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samedi 12 novembre 2016

Getting Started With HTML5 & CSS3

alt="Getting Started With HTML5 & CSS3" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/html5-500x500_c.jpg" />

style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Getting Started With HTML5 & CSS3

Using HTML5 and CSS3 can help you make a spectacular website, but, unfortunately most designers don’t use them because they aren’t supported by all browsers. Most Internet users are still using Internet Explorer, so the code will not display properly for most people. Since over half a website’s traffic is with a browser that does not support these two languages, most designers do not use them for popular websites.

Both HTML5 and CSS3 are still in progress, but it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with them now so you can use them when they are the new standard in web design. Both languages will help you get a clean look for your website using simpler code.

HTML5

id="floatright">src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-7.jpg" alt="HTML 5" width="220" height="220" />

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, and HTML5 is the latest version. Currently, it is only supported by a few browsers, but is expected to increase in popularity and usage in the next year. The entire language is expected to be fully written sometime in 2014, but some features are available now.

Since Flash is infamous for crashing and bugs, Apple does not allow it on iOS mobile phones and devices. As Apple increases in popularity, this creates a problem for developers who want the features of Flash, but also want their apps and websites viewable on an iOS device. HTML5 offers many of the same features of Flash, but runs with less bugs and more stability.

Google will be releasing a HTML5 version of YouTube soon, so this reaffirms how important this update will be in href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/inmotion-hosting/" target="_blank">the future of the Internet. Mozilla’s Firefox, however, is resisting HTML5 and IE does not support it, so developers are hesitant to jump on the bandwagon. To further complicate things, different browsers may support different features of HTML5, and not all browsers will support all features. Designers must find out what features will be supported by different browsers when creating a website.

HTML5 lets you create smaller parts that combine and work together to make up the entire page. It allows the designer to create advanced pages with new features that aren’t always possible to create with older versions of HTML. HTML5 is built on HTML4, so designers can build upon existing code to improve the website. This eliminates the need to code the website from scratch, and new features can be added easily.

HTML5 Features

Cache allows the user to navigate web apps while offline.
Canvas element lets you place 2D images directly within the code.
Editing is easier. Change text quickly by adding contenteditable=“true” to an element.
Video and audio support is greatly improved, and you will be able to add both without using a plugin.
It does require a doctype so a browser can display the page in a standard mode, but the doctype has been simplified. Now it is <!DOCTYPE html>.

Why Use HTML5?

Uses WebSockets, so it loads faster than older versions of HTML.
Smartphone apps from all phone brands and models will be able to read one language.
Greater flexibility.
Video, images and audio are embedded within the code, so users do not need an outside plugin.
The language is getting more popular, so websites that do not use it will soon be outdated.
Is is based on HTML4, so you can added new elements within the code.
HTML5 coupled with CSS3 gives you many features and benefits not possible previously.

CSS3

CSS, which stands for Cascading Style Sheets, gives designers flexibility in presenting a website. It allows you to create better looking websites with unique features. Like HTML5, CSS3 isn’t supported by all browsers yet, but it is gaining popularity. CSS3 lets you add effects to the page without using Javascript or other plugins.

One disadvantage to using CSS is that you need to use filters to alter how things appear on the screen for different browsers. Internet Explorer is most known for being buggy and displaying CSS improperly, but Chrome and Firefox can also have bugs. Designers get around this by creating different codes for different browsers or utilize filters to block CSS completely.

CSS3 Features

Rounded Corners

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-1.jpg" alt="Sample of CSS3" width="750" />
Demo: href="http://psdslicer.com/" target="_blank">http://psdslicer.com/

Before, you had to use JavaScript to mask the corner of an image or create a separate image for just the corner. Now, you can round corners with the following code:

div {
border: 5px solid #434343;
padding: 10px;
background: #e3e3e3;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
width: 500px;
}

RGBA Colors

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-2.jpg" alt="Sample of CSS3" width="750" />
Demo: href="http://vivid-ness.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://vivid-ness.co.uk/

You had to use a PHP script within the CSS code to trick the browser into displaying colors in RGBA. This added unnecessary code in the PHP file. Or, you had to memorize color codes for each color, but now you can specify the amount of each color and their opacity within the code.

Here is the code for CSS3:

background: rgba(150, 25, 150, 0.5);

Text Shadow

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-3.jpg" alt="Sample of CSS3" width="750" />
Demo: href="http://www.foundationsix.com/" target="_blank">http://www.foundationsix.com/

A text shadow adds a drop shadow below text to make it stand out or give it visual interest. Previously, the designer had to create two elements with the same text and give one a different color. The darker color was then offset by a couple of pixels and placed behind the other text. With CSS3, use the following code for text shadow:

h1 {
text-shadow: 0px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,.2);
}

Opacity Level

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-4.jpg" alt="Sample of CSS3" width="750" />
Demo: href="http://www.teehanlax.com/" target="_blank">http://www.teehanlax.com/

In previous version of CSS, you had to create PNG files with transparency or use filters for Internet Explorer. Now, you can use the following code:

opacity: 0.5;

Box Shadow

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-5.jpg" alt="Sample of CSS3" width="750" />
Demo: href="http://glo.id.au/" target="_blank">http://glo.id.au/

Box shadows let content slide under another area, such as the page’s footer. It makes it look like the content is sinking into the bottom of the website. With CSS3, you don’t have to create an image for this effect. You can also make the shadow appear by hovering over the area.

