I love September. Kids go back to school, the scent of fresh crayons and school supplies linger in every store, and I can hear the school bus roll down the street most mornings. While still hot in my neck of the woods, September brings the promise of cooler days ahead (and hopefully some much needed rain to drought-stricken Texas.)

Plan for the Season

As the days of summer wind down, now is a great time to map out a plan for your fall and winter seasons. With a critical eye, take stock of how well your site presents the products or services you are offering.

• Has the look and feel of your site become outdated? Could the design stand to be refreshed to generate more interest?
• Are you using some social media tools that can be used to market your site in various ways, such as Twitter, Facebook, and others?
• Is your site attracting the traffic it should from keyword searches on search engines? Could more be done to optimize your site?
• Are some of your photos getting old? Sometimes just changing some "filler" images from time to time can help freshen your site.
• Is some of your content outdated? This is a good time to delete old content, clean up broken hyperlinks, and perform some general maintenance on your site.

If you are wondering if a new design can breath new life into your site, give us a call.

August Recap

We released three new template series in August for both Expression Web and Dreamweaver:

3360 - 3369: 5 different page layouts, jQuery slideshow, JavaScript lightbox, catalog and gallery pages.

3370 - 3379: 5 different page layouts, JQuery slideshow, JavaScript lightbox, JavaScript calendar, catalog and gallery pages.

3380 - 3389: 5 different page layouts, JQuery slideshow, JavaScript lightbox, JavaScript calendar, catalog and gallery pages.

On RTBWizards.com, you will also find a new "On Sale" category under our Expression Web Templates.

What's Hot - Google Web Fonts

If you are growing tired of the same old typography on your site, we highly recommend Google Web Fonts. (http://www.google.com/webfonts)

Typically a person building a web site will use "web safe" fonts. These are fonts that are commonly found on most computers and operating systems. A font is an operating system resource, not a browser resource. You can broaden the field a bit by using font families in your CSS file. Font families are where you list your first font choice, followed by the second choice, then by the third, etc. So if your visitor didn't have your first font choice on their computer, they would see the second. If not the second, then perhaps they would see the third font choice.

Google Web Fonts make it extra easy to bring a little more flair into your site. First, choose a font you would like to use. Generate the code to copy into the head of your web page(s):

<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lobster+Two' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

Next, add the font you have chosen to the font family within your css file. In this example, I am adding it to the <h3> tag:

h3 {
font: normal 22px 'Lobster Two', "Century Gothic", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #505050;
margin: .4em 0;
padding: 0;}

Very easy! We've even used this on some of our new templates. You can get more details from the Google Web Fonts site or by reading their blog at http://googlewebfonts.blogspot.com/

Special Joomla Offer Reminder

We recently introduced our new Joomla templates and the feedback has been positive. For those who are wondering about the learning curve, we are offering an original Joomla template with the purchase of our new eBook "A Beginners Guide to our Joomla Templates". You get the eBook guide along with an original Joomla template to get you started. Find out more on our site on our Resources page.

Just a Bit of Humor

A lead hardware engineer, a lead software engineer, and their program manager are taking a walk outdoors during their lunch break when they come upon an old brass lamp. They pick it up and dust it off. Poof -- out pops a genie. "Thank you for releasing me from my lamp-prison. I can grant you 3 wishes. Since there are 3 of you I will grant one wish to each of you."

The hardware engineer thinks a moment and says, "I'd like to be sailing a yacht across the Pacific, racing before the wind, with an all-girl crew." "It is done", said the Genie, and poof, the hardware engineer disappears.

The software engineer thinks a moment and says, "I'd like to be riding my Harley with a gang of beautiful women throughout the American Southwest." "It is done", said the Genie, and poof, the software engineer disappears.

The program manager looks at where the other two had been standing and rubs his chin in thought. Then he tells the Genie, "I'd like those two back in the office after lunch."

Enjoy! See you next month...

Sincerely,
Karey Cummins