What we like to hear!

We got this email last week from Jeff Schroeder, who recently used RHD for an email blast for his site http://www.showcattle.com/

"Just wanted to say that blast was one of the highest ROIs we’ve had on a marketing campaign in a long time. It paid for itself in just under 48-hours and that doesn’t take future subscription renewals into account."

Then, we also just got this email from Katy Kemp, our contact with ABS Global who just started using RHD.

"Thank you and everyone at RHD for helping make these a success. This is the 6th (final) eBlast, but with the results we have seen we will most likely be using the list again this spring!"


Now that's what we like to hear!!!! If you aren't on our RHD mailing list, you can sign up from our facebook page (Join my List tab) or at http://www.ranchhousedesigns.com/ at the very bottom right hand corner of the page.

We take a lot of pride in our email marketing services. First off, we were one of the first in the business to offer this tool back when it was a new service. Secondly, we feel we have the best targetted email list in the show cattle business....and e-mail's like Jeff's affirm that. We currently have about 13,000 subscribers. All of our subscribers are voluntary, up to date addresses. After each e-mail blast we remove the bad addresses and bounced back emails so this is a very accurate and udpated count of the actual number of subscribers.

Our list grows daily. Literally. We average anywhere from 10-50 new people signing up each week for our email lists. We also have a strict policy against spam. Everyone who signs up for our list does so voluntarily, and can leave at any time. Because we hate useless spam just as much as the next person.

If you're on our list, you've also probably noticed that we have been sending out a few emails for ABS. They recently chose RHD for their sire marketing e-mail blasts. This year at Louisville Katy Kemp, one of their team members, told us they had already had several people stopping by the ABS booth to say they enjoyed getting the new email blasts on the ABS sires.

E-mail marketing is hot! You can reach nearly twice as many people as what many of the popular show cattle magazines have as subscribers.....for about 1/4 of the cost. E-mail blasts run from $150 to $250 depending on the amount of design work we need to do. If you have an ad or flyer already designed by us, or anyone else, you can send an RHD e-mail blast for $150. If we do a new design for you specifically for the e-mail blast, it's $250.

Plus, e-mail marketing is the fastest way to get your news out to a huge number of people at a very affordable cost.

Holiday Cards

For a couple of years we have been a distributor of the Tiny Prints products as well as creating our own custom holiday cards. I'm not going to lie, I've had mine done for a while, I'm an over-achiever. I did Brandon and I some custom holiday cards - of course with a picture of a cow on them - and I'm just waiting til an appropriate time to send the out so I don't look too ansy.

There are SO many cute cards in the Tiny Prints collection, you can shop til you drop. If ordering holiday cards is still on your to-do list, check out the collection here.

This one is one of my absolute favorites...it even comes with a ribbon! If you like this one just go to Tiny Prints and then in the search field search item 21150.

I also liked this one, which you can get from Tiny Prints then search item 18522:



 
We're going to keep picking out a few each day with some different suggestions. Oh I love Christmas!

The Show Text! I Like It!

Obviously this is nothing new, The Show Text has been around for quite a while. So I'm behind on the trends, I know, I know. During Louisville I really noticed the excellent coverage that The Show Text provided through Facebook and Twitter. Then over the Thanksgiving holiday, I really appreciated getting their posting of different sale results. So, this weekend I signed up. If you haven't really taken a look at this service, it's a great idea. It's $20/year. You sign up for what kind of news you want and then The Show Text will text you news, show results, sale results, etc. You get to customize what information you want, so you're not getting bombarded with text messages of stuff you're not interested in. For example, you can choose to get info on only specific breeds, or only show and sale results from a certain state, etc. It's really an innovative service, and so far I really like it.

I'd also like to just say how impressed I am with the innovation of The Show Text's creators. I'm pretty sure the founders of The Show Text are former junior livestock exhibitors, who came up with a really creative way to start a business that also provides a great service to all of us who love showing.

So check it out if you haven't......http://www.theshowtext.com/

Thankful!

This time of year makes everyone at RHD especially mindful of all of the blessings we have to be thankful for! Just a few things that top our list of things we are appreciative of....

• We have a great team of people here at RHD. Every day is a joy to be at our office and be around so many wonderful ladies. Yes, we've got 8 ladies here and everyone gets along, laughs, jokes, supports each other, and treats each other with respect and kindness. We love getting any chance to see the adorable Kinleigh Jo Guidry, the Forgason girls, the Potts kids, Stacey Shanks' two little wild men, and Carole's little Laney.  It makes it a wonderful place to spend 8 hours a day (and sometimes more lol).
• We are thankful for our clients. Each year we work with roughly 1,000 different clients. You are what make our jobs enjoyable. We love hearing the stories about your businesses, talking and emailing with you, and being a part of your business success. We look forward to every time a client calls just to catch up on their news. Many of our clients have been with us since the very beginning, and we truly appreciate the customer loyalty here at RHD and the mix of fascinating people we get to work with.
• We got a new office this year, which makes our days here even better. So far we've been finding lots of reasons to have "parties" here at lunch...birthdays, babies, random stuff. We were blessed when this office came available and God put it in our path.
• We're thankful for the work our clients give us. Despite the very tough economy, God's blessed us with our best year to date at RHD. This November we've posted 18 new web sites, that's nearly 1 new site going up per day, and that's the most # of new web sites going up in one month in the 11-year history of RHD. Every day we are busy with lots of different projects, different things going on, and while many are wishing for work, we are so thankful to have an ongoing list of things to do that keep us busy.

