Simple tricks to speed up your website loading time

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin
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Here I have tried to put together some easy to implement but effective tips to speed up your website loading speeds

Images

  • Minimize Size of Images (Total Image size should be below 100kb)
  • Use .png format instead of .gif
  • Do not scale Images in html

CSS

  • Don’t load unwanted class
  • Combine CSS which is used in single page to one
  • Use Separate CSS if needed for different pages
  • Ideally Keep CSS Size less than 1160bytes
  • Do not use inline CSS
  • Include CSS at the TOP

  • Avoid unneccessary spaces, tabs and use a optimized format

.some-class {  color: #ffffff;  line-height: 20px;  font-size: 9px;}

can be converted to:

.some-class{color:#fff;line-height:20px;font-size:9px;}

  • Make CSS External
  • USE CSS Sprite
  • Avoid CSS Expressions

Scripts

  • Make Javascript External
  • Remove Duplicate Scripts
  • Put scripts at the bottom

HTML

  • Use proper HTML Structure
  • Close all divs properly
  • Remove white space, tabs etc
  • Replacing STRONG with B and EM with I
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Latest method to Create Custom Tabs in Facebook Fan Pages

Posted on March 7, 2011 by admin
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Facebook has stopped allowing fbml to create custom tabs in Fan pages. The alternative requires a bit of more effort but is more flexible than using fbml. Here we are presenting how we created a custom tab for a client’s facebook page.

Please upload the files (HTML) to a public server which we want to display on a separate facebook server first. For eg: www.solminds.com/routemapRMNT3.html

Then we have to complete the following steps

1.  Go to www.facebook.com/developers . You can see a Set up new app button on right top of the page. We are going to create a new application.

2.  Enter a name for the application and you must agree the terms to proceed further. Finally, just click on Create application button

3.  Enter Capcha and Submit.

4.  You can view a setting page as shown below. Here, you can upload a logo for this application. Also can setup email ids, terms and conditions, privacy policies etc.

5.  Go to canvas url and give the root name of files which we want to embed  with facebook. For  eg, we have uploaded files at  : www.solminds.com/routemapRMNT3.html . Then enter http://www.solminds.com/ as canvas url and routemapRMNT3.html in tab url . Save changes

6.  Go to application profile page

7.  Click on add to my page link

8 . You can view of a list of pages which you are assigned as admin. You can add this application to anyone of these pages

9. That’s all. We can view a new tab on facebook now!!!

Posted in Facebook, Internet Marketing, Solminds | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

HTML 5 and modern website development methods

Posted on January 31, 2011 by admin
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HTML 5 and modern website development methods

Have you ever wondered about..

Embed a video without help of any thirdparty tools/player…

Make use of hosted fonts ,i.e, user doesn’t need particular font in his system to read

Draw curved borders, circles etc ..

HTML 5 will help us to do the above all and more. It is powering browsers on its way to become a self dependant platform. HTML5 is trying to reduce the interference of third-party or external plugins and tools. Even if it is not a mature standard yet, we can easily say that web world is going to move with HTML5.

Lets check out some Tags and features. We have tried to implement html 5 standards for demo purpose at the following link also.

http://gd.solminds.in/www/html5/

1. Audio Tag

We can embed a audio on a website using a single tag . No need to take the help of any external players on front end.

2. Video Tag

In the same way we did in audio, we can embed and play video files using a tag

3. Micro data
This is an invisible property which gives more intelligence to the system

My name is Praveen.

I am an Indian.

4. Rounded Corners
Imagine about displaying round cornered boxes without using any graphics/images.
CSS
#mac {
border-radius: 16px; /* half of button size + padding */
-moz-border-radius: 16px;
height: 20px;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#8cc0f6), to(#cfe4fa));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #8cc0f6, #cfe4fa);
}
HTML

Solution By minds

5. Draw Circles / Gradient fill
CSS
#circle {
border-radius: 36px; /* half of button size + padding */
-moz-border-radius: 36px;
height: 60px;
width: 60px;
border: 2px solid #ccc;
left: 50%;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#f53e0c), to(#ffbaa8));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #f53e0c, #ffbaa8);
}
HTML

solminds

6. Usage of hosted fonts

It’s a solution of all type of font issue. User can read text with the help of hosted fonts, That mean he doesn’t need that particular font we have used on his system.
CSS
@font-face {
font-family: ‘Droid Sans’;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: bold;
src: local(‘Droid Sans’), url(‘http://playground.html5rocks.com/samples/html5_misc/Droid_Sans.ttf’) format(‘truetype’);
}
p#title2 {
font: 100% “Molengo”, Verdana, sans-serif;

