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WordPress 3.0 Upgrade & Premium Theme Developers Fail at Customer Service

June 28, 2010 By Laura Leave a Comment

Most of you know that the much talked about WordPress Version 3.0 has been released and is flashing at you when you access your admin panel begging you to upgrade.  After a long weekend of fixing problems caused by the upgrade, I strongly recommend that you fight the urge to jump on that band wagon just yet!

After researching fixes to crashes caused on my sites that were using the Thesis Themes (the last new shiny object), I realized that perhaps this upgrade should have come with an install wizard or at least some caution labels to the unsuspecting users.  Here’s what I learned AFTER the fact about upgrading:

1.  Back-up - As with all automatic upgrades of WordPress, most of us all ready knew that we should backup our files before we hit that shiny upgrade button.  Wonder what the ratio is of the people who know to the people who do!!  Well, did you know that the back-up required before upgrading to WordPress 3.0 included all the plug-ins currently running on your site?

2.  Disable All Plug-ins - I may not be  the brightest crayon in the box nor am I a professional programmer but if this step was so vitally important to THIS upgrade, why wasn’t there a flashing pop-up or caution screen before the automatic upgrade button was engaged???  By not disabling all my plug-ins, I was rewarded with 23 error messages on my site that when researched through the help forums were all suggested the same fix “disable all plug-ins”.  How helpful is that?  Not to mention, just disabling them after the fact DOES NOT make it instantly better.  Certainly NOT a customer service friendly response!

3.  Backup Theme – We all know from using WordPress that not all themes work in the newer versions and when we choose our theme templates, there is usually a notification of what was the last version that it was tested with so that we can use that information to make our decision as to whether to purchase or download that particular theme.  Well who would have thought that PREMIUM theme developers were NOT working closely enough with the techs at WordPress that they could be already preparing upgrades on their themes for their customers in anticipation of problems they were going to be having.  After all, beta versions of WordPress 3.0 have been out for several months.  The help forums all indicate that we should be patient and that new releases are coming and in the interim we should upload an alternate theme…now that is certainly in fail in the customer service department in my book!

I would love to save you all many hours of frustration if you have already hit that shiny upgrade button and are now in error heaven, but I do not have the magic fix and am in the middle of reverting back to WordPress 2.9 and hoping that all my content will be in tack when I get there.

A big WHALE FAIL to WordPress for not engaging their users persistently prior to this upgrade and  the same to both WordPress and premium theme developers for not already having had their techs releasing the fixes that they obviously knew were going to be needed.  Perhaps we have put WordPress on a pedestal way to early in the internet game!

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Is Your Website Out of Date?

June 1, 2010 By Laura Leave a Comment

By John J Holland

Is it time for your business to have a website makeover? Screen resolution standards, layout trends, artistic design and marketing are undergoing changes all of the time. If your website design was cutting edge a few years ago, it is most likely out of date today. You can think of a website makeover as the paint, cleaning & updates you would automatically do for a physical storefront– These are the regular maintenance tasks that you do to ensure the public that you are not only still open for business but are also doing well.

How do you know when it is time for a website makeover?

With a physical storefront it is easy to tell when a fresh new coat of paint is needed or your displays or furniture is out of date, but knowing when the time is ripe for a website redesign can be slightly more difficult. The best way to check if your website is behind in the times is to do some surfing around the web. Make a list of competitor websites as well as websites that you regularly frequent and compare those sites to your own website. By comparing your website to other websites, you will begin to notice what works and what doesn’t work– then you’ll be able to assess your own website more accurately.

Modern website design focuses on making information clear and concise, presenting your company and your products in the best possible light. Internet marketing has become more sophisticated, therefore methods have been developed that allow for layouts that maximize exposure and encourage web surfers to interact, join, purchase and collaborate. A website redesign will allow you to take advantage of these advances in internet marketing.

Size does matter…

The most noticeable sign that you need a website makeover is the width of your website. With more and more computers being sold with widescreen monitors (especially laptops), your site that was originally designed for 800 x 600 pixel screen resolution will now look very small on a 1280 x 960 or larger screen resolution. The ideal width for the modern website is between 950 and 970 pixels wide. That size range is perfect because it not only caters to widescreens (if designed properly), but also still works for the commonly used 1024 x 768 screen resolution.

If your website was created a few years ago, there’s a good chance that your site was designed to accommodate smaller screen resolutions and needs to be brought up to date. On modern computer screens, your website could look very small and insignificant.