Here's hoping your Thanksgiving is the best yet!

Dr. Hesby's Book is Now Available!!

Hot off the press! The highly anticipated book "Big Hands, Big Heart" is ready! And how coincidental...just in time for Christmas! The form will soon be available on the A&M Animal Science web site but I went ahead and put it up here for a link in case anyone wanted to do some "pre Black Friday" shopping ha ha

http://www.ranchhousedesigns.com/Hesby/hesby-form.pdf

The book will be available to anyone making a contribution of $25 or more to the Howard Hesby Atrium Fund. All contributions of $25 or more will receive a copy of “Big Hands, Big Heart” a tribute to Dr. Hesby and can be claimed as a charitable contribution on an individual’s itemized tax return less $9.00 for the value of the book received. Additional copies of the book require an additional $25 donation.

Here is a preview of the book.....

On a side note, this is the first BOOK we've ever designed at Ranch House. It was fun and easy to do. So maybe we've found a new service to offer...book publishing :)

Family Photo Session — The Gertsons — Wharton, Texas

This fall we did a great photo session for one of our special Wharton friends, Emily Gertson. Emily has been a client of RHD for a few years, when we created a logo for her husband Kris' construction company. Since then we have designed a few different invitation projects for this great family. 

This year, RHD will be designing the Gertson's Christmas cards and so we did a family  photo shoot to take the photos to go on their cards. These photos were done by our photographer Stacey Shanks of Stacey Shanks Photography.  We can't wait to get to work on their Christmas cards. There are so many great shots we couldn't just pick one favorite!!

Show Champions Internship

Looking for a great internship at major stock shows? Show Champions USA is looking for interns for the 2011 San Antonio and Houston stock shows. Students can apply and work both shows if their school schedules will allow. Katina Costerisan is asking that applications and questions be directed to her, katina@showchampions.com.

Application deadline is December 10th with phone interviews being held the following week, and notification of internship placement by December 29th.

On a personal note, I know several college students who have worked for Show Champions as interns over the past few years. They say it's a great way to gain experience in the photography sector and also some relaly good business contacts. You'll meet tons of people. If you're interested in photography, there may even be some opportunities to build your portfolio and make a great professional contact with the rest of the Show Champions team. They're tops! Plus, you get to hang out at a stock show all day and GET PAID for it :) Seriously, if it wasn't just for college students, I'd sign up!

Show to Win on Facebook

We just created a new page on facebook for Show to win -- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Show-to-Win -- check it out and if you like it...then "Like It". Next week we'll start our weekly give-a-ways and launch the new web site for show to win.

Anyone else get this Louisville scam?

This is totally our own fault, but this weekend Brandon and I got a phone call about a "free vacation grand prize give-away" scam from something we picked up at Louisville. Wondering if anyone else had this?

When we were walking through the trade show, Brandon dropped a business card at one of the trade show vendors booths that was giving away a free drawing. We didn't think much of it, lots of booths have those drawings.

Then Friday, he got a phone call saying he WON the prize from the drawing at Louisville. The person calling said that his card was drawn at Louisville stock show and he had won a free trip to Disneyland, Daytona Beach, and a Nascar event for ourselves and another couple. The caller asked if his spouse was around to confirm the trip. Since I was at work, the caller said they would call back on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. with our official information about the prize.

Of course, we're both thinking this is too good to be true, but whatever, we'll see what they have to say when they call. Well on Saturday morning, me and Brandon were hanging out at the showbarn and the lady called back again, at 9:00 a.m. on the dot. Brandon was on the other side of the barn from me, and the lady insisted we both be there for the "official prize call" so she said she would call back at noon.

Well as noon rolled around, we had just finished working some bulls when Brandon's phone rang. Caller ID unavailable. We remembered it was our prize. So Brandon puts her on speaker phone and she starts telling us about how we won from the drawing at the Louisville stock show. She's like all super nice and saying how we are ranchers, we probably would love a vacation, they love it when people from the Louisville show win, bla bla bla. She starts off by telling us we won a 3-part vacation for us and another couple. The first segment is 5 days 4 nights at the Ramada Inn MainGate Orlando Florida plus 2 free tickets to Disneyland, and free shuttle service and meal money. From there, we go to Daytona Beach for a few days. Then from there, we can choose a "bonus trip" ranging from a Nascar event to Vegas. So she says we don't have to say the dates or the name of the other couple, just whether we want the trip or not. She says it has to be used sometime within the next 18 months. Then she starts pressing us do we want the trip or not.

