"What website mistakes do small businesses make?" This was one of the many questions asked at the Small Business Tech Panel at the Warehaüs, a coworking space in Holland, Michigan in March 2014. Here's an expanded version of the answer I gave. The items (in no particular order) are as follows: Not optimized for sales Business websites exist to […]
We talked about WordPress Performance Optimization at the April 2014 meetup of WordPress Grand Rapids, a group I help organize. Since the meetup, I've spoken with a few clients and prospects whose WordPress sites were loading slowly, so I thought it'd be helpful to post here too. The speed of websites has become more important than ever. I talked about it […]
WordPress All-In-One for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson My rating: 3 of 5 stars A broadly informative WordPress book, covering installation, administration, publishing, SEO and social media, design, development, and Network/Multisite. Because it covers so many topics, it doesn't get very deep into any of them. You'll want to read more focused WordPress books (or websites) for […]
You've probably pasted code into WordPress' Text editor, then switched to the Visual Editor, and found that parts of your code were stripped out. The Post Snippets plugin prevents that from happening. It lets you create snippets of text and HTML that can be entered as shortcodes into WordPress pages and posts. For example, you can create shortcodes for Google […]
SiteGround is an excellent WordPress-optimized shared host. They're fast, secure, and reliable, yet inexpensive. They're the host I most frequently recommend to small business and nonprofit clients. From firsthand experience, I've found their plans to be superior to similar hosting plans from GoDaddy, Bluehost, DreamHost, Hostmonster, HostGator, iPage, and small local hosting companies. For clients with larger and/or […]
"What does a small business website need?" This was one of the many questions asked at the Small Business Tech Panel at the Warehaüs, a coworking space in Holland, Michigan in March 2014. Here's an expanded version of the answer I gave. The items (in no particular order) are as follows: Effective content (text, images, video) Too […]
Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Web Application by 37 Signals My rating: 4 of 5 stars The book is written for those who create web applications, but as a web designer who creates WordPress websites, I found plenty of relevant advice about planning, project management, client relations, hiring, and productivity. […]
The Advanced Automatic Updates plugin is one of my favorite WordPress plugins, but it lacks a way to easily specify exclusions. I'll show you how to to exclude plugins from being automatically updated by this plugin. May 26, 2020 update: Advanced Automatic Updates hasn’t been updated for over 2 years, so although it may still work, […]
Imsanity is my favorite plugin for resizing and compressing images that are uploaded to WordPress. It's better to resize and compress on your computer prior to uploading, but many people don't know how, or simply won't do it. So, I install Imsanity to do the job for them. What Can Imsanity Do? Resize JPG, PNG, GIF. […]
When I talk to small business clients about creating or redesigning their websites, I usually encourage them to include a blog. Many reply with, "We don't see why we need one," or, "We don't have anything to write about," or, "We don't have time for that." I then proceed to describe the many benefits of […]
Many clients ask where they can find images for their websites. Others don't ask, and simply send images they found on Google Images. My experience is that many people aren't familiar with copyright laws. You aren't free to use every image you find on the Web. You may only use images to which you own […]
Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind by Jocelyn K. Glei My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book tells creatives (designers, writers, artists, etc.) how to better manage their time to give priority to creativity. It's current and practical while still presenting timeless principles. It covers several […]
