Skill Set #1: Design

First things first – You need a good design. The attractiveness of a webpage can affect the users perception of credibility, the read rate and of cause, overall bounce rate. Here Photoshop is your greatest ally, quickly (a relative term at best!) mocking up several designs at (again relatively) little cost.

This skill set is as much about prior experience as it is intuitive design ideas – although the two do generally go hand in hand. Knowing what your audience likes is, perhaps, a skill of it’s own – ‘Monitoring’. Being able to take ideas from thought to paper (or canvas, in the case of Photoshop) is another paramount feature of designing.

Skill Set #2: Development

Phase two – The area that most ‘Website Developers’ are associated with. And with good reason. This code orientated skill set is based on taking the designs (from oneself, in a self sufficient methodology) and converting them to a functional structure. This often includes the knowledge of HTML, with DIV’s being the favored method for website structure.

CSS, a styling method, is also a must know language for development. The method in which a self sufficient developer does this is up to the individual; either opting for the quicker inline technique, or the more structured style sheet approach.

Skill Set #3: Content

This is the area that many, including myself, find most challenging. When done well it seems effortless and can definitely be the difference between a successful website and a struggling domain. But creating content for a page is a lot harder than it may seem from an outsiders perspective. Text is the key to most websites, and can change rapidly with altering trends. It does seem, for now at least, that the whole ‘Web 2.0′ friendly and personal approach is here and in full swing.

Text is only the start of it: There is images to contend with too!

Skill Set #4: Marketing

Often overlooked, this is probably the most important factor to producing a successful website (along with content, which is king, of cause). AdWords, Search Engine Optimization and all those other online marketing tools are essential for getting the word out to your potential readers / customers.

Managing your search engine result position (SERPs) with your chosen keywords is a fun and ongoing battle. SEO isn’t a one-time action: It takes constant maintenance (within reason) to ensure your audience keeps on flowing to your site (and converting, if that’s how you roll!).

Skill Set #5: Analyzing

The final piece to the self sufficient puzzle, analyzing those visits to the site is important in order to identify your strongest areas, possible pages of improvement and generally keep track of how you’re performing on the web.

You can track your performance against others, too. Competitors, friends or similar websites. Analyzing a developed website doesn’t mean that you’re finished: A good (proactive) self sufficient web developer will continuously use these individual skill sets in parallel to get the best results.

What?

For those of you that don’t know, Google Analytics lets you track traffic, keywords, campaigns and other interesting stuff that basically makes a successful website (page hits, visitors, demographics, traffic… The list goes on!). So, you used to have a 24 hour wait to see useful results, but now you can track website traffic down to the second (or minute, or hour). It’s a great dashboard layout (as is all of the Analytics pages… AdWords should take a leaf!) and is simple to understand. Wondering why you need to know who’s on your website at any specific time? Well you’ll have to wait until the ‘Why?’ paragraph, I’m afraid!

Where?

To get there is easy! Just log into your Google Analytics account (If you don’t have one, why not!) and make sure you’re using the new version. (You can switch to the new layout in the top right). Done that? Good! Now, go to the Home tab (top left) and then select “Real-Time” from the left most column! Hay presto, you’re done!

Why?

For some, knowing who’s on your site at a specific time is well useful! For example, say you just sent out a new email campaign. Gone are the days of waiting 24 hours to see conversion rates via Google Analytics, now you can see your page views increase as it happens. You can also get a better idea of how web behaviour changes throughout the day (for example peeking / dropping at lunch?) and lots of other cool stuff, too! I could watch it all day!

So there you have it

So there you have it, a very (very!) brief overview of Google Analytics Real-Time! It (could) change everything. At the very least, it’s a cool, and long awaited for some, feature from Google.

And what is the number one characteristic of SEO? Content! I’m sure iv’e mentioned it in previous blog articles, but key word rich, media rich, unique content is probably the most important element to a high ranking website.

So, how to keep things running smoothly?

SEO isn’t a one time thing; It takes constant tweaking, improvement and analysis to make the most! The last couple of days iv’e been revamping johnalexanderrowley.com with a whirlwind of new information. The result? Google robots scanning and searching this valuable new data to place me in the ranking system. It’s a bit of an experiment, if nothing else, replacing content in some cases, but replacing entire pages in others.

However, i’m already seeing some good improvement in Analytics and numbers; There has been a steady increase in unique and returning visitors over the last six months, and it’s climbing more rapidly than ever right now. That’s not to say it won’t peek and return to previous numbers, but for the mean time, at least, i’m enjoying soaring numbers.