I asked, how much does it cost us? Then she said that it's totally FREE, except we have to pay a $400 "promotional fee" plus any hotel taxes, which are usually $10 a night she tells us. Plus we also have to pay for our own travel to get there. Starting to sound weird.

Then I asked her, when do we have to pay? Then she says RIGHT NOW, with your CREDiT CARD, then you just call us whenever you're ready to take the trip.

Brandon says he doesn't think we can agree to that at this moment, and then suddenly her tone totally changes. She snaps at him something like "Well fine then, take care" and hangs up.

Just for fun, we looked up the Ramada Inn Main Gate hotel she told us was the five star hotel that we had won these luxurious accommodations for.....the nightly rate was $45/night.

How to Highlight Author Comments in Blogger Posts

In this Blogger tutorial I will show you how to highlight the author comments section of your Blogger template (Blogspot template) using CSS styling.

Benefits of Adding CSS Styling to Author Comments
If you are using a default Blogger template chances are it is difficult to differentiate between comments made by visitors and comments made by you, the blog author. If you only have a few comments per post that may not be enough of an issue for you. If however, you have some posts with lots of comments you may need to make your remarks stand out from those of your visitors. We can do that by adding CSS styling to highlight your author comments.

What Will I Learn in This Tutorial?
In this Blogger tutorial you will learn how to easily add some highlighting to your comments so that they will never get lost in the crowd again. This requires a small amount of tweaking to your Blogger template which is not difficult to do if care is taken. The image below shows one example of what can be achieved using this Blogger hack and some CSS styling.



Will This Blogger Hack Work on My Template?
I have tested this Blogger hack on both the old generation of Blogger templates (Minima and Sand Dollar) and the latest generation of default Blogger templates eg Simple. It will also work on custom templates as the comments code is likely to be very similar.

If you are using a custom Blogger template and run into difficulty you can also try this alternative method to highlight author comments in Blogger posts

How to Add CSS Styling to Author Comments in a Blogger Post
The following instructions will highlight author comments in the comments section of a Blogger post. The code creates a shaded box around the comments made by the blog author. These changes will not affect the CSS the styling of any of the other comments made.

Instructions to Add CSS Highlighting to Author Comments in Blogger

1. Login to Blogger
   
   
2. From the Dashboard go to Design > Edit HTML
   
   
3. Back up your template by downloading it to your computer
   
   
4. Check the Expand Widget Templates checkbox on the top righthand side
   
   
5. Use CTRL + F by entering the following into the search box
   
   

   <dd class='comment-body'>

   
   
6. Immediately above this line paste the following code:
   
   

   <b:if cond='data:comment.author == data:post.author'>
   <dd class='comment-body-author'>
   <p><data:comment.body/></p>
   </dd>
   <b:else/>

   
   
7. Now look for this code block
   
   

   <dd class='comment-body'>
   <b:if cond='data:comment.isDeleted'>
   <span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
   <b:else/>
   <p><data:comment.body/></p>
   </b:if>
   </dd>
   

   
   and paste </b:if> immediately after it.
   
   
8. Your code will now look like this:
   
   

   <div expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + &quot;_comments-block-wrapper&quot;'>
   <dl expr:class='data:post.avatarIndentClass' id='comments-block'>
   <b:loop values='data:post.comments' var='comment'>
   <dt expr:class='&quot;comment-author &quot; + data:comment.authorClass' expr:id='data:comment.anchorName'>
   <b:if cond='data:comment.favicon'>
   <img expr:src='data:comment.favicon' height='16px' style='margin-bottom:-2px;' width='16px'/>
   </b:if>
   <a expr:name='data:comment.anchorName'/>
   <b:if cond='data:blog.enabledCommentProfileImages'>
   <data:comment.authorAvatarImage/>
   </b:if>
   <b:if cond='data:comment.authorUrl'>
   <a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'><data:comment.author/></a>
   <b:else/>
   <data:comment.author/>
   </b:if>
   <data:commentPostedByMsg/>
   </dt>
   
   
   <b:if cond='data:comment.author == data:post.author'>
   <dd class='comment-body-author'>
   <p><data:comment.body/></p>
   </dd>
   <b:else/>
   
   <dd class='comment-body' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + data:comment.cmtBodyIdPostfix'>
   <b:if cond='data:comment.isDeleted'>
   <span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
   <b:else/>
   <p>
   <data:comment.body/>
   </p>
   </b:if>
   </dd>
   
   </b:if>
   
   </dd>
   <dd class='comment-footer'>
   <span class='comment-timestamp'>
   <a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'>
   <data:comment.timestamp/>
   </a>
   <b:include data='comment' name='commentDeleteIcon'/>
   </span>
   </dd>
   </b:loop>
   </dl>
   </div>
   

   
   
9. Now using CTRL + F again find this line ]]></b:skin>
   
   
10. Paste the following immediately before ]]></b:skin>
    
    

    .comment-body-author {
    background: #f5deb3;
    border: 2px solid #de7008;
    padding: 5px;
    }

    
    
11. Save your template changes
    
    
12. Click on View Blog and go to a post that you have commented on to see the CSS styling has highlighted your comments.

Alternative Method to Add Highlighting to Author Comments in Blogger
The following method will also add highlighting to author comments in Blogger and can be used if you have difficulty with the first method. It does however involve changing some code rather than just adding some so this is not as desirable in terms of future proofing your template for Blogger updates.

