Learn CSS and Website Authoring

I've been changing my blogger blogs layout using blog templates from Gecko and Fly. Their templates is derive from the Wordpress Theme and they look awesome which is I chose their templates. I wonder how many hours the designer took to design all those beautiful blog templates and giving it away for free.

CSS code before the IE Hack:

#page {
background: white;
text-align: left;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 20px 0 10px;
position: relative;
/* The entire template's width is set in this class. */
width: 760px;
/*_width: 760px;*/ /* IE hack */
border: 1px solid #ddd;
border-top: none;
}

CSS Code After IE Hack:

#page {
background: white;
text-align: left;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 20px 0 10px;
position: relative;
/* The entire template's width is set in this class. */
width: 760px;
_width: 760px; /* IE hack */ (/* Removed)
border: 1px solid #ddd;
border-top: none;
}

So, let's look what happen if you don't edit the necessary code as mentioned above in your template:

Recently, I've been introduced to a software that could generate pages as many keywords that we enter. Basically, the software would generate each keyword that has been entered a page with contents taken from RSS feeds and some other sources I'm not so sure. I've been testing out the software and it tends to CRASH especially when the software could find affiliate program regarding the keywords. It SUCKS!! ..If you insist on giving it a try, click on the image below:



A few months ago, I stumble upon an alternative to Traffic Equalizer. It's a PHP based software and it is installed on your own web hosting. Webmasters know that content is the most vital part in a webpage that they've created. Without content, it would just be a painting without any descriptions. What the software do is, it will generate website that has contents on it scrape from somewhere. Basically, the software is almost similar to the above image shown above but with a few twists. Still, it is software generated and people would know that the pages has no human touch. However, what should we expect right? We are not capable of producing hundreds or thousand hand coded webpages, that is where software take place to automate the process.

Personally, I think using content generating softwares is not a good idea because sooner or later, the search engine where the software targets the web traffic will come, eventually going to drop or probably omit the indexed website. The search engine will become smarter and smarter so producing such websites will just pisses the search engine spiders away one day. So, what do we do about it? I think you should read the below article (image is clickable):

I've been "off course" the purpose of this blog. This blog is supposed to be lesson and record ed thoughts and tips on learning CSS. It seems to me that a lot of my posts has been on testing and trying out new and available web toolsets. It is not a surprise for me because I love trying out new tools. Knowledge is a set of tools too.

If you are new to this blog, then I welcome you. I wish to emphasize that I'm not a designer, I can become one but that is not really who I am. I am practically a 'repairman'. I see things that other people I know don't understand. I understand how to fix certain problem but I'm not really a perfect person. What I normally do is, I copycat the design I like, seek out the source file, go through all the codes and try to understand what they really are and finally I tweak and personalize to my preferences. I then repeat what I've done on another design I like but this time I can do it faster. I also read a lot so I'm not spending enough time experimenting what I've read (I'm working to improve this at the moment).

Recently I read Emil Stenström blog and he writes amazing amount of 'codish' writing that I love reading:

Level Of CSS Knowledge
My level of CSS is probably at Level 5 but I'm not really sure I'm qualified to confirm this :)

Real Hacker DOn't Use CSS
I just love hackers, they are genius people who can understand how to crack open something just by using their mind and tools. They practically can have what they want in their life because they know how to engineer what they're working on. I envy them so much..

I should probably study more about CSS starting from now on. Have a nice day.

If you are new to webhosting and domain registration, then it is okay. I never knew about this whole technical jargon of webhosting, domain, DNS and stuff. I just keep on being comfortable with it by reading and studied those stuff every now and then. I am always looking for the free or the lowest cost that I can find. I probably should change this attitude if I wanted to go into business but it could probably be my strength point. By the way, I just came back from my 1st Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) in one of Cisco Regional academy here. I learn quickly since I've been exposed to the networking arena for quite a while.

Last time, I told you about Is Free Web Hosting Reliable?- Part 2. One of the featured free webhosting was Awardspace. If you read my post carefully, I can only access Awardspace when I am at home. The network at my office doesn't allow me to access their website for some unknown reason. Their website is full of Google Ads, I can understand that because they give out free stuff and hope to gain something back in return somehow. Earlier, I removed one of my domain from Awardspace Free Webhosting because it was not working. Then I realized I missed something so I tried and putting the domain name again.

Let's see what did I do. After signing into Awardspace login area, I went to the Domain Manager area. There, I put my domain name on the top form and pressed the Add Domain.


You can click on the image above to enlarge it if your eyes can't see very well. The circle area is where the information of the Name Server (NS) where you should be putting in your domain management. Depending on where you bought your domain, mine looks like this:

Before this, I have no idea what a private label package is. So, what is a private label package? I did a search on Google and found my answer on Wikipedia and it says that:

Private label products or services are typically those manufactured or provided by one company for offer under another company's brand. Private label goods and services are available in all industries from food to cosmetics to web hosting and are often positioned as lower cost alternatives to regional, national or international brands. Since the branding of private label consumer goods is often provided by the retailer, store brands are sometimes called private label brands.

Well, now that I've know and understand about it. What do I have to do about it? For me, I see it as a way for me to leverage my effort in doing my marketing. I don't have to spend time creating a new product or services from scratch. I now can focus on repackaging it to my own and profit on it. Of course there are pros and cons doing it but it outweighs the cons in my case.

What does have to do with my web authoring step? Recently, I found this package and best of all, it is free:


So, what do I do with it? I now have the resource to repackage it and make all the content package my own. Still, I need to do a little bit of work. Doing some work requires discipline and perseverance which I've been lacking all along. It's a battle within me and I assumed it is also for almost everybody else.

So, I think I'm going to get back to work on the things I've been working. Have a productive day.

I've been installing, testing, designing, tweaking and adding features to a lot of my blogs and websites. As I do all this things, the more I do this kind of activities, the less learning curve that I have to endure and it has now become very easy for me to build blogs, tweaking it according to my preferences or customize it based on what I wanted.

However, apart from all the numbers of blogs and design, I lack one thing which is the most important thing in order to earn something from what I've built which is CONTENT or COPY. I have become too accustomed to install, tweak, customized and all kind of technical stuff that I neglect the very most important thing, WEBCOPY. Websites or blogs stores information and content. So content is the juice that people are seeking for, it's not the design, the eye catching flashy feature and all sort of stuff although it may help to attract people.

So, the skill I need right now is COPYWRITING. Wait a minute, there are tonnes of resources about honing copywriting skills on the internet. There are free resources but most of them are paid stuff. So, where do I start? I could spend more time searching and collecting all the information I need but that wouldn't be productive. I hate it that this time consuming learning process took away most of my time. It seems to me that I need to relearn my way of managing my time.

Recently, I read this free ebook which I obtained for free from one of my many subscribed newsletter: