A Closer Look at Basekit

Want to take your design PSD to the next level? Love that layout but your not exactly the greatest developer? Then I would definitely recommend using Basekit for your next project.

Create rich, dynamic websites from Photoshop designs or choose from a selection of pre-built site packs – and without having to code. Fully hosted and template-driven, with BaseKit you can change your design, add pages and edit text in real time. With readymade contact forms, maps, video and social networking widgets adding functionality is as easy as point, click, drag and drop.

And I also have to add that the support is top notch as well. I was having a couple issues with importing my PSD. Thanks to Alan Molina and the other Basekitter’s (maybe the term "Basekitter" will catch on). They took a look at my PSD for me and helped me correct the issues that were presenting themselves. Now they didn’t actually develop the site for me, but who wants that from a developer’s view point? I am very pleased with how everything has turned out.

HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, via Mashable where this has been reblogged.

Starting a company is often a lonely and nerve wracking process. One day, you’re working at a big company with tens of thousands of people and health benefits, and then the next day it’s just you, maybe a co-founder, and a lack of steady income.

Yet you’re really not alone. There are thousands of others making similar journeys around the world, and even more who have not only gone down the entrepreneurial path, but succeeded. These people are more than happy to share their advice, insight, and stories — if you know how to find them.

That’s where social media tools come into play. Forging new connections has never been easier due to the increasing accessibility of people, ideas, and information. Web communities based around business, entrepreneurship, and programming are thriving all over the place. Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks have become an amazing way to learn new lessons and keep in touch with other entrepreneurs.

If you’re looking to enrich your entrepreneurial journey by sharing with others, I have a few social media suggestions that will help:

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Follow Entrepreneur Twitter Lists

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A few months ago, Twitter launched a feature called “Lists,” which gave users the power to create lists of their favorite users. Many have used this to create Twitter lists of top entrepreneurs and startup founders.

Following these people and interacting with them is a good step towards building connections. Check out Listorious’ collection of entrepreneurship Twitter lists to start.

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Connect With Amazing Entrepreneurship Communities

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Entrepreneurs are already gathered in a lot of great places on the web. Finding these hidden gems of community and startup enthusiasm could be just what you’re looking for.

To start out, we suggest checking out Hacker News (a community sharing some of the best articles on startups, development, and human nature), TheFunded (focused around raising money for your startup), and PartnerUp (helps you find business partners and co-founders).

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Use Social Media to Find Local Events

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While connecting online is great, there is no substitute for shaking hands and meeting in person. Luckily, social media can help you in this regard by helping keep you in the loop about events you’ll want to attend. Tools like Meetup and searches for Facebook Events are good ways to get started.

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Just Reach Out

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In the end, social media only helps make it easier to connect – you still have to do the hard work of building a relationship with fellow entrepreneurs. Use social media to find them and reach out, but be sure to take it the next step and start a long-lasting conversation.

What is the Future of Blogging?

A little over five years ago, sites like Typepad, Blogger and WordPress dazzled by empowering anyone to instantaneously share his or her thoughts with the world; My how times change. Today, however, in a world where thousands of status updates and tweets whiz by our screens every hour, blogging arguably feels slow.

So is blogging dead? It depends on who you ask. After all, Rappsody Studios and WebBiz 411 are blogs and they’re doing quite well. However, it’s definitely time for a closer examination of the blog – where it sits today and where it’s going.

From my point of view, blogging’s future will likely flow down one of two paths: either it will evolve and grow into something else (like many species have) or it will succumb to Darwinism and become extinct (like the Dodo). Let’s take a closer look at each. We’ll also give you the chance to add your own opinion to our mind map.

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Evolution

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If blogging is to evolve, there are a number of potential outcomes. One possibility is that blogs remain the primary social hub for many of us on the web but turn into lifestream sites that syndicate our content to and/or aggregate it from anywhere.

Another possibility is that blogs become social networks of their own. Each of the major weblog platforms has such a mechanism in place (e.g. TypePad Connect, Blogger Followers). However, they are disconnected from each other.

Finally, we have Facebook and others aiming to become connective tissue between many sites. This could help evolve the blog format more quickly. Of course there’s grey here and all of the above could converge.

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Darwinism

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The flip side of the coin is that Darwinism takes over and blogging is unable to grow into something new because it’s too late and our attention is scattered.

Journalism has become a lot more bloggy over the last five years. It’s already impossible to tell the elephants (journalists) apart from bloggers (zebras) because, well, they mated into Zebrelephants. Meanwhile I suspect many personal blogs are withering too.

What’s more, there’s no doubt that the microblogs and social networks are stealing time away from blogs. Given our finite window of attention this may continue and threaten many existing bloggers.

Article Resource: Mashble

Importance of Internet Marketing

When a website is designed, it should be designed with the two big search engines in mind, notably Google and Yahoo. Web page optimization describes the process whereby website pages are built in a way that search engines like Google and Yahoo can find your web pages and index them in their respective search results. In other words, when someone searches on a topic that is related to your company, you want to make sure that your website shows up in the search results. Every single website we build comes with the main home page optimized for the search engines.