Wordpress and Google
December 7th, 2005
After moving the blog to Wordpress there have been a couple of steps involved in trying to get Google to index the site the way it had been with the old system. I’ve noticed quite a few blogs running with the basic install, which gives you confusing URLs and page descriptions in search results. If you’re still running a default Wordpress blog, these two tips might be helpful.
The first thing you should do is setup the Permalinks for your blog. This is under Options > Permalinks, and unless you have a reason to do otherwise you might as well go with the suggested structure of /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/
This will change the URLs for your posts from something like this:
http://www.designmeme.com/?p=40
to this:
http://www.designmeme.com/2005/11/29/firefox-15/
Much better for search engines, bookmarks and putting into email.
After Google had reindexed the site I noticed the next problem—every page had the same description metadata, which meant every search result for this site listed the same text. That certainly wasn’t ideal.
I tried a few plugins and settled on using Head Meta Description, which automatically generates a meta tag based on the content of your posts. After Google once again reindexed the blog the search results changed from this:
Design Meme » Firefox 1.5
News, information and tips for designers, developers, and independent media artists.
to this:
Design Meme » Firefox 1.5
Firefox Version 1.5 came out today. If you’re not using it already, you really
should give it a try. Pages …
Again much better for people finding the content they’re looking for on this site.
The next thing I need to consider is the Optimal placement of the blog name in page titles and links.
Would this be better: Firefox 1.5 » Design Meme?
Best Webcomics of 2005
December 6th, 2005
It seems to be the time of year when the “best of 2005” lists start appearing. Most of the “best webcomics of 2005” lists are basically, whatever the people working on that site happen to like. If they don’t like the genre or the artwork themselves, it won’t be on their list. I guess in that way they’re like mini Academy Awards… with a lot less glitz and glamour.
That got me thinking about del.icio.us, the social bookmarking tool I’ve been using this year. It lets you check how many other people have bookmarked a particular site. If you think of a bookmark as being a vote for a particular website, then the info from del.icio.us provides a fairly good listing of the Top Webcomics of 2005 as selected by the audience. I guess in some ways that makes this the Webcomics People’s Choice Awards.
I’ve only included sites that have received at least 50 bookmarks / votes from del.icio.us users. If I’ve missed your comic, please email me and I’ll add it to the list—however, because of the changing nature of del.icio.us, I may choose to start adding new sites in an appendixes rather than putting them into the list. The list will be finalized at the end of 2005, which means after that I’m happy to hear about your site, but I won’t add it to the list for this year.
So here they are—
...continue readingSkype and MOAI
December 4th, 2005
I was talking with my friend Aron West on Friday using the new Skype 2.0. It had been a while since I last used Skype… probably not since talking with Joey Manley back in the early spring. I remembered it being pretty good sound quality at the time—but not as good as the phone. The new Skype was much clearer. Maybe it was just the connections Aron and I were using, but it was easily as good as the phone. I can see myself using this more regularly now.
Aron is the drummer for MOAI —an Alt-Rock-Electronic band—and like mosts bands these days MOAI has it’s own MySpace.com page where you can listen to their music and get info what they’re doing. I haven’t spent much time with Myspace, but it apparently gets more hits than Google and has become very important for music marketing.
Top 10 Webcomic Resources
December 3rd, 2005
Adding to the the section on tools and workspaces I wrote for the Webcomics book, here is my list of the top 10 webcomic resources.
Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud
A comic book about comic books, and an incredible resource for anyone working in the graphic arts. Understanding Comics provides numerous insights for how to structure your comics.
DrawingBoard.org
Some of the best illustrators on the web post their artwork on this message board, and the numerous drawing challenges provide a great opportunity to improve your artwork and get feedback.
Strathmore Sketchbook
Everyone has a different type of paper that they like. I’m partial to Strathmore, and find the sketchpads fairly economical while giving much nicer drawing surface than whatever I’ve got in the printer.
Sakura Brush Pen
The organic and variable line weight of a brush, with the convenience of a pen. A brush pen won’t spill, and is cheaper than most ink and brushes.
Blambot Fonts, by Nate Piekos
Tons of comic lettering fonts for dialogue, sound fx, and titles. Each month two new fonts are added to the catalogue—and one of them is free for independent comic book creation and non-profit use!
Adobe Photoshop
Most web hosting companies limit the amount of bandwidth your website can use each month. Making sure your webcomic images are properly optimized is an important, and often overlooked step in online publishing.
Wordpress
A free blogging system you can add to your website. Having a blog is a good way to keep your webcomic readers informed, and makes updating services like Google and Technorati a lot easier. Some web hosting companies even offer wordpress to all their users.
Google Adsense
A great idea for making some extra income from your webcomic, signing up for google adsense lets you put ads on your website based on your specific content. Visit DJ Coffman’s thoughts on making money with your webcomic for more advice on advertising.
Comic Book Legal Defence Fund
News and information about comic censorship in the U.S. If you’re thinking of making an edgy or adult themed comic, this may be a good resource for you.
Coffee
Whether you get your fix from Tim Horton’s or make it at home in a coffee press, this is essential. Use with caution.
I’d be interested in hearing from other artists about webcomic resources they’d add to this list.
Hortence is the Ugliest Pumpkin in the World
December 2nd, 2005
Jeff McCartney and I have been teaching web design at the University of Guelph-Humber this fall. It’s been a good semester and I’ve enjoyed seeing the class move from (mostly) never having published a webpage to setting up their own blogs and publishing their portfolios. I wanted to share a rather unusual assignment from one of Jeff’s students…
Hortence is the ugliest pumpkin in the world and Bill Coleman is a funny guy. Make sure you keep going until the last page, and let’s hope Jeff gave Bill a good mark on this.
Update on the new site: I’ve been adding more 301 redirects for broken links, and I’m hoping they’re all in place now. Anyone who was finding broken links to older articles should be able to find them now.
Moving the blog archive
December 1st, 2005
I’ve been moving the archived blog entries over to the new site. While it would make sense to use some type of XML export / import process to move the data the old MovableType database no longer runs well enough to make that possible. That’s not a criticism of MovableType—I’m still very pleased with it. It’s just that the Perl / Berkley DB environment I was running it under wasn’t ideal… and now it doesn’t work.
Looking back over the archive of the past 3 years I can really see that I’ve gotten more comfortable with writing—although I’m still much more concise than I’d like. I still have to force myself not to condence my blog entries too much. Some of my earliest posts weren’t even worth moving over. One entry was literally this short:
Blambot’s Nate Piekos offers a wide range of high-quality comic lettering fonts.
Wow. I type about as much now when I’m adding a bookmark to del.icio.us!
Actually, it’s del.icio.us that inspired me to expand the number of categories I’m using for the site. I’m now using them the same way I use tags on del.icio.us. I think that might help technorati work with the site as well. The benefit to you, is being able to find whatever you’re looking for a bit more easily—whether it’s a tutorial or what I’ve written about webcomics.
Updates to wordpress continue—the Captcha on the comments pages is now gone, and I’ve added a plugin to generate a Google Sitemap.