Before CSS3, you had to use a JavaScript plugin for a box shadow or create an image of the shadow. Now, you can use the following code with CSS3 for a box shadow:

.blogPost img {
margin: 22px 0;
box-shadow: 3px 3px 7px #777;
}

Add Fonts

Previously, websites could only display a font found on the visitor’s computer. Now you can upload a font file to your server and use CSS to call upon that file to display on the page.

Border Images

Now you can use any image as a border rather than using a boring line or dots as a border.

Transform

Lets you code how big you want an area to be when the user hovers over it.

Resizing Elements

Now working in Chrome, Firefox and Safari, this gives users a tool to resize elements. Use the following code:

div {
resize: both;
}

Multiple Backgrounds

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2011/1005-6.jpg" alt="Sample of CSS3" width="750" />
Demo: href="http://www.hangingupthemoon.com/">http://www.hangingupthemoon.com/

Lets you overlay more than one background on a single page with the following code:

body {
background:
url(../images/bottom-left.png) top right fixed no-repeat,
url(../images/bottom-right.png) top left fixed no-repeat,
url(../images/top-left.png) bottom left fixed no-repeat,
url(../images/top-right.png) bottom right fixed no-repeat;
background-color:#ffffff;
}

Final Thoughts

Although not all browsers currently support HTML5 and CSS3, they will in the future. More and more web users and switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, so designers need to create web pages that work on these browsers and with the features they support.

Both of these languages used together let you reduce or eliminate the need for third-part plugins, which makes it easier for visitors to use your website. Now you can embed pictures, audio and video directly within the website so pages load faster for users.

The two languages provide you with features that were not available before without having to use multiple programs. Now you can code your page quicker and easier with just two languages rather than using outside plugins that require learning yet another programming or web design language. Pages will not display faster and users do not have to waste time downloading the latest versions of plugins.

Both languages have the flexibility of being used for different browsers. Turn off portions of the code for browsers that do not support that code, and use feature rich code for browsers that do support it. HTML5 and CSS3 will soon be supported by smart phones and mobile devices, so designers can use the same page for both mobile and standard versions.

Page 26 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Getting Started on Social Media Marketing

alt="Getting Started on Social Media Marketing" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1103-2-500x751_c.jpg" />

id="floatright">alt="Social Media Marketing" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2010/1103-2.jpg" width="199" height="300" />

I can’t get enough of what the worldwide web can offer. From my academic researches to simple entertainment, it’s all in the web. But another fun and great thing about it is the creation of social media. It paved the way to faster online social communication and sharing of information with people in the online world. However, social media is not used simply for social messages alone. I can utilize social media to market and promote my products and so you can too. With social media marketing, you can generate leads and sales thereby increasing your profits.

Although href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/tips-for-effective-social-media-posting/" target="_blank">social media marketing may seem simple, it is not.

Don’t be like those other social media marketers who failed simply because they lack the understanding on what social media marketing is all about. Thus for beginners, you need to have the right understanding on the different aspects like what social media site to register, what group to join, what and how to post messages and advertisements and many more.

So, to give you a right start on social media marketing, consider the following points.

Determine the benefits or advantages you will get out of social media

If your goal is to publicize your new online company that promotes environment-friendly products, then think about the possible social activities that you will regularly perform and determine the possible benefits or advantages you will get from each activities like when you:

1. Create a blog

If you are fond of writing and sharing your experiences about helping the environment and using ‘green’ products, then you may consider creating a blog. It will allow you to reach out and communicate. You may become a marketing affiliate for another company that complements your business or you may place products ads to other complementary companies. It will increase the traffic in your blog site that could eventually result to increase in sales, yet you should also be an expert in your field.

2. Create a micro-blog

Micro-blogging could be your venue to create noise or drum roll about a certain product, company or idea. You can post links to your micro-blogging and this will direct your prospective clienteles to your product Web site.

3. Join forums

One way to establish yourself as an expert in your field is by creating a venue for forums that could show your expertise in a particular brand, company or topic.

4. Photo sharing of your products

Post online images or photos of your services or products. Doing this will help your company come up in the ‘universal search’ using any search engine, thus making it easy for customers to locate your Web site.

5. Create a video sharing

Showing a video excerpt on what you can offer or what your product can do is a good way to make your message cut across your targeted market. Remember that video presentation is an effective medium even before it was confined in the boobtube.

6. Create a compelling profile about you and your business

Registering for a social network account that could serve your purpose is easy. But you also need to take time in creating and completing a compelling profile. This is simply for the basic and obvious reason that your profile is what your readers or your prospective networks will first see and read. So, it is better to create a credible profile since ‘first impression lasts’ and this often holds true.

Understand your social network community

It is not enough that you joined a group, but your regular visibility and active participation in the group will help you create a name within your community. This will help you make known your expertise about a particular field or product and in turn, you can use this to your advantage by directing the other members of the social site to your product Web site.

