SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

Being an avid lover of Google Analytics allows me the ability to stay on top of the latest changes to the web analytics platform.  They recently added the ability to add annotations to the web analytics data that you collect about your website which is now available on all Google Analytics accounts.  This is really a very useful improvement to Google Analytics and for anyone developing a website over a period of time it’s pretty valuable.

So what’s the big deal with Annotations?

Annotations give you a way to mark a specific day on your Google Analytics account to track and manage changes you are making to a website.  In the past I’ve found myself saying “How do I know that this change I am making to my website is a good change or a bad change?” and that answer largely went unanswered until now.

Now you can add annotations to days when you’ve made changes to your website and know exactly what day a change was made when you look at your web analytics.  It’s very useful if you are from the school of thought in web development that when you change your website it does have an effect on your visitors.

How to add Annotations in your Google Analytics Account

So now that you understand how annotations can be used to help you and your website let’s talk about actually how you can set them up and use them in your Google Analytics account.  First of all, you’ll need a Google Analytics account.  Click here to get an account if you don’t already have one and once you’ve got one simply take these steps…

• Login to your Google Analytics account
• Click on your website’s website profile
• Click the down tab located in the main dashboard visits area
• Click the “+ Create new Annotation” link
• Enter the date of the annotation, add an annotation a.k.a. “a note”, select whether you want the annotation “Shared” or “Private” (You would select “Shared” if you had were sharing the annotation among other people who have access to the Google Analytics account and website profile you are setting annotations on specifically)
• Lastly, click “Save” and you are now done creating an annotation

Now that you’ve got it the annotation created you can view it by selecting the day you created the annotation on or a range of days that contain the annotation.  When it’s all said and done the ability to add annotations in Google Analytics can help you identify changes that you made to your website and the outcome of those changes giving you greater insight into what your website is doing and how it’s doing it.

Luc Arnold

Sara Tusar Suhadolc is a web designer and developer living and working in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  She has been involved in designing and developing websites since she was 14.  Back then she was trying to figure out how everything works on the web and today her curiosity has only grown.

She graduated from the University of Maribor in Slovenia back in December 2008 after completing a degree in Interactive Graphic Communications.  Since graduating, she’s been working full-time for a design agency in Slovenia and in the future plans to possibly pursue freelance web design.

I had a chance to ask Sara some questions about her experiences in web design, her knowledge of front-end development and her educational experiences and this is what she had to say…

Luc asks: Sara, how did you first get into web design and why do you still enjoy designing for the web?

Sara says: I started checking source codes and playing around in Photoshop at the age of 14. I have always been interested in how stuff works and websites definitely intrigued me the most. Eleven years later, things haven’t changed much. I am still this curious kid who loves learning about design and creative use of technology on a daily basis. I think that when you acquire enough knowledge the real fun starts. I know that there’s just so much to discover, so many great websites to build so I’m already looking forward to it!

Luc asks: I see that you call yourself a “front-end developer” besides just being a web designer. What have you learned that really makes you a great front end developer?

Sara says: Well, I learned that just being a good front-end developer or just a good web designer isn’t enough. In order to become great you need to be a bit of both – a savvy front-end developer as well as a creative and resourceful web designer. We all know that the Internet is a very specific medium in terms of its possibilities and limitations. Knowing all of them well and having different solutions at hand is almost mandatory if you want your work to stand out.

Luc asks: Do you currently freelance on a full-time or part-time basis and are you selective about the projects you take on?

Sara says: The fact that I have a full time job at the moment keeps me from freelancing on a regular basis. That might change in the future if I manage to attract enough clients. I’m not particularly picky about what projects I take on as long as they represent enough of a challenge and let me express my creativity at the same time. I am at the moment busy designing a web site for this very exciting new start-up called Dog-walker Central, which will be ready for a release with the ability for the public to search profiles in the next 4-5 weeks. After that, we will continue to add features and hopefully the project will be fully up and running in June, so keep your eyes open

Luc asks: I also read on your portfolio site that you have a degree in Interactive Graphic Communications and i just wanted to ask where did you study? Have you graduated and if you have when did you graduate and also how has your education helped you in becoming a design professional?

Sara says: That is correct, I studied Interactive Graphic Communications at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (University of Maribor, Slovenia), graduated in 2008 and was even given the Best Graduate of the Year Award . Having the particular formal educational is of course an important element – it broadens one’s horizons, gives one basic knowledge, but isn’t enough in my experience. If you want to become a real player you have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of free time. You have to literally eat, breathe and dream web design.

Luc asks: You say that you do your best to push the limits when it comes to front-end development and design, how do you go about doing this on your projects?

