Facebook reached 550 millions accounts this summer. It’s 80mlns bigger then European Union population.

Anyhow Facebook provides many tools to maximizing your presence on the social network. You can not only stay in contact with your friends abroad but you can also do business and make some statistics calculations. With use of Facebook Apps and their API you can create stunning business and fan pages for your needs. Some simple and most popular method is FBML application with help of with you can create your own Facebook FBML pages.

So here are some examples on how to develop successful Facebook landing page. This is not a tutorial but if you would like to read some FBML tutorials you sould rather visit this page.
The main object on any Facebook FBML page is “call-to-action” or if we are trying to be more specific the “Like” button. Its critical to get as much Likes as you can on Facebook. More Likes you have better your business goes. So lets see how some populars companies converting Facebook traffic.

Facebook Call-to-Actions

Escape to Shape

Escape to Shape fanpage meets all requirements of Facebook marketing. You can see “Click to become a fan” action. Twitter, video and Feed call-to-actions. In general, they are good if you do not take into account the small holes in the design.

RodeoHouston

Fantastic Facebook landing page for fans and 1st visitors. You can see here attractive Become a Fan button, a BIG call-to-action sign forcing you to click and awesome designed page. Well-done Rodeo-Houston.

AllFacebook

You might know this Facebook insiders and one of the most popular website on FB news and releases. You can see here alot of tips where to click and what to do. You dont have to think on “Where am I?”. Click the Like button, become a fan, load the video and then subscribe to RSS or proceed to our website.

Sprout

Awesome “Like this page!” reminder. Everything is quite simple and usable. I’d just suggest to Sprout not to use Flash on their fanpage. It’s not a good practice for now.

Mashable

Magnificent landing page! “Join ME! You MUST join me Gendalf!” :) No comments.

New England Patriots

These New England Patriots made a good work with adding Live Radio app, poll, video podcast and some call-to-actions. Really good work to start your Facebook marketing campaign.

Online Stores

The 2d way to convert your fans and visitors is to integrate your online store directly into Facebook. It is difficult but worth the costs.

Adidas

Adidas is one of the 1st companies start using Facebook as their marketing tool. So they have a huge expirience in this niche. I think we should take some inspiration while making own personal fan page.

Jones Soda

Not so famous but still deserve to be listed. Integrated video, dynamic news, twitter feed (which is a big problem on Facebook), social media icons and iPhone app. All this with a good design makes popular Facebook FBML page.

DogPatch

Dogpatch developed by Sprout drives you all information need to meet this company and their services. The one page that gives you maximum information to make your choice.

Victoria’s Sicret

You should probably know that Vitoria’s Sicret according to Hitwise considered one of the best presented internet brands. They are doing a great job here at Facebook aswell.

Well, I hope that I’ve inspired you as to what successfully companies are doing within Facebook and gives you some ideas on how to start your Facebook campaign. Anyhow if you decided to create your own Facebook fan page you might try to use these FBML Templates or read some tips and tricks listed at the FBML blog

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This guy contacted me the other day about a possible guest post he wanted to do for Design Woop which I happily replied accepting. We organized what the post would be about, which was WordPress 3.0 and custom posts, which sounded great, been that Design Woop itself runs on WordPress. Nick sent over a word document instantly and I thought nothing of it, if anything I was quite impressed he had the post prepared already, great for me and Design Woop readers!

I was just preparing the post to go live at which point a growl notification popped up on my screen and I noticed a tweet between Nick and a Twitter friend Jared Thompson talking about a recent post he’d just done for Jared regarding WordPress 3.0 that had just recently gone live! Hmm, I started scratching my head… could this perhaps be a similar post to the one he’d sent me? Well, not a similar post but the exact same post word for word!

What not to do when guest writing…. don’t send the same post to multiple sites that are trying to offer a similar kind of content.

Nick Medcalf = muppet.

ps. Please note Jared if you are reading this at all, I know you had nothing to do with this and you had clearly been sent the post at a similar time as I had so no worries there mate! :)

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First … The Island:

It was real. Everything that happened on the island that we saw throughout the 6 seasons was real. Forget the final image of the plane crash, it was put in purposely to f*&k with people’s heads and show how far the show had come. They really crashed. They really survived. They really discovered Dharma and the Others. The Island keeps the balance of good and evil in the world. It always has and always will perform that role. And the Island will always need a “Protector”. Jacob wasn’t the first, Hurley won’t be the last. However, Jacob had to deal with a malevolent force (MIB) that his mother, nor Hurley had to deal with. He created the devil and had to find a way to kill him — even though the rules prevented him from actually doing so.