Content is King!

One of the best things you can do to help bring your website up to date is to update your website content. Every page on your website is a chance for you to capture the interests of a visitor. With properly developed text and images that are up to date with the times, you’ll be able to maximize your conversion from visitor to customer. Your text should be compelling– Talk to the reader, don’t talk at them. Treat the site visitor as if you were sitting across the table drinking coffee with them and don’t forget to include a call to action. You can stand in front of a door all day long telling people about all of the wonderful things they’ll see on the other side of that door– But if you don’t tell them to go thru the door, they probably never will!

On top of your compelling text (whether it’s about your products or about your services), you should always have a call to action that encourages the reader to want to proceed with contacting you, buying from you or signing up with your newsletter or program.

Website makeovers are designed to give your business the greatest edge by presenting your business or organization in the best possible light. Modern web design is clear, crisp, highly readable and encourages visitors to become customers. You want your business to put on its best possible face, to look fresh, enticing, and most of all– Current. You wouldn’t wear clothes that are outdated and out of fashion– It’d make you look unprofessional and out of sync with what’s current. Put your website in your shoes (just not your old ones).

Keep your website looking its best and producing its best with a website redesign by JH Studios. Not only can we help you redevelop your website with a modern look & feel, we can also help market your website and get it to show up higher on Google. Higher placement on Google means more traffic– That mixed with informative well developed content and a good call to action means a higher chance for customer conversion!

JH Studios is a Tampa web design and marketing firm that helps businesses of all sizes build their brand and focus their marketing efforts for optimum Return on Investment (ROI). From powerful websites and Search Engine Optimization to full color business cards, postcards, brochures & door hangers and logo imprinted promotional products, JH Studios has all of the business marketing tools and services that you need to build and market your brand.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_J_Holland
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Get Indexed Quickly Using Google Sitemap Plugin

April 21, 2010 By Laura 3 Comments

Once you have created a wordpress website, you need traffic.  To get free traffic from the major search engines quickly, you will want to activate the Google Sitemap Plugin.  (Highly recommend that you do this after you have the majority of your site completed.)

Here’s a quick video to show you how to activate the plugin.  (Video by Dirk Wagner)
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Spam Protection on WordPress Sites

April 19, 2010 By Laura Leave a Comment

You’ve probably spent countless hours getting your wordpress site up and running and maintaining it with quality content.  Now that you are progressing with getting traffic to your site, you may also be finding yourself flooded with spam comments or comments with nothing but affiliate links which are distracting your targeted visitors from getting the most our of their visit to your site.

Here is a quick video to help you block the spammers! (Video by Dirk Wagner)
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Finding The Missing Link

April 13, 2010 By Laura Leave a Comment

You have spent a lot of time creating an online presence. You have virus protection and maybe a firewall to protect the security of your system, you have located a web host to manage your online presence, then you define the direction of your site and work at developing a look that is appealing and a format that is easy to navigate.

You might think that after all this planning and preparation your work would be done, right? Well if you’re selling goods or services, you need customers. If you have a brick and mortar store then you may already have valued customers, but the ease of use in online shopping makes a global market an attractive addition to an already successful enterprise.

You may submit your site information to search engines and participate in a variety of link exchange programs, but it still might not be enough.

Many online businesses purchase a series of advertisements on amenable sites. Those advertisements drive additional customers to affiliated sites which makes online advertising so valuable.

Advertising: Where Did it Go?

What happens if you spend advertising dollars that provide no opportunity for potential clients to respond?

You may not think that something like this happens, but it’s actually a very common occurrence. You see, internet site updates are an important function of proper maintenance and web site enhancement. If a site always looks the same, a media saturated society tends to become a little ho hum which is why sites are constantly updating both content and design features.

Finding the Missing Link

That’s where your difficulty starts. When site design changes, sometimes the advertisements that have already been paid for are inadvertently eliminated from the site. You paid for the advertising, you expect the advertising, but it’s hard to keep up with every site that will be displaying your ad.

Many web savvy site owners are discovering the value of link checker software that properly tracks the continued use of pre-paid advertising or link exchanges.

A Matter of Time and Revenue

The reason a link checker is so vital is that it can advise you when a promised link is broken. A link checker saves you time and potential lost revenue. A link checker is the perfect mechanism for providing accountability on the advertisement that you have every right to expect.

