SEO Link Analysis FireFox Plugin - AWESOME!

Posted on February 29th, 2008 in Website Tools, Offsite SEO by Dan

A long time ago on this blog I did a few posts about how to use the Google Webmaster Tools to see where your links are coming from and also what anchor text is being used.  I have also talked about how to use the Yahoo! Site Explorer to spy on where your competition is getting their links from.

Well, now you can do both of these things from Yahoo! with the SEO Link Analysis plugin by Joost de Valk.  One of the problems with the Google Webmaster Tools is that you can’t find out a lot about your competition.  But with Yahoo! Site Explorer you could see at least where the links were coming from for anybody.  Now with this cool little plugin you can see not only where the links are coming from but also what is the anchor text of the links your competition has.  There are multiple uses for this, so use your creativity.

Here’s the link to the plugin: SEO Link Analysis

One heads up.  Sometimes when you go to install it, you’ll find that it doesn’t do anything.  If this happens to you, do a right click and choose ‘Save Link As…’ and save the file to your desktop.  Then open the file using FireFox and it will install the plugin.

I hope that helps!

My Opinion On Some Open Source Programs

Posted on February 21st, 2008 in Website Tools by Dan

For those of you that don’t know what open source is, it is basically where any programmer can have access to the program and as a community the program is developed and improved. These programs are also FREE which ads to their appeal. Again, in some situations I think you’re much better going with the proprietary program.

For the last couple days I’ve been having discussions with various people about different open source programs that are available to use for web design. My feeling on open source programs is that some of them are really good, but there are other ones that the proprietary version of the program is so much better (like DreamWeaver vs. Nvu). But when you’re just bootstrapping your online business, investing $300 in a good photo editor may not be an option. In situations like this you may just have to go with an open source program.

So here is a short list of some open source programs you can get for free that can help you improve your online business endeavor and my opinion on each.

firefox logo FireFox – Internet Browser

FireFox is a web browser, like Internet Explorer, but in my opinion it is way better. FireFox is rapidly gaining more and more users, so if you haven’t used it you should. It’s also a good idea to make sure you website looks essentially the same in both FireFox and Internet Explorer. You can also customize a lot of things on it which makes it extra fun!

nvu logo Nvu – HTML Editor

I stand by my belief that the best HTML editor out there is DreamWeaver. But if you need a program that can at least do the job, check out Nvu. You could very easily build a whole site using Nvu, and if you’re using some builder programs you can use it to spice up your site a little bit by learning HTML code.

gimp logo GIMP – Image Software

Admittedly I’m not a big fan of GIMP, I find it a little clumsy to use. But if you don’t have a photo editor, you need to get something. So spend some time learning to use GIMP and you can get the hang of it. But once you have the funds I’d recommend you upgrade to Adobe FireWorks or Photoshop. I feel they give a much better atmosphere and usability.

filezilla logo FileZilla – FTP Client

I love FileZilla! This one is only for those of you that can upload and download from your site using FTP. FileZilla is a great free FTP client.

openoffice logo OpenOffice.org – Office Suite

If you don’t have an office suite, you need to get one. OpenOffice.org is a good alternative to the proprietary programs which include Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, etc.) and WordPerfect. And it’s free too!

You can also get open source programs that would be your whole shopping cart program, blogging software, etc. But those are out of the scope of this article.

There are many more open source programs that you can check out, but I hope this list is enough to help you out. Check these tools out and make use of them as you need to. Who knows, maybe you’ll like them just fine and never have to get the proprietary programs! Some people like these programs better than others, it’s really a matter of personal preference.

CSS and HTML Help Sheets

Posted on February 1st, 2008 in Uncategorized, Website Tools by Dan

For those of you that are just getting involved with HTML and CSS, or even for those of you that have been doing it for some time, here is a really cool little cheat sheet that you can use to remind you of the basic codes to use when setting up your CSS files.

Liquidicity CSS Help Sheet

I have this pinned on my wall and refer to it all the time when I need to remember the exact wording to use in my CSS files.  They also have an HTML sheet that you may find useful as well.  Here’s the link to it:

Liquidicity HTML Help Sheet

Check them out!