In this Issue...
 INTRO
| New Products and Services...
This month, PixelMill launches new template products for TypePad, a new buyer rewards program, our new Custom Services
offering, more product specific landing pages, and more CSS education. Whew... we're on a roll.
We start the newsletter with more information about our
new products for TypePad. Adding to
our growing selection of templates, we will be building
versions that work with
SixApart's TypePad blog solution for businesses &
professionals. Our goal is to make it easy for you to build
complementary sites that help you build both a
standard web site (or eCommerce site) and a blog site that
allow you or your client to communicate more effectively
with your site visitors.
Heather Waterman follows our lead article with her
feature article, Keep Your Site Visitors Fed, where
she explains RSS and how blogs can be an effective
addition to your web presence. She also gives a quick
overview on how you can display your blog content on your main web site
in a way that is easy, cost effective, and helps increase
your exposure to your customers and the search engines.
Our second feature this month is another excellent article
from Corrie Haffly about CSS and 'The Road Ahead'. We know
that not everyone is ready to take on CSS, but we feel it is
important that we build this educational material to help
make that transition easier. It's really not as difficult as
it may appear, and you'll definitely come out of it with a
broader knowledge of why the move is important. More
importantly, you will be prepared with a more well rounded
talent set that will allow you to close more client
projects.
We finish this month with information about our new
Buyer
Rewards benefit and Custom Services solution to help
you with all of your custom design needs. Take advantage of
our cost effective custom services to save time on your
next project. Have the PixelMill team do the work for you,
so you can focus on your client and create more time for
selling your next project.
Thank you again for your continued interest in our
newsletter and for being a valued customer. We look forward
to delivering you more of what you expect from PixelMill!
by Jason Reckers, President & CEO -
PixelMill Inc.
 SOLUTIONS
| Solution Packs for TypePad
PixelMill has always been proud of our ability to
deliver products that are easy to use and deploy by
any of our customers. Over the course of the year, we
have had more customers looking for someone to help them
implement the template and get them started.
Sometimes the learning curve in an always changing
environment can be time consuming and more costly
than expected.
In response to the growing number of requests, we have
started to develop a new product mix called Solution Packs.
With Solution Packs, PixelMill delivers you a personalized
solution to help you get started on the right foot. These
solutions combine a template product with either
personalized training or custom services where we will
implement and make all the changes you request.
We're kicking off these new Solution Packs with our new
TypePad solutions. Below, you will find two packages that
will not only give you a template, but will also give you
the additional personalized help you may need. Don't waste
your time learning through the self-taught strategy, let
PixelMill experts get you to the answer you need quickly.
TypePad Template + 1 Hour Training
- $99.00
This package is designed to help you get a quick start with your new template, the TypePad interface plus guidance on how to get more from your new blog. One of our professionals will work directly with you to select the right template. Then, using our online meeting solution, we will visually
walk you through implementing your new template and teach
you how to work with a TypePad blog.
more >>
TypePad Template + 2 Hours Customization
- $169.00
This solution pack will connect you with a PixelMill expert and graphic designer who will help you select a new TypePad template and make design modifications to meet your exact needs. These modifications can include replacing images, changing colors, adding TypePad features, one-on-one training, and more.
more >>
PRODUCTS
| Custom CSS Templates for TypePad
PixelMill is excited to announce the availability of CSS Templates built for
TypePad. TypePad is the premier blogging service for professionals, hosting many of the world's most popular blogs and small business websites.
We took our time to find the right blog solution
that we felt would be the most solid solution for
our customers. TypePad's ease of use enables you to create a blog in minutes.
Our
TypePad-enabled templates are built to fully
integrate with the dynamic features of the TypePad
blog
solution. With just a few quick steps any TypePad
customer can get a head start on launching their new
blog or upgrade to a fresh design for their
existing blog.
How it Works...
- Set up a TypePad Pro account and start your blog.
Visit
TypePad to set up Pro-level blog.
- Buy and download a PixelMill TypePad design package.
Find a design that works for you. Download immediately
after purchase.
- Upload images and apply Custom CSS.
Follow our easy-to-implement instructions for using
the TypePad web-based administrative interface to upload
the design images and apply the Custom CSS.
- Apply the design to as many blogs as you'd like.
TypePad's Pro service allows you to have multiple blogs.
You can apply your new design to just one blog, or to as
many as you'd like.
Demo Movie - View our video tutorial on how you can
"Apply
a TypePad Design in 5 Minutes!" You'll see
how easy it is to get a great looking design.
Solution Packs...
Don't forget that you can also take advantage of one
of our new Solution Packs that connect you with a
PixelMill expert who can help you select the right
template and provide training or customization with
your purchase.