Moral of the story? Do some SEO Spring Cleaning and see if you can improve your site visits too!?

First up, Spotify! Iv’e gone for the 16Gb WiFi model, largely due to already owning an iPhone (with constant internet connection). The Spotify app is actually the iPhone version, but why re-make the wheel? Creating a playlist (‘for the iPad‘) allows me to control and constantly update which songs are synced to the device from my phone, computer or directly. Jump onto a wireless connection and hay presto, instant music library updates! In my opinion Spotify is one of the best (if not THE best) application on the iPhone, and it works well on the iPad. I just wish they’d make an iPad specific application.

Next is DropBox. There are a load of reviews about the magic of DropBox, so I’ll keep it brief; If you haven’t got DropBox yet, go and sign up. Then download the DropBox app for your iPhone and iPad and never be without your much needed documents again! It’s also a great way of wirelessly transferring content from/to your devices.

CoolPapers: It’s basically what it says on the tin: An archive of beautiful wallpapers to really customise your iPad experience!

BBC iPlayer: Wonderful! Watch all the BBC iPlayer content on your beautiful device. Perfect for bed-time catch-up! Really nice interface too, very 2.0, and looks amazing on the iPad’s shiny screen! My only gripe here is that some of the programs don’t quite fill the screen (due to aspect differences) and an over-scanning option would be nice.

Friendly. Until Facebook get’s on-board the iPad specific Application revolution, Friendly will be your best bet. It works and interacts well (after a little getting used to). That said, it did have some time-out issues this morning. However, it’s generally been quite reliable (according to a couple of friends).

mBox Mail. This is only really going to be of much use if you have a Hotmail E-mail account. Unfortunately the native ‘Mail’ app doesn’t sync all the folders (due to POP3 / Push / etc) of a Hotmail account. Something Mbox Mail overcomes seamlessly. Dear Apple, please add this functionality to iOS5. Regards.

Skype. I’ll be honest, I haven’t used this yet. But I have used the application on the iPhone. Seeing as how it’s ported directly from the iPhone to the iPad, I can recommend it. Although FaceTime put’s up a good fight against this. I guess it depends on personal preference, and weather your contacts are Apple-esk or not?

Twitter. Facebook should definately take a leaf (preferably one without bird poo!) out of Twitter’s book! A beautiful app, full of features and perfectly laid out! This is how the iPad expereince should be! Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, download this app! 10/10!

Flipboard. A very good, intuitive and modern approach to news reading. With the ability to customise the ‘contents’ page, you read the iPad like a book, with articles appearing in a digital 2.0 magazine style. (Page flipping transitions included!).

WordPress. Much like Twitter, this is a beautiful application. Purpose built for the iPad, in addition to the easy-to-use keyboard, this will soon become my preferred way of blogging. Look, I’m even using it to write this blog (with addition of my wireless keyboard, just to test out the bluetooth connectivity!).

Bonus Application: Google. I decided to add Google as a bonus application for two reasons. 1: I miscounted the number of non-native apps on the homescreen! and more importantly 2: It can often be overlooked, by default going to Safari and using the search bar. However, the Google App does much more than searching the net (as if that wasn’t enough). Google Goggles (search via images) and really good voice recognition make for a truly rich-media searching experience!

So there we go! The top 10, ahem, 11, applications to download for your iPad!

Symptom: Every link on the website redirects to a foreign page which hosts malware, which in turn redirects to an adverts page for medical equipment.

Now, I’m certainly no expert in cyberhacking, so it took some Googleing. The problem I had (and often have when fixing virus’) is that there are often various solutions to the same symptoms. In this case I found a couple of good ideas and started there.

Move forward an hour or two and I had the problem semi-fixed. The issues lay in the ‘.HTACCESS’ file, which had two lines of text injected into them. The first was a rewriteRule line which had the foreign website (‘googlle.in’) link in full. (Select line, delete!). There was also an ‘ERROR404′ line which had the same link (Select line, delete!).

So, problem semi-solved. The issue then was that Google had reviewed the website recently and recognised the hazard, meaning when entering the website a lovely red page would appear stating that the website was known to host malware and wasn’t safe! Great!

Fix: A trip over to WebMaster Tools to request a review for the website and 24 hours later the pre-page warning was gone. Horay!

Now, back to university work!

