What is Artisteer?
Artisteer is a completely revolutionary design program because it takes the familiar WYSIWYG approach of many web design programs such as Dreamweaver, and applies it to building Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal themes. This once again gives do-it-yourselfers power in the web design world, but is  it really worth the investment?

Artisteer Options
The program comes in the following editions:

Home and Academic: This version of the program is $49.95. This is the perfect solution for those who only need to work with standard HTML templates and WordPress themes.

Standard: This version of the program is $129.95. In addition to support for Wordpress themes and standard HTML templates, it also has support for building templates for Joomla 1.5 templates, Drupal version 5 and 6 themes, ASP.NET applications and allows to export to ColorCharge Studio. This edition is more suitable for an experienced web designer who wants to make jobs a bit easier.

The Artisteer Trial
The free trial is fully functional, even allowing you to export themes for use, but the catch is they are watermarked until you purchase a program license. When we used the program trial to take a closer look at its features, we were impressed by this fact. After developing a few WordPress themes, we purchased the Student license and were immediately pleased to see the watermarks had been removed and the theme could be used on any website we wished. The only catch? You are not legally allowed to use the photos in the stock library in the program if you intend to sell the theme. You can download trials for both editions and make the purchase directly within the program.

Artisteer Pros
•    Free updates for a year after purchase.
•    Users who want to upgrade between editions can do so for the price difference between the two programs, currently $80.
•    The program interface is designed to mimic Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows 7. If you have experience with these programs, you’re one step ahead of the rest of the game.
•    There are many suggestions, color schemes, graphics and other options to help you build your very own themes.

Artisteer Cons
•    The program doesn’t allow you to upload custom backgrounds or headers which makes it difficult to truly customize a theme or template.
•    The resulting theme may need some tweaks by a professional designer to complete customizations.

Our Final Thoughts
Since Artisteer is available for both Windows and Mac based platforms, nearly anyone can enjoy the program. It’s incredibly easy to use, and is a cost effective solution, especially when compared to the costs of professional design. It can even help professionals cut their design time because they can make necessary changes to the code to provide a complete customization. For those who need to design Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal or ASP.NET templates and applications, this is a decent investment. There is certainly room for improvement, but overall, the program is definitely worth it.

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Hooters girls are great, there is no doubt. But if Hooters food and service absolutely sucked, they’d be out of business regardless of the ‘hotness factor.’

The same is true for a webhosting service. In my line of work, I have had the unfortunate experience of building sites and blogs on more web hosting services than I care to remember. Of these, GoDaddy was probably one of the worst. The basic layout of their webhosting site is not easy to navigate and is definitely not designed for the beginner. It has always taken what seemed an endless amount of time to locate the correct files, and even to find the c-panel in the first place. Calling customer service will get you where you need to be, but be prepared to call back again and again. Like I said, there is no ‘common sense’ approach to the layout of this site.

On the other hand, all of my 30+ websites are hosted neatly on an easy to navigate hosting site called Hostmonster. Singing the praises of Hostmonster is pretty easy, since they’ve got everything going for them. Here’s a few of their strong points:

• Ease of use – The site is laid out with a super simple c-panel, easy to find files, Simple Scripts for uploading Wordpress, and a short tutorial for newbies.
• Cost – For anyone worried about hidden charges from web hosting companies, look no further. Hostmonster has one low flat yearly rate for your main domain and then (drum roll please) you can host as many additional sites as you want for no extra charge! For someone like me with over 30 websites, that is music to my ears.
• Reliability – With Hostmonster I’ve never experienced down time or problems. They are just that good.
• Tech Support – Now here is where the real deal lies. I’ve called customer service lines for numerous web hosting companies and some were better than others, but Hostmonster goes the extra mile. In the early days of blog building, I’d occasionally try something new that didn’t quite work out so well. Once I wiped out my entire blog with a single keystroke. I’m still not sure what I did wrong, but all I know is that when I called Hostmonster for help, they quickly and politely restored my site to the last full backup (which was less than 24 hours prior) so I lost nothing. Kind of gives you peace of mind when you are just starting out, doesn’t it?

