About the corporate blog designs, trends and principles - article reviews

I put aside this article for too long - now when I went thru it, though I didn't go thru all the list of corporate websites with blogs, I still enjoyed reading it, seeing some principles and some trends of the corporate blogs. Guess what: I'm also working on such a blog and, as it is specified in the purpose of the corporate blogs, there are more than 1 goal for the corporate blogging. Anyways, let's read more about

Corporate Blog Design: Trends And Examples

Purposes of Corporate Blogs

1. 1. Communication with customers and the public
2. 2. Demonstration of corporate responsibility
3. 3. Reputation management
4. 4. Promotion of products and services
5. 5. Provide executives and/or employees the chance to communicate openly
   

Potential Issues for Corporate Blogs

1. 1. Negative comments
2. 2. Consistent and frequent posting
3. 3. Usefulness of posts
4. 4. Who is going to write the content?
5. 5. Promoting open communication without damaging the company
6. 6. Lack of focus
7. 7. Converting traffic into something useful
   

Trends in Corporate Blogs

1. 1. Simple layout, with a lack of visual appeal; Going against the trend.
2. 2. Branding
3. 3. Multiple authors
4. 4. Networks of blogs
5. 5. Few comments
6. 6. No ads except for internal ads
7. 7. Links to the company’s home page as well as products and services
8. 8. Separate domains
   

And last, but not the least - actually it is the longest section of this article - view a Gallery of Corporate Blogs. Very impressive collection of corporate blogs of well-known companies, and very useful article - Corporate Blog Design: Trends And Examples - via smashingmagazine.

tips for web startups AND mistakes of the PR's - article reviews

There are lots and lots of web startups, and many of them(maybe even most of them) are going down - carsonifield shares Some lessons learned thru many experiences....

10 Vital Lessons for Web Start-Ups

1. #1 Choose Your Payment Provider Carefully
2. #2 Know How You’re Going to Deal with Invoicing
3. #3 Be Super-Organised with Customer Support
4. #4 Provide a Demo
5. #5 Make it Easy for Customers to Send Feedback
6. #6 Just because a Market’s busy, Doesn’t Mean it’s Saturated
7. #7 Don’t Worry About the Dinosaurs
8. #8 Release Early and Often, but Plan Ahead
9. #9 Make Full use of Existing Tools
10. #10 Hire in the Experts
    

These above are just ideas - read more about them and the experience others had in this realm - online via 10 Vital Lessons for Web Start-Ups.

On the other hand, as we all experience some of these, below is a list of common issues experienced by journalists when dealing with PR people. Most of these are quite famous -

15 savage mistakes commonly made by PR folks

• BCC fail
• Totally irrelevant content
• No understanding about audience
• Impersonal emails
• PDFs / attachments
• Weird formatting
• “Feel free”
• “Let me know if you post something!”
• Lack of a decent response channel
• Poor service
• Big Brother-style lurking
• ‘Exclusive!’
• ‘Embargoed’
  
• PRspeak overkill
• CAPS LOCK SUBJECT LINES!

this article is quite interesting, and I guess that the guys at econsultancy are just like us - sometimes not so happy about the way people at some PR companies deal with us! Continue to read this article online - 15 savage mistakes commonly made by PR folks.

speed your wordpress and boost the performance - article reviews

The thought is funny - on blogspot to write about wordpress, how to enhance your operating and using the wordpress platform... maybe this shows how much better is wordpress than blogspot... WordPress is a good CMS solution and even better blogging platform, but most sites using WordPress are not maximizing its potential. Read more below more about some

18 Useful Tricks To Speed Up WordPress & Boost Performance

1. 1. Cache Complete Generated Pages
2. 2. Disable Hotlinking and Prevent Leeching
3. 3. Choose a Good Web Host
4. 4. Split Long Posts in Several Pages
5. 5. Use Excerpts and Limit the Count of Posts Displayed on Blog Page
6. 6. Optimize Your MySQL Database
7. 7. Reduce the Use of External Websites and Scripts
8. 8. Add Expires Header to Static Resources
9. 9. Use WP-CSS
10. 10. Compress JavaScript Files
11. 11. Reduce Image Sizes
12. 12. Do a Plugin Check and Remove Inactive Plugins
13. 13. Cache Your Database
14. 14. Split Comments into Pages
15. 15. Reduce the Number of Database Calls
16. 16. Cutting Down the Size of MySQL Database
17. 17. Stay Updated with the Latest WordPress Version
18. 18. Display Page Loading Time and Queries
    

To read what these tips actually are, you have to visit and read the article - 18 Useful Tricks To Speed Up WordPress & Boost Performance - via wpbeginner, tips and advices for wordpress users/learners.

tech: world breaking records - article reviews

Via the techradar website, there is an article listing The fastest, the lightest, the largest and the most viewed: Some of these records have stood for eons, a few are broken just about every year! Read

10 record-breaking achievements in tech

1. 1. Largest wireless internet provider(DoCoMo in Japan, with 45 million subscribers)
2. 2. internet land speed record(Record stands at 7.67 Gbps)
3. 3. Largest virtualization deployment(Userful and ThinNetworks' 356,800 thin clients in Brazil)
4. 4. Most viewed internet concert (Madonna webcast on MSN in 2000 with 11 million virtual attendees)
5. 5. Fastest desktop processor (Intel Core i7)
6. 6. Largest data warehouse (Sybase IQ analytics server)
7. 7. Highest capacity media switch (The Steelbox, used for surveillance, supports 512 simultaneous video feeds)
8. 8. Fastest supercomputer (IBM Roadrunner)
9. 9. Largest communications satellite (TerreStar-1 satellite)
10. 10. Lightest mobile phone in the world (Modu)
    

The above list is just an abstract of these world records - some of which have already been listed in the book of world records - read the whole article online to find out more about 10 record-breaking achievements in tech

careful in using twitter: avoid being sued on twitter! - article reviews

Another interesting article especially for those (like me) who are on twitter - make sure you don't upset people so that u get sued! Let me cut to the chase. You DO NOT want to be sued on Twitter!!! Read below some "twitip" 's concerning

