Had to figure this one out the hardway so I thought I would share my experience. My boss gave me a nice new iPod Nano for a Christmas bonus and my wife wanted to copy songs onto it from CDs.

1. Open iTunes. If you don’t have it download it from Apple.com

2. Insert CD into disc player

3. It will ask you if you want to import the songs from the CD to your Music Library. This is the key to iTunes – everything is in your Library. If you want the whole CD, click ‘Yes’ and it will import the entire CD to your Library. If you only want certain songs, click ‘No’. Then, highlight the songs you want, and drag and drop them onto the word ‘Library’ at the top left. This will import the selected songs from the CD into your Library.

4. Connect your iPod to your PC or Mac using the provided USB cable.

5. You have 2 options here: let iTunes automatically sync up your iPod and Library or manage it manually. If you want to sync it automatically, when it asks you, click ‘Yes’. Otherwise, there is an option that you need to check to manage your music manually. Under Devices you should see your iPod, click on your device, and then under the second tab I believe is a checkbox for letting you control your music manually.

6. Lastly, go to your Library, select the songs you want to transfer and drag ‘n drop them to your iPod listed under Devices. iTunes will then begin transferring the music to your iPod. Be sure not to disconnect your iPod until it is done; when it is, right click on your iPod listed under Devices and select Eject.

Hope this helps

The Wrightsville Beach Board of Alderman has approved a mixed-use project to be built between Salisbury and Seagull Street, next to Johnny Mercer’s Pier.

As a Wilmington NC resident and avid surfer, finding available parking spots is almost impossible as it is so I’m not looking forward to the increase of construction and crowds.

However, the increase in shops, businesses and hopefully eating spots will make downtown Wrightsville Beach a nice little place to hang out. And hopefully the increased revenue will give the town more money for public amenities such as restrooms and possibly help reduce the cost of parking.

Link: Lumina News Article

I will be redesigning the website to give it a more professional look but will be keeping the same type of theme.

I will be redoing the homepage, creating an interior page template and also redoing the navigation. Someone else will be responsible for popping in the content.

Purpose statement according to the site:

This ministry is designed to provide a medium which tactfully delivers biblical sermons that are relevant for the current generation. Our desire is to promote a reverence and passion for the supremacy of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom and our focus is on the foundational truths of the Christian faith. We emphasize unity on the essentials truths, liberty on the non-essentials and love in everything. We also believe strongly in the idea that unity does not equal uniformity because there is diversity in the Kingdom of Christ. The verse we have picked to represent this ministry is Romans 10:14 which states “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Relevant Revolution is run by John Mahshie of The Body of Asheville, a local church there in Asheville NC.

Look for the new site to be live hopefully by the end of March.

Link: Site URL

Link: The Body of Asheville

Found out from a friend today that Dreamweaver 8 (Studio 8) is not fully compatible with Mac’s new Intel based computers yet but instead is using an emulation software called Rosetta. Rosetta allows software that is PowerPC compatible to be run on the new Intel based computers. Adobe’s next release of the Studio (and Photoshop3) should all be fully compatible but for now we have to make do until the new releases come out.

Been noticing my Dreamweaver has been kinda slow compared to my previous PC experience so thats why I did some research.

When buying software for Macs, look for the Universal symbol – that lets you know the application is using Apple’s Xcode and means it runs natively on both the new Intel-based Mac computers and on legacy PowerPC-based Mac systems.

This PDF might be helpful – I know it was for me.

PDF from Adobe

Hope this helps some other Mac newbies out there.

I normally require 50% of the project cost up front before starting any work. The final 50% is due upon project completion. I send invoices for you to keep for your records.

Payment is due as soon as possible but I normally give clients up to a month to make payments. After a month, there is a $100/month fee for late payments.

We accept the following methods of payment:

• Paypal
• Cash
• Check
• Visa
• Mastercard
• Discover
• American Express

Just got a new e-newsletter from Wordtracker today. They have launched a free tool tha will allow you to see what the most popular searches have been in the last 90 days.

For example, I typed in Wilmington NC Web Design and here was the result:

316,456,828 searches ( last 90 days )

5 searches for wilmington nc web site hosting and design

So basically out of 316 million searches done on the web in the last 90 days, only 5 people were searching using this term. Now, there are about a gazillion web design firms in Wilmington right now, which means I have my work cut out for me. I currently offer a Basic SEO package – you can read all about it here: Impulse Web Solutions Basic SEO package

Link: Free Keyword Suggestion Tool

SEO (search engine optimization) is pretty huge right now. Just go to Google and type in SEO and you will get a gazillion companies promising to rank you number one on Google. Truth is, Google keeps their ranking formula a secret, so there is really no one that can promise you that. However, Google does provide some basic SEO best practices on their website.

SEO is a web marketing strategy designed to get your site ranked as high as possible on search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. So for example, I own a web design firm in Wilmington NC. When someone goes to Google and types in ‘Wilmington NC Web Design’, I want my website to come up first, right at the top. At Impulse Web Solutions, we follow the Google webmaster guidelines and implement industry standard techniques to help your site get noticed by your target audience.

Other options for SEO include Pay Per Click advertising and Ad Campaigns. Basically you tell Google what keywords you want to appear for. Then, when someone clicks on your site Google charges you. If you have ever done a search on Google (who hasn’t right?) you will notice some links appear at the top in a blue box, then some links appear right beneath that and then some links show up on the right. The ones on the top and right are paying to be there using pay per click advertising while the other ones are what we call organic links and are not paying to be there. Pay per click advertising is great for a new site to get some hits, but eventually that will get expensive and what you want is to be an organic link. You want to rank high because you have a great site, not because you paid to be there.

Less expensive methods include optimizing your page content and HTML code to be more search engine friendly. At Impulse, we provide a basic SEO package that includes the following and is a one time cost of $100.00:

-Site submission by hand to the top 3 search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN
-Google Account and Webmaster tools so you can monitor your site’s progress
-Sitemap development and submission to Google and Yahoo
-Access to monthly reporting tools Google Analytics Account for monitoring site stats
-HTML code optimization and meta tag design for optimum visibility
(Note: Sites over 10 pages will be charged $10/page for HTML code optimization)

For an additional cost, I can also help you setup Adword and Pay Per Click campaigns with Google. Visit my site for more info.

Link: Google Webmaster Guidelines

Many clients come to me and want the ability to update all or some of the pages of the site on their own. Sometimes they may have changing prices, new sales events and specials, they want to display different ads in different seasons or they just want to have that sense of control over their site text.

Many tools are available on the market today for what are called Content Management Systems or CMS.

One method I use is to create a ‘backdoor’ for a client with a listing of pages. Each page has a content box and that content box is where text edits can be done. They hit ‘Update’, the data is sent to a database and then the site updated on the front end.

Another option is to purchase a copy of Contribute, a product by Adobe (formerly Macromedia). Contribute connects to your web server, where the files are stored, and lets you edit the content of the site pages using a nice GUI editor, similar to Microsoft Word.

These are just two examples, but I know there are many other type systems on the market today. If you are a web developer and know of another CMS system, please feel free to share your ideas here on this forum.

Link: Content Management System

My name is Jonathan Richey and I own Impulse Web Solutions here in Wilmington, NC.

I offer web design and website development services for all types of industries ranging from small mom-and-pop shopts to large corporations.

Wilmington NC has a vast array of industries and business types and I service them all. As a local surfer, lately most of my jobs seem to be surf related such as Aussie Island Surf Shop, Surfchex.com, WBLivesurf.com, Greenroom Board Sports, Blue Ridge Surfboards and Surfrider – I have contribuited to all of these sites in some form or fashion. Some of them I designed, some of them I work behind the scenes.

To find out more info about me and my company please visit my website, Impulse Web Solutions – a Wilmington NC based web design firm.