Webalicious!

March 4th, 2007

A new episode of the :podcast: UCF Digital Media Podcast is live, woot! In this episode, Joey and I cover some very cool scripts and services you can use to optimize and enhance your website: Have a mint? Mint, CrazyEgg and IceBrrg.

I recently tried out CrazyEgg for my website (the free version), and it's so cool! The image you see to the right is a cropped screen shot of the "heat map" feature that the service offers. Once you add a website for CrazyEgg to test (you can have it run for one day or 5,000 visits) you will be able to see where exactly your visitors are clicking on your page.

You can view these clicks in three different ways, one being the heat map. I think the heat map is just too cool! The display shows up as an overlay of a screen shot of your site and the heat map will color the areas where your visitors have clicked, warm tones being the more popular links. Several people clicked on my "About" section, as you can see!

The second segment of the podcast is one that I cover myself and I am quite excited about it. I also wrote sort of a prequel to this topic a week ago on my site. The main thing I talk about is unique ways to promote your website online. Instead of the mindless tossing your link here and there, I wanted to also bring up the more interactive ways to become more well known on the web.

My main example for this is to get involved in online communities such as the Quilting Bee, which is a very fun link exchange! It really is more than just a link exchange, it is a pixel trading club of website owners who extend friendship through the activities in the club. It is one of my most favorite communities on the web!

Go listen to the episode to find out more about all these things!

Also, I apologize for the blank pages that have been hiccuping on my site lately. My ASO host has been working on the issue, which has something to do with the server I am on. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. On a lighter note, I just realized that all of their servers are named after Lost characters! Just makes me love ASO ASO even more, haha!

Comments

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Arien Mar 05, 2007

Thanks for the compliment on our new pup. When you have no life to speak of, you blog about the new pencils you just bought for that little pencil jar you found at Hobby Lobby or somewhere else, lol.

The broadcast was pretty cool though. I don’t believe I’ve ever been on the radio. Once my Christmas story was published in the local paper… but I think I was 7 at the time, Seriously, my husband listened in with me and went cruising places you guys happened to mention. Of all the things he was most curious about was the TCG’s. He’s a 30 years old going on 15. Well, so am I minus the fact that I’m actualy 26 but umm… anyway… I’ll be looking for next week’s broadcast.

Cristina Mar 05, 2007

I see you won the award over at the QBee that I nominated you for. What can I say? Since I’ve gotten to know you, site has turned into one huge site of awesomeness. Not to mention you’ve inspired me to add/fix features on my site as well as try new things and clean it up. Basically, seeing how far you’ve come has made me want to take better care of my site as well. :star:

Melissa Mar 05, 2007

@Arien: Aw but you know what, I would LOVE to hear about pencil jars! I don’t even have a pencil jar on my desk right now, I miss having one! And I’m glad you liked the podcast, thats hilarious about your husband, I’m glad he enjoyed it too, haha! <3

@Cristina: Omg! :heart: You rox my sox, Cristina! Thank you so much for the sweet compliments!

Rosemarie Mar 05, 2007

I’ve looked at crazyegg, but not for ages. *Goes to try out*

Melissa Mar 05, 2007

Woot!

Hells yes, I’m tracking where you people are clicking! *STALK!*

Jessica Mar 05, 2007

Regarding Netflix, it may have been a neat idea to try, but it doesn’t look like it goes out of the US, unless I’m completely blind which is always the possibility. The thing is that my boyfriend and I have this “addiction” with buying DVD’s. We’re almost at 300, so I don’t know if renting would really work out. But you’re right, it is really cool!

That heat map is neat! Lol, watching everyones moves… stalking on you’re own site. Isn’t it all grand! My gosh though, I completely forgot about the Quilting Bee during my long break. Since you sparked the interest back in me, I think I might join up again. But you’re right though, communities are a good way to promote your site because at least others are getting to know a little more of you rather than seeing a random link that tells them nothing.

Lisa Mar 05, 2007

I thought I’d let you know I love this website! It’s so cute

Jordan Mar 06, 2007

I absolutely love CrazyEgg. I’ve been using it for my hosting company’s website for awhile now, and although I don’t swear by it (that’s what Mint is for!) I definitely love looking at the heatmap to see exactly where people click, and exactly what is more popular. It’s interesting to see details like that.

Netflix is definitely love. I had it when I was at my apartment. I’ve been considering getting it again lately, but I think I may hold off until I get a new HD put in. Err, I mean, I will use Netflix to watch movies and not to make backup copies of!

