyourdeals” (without quotes of course).

Hit me via Skype from an iPad or an iPod Touch.

Develop Iphone Application with VincentIT

Multi-platform development for iPhone and Android is the future

2011-02-18T03:08:00.000-08:00

Mobile Application Development has gone Multi-platform, with Apple iPhone and Google Android, Blackberry, Window Phone the top preferences by developers, according to a Forrester Research report released late in 2010.

To avoid being overwhelmed by Multi-platform complexity, Forrester recommends developers establish a multidevice strategy for both development and testing in 2011. Single device support is giving way to multidevice accommodation, Forrester said.

Multiple majority
Multidevice shops are now in the majority, with one in four IT shops supporting all types of personal mobile devices employees bring to work. Some employers let employees choose from a list of approved devices and OSes.

"The year 2010 was when mobile application development began crossing the chasm from early adopters to mainstream application development shops," said analyst Jeffrey Hammond in the report's executive summary, along with associates Mike Gilpin and Adam Knoll.

"But what started as 'we need an iPhone app!' has now progressed to a multiple device and operating system reality. Our data shows that mobile developers are already supporting native applications on multiple platforms and that it's likely to get more complicated as tablets join mobile phones as new development targets."

Survey data shows a growing tide of mobile application development that is evolving in a very different direction than what long-term industry watchers might have predicted, Forrester reports. Shops have typically shown a desire to limit the number of devices they support, such as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, Forrester said.

"However, these shops are fighting a losing battle. Even companies that don't support a 'bring your own device to work' model are finding that they are getting more and more requests to support more than a single mobile operating system," said Forrester.

Welcome to the mobile web
Meanwhile, mobile web technologies, such as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), XHTML-Mobile Profile and Java ME (Micro Edition), are "fading fast," Forrester said. "Even though billions of devices support these technologies, they just aren't that appealing to developers anymore, and as the average replacement cycle for mobile devices is two years, phones with richer development frameworks and more compelling capabilities are likely to replace them," Forrester said.

Developers, however, should be asked why they cannot build an application using web technologies like HTML5.

In conversations with clients, the "big three" devices preferred include Apple iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, and BlackBerry. Forrester found that only 28 percent of firms offer employees no choice in mobile devices, while 51 percent let at least some choose any mobile device.

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Does HTML5 make mobile app downfall inevitable?

2011-02-18T00:53:00.000-08:00

An Adobe Mobile Study found that consumers prefer the mobile Web over smart phone applications, which has huge implications for mobile advertisers, retailers and content providers.

Within the consumer products, shopping, media and entertainment categories, 66 percent of respondents cited that they prefer the mobile Web for accessing content compared to 34 percent who cited a preference for down loadable applications.

“I am not a great proponent of apps as a commerce destination to drive reach and frequency with your shoppers,” said Gary Schwartz, president of Impact Mobile, New York. “There is tons of value for the shopper in certain apps but they do not necessarily drive your retail sales goals.

“The app can become lost on the phone top,” he said. “Phone fragmentation makes development costly. And your first sales job is selling the consumer on the app and not on your product.

“Finally, with Web you own the relationship with your shopper. With an app, Apple is managing this for you. Mobile Web functionality is improving with HTML5.”

Mobile advertising
Borrell Associates forecasts that spending for ads delivered via mobile applications in the United States will explode from $310 million this year to $8.4 billion by 2015.

Comparatively speaking, ads delivered via mobile browser are expected to reach $3.4 billion by year-end and will reach $10.9 billion in 2015.

This year advertising via the mobile Web will comprise 53.4 percent of total mobile ad spend, while in-app ads will be just 4.9 percent of total spend.

Total mobile advertising spend for 2010 is expected to reach $6.4 billion this year and $42.6 billion in 2015.

Sounds impressive. But if Americans prefer the mobile Web and marketers follow consumers’ eyeballs, then the future for mobile applications can not be too bright.

The argument for mobile applications rests on the fact that consumers who download them are thought to be engaging with that content regularly.

But having applications on one’s phone and actually using them are two different things, according to Pew Internet Project.

Pew found that although 35 percent of adults have mobile phones with applications downloaded onto them, only two-thirds of these consumers actually use the apps.

And, research from Pinch Media found that less than 5 percent of applications continue to be used 20 days after being downloaded.

This really changes things for mobile advertisers who are trying to reach consumers via advertisements in applications. It raises the question of whether the ads are being seen.

Mobile content providers too should question the opportunities within the application space. For example a big-name publisher such as The Weather Channel has a mobile presence across various properties: the mobile Web, apps, SMS and so on.

But a smaller publisher, trying to form the first steps of its mobile strategy should definitely go with a mobile Web site to start out, since reach is greater, maintenance is easier and the development cost is lower.

Retailers should go by the same rules.

Apps versus Web
Marketers will gain more via a mobile Web site for several reasons.

Development costs are lower for creating a mobile Web site than the price of developing a mobile application.

As mentioned before, the potential market size for impressions and clicks is higher on the mobile Web than within applications.

Additionally, with the mobile Web, marketers have the search opportunity, meaning consumers can find them easier just by searching on Google or Bing.

One of the most common challenges with applications is it is hard for them to get found in the cluttered application stores.

Also, applications actually need to be downloaded and can only run on specific devices.

Mobile Web sites can be optimized to render well on a plethora of devices, with no download or installation requirements.

Once an application is built, it is hard to support and maintain it since every time there is an upgrade or a fix, the application must go through an approval process.

Additionally, users have to reinstall to get the upgrade.

Mobile Web sites are easier to support and maintain because the owner of the site has complete access and control. And if changes are made, there is no need to upgrade because all users see the newest version.

The latest generation of mobile applications taught consumers that they can do more with their phones than just talk and text.

Mobile phones now offer a utility for us to better interact and transact.

“Apps have proliferated primarily to address the shortcomings of device processing power and network bandwidth,” said Saj Cherian, principal at Valhalla Partners, Vienna, VA. “As faster smartphones gain mass adoption, 4G networks are stood up, and more processing is done in the cloud, we will go back to the Web.

“We will get the rich user experience we have come to know via apps by merely browsing the Web,” he said. “HTML5 will be a catalyst as well as a host of other enabling technologies, such as better browsers and cloud-based services.”

Benefits of apps
Of course, applications do have their bright side.

Developers can use all device capabilities within the various functionalists of the application such as GPS, the phone’s camera, voice, address book and the calendar.

With the mobile Web, there are some limitations of what can be done. It is possible to leverage GPS, the online data storage feature and video on mobile Internet sites that are built with HTML5.

But access to the phone’s native capabilities is a challenge because of security and privacy concerns.

"Although interaction with the mobile content varies across industries, delivering a positive user experience is paramount to growing the channel," said Sheila Dahlgren, senior director of product marketing at Adobe, San jose, CA.

LG unveils world's first 3-D smartphone

2011-02-16T02:26:00.000-08:00

That's the potential of a smartphone from LG, which has a large 4.3-inch touchscreen capable of displaying three-dimensional images without the need for special glasses. A pair of cameras on the back allows users to take 3-D photographs and videos.

LG is hoping its groundbreaking phone, with the hottest entertainment-focused technology on the market, will ride the 3-D wave being pushed by Hollywood, TV networks and other creators of media content.

The method LG uses to accomplish this effect is called "switchable barrier," which is similar to how Nintendo's 3DS can do 3-D without requiring the player to wear glasses.

LG showed the phone, called the Optimus 3D, this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The company didn't provide a release date or price, though spokespeople have said it will be affordable.

Demonstration units on display at the conference let attendees watch 3-D movies. They also provided a few 3-D games to play. That could pose a threat to the temporary monopoly Nintendo was poised to get on portable 3-D gaming when its handheld game system launches in March.

With the proliferation of 3-D TVs in the market, the Optimus 3D could help people begin shooting and archiving cutting-edge family pictures and home videos. The phone can hook up to a 3-D TV with a cable to display media on the big screen.

LG's G-Slate, a tablet that runs Google's Android 3.0 software and is slated for a March release, can also capture 3-D pictures and video. The tablet can't display 3-D on its screen, but like the phone, the G-Slate can be connected to a 3-D TV set.

The Optimus 3D has caused quite a stir this week at Mobile World Congress. However, so far it offers no spinning 3-D text messages or eye-popping dial pads, meaning Android app developers have a new mission to fulfill.

Get ready for Windows 7 SP1 - Hits Windows Update on February 22nd

2011-02-15T23:29:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has finished work on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and will begin pushing the update to systems on February 22nd via Windows Update.

Microsoft has today hit the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) stage for both Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and has started shipping the code to OEMs.

If you are a TechNet or MSDN subscriber you will be able to get your hands on the code from February 16th.

So what’s new:

For Windows 7, SP1 will help keep your PCs well supported by delivering ongoing updates, many of which have been made previously available through Windows Update. It also includes client-side support for Remote-FX and Dynamic Memory which are two new visualization features enabled in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Read more about those updates here from the Windows Server Team.

In my experimenting with the beta and leaked versions of SP1 for Windows 7, there’s no new cool stuff to see, no UI tweaks and no performance boosts. This is primarily a bugfix release that brings together all the patches and updates released so far.

The visualization features however, are compelling and should help to reduce the system load and increase visualization density on servers. Good news all round.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PC coming in April for $500 for 16GB version

2011-02-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

Unlike Motorola, which will apparently sell its new Xoom tablet for a whopping $800 starting in a couple of weeks, Research in Motion is taking a saner approach to pricing its forthcoming PlayBook tablet.

Crack Berry received a leaked internal document from Office Depot that shows that the PlayBook will be priced at $499.99 for the 16GB model, which puts it in line with the cost of the equivalent Apple iPad. The document also lists an on-sale date of late March/early April, which will precede the rollout of the HP TouchPad by a few months.

