While we may all have our favourite hangout spots and like to follow our friends’ suggestions when visiting a new one, Restaurant Websites help to find new places when travelling to another town or an unknown area.

For this reason, a restaurant website needs to indicate what it specializes on in terms of food (seafood, country cuisine, Thai Food etc…) and it must offer clear directions, possibly through Google Maps or good photography of the environment.

Friends, real ones and those we collect on Social Networks, suggest… but then Pictures sell the Restaurant and Menu!
It’s through the way a Restaurant Blog communicates its atmosphere, service and – of course – mouth-watering menus, wines, cocktails and specials – that we are attracted to one or another. Often these reactions are spontaneous and following our belly!

Restaurant websites and blogs serve as a brilliant, easy and fun way to be and keep in touch with the restaurant clientele, inform them of what’s new on the menu or which ‘Specials’ are on when and where, especially also around major annual festivities and events like for Christmas Dinners, New Year’s Dinners or for Valentine’s Day or linked to certain activities and festivals in the area or town, eg music concerts, sports events and the like.

Restaurants should ideally have a “Wine and Dine” Fanpage on Facebook that’s kept up-to-date with what’s happening, where questions are answered and where there’s continuous conversation.

Besides, and most importantly, a restaurant must be easily reachable on the Mobile Web. People want to see what’s on offer and hit the booking button fast – often just minutes before they arrive !

We at Web Design with Passion develop and design elegant, user-friendly and extremely Google efficient websites and blogs exclusively on WP based Semiomantics – have a look and get in touch HERE to discuss what you may be needing.

Restaurant Websites Sell!

We did quite some research when creating a new website for Used Cars and Trucks for our customer Magnetic Transport Surplus in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao.

Just as with any other website, cars and trucks websites want to achieve certain goals: to attract customers and potential buyers – in other words sell – and to build a reputation on the Internet and brand themselves.

Branding requires a lot of research and development, especially in terms of Logo Design and Icon Design. While there are brilliant and high-paid professionals doing exactly just that – and I have met some of the best – this demands budgets that are far out of reach for new or relatively young companies.

Accordingly, the web designer will often be asked to come up with integrated solutions that work both online and offline.

This is a service our professional Web Design South Africa Team can provide. Please visit our brand-new  SHOWCASE HERE  for the latest Web Design examples.

Before publishing this article, I checked “Cars and Trucks Images” to capture what is currently seen there – right now at 11:55 am:

Why?

People react more to images – visuals – than to text. While our original content remains the main issue in terms of keywords and especially tags, Google picks up our photos and pictures as well as you see on the above screenshot.

As my regular routine test, I will see where my Cars and Trucks Image will land in terms of ranking – and how fast – after I publish right now, at 12:30 pm!

It’s always an interesting exercise… so above we have the ‘before’ image and let’s see how it looks ‘after’ the publication of this article!

The limited-edition Nike Foamposite Galaxy sneakers are actually named the Nike Foamposite Ones, but the “Galaxy” moniker was added for the outer space theme. The rare design has caused pandemonium among Nike fans clamoring to get a pair of the sneakers – the price tag has zoomed to astronomical levels as a result.

A pre release version of the sneakers were first bought by a Ebay user for $750, which is much higher than the original $220 price tag. Only 13 minutes later, the first bid was in for a mere $755. The bids, which are still going at the time of this article, have reached $70,000 over the course of three days.

Here at Global we think this is probably the most wanted trainer of this era, we have already had people rioting in shopping centres and even seen people camping outside stores for 2 weeks before the release date.

Global will try to get a few pairs of this exclusive sneaker but with the demand so high it will take you out of the stratosphere to have a chance of getting hold of one.

Photoshop Action Scripts fun

Part of the learning experience when learning a new skill is the playing, having fun and testing out possiblilities. Its all part of the creative process that we often miss out on when working at a daily job. When learning about  Photoshop there’s a lot of fun to be had testing out the Photoshop Action Scripts.

