Useful Tools »

The other day I decided I was done editing my HTML and other code documents in Notepad. While searching for a better alternative I came accross PSPad, a free, multi-purpose code editor. PSPad’s code syntax highlighter works with many different languages and markups, including HTML, PHP, CSS, javascript, and others.

PSPad has many features, but I’ll describe some of my favorite. The syntax highlighting is excellent and makes editing those long codes much easier. PSPad also has the option of condensing your code to save a few kb on your server or to expand code to make it more readable. This feature made me realize how sloppy my code writing was! Web developers will also appreciate…

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If you run your own website you know how important interactivity with your visitors can be. Comments and forums that are a public way of interacting with visitors. There are also Shout Boxes, widgets that work almost like mini-chat rooms. But sometimes you need something more private or something that allows you to give personal attention to visitor’s questions in a speedier way then email.

I recently came across Plugoo, a free tool that lets you privately chat with your website visitors. How does it work? It’s a snippet of code that you paste into your website. This code implements a Flash-based control that looks like the image you see to your left. I configured a…

Reviews, Tech News »

By now most people have heard of JS-Kit, the ever-popular, freakishly simple, non-obtrusive, self-contained, mostly-free widget service. JS-Kit is a ten person company that works full time on creating and maintaining these website tools. Their current selection of services is a Ratings widget, a full-featured Comments widget, Polls, and a so-called Top Rated widget that summarizes data from the Ratings widget. The best part? With the exception of Top Rated, these widgets are free and contain no ads.

This past week I had the opportunity to ask some questions of Khris Loux, CEO of JS-Kit, about the future of his fast-growing widget company. We talked about some of the exciting changes recently made to JS-Kit, as…

Tech News »

Just saw this one thanks to one of my readers. SitePoint is giving away a free Ruby on Rails book by Patrick Lenz on how to build your own web applications in Ruby on Rails. The book has 12 chapters and 447 pages. You can get the e-book for free, or a printed edition for a generous discount. I downloaded mine earlier. All you do is give them your email and they send you the link. Oh, it’s only free for another month from the time I am writing this. You can download it here.

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Jumpchart, a website architecture builder, has just announced that they have shed their beta status. What is Jumpchart? Jumpchart is a way to make the basic architecture or frame of your next website, site map, or interactive project. It is a WYSIWYG online editor that simplifies the process of creating the basic framework of a website, especially when it is a collaborative effort. Basically, you could use Jumpchart to show a client or boss a very rough estimate of what their website might look like. That way you could nail down where the content will go before the graphical design begins.

You begin by creating a new project with a single page. You can add text…

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Simply-Basic.com is a relatively new blog. What’s something that most new bloggers worry about? Making sure someone actually reads their articles! Previously I wrote about two free sources of web traffic. Writing this post really piqued my interest, and made me wonder what other services were available to increase exposure to a new blog like mine. There are many things you can and should do to increase the quality of your blog. A good list of things that will help your blog can be found at Problogger, here. But this list is not meant to be a comprehensive list of how to market your blog.

Rather, I’ve collected 17 websites that will help you promote your…