Photshop Vs Photoshop Elements

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Apr 21, 2010 in Internet Mastery, Web Development | 0 comments

As a web developer you would think that I would revel in working in Photoshop. I don’t. In fact, it must be admitted that I actively detest it and almost always hand off image manipulation tasks to team members. To my way of thinking it is always best to “Do What You Love and Outsource the Rest!”.  So when an message from Kimberly Bohannon of GFYDMember.com (Go For Your Dream) landed in my email box a few minutes ago I got very excited and wanted to share the article here with you.

If you have been struggling with, or wanting to learn more about Photoshop this article will be very helpful to you.

Enjoy!

“Which Program Should I Buy… Photoshop or Photoshop Elements?” Which One Is Right for You?

by Kimberly Bohannon

If you’re in the market for an image editing software, chances are you’re choosing between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Both are excellent software for manipulating digital photographs and images. In this article, I’ll discuss some of the ways the two software are different. Hopefully, after reading this, you can make an informed decision.

Keep in mind Adobe’s intentions when you consider each one. In their website, Adobe says that Photoshop CS4 (the latest version) is ideal for “professional photographers, serious amateur photographers, graphic designers, web designers.”

Unfortunately, Adobe doesn’t tell us whom Photoshop Elements is ideal for. It does say you can “get creative,” “enhance your photos,” “share and protect all your memories” with Elements.

This hints at a more consumer-level (rather than professional) user who manages images for personal use.

With this in mind, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements differ in three main areas: price, ease of use, and features. Let’s go over each one.

1.  Price

Adobe Photoshop costs a whopping $699, while Photoshop Elements is $99.

For many, the price will dictate their choice. Keep in mind, some professionals use Elements even for their work. They use workarounds such as add-ons and other tools to get Elements to do what they need to accomplish. But more on that later.

2.  Ease of Use

With Photoshop geared towards professional image users, you can expect it to be more difficult to use. Elements has a more intuitive, more user-friendly interface.

However, if you’re already familiar with photo editing software, such as earlier versions of Photoshop, then this won’t be much of an issue.

3.  Features

As you might have guessed, the differences in price and ease of use stem from differences in features. Photoshop has functionalities which Elements doesn’t have… and vice versa.

For example, Photoshop has more robust features for manipulating the finer details of a digital image. Here are just some features in Photoshop, which aren’t in Elements:

- CMYK and LAB color modes
- ability to work with 16-bit and 32-bit images
- Layer masks and layer comps
- Adjustment layers for color balance, curves and selective color
- Advanced text formatting, including putting text on a path

But don’t ditch Elements yet. It also has features you won’t find in Photoshop, such as:

- Automatic red-eye removal
- Cookie cutter tool, background templates and artwork
- Photo Organizer, which lets you tag photos and later find them quickly through tags. Photo Organizer also lets you share your photos by creating online galleries, slideshows, photo books and more.

As mentioned earlier, many Elements users find they can do with Elements a lot of the things Photoshop can do. Some of the functionalities are there but need to be “unlocked.”

Add-ons and tools for Photoshop Elements are developed by users of both software. Some are free, while others you need to pay for. These will enhance Elements to be able to do more of the things Photoshop can do.

Whichever software you choose, you have to know how to use it in order to achieve the images you want.

If you decide that Photoshop is for you, check out Learn Photoshop Now. The video tutorials are like looking over the shoulder of a seasoned Photoshop user.

Should you go with Elements, Learn Elements Now will help you master the software in a short time.

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? Both are powerful software for perfecting your digital images. Choose the one that best meets your needs within the resources you have.

Your Partner In Success Welcomes Libby Gill

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Apr 14, 2010 in Internet Mastery, Your Partner In Success | 0 comments

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

This week I am delighted to welcome to the show Executive Coach, Brand Strategist and Bestselling Author, Libby Gill.

Libby Gill worked her way through college as a waitress on the Queen Mary. She has been a tap dancing bear, a talking Christmas tree, a soap opera actress and a hand model.

She also headed up public relations and corporate communications at major entertainment studios including Universal Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Turner Broadcasting and was the branding and PR brain behind the launch of the Dr. Phil Show.

Libby is now an internationally respected executive coach, brand strategist and bestselling author of bestselling YOU UNSTUCK: MASTERING THE NEW RULES OF RISK- TAKING IN WORK & LIFE and founder of MyAccountabilityClub.com.

She’s been featured on the Today Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CNN, Oprah & Friends Radio Network, NPR, the Dr. Phil Show, and in Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, O magazine and
many more.

Our topic will be “Staying Accountable to Success”

• Accountability is a big theme in Libby’s work and in her new book “You Unstuck”. We will be chatting a lot about accountability and how Libby defines it.
• What does accountability have to do with personal success?
• As a coach for entrepreneurs and executives all over the country, Libby has gotten a lot of people unstuck. Does she ever have trouble holding herself accountable?
• Why do we get so excited about our goals and plans and then just lose steam over time?
• Libby references a lot of scientific research in her book. I will ask her what data she found most enlightening.
• I will be asking Libby to share some specific strategies we can learn to hold ourselves accountable.
• And much more!

If you have a specific question you would like me to ask Libby Gill please email it to me at info@ virtualassistantindustry.com prior to the show. You can also join us on the line or in the chat room!

