Random


17
Sep 10

Copy Compass – a South African SEO Plugin

Copy Compass - Content Analysis WordPress PluginIf you dont already know, Copy Compass is the latest project under the wing of the newly branded digital marketing agency, Talooma. Copy Compass is a WordPress plugin that analyses your copy to best search engine optimisation practices. it provides you with in overall score as well as highlights key areas that may need optimising within your copy.

Copy Compass is the ideal plugin for your blog or website. It allows you to optimise your copy in line with generally accepted SEO best practices.

It is ideal for the casual blogger or the more serious blog master or website owner who wants to ensure his content always ranks well within the search engine results pages.

For many months I have been wanting to release a meaningful WordPress plugin that can actually compete with the international big boys and I believe Copy Compass may just be able to do it.  Many hours worth of research, practice and a whole heap of overall brain cell usage has gone into this plugin. Copy Compass was originally developed in my spare time as an in-house tool for Talooma which was meant to increase the quality of copy, in terms of SEO, and to help our customers rank higher in the search engine results pages. Upon using Copy Compass internally, most of our articles and content have climbed the ranks substantially and much progress has been made.

The complete plugin is not available as yet and only a scaled down version of the plugin has been released into the market. This version includes functionality such as the following:

  • Monitor your reading ease score: This is an indication of how easy or difficult your text is to read.
  • Monitor your gunning fog index:  A useful representation of what grade level you need in order to comprehend the text (eg: Grade 7, 8 etc)
  • Keyword Density: All online marketers know the importance of keyword density and how it can affect your rankings.
  • Basic SEO principles: Copy Compass monitors some basic principles needed to do well in the rankings.

If you have any ideas, suggestions and/or comments about Copy Compass, please do not hesitate to make use of the form on the site. All feedback is welcome.


13
Aug 10

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 may be… erm… amazing.

Yup, I actually said “amazing”. On the way to work this morning an update from Mashable on Facebook caught my eye. It appears that Microsoft’s new version of Internet Explorer may just surpass everybody’s expectations. I decided to do a little digging myself and found that Microsoft have made a “test drive” facility available for their new Internet Explorer version and the results really do look promising.

Internet Explorer is due for beta release this September.

Here are some metrics that have been released from Microsoft:

IE9 Acid Test

As you can see from the image, IE9 scores an amazing 95/100 as apposed to its previous score of 20/100.

To be honest, I never thought I would see the day that Microsoft would actually pull this off. Over and above all of this, Microsoft is trying its best at complying with requests from thousands of developers for better interoperability between browsers with regards to markup (tags, scripts and language). Microsoft has submitted over 2,100 tests to working groups at the W3C.

Well done Microsoft!


13
Jul 10

WordPress 3 error: Warning: Cannot modify header information

This error message has the ability to drive some developers completely insane. However, the solution to this error is A LOT easier than you think.

The error:

Wordpress 3 error - Cannot modify header information

What to do

  • Identify the file where the error originates from. This is stated in the actual error. In this case it is “functions.php”, not “theme-editor.php”
  • Remove the white spaces before the “<?php” or “<?” tags as well as after the “?>” tag.

Believe it or not, you are done. Easy as pie.


5
Jul 10

Caffeine withdrawal symptoms – watch out!

Death by CoffeeToday I was faced with an ugly monster that is caffeine withdrawal. I felt like a druggie that had been hit by a planet repeatedly so I decided to do a bit of research to figure out what type of monster I was dealing with and found that caffeine addiction is nothing to laugh about.  It is estimated that one in eight people will experience symptoms that will interfere with their ability to carry out normal day to day activities and tasks. Although caffeine withdrawal is seldom dangerous, it can leave you feeling very uncomfortable for a few days. Trust me, I know!

Headaches

Most people suffering caffeine withdrawal will encounter moderate to severe headaches which can occur 12 to 24 hours after the last intake of caffeine. Be careful what medication you take at this point as combining caffeine with aspirin may be a bad idea. Consult your doctor before hand.

Depression and Tiredness

Through your caffeine withdrawal it may be common to feel slightly depressed and sleepy. Many people often have trouble concentrating and putting yourself through caffeine withdrawal may bring on significant mood changes. Hence it would be good idea not to plan on doing this near to an important date (such as your anniversary!).

Other Symptoms

Many other symptoms have been recorded, such as

  • Flu-like symptoms,
  • nausea,
  • vomiting,
  • muscle pain,
  • joint pain,
  • diarrhea,
  • stiffness.

How do I stop drinking coffee?

The best method in order to get rid of your caffeine addiction is to ween yourself off. i.e. if you drink 8 cups of coffee during the day, only drink 5 the next, 3 the day after that and so on until you’re eventually off caffeine altogether or you are on a limited amount of decaf. Make sure you drink lots of water in this time. Many experts reckon it will take only nine days to kick the habit which is much better than stopping smoking!

Good luck!

Image from MediumTall


3
Jul 10

Google Chrome Market Share Increasing in South Africa

When Google first released the Google Chrome web browser, the initial sentiment was neither here nor there. However, times have changed as more and more internet users have converted to this amazingly quick and stable web browser. I have conducted some limited research on the market share relating to web browsers in South Africa.

South Africa

This research is based on information aggregated from 2.5 million page views  from 6 different web categories: Entertainment, shopping, travel, kids, blogging and business. These stats are a comparison between the dates Jul 2009 – Dec 2009 to Jan 2010 – Jun 2010.

  • Chrome increased from 5.64% to 8.16% (up 2.52%)
  • Internet Explorer decreased from 70.78% to 69.42% (down 1.36%)
  • Firefox increased from 15.43% to 15.57% (up 0.14%)

As you can see, South African’s are reluctant to let go of Internet Explorer.

Global

This data (from Net Applications) follows the same date range as above, Jul-Dec 2009 to Jan-Jun 2010 and yields similar results.

  • Chrome increased from 3.45% to 6.31% (up 2.86%)
  • Internet Explorer decreased from 65.24% to 60.74% (down 4.50%)
  • Firefox increased from 23.76% to 24.32% ( up 0.56%)
Browser market share Jan-Jun 20101