In this day and age of instant gratification (do you, like me, stand in front of the microwave and holler “Hurry UP!!!!”?), it’s nice to know that there are still a couple of things you can do to improve your web site’s visibility and performance in the time it takes you to heat up a Hot Pocket™! So, what are you waiting for? Get that Hot Pocket in the microwave and let’s get busy!

1. Validate your stylesheets. You’d be amazed at the number of errors that can come to light by just running your stylesheet through a CSS Validator.
2. Validate your HTML. Like with the stylesheet, the HTML validator will point out all your HTML shortcomings. Maybe you forgot to declare a DOCTYPE or a character set? Not to worry. An HTML Validator will shake out those errors and omissions and get you on your way to validating code nirvana.
3. Use ALT tags in your images! If you ran your site through an HTML validator, and you didn’t use the ALT tag with your images, the validator probably let you know it straightaway. Not only will this help your readers who may be using a text-based browser, but it’s also another clever way for you to put relevant keywords into your site for the spiders to gobble up. Be kind to your screen-reading visitors and be kind to the spiders.
4. Proofread your copy for grammar nits and misspellings. Nothing loses credibility with your readers faster than a site with grammatical errors and misspelled words. I can forgive you this transgression if you are a 13-year old with a MySpace page. A reputed authority on [insert your field of expertise here]? Not so much.
5. Have a way for your readers to contact you. They might have a question for you, might want to hire you, or might want to report a site malfunction. Give them an easy way to contact you either with a contact form or a handy email link (and you can munge your email address so it’s invisible to those evil spambots, yet fully functional for your readers to click and open their email client).

Years ago, there was a great WordPress plugin, Image Headlines, that used True Type Fonts and image replacement to generate gorgeous titles on your blog using the fonts of your choosing. This ensured that your site’s viewers saw the fonts you wanted them to see. That plugin hasn’t kept pace with WordPress’s new releases. But TTFTitles has. It’s a great plugin, quite similar in operation to Image Headlines. The author is quite busy and has promised a “cookbook” of codes for quite some time but hasn’t gotten around to it. I’ve been playing around with this plugin while developing a site for a client. I thought I’d share with you the code that works for me.

Since I recently finished cleaning off my virtual desktop, I decided to create a custom desktop wallpaper to help me corral those desktop icons. Thought I’d share it with you. The idea isn’t new, but I thought I’d add my own bit of creativity to it. This desktop wallpaper is geared toward creatives or anyone who has a need for a “Client Files” section on their desktop. Even though I’m a die-hard PC girl, I have always kept my Recycle Bin in the lower right corner, Mac-like. It’s a habit I’ve had since I first started computing way back in the early 1990s. The font is True Type Goodtimes. This desktop wall is 1152×864 (for my 22-inch flatpanel). Drop a comment if you’d like some other sizes. :)

Download the custom desktop wallpaper.