I am sure I could go on touting the praises of Hostmonster, but I encourage you to check them out for yourself.  Check out Hostmonster now. You’ll be glad you did. In my book they are the most reliable, stable web hosting company out there.

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I have tried to use major affiliate sites before, like Clickbank and Pepperjam but I guess it’s not meant to be. I could never find anything on Clickbank that I thought was a valuable product that I could believe in, and Pepperjam never responded to my initial sign up.

Commission Junction is another player in the affiliate game. I recently did a bit of investigating to find out their level of credibility. I was shocked. Commission Junction has represented Adobe and Ebay, major companies, so I expected them to be on the up and up.

Well, I’m not going to make any judgements since I’ve never used them, but I will provide you with the links to some pretty interesting information. Can you say “class action lawsuit?” Yikes.

Here’s a blogger that has complained about CJ’s unethical practices: Affiliates Scammed at Commission Junction?

The Rip Off Report calls Commission Junction a bunch of liars and thieves.

The Complaint Board has a list of unhappy campers who say they never received commission due to them.

Some say that Commission Junction is, or has been involved with affiliate programs (Shop at Home Select) that install malware on shopper’s computers.

If that’s not enough, here’s the link to their settlement details.

Even Problogger, a highly ranked site with plenty of traffic admits he’s never made any money with Commission Junction.  Here is his Commission Junction Review. Some of the reader comments are particularly hostile toward CJ.

My honest advice on this one? Runnnnnnn Forrest, Ruuuuuuun!

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Stumbling around aimlessly online, as I often do, I found the tool that generates that tiny little icon that sits next to the title of your website. It is used in the site tabs and also for sites you bookmark.

This little branding image makes your site look official and ultra-professional. That tiny icon, by the way, is called a favicon (or a favorites icon).

Official and professional sounding definition: A favicon is a small, 16×16 image that is shown inside the browser’s location bar and bookmark menu when your site is called up. It is a good way to brand your site and increase it’s prominence in your visitor’s bookmark menu.

Dynamic Drive has a plethora of cool and useful tools like this one, for your web and blog designing success. The favicon generator can be used right online. In seconds you’ll have your tiny favicon code. The website also tells you the proper place to put the code to get everything working properly.

This is another no brainer, no reason not to use, easy decision.

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Oh John, when will you stop being on the cutting edge of everything? The famous online marketing guru, John Chow has a new Twitter application called Twitter Follower.

Johns Chow’s new twitter tool has a couple of cool features. One, which is the one I personally use, is called The List. Once you sign up, there is a list of tweeters who are “follow-back” guys and girls. Now, I can’t guarantee that these people will follow you back, but it’s worked out great for me so far.

And in the event that they don’t follow you back in 2-3 days you can always give them the hack with John’s other handy tool. Right next to The List is a Mass Unfollow button so that you can shun all of those who did not make good on their promise to follow you back. With one click of the button they all get the axe.

This is an excellent feature. My only problem is that I have to keep adding Rainn Wilson (Dwight Shrute) to my list after I give everyone else the axe. He’s the only person I follow that won’t follow me back. It’s okay Dwight, I can handle the rejection.

John Chow offers his great little Twitter tool free of charge. It is especially smart to unfollow those who don’t follow you back because Twitter limits the number of people you are allowed to follow (after you reach the magic number of 2,000). This number is calculated in percentages. You can only follow 10% more people than follow you. So, if 3,000 tweeters follow you—you are allowed to follow a max of 3,300. f you follow people who do not follow you back you will not be able to follow more people.

The tool isn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but it does it’s job so I give it a big thumbs up!

http://www.twitterfollower.com/

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Are you an aspiring actor looking for a way to network with some producers? Or maybe you’re a  photographer looking for some new  gigs? I’ve got some good news for you.