But aside from this, knowing and understanding the Terms of Service will save you the inconvenience of getting booted out of the social network site.

Enjoy your social network community

Joining a social media network is a great fun. You can connect with your social network fast and with ease. You can receive immediate feedback too, lest to say that it is somehow addicting. But business-wise, it can be your most powerful tool in publicizing your product or company.

So, explore different social media sites that can cater to your needs and wants.Most sites even incorporate three or more features like you can post blogs or you can do micro-blogging. You can also post photos, videos or it can also be a venue for forums. More so, social networking sites are not only venues wherein you can connect with friends and family. Social media marketing can help you generate traffic that could covert to sales and better income.

Conclusions and More Readings On Social Media Marketing Strategy

I hope this post drew your attention on the latest web marketing trend – the social media. And, if you still think social media sites are only for kids with too much time to spend, think again! style="text-decoration: underline;">Social media is bigger than porn already.

class="border" alt="Social Media vs Porn" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2010/1103-3.jpg" width="750" />

Further Related Readings

As mentioned, this blogpost is only for beginners and you will need a lot more readings before mastering these media tools. For more readings, check out:

title="Permanent Link to Building Social Bookmarking Networks 101" href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/building-social-bookmarking-networks-101/16154/" target="_blank" rel="bookmark">Building Social Bookmarking Networks 101
href="http://www.kunocreative.com/blog/bid/23506/What-is-Social-Media-Optimization-and-Why-Should-I-Care" target="_blank">What is Social Media Optimization and Why Should I Care?
href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/socialmedia-marketing/49-data-proven-tips-on-how-to-get-more-retweets/" target="_blank">How to get more retweets and friends on Twitter?
href="http://mashable.com/2009/10/28/small-business-marketing/" target="_blank">10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips
title="Permanent Link to Can Social Media Can Help My Company?" href="http://blog.crowdspring.com/2009/04/can-social-media-can-help-my-company/" target="_blank" rel="bookmark">Can Social Media Can Help My Company?
href="http://www.seomoz.org/article/social-media-marketing-tactics" target="_blank">101 Social Media Sites to Help Market Your Business or Yourself Online
title="Permanent Link to Social Media Marketing Strategies" href="http://sparxoo.com/2010/08/16/social-media-marketing-strategies/" target="_blank" rel="bookmark">Social Media Marketing Strategies
href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1579162/neat-cheat-sheet-to-help-your-marketing-heads-conquer-social-media" target="_blank"> A Cheat Sheet to Help You Conquer Social Media
href="http://www.cultivatingyourcustomers.com/2010/02/27/are-you-reaching-your-best-customers-through-social-media/" target="_blank">Are you reaching your Best Customers through social media?

Have fun reading! Cheers. :D

Page 28 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Blogger Tutorial (1/6): Introduction & Getting Started

alt="Blogger Tutorial (1/6): Introduction & Getting Started" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

I know some of you guys are keen about blogging but unwilling to spend extra on web hosting and domain. The good news is there are tons of great blogging platform around and they are absolutely free. One of the top rated blog platform is of course Blogger.com manged by Google. For the next few weeks (or months), I’m glad to have experienced blogger E-Quan on board to share his experience and knowledge in operating a Blogger blog. I’m sure his tutorials bring great joy and valuable information, so stay tuned and have fun learning!

Blogger: Introduction & Getting Started

So you’ve decided to start a blog, great! I bet you have plenty of thoughts, ideas, or even wonderful photos to share with close ones and the world. What better way of doing that than writing them down, publishing them easily, and at the end, archiving them systematically using Blogger (href="http://www.blogger.com">www.blogger.com)?

A little history about Blogger

Blogger is one of the earliest blog publishing systems and was created by the nice people over at a small company called href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyra_Labs">Pyra Labs in San Francisco back in August 1999. To make the great story short, Google eventually saw the potential that was hidden in this blog publishing tool together with its many great features that it formally acquired Pyra Labs in February 2003. Blogger has now emerged as one of the most successful blog hosting providers offering many wonderful features with a user-friendly interface — for FREE!

Blogger when it was first launched

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/0824-3.jpg" alt="Blogger when it first launched" />

Blogger now

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/0824-2.jpg" alt="Blogger nowadays" />

The basics of Blogger (and some example)

Basically, your blog will be hosted by Google at subdomains of blogspot.com.

What this means is that you could choose a unique name that is meaningful to you and your readers and publish your posts at that address (provided that the name is not taken up already!). Like this author, he also uses Blogger service and his blog is available at confirmcekap.blogspot.com. Many people use their own name/nickname as the URL and one famous blogger whose blog is being hosted on blogspot that I can think of right away is XiaXue (href="http://xiaxue.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">xiaxue.blogspot.com).

class="border aligncenter" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/0824-4.jpg" alt="Xia Xue" width="560" height="413" />

Pros and cons of Blogger

Besides Blogger, there are actually many blog hosting providers out there in the wild: href="http://www.wordpress.com/">WordPress, href="http://www.livejournal.com/">Livejournal, href="http://www.live.com/">Windows Live Spaces, to name a few. Before registering at Blogger.com, you might want to know the pros and cons from my own personal experience:

Pros:

FREE!
Fast and simple registration/setup. Even more so if you already have a Google account (Gmail for example).
User-friendly interface (referred to as the Dashboard) — easy to navigate between Editing, Settings, and Layout. Even a drag-and-drop feature to arrange your blog’s layout!
Labels option for your posts — meaning that you could categorize each post for example: travel, food, rants, etc.
Easy to add photos/videos to your posts.
Comments system is also available for you to gather feedback from your readers.