Learning Photoshop

Once you have mastered a few basics, then its more fun to be able to see some final products. Here are a few examples of some very easy to use Action Scripts that produce good looking results with a few simple clicks.

Angel Glass Action Script

Very easy to use Angel Glass to produce some great looking pictures.

Membership Card

Another Action Script that creates a professional looking membership card.

Babyshop CD

A fun way to wrap up and sell products online. Very easy to use with a few simple mouse clicks and just adding your own text and colours etc.

Photoshop Tutorials by Ycademy

For more Photoshop Live trainings and tutorials you can join the next session at Ycademy. For more information about trainings feel free to contact me here.

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Read more..

• Discovering Photoshop – Action Scripts
• Discovering Photoshop
• Photoshop Tutorials
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• Branding your business online
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• Britain’s Big Freeze
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Semiomantics Developments for WordPress assemble the best modules available to offer custom solutions to satisfy the needs of professionals. EVO is a theme base for custom design and development focusing namely on media producers, photographers, graphic and web designers.

Semiomantics EVO is based and inspired by the work of the best designers and developers out there who take advantage of the latest developments of WordPress, HTML5, CSS3, Java, Ajax and the mobile web.

Code and Scripts have been adapted and modified to satisfy Semiomantics’ highest standards of optimization for excellent publishing, targeting Search Engines and Social Networks.

Semiomantics EVO replaces the flash template Semiomantics Evo and constitutes a second cord on Semiomantics Arc.

The recent release of XO Edition 2012 remains the blockbuster product of Semiomantics in 2012; however we are working on a new XO which will replace XO 12. A new architecture will allow to eliminate some of the heavy plugins we are using at present with XO namely to satisfy the standards of mobile development.

Semiomantics EVO is the ideal platform for high quality editing, media publishing and eCommerce. Semiomantics Developers and Designers are invited to join the Ycademy February Online Seminar which is held this coming week-end.

Shoot Images and Videos with your camera or mobile device, load them to your EVO (can be done from the mobile device directly) and let EVO share your content with your friends and acquaintances on Social Networks without losing the control over your media or products. The shop is easily accessible, fully integrated and can also be added to your Facebook page for example.

Look out for more soon.

Related posts: XO Photo Press WordPress Theme The 1001 Faces of Semiomantics XO Glossy WordPress Theme Development Ycademy Online Seminar Photo Publishing with Evo for WordPress Best Car Dealer Theme for WordPress

This classic is one of the original basketball shoes to bear the “Flight” logo. It has a very similar template to the Jordan 4 Retro and it shares the exact same sole, the Nubuck upper has a very sturdy feel to it with a lot of comfortable padding with heel Air-Sole unit and solid rubber, herringbone pattern outsole.Available At Global Now.

Visit the Product on our online store Click Here…

Model: Nike Air Flight 89 ‘OG’
Release Date: 01/02/12
Product Code: 306252-060
Colour Code: Black/Sport Red

This classic is one of the original basketball shoes to bear the “Flight” logo. It has a very similar template to the Jordan 4 Retro and it shares the exact same sole, the Nubuck upper has a very sturdy feel to it with a lot of comfortable padding with heel Air-Sole unit and solid rubber, herringbone pattern outsole.Available At Global Now.

Visit the Product on our online store Click Here…

Model: Nike Air Flight 89 ‘OG’
Release Date: 01/02/12
Product Code: 306252-060
Colour Code: Black/Sport Red

Global have the premium New Era snapbacks available instore and online, these limited edition leather caps have the popular sporting teams logos with a fancy script to keep its elegance with a extravagant fit that all you guys have been wanting…

Click Here To Buy Online…

A couple of minutes ago, I published an article on “South Africa Photo Album Online” – now let’s look what that article does in terms of SEO, meaning how our Photo Album Online South Africa performs on major search engines like Google.