Thus began Jacob’s plan to bring candidates to the Island to do the one thing he couldn’t do. Kill the MIB. He had a huge list of candidates that spanned generations. Yet everytime he brought people there, the MIB corrupted them and caused them to kill one another. That was until Richard came along and helped Jacob understand that if he didn’t take a more active role, then his plan would never work.

Enter Dharma — which I’m not sure why John is having such a hard time grasping. Dharma, like the countless scores of people that were brought to the island before, were brought there by Jacob as part of his plan to kill the MIB. However, the MIB was aware of this plan and interferred by “corrupting” Ben. Making Ben believe he was doing the work of Jacob when in reality he was doing the work of the MIB. This carried over into all of Ben’s “off-island” activities. He was the leader. He spoke for Jacob as far as they were concerned. So the “Others” killed Dharma and later were actively trying to kill Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and all the candidates because that’s what the MIB wanted. And what he couldn’t do for himself.

Dharma was originally brought in to be good. But was turned bad by MIB’s corruption and eventually destroyed by his pawn Ben. Now, was Dharma only brought there to help Jack and the other Canditates on their overall quest to kill Smokey? Or did Jacob have another list of Canidates from the Dharma group that we were never aware of? That’s a question that is purposley not answered because whatever answer the writers came up with would be worse than the one you come up with for yourself. Still … Dharma’s purpose is not “pointless” or even vague. Hell, it’s pretty blantent.

Still, despite his grand plan, Jacob wanted to give his “candidates” (our Lostaways) the one thing he, nor his brother, were ever afforded: free will. Hence him bringing a host of “candidates” through the decades and letting them “choose” which one would actually do the job in the end. Maybe he knew Jack would be the one to kill Flocke and that Hurley would be the protector in the end. Maybe he didn’t. But that was always the key question of the show: Fate vs Free-will. Science vs Faith. Personally I think Jacob knew from the beginning what was going to happen and that everyone played a part over 6 seasons in helping Jack get to the point where he needed to be to kill Smokey and make Hurley the protector — I know that’s how a lot of the writers viewed it. But again, they won’t answer that (nor should they) because that ruins the fun.

In the end, Jack got to do what he always wanted to do from the very first episode of the show: Save his fellow Lostaways. He got Kate and Sawyer off the island and he gave Hurley the purpose in life he’d always been missing. And, in Sideways world (which we’ll get to next) he in fact saved everyone by helping them all move on …

Now…

Sideways World:

Sideways world is where it gets really cool in terms of theology and metaphysical discussion (for me at least — because I love history/religion theories and loved all the talks in the writer’s room about it). Basically what the show is proposing is that we’re all linked to certain people during our lives. Call them soulmates (though it’s not exactly the best word). But these people we’re linked to are with us duing “the most important moments of our lives” as Christian said. These are the people we move through the universe with from lifetime to lifetime. It’s loosely based in Hinduisim with large doses of western religion thrown into the mix.

The conceit that the writers created, basing it off these religious philosophies, was that as a group, the Lostaways subconsciously created this “sideways” world where they exist in purgatory until they are “awakened” and find one another. Once they all find one another, they can then move on and move forward. In essence, this is the show’s concept of the afterlife. According to the show, everyone creates their own “Sideways” purgatory with their “soulmates” throughout their lives and exist there until they all move on together. That’s a beautiful notion. Even if you aren’t religious or even spirtual, the idea that we live AND die together is deeply profound and moving.

It’s a really cool and spirtual concept that fits the whole tone and subtext the show has had from the beginning. These people were SUPPOSED to be together on that plane. They were supposed to live through these events — not JUST because of Jacob. But because that’s what the universe or God (depending on how religious you wish to get) wanted to happen. The show was always about science vs faith — and it ultimately came down on the side of faith. It answered THE core question of the series. The one question that has been at the root of every island mystery, every character backstory, every plot twist. That, by itself, is quite an accomplishment.