1. Login to Blogger
   
   
2. From the Dashboard go to Design > Edit HTML
   
   
3. Back up your template by downloading it to your computer
   
   
4. Check the Expand Widget Templates checkbox on the top righthand side
   
   
5. Find the following section of code by using CTRL + F and entering <data:comment.body/> into the search box
   
   

   <span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
   <b:else/>
   <p><data:comment.body/></p>
   <b:include data='comment' name='commentDeleteIcon'/>
   </b:if>

   
   
6. Replace with the following code after <span class='deleted-comment'> and before </b:if> as shown in red:
   
   

   <span class='deleted-comment'>
   <!--Highlight Author Comments Start-->
   <b:if cond='data:comment.author == data:post.author'>
   <p class='comment-body-author'><data:comment.body/></p>
   <b:else/>
   <p><data:comment.body/></p>
   </b:if>
   <!--Highlight Author Comments End-->
   </b:if>

   
   
7. Use CTRL + F to find ]]></b:skin> that closes the CSS styling section
   
   
8. Paste the following code immediately above ]]></b:skin>
   
   

   p.comment-body-author {
   background: #eeeecc;
   border: 2px solid #335577;
   padding: 5px;
   color:#558866;
   }

   
   
9. Save your template
   
   
10. Click on View Blog and navigate to a post that you have commented on to see the that your comments will now be highlighted

In this Blogger tutorial you have learned two different methods to add CSS styling to highlight the author comments in your Blogger posts. Obviously there is still some work to do on your part to adjust the colors in the CSS styling to match the color scheme of your blog. Good luck!


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
Embedding a Comment Form Below Each Post
How to Get More Comments on Your Blogger Blog
Add Missing Embedded Comment Form to Blogger

RHD Clients in the NAILE Trade Show

We had a great time strolling through the trade show and chatting with all of the RHD clients that were participating in the NAILE trade show. If I had to guess, I'm sure lots of you also stopped
by these booths....it seems like they were packed every time I walked by.

Our leading lady of fashion - Randa Yezak with the Southern Jewlz booth. Of course I had to purchase something from there :) Congratulations Randa on all of your business success!

We met up with Katy Kemp of ABS Global, a new client we have recently started developing e

-mail marketing plans for. Katy reported to us that they had lots of people stop by the booth and say
that they loved getting the emails from ABS that were sent out by US! Woo hoo!!! If you haven't
signed up for the RHD mailing list, you can easily do it on our facebook fan page (join my list) or at the very bottom right corner of http://www.ranchhousedesigns.com/

Another big hit of the show was SJ Creations! They had tons of awesome custom metal

creations on display. These make great ideas for Christmas gifts. Check out all of Stephanie's work at http://www.sjcattlecreations.com/

Our last stop on the trade show tour was at Twisted Stitch. I fell in love with the stuff here!! They had some awesome cattle artwork and also a really neat wooden cattle cutout. They promised us that after Louisville they would be posting these on their web site too. So check out http://www.twistedstitch1.com/. Their stuff is fabulous!

How to Add Internal Links Within Blogger Posts

In the Blogger tutorial I discuss how to add internal links within your Blogger posts (Blogspot posts) to point to either another section within the same post or to another post.

There are lots of times when you may want to direct a reader to a different part of your Blogger post depending on what their needs and interests are. Or you might want to alert the visitor to something significant in a related post. In this article I will show how to make use of internal links both within posts and in Blogger generally.

Why bother with internal linking you may be wondering? Well the answer is to improve SEO. Blogs with a good internal linking structure will fare better than blogs that don't link posts. Plus you will be creating an aid to navigation for your reader. On longer posts jumps links to different sections within your post or to other posts mean readers can quickly find the information they are looking for.

How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within the Same Blogger Posts

How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within Different Blogger Posts

How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within the Same Blogger Post
Consider the above links. Click on them. Each jump the reader to a different part of this article. This type of internal linking is common practice in website building and can be equally applied to blogs to assist with navigation.

How did I create these links? The answer is that I used simple html that anyone can learn in a few minutes. Here are the steps I used to create these links.

