6th
September 2010
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Personally, I’ve always been conscious on the code and loading times that BaseKit produces. For me, design is not just in the look of the site, but how well the code is engineered too. With that in mind, the team at BaseKit have been busy making sure you have the tools you need to build good looking, clean coded sites.
There are few basic rules that I follow when I build websites using BaseKit:
- Plan Layouts
- Use Template Columns
- Padding 0
- Less nested widgets
- Speed is Key
- Image Sizes
Plan Layouts
When I start building a site, I sit down with a piece of paper and pencil and start drawing out the basic layouts of each of the different pages. For example, a front page of a website is typically different to the inner pages. Once planned, I convert these layouts into BaseKit templates.
By pre-planning, you avoid creating a ‘one-size-fits-all‘ template; one that you throw lots of column and background widgets into to create your various pages.
Use Template Columns
By using the power of BaseKit templates, your automatically cutting down the amount of code that will appear on the page. A well thought out template will mean less column / background widgets; the more widgets you use, the more code that is required to layout a page.
Here’s example of creating the exact same layout using a column widget and the code generated:
Here’s an example of the code you get if you create layouts within templates:
Okay… maybe I’m giving the column widget a bad rap. We have a few elements to remove in the future releases as you can see from the picture, but overall the creating layouts on a template level will always be more code efficient.
Think about layouts carefully before creating a site. It will save you a load of hassle (and code!) later .
Padding 0
There is a feature in BaseKit that allows you to reduce all template columns padding to 0; Underneath the hood, BaseKit will remove the extra DIV tag from the structure required to apply the padding.
In my opinion, the less code, the better, but there is a trade off; Padding on these widgets will help you line up the various widgets inside them without too much thought, but if you reduce the padding to 0, you will probably have to line each widget up individually.
Less Nested Widgets
I constantly see sites with far too many nested widgets; Column Widgets in Background widgets in Column widgets, etc, etc… That’s just going to give you a site that’s hard to edit and your code will suffer from Divitis.
As I previously stated, I use template columns over column widgets but for background manipulation, I use CSS to apply where necessary. That said, in later releases you will be able to apply backgrounds and styles directly to the widget itself.
Speed Demon
We are working hard to reduce the load times of BaseKit sites. In the next couple of releases we will be implementing some major features to our framework and reducing code down massively to increase the overall speed. There are a few tips and tricks to help you speed those sites up which are as follows:
Speed up External Widgets
The main culprit for slowing down the load time of your site are the Twitter, Flickr and RSS widgets. The issue is that every time the page loads, BaseKit calls the external services to get the results to display (only if you have the widget on the page). Load times can get slow if you have multiple external widgets on the page.
Hidden in these widgets settings is an awesome feature that takes advantage of caching system we use in BaseKit. Lets use the Twitter Widget as an example. If you set this to ‘Every 30 mins’ for example, the page will cache the results for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the next time the page is loaded, BaseKit will go get the results from Twitter then cache them within the site for next 30 minutes; and so on and so forth. This will increase your page load time drastically!
Image Sizes
This should go without saying, but its interesting to see all the BaseKit sites where people have uploaded huge images and reduced them down to smaller size within the editor. Not a good look! (some Browsers can render them nicely, but others make the image look horrid) Load times are effected too which will give the perception that your site is slow.
Work out the size of the image, reduce the image down in a program such as Photoshop or GIMP then upload it.
If you follow all of these tips then they should give you a fast clean Basekit site.
This post was written by Richard Healy -Founder and Lead Developer of Basekit
2nd
August 2010
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The first in a new series covering the leading lights on Twitter. Here are the people to follow on the micro-blogging site whose updates we consider a cut above the norm – whether they link to brilliant content that all news providers and web-addicts should get first dibs on, provide their own great content for others to view or even if they’re just able to be LOL funny in just under 140 characters.
We’ll give you a heads up so that you can go to their profile and click the ‘follow’ button, safe in the knowledge that they really are part of an elite group of Tweeters worthy of a your time.
One thing, however – don’t expect a follow-back from any of these folk. They’re all far too busy to be wasting their time mucking about with responses in 140 characters. As most find out soon enough, the celebrated tend to go to Twitter more to be heard than to engage socially.
Having said that, we’ll also be adding Tweeters who aren’t necessarily famous out side of the Twittersphere, so read on and get following.
Stephen Fry
It’s obvious, it’s accepted, it’s almost cliché, but if you’re not following Fry, then you’re not following the site’s most famous Uncle. Formerly one half of Fry and Laurie, Stephen Fry’s been working his way to national treasure status by way of brilliant performances in Blackadder and a number of decent films – and by now he’s pretty much set himself up as everyone’s introduction to Twitter.
One of the first demonstrations of Twitter’s power, for many people, occurred when Fry became stranded in a motionless lift and communicated that problem, with photos taken on his iPhone, to the world at large. This minor incident served as a lesson in how Twitter can be used to report news instantly to a massive readership, and there’s an argument that this one elevator palaver actually kickstarted the Michael Jackson and Iran election reportage that followed. A true Twitter pioneer.
Sample Tweet: Oh lor. O crikey. Heckamighty. Lumme. Cripes and botty. *gulp*
(sent during the England v Slovenia game, World Cup 2010)
Roger Ebert
A massively-respected film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, Ebert has also worked in TV and is considered a critical God in America. His website is worth a look alone, but he also shines on Twitter.
As well as linking to his latest reviews, since having his lower mandible removed due to cancer, Ebert has been pounding his keyboard heavily ever since, in constant communication with his followers. Whether he’s telling you about the latest review or his latest medical news, his tweets and links are at once touching, amusing and sweet.
Sample Tweet: Woody Allen picks the six best woody Allen Films, and is wrong. http://dld.bz/j5Hq
Peter Serafinowicz
Known to comedy fans as the character Dwayne Bensey in Spaced, or as the creator of Look Around You, and even known to sci fi fans as the voice of Darth Maul, the man with the intensely hard to spell surname is a man of many talents, but for me, Twitter is where he really shines.
Serafinowicz seems to use Twitter as a notebook for storing half-ideas and one-liners. A quarter of the time these are unremarkable, but far more often than not he comes out with some absolute gems – often asking his followers for inspiration in the form of bizarre questions and single word muses.
Sample Tweet: The bottom line is this: the crease between the buttocks
David Lynch
If you’ve not heard of David Lynch, then I despair. Seriously, if the name doesn’t even ring a vague bell, you should probably get hold of Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Wild At Heart, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and every other masterpiece he’s made in the world of cinema, watch them, then come back here…
…Back? Good. So David Lynch was an unexpected arrival on Twitter, but he certainly brightens up the Twittersphere with his detailed, precise weather reports and also some truly bizarre and heartwarming weirdness.
Only recently I found myself baffled but won over when Lynch tweeted ‘This week I’m going to find out if I’m connected to the moon’, before I saw, a couple of days later, that he’d followed up with
‘I’m pretty sure I’m connected to the moon’.
Gnomic, enigmatic, clever, silly – a lot like his best films.
Sample Tweet: It really is about how we feel when we wake up in the morning and head off to do whatever we do.
Charlie Brooker
A well-kept secret here until his Bush taunts and evangelism for HBO series the Wire made him big news overseas, Brooker is now the host of three or four separate TV shows and still maintains his famously scathing Screen Burn TV criticism column in the Guardian. The workaholic’s also added another Monday column to his workload, so it’s a wonder he ever finds time to tweet his brain-missives to his thousands and thousands of followers.
But tweet he does, and his 140 character sound-bites are often as amusing as lines in his newspaper pieces. To his immense credit, he also engages with his audience, which is rare in celebrities on the site.
Sample Tweet: Ice duvets. Why haven’t we invented ice duvets yet? Icy clouds that wrap round you and slowly evaporate in the night. Come on, scientists.
And, finally, one not to follow:
Ashton Kutcher
We love Dude, Where’s My Car as much as the next moron, but Kutcher doesn’t really do himself any favours with his tweets. Since the infamous upskirt twitpic he uploaded of partner Demi Moore’s behind, the imbecility hasn’t really lifted. He may nearly have more followers than Jesus, but Kutcher’s feed is one to avoid.
Sample Tweet: Y is it that every time some1 does an act of charity on twitter, vampires come out, call u an Ahole & complain abt what u r not doin 4 them?
Seriously – who types / texts like that these days?
This post was written by Liam Tucker of the excellent Watch With Mothers. Which is another great way to waste your day. – Want to write for the BaseKit Blog? – Drop us an email.
29th
July 2010
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As a blog-owner know, you’ll know that writing the blog is the easy part. Spellchecking and grammar-vetting to a level of perfection is harder, whilst getting people to actually read what you’ve written can sometimes be seem near-impossible. Beyond that, asking people to engage with our content – through linking it from their own sites with a recommendation to actually leaving a comment – can sometimes seem like the Blogger’s Holy Grail. Especially in the early days of writing.
But there are steps you can take to try and hook readers into responding – and one response can often open the floodgates. Whilst fifty comments doesn’t seem particularly more impressive than forty, one comment looks far better on the page than none.
So, if you’re looking for a practical guide on how to make people connect with your piece, a few methods are outlined below. Some are common sense, and others you might already be practicing. None are failsafe and none can guarantee you’ll grow a community rooted deep within your posts, but adhering to the checklist with every post you write can help to make your blog look a lot more lively than it might otherwise – and a lively-looking blog always encourages traffic – the only real source of comments.
Make Your Content Current
Whatever topic your blog is written around, you’ve probably already mastered the art of getting to a distinct point in the space of one post. You can make that point all the more powerful by embedding it in an example that is current – ideally topical on the day. If you’re writing a news-based blog then you already have this covered, but if you’re not, then basing your post on current events will see far more traffic flow through your site and readers who have something urgent to say.
Backlink With Cunning
If you’re not already, you should really be reading blogs (even inferior ones) based on your subject, or one that’s similar. Traffic-sharing can be achieved by making comments on competitors postings, so long as you get to create a backlink when submitting your username. It’s win-win for you and your competitors, creating a benign sense of competition between bloggers. No doubt they’ll start doing the same back to pick up some of your juicy traffic. Presto – we have ourselves a bulked up comments section.
Find Yourself Some Link-Partners
After you’ve created this blogging alliance, and when your presence is felt as a regular comment contributer, it’s time to start getting yourself on your competitors’ blogrolls. The blogosphere is like no other working environment, in that links are essentially free, so traffic between sites can only be viewed as a healthy flow. The Internet’s fluid nature means that readers are unlikely to give up reading one free blog for another – instead they’ll just read both. So email those other blog owners and suggest a link exchange. Eventually they’ll be posting entire articles on their blogs recommending some of your stuff.
Ask Questions Of Your Audience
People are moved to speak when they’re enquired upon. So ask questions of your readers. Let them know that your blog isn’t a one-way mouthpiece, but rather a means by which to express themselves and share their views. Eventually, once a strong base of commenters is built, you can begin to devote posts to their responses. A simple question or challenge in the headline followed by a short post is no challenge to write, and readers will jump straight in to see which commenter is winning the race to be the cleverest of the bunch before leaping in themselves. Often they’ll get involved without even looking at preceding comments.
Be Subtle About Being Contentious
Though it’s liberating to have a soapbox, some of the most tedious blogs online are essentially opinion-holes. One person’s opinion is rarely of great importance and can be a real turn-off for readers, even if they share the same point of view. If you’re outraged by something in the press or have a genuine gripe you want to air, then approach it with caution. Again, ask a question in an ‘is it just me?’ fashion rather than mounting a direct challenge against your readership and you’ll more than likely have people sympathising rather than taking offence – moving them to get involved in the discussion.
