Can you imagine 20 years ago? 15 years ago? No Photoshop at all. Computers themselves were so primitive. When it came to design, you did it the old fashioned way. You picked up something to draw with and went to town. If after all of your hard work something needed to be edited, that was a whole another process. Photoshop came swooping into the world in February of 1990. It didn't quite change the game upon impact. The history palette wasn't even available until 1998.

Look at it now. 20 years old and it has grown into the digital imagery behemoth that truly has revolutionized how images are done. By done I mean processed, edited, retouched, published, etc. Photoshop on it's own is so powerful that in this blog post it isn't possible to describe it's capabilities. Lately is has improved on creating 3D objects, retouching and publishing for the web. Perhaps it is truly so great because it works so well with it's team. It's team is Adobe's Creative Suite software group. Select and rate items in Adobe Bridge and jump it to Photoshop. Or export that Illustrator file over. So many different things...

Easy to master? No. Worth it to master? Definitely. If you are interested in digital imagery, check it out. Watch some videos on it. You can make a career out of it.

Us, as a Joomla Development company, depend on quality PSD files for our custom templates. Our designers come up with some top notch designs that we implement into our Joomla Projects.

If interested in Joomla Development or starting a MN SEO package, contact us.

This is a large part of business for Happy Dog. What is so cool about Joomla development? It is like taking part in website evolution. You easily go from the primitive days of static HTML pages and scattered content to having everything in one handy content management system. Read the blog posts here. The CMS for Joomla is off the charts cool. It is so versatile. Want e-commerce? Got it. Want a scheduler? Got it. Want a forum? Got it. Want a blog? Got it. Want a portfolio? Got it. The possibilities are endless.

Short and sweet, did I drive the point home? Joomla rocks. Now, the question is, what are you going to do with it?

A commonly asked question is "How can I make changes to my website myself?".  Typically, this is looked down upon amongst web designers and developers.  The margin for error is too great sometimes and with the old primitive way of websites, it was almost a guarantee that if the site edits were not done by a professional, there would be errors.  Maybe not errors that would stand out right away, but perhaps only show up in a specific browser.  Maybe text wouldn't wrap around an image anymore. There was always a good chance that the hard work done by the developer would get saved over, deleted, or messed up. A tried and true and still effective method used is to simply send your requests to your web developer and have them do it for you.

With Joomla, now there is another way.  If done properly, you can create a hierarchy of content editing and submission all through your front end.  In Joomla, you can assign roles to different people, allowing them more restricted and less restricted abilities.

Authors can write content and edit their own content. They are given a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor that allows them to create powerful articles. They are restricted from editing other people’s articles and publishing. Editors have authoring abilities but can also edit any author’s articles, and get them ready for submission, and send them off to submission. Publishers have all the abilities of those underneath, and get to publish the articles they have written or the articles that were presented to them by their editors.

If you run a business, this could be critical.  This allows you to decide who writes your content, who edits it and who decides if it is worthy to be published and publishes it. The margin for error this way is next to nothing.

With this ability, businesses can log into their website and make changes right there from the front end. If businesses sign up for a MN SEO plan, they can view some of the SEO coding that has been done for them, So, if you are a business owner or somebody concerned about making changes to a potential website, this is the way to go. Of course, have your Joomla professionally installed or else you will get some headaches. Happy Dog would be happy to install your Joomla and even train you.

What is it? It is a service, usually on the web,that helps engaged couples in paying for special portions of their honeymoons.

History

They began around 20 years ago as an option provided by travel agencies. There are some agencies that still offer this. Today's honeymoon registry has evolved from just the booking and planning of the overall honeymoon. With the wonderful power of the Internet, they can go online and sign up with a company that offers this as a service. Usually they will receive their own customizable page that they can share with their friends for signing up.

The average Honeymoon Registry

These specialty websites allow each couple to customize and create a web page with details and photos of their upcoming honeymoon. Each couple that gets this service will get to ask anybody they desire to help out, usually via email. The people that are asked are then usually redirected to the registry site so they can help with either a portion of the overall cost of the honeymoon or even pay for specific purchases or activities help make the honeymoon more memorable.

Other Features

• Some sites offer assistance with thank you cards.
• Customized honeymoon registry invites.
• Custom landing page for the couple's registry with photos of the couple.

Is it proper etiquette to do this? Will people be offended?

In 2008, the Wall Street Journal reviewed popular Honeymoon Registry services. They came up with this conclusion.

"A honeymoon is a perfectly appropriate gift to request."

"There's no objection to it from an etiquette point of view."

Good Points

• The couple may not have been able to afford certain activities or services before using.
• Couples can register for things that can mean more than just items from a store.
• Sometimes this can go seamlessly with a wedding registry, creating a smooth and sophisticated approach to invitees.
• Items received are more likely to create lifelong memories.
• Sometimes, the thank you card can be almost completely customized and automated, alleviating any stress on the newlyweds.

Bad Points

• There are not many bad points. There may be some bad service providers. Make sure the company specializes in honeymoon registries and has been in business for a while before using.

For the best experience with your honeymoon registry, check out Paradise Registry.

Beware of bad SEO companies

When performing SEO for your website, it is critical to do an effective campaign otherwise you will be waiting a long time to see a return on your investment, if at all.  To dumb SEO down, just for the sake of this post, you must create backlinks and optimize your sites coding and content for success.  Obviously, you want to run a campaign that represents your site.  Google can tell when you are just trying to get hits.  Plus your conversion would be lower anyways.

SEO companies use special software to guide them in creating great backlinks for your site.  The back links can range from article posts, blog submissions, relevant link posting, directory submissions, etc. There are many ways to create backlinks.  So now you know what you need, and a good SEO company should give that to you.

When I contacted a large SEO firm a long time ago, they described SEO thoroughly.  They even had special software that kept track of every link they made.  I went ahead and signed up.  They claimed their rate at $30/hr, which to me seemed more than reasonable for a US company.   After a couple of months I checked on what exactly they were doing.  The first month was a bunch of directory submissions, clocked at 10 minutes a piece.  I was curious about this, so I tried to use the software for my self in the do-it-yourself section of their business.  It was giving me 10 minutes credit for each submission.  So I checked other types of links.  Article posts got credit for two and a half hours!  Blog submissions were an hour and 15 minutes!  Just doing the SEO myself I timed it out to each directory submission takes only 30 seconds to a minute, and everything else was around 10 times quicker to do than what gets credit for.

I then asked why I was being billed for 6 directory submissions each hour, when it should have been 60-80?  They just explained that each submission is worth that much time.  It makes no sense.

It is companies like this that say they offer $30/hr service and in reality you are paying $300/hr.  So, beware of the tricky SEO companies.

If you want to use the best mailing list possible, including online mailing lists, check out BDirect Marketing