1. Log in to Blogger
   
   
2. Go to Posting > New Post or Edit Post and either create a new article or edit an existing one.
   
   
3. Within the article find a place where you want to add some jump links. This will be early on in the article as it will help the reader figure out what information is significant to them and how to get there quickly
   
   
4. Switch to the Edit HTML mode rather than compose mode so you can see the code you are inserting into your post
   
   
5. Create a couple of headings that will be your links to material further down in your Blogger article. Note you can also just jump to a word but for the purposes of this demonstration and clarity I am going to use headings. When creating this post I used the following headings:
   
   

   How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within the Same Blogger Post
   How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within Different Blogger Posts

   
   
6. Add links to your headings like so:
   
   

   <a href="#withinposts">How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within the Same Blogger Post</a>
   
   <a href="#withinblogger">How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within Different Blogger Posts</a>

   
   
   • The href attribute and closing </a> element is the same structure you use for other links in your blog
     
     
   • Each identifier is preceded by a hash mark (#). The # tells the visitor's browser to look for a section within your post
     
     
   • Each link identifier needs its own unique identifier and needs to be enclosed in inverted commas. Use a name that reflects the link you are creating if possible as it will make it easier to identify on a page with a lot of internal jump links.
     
   
   
7. Now go to the first point in your post where you want to jump the reader to. This will be the start of some new idea, section or logical split in the information.
   
   
8. At this point create your anchor text by first adding your heading and then enclosing your heading with this anchor structure.
   
   

   <a name="identifier">a heading</a>
   

   
   
   • Note the use of the name attribute at the beginning and the </a> element at the end
     
     
   • Each link identifier needs to be enclosed in inverted commas. Make sure to match up the correct identifier with the one created in step 6
   
   
   Using this anchoring structure our first anchor becomes:
   
   

   <a name="withinposts">How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within the Same Blogger Post</a>
   

   
   Substitute your own link identifier and headings
   
   
9. Now move on to the next point you want to link to and create the second anchor. In this example we use the same structure but change the identifier
   
   

   <a name="withinblogger">How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within Different Blogger Posts</a>

   
   Again substitute your own link identifier and headings to suit your article
   
   
10. Save and Publish as normal and you will see your links are live and will jump the reader to different parts of the post

How to Create Internal Links To Sections Within Different Blogger Posts
Now you know how to create links to sections within Blogger posts let's look at how to create internal links within different Blogger posts.

Most of you will be able to create a link to another post in Blogger using the posts editor. You just highlight the text you want and click on the figure eight icon and Blogger creates the link for you. Which is great most of the time.

However what if we want to direct the visitor to a particular section of a different post? When you create an internal link it will take the viewer to the top of the page but what if you want them to see something near the end of the article? Well using an internal link similar to what we did to create internal links within the post we can.

Say I want to take my reader to a particular post in this case Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks. How would I go about it?

1. I create the link as usual by copying the article URL address from the browser address bar and using the post editor to add the link. The Blogger post editor uses this structure:
   
   

   <a href="URLaddress">linkname</a>

   
   So the Blogger editor would create the following link:
   
   

   <a href="http://blogknowhow.blogspot.com/2009/05/blogger-blogspot-seo-tips-and-tricks.html">Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks</a>

   
   The link would appear like this in a browser:
   
   Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks
   
   
2. Now I want to direct my visitors to the section about creating breadcrumb navigation so I add a section name using the following structure:
   
   

   <a href="URLaddress#identifier">linkname</a>

   
   Thus my link would look like this in the Edit HTML section of my post editor
   
   

   <a href="http://blogknowhow.blogspot.com/2009/05/blogger-blogspot-seo-tips-and-tricks.html#breadcrumb">Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks</a>

   
   Note the link seen in a browser remains the same
   
   
3. If you want your link to open in a new browser window add the following to your link:
   
   

   <a href="http://blogknowhow.blogspot.com/2009/05/blogger-blogspot-seo-tips-and-tricks.html#breadcrumb" target="_blank">Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks</a>

   
   
4. Now I need to go to the post I am linking to and add the anchor. So in the post SEO Tips and Tricks I would use the following structure to link to the section about how to add breadcrumbs:
   
   

   <a name="identifier">a heading</a>
   

   
   So the section about breadcrumbs in the Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks article is now enclosed by the following:
   
   

   <a name="breadcrumb">Add Breadcrumb Navigation to your Blogger Blog</a>

   
   
   If you now click on the link below you will see that your browser open a new window and take you directly to the section about adding a breadcrumb to your blog.
   
   Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks
   
   
5. Save your changes and publish your article as normal

In this Blogger tutorial you have learned how to add internal links to a particular section of a post from both within the same Blogger post and within a different post. By adding internal links you will help your visitors to find their away your blog more easily and access information quickly. You will also be adding to your blog's SEO by linking related posts.


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs
Blogger SEO Tips and Tricks

Thank you Shorthorn breeders!