10 Ways To Avoid Being Sued On Twitter

1. 1. Take Your Mother’s Advice
2. 2. Avoid “Twitter Rage”/Blow Off Some Steam
3. 3. Send A Direct Message Instead of a Straight Tweet
4. 4. State Your Opinion Instead of a Factual Assertion
5. 5. Don’t Use Your Name As Your Twitter Handle
6. 6. Check Your Sources
7. 7. Lay Off The Booze
8. 8. Don’t Violate Copyright Laws
9. 9. Don’t Violate Trademark Laws
10. 10. Don’t Impersonate Another Person

I mean, these ideas/principles/ways seem quite normal - but online, everything is possible! People impersonating other people, writing just whatever they want and however they want.... anyways - here is the full article about the 10 Ways To Avoid Being Sued On Twitter.

tips for photoshop design and for website design - article reviews

Sometimes you need that extra Photoshop knowledge in order to achieve the look we need - Photoshop can help you more than you think you know. Read the carsonified advices below:

5 Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers

1. #1 Awesome Buttons (and how to make them)
2. #2 Navigation Menus (and how to design them)
3. #3 Typography Inset (the technique)
4. #4 Faded Shadow (little bit of Blur and Quick Mask)
5. #5 Depth and 3D Space (with just few extra layers, you can create an illusion of 3D space)
   

Enhance and optimize, with a cool touch of design, your website by following these steps / tips - Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers.
On the other hand, related to the design of the websites, there are many ways and many more efficient and begin to work smarter in designing the websites! Via boagworld we have

10 tips for efficient design

1. 1. use snippets
2. 2. use a javascript library
3. 3. configure your tools properly
4. 4. have one system for tasks
5. 5. embrace and manage admin
6. 6. distractions must die
7. 7. keep a tidy environment
8. 8. avoid multi tasking
9. 9. don’t do excessive hours
10. 10. communicate better
    

As simple as they sound, they are nonetheless very true - there are so many little things that "eat up our time" while we try to focus on the designing of the website. Let's learn then these 10 tips for efficient design.

design an effective homepage to your site - article review

The first impression left by a book is its cover; the first impression, which either draws or rejects someone is the homepage of a website. The Homepage can lead to a lasting impression (negative or positive) that can affect their decision to return to it. Via sixrevisions read more about:

Essential Tips for Designing an Effective Homepage

• Identify the website’s purpose/goal(Differentiating goals of the homepage vs. goals of the website)
• Learn the difference between a new vs. returning visitor(Subscriptions and memberships)
• Selling products or services
• Highlight Content Effectively
  - Step 1: Prioritize
  - Step 2: Create a Content-Only Layout
  - Step 3: Make Attention Happen
  # An Example: Horizon Business Coaching
• Remember to include the necessities
• Have a rationale for everything
• Use meaningful graphics
• Use meaningful content
• Know the importance of page response times
• Minimize and optimize the amount of graphics
• Combine JavaScript and CSS files
• Minify your scripts
  

I guess that we all are learning about this - continue to read this helpful article about some Essential Tips for Designing an Effective Homepage.

techies resisting the recession AND about the mod_rewrite

Totally random posts, but nonetheless very interesting! Michael Pinto from fanboy gives 12 tips for those in the technical realm to survive the recession.

My Twelve Tips for Techies Trying to Resist Recessions

1. Upgrade the Old Clunker
2. Cheap Thrills
3. Discover Budget Leaks
4. Track Your Time (on the Cheap)
5. Losing Your Religion(the bad habit that techies get into about having a favorite flavor of operating system or software vendors)
6. Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
7. Go Out and Have Fun
8. Help Out-of-Work Friends Get Jobs
9. Be Charitable (with Your Time)
10. Invest in Self Promotion
11. This is Your Time to Start a Startup
12. Always Have a Plan B, C and D
    

Maybe you don't really understand what this is about, but if you read his history(included in the article) and the way he managed to overcome the crisis, it is quite interesting! Read the whole article online here - My Twelve Tips for Techies Trying to Resist Recessions.

About the Mod_Rewrite - 10+ Mod_Rewrite Rules You Should Know.

• How to: Turn Mod_Rewrite On
• How to: The Basic Mod_Rewrite Layout
• How to: URLs are Always Relative
• How to: A Basic Redirect
• How to: Require no “www”
• How to: Block a Specific IP Address
• How to: Block Specific User Agents
• How to: Strip Query Strings
• How to: Set up a Default Image
• How to: Prevent Hotlinking
• How to: Redirect to a Maintenance Page
• How to: Redirect Multiple Domains to a Single Domain
• How to: Remember the Filesystem Always Takes Precedence
  

Continue to read more about these 10+ Mod_Rewrite Rules You Should Know - via the noupe blog.

some very interesting statistics about the social media - article reviews

This video on youtube has been put up for a few days already, and many people have talked about it! Here is the original blog post, and below are some of the interesting statistics about the social media and the impact it has on people/the world/what is going on!

Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think

Is Social Media a Fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Welcome to the Social Media Revolution: watch the 4:23min movie with some cool statistics about the social media revolution, like:

• # Wikipedia has over 13 million articles…some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica…78% of these articles are non-English
• # There are over 200,000,000 Blogs
• # 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands
• # 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
• # Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser
• # In the near future we will no longer search for products and services they will find us via social media
  

Continue to read these statistics(I have just selected some of the most interesting ones) - Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think - via the socialnomics weblog online

high-quality shopping carts AND make money with amazon associates - article reviews

If you have an online store or at least plan to have one, What’s in your Cart? Credibility, Aesthetics and Cost. Here is a list some mediums and recommended shopping carts - useful article.

What’s in your Cart? 30+ High-Quality Shopping Cart Templates

• Wordpress: Vanilla Cart, Crafty Cart, ShopperPress, eGoods,
• osCommerce: Clothes Store, Print Store, Pet Store, Footwear, Flower Shop, Building Theme, etc;
• Magento: JM Lead, JM Tube, Mobile Shop, Designer Clothes, Business Theme, etc.
• Zen Cart: Interior Design, Furniture Store, PureGreen, Nutritional Supplements, etc
• CRE Loaded: Shoes Store, Drug Store, Toys Story, Furniture Store, Street Style, etc.
  

Continue to read this article - What’s in your Cart? 30+ High-Quality Shopping Cart Templates - online, via the noupe blog.