Luc asks: Extensive knowledge of front-end development helps me in being a better web designer. So, when designing I know exactly how a certain part will be executed and can therefore push the limits of design to the maximum of what is technological possible. I am particularly good at bringing nice fonts to the screen by using methods such as Cufón, Font embedding (Font Squirrel, Typekit) and sIFR.

Australian web designer, David Jonsson comes to us from Byron Bay where he crafts websites with branding and amazing graphic designs.  He got his start in designing for the web when he was living and working in London, England and got hired by a web design agency called “Pod1” and learned a lot of his skills on the job.

David has been designing websites since 2005 and more recently, in the past 3 years, he has been freelancing full-time as a web designer.  David uses typography and his graphic design skills to rework designs for the web and end up looking amazing.

Talking to David, it’s easy to see why he is so passionate about web design, his freelance career and the fact that he has never missed a deadline.  Read on to see what David had to say…

Luc asks: David how did you originally start designing website and what got you interested in web design?

David says: It all started when I left Australia to live in London for 12 months. Luckily enough when I arrived and was looking for a job, my brother mentioned that he had a friend who worked at a design agency that was looking for somebody for a couple of days to do data entry.  Fortunately for me, I learned to touch type at school and got the job. What I didn’t realize though was that I was walking into an amazing web design agency called Pod1. They had some amazing designers who I got the opportunity to sit next to and watch them create some stunning websites from scratch.  I decided then and there that this is what I wanted to do. Thankfully Pod1 kept me around for a bit and my love for design and web design just grew from there. They were all extremely passionate about what they did and the designers would settle for nothing but their best – I think that’s the most important thing that they taught me, be proud of what you do and do it as well as you possibly can.

Luc asks: Do you think in the web design profession it’s possible to become uninspired and bored of your job?

David says: If you don’t love web design or design in general it would be very easy to become uninspired and bored of your job. I on the other hand absolutely love what I do and can’t imagine myself doing anything else, web design brings in a lot more challenges as it’s more of an ever changing monster than say print design – I think this is why I love it the most, it’s challenging and is always changing. That’s not to say I don’t have days where I feel bored, uninspired and overwhelmed, but those days are very few and far between.

Luc asks: I see that your portfolio consists of a lot of graphic design work and i wanted to ask do you code any of the projects that you work on and if so what languages do you primarily work in?

David says: I code a few of the projects that I work on, it is a skill that I’m constantly learning and improving. Primarily the languages I work in are xHTML and CSS. My CMS of choice is WordPress which I’m comfortable with but when it comes to the bigger, more technical websites and e-commerce jobs I work with a highly skilled development team based in Brisbane, Australia and their work is nothing but exceptional.

Luc asks: Do you currently freelance on a full-time or part-time basis and how do you juggle the work that you do with your life in general being that you are under deadlines at times?

David says: I’ve been freelancing full time for the past 3 years. The work vs. life balance is something you learn over time. Deadlines really shouldn’t be an issue if you’ve accounted for your time correctly and set milestones that are achievable. That’s not to say I’m not extremely stressed 24hrs before launching a new site or submitting logo designs to my clients but I’m proud to say that I’ve never missed a deadline.

Luc asks: When people who become your clients what is your usually process for gathering information about the project you are going to become involved in? Also, what part does the “Questionnaire” play for your clients and potential clients?

David says: I have certain questionnaires for my clients depending on the project.  The questionnaires take care of the essential information and it’s a great way for the client to really think about their project and gives me a breakdown of what they’re hoping to achieve. I like to meet with my clients, either face to face, over the phone or a video call on Skype, this takes care of a lot of questions that they might have and I can also give advice on certain things that they either don’t understand or are not too sure about.  It’s nice to have a personal touch, I think a lot of clients appreciate that and expect it when dealing with a freelancer directly.

When I originally reviewed OneStepCheckout, a Magento Commerce add-on that gives you the power to optimize your ecommerce website’s checkout process I covered the core product.  Recently they added some new features for registration options in OneStepCheckout that definitely improve how your customers can login when they purchase from you.

Registration Modes

In this update Magento website owners can use different modes to allow their customers to register when they checkout using OneStepCheckout including:

• Registration Required – Much like it sounds when you select this option your customers will need to register during the checkout process
• Registration Disabled – This gives any customer the option to checkout of your ecommerce website without needing to register
• Allow guests and logged in users – This mode offers your customers the option to check out as a guest meaning that you don’t need to create an account and previous customers to use their account to log in and purchase from you again
• Enable registration on success page – This mode gives your customers the option to create an account after they’ve checked out and are on the thank you page of your website
• Auto-generate account for new emails – This mode will create accounts for each new email address your customer enters during checkout which

In case you didn’t get a chance to read my original product review click here to read it! To read about more details that these new registration modes offer click here to see the article that the team at OneStepCheckout wrote about this on their blog.