While RIM’s pricing is certainly more reasonable than Motorola’s, it still shows an unwillingness to undercut the price of the iPad. There are dirt-cheap tablets running Android from no-name vendors, but no major manufacturer is even trying to price its product at $399 to see if it bring a competitive advantage. (Granted, the Dell Streak can be had for $199.99, but only with a two-year mobile contract with T-Mobile.) It suggests that margins on these devices may be slim for other companies, with Apple able to keep costs down through its supply chain and profits high. Or that one company dropping its price will set off a pricing war that will leave no winners among the iPad competitors. What do you think?

Microsoft outlines new features coming to Windows Phone 7 in 2011

2011-02-15T23:07:00.001-08:00

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, keynoting the Mobile World Congress conference on February 14, announced a set of features that Microsoft is promising it will bring to Windows Phone 7 in 2011.

Ballmer also confirmed, as expected, that the first Windows Phone 7 update, codenamed “NoDo,” will be out in early March 2011.

Microsoft’s press release outlining today’s announcements did not specify how many Windows Phone 7 updates Microsoft plans to release this year. Nor did it use the codename “Mango,” which is the first major update for Windows Phone 7, expected to be available on WP7 devices this fall/holiday season. Ballmer did mention “a significant release” due later this year during his remarks, which, presumably, is a reference to Mango.

But Microsoft did announce that the following updates will be added to WP7 in calendar 2011:

Twitter integration directly into the People Hub
Support for Office documents in the cloud (Skydrive Docs), going beyond the current OneNote integration
Dramatically enhanced Web browser experience based on IE9 (IE Mobile 9)
A “new wave of multitasking applications” (i.e., third-party applications get multitasking support)

Ballmer (and the Microsoft press release from today) also made no mention of when Microsoft plans to make available to carriers CDMA support. I’ve gotten lots of questions about when Sprint and Verizon will be launching Windows Phone 7 devices. Some had expected the NoDo update to provide CDMA support, but there was no word today whether this will be the case. I’ve noted previously that I have heard CDMA WP7 phones may not be out until this summer.

Update: Microsoft execs say that CDMA support will be part of NoDo. The first Windows Phone 7 devices are coming from Verizon and Sprint should be out in the first half of calendar 2011, a spokesperson reconfirmed today.

Joe Belfiore, the Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone Program Management, emphasized during his demonstrations of an early version of “the significant update” of the Windows Phone 7 code that the IE 9 code on the phone includes the same core IE 9 code that runs on the PC. That means apps and sites designed for IE 9 will run automatically on WP7, he said.

Belfiore also showed off the ability for Windows Phones to integrate with Kinect, allowing phone users to participate in games using their avatars (support for which will be coming at some point down the road).

Microsoft execs declined to comment when I asked whether there will be any WP7 updates between NoDo and Mango. (Not a good sign, I’d say. I’m thinking that means no.) Based on today’s keynote, it sounds to me like anything that isn’t part of NoDo will have to wait until Mango

Twitter, IE9 coming to Windows Phone 7

2011-02-15T22:58:00.000-08:00

The Microsoft keynote at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is still underway, but the company thoughtfully leaked the official press release detailing what will be shared by Steve Ballmer. Besides throwing out the 2 million licenses sold spiel we’ve heard previously, Microsoft is sharing the following features that will be added to Windows Phone 7 later this year:

Copy and paste functionality via first major update, coming in the next month
Twitter integration directly into the People Hub in 2011
Support for Office documents in the cloud in 2011
Dramatically enhanced Web browser experience based on IE9 in 2011
A new wave of multitasking applications in 2011
Targeting significant volume of Nokia Windows Phones in 2012

The browser update is the biggest news as it brings the WP7 mobile browser more inline with the desktop version of Internet Explorer. Mary Jo Foley recently published a preview of this update which is spot on, as usual.

Lenovo earns first Gold rating under new green IT certification system

2011-02-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

Looks like there is a new certification that IT types can look to when it comes to ratings for green IT.

Well-known notebook maker Lenovo has earned the first Gold rating for Laptops under the UL Environment Sustainable Production Certification (SPC). The rating was granted for the upcoming ThinkPad420, a notebook computer that is slated to be launched later in February.

The video below provides some perspective, but some of the factors that helped Lenovo earn this distinction were a focus on the use of low-halogen and post-consumer recycled content in the product as well as its choice of a design that make this notebook easier than average to disassemble for recycling or reuse after its own life. Some of the ThinkPads slated for release this year contain more than 10 percent post-consumer recycled content, while some of Lenovo’s ThinkCentre desktops and ThinkVision monitors contain up to 65 percent of the stuff. Specific things that are examined during UL Environment’s review process include product documentation, Energy Star 5.0 compliance, and manufacturing facilities. The assessment program builds on the IEEE 1680 sustainability standard, which also guides the more familiar EPEAT green technology certification process.

As I reported earlier this month, UL Environment is also spearheading the development of a standard for green mobile phones.