Welcome! We have another truckload of webmaster articles for you today. If you have a blog post of interest for our next edition, feel free to submit it. If you’re interested in hosting an edition on your blog, feel free to let us know (a comment is fine).

First, the Miscellaneous:

• adam presents Improving the conversion rate of your checkout process posted at Conversion Matters, saying, “A summary of the recent e-consultany report about improving the conversion rate of your online checkout process”.
• nitesh123 presents The iPhone: Lots to Love, but Flaws Too posted at anythin.
• Dawn Xiana Moon presents Annoyance and Windows Vista posted at Dawn Xiana Moon: Randomness.
• viju presents Top Wordpress plugins that make your blog smart posted at eTechBuzz.com, saying, “I love wordpress blog platform. Wordpress is easy to manage and for SEO. If you host your blog on this platform I will suggest some plugins that make your blog smart. If you are not hosting on wordpress you are wasting your time on other platforms. Plugins are most useful part of the any wordpress blog design. Here I am going to list some wordpress plugins that are worth to install on any wordpress blog theme.” There are some good ones in there, and I highly recommend checking them out if you use the Wordpress blogging software.
• Ryan Ambrose presents Link Weeding: Do It or Else! posted at The Self-Reliant Post.
• Barbra Sundquist presents Sample Template for Your MySpace About Me Section posted at MySpace About Me.
• Tracy Coenen presents Did you see Sequence Inc. in the Wall Street Journal today? posted at FRAUDfiles, saying, “The Wall Street Journal did an article on entrepreneurs blogging to increase business. It worked for me… and I’m a fraud investigator!”

In the Design category…

• Ryan Ambrose presents Does it Take a PhD to Read Your Content? posted at The Self-Reliant Post, saying, “Is the content on your web site written for the Internet? Read about why you should care here.”
• Yuri presents Use Design Secrets to Create Great Websites posted at Improve the Web, saying, “Learn mind-blowing tips to create websites that will convert more visitors to customers.”
• James Lewitzke presents Top 10 Web Savvy Tips for Beginners posted at Toptenlisted.com, saying, “I wrote this article to help people who want to build a web site from scratch.” I agree with the domain part especially.  You can get a domain name for $6/year from 1and1. You’ll seem a lot more professional if you have a domain.
• Amanda Harris presents Using Free Themes posted at Pajama Mommy.
• Amanda Harris presents Collection of Themes posted at Pajama Mommy.
• Daniel Condurachi presents New Website Project - Marketing Support Web Site - graphic design in progress posted at Daniel Condurachi’s Blog.

In the General category…

• Vandelay Website Design presents 83 Top Webmaster Resources << Vandelay Website Design posted at Vandelay Website Design.
• V. Neely presents Fantastico in a Nutshell: An Easy Way to Install WordPress posted at Nutshell Journal, saying, “Guide for new bloggers: Some tips for installing WordPress with Fantastico. Includes screen shots.” See? A $6 domain name and some cheap hosting are all you need to start a professional blog. You don’t need to be a geek.
• Warren Wong presents Just Do It posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, “Are you pondering over a task? Are you not sure if you should do it? Here’s why you should just do it!”
• Jonathan Deamer presents Ten answers to the un-answerable question: what is Web 2.0? posted at Jonathan Deamer.
• Ybother presents Daily Top Ten List: 10 Steps to Hosting Java on LunarPages posted at A Top Ten List Everyday to Jumpstart Your Knowledge, saying, “10 Step tutorial for those wanting to host Java on Lunarpages. Must reading before signing up!”
• Jimmy Atkinson presents Free Speech Hosting: 11 Web Hosts That Won?t Dump You at the First Sign of Controversy posted at Dedicated Hosting Guide.
• Khalid Hajsaleh presents 31 quick points to instantly understand online conversion posted at INVESP Consulting.
• R.Pettinger presents 7 Tips to Make Your Writing More Interesting posted at Net Writing, saying, “How to make your writing more interesting and stand out from the crowd”
• Bhupendra Khanal presents Avinash Kaushik: Rewriting the Indian Knowledge Economy posted at Analytics Bhupe, saying, “Avinash Kaushik is the number one analytics blogger in the world today and he has achieved this position in less than a year.”
• Stephen Ward presents How to Get the Best Deal on Blog Hosting posted at Building a Better Website.
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents Evaluation is Critical for Success. How to Measure Your Progress. posted at Millionaire Mommy Next Door, saying, “I have learned from past experience with my other projects, goals and small businesses that it is crucial to monitor progress using analytical measures. Regular evaluations of any project are important for keeping it on track and in alignment with one’s vision. Today, on my one month blogiversary, I am illustrating this important evaluation process.”
• Tom Banks presents How to write good meta tags posted at Tips for Webmasters, saying, “This article will help you write good meta tags!”
• Amanda Harris presents Content Resources posted at Pajama Mommy.
• Amanda Harris presents Timestamping posted at Pajama Mommy.
• Amanda Harris presents Setting Up a Business Website posted at Pajama Mommy.
• Tom Banks presents Increasing your google page rank posted at Tips for Webmasters, saying, “This article will help webmasters and bloggers to increase their google page rank.”
• Matt Harzewski presents Don’t Block Firefox! posted at Webmaster-Source.