Without link checker software many web business owners find themselves checking links periodically to see if they are still active. There are even those who never give it a second thought and may miss out on adding significantly to the bottom line of their web based business.

Link Checker: Ease of Use

Link checker software allows you to pick all of the links you need to check and it will do a thorough check upon request. The design of a link checker makes it user friendly and comprehensive in its findings.

By using link checker software you can minimize missed advertising and maximize earning potential.

Even if your advertising is part of a link exchange it is important to know that the exchange is beneficial to you and a link checker makes it possible to know for sure.

Headache Relief

The cost of the software could be offset by locating problem links as quickly as possible. Be sure to check for link checker software that provides a free trial offer. A test drive of the applications of a link checker may well convince you that this is one software application that really makes solid business sense.

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How to Securely Back Up Your WordPress Blog

April 7, 2010 By Laura 1 Comment

By Cecil Flynn

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging software applications that is currently being used for blogs and also as a content management system for websites. Just like any other software, with popularity comes troublesome security issues as people try to hack the program and cause problems for the users. In addition to doing frequent updates, backing up your installation is one of the best ways of making sure that you are secure in case your blog is taken down by a hacker.

There are two things that need to be backed up to have a complete backup of your WordPress installation. The first one is the database. You can manually use a tool to download your database and remember to do this week after week. There is also a tool that will do this for you automatically.

Get the plugin WP-DB-Backup. Install this into your WordPress blog under the plugin folder and activate it. Under ‘Tools’ there will be a Backup button that you can press. This is the area where you can set up an option to have this database emailed to you on a daily basis or at least once each week. Make sure you use an email that is not connected to your current hosting account in case the whole host gets attacked. Now you have your database automatically backed up.

The second piece you need is anything that you upload to your account like your plugins, themes, images, videos, and other things. To do this, simply use a FTP client software application to access the hosting account and copy all the contents of the public_html folder. This will get everything that you need. If you don’t upload items too often, this might only have to be done maybe once a month.

It is important to get into the habit of performing these two backups on a regular basis. By backing up on a regular schedule, if the blog or the host has some sort of security issue, you have the option of installing the blog again on that host or a new one without having to worry about losing any information, posts, pages, comments, or any changes that you have made to the account.

WordPress makes maintaining a blog or website simple and convenient. By taking steps to ensure your site’s security takes the simplicity and convenience to the next level and allows you to have peace of mind as well.

Cecil enjoys working in the garden and tinkering around the house. He realizes the importance of home security so he keeps a small safe in his home and office to protect his valuables. You can read all about different types of small safes on his website: http://www.smallsafe.org

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Spring Cleaning Your Websites

April 5, 2010 By Laura 1 Comment

Just like your house, you need to do regular cleaning or maintenance on your websites.  Here are a few spring cleaning tips that should be done regularly to keep your website running smoothly and your visitors coming back:

Upgrade WordPress Platform – New releases are sent out all the time from the WordPress team and all of us tend to fall behind in upgrading.  You don’t want to fall too far behind in these releases.  Every 3-6 months you should bring your site current with the most recent version.

Plugin Review – All of us are guilty of installing all kinds of plugins to test drive as we hear about them from our friends.  Some we keep using, others just stay loaded on our system collecting dust.  Here is where you need to spend a few minutes ensuring that the ones you are using are the latest version released and deactivate and delete those that are not being used.  With new plugins being released all the time, you may find that there is a newer model out there that can now do what 3 or 4 other plugins are trying to do.

Themes – Same can be said about theme templates.  When we start out designing our site, we test drive a number of different themes before we make a decision on the one to customize to fit our needs.  How many are still sitting on your system?  It is also important to check and see if your theme is still being maintained by the original author and is compatible with the most recent version of WordPress.

Style Sheets & Custom Templates - For those of you that make changes to your CSS style sheets and templates…Are you removing old codex once the new code is written or are you making your website work twice as hard to translate the necessary actions?  Don’t you normally throw out the old operating manuals once the new manuals are released to decrease confusion?  Same would be the case for your style sheets and templates!

Media Library – Go through all the images and files that you have uploaded to your media library and determine if they are still being used within your site.  If they are just taking up valuable space, delete them.  If you’re concern is that you “may” want them in the future, then download them on your computer before you delete them from the library.

Once you have completed your spring cleaning, take a moment to go through your website and make sure your links are all working and that all of your images are displaying properly.  Routine maintenance of your site will keep your site running smoothly and your visitors happy because everything is working properly!

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