Cons:

You don’t own nor can you control the site because it is free and being hosted by Google. Your blog can be blocked/deleted by Blogger if they judge your content being in violation of its Terms of Service.
Multiple pages are not supported by Blogger currently. Your Blogger blog is not like a website where every page created has a new link/URL. You create posts instead. In short, it is not possible to create yourblog.blogspot.com/location where this page will contain your address with a nice hand-drawn map.
The basic layout templates offered when you first register are pretty dull and if you’d like a more sophisticated layout, some research is definitely required.

Should you go with Blogger?

All in all, I still recommend that you try and start your blog at Blogger because as you can see above, the advantages are still quite significant. Click the Blogger’s logo below to start your blogging journey right away!

p/s: In the next session, we’ll be discussing about setting up your first Blogger blog and configuring it to fit your requirements.

About the author
id="floatright">class="alignright" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/0824-5.jpg" alt="Blogger Signup" width="100" height="97" />

E-quan graduated from Technological University of Malaysia as an Electrical and Electronics Engineer.

He is now attached with an MNC specializing in power and automation technologies. In his blog (confirmcekap.blogspot.com), he describes himself as a full-time procrastinator although in reality, he is “not”. He likes 80’s music especially Cantonese pop songs. He plays the Electone and wishes to own a grand piano (amongst the many things he would like to own) soon.

Page 30 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Checklist: 15 Things to Go Through Before Getting A Web Host

alt="Checklist: 15 Things to Go Through Before Getting A Web Host" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

id='floatright'>src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2010/1103-1.jpg" alt="Web Host Shopping Guides" />

After sleepless nights and busy days, you have finally created your own website. You spend so much time and energy deciding on your domain name, researching for your niche and keywords, and even shell out some money to ensure that the design matches your content. And now, you are ready to go online, except you do not know which web hosting company you will choose.

Here are 15 things you have to consider when choosing a website hosting company:

1. Consider the Price

This is the first on the list, not only because it is very important but we do not want you paying more than what you are getting. But then again, you do not have to grab the cheapest one that comes along. The keyword here is compare. List at least 5 affordable web hosting services and compare their features and prices. Choose the one that offers you value for your money.

Dig deeper: Check out href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/featured-articles/cheap-web-hosting-a-to-z-guide/">list of web hosts that cost less than /mo.

2. Find that perfect match

Like a pair of jeans, not all size and style will fit you, choosing a web hosting requires you to find the one that matches your needs. Some company may be offering services that you do not need or others may be providing you with solutions that are absolutely not needed or applicable on your website.

3. Know the limits

Think if the web hosting company can accommodate all your needs. If you are launching a fully loaded e-commerce website with heavy content and animated graphics, then you should not get a web hosting company that will not be able provide the disk space, bandwidth, and other processing power that your website needs to operate fully.

4. Ensure Tech Support

The website hosting company should offer you free technical support of trained and friendly staff available 24/7.

5. Check the added features

Find out what other add-ons the company is giving you and if these features are necessary for your website.

6. Ask the kind of hardware

You would want to have your website be hosted on premium virtual machines. You do not to risk your website with company that uses hardware of questionable quality.

7. Check out what others are saying

You should research for customer reviews and feedbacks on web hosting companies. And do not limit your searches to the company’s website or affiliate sites. Go to discussion forums and other independent blogs (like this one, WHSR ;)) – you might find something juicy there.

Dig depper: Read my href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/web-hosting-review/">unbiased web hosting reviews.

8. Know email features

This is important in managing communications with your customers, tracking down transactions, as well as in preventing spam problem.

9. Demand security

You do not want your website to be hacked, vandalized, and looted by unscrupulous people. Ask what security features and options can the company give you and compare it with other company’s security features. We do not want you losing control over your data. We want them safe and secured.

10. Evaluate reliability

Find out the company’s web hosting reputation online. Go for the one that has a good track record and has created a niche in the industry. Be wary of new webhosting company as they might just disappear on you without warning.

11. Test performance

As performance is directly related to the kind of hardware use by the company, you have to double check the claims of the website hosting company on the hardware they use. Avoid a company that uses outdated machines or a slow internet connection for its information center. Choose the one that can perform and deliver the best result in fastest possible time.

12. Check user interface

The control panel should allow you to do basic website management by yourself even without calling customer service. The user interface should allow you to set up FTP accounts and install WordPress easily. It should be easily navigated and use. If you have difficulty understanding the control panel, then you will also have a hard time managing your website.

13. Look for room to grow

While your website hosting needs may seem simple and little for now, you should consider future growth. Thus, it is important to choose a website hosting company that provides you an opportunity to expand the operations and applications of your website.