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

When: Friday, April 16 , 2010

Time: 9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, 12 pm EST

Where: Your home office telephone or computer.

Website: Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Call-in Number: 347-843-4988

Please be sure to login to the chat room to ask questions during the interview.

We look forward to “seeing” you!

Free Press Release Generator

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Apr 8, 2010 in Web Development, Your Partner In Success | 0 comments

Weekly Recommended Resource

Lisa Manyon of Write On Creative created a free press release tool called Write On Creative Press Release Producer that I use and recommend. This wonderful tool requires just two easy steps:

1. Input your information in the required fields.
2. Hit “Display My Press Release” and your draft release can be viewed and copied on the following page.

And don’t forget to click on the “Grab Your Free Stuff “ icon at the top of the page to receive your free copywriting action plan from Lisa.

I recently had the great pleasure of interviewing Lisa on my BlogTalkRadio Show, “Your Partner In Success“. She gave our audience some really terrific tools, tips and advice about copywriting and how to get people to pay close attention to the message that you are delivering. If you didn’t have an opportunity to listen and download yet, you can listen here.

Your Partner In Success Welcomes Back Rosalind Gardner

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Apr 8, 2010 in Your Partner In Success | 0 comments

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Fabled internet marketer Rosalind Gardner is somebody that I have followed around on the internet for many years. If anybody on the web can teach you how to enjoy financial freedom with an online business (or several!) it is Rosalind. Her story is a fascinating one in that she built her online businesses when there was no text, audio or video or audio-visual tutorials to show new webmasters how to do anything.

But… and this is a BIG but — she saw the opportunity to make money online and was absolutely determined to quit her air traffic controller job (because of the lousy shift schedules), so she got to work and learned all she could.

Her first month after starting her dating site, Sage-Hearts (now renamed 101.Date.com) she received a check for $10.99 which was all she needed to convince her that affiliate marketing did work and that she could master it.

By the end of her first year in business she was clearing $5,000 a month and quit her day job in 2000 by which time she was making over $10,000.

By 2003 Rosalind decided to share what she had learned about the potential for building and sustaining an online business and wrote one of the staples of my entrepreneurial library, The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online.

The book, which is constantly updated with current information, has become the industry’s primary training manual for teaching new affiliate marketers how to do business right and is on the desks of most affiliate network managers.

This is what Allan Gardyne, one of the most famous affiliate marketers had to say about the Super Affiliate Handbook:

Rosalind is living proof that even with absolutely NO previous business experience anyone who truly desires success and is committed and persistent can succeed.

Although best known for her work as an affiliate marketer, Rosalind also has experience in online drop shipping, online auctions, ebook publishing, product and software creation, merchant and manager coaching and blogger training.

We will be chatting about too many things to list here so please visit us in the chatroom and be sure to send me an email before the interview if you have a specific question or topic that you would like us to cover.

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

When: Friday, April 9, 2010

Time: 9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, 12 pm EST

Where: Your home office telephone or computer.

Website: Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Call-in Number: 347-843-4988

Please be sure to login to the chat room to ask questions during the interview.

We look forward to “seeing” you!

Free Search Engine Simulator – Test Your Site!

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Apr 2, 2010 in Internet Mastery, Web Development | 0 comments

Weekly Recommended Resource

This free search engine simulator tool from To the Web.com shows you just how the search engines “see” your web page. I recommend you test your site(s) right away. I tested all of mine and found that one of them had the following meta tag incorrectly installed which means that Google DOES NOT FOLLOW that link.

<meta name=’robots’ content=’noindex,nofollow’ />

I am a web developer and know better, but these things do happen and you need to be sure that you are building and testing your pages correctly. Find the best tools for the job at hand and use them!

Here are the basic No Follow question and answers from Google, Ask.com and Yahoo.

How does your search engine treat the No Follow attribute?

• Google : The Googlebot does not follow that link.
• Yahoo : If we find a link we make it available to our algorithms to find new content, whether it has a ‘no follow’ attribute or not. However, if the ‘no follow’ attribute is present, it means that no attribution is given to the target from the source of the link.
• Ask.com : We have never officially supported No Follow, so your questions don’t apply to our crawler/ranking.

If a site has no web citations and only has one link pointing to it, and that link is from a Wikipedia entry, would your search engine find that site and index it even though the link uses a No Follow attribute?

• Yahoo : Yes, the link is available to our crawlers for finding the target. Then the target will be crawled and indexed based on our algorithms.
• Google : Assuming that link is still no-followed per Wikipedia’s current practice, we will not find much less index that page (remember, this is page, not site related; if links to other pages on that site are not no-followed, we will see and potentially index those pages).On a related note, though, and echoing Matt’s earlier sentiments… we hope and expect that more and more sites — including Wikipedia — will adopt a less-absolute approach to no-follow… expiring no-follows, not applying no-follows to trusted contributors, and so on.

Is there any quality given to sites which attract No Follow links from authority sites, besides the lack of the passing of PageRank, Link Authority or “Search Juice”?

• Google : Since the Googlebot does not follow no-follow links, this isn’t really an issue.
• Yahoo : As promised in the semantics for the ‘no follow’ tag, the anchor text and attribution will not be carried over to the target of a ‘no follow’ link.