Plain Old Semantic HTML » Semantics

Branding Yourself

Martin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:11:49 +0000

I’m going to buy this book. And if you are creating a brand for a client, or yourself, I suggest you read Crushit by Gary Vaynerchuk:

Anyone Care About HTML 5.0?

Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 04:36:38 +0000

photo credit: Tomas Caspers
Since the majority of people use Internet Explorer, are you designers even looking at HTML 5.0?

Let us know!

Martin — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:43:23 +0000

I have been looking everywhere for standards compliant, XHTML 1.0 Transitional (1.1 and Strict of course) website templates to use on sites I manage. Of course I can create them myself, thank you very much , but if you ever have had an order as a web designer for 50+ sites within the timespan of a few days to fill, and you are busy with other things, then you’ll agree with me that finding a treasure like this would be a real help.

photo credit: grenade
I actually found a web site that offers free templates (keeping a footer link to their site), or for a purchase, you can buy your own. If you go to the DreamTemplate.com web site, you can view the website templates they have available. What I did was download one, and viewed the page source. Yes, they have a XHTML 1.0 Transitional DOCTYPE, and minus a few validation errors (like a non closed BR), the markup was very semantic. Great for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as well, but that’s for another post. Let me just say that semantic coding is the benchmark for SEO.

If you’ll notice on their site,

POSH Is Still POSH

Martin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:12:13 +0000

There is always going to be the need for POSH!

Web Standards in Design

Martin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:12:03 +0000

There has been updates to the web standards authority site. It’s also moving on up in Google’s SERPs. All in all, great info and SEO.

Semantic WordPress Themes Revisited

Martin — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:23:22 +0000

photo credit: schoschie

It seems to keep coming up in conversations I have – that the WordPress CMS is probably the best platform for a site owner to run “out of the box”. And with that, there are tons of (X)HTML correct and valid, Semantic WordPress Themes available. Heck, I will even create one for you!

Affordable Web Hosting

Martin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:58:49 +0000

photo credit: richardmasoner
During the end of last year (2007), and up to now (August 15th, 2008), I have gone from switching my web host company close to four times – yes, I did say four times! And I say “close” because just recently I switched back to the one I am on now. I had actually ran my sites on their servers for one week, but strange DNS issues as well as other things made the decision for me to switch back. So why did I put myself through all that (DNS) torture? Well, for me, it came down to a few things…

Price
Services
Tech response times
Reseller availability
Customer satisfaction ratings

Running Semantically correct websites myself is a chore within itself, but to also be a hosting reseller, and hosting those same sites as well…that’s like being the surgeon to your own operation! What I recommend you do, if you are like me want want all the best in a web host, you must do your homework! Find a company that has a reputation for both reliability and excellent customer service; one that is very competitive and affordable in their packages. And of course, the must have first rate technical support we well as reseller hosting options. Out of the “almost” four companies I have used for my reseller hosting account, I can honestly say that two of them were just too expensive for their services, and one was rapidly failing in tech support, so I had to “jump ship” so to speak.

So along those lines, I have found Affordable web hosting in imhosted.com – and specifically love their reseller hosting packages. I am a very picky shopper, so imhosted.com needed to have a very customer friendly site that offered high quality services for hosting to their customers. From the reviews I have read, they are extremely reliable in the web hosting industry, and they are highly rated for their specific focus on a “full service” solution.

I have to say that – at least for me – customer service is a huge issue. I expect to recieve the highest levels of support, or I will go elsewhere. I would even pay a bit more for a great support team, than pay cheap prices, and receive cheap support. Since imhosted.com has a great reputation for their services, support, and pricing, I would recommend them to you webmasters who want the best for your clients.

Semantic Advertising

Martin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:53:04 +0000

Semantic Advertising (advertising based around the meaning of text). Now that’s a topic worthy of discussion, especially when one considers an alternative to Google is tangible.

According to CEO Amiad Solomon,

(Semantic Advertising (advertising based around the meaning of text))…will help make advertising more relevant to viewers.

What do you think?

Hello all you Graphic…

Martin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:57:21 +0000

photo credit: Kate_A

Hello all you Graphic Designers. I’m looking for a Graphic Designer to partner with this website or just to get jobs that require unique, original graphic design. Please use the contact form on this site to get a hold of me if you’re interested. Thanks. listen

Semantics Are Not Marketable!

Martin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:48:27 +0000

photo credit: kamaru

I’ve read some disparaging remarks that some marketers (pretty much all of them…) have said in regards to semantics. Specifically statements to the effect that, “I tried using valid web standards markup, but they didn’t pay off in SERPs, so I stopped using them.”

Too bad for the world. These marketers will continue to put out depreciated, non-semantic web sites. And they throw tons $$$ in SEO at them, and those sites spread (like cancer) throught the world wide INaccessible web. Who cares about the byproduct of using valid/semantic HTML anyway, if it doesn’t fit their bottom dollar? Well, I do. I care about that byproduct. Its accessibility. And it’s needed…