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Stolen content is the bane of every blogger who provides a publicly available RSS feed. By delivering your content via feed, you make it easy for scrapers to assimilate and re-purpose your material on their crap Adsense sites. It’s bad enough that someone would re-post your entire feed without credit, but to use it for cheap money-making schemes is about as pathetic as it gets. If you’re lucky, the bastards may leave all the links intact, so at least you will get a few back-links (if you have been linking internally) and get notified of the stolen content as well (via pingback or Google Alert). Lately, however, many of the scraper sites that I have seen are completely removing all links within the stolen content. Incidentally, there are some tell-tale signs that the site you are visiting is a scraper site:
- No RSS feed available
- Many quality posts that contain no links
- Many quality posts but very low subscriber count
- Great content but with zero comments on any posts
- Lots of good content but with lots of Adsense or other ads
- No “About” page or business information
- And the number one brain-dead giveaway: no contact form or email address
If you pay attention as you surf around, you may want to keep an eye out for some of these dead giveaways. If it looks like the site is profiting from stolen content, it is advisable to leave immediately and locate an original source of information (you could even be cool and report the scraper site to the original author). I.e., help strengthen the legit blogging community and don’t support scrapers in any way. But avoiding scraper sites is merely an afterthought. The real challenge is to have a solid strategy in place that will help you identify, eliminate and prevent stolen content. Unfortunately, there is no “magic cure” that will stop the scrapers from stealing your hard work — apart from running a private site or not providing a feed — but there are many great tools that have proven quite effective in fighting the war against stolen content. While not completely exhaustive, here are some powerful tips and tricks that have served me well over the years:
- Use partial feeds
- This is arguably the most effect way to immunize against scrapers, who prefer to steal entire articles as opposed to excerpts.
- Use a monitoring service
- Services such as Fairshare or Copyscape will help you find out who is stealing your content
- Use a feed footer plugin
- WordPress users have many to choose from including the excellent Copyfeed and Ozh’ Better Feed.
- Setup Google Alerts
- Keep an eye on what Google discovers around the Web. If you have a specific phrase or URL (perhaps your own) that appears in all (or most) of your posts, setup a comprehensive daily Google Alert to be notified any time that Google finds a match. This is particularly useful if you have pingbacks disabled at your site.
- Analyze your access logs
- Keep an eye out for image requests coming from external IP addresses. These are usually associated with stolen content.
- Tell them to stop
- Stay vigilant and confront scrapers with formal “Cease and Desist“ emails. Gather information about the scraper and then contact them as directly and clearly as possible. Tell them to cease and desist, include all relevant URLs, and explain the consequences of non-compliance. Then follow through.
- File a DMCA notice
- Take action by filing a formal DMCA notice with each of the major search engines. If you are serious about stopping a scraper, filing a DMCA report is an essential step in documenting and potentially resolving the situation. The process is slow and tedious, but worth the effort.
- Register your work
- To verify your work in the case of a dispute, register your content with services like Numly or Registered Commons. For situations when registering is not possible, Archive.org may provide some indirect evidence of original authorship (just make sure you aren’t blocking them with your robots.txt file.
- Deliver your own feeds
- Rather than blacklist potential scrapers, target them directly by banning their IP or user agent from accessing your feed. You can’t do this with Feedburner, but it is a great way to prevent stolen content.
- Blacklist by IP address
- Once you have determined the IP of someone who is scraping your content, block them from accessing your feed by blacklisting their address. Something as simple as the following placed in your HTAccess should do the trick:
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} ^123.123.123
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.tld/feed
Replace the IP address with that of the scraper and replace the feed URL with anything you wish. I prefer to use the feed of the scraper’s site — works awesome ;) - Blacklist the User Agent
- If the scraper is using a unique or obscure User Agent when accessing your content, you can blacklist that particular User Agent.
And there are probably many other effective techniques to be found around the Web. The take-home point is that yes, scrapers suck, but there are many ways to prevent your content from being misused. Developing your own anti-scraping strategy while staying vigilant, informed, and proactive will definitely help minimize the degree to which scrapers misuse your content.
