effective article writing tips - article reviews

Via SiteSketch101 I found this interesting article - 10 Elements of Highly Effective Articles, in which there are 10 principles of the good and well written articles out on the internet and not only.
Here’s the bottom line: If you want to keep a majority of your visitors then you have to be able to produce amazing articles. Period.

10 Elements of Highly Effective Articles

1. They Use Proper Grammar
2. They Don’t Contain Jargon
3. They Relate Personal Experiences
4. They Demonstrate Humor
5. They Use Stories to Convey Truths
6. They Can Be Read in One Sitting
7. They Call Readers to Act
8. They Call Readers to Interact
9. They Provide Vital Information
10. They Are Organized
    

Read the entire article online - more details about some of the elements of highly effective articles.

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.

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.