Custom Templates...
Also, we have had a number of customers request
custom TypePad templates that have a similar look &
feel to their existing web site to create a
complementary feel between the two content sources.
These designs have typically ranged from $300 -
$500. Contact our sales department at
sales@pixelmill.com or 866-749-3564 (option 1)
for more information.
Take a moment to visit our
Templates for TypePad landing page to learn more about these
templates and the TypePad Blog solution.
Visit our TypePad-enabled catalog today!
by Jason Reckers, President
& CEO - PixelMill Inc.
 FEATURE
| Keep Your Site Visitors Fed
Every website comes with its own set of bells and
whistles. Some of these stand out a bit more than others,
and RSS is one that is quickly becoming the shining
star. RSS isn't new, but perhaps it is new to you.
Through its growing ease-of-use and mainstream acceptance,
making use of RSS can help you keep your site visitors
coming back.
What is RSS?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.
An RSS feed is a special XML page on your site that contains
links, titles, perhaps a few paragraphs, and other
information about recent posts from a blog or other
content-driven site (you can see the
feed from
PixelMill's blog for an example).
In the past, adding a content feed to your site was a
complicated process, but the explosion in the use of blogs
has simplified the process to a few clicks of the mouse.
Blogs are inherently content feeds and most blog services
have RSS already integrated.
RSS is a friendly, unobtrusive invitation to receive updated
content\information. Have you ever come across a website
that had some image tags at the bottom of the page that
looked like these?
These friendly little icons, otherwise known as Chicklets,
enable you to subscribe to the web site’s content feed. Once
you have subscribed to a web site's feed you will be
notified through a feed reader every time the content
is updated. A feed reader is also known as an aggregator
and/or news aggregator. These “readers” allow you to receive
content from a blog, vlog, your favorite web site, podcast
etc, as soon as it is updated. Feed Readers are available
online (usually free) or in an application (usually not
free). Here are some links to FREE online feed readers.
BlogLines,
Google Reader
and NewsGator
Online.
Why is RSS good for me and my visitors?
For starters, RSS is good for you because you can keep your
site in front of your visitors. While they may not visit
your site every day, they can choose to receive a feed when
the content they subscribed to is changed. So, instead of
trying to get them to come to you, you can go to them.
Using RSS is a win-win scenario for you and your visitors.
Let's say you have 75 people who are subscribing to your
feed. Some may just view your feed through a feed reader
while others have added your feed to their blog or website.
That helps your visitors by adding updated content to their
web site, and it also helps you with promoting your web site
and increasing your search engine ranking.
Now I'm hungry for some RSS! Where do I start?
The easiest place to start is with a blog. You can sign up
for
TypePad's pro account. TypePad is very easy to use and
you don’t have to be a computer geek to create a browser
friendly, professional blog. You will also find that search
engines think blog postings are very tasty - they tend to
give blogs a higher relevance.
Serve a full course meal; add a feed to your web site...
Now that you have a blog set up, how do you get a feed to
your existing web site? We recommend easy-to-use RSS
features through
FeedBurner. FeedBurner is FREE, and it takes only a
few moments to create a feed. Once you have created your
feed (view the video on their
about page
to learn how), you are ready to serve up some delicious
content by adding the feed to your web site.
There are several different ways to serve up your content
with FeedBurner. There is a large variety of feed readers
out there, and you'll want to try to hit as many as you can
with your feed. One way of making sure your visitors are fed
right is to use the SmartFeed feature which comes
with FeedBurner. SmartFeed translates your feed into a
format compatible with your visitors' feed reader
application.
Then you have
BuzzBoost, a quick and easy way to add an HTML feed
to your web site and display your latest headlines on your
site! Add your blog link, select a few parameters, then cut
and paste the code that FeedBurner generates into your web
site and your visitors are fed. You can also format
BuzzBoost to match your website. For a flashier way to
display your headlines, FeedBurner also offers the
Headline Animator.
Whatever your method for burning or feeding, FeedBurner is a
key ingredient in delivering fresh content to your visitors.
It's easy to prepare, and your visitors will love it! Your
visitors can go to either your blog or your web site and get
fresh content; Google and other search engines will crawl
both and be happy that you have fresh content as well.
I've provided links to the various services provided by
FeedBurner in this article, and they have a lot of help
articles and demo videos that show you how to use them, but
you can also stay tuned for next month's newsletter, because
I'll take you through the process of using FeedBurner
step-by-step!
by Heather Waterman, PixelMill Staff Writer.
 FEATURE
| The Road Ahead
In my
last article, I addressed some good reasons why you'd
want to move away from tables-based layout and get into
CSS-based layout.
