Latest Thoughts from the Chosen Collective

Web Hosting Package

Tue, July 21, 2009 View Comments by Clayton McIlrath

What to look for in a Web Hosting Package

Buying a hosting plan can be as easy as purchasing one online, but you should know what you’re getting into. If you don’t know all of the ins and outs of web hosting, it can seem a little confusing. From managing files to ensuring security, there are numerous things to be concerned about before making that final click. Thankfully, there are a lot of different web hosting options out there, so take the time to investigate each package to make sure you’re getting what you need to make your web presence a success. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Easy Backups

Before you entrust your important site assets and files to a web hosting company, make sure they offer some sort of automatic backup system. It should come included as part of the web hosting package.

2. Advanced Emailing

Successfully running a website means being able to interact directly with your website visitors. You’ll want to make sure that the web hosting plan offers at least POP3 email capabilities standard.

3. Web Statistics

You will undoubtedly want to have the ability to track who is coming to your website and from where. The web hosting plan should offer some basic web analytics for free and more advanced ones for purchase.

4. PHP and MySQL Functionality

A good web hosting package should include compatibility with standard programming languages such as PHP. Also, having MySQL capabilities makes it easy to run advanced back-end operations and database tasks.

5. FTP Service and Virtual FTP

You will also want the ability to manage files remotely, securely and efficiently. FTP access lets you easily add and remove files from your system architecture. This has become a standard that you should definitely have with any hosting plan.

6. User-Friendly Interface

The days of complex programming being the only way to access your web hosting functions are gone. Today, look for an affordable hosting package that employs a simple, straightforward user interface. Many packages offer a Windows-based interface that is both familiar and intuitive to most personal computer users.

7. HTTPS Secure

HTTPS makes secure connections possible over otherwise unsecured browser connections. This basic technique for encrypting regular hypertext messages is a clear sign that your site is trustworthy and safe. This is important for member services and client log ins on your website.

8. Shell protection

SSH security shells make it easier to mange the secure files and private assets on your website. Without it, administrative actions are less secure, something that you cannot risk if you have sensitive information stored on your server.

9. Webmail

Webmail is all about access. If you are not at your private laptop or desktop and you have no specialized software to retrieve your email, you can use webmail to access your email from any computer with a working internet connection and regular web browser.

10. SPAM protection

If you are going to be able to manage your time effectively, you don’t want to deal with loads of spam mail. This is an increasing problem, so be sure that any web hosting package you are considering has protection for your inbox.

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jQuery Tooltip Plugin

Tue, July 14, 2009 View Comments by Clayton McIlrath

jQuery is one of the strongest and most flexible javascript libraries to use in web development. With the framework and API being so open and well documented, it’s easy for a developer of any skill level to develop their own effects and plugins. Today we offer you a jquery tooltip plugin for download. This plugin is a mod of the original made by Flowplayer with enhanced ease implementation and accessibility. Please take the time to review the documentation and understand some minor differences:

Tooltip jQuery Implementation

Tooltip HTML Implementation

The tooltip reads the target (in the example above, the target would be all <a> tags with the class of tooltip), and creates a tooltip based upon the title attribute on that link. For example:

link

View Demo or Download

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3 Quick Tips to Increase your Sales

Sun, July 5, 2009 View Comments by Justin Nowak

Prepare

Research the company or client you are selling to, gathering any interesting information you can. When you are speaking with your client common questions are: what do you know about their business or why you think your product or service would be great for them, this is your opportunity to shine with the preparation stage, if you can bust this information out you’ll have them hooked and ready to reel in! Being prepared and knowing your client will show that you have an active interest in what they are doing, and people like to hear things about themselves, we all know that’s true!

Part of preparation is getting a good sleep, it will make your day that much easier and you will be that much more sharp. After I get up from a good sleep (which is hard being an entrepreneur) I sit down and set up my goals for that day. Making a plan of action has helped me stay focused on my targets and has lead me to sales success!

Listen

When your client is talking actively be sure to listen. Don’t just nod in agreement, but also make eye contact. It’s important to find a balance with eye contact, matching the client’s behavior but also keeping a couple tips in mind: too much eye contact will make them uncomfortable and too little will make them think you lack confidence.

While you’re listening be sure to analyze the client’s words and behaviors. You can find all sorts of clues that will help you with your sales pitch, and it is another great way to show that you care about what your client needs. You should recap what your customer expresses as interest or importance while you are stating the benefits of your product.. use their words to reinforce why they need to buy from you!

Taking listening a step further by taking notes about what your customer is saying. This shows even more interest and it can help you remember to recap on some points you may otherwise forget. When you recap show the notes and go point by point with your customer explaining why your products fit their needs with their own words!

