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For years, experts have been telling us to customize our resumes and cover letters so that each one is unique to the employer, but that usually means we just rejigger our bullet points and change our opening paragraphs.
But in an economy mired with double-digit unemployment, candidates need to do more than revise their career objectives if they want to stand apart from the competition. Job seekers need to present themselves in a way that demonstrates creativity while also exhibiting a sense of professionalism.
Those with the technological skills to do so have long argued in favor of creating a personal webpage for each employer you’re looking to impress, something that would combine your LinkedIn profile page with the specific messaging and branding to catch the employer’s attention. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to build a website, nor do they have enough design sense to ensure that the website they do build presents them in a good light.
HelloThere aims to solve that problem.
Whether you’re writing a simple app to try out a new language or coding the next Facebook, sometimes you’re going to want to share a bit of your code. Maybe you’ll want to show your coworker what a certain function does, or make a suggestion about SEO to your copywriter. Or perhaps you’re stuck on a problem, and need to point out exactly what’s wrong and where you’re stuck.
Full code review tools are an overkill for this, while sharing the code on its own can make it difficult to add your commentary to it. That’s where Chop comes in. Keep reading to see how Chop can help you share info about code and collaborate with less friction.
As a web developer, a common request I get is, “I want my website to be number 1 on Google.” While this is an admirable goal, it’s a difficult one to attain for a few reasons- the competition you face for your particular keywords is a major one. An even bigger reason, however, is the ever changing landscape of search engine ranking algorithms, as well as the ever changing landscape of the Internet. Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is a full time job and there are lots of companies dedicated to it. Luckily, SEscout is a tool that aims to make the job of a Search Engine Optimizor, or really, any website owner, a lot easier.
For years, it seemed that Internet Explorer was the only browser most computer users would touch. The big E logo became the universal symbol of the internet, and the average computer seemed to have 13 browser toolbars and enough adware to make anyone hate using the internet. We tried in vain to get family and friends to use alternate browsers, but seemingly to no avail.
Then, it happened. IE was far enough behind that even average computer users started caring about their browser. It was dumbfounding to begin seeing libraries and internet cafés with Firefox and Chrome. Internet Explorer started being used less and less, and finally Microsoft realized they needed to catch up. IE9 has now been released for Windows 7 and Vista computers, and impressively it’s nearly as good as the other leading browsers.
As we use webapps every day, the browser has become the most important application on our computers. Between IE, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and more, there’s always something new in the world of browsers today! Let’s take a look at what the latest version of Microsoft’s maligned browser brings to the browser wars. (more…)
Designing websites is an art. A lot of tools and techniques are used to create a design before the programmers can start working on it to create the backend. Even for the experienced designer, it might not be ideal for remembering the organization of the pages and content in his head throughout the process. Pen and paper can only go so long.
Jumpchart helps you plan websites before getting the design and coding done. Care to know how useful the app actually is?
Many online businesses and websites operate in the same vertical. Often, their services and design could be strikingly similar, making it difficult to stand out. Then there are situations when, even after lengthy brainstorming sessions with experts, a clear idea of the feature-set isn’t be formulated. Two questions always linger in the minds of developers and entrepreneurs — how do you decide which features to include or omit and how do you increase conversions?
Once you have answers for the two questions, you can sit back and start counting the money. Tools and talent that can help get usable feedback are exorbitantly costly — at least up until now. Verify allows you to quickly test concepts with users to get immediate feedback. Keep reading to find how you can save time and money with Verify by testing pages before you start redoing everything.
If you’re like the vast majority of web developers, you’ve used Google Analytics to stay on top of your site’s traffic info and never gave it a second thought. Google Analytics is free, pain-free to setup, and gives you more detailed data about your traffic than you could know what to do with. What more could you ask?
Actually, there’s a lot more you could ask for. For starters, Google Analytics may be free, but all of your data is on Google’s servers. Some may prefer to keep their traffic data private, while others would just like more control over the data and reporting. Then, Google Analytics can be slow at times, and doesn’t display up-to-the-minute stats. Additionally, the charts are Flash-powered, so if you’re using an iOS device or have simply banished flash from your browser, you’ll only have the raw data.
Mint is a refreshing alternative that wins at every point Google Analytics comes short. It’s a self-hosted webapp so you can own and manage all of your own site’s data. It’s lightweight and expendable so you can make it work just like you want, uses native web charts so you won’t have to use flash, and shows visits as soon as they happen. Let’s see how to setup Mint on your site and take a tour of the features so you can see if it’s finally time for you to switch to a fresher analytics solution.
Want to find out what your audience thinks without adding another subscription service to your budget? There are dozens of survey apps available today, and many of them are simple to use and offer impressive features, templates, and more. However, it can be frustrating to have even more of your business’ data in another app instead of being an integral part of your main site.
If you’d like to run surveys directly from your own server or hosting account, Survd is a great new choice we’re going to look at today. It’s a self-hosted survey management system that makes it easy to create and run surveys and polls, then get the feedback in the format you want. You can install it in a few steps, and you won’t even need to setup a database for it. Let’s take a look at how Survd can make it easier and cheaper for your business to learn more about its audience.
Design is more of a collaborative process than we often realize. In the process of designing a new site, logo, promotional flyer, and more, you’ll often end up emailing dozens of files back and forth with your coworkers and clients to see what they think about the changes. Adding to that, you’ll usually end up emailing copies of PSD or AI files, links to similar designs that inspired you, or reminders for when parts of the project are due. Before you know it, you’re struggling to find the right file among dozens of similar emails.
Your team needs a better way to collaborate on the design process. Today we’re going to look at Draftboard, a new webapp that lets you compare and annotate design drafts, send ideas and inspirational links to your team, and store your important project files together. It’s a light project management app that’s solely focused on design drafts and your team’s feedback. Let’s see if this is the app that can make your creative process flow smoother.
Whether you’re looking for a bit of JavaScript to enhance your website or you’re simply searching for that PHP class that will make it easier to handle database connections, you can spend a lot of time searching for bits of code but some cause more harm than good.
A few weeks ago, we took a quick look at Codesnipp.it and we thought that it was so good, it was definitely worth a full review. With Codesnipp.it, you can easily find and share snippets of code with fellow developers, as well as commenting on them. Find out more inside.