On the other hand, here's a success story - the guy at problogger, after some time of experience with Amazon Associates Program, gives us some tips - 11 Lessons I Learned Earning $119,725.45 from Amazon Associates Program - some lessons that he learned, to make money. He says: "I have earned $119,725.45 from Amazon Associates Program since I began using it as a way to make money online late in 2003. Around half of that amount was made within the last 12 months."

11 Lessons I Learned Earning $119,725.45 from Amazon Associates Program

1. 1. Traffic Traffic Traffic
2. 2. Loyalty and Trust Convert
3. 3. The Intent of Readers Matters
4. 4. Relevancy Matters
5. 5. Get People in the Door and Let Amazon Do What they’re Good At
6. 6. Social Proof Marketing 1 - Best Seller Lists
7. 7. Social Proof Marketing 2 - Reader Reviews
8. 8. Genuine Recommendations and Reviews
9. 9. Informational Links
10. 10. Contextual is King
11. 11. Promote Specials, Promotions and Discounts
    

Read these 11 Lessons I Learned Earning $119,725.45 from Amazon Associates Program - with more details and "meat on the bone" online, via the problogger site(soon, he'll put out more tips).

why comment on others' blogs AND measuring social media - article reviews

There are many articles online about the pros and cons of commenting on other people's blogs - here are 6 Vital Reasons to Comment on Other Blogs.

1. Comments help build your online presence
2. Develop professional relationships
3. Enhance your site’s brand
4. Grow your credibility
5. Create links to your site
6. Build your page rank
   

Basically: why not treat this, the commenting on other blogs, as a serious matter that can help you toward your goal? Make sure that you take the time to make each comment genuine and credible. Don’t start spamming other bloggers with junk! Continue to read this article online - 6 Vital Reasons to Comment on Other Blogs.

On the other hand, when one gets into the social media realm, he tends to measure the success/events with the wrong measuring stick - The Five Biggest Mistakes in Measuring Social Media.

1. Big Mistake No. 1: Assuming Your Fans/Followers Will See a Post
2. Big Mistake No. 2: Failing to Account for Overlap Across Networks
3. Big Mistake No. 3: Failing to Count Clicks
4. Big Mistake No. 4: Disregarding Search
5. Big Mistake No. 5: Focusing on Followers
   

Author's TIP: Pay very close attention (and make a note of) the people who respond to the things you post up: the people who comment, retweet, or engage in discussions. Those people are the most valuable subset. Read the whole article online here: The Five Biggest Mistakes in Measuring Social Media.

history - some of the stupidest tech company blunders - article reviews

Here is an interesting article by pcworld with The 10 Stupidest Tech Company Blunders - now that these facts were consummated and also exposed, sometimes we ask ourselves: "these smart people, how could they have taken such ~stupid decisions?".

The 10 Stupidest Tech Company Blunders

1. 1. Yahoo Loses Facebook
2. 2. Real Networks Punts on the iPod
3. 3. Sony and Toshiba Agree to Disagree Over HD
4. 4. Digital Research: The Other Microsoft
5. 5. Xerox Goes in an Alto Direction
6. 6. Recording Industry Plays the Same Old Tune
7. 7. Compuserve Blows Its Chance to Dominate the Net
8. 8. Newspapers Fail to Read the Writing on the Wall--Craigslist
9. 9. The Google Before Google
10. 10. Microsoft Saves a Rotting Apple
    

This article is in 2 parts, so read part 1 and part 2 of The 10 Stupidest Tech Company Blunders - facts from history.

when using twitter, avoid these things - article reviews

Interesting article, wrote a while ago, and found now - 11 Things to Avoid When Using Twitter.

1. 1: Do not use the following words in your bio, no matter how much you think they will attract followers: Social Media Expert, Guru, Make Money Online, Affiliate Marketing, Increase your Followers;
2. 2: Do not ONLY answer the question “What Are You Doing” in your tweets:
3. 3: Do not ONLY promote your blog/business in your tweets
4. 4: Do not tweet the same thing more than twice in a day
5. 5: Do not tweet about your followers more than once a week
6. 6: Do not tweet exclusively in another language
7. 7: Do not tweet sensitive/private information
8. 8: Do not Auto DM people who follow you
9. 9: Do not Auto Follow
10. 10: Do not consistently make spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes in your tweets
11. 11: Do not use Twitter like you use Facebook

When one reads these things, they seem so... normal! Yet in this social Media realm, everyone wants followers, lots of increase, and ... it results in SPAM! Anyways, check out this article: 11 Things to Avoid When Using Twitter

freelance designer with small budget? some tips - article reviews

This article is for me - I'm that kind of a Freelance Designer On A Shoestring Budget - All these tools and services are either free or pretty cheap considering what can be done with them and can be great replacements to the more expensive ones we’re used to!

20 Tools For The Freelance Designer On A Shoestring Budget

1. Image Editors: PixelMator; Gimp; SplashUp
2. Feedback And Usability Testing: Concept Feedback; Five Second Test; Feedback Army
3. Color Tools: Colour Lovers; Adobe Kuler;
4. Billing, Invoicing And Time-Tracking: Freshbooks Invoicing; Invoice Machine; Billings 3
5. Cross-Browser Compatibility: Litmus App; BrowserShots; Parallels;
6. Local Testing: Mamp;
7. Coding & Programming: Text Wrangler; NotePad+; Text Mate;
8. Images and Photos: Flickr; DeviantArt;
   

Well, to really understand what these cryptic names are above, you have to read the full article - 20 Tools For The Freelance Designer On A Shoestring Budget - which will help you to have an idea about the solutions out there for people that wanna do somethings nice yet with not so much money!

Tips on how to think like a designer - develop yourself - article reviews

Below are 10 things (plus a bonus tip) that I have learned over the years from designers, things that designers do or know that the rest of us can benefit from - speaks the person from presentationzen.

10 Tips on how to think like a designer

1. (1) Embrace constraints.
2. (2) Practice restraint.
3. (3) Adopt the beginner's mind.
4. (4) Check your ego at the door.
5. (5) Focus on the experience of the design
6. (6) Become a master storyteller.
7. (7) Think communication not decoration.
8. (8) Obsess about ideas not tools.
9. (9) Clarify your intention.
10. (10) Sharpen your vision & curiosity and learn from the lessons around you.
11. (11) Learn all the "rules" and know when and why to break them.

Continue to read more about these characteristics of a designer - with examples - 10 Tips on how to think like a designer.

Advanced CSS selectors, introducing more specific CSS elements

Though most of this article still is an object of my study and guide for my practice, and I can't say I master this, yet this article is a very helpful reference for either testing or even using these Advanced CSS Selectors in the creating of a modern website. Despite the fact that we are all well aware of its usefulness, CSS selectors are still not used to their full potential and we sometimes have the tendency to litter our HTML with excessive and unnecessary classes and ids, divs and spans. Below are the major points from this article:

Taming Advanced CSS Selectors

CSS Specificity

1. 1. Attribute selectors
2. 2. Child selector
3. 3. Sibling combinators
   - Adjacent sibling combinator
   - General sibling combinator
4. 4. Pseudo-classes
   - Dynamic pseudo-classes
   - :first-child
   - The language pseudo-class
5. 5. CSS 3 Pseudo-classes
   :target
   

The UI element states pseudo-classes

1. 6. CSS 3 structural pseudo-classes
   - :nth-child
   - :nth-last-child
   - :nth-of-type
   - :nth-last-of-type
   - :last-child
   - :first-of-type and :last-of-type
   - :only-child
   - :only-of-type
   - :empty
2. 7. The negation pseudo-class
3. 8. Pseudo-elements
   - ::first-line
   - ::first-letter
   - ::before and ::after
   

Continue to read this article, with more explanations and also examples - Taming Advanced CSS Selectors (via smashingmagazine).

Targeting the keywords and On-Page Optimization - article review

This article is simply amazing - going over the good-practice-seo-rules and tips and analyzing them one by one, with some recommendations! I strongly recommend reading it:
Perfecting Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization

How Do I Build the Perfectly Optimized Page?

• Take care of the HTML Head Tags(Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, Meta Robots,Rel="Canonical", Other Meta Tags)
• The URL: the length, the keyword location, subdomains vs pages, word separators
• Body Tags: Number of Keyword Repetitions, Keyword Density, Keyword Usage Variations, H1 Headline, H2/H3/H4/Hx, Alt Attribute, Image Filename, Bold/Strong, Italic/Emphasized, Internal Link Anchors, HTML Comments
• Internal Links & Location in Site Architecture: Click-Depth, Number/Percentage of Internal Links, Links in Content vs. Permanent Navigation, Link Location in Sidebars & Footers,
• Page Architecture: Keyword Location, Content Structure;
  

Why Don't We Always Obey These Rules?
In the process of producing great web content, we sometimes forget, sometimes ignore and sometimes intentionally disobey the best practices laid out above

Best Practices for Ranking #1
Accessibility; Content; Basic On-Page Elements; User Experience; Marketing; Advanced/Thorough On-Page Optimization

Continue to read this article - of which I just listed the main points - via seomoz - Perfecting Keyword Targeting & On-Page Optimization.

Web developer cheat sheets AND the guide to GET vs POST

Website programming articles: I read the article about 30 Web Developer Cheat Sheets, and here are some of these:

• PHP + MySQL Cheat Sheets
  - Added Bytes - PHP Cheat Sheet v2
  - Blue Shoes - PHP Online Cheat Sheet
  - WebCheatSheet - Regular Expressions Online Cheat Sheet
  - AddedBytes - Regex Cheat Sheet (PDF)
• Javascript and AJAX libraries
  - Javascript Reference Card
  - Javascript and Browser Objects Quick Reference
  - jQuery API Browser
  - MooTools Cheat Sheet
• HTML and CSS Cheat Sheets
  - HTML Cheat Sheet - PDF/PNG
  - CSS Cheat Sheet PDF/PNG
  - CSS 3 Cheat Sheet
• Photoshop and Illustrator Cheat Sheets
  - Photoshop CS4 Cheat Sheet
  - Online Adobe CS4 Cheat Sheet
  - Illustrator Short Cuts Cheat Sheet
  - AI Shortcuts Cheat Sheet - PDF
• Misc Cheat Sheets
  - The WordPress Help Sheet
  - SEO Cheat Sheet
  

and many other tips - check out the 30 Web Developer Cheat Sheets online.

In php programming - very useful - The Definitive Guide to GET vs POST via the carsonified blog.
Rule #1: Use GET for safe actions and POST for unsafe actions.

• GET requests can be cached
• GET requests can remain in the browser history
• GET requests can be bookmarked
• GET requests can be distributed & shared
• GET requests can be hacked
  

GET vs POST Extended
Rule #2: Use POST when dealing with sensitive data.
Rule #3: Use POST when dealing with long requests.
Rule #4: Use GET in AJAX environments.
Read more about this guide to GET vs POST in php/mysql programming online.

Rules of Front End coding AND Creative examples of Javascript slider & controllers

10 Rules of Front End Coding - a series of 10 things to remember and practice on each web development project (via fuelyourcoding)

1. Charge Enough, and Then Some
2. Educate The Designer
3. Think in Layers, Not in Slices
4. Use the Best Image Format
5. Know When to Use Classes vs. Ids
6. Make Your Pages Responsive
7. Always Use CSS Sprites for Rollovers
8. Understand the Difference Between Flash and Javascript
9. Test Your Site in Many Browsers (including IE6)
10. Always Keep Maintenance In Mind
    

Continue to read this great article about the 10 Rules of Front End Coding online.

On the other hand, this next article is about 30 Creative Examples of Javascript Slider & Scrollers - 30 Sample Websites below, which use JavaScript Slider and Scrollers effectively, Hope you like the collection(via the dzine blog - this list is only of 15 examples, read the original post for more)

1. 1. Charlie Gentle
2. 2. Orman Clark
3. 3. Best Before
4. 4. Creative People
5. 5. Tomáš Pojeta
6. 6. Square Factor
7. 7. Leg Works Studio
8. 8. Enterro da Gata
9. 9. Intermission Design
10. 10. Jackson & Kent
11. 11. Volll
12. 12. X3 Studios
13. 13. We Bleed Design
14. 14. Bullet PR
15. 15. Diego Latorre
16. etc.

Continue reading this post in order to find out all the 30 Creative Examples of Javascript Slider & Scrollers - with preview and description.

