Do you dare try Browsershots?

One of the reasons I try to get my budget clients to use "canned" templates on their brochure websites is that the templates are generally coded to look good on a variety of browsers. They don't break, even if the person viewing them is using an old version of Internet Explorer or the latest version of Safari for the Mac.

And I'm astonished by the number of times I've been writing content for the site of corporate client and have discovered that their professionally done custom-designed websites break in a standard browser — usually because their designer didn't bother to test the code.

Browsershots is an online web development tool that lets you submit a web address and get back screenshots that show how your page renders in a variety of browsers and browser versions.

And you don't need to be a developer to do this — you can use Browsershots to check out your own existing website. But be prepared for the ugly truth. I wasn't, and was appalled by the way the typefaces on my iWeb-created web pages appeared in some of the Windows browsers. Back to the drawing board...

The 11 deadly sins of web design

"Don't annoy users," the Internet Marketing Blog reminds us, and goes on to list 11 frustrating website behaviors.

My vote goes to #2, "Sound or music when the page loads." For every instance in which I've enjoyed unsolicited music on a web page, there are 99 others when I've simply clicked away from the offending site.

Nothing on the list would surprise most web users, but apparently it would be news to many expensive web designers — since they keep designing sites that actively drive user traffic away from their customers' businesses.

Back from vacation

The Writer Way blog enjoyed a vacation but I didn't; I was busy...writing. And soon I'm going to be busy putting together a presentation for an upcoming Seattle blogging conference. More on that later.

Meanwhile, check out these insights from the Samurai Radiologist on "Jazz and the Art of Medical Presentations." They apply nicely to non-medical presentations as well.

Web 1 Marketing's top SEO tips

How could I not like these "10 free SEO tips" from the experts at Web 1 Marketing when so many of them are about writing good, substantive content? 

Book promotion will never be the same

The novel itself sounds pretty good, too.

Mobile email readers: "A captive audience"

Steve Smith, writing for MediaPosts Mobile Insider (subscription required), quotes Ion CEO Justin Talerico about the behavior of consumers who come to a site from phone-platform email (rather than desktop email). It's intriguing, though I'm not wild about the term "psychographically."

Generally, Talerico says, people coming through a mobile email link are highly focused. "They are a great captive audience," he says. Unlike the Web environment, mobile is not conducive to multitasking, and because of the relative slowness and unpredictability of browsing here, most of us don't click on links as liberally. In other words, we click through on the things we really want to see. "You have a more committed person," he thinks. "You apply the same landing page principles but it is a smaller canvas. The interesting thing in our opinion is that psychographically you have a more focused person."

Usability-testing gorilla

If you thinking "usability testing" is something that only big companies do, think again. Just about anyone doing website or application design should conduct user research to see how users interact with a beta version of their product. But until recently, this has been a difficult (and expensive) step for developers using Macs.

According to Nick Finck at Blue Flavor, a new $50 program called Silverback by Clearleft solves the problem. Install it on your computer, set up a session, and it will record a user session (screen activity and voice) and transform it into a QuickTime video.

I'm considering installing it and inviting a few of my clients to record themselves using their own websites. There's a 30-day trial version available.

Putting the science in science fiction

David Levine's blog posts about what he's learning at an astronomy retreat for science fiction writers are a good reminder: One of the best ways to inspire and power your writing is a massive dose of new information.

This is pushing me to fit in a bit of travel and exploration in before this summer ends.