In “Monetization”…

• Don presents 7 Tips For Building An Opt In Email List For Increased Profits posted at AffiliateWatcher.Com, saying, “Article submission can bring in a flood of targeted traffic, which leads to a higher click through rate and increased purchases. Find out how to do it right and the most effective tactics to increase your website or blogs earnings.”
•  Steve Ashton presents How To Get Started With Google AdWords posted at MoneyMakingShed.com, saying, “Learn how to get started using Google’s CPC advertising tool. The steps you need to get you up and running.”
• Ant presents Make More Money with AuctionAds posted at The Beef Jerky Blog.
• Scott Allen presents Make Money with Embedded News Video from TheNewsRoom posted at Revenue River, saying, “A new site (in beta) is offering a nice embedded news video player which includes CPM advertising, typically unavailable to smaller publishers.”

And Traffic-Building…

• Kiltak presents How to write posts that people will actually read posted at [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News.
• Madeleine Begun Kane presents Ode To The Google PageRank Obsession posted at Mad Kane’s Humor Blog.
• Raj Dash presents Better Websites: 7 Elements of Good Link Building Articles posted at Logo Design Blog, saying, “Link building is an important part of raising the profile of your website. Done successfully, it also has the side effect of increasing your traffic.”
• Anna Farmery presents A-Z of Promoting Your Podcast posted at Podcast Freq.
• Amanda Harris presents Pajama Mommy Community posted at Pajama Mommy.
• Paul Heingarten presents Search Engine Marketing: how to do it for less money posted at PRH Solutions Blog, saying, “It is really easy to spend a lot of money promoting your website. Read this article on how I promote my websites without spending a lot of money.”
• Paul Heingarten presents Article Marketing - Write Your Way Into Search Results - Traffic And $$$ posted at Internet and Businesses Online: SEO Articles from EzineArticles.com, saying, “SEO, SEO, wherefore art thou SEO? Or something like that.”
• Don presents Yahoo Answers - Drive Targeted Traffic To Your Site posted at AffiliateWatcher.Com, saying, “This little know tactic can drive hordes of targeted traffic to your website…if done properly. In this article, I’ll show you how to take advantage of this untapped traffic source!”
• edithyeung presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog - Part 1 posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Technorati tags: webmaster articles, blog carnival.

It’s pretty much definite that Apple’s going to update their iPod lineup sometime from September to November. What are they going to do? Here are my predictions:

• They will start using OS X to power the iPods.
• The iPod Shuffle will stay as-is, though the price may drop.
• The 30GB and 80GB iPods will have MultiTouch screens on the front instead of clickwheels.
• The Nano will receive some updates, but will mainly look the same. The pricing may come down and/or the storage capacity may increase.
• The “Fat iPod” seen online (before Apple sent a take-down notice) will be a midrange model between the Nano and Hard Drive models. Maybe an iPod Mini reincarnation?
• Some models (not the Nano) will have Wi-Fi support. The wireless abilities could be used in a Zune-like manner (only better), as well as for syncing. Though it would be cool if you could buy iTunes tracks at hotspots, but it’s unlikely unless Apple starts letting you move songs from iPod to computer.
• The MultiTouch iPod may be like a phoneless iPhone (a.k.a. the Ultimate iPod). I hope it is.