 I couldn't help but feel a huge amount of thankfulness and pride as I was hanging out in the Shorthorn barn at Louisville last week when I saw all of the RHD work displayed at the stalls of so many friends and fellow Shorthorn breeders. Some of our very first clients were Shorthorn folks, and as I walked down the aisles I was so proud that RHD represents the leading Shorthorn breeders in the United States.

For example, this year, Cyclone Trace raised both the champion and reserve heifer; Sullivan had chamapion bull, and Cates had reserve bull. We are the proud web designer of all of these farms. We love doing a Shorthorn web sites, and probably do more Shorthorn sites than any other breed.

Here are a few snapshots of some of the RHD work that you can see through the Shorthorn stalls. This is just a small sample of what we can do in addition to web sites. So THANK YOU Shorthorn breeders, we love working with you!

Here are a few pics from the Fischer Cattle Company stalls. Completely outfitted in RHD work :) We do their web site, did their logo, their signs, and this year just did their individual cattle stall signs. We love Stacey and Jeff!

I got to meet Stephanie Conrad from AMS Shorthorns for the first time at the show. The AMS Shorthorns booth,was also sporting lots of RHD work....we do their web site, did their logo, and did their stall sign for them.

And here is a banner we did for John Sullivan at Sullivan Farms. Each year we do a few bull banners for them, and this year, just so happened that STOCKMAN was also the champion bull! Look for him in Denver.

Thanks again to all of our Shorthorn friends for all of the work we get to do for you!

How to Add a Flickr Slideshow Gadget to Blogger

In today's Blogger tutorial I am going to show you how to add a Flickr Slideshow (Flickr Photostream) to a Blogger blog (Blogspot blog). This Blogger tutorial is suited to beginners and newbies to Blogger and contains step by step instructions to create your Flickr slideshow.

This Blogger slideshow tutorial covers the steps to insert a slideshow widget (slideshow gadget) in the sidebar or footer of Blogger and display a set of images uploaded to Flickr. Note the maximum number of images displayed in the slideshow is 20.

There are several different methods to add a Flickr slideshow to Blogger. Which method you use is largely dependent on your own individual requirements. I cover two different methods in the tutorial.

Method 1 - Add a Flickr Slideshow Gadget to Blogger - Photos in photostream are not organized into sets

Method 2 - Add a Flickr Slideshow Gadget to Blogger to display images that are organized in a set


Method 1 - Add a Flickr Photostream to Slideshow Gadget in Blogger

If you will only ever add one slideshow to Blogger from Flickr and don't want to bother with sets use this method to quickly and easily add your Flickr slideshow to Blogger:

1. Go to Flickr and find your Photostream link. On your home page when logged into Flickr you will see Your Photostream at the top left under the Flickr salutation
   
   
   
2. Click on the Your Photostream link and copy the photostream id from your browser address bar.
   
   

   http://www.flickr.com/photos/27647187@N07/

   It will look something like this. Copy the identifier eg 27647187@N07
   
   
3. In Blogger go to Design > Page Elements
   
   
4. Select Add Gadget from the sidebar or footer depending on where you want to place your Flickr slideshow
   
   
5. Choose Slideshow from widgets in the Basics list
   
   
6. Choose a title for your slideshow or leave blank
   
   
   
7. Under Source use the drop down menu to select Flickr
   
   
8. Under Option select User
   
   
9. Under Username enter you Flickr Photostream id eg 27647187@N07.
   
   Note:If you have entered your Flickr Photostream id correctly you will be able to see a preview of your slideshow.
   
   
10. Click on Save and then View Blog to see your new Flickr slideshow in action on your Blogger blog
    
    

Method 2 - Add a Flickr Photostream Set to a Slideshow Gadget in Blogger

If you use sets in Flickr to organize your photos and images you will need to use a slightly different method to install a Flickr slideshow into Blogger.

1. Log on to Flickr
   
   
2. Upload your photos and create sets to organize your photos if desired
   
   
3. Go to view your sets in Flickr and select the set you wish to use for your Blogger slideshow
   
   
4. In your browser window you will see a URL address similar to the following:
   
   

   http://www.flickr.com/photos/27647187@N07/sets/72157624508265319/

   
   
5. There are two important parts to this address that you need to note because we will be using these to create our slideshow:
   
   
   • Your photostream - designated by something similar to 27647187@N07
     
     
   • The id of the set - designated by something similar to 72157624508265319
   
   
   
   
6. In a different browser window log on to Blogger if not already logged in
   
   
7. Go to Design > Page Elements
   
   
8. Select Add Gadget from the sidebar or footer depending on where you want to place your Flickr slideshow
   
   
9. Choose Slideshow from the list of Basics Widgets
   
   
10. Click on the blue plus sign to the right of the Slideshow gadget to activate and configure your Blogger Flickr Slideshow
    
    
11. Choose a title for your slideshow or leave blank
    
    
12. Under Source use the drop down menu to select Other (Note do not select Flickr if you are using a set as this will not work - see Method 1)
    