Photo Album Online South Africa

As we see from the screenshot above, our Photo Album Online South Africa reached Google Top 10 within a few seconds and positioned itself on rank 6 ahead of 18,000,000 search results! And not only there…

How to Sell Photos Online

So if you wonder as to how to sell Photos Online… you either go the route of Stock Photography – but it’s not an overnight income earning source for sure, you need to grow into it, work hard and always improve your photographic skills … well, that’s an ongoing process anyway for all photo freaks :)

Alternatively, be independent with your own Online Photo Album, Photo Blog or Photo website… BUT – and this is crucial – make sure you appear on Google Top 10 on your major keywords… just as you saw on the example I just demonstrated, using nothing else but a Semiomantics XO combined with Semiomantics Web Design. I publish it asap here so you see it’s 100% genuine… that’s Semiomantics!

Saves you money – makes you money online … your choice! Contact me to discuss if this sparks your interest!

Today’s Digital Advertising Workshop is for everybody who has a Semiomantics website or blog and promotes something – be it a Product, Services, other peoples’ products (Affiliate Marketing) or simply Advertising space: it’s all about bringing all this to your readers’ attention… as offline so online!

One possibility is obviously that your entire website or blog rotates about your product like in my example above – where I am in the process of setting up a Photo Blog focusing only on Digital Photography. Here I am advertising for “Butterfly Photography” as it’s something I love doing and I will never lose my passion for it.

However, there is also another way….

Digital Advertising Workshop

This is what all participants of today’s Digital Advertising Workshop will focus on:

As everybody has several websites and blogs, a decision must be made where an ad is needed – i.e. for what purpose and on which website or blog – and what dimensions it must have. Size matters :)

Once that’s clear, it’s a matter of drawing a mental sketch of how this ad – say 300 x 250 pixels or just any size in landscape or portrait format – could look like. It could be just as well for selling auto parts, ebooks, Semiomantics Web Design for Mobile Phones or your grandma’s recipes – the principles are the same. Following your purpose and thinking of your target market, you now want to browse through your digital photos, web graphics and other visual material to find something that suits your purpose of attracting peoples’ attention to your offer and inviting them to click.

But there’s more… as once the visuals are sort of outlined, here comes the direct or indirect call to action in form of a few words, a teaser, an invitation or a brief slogan. Just a few words – but they must get the message over presto! The goal is always a click!

How to create an Ad for your website

Equipped with these prerequisites or pieces to the online advertising puzzle, we will learn how to create an Ad for your website or blog within an hour! We will look at each situation, evaluate it and develop a solution that adds another building bloc to your Semiomantics website or blog. We will not only look at the ad itself – but we will place it within the context so it all fits together, emphasizing your style and harnessing the power of your branding elements.

Fun garanteed – just be prepared and be there, Photoshop and OnOne Professional Tools in operation mode!

Make Money with Images starts with the Display

[nggallery id=1]

To Make Money with Images associate a payment gateway with the image.

In order to make money with images, you first need to enable visitors to see the images in a meaningful way.

To get the best out of pictures, make sure you use very good quality pictures and then display them in the most impressive way possible. Quality and Size matter!

Take the above example: the top sideshow can be viewed in full screen mode and it will display great quality screen shots in large size.

If you are selling images or products represented by images, make sure you associate a payment button with the image, allowing the viewer to immediately proceed to the check out. In the above case there are PayPal Buttons associated with the images. Each button may have it’s own value allowing thus to specify prices individually for each picture of a gallery or slide show.

Associate a watermark to each image, namely to the large sizes and specially if you display high quality images.

The above gallery and payment gateway integration are largely automated and do not require advanced knowledge nor the creation of paypal buttons. We have added this feature to the collection of Semiomantics Tuning Tools and we will implement it on a larger scale at our Ycademy online Seminar which takes place on May 30 and 31, 2009.

This feature is interesting for people selling graphics, art, photos or any product which can be represented by a picture. It replaces a shop in as much as it can be configured either with a buy now or a add to cart button, using basic PayPal features.