Involve Your Real-World Friends
The one place that you’re best placed to receive clicks is from real-world friends. They know you best and are more likely than most to be interested in what you post, so it’s essential to let them know what you’re doing with your blog. Thanks to Facebook, this won’t require spamming them daily in their inbox. Rather, use the ‘book to post a link to every article you put up. Chances are they’ll take a look, even if only to see what you’re up to. And if you hook them in, you’ve got yourself a reader and a potential commenter.
Involve Your Virtual Friends
It sounds terrible to say it, but – in this context – your virtual friends are more important than your real-life pals. Utilise Twitter to it’s utmost potential by linking to your articles there, with a short explanation regarding what the post is about. Since Twitter flourished in January ’09, most blogs have seen that their number one source of traffic has become this rapid-fire monster of status updates, so it’s an invaluable tool. Build up your followers (always keeping an eye on the number you follow) and link them with every post you put up. Chances are, if they follow you, they’ll be interested enough to pop in – and ultimately comment.
Don’t Overdo It To The Point of Spam
Spreading links all over the web is essential, but it’s important to know where to draw the line. If one person is seeing numerous links to your post, clearly put up there by you, you’re probably overdoing it. That’s not to say you should link it all over the place under numerous assumed names. That would just be weird. The key is to be aware of the various audiences your link will be seen by, on every site you place it, making sure that there’s no overlap. Multiple audiences converging on your site from different sources – and backgrounds – is a recipe for debate.
Be Sure To Comment Yourself
As the writer of the piece, it’s often tempting to sit back and see what reaction you’ve received in virtual silence. Though it may seem awkward and self-celebratory, it’s good to show that you’re willing to take on feedback and contributions, responding to readers’ points in the comments section. Obviously it’s best not to react to trolls and it’s unwise to become involved in a never-ending, spiralling debate, but a presence in the comments area from the author of the post is one that readers often find reassuring. People like to be listened to.
Aggregate And Spread The Word
Even if it seems alien to you, Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon are a blogger’s friend. If you’ve seen a past post picked up by Digg that’s then gone on to go viral, you’ll know that the amount of traffic a post can pick up from a presence there can be ridiculous. These social media aggregators are great for getting your posts read and reacted to – so sign up if you’ve not already, and have yourself a nose around.
Even better than user-generated aggregation is getting your stuff noticed as a regular source on a trusted aggregation site – and they don’t come much better than Google News. Getting on their source-list is much easier than you might think, though getting signed up is purely at their discretion. All you can do is give it a go. You may be surprised by the result.
This was a guest post from Liam Tucker of EWM. Want to write for the BaseKit Blog? – Drop us an email.
27th
July 2010
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New BaseKit features! Elite BaseKit Developer Andy Whitehead takes us through our next upgrade…
This isn’t live yet – but is coming very soon!
Hi, I’m Andy Whitehead, one of the development team here at BaseKit, and I’m really excited to introduce you all to the upcoming functionality that will soon be rolling out in the BaseKit editor, CSS3 styling – including rotations, box and text shadows, skew and axis origin controls, background gradients and CSS scaling. As well as that, we’ve been listening to the many requests for various extra design controls, so we’ve also added the much sought after border / stroke control too.
Personally, I’ve been really excited about putting these controls together, as I’m really looking forward to seeing what people can come up with. I’m sure there will be horrible results, but at the same time, I know there will be a lot of really awesome ones too. I’m a real fan of using box shadows combined with slight rotations to give some really excellent looking designs, especially when used on images, and now, it’s ridiculously easy to do; and of course, they’re all fully cross browser compatible as you’d expect.
As far as I’m aware, no other web builder out there has these CSS3 design functions as of yet, and it’s great to be there at the forefront of cutting edge web development. I hope you enjoy using the tools as much as I enjoyed building them, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Like I said, they’ll be coming in the near future, but to whet your appetite, here’s a video of them in action
Enjoy!