How much you want to extrapolate from that is up to you as the viewer. Think about season 1 when we first found the Hatch. Everyone thought that’s THE answer! Whatever is down there is the answer! Then, as we discovered it was just one station of many. One link in a very long chain that kept revealing more, and more of a larger mosiac.

But the writer’s took it even further this season by contrasting this Sideways “purgatory” with the Island itself. Remember when Michael appeared to Hurley, he said he was not allowed to leave the Island. Just like the MIB. He wasn’t allowed into this sideways world and thus, was not afforded the opportunity to move on. Why? Because he had proven himself to be unworthy with his actions on the Island. He failed the test. The others, passed. They made it into Sideways world when they died — some before Jack, some years later. In Hurley’s case, maybe centuries later. They exist in this sideways world until they are “awakened” and they can only move on TOGETHER because they are linked. They are destined to be together for eternity. That was their destiny.

They were NOT linked to Anna Lucia, Daniel, Roussou, Alex, Miles, Lupidis, (and all the rest who weren’t in the chuch — basically everyone who wasn’t in season 1). Yet those people exist in Sideways world. Why? Well again, here’s where they leave it up to you to decide. The way I like to think about it, is that those people who were left behind in Sideways world have to find their own soulmates before they can wake up. It’s possible that those links aren’t people from the island but from their other life (Anna’s parnter, the guy she shot — Roussou’s husband, etc etc).

A lot of people have been talking about Ben and why he didn’t go into the Church. And if you think of Sideways world in this way, then it gives you the answer to that very question. Ben can’t move on yet because he hasn’t connected with the people he needs to. It’s going to be his job to awaken Roussou, Alex, Anna Lucia (maybe), Ethan, Goodspeed, his father and the rest. He has to attone for his sins more than he did by being Hurley’s number two. He has to do what Hurley and Desmond did for our Lostaways with his own people. He has to help them connect. And he can only move on when all the links in his chain are ready to. Same can be said for Faraday, Charlotte, Whidmore, Hawkins etc. It’s really a neat, and cool concept. At least to me.

But, from a more “behind the scenes” note: the reason Ben’s not in the church, and the reason no one is in the church but for Season 1 people is because they wrote the ending to the show after writing the pilot. And never changed it. The writers always said (and many didn’t believe them) that they knew their ending from the very first episode. I applaud them for that. It’s pretty fantastic. Originally Ben was supposed to have a 3 episode arc and be done. But he became a big part of the show. They could have easily changed their ending and put him in the church — but instead they problem solved it. Gave him a BRILLIANT moment with Locke outside the church … and then that was it. I loved that. For those that wonder — the original ending started the moment Jack walked into the church and touches the casket to Jack closing his eyes as the other plane flies away. That was always JJ’s ending. And they kept it.

For me the ending of this show means a lot. Not only because I worked on it, but because as a writer it inspired me in a way the medium had never done before. I’ve been inspired to write by great films. Maybe too many to count. And there have been amazing TV shows that I’ve loved (X-Files, 24, Sopranos, countless 1/2 hour shows). But none did what LOST did for me. None showed me that you could take huge risks (writing a show about faith for network TV) and stick to your creative guns and STILL please the audience. I learned a lot from the show as a writer. I learned even more from being around the incredible writers, producers, PAs, interns and everyone else who slaved on the show for 6 years.

In the end, for me, LOST was a touchstone show that dealt with faith, the afterlife, and all these big, spirtual questions that most shows don’t touch. And to me, they never once waivered from their core story — even with all the sci-fi elements they mixed in. To walk that long and daunting of a creative tightrope and survive is simply astounding.

Satellite TV Provider

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I decided to convert to Shaun Inman’s simple URL shortener Lessn, which is a self hosted script available for free! Now I have this handling my links and have managed to not only integrate it with my WordPress install but I can also track my views via Mint, here’s how…

Setting Up Lessn

1. Create a new database on your Web Host
2. Download Lessn here and unzip the files.
3. Open config.php and amend to include your database details, a login username and password and save the file.
4. Upload the full lessn folder via FTP.
5. Visit http://domain.com/lessn/-/ to start shortening URL’s*

*Please note that the lessn folder can and probably should be renamed to something shorter. For example, I use /s/-, which gains me an extra 4 letters. Make sure you rename the folder before step 5.

