Part of our series on establishing online presence…

You always thought that selling ad space directly would be right way to go; having complete control of banners displayed, clients who will pay you and all of the ad revenue for yourself, but having an ad management system sounded too complicated or too expensive.

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Installing OIOpublisher ad manager for the first time was simple task as much is setting it up. If you are using for an example WordPress for your blog, OIOpublisher ad manager can be installed as another WP plug-in. Similes integration with half a dozen of online banking payments, including PayPal and Google checkout, among others, makes account creation and payment for your future clients a breeze. Once you own this ad system, on OIOpublisher.com you’ll find comprehensive tutorials and community forum where you’ll find answers to all the questions you may have. As for anything else, before you buy – try to View the Demo on their web site.

Hope this short intro to OIOpublisher ad manager helps you in building and growing your business.

Short introduction to web hosting is intended for the novice who desires to establish an online presence.

With your ISP (Internet Service Provider) you may get limited free space and allowed limited monthly traffic to host your web site. That web site is hosted under your ISPs domain name and your user name in extension (as an example if we were ISP and your user name is Ferdo then your web site would be in address that looks something like this http://www.worldthroughnews.com/user/Ferdo
or
http://Ferdo.worldthroughnews.com/).

“Do not limit your online growth with a free hosting (full of limitations) or with web hosting service offering limited options.“

Out there you’ll also find other free services that can host your web site. Most popular in 1st decade of the 21st century were different Blog solutions where you can quickly customize look, feel and some other aspects of your online home. Basically, within minutes you can start publishing and promoting yourself, business or your favorite pastime.

If you decide to take it to the next level then you will definitely want to rent a web space from web hosting company. By doing so, and by getting domain name, you’ll gain great control over everything that happens on your web site. With renting a web space on shared or dedicated server only limitation one may encounter is a type of service you choose. Lower the price less options, less web space, lower the number of allowed web visitors, lower the monthly bandwidth, less e-mail accounts for your employees bearing your company’s domain name, possibly no databases etc.

Today, some hosting providers offer even shared hosting with a large number of options as UNLIMITED. One of them is our web hosting provider.

WorldThroughNews.com is hosted by HostForWeb.

As with anything else in life, it’s entirely up to you what choices you’ll make when it comes to web hosting. Before you make a choice, most important is to visualize as many aspects of your web project, eider personal or business. Think about how your web site will look like, what features you want to have, how will you make it work etc.

Important! Do not forget to compare web hosting features among at least few web hosting companies. By doing so you’ll quickly realize that with our host you got your money worth.

Do not limit yourself by saving few dollars on a web hosting.

As many out there, I’m also impressed with timelapses made by smooth moving DSLR cameras eider capturing high quality photos or high definition videos. Camera sliders and dollies are used as a tool to move camera while shooting photos or video, often having the WOW effect as result. Once you see one of great videos out there obvious way to go is to choose among models made by dolly manufacturers, some of who I’ll list bellow. Numerous models are available to choose from, suitable for probably any situation you may want to work in. That’s the easiest way to go.

Other option is to do it yourself, assuming that you have a solid selection of tools and a material that can be transformed into useful components. Of course, handyman in the house would be also good to have. For my first dolly with manual slider I decided to look around my garage and see if I can give another life to whatever I find. In this case to an aluminum pipe, PC power supply, roller skate bearings etc.

PC power supply

Since this dolly/slider was (still is) a home project, I though that if I need to spend money on material or tools it would be easier to buy, lower end, less expensive, manual dolly. Also, important factors, as with anything else, are time and patience. Remember, this is a home project and there is no need to rush. Dolly you are reading about is, so far, month long project that I go back to once a week for an hour here and there.

As with anything else, it’s important to plan ahead, as much as you can. Draw a plan that is integrating available material. Draw assembly plans, count number of individual pieces you need and write numbers down, take notes of your ideas, measure and remeasure. Think about different ways you could implement ideas, how will different parts interact, how will you use it, what else you could add in the future, what are pros and cones by doing things one way or another. When you think you went through it all draw a final – hopefully bug free – concept and start building.

Home made dolly under construction

Since this dolly with manual slider is still ongoing project I will get back to it, if there is any interest, in the near future, explaining in detail how I did it and what would I do differently second time around. In that case, I’ll list all the material I have used. Price? As already explained, material cost was close to nothing except for some screws and with good planing time consumed did not make me regret starting this project.