Twibes.com is a new mini-social media place where you can sign yourself up in approximately ten seconds flat and instantly belong to a group, or ‘twibe’ of people that are in your profession or share the same interests.

For the smart business individual, it’s a great place to network and find prospective clients.

If you are a photographer, there is a ‘wedding twibe’ that may have members interested in your services. Personally, I cut right to the chase. I started a twibe called ‘bloggers for hire.’ I figured that whoever is looking for a blogger or freelance writer won’t miss that group. Within five minutes of starting the twibe I had four new members.

Obviously this baby twitter tool will soon experience a growth explosion so it’s probably best to join now, before the place becomes so oversaturated that you will become lost in the crowd.

Pros & Cons? I think I can skip that part for this one. This is a great tool that allows you to find neat little groups of compartmentalized twitter members. You can join a twibe that is already there and create a brand new twibe of your own as well. The possibilities are endless with this one.

Should you join? No brainer.

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Did you ever wish you had a magical window in your Wordpress admin area, that could show you a straightforward, easy to read chart about all your blog posts, so you could quickly determine the success of each?

The Blog Link & Traffic Analysis Plugin created by Search Engine People does just that.

It clearly and easily helps to understand the performance of blog posts by showing the most relevant traffic analysis stats in a single screen.

PROS:

The plugin tracks every single post on your blog and lets you sort the stats by the post date and title, page views per post, inbound links (drawing from Yahoo Site explorer using your Yahoo API). It also tracks Google, Yahoo, MSN and other bot visits, sorting them by last visit and number of visits.

This information is a valuable tool when analyzing your blog as a whole and making sure that the most popular posts are easily accessable.

CONS:

The only real cons that I can see is the fact that the creators suggest that your less popular posts are redirected using a 301 section in the plugin. I don’t really agree with that reasoning as it would get rid of bookmarked pages and linkbacks.

As long as you don’t use the 301 redirect, or use it sparingly I see no reason why you shouldn’t download this free plugin immediately! Well, what are you waiting for?

Download Blog Link and Traffic Analysis Plugin

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Site Build it (also known as Site Sell) touts itself as being the answer for people who want to find life changing financial freedom by buying into their system. Is it real? Is Site Build It a scam?

There are quotes from both sides. I will let you be the judge of this one. I will only provide the information I have gathered from several sites. It seems that those who love it, really love it–and those who feel mistreated by the Site Build It team are sincerely upset about their experience.

A promotional quote taken directly from the SBI (Site Build It) website states the following:

SBI! owners do not just “put up Web sites.” They build genuine, profitable, evergrowing businesses. And that, in turn, delivers life-changing freedom (the “It!” in Site Build It!).

You can do the same, build Web sites that work, with SBI!.

On the other hand, Lis Sowerbutts, owner of the Passive Income Online website wrote the following review which she entitled Site Build It Scam. After reading her review, I did notice several things that put up some red flags in my mind:

Lis Sowerbutts website was immediately barraged with a posse that seemed to be part of the Site Build It staff. They wrote huge and unnaturally lengthy replies to her review that seemed to be expertly written by SBI staff.  She even received a message from the owner of SBI himself (according to her statement).

I found this to be odd, since if you simply Google “Site Build It” all you get are professionally written, rave reviews. If you Google “Site Build It Complaints” or “Is Site Build It a Scam”–which I highly recommend to anyone who is considering forking over $300 for a website and membership, you do get more than just a few unhappy campers who say all sorts of things from a simple “Don’t do it!” to a statement proclaiming that the SBI forum moderators do not allow any negative or critical statements to remain on the forum. If posted, they will be deleted is what the Site Build It complaints say.

This is a direct, unaltered comment from an ex-SiteBuildit member. This quote was taken from Lis’s review site where she seems to be currently under attack from the “SiteBuilder Mafia.”

Quote is from March of 2009 by X-SBIer and is written as a message to Lis, the review site owner:

“Great Post, How can you tell?

You’ve got Dr. Ken hopping mad! Wah, Wah, who’s gonna pay for my new home in Anguilla? I was an SBI’er for 6 years (one of the first), and ended up owning several SBI sites by taking advantage of the 6 times a year 2 for 1 offers.

I must say the good doctor has an excellent support staff. Excellent at running interference for Mr. Evoy. He also has a “Rapid Response Team” to combat, Delta Force style, any negative blogs or comments on the net. Evoy would often refer to the “Churn rate” of other web hosts without ever revealing SBI’s drop-out rate. SBI’s rate, I’m sure is higher for the simple reason of it’s high cost.

I have watched, many times over the years, Evoy (by proxy) ban SBI’ers with honest and accurate criticisms from the forums and immediately refund their fees (pro rata of course).

You will never find a more servile group of forum moderators.

Like Hitler, he can be hypnotic and persuasive (at first). Courtly and engaging with his “boot-lickers”, he ruthlessly crushes all opposition in the forums. Like all cult leaders, he allows No discussion.

I must say, it was such a relief when I finally transfered my domains, and was through with the constant sales mantras, and yes brainwashing (it was relentless).”

Here is another site called Associate Programs where W Paul Blakely wrote a detailed article complaining of his personal treatment by Site Build It.

Another not so friendly review from Blogger Illustrated full of Site Build It complaints.

Another one from Rip Off Report.

Yet another from Adsense Tracker.

The Work From Home Online Guide states that Site Builder is unlikely to make you any money.

Is Site Build It a scam? You be the judge. All I can say is that I would run like the wind from a program that appears to seek out any shred of bad publicity that they find and then attack it with longwinded explanations. In my book, if a program is on the up and up, they don’t really have to continuously defend themselves or argue with the naysayers.

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There are a lot of janky looking Twitter tools being slapped together out there. Some of them look almost primitive. Today I checked out the cool, real time, keyword search tool called Monitter.

Monitter is a slick tracking tool for Twitter that lets you enter multiple keywords in separate columns–then sit back and watch any tweets that mention these words in real time.

The Pros of Monitter:

With so many other Twitter tools available, and plenty that track keywords– there is a lot to like about Monitter. It definitely stands out in a crowd. Its sleek, black design, ease of use and the fact that it doesn’t need to be downloaded (just use it live from the site) are all very cool features. Potential uses:

Insider Information – Own an online business? Find out what your potential clients are saying about your particular product. You’ll get to see complaints, kudos and more.

Networking – Looking to network with people who share your interests? Monitter is great for that. Just enter your keyword or keyword phrase and watch who is using the word.

Business Opportunities – I write a blog about web success, which helps newbie bloggers get started. When I enter the words ‘build my blog’  on Monitter I can instantly see conversations of thousands of people talking about starting their niche blog-sites. In these conversations I see frustrated individuals needing to learn how to get started blogging.  A smart business would be using tools like this to interact with those people.

Build Your Twitter Community – Type in the words “first tweet’ to a column and within seconds you’ll find people posting their very first Twitter entries. Hit them up with a ‘welcome to Twitter’ and I bet you’ll instantly make some new friends.

Find Tweeters in Your Area – There is a space to input a mile radius and your zipcode. With this tool you can find Twitter users in your area. For a small town business, this can be the start of new business relationships.

Additional Features - Add or subtract the number of columns you want to use. Monitor keywords via RSS feed. Convinced you love it? Monitter is available as a widget  that can be used on your website or blog.

Tips - Place your keyword phrase inside quotation marks to find that exact phrase. Use the hashtag (#) to find that subject being talked about on Twitter.

The Cons of Monitter:

It would be useful to be able to directly reply  from the Monitter page or to add someone as a friend right from the page. As it is right now, if you hit reply you’re taken to the person’s individual  Twitter page.

Summing it up, Monitter could be a useful tool. Especially for networking with others interested in your business products or services.

Leave your feedback. What do you use Monitter for?

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