JaceMan's Journey » Tips & Tricks

Twitter Background Templates

JaceMan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:40:31 +0000

I have designed and redesigned my Twitter background a few times, and I know how much “fun” it can be. I especially hated that I always had to upload my background to actually see what it looked like and if I had correctly positioned things on the page properly for the most OPTIMIZED look. So, I decided to go ahead and make myself a template designed to help me easily create aesthetically pleasing Twitter backgrounds optimized for 1280×1024 (the most common resolution to optimize Twitter around, and the same resolution that I generally surf the web in as well) displays. I decided that if I could create myself a template that “matched” (I knew that there would be SLIGHT variations in browser displays: firefox, internet explorer, opera, etc.) the layout and dimensions of Twitter, I would know exactly how much “real estate” I had to work with during my design process. I figured that this could drastically reduce my edit times, and help me to ensure that things were going to look the way I wanted them to BEFORE I uploaded to Twitter and hoped for the best!

When I finished creating myself a little “template” image at 1280×1024, I looked over my handy work and thought, “Dude, I think this could help a lot of people!” So at that, I decided to continue slaving away and to “spread the wealth.” I decided I would whip up several templates optimized for 1280×1024 displays, but with the template itself being various sizes: 1920×1200, 1440×900, 1680×1050, etc. I figured this way PRO DESIGNERS (of which, I am most definitely not one) could use my templates to comply with their customers’ requests, while at the same time ensuring that the background remained optimized for the majority of the eyes that would see it. This would also give them a nice visual aid when they have those pesky customers who say, “It doesn’t look right on my screen.” While that customer is using a widescreen 26″ Dell display at 1680×1050 to do their surfing, when the vast majority of users will not be. This would allow you to say, “OK, here’s your image at 1680×1050, but as you can see anything to the right of this point, or below this point is going to be unseen by most web surfers. You want to make sure that what we build is going to look best for the majority of your visitors, right?”

Template @ 1920×1200 Optimized for 1280 Viewing

So, I did just that. I created my template to be optimized for 1280×1024, but I made them for multiple design sizes. After that, I got to thinking… ‘Ya know Jace, if you share these templates with others a lot of them aren’t going to keep vertical space in mind. You clearly have the left/right boundaries marked, but you need to show them how to make best use of their vertical space too!” So, I went back in and I added “perforations” to my templates to demonstrate at what point your design was “wasted” by designing “below the fold” because it wouldn’t be seen. I marked how much of the vertical space would be visible at 1280×1024 in both Firefox and Internet Explorer (assuming that your visitors have all standard toolbars, plus one other: i.e. Google or Yahoo!) and then I decided to mark the same points for widescreen resolutions of 1280×768.

: My 1280 “Above the Fold” Template: this is the one that I personally use when I update my own Twitter profile.

At this point I smiled to myself and thought… ‘Man, this is pretty cool!’

I figured it was time to share these templates with the world, but THEN my stupid willingness to help as many people as possible got the better of me. Even though I was already tired and worn out, I got to thinking — ‘While most people do optimize their Twitter profiles with a horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels in mind, some still want to optimize theirs to 1024 for older monitors and eyes.’ In doing so, you do sacrifice a lot of valuable design space, but if that’s the resolution you want to target, that’s what you have to put up with. So… I actually went back and made 1024 optimized versions of all of my templates!

: The same 1920×1200 template shown above, but now optimized for 1024 instead.

One thing to note is that the templates are in PNG format, so you can use them with YOUR editor of choice: PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro, GiMP, Paint.NET, or whatever else. Simply open the template size you wish to work with and add new layers below the template layer. Alternatively you can do your design work and then import the template into a new layer in your image to see what it should look like after you save and upload to Twitter.

And here’s the best part… I’m giving these away to all of you without cost! Yeah, I know… I’m such a nice guy! *wink, wink*

All I ask in return is that if you find these templates useful, FOLLOW ME on Twitter. And heck, if you’d like to continue “spreading the wealth” you could always:

Tweet This message using the button below.

Free Twitter Background Templates (401)

Thanks, and I hope you find these little templates useful if you’re looking to design your own unique Twitter background. They did take me quite a bit of time to make.

How to Use the FT Signature Manager Plugin

JaceMan — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:09:57 +0000

A friend of mine from Twitter, @jamieharrington, was wanting to append a “signature” to the end of all of her WordPress posts. After I figured out what she was after, I let her know that the “best” (meaning what I would do, so that must make it the BEST option, right?) way to handle it would be to modify her WordPress theme. I told her that if she didn’t want to take that approach, there was probably a plugin for it. So, I set off to find it.

And find it, I did. I pointed her to FT Signature Manager. She thanked me for the link and set off on her merry way to give the installation a go. She got the plugin installed, but couldn’t figure out how to configure it. I figured that it was just a case of the WordPress 2.7 branch’s backend being so drastically different than previous iterations. So, I tried to explain to her where to go to configure the plugin. After she couldn’t find the options, I decided to install it myself and walk her through it. (Aren’t I sweet?)

What I found was that it took me a few minutes to figure out how to set this thing up too, but we eventually nailed it down. I gave Jamie the information, and she added her signature to her blog. A couple of her readers commented that it was pretty neat and that they would like to do the same. With that, I decided I would write up a detailed tutorial (complete with screenshots) walking users through installing and configuring this signature plugin. So, without further adieu, I present to you the tutorial…

Your Golden Ticket

These directions assume that you are using WordPress 2.7.x. If you are using an earlier version of WordPress, I assume that you know how to manually install plugins for WordPress, and you should start this tutorial at step 3.