Follow Up

Always follow up, whether you get the sale or not. If you did get the sale its nice to catch any problems early so you can fix them before your customer gets frustrated. This will increase your customer satisfaction and turn customers into loyal friends to continue business. If you didn’t get the sale make sure you still follow up, most times it takes a few tries to get the sale. Make that connection with your customers and they will be very loyal!

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Free Download: Mockup Application

Thu, July 2, 2009 View Comments by Clayton McIlrath

We introduce to you, the second of many applications from Chosen that you can apply to your business or freelancing website. This one is a very simple mockup application which can be modified to do a whole lot more. We developed this application to allow our designers to share mockups with clients without having to know or understand HTML to include images on a web page. This system allows them to simply create a new directory and upload the mockups and the script does the rest. It uses a simple read directory function in PHP and displays them using jQuery for a show/hide interface. The readdir function is based upon folders with an _underscore. This allows you to select which folders you’d like to share without revealing other files in the directory. Unfortunately we can’t give you the full application, but this is a great foundation for an application to share mockups with clients.

Checking out the Application

Download Source Files

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Trends for Surfing the Web

Sun, June 21, 2009 View Comments by Clayton McIlrath

The internet is a vast ocean of data, networks, people and creativity.

Surfing the Web: in the beginning

Just a couple decades ago, the internet was like a messy toddler that few organizations paid much attention to or corrected. Websites followed different standards, markup languages were so loosely formed, and browsers all had such different rendering engines, that nobody bothered trying to add design and creativity to their content.

But that changed very quickly. Groups started coming together and organizing information, creating standards for website architecture and viewing the web as a creative medium rather than just an information database. Within a few years we’ve gone from basic standards for markup to cross-platform integration, scripting, and rendering for how a website should look and function. This transition became commonly know as Web 2.0 which was a tidal wave that the best of web developers were/are looking to ride! Now that Web 2.0 has leveled out, it’s time to prepare for the next wave in technology and trends, which we at Chosen like to call the webOS (standing for interoperability of Web and Operating Systems).

What do we mean by webOS?

Just like Web 2.0 was a term referring to the collective trends that web designers and developers followed to utilize newer technologies and ideas, webOS represents how the web has transformed to be more than just about design and data, but has extended far beyond the browser and onto the desktop and cell phones of almost every internet user.

What technologies are used in this trends?

There are many technologies and designs involved in various trends. To better understand, let’s compare past trends with more current trends:

Web 2.0

To put it simply, the technologies that are “2.0″ are the ones that aim to be fluid, futuristic, and user friendly. Good interface design and Graphic Design are two huge trends that are vastly improving the web and are paving the way for new standards for how a website should look and feel. You can see these 2.0 trends with Javascript Animation and AJAX. AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) isn’t so much a new technology or language but rather it’s simply more developed and supported by browsers. Many developers have joined together to further the simplicity of these technologies by offering libraries to do the complex work with a few simple commands. Lightbox, JQuery, Dojo, MooTools, Prototype, etc are all such libraries that focus to offer the developer a set of tools for animating and communicating via Javascript. Most sites that claim to be 2.0 are using some sort of AJAX or animation usually formed with one of such libraries or have a very clean and futuristic style to them

Another growing trend that started with Web 2.0 and has grown even more with webOS, is Semantic Markup / Data Formatting. Semantic Markup is a standard for how to structure data so that Web Browsers and the user and read the content more easily, as well as creating a structure that can be indexed by the computer.
Essentially data formatting is the process for marking up content so that a computer and user can more easily separate and organize data. Common data formats are Microformats, XML (eXtended Markup Language) XHTML (XML and HTML), and JSON (Javascript Object Notation). Microformats and Semantic Markup aim to serve content to search engines, browsers, databases and front-end technologies so that the computer can automate and organize work as well as format the content in a clear and concise manner. These technologies are crucial to the web and information architecture.

What is webOS ??

With a rise in popularity and affordability of smart phones and laptops, we’re beginning to see a higher need for interoperability between the web and Operating Systems. webOS (Interoperability between Web and Operating Systems) is a newer trend that aims to bridge the gab between websites and other media devices such as music players, cell phones, data servers, computers, and desktop applications. These technologies are very apparent in social media websites such as twitter and facebook which have extended far beyond the web and are very commonly used on phones and desktop applications.

As I said before, there are several technologies involved with webOS. From the desktop using RIA’s (Rich Internet Applications) using Adobe FLEX/AIR, to cell phones using API’s (Application Program Interface) there are solutions for nearly every programming language and every operating system to exchange information across the web. These applications are growing rapidly and the need for developers is higher than ever. If you’re interested in the webOS trend, start by reading some blogs on Flex and RIA’s as well as Agile Development and API’s.

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