Since then, I've planned out the rest of this article
series, trying to come up with a logical and friendly way to
guide you through learning CSS without duplicating too much
of
the many good resources already on the web.
To give you a brief roadmap of where we're going, I want
to reference Emil Strenström's blog where he came up with
what he views as the
different levels of CSS knowledge:
Level 0: "CSS? Isn't that a multi-player game?"
People in this level have no idea of what CSS is (or even
how to make a web page, probably).
Congratulations, you are already past this level!
Level 1: "Yeah, I use it to remove underlines on
links sometimes."
People in this level know basic HTML and very little CSS.
To move past level 1, I'll cover some CSS basics so that
you learn how to use CSS to format fonts, colors,
backgrounds, as well as removing link underlines!
Level 2: "No, I don't like divs; tables are
much easier to work with."
People in this level are tables-layout gurus. They may have
tried CSS layout but got frustrated and gave up. They may
have negative feelings about CSS.
To move past level 2, we'll look at layouts created with
tables vs. the same layouts created with CSS and compare and
contrast them.
Level 3: "Yes, I've heard it's good, but I can't
use it because of..."
People in this level know some CSS but something (a Level 2
boss, perhaps) keeps them from using CSS positioning.
Because Level 3 reasons can be very different, I'll focus
more on some practical CSS know-how and explain why I like
to start teaching advanced CSS by showing you how to format
navigation links.
Level 4: "CSS? Oh! Yes, I use divs for all my
layouts."
These people create layouts that are carefully crafted with
absolutely-positioned and layered divs. (Perhaps they use
"layers" in Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or Expression Web to
create their layouts.)
Level 4 people are open-minded to learning new things and
are proud that they use divs and CSS instead of tables.
However, "CSS-based layout" is really part of a larger
discussion about standards and accessibility which they may
not fully understand. So, this part of the series will give
some reasons why you shouldn't depend on the "layers"
created by editors like Dreamweaver and Expression Web, and
then have practical how-to's when it comes to making
different layouts with CSS.
Level 5: "I use CSS for design, it's better than
tables because of..."
These people create semantic, valid sites that use CSS
layout.
This is where this series will end up! I'll talk about
semantic content and give an overview of my typical workflow
when I'm creating a new site.
I am excited about this new series, and will also be
creating webinars based on this material, so be looking for
those as well!
by Corrie Haffly, PixelMill Staff Writer
ANNOUNCEMENT
| New PixelMill Buyer Rewards and Custom Services
Earn 2.5% Buyer Rewards on all Purchases
PixelMill is now rewarding each and every customer
with 2.5% store credit on every purchase.
You don't have to do anything to start earning these
store credit rewards. It's our Thank You for being a valued
PixelMill customer. Every time you purchase from PixelMill,
we will add 2.5% of the purchase price as store credit to
your customer account. The next time you return to
PixelMill, you will be able to apply any amount of your
store credit to discount your purchase price.
Store credits can now be applied during Step 2 of the
checkout process. We will show you how much store credit you
have available, and you can then enter the amount you want
to use for that purchase. You do not need to use all of your
store credit for that purchase. Any credit not used will
remain in your account to be used with a future purchase.
Now, you
will find a little extra cash every time you return
to buy another valuable PixelMill Product or Service.
 Custom Services
Seeing
a growing demand for custom services by both
individual customers and web site builders,
PixelMill has added Custom Services to our offering.
Need help with one element of your project or a few
different pieces? PixelMill is here to help. We will
bring our best experts to any project and help you
offload some of your workload at reasonable
prices. Our Custom Services package offers:
- Reasonable prices for custom work.
Our pricing covers changes for the original
template package you purchased. For custom work
or to work with a site that you have already
modified, we offer hourly rates as well.
- Quick turnaround.
Depending on the type of work requested, your request will be fulfilled in one to three business days.
- PixelMill-approved designers.
Our designers are familiar with the templates and know how to make the changes without breaking the template.
- Great communication.
We'll review your request and immediately notify you if we need more clarification or if your request falls outside of the scope of our provided services. We make sure that you are happy with the results before closing the project.
Building upon our new service releases such as
Webinars and
One-on-One Training, our new
Custom Services division gives you one more way to save
time and money. By expanding our service offerings
we're building you a one-stop
solution to both your custom development and template customization
needs. Now, you have a team that can help you create the
exact design you need as well as help manage your increased
workload. If you find yourself with too many opportunities
and not enough time to do the actual design or programming,
PixelMill now provides an affordable option that will help
you meet your deadlines and focus more on selling the next
solution to your next client.
Go to our
Custom Services page for more information.
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