Don't kill a community online AND collaboration tools

Instead of "do's and don't's", the people at socialmediatoday thought of How to Kill A Community in 10 Easy Steps - by reading this, you'll realize some principles about the online communities - how to keep your community alive and thriving OR the top 10 ways to (inadvertently) to kill an online community.

How to Kill A Community in 10 Easy Steps

• 1) Launch your community without a beta group.
• 2) Throw feature-spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks
• 3) Don't "feed" your community once it is open.
• 4) Don't use off-line outreach and engagement techniques.
• 5) Assume size is THE critical differentiator.
• 6) Try to monetize the community at every opportunity.
• 7) Hire any staff who are on-the-bench to moderate the community.
• 8) Don't have a newsletter or steady, predictable communication to members.
• 9) Don't evolve the community based on member feedback and suggestions.
• 10) Measure meaningless metrics that make you look good.
  

Maybe these principles sound cryptical.... - to find out more - to actually find out what the author meant by it - visit the How to Kill A Community in 10 Easy Steps article online.

On the other hand, there are many collaboration tools online, so here are some highlights - some great free tools for connecting and sharing with others(via missiontolearn).

15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps

• Keep and Share
• Wridea
• Writeboard
• Twiddla
• Spicebird
• Stixy
• ReviewBasics
• EditGrid
• ooVoo
• Palbee
• GroupTweet
• Edmodo
• SimplyBox
• Mikogo
• Vyew
  

All these online tools are introduced in this nice article about 15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps - read it online.

top blackberry apps AND fun iPhone apps for learning - article reviews

Via itpromarketer there is a short list of the Top 10 BlackBerry Apps, Plus the 2 Most Anticipated - though I don't have a blackberry, sometimes we all bump into these apps. And - All these top blackberry apps are free!

Top 10 BlackBerry Apps, Plus the 2 Most Anticipated

1. BlackBerry App World
2. TwitterBerry
3. Instango
4. Facebook
5. BBFileScout
6. YouMail
7. iheartradio
8. Google Voice
9. Google Maps
10. BerryTorch
    

you will notice that in this list most of them are social media/online related: twitter/facebook/google/maps/radio online :)
Anticipated apps: SkyFire and Tweeteev
Continue to read this whole article online - Top 10 BlackBerry Apps, Plus the 2 Most Anticipated.

Though I have read this article a while ago and checked out some of the apps listed here(even these apps are for kids, they surely are fun for older ones also!), now I am listing some of the 50 Fun iPhone Apps to Get Kids Reading and Learning - via the onlineultrasoundschool website. Put the iPhone and the kids together with some of the apps listed below to keep the kids busy as they prepare themselves for school! The apps listed below are by category:

50 Fun iPhone Apps to Get Kids Reading and Learning

• Animals - iPhone apps - ABC Animals, Animal Memory Match, Landleben, etc
• Art - Softick, Doodle Kids, Spin Art, etc
• Music - Midomi, MiniPiano, Ocarina, etc
• Problem Solving - Best of I Spy, Bobby Carrot Forever, touchPhysics, Where’s Gumbo, etc
• Reading and Writing - iWriteWords, Rulla, StoryNory, Word Scramble, etc
• Math - Basic Maths, Clock It Lite, Coin Math, PopMath, etc
• Study Aids - Brain Toot, iFlipr 1.11, Mental Case, StudyCards, etc
  

Continue to read this article - with the complete list of apps and some description to each - the 50 Fun iPhone Apps to Get Kids Reading and Learning.

free/premium fonts AND better photoshop performance - article reviews

There are a lot of websites offering either free or paid fonts, but here are some, in this article - Finding Fonts: Free and Premium Resources - that would help you find that perfect little font in the massive swelling cyber sea... I have listed just the names/some names of these sites - all the credits go fuelyourcreativity for the listings and descriptions...

Finding Fonts: Free and Premium Resources

Free Fonts

• 40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design
• I’m Just Creative
• The League of Moveable Type
• Exlijbris Font Foundary
• Font Squirrel
• Urban Fonts
• etc
  

Premium Fonts

• 30 Fonts That All Designers Must Know & Should Own
• 13 typefaces for graphic designers
• 17 designers favorite fonts
• 80 Beautiful Typefaces For Professional Design
• FontShop
• etc
  

Read the entire list, with samples and explanation, online here.

Photoshop: we all work with this great paid tool, either with an older or a newer version of it. Below are 10 Simple Steps to Better Photoshop Performance by smashingmagazine.

10 Simple Steps to Better Photoshop Performance

1. Adjust The Number Of History States
2. How Many Cache Levels Do You Need?
3. Keep An Eye On Your Memory Usage(Efficient Use of Memory)
4. Use Proper Scratch Disks
5. Turn Font Preview Off
6. Use Thumbnails In Your Palettes
7. Learn How To Use Purge
8. Set Maximize PSD And PSB File Compatibility to Always or Ask
9. Don’t clutter your Photoshop
10. Reset Default Settings
    

To view more details about these tips of better the Photoshop performance, read the article online - 10 Simple Steps to Better Photoshop Performance.

free tools for your website AND about a great blog design - article reviews

Someone actually put that effort in to compiling 99 Plus Free Tools For Your Website - thanks to wildlysuccessfulmarketing - This list of 100 free tools to track everything on your Web site will get you though until you can get an IT guy on the phone.

• Web Site Statistics and Counters(Ritecounter, GoStatis, Who’s.Amung.Us, eWebCounter, etc)
• Surveys, Blog Tools and Web Site Communication Gadgets(Feedburner, Woopra, Enquisite, 4Q, etc)
• Technical Web Site Stuff for Smart People(Web Page Analyzer, Netcraft, DNS Stuff, JAWStats, etc)
• Analytic Programs for Web Sites(blvd, Google Analytics, Slimstat, etc)
• Help for the SEO Impaired(Majestic SEO, Google Trends, Search Engine Position, Spider View, etc)

Continue to read this article - 99 Plus Free Tools For Your Website - online.

On the other hand, there are some characteristics of a great blog design - 10 Important Traits of a Great Blog Design(ten essential characteristics of a solid weblog design).