14. Know the script

Make sure that the web hosting company uses language that supports the script required to operate your website.

15. Identify your options

Make sure you are given options for additional services such as upgrades for bigger bandwidth and disk space as the need arises. This is important as your business grows you will be requiring more services.

With so many web hosting companies available, it is understandable that you are having a problem choosing one. You might have ask friends and families what they recommend or you could have spend some time on forums to find out the best features and flaws of some web hosting company. Remember to choose the web hosting company that suits your budget and your website’s needs.

Page 28 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Getting Started With Klout

alt="Getting Started With Klout" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

For the past few years businesses and individuals have been gradually adopting social media practices in faith that they will positively affect their online presence. The biggest question surrounding this topic, however, is evaluation. How can businesses or individuals be sure the investment of resources into social media is actually helping them? The means of measurement (followers, fans, likes, diggs, comments, shares etc.) are new and unfamiliar. This lack of understanding has hindered real adoption of and investment into the channel.

With an increase in social media adoption and the ever increasing buzz regarding the channel, more and more ancillary tools are being developed. The bulk of these tools aim to put metrics behind the new channels and assist users to analyze the effectiveness of social media efforts.

One of the most popular tools to measure effectiveness of social media efforts, Klout, has developed a user base of over 100 million individuals. If you are ready to measure the influence of your social media efforts, Klout may be just the tool you are looking for. Let me break down what Klout is and how to best use the tool for you.

What is Klout?

href="http://klout.com/home" target="_blank">Klout is an online social media reputation tool that is based on calculating social influence. In other words, it puts a number 1-100 behind popularity and impact (your ability to incite others to act). The higher your Klout Score, the higher the influence.

Klout bases their scoring on three factors: true reach, amplifications, and network impact. As described on their website:

True Reach: How many people you influence (and how many people the people you influence are connected to)

Amplification: How much you influence them (does your network respond to your messages)

Network Impact: The influence of your network (the influence of the people in your network)

How do I use Klout?

While Klout’s interface looks clean and fairly simply, the tool is very robust and offers you a lot of evaluation tools to measure your social influence.

Let’s start with the dashboard. This page is really a summary of what’s been going on in your network lately. At the top of the page you will see the networks you have linked with your Klout account as well as how your score has fluctuated.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-1.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

Scroll down and you will see how your network has influenced you. Further down yet you can catch up on the buzz regarding the topics in which you are influential.

The bulk of the information you have to gain from Klout is found on your profile.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-2.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

To make sure you do not miss it, your score is extra big and displayed in a bright orange call-out bubble. To the right you will see another quick summary of your account (which accounts you have linked to, your picture, and your bio). You will also see a summary of who you are influenced by and what topics in which you are influential. For example, on the picture above shows the top five people/organizations I’m influenced by: Mark Batterson, Chris August, Focus Leadership, Simone Ramler, and EQUIP Conference. I’m influential about 3 topics: video, money, and YouTube.

Below the orange break line, you will see a menu on the left side of the screen: score analysis, topics, influencers, lists, klout style, perks, and achievements. These elements will shed more light onto your level of influence.

Score Analysis

Under score analysis you will first see a chart visually displaying how your Klout score has shifted over the past month. Just below the graph, your activity that has contributed to your score is summarized. Next, three graphs outline your history on the three main metrics of they system: true reach, amplification, and network impact.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-3.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-4.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-5.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-6.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

Topics

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-7.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

The topics section lists the areas in which you have an influential voice. Klout will automatically generate topics for you. If you feel they are missing some of the topics you are most influential in, you can add a topic with your +K’s (which we will cover later).

Influencers

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-8.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

This section expands on the details of those you influence and those that influence you. See how you are connected to them (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), what their Klout score is, and how they influence their networks.

Lists

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-9.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

You can create lists (similar to Twitter lists) based on specific topics (web development, business, marketing, finance, sports, entertainment, etc.) and track the influence of the individuals in your list.

Klout Style

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-10.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

Klout style is one of my favorite features of Klout. It descriptively describes your interaction on social media. Based on an 4 x 4 matrix, the tool assigns you a style and displays how you are in comparison to the individuals that influence you. Mine, for example, is currently a networker.

A networker is explained as: “You know how to connect to the right people and share what’s important to your audience. You generously share your network to help your followers. you have a high level of engagement and an influential audience.”

Perks

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-11.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

Perks are a simple concept. Businesses want influential people to use their products in hopes that they will rave about them to their social network. Of course you aren’t required to rave, unless you want to. You could even complain if you want to. Being influential has its benefits; if you are influential, you will be offered special products or experiences.

Achievements

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-12.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

Following suit of the majority of other social networks and tools online, Klout offers achievements. Keep track of notable achievements in your Klout experience from connecting certain social networks to reaching high Klout scores.

What is a +K?

A +K is like a vote for the influential people you are connected to. When you give someone a +K (you will see an icon next to names that easily allow you to give them away), you are saying “outloud” that that person is influential.

Ok, so that’s the basic features describing the technical way to use Klout. But how do you reallyuse it, how does it benefit you.