By Creating a static or dynamic product page, the products can display in form of Pictures in Grid View, and as above, a slides show representing all items can be added to make the place more attractive and to display detail views or large size views on full screen mode.

• How to make money with images

Related posts:

1. Dealing with Images on your Blog
2. Social Media Marketing Seminar
3. Interactive Video Blog
4. Lead Generation Blog
5. Social Media Marketing Ycademy Seminar

Testing HDR Imaging with Lightroom 3

High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDR) is a ” set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods” (Wikipedia).

The below exercise is a simple test, using only two images with different exposures.

Image 1 – Balux Glyfada

Balux Glyfada 1

The image has been taken inside a room exposing it to feature the colors of the interior. As you can see, the consequence of properly exposing the interior leads to over exposed areas, namely on the table and then all over the background where we basically see only white.

Image 2

Balux Glyfada 2

The interior is underexposed, however the background or the exterior area shows colors and details as the metering is set to render a clear image in the background.

The HDR Image created in Lightroom 3

Glyfada Balux HDR

After the merger we end up with a nice compromise which can be adjusted in post editing. Lightroom did a good job on the background as wel as on the table where we get now some of the blueish shine as a reflection from the external tones.

HDR Image post-edited

Balux Glyfada edited

For the purpose of this test I have just darkened the tonal range of the highlights a bit to see a real contrast to the previous image.

Conclusion

HDR imaging has become an easy task with Lightroom 3, even for beginners. The difference between the first and the last photo is simply smashing. The ability to edit HDR in Lightroom with just a few mouse-clicks will help many amateurs to get a more professional look to pictures featuring interiors.

Of course it’s also a great feature for night photography or anywhere where improved dynamic range cannot be reached with just one shot.

This and more we will demonstrate live and exercise with the participants at this week’s Ycademy calls as an add on to the Ycademy Seminar which took place during the past week-end.

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/greece/lightroom-3-presets/.

Adobe Lightroom 3 Presets

Just 4 samples using some of my Lightroom presets for the purpose of the Ycademy Seminar.

Enjoy.

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Original

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Preset 1

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece -Preset 2

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Preset 3

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece – Preset 4

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Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

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Your Photos take you to Google Top 10

Proper image tagging and publishing is beneficial for photographers and publishers. This applies for printed publications as well as for online publishing.

Today when looking up my name on Google, I found on position 13 Charterworld.com which published two of my pictures about the destruction of the super-yacht Madiblue D.

From the same publishing house, other publications have picked up the images, namely the Best European Magazine for Motor Boats and Yachting. And then the following websites:

http://www.synfo.com/news/allnews.asp?news=&id=15421#

http://www.charterworld.com/news/yacht-madiblue-on-fire-in-greece

http://www.thecrewreport.com/superyacht_crew_news.asp?id=16846

madiblue-5

Copyright Notice underneath the photo.

madiblue-2

Copyright Notices underneath the Photos

madiblue-4

Copyright Notice …

madiblue-3

Copyright Notices …

madiblue

Copyright Notice.

If you magnify the images you see underneath each photo the copyright notice, which Google is happy to pick up. The Copyright Notices are embedded as Caption. In fact if you inspect the element of the last sample, you will find that the publisher uses the whole caption in the title or name of the image. This is of course a good promo for the photographer and helps the publisher to get higher visibility just due to the image.

Image tagging

The above is a nice example of efficient image handling by a professional publisher.

Photo and Media Publishing

There are different ways of publishing photos, the most common being as illustration to a text for your own purpose. Then there is publication of media for the purpose to serve other publishers with media to illustrate their texts.

The second case requires different publishing; the main objective is that interested parties can find your picture easily when searching on Google for example. There are also agencies and stock platforms which have high visibility and which have the connections to the end-user.

The above example shows, that interesting materials can be a source of income, provided the materials can be found by interested people. It is therefore of paramount importance to handle our pictures with the utmost care and then to publish them in the most efficient way.