1. Good readability
2. A strong focus on the content
3. High findability
4. A great comment section design
5. Tight integration with social networking/media sites
6. A memorable header
7. The use of effective visuals in the content
8. A semantic HTML structure
9. Logically and coherently organized content
10. A good headline/post title design
    

Read more about each of these traits online - 10 Important Traits of a Great Blog Design.

Web design checklists & questionaires AND Nice flash websites to see - article reviews

Not just creating a website - also making sure it is a good one, checking it with the existing standards - 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires. And, thanks to 1stwebdesigner, there is a nice list of 50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See(out of which we list only the 1st 20).

45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires
Below are 45 checklists to make your design process easier and more organized in 8 categories. Consider using these checklists as a jumping off point for creating your own customized list, based on your own needs.

1. Client-Focused Checklists and Questionnaires
2. Pre-Launch Checklists
3. General Web Design Checklists
4. Usability Checklists
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklists
6. Marketing Checklists
7. WordPress Checklists
8. Ultimate Web Design Checklists
   

Continue to read this article online - 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires.

50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See
- we list here only the 1st 20 of them -

1. Saizen Media Studios
2. DrawingArt – WebDesign and Development Studio
3. Section Seven
4. Semisture Webdesign
5. Fl-2 Interactive Agency
6. Lecaid Design Studio
7. Esj * Com * AU
8. Recom CGI
9. Millice – Cyril Louis
10. HYPR – Interactive and Creative Design Studio
11. TwistCube
12. Go For Change
13. John Wright Photo
14. Timothy Hogan Photography
15. LS5 Design Agency
16. SoyTuaire Labuat
17. Mattthias Dittrich – Interaction Design Portfolio
18. Museum of Science and Industry
19. Parasol Island – Film Animation Interactive
20. Unouplus
    

Continue to read this article, which also contains previews of these gorgeous flash websites - 50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See!

Get free Quality images 4 your site & the New Facebook Features - article reviews

To build a website, you need pictures - either to illustrate a point, or some specific pictures for some specific text, or even just some nice nature/animals pictures - there's a bunch of them on a lot of websites - 12 best places to get free images for your site(via techradar). Also, there have been some updates made by Facebook - mashable explains a little about it.

12 best places to get free images for your site
Get top quality photos at these comprehensive libraries

1. Stock.XCHNG
2. Openphoto
3. Stockvault.net
4. Unprofound
5. Free Media Goo
6. Morguefile
7. Pixel Perfect DigitalPixel
8. Image*After
9. Freerange
10. Free Digital Photos
11. Free Photos Bank
12. Flickr
    

Continue to read about the 12 best places to get free images for your site - with preview & description: Get top quality photos at these comprehensive libraries.

Facebook’s New Privacy Features: A Complete Guide

• A guide to Facebook’s most recent changes to profiles - changes: you can make your Facebook profile public + the ability to have profile fans
• A guide to Facebook’s most recent changes to status updates - change: post status updates not only to your friends, but to friends of friends, to your networks, and to everyone.
• A guide to Facebook’s most recent changes to the privacy features: Facebook is currently rolling out realtime search
  

"Luckily, you have a choice in these matters. If you want to keep your Facebook profile private between you and your closest friends, you can – just adjust your privacy settings to your network of friends" - read the whole article via Mashable: Facebook’s New Privacy Features: A Complete Guide.

Build faster websites with CSS sprites - article reviews

Being a web developer, I am interested in building websites that load quickly, offer the best content, have a nice design, and are easy to use. Using CSS sprite images on your website is the best way to quicken up the loading time of your images and is also the best way to keep up with today’s best web design practices. Via the tutorial9.net I found this interesting article about Building Faster Websites with CSS Sprites - see the main points below.

Building Faster Websites with CSS Sprites
Materials Needed for building faster sites:

• Image – Step 1: Set up each individual navigation menu image states
• Step 2: Image - Combine all 3 navigation bar image states into 1 image
• Step 3: Image – Measure the height of each buttons
• Step 4: Image – Measure the width of each buttons
• Step 5: Image – Width and height of each buttons
• Step 6: CSS – setting up the navigation bar
• Step 8: CSS – Using HTML lists (ul tags) for the navigation bar links
• Step 9: CSS – adding images for each links
• Step 10: CSS – adding hover states to the navigation bar
• Step 11: CSS – adding clicked/active states to the navigation bar
  

Continue to read this article, which also speaks about some more Ways to Speed Up Your Website - Building Faster Websites with CSS Sprites.

More useful Wordpress tricks, hacks, plugins - article reviews

There are a lot of tricks to help everyone to improve the usage, posting, writing, optimizing of the wordpress based blogs and websites - here are 30+ New Useful WordPress Tricks & Hacks via the famous hongkiat blog.

30+ New Useful WordPress Tricks & Hacks

• Antivirus For Wordpress
• Digg/Bury Blog Comments Like Digg.Com
• Spell, Style And Grammer Check With After The Dealine
• Detect Adblocker And Display Alternative
• Insert Anything Into Wordpress Blog Post – WP-Insert
• Improved Web Typography In WordPress – WP-Typography
• Disable Comments In Old Posts Via PHP
• Custom ‘Read More’ And Thumbnailed Recent Posts
• Add Shadows To A Range Of Objects
• Implement E-Commerce Shopping Cart – WP E-Commerce
• Alternative Way To Display Dates – WP-RelativeDate
• Vote Post Up/Down
• Wordpress Thread Comment
• Add Private Notes To Wordpress Blog Post
• Customized Greeting Messages – WP Greet Box
• Allow Users To Upload And Share Photos At Ease – PhotoSmash Galleries
• Thank Your Commentators With Thank Me Later
• Paginated Comments
• Check For Broken Links
• Manage Who Sees The Ads
• Wordpress Download Counter
• Add Post Thumbnails With Ease – Simple Post Thumbnails
• Display Thumbnails For Related Post
• Link Codes To 33 Social Bookmarking Sites
• Display Random Posts From Category
• Mass Manage Wordpress Custom Fields
• Create Beautiful Blogroll Down-Drop (Without Javascripts)
• Automatically Insert Content After Each Post
• Better Commenting Functions And Management With Intense Debate
• Better Wordpress Search Page
• Filter Content By Country
• Create Your Own Private Twitter Site Using WordPress

To read more and find out more about these tricks, including some links to where you can find these hacks/plugins, visit the original article: 30+ New Useful WordPress Tricks & Hacks.