Setting Up WordPress To Work with Lessn

Now we have Lessn working and you have a self hosted method for creating short URL’s not relying on anyone else, we can integrate it with WordPress thanks to the WP-Lessn plugin by Jay Robinson. This plugin simply creates a short URL using Lessn when a post is published and saves it to a custom field that can then be displayed on your post page wherever your wish.

1. Download the plugin here.
2. Upload wp-lessn directory to /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
3. Activate the plugin.
4. Go to the WP Lessn submenu underneath the Plugins menu.
5. Enter the location of your Lessn installation (eg. http://domain.com/lessn/-/).
6. Enter your Lessn API key, which can be found on your Lessn homepage (see image below).
7. Click Save

Now, fingers crossed if everything has been setup right then when you save your next post you will find a custom field type called wp_lessnd_url just under the trackbacks section on your edit post page.

Integrating Lessn Into Your Post Pages

Next step is to use this within your site to allow users to tweet your post using the shorter URL. To do this we will need to first add a Tweet This button or link to your single page template linking it straight to Twitter like this…

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=STATUS TO GO HERE" title="Tweet this post">Tweet This Post</a>

Notice where I have put STATUS TO GO HERE, this is where we will need to add the post title and the short url that users can then Tweet straight to Twitter. To add the title this is pretty straight forward, we just use the_title template tag that comes with WordPress, like so….

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Tweet this post">Tweet This Post</a>

Next step is to add the short URL that users will see on Twitter and be able to click to see the post. Now we call the wp_lessnd_url to display this but we also need to add a backup incase there isn’t a short URL setup for this post. For this backup we will use the_permalink template tag. Using a simple if statement, this is how we achieve it…

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=<?php the_title(); ?> <?php if(get_post_meta($post->ID, "wp_lessnd_url", true)) { echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "wp_lessnd_url", true); } else { the_permalink(); } ?>" title="Tweet this post">Tweet This Post</a>

Thats all thats to it! I know bit.ly links are nice and compact but for me, been able to shrink from…

http://designwoop.com/2010/04/show-me-whatcha-got-html-5-vs-flash-showcase/

To this…

http://designwoop.com/s/3a

Mean’s I can still promote my brand Design Woop but still allow room for the post title in my Tweets. Now when I click on the Tweet This button that I created previously I get taken to Twitter and the post title and short URL are already there and I can just hit Tweet! Boom!

Have Mint?

If you also have Mint installed on your site then you can install Shaun Inmans Lessn Pepper to allow tracking of each URL.

Let me know if you have any trouble installing Lessn Pepper as I won’t be going over it in this post. Any other questions or problems then leave a comment below.

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We decided to stay dispassionate and take a look at the current achievements of both platforms. In this post you can find a showcase of some well-designed websites that implement HTML 5 and Flash features at their best. This is by no means an attempt to put any of the platforms in a favorable light, but an endeavor to see what advantages each of them is actually able to deliver to the end-user at this stage.
Hopefully, the following collection will highlight the benefits of HTML 5 and Flash to you and give you some visual inspiration for your own projects as well.

Websites built with HTML 5

Eye Styles

Unique eyewear shop Eye Styles from Portland, Oregon shows wonderful rollover effects implemented by means of HTML 5.

Clearideaz

This is a personal portfolio of French designer Olivier Gorzalka. Very good markup can be observed on this site which is powered by WordPress, by the way.

Jamie Wright

By viewing the portfolio of the British web designer Jamie Wright in Google Chrome or Safari 4.0 you will be able to enjoy this vivid and colorful website to the fullest. The latest version of Firefox reveals the roughness of typography, while Opera breaks the text positioning altogether.

CatCubed

Unlike the previous website, Colin Fahrion’s HTML 5 powered personal blog feels best in Firefox 3.6 and Google Chrome.

Shannen Coslow

The portfolio of Pennsylvania-based designer Shannen Coslow is fully coded in HTML 5 and has an orderly structure and an beautiful, minimalist design.

Nathan Staines

The personal site of Starkers HTML5 theme developer Nathan Staines is simple and elegant. Besides a great implementing of HTML 5 markup it displays a stylish monochrome color-scheme with felicitous color inclusions.

Slim Kiwi

The site of the web studio Slim Kiwi has a unique and eye-catching design mostly due to the beautiful graphic elements used in it.

Go On Web

French web design agency Go On Web created its website with HTML 5 and used some lovely little interaction features.

