[6 Mar 2009 | 3 Comments | 609 views]
Web Services and Tools for Website Designers

A good designer is only as good as his/her web tools.

Between website design projects, I get a chance to wander the web and I have found some very helpful web services and tools that go into a quick access bookmark toolbar. Over the years we have collected quite a library of useful tools.

Here is my list of web services and tools that have helped make my life easier as a website designer.

Read the full story »

How to's »

[24 Jun 2009 | No Comment | 79 views]

When you visit a blog, what do you look for? Good design, great photos? How about content? Without great content it’s pretty hard to get your readers to make return visits to your blog, even if you have an impeccable design. Luckily, there are some basic things that you can do to make your blog content better and possibly even get more links from readers who like what you’re blogging about.

This post has some helpful suggestions.

WordPress »

[28 May 2009 | No Comment | 214 views]
What is a Wordpress Child Theme?

One of the more complex issues with Wordpress occurs when you need to customize the look and the feel.
Using Wordpress Child Themes makes the customization process much easier without the need to learn complicated PHP code.

General »

[21 Apr 2009 | No Comment | 325 views]
5 Reasons to Start a Blog

I am often asked by friends and business associates, “Should I start a blog?”.

The first thing you need to answer this question is a reason to have a blog. If you have never blogged before, the effort might not seem worthwhile.

So I’ve written down a few reason you might want to start blogging, whether for personal or business reasons.

WordPress »

[6 Apr 2009 | No Comment | 715 views]
Hidden Gallery Shortcode for WordPress

I have seen many people on Twitter asking for a good Gallery plug-in for WordPress. Our choice for a plug-in would be NextGen. But, it occurred to me that many people don’t realize that WordPress has this feature built in already. It’s not the prettiest or the coolest gallery I have seen. But it does the job in a pinch.

Web Tools »

[13 Mar 2009 | 3 Comments | 346 views]
Google to Launch Interest-based Advertising

The web service Google Adsense will soon begin offering “interest-based advertising”. This addition “will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests”.

What does this mean to those of us who use Google Adsense on our websites and blogs?

SEO »

[26 Feb 2009 | 10 Comments | 1,626 views]
55 Tips for Search Engine Optimization

I am always looking for lists to help with my online website design and search engine optimization business.

Recently, my friend Herb over at “What’s This Web Thing”, posted this list of 55 SEO tips. There is a lot of helpful information in here without any of the hype that you often see in these sorts of lists. I am republishing this with Herb’s permission.

Enjoy!

Website Design »

[13 Feb 2009 | 2 Comments | 573 views]
CSS Frameworks: First Looks

CSS can be the most frustrating part of website development. This is solely due to the the inconsistencies and lack of implemented standards on the part of Microsoft for their Internet Explorer (IE). The only reason I still take the time to ensure my web pages look good in IE is because 30% of my visitors are still using the browser.

So I decided to embark on a journey using CSS Frameworks to see if they could reduce my CSS pain and allow me to design a website more rapidly. Here is a summary of my first experience.