SPECIALS | 9/5/08 – 9/12/08

At Small Dog Electronics, we’re frequently asked how to create simple, easily maintained websites. There are many excellent reasons to build a website, yet even computer experts struggle with making websites that are both functional, attractive, and easy to update. Fortunately, new website and blog-building tools have made website creation easier than ever. I’ll outline several free solutions in this article. I don’t cover ways to create e-commerce sites (websites that sell products and process credits cards), though it’s also becoming easier to create these.

The tools below are free (though paid “pro” versions may be available), don’t require HTML coding (though many offer the option to custom-code some features), and are hosted by the developer (which means you won’t need to pay a separate company to host your website, and won’t need to figure out how to properly upload pages and other files to a remote server).

Blogs are very popular with individuals and organizations; Small Dog Electronics has a blog at “blog.smalldog.com”:http:blog.smalldog.com. A blog is distinguished from a regular website because it’s frequently updated with commentary, descriptions of events, or multimedia in reverse chronological order. Blogs are usually created and hosted with special blogging software. Most blog software is hosted online, which means blog posts can be edited on any Internet-connected computer, anywhere in the world.

Blogger.com is Google’s free and easy-to-use blogging platform. It’s designed to share text, photos and video with the world. Compared to other blogging platforms such as Moveable Type and Wordpress, Blogger offers the best balance of advanced features (such as comments, podcasts, and feeds) along with ease-of-use and low-maintenance. While Blogger lacks some of the pro features and customization options of the other platforms, many people will not miss these or even be ready to use them. Visit “Blogger.com.”:http://www.blogger.com/

The Wordpress blogging platform is an ideal next step beyond Blogger. While the Wordpress software is free (and excellent), you’ll need to find a webhost to host your Wordpress blog, which is not free. You’ll also be responsible for your blogs maintenance. Visit Wordpress.org. Also, take a look at “Movabletype.com”:http://movabletype.com/, which is a paid service.

If you want an even easier blogging tool than Blogger, consider Tumblr. Tumblr is based around the idea of tumblelogs, which favor simple, short-form posts that include photos, links, quotes, dialogues and video over the longer editorial posts you find on a regular blog. Tumblelogs are typically used to share the author’s discoveries, creations or experiences with little or no commentary. Many busy people favor tumblelogs over regular blogs. Visit “Tumblr.com.”:http://www.tumblr.com/

If you want a free blog that has some social networking features such as Facebook or Myspace, take a look at LiveJournal. LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary that include photos and videos, with an emphasis on user interaction. A basic, fully-functional account is free, while paid accounts receive access to premium features.

Many people prefer to create a website of pages that aren’t updated as frequently as a blog. These websites tend to be more informational and brochure-like in nature. Weebly is a polished, easy-to-use, and fun tool for creating websites and simple blogs. It provides ready-made components for you to add to your site, such as titles, paragraphs, two columns of text, pictures, photos, videos, feeds and more. Weebly allows you to easily drag-and-drop content and components on your page. Your Weebly website can contain an unlimited number of pages. Weebly also allows you to instantly buy your own custom domain (www.”Yourdomainnamehere”.com). Weebly offers a robust free option as well a pro version for only $3.99 a month. “Visit Weebly.com.”:http://www.weebly.com/

Google Sites is a more stripped-down tool that allows you to share information with “a few people, a whole organization, or the entire world.” It’s powerful enough for a company intranet, yet simple enough for a family website. It’s also easy to use. Example uses are planning group meetings and activities, sharing info on a secure company intranet, collaborating on a team project, and staying connected with family members. “Visit Sites.google.com.”:http://sites.google.com

Finally, some people do use social networking sites such Facebook and Myspace to promote their hobbies and interests, especially as these sites add public photo-hosting and other traditionally blog-like features. However, I tend to think of websites and blogs as one’s home on the web, where you keep your stuff and invite people to visit, while social sites such Facebook are more like the bars or public places where you go out to mingle and network.

Want to recommend an easy-to-use, free solution for building and posting a website or blog? Email “ed@smalldog.com”:mailto:ed@smalldog.com. I’ll include these submissions in a future article.

Just a couple of notes regarding the “Cell Tower Internet: A Success!” follow-up article from last week (#583). As mentioned initially in Kibbles & Bytes #579, Verizon’s charge for this service is $60 p/month.