After talking to Blair Williams and interviewing him the other week I was able to get my hands on a copy of Pretty Links Pro, a WordPress Plug-in that allows you to manage your links.  It’s the total link management package.

I’ve been using the free version of Pretty Links for a while and even the free version of Pretty Link is great and it boasts a lot of features making it the total link management package.  Originally I implemented the software to help put an end to affiliate link hijacking but I’ve found other uses for it recently allowing me to track links I post on my twitter account and other social media networking that I do currently.

Now for those of you those are new to the concept and practice of Link Management and aren’t sure exactly what it means it’s the management of links both inbound (coming to your website) and outbound (leaving your website).  Depending on how you choose to use Pretty Link it can be a very “eye-opening” experience.  When I created a pretty link and published it in a tweet on my twitter account I was surprised to see how many hits it received in only a few days.

Getting back to Pretty Link, first off, I am going to walk you through using the Pretty Link plug-in for the first time focusing specifically on how to create a pretty link and how to create a group for your pretty links.  With that, let’s get started!

Creating a Pretty Link

When you install Pretty Link it is available through the main dashboard and also through the “Settings” section in your WordPress website.  Once you get into the plug-in you can create a Pretty Link with a destination URL, which is a URL that you going to have people go to when they click on your Pretty Link, a title and description so that you can identify it in WordPress and your pretty link including a custom “slug” that you can add to the end of your pretty link.

There are additional options under the “Link Options [+]” section that allow you to choose a group that the pretty link belongs to, the ability to track the pretty link, the type of redirection you want to use (you have the option of 307, 301, Pixel, Cloaked and Pretty Bar) and SEO options for the links that you create.  When you’ve gone through all of this the last step is to simply click the “Create” button and you’ve got yourself a very pretty link.

Creating a Group for your Pretty Links

Creating a group using the Pretty Link plug-in allows you to categorize and group Pretty Links that you create for your website.  It’s useful if you are creating a great number of links in Pretty Link for different purposes and allows you to segment link management for your website.

Now that you know the basics of using Pretty Link let me take you through some of the benefits of upgrading to Pretty Link Pro for those of you that are interested in seeing what else this WordPress plug-in can offer you and your website.

Advantages of buying Pretty Link Pro

• Replacing URLS – This is a feature that is not currently available in the basic Pretty Link plug-in so you will need Pretty Link Pro for this functionality.  This particular functionality allows you to replace URLs with your pretty link and it’s very useful if you’ve got a large existing website and you are looking to update links quickly for specific affiliates or other link management activities.  Feel free to check out Blair’s video of how Pretty Link Pro accomplishes this by clicking here.
• Split Test your Links – Another great feature of setting up Pretty Link Pro is the ability to run split tests on your website also known as A/B tests.  Using the functionality built into Pretty Link Pro you can setup what are called “Target URL Rotations” for a link to test and see which page performs better.
• Rotate your target URLs – This feature much like it sounds allows you to “rotate” target URLs for ad rotations, A/B split tests and partnerships.
• Set up Conversion Reports – Conventionally conversion tracking is used when a sale is made online but conversions also relate to clicks, hits or a sign up for a mailing list.  Pretty Link Pro allows you to do this with your links and it really does give you intelligence over your website’s link management.

I could literally talk in greater depth about each feature but if you are looking for a great link management plug-in then this is one to definitely check out because it boasts and delivers so much functionality.

Disadvantages of buying Pretty Link Pro

This plug-in offers so much functionality that you may never use all of it.  The real disadvantage for people using this plug-in is that it caters to those people looking for ultimate link management and if you are a newbie then you may not understand everything this plug-in offers.

Reasons to buy this Plug-in

If you are looking to get a very comprehensive link management plug-in than you really need to check out Pretty Link and Pretty Link Pro.  I love the fact that you are able to import and export data to and from Pretty Link Pro, create custom reports and get access to advanced link management options when you purchase Pretty Link Pro.  Here are a few reasons that this plug-in is worth the money for those of you considering it.

• Help put an end to losing affiliate commissions
• Track links you post on social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Track specific links on your website to test their success
• Setup split testing to see which landing page performs better and allows you to earn more profits

Those are 4 really great reasons why you won’t be disappointed when you buy this plug-in.  It’s worth the investment to have this plug-in working for you on your website.

How much does it cost?

If you are looking for a WordPress plug-in that is going to give you the capabilities of link management like this one does the money, $97, which gives you unlimited updates and support on the plug-in is completely worth the money you are going to spend.  After all, it’s the links on your website that are going to make your business, site or blog more successful over time so how can you not invest in this?

Click here to read a little more about Blair Williams’, Pretty Link Pro WordPress Plug-in, click here!