If your site is not a high impact site with high authority as the above, it is often difficult to gain visibility quickly. Also, the Google image search is one of the most polluted search engines in as much as too many top search returns are completely irrelevant.

The Semiomantics Media Publishing Solution

In view of the above, we have been thinking for years about solutions for people who wish high visibility with media. Semiomantics Publishing Frameworks based on WordPress provide users the necessary platform to gain high visibility with media without the need to spend money on Google Ads and without giving away a high percentage to the owners of Stock Platforms. Semiomantics is specialized and second to none when it comes to reach Google Top 10 positions with media content.

Google Top 10 with Semiomantics

Semiomantics Frameworks have their origin in Search Engine Optimized WordPress based scripts. Immediately after the release of the first frameworks under the name of “The Magic Search Traffic Formula” we became aware of the almost shocking performance of the scripts: posts reached easily Google Top 10 Positions. We then moved on to other publishing elements, such as tags and images and later to other media. Since the necessary optimizations needed special tuning of the scripts as well as the creation of a ’semantically evolving dictionary’ for each site we created the Semiomantics SEO Module which runs behind the most professional Semiomantics based publications.

With success, as you can see from my Madiblue D experience.

Media Publishing with Semiomantics

At present we are working on a new framework and formula to satisfy the needs of mobile publishers. When sending a picture or a video from a smart-phone to a website, there is little that can be done to optimize the tagging beyond the data automatically attached to the picture. It is therefore important, to automatically translate some of the data and convert it to optimized tags on the receiving site. An interesting challenge for Semiomantics.

For example: some smart-phones automatically use Geo Tags; these can be translated and projected to a map and then additional keywords can be extracted therefrom. Other features concern traveling and trip information which is available on cameras and smart-phones. Notes, descriptions and such like help as well.

At present we are testing the new Semiomantics Formula for Mobile Publishers using the iPhone 4 and our site at iPhone 4 Photos. The first results are promising. The advantage of the iPhone are the numerous applications which can be used for advanced image editing and tagging; in the extreme case, we may need to write our own application to suit the exact needs when used with Semiomantics Frameworks.

Another test ground is the Leica Mapping. With the release of the Leica V-Lux-20 Leica provided their customers with a portal for automated mapping and smart-tagging of photos, based on the data automatically attached to each picture by the V-Lux-20. Other camera providers have similar projects. While the idea is brilliant, the projects lack punch and optimization to make them an interesting playground for us.

Remain free image portals, such as Flickr or Picasa. The downside of those are their terms and licensing policies; on the other hand you can use them to reach Google Top 10 positions by using the full tagging potential when publishing on the platforms. This applies for manual loading, not to mobile uploading.

The Flickr tag based search works quite well, provided people search on Google for the keyword and add “flickr”. Example Syros Flickr returns 8087 uploads, whereas on the first page which displays the top 24 returns, 12 are iPhone 4 Photos from my production  (or better, 9 of the top 10 are from iPhone4Photos.com).

flickr-syros

PS: On Google under Syros Flickr the above tag page is not only Top 10, but number 1, meaning that the way you publish may also help Flickr to gain Google Top 10 Positions :-).

Learn and Earn with Ycademy

All about Media Publishing at this month’s Ycademy Seminar. Get more info from HERE

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Ycademy Online Seminar August 2010

The schedule of the the Ycademy August Seminar is rather big and will take a lot of preparation. As we are building a new site for the purpose of commercializing Stock Media, we would appreciate to know as soon as possible the names of the Seminar Participants in order to be able to create the privileged accounts before the event.

Agios Dimitrios, Syros, Greece

Photo Stock Media Website

The new website, Photo Stock Media is built on an extended server cluster on which we host this site as well as Hiod. You may have noticed a somewhat bumpy ride these days, the reason being the additional server capacity which needs to be added. I cannot guarantee, that the troubles are over, but we are doing our best to build the site and to make it available as soon as possible.