HTML

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit

7. Form Fields
<input type=”range” value=”0″ />
<input type=”search” />
<input type=”text” />

<strong>Input Validation:</strong>
<!–  :invalid { background-color: red; }  –>
<input type=”color” value=”bear” />
<input type=”number” value=”abc” />
<input type=”email” value=”[email protected]” />
<input type=”tel” value=”1234″ /> HTML5 has a wide range of tags which will help us to display new generation form fields.
Some examples are as following

Please note that html5 is only supported in latest version of the browsers. Internet Explorer 9 is the only supported version from Microsoft stable. All versions of chrome and the latest firefox supports HTML5

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Tips for website development in Cochin

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Ceejo Thomas
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What do a website developer chose between Cochin / Kochi or Ernakulam while targetting the website for users based in Cochin. One way would be to fill the website title with all the three but that would be wasting precious real estate which would be needed to highlight other services. If you are looking at it from an Internet Marketing perspective it would be easy to decide between the three purely going by data available. Obviously as an SEO expert, one would be keen to go with the word which most internet users use.

The google keyword tool available at this link http://goo.gl/DRBn is a good way to judge that. The screenshot below gives a comparison between the three words on the parameter of searches done on the three words. As you can see “ Cochin” is featured in more than double the searches compared to ‘Kochi’ which is number 2. So you now know why I chose the title of the blog as “ tips for website development in Cochin”

website development cochin

analysing between Cochin / Kochi and Ernakulam

Using google places along with google maps is an important tool for website developers to promote their website in the local community. A detailed blog on the same is posted here http://goo.gl/08tre . The placement has a verification process to ensure its a genuine business. The verification can be done by Phone / SMS and even post card. Being present in google places is also important considering mobile is going to play a key role is driving business to your site.

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Explaining the architecture of a content managed site

Posted on January 14, 2011 by solminds
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Happy New Year 2011

Posted on December 31, 2010 by solminds
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Merry Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2010 by solminds
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Internet tools that students can use

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Ceejo Thomas
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A note from Author : Putting in the blog an article I had written for a IT magazine some time back.

Online Tools Students can Use

When I was preparing to write this article I was a bit confused on how to present the information in a neatly structured way. The situation was made more difficult when I knew the ultimate readers of this piece would be a widely varying audience consisting of students, teachers and parents. I had to ask for expert help and I turned to the internet as I usually do these days in times like this. I used google to search for tips on article writing and came across www.wikihow.com . Wikihow is the world’s largest ‘How-to’ manual offering solutions the problems of everyday life.

Internet is the best expert on any subject in the world today. It brings together a wealth of information from encyclopedias to expert’s comments to classroom lecture notes right into the screen in front of you. The information available on the internet is not something that’s created by a single person or a group of persons. It’s created by you and that’s what makes it the most powerful medium for spreading information as well as making sure the information is accurate. The single biggest website for information on the web is www.wikipedia.com . It has information on almost every topic under the sun and if there is not some thing there, you can immediately start a topic and add information. Almost any information on Wikipedia is editable by you and anybody else can edit the information you enter too. This can naturally raise the question about the credibility of the information. While it’s true that there can be misleading information on the site, it has been found that an overwhelming majority of the articles are accurate and informative. The collaborative model used here is the hall mark of the new internet age and more and more it’s the power of the crowd that is being used to generate useful content. Another website in the same area is Google’s knol. www.knol.google.com . It uses a slightly different model in that it requires registration for any user to start an article on it or edit it. Another source for similar information is Yahoo answers http://answers.yahoo.com/

A point of caution at this point is that since internet is such an open medium, it’s usual to find all sorts of opinion expressed. There will always be widely divergent views on the same topic and it’s important to factor in the source of the article to arrive at a judgment on the quality of the article. Typically government and academic sources tend to be more credible.

Any article on online tools invariably touches upon google and I have already used it couple of times by now. As mentioned, internet is content being generated by billions of people without any particular structure to it. So it’s becoming hugely important to find the specific information that we are looking for and that’s the role played by search engines. Google, Yahoo and Live are the leading search engines in the world and helps in making our lives easier by finding the information we search for. Google has a specific tool for search when it comes to students called google scholar which can be found at http://scholar.google.com .

Coming to course material for students, the initiative by Massachusetts Institute of Technology called open course ware is very significant. This site contains the entire materials used for teaching at MIT and its open and free to anyone in the world. It even has a section for high school students and teachers which can help with their assignments and projects. The information can be found at http://ocw.mit.edu .

