It’s been some time since my last post here. That’s because I’ve been busy with several projects. One of them, which I’m announcing in this post is my latest project on QR code.

What is QR code? Well, for start, QR stands for Quick Response. Hence, QR code means the code that can produce “quick response”. In simple terms, QR code is similar to the barcode that you see on product or merchandise price tag that you see in shopping mall and retail store. Whereas, QR code is “barcode is squarish” format. Just like the one here …

I’m quite sure you recognize this. In fact, you should have seen this type of QR codes on newspapers, magazines, advertisements, flyers, websites and even .. tatoos (hey, quite a novelty idea right? LOL).

If you own an iPhone or Android phone, you can easily download QR code apps like QR Code Reader and Red Laser which are able to scan QR codes. Go ahead and install the app and scan the above QR code … see what it do.

Well, to be frank, QR code is not a new technology. It has been around for a while. But it seems that the adoption or application of of QR code technology is far from reaching its full potential. With every merchant and advertiser looking for novelty ways to reach out to existing or potential new customers, QR code can be a new “cutting edge” method to increase your bottom line. Afterall, almost everyone is carrying a (or more) mobile device(s).

If you’re looking to turbo charge the marketing power of your online (or offline) business(es), head over to WP QR Code Generator and check out how you can leverage on QR code technology to bring your business(es) to the next level.

P.S. I’m still in the process of refining the WP QR Coder website. Nevertheless, the QR code generator is ready for use. As such, I’m offering a special membership subscription of one-time $10. Yes, for a mere ten bucks, you can generate unlimited QR codes (for yourself or your clients). I’m likely to jack up my price when all are ready … so hurry now and grab it while membership price is crazily low.

P.P.S. Quick features for this QR Code Generator – It can generate QR codes to redirect to a website, send an SMS, make a phone call, send a vCard, tweet at Twitter etc. Very versatile! More details will be updated on the website soon.

Some of the very frequently asked questions I’m receiving from friends, work mates and students are – Can I really make money online? Is it real? Can I really reach a stage that I can fire my boss? In short, the answers are yes, yes and yes. I’m not kidding.

So how do I start? You might ask. There are practically A-to-Z ways you can start making money online. But the one true fact you need to know is … you’ve got to start somewhere. Or rather, you simply got to start learning (LEARN = the L-plate to EARN; the more you learn, the more you earn).

There is no best way to start. The best way is just to start. So, I’m going to recommend you one free internet marketing course to allow you to kick start your journey and get your feet wet in internet marketing – making money online. Now, although the course I’m going to hand over to you is free, it doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. In fact, this internet marketing course which you’re about to learn is of great value that could possibly catapult you to online success in no time.

Nah, there’s no need to pass me your email nor register any account to access this MMMM – Mad Marketing Money Method … Go learn and earn!

P.S. The Mad Marketing Money Method (MMMM) course is ideal for newbie to intermediate. Even if you’re an internet marketing guru, you could pick up some gold nuggets along the course.

In previous post, I’ve highlighted the potential of HTML5 and why all web designers must start to leverage on this latest version of hypertext markup language. Again, I’d like to reiterate that it is imperative for web developers to learn and deploy HTML5 in designing web.

Here are some of the best resources which I’ve personally used to explore and dig into HTML5. Well, you might say I’m conservative but traditionally, I’d like to start learning such topics via … books :

The above are some books which I’ve read. I’d particularly like to highlight the book entitled “The Web Designer’s Guide to iOS Apps: Create iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps with Web Standards (HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript)”. This book kills two birds with one stone – you can learn HTML5 and how it can be integrated into mobile apps development (the native iOS iPhone/iPad way). Frankly, the reason why I’m looking hard at HTML5 now is because I want to design web that is mobile devices friendly as well. Mobile apps development is another area I’m focusing currently and I’ll definitely share more on this topic in Designing Web.

Another good HTML5 book is none other than “HTML5 – 24 Hour Trainer”. Yeap, learning HTML5 in 24-hour … just one thing, don’t be mislead by the title of this book. You can’t learn a new language in 24-hour. Nevertheless, this is an excellent book on HTML5 that you must lay your hands on.

These online resources are also indispensable :

http://www.w3schools.com/html5/default.asp (the cannot be missed resource)
http://diveintohtml5.org/ (very book styled)
http://html5demos.com/ (learn by examples)
http://www.thehtml5tutorials.com/ (another learning by examples)

Here’s another trick to expedite and turbo your learning of HTML5 … look out for “HTML5 templates” or “HTML5 wordpress templates” and you’ll see how you can be a solid HTML5 developer in no time. Happy learning.

HTML5 is re-designing web. Originally created in the 90s, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) has come a long way to its standardization as HTML4 in 1997. Time flies and now we have HTML5 – the next generation of HTML.

Although HTML5 is still in its early infancy, or rather, still work in progress, the good news is that most modern browsers in their latest version like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari (many more of course) are already HTML5 compatible or have some forms of HTML5 support.

Why the fuss and hype about HTML5? Well, I got one clear definitive answer why every web designer/developer, blogger and anyone who want to have a web presence must adopt, or at least to look at, HTML5. It’s “mobile compatible” too!

Let me eloborate what I meant saying HTML5 is mobile compatible. If you head over to one of my blogs – EcoCityZone.NET, you’ll see a cool QR-code ready mobile version of the portal. Go ahead and open up EcoCityZone.NET/app on your mobile device. It doesn’t matter if you’re holding the popular iPhone, an Android smartphone or even a Blackberry, chances are, you’ll be able to view the “app” on your mobile device’s browser which no issue. In fact, the “app” will appears the same on all the smartphones. It’s cross-platform … thanks to HTML5.

Yes, the “app” is just a mobile-optimized web version of the blog that is specifically designed to be displayed on small screen size of a smartphone.
Did you see the power of HTML5 now?? One stone killing 2 birds. In this case, a carefully designed blog or website developed with HTML5 will works well and looks good on desktop monitors, smartphones and even tablets like the iPad. Combined with CSS3 and JavaScript, you can even allows auto-detection of the screen size and the appropriate version of the blog/site will display itself optimally on the display devices.

One interesting fact about HTML5 is that its standard will not be finalized until 2022. No need to rub your eyes and there’s no typo error, the year is 2022. That’s still a long way from now, you might shouted. Nah nah. You don’t need to wait until every to settle to start leveraging on the power. Why follow the trend while you can ride on the first wave of the trend now. You should have started to learn HTML5 yesterday! Kidding, it’s never too late. And you’ll not regret to learn this gem.

I’ll be putting up more posts regarding HTML5 here in Designing Web and share with you the best ways to learn and “conquer” it. Stay tuned.

If you head over to Apple Store (Singapore) to order your iPad2 now, you’ll be disappointed. All versions of the iPad2 – WiFi, WiFi+3G, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, black or white are all currently unavailable. Sold out! Not surprising though.

Being better than its 1st generation – 1/3 thinner, lighter, dual-cameras, faster and still 10-hour lasting, iPad2 is long-awaited here in Singapore. And it’s even cheaper than the 1st gen iPad starting at S$668 for its WiFi only 16GB model.

I’m so glad I’ve ordered mine and the cool gadget will reach me in 1-2 week time. Can’t withstand the wait.

For me, I’ve got the 32GB WiFi only model. No portability without 3G? Nah. My iPhone4 is Hotspot ready. That’s right. I’ve turned my iPhone4 into a WiFi access point where I could leverage on my 12GB 3G plan from SingTel without having to go for the higher priced WiFi+3G model.

In fact, a cool combination is to get a Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) phone with instant Hotspot feature which the iPad WiFi only model can easily hook online. This way, you enjoy mobility at a lower cost.

In previous post, I’ve recommended osTicket which is currently my favorite online support ticketing system.

However, for those who are installing osTicket for the first time, it might be difficult to get it to work properly. Well, the easiest way to get it up is via Fantastico in cPanel. The difficult parts are in configuring osTicket to allow submission of ticket via email ie. support@yourdomainname.com – see http://osticket.com/wiki/Email_Piping.

The email piping must be done properly from within your cPanel -> Forwarder ->

Another nagging problem is the frequent refresh to osTicket admin scp login page. This is a known issue if you check out osTicket official support forum. To solve this nuisance frequent admin login problem, all you need to do is to uncheck “Bind Staff Session to IP” in osTicket Admin Panel’s System Preferences and Settings. Yes, that easy.

Well, if you still encounter problem installing and configuring osTicket, easy, just drop a ticket to me and I’ll assist you.