Sheep in Disguise

Website of the web design and development studio Sheep in Disguise shows a neat layout and stylish typography, and of course, HTML 5 well using a number of the new structural elements.

New Zealand International Art Festival

Even though you can see some Flash components on this website, it still shows a solid implementation of new HTML standards and better browser accessibility might be a reason for the use of flash files here.

Cameron Chamberlain

In spite of being the most anticipated feature in HTML 5, video tag is still rare to see on live websites. Cameron Chamberlain’s personal site contains the new video element implemented using Video for Everybody.

Zoe Ann Baker

This website is clean and beautiful, big arrows pointing at post sections when you hover a mouse over menu categories are a nice touch.

We love 02 SCT

This website belongs to the community of graduate students of Jimei University (China), 2002 Computer Science and Technology.

Ella Design

This site shows a sleek use of HTML 5 and CSS 3, truly an eye-candy.

Narkoba

On Narkoba website you can find various audio samples, videos, snippets and other DJ music stuff. On a page Happy Love visitors can play with some audio and video elements which are quite fun despite being experimental. Thus, you can trigger audio loops directing the mouse at the white border rectangles and you can also launch video by typing “happy love” on the keyboard.

9elements.com Project

This is a sweet online experiment showing the great possibilities HTML 5 provides for audio & canvas. It loads 100 tweets related to HTML5 and displays them using a javascript-based particle engine. Each particle represents a tweet – click on one of them and it’ll appear on the screen.

Flash Sites

Canvas

Canvas is a unique poster shopping website featuring an amazing user interaction process.

Burger King

Visitors of the Burger King website can literally customize it on the fly. Using three basic sliders you can control the subject area of the content to display. What a clever navigation solution!

PepperWorks

Website of the Polish media agency PepperWorks is done in an elegant, minimalist style. Great use of high-quality photos and fast loading provide a pleasant browsing experience.

Fynn

Another example of uncluttered and usable Flash website design.

magneticNorth

A creative navigation mechanism can be observed on magneticNorth website – a user can access the content drawing various shapes with the help of a mouse.

Simods Homes

Flash can work well for business and the site of the Australian construction company Simonds Homes proves this.

We Are All Fans

Flash can also be a good tool to render streaming content. This is well illustrated on the We Are All Fans website. Here portraits of selected Grammy-nominated artists are created in real time from social media content generated by fans across the web.

The Blues Maker

This is a funny Flash application you can use to compose your own blues song.

Converse

Converse online store is Flash-based, still the shopping process and website usability are on a very high level here.

Lego Click

Lego Click website contains information on art and creativity, mostly Lego-inspired.

Andreas Smetana

Website of the well-known photographer Anreas Smetana features an original navigation and full-screen photo galleries for the best visual impact.

Djeco

Website of the toy brand Djeco is a celebration of interactive design. Besides, it shows awesome illustrations and work with sound.

Plate Interactive

A good bunch of elegance and beauty in this one. After all, what else can be expected from a globally renowned interactive agency Plate?

F.One – Bandit 3 Most Wanted

Promo website of the kiteboarding brand F.One has a spectacular 3D designs and brings an excellent interaction experience to users. By the way, be sure to watch the video in the category Cinema – it’s a masterpiece indeed!

Adhemas Batista

The artworks of Adhemas Batista used to design his personal website are enough to give it a remarkable look.

As you might see, HTML 5 has a lot of wonderful features to offer and it’s surely worth anticipating. However, people declaring HTML 5 will kill Flash are grossly exaggerating. Why don’t we just try think more positively and assume that both Flash and HTML 5 will exist in harmony to the glory of the Web. After all, none of the platforms can be a solution to everything. Each of them is just a tool with a certain amount of capabilities and it’s up to you, dear designers and developers, to decide which tool will help to achieve the best results in your job.

Written exclusively for Design Woop by FlashMint, the top-class provider of flash templates and flash components.

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This roundup features several different types of products which all have unique packaging designs, all of which I find to be of the highest quality.

