To The Moon And Back

Let me share with you my latest web find. I believe both novice and advanced email marketers will appreciate what this site has to offer. Their main service is ViperMailer, a fully functional email marketing software that lets you send professional email campaigns easily.

So what is email marketing really? An excerpt from their site here:

As defined by ViperMailer, email marketing is a means for your company, group or publication to routinely maintain contact with your clients, contacts, or subscribers via an email building and express delivery system. People like to receive emails from familiar places rather than offers they did not want or ask for i.e. SPAM.

Here’s what you can do with ViperMailer email marketing software are:

Contact group / Email list management
User-friendly control panel
Newsletter campaign statistics - delivery, opened email and link click tracking
Powerful email creation editor that lets you use HTML, attachments and automated opt-out feature
Create proof users for graphical and spelling mistakes
Free professional mailer templates

What’s really great about this company is that they offer email marketing training for free. Simply click the Education tab to gain access on helpful resources and articles about email marketing. Here you will learn how to maximize your email marketing software, building trust with recipients, how to write effective campaigns, call to actions and many more. Aside from these great documents, you can even get a head start by reading the 19 Steps to Launching a Successful Email Marketing Campaign at www.EmailMarketingAuthority.com.

For those who want to give their outfits extra personality, these funny t shirts will definitely give you that and more.

My favorites:

You can buy these cool t-shirts at roadkilltshirts.com for as low as $14.99 a piece. (You can even get 1 for free when you buy three.) I used to haunt for shirt designs like these for my husband back when we were working on the night shift. I find them very comfortable, low maintenance and a cool step up from the oh-so-common plain tees. Plus, we were working on a design studio back then so what you wear to work doesn’t really matter.

I’m helping a client find a corporate giveaway for their upcoming networking party. He’s one of the officers of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce and told me that the corporate gifts should not be limited to the usual coffee mugs, pens and journals. He needs something different or high-end, something that says “we appreciate your business”. So I browsed through promopeddler.com, a website known for promotional products and saw several options that will meet my client’s requirements. There are barbecue accessories, picnic baskets and kits (I really like these), cutting board gift sets, golf gift sets and even a martini set.

The networking party also lets the business owners promote their products and services. For my client, I’ll be designing some cool graphics so he can have it printed on promotional items that he can giveaway himself. All of his services are Internet-related so when I saw this customized handy flash drive from promopeddler, I knew that this is something that the members would appreciate. Not only it’s very useful but the design makes it look really expensive. For this kind of giveaway however, it’d be best if I just use a discreet, watermarked logo to retain the sophisticated look.

Need words that rhyme for your favorite pasttime?

Why not try this website to get some insight?

Composing poems or songs, finding a word that belongs

With just a matter of few clicks, you can come up with some lyrics

Okay, enough. So this poem sucks. What I really want to say is if you need to come up with words that rhyme, rhymer.com is the perfect place to start. I was working on a tag and I had to come up with a word that rhymes with June. All I can think about were typhoon, soon, monsoon, baboon which doesn’t make sense. So I thought, hmmm perhaps there’s a website somewhere that helps you find rhyming words. And you know what, there is! Isn’t the Internet grand?

Find more rhyming words with Rhymer’s massive 93,000-word dictionary. Books and online dictionaries offer fewer rhymes.

Use Rhymer from inside Microsoft Word for Windows. Rhymer installs on Word’s Tools menu and lets you insert rhyming words directly into your document. If you have a Macintosh or a different Windows word processor, you can still run the program by itself and copy and paste words into your document.

Specify the range of syllables you want in your search (e.g. Find rhymes between one and two syllables only).

Specify the range of letters you want in your search (e.g. Find rhymes between one and eight letters only).

Choose from alternate pronunciations (e.g., when you type “read” do you want it to sound like “reed” or “red”?)

Get WriteExpress Phonetic Finder FREE (Windows only). This phonetic dictionary software lets you find words that have whatever sounds you want in whatever order!

Brainstorm using six types of rhymes

Cool app. You never know when you’re gonna need one.

I came across a new web design blog today called Stylish Weblog. As a designer myself, I make it a habit to view other web designer sites and blogs because you always learn new things. The first thing that I noticed when I saw this design blog is the wordpress theme. It’s so stylish, very web 2.0 and unlike any other themes that I’ve seen. I scrolled down immediately to check the name of the theme but there wasn’t any info about it so I’m guess this is a customized one. The flickr photos on the right panel give the page the color that it needs, making the overall look and feel not only stylish but very professional. Of course, if you call your blog ‘Stylish’, then you absolutely have to walk the talk.

Atila, the author talks mainly about design, custom web design, web development, design technologies, etc. I enjoyed reading the design articles especially this one - Why do you need to redesign your Website? This article is what every website owner, client, web designer should read. Some of the clients that I’ve worked with ask me to re-design their sites but they are not willing to let go of the styles that they’ve accustomed to, ten years ago. Back then, optimizing your site for better search engine placement may not be as important so you can do what you want (or not do anything at all) but now, hundreds of web sites are being created daily so keeping up with the latest trend should be a top priority. Aside from design, you can also read about finance, health, Internet and technology from this Stylish Weblog.

