Your GoDaddy domain dashboard makes doing these things easy. Once you’ve signed in to your account, you will [...]]]> Working with your domain names isn’t something you’ll need to do very often, however, there will be times when you want to make changes, update profiles or maybe have a business to sell domain names you’ve registered.

Your GoDaddy domain dashboard makes doing these things easy. Once you’ve signed in to your account, you will see a display of all of your domains that are registered under that user name. You’ll also see a list of your products, recent orders and account notifications. Keep up with the account notifications – they may be simply wanting you to take a survey or it may be something as important as changing your password.

The left sidebar will display

• My Products
• My Account
• My Renewals
• My Selling List
• My Bidding List
• Recommended Products

From this list of options you can manage any of your domains shown. The one you most probably will be working with the most is My Products –> Domains –> Domain Manager.

If you have more than 1 domain registered under your user name, you will need to select the domain to be managed before any actions can be taken. Once you have the dashboard for the selected domain showing, you have the following options

1. Organize – allows you to move domains from folder to folder
2. Locking -prevents unauthorized domain changes, including transfer to another registrar
3. Cash In – allows you to monetize a domain either through listing it on GoDaddy as a Premium Listing, having it appraised or putting it in the GoDaddy auction
4. Upgrade - make a change to your services
5. Renew – renew your domain manually or make a change to the auto-renew function
6. Forward - forward a sub-domain or domain
7. Contact - change contact information, i.e., telephone, address, email, etc.
8. Name Servers – make a change to the name servers
9. Account change – create a buyer profile to make upcoming purchases easy, store payment info, check product preferences, etc.

Getting familiar with the GoDaddy dashboard is easy – just click through the links are read – you can always hit ‘Cancel’ and return to ‘Home’.

In addition to the Account Manger there are a lot of other useful links covering Shopping, Resources, Help & Support, as well as lots of info about the GoDaddy company – even career opportunities if you’re looking for one.

One of my favorite features is the auto log-out. If you’re on your dashboard and for some reason it remains inactive for 15 minutes (estimated) it will automatically close. This is a very good safety feature and helps keep your information protected – particularly if other people have access to your computer.

If you’ve been waiting to purchase your domain names – don’t!

Like everything else – the cost for domain names will be going up in the near future. Buying a domain name is a small investment if you even think you might want to go into an Internet business or have your own websites. While the increase is not huge (7-10%) – an increase is an increase and if you can save a few dollars – why not?

July 1, 2010 is the deadline for buying GoDaddy domains (.com and .net) at the current price. I know I’m going to be buying a few more as well as extending my existing domains to take advantage of the current prices.

Check on availability of  domains now!

Raster images – digital pictures, scanned images or those created with a graphics program – need a large number of colors to render the image. Scanned images using 24 bit (16 million colors) are [...]]]> Besides the obvious difference of raster images using pixels and vector images using objects – there are other differences to be noted.

Color

Raster images – digital pictures, scanned images or those created with a graphics program – need a large number of colors to render the image. Scanned images using 24 bit (16 million colors) are almost indistinguishable from the original while images that use 8 bit (256 colors) show some deterioration to the image. To help eliminate some of the deterioration of scanned images a process called dithering is used to approximate colors that are not in the smaller color palette. However, this creates a situation where the edges (and lines) may not be clean. Using an 8 bit image also is problematic should you want to change a color. In this case you cannot isolate the range of colors needed – and attempting to change a single color will result in a less than desirable image, i.e., some loss of shape, uneven lines and edges.

Vector images – changing the color of the vector object – since it does not use pixels – is relatively easy and much like coloring with crayons. A ‘vector’ drawing program allows the user to select the object and define the color as well as the line width in some cases.

Resolution

Raster images- resolution is defined in the number of dots per inch (dpi). This is the same method to measure the resolution of a printer or scanner. If you have a 300 dpi image and increase the size, typically the edges and lines will become jagged. This is due to the fact that the ’squares’, i.e., pixels, got bigger. However, if you decrease the size of the 300 dpi image, the ’squares’ get smaller and maintains the integrity of the edges and lines. In one sentence – Raster images do not ’scale’ they only enlarge.

Vector images – are defined by ‘math’, i.e., ratios – you will find they can be ’scaled’ up or down without loosing any image quality. For example, you have an image that is 2 inches by 2 inches in size, to double it you would use a multiplier of 2. To scale this same image down by half you would use a multiplier of .5. Since vector images can be scaled without loosing any integrity to the quality – they are the most popular graphics format for clip art and for transferring to printed material.

Files

Raster images – the most commonly used file formats are:

• BMP (Bitmap)
• TIFF (Tag Interleave Format)
• JPEG (joint Photographics Expert Group)
• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
• PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
• PSD (Adobe PhotoShop)

Vector images – the most commonly used file formats are:

• EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
• WMF (Windows Metafile)
• AI (Adobe Illustrator)
• DXF (AutoCAD)
• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)

There is a significant difference in the file sizes need to store these two images formats.

Since raster images are composed of colored pixels, the graphics program must keep track of all the information relevant to the image. Not only must it keep track of all the colors it must also keep track of the specific location of each pixel.   The larger the raster image, and the more colors used – the larger the file.  Large-sized raster images can equate to the final image being over 1 megabyte in size . . . resulting in slow uploads and downloads.