Unfortunately, at the moment there are not many online resources available specifically for students in India. This I believe is one of the gaps that AIM International will be trying to fulfill as part of their vision. One of the serious players in the Indian online education field is a company called Educomp with their smart class online (http://www.smartclassonline.com ) and Math Guru (http://www.mathguru.com/), Please note that lot of the features in these two sites are available only if you pay. For students who want to use a calculator online you have http://www.calcoolate.com/ .

As far as the teachers are concerned, couple of good online resources is http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/india.php and http://4teachers.org/ .

We see that we have already come across so many sites and it is not going to be easy remembering most of them. This is where book marking come into the picture which is nothing but saving the sites for future reference. http://del.icio.us/ is a site which helps you do exactly that. Towards the end of the article I will list some other sites also which list many tools used by the academic community.

There can never be a comprehensive article which covers all tools that are out there but then that is not the idea of this article. The tools to find what you need for your particular use is out there on the Internet and use a search engine to find what you need.

Happy browsing!

Some other online resources :

http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

http://www.funbrain.com/

http://kathyschrock.net/cooking/

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/web_20_backpack_web_apps_for_students.php

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Leveraging Social Networks for Small Business Marketing

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Ceejo Thomas
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If you’ve logged in to your Facebook account over the last few days, there is a good chance you would have come across a contest to win a Macbook Pro being played by one your Facebook friends. And there is a good chance you would have clicked on it at least to satisfy your curiosity. This is an example of viral marketing engaged over a social network to build a fan base and more importantly win customers.

Social Media as a tool for Internet Marketing

This page shows the stats for this particular contest on Facebook and shows the power of social networks.

However, social networks are not a substitute for your website. Facebook is best used as an addition to your online presence. Sites like LinkedIn can be used for meeting new people, finding employees or meeting new business partners. Facebook & Twitter can be used for promotions and notifications.

Social networks can be used by established businesses to modern enterprises. The former can use their loyal customer base for a fan following and generate a viral effect by offering discount coupons. The direct purpose need not be sales – a fun page can be used to create brand awareness.

Social networks create a level playing field for small business. The main investment is not money, but time. Your RoI (Return on Investment) is not something that can be easily measured – but compare it to joining your industry association or going to the local chamber meeting.

Winners in social network marketing are the ones who create authentic, remarkable content – not the ones bombarding people with sales messages.

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Ten steps to improve your website’s credibility

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Ceejo Thomas
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Came across some information on how people perceive a websites credibility. Its an important topic which we as an online marketing and website company is very interested in. People trust ( and part with their money and personal data ) websites based on several cues. Stanford university is conducting research on this topic and you can find more information here. http://credibility.stanford.edu/research.html

Excerpts from their site

How can you boost your web site’s credibility?

We have compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.
1. Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site. You can build web site credibility by providing third-party support (citations, references, source material) for information you present, especially if you link to this evidence. Even if people don’t follow these links, you’ve shown confidence in your material.
2. Show that there’s a real organization behind your site. Showing that your web site is for a legitimate organization will boost the site’s credibility. The easiest way to do this is by listing a physical address. Other features can also help, such as posting a photo of your offices or listing a membership with the chamber of commerce.
3. Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide. Do you have experts on your team? Are your contributors or service providers authorities? Be sure to give their credentials. Are you affiliated with a respected organization? Make that clear. Conversely, don’t link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association.
4. Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site. The first part of this guideline is to show there are real people behind the site and in the organization. Next, find a way to convey their trustworthiness through images or text. For example, some sites post employee bios that tell about family or hobbies.
5. Make it easy to contact you. A simple way to boost your site’s credibility is by making your contact information clear: phone number, physical address, and email address.
6. Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose). We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. Of course, not all sites gain credibility by looking like IBM.com. The visual design should match the site’s purpose.
7. Make your site easy to use — and useful. We’re squeezing two guidelines into one here. Our research shows that sites win credibility points by being both easy to use and useful. Some site operators forget about users when they cater to their own company’s ego or try to show the dazzling things they can do with web technology.
8. Update your site’s content often (at least show it’s been reviewed recently). People assign more credibility to sites that show they have been recently updated or reviewed.
9. Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers). If possible, avoid having ads on your site. If you must have ads, clearly distinguish the sponsored content from your own. Avoid pop-up ads, unless you don’t mind annoying users and losing credibility. As for writing style, try to be clear, direct, and sincere.
10. Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem. Typographical errors and broken links hurt a site’s credibility more than most people imagine. It’s also important to keep your site up and running.
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