Source: Perishable Press
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If you’re a designer, artist, or photographer, chances are you need to display your work online. And while there are sites out there that will host your portfolio for you, their solutions are often not quite what you were looking for.
Below are twelve tips for creating a better portfolio site. These suggestions apply to all kinds of portfolios, no matter what your particular artistic field. Also included are examples and a gallery of excellent portfolio sites, with what they’re doing right and what could use some improvement.
1. A portfolio site should put the emphasis on your work.
This is one of the most important rules for designing a portfolio site: make sure the emphasis is on the work on display, not the design of the site. While you can certainly have a site that’s visually interesting and aesthetically appealing, it needs to complement your work and help push it to the forefront of your potential clients’ minds. If it doesn’t do that, then it’s not helping your business or your art.
The work takes center stage, as it should.
2. A portfolio site should be easy to navigate.
Navigation needs to be straightforward on any site that aims to sell to the public. And that’s just what a portfolio site is supposed to do; it sells you and your abilities to potential clients. Make sure the basics of getting to your work, your contact information, and other important parts of your site are simply and easy to use. Potential clients shouldn’t have to think too much to get from point A to point B. If they do, they’ll likely just move on to your competitors.
Uses a traditional top navigation bar is intuitive to most visitors.
3. Make sure it’s easy for potential clients to contact you.
I don’t know how many portfolios I’ve seen where finding the person’s contact information was nearly impossible. At the bare minimum, include an email address or a contact form. And better still, include a business phone number where you can be reached.
Includes two ways to get in touch: a traditional contact page and a “request a quote” page.
4. A portfolio site should offers some information about you and express some of your personality—but not too much.
Your portfolio site is there to sell you. There needs to be something on the site other than your work that sets you apart from your competition. Exactly how you do this will depend on who your prospective clients are. You need to take into account how conservative they’re likely to be or how laid-back their businesses are before deciding how to approach your own site’s design.
A great about page, with plenty of information about the designer.
5. A portfolio site should make your potential clients comfortable.
This has already been touched on a bit, but you need to make sure your site isn’t going to put off your prospective customers. If your clients are primarily involved in the arts or other creative fields, you should go a bit more creative with your own site. However, if you’re targeting mostly investment banks or law offices, you may want to go a bit more conservative or risk scaring your prospects off or seeming unprofessional.
The welcome message on the home page helps make visitors feel comfortable on the site.
6. A portfolio site should be easy to update.
Use a CMS for your site, or at least an XML file to feed new content. You want to be able to easily add your best work to your site without taking half a day to do so. There are plenty of CMSs with plugins available for creating a great image gallery.
This portfolio is built on WordPress.
7. A portfolio site should only showcase your best content.
You don’t need to show every photo you’ve ever taken or every website you’ve ever designed. Most people won’t bother looking through all of it anyway. Put up a dozen or so outstanding examples in each major category in which you work. Leave the rest out.
This site uses a hybrid approach, with a showcase of their best work but links available to pretty much all of their work.
8. A portfolio site should include testimonials or references from happy clients.
This is something a lot of designers and artists overlook, but testimonials can go a long way toward making prospects feel more comfortable with you. Not only do they want to know that you’re competent in your field, they also want to know that you can meet deadlines and aren’t a bear to work with.
An entire page devoted to testimonials.
9. Include your social networking profiles, but only if they’re professional.
Including links to your LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, or Facebook page area great idea and can make you seem more like a real person to prospective clients (especially those you may never meet in person). Remember, though, if you link to these sites and make them a part of your professional online persona, you need to keep the information you post professional. Otherwise, clients may be put off by your views, language, or any number of other things you might post. A good rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t say it in a business meeting, don’t say it anywhere you’re advertising yourself.
Incorporates a Twitter feed right on the home page.
10. Provide a downloadable resume.
Sometimes the person gathering information about prospective contractors isn’t necessarily the one making the final decision. If you provide a downloadable resume, it makes it easier for that person to sell you to the decision-makers. Make sure the resume is professional and complete, but don’t be afraid to make it personal and creative, too.
