Google had a new logo yesterday when I opened the browser celebrating the 30 year anniversary of Pacman and the logo included a change of the second button text to Insert Coin so you could play Pacman . I thought it was so cool!

Just a bit of fun like so many other logos they have used in the past but interactive and different. I played Pacman and moved on but later when I used cool previews I had an annoying noise I couldn’t seem to get rid of.

I closed out firefox and it went away. Didn’t think much more about it until I opened up firefox again this morning and it updated cool previews where they mentioned fixing the pacman bug.

Other people apparently have had worse experiences especially if they are in a work environment or they were wishing to listen to music or videos. In fact many are so p’d off they say they are migrating permanently to other browsers.

I remember reading an ebook a while back about mistakes people make when making websites and one of them was about the use of flash and sound. I admit I’m amused that Google has stumbled a little with this one, but its a lesson to us all, I guess, that when we try and be creative and make things more interesting, sometimes we are just going to really upset some people instead.

Read the thread of comments in the following article to see what I mean! You’ll also find a variety of ways to fix the pacman bug if its still bothering you today.

• Google Pacman Sound Bug (ghacks.net)

Tags: Browsers, cool previews, Firefox, Google, Logo, Pac-Man

Which software, editor or system is best for creating a minisite?

I was asked a question about the best software, webpage editor or “way to go about” creating a minisite.

I am currently concentrating on WordPress, but I have used Joomla and XSitePro2 as well. Other editors such as dreamweaver or the free editors such as NVU and komposer are also options I have tried. The differences for use seem to depend on the primary objectives of the user. These may be ease of use, cost and time investment, type of site, seo, hosting, etc…

Joomla -

is open source (free)  content management system software

Joomla is good for e-commerce sites selling multiple products. Using the virtuemart addon you have the functionality to sell digital (or physical) products send purchaser to paypal (or other payment processors) and securely deliver the digital download.

Against this, it’s a steep learning curve at first with much trolling of forums to fix issues that do arise. It’s not simple to seo but achievable and sites can be a little heavy to load. For a minisite it has too much time investment needed to be useful for this purpose.

XSitepro2 – a commercial (pay for this) website editor designed for extra functionality

XSitePro is fantastic html website editing software with lots of functionality options that are easy to add to your sites. It’s a one time payment for the software, that is well worth it. If it’s simply to create a minisite and then promote it, it’s really good.

Adding further content is easy enough and you set up ftp in the software and it overwrites what’s new automatically adjusting all menus.

It has some glitches but what doesn’t? (…and they are minor). Against it, is that some experts say that Google favours WordPress over html sites and it is psychologically easier to make a post in WordPress than to open XSitePro and create a new page and ftp it.

The fastest, cheapest way to create a minisite

The fastest and simplest system is to take an example of a resellers ministe and completely replace images and paragraphs of text using notepad. If you don’t understand basic html this is not always possible as some minisites that are provided with resale products can be complex. But if you find one minisite that is simple, use this as your template and just replace images and text in it for other products.

Use NVU or komposer to edit html using their WYSIWYG interface to add html elements. The most difficult part of this is the private thankyou page which almost all editors want to include in navigation. Simplest to just use one template for the thankyou but replace header and footer elements and of course specific text and images.

WordPress -

Open source blog and CMS software with extended functionality via numerous free plugins.

WordPress is both great and so time consuming it’s frustrating. The key to using WordPress for a minisite is to make a plan and templates for new installs. Get an excel sheet together and list the essential plugins you need for a minisite and then put the plugins, stripped of extra folders, into a dedicated “use these plugins’ folder for easy initial install via ftp. Keep page templates in the same folder.

Updating WordPress

Some people may argue that updating WordPress is annoying. This is valid because for security you need to keep it up to date, it’s not fun to have  a blog hacked. Old versions can be and you could unknowingly be spreading a virus.

Use the wp-automatic-update plugin, rather than the link in WordPress. This plugin leads you through the steps correctly so no errors occur, and creates a backup before in case they do. Most problems occur because people don’t deactivate plugins before updating. (Been there – done that- spent hours fixing it) Also don’t update immediately, give it a week or two – by then all those who may encounter errors have posted on the forums and had the issue resolved so you can read and apply if it happens to you!

Seo for WordPress

WordPress is easy to seo with the wp-all-in-one-seo plugin.  Search engines like WordPress, its easy to update, has automation tools and extensive other plugin functionality.

Some experts say a static html site is more favoured by search engines for serious sites, or that the default Kubrik theme is better received by customers because it appears to be more amateur and therefore more trustworthy than a marketing or sales site.

Against WordPress, for a minisite, it’s easy to spend hours on non productive tweaking. So pick an easy to customize free theme and stay focused. If you can learn how to use page templates, do so and use the same one, with different images and text. Being organized with everything all in one folder will help you set up a new blog quickly.

Last option is the ability of WordPress as a CMS to be similar to a html site using pages. This is where page templates come in. Some experts  say that this is the best option but like Joomla it’s a big learning curve. To do this the right way takes a lot of delving into WordPress code and some little known plugins and a lot of time.

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• WordPress is for more than blogging (web2learning.net)
• Top WordPress How To Tips (tlmarketing.net)

Tags: Content management system, Joomla, minisite, Open source, seo, Templates, Website, wordpress, wysiwyg

A “real” book on how to customize WordPress. Watch, Read, and Learn How to Create and Customize WordPress Sites. A Book & DVD lesson plan from George Plumley available from Amazon.

Tags: blog, Cascading Style Sheets, dvd, Look and feel, wordpress

If you are an amazon affiliate you will probably be aware that the javascript code for amazon books can sometimes just disappear from a saved post or just won’t display unless it’s top of the post.

This amazon affiliate plugin for WordPress does help, but I don’t recommend it unless you are prepared to try a few different settings for it. It doesn’t seem to like all themes equally and I have especial problems when I set it to show the image at the top of the post. That said if you don’t mind a bit of too and fro-ing to get it set so it displays properly, this is a very helpful amazon affiliate plugin for displaying a product in a WordPress post.

Copy and paste the link text into notepad and look in the code for a 10 digit number prefixed by asin  for example – “&asins=0321395387″. The number only is what you need to input in the plugin to display the book. The plugin gives its options under the post editor or you can create drafts for several products at a time if you choose.

You can get the free plugin and full instructions at

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/amazon-product-in-a-post-plugin/

and see it working below where I have asked it to display a highly recommended book on learning about blogging for offline businesses.

The book description is from Amazon.

“Written from the business person/designer’s perspectives, this book shows how businesses can leverage current, real-world blogging techniques, tools, and platforms to promote and enhance their ventures. The key idea is that the conversation with your market is stronger and more meaningful with a blog.

Filled with practical information and a how-to approach, this book provides case studies of companies as large as Boeing or General Motors and as small as Clip-’n-seal. Readers will learn about the types of business blogs, how companies use blogs, how to sell blogs to management and IT, effective blog design, content, and conversation, pitfalls to avoid, how to develop Web presence, and more.”

If you enjoy recommended amazon books in posts by doing book reviews, this may help you to speed up the process a little.

See larger image Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business (Paperback) By (author) DL Byron, Steve Broback List Price: $26.99 USD New From: $3.99 In Stock Used from: $0.01 In Stock

Tags: affiliate, Amazon.com, blog, Business, plugin

Image by Ari Herzog via Flickr