How to create RSS feeds by email for WordPress.org/Blogger

Not all visitors to your website or blog will be familiar with RSS feeds or how they work, while some other visitors just don’t want to mess with using a feed reader. I've discovered how to use an email subscription, which is another great service to offer to your visitors. It's convenient, and to your visitors, it's like getting a newletter in their email inbox. Very cool.

First you’ll need an email subscription service that’ll send out the emails for you.
The service I currently use Feedburner through my Google account, or you can just log on to www.feedburner.com
First, set up a Feedburner feed if you don’t have one already. Then follow these steps:

1. Go to Feedburner.com and login
2. Click  "My Feeds" in the upper-left-hand corner
3. Select your feed from the list
4. Click the “Publicize” tab
5. Click “Email Subscriptions” on the left
6. Make sure “Feedburner” is selected, and click “Activate”
7. Copy the HTML code in the box
8. Login to your WordPress blog’s administration area
9. Go to the “Appearance” section (a.k.a. “Design,” “Presentation,” or “Themes” in versions prior to 2.7)
10. If you’re using Widgets in your sidebar, click the “Widgets” sub-tab. Add a “Text” widget to the sidebar you want, and paste the HTML code in the configuration section. Save your changes, and that’s it!
11. For Blogger, go to your website's dashboard, and click the "design" tab.
12. Click on the "gadgets" tab.
13. On the available list of gadgets, click on "feed by email"  
14. Copy/Paste the URL of the feed in the configuration box and click "save"  

Yahoo Small Business finally upgrades to MYSQL5

Well, they finally did it. I think Yahoo had too many CEOs last year and they couldn't decide what direction to take the company, but whatever the reason was, they finally got around to upgrading their database technology after many years. This change mostly effects users who have WordPress websites and/or blogs because WordPress has new requirements for their new version 3.2. This means you need to have PHP5 and MYSQL5 in order to run WordPress. Any versions lower than that will no longer be supported. Congratulations, Yahoo. You joined the world again.

Web Design Trends

Web design trends come and go. It’s difficult to predict the future of web design, but still there are some changes that are worth talking about. The first trend that I have noticed is the priority of a website’s functionality over its graphics. Beautiful design seems to be insufficient. I think of the connection between design and virtual reality of the website. I try to enchant my visitors by using harmonious color schemes and intuitive designs together with easily accessible information available to both desktop/laptop browsers, as well as smart phone and tablet browsers.

Say Good-bye to Flash

It has recently been said that “the Flash Player was not going to achieve the same ubiquity on mobile as it has on the desktop.” He also added that (and mainly points out), since HTML5 is widely accepted across all platforms, and the fact being that Apple’s iOS is not going to allow Flash in the browser, it is very much understood and observed that the tool will never achieve the same universality on mobile as how it achieved on the desktop.

It’s a known fact that HTML5 is universally accepted and supported by most mobile browsers, and having a strong base with strong support on smartphones and tablets, this enlightened Adobe that Flash would never be able to compete with the latest standards of HTML. This is one of the main reasons why Adobe decided to kill Flash, and as Mike stated – Adobe is now more focused toward HTML5.

HTML5 vs. Flash

Even though I loved all the contributions that Steve Jobs made to the world, I still think that he should have offered Flash on the IPad. I did get to explore HTML5 a little bit recently and I do like it as far as its ease of use. However, the problem remains that it only runs on the lastest browsers, and unless your users are very tech savvy and upgrade their browsers, they’re not going to be able to appreciate it. Internet Explorer version 9 will run it, along with the latest versions of Firefox and Safari. Firefox will only accept .ogg files as opposed to .mp3 files and so on.

Here’s the thing: unless all browsers will come to realize we need technology that’s backward compatable along with browsers meeting the same standards, it will take a while for HTML5 to completely catch on. I do see the advantages it has over Flash, but it will still take time for the rest of the world to catch up.