The average consumer thinks of a computer as yet another appliance. To non-geeks it is another device similar to a TV or a CD Player. It’s used for gaming, email, and basic internet usage.

The computer is not an appliance though. It’s a medium. Computers are just another way of storing an manipulating data. You read magazines, sent snail mail messages, played cassette tapes, and edited video with a razor and adhesive. Now you read blogs, send email, play MP3s, and edit video with Adobe Premier. It’s just another way of doing things.

At the same time, computers are more than that. So what is a computer? It’s a medium, and a bit more, but it’s not an appliance.

Did you know the top 5 countries with the fastest broadband are Japan, Sweden, Latvia, Romania, and Bulgaria? How fast is your broadband? Your ISP may tell you that you’ve got “1.5mb/sec”, but that’s a theoretic maximum. It’s unlikely your speed is that fast. Also, that theoretic “1.5 megabits per second” is just the download speed. How fast can you upload files? There’s a 99.9999999% chance that it’s nowhere near the download speed (think 1/5 to 1/4 of the download speed).

How fast is your connection? Find out at SpeedTest.net. Just choose a server and it will conduct a couple of tests. Your download and upload speeds will be outputted at the end, along with the latency (important if your a gamer).

My ISP advertises 1MB/sec download speeds (and it costs $45!), and I was amazed to get the following result from SpeedTest.net

Note that the speed will vary depending on several factors, such as how many other users are online.

Mozilla Firefox is a much better web browser than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer (IE) may have come pre-loaded on your computer, but you’re in no way required to use the mediocre software.

Firefox is not only faster and more powerful, but it’s more secure as well. In the year of 2006, there were (supposing everyone kept IE up to date) 284 days that Internet Explorer wasn’t secure. Firefox? Only nine days. With Firefox, you are immune to ActiveX exploits, and far less susceptible to other “drive-by” attacks.

In addition to security benefits, there are plenty of usability features as well. For starters, Firefox loads renders web pages faster than IE, saving you significant amounts of time, whether you have dial-up or broadband. You get tabbed browsing, which allows you to have multiple web pages open in a single window, saving you from taskbar clutter (as well as making it easier for you to switch among the open pages). You can also

• Read RSS feeds
• Toss your cookies, history, and cache effortlessly, hiding your browsing tracks
• Install add-ons (also called “Extensions”) to enhance your browsing experience
• Change the way Firefox looks with themes.

You’ll have to put up with a lot less web annoyances with Firefox. When you surf the web with Firefox, there are less pop-ups, no websites disabling your Back button or resizing your window, and no spyware hijacking your home page. If you install an ad-blocking extension, you can even get rid of banner ads.

What about your bookmarks (or Favorites) and saved passwords? When you install Firefox, you’re given the option of copying them into Firefox. You won’t lose a thing. If you’re still having trouble deciding, remember that you can use both browsers at once. At least try Firefox out for a couple of days. There’s a good chance you like it (once you get used to the subtle differences). If not, you can just uninstall Firefox.

As a final note, you’ll be doing the web a favor by using Firefox. You’ll be using a web browser that fully supports the w3C web standards (which IE doesn’t), and you will be one less person propping-up Microsoft’s oligopoly on web browsers.

What are you waiting for? Download Firefox!

Will we all use thought-controlled computers in the future? I think not…

Thought-based input would be cool, but there’s no way it would work. Sure, you have some early attempts, like the Project Epoc game helmet, but there’s no way you could write an email/blog post/book/etc with your mind. If the text you’re putting onscreen comes directly from your mind, hmmm… I should get some more coffee you will likely have unwanted thoughts mixed-in.

Obviously “mind-reading” computers aren’t a good idea. Now, what was that I was going to write next? Hmm…. What was it? Oh, yeah… Voice recognition systems aren’t much better. Suppose you’re dictating to your computer (which sounds like fun). Someone walks into the room and says “you haven’t saved that yet? Be careful not to close the window.” You lose an hour of work that you forgot to save. After all, it’s much easier to save your document by pressing Ctrl-S than by saying “File…Save.”

