Common Ninja Blog

A petition needs signatures, and signatures need a form people trust. Here is how to build an online petition form on your own site, what fields to ask for, and how to keep the data clean.

Publishing a feed is how your content travels to readers, apps and other websites. Here is how to create an RSS feed, what belongs in it, and how to check it is valid before you publish it.

LinkedIn publishes no feed and gates its API, so the usual embedding advice does not apply. Here are the routes that actually work, and what each one costs you.

A job application form decides who applies and who gives up halfway. Here is what to ask, what to leave out, and what has to happen after somebody presses submit.

There are three different things people mean by embedding a PDF in Canva. Here is which one you need, what Canva will accept, and what to do when it will not.

Code on a web page needs highlighting, a readable theme, and a copy button that works. Here is how to display snippets properly, and the settings that actually matter.

A pomodoro timer is a small thing to build and an easy thing to build badly. Here is what the technique needs, what the settings should be, and how to put one on a page.

YouTube does publish a feed, which makes this easier than most platforms. The decisions that matter are whether to show a channel or a playlist, and what the player costs your page.

A donation button is the shortest path between someone wanting to help and actually helping. Here is how to set one up, and the choices that decide whether it gets used.

A translator widget makes your pages readable to visitors who do not share your language. It does not make you findable in theirs. Here is the difference, and how to do both.

Putting music on a website is easy. Getting the hosting, the licensing and the autoplay rules right is the part that decides whether it works and whether you are allowed to.

Tumblr is one of the last platforms that still hands you an open feed. The work is not getting the content, it is deciding what to do with posts that are not all the same shape.

Capterra reviews are written by buyers who evaluated software the way your prospects are evaluating yours. Here is how to get them onto your own site, and where they actually change a decision.

Your app store rating is the number that decides whether a visitor installs. Here is how to show Google Play reviews on your own site, and what the Play Console gives you to work with.

Facebook recommendations only arrive if the feature is switched on, the ask is timed well, and the path takes one tap. Here is how to build that, without breaking any rules.

Showing the time in several places is easy to do and easy to do wrong. Here is how to add a world clock that survives daylight saving and actually helps your visitors.