Case study - ways to fail at Customer support - article reviews

WOW, I have never ever heard of such cases as in the 8 Ways to Majorly Fail at Customer Support - real case studies of people who bought things/devices and the customer support/what happened after that, was horrible! And even now, some of these cases are not solved! WOW!

8 Ways to Majorly Fail at Customer Support

1. A Paving Stone and a MacBook Pro(Resolution: Keith owns a $2164.89 red paving brick, he is continuing to dispute the charges.)
2. Zer01 Offers Unlimited Mobile Service, Sort of(Resolution: All website information has been removed of the offer, as well as the debacle.)
3. Debt Collectors Steal Money, Then Forced to Return it(Resolution: Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general in New York, filed a suit to recover upwards of $500 million in damages, resolution pending.)
4. The Quadrillion Dollar Credit Card Bill(Resolution: Jon had the $23 quadrillion charge reversed, and the $20 overdraft fee.)
5. I’ll have the French Onion, Hold the Rubber(Resolution: None, Claim Jumper is disputing the claim.)
6. A Box of Rocks and a Nintendo DS(Resolution: Wykle got to exchange the Nintendo DS for a non-rocks-and-newspaper version, and received a $20 gift card for her troubles.)
7. The $85,000 Cell Phone Bill(Resolution: After negotiating with Bell Mobility, the carrier agreed to reduce the bill to $3,243 as a sign of “goodwill”. Definitely much more than what Staniaszek was expecting to pay, but a far cry from his nearly six-figure charge, which he arguably was liable to pay.)
8. LA Fitness “Borrows” $5000 From its Members(Resolution: After 3 years and saint-like patience, the customer received a full refund of $5620.I t later came out this was one in a series of similar illegal charges instigated by LA Fitness, all of which were eventually resolved. Employees found to be involved in the scam were all fired.)

uhm.... read more about these cases, with links to the actual article that deals with them, on billshrink.com - 8 Ways to Majorly Fail at Customer Support.

List of Tools for Testing your Website - article reviews

For webmasters or any other person who either wants to check his own website or any website, the people at GraphicRating have posted a list of 15 Tools for Testing your Website including validators, accessability, Cross Browser Testing, Website Performance Testing, etc. Excellent collection of links

15 Tools for Testing your Website

Validators

1. HTML Validator

2. CSS Validator

3. Links Validator

4. RSS Feed Validator

5. Free Site Validator

Accessibility

6. WebAIM Wave

7. Functional Accessibility Evaluator

8. Hera

Cross Browser Testing

9. Xenocode

10. Browsershots

11. IeTester

12. Microsoft Expression SuperPreview

Website Performance Testing

13. Pingdom Tools

14. YSlow

15. Web Page Analyzer

Read more about these solutions(each one has a little explanatory paragraph attached) at the 15 Tools for Testing your Website.

jQuery tutorials and plugins - lots and lots of helpful sites - article review

In the article entitled "25 jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials and Plugins" there are lots of useful resources for the ones that want to know how to have an image gallery/slider on the site, and use jQuery for this. Here are the main points:

25 jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials and Plugins

jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials:

• Create an Image Rotator with Description (CSS/jQuery)
• jQuery Image Gallery/News Slider with Caption
• Full Screen Image Gallery Using jQuery and Flickr
• Create a Slick and Accessible Slideshow Using jQuery
• Fancy Thumbnail Hover Effect with jQuery
• Simple jQuery Image Slideshow with Semi Transparent Caption
• Slider Gallery
• Building a jQuery Image Scroller
• Sliding Boxes and Captions with jQuery
• Create Beautiful jQuery Slider
• How to: Create a Fancy Image Gallery with jQuery
• Coda Slider Effect

jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Plugins:

• Supersized; Galleria; Gallery View; jQuery lightBox; Gallerific; Easy Slider 1.5;
• Pikachoose; S3 Slider – jQuery Image Gallery; Sliding Image Gallery; Flickr Gallery;
• Simple Controls Image Gallery; Popeye; Smooth Div Scroll.

Again, to read more explanations about each of these above, visit the 25 jQuery Image Gallery/Slider Tutorials and Plugins article via vandelay design.

30 More Helpful Video Tutorials For Web Developers via tutsplus

If you are a web developer/web programmer, there's lots and lots of new things coming up constantly, and even more: maybe you know a certain programming language, but what about jQuery/php/python, etc? Well.... there are some video tutorials, 30 of which are listed here, that can help you in some respects - the article is about 30 More Helpful Video Tutorials For Web Developers, via tutsplus.

30 More Helpful Video Tutorials For Web Developers

1. Write Your First PHP Script
2. How to Install Wordpress Locally
3. Creating Web Services with NetBeans
4. Why Learn Object-Oriented PHP?
5. jQuery For Absolute Beginners Video Series
6. How to Create a Wordpress Plugin
7. Authlogic
8. Intro to Visual Web Developer
9. Rails with jQuery
10. Getting Started with Dreamweaver CS3
11. Building High-Performance Apps for AIR
12. Performance Tuning Best Practices for MySQL
13. An Introduction to Database Programming with Python
14. Advanced Form Styling & Functionality
15. Django Reloaded Workshop
16. How to Use Firebug for CSS
17. Basic iPhone Programming
18. Introduction to CodeIgniter
19. Debugging Ajax Applications with Firebug
20. Developing Rails Applications with Komodo
21. Using CSS
22. Learn Django: Create a Wiki in 20 Minutes
23. Using CSS3
24. The Essentials of DOM and Javascript in 10 Minutes
25. Using Scaffolding and Bake in CakePHP
26. A Lesson Learned in Accessibility
27. Firefox Extension Bootcamp
28. Google Android App Training
29. How to Share Facebook Feed with Facebook Connect in 10 Minutes
30. Concatenating Strings with Yahoo! Pipes

Read the entire article + see the specific links to these tutorials online - 30 More Helpful Video Tutorials For Web Developers.