The resume is included under the work, alongside the other main navigation links.
11. Categorize and tag your work, especially if there’s a lot of it.
Tags and categories make it easier for prospective clients to see your experience on the specific types of projects they need help with. If you work with multiple media formats (print, web, interactive, etc.), include a category for each. If you work in only one medium but in multiple industries (healthcare, government, retail, etc.), then include a category for each of those. And use tags to give additional information about your work and make it possible to find examples based on even more specific criteria.
Uses categories based on the type of work (websites, identity, digital art).
12. A portfolio site needs to set you and your work apart from your competitors.
Your portfolio site should set you apart from your competition. Look at what others in your field are doing, and then do something different. That doesn’t mean you have to do something completely unique that no one has ever done before, but it does mean you need to make sure your portfolio isn’t going to be confused with your biggest competitors’. And whatever you do, don’t copy the portfolio of another designer in your field. It only makes you look less professional. You’ll never be better than the person at number one if all you do is copy them.
This is a very unique website, showcasing the artist’s work both in the design itself and in the portfolio pages.
Great Portfolio Sites
Below are some excellent portfolio sites for inspiration. For more portfolio designs, check out the Folio Focus gallery.
The good:
- Work is showcased on the home page as well as on a separate portfolio page
- The site design is clean and simple, putting the emphasis on the work
- Includes social networking links
- Includes a downloadable resume
- His work is categorized
The bad:
- There’s no obvious way to contact him outside of his social networking profiles.
The good:
- Includes links to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr
- Puts a taste of his work right on the homepage
- Site has personality
- Work is tagged by type
- Easy to navigate
The bad:
- The site’s design is very busy
- No categories for the work
The good:
- Simple and clean design that emphasizes the work
- Easy to contact
- Basic categories for work
- Very professional
The bad:
- Not much personality or “about” information
- Work could be further categorized, especially the design work
The good:
- Work is categorized
- Homepage gives information about the artist
- Homepage offers examples of work
- Navigation is straightforward
- Contact information is included prominently
The bad:
- There’s a relatively small body of work displayed by default
- No way to display all work at one time
The good:
- Emphasis is squarely on the work
- Navigation is a little on the unintuitive side
- Contact is easy
The bad:
- The only contact method is email
- There’s virtually no “about” information
The good:
- Puts the emphasis on the work
- Simple design
- Easy to contact
- Includes social networking profile links
The bad:
- No categories or tags on work
- No back button functionality in portfolio navigation
The good:
- Simple navigation—single page design
- Easy to contact
- Includes a “featured work” section at the top of the page
The bad:
- No categories or tags on work
The good:
- Emphasis is on the work
- Contact information is displayed prominently in the sidebar
- Photos are categorized
- Simple design
The bad:
- No social networking links
- Sidebar doesn’t scroll, cutting off links on smaller widescreen monitors
The good:
- Site has personality while still retaining focus on the work
- Contact information is prominently displayed
- Navigation is straight-forward
The bad:
- Not much work included on the site
The good:
- Site has tons of personality while still showcasing the work effectively
- Featured work is included on the home page
- Work is somewhat categorized
- Contact information is prominent
The bad:
- Social networking links are buried in the footer
The good:
- Work is prominently displayed
- Simple design
- Contact information is easy to find
The bad:
- Only contact method is an email address
- Work isn’t categorized or tagged (and there’s a lot of work displayed)
The good:
- Slideshow on the home page prominently displays work
- Simple design puts the emphasis on the work
- Contact information is prominently displayed
- Includes social networking links
The bad:
- No categorization of work
The good:
- Featured work is included on the home page
- There’s plenty of work included on the site
- Contact information is displayed prominently
- Social networking links are included
The bad:
- No categories or tags for work
The good:
- Plenty of personality on the site
- Featured work displayed on the home page
- Navigation is straight forward
- Contact information is displayed prominently
- Single page design stands out
The bad:
- No social networking links are included
The good:
- Featured work section on the home page
- Includes basic “about” information on the home page
- Navigation is straight forward
- Includes testimonials
- Contact information is easy to find
- Includes links to social networking sites
The bad:
- No downloadable resume
- Work isn’t categorized
Author: Cameron Chapman
Cameron Chapman is a writer, blogger, copyeditor, and social media addict. She’s been designing for more than six years and writing her whole life. If you’d like to connect with her, you can follow her on Twitter or at her Personal Website.
