Last week I was contacted by Packt Publishing with the opportunity to read and then review one of their latest books, titled Magento 1.3 PHP Developers Guide. I have accepted the opportunity, as I have a huge love for books – especially those relevant to the software which I frequently use. I will be reading through the book, and will post a detailed review once complete in a few weeks. So please look out for it!

A great feature within Google Analytics which is really easy to setup, is Site Search. It’s hidden within the content tab and once setup, you can find out how people are using your search on your site, and how it leads to conversion.
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Today I read an article on Mashable called 11 Outstanding Online Resources for Web Developers. #4 on the list being devshed.com, which I have to agree is a pretty useful website resource. But one thing that strikes me as odd is how ugly this site is, it feels like a site stuck in 2001.

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I have recently become more interested in Google Analytics over the past few years. I think its a combination of the improvements/availability of better features within Google Analytics coupled with my curiosity of trying to figure out how to drive more conversions/goals on a website. Specially where I work, we manage 3 ecommerce websites – so the data that we receive through Analytics is really interesting.

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Recently at work I finally had the opportunity to try out Google Website Optimizer, which is an A/B and Multivariate testing tool. We wanted to test different creatives on a landing page to see which performed better. Before trying out the tool, I picked up a copy of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions, which gives a great overview of how to setup and manage testing and optimization.
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After 2 months of hard-work, we just launched the new and much improved HMSDesign.com. The client being a design/packaging agency provided the design and I built a fully functional CMS backend and front-end with jQuery to allow the client to update their website without the need for a Web Designer/Developer.

Take a look when you get a chance, Im very happy.

For anyone looking for a nice and easy way to create an iPhone redirection script, check out this tutorial. I found this site because I was looking for a nice .htpasswd generator to setup a username/password list for a site directory that I setup. This site has a lot of nice tools and is definitely a bookmark of mine now.

This tutorial has come out of necessity for a homepage featured product slider, I had tried quite a few different tutorials but never achieved what I was looking for. Magento is a great open-source ecommerce package, but Im a little surprised that featured products isn’t a feature built-in. Hopefully this tutorial will help. Help support open source!
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