Quomo Does Design » For the discerning Web Designer

The Missing Google Analytics Manual

Quomo — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:50:43 +0000

Just came across this great resouce about Google Analytics, The Missing Google Analytics Manual

Enjoy!

Quomo » now offering you hosting.

Quomo — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:00:41 +0000

As a veteran Web Designer, I have used many hosting companies, control panels, and customer support services over the years. Sadly, many of the Irish hosting providers are a nightmare. Poor service. Unintelligible control panels. Help that leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t want to have to deal with them anymore. So off I went to investigate the best possible hosting I could find. Now I offer you the chance to join me in using this reliable hosting service.

Quomo’s Hosting Service Is Suitable For You If:

You are paying €100’s for Irish hosting service that is hard to manage
Must call your existing hosting provider to do simple things like add a subdomain, create an email accounts, or install a database.
Your hosting provider has invested in a poorly functioning Control Panel and it cannot afford to update and change what is wrong.

If you are sick of paying through the nose
for poor service.

From as little as €2.99 a month:

Enjoy a shared server in the USA or UK
Access a logical control panel that allows you to do everything you need and more
No need to make phone calls or email the painful customer support department just to change a little thing.

Is it Reliable?

I have been using this hosting service for Quomo for 6 years, and I’ve never had a complaint.

I don’t sell bullshit.

Servers do go down – it is part of the game. But these servers are up 99% of the time. This is good enough for me.
If you need support, they are there 24/7 and in my experience it has never taken more than an hour away to get a constructive answer.
And if you need more – I’m always here at the end of the line.

Below is a screenshot of my personal stuff: 6 web sites, 11 subdomains, 11 databases etc. – a fairly busy hosting. The average response time is less than 20 minutes. And this was where I had to contact support to find out about particularly unusual things.

So if you’re sick of being ripped off by Irish hosting companies:

Say no more!

Go on, give it a try and see for yourself, or find out more about the specs.

Web Trend Map 4

Quomo — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:21:25 +0000

The Web Trend Map 4 is out now free for download thanks to Information Architects. The idea behind the Web Trend Map is to create a metro-like map of the Internet’s biggest names and domains, that have been selected in consultation, and that are represented in order of importance and relevance. Fantastic work!!

Web Trend Map 4: Preview

Quomo — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:46:46 +0000

Information Architects Japan are at it again. After their succesful Web Trend Map 3 they are preparing a new Web Trend Map completely from scratch, due in February. If you think you can help suggesting sites and people that should be on it, you can head to their room at FriendFeed and do so. This is the list so far:

WEB SITES AND NETWORKS:

163.com, 1UP, 24 Gi, 2ch.net, 4chan, 4shared, 56.com , 6.cn , A List Apart, ABC, About.com, Adaptive Path, AdBrite, Adobe, AIGA, AIM, Al-Jazeera, Alexa, Alibaba, Amazon, Amazon Japan, Amazon.de, Ameblo, Ancestry.com, Android, Answers.com, AOL, Apple, Ars Technica, Ask.com, Badongo, Baidu, BBC, Bebo, Beppegrillo, Bigpoint, Blogger, Bloomberg, BoingBoing, Boxes and Arrows, Brandchannel, BuzzMachine, Cisco, CNET, CNET Downloads, CNN, COLOURlovers, Comcast, Comedy Central, Compete, Coudal Partners, Craigslist, Creative Commons, Crooks & Liars, Crunchbase, Crunchyroll, CSS Beauty, CSS Mania, Cyworld, Daily Kos, Dailymotion, Daring Fireball, DataPortability, Dave Winer, del.icio.us, Deposit Files, Der Spiegel, Design Observer, Design Shack, Designers Republic, deviantART, DevX, Die Zeit, Digg, Discuss , Disney, Doodle, Double Click, dpreview.com, Drudge Report, Drupal, DZone, Eastmoney , Easy Share, eBay, eBay Germany, eBay UK, eBuddy, eHarmony, El Mundo, El País, Engadget, ESPN, Expedia, Facebook, FactCheck, FARK, FC2, Federated Media, FeedBurner, FileFactory, Firefox, Fireworks, Flickr, Fotolog, FOX, Friendster, Frog Design, GameFAQs, GameSpot, Gawker, Getty Images, Gizmodo, Globo, Go Fug Yourself, goo, Google, Google AdSense, Google Syndication, Google Analytics, Google Image Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Reader, Google News, Google Video, Google Books, Picasa, Google Groups, Google Docs, Google Earth, Google Apps, Google Finance, Google Adwords, Google Answer, Google Checkout, Google Calendar, Google Blogsearch, Picasa, AdSense, Google China, Google Espana, Google France, Google Germany, Google India, Google Indonesia, Google Italy, Google Japan, Google Mexico, Google Netherlands, Google Poland, Google Russia, Google Saudi Arabia, Google Thailand, Google Turkey, Google UK, Gutenberg, Hatena, Heise, Hi5, HowStuffWorks, Huffington Post, Hulu, ICQ, IDEO, iG, IGN, ImageShack, ImageVenue, IMDb, IMEEM, Internet Archive, isoHunt, iTunes, IXDA, Jabber, Joox, Kotaku, kottke, La Repubblica, Last.fm, Le Monde, LinkedIn, Linux, Live Messenger, Live Search, Livedoor, LiveJournal, Mail.ru, Match.com, Media Matters, MediaFire, Meebo, MegaUpload, Megavideo, Metacafe, metroFLOG, Microsoft, Migente, Miniclip, Mininova, Mixi, Monster, MOO, Mop.com, MovableType, MSN, Multiply, MyBlogLog, MySpace, MySQL, MyVideo, Naver, Netflix, Netlog, Netvibes, New York Times, Newsnetz, Newsvine, Nicovideo, Ning, NZZ, O’Reilly, Odnoklassniki, OhMyNews, Opensecrets, Opera, Orkut, Pandora, PartyPoker, PayPal, PChome.net, PDF, Peachpit, PerezHilton, Photobucket, PHP, PingMag, Plaxo, Podcast Alley, PokerStars, Python, QBN, QQ, Rakuten, RapidShare, Reddit, Rivva, Ruby, sapo, Scobleizer, Sendspace, Sina, Skype, Skyrock, Slashdot, Slate, Smashing Magazine, Snap Shots, Snarf-It, Softonic, Sohu, Something Awful, SourceForge, Starware, StatCounter, Studiverzeichnis, StumbleUpon, Subtraction, swissmiss, T-Online, Tagged, Taobao, Techcrunch, Techmeme, Technorati, Terra, The Consumerist, The Daily Show, The Economist, The Onion, The Pirate Bay, The Register, TheGuardian, ThinkGeek, TOM.COM, TorrentMatrix, TorrentReactor, Torrents, Torrentz, Tudou, Twitter, Typepad, U9, Universo Online, USA Today, UseIt, UserCash, Uwants, V Kontakte, Valleywag, Veoh, Versiontracker, Vimeo, Vnet.cn, VOX, W3C, W3Schools, Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, WebMD, Wikipedia, Wikileaks, Wired News, Wonkette, WordPress, WRETCH, Xanga, XING, Xunlei , Yahoo!, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Japan, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yandex, Y Combinator, Youku, YourFileHost, YouTube, ZeFrank, Zeldman, zShare

WEB ENTREPRENEURS AND TREND SETTERS:

Akash Garg, Alex Welch, Alexis Ohanian, Allen Blue, Anca-Alina Seghedi, Angelo Sotira, Arianna Huffington, Avinash Kaushik, Aza Raskin, Benjamin Bejbaum, Beppe Grillo, Bill Gates, Biz Stone, Bobby Chang, Brewster Kahle, Brian L. Roberts, Bruce D. Smith, Challis Hodge, Charles Geschke, Chris Anderson, Chris DeWolfe, Chris Hughes , Dalton Caldwell, Dan Nye, Darren Crystal, Dave Silfry, Dave Winer, David Heller, David Plotz, David Tokheim, Dmitry Shapiro, Drew Curtis, Elaine Wherry, Eric Boyd, Eric Schmidt, Evan Williams, Eyal Hertzog, Felix Miller, Gabe Rivera, Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, George Bodenheimer, Gina Bianchini, Greg Forgatch, Hiroyuki Nishino, Hosea Jan Frank, Ian Anderson, Iggy Fanlo, Jason Calacanis, Jack and Alexander Levin, Jack Dorsey, Jack Ma, Jakob Lodwick, Jakob Nielsen, Janus Friis, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Jeff “CJayC” Veasey, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Jarvis, Jeffery Zeldman, Jesse James Garrett, Jim Buckmaster, Jim Coudal, Jim Jarrett, Jim Safka, Jimmy Wales, John Amato, John Battelle, John Gruber, John T. Chambers, John Warnock, Joi Ito, Jon Stewart, Jonah Peretti, Justin LaFrance, Ken Lerer, Kenji Kasahara, Kevin Rose, Khoi Vinh, Larry Page, Larry Sanger, Loic Le Meur, Marc Andreessen, Marissa Mayer, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Markos Moulitsas, Martin Stiksel, Matt Drudge, Matt Mullenweg, Matthew Stephens, Meg Whitman, Michael Arrington, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Dell, Mitchell Baker, Mike Jones, Neil Clark Warren, Olivier Poitrey, Paul Graham, Perez Hilton, Pete Cashmore, Pete Deemer, Peter Rojas, Ramu Yalamanchi, Reed Hastings, Rick Cecil, Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda, Robert Scoble, Robert Small, Rupert Murdoch, Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, Scott Jarkoff, Sean Parker, Sergey Brin, Seth Godin, Sheryl Sandberg, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, Stewart Butterfield, Thomas Enraght-Moony, Tihan Presbie, Tim Berners-Lee, Tim Brown, Tim O’Reilly, Tim Sullivan, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Tom Anderson, Toni Schneider, Vince Broady, Vint Cerf

Must-have WordPress plugins

Quomo — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:13:34 +0000

Every time I install a new WordPress blog for a client, I also install a number of basic plugins that are crucial to turn the blog into a robust piece of software. This is a list of some of them. Feel free to comment and add those you may think are a must-have too!

WP-DB-Backup

The first thing you should do is to back up. Back up early, back up often. Seriously. Why? Well, I could give you a good example: I erased the database that drives this blog a few weeks ago, and though there wasn’t much in it cause I just finished the redesign -just a few posts, comments and pictures- it really was a pain. Obviously it was a mistake, and thanks God it was mine and not a client’s! The thing is that I logged in to MySQL server without noticing that Safari had added my own user/pass details instead of those of the client I was working on. And ‘it was late and I was tired’ as the Web Designer song goes. Unfortunately, the only WordPress install that didn’t have this plugin was mine, what a coincidence.

The good thing of this plugin is that you have some fine options:

Save to server : this will create a file in /wp-content/backup-*/ for you to retreive later
Download to your computer : this will send the backup file to your browser to be downloaded
Email : this will email the backup file to the address you specify

So, pull up your trousers and back up.

wp-security-scan

Make sure your WordPress has no vulnerabilities and it is ready to tackle some shark hackers out there. This plugin will check:

passwords
file permissions
database security
version hiding
WordPress admin protection/security
removes WP Generator META tag from core code

Highly recommended, and you can uninstall it once you pass with honors all the scans.

All in one SEO pack

After all that work creating your blog and skinning the thing to your specs, should the world know about its existence? Oh yes! And the best way to keep your metas all properly keyworded is by installing this pluging, that amongst other things:

Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
Generates META tags automatically
Avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
For WordPress 2.7 you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
You can fine-tune everything
Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.

Now, the world should be able to find you.

Lightbox 2

Based on the ubiquitous Lightbox JS, this plugin throws your images into stardom by layering them above your post content. There are loads of other plugins doing similar stuff, this is just a simple-to-use and simple-to-install one. Options relate to the colour scheme and to its activation.

Subscribe 2

I find that there is no better nor easier way to keep your followers informed than by letting them subscribe. Whenever I visit a site that I like -whether for its contents or design- the first thing I look for is a subscribe form, so I can be reminded to come back to it, keep an eye, without the need of bookmarking.

Also, you have the option to send them an email with that post you just made public. Very useful!

Well, these are just some of the most useful plugins, but I will be adding more shortly. Am I missing anyone?
There are loads of other lists of plugins online like:

But I wanted to keep it v e r y short.