Web Design Discussion

Ken Envoy has been (and still is) one of biggest fans for teaching me how to build profitable web sites and how to write high quality content. His formula of pre-selling your visitor before selling to them has stayed with me throughout the years because it works very well.

Recently he wrote an article saying that blogging is the wrong choice for building a business.

http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/

Instead he advocates using SiteBuiltIt to build your business.

Why?

Because 35% of Site Build It! sites are in the Top 1% of all Web sites.

That’s pretty good proof.

As a web designer I don’t use SBI but have a main site and a blog. The purpose of my main site (static) is to offer my web design services and write long term content…articles. The blog takes more work however I enjoy writing so it’s actually a joy to do it.

Whatever you use depends on your purpose…it’s not really the tools you use but how you use them. The purpose of my blog is to freely and easily write quick posts, even articles that provide traffic to my main site and provide fresh content for visitors. The beauty of the blog is that I can spend only 15 min updating it with good content without knowing or using FTP.

I highly recommend his action guide for anyone thinking about starting a business online even if you don’t intend to use SBI.

His mantra is “don’t build a web site build a business”

SBI gives you all the tools you need to research your niche, build a web site and market it to get lots of traffic. The forum is very active and helpful. The people there genuinely wish to help you build your online business.

If you’re reading this post and wish decide to go with SBI you’re lucky because he’s currently running a Mother’s Day Special where you can purchase SBI then get the second one for $100. You could give the second one to a friend or use it to build a second web site.

Check out the powerful SBI video to decide for yourself.

http://www.sitesell.com/webselling83.html

Why do you blog?

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If you want to attract a continuous stream of NEW visitors to
your website without spending a dime on advertising pick up a copy of
my new ebook”Article Marketing Strategies“…
to receive immediate and long-term traffic.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, SEO

I recently installed the WordPress Default Kubrick Theme (1.6) and discovered it only displays the sidebar on the home page. This means visitors who land on any other page besides the home page will not see the links in the sidebar. They also can’t return to the home page (unless they click on the title in the header which most folks are not aware of).

Modifying the default (Kubrick 1.5) theme to provide a sidebar at all times:

After a little searching on the WordPress Forums I discovered a modified theme that suits my purpose.

Download this file:

http://guff.szub.net/wp-content/default_allsidebar.zip

To use, unzip to the directory/folder “default_allsidebar”, upload this to your wp-content/themes/ directory on your blog’s site, and select “WP Default - AllSidebar Edition” under Presentation in WordPress.

Display links and login info in your sidebar at all times:

Here is a modified version:

http://guff.szub.net/wp-content/kubrick_sidebar.zip

To use extract sidebar.php from the zip and replace your current one (either in default or default_allsidebar) with it.

Create a link to the Home Page from other pages

Login to the admin panel
Blogroll-Categories
Add category called MAIN PAGE
Click Add Category

Click Add Link
Add Name and URL of Home Page
Click box on far right named MAIN PAGE
Click Add Link

Example of WordPress Default Kubrick Theme Showing All Side Bars

By making these modifications to the WordPress Default Kubrick Theme you can now display the home page sidebar (with links) on other pages, plus create a link that takes the visitor back to the main page (home page).

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Receive fresh, in-depth articles articles on how to design, optimize and promote your web site by subscribing to my “Marketing Tips” newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimization

Finding a theme for WordPress is relatively easy because you can select one from thousands offered at the theme viewer

What if you can’t find one you like and wish to create your own customized template?

WordPress Theme Generator

The beauty of this online generator is that you don’t need to have any HTML knowledge to create a unique WordPress theme.

Here are some of the things it can do:

Change the colors for the background, foreground or individual sidebars.
Change the layout e.g., have one or 2 sidebars.
Change the body size to a fixed width or percentage
Place page tabs at the top or bottom.
Create different styles for your text.
Preview your customized template
Save your theme as a zip file.

If you can’t find a theme that matches your business, create a customized template with the WordPress Theme Generator

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Receive fresh, in-depth articles articles on how to design, optimize and promote your web site by subscribing to my “Marketing Tips” newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimization

Do you want your web site or blog to stand out from other templates?
Do you want to brand your business with a customized design?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve used the default WordPress editor for any length of time you’ll have encountered its limitations. Recently a web design customer pointed this out when she tried to copy and paste an excel spreadsheet into the editor. It made a complete mess of her table data. After some research I discovered one of the most useful WordPress plugins I’ve experienced thus far – the FCKeditor.