Homemade slider on homemade dolly without a safety 'bridge' - main parts made of power supply & rollerblade bearings

Short HD video, on a half done slider/dolly can be viewed on World Through News Facebook page. As soon as this homemade dolly is completed, to meet at least original plans (since I keep adding to the To Do list), I will make and feature short outdoor video entirely shot on this dolly.

Few great dolly / slider manufacturers;

• Glidetrack
• Kesslercrane
• Ditogear

If you would you like more details about this homemade slider let me know. Did you make a dolly / slider? Share it in the comments. Thanks!

What contact information should I list on my business card?

In the same time you may be asking yourself how to stay unique? You do not want your card to end up in the recycle bin even before it’s looked at. Beside design itself, first positive impression on a potential client my also leave a paper business card is printed on – plasticized, glossy, texture etc.

Well, for me, as for anyone else finding answers to this questions takes time. When I’m looking for personal design of my business card I do not rush. Instead I`m continually creating different designs, mainly for web and in the same time looking for the best ways of their integration in print.

Keep uniform design in print and web.

little Design Studio business card that I had designed some years back was an inspiration behind World Through News.com business card. At the time I wanted for my little Design Studio online store a minimal use of white space while integrating logo found on the web site store pages and on its online ads. Few years latter I’m still happy with this design.

When thinking about business card design itself this time around I decided to go with a simple lines that feature skyline of Montreal downtown viewed from the opposite banks of Saint Lawrence river. After all, this is where from Blog is written and where my design work is made. As you can see, header on this web pages is incorporating this same skyline with logo above in the background, just above Mont Royal before sunset.

Additional text I decided to keep to a bare minimum by adding only the web site address, e-mail and my name on personal version. Everything else is on one of this pages

My business cards;

• Kristijan (personal on World Through News.com) is plasticized
• World Through News.com is plasticized
• little Design Studio is glossy – compare 1st. business card and header on the web…

Simplicity

When one thought that things could not get more user friendlier with WP wrapped in to a premium Theme, than heavily wigitized framework named Genesis gave power to the Themes we learned to love throughout the years. By now you guessed it right that guilty party responsible for this evolution is one and only StudioPress.

Professionally looking web site at an affordable price go hand in hand

First of all you should know that Genesis framework will not work with your ordinary Classic Themes but will give wings to so called Child Themes. Good news is that if you are using any of premium Themes by StudioPress purchased in the past, now you are eligible for a FREE upgrade that includes Child Theme and Genesis framework. If not, choosing one among, at the moment available professionally designed ~ 30 Child Themes and adding to your basket Genesis framework is money well spend on the long run, especially since you’ll spend on average only $80.00+ for two.

WorldThroughNews.com

Week ago I finally took some time to jump on the wagon and decided to download Genesis framework and Child Theme named Lifestyle (one I have been using for the past two years). After uploading them and activating on the server first noticeable thing were quit a few differences from old Themes and how they were set-up. Despite of a “drastic” change I was pleasantly surprised by how many details were taken care of for an admin without any need to dig in the code.
I wanted additional design changes in .css and a widgeted footer (see below) and beside that there was no need to dig in the code to recreate old look. Edier through the Genesis framework of Widgets I added my header, menus, sidebars, etc.

Probably anything you may want to set up on your Blog or Web site is enabled eider through the framework or widgets.

Reference

In an additional post, one of this days I will get down on a paper few notes as a future reference on setting up Child Theme and Genesis framework on WordPress.

YouTubeSocial…

World Through News.com on Twitter as of September 2010

In Canada is being rolled out and eventually everyone around the world will have new Twitter, first as a preview over the several weeks with an option to switch back and forth so we have time to grow accustomed with the way things work.

New Twitter look as of September, 26. 2010

Beside new design it’s also announced that they have partnered with DailyBooth, DeviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube. That means that we’ll be able to embed photos and videos directly on Twitter.

More on;

New Twitter rolling out – official page featuring video…

Facebook has potential of one kind or another but do not take this post as another crying game. What follows is documented post that presents mostly poor work in progress by Facebook developers and I believe few of their “politicians”. Also, in between lines is my view on why I’m “off” Facebook since, I believe Tuesday, Sep. 14th 2010. Actually that part of message is intended for small circle of family members and few friends I shared with few photos and few words through this web tool in past 15 months – beside other more meaningful ways of communication that include us getting some coffee together. Remember those times? Some of you I have already contacted letting you know about what happened and here I will just keep you up to date on Big Brother and his infinite power.