Find Influencers

If you didn’t want to influence a specific community, you wouldn’t be involved in social media. Connecting, influencing, teaming up with, and aligning yourself with trusted, prominent figures in the community you want to reach will greatly increase your influence. So how do you do this? Easily.

You will notice in a few different sections on Klout, topics that there are red-colored words – they are indicating “topics” on Klout. These topics vary from money to Christianity to entertainment. By clicking on these topics you will be directed to page full of information regarding that topic. The image below displays the “Marketing” topic.

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-13.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

The benefit of this information is that you have all the top marketing influencers all in one place. Connect with them on the network of your choice and learn why they are as influential as they are, talk with them, connect with them, and most importantly, be associated with them. Remember your mom telling you in high school that you become who your friends are? Well, she was right, sort of.

If you associate yourself with the big dogs in the topic you want to influence, others will look to you as influential as well (of course it’s not all based on your connection with others, you have to be able to hold your own regarding the topic).

Klout Perks

Free magazines, gift cards, food, trips and more just for engaging on social media? I think the benefit speaks for itself for individual users.

If you are business owner, investing on the other side of Klout perks can help your company/products gain “free” PR from giving away a few products to influential people.

Klout Brand Pages

src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2012/0523-14.jpg" alt="Klout Screenshot" class='border' />

Following the trend of major social networks, Klout recently introduced brand pages. While they are still in a Beta version, the benefits are apparent. The biggest benefit of brand page is that it displays the top 10 influencers for the brand – what marketer doesn’t want that information? These people are influential AND loyal to your brand, and now you know who they are, how to connect with them, and have the ability to keep them happy (thus leveraging their loyalty and influence). This tool takes social media management to a new level.

Still have questions about Klout? Let me know in the comments and let’s talk about it!

Page 24 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Getting Started with WordPress Child Themes

alt="Getting Started with WordPress Child Themes" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0514-1-500x254_c.jpg" />

So, you imagine that are starting your tweaks in the WordPress world and you’ve found a lot of awesome themes. You even find a lot of premium themes and most of them really worth the price (a few books for a professional look and code). And most of the themes you find are so close, but none is exactly what you want. It would be good to be able to move the menu bar a little bit, to replace the font, to add a new text block.

Well, if this sounds familiar, this guide is for you. Here we’ll dive into the child themes world, where you can do pretty much anything you want without breaking the awesome theme you’ve bought, or losing future updates because anything you do will be undone.

Editing appearance without modifying theme files

In short, that is what Child theme is about: Customizing without modifying original files. A child theme will basically have the same functionalities and look of your main theme (parent), unless you explicitly say otherwise.

It’ll contain at least 2 files, the style.css and the functions.php file, all other files will be grabbed from the parent theme so unless you create a new file in your child theme directory you’ll be using parent files.

We have a lot of possibilities here, but the main advantage is that you can move back to the original theme easily, and so you can also update your main theme without losing any edits, since they are done in a completely different folder.

Let’s get our hands dirty

So, the very first step is creating a new child theme directory under your /wp-content/themes/ folder. Let’s call it “Twenty-Child”, and let’s create our basic styles.css file:

/*
	Theme Name: Twenty Child
	Theme URI: http://www.webrevenue.co
	Description: Learning Child themes right now
	Author: Rochester Oliveira
	Author URI: http://www.webrevenue.co/author/rochester/
	Template: twentytwelve
*/
	/* Calling main theme CSS file */
	@import("../twentytwelve/style.css");

	/* Add anything you want below */

The parameters are (among other optional parameters omitted):

Theme Name: The name you’ll see under themes selection screen
Theme URI: The link that will be shown there
Description: A short description so you’ll remember what this is about
Author: Who has created the child theme
Author URI: If you want to link to author’s site
Template: The main theme folder (so if you want to use a different theme as the main, just replace this parameter)

Once you add this code you’ll see the Child Theme under WP admin > Appearance > Themes. You can select it now and all changes done will be seen in your site.

Child Theme Edits 101

This can be useless if you have zero CSS knowledge, right? Wrong! CSS is actually pretty easy and you can find a lot of snippets to help you there. Here are a few simple tips to help you in your customizations.

#1 Install Firebug

A lot of people just love Chrome and Safari (so do I!), but for me FireFox is much better for development. So, if you want to use it, I recommend you also installing firebug, which is an awesome tool to understand all selectors that are active in the current element.

Once you install it, you can press F12 or right click somewhere in the page and select “Inspect Element”. You’ll see a new window with current page HTML and CSS (and a lot of other tabs that are useful, maybe we can talk about them later).

