The keyword in this post is RATINGS! I guess this is just a WordPress kind of day, considering my last post. Since I have had this blog, I have been looking for a good star rating system for my posts. It’s a great way to get reader feedback.

Every plugin I tried though, either didn’t work, didn’t work with this particular blog, or just looked like junk. Finally, I have one, and I did nothing to get it!

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If you are using WordPress, here a couple of great plugins to help keep those doors locked, and your site safe.

Security Plugins for WordPress

The first plugin is WordPress Firewall, from SEO Egghead. This is a great little plugin that will block traversal, and SQL injection attacks to name a few capabilities. You can whitelist your own IP, and even get an email when an attack is trying to be made. I do use the email me feature, and I do get emails.

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Ever fill out a form, hit submit, and say what the heck?  Did the form fail to process the data correctly? Did the database fail? Did you type the captcha letters wrong? It was none of the above. It was the design, or should I say usability.

Your secret to building a successful form for your website? Watch a few NEW users fill it out for the first time.

Leading Your Visitors to Fail

Not all things are intuitive, especially to new visitor. Look at this example below.

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Hopefully, many of you with a website have at least a few primary goals set for it. You may be trying to sell a product, get subscribers, educate, and the list goes on. Do you have goals set for those goals though? If you want to improve your website, having performance goals for your primary goals is a required step.

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Here is just a little Saturday night fun. It’s a quick reminder that websites can be a lot of fun, and that we don’t always have to be geared on making money or being perfect with them.

I introduce…

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For those of you Firefox 3.6.* users, I just updated the Twitter Toolbar! This new version supports Firefox 1.5-3.6.9.

Download the Twitter Toolbar for Firefox! Version 1.11

For more information about the toolbar visit: Twitter Toolbar

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It’s killing me!!! A new feature for Google Analytics is rolling out, and though they have given it to me on some of my accounts, they have not given it to me for Best Web Image yet.

Google is now slowly releasing the Annotations feature for their analytics. It allows you to make a comment about a specific date. This is something I have already been practicing using Microsoft’s Outlook Journal. I call it Journal Analytics.

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A fairly important usability tip for web design is to make sure you include all the important details to support your content. A couple examples would be to make sure table columns have labeled headings, and all graph data is labeled.This may seem to be an incredibly obvious tip,  but even the big boys make these kind of mistakes.

Example of Not Double Checking

Here is an example of Yahoo not labeling the comic on the page specifically designed to show it. Additionally, though it is not seen in the screenshot, the title of the page does not reflect the comic name either. Not one clue to the name of this comic.

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Online content often refers to other online content, especially in a blog like this. Linking to other sites, videos, or photos is how we share our interests. In my case, I often refer to other content as an example on what to do or not do. However, two things need to be considered when we do this: user action and reader comprehension.

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Please excuse my blog, or other blogs. Not all websites are built the same, and the advice to limit text on the home page may not apply to you. In most cases though, limiting prose text on the home page is good advice, and this can even be applied to a blog.

Websites need tag lines or introduction messages. It helps the new visitors out immensely. What new visitors don’t need is a huge paragraph or two on the home page, explaining the website. Leave that for an about us page.

Imagine eBay with Prose Text

Using eBay as an example, you can see why using too much, or in eBay’s case, any unnecessary text would be a complete waste of time.

Here is a screenshot of their home page now:

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