Last week I got an email from Google Support asking me if I wanted to answer some questions about the Google Adsense program and their customer support. Of course I said yes. The questions were general in nature and were about how I feel about my support issues being handled, my account strategist, etc. I told the rep that it would be nice to be able to pick a certain advertiser that I wanted to be displayed in an ad unit like referrals used to be (sort of).

I also mentioned that if they want to run any tests on publisher sites, to add my name to the list. I see a few publishers with different ad sizes and I’d like to have these ad sizes on my websites as well.

The one question that sticks out in my mind was numbering in order of importance the following: Revenue, Ad Relevance, Ad Control, Transparency, Product Ease of Use, and Customer Service. For me it’s Ad Control, Ad Relevance, Revenue, Transparency, Customer Service and then Product Ease of Use.

I was told I would get a Google gift, a lap top bag for taking the time to answer the questions. I’ll post a pic when the laptop bag comes.

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

Several new party invitations were added today:

Animal Themed Party Invitations (butterflies, kittens, birds, bunnies,  etc.), Amusement Park Party, Ballet Recital Invitations, Birthday Rodeo Party, Birthday Sleepoer Party, Bowling Birthday Party, Disco Party, Karaoke Birthday Party, Princess Dress Up Party, Roller Skating Party, Surprise Birthday Party, and Totally Eighties Birthday Party.

These printable party invitations are quarter fold invitations, meaning you fold an 8 1/2 sheet of paper in half and then fold it in half again to create a single party invitation. The inside of the party invitation allows you to write who the party is given by, and the date, time and location of the party.

More new party invitations are coming this week. If you have any suggestions for invitations I’d appreciate you letting me know.

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

I have created a new fashion themed personal website template. The template has slinky vintage dress on the right of the page. This web template comes with 6 pages which are are for home, about, news, guestbook, links and contact.

This template is really easy to use. Just add your page content on each of the pages and upload to your website. You can add a site name on the top graphic if you want to.

If you’d like to use this free fashion themed website template in your websites design, you can download it from here:

[ Download free fashion web template ]

Here’s a preview of what the template looks like:

I always appreciate a link back if you use the template.

More free web templates can be downloaded from here:

http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/free_templates.html

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

If someone you know and love was directly affected by the events of September 11th, take time to let them know that you remember and still care by giving them a special September 11th Greeting Card.

There are 3 September 11th greeting cards to choose from and all have patriotic images of the USA, Statue of liberty and more.

To use the September 11th greeting cards, simply open the greeting card templates up with your web browser and print them out using your printer. Fold in half and fold again. Next write in your own personal greeting or message to give to your family member or friend.

http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/free-printables/september-11-greeting-cards.html

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

I heard this weird story on the news yesterday. Seth Russell (15) was in an inner tube on a lake in Arkansas and a Silver Asian Carp fish jumped out of the water and broke his jaw. It hit him so hard that he lost consciousness and the fish killed itself. He doesn’t remember anything but laughing and then waking up in the hospital. The poor kid’s jaw had to be wired shut and he’s got whiplash and suffers from back pain.

The full story is here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/08/ap/strange/main4424823.shtml

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

Google has gone and created it’s own Internet web browser called Google Chrome. It’s still in beta but you can download it from here http://www.google.com/chrome to try it out.

I downloaded Chrome the other day and initially I like it.  It’s cool because your web pages are displayed in tabs and you can simply click from tab to tab to view browser pages. Click on the + at the top of the browser window to open a new browser session. When you are typing in a search term or url, suggestions come up. This is based on previous search history and popular Internet destinations.

Google has created a cool comic book to explain how the Chrome browser works and the technology and thinking behind it. It’s a bit long but and interesting read. Check it out here: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/. Google talks about how other browsers were written long ago before today’s browser problems/uses came about. This is true, people play sophisticated video games with Internet browsers, and browsers are used to distribute spyware and viruses.  As an example, with other Internet browsers when you close the browser the memory held by the page is fragmented but with Chrome when you close the browser window the page is totally wiped from memory. Chrome also has built in blockers for spyware, viruses and such. That’s really cool.

One thing I did notice, Chrome says it imports your current Internet browsers bookmarks and passwords. My bookmarks were imported but not my passwords. I visited a page where the password was saved and had to re-enter my password to gain access to the page. Also, I use the Google Preview Tool and the Google Toolbar to check Pagerank. These tools were not visible in the Chrome browser. It’s also a little weird to have no status bar at the bottom of the browser but I guess you just have to get used to that. Maybe these options will become available in the next release of Chrome.

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

A few months ago I wrote about Google Sitelinks. Sitelinks are additional links Google sometimes generates from site contents in order to help users navigate your site. Sitelinks are generated dynamically, and can change from time to time.

Well, I’ve got some good news. Google has made an update to help you manage your websites Sitelinks. Before we had no way to control which links were chosen as Sitelinks. I logged into my Webmaster Tools account today and noticed along with my Sitelinks being listed, there is also a new option that allows me to block links from being Sitelinks. That’s pretty cool in case a link is picked up that you don’t want to be displayed in your websites Sitelinks.

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

For this Labor Day Weekend my family and I are going fishing at Pickwick Lake so I decided to make a fishing themed free web template.

This web template comes with just one page but you can make as many additional content pages as you need. The template can be for a personal or business website but I think I had a business in mind when I was designing it. The navigation contains both button links and text links. The home page has a nice photo that I took a few years ago of the Mississippi River.

I added a stock photo object on top of that with a guy fishing in a boat because I thought it looked nice. I’ve included some general instructions on the homepage of how to edit the template. Really you just add your site name on the logo graphic, add your page names on the buttons and text links area and finally add your website’s content. Easy!

If you’d like to use this free fishing themed website template in your websites design, you can download it from here:

[ Download free fishing web template ]

Here’s a preview of what the template looks like:

I always appreciate a link back if you use the template.

More free web templates can be downloaded from here:

http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/free_templates.html

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

Labor Day is coming up this weekend so I made 9 new Happy Labor Day Printable greeting cards. The free greeting cards have all sorts of vector illustrations that involve relaxing and lounging around with family and friends, which is what Labor Day is all about.  All of the greeting card headers read, “Happy Labor Day”.  Take a look at them here:

http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/free-printables/labor-day-greeting-cards.html

The greeting cards are quarter fold greetings, meaning you fold an 8 1/2 sheet of paper in half and then fold it in half again to create a single greeting card. The inside of the greeting card is blank and you can write whatever you like there.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com

Are you tired of waiting on your web designer to make changes to your website for you? Do you wish you could make the changes to your website yourself? If you can answer yes to any of those questions, have you considered using a web site builder?

If you want to design and maintain your own website but lack the skills and website development software, a web site builder is a great choice.  A web site builder is offered by a number of Internet vendors and allows someone who has no experience with website development to create their own website by point and clicking using their web browser.

Web site builder interfaces while are very different, can be similar to using Microsoft Word. Web site Builders can be advanced to very basic. When choosing the right web site builder you’ll need to think about what your goal for a website is. 

If you just need a basic website with web pages and images, just about any sitebuilder will work for you. If you need something more advanced like Ecommerce and plan to sell from your website, you’ll need to pick a web site builder that comes with Ecommerce capabilities. As a bonus most web site builders are template based, and you can easily change your stores design and layouts with a click of a mouse. There’s no need to pay a web designer an additional fee to update your store’s design. Best of all most sitebuilders offer a free trial so you can test the sitebuilder out before you commit.

If you are interested, read our reviews for some of the top website builders.

Enjoy!

Gina

Content © 2008 Hoover Web Design http://www.hooverwebdesign.com