Dec 14
Most of us use the Internet every single day. And most of us do so using one of the three most popular browsers out there: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.Each one comes with a host of features and desirable qualities; many times, choosing a browser to use comes down to one’s personal preference.
But when you stare at the same screen every single day, it can get tedious. If your job requires you to be on the Internet a lot (or you just simply love browsing), why not add a little bit of fun to it and personalize your web browser?
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Posted in How-to Tutorials, Uncategorized | Tags: Chrome Themes, Create Firefox Theme, Create Your Own Chrome Theme, custom browser, Firefox Themes, Internet Explorer Themes, Personalization | 1 Comment »
Dec 22
Creating your own Firefox Themes used to be a somewhat daunting task for the average user. The days of slicing and dicing multiple images, logos and other graphics to fit into the browser header as well as accounting for multiple screen sizes were a challenge to Firefox theme makers. Further, an average non-designer who wanted to create a Firefox theme had to have specific design software and the design skills necessary to make a theme look great. These considerations are just for the “design” aspect of Firefox themes. If you wanted to create an “Interactive” theme, this required advanced technical knowledge that most designers or average theme creators did not have. Interactive elements include:
- RSS Feeds
- Links to Websites or Blogs
- E-commerce links
- Social Media Links
- Videos, Sidebars and more.
Having created browser themes for the past 4+ years, Brand Thunder saw the need for a simple intuitive tool to help average users, bloggers, marketers and designers make their own Firefox themes. The result is the latest theme creator tool: BT-Engage.com. We’ll show you how to create your own Firefox Theme in 5 minutes:
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: BT-Engage, Create Firefox Theme, Firefox Skins, Firefox Themes, Make Firefox Themes | 4 Comments »
Sep 30
Image via Wikipedia
A browser theme is more than a pretty picture, or it should be. That’s why we call ours “interactive browser themes” and we’ve seen browser themes deliver 6 – 12x more clicks than the average visits to our partner sites. You get this return traffic by utilizing the content you’ve already created for your web site. It’s a simple matter of exposing it and directing users back to your site through the browser theme.
Here are some tips to help you get started.
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, Feedburner, NASA, RSS, Web browser, Wordpress | No Comments »
Sep 09
Image via CrunchBase
Browser themes are great engagement tools and a strong reason they’re popular with online communities. Keeping in touch and driving up visits to your site deepens your relationship with your community. Plus, advertisers love an engaged audience, so you’re already doing yourself and your profitability a favor.
There’s even more opportunity and it’s easy to take advantage of. Engagement in the browser theme leads to commerce as well as increase visits to your site.
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, commerce, Commission Junction, ecommerce, LinkShare, Mozilla Firefox, Pepperjam Network, Toolbar | 2 Comments »
Aug 26
Image via Wikipedia
I talk a lot about using BT:Engage for helping sites and communities deepen their engagement with their online audience. It’s also extremely easy (and fun!) to create browser themes for your own use and pleasure.
In the following post and accompanying video tutorial, I’m going to show you how to spin a browser theme that includes news from your favorite news site.
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, CNN, Fox News Channel, Huffington Post, MSNBC, RSS, Uniform Resource Locator | No Comments »
Aug 19
It probably seems strange that it’s almost guaranteed the browser theme you create with exacting care in our theme creator will look different once it’s downloaded. I went into some detail on this point in the post BT:Engage How To – Browser Dimensions and Design. Now I’m going to offer up some tips and suggestions for making it a non-issue through your use of background images and colors.
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: Adobe Photoshop, browser theme, Color Picker, Color tool, GIMP, Portable Network Graphics, Web browser | No Comments »
Aug 12
You’ve got to share to win. If no one knows about your browser theme, no one’s going to use it. But, we’ve not given you a lot of tools to work with – what should you do? I’ll offer a few thoughts and ideas about that.
And, just so you know, when I write these – they are also used on the product side of what to fix so these How Tos become unnecessary.
Share the URL:
First, find the Public URL to share with your audience.
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Posted in BT:Engage, How-to Tutorials | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, engage, firefox, GIMP, IE | No Comments »
Aug 05
Image by brandthunder via Flickr
The most frequent comment we hear from users new to browser design is “it doesn’t look like it did in the preview” and that’s because 60% of the time it doesn’t. This post will explain why and what to do about it.
Key Definitions
I’ll admit, we’ve got a long way to go in terms of UI with our free browse theme creator, and some of the descriptors we use are based on our own history with the product. That may not be so helpful to you. We’ll get better. For now, here’s what you need to know.
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Posted in BT:Engage, How-to Tutorials | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, engage, Google Analytics, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, RSS, Web browser | No Comments »
Jul 15
Image via Wikipedia
Sometimes a blank canvas isn’t inspiring enough. The first question of “where do I start?” is just too broad. I’m going to present a series of concepts showing how BT:Engage creates browser themes for fans of web sites, while helping sites achieve the goals they need to be successful like increased visits and clicks to commerce. I’ll present a quick video and a few steps for various categories of sites to get your creative juices flowing. There’s really no limit, but sometimes it helps to see something in context so you can apply it to your own needs.
For this first video sample, I’m using an example from a leading entertainer
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: Australia, brand thunder, browser theme, Delta Goodrem, Fansite, Web browser, Website | 1 Comment »
Jul 08
Image by brandthunder via Flickr
Backgrounds are tricky and the video doesn’t go into all the options and considerations you need to take. I’ll address more of these considerations in future videos, but for now – some of the key things you need to know to get the most out of your background images in your browser theme are
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Posted in How-to Tutorials | Tags: background, brand thunder, Internet Explorer, Logo, Mozilla Firefox, Web browser | No Comments »
Most of us use the Internet every single day. And most of us do so using one of the three most popular browsers out there: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.Each one comes with a host of features and desirable qualities; many times, choosing a browser to use comes down to one’s personal preference.
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