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Those living in urban environments probably know all about car-sharing service Zipcar. For the rest of the world, Zipcar made its global splash by demoing its upcoming iPhone app during the keynote at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The impressive demo not only stood out to numerous iPhone-owning Zipcar customers—it generated a flurry of curiosity among the geek crowd about what Zipcar is and how the technology behind the service works. After entertaining a few discussions here at the Orbiting HQ as well as numerous reader questions, we decided to take a peek behind the curtain at Zipcar to learn more about the system, learning that it's more complex—and cooler—than we originally thought.
According to an AP report, Keith Griffin of Jensen Beach, Florida, has been accused of downloading more than 1,000 images of child pornography. He’s currently in jail on a quarter-of-a-million dollar bond, awaiting trial on 10 counts of child porn possession.
His defense, however, is unusual, to say the least.
Griffin claims he was actually downloading music when his cat jumped on the computer keyboard while he was out of the room – something he says the cat frequently did.
When he returned, Griffin said “strange things” had happened to his computer.
There has been no statement from the cat.
Read | Permalink | Linking Blogs | World News
There are plenty of mistakes web designers (especially new ones) make when designing websites. Everything from poor design to simple oversight happen every day. But with a little diligence, they can easily be avoided.
Below are ten of the most common mistakes web designers make, along with examples of sites who do things right. Some of these are easy to correct if you’re aware of, others might take a bit more time. But all are fixable and worth the time and effort to correct. While this is by no means a comprehensive list of common errors, it is a good starting point.
1. Busy, crowded pages.
“White space” or “negative space”, space that is empty of elements other than your background design, is an incredibly important design element. It’s an important design element that affects how your visitors perceive the importance of different elements. Sufficient white space should be used between your columns, different page elements, and even between individual characters, lines, and paragraphs. Consider both the “macro” white space, the negative space around columns, page elements, and even the whole design; and micro white space, the negative space between individual lines, paragraphs, and sub-elements.
In addition to white space, don’t try to put too much on a single page. Visitors will likely visit pages looking for something specific. Including only related information and necessary navigation and site-wide elements on each page. It’s better in many cases to have multiple short pages than only a handful of very long ones, espeically if those long ones include a ton of unrelated content.
2. Hard-to-Find New Content
Unless the sites you’re designing are completely static, somehow showcasing new information and content is vital to good design. Returning visitors are likely going to be interested in what’s changed since they last visited. Generally, this is done automatically on blogs, with posts appearing in descending order based on date. But what about on other types of websites?
There are a few ways to approach this. You can devote an entire section to new content. This could be a page linking to the newest content (say, the ten most recent updates). Or this could be a section within the home page or another page that links to the newest updates. Making this prominent is important, whether it’s directly within the home page or on its own page. The goal is to make it easy for returning visitors to find it.
3. Hard-to-Find Links
Links are one of the most important parts of a website. Arguably, they could be the most important element. In any case, you need to make sure your links are easy to distinguish from other text elements.
There are two things to keep in mind here. First, make sure your links are distinguished in some way from the rest of your text. This can be done with a different color, an underline, or some other text attribute (anything but blinking text). The second thing to keep in mind is not to make text that isn’t linked look like a link. This means that under no circumstances should any text on your site be underlined if it isn’t a link. It also means that if you use other elements to style your links, don’t apply them to non-linked text.
4. Incorrect Image Formats
Using the correct image format for the different images on your site is vital. Using the wrong image file format can either make your image files larger than they need to be or effect the quality of the final image. The three image formats to concern yourself with for online graphics are JPEG, GIF, and PNG.
JPEG format is great for photos or images with a lot of different colors and shades because it’s capable of 24 bit color. The downside to using JPEG is that it uses lossy compression. In other words, the smaller you make the file size, the more quality loss you get. Using lower compression minimizes this but it can still be an issue, especially in larger images or images where the original was very sharp. You can’t use transparency in JPEGs either.
GIF format is great for images that use a limited color palette. GIF is only capable of 8 bit color (256 colors total). That means it’s not appropriate for photographs or most gradient images. GIF uses lossless compression, though, which means if you have an image that uses only a limited color palette it can result in really small file sizes with no quality loss. GIF is also capable of transparency for a single color within the palette.
PNG format is suitable for photos and other graphics. PNG images are capable of alpha transparency (in browsers that support it), which gives them an advantage of GIFs. They also use lossless compression, which gives them an advantage over JPEGs. And they’re capable of 8 or 24 bit color, so are suitable for images that previously would have been saved as GIFs or JPEGs. PNG images aren’t quite as good at JPEGs for photos, but are considerably better than GIFs.
5. Leaving the Default Page Title
The default page title in Dreamweaver is “Untitled Document”. If you search for it in Google, you’ll come up with almost 30 million results. There’s really no excuse for this. It’s literally a two-second fix. Make sure before you upload that you’ve changed the default page title to something other than the default.
Really, though, you should take it a step beyond that. Many CMSs use the website or blog name as the default page title for every page within the site. Some will add on the title of the particular page, but some don’t. You should make sure that not only is the page title for each page unique, but that the specific page title shows up before the site title. It’s a big help with SEO, both in terms of showing up higher in results and in having those results look more relevant to potential visitors.
6. Hard-to-Use or Hard-to-Find Navigation
Navigation should be immediatley apparent to visitors, both in terms of locating it and using it. There was a trend in web design for awhile to hide navigation, to integrate it seamlessly into an image or other content on the home page. And while artistically this is interesting, functionally it’s very user-unfriendly.
Even using things like drop down menus for navigation can make your pages less user-friendly. You want users to be able to find exactly what they’re looking for with the least amount of effort. Always keep that in mind when you’re designing.
7. Fixed Font Size
This is a very important one. Make sure users can resize the fonts on your pages based on their own preferences. This is done using EM sizing for fonts rather than pixel-based sizes. Again, it’s a relatively simple thing to implement but greatly improves the usability and accessibility of your site.
8. An Unclear Site Purpose
Visitors should immediately know what a site is about, no matter what page they land on. This can be done through the use of tag lines or similar indications, through page titles, or through headings on individual pages. However you choose to do it, make sure that it’s apparent within the first few seconds after a visitor lands on a given page.
9. Using Harsh Colors
Harsh colors, and especially the use of harsh contrasting colors, can quickly make your sites a chore to view. You don’t want to do anything that makes a visitor want to leave your site. Eye strain is one thing that will get most visitors to leave post haste. Your site should showcase your content and avoid anything that detracts from the goal of the site.
10. Advertising Blended Into Content
Advertising should be set apart from the content of your site. With banner ads this is relatively easy; most Internet users know what a banner ad looks like. It’s a bit trickier with text links, though. Labeling your advertising for what it is make sense to your visitors and sets your site up to be considered more trustworthy. This is especially important with in-text advertising, where hovering over a linke will bring up a modal window with an ad. Make sure these links are differentiated from your normal links.
Author: Cameron Chapman
Cameron Chapman is a writer, blogger, copyeditor, and social media addict. She’s been designing for more than six years and writing her whole life. If you’d like to connect with her, you can follow her on Twitter or at her Personal Website.
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Move over YouTube—the folks behind The Pirate Bay are working on their own video streaming site with no restrictions. The site will be called The Video Bay and it is now on the Web as a "Beta Extreme," though currently there is no functionality as everything is still under development. There is no indication of when it will be ready for public consumption, either, though when it goes live, it will supposedly host videos without any kind of censorship or copyright restrictions.
The Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde spoke via videoconference to the Open Video Conference in New York this week, discussing the details behind The Video Bay. He noted that the site would use a number of HTML 5 features, including tags using the ogg/theora video and audio formats. There are demos for both of these tags on The Video Bay already (one for video and one for audio).
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