VISIBLE RANKING — ONLINE MARKETING

Create Excel dropdown list step by step guide

Just like a drop-down list on a web page, the drop-down list on an Excel spreadsheet presents a [limited] number of options for you to select, thus limit potential data entry errors and make the output more consistent and uniform. The drop-down list mentioned in this post has a down arrow button, but it is not the Filter/AutoFilter functionality of Excel, which can be accessed through menu Data > Filter > AutoFilter.

Create web graphics with Photoshop - The Fundamentals
Part 2 - Save image for the web / Optimize image for the web

Already know about different image types supported by web browsers, below are some simple steps to save your images for the web with Photoshop.

To save image for the web or to optimize it for the web, you just need to open your image in Photoshop, then go to menu File > Save for Web or File > Save for Web & Devices with CS4, or you can use the combination of keys Ctrl Alt Shift S. No matter what versions of Photoshop you’re using, a dialog box will appear to let you change your image settings and your image size. That’s basically it.

Create web graphics with Photoshop - The Fundamentals
Part 1 - GIF, JPG, or PNG

Photoshop is a very deep software, you can play and learn with it for hours, days or even years and probably still discover something new and interesting about it. This post or series of posts aims to provide you with fundamental but easy skills to understand as well as to create better imagery for the web in a matter of minutes.

Part 1 is about image types supported by web browsers: GIF, JPG, or PNG. If you know about this already, then check out part 2 Save image for the web.

Create custom color palette / custom swatches palette in Photoshop
Updated for Photoshop CS4

Photoshop comes with many built-in color swatches palettes. However, more likely the colors in these palettes are not the ones you’re going to use. Without a custom color swatches palette, whenever you want to use your colors, usually you’ve got to manually enter the RGB or CMYK color values. That’s obviously not very efficient considering you may enter the wrong RGB or CMYK values. Thus, if you have certain color palettes that you use all the time, it’s recommended to create your own custom color palettes so that you can easily use them with Photoshop short-cut or the eye-dropper tool.

Already had a SWOT analysis for your overall marketing plan and strategy, have you ever done a SWOT analysis for your website?

We’ve just started the new year, so maybe it’s also time for you to start thinking about renewing or starting a SWOT analysis for your website / online marketing if you haven’t got one yet. The SWOT analysis for your website can be integrated into your overall SWOT analysis; however, it may be better to be separated.

Planning to use something funny as the theme in your new ads or marketing campaign? Check out the video below.

I saw some crazily funny commercials here and there online and decided to open a couple of posts just for them. After all, fun is a great emotional button to push when you want your ad to stand out, to be remembered and to be talked about. If you’re looking for crazy, funny ideas for your ads, commercial or marketing campaign, hopefully this video and the ones coming up can give you some idea and inspiration. If not, the video is still helpful: it’ll give you a good laugh.

All Flash website — what you want may not always good for your business.

As a member in the marketing team, you may be responsible for either designing or coordinating the design process of the new website. You may want a complete Flash-based website because many of your clients have Flash websites, and you really like the interactive, animated site navigation, and the visual effects including the page transitions on each and every page. Well, that’s what you like, but is it good for your online marketing and for your business as a whole?

Step-by-step guide on how to create HTML email in Outlook 2003
Updated for MS Outlook 2007

Already know about the good, the bad, and the ugly of HTML through the post about HTML email overview, let’s start creating an HTML email in Outlook.

Quick notes about Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007: the process below is the same for both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. The difference between these two versions of Outlook is not in the process of creating and sending HTML email but in the built-in HTML email readers. Thus, there may be a bit difference if you create HTML for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, but there won’t be any difference if you create HTML in or with Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007.

Switching to HTML email? Know why people love and hate HTML enabled emails, and what can be done to have a smooth transition.

HTML email as its name implied is an email written or coded with HTML as opposed to a plain text email. There’s one thing that should be clarified before we go on: today, most emails are HTML emails; if you color or bold your text, insert images in your email, more likely you’re sending an HTML email. However, that’s not what is meant by “HTML email” or “HTML enabled email” in this article. So what do we mean by sending an HTML email? Roughly, we mean to send a web page or a well designed and well coded HTML page as an email.

Sorry to hear that your viewers stay on your website so long!

The story

A marketing/web coordinator has just finished his first web traffic analysis and report, and he is very pleased with the company website performance / web metrics in the last few months. The best item of all he thinks is the “Average time on site” item — telling him how long on average his viewers stay on the site. It’s about 5 minutes, so people must find his company website interesting and stay long to find more information.