To the contrary, vector images do not need to keep track of each pixel but rather only the mathematical information.  Therefore,  these files are relatively small in size by comparison. This is to say if you had your company logo as a vector image, the file size would be the same for a 3 inch by 3 inch image as for a 3 foot by 3 foot image.   

Conversion of Images

With vector images being more desirable for use in some cases, what can you do if you have a raster image you would like to use as a vector image?   Convert it.  There are some specialty programs that  allow you to convert raster images to vector images. If you would like to see the process before making a purchase, you can try converting a raster image to a vector image  for free at the website  http://vectormagic.com/home.  If you decide to give it a try – be sure your raster image is in Bitmap format before you start the process.

Raster images are pixel based. Each [...]]]> When creating images – with or without layers – they are created as either a raster or a vector image or layer.  Most  graphics program are written to use  raster images and layers – with an option to create some text and object layers as vectors. So what’s the difference?

Raster Images

Raster images are pixel based. Each image is comprised of a collection of square ‘dots’ called pixels where each pixel is a colored square. If you were to zoom into a raster image you would be able to see each pixel as a colored square. When working with a raster image containing pixels you are in effect working with the whole image and anything you do affects the entire image. You know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to enlarge a raster image and ended up with an image that is out-of-focus and has jagged edges.

Vector Images

Vector images do not use pixels, but rather store the image information as a set of properties that describe the image relative to its attributes, dimensions and position inside the image. These attributes are displayed and manipulated through the use of nodes or drawing points on top of the image. You might say a vector image is a grouping of connected curves and lines that is object-oriented – kind of like a ‘connect-the-dots’ picture.

When working with vector images you have access to all of its properties with each element being independent. This means you can make changes without affecting the rest of the image. Since vector images are object-oriented, you can ‘re-size’ – or more correctly scale the image – without any loss of image quality. This makes it particularly useful for clip-art.

Not all graphics programs have the ability to work with vectors . . . so, if you are planning on working with vectors and your graphics program is not set up to specifically work with vector images – you will need to purchase a special program.

Using Raster and Vector Layers

Knowing the difference between raster and vector images/layers allows you to build images to suit your needs. Use raster layers for anything that is the correct size or can be down-sized without loosing any image quality. Use vector images for text and/or objects where you want to fill an area or focus attention. Using both raster and vector layers in an image is particularly useful for creating banner ads. However, just like oil and water don’t mix – you cannot place vector objects on individual raster layers nor can you place raster objects on individual vector layers.

For our example, we want to have a finished banner with the 5 individual layers listed below-

1. Background color
2. Logo image
3. Company name
4. Company slogan 
5. Graphic pointer 

Definition of individual layers:

1. Background color is a raster layer using a hexadecimal color (white)
2. Logo image is a raster layer using an image we could down-size  without loosing any image quality
3. Company name is a vector layer using vector text to fill in the whole top area of the banner
4. Company slogan is a raster layer using regular text
5. Graphic pointer is a vector layer where the object (arrow) was enlarged to fill in the white space drawing attention to the picture

Conclusion

Using raster and vectors by themselves or in layers to create images gives you a lot of flexibility to make your graphics look more professional and have the eye-catching appeal you want. I recently found a site that sells royalty-free graphics in the form of books and discs – best part is you can sign up and receive free graphics weekly. If you’re interested in getting on their email list visit www.doverpublications.com and click on Free Samples (at the bottom of the page).

If your website uses standard, traditional links, i.e., <a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html”> [...]]]> Learned something about site maps while uploading our new website BodyBuildingFitnessProgram.com the other day – and want to pass it along. What I learned is in reference to the usefulness of an XML site maps and how the internal links are seen when generating a site map. 

If your website uses standard, traditional links, i.e., <a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html”>  - not a problem. You can build a site map using the Free Site Map Builder we previously discussed without any trouble. However, if you are using drop down links ( maybe you want to have categories ) - these links will not be read by the site map builder. A sample of a drop down menu is shown below. In this sample, there would be two (2) categories with drop-down links. Category 1 has 2 links; Category 2 has 4 links.

<form name=”jump1″>

<select name=”menu” onChange=”location=document.jump1.menu.options[document.jump1.menu.selectedIndex].value;” value=”GO”>

<option value=”">Category 1

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat1Page1.html”>Page 1</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat1Page2.html”>Page 2</option>

</select></form>

<form name=”jump2″>

<select name=”menu” onChange=”location=document.jump2.menu.options[document.jump2.menu.selectedIndex].value;” value=”GO”>

<option value=”">Category 2

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page1.html”>Page 1</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page2.html”>Page 2</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page3.html”>Page 3</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page4.html”>Page 4</option>

</select></form>

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What can you do if you want to use drop down links AND have an XML site map?

It’s quite easy – simply build an HTML site map. You can easily create a single HTML site map page where each page (file name) inside the website is linked to using traditional HTML code links. Once you’ve created the site map page, place a link to the site map on the Index page and upload both pages. Now when you submit your website ( with the drop down menus ) to the XML site map builder, it will read the HTML site map (from the link on the home page) and build the XML map based on the link information there.

Conclusion

While using drop down menus can make for a cleaner looking page, it does nothing for building a site map. You will need to have a separate HTML site map. In all honesty, you should have an HTML site map on every website regardless if you are using drop down menus or not.