In the CSS box you’ll see from top to bottom all CSS rules applied to current element, and the more “specific” rule in the top. That’s cool, but let’s see what you can do with this info

#2 Consider CSS specificity (or selector weight)

Each CSS rule has its selector, the properties and the values. But when the browser find 2 or more rules that will affect the same element it has to choose which one of them is more suitable. We usually have this “rule” to understand what will be considered:

! important declaration will overwrite anything else
Inline CSS will overwrite anything but ! important rules
ID’s (#header, #footer, #container…) worth 100 points
Classes (.main, .nav, .box) worth 10 points
Tags (body, div, p, a) worth 1 point
Universal selector and pseudo classes (*, :hover, :after) worth 0 but they will apply if there’s a “tie”

Ok, let’s see an example in order to better understand this. Right click your site header using the twenty twelve and you’ll see that the first CSS that appears is this:

.site-header {
    padding: 1.71429em 0;
}
article, aside, details, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, nav, section {
    display: block;
}

The first selector has 10 points (since it’s a class), and the second one has 1 point each (since commas just separate different selectors) that’s why it appears in the top. If you had something like #header div there that selector would certainly be the first one to show up.

Why this is so important?

Because in order to edit the main theme without editing its CSS files you’ll need to ALWAYS use rules that have more points than the rules defined in the main theme. And you can be smart on this and use simple code. For instance to overwrite this property:

.site-header {
    padding: 1.71429em 0;
}

You can add this in your child theme CSS, but you shouldn’t:

.site-header {
    padding 15px  0 ! important;
}

Because this is bad code, and it’s way harder to overwrite again if you need to change that in a single page, for instance. So you could simple use this:

body .site-header {
    padding: 15px 0;
}

This selector has 11 points, which is greater than the original 10 and so this code will be applied.

#3 Make good use of the functions

The child functions.php file is the only file that will be loaded IN ADDITION to original file. That’s a smart workaround done by WP team, so you can keep original functions and add your own functions. The catch is, the child theme functions will be loaded first and the theme developer MUST do something like this to avoid conflicts when declaring functions:

if( ! function_exists('top_menu') ){
	function top_menu(){
		//cool code here
	}
	add_action('wp_head', 'top_menu');
}

That’s because if you define a function in your child theme file it can overwrite the original one. If theme developer doesn’t do it this way you’ll end up with an ugly PHP error (since the same function is being created twice).

#4 Learn some CSS properties

Did you know that you can hide and add stuff using CSS? You’ll need to install the firebug to find the right selector, but you can hide an item by adding this code:

body a {
	display: none
}

To add it’s more complicated, since you can only add small texts, if you want an “On Sale!” text after a price tag, for instance you could use this code:

.price del:after {
    color: red;
    content: " On Sale!";
}

What do you think?

What do you think about this guide? Will you consider using child themes? Are you already using it? Let us know using the comments section below!

Page 20 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How to Keep Your Blog from Getting Sued

alt="How to Keep Your Blog from Getting Sued" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0516-1-500x306_c.jpg" />

Disclaimer: Deposit Photos provided product in exchange for review. All opinions are my own.

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1228" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0516-1.jpg" alt="0516-1" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0516-1.jpg 620w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/0516-1-300x183.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" />

Best Practices for FTC Disclosure and Other Legal Pitfalls

In 2009, the href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm" target="_blank">Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published legal guidelines for bloggers to use when writing sponsored posts in exchange for compensation or products. In May, 2013, they updated those guidelines to include social media and shared more advice on how to handle these types of posts. (You can href="http://www.ftc.gov/os/2013/03/130312dotcomdisclosures.pdf" target="_blank">download the “.com Disclosures” document.) As a long time blogger, I see a lot of questions on this topic, and I also see a lot of common mistakes that can get bloggers into legal trouble outside of this issues. I’m going to set the record straight by sharing with you the list of best practices for bloggers to protect themselves from getting sued or in any legal trouble.

Blogging for Compensation

First let’s define sponsored post.

This is the act of writing a post on your own blog endorsing a product in exchange for a fee. The FTC requires that you explicitly state when you have written a post on your blog for a fee. A review post that you have done in exchange for a product is still considered compensation, but it’s not called a sponsored post. This means that you still need to declare that you have received a product in exchange for the review. The FTC also wants you to declare that before any links to the product or sponsor’s site – or, more accurately, they want you do disclose so that the disclosure is clear and connected to your link, rather than a disclosure just at the bottom of your post, which may not be seen by readers. The logical way to think of it is that you are advertising for this sponsor or product, and you want your readers to be aware that it’s a form of advertising before clicking on to their site. (This is in direct contrast to when you are simply referring a site or product that you like on your own, and no disclosure or placement is required).

It’s been recommended that you place a line about sponsorship at the top of your blog like so:

id="attachment_1217" style="width: 760px" class="wp-caption aligncenter">href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsorshipverbiage.jpg">class="size-large wp-image-1217" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsorshipverbiage.jpg" alt="Sponsored post verbiage for top of post" width="750" />class="wp-caption-text">Example of sponsorship mentioned before and near product link. Includes “#ad” in title for automated social media promotion.

And then another reference at bottom, especially if you want more detail, such as opinions being your own, is good to post:

id="attachment_1216" style="width: 760px" class="wp-caption aligncenter">href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsorshipverbiage_bot.jpg">class="size-large wp-image-1216" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsorshipverbiage_bot.jpg" alt="Sponsored post verbiage for bottom" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsorshipverbiage_bot.jpg 720w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsorshipverbiage_bot-300x97.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" />class="wp-caption-text">Proper annotation at bottom of post. Example is for both compensation and product received.

href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsoredpost.gif">class="size-full wp-image-1212 alignright" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/sponsoredpost.gif" alt="sponsored post image" width="275" height="50" />

I also recommend you use a “nofollow” link here because can be search engine ramifications if you don’t. It’s also perfectly fine to create an image (if you are worried about duplicate text content) to use in these cases, but the top and bottom reference will still apply.