    
13. In the Feed URL section enter the following feed:
    
    

    http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157624508265319&nsid=27647187@N07&lang=en-us&format=rss_200

    
    
14. Substitute your photostream id (this will unique to your Flickr account)
    
    
15. Substitute the id of the set of images you wish to display
    
    
    
16. Leave the speed of the slideshow at medium unless you specifically need it to be faster or slower
    
    
17. Click on Save
    
    
18. Click on the View Blog link to admire your new Flickr slideshow

In today's Blogger tutorial you have learned two different methods to add a Flickr slideshow to Blogger. Both methods use the Blogger Slideshow Gadget but the difference between them is that method 2 shows you how to use a selected part of your Flickr photostream to create a Blogger slideshow for your blog instead of your whole Flickr photostream. Hope you have lots of fun with this Blogger slideshow gadget. Enjoy!


Related Articles
List of Blog Know How Tutorials for Blogger Blogs

Louisville News: Black Friday Sale

One of the first people I had ran into at Louisville was the crew from Saddle River Ranch along with Kyle Conley of Conley Cattle...both Oklahoma Angus breeders. Kyle was dropping off a few of the Black Friday sale catalogs hot off the press and ready to hand out at NAILE.

We've worked with Cathy Conner and her team at Saddle River for just over a year now on both their print ads and web site. I love their really cool logo and they have a beautiful place. They're also on facebook if you want to check out Saddle River Ranch.

On our way up to Louisville, one of the people I was most excited about introducing Brandon to was Kyle Conley. We recently designed the print advertising and sale catalog for the Black Friday sale, which is going to be held the day after Thanksgiving this year in Oklahoma.  While working with Kyle so much over the past 3 months, I have developed a great deal of professional respect for him after seeing the passion he has for this sale. There aren't many young people like Kyle who are willign to jump off into creating a brand new production sale, and I've been inspired by Kyle's work ethic and motivation. 

Also, in the catalog, there is just the CUTEST picture of Kyle and his wife Amanda, that made me instantly want to be BFF's with Amanda. She just looks so nice and sweet and I can tell she is just a great girl. Go check out the catalog and you can see this picture too. Okay so yes, now most likely Kyle is going to kill me for posting something cheesy like this ha ha.

If you'd like to get a sneak peak at the catalog, visit this page: http://pembrookcattle.com/sales.html - the picture I like is on the inside front cover :)

Photoshop Tips: Automation

First of all, thanks to everyone who emailed to us about the photoshop tips blog. We'll try to keep it up! We are scheduling quite a few boot camps for December, especially when college gets out. If you've been thinking of coming go ahead and email us to get on the schedule. I apologize for not updating our boot camp calendar as much as I should, we forget sometimes when we get so busy.

Anyway, here is another Photoshop tip to share today: Automation. If you are in Photoshop, and you click on the File menu, Automation is about 3/4 of the way down on the menu.

If you've never used this tool before, this is another example of a photoshop tip that can greatly speed up your production, much like the Actions we talked about before. As you can see in the menu, there are several automated features available. The ones I use most are the Contact Sheet II, Picture Package, and Web Photo Gallery. 

Batch is a pretty cool one, which I would describe as like one step up from Actions. When you click on batch, it automatically applies an action to every image in a specific folder. So by using this, you eliminate the step of having to open each file. Here is a screen shot:

So you can see here, using the Batch automation tool, I select my source folder (which is where I have all of my originals saved) then I choose the action I want to run. In this case, I've made a special action for this project that converts all the images to 300 dpi, CMYK, and saves them as a JPG in the Links folder for InDesign. If you need a refresher on making these custom actions, read this blog. So by using this automated feature, I can do all my image work for a sale catalog in say, 30 minutes or less.

Another tool I like a lot is the Contact Sheet automation. I mostly use this for comparing lots of pictures and trying to decide which I like best. It is also really helpful if someone else is going to be choosing images with you. This one automatically makes a proof sheet of multiple images on one page.  To get started with Contact Sheet, click on the Contact Sheet II option, which will bring up this screen:

You will have several options. First you choose your source folder. Make sure you have all of the pictures saved within one folder (i.e. Calf Pictures November 15 2010 or something like that). Then you choose how many pictures you want on a page. Obviously the more pictures you have the smaller they will be. In this case I chose 2 rows of 2, so 8 pictures per page. Another thing I like to check is at the very bottom: Use Filename as Caption. This way I can easily know what pictures I like best. Once you hit Okay, Photoshop will automatically make a sheet like this for you:

You can easily print this out and share it with others within your creative team, or even clients, to decide which pics you like best.