The load of the Photo Stock Media Seminar imposes some pre-seminar calls to get acquainted with the software and its behavior. We will invite Seminar participants as soon as we have the registrations to open test accounts on the new site.

Semiomantics XO for Photos

I am pleased with the behavior and look of the Semiomantics XO customization at iPhone 4 Photos. This is a niche site focusing on photos taken with the iPhone 4. Similar niches can be created for other purposes using Semiomantics XO. The interest is in the fact that the pictures are hardly ever commented and yet find their way to Google Top 10, be it from iPhone4Photos or through the Publishing Network. The site under it’s main keyword ranks just within the top 40 amongst 425 000 000 search returns.

This site helps us to improve the semantics used in connection with media, especially with photos and video. Also we are testing linking the Photo Media Stock site from and to Semiomantics scripts.

Seminar Registration

If you experience problems with your registration for the August seminar, please contact Bianca; she will find a way to accommodate you. As the HIOD site is hosted on the same server where we are building all the goodies for the seminar, temporary down-times are possible. Nevertheless we will need the test team to start exploring the site before the end of this week.

Enjoy this call free week … but keep following up the news on the blog.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

How to sell your Photos, Videos and other Media online

This month’s Ycademy Seminar will take place on August 28-29, 2010 and focus on:

Creating, Organizing and Selling Stock Photo, Video, Audio, Flash, Vector illustration, Zip, Pdf files, Prints and other media.

Over the last few months we have been working on and with media content using Photoshop, After Effects, Flash, our personal or web camera, Camtasia and more. All these tools enable us to create and to edit media for our own purpose or for the benefit of our customers and beyond, to satisfy the growing need by developers and designers for properly licensed media.

When it comes to selling media, there are multiple choices: either through a personal shop, or through a third party stock media website, or through our own stock media portal.

1. Your own stock site: you are in absolute control but you have the work and cost inherent to managing and maintaining the site.

2. Third party Stock sites: you have no work besides uploading your media, but you give up up-to 80% of your commissions to the site admin.

3. Our own Stock Photo and Media Portal: we share cost, work, marketing and maximise the commissions (target 90%).
Ycademy Venture: Stock Media Portal

Seminar participants are invited to join forces to build together an exclusive Sock Media venture as per 3 above. Terms and conditions will be detailed in a pre-seminar call. The model is based on the assumption that after a while the site will be able to generate enough revenue to cover namely the hosting cost; therefore no financial input is necessary by those joining the venture at the seminar.

Ycademy August 2010 Seminar Agenda

1. What is Stock Media

2. What is a Stock Photo and other Media Portal and how does it work

3. Quality requirements by Media Category

4. Copyrights and Licenses

5. Editing Media for the purpose of Selling through a Stock Portal

6. The personal Account on the Media Portal

7. Uploading Media

8. Watermark

9. Quality Controls and Organization of Media on the Portal

10. The portals’ Community Features:

* Personal Blog
* Contact us
* Tell a friend
* Notifications
* Messages
* Comments
* Testimonials for sellers
* Friends
* Newsletter

11. Marketing: link the portal to your Semiomantics Network via RSS for automated campaigning.

12. Day to day practical use of and reward from the portal.

Ycademy Seminar Schedule

On both days we will start at 1 pm London time and close at 9 pm London time. Breaks as usual.

Pre-seminar calls

On Tuesday August 24 and Thursday August 26 at 8 pm London Time.

Tickets

Please read this carefully: The Stock Media Portal we are setting up with the Ticket Holders of this seminar will be the affair of a closed group in as much as conditions and support are concerned. We may accept at a later stage additional publishers who may buy into the venture at a multiple they would spend on a Seminar Ticket.

Price: As usual $80

Discount: as usual for Ycademy Pros $50

Please contact Bianca Gubalke for additional info and the Discount Code at: bianca (at) ycademy.com

Get your Ticket from HERE

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.