Chocolat Factory by Ruiz+

Death by Chocolate by Denise Frankle

Burgia Nen by Unidesign

Laurona Wine by Impossible

Lisa & Chad Wine by Meggan Cook

Prohibtion by Noah Love

Soy Manelle by Kian

Gotta Moo by Narani Kannan

Water Bobble by Karim Rashid

Palau Water by Tridimage

Works With Water by Elmwood

Vitamin Well by Neumeister

Rimi by Silver

Breakfast Smoothie by Heather Bradley

Infuzions by Parker Williams Design

Kat Von D ‘Saint + Sinner’ by Maesa Studio

Idea Paint by Jones

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90+ Amazing Grunge Typography Collection from Artatm

Visit Source: ttp://artatm.com

20 High Quality Free Fonts for Designers from Web Design Ledger

Visit Source: http://webdesignledger.com

21 Inspirational and Free Fonts for Beautiful Typedesign from Webexpedition18

Visit Source http://webexpedition18.com

35 Latest High-Quality Free Fonts for Professional Designers from Instant Shift

Visit Source http://www.instantshift.com

50 Best Free Fonts From 2009 from Creative Nerds

Visit Source: http://creativenerds.co.uk

20 Fonts Ideal for Big and Powerful Headings from Web Design Ledger

Visit Source: http://webdesignledger.com

30 Free Fonts Which Are Perfect For Professional Logo Designs from Creative Nerds

Visit Source: http://creativenerds.co.uk

21 Fresh Design Fonts Free To Download from Ants Magazine

Visit Source: http://www.antsmagazine.com

20 Best Free Professional Fonts from Listropolis

Visit Source: http://www.listropolis.com

The Best Free Fonts of 2009 from Web Design Ledger

Visit Source: http://webdesignledger.com

40 Can’t-Miss Grunge Fonts From DaFont from Spyre Studios

Visit Source: http://spyrestudios.com

50 Amazing Free Fonts For Designers from Ants Magazine

Visit Source: http://www.antsmagazine.com

There are some duplicate fonts but still plenty of amazing fonts which are worth bookmarking! Enjoy!

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Since I have been on Twitter for a while now I thought it was right to post something about two minor things that I see on Twitter almost daily and two minor things which I think everyone should think about before doing. Please note these are only my opinions but two that I feel strongly about :)

Automatic Direct Messaging

First up is the automatic direct messaging new followers! They really bug me! Mainly because more often then not they are really cheesy/tacky. The majority of the time I will actually go back to the profile page of the sender and consider unfollowing them.

I think if your going to send auto DM’s then you should take a bit of consideration into what exactly your trying to get out of it. Sending me a cheesy message telling me how grateful you are because I followed you doesn’t really do anything for me and I think you lose that personal touch of actually taking the time to link that person into a Tweet saying simply thank you for the follow.

Just last week I got the following auto DM from a fellow Web Designer telling me this….

Now being a Web Designer myself why would I need one at my beck and call? Maybe I misread the DM but I thought for me this was irrelevant, I think a message saying hello I hope we can maybe help each other one day would have been better. Here’s another example of the type of DM’s I often get sent…

You might think i’m just been damn right picky here but come on “I’ll try to make it exciting” lol, how cheesy! This message has blatantly been sent to everyone not just me again losing the personal touch! How long does it take to add in my name? Just a thought!

Anyways before I start to rant on, I do actually think that Businesses can use auto DM’s in a good way to promote their products/services. Lets take Shutterstock as an example, the stock photography website sends its new Twitter followers the following DM…

This is a clever from Shutterstock because any new followers who maybe haven’t used or heard of Shutterstock before might now be tempted into signing up and giving the stock site a go, resulting in more sales! New followers might also spread the word amongst friends who might also then start following Shutterstock receiving their voucher code too.

I think companies can use this to their advantage plus everyone likes introdutory voucher discounts don’t they!

Following / Unfollowing Just To Gain Numbers

This is my ultimate Twitter no no! The amount of times I’ve had someone follow me then a couple of day’s later I’ve finally got round to checking out their profile page to see if I am going to follow them back only to find once I have returned the follow they then follow me again.

That might not make sense but all they are trying to do is gain a large number of followers without having to follow back. Twitter is all participating and trying to gain as many followers as possible might help more people see your Tweets but does it really make you a participant? I’d say no.

For certain people, such as celebrities I can understand that they would have lots of followers and maybe not following as many themselves, but for your average joe, I can’t. When I get a new follower, I take a brief look at their profile, decide wether or not they are at all interesting and wether or not they will be of any benefit to me having their tweets display in my feed. I would never follow someone then instantly unfollow them just to gain numbers!