Disclosure and Social Media

Readers need to be aware that this disclosure requirement is necessary even when you share your post on social media. In addition, many people are using the hashtag “spon” or “sp” with their social media, to mark out what is a sponsored or reimbursed post, however, the FTC believes this is unclear, as readers may not be aware what those terms means. They prefer you use the “#ad” or “#paid” hashtag, because it is short and clear. Again, the FTC prefers that the hashtag be entered before any links. The concern here is that readers may get distracted before seeing the sponsorship information, by links or information or photos. It has to be truly clear and visible, and it has to appear on your social media each and every time you send it out. That means that if you autopost, you will need to put “#ad” or “#paid” in your title (see first image). Of course, if your tweet claims the sponsorship itself (i.e., “brought to you by”), then you do not need the hashtag, such as:

align="center">Disney bought me a weekend in their resort, here’s my review!

In my opinion, that’s less elegant than #ad or #paid, but if you can word it properly, it may be a better fit for your writing style.

Finally, information or claims provided by the vendor should be marked as such. An example, “This supplement claims that it may support weight loss. Here is my experience.” This is preferred rather than, “The supplement will help you lose weight,” unless you have peer-reviewed support (i.e., FDA approval).

Legally Using Images

class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10114" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/deposit-photo.jpg" alt="deposit photo" width="750" height="389" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/deposit-photo.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/deposit-photo-300x155.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

A trend that I still see around the blogosphere is the illegal use of images that are protected by copyright. If you’ve been contracted to review a product, you need to take your own photos of the product, or have copyright available ones sent to you by the company itself. (You cannot be sure of a third party so if you’re working with a PR firm, you’re best sticking to your own photos.) Review clients often want to see you or your family and friends engaging with or using the product in some way.

The bottom line for online image usage in general is: if you did not take the photo yourself, you do not own the copyright. The good news is that there are free sources where you can get free, legal images to use on your posts. Here are a few:

start="1">

href="http://depositphotos.com/credits.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Deposit Photos This resource has a vast collection of stock photography. You can subscribe for 5 images a day for a month (or less if you purchase bulk months), which is relatively affordable in terms of stock photography, or pay as you go credits, for as low as for credits. This is one of the most cost-effective stock photo resources you’ll find.

href="http://www.sxc.hu" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Stock Exchange This is a great service where people post photos for free. Be sure to read the licensing on them, and it is common courtesy to sign up for an account and tell the photographer where and how you are using them. Make sure that a credit is not required if you are using these.

href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">FreeDigitalPhotos.net This site provides a good selection of images, however, you MUST credit the photographer with a link back to their page, and you can only download the smallest size for free, but still a great resource in a pinch.

href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/" rel="nofollow">Wikiepedia Commons & href="http://search.creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons have a selection of photos and other items as well, but again, it is up to you to read the licensing. Even if it is a public domain photo, it may have some restrictions. You may also use photos in the public domain; Wikipedia has an extensive list of resources where to find href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources">public domain photos.

Using your own photos is the safest route, however, you cannot legally post photos of other people’s faces (other than your own children under 18) without their permission. Stay away from trademarks and brands as well. And finally, you might want think twice about using photos of your family, or at least set up some boundaries. A photo of you breastfeeding or of your child in nothing but a diaper may seem like a great idea at the time and it’s not illegal, but you should consider if it can come back to haunt you or your child at a later date. To protect yourself, you can use a Copyright mark or watermark with your name, blog name, or business name on all your images.

Using and Curating Content Legally

As a long time blogger, it’s hard to believe that not everyone wants you to share their content on your website but it’s true. I recently worked with a client, who found an article from a source, only to discover that the source had rules about their content being used for profit. Since I was paid was to write the article, and the article itself would sell a brand, I felt that using a quote was a violation of their rules and told the client.

If you are curating content, how can you be sure that you are doing so without violating copyright? First of all, find out if the website has an area called “Terms of Use” or “Content”. They generally list any rules they have about use of their content and how to attribute it. If you don’t find such an area, it’s still your responsibility to search the site and find any guidelines. Finally, it’s good practice to contact the author or blog owner or editor, if you can, to let them know how you are referencing them. If you have a visible blog and or a large target audience, many bloggers and authors would be happy to share their information in a positive manner. Do make sure you tell them if you are working on a controversial topic. And one word of caution: if you’re using information in such a way that you don’t want to tell them about it, don’t use it at all.

These are the basics you need to know to keep your blog legal if you are writing for some kind of compensation or using content and images you have found online. If payment or products are involved, that changes the scope of what you are writing, and requires disclosure or permission. If you are using images and content this are not your own, you need to have appropriate copyright permission and author attribution.

Image Credit: href="http://www.morguefile.com/creative/manuere">http://www.morguefile.com/creative/manuere

Page 20 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed