Archive for January, 2007

KillerClickz can be described as a statistic analyzer for your very own website. Not unlike CrazyEgg, KillerClickz offers services such as statistics analyzation, heatmapping to find out what content is working, click-through rates, and you can see exactly what the user clicked on and where they went after that.

Another really neat feature that I haven’t seen in any other statistic tracking application is the ability to track to seperate versions simultaneously, so you can keep track of changes you’ve been making to your website, and find out what really works best. For the most part all of the other features can be found in CrazyEgg, and Google Analytics, but I’ve yet to see either of those applications offer something as handy as this little feature.

Like CrazyEgg the finished product will include different plans, one will be a free plan, and the others have prices yet to be announced. All you need to do is place a simple piece of Javascript code on your site and KillerClickz does the rest.

KillerClickz is currently allowing Beta signups, but the Beta hasn’t been launched yet. If you want to be part of it, then head on over and signup.

Weigh Nice is a little application that I’m working on that can be described as a weight tracking system allowing you to keep track of your weights at as many points as you wish. When you sign up you set a target weight where you’d like to be at and you can change it if you need to.

It’ll let you know how far you are away from your target weight. At the moment it’s just good for weight tracking, but in later versions you will be able to track exercise plans, and meal plans. I really hope you all sign up and test it out, check out the blog and leave your comments.

That’s right folks, another payed reviews site to share with you, as if PayPerPost, and ReviewMe weren’t enough, Sponsored Reviews has the exact same concept behind it. Advertisers can sign up for an advertising account, choose a blog in which they want to review thier product/website, and the blogging needs to meet certain requirements in the post, and if they do, they get paid.

As with the other services, you do need to disclose in some way that you are being paid to post in some way or another. The service is currently in Beta testing, but you can sign up for it at the moment, and if you’re good enough you might be invited early to test the product.

The difference between Sponsored Reviews and other similiar services is that the blogger can set their own price, which is better for the advertiser in most cases, as it gives the advertiser a more dynamic view of what they are looking for, and with the automated ranking system that the SponsoredReviews sports they will easily be able to tell what blogs will be worth it, and which ones won’t be. Not only that but the advertisers can take it a step further and negotiate pricing with the blogger to find an ideal solution for both parties involved.

This service is close to PayPerPost than it is ReviewMe, as the blogger can pick stories from the advertiser, not the advertiser picking the blogger. Which is better for the blogger, but can lead to abuse of posting random stories if they aren’t careful.

The real question that comes to my mind is, ‘Will these types of services cause more of a problem than we once thought’, I mean, essentially I could do nothing but write reviews for these three different services and have a pretty consistant money flow, but no one would want to read my blog if I wrote about pancake mixers every second day.

Here is the problem I have always faced, and that’s finding quality posting material, my blog is specifically for web2.0 and internet news, but I’d be lucky if I could find something to write about in these services that had anything remotely close to my specific audience.

I suppose we’ll just have to see how this compares just to know if it will be a flop, or a success.

Just for clarification, I’m not being paid for this post

As you have probably already figured out, I love online applications that can help with color matching and design as I’m essentially useless when it comes to matching colors and creating nice color schemes. The latest application I’ve found is called Kuler and it’s a really useful flash application that allows you to view different color schemes and even allow you to create your own to share with your friends.

Not only can you create your own themes, but you will then be able to download your created theme and use it with Adobe Creative Suite 2 applications. With Kuler being a flash-based app it really makes it easier to discover new colors, the search function helps you find exactly what you are looking for. Being flash once it’s loaded there is very minimal and often no loading between choosing different color schemes or moving through the navigation.

Also available is the Kuler community forums, where your more than welcome to go and share your Kuler stores and the projects youève been able to create thanks to Kuler.

Update: For all you Canadians out there, the Apple iPhone will be available through Rogers wireless in late 2007 or early 2008. No prices have been announced yet, but the phone will be available in two and three year contracts. Also a data plan must be purchased with the phone plan, (not cheap).

Today Apple finally announced what we all knew was coming, the iPhone, and good god does it look good. The entire phone is touchscreen and it doubles as an iPod, but the downside to it is that upon release it will only come in 4GB and 8GB models. You can dial a number just by touching a name in your address book, you can place people on hold, as well as place them on speaker phone. The device is compatible with both Mac’s and PC’s which allows for easy synchronization on both platforms.

Along with this great phone and iPod like device, it has a feature rich email client, and Safari built right in, allowing you to surf the web in style. The touch screen looks great and has beautiful colors. Here is some information direct from the Apple.com website.

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

When designing a website I use specific sites that really help me out in doing so, they provide me with images, tips, and sometimes even snippets of code that I’ll include as a function on my website. No matter how hard I try I keep coming back to these specific websites and use them over and over again. I’m sure some of you do the same thing, please share with us your mostly used websites and I’ll include them in the post. (These are in no specific order.)

Stock.Xchang - Two words, stock photography. When I’m designing the website I’m working on I come here to get some of the nicest stock images I’ve seen. They are completely free and you can use them whatever you wish.

Lorem Ipsum Generator - This is really useful for generating mock content so that my clients have an idea of what it’s going to look like when they have their own content in. With this tool I can choose how large I want the paragraphs or sentences so that it doesn’t always look the same.

The Peoples Toolbox - A great resource site where other webmasters have contributed sites for help with HTML, CSS, Colors, Icons, and other web design related information.

Powweb - I figured I should plug my Webhost :).

Google Analytics - I use Google Analytics to track all of my website statistics.

Google Sitemap Generator - A great tool for creating site maps of your website, and now that all the major search engines use the same format as Google always has for there site maps, it’s good for them all.

Color Schemer Online - I’m terrible in the design aspect, so this site helps me pick the right colors for the perfect look.

Better Fonts - A great site for viewing and downloading Fonts, which I use when creating graphics for my sites.

Although I’m sure I use many more websites, those are the main ones that I constantly find myself out, and hopefully they can help you out just as much as they’ve helped me. Good luck webmasters.

I came accross Pixpo this morning which can be described as a video streaming software that allows you to publish your own channel with the videos and they will be access directly from your computer. The software is very easy to setup and very easy to use, anyone can have there own broadcasting channel setup in minutes. You can publish videos, music, and photos, then goto your blog or webpage, and even email, and send your friends the link to your channel, which is also found in the software, and your all set.

The best part about this is that the amount of bandwidth used, and space taken up is all up to you because everything is streamed directly from your own computer, so there isn`t any need to upload files, find the files, blah, blah, blah.

This also reminded me of another software app that I`ve used in the past called VibeStreamer, which is for use specifically with music files and works great. You can setup user accounts for the people that you want to have access, and those people you don`t, won`t. You can even control how much bandwidth each user has streamed. You can even control the amount of playlists that your users can create and the interface is completely customizable. Everyone should check them both out.

If your anything like me, I have a hard time making time to read anything that isn’t on my computer screen, even though I love to read so much. DailyLit has come up with a great concept of sending you a chapter of a book during anytime of the day to your email address, so that you read it just through browsing through your email.

They have quite a few books that they offer this service for, and they are delivered at whatever time you prefer them to be. When I was first reading about this service I was astounded at what a great idea this was, and surprised that I haven’t heard about it before. Hopefully this won’t slip off the radar as it’s more useful than it is everything.

I just signed up to receive ‘The Art of War’ which I’ve been meaning to read for sometime now, I get my first chapter tomorrow morning.