Cons of the default Wordpress editor

• Unable to insert spreadsheets
• Unable to create tables
• Unable to insert flash files

Benefits of FCKeditor

• Full featured web based WYSIWYG html editor

Compatible with most internet browsers which include: IE 5.5+ (Windows), Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.3+ and Netscape 7+.

• Build-in File manager and upload manager
• Wordpress “read more” feature support
• Create your own smiles
• Skin selector
• Toolbar selector
• Create tables
• Insert excel spreadsheets
• Insert flash files

Download
To download the FCKeditor visit:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fckeditor-for-wordpress-plugin/

Installation

This WordPress plugin requires WordPress v.2.0 or later.

1.unzip and upload the file into your wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Note: The FCKeditor contains many files so it takes some time to upload them
2.Activate the plugin on your Admin Panel->Plugin Management page.
3.Go to your dashboard, click on “Write” to write your first post using the FCKeditor.

For a long time I was using an old version of WordPress (2.02) but installing and customizing new versions for my customers. I soon realized I was missing out on a lot of new features (e.g., widgets) and security fixes. I kept delaying the upgrading process because I thought it was too complicated and would take too long to figure it out.

Read the rest of this entry »

Want to build a static web site and keep all the benefits of a Word Press Blog?
Need a content management system that is easy to set-up and maintain?
Do you want to attract lots of web traffic from the search engines?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you wish to create a static web site and keep all the benefits of a blog or content management system (CMS) then use Word Press to build it. I’ve used a few of the popular CMS products to build web sites however none of them is as easy to use as Word Press.

Read the rest of this entry »

6. Community networking

A blog allows you to easily build a community for your niche whether it is painting, car racing, or gardening. Offering valuable, fresh content to your community members will make them want to return and also link to your blog.

7. Multiple users

If you have several members within your community that want to contribute to your blog, you can create separate logins for each of them. This can help to create fresh content without you doing all the writing.

8. Interactive

Visitors can interact with your blog by adding comments to your blog posts. They will link to your content from their own blog or add your blog to their blogroll.

9. Schedule your posts

If you want to add your content on a later date ie a few days or weeks later) you can use the time stamp feature in WordPress.
http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/31/can-i-schedule-a-post/

10. Offer email updates

Have people subscribe to your blog by email by registering with feedburner.
http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/10/11/how-can-i-offer-email-updates/

How to Convert Your Blog to a Static Site

If you want to create a static site (so it looks like a regular site and not a blog) but keep all the above benefits of a blog
please visit
Static Blogging

You will receive 4 hours of video tutorials, custom plugins and themes.

A static site is what most people have been using to get their businesses on the Net. These days blogs are becoming popular because they are easier to create and maintain, however there is now an easy way to convert a blog to a static web site and still retain all its benefits.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a database-driven web site that generates dynamic web pages. It can be easily and frequently updated. Often a blog is added to a static web site or stands on its own.

What is a Static Site?

A static site used html pages and is not database-driven. It is still the most popular type of web site because it’s relatively easy to build.

Top 10 Benefits of a Blog

1. Separate content from design

If you use blogging software such as WordPress you have hundreds of templates to choose from. Because the design is separate to the template design you can change the design of your whole web site in a few seconds and still keep the content intact.

2. Easy installation and set-up

Most web hosts enable you to do a one click installation of WordPress from the cpanel (admin panel). If your web host doesn’t have this feature find another. With the admin panel of your WordPress Blog you can change the theme with another click or choose from hundreds of doing a search on Google for “WordPress Themes”

3. Easy maintenance

Instead of using FTP to upload and download files, you simply login to the admin panel, write your content, then save it. You’re new web page is immediately generated.

4. Search engine friendly

Because blogs usually contain fresh content, the search engines love them and will index the pages faster than static sites.

5. Automatic RSS Feeds
Your content is automatically syndicated to RSS directories because RSS is already built into the WordPress blog. Every time you write a post the software pings the RSS feed directories. This means more traffic to your blog.