It’s not a bad effort. It’s really more of a set of advanced plug-ins for Chrome, rather than a whole new browser. I just have one major gripe with it. Simplicity! Google Chrome is simple and it works brilliantly, especially because most modern websites are designed to optimise the whole browser, usually in fullscreen. RockMelt uses a lot of this valuable screen space to incorperate it’s ‘features’. It’s really annoying having the search window pop up all the time. In my opinion, a better option would have been to incorporate an entire screen within the browser based on the Google homepage.

Never the less, it’s a pretty decent piece of software, I suppose. I won’t be switching over from Chrome though, and I expect very few people will. Facebook chat belongs on Facebook.com. Google searches belong on Google.com. Call me old-fashioned, that’s just what I think, any way.

There is a simple solution. http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com is a superbly simple web 2.0 styled page that checks out a domain to see if the issue is global, or if you have just been impatient. This solves the problem, but requires going to a whole other website and copy/pasting the web URL.

Google Chrome has reportedly shortened the whole process even further, by integrating the server check function right into it’s ‘cannot find the requested page’ message. A small peice of text may now appear under the main and usual body of text which reads: “Other users are also experiencing difficulties connecting to this site, so you may have to wait a few minutes”.

A quick and nifty improvement to, in my opinion, the best browser on the market today. Way to go Chrome!

In Germany the government has urged Internet users to find alternatives to Internet Explorer. In the same article (taken form BBC News) Sophos (an Internet security firm) told readers that the warning should be adhered to IE6, IE7 and even IE8 as the exploits had not only been proven to work on all these browsers but also the details of how to do so posted publicly on the Internet. Google has come under even more criticism as of late, with an open letter from security firms and lawyers asking why the security settings to enable HTTPS 100% of the time when accessing Gmail, Docs and other Google applications is so hard to find.

Google is reportedly considering it’s options regarding their operations in china. It may be that the years of strict censorship over the Chinese Internet has finally built to a head, and the recent attacks have broke the camels back. Either way, Google pulling out of China would be a devastating event for Chinese companies and civilians alike.

Not according to one company; ‘Baidu’, Chinese search engine giants recently posted the following on their blog:

“Google claims it will quit China. What it’s proved is not what the Google fans have claimed, that Google is a ‘Human Rights fighter’. Just the contrary. It’s proved that Google is a hypocrite.”

It’s a bit of a legal battle at the moment – let’s hope Google and China manage to come to some sort of agreement soon.

Should software or web apps be put under this much strain this early on in development?Although I think that pressure can add to and excel success, I do feel that in this instance Google have jumped in too early. They seem to have had a lot of negative feedback, which I would mainly associate to the way which Google discussed the concept as a revolution in Internet Messaging, yet in practise hasn’t worked out quite as expected. Twitter had a major part to play in this, with various trending topics hitting the top 10 shortly after its release.

It is good that the general public are becoming more aware and involved in beta testing, or should it be left to tech-heads?

Yes and No. Obviously it’s important for the general public to test out new software, as they often pick out different flaws or approach things in different ways to IT Professionals. However, I think it should be a confined and controlled test group of maybe 150-200? Leave the hardcore testing to the ‘Tech-Heads’, as they are the one’s who will find the deeper lying problems with BETA versions, which may require big fixes in some circumstances, in contrast to the usually smaller issues (GUI, glitches etc) which general users find.

Where would Google Wave be at without Twitter?Probably somewhere close to where Google Mail was back in 2004. Google has utilized (knowingly or otherwise) Twitter to pass around invites between parties. Without this (and other Social networking sites) there would surely be less people on Wave, consequently less general users testing out the software (as discussed in point 2). On the other hand, Social networking sites may have a bit of a negative impact on Wave, as more and more invites can be pushed out to a wider audience, consequently allowing more people to comment on the good (and more importantly bad) features.

However, after the plug-in was updated some time last week it started showing errors in Google’s Webmaster Tools. The error was the following.

“Paths don’t match we’ve detected that you submitted your Sitemap using a URL path that includes the www prefix (for instance, http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml). However, the URLs listed inside your Sitemap don’t use the www prefix (for instance, http://example.com/myfile.htm).”

To fix this is simple, but I had to search around quite a lot to get the fix. All you have to do is go to the General tab under Settings in WordPress and add the ‘www.’ prefix to both the WordPress address AND the Blog address, then rebuild and submit the sitemap.

If you are still getting errors (which I did) check that any additional URL’s mentioned in the XML-Sitemap tab of Settings have the ‘www.’ prefix, as mine reset automatically.

As I said; Simple! But it took quite a lot of re-building and re-submitting to find the answer!