Transio Blog

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Do-It-Yourselfers

1Mar2009

This blog entry is a basic guide for DIYers with a good level of technical knowledge looking to improve their site's SEO.

Step 1 - Keyword Analysis

The first thing you have to do is find out what keywords you want to use. You'll need a tool that will help you analyze keywords and keyphrases for their KEI Rating (Keyword Efficiency Index). This is basically the number of searches for that keyphrase divided by the number of competing sites. The resulting KEI gives you a better understanding of what your ROI (Return On Investment) will be.

Some Color Theory for the Web

17Feb2009

Warm and Cool Colors

Colors are generally grouped into two sets - "Warm" and "Cool":

Warm / Hot colors, ranging from red to yellow, convey a sense of heat to the optical center of the brain, because of their relation to things that are hot (fire, molten lava, heated metal, etc.).

Cool / Cold colors, ranging from green to purple, exude a cool air. This is because of their relation to the cooler elements of our environment (i.e. trees, water, air, a night sky).

SQL: Multiple Joins on a Single Table / Relationship

19Sep2008

There are some times when we have to create multiple joins on a single table, i.e. when we have many elements in a table referencing the same foreign key.   It's not a difficult situation to deal with when you've dealt with it before, but can be a little confusing for new DB users.  That's why I've created this tutorial - to explain how to properly design and reference your tables in SQL.

Multiple SQL Joins on a Single Table / Relationship

4Sep2008

There are some times when we have to create multiple joins on a single table, i.e. when we have many elements in a table referencing the same foreign key.   It's not a difficult situation to deal with when you've dealt with it before, but can be a little confusing for new DB users.  That's why I've created this tutorial - to explain how to properly design and reference your tables in SQL.

Why You Shouldn't Use White Text on a Black Background

25Jul2008

Inverted text is text that has been switched from the default black-on-white color scheme to white-on-black.  It is strongly suggested that you don't use this format of text for most printed materials - but what's the right thing to do for websites?.

Why Inverted Colors Are Not Suggested for Print

The following are some facts gathered by years of market research in the field of advertising: 

How to Create a Multiple Item Delete Admin Script with MySQL and PHP

8Apr2008

Administration of a database can be a pain in the arse if you have to delete dozens or hundreds of items one by one by one. If you have an interface like this, you may want to make one where you can delete multiple rows from a MySQL table all in one shot. This tutorial will show you how to do exactly that and provide you a script by which you can easily set up such an interface for yourself using a checkbox list.

The concept is based upon two principles.

How to Pass Spam Filters with PHP mail()

20Mar2008

Ok, so you've set up a nice mail form on your remotely hosted PHP site, but every time you send an email to someone through it, it seems to get derailed by spam filters??? There's a simple reason for this. If your website is hosted on a shared server, you're likely using a mail server with a different domain than your own, and when you try to alias that as a message from your domain, many new email clients will register you as a spammer!

This tutorial shows you how to fix the problem and send a mail that is branded with your domain, but gets by spam filters.

How to Denormalize a Normalized Table Using SQL

12Feb2008

Often times, we sacrifice some usability in our data in order to follow nth-normal form in our database architecture.

This tutorial will teach you a trick that allows us to retrieve name-value pairs of data as denormalized column-value pairs.

Let's take the case of a user settings table. A typical denormalized user settings table may look like this:

XML and XSD (Schema) Primer

4Feb2008

I decided to put this little XML tutorial / primer together for those of you who are interested in learning XML, but don't want to spend weeks doing so. This 15-minute course should give you guys a good basic understanding of how XML works without much time investment. I suggest that if you find this primer interesting, go read up more on XML (and the associative standards) and learn more. There's a lot more you can do with it than what I'm showing here.

How to Make Drop Caps in HTML with Images or CSS

19Jan2008

Image Drop caps are a neat way of formatting content, in which the first character of a section of text is made slightly larger than the rest, in a stylized font, and dropped down through the next few lines of text. Books often begin new chapters with drop caps. They do not increase legibility of the text, yet they are proven to increase readership, making them a handy little tool in marketing.

How to Create Powerful Content with Lists

2Oct2007

Lists allow you to display information in an ordered fashion by dissecting the content of your site into smaller, more legible pieces.

Lists have been used in advertising for years, and are proven to increase readership. They convey the notion that you have something important to say, and that you have organized your thoughts clearly enough to section them appropriately and concisely.

In HTML, there are three pre-defined types of lists: ordered lists, unordered lists, and definition lists.

How to Create Text Columns in HTML

14Jun2007

In the world of advertising, it has been found that people maintain more interest in pages that have their text divided into columns. Advertising guru David Ogilvy redefined the print ad by adopting the layout and design of articles into his advertisements. This meant that the page would be divided into three columns, using "serif" fonts (see the section on "fonts" for more details), with about 8-10 words per column, and divided into short, full-justified paragraphs.