ReachCustomersOnline.com

New Campaign Monitor Email Delivery Service Coming Soon

Just got an email from Campaign Monitor, an excellent low cost email delivery service, that they're releasing a new version of their application on Friday, November 28th, end of next week. They also set up a preview site with details.

Posted by TimSlavin at Tuesday November 18, 2008 10:24 AM

Free Icons in Vector Format

Today I spent an hour or so in search of usable shopping cart icons that also are free. I came across two excellent resources: one is a list of sources for free icons and the other is a site with 165 free icons in vector format, including a shopping cart icon. These are very basic icon designs but well executed. And the vector format icons can be scaled easily.

For paid icons, I'd start with iStock which has excellent icons in a range of visual styles.

Posted by TimSlavin at Friday November 14, 2008 4:03 PM

Search Engine Optimization X-Ray Tool

"This tool [SEO for Firefox Extension] was designed to add more data to Google and Yahoo! to make it easier to evaluate the value and competitive nature of a market. SEO for Firefox pulls in many useful marketing data points to make it easy get a more holistic view of the competitive landscape of a market right from the search results. In addition to pulling in useful marketing data this tool also provides links to the data sources so you can dig deeper into the data."

When I loaded my Firefox 3 web browser yesterday, and again today, the browser bugged me to update my SEO for Firefox extension. If you have not tried this tool, you should. The latest version includes a neat x-ray feature that shows the underlying structure of any web page, as well as links to data about that page useful for search optimization. It's an extremely easy way to surface a lot of good information. From the SEO for Firefox home page.

Posted by TimSlavin at Friday November 07, 2008 8:28 AM

US FCC Votes to Turn Empty TV Spectrum into Wireless Internet Access

"Federal regulators on Tuesday approved the largest ever expansion of wireless Internet access, unanimously backing a controversial plan to allow a new generation of devices to use the empty airwaves between television channels to go online.

Dubbed "Wi-Fi on steroids" by its supporters in the high-tech industry, the plan promises to offer wireless Internet service across America -- most likely for free -- and spur new systems for transmitting video and other data between devices in homes."

Buried on election day here in the US, this is huge news from the Federal Communications Commission. Typically the FCC sides with the entertainment business and cable TV interests. In this case, they've unanimously sided with technology interests that want to provide "always on" internet. While the connectivity speed won't be as fast as cable, the signal will go farther and reach more areas of the US than currently available. From the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by TimSlavin at Thursday November 06, 2008 9:33 AM

How to Pick an Online ECommerce Shopping Cart: 6 Carts Reviewed

A more recent version of this article has been posted at SitePoint, which also has links to related articles that might be of interest. The SitePoint article also has a review of Google Checkout.

Selling online can be a great way to expand an existing business or start a new one. Sites like eBay and etsy let you sell within their sites and use their shopping carts. You benefit from their traffic and marketing but they control the look and functionality of their site. The other option is to sell through your own website.

To do so, you need a shopping cart, payment processing, and a process to fulfill orders. This article deals mostly with carts but generally mentions how you might handle payments and other cart-related issues. It is assumed you know how to find and deliver a product to customers.

For this article, I tested six shopping carts using two pages from an ecommerce site one of my clients' runs. The carts mentioned here are not the only carts available, for example, Yahoo! and Squirrelcart (which has my favorite mascot). And it is possible you will need a custom shopping cart built or a cart customized from software like Magento.

However, the method I use to evaluate these carts can be used to evaluate any shopping cart. Ultimately, it is your online business.

...click to read the full print-able entry with URLs

Posted by TimSlavin at Friday October 17, 2008 10:11 AM

MyFonts Creative Characters: Nick Curtis

"When we learn to read and write, the process is vitally dependent on letterforms--learning to distinguish one from another, learning their sounds and their shapes--but the act of "appreciating" the diverse forms is practical, rather than aesthetic. Thus, at some point in the process of learning to read and write, the medium fades into the background, and the message becomes the focus of our attention. Or, put another way, we are taught to pay attention to what is being said in print, but not how it's being said."

I'd also add that some people are attuned to letterforms while many are not. From MyFonts.com, an interview with prolific typographer Nick Curtis. Read his biography and see his fonts here. He also has a huge catalog of free fonts listed at FontFreak, including a wonderful script font, Quiggly Wiggly which is based on type he found on a toothpick wrapper. And I think his website is Nick's Fonts, although in a very contrarian way the site refuses to have any about us or contact information to make sure. But the site does have an excellent list of typography links worth checking out.

This is a fun and enlightening interview with lots of examples and drafts to pick over. And it's a nice life to imagine, especially the ability to spend time researching old type at places like the Smithsonian.

...click to read the full print-able entry with URLs

Posted by TimSlavin at Tuesday May 20, 2008 11:34 AM