1. Getting Started

The first thing you’re going to want to do is install FT Signature Manager, and you might as well take advantage of WordPress’s new built-in, plugin installer. After you have logged into your WordPress Admin panel, scan the sidebar for “Plugins” and expand it if it already isn’t. Then click on Add New.

Slick New Plugin Installer Built Into WordPress

2. Find the Plugin

After the Add New plugin page has loaded, you will have the option to search WordPress for plugins. By default the search criteria is set to “term.” Leave that as is and type in “ft signature” before clicking on the search button.

Perform a search for: ft signature.

3. Install the Plugin

The search results should find and return the plugin “FT Signature Manager.” Simply click on the text link reading, “Install” to proceed.

With FT Signature Manager in toe, click Install

4. Confirm Plugin is Activated

After confirming that you wish to install the plugin, it should already be activated, but you should confirm this by checking Plugins > Installed to be sure. If it doesn’t show up in the activated list, you may activate it here the same way you would any other plugin by clicking the “Activate” link.

Plugin activated? Check!

5a. Setup that Signature

Now that the plugin has been installed and activated, we need to let WordPress know whether or not the default behavior is to show the signature every time (When you make a new post, you have the option to turn the signature on or off from within the posting screen. You will find that option near the bottom of the posting screen labeled Signature Options.) or not. And of course, you get to set your desired signature up (using HTML) complete with text, images, or whatever you want. Access the signature configurator by clicking on Users > Signature Options in the sidebar.

If you do not see Signature Options, you may need to expand the menu by clicking on the drop-down arrow to the right of Users.

5b. Signature Setup Continued

Determine what you want your signature to read (text) or show (image), and input the HTML into the text box. Note that if you wish to use a multiple line signature, you will need to manually create the line breaks using the BR tag as shown below. When you have your signature’s text/image HTML entered, you can click on the Update button to not only activate your signature, but to also gain a preview of what your signature is going to look like on-screen.

Enter Signature HTML and Click Update

6. Post Away

At this point, your signature is setup and ready to roll. All that’s left now is to test it out by making a post and seeing your signature in action. Keep in mind that even if you set the default behavior to always on, this plugin will only add your signature to posts made AFTER installation and configuration. It will NOT automatically append your signature to your prior posts, although you can go back and add it yourself, if you feel so inclined.

Thanks — I hope this helps some of you!

Note: You can actually see the results of this plugin directly below. Notice how the signature previewed in the image above is now shown below this post.

Get a Membership Site Up… TONIGHT!

JaceMan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:04:11 +0000

You’re familiar with membership sites, right? Yeah, me too — and they have always been my favorite way of delivering content and garnering customers — even though I’m just getting started, I knew I wanted to make my fortune using membership sites. I mean, where’s the downfall? You get a customer and he keeps giving you money over and over and over and again. Well, as it turns out — traditional membership sites have a lot of pitfalls that I wasn’t really aware of.

For instance, did you know:

1.	Traditional membership sites require too much work setting up. One of the biggest reasons why people don’t get their membership sites going in the first place is because there is a lot of work that goes into the initial setup. Many membership sites die in the planning and “installation” phases simply because they are such a heavy burden to get cranking.
2.	Traditional membership sites have built-in pressures to create content. Think about it. You have members who are paying you for fresh, daily content. You’re asking them to invest in you for the long run, and they expect it to be an exciting stay. As a result, you have to keep the content coming fresh and entertaining, FOREVER!
3.	Traditional membership sites require pricey and complicated scripts. By running a membership site, you have to manage passwords, protect your member’s area, keep up with who’s active and who’s stopped paying you, manage your content and at least two dozen other things. Content Management Systems (CMS) can run most, if not all — depending on the script selected, of these things for you, but you will find that most of these scripts require a large investment to use, either monetary or time just to launch.
4.	Traditional membership sites demand a large investment of time. You have a forum to moderate, cancellations to process, content to add, technical problems to troubleshoot, password problems to fix, and a variety of other tasks that usually get left out of the “salesletter” for a product or service trying to convince you to start a membership site. The truth is, a traditional membership site requires a large investment of time. Remember, your customers will demand fresh and entertaining content too! So, even if you never run out of informative content that you want to deliver, you may find it difficult to actually find the time TO deliver it.
5.	Traditional membership sites include a continual battle to keep subscribers. Here’s a figure most people don’t tell you about: the “average” subscriber will stay active for 3-4 months and then they’ll cancel. What, you thought they’d join and stay with you forever? It simply doesn’t happen that way. And in reality that’s because of two big reasons. One, people are naturally goal-oriented. If their membership is open-ended and goes on forever, eventually they start to wonder what their goal is. It seems like your sire no longer exists to actually TEACH them anything only to TAKE from them. Secondly, more and more membership sites pop-up all the time. And people simply can’t afford to be members of all of them. So, they start evaluating which ones they need and which they don’t. If you’re site isn’t as useful today as it was 2 years ago, it’s probably going to be yours that is first to go.

So, if “traditional” membership sites aren’t the answer, what is? I’m glad you asked…

Their is a “new kid on the block” that they are calling “Fixed-Term Membership Sites.” Basically, this type of site capitalizes on all of the advantages of membership sites (Like RECURRING Income — a personal favorite of all of ours), while eliminating most of the drawbacks. They are quicker and easier to maintain; promote longer-term relationships with your customers; more cost efficient to setup; and perhaps best yet don’t require you to have an ENDLESS stream of fresh content forever. You can actually get one of these little babies set-up in a weekend.

Jimmy Brown shows you a very innovative way to pull this off on his site. Check it out!