NBD News
June 28, 2009
Having trouble reading this email? View it on the web.
 

New look for NBD News

Though NBD News has a new look to match my recently redesigned portfolio and blog , it's still chock full of helpful tips and news.

I've recently had the pleasure of doing a bit of "offline" design work, and this month I'm featuring one of those clients, fashion designer Anna Brown. I have a quick explainer for you on RSS, and in What's Next I'll tell you about Google Alerts. My last two contests have fallen a bit short, but I am determined to give something away, so this month I've got an hot new NBD News Contest, in which you could win one free hour of work.

Featured Client: Anna Brown

Though I love creating websites, it's a fun change to actually see some work in print, so I was pleased when Anna Brown hired me to design postcards and business cards in preparation for upcoming fashion shows. In pursuit of something bold and minimalist, it was fun to brainstorm a broad variety of designs before refining the final products , featuring a simple orange A. Hopefully, I'll be working on Anna's online presence in the near future.

Explainer: RSS

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and an "RSS Feed" is a way of syndicating, or making portable, the content on your blog or website. An RSS Feed is essentially a stream of your site content (in summary or full-text form) without any style information attached. Your readers can then subscribe to this content using an RSS reader such as Google Reader or NetNewsWire, or it can even be imported and repurposed on another website.

RSS Feeds aren't limited to news sites or blogs either. You can find RSS feeds for job boards, weather reports, stock tickers, ebay auctions...just about anything that is regularly updated. For more on RSS, check out some of my blog posts on the topic.

What's Next: Google Alerts

One thing you can subscribe to via RSS is Google Alerts. Google Alerts will alert you (via email or RSS) any time a new web page appears in the top 20 web results or top 10 news results for the terms you specify. They are an easy way to stay up-to-date on a topic that interests you, or on your own position in Google search results. You could even generate one for a tagline or key marketing phrase, to see if anyone is copying you. To start a Google Alert, simply:

  1. Log in to www.google.com/alerts
  2. Enter your search term (you can use any of Google's available search options
  3. Select the type of search and frequency
  4. Select either email or RSS feed as your alert method

New Contest: Win an hour of work!

Thank you to the four folks who completed the Nora Brown Design Satisfaction Survey. It is still open and I encourage any current or former client to check it out; it only takes 2 minutes to complete.

The prize for my new contest is one free hour of work! I recently posted on my blog about a website that can collect data about your browsing environment and allow you to easily email it, helping to diagnose different browser issues. All you have to do to win is visit my blog to find that website, then use it! I will pick the winning entry at random.