Head without the face

WYSIWYG* I guess, and for that reason some like this relatively new playground of “real people” hanging around in the virtual world while some hate it and are staying away from it. In general, some will say it’s a great free tool that enables ‘almost’ everyone, without any design and technical knowledge to, more or less easily, set up presence on the web and in the same time to “stay in touch with their friends”.

Who is behind it all? Yes, that guy, and one thing had led to another and yada, yada, yada…

I’ll keep post up to date and re-post with news, if any.

Let’s get real now!

Try to solve their problem that involves you and you’ll most likely end up lost around right  here… If you dig a bit around you may find way to send  short message with description of a problem and this will go unanswered. On other hand, if you are persistent you’ll find yourself in the front of wall with new graffiti / a change that does NOT solve the problem since Faceless Facebook decided that you are NOT who you are. What could be reason you can only guess especially since you can’t place your activity as illegal under Facebook Law or as big NO anywhere around there.  If you find this interesting, look no further than screen-shots bellow that show how Facebook operates.

*What You See Is What You Get

Short intro

Social media, including Facebook  had rapid growth and as anyone else in the industry had its ups and downs while trying to expand and cover as many corners it can, in the shortest amount of time possible.

Safety and privacy became quickly main concern especially in countries like Canada where they were about to  face The Supreme Court or had to make changes that will protect users. Read about it in an online news article found here.

Businesses large and small jumped on a wagon to expand reach of their advertising money so we see around, on the Facebook, not only “our friends” but businesses and organizations who hang around 24/7 on their pages or groups full of people with common interests. Sometime in July/August 2010 I also created World Through News page where I started to share few post from this Blog or anything I found interesting elsewhere on the web. Let’s stop for a moment, but we’ll get to it shortly.

All this friends from around the world with common interests now can interact on all those pages we have created or in the groups, what opens doors to new friendships but apparently to much more, of course, only if Facebook thinks you know/knew someone or not, since Facebook is that Big Brother who is watching over us and is one who is protecting our privacy(?), safety and pleasant experience.

Who is a friend?

From time to time, while commenting on posts, images or videos on pages we Like, we get rediscovered by friends or family members who share same background or interests and then we reconnect on Facebook too. Sometimes we are asked to be Friends by unfamiliar face and name unknown to us. Also, there are from time to time Friend requests by clearly fake names and behind those can be individuals we knew, know or do not know. It’s up to us to ignore, accept or decline friendship based on photo and name.

Facebook is private club for those with mobile phone or this is discrimination at its best?

Since I find privacy very important I do not except friends unless I am 100% sure there is real person behind and that I knew her/him at some point in, mostly real life too. Also, for that reason I have created World Through News page so I can direct people I do not know in that direction if they think we share common interests. On that page they can view all but my most private posts, photos or videos I find too personal. Anything else I do not find to be off private nature and I share only with family and friends ends up here on this Blog and on that page too.

What happened?

I guess, on that Tuesday I received one Friend request by someone whose face and name I did not recognize and I think that I do not know. I thought, only polite thing to do is to send message explaining that my Facebook profile I keep private and asked if we know each other from somewhere. If not and she/he still wants to connect she/he can do that on the page I created. This is what I did on two other occasion in last 60 days and as you can see, beside some friends of mine who Like the page I got 13 Likes in total at the moment. Who knows, maybe by Facebook standards and their Law I am spamming and everything that fallows bellow is facade Facebook had created to stop that?

If not, than what? Why?

Unreachable and faceless Facebook, fell free to answer bellow so we can see some REAL face behind Face-book? Thanks!

So, as soon as I have had hit Send button I was logged out off of my Profile and asked next by Facebook:

Screenshoot 1

Look also at the circled part of the screen-shoot and we’ll get back to it in a moment. Now, remember that most important thing is that I find my privacy important and I decide what I share with others.

What’s my answer to them?

I have no cell / mobile phone!

You see circled sentence saying “(Or use a different verification method)“? That link NEVER worked. Now, there is an update so that sentence no longer exist since Thursday (so we could call this a progress if things have had moved in the right direction).

