1st minisite of our ‘Generate Quality Enquiries Through Google Adwords’ campaign.

We have just launched our first minisite for our campaign to generate quality new enquiries using Google Adwords. Our main aim from this is to reveal a single service to a potential client by creating a professional mini site doing just what it says on the tin. We will then check the trends of the keywords being searched on a monthly basis using Google’s keyword tool, then set up our adword campaign based on this information. We are hoping to get the PPC’s down to just the people who are interested in that service.

Why do we think this is necessary? Take this as being a great... Read More >>

Using different script sources with WordPress

Whilst developing a recent application, built on the WordPress framework, I have had the need to use a different jQuery source than the one an installation of WordPress comes with. It dawned on me that I might need to do this with other script sources as well. Obviously calling upon 2 sources of the same script is not really good optimisation practice, and it could conflict.

In my constant search for new methods of doing things with WordPress I always uncover functions that do something that may be useful, I’ll stick it on a plain text file along with a description then when I need... Read More >>

Where should you put your javascript files in an HTML document??

I have been reading a book recently – ‘The JQuery Cookbook’, and I think its brilliant. I am learning lots of very cool stuff with reference to jQuery and starting to get my head around how I can use it in various development situations.

One of the interesting things I read is a preference made by the author (whoever the jQuery author is for O’Reilly Media Inc) , to place your javascript files at the end of the HTML document because your pages will load faster. I never knew this until now and I’ve been using javascript files for a while. As I read deeper... Read More >>

Resetting CSS values to make it easier for cross browser compatibility

There are lots of different browsers all with different default values for everything. Extra spacing in headings, different ways of displaying lists, different default margin and padding values. Its completely mad! in order to make sure that our application or site is cross browser compatible it might be a good idea to call upon a stylesheet that resets these default values to 0. I find this gives an advantage when debugging for browsers later.

Remember though that using a reset stylesheet means that you will need to set the padding and margins between each of your tags yourself, as all... Read More >>

How to make websites more accessible

Website accessibility is vastly becoming one of those details that we should simply not miss. As more and more people are getting online the percentage of people that require additional accessibility on the web is becoming greater. Its not really a hard task, there are few rules to take into account that generally you end up getting into the habit of.

• Header Tags – Starting from the highest and one that pretty much every good designer or developer would do anyway is making sure the correct hierarchy of header (h) tags are being used, H1 being the highest and... Read More >>
  
  

Some funny art..

My significant other (Becki) has sent me a couple of really amusing images with regards to Web Designers, Web Developers and Freelancers that I wanted to share. Enjoy…

Joe B

... Read More >>

Should we start using HTML5? Why should we wait for Microsoft Internet Explorer to catch up

I am so anxious to use HTML5. I’ve even bought a book and started using some of the new syntax to include some rather nifty javascript combinations. One of the most important tags to be released into the world of HTML is the new ‘canvas’ element – the ability to draw inline 2D SVG within a box. Give it an ID then write some javascript to draw some lines. How cool! Other tantalising functionality includes easier embedding of sound (element: audio), determining an output (element: output), embedding of video (element: video)... Read More >>

Why we think Cloud Computing is so great.

Cloud Computing has been the talk for some time but its not actually really that popular at the moment. As much as I cant understand why because of the idea – I think its another one of those situations where people are sticking to what they know because they don’t necessarily understand it. You hear about it but no-one actually explains it.

Well, it really isn’t too hard to understand. Basically its hosting on demand. Servers reside in a ‘cloud’ that you can use whenever you want, and you only pay for what you use, just like an electric or a water metre.... Read More >>

White-Fire’s Current Top 10 WordPress Plugins

One of the great things about WordPress is if you need something done, there’s likely to be a plugin for it. Certain plugins are being used religiously by designers and developers to achieve great flexibility. Here are some of my favourites :

1 ) All In One SEO Pack

This allows you to modify the title and meta keyword tags of every page or post you create. It also has a control panel where you can generate text to appear in the necessary SEO areas of your HTML document. For example, the... Read More >>

of Grave importance…

I think that rather than making a note of the fact that the internet world is going to change thanks to tablet PC’s, we should be actioning it. I have recently invested in an iPad which I believe is the start of much more to come. Yes the screen is smaller than a usual laptop PC and its slightly inaccessible in terms of lack of keyboards etc.. But it is the future of web browsing – and even more so thanks to Cloud Computing.

Why am I talking about this? Well – I have come across numerous websites recently that are well over the 1024px width (which is the maximum screen... Read More >>