Inlinks (or backlinks) are the incoming hyperlinks that can direct traffic to a website or blog. Inlinks are often used by web designers and developers as an indicator of the popularity or importance of a web page. By using Yahoo Site Explorer you can see how many hyperlinks are coming in to your site or a competitor’s site.

Go to http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Enter the name of the site you would like to check and then click Explore URL. In this example I am going to use the Acoustic Guitar Player site run by Tony Hogan http://the-guitarplayer.com/

This will take you to a page showing you the number of pages on the site. You need to click on the inlinks button to see the links in to the site.

This will take you to a page that shows all links in to the site including any links that are happening within the site. To see only the links that are coming in from outside sites you will need to click on the Show Inlinks drop-down box and select Except from this domain

Then click on the next drop-down box and select Entire Site

 You can now see that this site has 3650 sites that link back to http://the-guitarplayer.com/. If you want to have a look at any of these that have hyperlink in to this sites you can just click on the Explore button.

Here is a video tutorial from YouTube that shows you how to use Photoshop CS4 to easily make a shiny button to use in your website design projects.

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to make content boxes with rounded corners which you can use in your web design. In the example below I made a series of content boxes which were made in to clickable links to pages on the client’s site.

You will need to create each content box as a separate Photoshop file.

Create a new document with a white background and 190 x 130 pixels dimensions

Create a new layer, then hide your background layer. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and then set the radius to 10px and check anti-alias. Under options choose “Fixed Size” with 180×130 px dimensions

Now draw a white rounded rectangle in the new layer you created. Now you need to center the rectangle on the layer. To do this you need to click on the move tool:

You will need to Select All (CTRL+A) then Click on align vertical centers then align horizontal centers (see below if you are not sure how to do this).

This will make sure that you rectangle is sitting exactly in the center of your layer. Now deselect by hitting CTRL+D. Now you need to create the border around your rounded rectangle using a layer style. Click Layer > Layer Style and add a Stroke blending option to your rounded rectangle layer as below. Change the size to 1px and choose your color (I have used grey # 999999).

Unhide your background layer and your rectangle should look like this:

Now you need to use a picture that has a transparent background like this butterfly I used.

You will need to create a new layer (name it accordingly eg butterfly) and copy and paste your image in to the new layer. Now position your image where you want it to go on the layer.

Now you can add your heading text. Choose your font and type your heading. (I have used the font Segoe Print, Bold, 12pt, Color #003366)

Now type your main text using a smaller font. You will need to hit enter to go to each new line. I have used Trebuchet Ms, Regular, 11pt, Color #333333)

Now add your text to “Click Here” or “Read More” if it is appropriate for your content box. ( I have used Trebuchet Ms, Bold, 11pt, Color # 003366). Your content box should now look similar to this:

Now we will add a couple of drop shadow effects and you will be finished. Click on your Heading layer to select it, then click Layer > Layer Style and add a Drop Shadow to your text using the settings below:

Blend mode: Multiply
Opacity: 75%
Angle: 23%
Distance: 3px
Spread: 0%
Size: 5px

Now select your image layer and add the same drop shadow effect to the image (in this example it is the butterfly). Your clickable content box is now complete.

You can now go ahead and create the rest of your boxes.

Follow these Simple Steps:

Log in to your Wordpress blog

Click on Posts and either Add New or Edit depending on where you want to embed the YouTube video

Click on the Kitchen Sink button as shown in the picture below

On the toolbar below click on Insert/ edit embedded media

In the popup window that appears paste the URL address of the YouTube video into the File/URL box

Leave Type as the default Flash

WordPress will automatically add the Dimensions if you click on the Preview box or when you hit the Insert button

Click Insert and you are done!

Registering a domain name is fairly simple process but for many actually finding a suitable domain name that hasn’t already been taken can be an overwhelming task. Many of the “good” and easily remembered domain names have already been registered and are not available.

Here are a few tips to help when choosing your domain name:

• Try and make your Domain Name easy to remember and easy to spell. If possible choose your exact business name otherwise try and use words that describe your product or service.
• A Domain Name can be up to 63 characters long and can use only letters, numbers, and dashes (-).
• Short Domain Names are usually better than long ones but many of the short domain names are already registered, so if you have to choose a long domain name make sure it is memorable and easy to read.
• Domain Names are not case sensitive. TipsForWebsiteDesign.com will work the same as tipsforwebsitedesign.com.
• If you are aiming to have a worldwide audience be aware of spelling variations for certain words and avoid using them in your domain name e.g. color and colour, center and centre, jewellery and jewelry

Transfer your domain for just $6.99* and get a year free!

Always make sure your chosen name doesn’t have an unintentional double meaning. Check out this YouTube video to see what I mean…..

Not every case of content theft is done with intent and there are many website owners who are unaware of what constitutes copyright law with regards to website content.

Keep records

• Keep a record of any pages where you have found your website content.
• Take screenshots of the page and take copies of the HTML code as well.

Check if there are references to your site

• Make sure the site owner hasn’t made a reference to where he obtained the content from.

Contact the owner of the site

• Most websites should have a page with contact information. If they don’t, then use Whois to find out who the site owners are. Send a professional email to the owner and ask them to remove the stolen content.

Notify the ISP that is hosting the site

• Send their ISP an email advising them of the site that is hosting stolen materials. If the ISP investigation finds that the site is using stolen content they can remove the website from their server.

Report the site to Google AdSense if they are hosting Adsense advertising.

• You can email adsense-abuse@google.com and inform them that the site is earning revenue off your stolen content which is a  violation of the Google  AdSense Terms of Service. More information about how to report this can be found here.

Plagiarism of blog and website content should be a concern for anyone who has a website or blog. Your website or blog content can easily be copied and used by anyone. After making slight changes, your content may be claimed as their own.

How can you find out if your content has been plagiarised?

Copyscape is a website that provides a free service that makes it easy to find copies of your content on the Internet and to protect your site against online plagiarism and content theft.

You can type in the address of your web page and Copyscape will find sites that have copied your content without your permission, as well as sites or blogs that have quoted you.

The free service is limited to 5 searches for your website per month so if you want to perform unlimited searches and more comprehensive results you can subscribe to Copyscape’s Premium Service.

The Copyscape website also has an online forum for discussions about plagiarism.