My persistence of sending few times a day message telling them about dead link changed one thing only and this is that this sentence was replaced with one on the next screen-shot:

Screenshoot 2

“Why am I seeing this?“ – linking to here…

Conclusion

I have no access to my personal and page Facebook account since by Facebook, I am not who I am and they know better. Only way for them to confirm who I am is by me providing them with my mobile/cell phone number. I guess, Facebook is exclusive club for people who have cell/mobile phones ONLY!

Everyone else is fake and Faceless!

Who said that?

By now I am sure you can guess!

By reading today, researching online and following one after another Faceless problems and obstacles REAL people like I encountered throughout the years on Facebook I just reminded myself why I never wanted to join that exclusive club in the first place, or until persistent family members changed my mind.

Most interesting problem by far is one where users had to recognize profile pictures of dogs, cars, paintings etc. that represent faces of their friends so they could regain access to their account.

• What are your experiences with Facebook?
• Did Facebook had looked you out and did you ever find out why?
• Did you have problems with security, was your account hacked?
• Can you live without it?
• Anything else?

I have to admit one thing and this is that Facebook is more fun off Facebook then on despite all of the silent voyeurism that is going on over there.

About the book; “Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal” here…

Update

As of today, Sept. 24th 2010, second option became available and this is confirmation of identity by receiving automated call to a land based phone. Another option is great step forward but question still lingers in the air;

How reliable is Facebook when they can block your access to your account under only to them know suspicion and make it impossible for you to access your account for 10 days, or until they make available reasonable number of options for you to choose from and confirm your identity?

Facebook has two options now

So, we will try new option just added by Facebook, one that eliminates exclusive club title and we may see you on the other side once again.

Part of our series on establishing online presence…

What it is?

It starts with design of an image that reflects web page layout, done in a photo editing software. What follows is slicing of that image, then using some of it as photos and graphics on the web page. Look and formatting of that image being transformed in to a template or Theme are described in .css, that includes alignment, font styles, background images, colors, etc. All together is usually wrapped with a bit of HTML while in the same time making everyone happy, first and foremost your client, then your development team who may be working on interactive aspects of a web site and at the end, at least some of the browsers out there.

If your choice is to do it yourself from scratch you should be aware that layout design requires at least basic know-how. As with anything else, there are also numerous other options that include number of publishing tools and made specifically for them layouts called Themes, who may not require any design work on your side or a need to hire professional help.

How?

Whatever option you choose, do the work on your own, use a publishing platform or hire a professional help, before you start a web project always do your research, plan every aspect of it since time is money. You do not want to end up few weeks, or few months later as an unhappy web site owner, especially because of design choices you made.

If you have time on your hands and you like challenges, nothing can compare to satisfaction behind accomplishing something new through learning and putting that knowledge to a good use.

If you are ready to tackle a web site project on your own, but without design part, then on this page we’ll introduce you to the Themes, yet another part of a simple solution to your question – “how to establish an online presence?”.

Themes

Themes are visual part of your web site, a template that contains style sheet, images and .php scripts. Collection of .php scripts that bring all together allow you to define the look of pages through administrative control and then apply the look consistently across the web site. Many Themes are available free of charge while there are also premium Themes with attached fee that usually includes a Theme, support and free future upgrades of that Theme.

Once you choose a Theme, your business web site could be online in a completely new light with few simple clicks, whenever YOU want and without having to dig deep into your pocket. If you are at least familiar with publishing platforms like the WordPress you may have already come across thousands of Theme designs.

Adding a New Theme to the WordPress

Choosing and Activating a WordPress Themes

After downloading your new Theme upload it into WordPress Theme folder. Log-in as an administrator and you’ll see your new Theme among others, under Appearance / Themes. Choose preview to see your web site dressed in a new Theme. If you are happy with new look click on Activate and vola, you got yourself completely new design. Themes may have other options to set that you need to adjust. Those options should be also found in Appearance menu.

Suggestion:

If you are looking for sophisticated look premium Themes for WordPress offer, their easy customization and professional support, then we would definitely recommend…

… Themes by StudioPress (affiliate link).

Since 2009, our experience in dealing with StudioPress was more than satisfactory, Themes are crisp and without a flow, help one may need is always present in their support forum and team may be friendliest bunch on the web. Most important, since we choose Lifestyle Theme, upgrades with new features followed as well as new generation in a shape of Child Theme that works on their Genesis Framework.

Definitely worth checking out all of their Themes (demos are available on their web site).