Dan Nenadovic Mar 06, 2007

omg i heart netflix. if it wasn’t for the awesomeness of netflix, i never would have seen sin city, one of my favorite movies, and i wouldn’t be so excited that 300 is coming out this FRIDAY ZOMG.

gerard butler will kill persians just by yelling at them. well, i can hope, at least.

but, yeah, as a film jerb, it’s important for me to watch movies, and for how many i watch during the summer, it’s way too cheap for the awesomeness.

omg they just said on the news that Ann Coulter basically called John Edwards a faggot. lol, he IS a twig on the forest floor, fersher. norly, tho, that is awesome.

i am, indeed, a registered democrat. however, i am moderate-conservative and generally vote conservative. i registered democrat to try to destroy the party from the inside. muahahahaha. surprisingly enough, just the fact that i’m pro-gay-marriage-rights takes me down from conservative to moderate-conservative on the scale. whatever.

whoa, i’m off-topic. twelve hours of classes ftw.

but yeah, netflix rules. im done. gnight.

Dan Nenadovic Mar 06, 2007

Crud, I just realized that my netflix comments are only, like, a week late

i need :coffee:

… /sleep

Melissa Mar 06, 2007

@Jessica: Wow, 300 DVDs!? You could open your own movie rental store!! And yes yes, join the Q*Bee! We’re doing our Spring activity now and it’s too fun!

@Lisa: Thank you so much!

@Jordan: Yay, Mint rox! And yeah I agree, CrazyEgg’s results are really interesting to follow…I’m re-testing my site for the 5,000 visitor thing and its cool to see the trends. ROFL about Netflix… *shifty eyes*

@Dan: Oh Dan, you are so scatterbrained. *hugs* I want to see 300 too! You should tell me how it is! The art in it just looks awesome.

LOL “a twig on the forest floor” LOL! And I’m registered Republican but I really don’t know what the hell to say about stuff anymore anyway. I’m voting for whoever I like best in 2008 and maybe it will be a Democrat, who knows.

Here’s more :coffee: …yarrr!

Lexi Mar 06, 2007

I used to have a quilting bee on my old site and I’ll probably start it up again on this one. I think it’s such a neat idea and it really is more interactive than “Hey, wanna trade links?”

The heat map thing is really cool, I think that’d be very interesting if I had more visitors. o.O lol

Jem Mar 06, 2007

Just to let you know.. your linking to thequiltingbee.net when the url is actually theqbee.net

Melissa Mar 06, 2007

@Lexi: Hehe, agreed on both things.

@Jem: Ack! O.o Must have mistyped it…I’m always mistyping the URL, hehe!

Tracy Mar 06, 2007

I’m signing up for the crazy egg.

I always thought about joining the qbee but never did. Maybe I will someday. And thanks for the nice comment, I didn’t mind the rambling

Kim Mar 06, 2007

Hey Melissa, it’s Kim (your TA)! I remembered I visited your site a year ago or so because someone showed me your WoW Interactive Entertainment site and I thought I’d check back. Thanks for posting about CrazyEgg! Whenever I get my website back up (hopefully soon, I miss it) I’m definitely gonna try that out.

Saw that you used to play some TCGs. I don’t know what kind, but I used to be a member of Dumbledore’s Army (http://www.enyx.org/). Don’t know if you like Harry Potter, but thought I’d mention it! See ya in class.

Melissa Mar 06, 2007

@Tracy: Yay for CrazyEgg! They need some sort of referral program for me, hehe…and yeahhh you should join the Q*Bee! It’s so much fun and always better with more fun people. I’m glad you didn’t mind the rambling…I’ll come ramble on your site again soon.

@Kim: Eeee, Kim! When you get your site up let me KNOW! I wanna visit and link it! I remember that TCG but I was never in it. Is it pretty active? Whenever I have enough time to get back into TCG’s I’ll definitely have to check that one out. Woooo, thanks for visiting!

Dan Nenadovic Mar 07, 2007

oh, i noticed ur talk-show-thingy is the first one approved or whatev by Apple!

i found this on a site i check daily, i’m sure u’ll enjoy! you have to read the whole thing and watch all of the videos, but it’s hilarious. norly. im sure u’ll love it.

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

go there. now. and enjoy. the. entire. t.h.i.n.g..

gnight.

Lisa Mar 07, 2007