Web Design & SEO: Illustrator Text Effect AND SEO Infographics - article reviews

Article reviews - some interesting articles in both the Web Design and SEO - search engine optimization - found online: The Best Adobe Illustrator Text Effect Tutorials and 4 Essential SEO Infographics. See below what these articles talk about:

The Best Adobe Illustrator Text Effect Tutorials

1. How to Make a Cartoon Style Cereal Box Logo in Adobe Illustrator CS3
2. Quick Tutorial: Gradient Strokes
3. How to Create a Trendy Retro Type Treatment
4. Create a Vibrant 3D Pixel Type Treatment
5. Illustrator Tutorial - 3D lighted text effect
6. New Year Creating a New Typeface in Illustrator
7. Old School Type – Line Gradients
8. Create a Dream Design with 3D Typography
9. Ornate Lettering Process
10. Tutorial : Create a cool water effect
11. Quick Tutorial: Adding Gradients to Text
12. How to Create a Smokin’ Western Type Treatment in Illustrator
13. Creating a crazy cool logo
14. Working With Type In Illustrator
15. Create a Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text
16. Design Soft Stylized 3D Type
17. Illustrator Tutorial: Bling Bling Text Effect
18. Blueprint-Style Text in Adobe Illustrator
19. Creating an Environmentally Friendly Green Type Treatment
20. Illustrator Quick Tips #2 - Scatter Brushes

Read the full article online - The Best Adobe Illustrator Text Effect Tutorials.

4 Essential SEO Infographics

1. Pie Chart of SEO Time Expenditure (how SEOs spend their time)
2. Hat Color vs. Value Scatterplot of SEO Tactics (scatterplot of SEO tactics)
3. Flowchart of SEO-Friendliness (order of operations to make a site SEO-friendly)
4. Venn Diagram of Internet Marketing Professions (professions at the intersection of Technology, Marketing and statistics)

This article is quite an insightful and interesting one, though it is composed of mainly some graphs.... read more about the "4 Essential SEO Infographics" online.

5 things that can kill your site & How to create your first iPhone application

Continuing the series of just quoting the main points of some interesting articles, here are 2 of them: Five Things That Will Kill Your Site and How to Create Your First iPhone Application.

Five Things That Will Kill Your Site

A high availability website - It’s all about expensive redundant hardware with top of the line load balancers and an enterprise class SAN, right? Well, not necessarily. There are several cheap or free steps you can take to ensure uptime before you splash your cash on lots of kit. If you’re not taking these steps you are wasting your money on your redundant hardware. Here are my top five things that bring sites down, in rough order of likeliness:

1. Change
2. Unexpected load
3. Slow death
4. Time related issues
5. Hardware failure

Read the entire article about "Five Things That Will Kill Your Site" online.

How to Create Your First iPhone Application

1. Have an idea – a Good Idea(Does your app solve a unique problem? Does the app serve a specific niche? Does it make people laugh? Are you building a better wheel? Will the app be highly interactive?)
2. Tools Checklist(Iphone Developer Program, get an iPhone, get a MAC, get iPhone SDK, etc)
3. What Are You Really Good At? - Skills Checklist
4. Do Your Homework: Market Research
5. Know the iPhone/iPod Touch UI
6. Determine "Who will use your app?"
7. Sketch Out Your Idea
8. Time for Design(use the iPhone GUI Photoshop template or our iPhone PSD Vector Kit)
9. Programming
   Developers & forums: Apple Dev Forum, iPhoneSDK (moderated by Erica Sadun), iPhoneSDKForum, iPhoneDev Forums, iPhoneSB
10. Submit your application to Apple Store
11. Promote Your App(Strategies for maintaining/boosting app sales: Incorporating social media, Pre-launch promotion, Plan for multiple releases)
12. Stay Focused and Don’t Give Up!

Read the entire article about "How to Create Your First iPhone Application" online.

Social media Optimization - revisited rules, and the power of social media - case study

Below are 2 articles tweeted and re-tweeted a lot these days, that deal with social media - one is a review of some principles of the Social Media Optimization and the other has more observations about a case study of social media marketing.

16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited

1. Increase Your Linkability
2. Make Tagging and Bookmarking Easy
3. Reward Inbound Links
4. Help Your Content Travel
5. Encourage the Mashup
6. Be a User Resource, Even if it Doesn’t Help You
7. Reward Helpful and Valuable Users
8. Participate
9. Know How to Target Your Audience
10. Create Content
11. Be Real
12. Don’t Forget Your Roots, Be Humble
13. Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things, Stay Fresh
14. Develop a SMO Strategy
15. Choose Your SMO Tactics Wisely
16. Make SMO part of your process and best practices

Read the entire article about the Social Media Optimization here.

The Power of Social Media Marketing (Case Study)

Some good ways to measure social media marketing are:

• Visitors
• Leads
• Backlinks
• Tweets (Twitter)
• Blog Postings
• News Articles & TV

In order to promote something via social media you need at least two factors:

1. Great Content
2. Social Media Marketing Guru

Read the entire article, which contains a good case study of the Social Media Marketing, here.

SEO tips and jQuery code snippets for everyone - article reviews

This is not much of a review, but at least a short listing of the main bullet points of these articles, and you decide whether to visit them or not. I would recommend them especially for the web developers and web designers.

20 SEO tips that every web developer should follow

1. Write Semantic and Valid Markup
2. Optimize your Title and Meta Tags the Correct Way
3. Always Use alt and title Attributes
4. Maintain your CSS and JavaScript files Externally
5. Use Google Webmasters Tools
6. Keep your HTML Simple
7. Avoid Frames
8. Use JavaScript Only for Progressive Enhancement
9. Be Careful When Using Flash
10. Create a sitemap.xml file for Google
11. Make a Site Map
12. Add a robots.txt File to Your Root Directory
13. Check for Broken Links and Images
14. Avoid Duplicate Content
15. Create an Informative Error Page
16. Keep a Flat Structure Directory
17. Use Search Engine Friendly url Names
18. Design an Effective Footer
19. Use Breadcrumb Navigation
20. Write Good Content

read this article online here.

7 jQuery code snippets a programmer need daily

1. Form validation plugin
2. Drag and Drop functionality using jQuery
3. Pagination using jquery
4. Embed flash using jQuery
5. Creating tag cloud via jQuery
6. Insert Simple ajax effects using jquery
7. Creating tips with jQuery

for the ardent programmer, here's the article.