I don't use the Photo Package option all that frequently, but it is still neat. This one would be helpful for people who like to print their photos at home. Perhaps you have a great family picture you took and you'd like to give a few to grandparents and relatives, but just want to print it at home on photo paper. Here's how you get started with this one:

From the dialog box, you choose your folder or specific file. Where the menu says "Document," choose your paper size. If you click on the Layout drop down box, you will see TONS of options. I happened to choose (4) 3.5x5.5s. Photoshop then takes my picture and resizes them all to fit on one sheet of paper for easy printing. There are lots of other options, just play around with it. You can do 8x10s, 5x7s, wallets, all kinds of sizes. This would be a quick option for people who like to print their pictures at home.

The last Automation tool I sometimes use is Web Photo Gallery. Now I have to say up front, we very rarely use this at RHD because I think it looks somewhat amateur and so you won't see these very often on RHD client web sites. But this is a great option for families who may have their own web site and want to share pictures from different events. This is one that you just have to play around with and find out what you like best. Once you get into this option, there are tons of choices. Photoshop offers about 20 different templates for the layout, ranging from flash transitions to very simple thumbnails. You can see these examples below under the very first option under "Styles"

This automation works exactly the same was as the other automations mentioned above. You choose the folder on your computer where all of your photos are saved. Then you choose the destination folder of where you want Photoshop to save the files (like your web site folder).  Also pay attention about mid-ways down the box for the OPTIONS drop down box.  There are several options available here like a headline, how big you want the images to be, custom colors, and more. You can even add background music through this automated feature.

In the 12 years I've been using Photoshop, I find that there is almost something new I can learn every day. I just went over a very basic overview of these automated features, however they are very powerful and dramatically can speed up your workflow. There is no limit to the way you can use these in combination with each other, just like we use Actions, then Batches together. They are great for saving time and speeding up lots of the legwork we have to do, which frees up time for the fun creative stuff...DESIGNING!

Louisville News: First Class Bred Heifer Sale

Over the next few days we'll be posting some blogs with interesting news or updates from clients we visited with during Louisville. The first one is about the First Class Bred Heifer Sale, which is hosted by three of our long-time RHD clients and good friends Wade Rodgers, Nick Reimann and Brad Smith. These guys not only do a "first class" job with their sale, Wade & Kaylene, Nick & Kyrstin, and Brad are just "first class" all around.

I ran into Nick and Wade in the barns and had a chance to get the low down on their upcoming "First Class Bred Heifer Sale". This year's sale will be held Saturday, December 11, 2010 at Dunlap Livestock Auction, Dunlap, IA. They are selling 80 powerful females, 10 donors, 60 bred heifers, 5 bulls and semen and embryos.

One new thing for this year is that catalogs will be mailed by request only. Nick says that if you have purchased in previous first class sales, you will already be on the list. Others who would like a catalog will need to sign up at Nick's web site, here.

The catalog should be available online this week, and we will blast it out on email when it is posted. If you would like to be notified when it goes up, you can sign up for the RHD email blasts by clicking here then scrolling to the bottom of the page then inputting your email address. Look in the bottom right corner of the screen where it says "Join our Mailing List". YOu can also join through our RHD facebook page.

If you'd like more info about this sale, call either one of these guys:
Nick Reimann - 605-871-3642 • Wade Rodgers - 515-480-6896 • Brad Smith - 712-209-1500

And you can also visit these web sites done by RHD....
http://reimannranches.com/
http://rodgerscattleco.com/

Here's a pic of me and Nick at Louisville this year, wow, he looks so tall!

Time for Holiday Cards

Ahh, if you're like me you just LOVE Christmas time. I could seriously send out 20 different Christmas cards because I have such a hard time choosing which is my favorite. As it gets closer to the holidays, we're going to start showing off a few of our favorite holiday cards from RHD Invitation's partnership with Tiny Prints Holiday Collection.

Now our favorites range from all different styles and price levels. To start out, you can select from their StudioBasics, starting at just 69 cents a piece.  Here are a few that I like from that collection.

Now if you have a little more expensive taste, you can choose from the regular collection which is priced around $1 each. There are TONS here that I love. Click here to begin shopping!

An awesome tri-fold card:


A totally cool flip-out photo card:

Another neat card for only 0.99 cents:

So again, check out the Tiny Prints Holiday Collection.  Browse away til your heart is content. With this easy online ordering system you just upload your photos and you're done. You can do all sorts of fun things like change your photos to black and white, sepia, change font colors, etc. Here come the holidays!

Family Photo Session - The Lee Family — Houston, TX

Stacey and I had a great photo shoot recently when we photographed the Lee family of Houston, Texas. This family has been one of our clients for nearly 10 years as we handle their advertising for their cattle ranch. The family needed some promotional photos to use in sports editorial and they called us to do the job!

Stacey and I borrowed our friends showbarn at J.D. Hudgins so we could capture some great Brahman cattle in the photos. Here are a few of our favorites....

Give RHD a call if we can help you with your upcoming family photography needs for Christmas cards! Our office is located in Wharton, Texas and we are available to travel as needed. Pricing starts at $150 and we also offer special packages for photography+Christmas cards!