I’m not bashing dictation software, but merely pointing out that it does have some downsides. As for thought-input? Forget it.

What the heck is an “LOLCat”? Sometimes called “Cat Macros,” LOLCats are pictures of cats with captions, generally in that annoying chatspeek. There’s even a blog consisting only of LOLCats….and it’s the top blog on Wordpress.com. Yeah, kind of dorky.

Most LOLCats are really stupid, though they instantly become funny if they’re related to computers. Examples: (more…)

The iPhone…what exactly is it? Is it a phone? Is it a portable web device? Is it an iPod? It’s all of those, and then some.

Apple has given us a device that shows us a glimpse of the future. What lies ahead? Only Apple knows, but I can hazard a few guesses.

iPods

The iPod’s current “clickwheel” navigation system has been proven to be intuitive and easy to use. It’s one of the features that placed the iPod ahead of the pack. Could Apple be contemplating replacing the clickwheel with an iPhone-style touchscreen?

People have been clamoring for a widescreen video iPod. The iPhone is not that iPod. It is too expensive and, well, it’s a phone. The current iPod lineup includes the 30-80GB iPods, the smaller flash-based iPod Nano, and the screenless iPod Shuffle. The full-sized iPods can play video, while the others can’t. Could Apple replace the hard disk-based iPods with a new iPod model featuring a touchscreen? It’s possible.

I doubt that Apple would totally kill-off the clickwheel, but they could remove it from the video-capable models. Could they go beyond that and introduce web surfing features to the iPods? Who knows, only time will tell.

iComputers?

This may be wishful thinking, but I sure hope it isn’t. Though we may not see it in the next ten years, I think it’s inevitable that we’ll eventually have a pocket-sized computer.

For those who don’t mind Windows, there’s already the OQO. This gadget is a full-featured computer with a 1GHZ processor, a 60GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a 5-inch 800×600 display. Though it’s a bit big, it’s a real computer you can almost fit in your pocket.

Why should Windows users have all the fun? I’m sure Apple could build something like the OQO, only smaller and better. The iPhone runs on a scaled-down version of OS X, so it’s the first step. With their MultiTouch technology and their technical expertise they could do it.

I don’t think this idea is too far-fetched. Today’s technology may not allow an iPod-sized Mac, but I bet it will eventually. In a few years, there will be a shift in the way computers are used. I think that we’ll all carry computers in our pockets one day. We’ll keep a monitor, keyboard, and other peripherals at home along with an external hard drive for storing less-used files. You’ll just plug your computer into a docking station and enjoy the benefits of full-sized input/output devices. Oh, and we’ll have 5MB/sec wireless data services for reasonable prices. Heck, while I’m at it, Apple’s Mac OS will be the mainstream operating system and Mozilla Firefox will be the dominant browser.

Pocket computers may be 10-20 years away, but I think we may be getting a touchscreen iPod sometime much sooner.

It’s out. The new iMac is here.

Pretty cool isn’t it? The design is the same as the old version, though it’s silvery instead of white, and it looks a little thinner. The color’s nice; it’s not in-your-face METAL, but a subtle aluminum-type effect.

The base machine is $1,199 with a 20-inch display, a 2GHZ Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, an 8x SuperDrive, and a decent video card.

There’s another 20-inch model and a couple 24-inches. Take a look at the options.

The Tech Specs are looking pretty good, and you’re getting a lot more for your money now. If you’ve got enough dough to spend, you can get up to terabyte of internal hard drive space, 4GB of RAM, and a 2.8GHZ Core 2 Extreme. What will that top-level model run you?  $3,449.

The new iMac looks good, and it’s pretty powerful.

Google has been editing a YouTube video about GMail. The cool part? Everyone gets to participate. The first half of the video is currently online on the GMail Video Page. Just print-out the GMail “M-Velope” image and film yourself. The idea is to help everyone “imagine how an email message travels around the world.” It’s an interesting idea, take a look. The deadline for your clip submission is August 13th, and all clips must be under 10 seconds.

Cool, but I hope those Google guys are actually working on GMail, not devoting all their time to this!