http://www.blotdesign.com/articles.php Latest news from Blot Design Web Developement based in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Blot Design CMS http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=95 We've written before about the emerging abilities to have an increased number of fonts available for websites instead of the staple 9 'web safe' fonts. Our article back in May 2010 introduced the @font-face declaration from CSS3 and web fonts.  A brave new world was emerging and it looked like the skill of using typography was finally going to reach the web community. Since then, Google have launched their Font Directory and there are numerous other places ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=95 Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=93 We've just completed development of the Blot property CFPwinMan integration module, which allows CFPwinMan property management customers to automatically upload available properties from their CFPwinMan system to their company website.  It's just been installed at one of our Edinburgh property management companies. CFPwinMan is a lettings and property management package that runs on Windows servers and has been installed in over 3000 offices.  It handles all aspects of looking after lettings and property management including accounting, diary management, ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=93 Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=94 It's almost a year since the EU Cookie Law was introduced.  It requires website owners to get an 'opt-in' approval from their visitors if the website uses 'cookies'. The regulators (Information Commissioners Office in the UK) have given website owners a year's grace to look at compliance.  That grace period ends on 25th May 2012.  So you may need to take some action to make sure your site is compliant. Cookies are small text files that websites store ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=94 Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=92 This month we had a new client whose website, for various business reasons, had been allowed to lapse.  It wasn't hosted and hadn't been for around 3 months, so wasn't viewable on the Internet and didn't show up in the search engine rankings. However, in the past, the site had very good rankings for several keyword phrases, and the question from the business owner was whether the previous rankings could be recovered? Empirical evidence and current wisdom ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=92 Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=91 We've got a few customers who use Moneybookers/Skrill - an ecommerce payment system similar to PayPal which can provide eWallet and merchant account services for taking payments online. In our experience it's a good system that works well.  But recently a couple of customers have been subjected to Moneybookers' merchant account verification process which at best could be described as 'slightly unfriendly'. First of all, we acknowledge the importance of security and no-one wants people abusing these ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=91 Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=90 We've just changed a client's web hosting to a new hosting platform.   The client contacted us and explained that they had hosting with a very well known UK hosting provider but the response times they were getting were really long and sometimes just timed out.   They had contacted the provider who (unbelievably) told them that was what shared hosting was like and there was nothing they could do about it other than upgrading them to ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=90 Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=89 At the recent Edinburgh meeting of New Media Breakfast (come along, it's good), Gordon White of Fat Buzz mentioned a great little tool called dlvr.it. It's a major timesaving facility that automatically logs updates to your social media whenever you update any feeds you use (blogs, news, articles etc).  So when I save this news update, this is what happens It gets saved to the articles section on the Blot website. The RSS feed for the articles section ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=89 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=87 Recently we've had more than a few colleagues and clients comment on the same adverts popping up on the various sites they visit.  It's as if these ads are 'following them around'. The visited sites didn't have anything in common, but still the same adverts kept coming up.  In most cases, the individual had clicked on the ad once before while browsing. Are there sinister adverts following your every move?  Well yes and no.  What is probably ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=87 Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=86 If your website is a few years old, it might be starting to look a little narrow on the latest laptop and monitors. Is it an easy task for your developer to make it wider? The answer is that it very much depends on the site design. If it is a very simple design, say with a single column of 760 pixels (to fit an old 800x600 monitor), then it would probably be a very simple ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=86 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=85 Do you use email marketing to promote your business. If you do, you'll no doubt receive reports about the number of 'bounces' each time you send out a campaign. Is this something you look at or just discard? A 'bounce' in email marketing is when an email could not be delivered to its recipient. Email marketing companies business is dependant on delivering emails, so they make every effort to deliver the email - some companies will ....... http://www.blotdesign.com/article-detail.php?page=85 Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT