Just in case you wanted a stinking badge

Adam Kalsey create a nifty badge generator, in case you don't know what a badge is here is the one we created:

Ok, so their dorky and simple, but there inlies the beauty of the badge. Simplicity. Sometimes making something fancy or overly-ornate does not always translate to better. Which is our "Smart Things" tip of the week, if you can keep it simple, do so.

Think about the purpose of what it is you are creating, whether is be a simple badge (also refered to as sticker button) or an entire site. In the case of this button, the text is clear to read, and when linked will properly represent to the visitor what they should expect to see (the SiteBoxPro.com homepage).
Check out Adam's button creator at: http://www.kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/ , play around some as it might be a little tricky to get the desired widths of each box, but fun at the same time!

Lesson: Margins vs Padding

Within CSS margins perform are almost the same function as the CSS Padding attribute, except for one important difference: a margin defines the white space AROUND an HTML element's border, while padding refers to the white space INSIDE the element border.

What are keywords and how to pick'em

Keywords are single words or phrases that, when either used repeatedly in a single web page or set within particular HTML tags, act to indicate to a search engine the intent of the page and it's content.

In days of old (ok, maybe 5 0r 6 years ago), this all could be accomplished using META data (also know as META tags). The overuse, or moreso ABUSE or META data made them obsolete. Search engines are smarter now and rely on page element (title tag, page name) and content to determine which words are key.

This is not to say that you can not control, and in most cases very well, how your page is read for keywords, but one of the overlooked aspects is the selection process. What are your keywords? What should they be?

Think from a SEARCHERS point of view!
If you sell apple seeds on line, think about the different ways people might discribe what you do. Obvious keywords like "apple" and "seeds" come to mind, but what about "growning fruit" or "fruit trees"? Thinking in these terms will help you particularly when approaching a competitive market.

What sets you apart?
Again, using apples as an example, maybe you want to create a page about "Golden delicious", and how you are the areas largest seller of Golden delicious apple seeds.

Remember: Nothing happens overnight.
Be patient, and willing to try different combinations of words and phrases. To do this, you will need a good site statistics tool, you could even use Google Analytics, which can track which keywords got people to your site.