Ever heard of vegan shoes? These shoes are designed to protect our environment by using recycled materials such as car/bike tires, rubber, plastic and inner tubes. They also use organic cotton, and other natural materials like cork, jute, bamboo and hemp. Everything is 100% environment friendly that you can wear it in front of any hardcore save-the-earth fanatics without hearing any criticism. I love the site’s design and the slogan too - shoes for a happy planet. They have sandals, sneakers, bags and accessories for men, women and kids. I enjoyed looking at the materials on each product. This GT Janie have buttons are made of coconut, uses a bamboo lining, have recycled car tires for outsole and 100% post consumer paper pulp foot forms.

Great huh! Check it out, buy a pair and save the planet while you’re at it.

Here’s a fun and exciting way to train your eyes in spotting mistakes - Photoshop Disasters. This blog was brought to my attention by my husband, who loves finding these little mistakes online and offline. Consider this the Internet version of The Tonight Show’s “Headline” segment where writers and viewers send in any articles or photos that were mistyped or edited badly.

Photoshop Disasters, according to their blog, are all about posting clumsy manipulation, senseless comping, lazy cloning and thoughtless retouching.

Just take a look at these photos.
Now some of them will definitely go unnoticed but if you’re being paid huge bucks, which I’m sure you are if you’re designing for Apple or some high end luxury car, then you need to be extra careful when inverting, cropping and what-not.

Hey, where did that other hand come from?

Weird, short arms

Who has three hands?

Her eye was enlarged I know she’s weird, but not this weird LOL

I unexpectedly received some extra moolah from a past project that surfaced recently. And since all my outfits are so outdated, I’m going to treat myself crazy with new clothes. Now, all I have to do is check the Internet on the latest trends. Thanks to Shopwiki.com, my favorite shopping buddy, I can find what I’m looking for easily. This site not only offers links to online shops but also tons of information about the latest trend in women’s apparel, among other things. I really like this site the way you can navigate through various sections using links.

I immediately found this sexy but comfy looking wide sleeve blouse which is just right for weekend outings and can double as breastfeeding blouse because of the wide neck opening.

It’s too expensive for me at $230, though.

After a quick search for flirty tops, I found this hot number in black.

Still a bit on the expensive side but too hot to resist so I’m definitely adding it to my wish list.

The good thing about this site is you can compare different prices from different stores where the item is being sold. Aside from that, you can also read product reviews from customers who bought it. It’s like browsing through several sites from one website. This is the reason why I always make sure to drop by ShopWiki before I shop online. It’s the equivalent of me, personally hopping from one mall to another searching for the cheapest but cutest outfit.

I was browsing my computer when I saw these two artworks that I copied online.

I’ve been meaning to design something cool for a t-shirt before and thought pop art would do just fine. I had trouble finding a printing company though, thanks to outdated shops here in Manila. But that was before. Now, it’s so much easy to print your designs on t-shirts or customize clothing with the help of the Internet.

CustomInk.com is a great site if you need to see your designs on shirts, mugs, baseball caps, pens and bags. I’ve just tried my design and it really looked good on a tight fitting women’s t-shirt. If you don’t have a design, you can select from over 10,000 images that are available from their built-in t-shirt design interface. Add text, modify fonts and colors to your liking and you’re all set. You can also use their service to design team uniforms which can either be used on sports or company activities. The selection of T-shirts is not limited. You can go for various kinds of customized apparels - short or long sleeves, casual polos, tank tops, jerseys or even printed fabrics. Aside from the usual shirts and caps, your designs or company logo can also be printed on mouse pads, stuffed toys, frisbees, umbrellas and many more. Whether you’re trying to show team spirit or want to market your product, CustomInk.com will help you get your message get across. If you find yourself stuck, just browse through the design ideas category and you will surely find one that you will like.

Let me share with you this website that I found while searching for a way to maximize my phone’s (Nokia E65) features. The site is Symbianize.com, a local portal (yes, it’s a Filipino forum!) that lets people share tips and apps for the most popular cellphone brands out there - Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, etc. They have a Hardware Zone that talks about network operators, specific phone features, a separate thread for Pocket PC and Palm, and accessories. Another main category is the Mobile Software Zone, which is where you can always find me. This section has everything that you need, from S40 to S60 to s80 apps, s60 3rd edition apps, PPC and Palm apps, N-gage games, skins and fonts and themes. Before I visited the forum, I had no idea what the heck is S40 but after a couple of minutes browsing, I was enlightened. The forum is absolutely awesome, I tell you. You can download ebooks and audio books, graphics, tones and audios, clips and videos, even full movies and TV series. I guess I feel this way because I found all my favorite ebooks from this site. I haven’t explored the TV series section yet because I’m not really sure if my cellphone can handle it.

If you’re a cellphone freak, visit this site. I’m 110% sure (if that’s even possible) that you will have the time of your life downloading games, tunes and apps for hours and hours.