My followers have always increased at a steady rate since I first joined Twitter and although its a nice feeling breaking 1k followers, it’s not something I was in a huge rush to do and the followers I have often contribute to my Tweets whether or not they are helping me or just replying to something I have said or even just RT’ing my links!

Here is the last 3 months stats on my followers (courtesy of Twittercounter)…

I personally think it’s better to gradually build up your followers instead of just adding thousands of people using some software because when it helps you understand Twitter better and will help you gain a better connection with your followers.

Conclusion

Right that is my rant over! :) I think Twitter (used right) is such an invaluable tool and for a Web Designer like myself, it’s a daily tool that I have come to depend on for resources / connections, etc. It annoys me that there are soo many ‘spamtastic’ users on Twitter clogging up the site with useless crap. Like I said, auto DM’s are handy, if used in a way that will benefit you! Does sending someone a useless cheesy welcome message make you feel good? Do you really need to add as many people as you could possible add? The answer is probably no for both!

As I said at the beginning these opinions are just mine but I would love to know what you think? Do you Auto DM? If you are currently sending out auto DM’s then I would love to know what your reasons are and what you actually send using the comments form below!

Here are some related posts:

• How we acquired our Strawberry Twitter name
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• Guest Post: Top 10 Effective Facebook Pages

Moustache Mugs!

Visit Source: http://www.peteribruegger.com

Safe to say this is on my next to buy list! I will no doubt be the coolest kid at work! Just need help deciding which one to go for?

20 Super Clean Fonts Perfect for Minimal Style Design

Visit Source: http://webdesignledger.com

Web Design Ledger posted this great article showcasing 20 great font’s that are especially good for minimalistic designs. Another great point to make is they are all free! Go Nuts…

Chomp iPhone App

Visit Source: http://chompapps.com

A new iPhone App that attempts to take on Apple’s app store genius feature. Called Chomp, it is based around giving you app recommendations based on the reviews you give other apps. Probably not the best explanation their but its free so give it a try!

Nine Techniques for CSS Image Replacement

Visit Source: http://css-tricks.com

Chris Coyier wrote this great tutorial article I came across looking at nine techniques for CSS Image Replacement. I myself was only aware of a couple of these so its good read for anyone who actively uses this technique to freshen up on possibly better methods of doing the same thing.

Better html anchor, a jquery script to slide the scrollbar

Visit Source: http://www.position-absolute.com

Great jQuery script that gives you a smooth page jump anchor effect replacing the standard jump to links. This is really cool and you will probably have seen in on various sites around, well now you can use it on your site too.

50 Most Amazing Beautiful Blog Designs

Visit Source: http://creativenerds.co.uk

Creative Nerds posted this article showcasing 50 inspirational blog designs. Some great sites here and one to keep on record when your looking for some inspiration yourself!

30 Gorgeous iPhone App Interfaces & Icons

Visit Source: http://iphone.appstorm.net

The Appstorm guys posted this article last week and for an aspiring future iPhone app developer (nice title indeed) its a keeper! The post looks at 30 apps all look amazing! Not only good for inspiration but there are some good apps I didn’t know about here so take a look!

Right thats it for this week but be sure to check back next week! Tweet me @stugreenham if you find any interesting articles that I can use or you think is interesting and I will take a look!

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• Lost Finale Explained Well!
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Margin and Padding

You may currently be setting your margin/padding like this:

.class-name {
   margin-top: 10px;
   margin-bottom: 10px;
   margin-right: 10px;
   margin-left: 10px;
}

Shorthand allows you to shrink these four lines down to just one. Think of the margin as four values in clockwise order Top, Right, Bottom, Left. In the above code we have assigned a margin of 10px to each individual side of the element, but what you can do is change the four lines to just one line using the margin property and assign it four values in the clockwise order I mentioned just before (top, right, bottom, left) leaving us with this:

.class-name {
   margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px;
}

Taking this further we can again shrink this down even more depending on the margin values. We can group specific items together, such as Top / Bottom and Right / Left. Below are some examples of how you can shorthand margins in your css:

Example 1

• Top: 10px
• Right: 15px
• Bottom: 20px
• Left: 15px

This would be displayed using just three values because the left and right values are the same, so we just define top, right+left and bottom values, shown below:

.class-name {
   margin: 10px 15px 20px;
}

Example 2

• Top: 10px
• Right: 15px
• Bottom: 10px
• Left: 15px

This can be displayed using just two values because both the top+bottom and right+left values are the same, shown below:

.class-name {
   margin: 10px 15px;
}

Example 3

• Top: 10px
• Right: 15px
• Bottom: 10px
• Left: 20px

When in a situation where the top+bottom values are the same but the right+left values are different, we still have to display all four values as you cannot group the top and bottom values together because the left value would be read as if it was the bottom value. We can still use shorthand to display the css on one line, shown below:

.class-name {
   margin: 10px 15px 10px 20px;
}

Right that’s margin’s covered and for padding it is exactly the same method. All you have to remember is which order the four values go in then its pretty much common sense from there.

Backgrounds

Background’s are again a popular property that you are likely to assign at least once on each of your stylesheets, sometimes multiple times in which case this will come in handy. When assigning a background you may set an element any number of the following properties:

.class-name {
  background-color: #fff;
  background-image: url(image.gif);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: top left;
}

Again using shorthand we can combine all of these values into one using the background property. The order I usually put them in is as follows:

• color
• url (if required)
• position
• repeat / no-repeat / repeat-x / repeat-y

This means our code will now look like this:

.class-name {
  background: #fff url(image.jpg) top left no-repeat;
}

If you miss out a value then it will be rendered with the default, so if you don’t assign a background position then it will default to top left.

Fonts

Next up is fonts! Now I’ll have to admit that this is one I tend to just set line by line out of habit, but again there is a cool shorthand method to save you writing lines and lines of the same code.

Here are the more commonly declared font properties:

.class-name {
  font-size: 1em;
  line-height: 1.2em;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
  font-family: Arial;
}

We can take the five lines above and again make them into just one using shorthand. The main thing to note when shorthanding font properties is that you must declare both the font-size and the font-family or the whole thing will be ignored. Lets start by shortening just them two properties:

.class-name {
  font: 1em Arial;
  line-height: 1.2em;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-style: normal;
}

Within the font property we can also include line-height, font-weight and font-style. If you don’t declare these values then like the background property, the values will be set to the default values of normal.

Here is what the whole thing would look like going with the values above:

.class-name {
  font: 1em/1.2em bold normal Arial;
}

As you can see, using shorthand will save you having to write four extra lines of code and if you have a pretty major stylesheet this could cut it down dramtically!

List Styles

Lists are another property that can be shrunk down using shorthand. Typical List properties would include:

.class-name {
  list-style-type: disc;
  list-style-position: outside;
  list-style-image: url(image.jpg)
}

These three lines can be made into one simple line by defining the type, position and image source under the property list-style. Please note, if any of the values are not defined then they will display as the default. Here is what the shorthand will look like:

.class-name {
  list-style: disc outside url(image.jpg);
}

Fairly straight forward and thats about it for List Styles.

Borders

Border’s can be defined in several ways, if you are currently defining a width, color and style on seperate lines in your stylesheet (which is unlikely) then you can quickly edit this into one nice clean line of code, taking this:

.class-name {
  border-width: 5px;
  border-color: #000;
  border-style: solid;
}

and ending up with this instead:

.class-name {
  border: 5px solid #000;
}

If you want to define several sides of the element with different values then you can do so like this:

.class-name {
  border-top: 5px solid #000;
  border-right: 10px solid #000;
  border-bottom: 5px solid #000;
  border-left: 10px solid #000;
}

The example above contains four lines, which could have been twelve had you defined seperate style, width and color values. You can (if you want to) get the same effect as the above example by using the following:

.class-name {
  border: 1px solid #000;
  border-width: 5px 10px 5px 10px;
  border-color: #000;
}

Although this will achieve the same effect, personally I prefer the first method as I find it easier and quicker to type as it requires less thinking lol.

Conclusion

Whether you use it or not, you must agree using CSS Shorthand does make sense when thinking you can cut down the number of lines you have to code, as well as making your CSS Stylesheet smaller in size (maybe a little but still!) then it’s the obvious choice. Let me know what you think and which one’s you use or if I have missed anything!

Here are some related posts:

• The 960 Grid System Made Easy
• The definitive guide to formatting CSS
• Create a Color Changing Website Using CSS3
• CSS Tips I Wish I Knew When I First Started
• 5 Ways to Instantly Write Better CSS