After further research, I’ve found that there are actually two plans that Verizon offers: the $60/month option includes a maximum 5GB data transfer. The $40/month option includes a maximum 50MB transfer. The overage charge for either plan is $.25 per MB.

“Read more about Verizon’s BroadbandAccess service here.”:http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=planFirst&action=viewPlanList&sortOption=priceSort&typeId=5&subTypeId=13&catId=409

__Thanks to reader John A. for the question!__

Mac Pros, Mac Pros, Mac Pros!

The 8-core Mac Pro Intel Xeon at only $2499.99! We have several specials on this Mac Pro, including free shipping, extra RAM, a free all-in-one with AppleCare purchase, and more.

“Click here to see all specials.”:http://www.smalldog.com/specials/70718

As most of you have noticed, we launched an HTML version of Kibbles & Bytes last week. We introduced this in response to the overwhelming percentage of you who voted for HTML in our February ’08 survey to Kibbles & Bytes readers. It allows us to add color, photos and style to the newsletter, while making it easier to read and keeping the Small Dog “feel.”

And, as Don mentioned above, we have noted your feedback; thank you for taking the time to let us know what you think! There are going to be some changes to future issues–some pre-planned and some based on your responses. I’ve noted some common concerns and suggestions that we’ve received, with further acknowledgement and explanation:

* __”Why is it so small on my iPhone?”__
Unfortunately, Apple Mail for the iPhone is the limitation here. It is not coded to understand the zoom/width settings needed to view the newsletter in a larger size.
The remedy: Click on the “View in web browser” link at the top of the email and Safari will display this in a more viewable way. You will be able to turn iPhone/touch sideways and view horizontally, as well as scroll to enlarge text.

* __”It would be great if the image at the top was a link.”__
We agree! We are working on making this happen, and we should see it in the next version of Kibbles & bytes.

* __”The links are hard to see.”__
One of the great things about HTML is that links don’t have to be spelled out in order to access them, but we acknowledge that sometimes they can be embedded within text, and possibly hard to see. We have used the color scheme of our website as a template for the link colors (blue), but sometimes email clients (often webmail) override those settings, making them a different color. With this in mind, we will try to make the links as visible as possible in the future. This includes the links in the footer, which we have altered to make them more visible. They now match our footer on “Smalldog.com”:http:www.smalldog.com with blue links that turn orange when hovered over.

* __”What are those weird characters when I look at the text-only version?”__
This is a good question. We’ll spare you the boring details of why this happens, though, and promise to keep those annoying symbols out of the text as best can can! (Feel free to “email me”:mailto:kali@smalldog.com if you’re curious!)

I would also like to note that we understand that there are some of you out there who do not want HTML newsletters altogether. We currently are unable to offer two separate email lists (one HTML and one plain text), so we have included the link to get plain text at the top of each newsletter. The images are not embedded, keeping the file size smaller, but if this is still too much for slow-loading email clients, the other alternative is to view the plain text emails in our online archive.

“The Kibbles & Bytes archives can currently be found here”:http://www.smalldog.com/kibbles/.
(The link is subject to change pending further development, at which point we will feature the new link in future Kibbles & Bytes issues.)

We thank you for your feedback again, and hope you enjoy the newest version of Kibbles & Bytes!

To offer your feedback, either reply to this message or email “subscriptions@smalldog.com”:mailto:subscriptions@smalldog.com.

Did you know that you can perform simple calculations with Spotlight in Mac OS 10.4 and OS 10.5? All you have do is enter the numbers you’d like to add, subtract, multiply or divide in the Spotlight bar, and Spotlight will automatically update on the fly with the answer. I often do this rather than launch the Calculator app, typically to quickly calculate percentages.

Use the following symbols in both the Calculator app and in Spotlight for performing calculations: + is add, – is subtract, * is multiplication, and / is division. You can use ! for factorial calculations and ^ for exponents. There may be more symbols for other types of calculations; if you know of any, let me know and I will share with other readers.

I’m heading to Chicago for a vendor event and decided to stay for an extra day to catch a game. I just grabbed a ticket, so I’m ready to go!

Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes. Have a great weekend!

Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
_Don, Kali and Ed_