I’m pleasantly surprised when I revisited CBProAds. It has come up with the 4th generation of StoreFront.

Compared to its first 3 versions, the new StoreFront now looks great and professionally designed.

Not only is the StoreFront enhanced, even the admin panel is refined … and you know what? It now also include widget ads for iPhone!

Looks like I’ve got to spend some time to further explore CBProAds to see many of the new features which have been added lately.

I’ve changed my support system from HESK to osTicket.

Don’t get me wrong. It is not that HESK is no good. Afterall, I’ve been using it for years.

HESK is a lightweight and robust support system that is simple to use. To me, simplicity is important.

The reason why I’ve migrated to osTicket is that osTicket supports the ability to submit tickets via email. That means, you can either submit a ticket via the web interface http://designingweb.org/support or simply just submit an email to support [at] designingweb.org.

Upon submitting a ticket, osTicket will send out 2 emails – one to the originator (the one who raised the ticket) and another email to the admin (that’s me) to notify me that there’s a new support ticket. Once I replied or closed the ticket, the originator will be notify of the resolution. Crisp!

For anyone that is providing any online service, product or support, setting up an e-support system is a must. I’d highly recommend osTicket.

The easiest way to set up osTicket system is via your cPanel’s Fantastico, which is fast and easy. Ooops, probably I’d remove the “easy” part. Because after installing osTicket, you still have to configure some settings especially the email piping thingy … which can be quite difficult for beginning webmaster.

If you’d need to install osTicket and somehow can’t get it to work, just submit a ticket to me and I could assist you … no charge of course.

As many of you know, I’m an avid WordPress supporter. Needless to say, when I create AdSense blogs, it’s definitely WordPress. Hence, it make sense for me to use the best AdSense plugins for integration to the blogs I’d wish to monetize with AdSense.

In this post, I’d like to show you a habit I’ve when identifying the BEST, and none but the best, plugins.

In normal case, most will just go to Google.com and search for “best adsense wordpress plugins” and you’ll get results like this …

However, I realized that many of the results are similar and rehashed. And the plugins are very much the opinion of the authors. Though this may be a good review source, but I’m still not convinced they are the best plugins.

My favourite place to select the best plugins is none other than the original WordPress.org website http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins.

By default, the results are sorted in Relevance. But since I’m going for those plugins that are 4 stars and above, let me try to sort the plugins by “Highest Rated” ..

Oops, it seems that when sorted via “Highest Rated”, the plugins listed are rather irrelevant.

Hence, I’d need to fall back to the listing via “Relevance”. In this case, I’ll go through the list manually to identify the right one with at least 4 stars and above. The good news is that there is a good list of plugins with 4 stars and above. So which are the BEST? Another consideration factor is the total number of “Downloads”.

So here’s best AdSense plugins I’ve identified for frequent use :

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/quick-adsense/

Surprised you didn’t see a whole list? Well, there is no need to. You just need a good one and you’re ready to go. If you beg to differ or have another even better AdSense plugin you’d like to counter propose, you’ll welcomed to give me a buzz and I’ll do a quick review comparison.

It’s rather frustrating when you can’t access a website when obviously the website seems to be okay. This is the exact case I’ve experienced with THIS SITE that you’re now viewing! Note the past tense “‘I’ve experienced”, which means good news – I’ve resolved the problem, hurray.

Now you see, previously, I’ve rather occasional (to frequent actually) issue to view my website DesigningWeb.org. Initially, I thought my ISP is bad. But after several follow up with my internet service provider, I realized the website is not exactly down. This can be confirmed when you try to view and access your site via proxy. In my case, I use EatMyBrowser.com which I quite like it as it is one of the fastest proxy browser I’ve used. When I access Designing Web via Eat My Browser, it’s okay! Meaning, the site is not down but somehow I’m unable to access from my desktop.

Since the web site is okay but I’m still getting a Server Not Found on my Firefox, I quickly revert the attention to DNS issue. To determine if it’s DNS issue, you can check using MSDOS command to ping your website. If you’re unable to ping your domain name but able to ping your IP (of your domain name), it is a rather clear sign of DNS issue.

The fix? Go to Control Panel > Network Connection > Properties > TCP/IPv4 > DNS : 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

The 2 DNS IPs are from OpenDNS.com. They are amongst the fastest free DNS servers available.

Go back to the browser and check the website again and it should be visible. See, website up and running.